"And then, surprise bang! Pronto to the rescue! The sneaky sneaky smugglers were no match for my magnificent self, of course." Kord and Trixie rolled their eyes at Pronto's absurd story; the constant exaggeration could get irritating, but the Shane Gang's latest mission had gone off mostly without a hitch, putting everyone in a good mood. Key word being mostly without a hitch. According to the laws of being a Shane, something had to fall apart during the mission. Today it was the navigation systems on all of their mechas. Eli scowled at the map in his hands. Most of the time, his secret was a non-issue. The mechas all had nav-systems and the different caverns were distinct enough to identify just by looking around, so the fact that Eli couldn't read a word of whatever-the-hell language all the signs in Slugterra were written in didn't matter. When they needed to find specific businesses or houses, Eli just moved to the middle of the pack and let the others navigate. Unfortunately, today was turning out to be a little more complicated. Grunting in frustration, Eli tried turning the map upside down again.
"You okay, bro?" Eli nearly jumped off his mecha at Kord's question; he hadn't heard the mechanic's approach.
"Yup, everything's fine up here," Eli blurted, throwing Kord a one handed salute and a tense smile. Kord frowned, but nodded and fell back to talk with Trixie. Eli sighed, turning back to the decidedly less than helpful map.
"Hey Trix," Kord started tentatively, "is something up with Eli?"
"Hmm? Like what?"
"I dunno." Kord frowned, staring at their leader's back. Trixie raised an eyebrow and followed Kord's sightline. Eli was hunched over his mechas shoulders, probably still glaring at the oversized piece of paper he'd pulled out of his backpack. Trixie had assumed it was some sort of navigational thing his dad had left him, but he seemed to be having a lot of trouble with it. From what she'd glimpsed when he'd pulled it out, it was a pretty basic layout of all the caverns, each one labeled by name and with a small chunk of text.
"Are we sure he's not injured or anything? He was pretty close to the device when the EMP went off."
"No," Kord shook his head. "I checked him myself. He was fine when we left."
"What are we speaking about with such quietness?" Trixie shot Kord a don't-say-a-word look before turning to Pronto.
"Oh, nothing. We were just remembering that time you saved the day in the mall." She threw Pronto one of her sweet-and-innocent smiles. The Molonoid perked right up, his mule mecha groaning a bit as his weight shifted.
"Ah, yes, one of my more daring rescues. I was very brave that day, indeed-" Trixie turned back to Kord. They both looked forward again as Eli's fist connected with his mount. Kord opened his mouth, but Trixie cut him off.
"I'll go talk to him. Keep Pronto distracted." Kord nodded.
Eli slammed a fist down, completely fed up with the stupid map with its stupid hieroglyphs. How did anyone read these ridiculous symbols? He stiffened up and wiped the anger from his face at the sound of Trixie's mecha coming up behind him.
"Hey Trix, what's up?"
"Everything okay with you Eli?" He half turned to frown at her.
"Yeah everything's fine. Why do you ask?"
"Well you haven't really said much since we started back, and you just tried to tenderize your mecha for no reason. Is there something you wanted to share with the class?" Eli pursed his lips and seriously considered lying until he remembered that they'd all been riding around for almost an hour following a leader with no clue where he was going. His team was depending on him, and he'd be damned if he let his pride compromise their safety. Sighing, he swiped a hand down his face and pulled his mecha to a halt. He waited for everyone to gather before looking up.
"So, um, there's something I should have probably told you all a while back. Sorry for leaving it so long."
"It's cool, bro. We're here for you. What's wrong?" Eli's face twitched into a smile. God bless Kord and his loyalty.
"Nothing's wrong, exactly. It's just that, well, I," he paused, took a deep breath, "I can't read the language here." Everyone stared blankly for a minute, so he pressed onward. "You guys know I'm not technically from Slugterra. Well, up top no one writes the way everyone down here does. Honestly, I'm just glad my dad taught me how to speak the language before he… before I came here. Sorry for not telling you guys sooner, it was just really embarrassing and it wasn't usually an issue, so I just kept putting it off and-" Kord's massive hand on his shoulder finally cut him off. Eli looked around the circle, half expecting his friends to laugh or make fun of him for being to dumb to read. Of course, no one did. It was Trixie who spoke first.
"That actually explains some things." Eli blushed as she thought out loud, walking back through some of their recent exploits. "And when we first met you, you kept looking at all the signs and stuff really confused."
"Yeah, I remember. Dad must have forgotten to tell me everyone down here wrote differently. I'd seen some of the symbols on his gear before, but I'd always assumed they were just logos or something."
"Well don't worry, pal," Kord grinned, patting Eli on the back. "When we get back to base, we'll start teaching you how to read." Eli nodded. Trixie took over the map reading, and soon they were all on their way home again. Warmth filled Eli's chest; he sometimes forgot how lucky he was to have ended up with such a great group of friends.