Chapter 2: Leaving the Hidden Cavern

"Make sure you guys get comfortable," I told my slugs before I started toward my first destination, my house, at a well-paced jog that would be faster that a walk, but wouldn't tire me out as much as running.

"Which way from here?" Speedy asked me when we reached a point where three caverns met.

I looked at my map, then pointed toward the one on the left, which looked to be almost a desert.

"Jake!" I heard several slugs say by my feet halfway through the cavern.

I looked down, and saw Scorch, my Forgesmelter; Trench, my Diggrix; Gale, my Tormato; and Blaster, my Blastipede. "Hey, guys!" I replied, lowering my hands so that they could jump onto them. "How've you been?"

Scorch shrugged. "Not bad. There are a few families nearby that make sure we're properly fed, so there's nothing to complain about on this end. You?" he replied.

I smiled. "Eh, not too bad. Names and faces are coming back,but not as many as I'd like," I replied as they jumped into my backpack, which was just like my old one with the extra room for slugs, but was biger so that it could hold my supplies.

We continued to talk as I walked out of the cavern, although I drank my entire water bottle during our time there, so I refilled it by a river after we left the cavern before I continued.

By the time it was time to bed, I had passed through three of the fifteen caverns between me and my memories, so I set up the small tent I had, placed a sleeping bag in it, and quickly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, only to be woken by Speedy shouting into my ear.

"WAKE UP!" Speedy screamed on my forehead in an effort to wake me up.

I bolted upright, launching him across the tent as I looked around. "Oh, okay," I muttered before I noticed Speedy lying on the ground. "You okay there, Speedy?" I asked him.

He nodded as he hopped up. "Yeah, fine. Now, let's go!" he told me.

I nodded and ate a bit of my rations, giving my slugs some slug food before we left.

Over the next day, I found numerous more slugs, totaling over half of my full arsenal by the time I passed into the cavern that the Hideout was in, late at night. Earlier that day, though, I had to cross a major roadway, although I was fortunate enough that nobody was there.

Emma's POV...

After about six months of constant searching, I'm ashamed to say that we gave up. We stopped almost all efforts to find Jake and started helping the Shane Gang whenever we could, although we welcomed any information about his whereabouts.

About a year after he disappeared, we were on a trip to another cavern to do some shopping when Luke froze in the middle of the road.

"What's wrong, Luke?" Mark asked him as I looked around for any signs of danger.

"That trail..." he whispered to himself before we understood.

"Follow it," the command came from Karina Shane, who had been with us. "We will follow it, but we mustn't scare him in case there's been a reason for him disappearing."

We nodded and Luke led, our Mechas creeping through the underbrush as we left the cavern and returned to a spot not far from the Hideout.

"If he's in the Hideout, we'll need someone fast enough to not be noticed," Karina said, turning to me.

I nodded as my eyes started to glow. "Leave it to me," I told her before I jumped off my Mecha and started running to the Hideout. There weren't any lights on, but I went in through the front door and silently made my way to Jake's room, where I sensed a presence. I drew my dagger and slowly approached the open door, where I also drew my blaster and loaded it with an Armashelt, slowly charging it.

The intruder must've heard it, though, because he spun around, swords pointed at me until we recognized each other, dropping our weapons.

"J-Jake?" I whispered. "Is that really you?"

Jake's POV...

"J-Jake?" the love of my life whispered. "Is that really you?"

I nodded slowly before we dove at each other, holding each other in a warm embrace for several minutes before we separated.

"W-What's happened to you?" she whispered, noticing the extra weight in muscle I had gained. "You look...stronger."

I nodded and smiled, cupping her cheek with my hand. "I've trained quite a bit since the explosion," I told her.

Her eyes filled with confusion as she backed away slightly. "Where have you been this entire time?" she asked me.

I hesitated, thinking of how to word my following phrase. "I was...training, and..." I sighed, "regaining my memories."

Her confusion increased. "What? What happened to your memories?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "The explosion caused amnesia," I explained. "I've been slowly regaining my memories, but there are still a lot of things I don't remember, like my father's name, my classmates, and what Luke and Mark look like," I added solemnly. "Over the year, Doc was surprised that I've been able to recover so much."

