"So then," Junjie said, able to speak normally thanks to the lower pitch of his mecha's motor, "if we truly are going to be fighting together, it would make sense for me know a little more about you."
"Oh aye?" Perry responded. "And what about you then, lad? You ain't even told me your name yet!"
"I haven't?" asked Junjie. "Apologies, it must have slipped my mind. My name is Junjie, though it isn't spelt how you likely think it is from how it sounds."
"Junjie," Perry repeated. "Nice name, that. Suits you."
Baffled, Junjie couldn't avoid glancing at her, and she smiled at him proudly.
"I won't go to the trouble of asking your name," he said, then turned back to the road, "considering you already gave an introduction back at the tavern."
"Aye, I know," said Perry, "and so long as you call me Perry and not Periwinkle, we'll get along famously."
"Periwinkle?"
"I said don't!"
She too looked back to the beaten track, frowning and angry and gripping her mecha's handles tighter than was necessary. Junjie sensed that the best thing to do would be to give her a few moment's silence.
It wasn't long before she sighed, rather over-dramatically in his opinion.
"Look," she said, "if you must know, me full name's Periwinkle Georgina McLinden. It weren't my fault and people have called me Perry for as long as I can remember. It's just easier to deal with than stupid Periwinkle."
"Fair enough," Junjie decided.
"Anyway," Perry said, "moving on, if you're really an Eastern fella, how in the world did you end up with Sporty, Baby, Posh and Ginger back there?"
"You mean the Shane Gang?" asked Junjie. "That's... it's a bit of a long story. Not the sort of tale one would share with an acquaintance."
"Got it," Perry said with a nod.
"Though may I ask," said Junjie, "for a degree of expansion on yourself? From what little I could understand of Kord and Trixie's discussions, you seem to be some other version of the Shane, simply guarding a separate realm from Eli's family."
"I'm nothing like that wee bairn!" Perry objected. "For one, I'm at least three inches taller, and I'm also a cavern's worth more gorgeous than he could ever hope to be. Plus I don't know how long he's been in the business, but I've been training for it since I were six! And I'm the sixteenth in me family to be doing this job, so-"
"Sixteenth?" asked Junjie. "Exactly how long has the McLinden family protected the North?"
Again, Perry pursed her purple lips in thought.
"Well," she said, "if you go all the way back to Mary McLinden and you count her and her daughter, I'd say we've been large and in charge for upwards of four hundred years now."
Junjie had to force himself to keep his eyes focused ahead and not stare at her in amazement.
"You..." he said slowly, trying to find something to add. "...you must have a lot of relatives."
"Nope, it's just me," Perry replied. "The title gets passed down mother to daughter and all the McLinden ladies only ever have one daughter. Me mam only had me, and her mam only had her and so on. It's just our thing. Though from the way you talk, it makes it sound like this is all news to you."
"It is a little strange," Junjie admitted, "for a family to have sixteen consecutive single-member generations."
Perry cast him a look of annoyance.
"Personally," Junjie said, "I have an unfortunately low number of memories of my life in my homeland. Considering all that happened, I am not entirely sure whether regaining those memories would be a very good idea. This I do know and am glad to know: I have wielded Joo-Joo since at least the age of five, and at some point after that, I mastered the art of Slug Fu."
"Slug who-what?"
"It would take a long time to explain. And right now..."
They came to a halt as they arrived at their destination.
"...we need to focus our attention on the path ahead."
And the path ahead, after a thin and jagged coastline of water-worn rocks, was a vast sea of bluish-green water that stretched out far further than their eyes could see. Soft little waves lapped at the rocks and babbled gently between them, brushing against limpits and barnacles and other clinging creatures that had made this sorry excuse for a beach their home.
"The Cavern Sea," said Perry. "Only a terrifyingly giant stretch of water between us and my lovely home."
"So long as we stay focused and on course," Junjie said, "and aren't attacked by pirates, nothing will go wrong. Provided that our rides can handle the journey."
Perry opened a compartment in her mecha's head and pulled out something small and round, and as he leaned in for a closer look, Junjie caught sight of a thin, bi-coloured needle.
