Thanks guys for all the supportive reviews and other such nonsense! Please do keep it up. It helps me know that you're interested and wanting more! Meaning I'll continue to work on the story faster and you'll be able to read it sooner!
Thanks for all the love!

Slugterra Fanfic
Chpt 38: Hidden Nest

Mechanical doors slid open smoothly as Kaiya lugged the slug carrier inside her workshop. Burpy had been silent throughout the quick trip as he swayed and balanced expertly on her shoulder. Muffled explosions and shrieks had made their way through the thick walls of the empty fortress, a slight reminder of the battle ensuing outside. Part of Kaiya wished she was out there, fighting on Skies with jet at her side. But she would stay in here until she had fixed her companion.
Skies was in the exact same place she had left him, his LED eyes never leaving Jets still form.
Relief washed over Kaiya as she saw that nothing had happened to her dog. Even if something had, Skies would have alerted her as soon as possible.
Dumping the carrier by the door, she locked her room and then left the slugs, rushing towards Jet.
She had completely forgotten about Burpy on her shoulder.

He had half wanted to jump off and rescue his fellow slugs yet the urgency and fear that this 'Kaiya' had so quickly displayed caught his attention. The other slugs, the ones trapped in the containers squeaked at him; they wanted out.
Burpy chirruped back at them: He wouldn't be gone for long.
An especially loud boom made him flinch yet his ride didn't move as she skidded around a corner.
What Burpy saw around the corner would haunt his mind for the rest of his life.
The lizard mecha swung its head around to face his owner, coal red eyes blazing fiercely in the dull flickering light of the garage.
Yet not at his owner: at him.
Burpy instantly knew as soon as the raging gaze touched him, he wasn't wanted here. That fact was backed up by a menacing growl that reverberated around the garage.
Burpy blinked his eyes, confused: What?
He hadn't seen Kaiya give any signal, she was too busy standing still and observing the area, probably listening for any sign of the fight outside coming close to her garage. There was no noise as the dragon picked itself up and stood there, one its four, clawed feet, easily capable of slicing diamond in half.
"Easy Skies." A gloved hand reached forward and stroked the dragons forehead, who in turn let out a small purr.
Okay, now Burpy was confused. Mecha beasts couldn't talk. Let alone act! Or make decisions.
His slug head hurt so he decided to light himself on fire to get rid of the frustration.

Skies didn't know what he was doing, exactly. He could move and make decisions by himself but he couldn't figure out how he was doing it.
He simply dismissed the thought for a later time. He had been busy semi-monitoring the Bio-organic life form known as 'Jet', under Kaiyas wishes. The other half of him had been watching the turmoil outside, the area closest to their garage door.
But when Kaiya had turned up with the Infurnace on her shoulder, a millisecond after holding a quick identity check he had found a copy of the exact slug now perched on his friends shoulder.
The markings and features were exactly the same as the well known Infurance owned by Eli Shane; a major enemy of Kaiyas boss, the vile Thaddeus Blakk.
Yes, mecha beasts had personal opinions now.
His defensive mechanism had kicked in as soon as he registered the potential enemy and he had growled a warning, as Kaiya stopped and listened to the muffled fighting outside.
As he lifted himself up Kaiya placed a soft hand on his forehead, reassuring him. His growling softened to a purr but he kept his eyes trained on the slug.

Kaiya rubbed Skies metal head. She wasn't surprised he'd reacted when he saw Burpy. The two had a volatile history ever since the Slug Run nearly a year and a half ago. But even she wasn't prepared when Burpy lit himself on fire in a huff.
She yelped and stepped sideways as flames burst into her peripheral vision. All she heard was a short snarl from Skies before the flames disappeared and were replaced with a huge spiked metal snout, inches from her neck. Teeth snapped shut expertly around the living flame as Skies attempted to protect his owner.
The initial shock for Kaiya wore off almost instantly and she immediately yelled at Skies to open his trap.
Skies just glared at her while she glared back. She had to at least look after Burpy.

