Hello everyone, I am back! I am so sorry for disappearing all these years and now I'm back into my fanfictions. I am rewriting the published chapters as I am changing some elements to the story.
The story will diverge from canon a bit such as adding more story elements, altering some filler episodes, and adding my own episodes. Some changes would be raising the age of the younger characters, for example Elizabeth(female Eli) will be 17 years old rather than 15 years old.
Hopefully you guys would enjoy the new and improved story!
The World Beneath Our Feet: Part One"
The World Beneath Our Feet: Part One"
Long ago at the beginning of human civilization, there was a mystical realm that existed 100 miles below the surface and it was called Slugterra. A peaceful land at the beginning, inhabited by little creatures called Slugs who had various powers and forms and transformed when they reached a velocity of 100mph. Slugterra was the realm between, the gate to the above and below where not only humans inhabited but also other species such as Molenoids who were the navigators, Cave Trolls who were the engineers and created the passageways, and other mysterious beings of both light and dark energy. All three realms lived in harmony under the rule of a family who had an unusual connection to the light and dark energy that runs through the realms. Some of the abilities were to grow life, withstand Dark Water, and other unknown powers. This family was nominated by the united realms to become the rulers and protectors and they continued to look after their kingdom for centuries.
However one day a mysterious catastrophe occurred, it shook the land and permanently separated the 3 realms and the kingdom of Slugterra into different regions. Most of the humans vanished on the top realm, while some humans and all of the slugs, Cave Trolls, Molenoids, and one of the mysterious groups were trapped in the realm of the middle, and the other unknown group was banished to the bottommost realm. Nobody knew what happened to the royal family and their castle, even when numerous Slugterra explorers tried to find it but all the expeditions ended in dead ends. Thus only to believe that the kingdom and family are lost forever.
After hundreds of years of separation, the top realm forgot the other two realms while the other two forgot about the surface realm. However one family, called the Shane family, from the surface realm discovered a way to traverse to the middle realm and become its protector for generations. Because of this, they bore the symbol of Slugterra, a gold star that was constructed by a S and a T nicknamed the Shane Star. One particular Shane called Will Shane was considered the best of the family lineage and a naturally gifted slinger. He became the champion of Slugterra at 25 years old and continued to protect Slugterra for the next 13 years until one day he disappeared after a duel with his lifelong rival.
Will Shane was a well-built, muscular 38-year old man who stood at a height of 6'1" had dark gray-ish blue hair combed back neatly with some strands hanging in front of his left wore a white undershirt with torso, back, and shoulder gray and black armor with orange and blue highlights. Also he wore black elbow-length gloves with orange highlights, gray-blue pants, black mid-shin length boots accompanied with orange highlights, and a black bandoleer with the Shane Star that is strapped across his chest.
He quietly walked across a clearing holding an orange Guardian Pro-Fire XT blaster with white stripes running across the top and bottom of the barrel and the Shane Star painted on the left side of the barrel. He finds himself grabbing a clear blue-plastic tube from his bandoleer and inserts it into his blaster while scanning for his opponent.
On the cliff behind Will, arose an extremely muscular man standing at a height of 6'4" with ghostly white skin, short and combed-back brown hair, sideburns, and goatee, and piercing green eyes. His outfit consisted of a blood-red shirt with a high collar, a dark gray sweater, black fingerless gloves, dark-gray pants, and black and red combat boots. With a sly grin, he shoots a cyan-blue slug, a Thresher, that transforms gaining characteristics of a tiger and a shark and starts to spin like a saw-blade towards Will Shane. Hearing the sharp noise from the slug behind him, Will Bends his back backwards dodging the incoming slug and shoots a Hop Rock slug that transforms with gray skin and yellow armor across its body. It flies towards the man, creating a yellow explosion behind him.
The man grabs a slug shell containing a red slug with a tan belly, and blue stripes on its back and blue horns at the top of its head, a Rammstone, and fires it which also causes Will to fire his own Rammstone. Will's Rammstone transforms into a bigger velocimorph with larger, full-grown horns while the other Rammstone was much smaller. The bigger Rammstone punches its opponent, knocking it to revert into its protoform and dizzy from its powerful hit.
The man jumps down from the cliff and sneers down at the slug. "You worthless slug!" yelled the man, disgusted and angry.
The victorious, bigger Rammstone hops towards its slinger and hops into his awaiting hand. Will Shane stands up and places the slug back into a shell on his bandoleer. "Not that I enjoy bringing you to justice time and again Dr. Blakk," the Shane replied, "But aren't you tired of getting beat?"
Dr. Thaddius Blakk looks at Will with a sly grin, "Extremely, which is why I lured you here."
"Think that you're going to finally beat me in a duel," Will smiles, mocking the man.
"I know I am," Dr. Blakk chuckles darkly and reaches a hand behind his back.
An Infernus slug, an orange slug with yellow flame markings on its belly, back, and top of its head, starts chirping madly and appears to be very irritated. "Settle down Burpy, you will get your chance," Will smiles fondly at slug and then faces his rival with a stoic composure. "So are you going to tell me what's this all about or I have to take a guess?"
"I'll do you one better, Will Shane, I'll show you!" He raises the hand that was behind his back to show a red slug shell containing a black slug, with a dark brown belly, red markings on its back, red eyes, and sharp dark yellow-green teeth and horns. It gives a loud shriek, clearly challenging the slinger and Burpy.
"Is that a slug?" Will asks, stumped and horrified by the sight of the unnatural slug. "Blakk, what have you done to the slug?"
Black grins as he loads the unusual slug into his blaster, "I fixed it, made it better. Now good enough to finally beat you." He pulls the trigger, causing the slug to transform into a bat-like creature, a gaping mouth with sharp teeth, and having a red smoke-like trail behind it as it flies towards th Shane. In the middle of its flight, it starts to spin horizontally creating a black and red vortex in the ground as it creates lighting and starts to suck things up like a vacuum. It starts to pull at Will Shane as he tries to hold his ground while Dr. Blakk gazes upon the slug's power with amazement.
