Note: You might have missed Chapter 19, which focuses on Shala and Naver as well as Alice and Jay. If the last chapter you remember reading is the one focusing on Noah, I remember reading chapter 19 first. I updated it soon after I posted chapter 18 so you might not have realized the new one was posted so soon and I wouldn't want you to miss it.


Chapter 20 – Fall From Grace


"Alright, Naver. I'm not gonna lie to you. The mission we're about to undertake is in one of the most dangerous parts of the Darklands. The Green Gullet Infected Zone. Heck, this is probably THE most dangerous Infected Zone on the entire planet. So I'm gonna need you to be ready for anything during the mission."

"Alright, I got it." – Naver nodded confidently. "Except, I got one question."

"Yeah?"

"What's an Infected Zone?"

Shala gave himself the biggest facepalm. "DUDE! Come on!" – he exclaimed, but then calmed himself down. "Alright, alright, amnesia, I keep forgetting. So, an Infected Zone is-"

Naver then broke out laughing. "DUDE!" – now it was his turn to yell, barely managing to contain his laughter. "I've BEEN to Infected Zones! When we defeated Fusion Courage? Remember? Dude, you were there with me! I can't believe you fell for that! You might be the one that has amnesia now."

Shala's expression froze. "Oh, har-dee-har, you got me. You little scamp. It's hard to remember what you remember, okay? Now stop laughing! I don't want you somehow attracting Cheese!" – Shala shushed him.

That was actually a really good point – they were still in Hero's Hollow, and Cheese's sudden appearance and involvement in the mission was the last thing they wanted. Especially considering what happened the last time he was onboard Dexter's airship.

"But seriously, though, I mean it. This is NOT the same as chopping up some Frilled Fiends. Hell, the Firepits were a walk in the park compared to this. The world's greatest heroes couldn't hold their position here. So whatever we do, we DO NOT. ATTRACT. ATTENTION. Alright?"

"Yeah, man, totally. I still do have one question, though. For real, this time."

"Yeah?"

"How are you gonna get into the infected Zone if you're gonna avoid the Dexbot? I mean, since you owe money to them and everything…"

"I, uh… I hadn't actually thought about that." – Shala admitted. "Wait, no. Inferno Fields. I used the Dexbot there no problem. So if they have my debt still on record, we can be sure that the Infected Zone warping Dexbots aren't stopping me. Might be from the fact that all comms are down, including Dexbot sync."

"But what happens if you get banned from all the Dexbot vendors?" – Naver inquired further.

"I'll manage somehow. There's Mandark Industries, among other options. I can get gear anywhere." – he shrugged it off.

"But I thought Dexlabs was the cutting edge in stuff like that?"

"Naver. I know Dexlabs is the cutting edge. I'm the one that was cutting the edge when it came to the weapons. I told you, I'll manage somehow." – Shala assured him.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the Green Maw lake. Naver looked up at the airship in the sky as they approached it.

"Good thing this mission is right here, at least. I would NOT have hauled my ass to the other side of the Darklands for this." – Shala muttered.

"What about the Radicola then?" – Naver asked him. "I thought you couldn't live without it."

"A. I absolutely can live without it, I just like it very very much. And B. I'd have managed. There are things not even Tetrax knows about." – Shala said mysteriously. Naver decided not to question him further, since Shala liked acting mysteriously so much.

"Very nice weather we are having." – the Dexbot that was at the warp station said robotically.

"Yeah, yeah. Warp us in already." – Shala waved it off.

"Initiate warp."

As Naver stepped onto the warp pad, he felt as if all of his being was turned into light and then back into human again. It's a feeling he's been through a couple times already, but it still seemed pretty disorienting.

They stepped off the warp pad, which was located on elevated ground at the edge of a giant Fusion Matter lake, which covered the entire area of the Infected Zone, barring a couple islets. The green tinted air was made even greener, reflected by the acidic glow of the lake. There were small patches of land here and there though, decorated with what used to be trees, now mutated into crooked and contorted Fusion growths, adorned with hanging sacs filled with Fusion pus weighing the branches down, not unlike the ones Naver saw in Hero's Hollow. Above the lake hovered various vessels, ships and tanks from a bunch of different organizations – KND, DexLabs, Mandark Industries, etc. Now, instead of fighting for the Earth's survival, they floated lifelessly back and forth, up and down in the wreckage of what was left. And above them, hundreds of feet in the sky, was their destination – Dexter's airship.

"So, this is Green Maw, huh?" – Naver looked over at Shala after staring long enough at the lake.

"Don't fall in." – Shala advised.

"What's with all the tanks and stuff?"

"They're what was left from Hero's Hollow." – Shala explained. "This was the heart of the battle."

"Hey, did you ever get to see it?" – Naver asked him, still curious. "The battle, I mean? Were you there?"

"No, actually. That was early in the war, I was still at DexLabs back then. I saw some footage, though. But it was probably a good thing that I wasn't here. I mean, could you imagine me straight up dying here a year ago?" – Shala laughed. "Who'd be pulling your ass out of the fire all the time?"

"Hey, my ass is perfectly fire-free, thank you very much." – Naver retorted. Though, he knew that wasn't completely true. He'd been through some bad moments that Shala hadn't witnessed. He stared back at the lake, then at the airship.

"Lars was here. Then." – he thought. "Something happened to him. The battle must have affected him badly." – he said to himself as he remembered his conversation with Lars.

"There's a lot of people that would gladly forget the things they've done. Bad things. Forgetting who they are would be a completely clean slate. You can be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. Not haunted by the past anymore. Free of your guilt. Like a tabula rasa, you know?"

Naver dwelled on Lars' words as he recited them with perfect memory. Lars didn't specify, but his thoughts about this "blank slate" must have come from the Battle of Hero's Hollow. From how he's seen its survivors react to it, it really seemed like this… incomprehensibly horrifying tragedy. It was hard to believe it was all caused by one cute-ish little critter, stupid as he may be, but the evidence was staring right back at him.

"Hello? Earth to Naver? The comms are down but that doesn't mean Naver's down, does it?" – Shala said while snapping his fingers repeatedly in front of Naver's face.

"Sorry." – Naver flinched. "I was just… thinking."

"Okay, I know this is a good place to go to and get like, all philosophical, but we've got a mission to complete." – Shala reminded him as he jumped onto the first platform.

"Gee. Turns out, all you had to do was dangle some Radicola in your face and you're immediately the mission-focused commando leader." – Naver said sarcastically as he followed Shala. "Tetrax finally found a way to control you."

"Yeah, well, it's not gonna work every time. He tries anything like that again, I'm gonna, uh… I'll move to Huntor's I guess?"

"Yeah, as if Huntor's gonna tolerate your lazy ass." – Naver continued.

Shala stopped and turned around.

"Since when did you get this cheeky?" – he asked Naver.

"What do you mean?"

"You've grown some sass lately. I noticed."

"Really? I mean, I didn't. I'm not meaning to be, anyway."

"You're really not?"

"Honest! Idunnow. Guess now that I'm not thrown into a completely dangerous and unfamiliar situation anymore with no memories of it, I guess I've gotten a bit more… comfortable in the situation I've wound up in." – Naver replied. "If you say I'm making sarcastic jokes then that must be what I was like before, right?" He hadn't realized it until now, but that was actually a major breakthrough. Though, he momentarily questioned whether or not he even identified with this newly-discovered personality trait.

"Okay, I'm happy for you, BUT…" – Shala said and paused. "Don't let this get annoying."

"Your wish is my command." – Naver replied. "As long as you pay me three cans of Radicola every hour, that is."

"NAVER I SWEAR TO GOD"


"Okay, we gotta calculate this perfectly." – Shala said while thinking.

"Are you sure we can make the jump?" – Naver asked hesitantly. In front of them was a detached massive Mandark Industries tank track, which was moving back and forth extremely quickly – quicker than you'd be able to jump on them.

"Yeah! Come on, let's go already!"

"But… do people fall in sometimes?"

"I mean, I guess they do? But I don't think I've heard of anyone dying in here. There was this one guy with horrific skin injuries, though, but besides that…"

"Well, isn't there any other way we could go?"

"No, Naver, there is not. Okay, if it'll make you feel any better, I'll run the numbers for it." – Shala sighed.

"Run the numbers?" – Naver was still skeptical about it.

"Can you jump for me?"

"Uhh, onto that platform? That's what we're stuck on, remember?"

"No, in place. Like, just, up and down." – Shala clarified.

"Okay." – Naver said and jumped. As he landed, the platform they were standing on wobbled up and down a little bit.

"No, hold on, I gotta measure it on the stopwatch. And you gotta jump with all of your strength, as if you're really trying to jump onto that platform."

"Okay." – Naver agreed. It was probably worth a shot.

"Alright, now!" – Shala signaled. Naver jumped.

".6 seconds." - Shala said and waited for the wobbling to stop, which was even stronger thus time. "Okay, so since we can't measure for sure, by eyeballing it the platform looks like top speed is 20 feet per second, but then it's decelerating…" – Shala was lost in thought as he checked his stopwatch again. "It takes 2, 2.5 seconds to drop the speed to 0, that means the deceleration rate's 8 feet per second per second. Okay, how far do you think we can jump, Naver?" – he turned to him.