Burpy was shaking in his metal tomb. All he had remembered was a yelp from Kaiya and Skies lunging forward with deadly precision, the huge teeth manouvered perfectly to capture him alive and not harm Kaiya.
He was in the mouth of a destructive beast. The red glow from the back of Skies throat radiated Ghoul Energy and Burpy began to feel sick. He threw his tiny slug fists against the front metal teeth but quickly gave up. There was no way that a tiny slug like him would be able to break through train-stopping jaws like Skies. The hydraulics at the back of the mouth reinforced that.
Another growl reverberated around the cavernous mouth; Burpy shrieked in fright and started crying for help. He was terrified until the mouth slowly opened, smoothly and he saw Kaiyas face looking annoyed and slightly glad that he was okay.
Burpy hurriedly hopped out onto Kaiyas palm while Skies snapped his mouth shut, glaring at the two of them.
Kaiya shook her head at Skies who then turned and slumped down in a pile like a dejected dog.
She then turned to Burpy, "Don't do that again. I know I'm supposed to look after you, but not even I can stop Skies from eating you in order to protect me. Understand?"
Burpy nodded quickly, keeping a wary eye on the black dragon slumped in the middle of the garage.
Kaiya nodded, please, and set her hand down on the bench, "Go let your friends out but remember. If they screw anything up, I'll feed them to Skies and jet, " Her voice trailed off and Burpy cocked his head, "When she wakes up…" Kaiya muttered. before turning and leaving Burpy sitting on the bench.
Burpy watched her go, a determined idea sticking in his head as he hopped towards the slug carrier and his comrades.

Kaiya turned back to Jet, who was still sleeping peacefully. Next to all the tubes and machinery were multiple pieces of metal, all laid out in a specific placement. Wires and thin rods of metal all laid out in the specific placement needed for Jets new leg. She even had a small makeshift copy of her mechas heart, the double energy transformer. Everything was perfect except that the lg would be deadly for her beloved pet. When the transformer used Slug Energy, Jet would be fine. Yet when Ghoul energy was used, Jet would suffer short and long term problems, mostly toxicosis from the negative energy.
Kaiya had no remedy for that, yet she wished to have it done before the fight got too serious and the power was cut. She was sure Elis friends would try to get inside and probably use an X-mitter to disable all the mechanical alarms. With all the guards outside they would probably get a free run inside and then out with all the backup they had.

A crash from her bedroom jolted her out of her thoughts and she rushed into her room to find her sketch pad on the floor with a number of slugs busy drawing and typing.
"Hey!" She exclaimed as she bent to pick it up, the slugs scattering. Only Burpy stayed on the disk as she picked it up. He was squeaking frantically and waving his little arms around.
"Get off Burpy!" Kaiya growled. Burpy simply stayed put, chirruping and squeaking.
"Ugh!" She hissed before giving the disk a quick flick and sending Burpy flying into the opposite wall.
The other slugs growled in anger and began hopping on her shoulders and disk, all motioning to the disk.
Kaiyas temper was growing," Cut it Out!" She yelled, causing Skies to poke his head around the corner.
His presence, and the Ghoul energy he was running on, caused most of the slugs to disperse but a few determined ones stayed.
The Arachnet swung his way over to Kaiyas sock drawer and while she was preoccupied with the others.
Along the way, he picked Burpy up and both of them landed on top of the chest of drawers, squeaking loudly.

"How does Eli stand you guys!" Kaiya sighed as she swatted the last slug off her shoulder before turning to where Burpy and his friend were squeaking loudly.
"What!?" She snapped irritably as she strode over with the sketch disk.
Both slugs were motioning to the drawer and to humour them Kaiya opened it, "What do you WANT?" She yelled as she yanked the draw open.
The blue glow stopped her breath. The two disks of Pure Energy were still sitting in their hiding place.
She glanced at the slugs who were grinning madly until they started squeaking and pointing at the sketch pad disk.
"Yeah, yeah. I know," She held it up, "They look the same. Same shape, same colour...how'd you think I managed to trick Blakk?"
Their astonished faces looked at her in disbelief for a moment before Burpy continued to squeak and point at the sketchpad.
Kaiyas temper wasn't improving and she was on bursting point.
"WHAT?!" She screamed in frustration, sending the sketch pad towards the slugs like a spinning blade of blue.
Both slugs squealed and ducked as the disk crashed into the wall, landing on the top of the desk of drawers and spinning softly.
"I'm lucky that casing is blast proof." Kaiya muttered as she clenched her fists together, still glaring at the slugs.
More of Burpys' team had arrived and were slowly climbing up to the desk of drawers to join their two friends.
Burpy gave a shaky grin which made Kaiya snarl and raise her fist.
'Screw Eli! I'll pulverize this little pests!' Burpy squeaked in alarm and hopped towards to rotating disk, eagerly tapping different buttons until a holographic screen showed up, with some rough pictures on it.
Kaiya was just about to slam her fist down when the designs caught her attention.
"What?" She unclenched her fist and reached forward, grabbing the disk and flipping through the designs, "I didn't draw these!"

