Missions and Birthday Parties

Max

When Max and Steel arrive at N-Tek Max Commander Forge Ferrus was waiting for them in the landing bay.

"Okay, we're here," said Max, slightly out of breath. "What's the emergency?"

"And what's Slugterra," Steel added. "And why does Max act like he knows what it is when I don't?"

Forge looked at Max, "I'm surprised that you haven't told yet."

"I kind of forgot," Max answered, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly, "it never really came up."

"Well, we'll get to that in a minute," Forge said. "Follow me, there is something you two need to see."

Steel and Max did what they were told and trailed behind Forge, Steel trying his best to keep his vocalizer from spilling any questions at an unnecessary pace.

Soon enough, Forge lead them to a part of N-Tek that neither Max or Steel have been to before. At first is seemed like an abandoned wing. There were little windows in the doors to see into the dark and empty rooms. Max and Steel didn't know why Forge would bring them down here. What did deserted corridors of N-Tek have to do with Slugterra, exactly?

As soon as the three had made it to a pair of double doors the linked pair, Max and Steel, could hear rock music. Even though the vocals were muffled the pair could tell the song wasn't in English. Forge opened the double doors to reveal another corridor but unlike the other rooms they had passed on the way down here there were windows installed in the walls to view into the rooms. Light blue eyes widened as Max looked through the window on his right. A big, toothy smile spread across his face when he saw the room was filled with slugs. But not just any ordinary slugs. These little creatures had features had looked like they belonged in a fantasy book. Just by looking at them you could tell that each of them had a very special power of their own. This was proved as a purple slug just spun a web and used it as a lasso to catch a light blue slug who froze the webbing with its ice breath broke free then hopped away as fast as it could from the spider-like slug in a game of chase. The other slugs were playing all kinds of games, from catapulting each other on a little seesaw to land on a numbered carpet for the score keeper to add points.

The rock music he and Steel heard a minute ago was coming from the room behind him. He almost didn't look, too mesmerized by seeing so many slugs in one place, but his curiosity took over as he turned and saw what looked like a media room. The music was coming from a flat screen TV where several slugs sat in front of the giant screen with popcorn and drinks at their sides as if it were a movie theater. The lights were dimmed down and from what Max could make out from the light coming from the TV a few slugs were in a the front right corner snoozing while listening to MP3 or CD players from custom made slug sized headphones. To the left corner near the window were a couple of slugs on a desk working as a team to play some computer game.

"Wow," said Steel who was still looking into the slugs play room. "So these slugs are from that Slugterra place?"

"Yes," Forge answered. "And now that the both of you are finally here you will kno-Max pay attention."

"Huh, oh, sorry Uncle Ferrus," Max said blocking his view of the TV with his hand so as not to tempt his adverting eyes. "They're on episode three of "Soul Eater", Death the Kid is really distracting."

Forge and Steel sighed. If there is one thing anyone knows for sure after knowing Max for some time is he is a devoted otaku.

"Anyways," Forge continued his lecture, "Hundreds of miles beneath the Earth's surface, and way below N-Tek, Slugterra is a world much similar to ours and is inhabited by all kinds of creatures. There is a well known sport that is a way of life to Slugterrans known as Slugslinging. People would have blasters to shoot the slugs with. When the slugs reach a hundred MPH velocity they transform. Since the beginning of Slugterra there is one person who is the peace keeper for all of Slugterra's 99 caverns: the Shane. The Shanes are known to be some of the best Slugslingers to live in Slugterra. Eli Shane, your cousin Max, as you are aware, left for Slugterra exactly a year ago to fill in the position of the Shane."

Max's face had taken a solemn expression from being reminded of Eli leaving. It was bad enough they were separated by the borders of their home countries.

Forge cleared his throat, "Anyways, separating Slugterra from our world, the Burning World as they call it, is the slug barrier. Much like a force field the barrier is there to protect Slugterra and its inhabitants. For the past several years we've been getting strange readings that the slug barrier is weakening."

"But why is that happening?" Max asked. "And how strange are they?"

"I don't know," Forge answered truthfully, "the slug barrier is powered by the slugs of Slugterra. Though, think of it like Wireless Internet connection to a computer or a cell phone ("I'm surprised he even knows about Wi-Fi." Steel whispered to Max in an attempt to cheer him up. It didn't work, not even a crack.). If there was a interference with the said connection the signal, or barrier, starts to weaken until the cause of the interference is gone. However, since we have no contact with Eli nor Will Shane whatsoever we can't decipher what's going on.