"I, uh…" – the question caught Naver by surprise.

"I'm gonna assume that our jumping distance will be around 10 feet, better not overestimate it, but we still have some leeway. So when it starts decelerating we're gonna have… take the square root out of 15… eh, I'll round that up to 16, so 2 seconds until it gets here within 10 feet, which is our estimated jump distance." – Shala concluded.

Naver tried following what Shala was saying, but it got too complicated too quickly, and since Shala was muttering half of it and skipping over the other half, Naver was lost. He understood the last part, though.

"We have a 2 second window to jump?" – Naver asked. That wouldn't be easy.

"No, no, you silly goose, it's gonna arrive in 2 seconds after it starts decelerating. It takes 2.5 seconds to get here total, so we're gonna have an extra .5 as it's coming in and then .5 as it's leaving, so that's 3 seconds. 3 second window to jump."

"Doesn't sound like that much better." – Naver said doubtfully.

"Don't worry, that just seems like less than it actually is. Considering our airtime is only .6 seconds I think 3 seconds is more than generous."

"And are you sure about these calculations?" – Naver was still uncertain. "I mean, you didn't use a calculator." As they were standing there talking, the platform kept rhythmically hovering back and forth at them.

"Naver. Naver, Naver, Naver. Come on. This…" – Shala pointed at his own cranium. "Is the most powerful calculator known to man. And I didn't even have to eat one to obtain its powers. I mean, sure, yeah, I had to estimate some stuff or round it down, but trust me. My calculations are correct. Look, I'll prove it."

Shala got ready to jump. As the tank track was coming near, Shala jumped. By the time he landed, the platform was already moving away, but Shala managed to get on it without even a stumble.

"See?" – he assured Naver.

"Well, okay…" – Naver said, though still somewhat hesitant.

"HUH?" – Shala asked. The track had already moved him 30 feet away. As it brought him back, he said "I can't hear you…" – then it was hovering away again, so Shala had to shout – "FROM WAY OVER HERE!"

"I'LL JUMP BUT…" – Naver yelled, but then the platform approached – "I think you should better GIVE ME THE SIGNAL!" – Naver had to yell again.

"Okay, are you ready?" – Shala asked the next time he approached, but by the time Naver said yes, the track was moving away again and Naver wouldn't have the time to jump. "OKAY THE NEXT TIME it comes in. NOW!"

"Hold on!" – Naver still hesitated. "HOW DO OTHER PEOPLE jump on these?" – Naver raised and lowered his voice as Shala's platform went back and forth.

"WELL, THEY don't usually calculate the timing… THEY JUST USE Jump Nanos! Or Rocket!" – Shala responded.

"WHAT?! WHY DIDN'T we do any of that?" – Naver yelled back.

"I didn't wanna go to THE NANO STATION. THAT PLACE is crawling with Dexbots!" – Shala explained, still moving back and forth.

"YOU MEAN I MIGHT FALL AND DIE because you were avoiding debt?!" – Naver yelled. "YOU COULD HAVE JUST told me to go there instead!"

"OKAY WELL I DIDN'T THINK OF THAT!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T THINK OF THAT?"


Macy was walking along the edge of the airship, looking at the view. She saw someone standing ahead of her - it was Tetrax! He was just standing there on the edge, gazing towards Green Gullet.

"What are you doing?" – she asked. Tetrax didn't answer. "Enjoying the sights?" - she continued.

"Overlooking Shala's mission." – Tetrax nonchalantly responded.

Macy was taken aback. She looked at the Infected Zone to try to make out what was going on in there, but it was so far away that Macy thought this was Tetrax's idea of a joke.

"How the hell are you getting any of it?" – Macy asked him with her eyes squinted.

"My petrosapien physiology allows me to… bend my lenses to view greater distances." – Tetrax explained.

"Accommodate." – Macy said.

"Hm?"

"Bending the eye lenses is called accommodation." – Macy explained.

"Noted. Thanks." – Tetrax responded stoically as usual.

"I swear, you can do the coolest stuff and you never talk about any of it." – Macy told him. "Well, how is their mission going?"

"See for yourself." – Tetrax told her as he formed a pair of crystal binoculars out of his hands, complete with see-through lenses. Macy jumped in and stood in front of him, in between his huge arms, and put his binocular hands to her eyes.

She saw Shala and Naver standing high up on two floating platforms. Shala's platform was rapidly moving back and forth. They appeared to be yelling at each other.

"How long has this been going on for?" – she asked Tetrax.

"At least 15 minutes." – Tetrax sighed.

"And they're the guys we put our faith into." – Macy shook her head.

"What do we have here?" – both of them heard as someone else approached them. It was that guy with the beanie that came to the Darklands to pick up chicks. Jamie. "Please tell me you're spying on someone hot right now."

Though, he was met with a piercing glare from Tetrax, so that probably was not the case.

"Those two guys are on a mission right now. They're trying to get up to that airship up there." – Macy pointed out.

"How high is the chance of them meeting violent, untimely deaths?" – Jamie asked, suddenly interested.

"Very high." – Tetrax commented.

"Well, don't just stand there, let me see!" – Jamie yelled as he pushed Macy out of the way and grabbed Tetrax's binocular hands.

"Hey! Get your own Tetrax!" – Macy pushed him back. They started fighting for the possession of Tetrax's hands, so Tetrax had to separate the binoculars and turn each of his hands into spyglasses – one each for Macy and Jamie. They both started watching intensely. By now, Naver had jumped, but there was still a long way up.

"By the way, do you wanna get together after this and-" – he was asking Macy, but she cut him off.

"Another word from you and you're gonna meet a violent, untimely death."

Jamie looked at Tetrax to see if he'd allow her to do that, but to his surprise, Tetrax took her side:

"You know, nobody would realize what happened if you happened to have fallen off the edge of the ship." - he said without even looking at him.

Realizing that he was standing right at the edge and right in front of Tetrax, who could very easily push him off, Jamie squeamishly kept silent. He kept watching Shala and Naver's mission with them, though.


Shala and Naver went through the same ordeal when it was time to jump off this platform onto the next one, and then the next time there was a quickly-moving tank track, and then once more. Though, Naver grew more trusting of Shala's calculations after they proved to be a success again and again.

"Can't any of these be used?" – Naver asked as they jumped onto a S.C.A.M.P.E.R. "Isn't this the KND thing that flies us to the mainland?" – he asked and stomped on it to check its integrity.

"Nah, we salvaged everything that we could from here already." – Shala declined. "All that remains here is scrap. The only thing usable is Dexter's airship, but it's infested with Cephalopods and god knows what else."

That word was familiar to Naver.

"I feel a lot more comfortable too, knowing that the Scoria Cephalopods are located way on the other side of the island." "Honestly, I just wouldn't go there if I were you."

And yet, here Naver was. He remembered how terrifying everything seemed back then, only a couple days ago. Though now it felt like an eternity had passed. He looked around at the lake beneath his feet and felt small. He then looked at Planet Fusion in the heavens above him and felt even smaller.

"You comin'?" – Shala snapped him out of it as he jumped on the next jump pad.

"Yeah, yeah, right." – Naver followed.

"Okay, so here's the deal." – Shala told him as Naver caught up. "We either take the cannon right here, or we take the long way around. Now, I vote we do the canon."

"What do you mean, "take the cannon", exactly?" – Naver hesitantly asked, hoping Shala didn't mean what he thought he meant.

"We jump into it and shoot ourselves out of it! What else am I supposed to mean?" – Shala answered, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

Naver stared at Shala. "You really don't see anything wrong with that statement?" – he asked.

"What? It's a normal thing!"

"Shooting yourself out of a cannon?"

"People have been using them to traverse the Infected Zones for as long as Infected Zones have been a thing!"

"Well, what if you miscalculate and miss? We're gonna fall into the Fusion Matter lake!"

"Naver. I don't miscalculate." – Shala assured him. But judging by the look on Naver's face, that wasn't enough. "But if someone were to miscalculate, you see that patch of land over there?" – Shala pointed at something in the corner of the Infected Zone. "That's the general area where you land if you miss the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. hull. There's a warp pad there and everything."

"But then we'll have to climb the whole thing all over again!" – Naver protested. "No. We're taking the long way home."

"You don't have faith in my calculations?"

"It's not that, it's just, risk versus reward. I'd rather take the one that's not gonna make me do this whole thing all over again."

"Fine, fine." – Shala begrudgingly agreed.


"Okay, let's take a break before we take the final leap." - Shala told Naver while panting.

"Really? I mean, it's right there!" - Naver answered, who was all ready to go.

"You're not tired?" - Shala asked.

"No. Why would I be?"

"I mean, with all the jumping, and running, and jumping…" - Shala told him while leaning on his knees to catch a breath. "Also, those quickly swaying platforms really messed up my vestibular system."

"Or maybe you're just out of shape, old man." - Naver laughed.

"Wait till I catch you, you… you rapscallion!" - Shala jokingly told Naver, but instead sat down on the platform that once belonged to a Dexlabs tank, with his feet hanging off the edge, flapping in the air a couple hundred feet above the ground.

