Chapter 13—Phantom Fever

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I had heard the name 'Phantom Fever' before. Trixie had told me once about how to look out for it. It starts a just a normal fever, but quickly gets worse, leaving the victim barely able to move. Given long enough, the person will die.

I couldn't say anything, though, because at that moment I collapsed into Mom and Emma's arms.

"Luke, help me get him onto my Mecha," I heard Mom tell Luke. I barely felt him pick me up as I drifted between sleep and awareness.

I was placed on Mom's Mecha and she climbed on as well before we took off with Emma, Luke, Mark, and Leo in pursuit.

"Where does he have to be taken?" Emma asked Mom.

"The only person who knows how to treat this," Mom replied. "Elina Shae."

"Are you talking about the Elina Shae, the girl Dad dated before Trixie?" Leo asked.

"The very one," she replied. "We need to make sure we aren't being followed, though. She won't come out if we bring twenty people with us."

I didn't hear anything after that, because I fell too deeply into the soft comfort of sleep.

After what felt like seconds but was actually an hour of fast travel, I felt myself being picked up again. Dynamo was still giving me energy, so I had just enough to open my eyes slightly and look around at the jungle cavern. Hundreds of slugs were gathered in the trees above, and I could faintly hear them passing on our location toward our destination. The result was a pleasant-sounding chirping.

"Who's there?" I heard a voice demand when we reached a cave, in the entrance of which Elina Shae was standing, blaster loaded.

"Elina, please," Mom said as I was laid on the ground. "It's me, Karina Shane. Eli's sister."

Elina eased and lowered her blaster. "What is wrong with the boy?" she asked, approaching us.

"He's my son, and he has the Phantom Fever," Mom told her. "Please, we need you to heal him."

Elina rushed over and placed her cool hand on my forehead, so I was able to see her. She has long blue hair that reaches down to her waist, even in a ponytail, and her eyes are a startlingly bright blue, like the color of slug energy.

"Jacob, can you hear me?" she asked, lifting my eyelids to check for any responsiveness. "I'm Elina Shae. We met a while ago. Don't worry, you'll be just fine."

I twitched my head in a nod and looked her in the eye.

"His eyes…" she began.

"He's dependent on slug energy to survive," Mom explained. "It was drained too much by a ghouled Fandango slug."

"A ghouled Fandango?" Elina asked. "How did they do that?"

"I don't know, but I think that's what started it," Mom explained.

"In that case, we need Fandangos," she said. She whistled loudly and about ten Fandangos surrounded her.

"Nice to see you guys," she told them, "but I need you to gather around this boy and lend him your energy."

The slugs formed around me and I was soon surrounded by light.

"Will that help him?" Emma asked her.

"No. That just refills his energy," she replied. "I just need to mix together the cure."

She retreated into her cave and began mixing ingredients together and poured them into a drink so that I could drink the mixture.

"Here you go," Elina told me, walking up to us. They propped me up and she poured a liquid in my mouth. It was foul, but Luke was clamping my mouth shut to keep me from spitting it out, so I swallowed it, gagging a few times as it went down.

"He should recover within the hour," she told us. "Until then, bring him inside."

Luke picked me up and carried me inside the cave, setting me on a bed.

She gave me the drink again, and I forced myself to drink it. It was just as foul, but I didn't care as long as it made me better.

"Why did you bring so many people here?" Elina demanded of Karina.

"They are his friends, and Leo is his cousin," Mom explained.

"I know about Leo," she replied. "I want to know about the friends."

"Have you heard stories of the Five Gifted?" Mom asked her.

"Of course I do," Elina replied.

"These teenagers are four of the Five," she explained. "They are loyal to each other."

"I can tell," Elina commented, glancing toward Emma, who was still sitting next to me.

Over the next few minutes I felt the Fever disappear and my strength return. When my energy was back to normal I blinked and sat up slowly.

"'Bout took ya long enough," Luke commented as my slugs cheered and Mo and Emma tackled me in hugs.

