"I still don't understand why can't I come with you," Junjie questioned Eli in the garage, with the three of us already mounted our mechabeasts.
"I still don't understand how you don't get it," Eli facepalmed. "Ales and I are going to train by ourselves, Jun. It's a date."
Perching on my shoulder, Phoenix shook her head in disappointment, before she chirped at Burpy, seemingly trying to convey a message to her husband. Burpy responded with a dramatic shrug, before he started chirping again and pointed to Joo Joo, who was perching on Junjie's shoulder. Joo Joo then looked offended and started arguing with Burpy, and the two male Infurnuses started getting into a heated argument on their slingers' shoulder, not making it any better for anyone.
"Men," I sighed. Phoenix groaned in annoyance on my shoulder. I couldn't do anything other than to watch and wait for them to resolve the issue.
That was a lie. I could do something, but chose not to.
"I understand that it's a date, but can't I just tag along? I cherish every opportunity to better my slinging skills, and-" Junjie defended himself using the same phrase for the third time, but this time, Eli cut him off.
"Okay let me just put it this way," Eli said, and I deadpanned. Dalinda groaned, as she decided to lay down on her belly, crossing her front legs gracefully in front of her as we waited for the two grown men to talk this out.
"Imagine you're going out with a girl you're interested in," Eli started.
"Got it," Junjie said almost immediately.
"And you invited her to have dinner with you at the restaurant that sells the best Chinese noodles in the Eastern Caverns," Eli continued.
"Okay?" Junjie said, with a wide smile pasted on his lips.
I raised an eyebrow at that.
"Wait, what's with the smile?" Eli asked teasingly. "You have a girl in mind that we don't know about?"
"Just continue," Junjie chuckled.
"So you two went into this restaurant and ordered their best dishes, when all of a sudden," Eli said, banging Lucky with his fist for sound effect. "A random guy came and sit at the same table as you and your girl. He's not talking to you two but just silently eating his own noodles at the same table. How do you feel?"
"Awkward? Annoyed? I feel like I will blast him," Junjie said, cracking his knuckles.
"That's a bit unnecessary," Eli laughed. "But you get the idea. That's why I would really appreciate it if I can spend some quality time with my girl, with no one else. Don't get me wrong, the three of us can hangout. It's just that today's slinging session is supposed to be a date."
Junjie went silent, thinking intensely.
"How about the three of us, or the entire Shane Gang, go slinging later today or tomorrow?" Eli suggested.
"Fine," Junjie finally gave in. "I'll go back to rest then."
Junjie got off of his mechabeast and walked back into the hideout, with Joo-Joo perching on his shoulder, chirping at his slinger curiously.
"What's that about?" Eli mumbled underneath his breath as the garage door leading into the hideout closed behind Junjie.
"Fear of missing out?" I asked Eli. Dalinda finally got up to her feet.
"He used to be a solo slinger, might still be, so in my opinion that's unlikely," Eli shrugged. "I don't know. Anyway, where do you want to go practice at?"
"Bullseye?" I suggested with a small smile. "It's where the heart of Slugterra is, isn't it? I've heard so many stories about how the Shane Gang saved Bullseye Cavern, yet I've never been there before."
Eli put on a charming smile as the garage door ascended.
"We'll be there in no time," he said, before we revved up our engines and took off, heading to the aforementioned cavern.
...
"Didn't know this place is so... beautiful," I mumbled in awe when Bullseye Cavern came to sight. Even Dalinda's flippers at the side of her face erected as she tilted her head, letting out a small chirp.
We emerged from a tunnel, and from where we were, we could oversee the entire cavern. There was a clearing below us, where the statue of Bullseye was placed in the middle. Perfect space for us to sling. There were ginormous rock structures further away from the clearing, and extraordinarily large tree trunks conquered the cavern, acting like the support of the cavern's ceiling. Large green leaves hung from the thick tree trunks, with what seemed like orange, circular fruits sticking itself to the trunks, adding to the colour of the cavern. Old structures could been seen scattered across the area other than the clearing as the cavern was abandoned ever since it was affected by Dark Water. Since then, Fandango slugs have made this place their home.
"I had the same reaction when we first healed the cavern," Eli said, slowly taking the view in as our mechabeasts wandered forward. "But trust me, you don't want to see what this place looks like when it's dead."
"I can't see it even if I want to," I said with a proud smile. "Since we got rid of the people that would even think to do such a thing."
When we got to the edge of the tunnel, there was a huge leap from where we were to the clearing ground. I felt Dalinda retracted her rear legs, Lucky imitating her, before we jumped off together. Dalinda spread her wings while Lucky went to glide mode, as we slowly glided down to the ground.