"Water me." – he told Naver.

"Hm?"

"I'm just gonna say "water me" if I need water from your bag. Usually I'd ask for Radicola but well thanks to Tetrax…"

"Okay, okay." – Naver said and took his backpack off. "Why do I gotta carry all the supplies?" – he asked as he got a bottle of water out of it and tossed it to Shala.

"Because you insisted we take them, even though we're literally right there." – Shala said and pointed at the Mandark Industries airship on the other side of the force field.

Naver sighed and sat down next to him. At this point, they were even higher than the airship, and all they had to do was zipline down. They watched the Cephalopods that were inhabiting the airship, floating around with their tentacles swaying ethereally through the air. The way they were hovering, with the tentacles wavering while defying gravity, felt almost dream-like, though Naver struggled to recall any time he had a dream at all.

"So those are the Scoria Cephalopods?" - Naver asked to break the silence.

"Slag."

"Hm?"

"Slag Cephalopods."

"I thought they were called Scoria."

"That's the other ones."

"What's the difference?"

"You'd have to ask Alice for that. All I know is that the Scoria ones are the ones at Fuse's Lair. Oh, I bet we can see it from here!"

"Are you kidding me?" - Naver yelled. The fleeting feeling of safety that he had during this short break as well as the weird dream nostalgia evaporated as soon as he realized how close to Fuse's Lair they actually were.

"Yeah, look! It's right there, on the other side of the lake over there!" - Shala pointed out. "You see that green beam shooting into the sky?"

"Yeah. That dome. Is that it?"

"That's it." - Shala confirmed.

"Huh. Didn't realize that we were so close."

"Well, I did tell you that we're in the most dangerous part of the island. Did you assume Lord Fuse lived in happy funtime cupcake land?"

"So what's stopping us?" - Naver asked after considering for a moment.

"From what?"

"I mean…" - Naver paused again to formulate the question. "What would happen if you and me just went down there and into Fuse's Lair? What's stopping us from doing that?"

"Uhhh, well, let's see, the deadliest monsters on the planet, the elite Fusion generals, the force field surrounding it and oh, yeah, Lord Goddamn Fuse himself! Many have tried, Naver, many have tried. If they had succeeded, we wouldn't be here right now."

"Is there no weapon powerful enough to take the monsters or Fuse on? I mean, our guns and swords seem to be doing enough damage…" - Naver suggested. "Like what if we nuked him or something?"

"It's not that simple. That's what the force field's for. It's kind of like… it passes regular people like you and me through, but the more energy something contains, like, say, a massive Ion Cannon, your nuke, or a Powerpuff Girl, or even the Omnitrix, the harder it is to get it through. And it serves two purposes - it's like a living sensor that alerts all the Fusion creatures in the area. So while you're trying to get through the damn thing, all the monsters start converging on your ass and, well… you'll Naver see sunlight again." - Shala explained.

"Was…" - Naver said, not quite realizing what he said. "Was that a joke on my name?"

"A pun, actually, but yeah. I've been dying to use one ever since I met you. I Naver thought I'd get the chance."

"Okay, now you're the one that's getting annoying!" - Naver told him. "That's it, get up, move it, let's go. We've got the entire Darklands depending on this mission, don't we?" - he said as he lightly hit Shala's side to get him up.

"Yeah, yeah, don't remind me." - Shala wheezed as he got up.

"Alright!" - Naver yelled as the air rushed to his face while ziplining down at breathtaking velocity. "This is awesome!"

"It is as long as you don't look down!" - Shala answered from ahead of him.

With that, Naver immediately looked down and the view of his feet dangling hundreds of feet in the air was enough to almost make him let go. Because of this, he wasn't paying attention when they arrived at the airship and he knocked himself right into Shala, who had landed perfectly. Both of them fell down and rolled over on the ground.

"Seriously?" Shala asked from under Naver.

"What did you think was gonna happen when you reminded me that looking down was a thing I could do?" - Naver retorted.

Though, they had more pressing concerns. Their 10/10 landing had attracted the nearest two Slag Cephalopods that liked to hang around the ship.

Both of them quickly got up and readied their weapons. Nano Humongosaur and Nano Numbuh Four appeared next to the fighters. As Naver saw the creatures from up-close, though, there was nothing ethereal about them anymore. The protrusions on their anterior looked like a hideous, grim face, deadset on killing. As the monsters approached, the pair of detached chunks of rock that floated around each of the Cephalopods turned around, looking like they were taking aim - right at Shala and Naver!

"Those things shoot at you!" - Shala warned Naver as he saw the floating chunk draw power, light up at the tip and discharge a blast of Fusion Matter at them.

Naver managed to dodge in time. Shala was firing at one of them with his Chill Caster while Nano Humongosaur Snared it. The creature was impeded, but the other one was still coming and it had Naver in its sights. After firing another Fusion blast, the Cephalopod floated up to Naver, who had been stuck in place, frozen like a deer in the headlights. Naver finally swung his Aerial Slicer awkwardly, but the monster caught his sword with its tentacles. While Naver was trying to jerk it free, the monster kept pushing, pushing Naver back to the edge of the airship with the intent of throwing him off. Though, Naver was putting up a fight, pushing back, so the monster seemed to change its mind - the pair of FM-blasting appendages started charging back up again while aiming at Naver at point-blank range…

"DUDE!" - Shala yelled as he shot at one of them, making it miss, while Naver dodged the other one, albeit badly, and still got burned. He groaned in pain, but luckily Nano Numbuh Four was already on it.

"Hold on, I think I…" - Naver responded, but stopped mid-sentence because he was right on the edge, with one leg flailing in the air already. This was it, if he didn't push back, he'd fall off into the Fusion lake. He needed to push, push, push… And something within him pushed back and gave him leverage from behind as the Cephalopod was forced to retreat a little.

Naver got his second foot back onto solid ground. He straightened his stance and changed his grip on the weapon. As the monster kept pushing it, Naver stepped out of the way and with a quick twist of his wrists, pried the sword out of the tentacles while also cutting most of them in half. The Cephalopod, not being able to stop its momentum, fell forwards. Naver used the inertia of the sidestep to turn around and immediately saw an opening - the Cephalopod's backside was now almost naked without its tentacles covering it, and with one powerful jab, he drove the blade right through the monster so far into its back that it came out the other side. The Cephalopod, obviously crumbled, and bits and pieces of its rocky structure fell down into the corrosive lake below as Naver collected the Fusion Matter into his NanoCom.

Shala, after having frozen his Cephalopod's appendages and smashing them together, took care of his share as well.

"What was that?" - Shala asked him.

"What was what?"

"You nearly fell off!"

"Yeah, I, uh… I choked again." - Naver admitted.

"That still happens to you? I thought we were making so much progress!"

"We are, we are… But it's not a powers thing, it's more of a mental state thing."

"Maybe Mr. Sarcastic hasn't completely found himself after all." - Shala commented with an off-handed tone, though still showed some concern.

"I'll manage, okay?" - Naver assured him. "But did you watch what I did afterwards?"

"When you shoved that sword where the light don't shine?"

"No, no, when I was about to be knocked off. Remember how you taught me to use my powers with leverage to lift things easier?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, this time, I used it to give myself leverage. I was running out of space and my foot was already dangling in the air, and I used my powers to, like, support it so that I could return to a balanced stance, if that makes any sense…"

"Wow! Yeah, that is pretty cool. I see you have taken my teachings well." – Shala said, channeling his inner Samurai Jack. "Now come on, we need to keep moving until the others start closing in."

Shala and Naver snuck by a couple more Cephalopods that were hanging around the airship's exterior. Naver looked around. The infection really seemed to have taken a toll on this place - the hull was covered with Terrafusers big and small. As he was distracted by them, he tripped over the Terrafuser roots, but before he slammed down on the floor causing monster-attracting noises, something in the air pushed him back and he was back on his feet. Naver realized his telekinetic powers activated reflexively and caught him, exactly like just now in the fight. "Cool." - he thought to himself.

Soon, they reached the entrance to the station's interior.

"This damn door has been jammed ever since the whole thing blew up." - Shala groaned, talking about the sliding door that was only open several inches wide, stuck in place by more Fusion Matter roots.

"How do we get in, then?"

"We squeeze ourselves in." - Shala said, took off the Chill Caster he had strapped over his shoulder and held it in one hand so that he'd fit in the narrow slit in the door. Naver took off his backpack and did the same. And now, they were in.

The interior was rather spooky - the lights weren't functional anymore and the only thing giving the area lighting were the Terrafusers' caustic glow. Naver turned back and looked at the slit as they walked further in, with daylight growing ever further away. Though, was this even daylight? The skies of Green Maw were already toxic green, just like the lake itself, so the only difference was the confined space, which was a whole other thing to worry about.

Shala and Naver walked slowly along the wall, as silently as ninjas. They approached a turn in the hallway. As Shala walked up to the corner, he suddenly stopped Naver behind him with his hand.

Naver flinched. "What is it?" – he asked. Cephalopods? Something even worse? A Fusion?