"And to answer your second question Max, there is this weird mass of energy we've been receiving. From what our computers could tell it is a combination of an electrical magnetic pulse, micro-radiation and slug energy. There are other things in concern for that subject, however, that will be for a future mission. The mission you have for today involves rescuing some lost slugs that have escaped from Slugterra."

"Rescue?" Max questioned.

"Yes, some slugs have managed to find their way out of Slugterra and ended up here on the surface."

"But why, specifically, are 'these' slugs here?" Steel gestured to the slugs in their rooms for emphasis.

Commander Forge's face had crestfallen as he thought. He looked like he was reluctant to tell them as if just thinking about the reason was constricting his voice, preventing him from speaking.

"Most of these slugs here," Forge sighed as he ran a hand through his graying dark hair, "they're up here because they're terrified."

"Of what?" Steel and Max said at the same time.

"Slugterra," he answered, "and humans, mainly. Sometimes in Slugterra, there are people who don't treat their slugs very well. While there is a law against animal abuse down there like there is up here, that doesn't stop people from abusing their slugs."

Now that Steel took a closer look at the slugs in the play room, some of the slugs had bandages wrapped around either their bodies or their heads and injuries he hadn't noticed before. The slug, an arachnid one, that kept the scores for the slug launching game is obviously missing a limb and an eye (some of the slugs only had one eye but this one most definitely had two at some point). That frost slug that was playing with the other arachnid slug had what looked like burns on the lower half of it's body. Some other slugs had similar conditions while others were completely different and horrifyingly heart-breaking to look at.

"But...they look so innocent," Steel said in a solemn tone, "so little. Why would anybody want to hurt them."

"I don't know," Forge murmured. "But its our job to make sure these slugs stay safe and away from the general public's eyes. If the dangers of both our worlds combined that would mean Armageddon for our planet. That is why the two worlds must stay separate. "

"Now for your rescue mission," Forge proceeded to give them their objective, "you'll be going into the forest at the southwest edge of town to find some...unique slugs."

"Nope, nu-uh, sorry, not doing it," Steel was rather quick to deny the mission.

"Steel, what's a matter with you?" asked Max. When Steel couldn't give a straight answer through his stuttering something clicked in Max's mind. "Wait a second, you're afraid to go into the forest aren't you?"

"Max, I am only thinking of you," Steel said placing one of his mechanical arms on the human's shoulder, "I'm worried about you encountering..." He paused for dramatic effect. "The Rake!"

"Come on Steel," Max said. "Do you really believe in that junk?"

"The Rake is real I'm telling you!" Steel retorted.

"It's just an urban legend," Max said, "a creepypasta."

"That was based on a true entity," Steel said. "There was an encounter with The Rake in Eerie, Pennsylvania."

""Eerie, Pennsylvania"? You made that up!"

"Did not!"

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Enough!" Forge bellowed. The two straightened up in full attention. "Enough bickering! Just get to that forest before somebody discovers those slugs' existence. You will be going with a rescue team to help assist you in this mission. Capture the slugs and make sure none of the civilians witnesses them or their capabilities. Now go!"

"Yes sir," Steel and Max saluted.

Eli

"Pronto, can I please take this blindfold off now," Eli, as he just stated, was blindfolded and Pronto was leading him to Lord knows where.

"Ah, that is for Pronto to know," the molenoid said in way too much confidence as usual, "and for you to find out in the next fifteen seconds."

Eli heard a door opening and Pronto nudging him inside a building.

"Now to be fair," Pronto said, "Pronto shall give you a chance to guess your location in the next twelve-"

"We're are at Ricochet Pizza for my surprise 16th birthday party," Eli said as if he knew beforehand.

Pronto let out a squeak of surprise in his frozen state of shock. "How could you tell?!"

"Ricochet has a very distinct smell for a pizza place, no other building in Slugterra has that kind of chime at the front door and you're trying to make the appetizer here, which, by the way, is burning."

"My chiche!" Pronto yelled in alarm as he zoomed into the kitchen.

Eli pulled off the blindfold smiling when he saw everybody in the restaurant.

"Surprise!(?)" Some yelled enthusiastically while other sounded unsure. "Happy Birthday!"

"Oh come, have a little more enthusiasm than that guys," Eli said to the discourage party guests as he twisted the ribbon in between in fingers. "The Hooligang?" he questioned when saw Billy Hooligan and his two lackys.

"We're just here for the cake," Billy said looking very uninterested in being there. "But happy birthday, Shane." Billy said with a soft smile.

It wasn't a very big party, just a small gathering with a few friends and even his enemies other than the Hooligang who bothered to show up. But there were actually more villains than there were friends. Eli wasn't the one who sent the invitations so he didn't know which one of his friends sent them out and their particular reason as to why they invited their enemies or their cause.