"The power that I could never imagine!"
"You have no idea what you are doing! Corrupting slugs!" Will shouts over the black whirlpool. "You will destroy all of Slugterra!"
Dr. Blakk turns his back to the vortex and treks forward to be out of the range of the red vortex.
"Blakk, stop this! You have to stop this!" Will shouts over the whirling wind as he starts to slip closer and closer towards the opening in the ground. However Dr. Blakk ignores his pleas and runs away, being the last person to ever see Will Shane. Knowing he was doomed, Will grabs Burpy and load him into his blaster. "Find my daughter, find Elizabeth and give her the letter."
Burpy gives a nod of confirmation and Will raises his blaster up towards the direction to a certain hole. "Go!" Burpy blasts off, transforming into his velocimorph form which has original colors, large wings that have a wingspan of 7 feet, and is covered in bright flames. Burpy glances behind him only to see Will Shane, the protector of Slugterra, being sucked into the vortex and vanishing along with the vortex, leaving no trace. Burpy was shocked but remembers his mission and he keeps on flying up into a tunnel in the ceiling of Slugterra and continues to fly up.
Burpy weaves in and out, and avoids the obstacles until the tunnel finally opens up into sewer tunnels. Then a powerful blast of air and fire from his wings causes him to shoot up into the night sky of the surface realm. The moon was full and illuminated the neighborhood as Burpy hovered in the air, looking for his destination which contained someone really important to him. Burpy spots the house and flies towards the room and transforms back into his protoform and lands in the windowsill, waking up a young girl. The ten-year old girl has dark-gray blue hair, like her father, that reaches down to her shoulders, right side-swept bangs, and blue eyes a shade lighter than her dad. This young girl's name is Elizabeth Shane, the one and only daughter of Will Shane.
She rubs her eyes and gazes at the slug on her windowsill. "Burpy, what are you doing here?" she asks, worried, as Burpy replies with a long, soft coo.
"It's Dad, isn't it?" she looks down at her lap, tears falling down onto her hands and body shaking. Burpy hops on her lap and nudges her hand, making Elizabeth look up and watch the slug hop off her bed and dive underneath her rug beside her bed. Elizabeth wiggles out from underneath her covers and follows the slug and picks up the rug and sets it off to the side. She notices a misplaced floor piece and she slides it to the side as it tucks under the floor. Inside is a white box with the Shane Star engraved on the top and she opens it up which reveals a single folded letter. Elizabeth unfolds it and reads it.
"Dear Elizabeth,
If you're reading this, it means that I have fallen protecting Slugterra. It's one of the many risks of being a Shane, a risk someday you'll face yourself if you decide to follow in my footsteps. A long line of Shanes made the trip down the Slugterra, if you do choose to go remember our deal.-"
Then she finishes the letter aloud as Burpy hops on top of her right shoulder, "Not until I'm seventeen."
(7 Years Later)
Elizabeth stands above the sewer tunnel hatch wearing a gray sweatshirt, black sweatpants, black tennis shoes, and a large dark gray duffel bag over her shoulder along with Burpy. The young woman has just turned 17 years old and just left her uncle's house where they finished celebrating her birthday. She is at a height of 5'7" and makes a lot of boys her age do a double take at her beauty. Her dark gray-blue hair reaches to the middle of her back, her bangs grew longer, her hips grew wider, and her chest bigger as her body became lean and athletic over the years of training.
She kneels on the ground and moves the sewer cover to the side, then she dumps her duffel bag into the hole and jumps in after it. After she lands, Burpy sparks a small flame on his head, illuminating the tunnel as she walks down the tunnel. Elizabeth follows the opened map in hands and stops in front of a wall with the Shane Star symbol engraved on a button. Pressing it causes the door to open to reveal a chair with a raised bar and a button on the right armrest. Elizabeth sits on the chair and pulls down the bar, then leans over the side to look down the pitch-black hole. She flips the button case, revealing an orange button and glances at her best friend sitting upon her right shoulder. "You ready Burpy?" The slug chirps excitedly, ready to head back to his homeland after 7 years.
Elizabeth takes a deep breath in, closes her eyes in anticipation, and presses the button. After a moment's pause, nothing happened as she opened her eyes, confused as to why nothing had happened yet. Then the carriage plummets down as Elizabetht lets out a shout of excitement along with Burpy giving out a cheer.
"This…is…awesome!" Elizabeth shouts over the howling wind and puts up her hands like she would in a roller coaster. "Whoo hoo!" Then all Elizabeth feels is going weightless as the tunnel opens, and a parachute opens with the Shane Star logo and slows down the fall of the chair.
Her head bangs on the back of her seat, causing her to groan and rub the back of her head. She opens her eyes to gaze upon the new world that she has fallen in. "Wow Slugterra. The world beneath our feet, I'm finally here!" As the ground approaches, Elizabeth is practically shaking with excitement, her senses overwhelmed by the new sights, sounds, and smells.
The slugs in the area feel the energy in the surrounding area shift dramatically, a presence that hasn't been around for hundreds of years. This aura was very different from the humans, Molenoids, and Cave Trolls as it was more powerful and had a connection to the land. The slugs look up to see a young woman, features very similar to the previous Shane, in strange attire, and watch as her seat floats down and touches the floor. She unlocks the bar and takes her first steps in Slugterra, unknowingly causing an energy shift within Slugterra and the realm below Slugterra. Elizabeth starts to walk towards the direction of a dome, unaware of how the slugs in the area look at her. The dome is located on top of a giant mushroom tree, painted white and has blue circular windows.
"Ready to check out our new home Burpy?" the young Shane asks to the Infernus slug perched on her shoulder. Elizabeth walks up to the front door, inputs the code given to her by the letter. "Kind of a mess," she says, disgusted by all of the dust and trashed interior. Burpy hops on her shoulder, chirps and waves attracting his partner's attention to the wall where a deep blue box is located on the side of the wall.