She nodded as she comprehended it. "Why have you been hiding, though?" she asked me.

"The slugs keeping me safe wanted to make sure I didn't see people I didn't recognize in case it created any problems," I told her. "I'm currently on my way to find a person that can recover the rest of my memories."

She nodded again and hugged me. "I'm just relieved that you're alive," she added, not releasing me for over ten minutes, but I didn't mind in the slightest.

"How did you know I would be here?" I asked Emma after a while.

She looked up at me. "Luke found your trail, so we followed at a distance. When we stopped for the night, we figured that you would stop by at the Hideout, but didn't want to scare you away, so they sent me as a scout," she explained.

I nodded as I understood it. "Well, you found me," I told her before I kissed her on the cheek. She turned at the last second, though, so that I kissed her full on the lips for a minute.

"Yes, I did," she told me, moving even closer to me. She lost her balance, though, falling into me. I wasn't expecting it, so we both fell backward onto the bed.

"S-s-sorry," she muttered, her face turning redder than a Rammstone.

I chuckled, holding her close to me. "I don't mind," I whispered in her ear. She smiled and curled up on my chest, laying her head next to mine.

I smiled and adjusted ourselves so that we were completely on the bed before we fell asleep like that. I had already removed my backpack, so my slugs were already sleeping in the slug beds on the walls around me.

When I woke up the next morning, I had forgotten about the previous night, but was quickly reminded by the sleeping beauty next to me, lightly snoring.

"Good morning, beautiful," I whispered toward her as she opened her eyes.

She smiled before the previous night dawned on her. "Jake!" she screamed, throwing her eyes around me. "Just wait until the others find out about you!"

I froze, removing her arms from around me. "Nobody can know," I told her. "I need to complete this on my own, or else the person I need to find might not welcome a large group of powerful teenagers arriving at her front door."

She paused, hesitant to leave me, but nodded, giving me a small pin. "Press the small button on the side, and I'll be by your side in seconds," she told me, attaching it to my shirt.

I nodded and kissed her once more before I grabbed my things and put my bag on my bag, my slugs already in it. "I need you to do your best to keep them as far from me as possible, Emma," I told her.

She nodded before she took off for the main group as I grabbed a bagel to eat before I went to the garage, where Stryder was parked, still spotless after a year.

"Ah, I missed you," I stated, jumping onto Stryder's back and pulling on the helmet. I started his engine and launched myself out of the open garage, weaving between trees as I continued on my path.

Once I was out of the cavern, I transformed it into sport bike mode, tripling my speed so that I flew by numerous people. I even thought that I saw Leo with his friends hanging by a popular teen hangout, and he shouted my name before I turned a corner and left him behind.

As I continued for the rest of the day, I crossed the rest of the caverns, much to our surprise, and gathered the rest of my slugs before I arrived at the edge of the final cavern, where Quora lives.

"Let's rest for the rest of the day so that we'll be completely prepared for tomorrow," I told my slugs as I shut down Stryder and set up a sleeping bag, set so that my back would be to Stryder's side.

"I wonder what Quora's son will be like," Yang commented.

I looked over to him. "Oh, yeah, I forgot that you knew her," I muttered. "What's Quora like?"

He shrugged. "She was kinda like Elina, but a bit more shy at times," he replied. "It's been a long time, though, so she may have changed since then."

I nodded and adjusted my position before I fell asleep, impatient for my confrontation with Quora's son, Qai.

When I woke up the next morning, I ate a few rations and made sure to stretch well before I left Stryder outside the cavern entrance and slowly walked in so as to not scare anybody. Quora must have sensed me, though, because the sound of a blaster charging appeared next to my head.

A/N: Hello, readers! Sorry it took me so long to update, but I pushed myself to complete another chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own SlugTerra, only my story and characters.

Elina, Quora, and Qai belong to JackieWinters, thanks Jackie!

Leo Shane belongs to Create-Gunner1209, thanks dude!