Corruption

Up In Flames

Tongues of pale green fire lick through the hole in the ceiling. I pick up my naginata, and Lyth hops into the barrel, her big brown eye filled with fear. The fire begins to consume the room, and Hilda starts to get Leo and Hiroto out of the room as sparks start dropping and lighting more stuff on fire. Someone drops through the ceiling, and it's not hard to guess it's Ryuno.
Except three years of working for Dr Blakk has changed her. Her eyes, which would normally be a softly glowing purple fading into black, are burning blood red and full of hate. Without hesitation, I fire Lyth at her, but she flips out of the way of the healer without any trouble at all. I have to take my turn to dodge as Landmine and Missile come blazing at me with no target other than myself.
For some reason, I find myself looking at her new outfit instead of preparing for her next move. She’s got a dark navy blue top with black belts, black leggings, a bandolier full of Ghoul tubes, and the whole outfit just screams ‘stealth operative’. A Grimmstone I didn’t even know she owned comes flying at me and knocks me off my feet into the wall, and something goes crack.
“Heh… I would have expected the legendary ‘Shane Gang’ to be made of tougher stuff. But I guess you’re just a bunch of toddlers with guns, hm?” She’s standing over me, a Hop Jack aimed directly at my head, the greeny-black slug on her shoulder imitating her every expression. Her voice is still the same, though there is a rasping undertone from her possession, like a fork on a plate.
“I won’t kill you today. Go and lick your wounds. Prepare. Because Slugterra will fall, and nothing you can do will stop it. Not that there was anything you could do in the first place.” I get up, pain shooting through my leg as I leave the room, using my blaster as a walking stick.
As soon as I get over the threshold, I’m hit with a wave of heat. The fire has spread further than I thought. Green flames blaze throughout the building, smoke filling all the corridors. I try to run through the halls to get to an exit, but I trip and fall over something heavy. I look down, expecting it to be a fallen beam, but it’s a corpse, fingers already blackening, and I find myself wondering if he had any kids or family at home. Then I dismiss the thought before my own imagination overwhelms me.
I get back up, and search my arsenal for a slug I can use to escape. U5B hops up eagerly, and I choose him because my choices are pretty limited and his laser would be a useful asset in getting through walls. The wall is a different matter. I fire him, and hop onto his back as if I was riding Scorch or a Hoverbug.
He ploughs through all the obstructions, and I don’t have to run or try to walk with my bad leg. His metallic plating is getting hot fast, and I realise that if he overheats, it’s over for both of us. Out over open air, I see that because of their popularity as pets, Pyringoes are burning houses left and right. Panicked villagers are running for the gate in the wall, and Ryuno stands on top of it.
She catches my eye, and does that mischievous grin that would be cute on her normally, but looks straight up evil on her now. With a quick salute to everyone below, she falls off the wall backwards, and I hear the steady thud of wingbeats fade into the distance. I spot Hilda dragging an unconscious Hiroto and a hysterical Leo across the burning village, and I steer U5B over to help.
“Get Hiroto onto U5B. You have a Bubbalaone, right?” Hilda nods. “Put Leo in that. I'll help evacuate the villagers.” We heave Hiroto onto U5B, and Hilda’s Bubbalaone scoops up Leo. Even as we’re doing this, the wall’s crumbling down, with small chunks of metal raining down on the sides. At this rate, I’m not sure all of us can get out alive.
Suddenly, as if I needed more surprises, a short guy leaps out of nowhere landing next to us. With his black hoodie and pants, I would’ve guessed he was working for Blakk, except for the fedora on his head and sprinting shoes.
His blaster – at least I assumed it was a blaster – was pretty similar to mine, and he owned two slugs I had never seen before, and like I said, I’ve done my research. “Who are these guys? What’s going on?”
Hilda looks around bewilderingly, as if the answers laid in the rubble along the walls of the caverns. “I don’t know. Never had anything like this before. All I know is, we need to get out of here now. Or are you folks going to argue about leaving in an orderly fashion?”
Before any of the guys can say anything, I reply, “Nope. Leo, are the mechas ready?”
Leo seems to be tinkering with some kind of remote control. “I don’t know…I’ve been trying to connect to the attachments I’ve connected to them, but they’re down. The mechas are safe, but they’re not coming to save us anytime soon. Sorry guys.”
“Well, we’re going to be saving the citizens, but who’s going to save us?”
The new guy looks up at the trees, then an Arachnet and a Lariat hop out of his bandolier, and stare at him. “Well, I’m pretty sure Slugterra has other forms of travel.”
I sigh, and think back to three years ago when Ryuno said something similar. “I hate this plan. Let’s do it.”
Leo puts his remote into his seemingly endless backpack and groans. “I really don’t like where this is going, man…”

