The Clash
In the Deep Caverns, reside far more creatures and species than ever encountered. The Dark Bains are the most well known inhabitant of the Deep Caverns, though there are many more left to encounter.
One such creature is the Brain Jacker.
It looks like a flopper, but with pitch black and dark-brown colorings on its body. It has the smallest mouth among Ghouls, where the mouth is not full of teeth. Rather, the teeth form the mouth, creating a straw-like mouth for it to feed from. It resembles a drill made of teeth.
The Brain Jacker uses its teeth to bore through your ear and into your brain. It then assimilates itself into the neural systems, thereby gaining control over the victim's body.
The Brain Jacker now has full control of the body. It then uses the body to do its work, while slowly sucking the energy out of the body. The hosts then resemble Zombies, in all their glory of guts and gore.
The parasites do not care for their hosts, since they do not feel any of what their host feels.
Having a whole arm sliced off? No pain. Leg forced through a meat grinder? Carry on! Buried under 10 tons of rock? Nothing, absolutely nothing at all.
The Brain Jackers can only die when their hosts are dead. They have no escape route from the host's body. Once in, trapped inside forever until the body runs out of energy and collapses into dust.
Brain Jackers are fast breeders, each one will split into two upon successful infiltration of the brain. One would then leave, while the other integrates itself with the neural system. The one that left searches for another host, and repeats the procedure.
If left unchecked, this could spread into a massive wave that takes over the entire Deep caverns, Slugterra, and finally the Surface.
One of her many duties were to keep them down. Allow their numbers to maintain, but keep them near extinction, so as to force them into submission.
Jasmine Drake, Sister to Alexander and Lucifer Drake. One of the Three Guardians of Earth. Her duty is to keep down the forces of Darkness, so as to suppress and prevent the apocalypse.
But, she was missing from her post.
When Lucifer last checked in on her, she was out forcing back the Brain Jackers to their hideouts, with the aid of the Dark Bain. Still, Lucifer had worried for her, and it turned out his worries had been well founded.
A girl with fiery red hair raised her head, eyes glazed over. A patch of freckles splattered over the bridge of her nose, and a slightly deformed tooth peeking through her closed mouth.
"Begin the invassssion."
Thaddeus Blakk paced the length of his office, the highest level of worry he'd ever display in the public spectrum. Nicole had gone out for ages – really, it was a few hours only – and she still wasn't back yet.
He couldn't bear it any longer.
Plopping down at his desk, he opened up the tracking device software on his computer. Normally, he would have his own minions do it himself, but this required a more delicate hand.
He found Nicole's position, moving in a raft down a river. Far, far away from the train crash location. Several 10 kilometers, give or take a few meters.
Activating the spy camera drone, manufactured by Kaiya once as a test subject for a drone army project which fell through, due to the fact that they can only work within a set distance from the handler.
Now, Blakk was grateful for allowing her to embark on that side project.
In a few hours, it would reach the tracker and should give him an aerial view of her.
Nicole Blakk, when I find out why you ran in the completely opposite direction you informed me of, you will rue the day you decided to cross Thaddeus Blakk.
Nicole took aim at the target of rocks she had set up, with permission from the forest of course, and took aim.
Bam!
Her Rammstone was airborne just as her Hop Rock hit the stone bullseye. An explosion, finished off by a massive uppercut from her Rammstone, shattering the stone into a pile of shards.
"Pfft, I could do better than that."
A nymph scurried forth, clearing away the debris.
"Oh yeah? Prove it."
Alexander strode forwards, replacing the stone with a dummy in titanium and Kevlar armor.
"Watch."
In one swift movement, Alexander pulled out the sling slung over his shoulder, loading it with his eyes on the target. With the speed and grace of running water, Alexander spun the sling in a rapid 360⁰, casting, and watching the lead target fly.
A dull screech of tearing metal, and Alexander released three more in quick succession.
Each round tore through the titanium armor plating like it was nothing, but was stopped by the Kevlar.
"So, beat that." Nicole looked at the target dummy. 4 holes were spread across the body; one in the head, one over the heart, one in the crotch, and one in the knee. "All impacts are fatal, can you beat that?"
Nicole scoffed, "suuure, that armor can't stand up to a Dark Urchin!"
"Ghouls!? They are forbidden here! How dare you bring one in?!"
"Woah, I was just speculating that one could shred that armor to pieces. I did not say I had one!"
"Very well, show me how you deal with this armor."
The target had been replaced, and as Nicole lined up her shot, she could feel eyes staring at her back, boring into her like knives into butter.
Finger caressed the trigger. One last looking down the sights. Steady, steady, Now!
