Twisted, part 1
Fan Fiction by Crystalquirt
I don't own anyone or anything.
111111 THE MORNING AFTER
In the hideout, the morning after a long hard battle with Twist and Blakk's guards the Shane Gang gathered in the common area. Trixie Sting was the first to find their leader face down on the sofa as though he was asleep. She looked down at him from the end of the sofa and whispered, "Did you just wake up early and crash here - or sleep here all night?"
"I didn't sleep," Ely spoke into the sofa cushion. Trixie looked down at him with concern.
A large, blue Cave Troll named Kord Zane sat at Eli's desk reading a catalog. He suddenly interrupted Trixie's thoughts about Eli yelling, "Wow! Check out this new mechabeast! No one I know could ever afford the price - but wow, it is sweet!" Kord said excitedly, holding the catalog up.
When Eli didn't look up or say anything to Kord, Trixie asked, "Eli, what's wrong?"
Eli didn't bother to move when he answered so his voice was muffled by the sofa cushion. "I'm exhausted - and worried."
"Worried about what Twist did yesterday?" Trixie guessed.
"Yeah, my stomach still feels like it's all twisted in knots," said Eli.
Just entering the room, Pronto butted in, "Haha, Eli - your stomach is twisted in knots because of Twist."
"I didn't mean it as a joke," said Eli, sadly still not moving.
"Oh, well then, carry on." Pronto waved his hand at Eli like he was dismissing him and took the TV remote from the Slugs causing them to hop up and down to fuss at him.
Eli rolled over so he had his face turned off of the cushion. He remained on his stomach and said, "It was hard seeing him do what he did. Attacking all the people in that cavern last night - it was just too much. I never thought he'd do such terrible things."
"All I thought about at the time was how angry I was about what he was doing," Kord said.
"I'm sure he didn't want to hurt all those people and slugs," Eli said sadly, "I could tell by the look on his face - Dr. Blakk was somehow forcing him to do that."
"Maybe you aren't reading his emotions as well as you think you are, bro," Kord suggested.
"Yeah, but either way," Trixie said, "Twist still did it! And it sure looked like he was doing it on his own." Trixie leaned in as she was speaking, as though she was angry with Eli.
"And then we spent the rest of the night digging out the survivors," Kord pointed out from his seat at the table. He added, "and helping the coroner recover the bodies of those who didn't survive."
Trixie said, "Yeah, it was awful." She turned away and sat on the couch causing slugs to hop quickly to keep from being squished.
"Yeah bro," Kord joined in "Since Blakk came back from the Deep Caverns, Twist has gone completely to the dark side. We have to figure out how to stop him from doing it again."
"You have to wonder what would have made him do it," Eli said. "Maybe Blakk somehow Ghouled him.
"He looks okay - when the Goondoc tried to take you, it completely changed your appearance and everything," Trixie said.
Pronto interrupted, "There is an old Molenoid saying, don't ponder others - because it is pointless to do it - you can never figure someone else out."
Ignoring Pronto's wise advice, Ely said, "He must have been afraid of Dr. Blakk."
"Would you have been so afraid that you would ever consider compromising your values and compassion for others?" Trixie said.
Kord added, "I don't think you have it in you, Eli, but Twist obviously does."
"No, but then I wouldn't have put myself in such a situation in the first place." Eli said, "And now that Blakk is back, he's back to his same old games only now - he's harder to fight."
"And he's uglier than ever," Pronto said.
"And scarier and more powerful," Eli said, exasperated. "He can ghoul a slug just by touching it! How are we supposed to fight that?"
Burpie frowned at Pronto when he popped up from behind the sofa. "And that Goondoc's got your father again somewhere, Eli," Pronto said.
"I know. I'm trying not to think about that. I just don't know how to find and save him right now."
Burpie picked up the remote from the back of the sofa for the third time to change the TV channel while Pronto was watching. Pronto jumped up and reached over Eli's back and the sofa to try to take it back, so the little fire slug hopped up on the back of his hand and burned the hair off.
"AAEEEE!" Pronto yelled "NO FAIR! The slugs always get to choose what we watch."
The remote and Burpie landed on Eli's back. He had the remote and a row of seven slugs sitting on his back and butt watching TV. Trixie watched the fracas on top of Eli over control of the TV remote.