"Why is it I'm always the one getting hurt?" I groaned.

"It's because you're always the one taking the crazy chances," Luke explained.

"Good point," I said.

"Jake, you should rest for at least twenty minutes," Elina told me. "The Fever hit you really hard."

I nodded and adjusted my bandolier so that it was more comfortable.

"Your slugs have been worried about you," Elina told me. "It is a rare and pleasant thing to see slugs and slingers treat each other as equals."

"Thanks," I replied.

"I think I have something else to raise your spirits," she added, holding out the Riviera slug she promised me years ago. "Your mother decided you are old enough, so it's all yours."

I perked up and accepted the slug from her. The sides and back of the slug are blue, its stomach is gray, and there's a swirly blue design on its stomach as well. It has two blue eyes with three dots between them and two short antenna with something like a dorsal fin on its back, in the middle of which was a darker blue spot.

"Aw!" Emma said. "It's so cute!"

"Thanks," said the slug shyly. From its voice I could tell it was a female slug.

"Good to have you on the team," I told the slug. "How do you like the name River?"

"I love it!" she cheered. I introduced her to the rest of my team and let her sit next to Speedy on my shoulder.

"That's an ultra rare slug," Mark commented, picking up River and examining her. "We couldn't even find these in the hidden cavern."

"Hey!" River growled, squirting water in his face.

"Whoa!" Mark yelled, accidentally dropping River, but I caught her.

"Sorry about that," I told her. "He tends to do that with really rare slugs."

"It's okay," she assured Mark. "You wouldn't find Riviera slugs with other slugs very much because we prefer the company of only other Riviera slugs. We can be a bit shy around others."

"Oh," Mark said. "Okay." He sat down again.

"Thank you for healing me," I told Elina. "I'm not sure what we would've done if you weren't here or we couldn't find you."

"Let's not focus on that now," she said. "I'm proud to help a member of the Five Gifted. Besides, if you couldn't find me, you could've just gone to the Shadow Clan," she added. "They know everything about anything."

"Thanks for the advice," Mom told her.

"We should get going soon," I said. "We don't want to miss our first day of classes tomorrow."

"You still have some time before you need to return," Elina told us. "I'll show you guys around the cavern, and maybe we can go slug hunting."

"Sure," Luke said. He's been desperate to expand his arsenal, but hasn't found any new slug that fit him.

We all stood up and walked out of the cave and into the jungle, where we saw all kinds of slugs, from Arachnets to Vinedrills.

"Go wild," Elina said. "Just don't hurt yourself. If you hurt any slugs of the jungle, you have me to answer to," she added, hands flickering with small flames. Oh, I forgot to mention that. She has the ability to control every slug element except Toxin.

We nodded and set off through the jungle. I was still being a bit careful so I used my staff to support myself.

"Hey, guys," I said when I wandered upon a small group of Hoverbugs. They took to the air and began flying in circles around my head. "I'm looking for slugs to join my team. Are any of you interested?"

They stopped in midair and one of them flew up and landed on my hand. "I wanna join your team!" it chirped. It was just a young one, too, but clearly ambitious.

"Great. How about I name you 'Turbo'?" I asked him.

"I love it!" he cheered, joining my slugs.

I laughed at his enthusiasm and wandered around the cavern. I encountered a Tormato slug as well and added him to my team, naming him Gale.

After about an hour I heard some explosions coming from Elina's cave, so I went as fast as I could. I was tiring out too much, though, so I fired Turbo and had him carry me to the cave as fast as he could.

"What's going on?" I asked Elina.

"Them," she said, pointing to Nacho and a couple goons firing at us.

"Oh. Them," I replied, loading Scorch.

We continued dueling for about five minutes.

"You ready for a rematch?" I asked Nacho as he ran up to me, having fired his last ghoul.

He just scowled and threw a punch at me.

I smiled and activated my powers in time to catch the punch. I threw the next punch, but he caught it.