Phoenix chirped from my shoulder, and was followed by Durian, Naja, my Pieper Slug and Mago, my Thugglet, from my bandoleer.
"Everyone ready to have some fun?" I asked, and I heard all my slugs chirping in my backpack, before all of them crawled out of it to perch on Dalinda. She had to extend her wings in order to make more room for the slugs.
Eli and I dismounted our mechabeast and soon, Eli's slugs came out of his backpack to play.
"Start off like how we always do it?" Eli asked with a smirk.
"Let's see if any of our slugs are ready to megamorph today!" I said as I took out my staff blaster. Durian was chirping like there was no tomorrow from my bandoleer, clearly excited to transform.
"You want to be the first today?" I asked as I took him from my bandoleer and loaded him up. Durian positioned himself in his canister, a cute smirk on his face.
I heard Eli loaded up a slug, his Geoshard, into his blaster. She was still a velocimorph.
"On three?" Eli asked with a raised brow. I smiled at him, before facing forward, aiming my blaster forward.
"Three," I sang. Eli and I fired simultaneously, the gunshot echoed through the silent cavern. We holstered our blaster, and both of our slugs reached velocity, soaring through the clearing.
"Way to go, Crystal!" Eli screamed at the top of his lungs.
"You're doing great, Durian!" I yelled as loud as I could, cheering onto my slug.
Crystal curled up into a ball, letting out a loud roar as more green spines protruded from her body accompanied by new cool-looking white stripes, successfully megamorphed.
"She did it!" Eli cheered as Crystal shot a lime green crystal ball to the ground, crystallising the overgrown vegetation below her.
"Awesome!" I smiled brightly, before focusing back on Durian. "Come on, pal! You can do it too!"
I could see Durian attempting to do a front flip to megamorph, but almost instantly he lost his balance and began to wobble a lot as he soared.
"Durian!" I yelled worriedly for him. I lifted my hands to chest height, gracefully swung them in the air, attempting to stop him from crashing headfirst to the ground. Thankfully, I was able to guide him to crash into a bush. A cloud of purple smoke emerged from within the bush where Durian landed, the leaves of the bush rot almost immediately.
I loaded up Mint into my blaster and fired him at Durian. He megamorphed, before spitting out a long slimy rope from its mouth. He perfectly caught Durian, before pulling him out of the bush. Durian flew towards me through the rope, and I caught him in hand just in time.
"You okay?" I asked the slug in my palm. He got up to his feet and nodded softly at me, before letting out a soft sigh.
"Hey, don't get discouraged, alright?" Eli said to Durian, gently patting his head with his finger. "It's normal for slugs to fail their first shot to megamorph. You'll get there soon. I believe in you."
Durian's face lit up as he squealed, chuckling happily. He then hopped out of my grasp and went to play with the a group of slugs that were riding on bubbles.
I giggled.
Slugs are such simple creatures.
"Thanks babe," I turned to smile at him.
He returned it, giving me a side hug.
"Anytime," he said, before he spun his blaster in his hand and pulled the trigger, firing Burpy.
After every slug get a turn to transform, Eli finally started the slug slinging session.
Yes, even after so many months of training, I have to say he is only a tad bit better than me.
Okay maybe not just a tad bit.
Hence he is the trainer and I'm the trainee.
"Ready to duel?" Eli said, standing across the clearing with that stupidly hot signature smirk of his, his hand hovering just above his blaster.
"I'm going to beat you this time," I smirked at him, strategising my plan in my head and paying attention to any of his sudden moves.
"Wishful thinking," Eli grinned, before he grabbed his blaster and fired Sparky, his Grenuke. I spun my blaster and fired Funnel, my Arachnet. Both slugs transformed and Funnel shot a spider web net at Sparky, taking him down. Funnel shot another web net at Eli, but the net was sawed in half by Buzzsaw, his Thresher.
Aurora chirped from my bandoleer and I picked up her canister, loaded her in before shooting her at Eli. He smirked as he fired his Aquabeek, Beeker. I holstered my blaster, raised my hands in the air to guide Aurora to get out of the way of Beeker's water attack, but Aurora was still too inexperienced to go up against one of Eli's most experienced slugs.
Beeker took her down with a strong splash of water, and after both slugs returned to photoform only did I saw Banger coming at me right after Beeker.
I gasped before jumping out of my spot, Banger crashed at the spot I was mere seconds ago.
"Damn it," I cursed under my breath.
I failed to see Banger coming.