"Water me." – Shala told him.

"Dude! I almost had a heart attack!" – Naver whisper-yelled at him. "I thought there were monsters ahead!"

"Well, there's gonna be later. Be on your guard."

"I am on my guard! You're the one that wanted water!"

"Quiet, or I'll throw the water in your face." – Shala shushed him and kept moving.

Naver wanted to say something, but decided that whatever it was, it wasn't going to be worth it, so he quietly followed along.

"So you do know where we're going, right?" – Naver asked him.

"Yep. These are the ship's living quarters. They're a lot bigger than the Mandark ones. From here, we'll get past the control room and to the tech support area. Only thing is, it's way on the other side of the airship, near the nose." And some passages here are gonna be infected, or full of monsters. So keep an eye out."

"I AM!" – Naver yelled, then immediately grabbed his mouth to shut himself up, because that came off too loudly.

"Are you crazy? Quiet!" – Shala told him sternly.

"I am quiet, you're the one that keeps telling me to be quiet, or else I really would stay quiet!" – Naver defended himself. If that made any sense.

Though, they both stayed quiet now – they needed to listen carefully in case Naver had attracted some monsters. Though, they only thing they heard was their own hearts beating at lightning speed, anticipating danger. And a tingle of dread made its way into their bodies, as they heard sharp clanks on the metal hull on the ship approaching them, mixed with gargled Fusion noises. There was no denying it. There were monsters out and about.

Shala dragged Naver behind a bunch of large DexLabs crates piled up in a stack in front of a corner to hide from the monsters while he held his hand on Naver's mouth to stop him from talking. Naver thought that this was totally extra, however, and bit him. It was Shala's time to practice what he preached because he really had to suppress his yell to stay quiet.

"Are these the Eyebulbs? I recognize the noises they're making." - Naver whispered while hunched down behind the crates. He tried peeking from behind the crates to see what was awaiting them.

"No, don't look, we're gonna be spotted immediately. Also, listen closely. You can also hear the pitter-patter of tiny crab-like legs, "which is an attribute exclusive to the Eyebores", as Alice would condescendingly say."

"What's the difference?"

"Eyebores are worse."

"Of course they're worse. Why can't anything on this island get easier for a ch-"

"Shhh!" - Shala held his hand on Naver's mouth again. Though, remembering what Naver just did, he immediately let go.

"So what are we supposed to do if we can't see them? You don't expect me to go by voice, do you?"

"No, I don't, but hold on. I got an idea." - Shala said as he looked into his NanoCom and opened a menu.

"What Nano could possibly get us out of this?"

"Shh!" - Shala shushed him again. "The ship's interior is full of surveillance cameras, and as long as their short-range connection is still up… Yess! They're active! Well, at least some are. Now all I need is Dexter's old login.

Shala typed in "spacewars" on the NanoCom's holo-keyboard. Didn't work.

"No, didn't think that would work, he changed that one." - he muttered to himself.

Naver listened to the surroundings to determine whether the monsters were getting closer or farther. It seemed like they were all over the place, some passing dangerously closely by, and it was only a matter of time till they decided to check here.

Shala tried "deedeequitusingmycomputer". Nope. "dexstarrboyofwonder". No dice. Each time he tried using various combinations of capitalizations and numbers, Dexter's birthday, the opening date of DexLabs, but none of them worked.

"Are you sure you're ever gonna get it?" - Naver asked him.

"Don't be a downer, Naver. I worked there, I know all of his passwords. Well, he'd have changed them afterwards, but he definitely didn't get the chance to change them on this ship, that's for sure. But I tried everything - his birthday, his favorite superhero, his nerd show…"

"Did you try his girlfriend?" - Naver asked as an obvious joke and snickered.

"Eureka!" - Shala almost forgot the situation he was in and it came off a bit louder than usual. "Eureka? Seriously? Now I'm sounding just like him." - he thought to himself.

"Wait, you're-? I was kidding!" - Naver objected as Shala typed in "dexblossforever" while grinning to his ears, barely able to contain his laughter. Naver, however, felt second-hand embarrassment.

"I would have guessed it sooner but I totally forgot those two were a thing. I mean, come on, look at Blossom, then look at Dexter…" - Shala explained even as the monsters kept clacking around the interior. "Like who would have thought…"

"Yeah, well, that makes it Dexter - 1, Shala - 0." - Naver commented.

"Oh, don't you start with me!" - Shala objected, but this time Naver put his hand on Shala's mouth to keep him quiet. Shala responded by slobbering all over it.

"Ew!" - Naver looked at his hand, got grossed out, and wiped it off on Shala's jacket. "Hello, genius, the cameras?" - he then told him.

"Right, right. So… yep. Eyebores. All over the living quarters." - Shala said as he projected several holo-screens depicting camera feed from various angles.

"How did you even manage to get them to work, anyway? Isn't this whole place shut down?"

"Fusion Matter keeps electronics active no matter what. There was a whole thing at Dizzy World where all the attractions stayed active despite the power being cut off… Anyway, right now, what we need is a distraction. I'll see if I can hack into anything else while I'm here…" - Shala muttered and got back into digging through the NanoCom.

In the meantime, Naver watched the camera feeds. One of them showed the crates him and Shala were hunched behind. The other one he didn't recognize at first, but it was obviously the door that led them into this section of the ship in the first place. And there was another door that looked like the exit.

"Crap. The only door I'm still able to control is the one we're trying to lead them away from. What's the point of getting the monsters away from here if we can't advance into the interior, anyway?"

"Then do that and we'll be able to get away and come back another time!" – Naver suggested.

"Oh, no. I'm not going back to Tetrax empty-handed this time. And plus, I don't want to have climbed this high up in the Infected Zone all for nothing." – Shala told him. "But what would the distraction be…" – he muttered to himself.

Naver started thinking too. If only they could move something… without moving from their spot… move something with the power of their mind…

"Eureka!" – Naver said.

"Oh, great, now I've got him doing this…" – Shala muttered to himself.

"I'll try to use my powers!" – Naver suggested.

"Your- wait, wait. Yeah. This could work. But what would you do? Throw something at them? Are you sure you're up for that?"

"Well, I can try, can't I?" – Naver suggested. He looked into his bag to see what he had that they could use. The empty water bottles that Shala had been draining one after another as if they were Radicola seemed appropriate. Plus, they were light, and easy to move around. So, Naver got one out of the bag.

"Okay, Naver, listen. We've only got one shot at this. If you drop it here, they're gonna find us, and we're probably dead." – Shala instructed him. "So, I want you to carry this thing as far as you can into the hallway going to the right and then drop it as loudly as possible. Are you up for that?"

"Yeah, well, I can try." – Naver repeated. He got ready to use his powers. He cleared his mind and focused it on the singular task – keeping that bottle in the air. He had already held sacs of Fusion Matter in the air without dropping them, well, for the most part, so he should be fine with this, right? As the bottle floated up in the air out of Shala's grasp, Naver slowly but surely levitated it through the hallway. It got slanted to the side, and for a moment there, it nearly slipped through Naver's telekinetical fingers, but he managed to grab on, and shakily continued its path. Slow and steady… come on… just a little bit further…

Shala was fed up with this. He quickly grabbed another empty bottle from Naver's bag and simply threw it around the corner as hard as he could, which did manage to cause noise as well as startle Naver, which caused him to drop the bottle.

"What the heck dude?!" – Naver whisper-yelled.

"You were taking too long!" – Shala responded. "Shh!" – he then shushed him again. They both hid behind the crates, as a whole bunch of Eyebores ran past them to the direction where the water bottle hit the wall. Shala was watching them on his camera feed.

"Alright, we go NOW!" – Shala pulled Naver up as he himself got out of the hiding spot and started running. At the same time, he was still keeping an eye on the camera feed. "Shit, they're onto us!" – he then said, as he noticed most of the Eyebulbs changing their direction after not finding the source of the noise.

"What do we do?" – Naver asked while running with him.

"Just gotta reach the door!" – Shala responded while also going in another menu on his NanoCom. Though, it made him stumble on a Terrafuser vine on the floor and nearly fall down, so he had to put the NanoCom away for now. "There!" – Shala yelled as they ran through the doorway that bridged the living quarters and the tech support area. And for some reason, Shala stopped and turned around.

"What the heck?!" – Naver yelled, expecting them to keep running.

"Hold on…" – Shala said while intensely and a little bit frantically trying to access something on his NanoCom menu. Meanwhile, the horde of Eyebores became visible in the ship's dim light. Shala was right – there were too many of them, and Naver's master swordsman skills didn't manifest consistently enough for them to rely on them.

"Shala?"

"Just a moment… There!" – he yelled as the door closed right in front of them, shutting the monsters out. One of theirs tendril-arms got caught in it, though, got detached and rolled on the floor in front of Shala and Naver. It was still active, however, frantically looking at Shala and Naver, then splitting its mouth open and hissing at them. Shala walked up to it and stomped it with all of his strength, squishing it like a grape.

"Okay, that was pretty cool." – Naver admitted. "Can every NanoCom do stuff like that?"

"Nope. Just mine. I jailbroke it."