"We're still on the right track," she said. "When I get back home, I'm definitely thanking Benny for this compass."
She looked up at the sea.
"I'm really hoping we can stay on track," she said, mostly to herself. "This sea ain't exactly small. I swear, if something shows up-"
"We should be fine," Junjie reinforced, concerned as to why she should suddenly seem so worried. "Let's move."
He pressed a button on his mecha's dashboard and the vehicle jumped forward, morphing as it did into the jetski mode he'd fortunately had fitted several weeks ago. After a moment of hesitation, Perry did the same: the legs of her mecha folded forward and expanded, meaning hers was somewhat lower down and more spread out than Junjie's.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Nope," Perry responded despite her cheerful smile.
Sincerely hoping that she was joking, Junjie looked back to the waters ahead and the pair sped forward across the surface of the sea, bouncing every now and then as they crested over waves.
When the Eastern slinger looked to Perry, however, she appeared nervous, glancing down at the water every now and then and otherwise doing her best to ignore it.
"Is something wrong?" he asked. "You seem apprehensive."
"It's nothing," Perry replied. "I managed to make me way to the West alright, so I should be fine making me way back."
"You aren't afraid of the water?" Junjie enquired. "You seem to be glancing at it rather a lot."
"I'm fine!" Perry snapped.
Very well. The subject wasn't to be pursued. That much was abundantly clear.
While he was driving, Junjie took an opportunity to properly take in what she looked like. Her hair was black, with stripes of blue and purple at the front on the right, and cut into a short bob that was curled up on her cheeks so that the tips pointed up at her eyes. The eyebrow he could see from this side was orange and had three rings on its outer edge, and the stud in her nostril was shiny and red, like a ruby. Her lips were glossed and the same shade of purple as her eyeshadow, which sat above heavy black eyeliner and obvious mascara.
"We're lucky the sea's good and calm," she commented. "It weren't too nice on the way here, I can tell you that much."
Her jacket was purple, sleeveless and midriff baring, which raised some questions about its purpose. It was lined with silver around the edges and fur of the same colour around the neckline, and he could see straps on its back which held her blaster. With how it was situated, she could easily draw it when pretending to surrender. Interesting concept.
"I must confess," Junjie said, "I haven't seen much of the Cavern Sea, let alone ridden upon it."
"Oh aye?" said Perry. "Well, first time for everything!"
Her dress was a rich red, also sleeveless, figure hugging and looked to be quite stretchy, and it reached down past her hips. She wore two belts - one blue, one purple - which crossed one-another over at the front with the purple one holding her canisters. Her pants were black, also stretchy and clinging, and reached into her boots, which were blue with purple straps and soles and black clasps.
"I was serious about those pirates," Junjie said. "Eli has told me about some unfortunate encounters he had with a crew that hounded him on multiple occasions."
"If they do show up, I know how to handle meself in a fight," Perry boasted. "So in the end, it's likely they'd be the ones getting robbed!"
"I don't think they would like that."
"Aye, so it sucks to be them!"
Her otherwise blue gloves had black cuffs around the wrists and where they reached her armpits, and these cuffs had other bands in their centres; purple on her wrists, red on those at the top. She was, Junjie considered, simultaneously one of the most colourful and most odd-looking people he had ever so much as caught a glimpse of, let alone traveled to another realm with. Even her mecha, built to resemble a unicorn and plated in silver, purple and black, looked rather ridiculous.
Added to that, the sight of the water was making her nervous despite her best attempts to hide it, but the prospect of retaliating to a fight seemed somehow enjoyable.
What in the world was this woman?
Before he could travel very far on this train of thought, his attention was caught by what was unmistakably the firing of a blaster.
"Perry!" he shouted. "Watch yourself!"
Thankfully she noticed in time, and she ducked as something black and red and angry all over sailed over her head.
"Crivens!" she swore, or at least Junjie assumed it was a curse. "That bloody thing was bloody shooting at me on the way over!"
Junjie looked up and saw a large cannon positioned on a rocky outcrop, aiming in their direction and preparing to fire again. He couldn't make out anybody operating it, even as it fired and he had to quickly make a hard right and slammed on his brakes to avoid being hit.
