DRFB: Chpt 34 Weight and Pain

Slugterra Fanfic
Chpt 34: Weight and Pain
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A lone Flaringo slug hopped happily through the shadowy canyons of Envy Cavern, the small magic fire burning on his head, lighting his way.

In the distance, a cluster of bright blue lights pierced the darkness. The Flaringo paused in surprise. Were they Inkdevils?
A rhythmic thudding said otherwise.
As the ground began to shake, pebbles jumped up and down wildly, scattering out of the way as a huge dragon tore past the stunned slug, the rush of air behind it snuffing out his light, something smaller racing next to it.

The slug scrambled backwards in terror, as another large set of lights galloped past after the trial of blue lights, left behind by the first runner, this one slower and heavier than the first, but still dangerous.

The Flaringo stayed silent as the sound died away too distant thudding, the lights flickering in and out of existence in the dark.
The Flaringo shuddered in fear, its heart still shaking after its close encounter, the thudding still echoing in its skull.


A Night-Race. Awesome! Kaiya grinned to herself as she led Harper on a wild hunt through the darkened canyons. She had equipped Skies for this kind of job, radar, night vision, terrain mapping, you name it. The glasses also helped, bathing her sight in a red tinted vision, pulsing white outlines lined every rock, bush and object in their path.
She raised her head to catch the fresh breeze as it tore through her ponytail as they pounded along the stone track.
Her moment was short-lived though as Harper attempted to fire a slug at her.
She missed by a mile, the jumping T-Rexs headlights proving to be terrible aim, even for an experienced slinger, as Skies stark black outline was only momentarily shown in the head lights, and was proving to evasive to line up properly.

Skies rider growled. They’d soon reach the Caverns end up ahead and then Kaiya would be in the line of fire. She was safe in the dark but in the plain open light? She’d get blown up in no time.
“Looks like we’ll have to out run her, and her firing range as well.” She muttered to Skies as the exit raced towards them, spilling white light onto the purple rocks.
A sharp whistle and Jet disappeared from view, taking on of her own alternate paths.

“Ready?” She whispered to Skies, her voice lost in the rhythmic thumping of the Mechas footsteps.
Three: Her hand slowly snaked onto the throttle
Two: She gripped it hard and dug her feet into their stirrups.
One: Skies leaped into the light and Kaiya twisted the throttle, her dragon racing away from the dark and into the light, leaving a trail of dust in his wake.
Through her glasses, Kaiya watched as thin streams of black and purple dust streamed of Skies armour, forming a thin trail of ash behind them.
“Slugterras sicker than we thought.” She spat.

A mighty roar and a ‘YEE-HAW!” announced that Harper was back where she could shoot.

“Fuck Me.” Kaiya snarled as a Dino-Slug slammed into the ground a millimeter from Skies, sending a web of cracks skittering across the desert ground.
More explosive slugs followed, crashing into orange stone pillars or webbing the ground with miniscule cracks.
As Kaiya drew further out of range, the slugs turned into more strategic ones, a Dustpuff sandpit narrowly avoided, an Aquabeek water jet deflected via Skies armour and a Polario wrapped around his tail.
Skies’ was her life saver.
She couldn’t help herself, she needed to do something. So she leaned over and patted his neck, receiving a warm growl as Thanks.

WEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooooZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
A Buzzsaw slashed past her ear, giving her ponytail an early haircut.
“Gotta get somewhere where she won’t shoot!” Kaiya muttered before re-thinking the sentence.
“Somewhere she won’t shoot as much.” She corrected herself as a Flaringo flashed past her showing her she was just within range.
An extra spurt of energy would get her out of firing range.

Pushing the throttle up to maximum, she drew out of firing range, just, and out onto a cliff ledge.
A slash of white light caught her eye and she glanced to the left, spying the tall domes of a rural Cavern town.
She slowly watched the town flash in and out of view by passing rocks until a Hop-Rock trailing yellow and orange smoke sped past her and exploded with fragments of stone flying everywhere, reminding her of her pursuer.
An idea clicked into place at the sight of the city.
Pulling up a map on her glasses, she wrenched Skies controls to the left, nearly over-shooting the hidden side entrance, blocked from view by a pile of rocks.
A bump rocked her as her mechas hindquarters hit the rock, his sharpened slip-proof claws preventing anymore damage.