She opens up the box to reveal a set of attire. "Time to ditch the Surface clothes Burpy," she says to her slug and grabs the set of clothes. After some time of changing her clothes, Elizabeth is in a black shirt with the color orange on both sides of her hips and the color white on sides of her ribs and underside of her arms, and the shirt has shoulder armor and light armor covering the front and back of her body. She has light gray-blue pants with knee pads, black boots going up to the top of her shin, black fingerless gloves reaching up to her elbow, an orange backpack, and a bandoleer strapped across her chest with the gold Shane Star. Gazing upon her reflection in the mirror, she feels something was off, so she grabs a strip of white silk and a comb. She puts her hair in a high ponytail with the strip of white silk holding it in a bow.
After she was satisfied with her appearance, Elizabeth heads towards the garage for the birthday present left by her father. Inside stands a rusted mini donkey mechabeast as Elizabeth gazes upon it in slight shock and confusion.
"Thanks Dad, but I was expecting something a little cooler or bigger," she puts her hand below the metallic muzzle. Burpy chirps and grabs her attention towards a figure covered in a brown tarp. Very interested, Elizabeth walks up to it and pulls the tarp revealing a white wolf mechabeast with orange highlights and a painted orange and black Shane Star symbol on the left shoulder.
"Aw nice," Elizabeth looks at the model name, "LKE model! How about I call you Lucky because I am lucky to have a mechabeast like you." She fondly glides her hand over the mechabeast and then heads over towards another storage unit on a wall in the garage. She gasps as she gazes inside to see a white blaster with horizontal royal blue stripes. She grabs it, along with putting slug shells on her bandoleer and inside her new backpack, and aims the blaster around.
A noise that sounds of crashing and weird grumbling noises behind a door catches her attention, causing her to place Burpy into the chamber of the blaster and have her finger hover over the trigger. She stalks quietly and opens the door to reveal a small purple bipedal creature in a blue and white striped shirt, red scarf around his neck, dark gray belt with suspenders over the shirt, green pants, and small black boots. The Molenoid stumbles out, grabbing for slugs as they hop away and hid behind Elizabeth's legs. He looks up at the sight of the pair of legs to see a blaster pointed at him by a young woman with dark gray-blue hair and blue eyes.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot," he pleads as he scrambles back.
Elizabeth presses on and narrows her eyes, "Who are you?"
"Who am I?" he exclaims as he scrambles on his feet and points up at Elizabeth, "The question is, who are you?"
"I asked you first and I am the one holding the blaster," she replies with confidence and pushes her blaster closer to the Molenoid. Burpy, inside the blaster, narrows his eyes and growls as a warning.
"Ah, I see you are clever as I am, young lady," the Molenoid says as he gazes upon the young woman, then he bows and rises up quickly, "Pronto! At your service milady, tracker, explorer, and Molenoid of many talents!"
Elizabeth lowers her blaster and takes out to glance at her father's letter. "Hmm, funny Dad never mentioned you."
"Dad?" Pronto questions. Then he notices the shining Shane Star on her bandoleer and her hair and eye color being similar to the missing Will Shane. "Your father is Will Shane!" He exclaims as he looks around the garage to see if there was anyone else around. "Of course I have a perfectly good explanation for this, you see…" He trails off as Elizabeth raises her blaster as a warning and Burpy lights up with fire.
"Alright, I never actually met Will Shane," Pronto confesses, "But if I had, oh ho ho ho, there will be no doubt he would have begged me to be on his team. As should you, what good is a Shane without a tracker to lead her on her adventures." Pronto tries to persuade Elizabeth, adding a wink in and beckoning outside of the garage. Elizabeth gives him a deadpan look and brings out the letter to look over it, "Yeah, well Dad never mentioned needing a tracker either."
"So a dream dies, perhaps we will meet again." Pronto hopeful expression falls instantly as he sighs and walks over to the mini donkey mechabeast, head hanging low. He climbs on the mechabeast, hiding his smirk, "If you ever pass the Low Rock Caves, well maybe the Northern Caverns, or Scorch Sparks."
Elizabeth replies, "You know a tracker may come in handy."
"Yes, yes!" Pronto exclaims in joy and jumps off his mechabeast, shaking Elizabeth's hand with vigor. "Ha ha, you've made a wise choice young Shane!"
She draws her hand back to her side and replies to the Molenoid, "My name is Elizabeth, but some people call me Eli or Liz."
"Hmm, Elizabeth, easy to pronounce. Well you young Elizabeth will not be disappointed," Pronto reassures her.
"Good because if I am going to fight evil and bring harmony to the caverns, our first order of business is to catch me some slugs," Elizabeth glances down at her bandoleer and grabs an empty slug barrel.
"Well as a Shane, you must have an impressive arsenal of slugs. Show them to me!" The Molenoid scurries closer to her, hoping to see what rare slugs a Shane would have. The orange slug that was on her shoulder, hops in her hand as she shows him to Pronto. "Yes, yes you are very nice. Where are the rest?" Pronto dismisses the slug and looks at her shoulders, waiting for more slugs to pop up from her backpack.
"There is no rest but Burpy is awesome," she gazes fondly to her faithful slug as he preens under her attention.
"You only have one slug!" Pronto shouts in shock and groans at their predicament. "Aghh, you need to win some experienced slugs in a battle! And I know just the place." He climbs back onto his mechabeast and starts it up, then walking out of the opened garage door. "It is a small local tournament but the competition should be no problem for a Shane." Then he looks back to see Elizabeth gazing down at her blaster in awe as she stands at the entrance of the garage.
"What's the hold up? We have slugs to win."
"Just one thing I need to do before we head off, I have been waiting my whole life to do this." She lets Burpy hop into the chamber and raises her blaster up into the sky.
"Waiting to do what?" Pronto asks as he glances at her with bewilderment. "Shoot a slug out of a blaster?"