"There ain't no-one firing it," Perry informed him. "I rode all the way round that thing on me first way past. That bloody thing's automatic! If I hadn't legged it, it would've nailed me!"
"And it's firing ghouls," Junjie pointed out. "My guess is that Dr Blakk installed it to prevent Eli or those like him leaving to seek help, or to prevent people such as you from coming to the caverns he wished to destroy."
"You what?" said Perry. "What a git!"
She quickly ducked aside to avoid being hit again.
"We need to disable it," Junjie said, "or at least prevent it from reloading itself."
"And how're we going to do that then?" Perry demanded.
"There must be some power source that it's running on," Junjie told her. "If we can find it and disconnect it-"
Then he saw another headed in his direction, and this time had to tip his mecha to one side to avoid it and almost ended up in the drink. When he had righted himself, he saw that the young woman he was accompanying was speeding away towards the turret, and he revved up his engine and followed her.
"The least you could do is wait for me!" he called.
"I don't like messing about!" she replied. "I'm taking this thing out and you can't stop me!"
"I'm not trying to stop you!"
"Eh?!"
"I already said that I want to help you!"
He drew level with her and she looked round at him as if surprised to see he was there, and he nodded with her as a silent way of saying 'I'm with you'.
The look she gave him in return was angry, but determined.
"Right," she said, and she looked ahead.
The turret fired again in their direction and they swerved to avoid being hit, constantly slaloming as they drew closer to the rock.
"I'll draw its fire!" cried Perry. "You go up there and bust that bastard up!"
"Understood," said Junjie.
She steered to the left, intending to circle around the rock, and the cannon followed her path as Junjie pressed forward and reached the rough stony surface. It was difficult to get a grip on the wet rock and the jagged edges were uncomfortable, but somehow he found purchase and pulled his body upwards.
"Hurry it up!" he heard Perry shout. "I'm starting to get dizzy already!"
"I'm doing my best!" he replied.
Climbing up the rock face was no small feat. The rock itself was only about two metres tall, but what it lacked in height it made up for in terrain. Junjie considered himself lucky that Perry seemed to be doing a good job of distracting the turret; while he could probably disable it in a singleshot, it would continue firing at him as he guided his shot to its target. He would be done for.
It would've been a more reasonable situation if there had at least been some way of restoring the slugs in there to their original forms, but Junjie didn't want to take Doc away from where he may have been needed more. Eli had been correct: if there really were Blakk loyalists in the North, there would probably be some left in the 99 Caverns as well.
After what could have been an eternity, though it could easily have been an instant, he finally reached the top of the rock where the turret stood and quickly got behind it so that it wouldn't be able to hit him. The ghouls still inside it growled and snarled in his direction and he tried his best to ignore them: once they were free, they would likely swim back to Eli's realm, where he would be able to find and take care of them. It would be teamwork without the Shane even realising it.
The cannon itself stood on a single metal leg, bolted securely to the rock. Junjie allowed his Infurnus to take a look.
"What do you think, Joo-Joo?" he asked. "Shall you be able to handle it?"
Joo-Joo turned to face him and nodded with pride.
"How're you doing?!" shouted Perry from down below as Junjie held Joo-Joo close to the support.
"We're working on it!" Junjie reported, and as if on cue, Joo-Joo spat out a tongue of super-heated flame that almost instantly started melting the metal. The molten iron (if that was in fact what it was) dribbled down the support like a candle and Junjie had to shuffle backwards so that none of his extremities or clothes would come into contact with it.
Once it was cut halfway through, Junjie withdrew his hand.
"Let's finish it off," he commanded.
Joo-Joo jumped, obedient and excited, into the man's blaster, and Junjie fired him outwards across the water.
Now came the difficult part.
He cleared his mind and concentrated, and almost instantly felt the flood of energy surging through his body. His physical form became a conduit for the magical power inherent to the lands in which he dwelt, connecting him like a strong thread to his most trusted and faithful slug. He knew that Joo-Joo also felt this connection, as when he raised his hands to act as a guide, the Infurnus followed him wherever he was directed, curving back in the direction he had come from and picking up as much speed as he could muster.