As she raced towards the sparkling white bridge that allowed passage to the city over a deep ravine, the frustrated roar from Harpers mecha echoed in her ears.
She’d gained the last advantage possible in this narrow pathway, where towering rock walls blocked her on either side.

Even though Harper was a far behind her, she didn’t risk slowing down.
The path may have been narrow but it was wide enough for her monstrous beast to get through.
Drifting around a corner, deep claw marks left behind, Kaiya encountered her first obstacle.
A bull-cart had overturned with its load of fish and the rider was trying his best to right it, with the help of multiple, angry others whose mecha beasts couldn’t get past.
Kaiya would never forget the faces of shock, horror and surprise as her and Black Skies skidded around the corner.
A few of the quicker minded ones actually started scrambling away until Kaiya steered Skies onto the trailer and leapt off, clearing half of the mecha jam before crushing an unfortunate leopard beneath his huge paws and charging a path through the rest.

Risking a glance back she watched as they stared at shock at the pair, to dumbfounded to comprehend what had happened.
The same happened to Kaiya in the few seconds that followed.
A startling red T-Rex head swung around the corner milli-seconds before the rest of it, crushing the trailer and scattering the crowd with a thundering roar of fury matched by its riders scowl.

Kaiya turned away, not wanting to see anymore as terror wormed its way up her spine and into her head.
“Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit!” She muttered as she raced over the white bridge leaving a trail of dust behind her.
Harpers mecha beast roared again, masking the loud whizz as she fired another slug.
Kaiya just ducked her head as the slug sped overhead, knowing Harper wouldn’t do anything dangerous to take down the bridge.
But she had under-estimated just how smart Harper was. As the slug sped over head, the Dirt Urchin tucked itself up and shot pale green spikes directly at Kaiya.
Kaiya froze, nothing had prepared her for an attack like this, as the spikes rattled down, most being deflected by Skies head, the backpack full of metal on her back and her shoulder pads.
However, one lucky spike slipped past all the protection, piercing through her leather jacket and stabbing deep into her shoulder, nearly all the way through.
She screamed at the sudden shock of the cold spine sinking into her flesh but clamped her mouth shut, not wanting to show her pain.
The warm blood leaked out and trickled down her skin with a sticky sensation, the rocking movements of Skies causing the bone to grate against the spike, embedding it further and causing extreme pain all along her shoulder until all she wanted to chop her shoulder off just to top it.
Kaiya felt her cheek redden as tears of pain sprang to her eyes and trickled down her cheek, mixing with her sweat.
The pain was so bad she felt herself on the edge of blacking out, her right hand to painful to move.

"Skies..help.." she whimpered as she slumped over his neck unconscious from the brutal agony, tears falling onto his armour or blown away by the wind.

Skies immediately sensed something was rong with his friend. Her heart rate had dramatically spiked and her stress levels were rising. Using the saddle camera located on the control screen his processer instantly recognized his rider was unconscious and could not control him.
Zooming in he determined the cause. A Dirt Urchin spike, 12 inches long, protruding out of her right shoulder causing extreme agony resulting in a brain-crash.

His back up rescue system kicked in and he immediately lashed his bladed tail out at the oncoming bridge suspenders.
The Threat was behind him and if this platform could be taken down, so would the Threat.
One thick wire snapped as Skies stopped and chomped through, doing the same to the whole side causing the bridge to tip dangerously.
Landing safely on the other side, he quickly used my rear view camera to watch the Threat pause and try and keep upright on the swinging bridge before dashing off using the inbuilt maps to try and find a source of help.

His built in locater showed three different sources, three different people Skies knew Kaiya trusted and had programmed into her security help contacts.
The closest one was at the location known as the Forge.