"Yep! Ready Burpy," she asks her slug who replied back with an excited nod. She takes a deep breath in and pulls the trigger, shooting Burpy at 100 miles per hour. Burpy becomes covered in a bright orange aura and transforms into his velocimorph form, doing intricate spins, circles, and flips.
"An Infernus slug," Pronot gasps in amazement at the sight of the extremely rare slug that used to belong to Will Shane.
"Whoo, way to go Burpy!" Elizabeth shouts, catching Burpy's attention who does one last dive and flies back to his slinger, barely missing the top of Pronto's head and spooking him with his extremely hot flames. Burpy reverts back to his protoform and lands onto Elizabeth's shoulder, giving proud chirps. The flames left in the sky, quickly disappeared. Pronto glances back to Elizabeth to see her mounting on her white wolf mechabeast.
"Now how do you start one of these things?" The young woman looks around the mechabeast and Pronto gives her a questioning look.
Then a few minutes later, a flash of white and a smaller flash of brownish-gray whips by the bushes followed with the young Shane shouting in excitement. "Whoo!" She adjusts her seating posture to a better one to hang on while moving at the fast pace. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a group of orange-red and cream colored slugs who in turn gazes upon the girl with curiosity. "A flock of Flaringos, check it out Burpy!" Burpy gives a wave and a greeting chirp as the pair whizzes off, disappearing from the slugs' view.
Then Pronto notices something, "Wait, you give your slugs names?".
"Well yeah, slugs are a part of a slinger's team and family, they deserve names. Don't you?" she asks him. Then a fart noise followed by a nauseous purple gas comes out of one of Pronto's slug shells on his belt. Pronto looks down at the slug and scolds him as the slug laughs back. "Stop that scurrilous beast."
"Guess that's a name," Elizabeth turns back to Burpy with a slight smirk and the slug gives a questioning look.
"My skills in observation are highly remarkable, and it seems that many common things are unfamiliar to you," Pronto looks back behind him to question the young Shane.
"I, umm, grew up in the Shane's most secret hideout, it was really out of the and only the Shanes know about to protect the future generations," Elizabeth thinks up of the lie fast, covering up her true origin as it was one of Shane duties to keep the secret of the Surface.
At least, it seems to convince Pronto as he replies, "Ah yes, or course."
After an hour of riding, the unlikely duo slow down their mechabeasts to a walking pace. Then a scuffle and noises catches Elizabeth's attention to see a blonde teenage boy, about her age, in a green shirt, gray pants, and goggles on his head being held by the collar of his shirt by a giant man in red and gray slinging clothing.
"What's going on Pronto?" she asks her guide while keeping her attention to the scene.
"Avert your eyes and keep moving," Pronto replies as he covers the right side of his face with his then peeks through the fingers to look upon the scuffle.
"That guy looks like he needs some help," Elizabeth says as the burly man shakes the boy, seeming to be threatening him.
"Without a Shane around to keep the peace, the caverns of Slugterra have gotten, what should we say," Pronto ponders for this words, "A little rough around the edges."
Elizabeth looks upon the two men, furious at the situation. "Well there's a Shane around now," she exclaims and turns Lucky around and starts approaching the men.
Pronto doesn't notice as he continues to follow the path, "This is none of our concern, I'm sure you will agree that a wise hero will choose his battle." He is completely unaware of what the female Shame is doing.
The muscular man grumbles to the young man, clearly unimpressed, "This is all you got, boy? Nothing but floppers." Then behind him, he hears the familiar sound of a loaded blaster powering to be shot at him. He notices the boy in his grasp looking at the person behind with an awed look.
"Maybe it's some experienced slugslinger or worse the Shane is back", he thinks, mentally preparing himself for a tough fight ahead.
"You need to go," a female voice says behind him, causing the man to turn his head to prepare to face his opponent.
"Heh, I got claim to this trail unless you're Will Shane, you better keep on moving," he threatens then turns his body around and his eyes widen as he looks at the beautiful young woman. She has long, shiny dark blue-gray hair that was put up into a ponytail, a heart-shaped face with a nice tan, piercing blue eyes, and has a slim, toned body.
His attention turns to her blaster as she moves it a little closer to his chest. Elizabeth glares at him, "That would be my dad, I'm picking up where he left off."
"Ha ha ha," he laughs mockingly, "Is that a fact?" Elizabeth narrows her eyes, giving him an icy glare. He continues to look at her and he does have to admit that she looks pretty similar to Will Shane as she has the same hair color, eye color, and the outfit has the similar color palette that is particularly worn by the Shanes. "A Shane is someone to be afraid of, you're just a little girl."
"But I am the girl holding the blaster," she closed one eye, "You're really willing to try me?"
The man raises his elbow and shoves Elizabeth right in her gut causing the young Shane to land roughly on the ground and sits up while holding her stomach and groaning, and her blaster falls at her feet. "Guess that's a yes," her eyes widened at the sight of the man standing over her, holding a blaster to her face with a Hop Rock slug loaded in.
"Maybe we can work this out," he gave a sly grin which gave Elizabeth chills, "We both forget what happened and you come with me on a date?"
Elizabeth sneers in disgust, "Never!" Then a purple spider-like slug transforms, an Arachent slug, and shoots out a web and traps the man in a net of webbing. Elizabeth uses the distraction to scramble up to her feet and grabs her blaster. "Thanks Pronto," she says as she gazes down at the trapped man.
Then a mysterious male voice speaks up behind her, "Who's Pronto?" Elizabeth whips around to see a skinny, slender young man, the same age as her, at a stature of 5'6" with red short, spiky hair, forest-green eyes, and has a peach complexion. He wears a short green shirt on top of a black undershirt, light armor on her shoulders, light gray pants with a black band around her left thigh, small black knee pads, black ankle-length boots, and black fingerless gloves that end at his wrist.