She'd never admit it but they were unknown designs for a leg and eye.
A particular leg and eye.
Jet's new leg and eye. It had solved the problem of Ghoul Energy consequences.
"No way… when did you guys get so smart?" Kaiya gaped at the slugs who were all chirruping proudly.
"Well then…" She stood up straighter and placed her hands on her hips, "looks like I owe you guys!" She grinned.
Adrenalin was flooding her veins and she could hardly stand still.

This could be Jets big chance!
She grabbed an energy disk and bolted into her garage and set to work.
As soon as she started, she knew she'd never stop until everything was done.
Sure she would use up one disk, but she'd find more, right?
She allowed the matter to slip from her mind as she focused on her task at hand. She'd need every ounce of concentration she could muster for this.

Burpy grinned as he saw Kaiya become engrossed in her work. Now was the time to get his plan to work. Beckoning to his fellow slugs, he hopped towards the door. Joules was waiting next to the control pad and with a wink from Burpy, he sent a carefully calculated 350 volts into the keypad, frying the wires and opening the door. The door hissed open loudly and the slugs looked anxiously around but Kaiya was too engrossed in her own work to notice.
However, the other person did. Black Skies watched the mirror on the wall next to Kaiyas bed out of the corner of his eye. He could see the reflection of the slugs leaving the room from the reflective screen of her desktop in the mirror. It was a safety feature he had quickly set up when she had gone for a bit. She'd never noticed.
He cast a quick glance towards Kaiya, but she was busy working on Jet that she hadn't noticed.
And as he stood up, she still didn't. Casting a wary glance behind him, he slowly crept out of the room and after the slugs.
Kaiya was left alone with Jet.

Burpy was anxious to get to Eli. He wanted his friend out before Blakk got his evil hands on him. And he also wanted out of this death-trap.
Chiller squeaked behind him: He was getting tired.
Burpy just turned back and glared at him. He shouldn't have had so much Slug Kibble and skipped a few trainings.
Spinner was ahead, he had a great sense of direction and even being trapped in the slug container on the way there hadn't dulled his abilities. Stunts was with him, on a careful lookout.
But the coast was clear the entire way so the group ran into no problems. Except for Mo.
They were halfway to their destination when he thought he saw something big moving behind. He had shrieked in fright and sprinted ahead.
His companions instantly hushed him as he cowered behind the Rammstone.
Buzzsaw shared a look with Rookie and both hopped back to the corridor corner to see if they could find anything. They saw nothing.
Burpy simply ushered Mo to keep going and the group continued along the corridor, completely oblivious to what Mo was trying to warn them about.

Eli was pacing in his cell, he could hear the battle outside. He couldn't stand still, he had the need to do something, anything to help his friends before they got too badly hurt.
But what? He didn't have his slugs, nor his blaster let alone any suitable weapon.
Looks like he had finally come to a point in his life for when he needed to be rescued, not rescue himself or someone else.
He punched a wall in frustration, yelping and shaking his hand when the pain hit him.
The shock brought out another memory:

'That hurt! How does Kaiya and Blakk manage to do that continously!?"
The thought of Kaiya reminded him of the huge headache he had, courtesy of her. The huge bruises inflicted on him throbbed and pulsed with a rhythm of their own and he often found it painful to think or clench his teeth in frustration.
"Ugh!" He screamed to the roof, grabbing the bars and shaking them, well trying too.
He could see his blaster on the other side of the bars, just sitting on a stack of crates smeared with red.
He narrowed his eyes: smeared with red?
"Whatcha looking at kid?" A gruff voice sounded from the cell opposite him. He looked up and saw the weary old face of a long serving prisoner. Scars criss-crossed through the stubble on his chin and his eyes were sunk deep into their nest of wrinkle under his large brow.
Eli didn't answer him, but just stood looking at him.
"Whassa' matter? Cat got your tongue?," His voice lowered down to a hoarse whisper, "Or was it a dragon?"
Eli flinched and took a step back, "What are you talking about?"
The man continued to watch Eli with cold eyes, "You know. I saw you come in here, slung over her shoulder like a sack of grain. The great Eli Shane knocked out cold and dumped on a prison bench. And then you hand over all your slugs without a second thought. Without a Fight!" He spat the last words.
"What? Kaiya said she wouldn't let them be ghouled!" But even as the words left his mouth, the bitter taste of realization hit him.
The prisoner chuckled dryily, "And you trust her? Well, if you'd seen what I saw the other day you wouldn't have. I bet you're wondering what that red smear is, over by that fancy blaster 'o yours."
Eli was beginning to feel sick. His stomach didn't want to know what it was, yet his mind yearned for the answer.
The old man took his silence as a yes, "Well then, settle down. This is going to be one heck of a story. It all started when I was in-"
A loud squeak cut him off and both males turned their gaze to where it had issued from.
Elis heart soared as he saw Spinner and Stunts round the far corner, followed by the rest of his group.
"Guys! You got away!" Eli cried in delight as he comrades hopped eagerly over to him, Joules unlocking his cell with a quick burst of electricity. Eli instantly ran out when the bars disappeared and began collecting up his slugs, thanking them all and stroking their little heads.
"Well, whaddya know?" Came a low voice from the man in the cell. Eli grabbed his blaster, trying to keep his eyes off the red smear and walked over to the old man.
The gaunt old man eyed him warily, "You got out thanks to those slugs 'o yours. I've heard stories 'bout you and your escapades but never thought i'd see it in real life."
Eli grinned, "Yeah, they're the best slugs any slinger could ask for."
The prisoner nodded thoughtfully as Eli opened the cell.
"What are you doing?" The man watched in disbelief as the doors opened. He was free.
He took two tottering steps out into the hallway, Eli by his side and ready to catch him.
"You..you freed me…" His voice contained disbelief, "Why?!"
Eli was caught off guard by his outburst, "What? What do you mea-"
"Why'd you free me?! Why? Why...why.." The old man suddenly doubled over in a coughing fit.
Eli placed an arm over his shoulder," It's alright. I'm going to get you out of this cursed place. Come on."
The man followed without hesitation, the realization had numbed him to a passive soul.
As they were walking along the empty corridors Eli tried to break the silence, "What..what was that red smear?"
The words echoed threateningly throughout the corridor as the man stared blankly ahead, eyes wide and haunted.
"Pain…" Eli jumped, he hadn't expected the man to speak.
"Pain?" He asked.
The man sighed, a deep shuddering breath, "Yes, Pain. And Horror. Death. All from the claws of black." His voice was trembling as the memories re-surfaced, "I've seen many cruel things in the Prisions of Blakk but that, that was…" He could not finish the sentence.

"Claws of Blakk? Blakk caused all the..suffering you mentioned. With his very own hands?" Eli was confused, Blakk only got his hands dirty when no-one else could do what he wanted. and he had plenty of killers to do his bidding easily.
"Not Blakk directly...something worse."
His slugs squeaked with hidden fear; the old mans words were unnerving.
"What?"
The old man turned and gazed directly into Elis eye, "Dragons. Black dragons. H-he..He called them..."
More shuddering breaths and a panicked look appeared all over the ex-prisoners face.
"What? You mean like Black skies? Kaiyas mecha?" Elis curiosity ran free, fear ignored.
The man nodded, just, "But that thing is sane. I hear it has a mind of its own, not like those..those.." He struggled to spit the word out.
Eli leaned closer as they walked, "What?! What are they called?!" He needed to know!
The old man took a deep breath and shut his eyes tight.
"Demons. They are called Demons."
Elis mind was swirling. Demons?
"They are exact replicas of that racing mecha owned by Kaiya Skies. Except, they-they they are evil. They have no riders, they are remotely controlled, their claws are huge, Their teeth are razor sharp. They..they sliced Willy right in half, then played tug of war with his legs."
His voice was rising and Eli glanced around nervously, last thing they needed was to be caught.
"That didn't even last. their teeth simply sheared off all the meat. They were spattered with his blood, the red lights making it glow and roil," More shuddering breaths, "There's five. Three with gattlers on their back and the other two...for speed, scouts. But then there's Kaiyas one. Smarter, and more experienced than the rest. A leader.."
Eli couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Was it true? He didn't believe it.
Kaiya wasn't that loyal, she wouldn't give away the secrets of the only thing keeping her where she was to Blakk.
Would she?

It was tragic to know that moments later, the old mans' tale was to be true.