Chapter 28 - Communication Problems
Shala slid the panel of his bed to the side and opened his stash.
"Are you serious?" – Macy exclaimed. She had been sitting in the corner of the room, where she had put down her large, thick blanket in a way that she would be positioned in the middle of it while still being able to put the fringes over her back or around her if she wanted to. In short, she had nested there, and was in the process of watching a movie on her DexCom. Shala didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he got the bed while Macy got the corner on the floor. Though, as a matter of fact, neither did Macy.
"You… you seriously got a mini-fridge down there? JUST for Radicola?" – she asked him as he took out one can after another and put them onto the floor so that he could reach into the back of the mini-fridge.
"Yeah. The colder it is, the better it tastes, and they're the coldest in the back." – Shala said without paying attention, as if he was doing something as mundane as stocking groceries. "Just don't tell Tetrax." – he off-handedly asked her.
"Depends. Can I have some?" – Macy decided to demand.
"What are you, blackmailing me?" – Shala laughed. He picked up one of the cans and tossed it to Macy.
"Wait, no, don't toss-" – Macy tried to say, but she was too late as the can already went through the DexCom hologram of her movie and landed on her stomach before she got the chance to catch it.
"Now it's shaken up!" – Macy complained.
"That's what you get for trying to blackmail. I would have given it to you anyway. I'm not stingy with it, you know. People see me obsess over it and think I'm stingy and I won't let anyone else have it, but I'm not like that. I'd love if other people experienced the joy of Radicola as much as I did." – Shala explained as he got off his knees. In his hands were one 0,33L tin can of Radicola Unlimited, and one 0,5L plastic bottle of the same Radicola Unlimited. Both of them were from the back of the fridge, meaning they'd be the coldest.
Macy held her can as far away from herself as she could, and in the direction of Shala as she opened it with a tsssssk. She was right – the can fizzed up and overflowed, and the Radicola flowed out of the can and dripped onto the floor, as well as down Macy's arm.
"My corner has a puddle now." – she annoyedly sighed and licked her arm to clean it from the sweet and sticky liquid. Unfortunately, she couldn't reach her tongue all the way to the elbow.
"Okay, fine, I'll be the gracious host." – Shala rolled his eyes and got up from his minifridge. Instead of getting a cleaning rag or paper towels or anything of the sort, he got down in front of the puddle and cleaned it with his jacket sleeve, letting the soda off the floor absorb into it.
"Aaand my jacket is soaked." – he said about his sleeve and took off the jacket and put it on the back of his chair to dry.
"What did you think was gonna happen, genius?"
"I didn't think it would get that wet, and I could ignore it until it dried itself." – Shala shrugged and got his old lab coat out of the bag of garbage that housed all of his belongings.
"Well, that wasn't there before." – he remarked as he saw a massive brown stain on the inside of the lab coat. He turned it around to see that it had seeped through and was visible from the back, too.
"Dude, that thing is covered in stains. When was the last time you washed it?"
"I think back when I was at DexLabs? But the big stain is new. It's because Tetrax friggin' put everything into the garbage bag, including open Radicola cans that must have spilled inside." – he explained as the put the lab coat on anyway. "I still remember where every stain originated. This one was from when I was eating a shawarma with extra sauce and Automata's new gun blew up in his face." – Shala pointed at one of them.
"So why haven't you unpacked that bag yet?"
"Eeeh, haven't gotten around to it. And besides, the room does look clean and empty now. I'll just get my stuff out of it as I need it." – Shala shrugged. Macy considered pointing out all the things wrong with that system, but decided that he wouldn't listen anyway so it wasn't worth it.
Shala got back down on the knees in front of his minifridge and started getting the cans out again, destocking them from the shelves.
"What are you even doing with those?" – Macy asked soon after anyway, her curiosity getting better of her.
Shala carefully looked at the can that he got out of the way back of the fridge, where it was the coldest. It was so cold that water had condensed in drops on its surface. He held the can close up to his face and pushed and pulled on the tin can tab with his thumb at the same time, pressing it into the lid.
A sweet explosion of carbonation filled the immediate area around his face. Shala inhaled as hard as he could as the sweet taste of flavored syrup filled his sinuses and activated dopamine secretion in his brain.
"Now that's a good smell." – Shala said, satisfied.
"You looked like you were about to make out with the can." – Macy commented. Shala's eccentric antics had taken over her attention span as the movie played on, forgotten by her.
"Oh, I am." – Shala said, eagerly anticipating the moment when the cold, carbonated Radicola would burn his mucous membranes as it flew down his esophagus. It was pure bliss.
"I'm so lucky that this taste never gets old." – Shala said to himself.
He then put the can aside and opened the bottled version. "I'm trying to decide once and for all, which version tastes better." – he explained to Macy who had lost all interest in her movie and was paying attention to Shala's experiment like he was about to split the atom.
Shala pressed the bottle against his lips and started drinking.
"Well?" – Macy asked. Shala seemed to take this so seriously that she couldn't help but get invested in this. Meanwhile Shala held the Radicola in his cheeks, flowing from one to another, to let the taste sip in.
"The bottle isn't as cold as the can, since tin conducts coldness better than plastic. It also has a slightly different taste to it, but I'm not sure…"
Shala put the bottle down and picked the can back up again to be able to compare the two better. He even ran the tongue over the can's lid to taste the little bit of soda that had set in on top. And as he was experiencing nirvana…
Knock knock.
A dull knocking was heard on the door outside Shala's room.
"PFFFFFT!" – Shala spit it all out from his nostrils in panic. The carbonation burned his sinuses. It was Tetrax. It had to be. And Shala had his minifridge and his entire Radicola stash out in the open. His secret Radicola stash that he specifically didn't want Tetrax to find out about. He had to do something before…
The door opened. Though, it was not who Shala expected.
"I'm back!" – Naver walked through the doorframe.
"Naver! You gave me a heart attack!" – Shala yelled, though he was visibly relieved that it was not Tetrax. "You're finally back!" – he said as he held his hand forward and high.
Naver got the gist and gave him the high five. Shala even went a step further and clasped their hands when they made contact, resulting in a satisfying dap.
"Did you get the signal relay transmitter?" – Shala eagerly asked him.
"Yeah, I did! Hopefully Tetrax can make use of it." – Naver excitedly told him. "But… that's not the only thing I got. You should probably brace yourself." – Naver told him. He seemed anxious about something.
Shala thought he was being dramatic or something, but no amount of preparing would make Shala ready for what Naver had in store for him. Naver turned back to the hallway and waved his hand towards him, as if beckoning someone. And at his command, an object floated into view and into the room. A yellow, small, scrawny, manic…
"Nope. No. No way. Get him the hell out of my room." – Shala immediately put his foot down.
"What even is that?" – Macy asked, confused, but was ignored.
"But…"
"Naver!" – Shala cut him off. "You just cannot comprehend how much I don't want to see him here. I'm not letting him near any of my stuff." – Shala said as he pushed the floating Cheese back into the hallway. "Does Tetrax even know you brough Cheese onboard?"
"Well…" – Naver sheepishly said as their conversation migrated to the hallway, leaving a confused Macy to get back to her movie and still can of Radicola.