"Really? And that's a good idea? Okay, whatever. One question, though. How the heck are we gonna get out of here when it's time to go?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, don't worry. Thank god this door wasn't jammed." – Shala sighed of relief.

"You mean… wait, you didn't know if it was gonna work?!"

"Thank god it did, right?" – Shala nodded.

"But what if it hadn't?!"

"Well, it did, and that's the end of that." – Shala pretended to wipe his hands as if he was wiping off dust.

"But, what if it hadn't?" – Naver repeated, more firmly.

"Then I guess we'd have fought them. I mean you're basically Samurai Jack in there when shit hits the fan so we'd be fine."

"But what if my powers had failed? Just like with the Cephalopods?" – Naver challenged Shala's decision further.

"Oh, give me a break, of course they would work! Come on, they always work when you're pushed to the edge. ESPECIALLY if you see a friend in danger."

"Yeah, well, that may not always work." – Naver disagreed.

"Come on, you immediately jump to the worst case scenario."

"And you immediately jump to the best case one!" – Naver retorted. "The sword skills don't always work! Sometimes not even my powers are enough!"

"Oh, really?" – Shala asked, though it was apparent that he didn't believe him.

"Yeah, well, you can just ask Lars about that if you have any doubts!" – Naver snapped back at him.

"I-" – Shala started, but this time, he was at a loss for words. Naver… actually had a point here, assuming what Shala assumed happened to Lars was what actually happened… He tried speaking up again, trying to say, well, at least something, but Naver was in the right.

"Alright, let's drop it, man." – Naver sighed, also not happy with the confrontation. "I don't wanna be all confrontational about it either."

Shala sighed too. Though, it was also a sigh of relief, as he was out of this argument.

"So, what next?" – Naver asked him.

"Okay, I'll keep in mind not to gamble on your powers from now on." – Shala promised.

"No, I mean, dude, where do we go next? Where's that communicator thing?" – Naver clarified.

"Oh. Pffft. Yeah, yeah. I thought… Yeah, I guess we should keep going." – Shala said as he led on the way.

As they carefully walked along the eerie hallway, Shala felt guilty.

"Listen, about Lars…"

"Let's just drop it, okay?" – Naver shot him down, not really feeling like discussing it further. "Forget about it."

"Listen, if you feel like your powers are not too reliable, maybe it really isn't a good idea to bring you on such a dangerous mission…" – Shala changed the lane, still feeling the need to sort things out with him.

"I…" – Naver started, but immediately paused, feeling the need to better articulate it. "I don't know, I feel like I can do it, but at the same time, I can't stand the thought of being responsible for your death as well… but then again, what else am I supposed to do, sit on my ass and let Fuse take over? I already know that's not what I'm about anymore. So, what… what do I do?" – Naver finally asked.

"Well, I'm no therapist, but… I guess you should get over the thing with Lars. You know, like, work through it. That might be what's causing you to choke in battle all the time."

"Yeah, well, I don't know how I'm supposed to do that…" – Naver admitted.

"Yeah, neither do I. I'll help you in any way I can, but, well…"

"Yeah." – Naver sighed.

Both of them felt relief as they moved on, but this was way too early to let their guard down, considering where they were at the moment.

"Stop!" – Shala halted Naver again.

"What is it? Water you again?"

"No, any more than that and I'll want to go to the bathroom. No, there's something I want to see here." – Shala told him as they stopped at a branching door in the hallway. Shala drew his NanoCom again. "Now this door, it leads to the part of the airship that put the "research" in research station. All kinds of Fusion trackers and analyzers. Couple of testing sites. DNA extractors. You know, stuff like that. And, the control room is through here, too."

"But we need the other area, right? The one that's like, all about tech support?"

"Yeah, but there's something in here… Could be useful. That is, if only we could get the stupid door to open…" – Shala said as he kicked it, but alas, the door was bound with Terrafuser roots. Not even the NanoCom access panel could open it. But, while Shala was in the menu, he had another idea…

He accessed the cameras inside. The ones that were in range, anyway. The first one gave off static. So did the second one. "So none of those are operational." – Shala explained to Naver. And neither were the third, fourth, and fifth… As Shala lost hope, he tried opening the final one in range. Shockingly, they were met with a different output! Instead of gray static, the NanoCom's holo-panel gave off a black screen, only tinted ever-so-slightly blue because of the NanoCom's holographic interface.

Shala and Naver looked at each other in surprise. Shala was about to say something, but was interrupted.

"The intruders on my ship are none of your concern." – a female voice said, obviously coming through the feed. Shala wanted to say something now, but the voice started talking again.

"Oh. Him. Well, what do you expect me to do? I'll have him taken care of… my way."

The voice had some sort of gargled reverb, one specific to the way Fusions talked. That much was obvious to both Shala and Naver. But who was she talking to? And who were they talking about?

"You have your orders, Fusion Mandark. You don't need to concern yourself with him any longer. You should be thanking me." – the voice continued.

Shala dove right back into the hologram, going full-on hacker mode (as he referred to it in his mind), determined to get video feed. He tried toggling every setting. He checked for any more possible cameras in the vicinity. Nothing.

"Shala, shouldn't we leave before whoever it is opens that door and sends her legion of Fusion Monsters after us?" – Naver piped up.

"Hold on, let me try… yeah, I've got nothing. But I swear, dude, that voice sounds familiar to me."

"You've faced that Fusion before?" – Naver asked as they started moving.

"Um… No, I would have remembered if it was a Fusion. No, no, I don't remember a female Fusion around these parts, well, not unless it's one of the Kanker sisters… but that's unlikely. No, I think I know the person who this is a Fusion of in real life- I mean, pfft. The actual person and not the Fusion. That's why the voice sounds familiar to me."

"But you don't know who specifically?" – Naver inquired further.

"No, I don't think so." – Shala answered.

"Any other Fusions you know in this area?"

"Fusion Coop used to have a lair around here but we took him out ages ago… Nobody female comes to mind. Still, I definitely know this person… And then there's Fusion Mandark…"

"Come on, how many girls could you possibly know?"

"What is it with you and these comments? What, you don't think I've got game?" – Shala protested.

"Well, you were asking me to set you up with Cindy from Providence back at Huntor's…"

"That's it, you're officially off my wingman list." – Shala said definitively, as if this was some sort of punishment.

"Oh, what a great list that might be. Who else is on it? Jay? Tetrax?" – Naver continued.

"Naver, I swear to god…"

Before Naver got the chance to really get on Shala's nerves, they heard monsters approach again. Whoever that Fusion was, she was sure working effectively.

"We'll discuss the wingman list later, right now we better hightail it out of here!" – Shala warned Naver as they started running.

"Should we try to do that thing again?" – Naver suggested.

"I don't think it's gonna work if the Fusion is the one commanding them! Goddammit, why did there have to be a Fusion on here? And who the hell is it? Through here!" – Shala yelled as he led Naver to a different passage.

"Alright, we're here and, um, I need to work on this thing to get it out. I can't do it while fighting, so you're gonna have to hold them off for me, alright?" – Shala nervously told Naver.

"Seriously? After all we talked about?" – Naver protested, even though he knew there was no other way.

"Just don't think about Lars! Or something!" – Shala tried to encourage, but he wasn't able to find the right words. "Come on, dude, you've got this!"

"Well, let's sure hope so because forget the communicator, we'll be lucky to make it out of here alive!" – Naver said as he drew his sword and summoned his Nano Numbuh Four.

"Yeah! Go Naver!" – Shala yelled as he grabbed the tools to disassemble/detach the necessary machinery.

The screws. Why do they have to be so tiny? The screwdriver, come on, quickly, get the screwdriver… No, that's the wrong one! He could have unscrewed them using a coin… except nobody carried real money anymore. Goddamn Taros. This thing is coming off one way or another. Finally. Crap, some Terrafuser vines got in there… Who knows what kind of damage they did. Swishing, slicing, winces of pain coming from the side. Naver's barely keeping up with the monsters. Shala looked at how he was doing, then got his Chill Caster and shot at them once to cover Naver's back.

"Don't mind me, you get that thing ready!" – Naver yelled at him.

"Right!" – Shala yelled back. He usually wasn't fazed by stuff like this during work, but the ongoing battle was really putting the pressure on him, and his hand was uncharacteristically shaking. Now he's gotta get the wrench, but he can't put it in because the Fusion roots are getting in the way… Garbled groans of Eyebores coming from behind him, as well as the all-too-familiar sound of them reverting to Fusion Matter… Finally, he ripped a part of the root off the chasis, and the wrench was in. Twist. Twist. Twist. Dexter was right, this is a great exercise, as much as Shala hated to admit it. Now that small thing that Shala never bothered to learn the name of… careful, don't drop it… and he's got it! He's got the communications drive!

"I've got the communications drive!" – Shala yelled, and looked at Naver. He was barely holding back an entire horde of Eyebores. In fact, there were so many of them that they didn't fit in the hallway and were climbing all over each other to get to Naver, sometimes getting their vines knotted in each other in the process.

"You got it? Awesome! Now how do we get out of here?"

"This is our only exit!" – Shala pointed out.

