Chapter 1—Leaving Home
This takes place after season 3 ends, assuming Blakk dies.
"Are you sure you'll be okay out there?" Trixie, my adopted mom, asked me as I strapped my last bag of stuff to the back of my Wolf Mecha, STRY-D3R. I just call him Stryder, though.
"I'll be fine," I assured her.
"Are you sure? You've never been out of this cavern by yourself," she said. "Maybe I should go with you…"
"I told you, I'll be fine…Mom," I said. Trixie and Eli Shane may have been my adopted parents for fourteen years, since I was only a year old, but I'm still hesitant about calling them 'Mom' and 'Dad'. I even kept my last name, Taylor, but made it into my middle name. My full name is 'Jacob Taylor Shane'.
Eli insists that I just call him 'Eli', but Trixie likes it more when I call her 'Mom'. "Besides, I'll have Yang and Speedy to help me out," I added, nodding to the Negashade slug on my head, which was covered in a dark blue beanie, and a Speedstinger slug on my shoulder.
Eli gave me Yang for my 15th birthday because of my strong connection with him. I found Speedy ten years ago, watching me as I chased Eli and Trixie's slugs around the exterior of the house. I saw him and ran at him, probably scaring him at first before realizing I wanted to play. We soon became inseparable friends.
"Don't worry, Trixie," Eli added, walking up to us. "Jacob will be fine. Besides, Burpy will go with him to make sure he doesn't get lost," he added, referring to his Infernus slug. Burpy's basically the boss of the slugs in Eli's team, making sure they're always in good condition.
"Thanks, Eli," I told him, hugging him in the tightest squeeze I could manage. "Thank you for enrolling me into SU, too," I added. SlugTerra University (SU) is the only large school in all 99 Caverns of SlugTerra. It's open for everyone with a very low entrance fee that's required every year. It pays for a room in one of the spacious residential halls, the classes themselves, Mecha parking, class supplies and food for the entire school year.
I was right about to hug Trixie when we heard the loud roar of a familiar Mecha approaching.
"SURPRISE!" Kord yelled as he rode toward on his Mecha, WY-8. "I decided to meet you guys here and escort Jacob to SU."
"Hey, there, Kord," I said, fist-bumping him.
"That's 'Professor Zane' or 'Mr. Zane' now," he joked.
"Not yet," I replied. "Technically, the semester hasn't begun, and we aren't even at SU yet, so you're still 'Kord' to me. Besides, I doubt I could ever call you anything else."
"Good point, kid," he said. "So, are you ready to get going yet?"
"Give me a minute," I told him. I hugged Trixie and Eli one more time before climbing onto Stryder's back and starting the Mecha.
"Bye!" I yelled over my shoulder as we set off.
"Wait!" Eli yelled, loading his blaster. "Don't forget Burpy!" He pulled the trigger and launched the Infernus slug at me. He easily caught up with us and changed from velocimorph to protoform just in time to land on Stryder's head without catching anything on fire, which he did once on accident.
"You ready to figure out how fast I built your Mecha to go?" Kord asked me. He built me Stryder as a present for my 13th and 14th birthdays.
"Let's go," I replied, hitting the throttle. Soon we were at full speed, the rest of the world seeming to go by in a blur. Five minutes later we were paused at the edge of the cavern.
"What's wrong, kid?" Kord asked me when he saw my hesitation.
"Ever since Eli and Trixie adopted me, I have never left this cavern without them," I told him. "It's just…so strange."
"You'll be fine," he assured me. "Now, let's get a move on. I want to make sure you get yourself moved into your new dorm room on time."
I paused a second longer before nodding and hitting the throttle, accelerating again. We raced each other through two more caverns, Burpy pointing me in the right direction whenever I began to go off-course.