Chapter 14—Contest, Part Two.
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The first few periods seemed to drag on as we all waited impatiently for the competition to continue, and when it did there was a race for everyone participating to get to the Arena.
"Congratulations those of you who made it this far," Mr. Mann told the eight of us remaining. "The first match will be…" He read two names off the list. It included Vinyl Rose and a kid a year older than her. She looked a bit nervous as the rest of us walked off the Arena floor, but the look soon disappeared as they began slinging slugs back and forth.
They dueled for several minutes. In the final seconds, though, she used Angel, her Thugglet slug, to create seven or eight other copies of herself. As her opponent began taking out copies, the real Vinyl along with her copies loaded a Tazerling and aimed it at him. Not wanting to take the chance of taking out a copy instead of the real Vinyl, he surrendered.
"Congrats," I told Vinyl as I walked out for my duel, which was next against Emma.
"Wanna see if you can change your luck?" I asked Emma confidently as we walked onto the field.
"Yep," she said.
The moment Mr. Mann fired his Phosphoro Emma fired Volt at me, but I managed to dodge it and launched Stinger back at her. Unfortunately she jumped out of the way and shot Lucky, who hit me. All of a sudden I felt horrible. I felt like, no matter what I did, I would lose, so I let her hit me with Slimer and was about to throw down my blaster and surrender when Speedy and Yang got me back to normal, telling me that I could do anything if I just believed.
"You're right guys, thanks," I told them. I straightened up and wiped off the slime before jumping away Bruiser, who Emma had just launched at me. I launched Yang back followed by Speedy. Yang surrounded her in a cloud of pure blackness, and Speedy caused her blaster to jam long enough for me to get right up to her and aim Scorch at her, causing her to surrender.
"You're not bad, Shane," she told me, punching my arm as we walked off the field.
"Same to you, Walker," I replied. I made sure I had all my slugs and thanked them for such a good job before joining everyone else at the bench.
Luke ended up winning his duel along with a 17-year-old that seemed to have considerably powerful and skilled slugs.
"The first duel of the finals will be Lucas Jones and Vinyl Rose," Mr. Mann announced.
"Good luck dealing with her illusions," I shouted after him as they walked onto the field.
He just chuckled and walked across from her.
"Good luck, kid," Luke said politely.
"You're the one who'll need it," she replied.
When Mr. Mann shot his Phosphoro again Vinyl led off by launching Angel, who created multiple versions of herself, just standing there casually with her arms crossed.
Luke just smiled and launched Typhoon.
"Genius," Mark muttered.
"What is?" I asked him.
"By using a Tormato slug, the resulting tornado can redirect itself and destroy all copies before eventually grabbing the slinger," he explained.
The real Vinyl realized this and took off running, leaving the rest of her copies to stand there while they were destroyed.
"You should never turn your back to your opponent," Luke said, launching Dune, who went underground to eventually resurface in front of Vinyl, causing her to fall down the hole he created, trapped up to her armpits, in a way she couldn't reach her slugs to launch them.
"Good try, though," Luke told her when he had been declared winner and lifted her out of the hole.
"Yeah, sure," she said unhappily, walking into the bleachers to sit with the girl from the day before.
"See you again in the championships," I told him as I walked out onto the field.
"So, you're the Shane kid I've been hearing about," my opponent commented when we were ready.
"Yep, that's me," I replied seconds before Mr. Mann's Phosphoro was launched.
Right away, he launched a powerful Rammstone at me, but I managed to dive out of the way and launch Scorch, who sent him running in circles with his butt on fire before his Aquabeek put it out. He wasn't hurt seriously, but he looked extremely mad and launched three slugs in rapid succession: Frostcrawler, Tazerling, Hop Rock.
I dove away and somehow managed to take down the Hop Rock with Stinger, but took a direct hit from the Tazerling.
As I waited for the electrocution to end, my opponent loaded a Flaringo slug and aimed it at me.
"Do you surrender?" he asked me.
"No way," I replied once I could speak normally. I dropped to the ground and spun my legs around, taking his legs out like I had done with Emma. Just like she had, my opponent accidentally fired his Flaringo where I had been standing so that I had loaded Speedy and aimed him at my opponent before he could recover.
"Okay, I yield," he said.
"Why is it everyone falls for that trick?" I thought out loud as Mr. Mann congratulated me.
"I'm sorry, but there are no prizes for winning," he told me.
"It's okay. I don't mind," I assured him.
"You're getting good, Jake," Aunt Karina said, appearing next to me. "You need more slugs and you can become a force to be reckoned with, though."
"Thanks, Aunt Karina," I replied. She nodded and walked out of the Arena to get ready for a class.
Classes after that day went by normally, but on Friday everyone was excited to go home and visit families.
"I can't wait to see my parents!" Emma squealed during lunch on Friday. "They'll be so proud of the slugs I've gotten."
In that short time we had each acquired a new slug while checking out the town in the cavern and the rest of the cavern in our free time. I got a Tazerling, which I named Tesla, Luke got a Frostcrawler named Subzero, Mark found an Aquabeek that he soon named 'Squirt', and Emma got a Hoverbug named Streak.
"Where does your family live?" I asked her.
"Out in Quiet Lawn Cavern," she replied. "What about you, Mark? Where do you live?"
"Futuria Cavern," he said. "My Dad is a professor there. Where's your home cavern, Luke?"
"It's one of the numerous unnamed caverns," he said. "It's located between Snowdance Cavern and Tusker Forks Cavern."
"Cool."
After the last of our classes ended Luke and I reached our dorm room at the same time. We made sure we had all our slugs and whatever we'd need before leaving, making sure that everything was locked up before leaving for our Mechas.
"See ya Monday!" I shouted at him as we left campus, heading in different directions.
When I reached the edge of Bullseye Cavern I slid down my Holo-Glasses in front of my eyes and turned on the communication system. Part of the right-side of the frame detached with a click and I turned it on a hidden hinge so that it was in front of my mouth and to the side, working as the microphone as part of the earpiece on the other side twisted to allow me to fit it into my ear, turning it into the earpiece.
"Do you think they'll be home?" I asked Speedy and Yang as I called the communication system at home.
They shrugged and I waited patiently for somebody to pick up. If Eli or Trixie aren't home one of the slugs usually answers.
Sure enough, a few seconds later a slug answered with a questioning chip. "Who is this?" the slug asked. I automatically identified it as Noodle, Eli's Flopper slug.
"Hey, there, Noodle. It's Jake," I replied. The microphone was soon flooded by the chirps of several slugs. From what I could hear, among them were Doc and Driller.
"Hey, one at a time," I told them. They hushed and Doc asked me what I needed.
"I just wanted to know if Eli or Trixie are there," I replied.
"No, they left an hour ago to go grocery shopping," he replied. "Why?"
"Well, my last class ended a few minutes ago so I'm on my way home. If they get back before me, don't tell them I called. I want it to be a surprise," I explained.
They let me know they would keep it a secret and told me that they couldn't wait for me to get home before ending the call.
"Let's not disappoint them," I told my slugs. I hit the throttle and Strider went from a walk to an almost full sprint.
The extra energy soon paid off. We arrived at the Hideout less than an hour later, cutting the travel time in half.