"Right…" Eli groaned, frowning but still didn't move.
"Hey Bro?" Kord chimed in, "Why don't you go back to bed get some rest? Trixie is monitoring anything that's happening in Slugterra. We'll wake you if we're needed."
"Sounds good," Eli admitted and yawned. He got up from the sofa. The slugs that had made a place on his back, hopped up to the back of the sofa until he left. Then they jumped back down to the seat cushion.
Burpie forgot about the TV and looked concerned about Eli instead. Only Burpie followed Eli when he started toward his room for a nap.
On his bed, Eli stretched out on his stomach again like he wanted to turn away from the world. Burpie curled up in the small depression in Eli's lower back. Eli felt him settling in. Having Burpie so close helped him feel safe and relaxed and soon he was asleep.
"Eli! Wake up Bro!" Kord yelled only twenty minutes later.
Ely groaned "No - five more minutes."
"We need you, Eli! Twist and his men are attacking Lumina Cavern, again." Kord picked Eli up off the bed and stood him up.
Eli found himself standing before he was fully awake. Kord stood him up off of his bed and hung Eli's belt on his shoulder with the slug cartridges across his chest. Slugs jumped into the cartridges. Burpie hung onto his left shoulder. Dressed and ready even before he woke up, Eli was still lost in thought. The guy he once called 'family' was working for the supercharged Dr. Blakk and doing unforgivable things. People and Slugs were being hurt again.
"I don't think I can do this again so soon," said Eli.
"I know you can, Eli," Kord said.
Trixie added, "We have to do whatever we can to help. Hopefully, this won't take too long," Trixie said.
222222 LUMINA CAVERN
A short time later the Shane Gang arrived at Lumino Cavern.
Dr. Blakk was standing on top of his train's engine in the middle of a huge, chaotic fracas.
There were miners cowering behind rocks and mining equipment. Several miners were down, unmoving. Large ghouled, transformed slugs were flying back and forth and small ghouled slugs were fighting other small slugs on the cavern floor. Twist and his men were steadily shooting and reshooting ghouled slugs.
Seeing members of his team staying together near the entrance, Eli yelled, "Spread out!" His Gang reacted instantly, except for Pronto. He had to stop and complain and brag about himself at the same time. Eli thought briefly about how his little friend could so easily turn complaining into bragging.
Even Pronto had to run a short distance to avoid an explosion when Blakk fired, thinking he could take all three Shane Gang members out at once. Trixie, Kord and Pronto all made it to relative safety, barely in time.
To draw Blakk's fire and protect everyone else, Eli charged down the middle of the cavern on his mecha-beast Lucky, shooting slugs alternatively at Twist and Blakk, to his left, as he went.
Shane Gang members, Trixie, Kord and Pronto were aiming mostly for Blakk's thugs who were the closest to them.
With Lucky galloping at full speed, Eli shot his slug, 'Joules' at Blakk, but Blakk shot a Grimmstone and intercepted Eli's Tazerling.
Blakk's Grimmstone continued on a path straight at Eli and before he could get out of the way, the Grimstone hit Eli square in the back, between his shoulder blades. The air in his lungs made an audible sound as it left him and he was knocked backward off of Lucky.
"Aaaknnnn-Oof," Eli groaned when he landed hard on his back, hurting his back and chest again. The force that hit him off his mecha and then to the ground knocked his blaster from his hands. Burpie held on tightly to Eli's shoulder and fell with him. Lucky automatically stopped and turned back to his young master.
Gasping for air and with Burpie urgently squeaking at him, Eli rose up to his elbow and rolled to his belly, painfully pushing himself up to his hands and knees. He stayed low, crawling to retrieve his blaster. There were slugs being shot in all directions over his head. From the crawling position, he rocked back and rolled up into a sitting position behind his standing Mecha with his Blaster ready. But instead of getting back into the fight, the leader of the Shane Gang held his hand over his chest and gritted his teeth against the pain he felt.
"This does not – look - good!" Eli panted softly. Burpie squealed excitedly, and Eli concluded, "I have to try a - Fusion Shot - Right, Burpie?"