He puts his blaster in its holder at the back of his waist. "And you're welcome, you know that this road is filled with guys like him. You should be more careful," the redhead races away with his dark purple saber-toothed cat mechabeast.
"Wait, who are you?" Elizabeth tries to ask but he disappears after going around a corner. "I didn't get to thank him," she mumbles as Burpy hops back onto her shoulder.
"There you are!" Pronto cries out from behind her as he walks towards her while on his mechabeast and he notices the trapped man beside her. "Already dispensing the justice I see."
Elizabeth turns around to see the man cutting out of the web and standing up on his feet. "Stay off this trail," she threatens him once more as she glares up at him because of his higher height.
"Heh, gonna need a whole lot more than a blaster and a Molenoid to be a Shane, little girl," he turners around and starts to walk away until he pauses and winks at Elizabeth, "But the name's Ivan, come find me if you want to get together sometime." Elizabeth scoffs and turns around in a huff and walks back to her mechabeast while looking down at her blaster.
"If people are just going to see a little girl, then I MUST prove myself," she thinks as she climbs back on Lucky.
"I thought a Shane is supposed to mean something," she grumbles as she and Pronto walk back onto the trail, "That guy thought I was a joke."
"If respect is what you want, then you must earn it in the field of battle, just like Pronto the Brave," the Molenoid boasts. Elizabeth glances at the ground, deep into thinking and reminiscing of her first standoff.
They continue to walk in silence for another half hour, until the trail opens up to a plain that is filled with people and mechabeasts along with the sounds of slugs being fired. Elizabeth looks around with interest at the new sights and follows Pronto to park her mechabeast besides his. The two of them start to walk towards a booth with Pronto taking the lead.
"If you win this tournament, people will know that a Shane has returned to fight for justice and protect the innocent," he exclaims, puffing his chest with pride.
Elizabeth looks down at him with worry and lightly bumps into someone, "And if I don't win?"
"Chaos will continue to rule and you will forever be branded as a hopeless fool," they arrive at the booth and Elizabeth leans down to write her name on a sheet as he continues to talk to her, "Of course this will never happen, you got this tournament in the bag."
As she was writing, one of the officials notices the beautiful young woman writing down her name and walks over and tries to put on a dashing smile but all he got in return was a nervous grin from Elizabeth. He grabs the clipboard and reads her name.
"Shane? Hey check this out, this girl thinks she's a Shane," he calls out to some of the male participants behind him. They all jeer at her and chuckle while making jokes even though they all were admiring her stunning looks. The official turns at her and says, "Alright you got the last spot for the qualifier, good luck you are going to need it." He walks away, leaving Elizabeth confused about his words.
"Qualifier?" she turns to Pronto who replies with a confident tone.
"Just one little duel to get you into the tournament, nothing to worry about."
"Okay, cool, it will be finally nice to get to duel someone," she says eagerly and looks around the crowd.
"Wha-what yo-," Pronto shouts, baffled, until he stops himself as his eyes glance around him. He runs up to Elizabeth and pulls her away and whispers urgently, "You never been in a duel but you are a Shane!"
Elizabeth slightly panics until she comes up with a lie as she whispers back, "It's, ahhh, kind of a long story. I don't think we should share it with the other duelers, do we?"
"No, of course not," Pronto scoffs and looks around, "I need to find you a sparring partner right away, I'll be back." He sprints off in a direction, leaving Elizabeth alone to wander around and check out her competition.
"Excuse me, you're in my shot."
Elizabeth turns to the voice to see the red-haired boy holding a video camera who she encountered while on the trail. Elizabeth gives a light gasp, "Oh hey it's you!" She walks up to the young man, "You know for…"
"What? Saving your butt? It will be our little secret," he whispers as he looks back into his camera and resumes recording the slingers practicing.
"I owe you, I'm Elizabeth but you can call me Eli or Liz if you want," she replies as she turns her attention to the slingers he was recording.
"I'm Tricks, you told that guy you were a Shane. Is that true?" he glances at the blue-haired girl out of the corner of his eye.
Elizabeth turns back to face him and gives him a kind smile, "Yep, I'm just here to win a few slugs before I go and fight crime and stuff." Her attention drifts to his camera, "What's with the camera?"
Tricks moves his camera left and right, capturing multiple scenes, "I'm filming my competition, looking for anything that might give me an edge, you know." Then a slug firing and someone shouting in pain catches their attention to two men dueling each other. A very muscular man standing at the height of 6 '3 with bright blonde hair shoots an orange slug with a yellow belly and horns, a Tormato slug. The slug transforms and starts to create a twister as it sucks in the opposing slinger and makes him fly off in a random direction. Elizabeth and Tricks glance at the victorious slinger who was performing an unusual dance as he gloats over his victory.
"Who is that guy?" Elizabeth is confused by the man.
"John Bull, he's the one to beat if you plan on winning this thing," Tricks shows Elizabeth some footage on his camera of John Bull's duels and skills. "Haven't found a weakness yet, except for the fact he's a total jerk."
"Uhh, shouldn't you be in there practicing?" Tricks turns his attention to Elizabeth and questions her.
She rubs the back of her head and chuckles awkwardly, "Yeah, my friend is getting someone easy to spar with unless you're interested."
"And give away my tricks, not thanks. I rather film you and learn yours," then Tricks stops mid-sentence as he spotted something or rather someone approaching the two. "Besides, I think your friend already found someone." Tricks backs up nervously while Elizabeth stares with her mouth open and Burpy dives into a slug shell to hide.
Pronto struts up to the Shane, "Elizabeth Shane, meet Kord Zane! What do you think?"
Behind him stands a Cave Troll who stands at a height of 6 '11 with a blue complexion, dark blue tattoos on his shoulders and upper arms, and a heavily muscular build. He wears a white undershirt, covered by a black sleeveless vest, black pants, black boots with a steel tip on each boot, black fingerless gloves with orange covering the back of his hands and reach past his wrists, heavy steel plating covering the back of his forearms, and a black helmet with orange paint covering the top and a curved horn located at the front of the helmet.