It was the agonizing pain that woke Kaiya out of her coma, the grating of bone against spike drove her crazy with pain accompanied by the weight on her back.
"Urghhh..." She groaned as she woke to the rhythmic movement of Skies gallop, the pain in her shoulder as worse as ever.
Bleary eyed and half conscious from the pain she managed to slump back over his neck and groan, "Slow down..."

Skies obeyed willingly, slowing down to a trot before stopping completely behind a copse of trees and bushes, hidden in the shadows.
"Wha....? Why'r you hiding?" She slurred.
Skies didn't answer, he simply just backed away from the light slowly, silent as a shadow.
Kaiya gritted her teeth from the severe pain and began to slid off but was stopped by his tail.
"What?" She hissed, the pain feeding her frustration of being helpless. She only ever let Twist, Nicole or Skies help her and most of the time no-one.
Twist would have a fit if he found out how many times she'd injured herself.
He flipped out way too much when Kaiya had her first experience with an X-Mitter and had been flung from Skies onto a rock wall.

A trembling roar shattered her already dazed thoughts and she winced as her shoulder was jogged by the vibrations coming from the huge T-Rex mecha that sprinted past.
She gulped, she'd entirely forgotten Harper was out for her blood.
She glanced at the spine embedded in her shoulder, could the slug track it like the Jollyish Goo?
She was in no condition to fight a T-Rex with Skies. One that had a skilled slinging veteran with a high damage inflicting bazooka blaster firing heavy-weight slugs astride.

She watched as the mecha stormed by, silently thanking Skies mechanical intuition.
The pain had died away so when she moved her shoulder to pat Skies she let out a hiss of pain as the pain tore through her again and she slumped to the ground, tears leaking out again with small sobs.
She hated this weakness! She hated being in so much pain she was unable to do anything!
She wanted to be immune to pain! To carry on when even her arms and legs had been torn off!
But her sobs came faster as she knew she was only human.
She allowed herself a full ten minutes to let everything out, hidden behind Skies in the shadows.
Her meltdown was interrupted by a friendly face peeking through the bushes.
Jet had returned to comfort her.
As Skies slowly eased the back pack off with steady jaws (he sliced through the straps), Kaiya smiled through her tear stricken face and reached out to embrace her before crying out in pain from the spike still jammed in her shoulder.
Jet whined and licked her tears away, saddened that her owner was in such a terrible state.
Skies sat down, still large enough to block anyones view and also for Kaiya to lean on.
Kaiya wiped away her tears with her good hand, wrecked arm cradled on her lap, before trying to pull herself together.
"Right!" She said aloud to her two companions in an effort to get herself together, "Let's go say hi to Smelter! But first, how about I tidy myself up first?"
She forced a smile through the pain before trying to reach the knife strapped onto the back of her belt.
She couldn't reach it with her current arm.
A flash of panic swept through her and she froze before shaking her head and snapping herself out of it.
"Jet!" She clicked her fingers behind her back, "Fetch!"
Jet yelped and stuck her head behind Kaiyas back, dragging out the laser-blade knife and dropping it infront of Kaiya.
"Good girl!" Kaiya praised, picking up the knife in her good hand and clamping it in her mouth like an old fashioned pirate.
Reaching around, she grasped the slick spine protruding out of her shoulder and took in a deep breath between the knife.
On the count of three, she tugged as hard as she could, the 12 inch point slipping out with a slurping, sucking sound and the occasional scratch of scraping against bone. It made her want to vomit.
Pain danced up her arm in jagged bolts but she clamped her teeth down, squeezed her eyes shut, hissed through her teeth and continued to pull until the full thing was out and lying on the blood stained grass.
The pain was still ferocious but at least she could move her shoulder now.
Her mind clicked in as blood started to gush out of the hole and she clamped her teeth on the blade harder as she struggled out of her leather jacket, smearing red all along her arm.
Quickly spitting out her knife, she half hacked, half ripped her white singlet up before wrapping it around her arm in an effort to staunch the flow.
It was a short term solution and as she tucked the knife back into its sheath she could feel the cloth gain weight as it soaked up all the blood.
Struggling to her feet, ignoring the bright splash of red that had soaked into the remains of the singlet she was wearing, she mounted Skies, wincing at the effort.
She felt light-headed from the blood loss and her strength felt sapped.
The pain was still evident and as she steered Skies towards the Forge she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness again.
The last thing she remembered was Jet hopping up behind her with something in her mouth before the rocking lulled her to sleep.