They knew they'd be needed so slugs BuzzSaw and Torch jumped into casings on Eli's belt before he or Burpie could ask them. Eli coughed, sending sharp pains through his chest and across his back. While at the same time, he loaded BuzzSaw and Torch into the Fusion attachment to his blaster. Coughing hurt and made him groan, taking up the time he needed to fight. Lining up his shot under Lucky's belly he groaned out loud. Lucky stood still and gave Eli just a little cover.
Before he could even fire, another Grimmstone Slug fired by Blakk hit Lucky and pushed the mechabeast back, almost crushing Eli, but he painfully rolled away just in time. Burpie held on tightly to his slinger's shoulder and when he stopped rolling, looked into Eli's face, squeaking and sounding like he was worried.
"I'm okay... Burpie," Eli said breathlessly. Only getting up as far as his elbows, he quickly aimed and fired the fusion shot. After the slugs left his blaster, he rested his forehead on the ground not even watching where his shot went,because he hurt so badly.
At one-hundred miles-per-hour BuzzSaw and Torch spun into a massive blast of power and knocked the train engine that Blakk had been standing on, off of its track. It rocked and went over on its side, taking the next two train cars with it.
Supercharged Blakk jumped off of the Engine as it went over. Once on its side, the gattler's support frame was bent and lying partly under the train engine. Blakk jumped back on top of the engine, holding the heavy gattler in his hands. He roared in anger and began firing the gattler, shooting many slugs in rapid succession. Five of Blakk's thugs that had been protecting him were trapped under rubble and were further buried by the damage to the cavern that Blakk was making with no regard for his men.
Ghouled Doctor Blakk stopped when he saw Eli Shane still on the ground. He stood grinning at the young man and mumbled, "He's injured..."
With great joy Blakk aimed his gattler right at Eli, now taking the time to aim carefully.
Trixie and Kord saw Eli about to be shot again while he was still on the ground.
"Eli!" Trixie called, turning toward the cave troll's position. "KORD! Eli's down!" She and Kord each shot a Slug at Blakk to at least try and distract him.
Blakk saw his apprentice, Twist, step up to protect him, even though he was sure in his new dark form, he wouldn't need such protection. Blakk stopped to watch Twist, who shot Loki at the Shane Gang's two flying slugs as they reached 100 miles-per-hour. Loki knocked the Shane Gang's slugs out of the air, dazed. But after Trixie and Kord fired those two, they had to go back to shooting at Blakk's thugs or be overrun themselves.
"Pronto! Help Eli!" Kord yelled, desperate.
"Where is Pronto?!" Trixie answered, also yelling over the battle.
BuzzSaw and Torch made their way back to Eli and hopped back into their cases on his bandoleer. Eli stayed down behind his mecha-beast and leveled his blaster again, this time at Twist. Sparks was right on target but the target, Twist and Loki, disappeared in a puff of sparkles.
333333 FIREFIGHT
Twist reappeared standing only a couple of feet behind Eli.
Still on the ground after being hit in the back with Blakk's Grimmstone, Eli never knew Twist was close by until he was kicked again between his shoulder blades. The blow knocked Eli to his stomach, and he rolled over onto his back. The latest blow left him with increased pain and gasping for air again. He dropped his blaster to lay across his chest with both arms limp at his sides while he concentrated on breathing.
Burpie hopped up and down, angrily yelling in slug language at Twist.
The ghouled Thugglet, now a Smugglet slug, Loki, squeaked back at Burpie, laughing, while Twist stood over Eli.
Gasping, Eli said, "That - really - hurt - Twist!"
"Are you going to cry like a baby?" Twist said to Eli, but he was looking at Blakk, who was watching with great enjoyment and anticipation.
Twist said, "Or maybe you will beg? - Beg for your life Eli!" Twist said Eli's name, but never took his eyes off of Dr. Blakk like he was watching for his audience's responce.
Eli gritted his teeth, held across his chest with one arm and rolled away from Twist, picking up his blaster. He rolled all the way up to his feet and Burpie jumped into his case as Eli loaded it into his blaster. Finishing the well-coordinated, though slightly slowed down move, he fired Burpie.
After he made the shot though, Eli went to his knees. Leaning forward on his fallen Mechabeast, he managed to use one hand and a little slug-fu to help Burpie turn back.
Too late, Twist disappeared, but Eli made a good guess, and using slug fu brought Burpie around. He guessed correctly and as Twist reappeared over Eli, and rose his blaster to shot Eli at point blank range, Burpie hit Twist in the head, knocking him away from Eli.