"I heard you got hurt from the last time you did this," Nacho growled as we kept fighting.

"Yeah, and since then I've just gotten better," I muttered as I landed a punch on his jaw.

He just scowled and we kept fighting until Luke arrived.

"Take the shot!" I told him, watching him load his Rammstone, Smasher.

"Heck no," he said. He removed Smasher and loaded a Speedstinger. He took careful aim at a tree and I automatically figured out the shot.

He launched the slug, and just as he did so I shifted my position so that I could push Nacho back a few steps.

"Why, you little—" Nacho began before the Speedstinger hit him on the temple, knocking him out.

"Thanks, Luke!" I told him as we continued firing on the goons. We quickly took them out with our slugs.

"Why'd you tell me to take the shot?" Luke demanded. "I could've taken him out with my Speedstinger!"

"I didn't know you got a Speedstinger," I told him. "Besides, my energy was getting low. I couldn't have held him off any longer."

"Not a very smart idea, by the way," Elina told me as she launched Arachnets and Lariats to tie them up. "Telling him to launch the slug, even though it might hurt you."

"That's how he almost got himself killed a month ago," Luke explained. "Told Emma to launch her Armashelt to take down Nacho, even though it might kill him."

"Is that true?" Leo asked when he arrived. "Did you seriously almost get yourself killed?"

"Too many times to count," Luke chuckled. I just glared at him as he counted off every stupid thing I did over the summer, starting with letting go of a rope over fifty feet above the ground.

"Hey, I did it to win a race," I said in my support.

"Did you win?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, of course I won," I told him.

"I'm starting to believe you have a death wish," Elina commented after the tenth story about the Ice Ogre nest.

"Not really. I just like to have fun," I replied.

"Don't worry, man," Leo told me. "I probably would have done some of the same things."

"You'd be surprised to find out how much you have in common," Mom told us as she approached. "What happened here?"

"The new Doctor Blakk must have found a record of this cavern and sent some of his henchmen to try and kidnap me," Elina explained. "Jake here heard what was going on and helped me out. I'm surprised he didn't use River."

"I wanna wait for a practice duel so that it doesn't throw of a duel in a dangerous situation," I said. I had actually forgotten about River.

"Well, you need more slug energy," Mom told me, launching a Fandango at me.

"Being dependent on slug energy sucks," I commented. "I must admit, though, that the boosts are awesome," I added when the Fandango gave me a boost of energy.

"It's gonna take a while to get used to your eyes," Emma commented. I grabbed a mirror and saw that my eyes looked bright enough to be flashlights.

"I'll take care of these guys," Mom told us, hooking her Mecha up to a cart Nacho took with him. Luke and I tossed them in the back and she set of for Stalagmite 17.

"You guys should be going," Elina told us. "School starts tomorrow, and you'll want an early start on the day."

"'Kay," Mark said.

"Thanks again for healing me and giving me River," I told Elina as we walked away.

She nodded and watched us leaving. I rode with Emma on the back of her cheetah Mecha, and we went pretty fast to have more time to relax at the University.

"It's good to be back," Leo sighed when we returned to our dorm.

"So true," I commented. I jumped on my bed as my slugs scattered around my side of the room.

"How many slugs do you have with you?" Leo asked me when he saw them all.

"Thirty to forty," I replied. "I usually take some of Eli and Trixie's slugs with me so that they don't feel lonely."

"That's nice," Leo commented.

"Here, let's split them," I said, handing half of their slugs to him.

"You didn't have to do that," Leo assured me.

"Yeah, but Mom told us that Eli and Trixie wanted us to share them, so that's what I'm doing," I replied.

"Thanks," he replied.

"Anytime," I said.

The rest of the day went by fairly slowly. Leo and I got into an arm wrestling competition to see who was stronger: Leo's Shadow Clan strength or my Gift.

I won.

"G'night," I muttered that night as we crawled into bed.

The next day we began our first day of classes.