Chapter 6: Slug Point Academy
"Hey, Jake! It's good to have you back, dude," he told me. "So, Karina sent you to help me? Awesome, you take half the class," he added, so half the kids split off and followed me. They all seemed to have been in the class higher than me in SlugTerra University.
"Why are you teaching us?" one of them asked me. "You were an underclassmen."
"I'm a Shane, and I'm doing what I need to," I said simply before I talked them through the basics of a trickshot. Elina had somehow gotten a bunch of slugs to help us out, so there were Speedstingers all around us, waiting to help.
"Elina, you rock," I whispered before turning to everybody. "Alright, now you try," I told them, pointing to a tree hidden behind another. "Hit that tree using a ricochet shot," I said, so they loaded Speedstingers, took aim, and fired. A couple missed, but most of them would bounce off one tree and hit the required one, leaving small marks.
"Nice job," I said. "To make sure your shot hits every time, though, you need to envision the entire shot and how it will play out. Next, the most important part of a trick shot is confidence," I continued. "If you are completely certain that it'll work, your odds of success will skyrocket. The opposite is true as well. If you don't think it'll work, you'll pay less attention to the details and almost certainly miss the shot. Now, again," I said, so they picked up slugs and began firing. All of them bounced off at least one tree, a couple bouncing back and forth among trees surrounding the main tree before finally shooting out and hitting the tree.
"Great job!" I told them before teaching them more and more about different types of trickshots, like how they can be used with various slugs.
"The next one I'll show you is primarily used for combat, and I only call it a trick shot because it tricks your opponent," I told them, loading my Armashelt. I took careful aim at a tree, then fired. The slug went flying past the tree, not even touching it, so a few laughed until the slug used its Bruise Missile attack to turn around and strike the tree from behind. "Like I said, there is a trick shot for every situation," I said, repeating something I had told them earlier. "You're welcome to try me, if you wish," I added, so they began throwing out scenarios. One of which was a hostage situation. I told them to act it out, so one of them drew a blaster, stood directly behind someone else, and put a blaster to the other person's head.
I chuckled, loading a Flopper. "Let's do this," I told him before firing. I had loaded him with enough power that, even though he couldn't velocimorph, he hit the slug tube in the guy's blaster, his sheer momentum enough to knock out the tube, hitting the guy in the face with it. It was a Flatulorhinkus, so it farted in surprise, surrounding us with a horrible stench until I fired my Tormato, Gale, to get rid of it.
"You guys have done well today," I told them at the end of the day. "We'll work on this more tomorrow.
They nodded before leaving for their homes.
"Well, today's been…fun," I muttered as I walked inside the Hideout and sat down at a large table, where Mario had set out several pizzas for us.
"You're not the only one," Luke told me, wiping some grease off his face. "Oh, and your Mecha's been upgraded now."
"Thanks, Luke," I replied before picking up a slice of pizza. "So, since we're teachers and stuff, does that mean we've, like, graduated SU or something?" I asked Mom.
She nodded. "I talked it over with Tobias, the head of the University, and he said that, because of your actions, you have earned your graduation," she explained, triggering a memory. I couldn't quite remember what I was trying to remember, though, most likely because of how old the memory was. I just shook it off and continued eating.
Over the next few days, things continued just like this, except for occasionally goofing around, at least until the Darkbane made their first move.
The day started off normal, and I was just beginning to teach trickshots to a new group when my Holo-Glasses let out a high beep, alerting me to a distress signal.
"I'll be right back," I told the group before I took off running for the Hideout, where the others were beginning to gather.
"The alert originated from Gateway Cavern," Mark told us. His job also covered mission briefings and technical support, along with Vinyl. "A few weeks ago, Vinyl and I sent out ninety-eight sensors, one to every cavern except the Darkbane's, a.k.a. Dark Cavern. They were rigged to send out an alert if they pick up traces of the energy from Dark Cavern. The one in Gateway just sensed some and sent us video. Apparently, there is black smoke filling the cavern at an alarming rate. You have roughly two hours to get there, defeat any Darkbane you see, and set up a barrier to prevent ASE from entering again."
"'ASE'?" I asked him.