"Hello, Dexlegs." – Cheese told Shala.
"Did he just call you Dexter?" – Naver asked him, remembering that Shala didn't really like Dexter very much.
"Mmm… no, no. That's Cheese speak for DexLabs. He must have recognized me from my lab coat." – Shala facepalmed. He didn't like being reminded of his time there. He had even torn off the DexLabs logo from the lab coat.
"So, you haven't told Tetrax about him." – Shala ignored Naver's attempt to switch topics.
"I haven't told him, yet." – Naver specified. "I was thinking you could help me pitch the idea to him…"
"No! Get him away from here!" – Shala immediately objected.
"Come on, I don't wanna leave him all alone out there! He might get himself killed!"
"He's been doing fine for himself ever since Hero's Hollow." – Shala remarked. "And we're in an airship on Hero's Hollow right now! He's gonna do it again!"
"I get what you mean, but, well, he also saved my life." – Naver explained further.
"He-" – Shala started and looked from Naver at Cheese, who was still floating in the air via Naver's telekinesis, and couldn't help but break out laughing. "Tehahahahahaha!" – he could barely contain himself. "Must have been one tough horsie."
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." – Naver let him get it out, though still rolled his eyes at him. Well, he kinda deserved it. "There's also another reason. An important one. I… I think I met him before." – he admitted.
"Before what?"
"You know, before my amnesia."
"Oh, right." – Shala said.
"You forgot about my amnesia?" – Naver said, jokingly offended.
"Hey, you forgot a bunch of stuff, too." – Shala casually replied.
"Heh, sure. Well, Cheese told me that I gave him chocolate milk." – Naver explained, putting a stress on his sentence to indicate how important it was.
He didn't say anything to let it sink in for Shala to realize what that meant, but it just ended up being an awkward silence.
"That's it?"
"Well, yeah."
"That's your whole case for how you knew him before?" – Shala repeated, still not believing him.
"I haven't given any to him after my amnesia, have I? It had to have happened before. And that makes Cheese the only person I know for sure that met me. It's all I've got right now."
"Really, this guy?" – Shala pointed at Cheese in front of him, who was in the process of scratching his butt, oblivious to the discussion at hand. "You do realize that he might be misremembering, or lying, or confusing chocolate milk with the Aerial Slicer, or a… multitude of other things that can be going on inside that broken and demented funhouse he calls a mind." – Shala said, doing jazz hands at the word "multitude" to stress its meaning.
"Never gave me chocolate milk." – Cheese stated and put his thumb in his mouth. The thumb he had been scratching with.
"See?" – Naver pointed out.
"He just said that you never gave it to him." – Shala replied.
"No, Never is what he calls me."
"And I Naver want to see him again, but here we are. Look, watch this." – Shala sighed as he approached Cheese to prove a point. "You want chocolate milk, Cheese? I have some right here! Here!" – he said as he held out his hand, positioned in a circle as if he was gripping something. Cheese got his head closer and… bit Shala on the side of the index finger.
"AAH!" – Shala yelped in pain and drew his hand back.
"To be fair, you were teasing him." – Naver pointed out.
"Dammit!" – Shala gripped his finger with his other hand. "He must have learned that from you." – he added, calling back to the time Naver bit Shala's hand during their mission in Green Maw.
"Let me guess, you're gonna say you'll catch rabies." – Naver remarked, predicting Shala's next line.
"No, Dexter already had him tested. The rabies is not why he's crazy like that." – Shala casually recalled. "Anyway, Naver, we're friends, and you're welcome here anytime, but this… this thing… I mean, I got all kinds of projects that I'm working on in there!"
"What, trying to stack cans of Radicola as high as you can?" – Naver asked with a sarcastic smile as he looked over the pile of Radicola cans on the floor.
"Oh, come on, you know what I mean." – Shala told him. Though, he brushed past the fact that he hadn't actually worked on any of his projects in a while.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." – Naver nodded in understanding. "But come on, man, if we're friends, you can appreciate that I'm trying to get Cheese out of the wilderness and into safety. And, well, if he's the key to unlocking my past… that would really help me too."
Shala thought about it for a second. As much as he hated Cheese… he grew attached to Naver, too, considering it was him that found the amnesiac boy in the woods. He was the only friend Naver had at the moment, besides Alice and Jay who were away at the moment, and he knew that besides Lars, Shala was the closest Naver ever felt to someone.
"Just be there with me when I tell Tetrax about this, okay?" – Naver pleaded.
"I can't believe I'm doing this…" – Shala sighed.
"Absolutely not."
"Welp. Can't say we didn't try…" – Shala jokingly gave up and pretended to walk away.
"Come on, you said you'd help me!" – Naver grabbed his arm.
"I know, I know, I'm kidding. Come on, Tetrax, let him keep it." – he asked on Naver's behalf.
"Look to your right." – Tetrax simply said. Shala and Naver turned their heads and saw the Infected Zone down in Hero's Hollow, the site of their previous mission where the DexLabs airship had now partially sunk into Green Maw, with its nose still sticking out of the lake. Though, Shala remembered there was still something there that he needed. He'd have to tell Tetrax about it at a better time.
"Okay, we know we lost Hero's Hollow because of Cheese, but if you ask me, that was more on Dexter's management than Cheese's fault. I mean, why would he leave the controls for the shields unattended like that?" – Shala reasoned. "I can't believe I'm defending Cheese, but… Dexter did drop the ball on that one…" – Shala thought to himself.
"And I can't guarantee that the same thing won't happen again." – Tetrax shot him down. "The ship's staff, all four of them, are spread thin and we already had an incident when a child went in the control rooms and started pressing buttons. We don't need another. I shouldn't have to worry about internal intruders when we're already vulnerable and at risk of detection."
"We're gonna keep our eyes on him 24/7!" – Naver proposed.
"Hold on, we?" – Shala interjected. "But I'm gonna be busy, uh…" – he tried to think of an excuse while Tetrax and Naver stared at him – "helping Simon, Jim and Macy install the signal relay transmitter that Naver recovered!"
Naver rolled his eyes at Shala managing to evade this responsibility.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, I never agreed to actually watch him!" – Shala told Naver. "Also, that signal relay transmitter… Naver would have never managed to get it without the help of Cheese!" – he tried bringing the conversation back around to helping Naver.
"Never never." – Cheese confirmed.
"Is that accurate?" – Tetrax looked at Naver.
"Well, he did rescue me from a situation that I might not have… gotten out of alive." – Naver awkwardly admitted. "Plus, he helped me and Alice defeat Fusion Bloo, who was trying to run experiments on him to study Imaginary Energy." – he added to hype Cheese up. "If we release him back into the wild more Fusions are gonna try to do that and might find out how to exploit it!" – he pointed out.
Tetrax straightened his lower jaw. He tended to do that when deliberating. "I can't believe I'm doing this…" – he finally told them.
"I said that exact same thing." – Shala told him.
"Okay, but there's also something more important than Cheese that I need to tell you about." – Naver moved the conversation along. "So, when I was looking for Frilled Fiends, I saw Demongo…"
"Morning, Big Dog. I'll have the usual. Naver, uh… what do you want, Naver?"