"Hey!" He said snapping out of his thoughts as somebody gave him a noogie then forced a party hat on top of his head.

"Happy birthday bro," Kord revealed himself to be the party hat culprit. Eli gave the cave troll a loving smile then averted his eyes towards the villains in a questioning manner.

"Don't worry Eli, nobody was allowed to bring their blasters. Just their slugs and a present for you." Kord told him.

Before Eli could thank Kord he was tackled to the ground by the Power Triplets was pulled back up to his feet and then given a group hug with him in the middle.

"Happy 16th birthday Eli Shane," the triplets said excitedly in unison. Eli couldn't help but laugh good-heartedly as the Power Triplets began chanting, "Ring around the birthday boy! Ring around the birthday boy!" as they did so.

Eli yelped as he was lifted out of the circle ("Hey!" complained the triplets.) by Grendel and Kord just to be pulled into a bear hug by an emotional Saturday. "Uh, Mr. Saturday?" Eli said uncomfortably.

"Eli Shane," Saturday sniffed, "sixteen years ago, you were brought into this world by the miracle of life as a tiny baby. Pink, shriveled and crying your little lungs out."

"How would you know if that's actual-"

"As the years went by," Saturday interrupted Eli as the voodoo man's hug tightened around the teen's body, "you started to grow. Years past as you've kept yourself hidden from the rest of Slugterra, until that fateful day, exactly one year ago on this day ("Tomorrow actually.") you took up the name of the Shane."

"Geez, you'd think he's at a funeral," Billy said to Trixie.

The red-headed camera girl giggled, "It makes you wonder what he'll do at a wedding." Billy laugh quietly.

"Even though," big sniff on that part, "you foiled my evil plans, and tried to throw me in jail, to be honest, my life would suck without you!"

"Okay, Kelly Clarkson," Eli slipped out of Saturday's arms. "Let's get this party started!" Everybody cheered. "So Kord, or Trixie, which ever one of you, what's the first thing on the list?"

"Hold on just one moment, Shane," Billy said catching the 16-year-old's attention. "Look at whose trying to hide behind us." The Hooligan stepped aside and pushed Twist out in the open away from his hiding place behind the Hooligang.

"Billy!" Twist glared at the smirking Hooligan.

"Twist?" the said blonde looked back at the birthday boy.

"Trixie told me that Pronto made the cake and it was edible," Twist said, "Loki and I just had to come down and see if it was true or not."

"Comprehendible," Eli said in agreement. In truth, Eli didn't care if Twist was there to drip poison into his serving of cake, he was just happy to have his former friend attend his party. "And it looks like Loki is having a good time already." The blunette pointed over to a little slug area where the illusion slug had joined the Burpy and the other slugs as they turned on the stereo, they started partying before their owners could even blink.

Shrugging, Eli and the guests danced to the techno music. Several minutes past of friends and enemies moving their bodies to the beat of the music. Eli was having a good time dancing along side with everybody, especially Kord, but he draws the line when someone decides to get a little dirty with their movements, "Hey, this is a birthday party! Not a strip club!".

Then the ground began shaking, and its not from the footsteps of the cave troll guests, followed by what vaguely sounded like something crashing into the ground outside. Almost everybody in the pizzeria halted their actions. "Woah, did anybody feel that?" someone had said but Eli didn't see nor pay attention to who it was. Did Slugterra get earthquakes? No, the shaking only lasted but a moment.

"It came from outside." Eli said as he made his way towards the door, a few curious souls trailing behind him in interest. The Shane poked his head out from the glass door and saw crater of some sort ten yards away from Ricochet Pizza. "You guys might want to see this," he called to the guests despite the fear he felt as a knot formed in his stomach that it might be something from the Surface. The guests gasped when they saw the crater. Eli didn't wait for them, he ran as quickly as he could to the crater. If it was something from the Surface than he wants to be the first to know what it is.

As he got closer he began hearing two voices arguing, one of them sounded very familiar. Eli jumped into the crater surprising the arguing voices that belonged to a floating robot with a singal digital eye and mechanical arms while the other voice was traced back to the guy wearing an undeniably sexy suit of armor with white, gray and aqua-blue colors.

"Elliot?" the scarily familiar voice said.

"H-how do you know my name," Eli said completely thrown off by the situation.

The robot looked at Eli for a moment, it's digital eye seemed to widened before phasing into the insignia that matched the robot's form on the guy's chest. In a blue flash the suit had disappeared and left a 16-year-old teen in a blue hoodie with the foreign insignia that was on the, assumingly, battle suit.

Eli gasped, "Maxwell?"