She slept for an hour as Skies made the journey automatically to the forge and upon her awakening she shivered at the cold air.
The ache in her shoulder had lessened and she gladly accepted the leather jacket Jet held out to her.
It crackled as she put it on, the dry blood inside scratching against her skin.
Blue light illuminated the darkened cavern and she recognized the path they were taking as the employees back entrance.
Once again she was taken aback at how Skies knew his way around.
He was smarter than she thought and for the first time, she thought something she’d never thought before.
‘What if he’s too smart? And gets a mind of his own?’
She sat back and rolled her shoulder, trying to distract herself from the slightly scary idea.
She knew he could think after the Train Crash Incident, that brief moment their minds had connected somehow.
She still didn’t like thinking of that, she had no idea on how it could’ve happened.
And when she was riding him, well, that was obvious. She was always in control of him then.
And she’d also just assumed when he’d rushed to her aid after being called, that it was wireless technology.

A twang of pain from the hole in her back snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Aahhh..” She gasped quietly as Skies continued to lope down the path at an easy pace, the rocking sending her mind wandering once again but this time to her wound.
Why wasn’t it so sore?
She had simply fallen asleep from the blood loss and now she could move it without much pain.
What had happened?
Had someone healed her?

She sighed and shook her head. If she thought to much, she’d end up going mad.
In the next few seconds, everything she had thought about was gone as the door in the rock wall came into view.
The Golden Glow Floria was still there, bathing the tarnished metal door with a yellow glow as it hid in the shadows.
They had installed a door here too. Replacing the one that went missing after Blakk took the place down.
Kaiya dismounted, once again gritting her teeth from the ache in her shoulder.
It got worse as she heaved the pack onto her shoulders.
The door was unlocked and as she opened it she saw the lock was missing, still needing to be replaced.
Her silent footfalls echoed in the vast expanse of dull chrome.
Huge smelting cauldrons hung from metal arms over giant craters in the floor, bowls for the liquid metals.
Walkways layered the walls, each with their own protruding platform adorned with uniform control boards.
The whole area was lit up by a warm yellow glow and as Kaiya scaled the stairs up to the walkway, she saw that one of the cauldrons was already filled to the brim with a seething mass of  molten metal.
“Cooool…” She gasped, entranced by the swirling patterns, the gasp increased as a tongue of flame shot out of a black hole below the cauldron, heating the metal.

“Pretty neat, hmm?”
Kaiya froze as a heavy blue hand landed on her shoulder.
She turned her head to find an old face looking back at her, a deep grin and twinkling eyes bringing back so many memories.
“SMELTER!” She cried and tried to hug him fiercely but only managing to wrap her arms two thirds of the way around his waist.
Her shoulder complained but she was too lost in her memories to notice.
Smelter simply chuckled and hugged her back, “Good ta see yah again, Girlie.”
The warmth from him and the feeling of shelter as she was wrapped in his big arms, her Uncles arms was just too much.
All the weight, the locked away guilt from every action she’d done, the sadness and pain she’d hidden from everyone else, the stress of being beaten, being humiliated and destroyed, perceived as weak, was just to much.
Working for Blakk, being responsible for deaths, destroying peoples lives, helping in a nationwide corruption, bringing in powerful, foreign concepts and having them readily available for a tyrant to use.
And now, in Smelters safe arms, the father image she’d grown up with in her first years in Slugterra, the one and only reason she’d achieved so much with Skies, she broke.

“Kaiya?”  Smelter asked quizzically after he hadn’t received a reply, “Hey, you alright?”

His only response was from the quiet sobbing that crept out of his arms.
He started, glanced around then leaned against the railing and hugged his adopted daughter closer, murmuring praise and reassuring her as she broke down in tears.