The length of this chapter should make up for the last one~ Can Zaylee save Eli? Will she? And what other drama do I have in store for our teenage heroes? Keep reading and please don't hate me for the ending!
Zaylee hunted through the giant leaves and mushrooms of the obscure cavern searching for any traces of B.E.E or their contraptions that had been causing an alarming amount of trouble lately. The company had been making their presence increasingly known, and that was a problem. A big problem.
She, along with Pulse and Xia, had come out to this cavern, so obscure it wasn't even named on their maps, knowing it was a B.E.E hot spot. They were searching for any answers to the new threat. They had been communicating back and forth with their slugs, Zaylee being the most left out, no Hypnogriff in her arsenal to help her out. She had been searching around in the cavern without contact for over an hour. She hoped her friends were okay. More importantly, she hoped she would be ok.
Eli didn't remember who Eli was any more, who Burpy was, who Trixie or Kord or Pronto were. He was now called Nero by his master Dr. Blakk and his co-worker Diablos Nacho. Nero DeVeleno was all he was now and all he'd ever be. There was no saving him, no cure. Well, no known cure. Dr. Blakk knew that even though his slugs had escaped due to that accursed Infurnus, there was no way that it would ever occur to his incompetent "gang" that a Boon Doc could possibly save him. But even if they did figure it out, it was unlikely he could be saved. Dark Water did that to a person.
Nacho and Nero sat together drinking shots of the dark water. Neither of them talked. The only thing on their minds was destruction. Specifically of the remnants of the Shane gang.
Blakk had given his new creation, or what he called now his "left hand man", a special assignment. "I want you to find Zaylee Foxx and bring her back here. Preferably alive, her fate is going to be quite similar yours. Do this to prove your allegiance to me."
Nero had just grunted, and headed off with his new arsenal of ghouls to hunt out this "Zaylee" and please his all-powerful master.
Trixie sat in tears inconsolable by Pronto and Kord. "It's lost," she whispered, "Everything is lost."
"That's not true." Kord repeated for what he felt like was the thousandth time he'd said this. "There's still hope. Right? C'mon Pronto, tell her there's hope."
"Well, of course, right…" The Molenoid said. "There is always hope and…" he trailed off, finally without anything to say.
"But what can we do?" Trixie sobbed. "Zaylee won't be back for another two days!"
Kord and Pronto continued to try and console Trixie, 1001 times would be the charm right? But it was no use. It only got worse when Eli's entire arsenal, led by Burpy, came in, looking dejected and worried, and most importantly, without Eli. Trixie just looked at the slugs and burst into more tears.
"This means something's seriously wrong!" She wailed. "We have to do something!"
"Ok, I'll admit, this doesn't look good. But we can't go running off trying to save him when we don't know where he is, and more importantly, how to save him. Without Zaylee and her slugs we have no chance." Kord reasoned.
"We have Burpy!" Trixie exclaimed, a wild look entering her red, puffy eyes.
"That's not going to be enough." Kord said. The orange slug growled at him. "I'm sorry, but we just can't do this. Eli wouldn't approve us putting ourselves in unnecessary danger for his sake. We need to wait for Zaylee to get back and then we can re-group and think this through clearly."
"I don't care! I'm going after him!" Trixie exclaimed, but she didn't make it to the door, over come with another wave of grief, she collapsed on the floor and allowed Kord to carry her off to her room and tuck her in bed without a fight.
Zaylee crawled along the ledge of a cliff, looking left, right, up and down. She had this nagging feeling of paranoia, but then again, when didn't she? It always clawed at the back of her mind. Most days she could ignore it. In situations like these though, it put her on full alert. But she supposed it helped her stay safe.
There was noise echoing in the pass below her. She shook it off, there was no way. The pass was narrow, stuck between two cliffs, and she could see every inch of it for what she thought must be a mile. She continued searching, looking left, right, up, and down. She looked down again. Something new that wasn't there before appeared almost directly below her. How had she missed it? She had no idea what it was either. It looked like El Diablos Nacho. But that was impossible… Maybe it was one of B.E.E's experiments. But how did they get it to look like that? She shook her head. Sling now, questions later. She jumped down from her perch, trying to be as graceful as possible from fifteen feet, wincing a little when she didn't land quite right.
"Hey!" She yelled at the pale blue-skinned fiend. "What are you doing here?"
"Find and destroy the slinger." The thing said.
"Who sent you?"
"My master."
"And who's your master?" Zaylee didn't like this guy's vagueness. Or the way he looked for that matter.
"Blakk." He said simply.
Zaylee began to understand. He was like Nacho.
"What's your name?" She continued.
"Nero DeVeleno."
"You must be new to this." Zaylee said, her lips beginning to curve into a devious smile, "So I'm going to help you out. This isn't your territory, and you are certainly not welcome here. So slither back to whatever God-forsaken cavern Blakk pulled you out of or I'll do it for you. Oh, and if you live to tell the tale, tell your boss the Foxx says hello."