"No way we fight our way through THAT!" – Naver yelled, as more and more monsters kept piling on.

"That Fusion wants us DEAD dead, huh? Alright, on the count of three, you stop pushing back and follow me!" – Shala instructed. Naver started mentally preparing himself, but Shala quickly yelled "One two three!" and started running, pulling Naver with him for him to do the same. He led Naver to a smaller side room which fortunately had a door they could close in on themselves. Unfortunately, there was no other way out of there.

"Okay, what's the plan?" – Naver asked Shala.

"This was the plan!" – Shala told him.

"Getting us trapped in here with no way out? Gee, what a swell plan! I can see now why you're Tetrax's master strategist!" – Naver yelled sarcastically.

"Better in here than out there!" – Shala defended himself. "And besides, don't worry about it, we're gonna be just fine. Juust fine, Naver."

"So, you do have a plan."

"Not yet I don't, but I might have already thought of one if SOMEONE didn't start YELLING AT ME!" – Shala himself yelled. "Okay, I know what we're gonna do." – Shala said as he looked around. Meanwhile the door, which wasn't really going to hold for too long.

"Unless my memory betrays me, this room is right on the edge of the hull. From this wall is the outside." – Shala explained.

"Can we blow up the wall? With your gun?" – Naver asked, thinking this was where Shala was taking it.

"What? No, of course not. The Chill Caster can't get through this thing, come on, this hull's designed to withstand-"

"Then what is it that we're gonna do?!" – Naver interrupted him.

"Okay, okay, look. Um… give me the sword for a moment." – Shala demanded as he grabbed it. He looked at a different wall (not the outside one) sideways, aimed along a circuit and slashed a line through. He opened up the insides, revealing circuitry.

"Okay, now, Naver… water me." – Shala told him, intentionally calling back to earlier. Naver hesitated at first, wondering if Shala was kidding, but as his expression didn't change, Naver got out the final remaining water bottle. Shala opened it, nonchalantly poured it over the circuitry he had just opened up then suddenly bolted towards the opposite corner, dragging Naver away with him.

"What did you do?" – Naver asked.

"That thing's gonna blow. And if it doesn't take us with it, it's gonna blow us a hole to get out of!" – Shala yelled as he covered his face. Naver did the same. Moreover, Naver surrounded himself with his mental energy to act as a force field…

BRZZT…PWEEEEH…..KR-BOOM!

Naver's protection turned out to be just enough, even though he still felt the force of impact hit his shield. Wait, was his headache coming back? No time to think about that now, because…

"Just as I planned." – Shala smirked as he looked out the newly ripped hole in the hull. He never thought the sight of Green Maw would feel so welcoming.

"Hey!" – Naver said, as something about the airship shifted. "Did you feel that?"

"Yeah?" – Shala asked uncertainly. Hold on… the view of the outside, it was changing. Slowly shifting in perspective. It was changing because…

The airship was falling down.

THE AIRSHIP WAS FALLING DOWN!

"Oh, shit…" – Shala muttered.

Naver caught on to what was going on. "WHAT THE HECK DO WE DO NOW? HOW DID WE GET THE ENTIRE AIRSHIP TO FALL?!"

At that moment, as if they needed something else to go wrong, the door finally gave (probably due to the blast) and monsters started pouring through like water, pushing Shala and Naver off the edge and sending them into freefall. Heck, a lot of the monsters poured over the edge with them.

Once again, Shala was in freefall, plummeting downwards from an airship. Though, this time, right in the middle of an Infected Zone, headed towards the Fusion Matter lake. That's gonna be one nasty belly flop.

As he was falling, he thought he saw people down there. Though, there was no time to think about that, as he had mere seconds to decide what to do… Then, he saw a Cephalopod flying around, grasped and… grabbed onto one of its tendrils. The gravitational pull stretched the tentacle and pulled the Cephalopod down, it also nearly ripped Shala's arm out of its socket, but before the monster had any time to react, Shala used the momentum to swing and shoot upwards instead, slamming his whole body straight into a S.C.A.M.P.E.R. that he managed to hold onto. He looked up and saw that Naver had stopped his fall by sticking his sword into the side of another platform. Shala had to keep moving, however, because the Cephalopod didn't like his swing one bit, and it was coming to him to speak its mind about him.

Shala saw the Cephalopod coming, saw another platform moving towards him and, after a split-second of doing the math (most of which was winging it) he charged towards the creature, jumped instead of engaging with it, used its hovering limb blaster module thingy as a stepping stone and jumped onto the next platform. The landing took more on his knees than he had expected. This platform was falling, too, however, as the airship's fall had disrupted the suspended gravity of all of the hovering platforms in the Infected Zone. Shala had to keep moving to avoid plummeting down, for one, and to run away from the Cephalopod, which now was probably REALLY pissed at him. He looked up again to make sure Naver was doing fine – he was, though he was dealing with the Eyebores from the ship – and now Shala kept moving forward, jumping off the platform's other edge towards a sloped structure, landed on his butt and started sliding downwards. The Cephalopod was still pursuing him, now joined by another, and Shala turned around and started shooting at them while he was sliding down at an accelerating rate. It took turns left, right, up, down. Shala heard the Cephalopods charging their Fusion Matter blasts and he had to lean to slide sideways to dodge them as he couldn't fire back. Suddenly, the slide ran out from right under Shala's butt. The momentum, however, flung Shala right over yet another Cephalopod and towards a platform with…

"Naver!" – Shala yelled as he landed right next to him. "Oh, shit, don't stop, come on, run!" – he then yelled, as he saw the Cephalopods moving towards them. The one that Shala had pissed off specifically was even bigger than the others.

Shala and Naver approached another one of those platforms that kept moving back and forth at high speed.

"I'm not about to start calculating again, just-" – Shala warned Naver, but Naver wasn't listening, as he had, in fact, jumped. Shala followed him, though he jumped too late and missed it… almost… he held his hand out to maybe grab onto it and flailed his legs in the air, but his leg felt like it was pressing against a solid… taking a step on thin air was the leverage he needed to reach the platform, though Naver still had to grab him.

"You're welcome, by the way." – Naver told him.

"That was you? Your powers pushed me up? – Shala asked, surprised. Naver nodded. They jumped onto the next platform, but there was a problem. There was nowhere left for them to jump. Shala and Naver turned back around, with the monsters finally catching up to them, but something totally unexpected happened.

Something came in flying and actually hit the monster.

"You?!" – Shala yelled.

"Him!" – Naver also yelled.

Jay gave them a split-second smirk as he turned back towards the monsters with Couture Rifle in his hand. Shala and Naver looked at each other, then at Jay, then at the Cephalopods, and joined him in the battle.

Not even seconds later someone else was with them.

"Alice!" – Shala yelled excitedly.

"For MONTHS this airship was in its place, unmoved, untouched, and undisturbed. Months, LG! HOW THE HELL DID YOU MANAGE TO GET IT COME CRASHING DOWN?" – she yelled at him.

"Long story." – Shala defended himself. "And I'm happy to see you too."

"We were cornered and had to blow our way out." – Naver explained.

"Okay, maybe not such a long story. But where the hell did you guys come from? You were heading towards Forsaken Valley!"

"Got trapped under some tunnels, again, and they led us here through the lake, where we saw you… doing whatever this is." – Alice recapped.

"Well, how did you get up here all flying like that?" – Naver asked her.

"The cannons." – Jay said bluntly.

"Oh."

"More Cephalopods incoming! The big one is especially pissed at me!" – Shala warned them.

"That's the Alpha! Their leader!" – Alice yelled. "Look, it's appendages have their own appendages! And all of them are gonna be shooting right at us!"

"More monsters incoming on our 11 from above!" – Jay remarked. More Eyebores were falling out of the ship, right into their direction as they were barely fighting off the Cephalopods.


"There's four of them now? This just got so much more interesting. Someone's gotta get hurt." – Jamie remarked while watching through the Tetrax spyglass. He then shoved some more popcorn into his mouth.

"Hey, quit hogging it!" – Macy told him and grabbed some of her own, also watching the battle keenly.

Tetrax's arms were getting tired.


"What do you think they were trying to get?" – Doyle asked while watching the monitors.

"I don't know. Maybe a Fusion?" – Noah supposed.

"Well, let's hope they didn't bite off more than they could chew. Good thing Alice arrived just in time." – Doyle told him and took another swig of Huntor's brew. "HUNTOR! HEY, HUNTOR, GET IN HERE! YOU'RE MISSING THE BATTLE!" – he yelled.


"So…" – Shala said while running up a S.C.A.M.P.E.R., trying to climb it faster than it was falling in order to reach the next tank after it. "How was Forsaken?"

"Now is seriously not…" – Alice started, who was right behind him, but then thought it didn't really matter. "We went surfing."

"Nice to see you're taking things easy. How come you were never free when I wanted to hang out?" – Shala told her in the middle of the jump. "We'd drive all the way to Canada!"

"Alice is Canadian?" – Naver asked at this huge revelation. Jay remained silent.

"It's like an hour long drive from where you lived, Shala, it's not that far!" – Alice retaliated right as she shot at a Slag Cephalopod.