"I don't know. First time eating these. I don't even know what kind of foods I actually like. Besides beans. I like beans."
"Well, we're fresh out of beans on a stick, sorry." – Big Dog deadpanned.
"Okay, how 'bout this, you have a little bit of everything so that you can know which ones you'd like and which you wouldn't." – Shala suggested.
"That sounds good."
"Hold your horses." – Big Dog interrupted. "All that won't fit on one stick."
"Get him two, then, damn." – Shala shrugged.
"I might not be able to eat all that, though." – Naver pointed out.
"I can finish it off if you want to." – Shala suggested.
"Yeah, sure. I know you're a big eater."
"Really? I'd never know, considering how little you order here." – Big Dog remarked.
"That's because your slop is only tolerable in small quantities." – Shala retorted.
"If you guys what they put in these things, you wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot stick… it." – Big Dog shook his head.
"That's exactly why I don't want to know what's in these things." – Shala replied. "Never ask how the sausage is made, Naver. Sometimes you're just better off knowing." – he then turned to Naver.
"Sure, I guess…" – Naver said, though he wasn't fully convinced. But also, that reminded him of something Lars told him before. Obviously, Shala meant it in a different context, but the sentiment was there. Something about keeping the clean slate that he got, in case he wouldn't like who he was before. A tabula rasa.
"What about him?" – Naver snapped back to the present and tilted his head towards Cheese.
"What about him?" – Shala repeated, with an altered intonation.
"Doesn't he need to eat?"
"You know, I never really confirmed if Imaginary Friends ever needed to eat. There was this one time when Cheese went crazy and ate a bunch of Halloween candy and holed up in some abandoned house's basement. He kept moaning like crazy and made people think it was haunted."
"Wow. What happened then?"
"Dexter took me away from the Halloween party and assigned me to a team to investigate it personally… but that's a long story. Let's just say there was a little Cheese incident in Dexter's office late that night." – Shala said with a smile, remembering it fondly.
"Well, I guess that means he does need to eat something. We should probably feed him, just in case." – Naver suggested.
"I like potatoes." – Cheese piped up.
"Well, you heard the man. Child. Thing. Potatoes for the cheese!" – Shala ordered.
"I don't think giving him a sharp stick is a good idea, though. Big Dog, you got a fork or something?" – Shala turned to the guy behind the counter.
"A fork is also sharp, though." – Naver reminded him.
"Okay, a spoon." – Shala changed it.
"It's called Stick-It, Shala." – Big Dog remarked as he was grilling the meat. "I'll show you where you can Fork-It."
"Oh, ha, ha."
"By the way, what the hell are you wearing?" – Big Dog asked.
"What? It's my lab coat."
"Yeah. You're wearing a lab coat. And a pair of shorts."
"What's wrong with wearing a lab coat with shorts?" – Naver asked him.
"You've got amnesia, so I'll give you a pass." – Big Dog dismissively told him. "Where did you get those, Shala, the Khaki Barn?" – he laughed at his own joke. "And…" – he leaned over the counter – "are those flip flops?"
"Okay, how 'bout, you get over this side of the counter and start saving the world and I'll be the one giving fashion advice while working minimum wage." – Shala jokingly retorted.
"Keep that up and you'll find out the true meaning of "Stick-It" soon enough." – Big Dog told him while assembling their Stick-Its, putting the sticks through the food bits. "So what will it be for your creature? Stick or no stick?"
"I can just hold the fries telekinetically and feed them to him, I guess." – Naver shrugged.
"You can just do that?" – Big Dog asked.
"Yeah." – Naver nodded, somewhat unsurely. This was the first time he brought it up to a new person in a while, and he wasn't sure what the response would it be. Truth be told, he actually let it slip unintentionally.
"Wow. You always hear about dudes with superpowers popping up everywhere but it still hasn't happened to me yet."
"Here's to hoping." – Shala held his Stick-It up as if it was a toast and bumped it against Naver's. The meaning of the gesture was lost on the latter, but he shrugged it off as another weird Shala thing.
"So, what'd you do to get powers? Space meteor? Exposure to radiation?" – Big Dog asked further.
"I, actually, have no idea. I only remember stuff from the past week. Anything before that is a complete blank." – Naver explained. He realized this was the first time he was using his telekinesis and talking about it freely in public. Gone were the days of when he would hide them from even Shala, Alice and Jay.
"Well, that figures." – Big Dog groaned. "Would be a hell of a lot easier to do stuff around this lousy job if I could move stuff around without my hands."
"Hey, that's like, what, 15 objects you're holding with telekinesis, right, Naver?" – Shala pointed out. "You're getting good at coordination."
"It's easier when they're just small and almost weightless. And I just have to keep them in the air, not move them around, you know? The more complex the movement and the heavier the object, the harder it is. But I can still do stuff like this." – he said as he had one of the fried tater tots float towards Cheese.
"C'mon, Cheese, here comes the choo-choo train!" – Shala jokingly remarked as Cheese's top jaw unhinged and munched on the flying food with a "nom".
"Tetrax still seems mad about the Demongo thing. How you gave him the chronoton particle." – Naver brought up.
"I think he worries too much." – Shala replied. "Jay's probably out looking for Demongo right now, and honestly, I think it's better that he went full mask-off and went to scheme in whatever he's plotting instead of keeping us guessing. And Tetrax should just be happy that one of the Demongos is off the table."
"Yeah, I guess." – Naver shrugged as he took another bite off his Stick-It. "This one tastes like chicken."
"You like it?"
"Not really. But it's was funny. I never had chicken, at least I don't remember it, but recognized the taste. Strange, how this amnesia works. There's probably a ton of things I've experienced before that I can immediately recognize. But I don't remember about them." – Naver said and took another bite, this time of the pickle. "I don't think I like any of these." – he muttered.
"I guess there's two types of memory, you know? Or, like, there are memories, and there's just information." – Shala tried to rationalize it. "You don't remember what you did last Christmas, or when you gave Cheese the chocolate milk. That's memory. But you still know the English language, or the taste of chicken. That's information. You may not even remember the fact that you know it, since the moment when you experienced it is a memory, but it's still hardwired into your brain, and it's something that you can never forget."
"I guess that makes sense." – Naver shrugged. "But what about the weird stuff that I know? Like how, for example, Ben Tennyson is 18 and 5'11, his birthday is on December 27th, and his alien transformations are Fourarms, Big Chill, Ball Weevil, Upgrade, Clockwork, Swampfire, Hardlight, Rath…"
"Okay, please, do not list off his entire list. I think it gets up to, like, a hundred." – Shala cut him off.
"Yeah, I'm just saying, by your logic all this stuff has to be hardwired into my brain too." – Naver pointed out.
"Maybe you were some kind of superhero trivia nut. Your guess is as good as mine." – Shala shrugged and took another bite out of the hot dog on the stick.
That made Naver remember about what Shala said about how the hot dog was made. What if he was right and his old memories weren't worth it? And was it even possible to find out the truth?
Well, were some new memories that he had made since then. Ones that he needed to make sense of. With everything that's been happening around him – people dying, demons combatting, and what seemed like a mysterious pursuer after him, he didn't feel like he could wrap his head around it himself. But then again, he was still hesitant to open up about it, even to Shala.