Using Slug Fu, Eli brought Burpie back around to fly over his head. He reached up and grabbed onto Burpie's tail in flight. With ease, Burpie stayed in the air with Eli weakly hanging on.
Unfortunately, they had flown only a short way across Lumino Cavern's Central Park when Eli lost his grip and fell. Burpie squealed and stopped in mid-air watching Eli fall.
"Aaah!" Eli cried as he fell. "Oof," he hit the ground hard and rolled.
When the little infurnus slug stopped to watch his slinger fall, Burpie also transformed into his small slug self and dropped out of the air, landing lightly next to Eli.
With a puff of sparkles, Twist appeared while Eli was trying to get up. Twist pulled his leg back and kicked Eli in the abdomen. The kick made Eli curl up into a painful ball. With a determined look, Burpie came up unnoticed to Twist and lit his boot on fire. Twist yelled and kicked at Burpie, but missed. Twist disappeared again.
Burpie squeaked a soft giggle and hopped back near his place on Eli's shoulder. Since Eli was on his side curled into a painful ball, Burpie landed on his arm. Eli slowly rolled up to his hands and knees. Holding his arm across his chest. "Ouch, Burpie," he panted, "I think... I'm really - h-hurt this... time."
Burpie squeaked sorrowfully and then suddenly squealed a warning.
Twist reappeared behind Eli again and grabbed him in a choke hold before he delivered three strong punches with his bare fist into Eli's side from behind before he dropped him.
"Aagnnnn!" Eli cried as he dropped to his knees then face down on the ground, he passed out.
Twist looked over at Dr. Blakk who had followed his apprentice's battle into Central Park. His boss was smiling, pleased with how Twist was making Eli suffer. As if just to show off, and even with Eli already down and unconscious, with a spinning kick Twist connected with Eli's head, snapping his head to the side.
Burpie crawled from under Eli's shoulder where he fell and stood on his slinger's chest shaking his tiny fists at Twist. The fire slug performed a fierce display of anger but Twist turned away like he was ignoring the show.
Two of Blakk's uniformed men jogged to where Eli had fallen and watched the Infurnus slug, intending to pick Eli up for delivery to Dr. Blakk, but hesitating because of Burpie's angry display. Eli's head was bleeding, soaking his black hair and oozing into his left eye.
Finally trying to be brave under Blakk's watchful eye, the guards reached down to pick Eli up. Burpie leaped up and flamed in each of their faces in turn. Their eyebrows gone, both men turned to run.
"You idiots! Bring Eli to me!" Blakk bellowed.
Hearing Blakk's voice, Trixie and Kord looked around and saw Eli and Burpie were clear across to the cavern's Central Park. Burpie was trying to protect his fallen slinger alone.
"NO!" Trixie screamed, "ELI'S STILL DOWN!"
"Oh No!" Pronto yelled and fired his stink slug. He ran away from his opponent to join up with Kord and Trixie.
Blakk saw his men running away from the little Infernus Slug and stomped toward the Shane. Burpie quickly hopped back up on Eli's chest and squealed, generating small flashes of light, urgently trying to wake him up.
Kord and Trixie made it to Eli at nearly the same time as Blakk. They stood facing off with each other and Eli in-between them.
"Leave him alone!" Trixie yelled. She ran forward and jumped - Landing astride, over Eli's unmoving body. Kord growled stepping in front of her. Pronto, standing behind Trixie, readied their blasters.
"I want Eli alive! I could care less about you two!" Blakk yelled and leveled his blaster at Kord.
444444 ELI DOWN
Out of nowhere Twist appeared and disappeared so fast it was like someone flipping a switch on and off. Eli disappeared right out from under Trixie.
Burpie and Eli's other slugs still in his orange backpack were left sitting on the ground under Trixie, alone. The other slugs crawled out and squeaked among themselves sounding sad and scared.
Blakk said to empty space, "Thanks, Twist wherever you are - I knew you'd come through in a pinch," and then he turned to leave.
"Where did Twist take Eli?" Trixie demanded, loudly.
Blakk paused to answer, "If he's smart, he took Eli to my Citadel where I can begin paying him back for all he's done to me."