"The airship." – Jay laconically reminded them, as it was still right above them and still falling on top of them unless they managed to get out of its shadow.

"Did you piss off every monster in Hero's Hollow?" – Alice complained as more Eyebores followed them.

"There was a Fusion on the ship!" – Shala explained.

"What? Which one?" – Jay interjected.

"We don't know! We only heard a voice!" – Naver explained as he tele-pushed away a bunch of Eyebores.

"All we know is that she's in league with Fusion Mandark!" – Shala told him.

"Fusion Mandark?" – Jay repeated while shooting at the Cephalopods ahead of him. "I've heard that one before!"

"Guys, I don't wanna interrupt, but can we focus here?" – Naver piped up as he ducked from a rogue platfrom spinning and flying around crazily because of the messed up gravity.

"This next one is gonna be tricky!" – Shala remarked, as the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. ahead of them was spinning around its own axis, making it difficult to walk on. Also the fact that there were four of them trying to fit together really made the moving space narrow and awkward.

"Come on, Naver, jump!" – Alice yelled, and he did, but the tank he was standing on had already started pulling away from the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. that Alice and Jay had reached, and Naver wasn't gonna make it… Except one step, two step, and he was on! Without realizing it, he had already used the telekinetic steps that he helped Shala with earlier, and was now literally running on air.

At this point, Shala was the only one stuck on the earlier platform as it pulled away from the spinning S.C.A.M.P.E.R. The others couldn't wait for him on it either, as it kept constantly revolving around itself, making it impossible to stand still.

"YOU GUYS GO! I'LL CATCH UP!" – Shala yelled. "Easier said than done, though." – he muttered to himself. The airship was still falling, but pretty slowly, as the Fusion Matter altered gravity was still keeping some of it in place. Shala looked around. A different platform floated over to him, a detached propeller.

"Well, that's pretty convenient", Shala though to himself as he jumped on, but it ended up being pretty inconvenient as the propeller was, in fact, spinning mid-air, and Shala ended up spinning on it too, making it hard for him to follow where Naver, Jay and Alice were going. Shala waited patiently as the platform carried him across. By the time Shala had reached the next platform, he was already nauseous.

Shala had nearly reached the bottom. Though, all this running and jumping made him break a sweat, and now he wanted to take his jacket off. No time for that, though. He looked around. Dammit, more Slag Cephalopods? And the closest chunk of ground was far away… He shot at them with the Chill Caster, but there were too many of them, and Shala had to get out of the way to dodge their blasts. He jumped forward as far as he could… but overshot the platform and started heading directly towards the lake. He did the only thing that came to his mind, and that was to shoot at the Fusion Matter-poisoned waters with his Chill Caster.

It worked! The water was frozen solid! And as Shala kept a continuous stream of coldness shooting out of his gun, the water in front of his feet stayed frozen as he moved forward. Shala was now sliding across the ice as he created it while trying to get away from the Cephapolods. As they started blasting at him, Shala had to dodge and lean, then jump, as he left the previous streak of ice behind him and created a new one for him to land on to keep the momentum going. Though, that meant he couldn't shoot at his enemies (unless he got his other gun ready) because he needed the streak of ice to keep running. He saw a small piece of land ahead of him that he'd at least be able to take one step on, so he turned around and shot a couple blasts at the Slag Cephalopods to try to get them off his back as he landed on the stepping stone, then immediately jumped further and kept freezing the Fusion Matter solution under him to, yet again, keep the momentum going. His entire lower body was tired from the continuous sliding. A little bit further, and he'd reach the chunk of land, and from there he'd be able to formulate a better plan of action. He looked around to see what the others were doing, and it took a moment for him to locate them because they were waaay high up… even higher than before. They looked like they were heading back to the top of the declining airship.

Wait, why were they going higher?

Shala pondered as he dodged yet another series of blasts from the Cephalopods. Then he looked at the airship and it made sense - even if the massive airship didn't land on top of him, it'd still land in the Fusion Matter lake, making a huge splash. And right now, Shala was in the splash zone.

Crap. The IZ warp pad was too far away, he'd never make it in time. So he had to get to his squad as quickly as possible. Then he remembered what Jay mentioned.

The cannons.

Fortunately, there was one on the chunk of land Shala was heading for. First, he'd have to take out the monsters following him, though, as he didn't want them to break the cannon with him inside it.


"You guys! The ship is coming apart!" – Naver yelled.

It was true. The nose was descending faster than the rest of it, and the gravitational conflict was causing it to split down the middle, with the nose now tilting down. Naver, Jay and Alice, unfortunately, were on the nose, and that meant that they had to get to the other part of the ship as quickly as possible or else they'd go down with the ship… or, well, one part of it. And on top of all that, they were still being hounded by those Cephalopods.

"We've got to gain higher ground, quickly!" – Jay commanded. They tried to ran across the ship faster than it was falling. There were various platforms flying all around the ship now, stuck in its orbit, and they were also to be accounted for, as one hit in the face could knock you out clean off the ship. Naver ran right behind Alice and Jay as he ducked, dodged and sometimes jumped over platforms, but as he ducked an entire S.C.A.M.P.E.R. coming towards his face, he was torn away from the solid ground as something snatched him up and sent him flying. Naver couldn't see it, but he could tell that some part of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. had snagged his backpack and now Naver was orbiting the airship along with the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Around and around, around and around. He saw Alice and Jay, the Fusion Matter-poisoned lake, the ship's underbelly, Planet Fusion in the sky, Alice and Jay, the lake, the ship, Planet Fusion, and then again, and again, and over and over and over again.

"We gotta help him!" – Alice stopped Jay.

He assessed Naver's situation, but was clearly lost on what he could do to help. Lacking the ability to admit defeat out loud, he simply remained silent, doing the only thing he could do to help – shoot at the Slag Cephalopods approaching them.

"What can we do?" – Alice said to herself.

"Hey, guys. What's popping?" – Shala asked as he popped up from literally nowhere. His cannon shot was aimed perfectly at them. "Oh, hey, Naver! How's it hanging?" – he yelled to make himself heard to Naver.

"Get me off of this thing!" – Naver yelled. At that time, he was passing by a couple of Cephalopods, and he sliced them with his sword to help thin the horde out.

"NAVER JUST TAKE THE BAG OFF!" – Shala yelled and started shooting at the Cephalopods that were relentlessly coming after them. "Even more of these guys?" – he mumbled to himself.

"You think I…" – Naver said, but got carried away (literally, not figuratively). "…don't know I should do that?" – he yelled before doing another lap. "I'll fall into the lake!"

At that point, Shala, Alice and Jay had to run along to follow him, as the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. was also moving along the airship besides revolving around it. That and, the nose wasn't falling any slower, so they still had to make good distance before they fell in.

"YOU JUST START TAKING THE BAG OFF AND GET READY FOR THE MOMENT I TELL YOU TO LET GO!" – Shala instructed Naver. Naver trusted his calculations, and he squirmed out of his backpack's strap. Meanwhile, Shala was once again, doing the math in his head. "Orbit with the radius of, uh, let's say 50 feet, that makes the circumference exactly 314, and with that speed he should start letting go riiiight when he's at the 270 degree point, or else he'll overshoot it… alright, yeah, that's probably it.

"ALRIGHT, NAVER, I'M GONNA COUNT TO THREE!" – Shala yelled.

"ARE YOU REALLY COUNTING DOWN OR COUNTING IT QUICKLY AGAIN?"

"COUNTING DOWN!"

"Shala, we're approaching the gap!" – Alice reminded him.

"Three! Two! One! Let go, Naver, come on!" – Shala yelled. As Naver let go, he was flung first upwards, then descended and landed right next to Shala.

"Who needs a calculator anyway, am I right, Naver?" – Shala congratulated himself on his own achievement.

"We're gonna have to jump!" – Alice said. Shala and Naver looked around. They had reached the point where the nose of the ship had broken off, and had to jump across the gap as it kept growing larger. Jay was preparing himself to run, but hesitated. It was Alice that made the first jump after summoning Nano Finn and taking a few steps back to get herself a good running start. Seeing that Alice had made it across okay, Jay also started running and jumped. He had to roll with the landing, but got up like it was nothing. Naver, now having a little more faith in himself, jumped too, and even managed to intentionally use the telekinetic sky step… once. He missed the second one and almost faceplanted onto the ship, though he managed to balance himself in the end. And that left only Shala on the ship's nose, across the ever-growing gap, and it looked like he wasn't gonna make it. Certainly outside of jumping range. Shala looked around and saw a thick cable that was still hanging on between the two halves. Shala decided to go for that instead.

"You'll never make it!" – Alice warned him, but Shala didn't listen.

"Trust me, I am a master of balance!" – Shala assured her.

"How else is he gonna get across, anyway?" – Jay mumbled, though he didn't have much faith either.

Naver prepared himself to catch Shala in the air with telekinesis in case he fell off.

To everyone's surprise, Shala was doing on a cable relatively well, despite it being only a little bit thicker than a tightrope. At one point, the cable got stretched to its limit, and Shala was worried that it would break, but fortunately it didn't, Shala kept going, and his heart returned from lightning-speed beats to the normal amount of adrenaline-accelerated beats. And with his hands spread apart, he hopped off the cable onto terra semi-firma as if it was nothing.