"I like cereal." – Cheese said as Naver fed him the last fry. At this point, Naver had gotten tired of constantly carrying Cheese around telekinetically, but it also seemed like Cheese was getting tired, too.
Naver got an idea. He started swaying Cheese in the air lightly and rhythmitically to the left and right, as if he was in a baby carriage. Cheese closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into sleep.
"Wow. Didn't know he was ever capable for falling asleep." – Shala pointed out.
"He was up all night." – Naver pointed out. "He kept me and Alice up all night, too. So, what do I do with him now?"
"I don't know, put him somewhere where no one is likely to wake him up so that we can all have some peace and quiet."
"I can only think of one place like that." – Naver told Shala. "But you're not gonna like it."
Shala didn't realize what place Naver meant, but when he said that he wouldn't like it, that narrowed it down.
"Oh, come on!" – he objected.
"Shh! You're gonna wake him up!"
"Shit. Yeah." – Shala lowered his voice. "But, seriously?"
"Hey, it's up to you." – Naver shrugged. "Do you want him calm and asleep or not?"
Shala looked at Naver, weighing his options. On one hand, he imagined Cheese touching all of his stuff. On the other, he would probably be free of Cheese, even if it would be for a little bit.
"He better sleep the full 8 hours in there." – Shala warningly told Naver. "And I'm not letting him in the bed. I don't know where he's been."
"You go with your clothes on into that bed." – Naver remarked.
"But I know where I've been." – Shala answered. That was logic against which Naver… could argue, very easily, but chose not to. It wasn't really all that worth it.
After Cheese was curled up on the floor inside Shala's red jacket (that the Radicola had dried onto), Shala and Naver sat down on the floor next to him, leaning against Shala's bed. Naver was pretty put out, all things considered. Shala was refueling with another Radicola. He noticed that Macy was gone – probably installing that relay transmitter.
"It's been a week since all this started." – Naver said to himself. "Are the Darklands always this crazy?" – he then asked Shala.
"Nah." – Shala shook his head. "Only when you're around." – he added and shoulder bumped him. Naver chuckled at that.
"You don't know the half of it." – Naver replied.
"Why did something else happen?"
Naver realized he had another slip-up. With that, he had two branching dialogue options. He could just say "nah, it was just a figure of speech" and Shala would probably think nothing of it. Or otherwise, he could tell him about everything that he's been suspecting. As if there was some kind of Fusion secretly chasing him around and watching him.
"There's something on your mind, right?" – Shala asked him. Naver looked at him, but scrambled to think of what to say.
"Well, uh, kinda."
"You didn't think I'd notice, did you?" – Shala told him with a comforting smile. "Come on, I mess around but I'm not THAT inattentive." – he said. "You don't have to tell me if you don't feel like it, though. But I'm always open if you need to talk."
"Yeah, well, when you put it like that, that kinda puts pressure on me to do tell you, right?" – Naver answered.
"Yeah, I guess it does. But nah, you don't have to say anything if it's personal. I get it."
Naver sighed.
"I don't know why do I even feel hesitant to open up to begin with." – he then told him. "I mean, you've been there since the very moment I opened my eyes. It doesn't go more way back than that. I guess it's because of Lars again." – Naver went on.
Shala said nothing, letting him let it out.
"I mean, it's so frustrating that I can't get over it. He tried to get me to awaken my skills, and got himself killed. And I can't forgive myself for doing it. I can't even properly open up to others anymore, not about my powers, or my amnesia, or anything. The first person that I was really open with was killed because of me, and now I'm having trouble opening up to anyone else. Even you, Shala." – Naver vented. "I mean, I haven't even been able to go out here and make new friends because I'm anxious that I'll get them killed, too!"
"Okay, yeah, you had a rough start." – Shala tried to help him rationalize it. "As I said, usually it's not that crazy around here. It's not your fault that all that stuff happened to you. You shouldn't have been stuck here in the first place." – he tried to reassure him. "Here." – he said as he opened the minifridge next to him and handed Naver a bottle of Radicola. "The sugar rush will make you feel better."
"That's the thing." – Naver replied after taking the bottle from his hand. "I think it might be my fault."
"What do you mean, exactly?"
"Okay, so do you remember when we were in Green Maw and overheard a conversation between Fusions? It was Fusion Mandark and another female Fusion we don't know."
"Yeah." – Shala nodded. "I still haven't figured out who she was."
"And Fusion Mandark was after one of us, right? But we didn't know which one." – Naver continued.
"Yeah?"
"I'm pretty sure it was me."
"What makes you say that?"
"You know how I was hunting for Frilled Fiends while looking for that communicator thing Tetrax wanted?" – Naver asked him. Shala nodded. "I accidentally came across the place where Lars died."
"That must have been terrible." – Shala nodded in commiseration.
"I think the monsters led me there intentionally." – Naver told him. Okay, this part didn't really sound all that plausible when he said it out loud. "And then that was also where Demongo and Fusion Demongo were fighting."
"So, you're saying the monsters slowly guided you to that spot so that you could, what, enjoy the show?" – Shala asked, somewhat skeptically.
"I mean, it can't all be a coincidence! Can it?" – Naver asked, but now he was even second-guessing himself. "And also, it's like…" – he continued, struggling to articulate it – "…there were moments when I should have died. When monsters had me cornered. Like with those Frilled Fiends when I was with Cheese. Or before that with Lars. Or those Dark Horntails. Or, heck, even Fusion Courage." – he explained. "But almost every time, the monsters hesitated, or stopped, or someone else died protecting me, and I couldn't do anything to save them. If the monsters were after me specifically, then that means their death was my fault, too."
"Sounds to me like you had very good friends." – Shala answered him. "Okay I didn't mean for that to come off as brag, I meant Lars and the others. And, you mentioned you had Cheese with you, right? Imaginary Friends have that effect on Fusion Monsters. They sometimes confuse them for a moment, or make them docile altogether."
"Yeah, I've seen that happen." – Naver replied, remembering his and Alice's encounter with Fusion Bloo and his minions.
"And besides." – Shala wrapped his hand around Naver's shoulder. "Fusion Courage was a fucking moron. He could have killed all of us but decided to keep us alive to squeeze as much pain and suffering out of us instead. I can't believe Fuse had that creep in his inner circle to begin with." – he said and shook Naver a bit with the hand that was wrapped around him.
Naver laughed at that. That helped let out some of the anxiety that had been building up in him.
"What I'm getting at is that you shouldn't beat yourself up over what happened. Every single one of us knew we were putting our life on the line the moment we stepped foot on this island. Hell, even in the Academy. I look at it as if…" – Shala paused to think of a way to articulate it.
"As if, what?"
"As if I'm already dead and every moment I get to live is a gift that's bound to run out." – Shala explained. "You don't go out fighting something like this without coming to term with what can happen to you. And what better way to go down than to save a friend, right?" – Shala reassured him. "They knew what they were doing. The only thing you can do is make sure they didn't do it in vain. And from what I can see, you've been doing a pretty damn good job."
"Thanks." – Naver said, feeling appreciated. "But I don't think that's a healthy outlook."
"Which part?"