Elizabeth is shocked by his stature and looming height and glares at the Molenoid, "I think this will be extremely painful."
Kord points at the smaller woman and glares at the Molenoid as well, "You told me that I will be dueling a Shane, this is just a kid."
"And you're a Cave Troll!" Elizabeth exclaims as her eyes widen in awe as she looks at Kord.
Kord gives a heavy sigh and sags his shoulders, "Let me guess, you don't want to spar with me either."
"Are you kidding, I've always wanted to meet a Cavetroll," she practically squeals, "You'll never find someone more loyal, honest, and brave than a Cavetroll, that's what my Dad always used to say."
Pronto scoffs and crosses his arms in a huff, "Hmm, clearly he spent little time around Molenoids."
"Will Shane said that? Aww come here you!" The Cave Troll grabs Elizabeth and brings her into a literal back-breaking hug.
So I take this that we're going to duel," she manages to gasp out as he carries her to an open area. Kord sets her down and brings out a big barrel that was holding slug shells filled with slugs. He then twists the top handle, causing the slug shells to pop out.
"Take your pick," Kord gestures to the numerous slugs moving around lazily, which have a yellow body and green spots over both eyes and on its belly.
"Floppers, huh great!" Elizabeth says.
"No, nott great, Floppers are useless," Pronto argues. Elizabeth ignores him and kneels down, then all the Floppers notice her and all of the slugs try to hop on her arm. Some were even fighting for space, causing Elizabeth to lightly giggle at their antics. "Woah everyone, calm down!" Elizabeth looks at Pronto, "Besides Pronto every slug is useful, even Floppers." She chooses four Floppers and places them into the empty slug shells on her bandoleer, then walks away from Kord until there is a good distance between them.
"So what do you know about dueling," Kord asks as he places himself opposite of her.
"What's to know," she shrugs, "First you choose your slug, then you sling it. When a slug reaches 100 miles per hour, it transforms. Keep at it until your opponent gives up." Elizabeth places a Flopper into her blaster and looks at Kord. "My Dad must have explained it to me at least 100 times."
"Yeah well, explaining is not dueling. In this competition you win you get to pick a slug from your opponent, that means if you lose any match even in the qualifier," Kord warns as he looks at the Infernus slug on her bandoleer.
Elizabeth glances down at her best friend with a frown, "I could lose Burpy."
"Are you really willing to put it all on the line," he asks, waiting for her answer.
The Shane glances back up at him with a determined look, "I don't really have a choice, do I?"
"Nope." Kord shouts then aims his blaster with teal-colored slug with a dark blue back with three dots located on the forehead, a Phosphoro slug, and then transforms with multiple tentacles, giving the slug a star-shaped body, a single antenna similar to an angler fish's lure, and a distinct lower jaw. The Phosphoro creates bright flashes of colors around Elizabeth causing her to gasp and duck away from the extreme light. Tricks laughs at her reaction while Pronto slaps his hand on his face and shakes his head in disappointment.
Elizabeth rises from her crouched stats and brushes top, "Not fair, wasn't ready!"
"That's the point, you always have to be ready," Kord chuckles then fires another slug, "Duel!" A Tormato slug transforms and creates a small tornado and shoots it at Elizabeth which makes her spin and mess up her hair.
"Stand sideways! You will be harder to hit that way," Tricks calls out some advice to her as Elizabeth uses her left hand to smooth her hair to its natural style.
Elizabeth looks at Tricks and retorts, "You do realize that you're helping the competition."
"Hmm, that's cute, she thinks she's competition," the redhead smirks and lightly chuckles under his breath.
Kord once more shouts, "Duel!" But this time, Elizabeth was ready as both of them fired slugs at the same time. However Elizabeth's slug misses as Kord ducks his head and he fires a bubble-pink slug with a cyan belly, the slug is called a Bubbaleone, and transforms with a giant bubble-like body that is semi-transparent. The Bubbaleone body slams into Elizabeth, launching her upwards and causing her to bounce on its bouncy body.
"Heh, heh, heh not bad kid!" Kord chuckles as the slug reverts back into its protoform and Elizabeth falls to ground and lands on her butt harshly. Pronto sighs in disappointment at the young Shane's performance so far. She rises back onto her feet and both opponents fire at each other in unison. Kord lifts his arm to avoid the slug and Elizabeth rolls to her right and lands in a kneeling position, dodging a Jellyish slug as it sends a shot of goo at her.
"Don't target your opponent every time," Kord instructs as he loads another slug into his blaster, "Try moves that mess around them."
"Huh, like this!" She lays down on her left side, aiming a Flopper at Kord's feet and the slug releases a green gas to cover over the Cave Troll.
"Now that's what I'm talking about," he praises the girl while shielding his face and waves off the gas. The gas vanishes and reveals Elizabeth to disappear from their view, causing each one of them to look around for her. Then a gloved hand pats Kord's shoulder causing him to turn around to see Elizabeth standing behind him with a smirk.
Pronto jumps and cheers, "Yeah that's the Eli Shane I know, or you know, just recently met!"
Kord places a giant hand on her shoulder, "Clever move." Then a chirp at Elizabeth's feet catches their attention, Kord runs away at the sight of the dark purpled slug with lighter purple marks over the top of its head and back and light blue-gray belly and face. The Flatulohinkus twitches and emits a foul-smelling purple gas. "And so is my time to deflate my Flatulorhinkus," Kord notes.
Pronto pulls Elizabeth to the side to sit on some crates and starts to fan her to help get rid of the smell.
"How is it that you have never been in a duel?" Tricks asks the Shane as she stands up to face him and Kord.
"I made my Dad a promise that I wouldn't take up slinging until I turn seventeen," Elizabeth explains as she lazily spins her blaster in her hand.
"Let me guess, happy birthday?" Tricks gestures to her.
Elizabeth replies and sets her blaster back on her belt, "It was yesterday."