    “SO HOW WAS YOUR ARACHNET NOT GHOUL- WHOA!”
    That last part is from me, almost crashing into another tree. Don’t blame me and my swinging skills. Apparently, Nova (the guy’s name is Nova) thought it was a good idea to take Ryuno’s version of a speedy subway one step further and swing over a chasm of practical emptiness; Normally I’m not afraid of heights, but this experience makes me rethink my life choices.
    “Oh! You know the shadow water that Hiroto uses?” He grins as he flies across a whole bunch of trees with who knows what living inside of them. “So I took one of those Attacknets, bred it with a normal Arachnet, and-”
    “Wait a sec. You bred two crazily clashing slugs together? I thought ghouls couldn’t interbreed with normal slugs?”
    “It’s called selective breeding, man. We learned it back in middle school. Never heard of it?”
    “The hell is school?!”
    Hiroto clears his throat, and points at the other side. “I’d hate to disrupt the beautiful nerdy conversation you two are having, but we’re not exactly out of trouble yet. Look.”
    I hadn’t noticed it before, but on the other side is a fortress guarding whatever’s inside, and guarding it is a humongous and threatening tank. Scratch that. Make that five, humongous, threatening tanks.
    These tanks are somehow using Gattlers, constantly firing slugs our way and causing rocks on the cavern ceiling to tumble down. “What do we do about the tanks?”
    Leo grins at us. “What tanks?”
    Suddenly, the tank seemingly the largest explodes in a cloud of flame, ejecting the driver out onto the side. Then the other tanks follow the same process, dumping all the tank commanders into a neat little pile in the trees.
    Nova stares at Leo. “How did you…”
“Tell you guys later. Right now, let’s break into that thing.” Inside the tank is a growling plethora of ghouls; Attacknets, Hop Jacks, Greneaters, all sorts. But something’s off. Blakk’s men wouldn’t come all the way out here without Ryuno, and those guards didn’t put up any kind of fight. There's a slight rustle in the trees, but when I look up, there’s nothing there. Nothing. Complete silence. The place is deserted.
Nothing…
And then everything.
The cavern bursts back into life, Disastipede bombs blowing up the tanks, Hop Jacks scattering rubble, and a Greneater lands in front of me, the fuse hissing down as fast as I can scramble out of the shell of the tank. We get back into the trees, and our slugs get us out of the chaos before anyone gets hurt.
Nova looks round at me. “So what was that? Presumably not nothing, because otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten us outta there so fast.”
I sigh. “She was an old friend of mine, but the three years of war have changed her. She works for Blakk Industries now.”
Nova sighs and looks at me sympathetically. “It’s always hard losing someone you’re that close to. I hope you find another.” I splutter, and the boys burst into fits of laughter.
“W-what? She wasn’t my-” The rest of the sentence is lost to the cackles of the other people swinging through the trees. I feel my face go hot.
When we reach it, I’m glad the hideout is still standing. Liam and Yang are there, with a girl who’s wearing a black vest and jeans, with her bandolier round her waist. I feel Yang staring at me.
“Hey, Niko, what’s got you so flustered?” He’s not trying to hide his smirk, and I wanna slap his stupid face. Nova tells him what he interpreted, and Yang goes red. “Hey, um, Nikotus? He’s wrong, right?” I snort.
“Yes. No way me and Ryuno were together.” He sighs in relief. “Why, did you have eyes on her?” Yang laughs nervously.
“N-no, why would you think that?” I shrug, and laugh along with everyone else.
“Believe me when I say this, Amon. In perfect honesty, I have no intention to get together with her and start a family, the yadda dadda. Besides, that’s your job, and I’m not doing your work for you anymore.”

From my own perspective, that’s exactly what I mean. I have, not in the slightest, any idea to begin a relationship with Ryuno. Yang on the other hand, I have a little something in mind for the both of them. That is, if we find Ryuno before anything bad happens…