The Armashelt burst out of the barrel, claws extended and ready for the attack.
Bang! And when the dust settled, they could see a still shining unharmed dummy, with an exhausted slug at her feet.
"You were saying?" Alexander asked, obviously enjoying his moment of glory.
Gritting her teeth, Nicole loaded another slug, "Three more shots left."
The Forgesmelter – she got it from Eli, don't tell anyone! – came shooting out of the barrel, releasing a torrent of lava at the target. By right, it should melt off the titanium and Kevlar, but strangely, it only managed to weaken the metal in a few places.
Loading a Rammstone, Nicole fired. The slug hit the weakened metal with all its strength, and it finally gave.
Sort of.
A hairline crack appeared in the armor, just barely noticeable, and Nicole took advantage of it.
Loading a Thresher, she fired it at the crack.
It struck, spinning, trying its hardest to cut into the gap. However, after a few seconds it dropped off, panting and tired.
"Oh shut it," Nicole snapped at him, sensing Alexander's rapidly growing amusement.
Of course, he didn't comply.
"That was some wonderful shooting young lady. I would love to learn from you one of these days. Perhaps a quick session?" He gloated.
Storming away to collect her Thresher, Nicole pausing at the armor clad dummy, before unleashing a roundhouse kick followed by two rapid punches at the crack over the heart.
As she walked away with whatever shreds of her dignity she could salvage, Nicole numbed out the pain in her throbbing knuckles as she returned to the hut.
Gloat all you want Alexander, I'll show you why slugs are better, just you wait.
Oppressive Darkness washed over the landscape, hiding it from view. Forcing your eyes closed, a crushing weight on your shoulders, like someone's watching. It made strongmen like Thaddeus Blakk cower in fright.
A pale white mist floated all around her, the only item she could see. But the sensation of eyes on the back of her skull remained. Goosebumps on her skin.
Kaiya whirled around, hoping to spot the mysterious watcher. No luck, but that feeling remained. It took a lot to creep out Kaiya Skye, the tom boy, mechanic wonder and employee of Blakk industries. And with a crush on Twist too.
Spinning again, she tried her voice since waking up.
"H-hello?"
It came out thick and raspy. Like she had been gargling nails.
Tried again, this time much smoother, "Hello? Anyone there?"
Already fears, buried so deep down she had herself convinced they didn't exist, bubbled up to the surface. She had seen Diablos Nachos; if there was something even more worse than him, she didn't want to meet it.
A low growl echoed throughout the plains, more intimidating than a roaring beast.
It came from everywhere, all surrounding her. Echoing off unseen rock walls and pillars, bouncing around, until the plains was filled with a thunderous rumble.
Pierced by a whimper. From the body curled up on the ground, twitching like a Tazerling had been slugged at her.
Kaiya was terrified. Of the Unknown, the Endless, the Darkness, and the stench of Misery that hung over this place. For that was what the fog is made of, misery from others who ended up here, and consumed by the fog.
Another growl resounded off the walls, seemingly bouncing right at her. Kaiya crumpled, drawing her knees up, squeezing her eyes shut, hoping against hope that when she woke up, she would be safe and sound in her bed at Blakk Industries.
As her scent tainted with fear filled the air, a pair of red eyes snapped open. Followed by the rest of the 50 strong pack.
The Slugmutts are on the hunt: For flesh…
Eli winced as the Dark Healer held up the needle, gleaming from its time in the sterilizing flame.
"Are you sure about th–"
Eli clamped his jaw shut and bit his tongue, in a failed attempt at silencing the yelp of pain. The Dark Healer brought down the needle a few more times, puncturing holes into Eli's skin, over the veins contaminated with Black Blood.
Clamping on the suction, he let the machine suck out the poisonous blood, dumping it into a lead capsule, which will be sent to the heart of a volcano.
Waited a few more moments, and pulled off the suction cup, wiping away the blood with alcohol swabs. Reattached the cup.
Lucifer was trying to drain out the Black Blood to dispose of it. The Dark Blood is reactive to slug energy – the higher the levels of slug energy it's in contact with, the faster it spreads. Currently they were in a slug energy vacuum, which Lucifer had built especially for this purpose.
Several more rounds of draining the Blood later, he switched off the pump. Bandaging the puncture wounds, Lucifer helped Eli up. "That should be most of the Blood gone. If you see it again, tell me. Got it?"
"Yeah," Eli mumbled, "Got it."
"So, can you tell me more of your world? This is the first time anyone has heard of you, I believe."
"That should be the way it is. I am one of the Three Guardians of Earth, sworn to forever hold back any evil, until the day of Ragnarok, doomsday. My name is Lucifer Drake, Guardian of the Crossroads, Upholder of Communications, Wielder of Souls, and Lord of the Skies.