"You living like you're already dead. Come on, you gotta be optimistic about it, right? How are you gonna live your life if you consider yourself dead?"
"Okay, now you're preaching optimism to me." – Shala rolled his eyes. "Did a Fusion bodysnatch you?"
"I'm just saying, I sure as hell won't be optimistic, so someone has to be." – Naver jokingly retorted.
"Well, that's what's gonna make you feel better, sure. I can be optimistic for your sake." – Shala put his hand on Naver's shoulder again. This time, the one closer to Shala.
"Awesome." – Naver nodded gratefully. "But if you die on me, I swear to god I'll kill Fuse myself."
"That's the spirit!" – Shala cheerfully said and took another swig of his Radicola.
Naver looked at the bottle that Shala had given him while they were talking. He was so preoccupied with the guilt and self-shaming that he didn't even get around to opening it, just held it in between his hands.
"Ah, what the hell." – he thought as he grabbed the bottle cap to twist it around.
"Wait!" – Shala suddenly grabbed his hand.
"What is it?"
"I wanna see you do it with telekinesis." – Shala said, while grabbing one more can for himself.
"If that's how you wanna play it…" – Naver said and concentrated on the Radicola, but not the one he was holding, but rather the one Shala was about to open. He focused on the soda can tab in two spots, one where he would have to push into the can itself and one where he'd pull on for leverage. Just like Shala taught him. And he only had the space of a couple millimeters to pull it off. But it was nothing he couldn't do.
Fwwzzzzushhhhhhhh…
"Seriously?" – Shala protested as the soda fizz unexpectedly erupted in his hand, spilling over on his clothes. Again. "You did that on purpose. Ass."
"Satisfied?" – Naver innocently asked. He knew that telekinetic gusts would probably make the soda inside the can shake up. In fact, he had been hoping for it.
"I wanted to see if you could do a counterclockwise spin on the bottle cap that was strong enough to make it come loose, but whatever." – Shala let it go.
Although, after a brief pause, Shala quickly grabbed Naver's bottle out of his hand, shook it up violently for just a second, then shoved it back into Naver's hand like nothing had happened as revenge.
Shala and Naver looked at each other for a second, then both started laughing at the same time. This exchange was so stupid, they couldn't help it. And the worst part was that they had to suppress their laughter because Cheese was sleeping in the corner like a baby. And suppressing it made them want to laugh even harder.
"Actually, it's not that bad. Better than the Stick-Its." – Naver said after he suffered the same explosion of fizz that Shala did, making his hand all sticky.
"Thank you!" – Shala exclaimed (though not at full volume), feeling vindicated.
"I mean it's not amazing or anything. It's just fine. I don't see why some nut would get so obsessed about something like this, though." – Naver continued.
"You really had to rain on my parade, huh?" – Shala shook his head and drank some more. "You think you tasted it before amnesia?"
"I'd probably remember it." – Naver shook his head.
Then he went back to thinking about stuff. About his past. Who was he before the amnesia? Did he go to school? Did he have a home to get back to, or a family that would miss him?
"Hey, Shala?"
"Yeah?"
"You've got parents, right?"
"Uh, yeah. Last time I checked. I wasn't just delivered by a stork. Or a Fusionfly. Why do you ask?" – Shala asked, somewhat surprised at the subject.
"You've never talked about them, so I wasn't sure. I have no idea if I even have parents."
"Oh. Right." – Shala said.
"Are your folks worried about you? Stranded all the way out here in the Darklands, fighting in this crazy war where you could die at any second, and you can't even call them to tell them you're okay?"
Shala sighed. "I miss them sometimes. Okay, a lot. I haven't been back home since the invasion began last June. Porkbelly, my town, is pretty far away from Townsville, so I stayed at DexLabs while I worked there. Then the Academy. And after that this ship. But I don't think they're worried about me."
"What?" – Naver asked. That seemed crazy. They would either have to have total confidence in their son, which seemed shaky considering the state of the island, or not care about him at all, which was just… too much to think about. "Why not?"
"They don't even know I'm in the Darklands." – Shala admitted. "Yeah. I never told them. They still think I'm working at DexLabs."
"You… you haven't told them? Why?" – he replied, surprised. If Naver had known his parents, they would be the first to know about anything. So, Shala's attitude was surprising.
"You know, they were so happy when I started working at DexLabs, they didn't even mind me moving out or say it's too dangerous or something or say I should finish school first. No objections. They were just glad I was finally doing something for myself. Something big. DexLabs is one of the leading companies in technological innovation, after all. And my work would play part in saving the world. Heh." – Shala said and laughed, melancholically remembering his old aspirations.
Naver just listened. This was the first time he heard Shala talk about himself beyond a superficial level, too.
"And I really didn't want to see their reaction if they heard I wasn't working there anymore. That was… at the end of last year. I joined the Academy instead, and took a more direct approach in saving the world here with Tetrax and Jack and… you know the rest."
"So, what, you haven't called them in, what, 5 months?" – Naver asked him in disbelief.
"Of course not. I still video call them sometimes. I just…" – Shala paused. He looked at Naver, and realized how stupid what he was actually doing was now that he was gonna say it out loud. "I just pretend I'm still at DexLabs when I'm talking to them." That was shameful to admit out loud. It did eat away at him during the calls, the fear that they would find out, and the shame that he had been lying for months on end, but he'd forget about it soon afterwards, glad he wouldn't have to think about it for another week.
"Wow. And they haven't found out?"
"As I said. They trust me." – Shala answered and sighed. With that, he admitted another shame out loud – taking advantage of the trust that his parents had had in him, on top of lying to their faces. He already knew he was doing that, but saying it out loud made it far more real.
"Do you think they found out now, when the Darklands disappeared?"
"I guess it's possible that they tried to call me but couldn't reach me." – Shala supposed. "They'd try calling DexLabs directly, and get a message from Computress, or, god forbid, Dexter himself, telling them that I don't work there anymore and actually managed to get myself lost in the one place no one wants to see their son go." – he went on. "Yeah. There's a chance they know by now."
And yet, that took a little bit of guilt off of him. Now, they would be worried. But at least he wouldn't have to be the one to break it to them, and he wouldn't have to see their faces when they found out. Lucky that he didn't have to face them himself. Yep. That much lucky.
"But they would worry a lot, yeah." – he then told Naver. "Not about my safety, but my career. They always felt like I wasn't living up to my full potential at school. They wanted me to show initiative, graduate early and join MIT like the Test twins did. That's the Mega-Institute of Technology. And that was why they were so happy when I started working at DexLabs."
There was another reason why he started working at DexLabs, but he didn't want to admit that one out loud. Not even to Naver. He didn't want Naver to think of him even worse than he already did.
"What stopped you from graduating early like your parents wanted you to?" – Naver asked further. "You have the smarts for it. And it'd save you from a couple years in school, wouldn't it?"
"I don't know, man. The whole process is just a pain to go through. Like, I don't even where do I even apply for a GED, and there's just so much stuff I'd have to cram that I don't even need like history or geography or whatever. I mean, it's a 7-hour test! Do you think I have enough patience to sit and do that for 7 whole hours? And besides that, there's actually the process of getting into MIT…"
"Well, I guess you're lucky the invasion happened when it did because you got to go to DexLabs instead."