Kord turns his gaze to the young woman with a warm smile, "I've got a good feeling about you Elizabeth. Well you may not have a lot of skill, you have plenty of heart."
"So you guys think I'm ready," Elizabeth asks everyone.
"Definitely," Kord replies.
"Maybe," Tricks gives his answer.
"Hmm, no." Pronto ponders and says, causing Elizabeth to look at the ground with a concentrated look.
Kord puts a burly arm around her slim shoulder and reassures her, "You're gonna do fine, in fact I feel sorry for whatever noob you're up against." Then they hear maniacal laughter from a man with spiky, bright yellow hair who was firing Tazerling slugs, a small medium blue slug with lighter blue belly, three yellow spots at the bottom of its torso, and yellow lightning bolts above its brown eyes in an eyebrow scheme. The slugs destroyed their targets with lightning bolts coming out of their moves or colliding with the targets and releasing a burst of lightning.
"Uhh, remember what I said before feeling sorry for the other guy, I totally take it back. You're going up against Shockwire," Kord says nervously.
Said man grabs another Tazerling slug and loads it in and starts to spin his blaster around him like a baton.
The official who was at the booth passes by Elizabeth with a mocking smirk, "Still not too late to quit while you're alive, Shane."
"He's gonna demolish you," Kord says in a nervous tone.
"Aww, come on guys, he doesn't look that tough," she gestures to her first official opponent who keeps on practicing on the targets. "What do you think, Burpy?" The Infurnus lets out a raspberry and uses his little arm to dismiss the man.
Tricks uses his camera to zoom in on Shockwire, "All he uses are Tazerlings and from what I can tell, he is sort of a one trick pony." Shockwire fires a powerful Tazerling and causes the target to explode by a giant lightning strike.
"Heh some trick," Kord looks at Tricks with a deadpan look.
Elizabeth pips up, catching their attention once more, "I have a few tricks of my own you know!"
"You do?" Kord, Tricks, and Pronto all reply with varying levels of doubt, confusion, and excitement.
"Umm, sure," Elizabeth glances at Burpy on her shoulder and whispers, "You know some tricks right?" Burpy looks surprised at her request then gives a disappointed look at his slinger.
Elizabeth turns back to the group, "Look I'll be fine." Then turns to loud booms and bangs that are being caused by Shockwire, "Wow, he is really destroying those targets!"
"You know Tazerling are tough little slugs but sometimes they will misfire if they get overworked," Tricks catches her attention with the information.
A sly grin appears on her face and is formulating a plan as she observes the transforming Tazerlings, "You don't say."
Shockwire overhears their conversation and approaches Elizabeth and as approaches him, a crowd starts to form around them. They both come to a stop when they are about two feet apart. "They tell me you're a S-S-Shane," he says with a light stutter when he pronounces the 's'.
Elizabeth lifts her gaze to make eye contact and straightens her back, "That's right."
Shockwire looks down at her, observing her smaller stature and points at her bandoleer, taking note of the slugs she has. He scoffs, "Heh, you're just a girl and all you got is a bunch of Floppers and a Flaringo."
Elizabeth looks down at her slugs to see a couple of Floppers dozing off and Burpy giving Shockwire the stink eye and looks back up at his slinger, waiting for her response. Elizabeth gives Burpy a fond look, "Yep."
Then Shockwire leans closer towards her, breaking her attention away from her slug and covering her bandoleer with her hand. "You crazy, dumb, or both?" Shockwire says as he breaks away from her.
"Are there any other options?" Elizabeth jokes as she leans back with fake confidence.
Shockwire displays a confident grin towards her and starts to head at their battle area. A few minutes later, they meet up again at a canyon with a lava river dividing it down the middle and multiple protruding ledges and bridges from both sides of the canyon, creating multiple layers to jump down and stand on. The two contenders walk down a set of small stairs to stop at the opposite sides of a bridge that goes across the canyon. As Shockwire walks down his own steps, he receives a loud cheer from his fans that were on the ledge above the stairs. Then Elizabeth walks down her own steps and looks up at the ledge above her to see a thumbs-up from Pronto, Tricks bringing out his camera and pointing it towards her, and Kord giving an encouraging nod.
Elizabeth faces her opponent in a slightly crouched position, hand hovering her blaster that was attached onto the right side of her belt, then Shockwire displays a similar stance. From a ledge above them, the male officiator brings down his hand and yells, "Duel!"
In a fast motion aided by her newly found sharp reflexes, Elizabeth fires her slug first but she only shoots a Flopper, a slug that doesn't have a velocimorph transformation, so the slug crashes harmlessly against Shockwire's chest. Shockwire watches the slug slide off his chest and looks back up at Elizabeth, shooting a triumphant grin. Kord, Tricks, and Pronto gasps in worry while Elizabeth gives a nervous grin. Shockwire shoots a Tazerling that fires a lightning blast from its mouth causing Elizabeth to dodge it by jumping down off of her platform shown onto a bridge below her. She lands a bit rough on her knees and gets up sprinting to create some distance between them.
Frustrated, Shockwire jumps down onto the same bridge and chases after the Shane. Elizabeth hears another Tazerling being fired behind her and a lightning blast coming at her and she jumps down towards another bridge, dodging the blast. She looks up at Shockwire and loads another Flopper in her blaster, then she hears Burpy in her bandoleer giving angry chirps.
She looks down at her slug, "Not yet Burpy, you'll get your chance." She hears Shockwire give a small laugh and Elizabeth quickly spins around and fires the slug but misses. Then he fires another Tazerling at her feet but the Shane sprints off to the side, successfully dodging again. This causes Shockwire frustration and fires another Tazerling and Elizabeth dodges once more by rolling to the side, but she loses her balance in the roll and starts to roll off the bridge as she tries to stop herself by trying to grab at the ground. She stops herself by grabbing the edge and looks below her and finds herself dangling right over the river of lava. Shockwire grabs an exhausted Tazerling he just fired and places it into his blaster and walks towards Elizabeth.