"It's short for Anti-Slug Energy, the stuff that ghouls and Darkbane send out," Vinyl explained before we geared up and jumped on our Mechas. Stryder had been given a new paint job, black with streaks of bright blue, his power was increased, and was given a few extra gizmos for the future.
"How far away is Gateway?" Luke called out as we left the cavern.
"About thirty minutes at full speed!" Mom replied. "Leo, contact the Shadow Clan and have them meet us there," she added.
"Got it!" Leo replied before we went completely silent so that we wouldn't be detected.
"Five minutes," I said into a communicator when we were about five minutes away.
"Thanks," many voices replied, including one I hadn't expected.
"Kaiya? I didn't know you'd be coming with us," I commented.
"Don't act so surprised, kid," she growled. "I updated Skies myself. He can take down anyone or anything that comes against us."
"Um, okay," I muttered before I loaded both my normal Blaster and Super Blaster, charging them to UltraMorph as we stopped outside the cavern to talk strategy.
"Luke, Jake, Leo, Kord, and Kaiya will lead the charge," Mom told us, pointing to each person as she said his or her name. "Emma, Mario, Pronto and I will follow up, being a bit more discreet in our actions."
"Aw, man," Pronto groaned before Mom continued.
"Mark and Vinyl are back at the Hideout running surveillance with some of their drones," she added, gesturing to several drones that people were tossing into the air. "They will send in backup if we need it."
"If we need backup, we're already screwed," Leo muttered. "We're SlugTerra's best fighters, if we can't do it, who can?"
Mom glared at him for a second before looking at the rest of us. "Alright, let's move!" she told us, so we charged in on our Mechas, Blasters firing at the dozen or so Darkbane that had gathered.
"The Shane Gang is here!" one of them screeched before Luke fired a Frightgeist at it, causing it to run away screaming.
"Why are there so few?" I commented as I used Speedy to knock out five of them, launching a Phosphoro into the air to see if I could push back the smoke.
It didn't.
"There are probably more hiding!" Luke replied as he used Dune, his Sand Angler, to take out a couple Darkbane. "I don't know what we can do about the smoke, though! Phosphoros aren't working!"
"Try fusion shots!" Mark told us. "A Phosphoro's light mixed with a Boon Doc's healing powers might be able to push it back slightly."
"Okay," we replied before firing fusion shots into the air, although they did nothing but irritate the Dark Bane. I got so annoyed by this that I jumped off my Mecha and knocked out any Dark Bane that came near me with a single punch. Fortunately, I had trained enough that this was barely affecting me, at least until I sensed a…pressure nearby, draining my energy.
"Everybody, gather together!" Mom called out, so I ran to my Mecha and rode over to the others.
"What was that?" I asked her. "It felt like something was draining me."
She nodded. "Eli called them 'Eels', a.k.a. the High Plains Monster," she told me. "They drain energy from people and slugs, and can become intangible."
"Oh, crap," I groaned. "So, basically, they can't be hurt?"
"They can be, but it takes a while," she replied before I sensed the same pressure, draining me at a much quicker rate than previously.
"Skies, make it show itself," Kaiya told Skies, so the large dragon Mecha let out a bright light, brighter than the sun. It didn't hurt my eyes, though, instead almost replenishing my energy as the Eel revealed itself.
"The light was pure slug energy," Vinyl explained to us. "It replenishes slugs, but is harmful, even deadly, to ASE creatures in high enough doses. The Eel functions by draining such energy, though, so it drained all of the energy from the light, so that it had to choice but to become visible."
"Hit it with everything you've got!" Mom called out to us. "They're weak against Phosphoros!"
"Thanks!" we called back as we loaded Phosphoros and charged them to SuperMorph, pushing the Eel back further and further until it fled the cavern, when we turned to the Darkbane.
"Is it me, or are there more than before?" I asked the others.
"Their numbers seem to have at least quadrupled," Mom stated. "The Eel seems to have been only a diversion to call in reinforcements."
"Well, we might need reinforcements as well," I said before opening fire. Darkbane are normally resistant to all slugs except for Frightgeists, and a strong enough Infernus, and we happened to have three Infernuses, all capable of SuperMorph, so we opened fire with those three as the others would fire a Frightgeist followed by a Hop Rock or Armashelt. The Frightgeist would bring down their defenses, and the other slug would take them down.