Nero's black eyes widened. Foxx. He was to capture her. He wasn't sure why, she appeared to be a sassy pain in the neck, but whatever his master wanted. Without warning he began to fire ghouls at her. Zaylee reacted quickly, but her ankle protested as she moved to avoid the powerful ghouls. Her eyes widened in fear. Whatever this thing was, he was extremely powerful. And she was in over her head. He knocked aside everything she shot at him and he was coming in on her fast. His fighting style seemed so familiar, but she didn't have time to think about that.
"Find Xia and bring her back to me!" She commanded her Fimber, shooting him out into the cavern. She then shot her Vinedrill upwards and grabbed on to a vine, the slug pulling her away from the fight and this new evil henchman.
"It was bad." She later told her friends as Pulse wrapped her ankle.
"It looks like we've got a lot to deal with." she said ominously. Xia nodded in agreement. What they had discovered concerning B.E.E wasn't good news either.
"Do you have any idea on what it may be?" Zaylee asked Pulse, still worried about this new monster. If anyone had a clue, it'd be Erin Pulse. She just shrugged and shook her head.
"Let's just get home and figure all this out from there." Xia said. The other two nodded in agreement.
Pronto burst into the room where Trixie sat, surrounded used tissues. "Pulse is back!" He triumphantly announced.
"That means Zaylee is back too!" the red head squealed. She ran into the garage where Kord had been taking sanctuary.
"We have to go to her apartment now!" She demanded, getting on her mecha.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down Trix," Kord began, "We need to go about this calmly, surgically. I mean, don't you think it'd be a good idea, to oh, I don't know, change out of your pajamas, and oh, maybe have a blaster?"
Trixie looked down at herself. "Oh yeah."
Zaylee sighed getting out of a steaming shower. Her mission was only successful in finding out that there was way more evil in Slugterra than there needed to be. She had just finished drying off her hair when she heard the knock on her door. She looked through the peephole, and recognizing the Shane Gang, she undid the five locks and opened the door for them.
"What's up?" She asked. She blinked, realizing something was wrong. Trixie was in a disheveled state. It looked like she had been crying for three days straight. She blinked again, noticing something she should have noticed first. Eli was missing. "What's wrong?" She corrected her statement.
The gang sat down in her living room, and a sobbing Trixie managed to relay the story of Eli's disappearance. Zaylee nodded, the gears turning in her head. Then everything hit her. Eli was Nero. Somehow, Blakk had managed to… No, was that possible? Had Blakk somehow figured out how to ghoul people? Zaylee shuddered. If it was true, there was only one possible cure, and it might not even work. That didn't even take into account all it was going to take just to get to him to save him. If they could still save him at this point, that was.
"Do you have his slugs?" Zaylee asked suddenly, interrupting Trixie's sobbing.
She nodded, producing Doc and Burpy.
"Perfect, this is all we need." Zaylee said grabbing the two slugs out of Trixie's hands and getting up to prepare.
Trixie's face lit up. "You'll help us?"
"Of course I'll help you." Zaylee huffed, as she began to gather the rest of her slugs and her blaster. "He used to be my best friend. I'm not going to let Blakk do any more damage to him."
Trixie's face palled again. "Damage… More?"
"He should be fine." Zaylee reassured her. "But we need to hurry." And with that, she shoved the Shane Gang out the door, locking it behind them, and began sprinting down the stairs towards her mecha.
The Gang followed behind, struggling to keep up with her mecha, even after she slowed down for them. Kord muttered a few things about needing upgrades like hers. She rode with ease and speed through her short cut, greeting Mfalme quickly as she rode before continuing onward. She stopped at the top of a cliff, looking downward on the back of the fortress.
The other three came in warily behind her, clearly uncomfortable with the settings, remembering what had happened last time. Even without Eli they could still be heroes. Right? It just wasn't the same without a Shane to lead them. But they could do it. They had to do it. For Eli. Zaylee was certainly a great hero, but very vague on her plans, and all four of them silently agreed that Eli was a hero and leader much missed.
Zaylee looked at the team. It was unlikely that Kord or Pronto would be able to fit through the air ducts. "Here's where it gets tricky." She said, breaking the solemn silence as she loaded her blaster with her Invisius. "Just follow my foot prints until we get inside."
She shot the pale slug into the air above them and he let out a flash of light and a dome of goo that covered the team, turning them invisible. Zaylee headed off to Blakk's back door, the others following behind her their eyes glued to the ground occasionally bumping into each other.
The poor guard standing outside the door didn't have a chance. Zaylee hit him hard over the head with the back end of her blaster-which was titanium for these purposes- and grabbed his key card. She slid the piece of plastic into the reader and walked right in, the mission going on so far, without a hitch.
The other three filed in behind her, the Invisius goo starting to wear off.
"Alright, Burpy, Snoop, this is where you come in. You know what to do." The slugs started chattering to each other, about what Eli had turned into and where he would be.
"Wait," Trixie interrupted, "You name your slugs too?"