As he aims at her, Elizabeth mumbles underneath her breath, "Do it." As soon as he fires, the girl lets go of the edge that she is hanging off of and lands on an edge below her. She looks back up above her and does a low backflip, dodging another Tazerling, Elizabeth fires another Flopper, and runs off causing another Tazerling to miss.
"Man, why isn't she using her Infernus," Kord says as he observes her running farther away from Shockwire. He then yells down at her, "Elizabeth, you're never going to win using Floppers!"
Tricks intervenes as he is holding his camera, "Wait, I think I know what she is doing."
Elizabeth finds herself landing on a rock that are partially submerged in the lava, and with her amazing sense of balance and speed, she hops from one rock to another, dodging even more Tazerlings. She climbs up a rock and looks behind her to see Shockwire aiming another slug at her. "Ha, ha, ha, you're in for a shock kid," Shockwire mocks.
Burpy, now loaded in Elizabeth's blaster, looks at her and Elizabeth replies, "Just a little longer, Burpy."
Then in that moment, a Tazerling lets out a load of electricity through Shockwire, causing him to yell out in pain and to aim his blaster away from her. Elizabeth smirks at her plan finally working.
"She was waiting for one of the Tazerlings to misfire," Tricks says as he observes.
In her blaster, Burpy gives a confirming nod at Elizabeth. "Okay Burpy, now!" she exclaims as she spins her blaster, jumps off the rock formation, and fires Burpy at Shockwire. The Infernus transforms and flies at Shockwire at blazing speed with an excited expression. He quickly circles around Shockwire, trapping him in a small dome of fire around the slinger.
Shockwire gasps from pain as the fire licks at his skin and pleas out, "Call it off! I quit, you win!" This shocks the entire crowd, including the official and Elizabeth's new friends. Burpy overhears the forfeit and heads back to his slinger who catches him with her hand, and spins her blaster victoriously.
"Winner! Elizabeth Shane is the winner!" the official shouts above the cheers of the crowd. Elizabeth climbs up to the original platform, where she started, and as she's resting on her knees, she looks at Burpy on her left shoulder with a big smile. "Burpy, we did it!" The Shane gives Burpy an exhausted thumbs up and her slug gives an excited chirp as a response.
Then in a swift motion, Kord swoops down and traps the girl underneath his arm and starts to mess with her hair, and Tricks and Pronto cheering and raising their hands in excitement. The official from the booth climbs down the stairs and gives out a whoop of excitement, "Guess you really are a Shane!" He beckons at Shockwire, clipboard in hand, "Shockwire, come here and pay up."
Shockwire walks up and brings out his three slug shells, each one holding a Tazerling and with a grumble, "Yeah, yeah, take your pick."
Kord lets go Elizabeth and wraps his hands around her shoulders, "Ooh, he got some good ones Elizabeth." Elizabeth starts her approach but Kord holds her back and says, clearly excited, "Hey, let's think about this."
The young woman looks up at Kord and walks out from his grasp, "No Kord, I've got a better idea." She approaches Shockwire and leans down to be at eye-level with the Tazerlings and Burpy in hand. "Which one of you guys want to come with me? I'm a Shane you know, so after this competition is over, you got to be up for a life of adventure." The Tazerlings look at her and at each other, pondering about her offer.
"You're asking the slugs? Nobody asks the slugs!" Pronto shouts out behind her, flabbergasted. Then the Tazerling in the middle slug shell hops out and lands in her hand, then Elizabeth strokes the Tazerling's head with her thumb.
"Welcome to the team little guy! How do you like the name Joules?" The slug gives a happy hop and chirp, clapping his arms, and letting a small shock between his antennas. She giggles at his response and holds up Burpy, who was on her other hand, "This is Burpy." Burpy and Joules share a handshake but Joules lets out a small shock, electrocuting Burpy in a playful way.
"You're a natural," Kord says and gives her a shaka gesture with his hand, "But now that you're in the competition…"
"Don't think we're doing you any favors," Tricks finishes the sentence and crosses his arms, "We're all in this to win."
"Well you better get a move on," the official points out, "Round one starts tonight in Scorch Sparks Cavern and you will be fighting them." He points to the group of qualified slingers, all tall, burly men who are paying attention to the new Shane.
Kord, Pronto, and Tricks give small gasps and look at each other and Elizabeth with nervousness and uncertainty. However Elizabeth gives an excited grin back, she knows that Slugterra is the place where she truly belongs.
Then in a cavern across Slugterra, with black rock adorning the ground and walls with glowing green rivers and little vegetation, stands a tall oval-like building with a bright red window at the front and top of the building. Within the building, an older Dr. Thaddius Blakk is operating a machine that is holding giant vats of blood-red liquid. A tall and muscular man with short ginger hair and sideburns, light olive skin, brown eyes, and black clothing walks towards Dr. Blakk while holding some sort of small screen.
"Dr. Blakk, you need to see this, it's footage from a slug slinging match way out in Herring Bone Cavern," the man taps away at the tablet.
Dr. Blakk, now having more wrinkles, turns around with a sneer, "Why would something like that be of any interest to me?"
Turning around the tablet, it shows a closeup video of Elizabeth winning over Shockwire and holding Burpy in hand. "Because this one says her name is Elizabeth Shane. Think she's any relation?"
Blakk takes the tablet and examines the video of the girl, taking note of the Infernus and her similarity to Will Shane, the same hair and eye color. "Well if she is, we have ways of dealing with Shanes, quite a few of them actually." He gives a cruel grin and gestures behind the man towards the numerous giant containers holding mass amounts of slugs that are similar to the one that banished Will Shane, each one giving off loud, shrill shrieks and chirps.
Updates will not be consistent but I will try my best to update whenever I have free time. I'm thinking of alternating between rewriting old chapters and uploading new ones. So the next update would be the episode "Mario Bravado"!
See you guys next time
-Tahitiseabreeze