Just before the collision, Junjie ducked down and broke the connection, clasping his hands over his head to shield himself from his slug's deliberate crash into the cannon. The force broke the support entirely and sent the gun flying down into the waters.
"WHATTHEFU-" screamed Perry.
There was a very loud splash that quickly followed.
Realising what had happened, Junjie leapt up and hurried to the edge of the rock. He saw Perry's mecha, powerless and drifting on the water, deprived of its driver. Foamy ripples not far from it were quickly fading away. A few slugs appeared, one a familiar reddish-orange, and they leapt onto the mecha and looked down at the water with squeaks and faces of worry.
If Perry was going to resurface, she would have done so by now.
"Oh no..." Junjie muttered.
He quickly pulled off his shinguards and his blasters, and dumped them along with his shoulder pads. bandoleer and fur cape on top of the rock for safe-keeping, and after making sure they wouldn't be ignited by the rapidly cooling metal, he took a deep breath and dived off the rock and into the salty spray.
The cold hit him like a cliffside to the face, but he forced himself to ignore it and opened his eyes. Doing so was uncomfortable, but necessary. He had to see where he was going. He had to see where his companion was if he was ever to help her.
And he caught sight of her further down, her eyes and mouth tightly shut and wildly flailing about, trying and obviously failing to gain altitude. Junjie kicked at the water and pulled himself downwards, struggling against his natural buoyancy to reach her even as she sank further into the depths.
Once he finally reached her, Junjie took hold of one of her wrists and she stopped struggling. She tried to open her eyes, but clearly wasn't used to doing so and only squinted. Not wanting to waste any more time, Junjie wrapped an arm around her chest and started swimming upwards, back in the direction he had come. He felt Perry kicking, trying to help them move upwards even though her boots were probably full of freezing water.
He broke the surface with a deep, shuddering and desperate gasp and snatched at the rock, thankfully finding a good handhold in a relatively short time span. Still hanging in his arm, Perry coughed and struggled to breathe, clinging to his body for dear life.
Junjie looked down at her, hoping his lack of admiration would be obvious.
"You can't swim?" he asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.
"No I can't!" Perry snapped, and then she coughed some more.
"So that's why you kept glancing at the water," said Junjie, "and why you seemed so apprehensive when we first set out. You knew that if you fell in, you'd never come out. At least not without help."
"Don't you dare go bloody reminding me!" shouted Perry in a croaky voice. "You don't even want to know how pissed I am at meself! I can shoot a candle's flame out at 50 paces and not damage the wick, but I can't swim a single stroke to save my own life! Literally!"
She trailed off and panted. Her fruitless efforts to ascend in the water had exhausted her.
"At least you took care of the cannon," she said. "Right?"
"Yes," Junjie reported. "The slugs that were in it should be fine. Once they get out, they'll swim to where Eli can find them and deal with them."
"And good bloody riddance," muttered Perry.
She closed her eyes. Her panting had decreased in volume quite considerably by now.
"Are you alright?" asked Junjie.
"I'm fine," she replied. "Can you help me get to me ride? I know it's pathetic, but-"
Junjie set out before she could finish. He kicked himself away from the rock, still holding her above the water's surface until they reached her mecha, whereupon he helped her clamber aboard.
"Right," she said. "Get your kit on and we'll set off again."
Sure that she wouldn't fall off again, Junjie swam back to the rock and climbed up, and was met by even more worried slug faces.
"It's alright," he said. "I'm fine. Both of us are fine."
Pulling his armour back on wasn't as easy as taking it off had been, considering how his clothes were now soaking wet and likely saturated with salt. His bangs had flopped down over his forehead and he could feel that the rest of his hair, where it still hung restrained, was heavy with seawater. Still, his furs felt all the more cozy now that their job of insulating heat had become even more necessary.
Once he was fully dressed once more, he descended the rock to where his own mecha was still parked and mounted it. He looked to Perry for commands, but saw that she had slumped forward, her eyes closed, as though she was asleep.