"Yep. Lucky me." – Shala added, with a hint of irony in his voice.
"You never told me… what got you fired from there in the first place?"
"Fired? I didn't get fired." – Shala told him.
"What?"
"You thought that Dexter fired me?" – Shala repeated. Yeah, he didn't blame Naver for assuming. Not after all the stuff he just told him. "Okay, the situation is more complicated than that. I didn't get fired, but I didn't exactly, uh, "quit" all on my own, either. It was like… a mutual thing. But I'm glad that I'm out of that place."
"Why, what's wrong with it?"
"It's Dexter. I couldn't stand working for him any longer."
"Dexter?" – Naver repeated, surprised. From the limited things he knew about Dexter, he seemed like a respected person.
"Yeah. I wouldn't say that he was a slavedriver, but… well, whatever's a couple levels below a slavedriver, that's probably Dexter." – Shala casually explained.
"No way." – Naver answered with an open mouth. That was still an extreme comparison.
"It was always "why aren't you doing this or why aren't you doing that" with that guy, you know? Even though I got my job done." – Shala explained.
"Well, he had to have had a reason, right?" – Naver replied.
"Okay, I did sometimes sleep on the job or take long breaks in the toilet… but I would always meet my deadlines and quotas. Almost always. No, yeah, always." – he corrected himself. "But no, he wanted even more than that, so he kept raising the quotas and shortening my deadlines. He never did that for anybody else! And he just has this manner of talking down to people that is so condescending. It's like he's explaining something to some unintelligible child, regardless of who he's talking to. Always talking down." – he continued. "It got so annoying."
"Well, if you didn't actually need that long to complete a task, it makes sense to shorten it, right?" – Naver sheepishly suggested. "To me it sounds like he was doing the same thing your mom and dad were doing. And Tetrax too. Encouraging you to take initiative on things and, uh, stuff…" The wording on that was a bit awkward, but he was hoping he got his point across.
"Oh, come on, not you too. Now you sound like Alice. She's always criticizing me for that." – Shala rolled his eyes. "I pull my own weight. At Dexlabs, and here. You were with me on the Green Maw mission."
"No, I'm not criticizing you. I just think that you can be even better than you are right now. You shouldn't just stick to being content with your current state, you know? I mean, look at me. Look at where I was before I found you guys. Huge difference." – Naver replied. "That way, you wouldn't just pull your own weight. You'd pull ahead of everyone. And maybe, just maybe, it will be enough to win us the war."
"Heh. Sounds different from the Naver a few days ago that wanted to quit and go to the mainland." – Shala said with a smirk.
"I learned a thing or two about how this world works since then." – Naver replied. "Some of it, from you."
Shala didn't reply for a while. Now even Naver was telling him to work harder. But it's not like he didn't have a point, either… It bothered him too. Sometimes Shala would spend all day in bed or walking around the ship, not doing anything at all, maybe scrolling or watching TubeTube videos back when the ship had internet, and all of the sudden the day would already be over and the time was wasted. Sometimes he hated himself for it. Sometimes he felt like he wanted to fix it. But then the next day would roll around and he would do the same thing all over again. Look at what he's done ever since he got back onto the airship. One mission, and nothing for days since then.
"Hey, Naver?" – Shala turned his head toward him, but Naver didn't respond. His eyes were closed and his head was leaning back. He had fallen asleep, just like Cheese. That was hard to believe, considering he was drinking Radicola, which was very much caffeinated, but after what Naver went through on the island, he earned it.
Considering what they had talked about, it was high time Shala went and did something useful for once. He carefully got up from the floor, making sure he didn't wake Naver up, who was still leaning back against Shala's bed. Before leaving, Shala took his pillow and put it behind Naver's head that was leaning back on Shala's bed so at least he wouldn't be uncomfortable while sleeping. Meanwhile, Shala himself went to help out Simon, Jim and Macy. They could probably use a hand installing that relay signal transmitter.
"Let's try 200 hz." – Shala instructed while staring at the signal transmitter he was about to plug in. Simon, standing at the computer terminal, changed the electricity frequency accordingly. Shala inserted the cable into the port, but there was a big, loud SNAP that surprised Shala and made him fall back. The lights went out around them.
"Must have flipped a circuit breaker." – Shala said casually as he got back up.
"Dude, we're lucky that didn't take out the power on the whole ship!" – Jim pointed out while he flipped it back on.
"You sure you know what you're doing?" – Simon asked Shala.
"Hey, this is DexLabs tech that we're plugging into Mandark's ship. I think that's my area of expertise." – Shala replied, protecting his dignity.
"They're basically one and the same." – Simon said flatly.
"Well, you guys had no idea what you were doing without me. When I got here Macy was looking for the adapter, trying to plug it into the ethernet port."
Simon looked disapprovingly at Macy.
"Okay, let's try 190 hz this time." – Shala instructed.
"Are you basing those numbers off of anything or are you just pulling them out of your ass?" – Jim asked him.
"I just ran the numbers." – Shala answered. "In here." – he added and pointed to his forehead. "Okay, just to be sure, let's make it 180 hz."
"Okay, the system just recognized the new plugin." – Macy announced while staring at the ship's monitor. "Uh, it's just calling it an unidentified device, though. Shouldn't it just start working?"
"What?" – Shala asked while he went over to the monitor. The rest of them followed, too. The three of them clumped together closely with Macy, who at least had the luxury of sitting, so that they could make out what the monitor said.
"Has that happened before?" – Jim asked.
"We've never had an external signal relay transmitter." – Simon pointed out.
"Oh, my god." – Shala hung his head in defeat. "We gotta download the drivers for it."
"Ugh!" "Seriously?" "Come on!" – all three of them groaned in frustration.
"How are we gonna do that with no internet?" – Macy said it first.
"Simon, you can you turn on mobile hotspot? I promise I won't watch any videos." – Shala turned to his friend with a smile on his face.
"Dude. There's no reception in the Darklands. That's what we're trying to fix."
"I know, I'm just kidding." – he answered with a sly smirk.
"Okay, so what are we gonna do? Shala, tell me you can like… code the drivers in yourself or, or some kind of manual override something." – Jim told him.
"Yeah, I have no idea how to do that." – Shala replied. "It would take me a day or two to figure out."
"In Shala speak, that's about a month." – Simon told the others.
"Hey, if I say I can do it in a day, I'll do it in a damn day." – Shala snapped back. One thing that he hated was people underestimating his abilities.
"Assuming you actually get around to doing it and don't stay in your room watching videos doing the other kind of manual override." – Simon snidely replied.
"You're gonna get a manual override, alright!" – Shala nudged him with his elbow.
"Hey!" – Simon nudged back.
"Cut that out, guys!" – Jim intervened in the middle as Shala and Simon kept nudging each other but just ended up getting hit by both of them.
"Get his ass! OW!" – Macy was cheering them on, but then got accidentally hit as well.
On that note, heavy footsteps started coming to the room. Everyone knew what that meant, so they all stopped fighting and froze in the positions they were in.