"They keep coming!" I called out as Brisingr returned to me for the tenth time. They were strong slugs, but could only stand so much before getting too tired. We tried supplementing by firing them in fusion shots with Fandangos or Enigmos, which would boost their powers, but they were still getting weaker by the shot.
"Reinforcements can't get in, they Darkbane are holding the entrance!" Vinyl told us.
"Same with the Shadow Clan!" Leo added.
"Jake, what are we going to do?" Emma asked me.
I looked at Mom. "Mom? Any ideas?" I asked her.
She sighed as she loaded Saphira once more, firing her into a group of Darkbane. "We have no choice but to retreat," she said quietly.
"You heard her, everybody retreat!" Kord called out.
"To where?" Mario demanded. "We're completely surrounded by Darkbane, and more are arriving by the second!"
"Luke, Emma, Leo, Kaiya, and I will cover the retreat," I told them, drawing my katanas as the other did the same. Kaiya just nodded and had Skies go to work, slashing, crushing, and destroying anything that got in our way as we slowly made our way out. Luke, Leo, and I jumped off our Mechas so that our weapons could work better as Emma used her bow and arrows.
'You're just doing it to help your friends and family,' I thought to myself as I struck down Bane after Bane. It was the first time I ever used the weapons against another being, and I somehow knew it wouldn't be the last.
"Luke and I will cover Kaiya's flanks, and Leo and Emma will cover the sides and back," I told them as I continued slashing, my Mecha right behind me. "Mark, have the reinforcements and Shadow Clan start attacking the entrance, try to make a small pathway for us," I added.
"Got it!" they all replied before we continued our retreat. It was slow work, even with Black Skies on our side, but we were making progress. The ground soon became covered in Dark Bane, all in some stage of death, but I tried to not pay any attention as I continued to hack my way out.
"I'm out of arrows!" Emma called out as she replaced it with her dagger.
"Here, take mine!" Mom replied, handing her a quiver. "I've held onto them for years."
"Thanks!" Emma told her before she continued firing into the crowd of Darkbane. With her and Leo's range, they kept the Bane well away from the back of our group. The Bane near Luke and me, though, realized our shorter range and focused on us instead of Kaiya and Skies, so Skies' tail would occasionally whip around and launch a few Dark Bane away from us, allowing us a few seconds of rest before more would come.
"I see the entrance!" Kaiya called out to us half an hour later. We could hear blaster fire in the distance, so we hurried our efforts, the others firing slugs into the crowd to push them back while almost running toward the entrance.
"Over here!" a voice called out at the entrance as we got close before the Shadow Clan let out one of their signature screeches, scaring away a few Dark Bane separating us so that we could race out of the cavern. The human reinforcements looked terrified, but the Shadow Clan just looked pissed about the Banes' presence.
"We need to set up a barrier," one of them told Leo and me. "Do you have any Guardians with you?"
We nodded as Leo held out Doc and I held out Speedy and Yang. They all looked exhausted, though, so the Shadow Clan replenished them with Fandangos before setting them on the ground. They closed their eyes and began focusing as countless Fandangos gathered around us. The sheer concentration of slug energy seemed to push back the smoke gathering outside the cavern before a blue barrier rose at the cavern entrance.
"I hope everybody made it out," I whispered.
"They evacuated the moment that the first alarms began to go off," Mark explained, so we all sighed from relief as the barrier was finished, preventing any ASE from entering or exiting.
"We should head back to the Hideout," Mom said sadly as we started on our way back home.
"The first battle of the Second War for SlugTerra has been lost," Vinyl said bluntly before turning off her communicator.
A/N: Hello, fellow readers! Thanks again for the reviews! I'm sorry it's taking me so long to update, every time I finish a chapter it takes me a few days to remember to post it. Also, I've got a little trivia for you. What academy did I base the name 'Slug Point Academy' off of? Leave your guesses in the reviews, and those who are correct will be congratulated and mentioned in the next chapter!
Anyway, time for the disclaimers
I do not own SlugTerra, only my characters. All other characters belong to their respective owners, you know who you are.
Please, read and review!