"Are you..." he said awkwardly. "...are you ready?"
"Aye," she responded, and she opened her eyes and sat up straight again. "Let's move on before any other blethers comes our way."
And with that, they sped away from the rock, leaving nothing behind but a smoldering stump of half-melted metal.
Night had fallen by the time they reached the beach, and it definitely was a beach this time. It wasn't very large - a three-metre wide stretch of sparkling black sand separating the sea from a grassy bank dotted with the occasional tree - but it was still a preferable coastline to the one they had departed.
The pair switched their mechas back to beast mode and walked up onto the beach, navigating by the light of the trees, and once they had reached the grasses, Perry deactivated her engine.
"Hang on," she said, and dismounted. "I... I need a moment."
She sat down on the grass as Junjie also dismounted, and she pulled off her boots (her socks were black with little red skull-and-crossbones patterns) and emptied out a bizarrely large amount of seawater. Then she sighed and fell backwards, lying down on the sloping grass, and Junjie sat down next to her.
This did look like it was a nice place. It was hard to believe that such a rough young woman could come from somewhere like this.
"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked. "You seem exhausted."
"Aye," she responded. "Just I haven't slept a whole lot lately, what with the whole travelling across the Cavern Sea twice and all. Plus coming dangerously close to drowning can take a lot out of you, you know?"
Junjie couldn't avoid smiling at how casual she could sound whilst talking about a near-death experience. Clearly this land wasn't what it seemed at the moment.
"Thank you," Perry said. "Thanks for coming after me. I honestly expected you just to leave me, to be honest."
"And what sort of person would I be if I allowed you to die?" asked Junjie. "I agreed to help you. I fail to see how that wouldn't extend to preventing you from drowning."
Perry's smile in response was lopsided, likely from exhaustion. It was odd how her make-up still appeared impeccable, but her hair had fallen limp and loose from the time she had spent in the water. It now looked more like a simple chin-length bob than anything else.
Junjie pulled his own hair out of its bun and wrung it out over the grass. It was amazing how much water came out and splattered onto the earth, even though it had been several hours since the two of them had taken a dive.
"So what now?" he asked, and ran his fingers through his locks to try to prevent tangling. "I highly doubt either of us is in any condition to fight at this moment."
"There's a shed not far from here that used to be a slug wrangler hideout," Perry said, and she weakly pointed backwards. "It's been empty for quite some time now. There's food and a shower and everything, though I'm not sure if it'll have hot water anymore. I've been in there a couple of times while away from home. Nobody will mind if we spend the night in there."
After glancing back over his shoulder, looking in the direction she had indicated, Junjie tied his hair back into a ponytail, forgoing his usual bun. Now that he thought about it, he too felt rather tired. What was it about swimming that could drain so much energy from a person?
"Very well," he sighed. "I assume we can begin our operation tomorrow?"
"Aye, that's right," Perry said as she sat up, "though there is someone we're meeting up with first."
"Is there? Who?"
"Slug expert. She'll be helping us with what we're doing. I've known her for a long time, so we can trust her. She'll be waiting for us in the next cavern over. She ain't a fighter, but she and her family are good enough at handling themselves."
She stood up and dragged herself back onto her mecha, and once Junjie had done the same, they started moving again.
He got the feeling this was going to be one of the most trying missions of his life.
"D'Artagnan?"
The brown haired teen quickly looked up.
"What's the status?" asked their eldest sister. "Have we struck dark water yet?"
"No," d'Artagnan reported. "No, the drill hasn't got that deep yet-"
"And why not?"
"Athos, it's only been active for about six hours! Plus the machinery's really old! It could take days for us to hit even a little reserve-"
"Then increase the drilling speed," Athos said simply. "Surely it'll be able to handle the pressure. I don't want to see you sleeping on the job, d'Artagnan. Not when we're this close."
D'Artagnan bowed their head in shame.
"It's alright," said Athos, and she rubbed her younger sibling's shoulder. "We'll reach our goal soon."
The teen rubbed the hand, grateful for the attempted comfort, but it didn't do much good.
Meanwhile, the drill dug ever further downward.