Chapter 38—BBQ!
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Trixie tried to dissuade Kord from it, but he kept asking until she finally gave in.
"Woohoo!" Kord screamed. "Cookout time!"
"Want us to help out?" Eli asked him.
"Yeah. Eli, you get the hot dogs cooking, I'll make the burgers and Trixie can make a side to go with it," Kord told them.
As they set to work we relaxed and I gave Luke and Emma a tour of the Hideout before we went outside to train a bit.
"Hey, Jake," Luke said when he and Emma finished a practice duel. "Could you build me a double barrel mod like yours?"
"Maybe," I replied. "It wasn't easy building the first one, and I had help then."
"What are you guys talking about?" Eli asked us.
"Luke was asking me to building him a double barrel mod like mine," I replied.
"How did you get a double barrel mod?" he asked me.
"I built it at the University," I explained, showing him my new mod.
"That's some pretty solid construction there," Kord commented, plucking the mod from my hands. "You're pretty talented, kid," he added.
"Thanks, Kord," I replied, grabbing the mod from him and placing it in my bag.
"How about we try that thing out?" Eli asked me with a sly grin on his face.
I returned the smiled and we walked to a clearing meant for dueling.
"I hope you've gotten better since the last time we dueled," Eli told me, "because it's going to take more than a new mod to beat me."
"I know," I replied before loading and launching Scorch at Eli. He was shot down by a Mega-Morphed Chiller.
"Hey! That's not fair!" I complained. "You have more Mega-Morphs than me!"
"Yeah, but you're the one with superpowers," Eli replied as he loaded Joules.
I dodged the slug and Mega-Morphed Yang to distract Eli until I could come up with a game plan. I only had two Mega-Morphs and Eli's entire arsenal could Mega-Morph except for Noodle, of course.
The only things I had as advantages were my powers and my ability to rapidly recharge my mods.
Before I could think further Eli launched Shiner to dispel the darkness and added Noodle to distract me.
I caught Noodle and threw him back at Eli. I got lucky and caused his blaster long enough for me to pull out my double barrel mod.
"Freezer, Blaster," I said. "You wanna try this?"
They nodded so I loaded the two slugs and aimed for a spot above Eli's head.
I launched the slugs.
Success! The slugs joined together to form one that looks like a Blastipede with a Frostcrawler color scheme.
When they were at the right spot they launched their whit grenades, coating Eli with them.
"Now!" I called. They returned to their individual protoforms and Blaster allowed his antennae to touch, creating an icy explosion that encased Eli in ice.
"And that wins me the duel," I commented as I pulled the blaster from his frozen hand.
By the time Burpy was able to thaw out Eli I had loaded both blasters and aimed them at him.
"You've gotten better," he complimented me when he surrendered.
"I can't remember the last time Eli lost, let alone to a teenager," Kord commented as we ate.
"Yeah, yeah," Eli said with a laugh.
We talked about the duel for the rest of dinner, and when it was over Kord and Pronto left for their homes.
"What do you guys want to do tomorrow?" Trixie asked us as we cleaned up after dinner.
"We can go on that shopping trip we were planning," I suggested.
"Ooh! Shopping!" Emma squealed. "Can we go? Can we? Can we? Can we?"
"Sure," Eli said with a chuckled.
We stayed up pretty late that night talking and goofing around, but Trixie and Eli had to get some sleep, so it was soon just the three of us.
"Did you guys see how I beat Eli?" I asked them.
They silenced, looked at each other, and burst out laughing even louder than before.
"What's so funny?" I demanded.
"Jake, Eli let you win," Luke told me before he continued laughing.
"Didn't you notice how he hardly broke a sweat?" Emma asked me.
I glared at them but remained silent the rest of the night until Burpy sent us to bed.
"You guys ready to go?" Eli asked us the next morning when we were all ready.
"Yeah," all of our slugs and us replied.
We left the Hideout on our Mechas and were soon in Convertamail Cavern, which is right next to the one we were in.