"Glad to see you all working diligently. Any progress?" – Tetrax said as he entered. Although, he wasn't even looking at them, but rather, was shuffling through the pages of a tiny book he was holding, so the four of them weren't even sure if he could actually tell what they were doing and was being sarcastic or if his compliment was genuine and he was oblivious to Shala having Simon in a headlock, about to give him nuggies.
"Uhh, yeah, we're almost done." – Shala casually answered as all four of them quickly assumed inconspicuous positions.
"Do any of you know that Earth expression for basic-level training? It was something similar to "leg camp", but I can't detect it in my dictionary." – Tetrax asked them.
"Don't you mean boot camp?" – Simon told him.
"That's correct. Thanks." – Tetrax simply said and left. The four of them looked at each other, wondering if one of them was going to break the fight back out again.
"Leg camp?" – Shala couldn't keep himself from laughing. "I'm not gonna let him live that down."
"Why was he looking that up? Who is he gonna put through boot camp?" – Simon then asked.
"You know, sometimes I forget that Tetrax is an alien that had to learn English." – Macy said.
"He didn't have to, he could have used an alien translator. He chose to. But it does lead to some funny moments sometimes." – Jim answered her.
"True that. Remember when he first met Jack and mispronounced "samurai" as "sham-urai"?" – Simon told them.
"Oh, yeah!" – the three of them laughed. "Jack didn't even mind but Tetrax was totally embarrassed." – Macy pointed out.
"This one time I went into the control room to give Tetrax an update from Mandark and I walked into Shala explaining the concept of yo momma jokes to him." – Jim pointed out. The others stared at Shala.
"What? I accidentally let one slip in front of him and I had to make sure he didn't feel like I insulted his mom." – Shala explained. "Good times."
"Okay, back to the problem at hand, guys. What the hell do we do with it?" – Macy reminded them.
"Shala's gonna solve it in a day, trust." – Simon sarcastically said.
"This piece of junk is from a few months ago." – Shala said about the transmitter, ignoring him. "So maybe the ship's software updated and doesn't support it anymore. What if we just roll back the ship's drivers, instead?"
"That…" – Macy started, but stopped mid-sentence with her mouth still open as she realized that the plan could still work. "Okay, yeah, let me try that." – she said as she took over the keyboard again.
"Ayyy!" – all of them cheered as it went from "Unknown device" to "DXL835 Relay Transmitter" and connected.
"Finally, I'm so sick of having no wi-fi! I've been dying to rewatch Return of the Army of the Malevolent Cadavers 3 all week." – Macy said to herself as they cheered.
"I thought you had that downloaded." – Jim told her.
"Well, I have the theatrical version, but that one sucks. The director's cut has 40 extra minutes of footage that really put the whole thing together."
"Yeah, yeah, hate to disappoint, but check the range capacity." – Shala interrupted them. "It's only gonna let us communicate with the other bases in the Darklands. It's not strong enough to reach the mainland."
"Seriously?" – Macy whined.
"Yeah, so, no wi-fi."
"You seriously didn't know that the whole time we were installing it?!" – Simon yelled from a distant corner.
"Yeah, well, none of you told me!" – Macy protested. "So, we're still stranded here, then? What was the damn point?"
"Well, at least now we can communicate with Providence and with SACT and the Plumbers. If one of the bases gets attacked, we can quickly send reinforcements. If something big happens, one of them can warn the others." – Jim went on.
"Try checking if it even works first." – Simon told her.
"Okay, sending a test message to the SACT. What should I write?" – Macy turned to the others.
"How about something like, is Hugh J. Rection on the base?" – Shala suggested with a smirk.
"Hugh who?" – Macy asked.
"Goddammit, Shala!" – Simon groaned. "We should kill this guy. With hammers." – he told Jim.
"Don't write that in." – Jim nervously clarified, afraid Macy would actually do it.
"Ohhh." – Macy realized it late. "Heheheheh… nice" – she chuckled.
"Well… at least we're back in business, right?" – Shala proudly declared.
"Check."
"Seriously? You know I can just kill your queen, right?"
"You can… but should you?"
"Okay, no, you're definitely planning something. Hmmmmm… I can't see it…"
"You gotta figure it out."
"Mmm… well, if… no, no…"
"Are you gonna play or not?"
"I'm running all the possibilities and I can't think of anything. But I'm gonna play it safe and move my king away anyway."
"Hahahahaha no way you actually fell for it! Checkmate! Dude, you should have just killed the queen. I can't believe I bluffed you into it!"
"Aw, dude, seriously? I'm playing chess and you're playing poker! You're not supposed to win by bluffing!"
"We had 14 draws in a row, at this point we know each other's plays by heart. How else was I supposed to win?"
"Hey!" – a commanding voice alled after both of them. "JT! Go check the radar. Cash, stop distracting him."
"We were just passing the time while keeping watch, Magister Molly." – Cash explained himself.
"I appreciate you helping out on the base, Cash, but you and JT aren't keeping watch if you're playing chess all day." – Magister Molly Gunther lectured them. Despite being friendly enough with her crew to be called by first-name basis, she wasn't the one to be trifled with on a good day. And this day, having them stranded and with no backup, didn't really qualify.
"Not like there's anything else to do on the Precipice." – Cash said under his breath.
"And what if an army of Fusion Monsters sneaks up on the base under your watch while you're too busy playing the nerd's gambit?" – Magister Molly asked him. Clearly, Cash didn't mumble it quietly enough.
"What army is gonna get up here? We're on the side of a mountain! We can shoot all the Shellworms and Eyebulbs down before they can get up, and the Fusionflies never come here." – Cash objected.
"You never know what's gonna happen. The comms have only been back up for an hour and from what I learned, the Mandark Airship got attacked, and Providence got ambushed twice."
"Yeah, whatever." – Cash told her, somewhat annoyedly. He probably shouldn't take that kind of tone with her but, hey – he wasn't a Plumber like JT was, so he could get away with more than he could.
"Rematch tomorrow." – JT told Cash after definitely making sure Molly was out of earshot, as they walked up to the Fusion Monster detectors.
"Sure. I'm gonna go on a winning streak." – Cash teased him.
"Yeah, sure, Cash, in your, uh… hold on, something's weird about this." – JT pointed out, checking the Plumber scanners.
"What is?"
"The Power Level Detector is signaling that Fusion Monsters are approaching… did you see any down there? Cause I didn't."
"Dude, we would have seen them." – Cash pointed out as they both ran back to the cliffside part of the outpost to verify the sensors. Pretty much all of the Precipice was visible from that elevation, besides some parts obscured by the Fusion mist, but nothing that would account for the scanner's readings.
"Dude, get your Radar Nano." – JT quickly told Cash. This was getting serious. If there were monsters and they weren't expecting them, that'd be trouble.
"TREMBLE BEFORE VILGAX THE CONQUEROR!" – Cash's Nano roared upon appearing.
"Yeah, yeah, sure." – Cash said dismissively as he looked at the map on his NanoCom. "Shit… dude, the sensors were right. Fusion Monsters are coming… but from the other side." – he said as he pointed.