"Yeah, Will Shane and my dad did it; it actually creates a stronger bond with your slugs." Zaylee looked down at the two slugs in her hand. "You guys ready?" The slugs nodded. Burpy jumped back into a container on her belt, and Snoop jumped into her blaster. Zaylee shot him down the corridor and took off running after the golden trail of energy in his wake.
Snoop stopped suddenly, and quickly returned to his home in Zaylee's arsenal. Her green eyes looked up, curious of Snoop's sudden fear, and gasped. That was Eli alright, or Nero as he now preferred to be called. Next to him was Nacho. And if things weren't bad enough, an entire army of grey-clad henchmen stood behind them.
"Uh… That's bad." Kord gulped finally catching up to Zaylee.
"Who's the blue one?" Trixie asked as she joined them.
"Nero DeVeleno." Zaylee said, afraid to tell the whole truth. "More than likely from the same origin as Nacho."
"He looks familiar," Pronto said warily after he finally caught his breath.
"If I'm right, there's an excellent explanation for that. And a cure as well. If I'm not right, we could be in big trouble."
"Explanation? Cure?" Trixie asked.
"Sling now, questions later!" Zaylee yelled as Nacho finally started the fight. She pulled out her Vampenkyeko, shooting the dark blue and purple slug between the two monsters and draining the human part of the army of their energy.
"Now for the tough stuff. Guys, can you handle Nacho? I need to take care of E—Nero myself."
"No promises." Kord faltered, narrowly avoiding a Grimmstone. The three shot at Nacho, who easily evaded all their tactics.
Zaylee stared Nero down. "So we meet again." She sneered.
"And you have walked into your doom." His deep voice growled at her, a look of evil triumph on his face.
Zaylee shuddered; it was so evil on so many levels. But she didn't have time to think about the moral and scientific wrongs of Nero's creation. She had a duel to win. And this time, she was prepared. Eli shot out a Tempesto, which Zaylee countered with her Tazerling, shocking the ghoul into submission. Nero shot out another ghoul, and Zaylee shot her counter-attack, narrowly avoiding his possessed slug.
Trixie, Kord, and Pronto looked on at her dumbfounded. Nacho had somehow suddenly disappeared, leaving the only battle between this new monster and the older vigilante.
"There's no way she's going to win like that." Kord muttered.
"She's using up all his slugs; eventually she'll be able to take the offensive and knock him out." Trixie explained.
"If she has any slugs left."
"She'll be just fine. She's got Burpy, no one can beat that slug."
"It's not a guarantee. That thing's pretty strong."
Zaylee grinned, she saw Nero look down at the strap across his chest to find it containing one last slug. He growled, shooting the ghouled Hop Rock with all his might. Zaylee didn't hesitate. She shot Burpy at the monster; the Infurnus, with only the slightest bit of remorse, knocked him off his feet and surrounded him in a ring of fire.
"Well done, but what are you going to do now?"
All five of them looked up to see Dr. Blakk standing at a balcony looking down at the scene. Nacho was behind him, ready to attack when Nero was finished.
Zaylee glared her meanest darkest glare at the two. "The purest hearts cannot be tainted Blakk!" Zaylee yelled. "You're about to learn that! And you and I both know I can and will do this again!" She glared him down, and then turned her darkened stare onto Nacho. "You're next, both of you, so start running!"
Blakk frowned. He knew a serious hero when he saw one. She was no different than her determined and crafty father. He wasn't going to get away from a fight with her unscathed. He and Nacho quickly disappeared from the balcony as Nero began to come to.
Zaylee looked into his black, empty, soulless eyes and felt her heart break. She hopped with all her might that this would work. She shot Doc, followed by her two Fandangos for support at Nero, the green and blue glow bouncing off the walls as the team looked on waiting for the result. As Doc and the Fandangos returned to protoform, an unconscious Eli Shane lay on the ground.
"Oh my gosh!" Trixie exclaimed rushing to his side.
"How did you know this would work?" she asked, struggling to lift Eli up.
"I had a hunch. I'm just extremely glad I was right. Now grab Eli and let's get out of here before Blakk sends any more cronies after us." She shot her Invisius slug up in the air again, and the team returned back to their mechas.
"Is he going to be alright?" Trixie asked again as they hoisted the unconscious Eli onto Kord's mecha.
"Absolutely, I think he's coming to now." Zaylee smiled, looking down on them from her mecha as Eli let out a groan.
"What happened?" He managed to get out.
"Eli! Oh thank goodness you're alright!" Trixie exclaimed. And then she planted a huge full kiss right on his lips.
Zaylee's knuckles turned white as she gripped the handles of her mecha. "I'm glad to see you're okay." She murmured quietly, a hint of harshness that wasn't there before in her voice as she struggled to keep her emotions in check.
"We'll explain everything when we get home." Kord said to the still weary Eli, "Right now though, I think it'd be best to get out of here."
"Agreed," Zaylee struggled against the lump beginning to form in her throat. "This may come in handy to get you out of the area." She shot her Invisius slug into the air one more time, watching the Shane Gang disappear, before silently bolting off on her own, tears stinging at the corner of her eyes.