"Told you I'm a master of balance!" – Shala remarked.

"Where'd you train to do that?" – Jay asked, as even he was impressed.

"Had a lot of free time at school so I learned to balance myself on the back two legs of a chair. Eventually, I even managed to do the one-legged stance, and…"

"I got it." – Jay cut him off, obviously taking back his newfound respect for that move.

"No wonder you barely passed math." – Alice remarked.

"Heh, heh, yeah…"

And at that moment, the ship's nose had finally made contact with the water – it sank with a big splash. Soon afterwards, their half of the ship landed too. The waves from the splash were so big that they got knocked against the Infected Zone force field walls and for a moment the entire Infected Zone looked like a mega Fusion aquarium before the water levels readjusted themselves. Most of the cannons were now covered by the risen water level.

Jay looked over and saw the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. that had caught Naver on it. He grabbed Naver's bag and threw it at his feet.

"Whew!" – Shala exhaled. Only now, after the danger was over and adrenaline was leaving his system, did the physical feats take their toll. Suddenly, Shala's legs, his hands, even his ass were hurting all over again.

"Water me, Naver." – he told Naver for the final time as he leaned against his knees to catch his breath. Naver grabbed an empty water bottle, as there were none left, and threw it at Shala's head.

"Next time, you're wearing the backpack." – he added.

"You're the one that wanted to bring supplies!" – Shala protested.

"Well, you're the one that kept drinking water every five minutes! You drank like, three bottles, main!"

"Wish those were Radicola, though…" – Shala said to himself.

"How can you even hold it in for this long?" – Naver wondered.

"Don't worry, Naver. After years of drinking Radicola I have acquired the ability to hold in entire litres without having to go to the bathroom." – Shala assured him.

"That's called bladder expansion, and if you keep doing that, you're gonna start peeing yourself." – Alice said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, whatever. Though, I do have to go now… Alright, nobody watch." – Shala declared as he went to the other edge of the airship and started going number one right into the lake, which had already been poisoned by Fusion Matter.

"EW! That's so gross!" – Alice said and now she threw another empty bottle at him. "Me and Jay came out of that lake!" – she yelled at Shala. "And he wonders why I didn't hang out with him that much…" – she added to herself.


"Ugh, I didn't wanna see THAT!" – Jamie looked away from Tetrax's spyglass. "Alright, nobody died, I'm out."

Macy, however, kept looking.

"They're alive… but did they manage to get the communications module?" – Tetrax wondered.


"What was your mission here?" – Jay asked Naver.

"We needed something from the ship that's gonna help us restore the comms." – Naver explained.

"Well, did you?"

"Yeah, Shala has it."

"Hm. Good." – Jay groaned.

"What about you guys, did you find Demongo?" – Naver asked them.

"Yeah, more like, Demongo found us. We were in this crazy secret time lab of his under Forsaken Valley and he made it cave in on us and since then we've been stuck in more underground tunnels all the way." – Alice explained. "Also…"

"Hm?" – Naver asked, as she stopped after saying "also".

"Nevermind." – Alice abstained. Jay remained silent.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to head on back to the airship and get me some Radicola." – Shala declared to everyone.

"We're… already on the airship." – Alice told him, not getting what he meant.

"We- Oh, no, not this airship. The other one. We found it."

Alice and Jay looked at each other.

"You found Mandark's airship?" – Jay asked him.

"Yep. Well, the thrusters are kaput and the comms are down, but we're gonna be able to fix at least one of those when we get back, and ruined a Fusion Lair while we were at it, too. Alright!"

"So what's that you mentioned about a Fusion Mandark?" – Jay inquired. "Because you mentioned him before in your fake Demongo story already."

"Okay, I'm not the one that made Fusion Mandark up, that was Demongo, I just told you what he said, and this time nobody's making anything up, we both heard it, right, Naver?"

Naver nodded.

"Hey, do you remember what the fusion said about Fusion Mandark not having to worry about killing someone because she'd do it herself?" – Shala asked. "That's what she said, right?"

"I think so, yeah. Was she talking about us?"

"She's got to have been, yeah. I mean, we were the intruders she was gonna wipe out. But what does Fusion Mandark have to do with us, though?" – Shala wondered.

"Hey, maybe Demongo didn't lie about Fusion Mandark after all and now Fusion Mandark wants revenge for stealing that overrider cortex…" – Naver suggested. Though, if he had seen the look on Jay's face, he would have stopped as soon as he started.

"No, no. We already established that that was a chronoton particle and that it belonged to Huntor." – Shala disagreed.

"Oh, you did meet Huntor? How'd that go?" – Alice asked him. She wondered if Jay wanted to know that too, as he intentionally didn't tell Shala about Huntor, leaving him to find out about it himself.

"Wait, you guys." – Naver interrupted. "I'd love to stand here and keep talking, but we're standing on a death trap that's sinking into a death lake that's quarantined inside of a death zone. Maybe we should get back to safety before we catch up?"

Alice, Jay and Shala looked around at each other.

"Yeah, that's a good point."


End of Chapter 20.


Extract from Alice Quickfeet's research log:

Slag Cephalopod

Fusion Matter Type – All 3

Power Level – 35

Boss: Cephalopod Alpha

Location: Hero's Hollow (specifically, Green Maw)

Length: approx. 6'-8'

Boss length: approx. 8'-12'

Weight: indeterminate

Boss weight: indeterminate

Special types of attack:

Eruption – yes

Corruption – all 3 types

Stun

Description:

The Slag Cephalopods have a shell made out of unknown red and blue material protecting their "brain" that seems persistent throughout various Fusion Monsters that are found deep in the Darklands. They resemble the Earth's indigenous Cephalopods (hence the name), specifically Coleoidea subclass. There are 8 (this number stays consistent) long tentacles protruding from its back. The Cephalopod moves effortlessly through the air as if it was water, which is because of their Fusion Matter's anti-gravitational properties. They also have one detached floating appendage on each side, which is able to shoot concentrated Fusion Matter blasts.

Evolution:

I'm including a separate section for the Cephalopods because their history is definitely worth looking into. One theory is that the Slag (and Scoria) Cephalopods have been created in space, or on planet Fusion. Peggy's findings indicate that they may be feeding on comets made of volcanic rock. It also tracks with the other Fusion Monsters made from similar materials that may also have been created off-world. This means that they are the least compatible to Earth's environment, and that's why they inhabit the areas that have been terraformed the most to resemble Planet Fusion. However, this raises the question: why are they so similar to Earth's actual cephalopods? An alternative answer might be that they are not created in space, rather in the Darklands, and are based on the most ancient fossils the Darklands of the actual Earth cephalopods. (The further inland you go, the older fossils you seem to find, it seems.) However, I'm still leaning towards the space theory. I think that the resemblance to Earth cephalopods is nothing but convergent evolution. This means that Planet Fusion has its own indigenous wildlife (such as the Cephapolods) that is in line with Earth's late Cambrian period. The implications this may have that given time, Planet Fusion might evolve to have advanced species of its own are either fascinating or alarming, depending on the way you look at it. However, there is insufficient information to definitively determine which origin of the Cephalopods is correct.

Behavior:

Cephalopods, both Slag as well as Scoria, are what you could call "social". They tend to "hang out" in groups, though some are known to prefer solitude. They also don't mind being around other Fusion Monsters one bit, coexisting with them without a problem. Even the Alpha Cephalopods exist peacefully with each other, though the same can't be said about the Boss version of the Scoria Cephalopods (the Cephalopod Prime).

Cephalopods float in the air as if they were swimming through water (because of FM's anti-gravitational properties, as stated above). They are also able to use their tendrils to travel, as well as some sort of propulsion technique that propels them forward. However, they're not "propulsing" anything. What it seems like to me is that they're ejecting stronger anti-gravitational fields, which leads them to pe projected in the opposite direction, though the exact nature of this act is yet to be determined.

Even though the Cephalopod looks peaceful on its own, do not be fooled. They will attack any human they see on sight, both with their tendrils as well as their floating appendages, over which they have complete control.

Fusion control over the Cephalopods is a weird, unexplored area. However, I am certain that they have a harder time controlling them, usually resorting to Eyebores or Shellslugs or the such. However, the Cephalopod will still carry out the Fusion's bidding, though of its own accord and not due to the command. If it is true that they are, indeed, created in space or on Planet Fusion and not on Earth, that would explain why Earth-based Fusions have trouble controlling them.

Area distribution:

The Slag Cephalopods are found exclusively within the Green Gullet Infected Zone, inhabiting either the DexLabs airship and its surroundings, or the space below, around the lake. Sometimes they like to go inside the lake. Scoria Cephalopods, however, exist outside of the Infected Zone, and I would like to examine if this isolation is what causes discordant evolution between the two types of Cephalopods.

Known Fusions that have controlled Slag Cephalopods:

Fusion Tetrax

Fusion Coop

UPDATE 15/05

Need to update the current behavior and area spread of the Slag Cephalopods now that the airship has fallen into the lake.