"All Eli has tried to do is save the Slugs and all of the people in Slugterra from your evil deeds. It was your choice to try to do all you have!" Trixie challenged.
Blakk shot a Greneater at Trixie and Kord's feet. They jumped out of the way just in time but Pronto was blasted into the air. When Kord managed to catch him he farted.
"Oh gross," Kord said, "I guess that's my thanks for not letting you hit the ground."
"That one was on me," Pronto smiled, slightly embarrassed.
"Now it smells like it's on me!" Kord complained.
"Eli's not here anymore," Trixie said suddenly, "let's get out of here - regroup and find out where Twist took him!" She jumped onto her Mechabeast, model BOOM-R, otherwise known as, Boomer. She and the remaining members of the Shane Gang galloped away on their mechas.
As they ran to regroup, Pronto yelled, "Right! Pronto will find Eli! The great tracker, Pronto will lead you right to him!"
"Okay, Pronto where is he?" Kord said still galloping his mecha, WY-8 nicknamed Wyatt.
"Later - Later you can't rush someone as skilled as I!" Pronto answered, bringing up the rear on Fernando.
But Eli was still there, in Lumino Cavern. He lay on the ground with his head turned facing the exit. He forced his eyes open in spite of the pain he was feeling and saw his friends running away. "Guys? - Don't leave me!" Eli cried, barely above a whisper.
Twist heard him and answered, "Looks like your friends *are* leaving you, Eli."
"They wouldn't leave if they knew I was still here! They probably think you took me back to Blakk's Citadel," argued Eli.
"I thought about it but I wanted to talk to you first," said Twist.
"You wanted to talk to me? You picked a fine way to do it - first you beat the crap out of me and then you kidnap me!" Eli accused, struggling to at least sit up. Pain washed over his head and whole body. He gave up and rolled up only to his side.
"Hey - I could have taken you to Blakk's hideout straight-away," Twist reminded him.
"Well? What do you want?" Eli spat, turning his head just enough to see Twist's face as he answered.
Twist couldn't look Eli in the eye. When he started speaking, he stared at the ground. "I know I can never forgive myself for what happened yesterday. All those people and slugs - I just want to get away, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what Blakk will do to me and the rest of Slugterra. He's crazy - you know?"
"Yeah, I know," said, Eli.
"And so much of his attention is on how much he hates you and how he's going to get you back for what you and your father did to him."
"I know that too - where are you going with this Twist?" Finally able to sit up, but squeezing his eyes closed, Eli groaned and held his hand over his sore chest.
"I want to get away - or rather I want you to help me get away - I just can't go on like this," said Twist.
"I'm not in any condition to help anyone right now - in fact - I need your help to get back to the hideout. Since you seem to want something from me, can I count on you this time?"
"Of course, Eli - after all, it's my fault you're in this condition!"
"Of course, the Grimstone slug that first hit me was fired by Blakk - Or I'da been able to give you a better fight."
"Right," said Twist.
Eli smiled slightly and said, "Remember where our hideout is?"
"I do," said Twist.
"You help me now and I'll do my best to help you get out of your situation with Blakk," Eli agreed.
"You have a deal and - Eli I'm sorry for what I just did to you. I didn't mean to hit you so hard but Blakk was watching and I had to make it look good."
"It must have looked great - because - I can - hardly... m-move or - breathe," Eli said, panting.
Twist leaned down and offered his hand to help Eli up. Eli took his hand but when he tried to stand he groaned and went back to his knees. Twist quickly grabbed his arm with both hands and kept him from falling the rest of the way to the ground.
"Oh man you're really hurt - I feel awful."
"I guess I'm more helpless than I thought," Eli admitted. Gently, Twist helped Eli sit back down on the ground and then he stood back up straight, looking around.
"I'll be right back!" Twist said suddenly. Eli painfully layover onto his side. He was in so much pain he wasn't able to even watch where Twist was going. His former enemy soon came back running. He was pushing a four-wheeled handcart in front of him with a low, flat box on it. "Here Eli - can you get up on this?"
"If you help - probably - but we can't get all the way back to the hideout on that."
"No - but once we're away from here, we'll find our mechas or some other way to travel. We can't let Blakk come back and find us here when he can't find us at his Citadel." Twist said.
To Be Continued . . .