"My brother Alexander Drake is the Guardian of Life, Upholder of Purity, Bringer of Hope, and Lord of the Forests.
"My sister Jasmine Drake is the Guardian of Death, Upholder of Peace, Wielder of Death, and Lady of the Undercaverns."
Eli looked at him, not with awe but rather a slight admonishment. "You said you'll heal Kaiya, where is she? And what about Twist? Is he alive or dead? What do you mean by needing his soul? How does sacrificing one's soul –"
"Enough with the questions!"
Eli pulled back, sheepish at his losing of control over his thoughts and letting them spill out.
Lucifer took a deep breath, "You can see Kaiya later. As for Michael, he is currently incapacitated. Held between life and death by his link to Kaiya, he will only awaken when she does."
"Souls are fickle things, you see. They exist, but no one can ever witness any. They are of the Spiritual plane, and require a source of energy to sustain their time on the corporeal plane. The energy required can be found as the life force within all living beings.
"The energy required to reattach a soul already adrift is immense. As has been calculated before, little mass contains much power. A soul has to be sacrificed to be converted to this form of energy."
"But still, it does not stop there. The souls have to be compatible. Like certain people require certain types of blood for transfusion, souls are similar, on a more detailed scale. The best candidates have been found to be soul mates, two souls destined to meet and be with for eternity.
"Your friend Michael, whom you know as Twist, is a very rare occurrence. He willingly gave up his soul for his soul mate Kaiya. This increases the energy, which has led to a very delicate situation. The soul has not been bound to the body via energy link, but rather by the intertwining life forces of two lovers."
"Twist is an honorable man. He has a pure heart, but is swayed to the wrong side. His Soul Mate Kaiya is his savior. She will guide him away from the devil's triangle; Greed, Ambition, Power.
"Even the most kind-hearted man can be converted. The Triangle has ensnared Twist, and Kaiya will pull him out."
"So can we see them now?"
"Yes, however there is a slight problem…"
"What?"
"Your friends have been captured by the enemy, your mortal enemy is assembling an army of the Dark Bains, as well as their nastier foes, and now..."
"What?!"
"Susan is being hunted by Diablos Nachos. He knows that Kaiya and Twist are onboard, and will go to any lengths to prevent their return to life. Susan will be able to hold him off for several days, but his brethren are coming in fast. More and more are pouring in. Soon, a solo hunt will escalate into a siege."
Eli felt his world starting to fall around him. He tried in vain the block out Lucifer's next words:
"The Darkness has declared war, and I am the only one in their way. Soon, you will be too."
Kord was busy tinkering with the Mechas. He had taken them for a spin and found some problems with the suspensions.
As he reached for a wrench, a boot shoved the hunk of metal to the cave troll.
"Thanks Nicole."
As the figure walked away, her form shifted, from Nicole's to that of a very familiar face. Complete with bubblegum pink hair.
Danna Por, mistress of the Shadows, was on the hunt. For Jasmine Drake.
As Kord whacked an annoying screw back into place, she timed her swing to coincide with every blow.
She entered the hut, cloaked in the shadows. She eyed Trixie's slumbering form, even as she mumbled in her sleep about her dream. Something about a moonlit walk down the beach with Eli.
Idiots.
One swift blow, the thud of a lifeless hand hitting the ground, silence of impending doom.
No one saw the nimble figure leaping away from the hut, a feminine body draped over its shoulder. Her fate, was as bleak as Danna's.
Hi guys, Nameless Slinger here. Sorry for disappearing for so long. Hopefully the A/N explained my extended absence. I will be disappearing from FanFiction for quite sometime, until I can find time to do the next chapter. I know that this is really pathetic of me, to come to you with excuses of my leave. So I won't stay here long, just a few things to say.
Thank you Hills-To-Sky for introducing me to the world of Slugterra FanFiction. If not for that writing contest, I would have never started my account and published my first written work on the public spectrum. So thank you Hills-To-Sky, you are amazing.
NicoleBlakk, you inspire me everytime I need inspiration. Somehow just reading your reviews lets me know that there is always at least one person who is there for this entire series. You are one of the many who help us get through writer's blocks with your faith in us. For that, thank you NicoleBlakk.
And Amethyst Kitsune, you have given me a much needed insight on my theories for how my world works. If not for your question, I would have never gone into much thought on this topic of Soul Trading. So thank you Amethyst, for your critique of my theory.
To all other readers, if you enjoyed this, tale, don't hesitate to review to express so. It makes my day to know other people enjoy my story.
~Nameless Slinger