"The other side?" – JT questioned. The two of them looked at that other side, which was supposed to be the mountain range on the side of which the Plumber base was built. The mountain's peak had minimal infection, so Fusion Monsters didn't really spawn there, and on the other side of the mountain range was the Dark Glade. The elevation was a great source of natural protection, and one of the main reasons why the outpost was built on the mountainside in the first place. This close to Fuse, a ground base would be assaulted by deadly Jurassic Centurions 24/7.
"Could it be Fusionflies?" – Cash asked.
"N-no, man. The air radar has been dead silent, and the movement of Fusionfly populations in Huntor's Crest has been lower than usual."
"So, what the hell can be coming at us from the other side?"
Soon, they didn't need to solve the question. The answer came stomping right at them.
Thud. THUD. THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD.
"WRRHHHHUUUURRHHH!" – an elephant's rumbling was heard, and not just Cash and JT, but Magister Molly Gunther, the Malloy brothers, Barry, Keshawn, Luca, all the other Plumbers and even the Providence Agents that were visiting all heard it too.
The horde of attacking Fusion Monsters wasn't Shellworms or Eyebulbs or Fusionflies or even the Jurassic Centurions. It was Wooly Behemoths. The massive mammoth-like monstrosities with ivory tusks, ready to stomp them down, were coming down on them from the other side of the mountain range, from the side where they were defenseless. It was something no one could have expected. How could anyone think that Fusions this large or clumsy could possibly find a path to cross over these peaks?
"Monkeys! Everyone, get to the Monkey Skyway Agents!" – Magister Gunther commanded. There was no hope in securing the base. In seconds, rampant chaos was running unchecked.
One of the Plumbers tuned back to try and shoot them.
"Keshawn, try to hold them off, just run for it!" – Magister Molly yelled at her, but it was already over for her. She got kicked away by one of the Bully Behemoths and fell to the ground, and got lost among the rumbling stomps of the rampaging herd.
"Crap, crap, crap!" – JT yelled.
"Man up, JT, you don't want to end up like her!" – Cash yelled as they both ran.
"There aren't enough monkeys for all of us!" – someone yelled.
"We'll take the car!" – the Providence Agent, Valdez yelled and beckoned the rest of his comrades to follow him.
"Go, go, go!" – Molly yelled as the Monkey Skyway Agents picked up the Plumbers and carried them away.
"Where to?" – one of them asked.
"Huntor's Crest! It's the only safe place left!" – she quickly said. "But I'm probably kidding myself saying that."
And just like that, in seconds, the Plumbers abandoned their base to the primal beasts and leave for the skies where they couldn't follow. JT looked back over his shoulder as one of them carelessly stomped on their chessboard that still had Cash's checkmate on the board.
End of Chapter 28.
Extract from Alice Quickfeet's Fusion Monster research log:
Wooly Behemoth
Fusion Matter type: Adaptium
Power Level: 31
Boss: Ancient Wooly Behemoth
Location: Huntor's Crest
Height: 9'-12'
Boss height: 12'-15'
Weight: unknown, approx. 6 tons
Boss weight: unknown, approx.. 10 tons
Special types of attack:
Eruption – yes
Corruption – Adaptium
Description:
Wooly Behemoths very closely resemble Mammuthus primigenius, or simply, the wooly mammoth. They are huge, elephant-like creatures with four legs and a long trunk, with two long tusks protruding from their body. Unlike the wooly mammoths, which they relate to the closest genetically, their tusks do not curve inward, which makes them resemble modern elephants more instead. It is noteworthy to mention that their counterparts in the Dark Glade, Bully Behemoths, do indeed possess curved tusks, which is one of the easiest ways to differentiate the two (besides their location, obviously).
Wooly behemoths are covered in a layer of fur coat around most of their body, except for some exposed spots. That doesn't seem to be a feature that serves any purpose, as the wool is supposed to protect from cold temperatures and Huntor's Crest, their main habitus, is no colder than the rest of the Darklands (barring the Fireswamps and Firepits for obvious reasons). I suspect it is a rudimentary carryover from wooly mammoth DNA. This is another way to differentiate them from the Bully Behemoth variants – the wool is not present with them, as they are less closely related to the Mammuthus primigenius, rather other specimens in the Mammuthus family. Their fur also varies in color, ranging from orange-brown to thin gray to even dark and black.
Despite being covered by fur, their actual skin is comprised of hardened rocks that envelop their Fusion Matter interior. The tusks are also made of a similar material. Sometimes the rocks are thickened in some areas, leading to furless bumps in their skin.
Behavior:
Wooly Behemoths are social with each other, much like the actual wooly mammoths. They are often seen in groups, and sometimes even "conversing" with each other via primitive noises, making this one of the few Fusion Monsters that are able to communicate with each other outside of their Fusion Matter bond. There isn't a single recorded instance of the Behemoths being hostile against each other. However, they don't make permanent herds, but rather, go off alone most of the time and meet up with their peers on occasion. Maybe even to catch up.
They do this one strange thing where they put their tusks under a Skull Basher and then jerk their head up, throwing the Skull Basher into the air. I find it bizarre, but funny. I think they're intelligent enough to consider this activity of theirs a game, or maybe a prank.
Against humans, though, is a different story. They may look like gentle giants, but they aren't. Their first choice of attack is to charge at them and trample, and their wide tusks make it difficult to dodge. The tusks aren't exactly great for attacking, so you would have to be careless to allow yourself to get impaled by them, their purpose is to limit your area of free movement. And, obviously, they can also use their trunk to reach for you and grab you. If you manage to get on top of their body or head in a way where their trunk can't reach you, you have a clean shot at their weak spot, which is the base of their neck. Severing the connection between the head and the body is the easiest way to take them out.
However, the Wooly Behemoths are very intelligent and highly adaptive, so they know how and when to utilize their brute force. They will try to lure you into a position where you'll have a hard time escaping from them. You can bait their charge in a way that will get them stuck in a hard object, such as a tree, and they will attempt to push free by pressing their leg against it, but in the future, they will remember not to fall for that again. In fact, if a Wooly Behemoth survives that encounter, it will never, ever forget that strategy and won't charge if there's a risk of getting stuck again. That means that the Behemoths that have adapted to this strategy are much more dangerous, as the easiest method to get an opening on their weak spot has now gone by.
Wooly Behemoths aren't well suited for one-on-one combat, as they aren't very agile and a normal human can dodge them and their fangs pretty easily. They are most likely created to deal with major battles against heavy machinery and not picking off random humans that they meet in the woods.
Area spread:
They are only found in Huntor's Crest, but can be seen all over. They usually steer clear of the SACT base because they know the defensive artillery can take them out if they try to approach. In fact, their movements are some of the easiest to monitor because their stomping shows up on the seismograph. They are mostly prevalent in the area north of Huntor's Crest that borders the Dark Glade, mostly around the large primitive settlement there. Unfortunately, their presence makes that specific settlement hard to examine.
Under Fusion control:
Direct fusion control doesn't really change a lot about the Wooly Behemoths. Despite their high intelligence, or maybe because of it, they are highly compliant and don't act out. They even have specific group formations that they go into battle with.
Known Fusions that have controlled Wooly Behemoths:
Fusion Jack
Fusion Herriman
Fusion Coop
Fusion Tetrax
Fusion Numbuh Four
Fusion Eds
Fusion Van Rook