With both sides loaded, I spun my blaster in the air, detached it, before firing Taser and Ash at Eli. Both slugs transformed in midair, screeching at Eli. He spun his blaster, before firing his Rammstone and his Arachnet right after.
His Rammstone megamorphed, knocking Taser out of the way, forcing her to return to photoform. Ash spitted a ball of lava at Spinner, forcing him to return to photoform before Ash charged at Eli. Eli skillfully dodged his attack, firing Chiller, his Frostcrawler.
I loaded up Ram, my Rammstone, and pulled the trigger. Ram fought off Chiller, and both slugs crashed to the ground.
With my eyes locked on him, I glared fiercely, trying to look as intimidating as possible as I took a second to catch my breath. On the other hand, he smiled adorably at me, his hands casually placed on his waist.
"Is that all you've got?" Eli yelled teasingly.
"You know it's not," I smiled pridefully, loading up Mago, my Thugglet. Pointing my blaster to my feet, I pulled the trigger. Sparkles formed all around me as Eli started to point his blaster all around him, ready to fire at any direction as he can't see me.
I giggled softly, carefully tiptoeing my way to get nearer to him, loading up Rox, my Hop Rock, in the process.
"Doll, I have a lot of experience dealing with Thugglets," Eli said as he pulled the trigger and fired Burpy at a random direction, completely missing me. "Your tricks won't work on me."
Wishful thinking.
There were no structure or ruins for me to hide behind in the open area, so I guess this illusion has to stay on until I get close enough to attack.
Not a big deal when you have one of the two Thugglets that hid the entire army of Slugterra in the infamous war.
I could hear Mago's soft happy chirps as she read my thoughts.
I took a halt a few feet behind him. My grip on my blaster tightened. His back was facing me.
"He doesn't even know I'm right behind him," I whispered underneath my breath, and let out a soft chuckle. "He's dead. I'm finally going to beat him."
"Where are you, Ales?" Eli asked aloud in his husky voice, failing to turn around to see me. His feet were planted to the ground, his blaster holstered while Burpy still soared in the air aimlessly.
What is he thinking? Holstering his blaster?
That's offensive. Boy pick up your blaster and fight me like a real slinger!
The excitement I was feeling made my heart beat quickened. I was finally going to win a duel against the one and only Eli Shane! Seeing that he was still looking at the complete wrong direction, I carefully took another step forward, making sure there were no branches below my feet when it landed.
The distance between us was perfect. Rox, my Hop Rock will be able to reach velocity just in time that Eli won't have time to react to the gunshot.
Knowing I have won, I aimed my blaster at him, powering it up, and pulled the trigger with a shaky finger.
Rox megamorphed into a blue monster with a yellow shell and a yellow tail, letting out a load roar as he charged at Eli.
I spun my blaster in my hand victoriously, and was about to holster it when I heard another gunshot that made me almost dropped my blaster.
Eli turned around and fired his Vinedrill, Tangles, almost instantly after I fired Rox as if he anticipated my shot before I pulled the trigger. I gasped when I saw Tangles megamorphed almost in sync with Rox. At the corner of my eye I saw the orange slug charged down towards us, crashing into Rox, ramming him to the ground.
A canister shot out from my backpack for my next shot, but it was too late. Tangles hit the ground right before my feet before I could load the canister, causing vines to sprout up and snaked around my body. I struggled to break free from its grasp but the vines were strong. One of the vines wrapped itself around my blaster, before forcefully taking it away from me.
Everything happened so quickly that it did not register in my head until my hands were tied above my head and my legs were tightly held down. The vines were not allowing me to move a single muscle. Another gunshot fired, and when I looked up at Eli, his Gazzer transformed before my eyes.
Oh floppers.
I shut my eyes and braced for impact. The Gazzer rammed into me, the vines letting me go as my body crashed to the ground behind with a loud thud. I winced as I pulled myself up to a sitting position, and rolled my eyes in annoyance when I felt the dopamine rushing through my body.
"Eli!" I yelled at him angrily as I saw him running towards me with that stupid signature bloody hot smirk of his. "We've talked about this before! I do not want to be hit with a Gazzer in our duels because it... it makes me..."
The corners of my lips raised so high that they touched the Surface as I could feel the urge to jump up and down like a child again, but my body was sore to succumb to that intrusive thought.
"Because it makes my stomach hurt like hell!" I exclaimed as I fell back to the ground, laughing my head off. Eli came just in time to catch me, stopping me from crashing myself head first to the ground, and I can see the joy on his face.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I ran out of slugs, and I believe you would much rather be hit by a Gazzer than a Dirt Urchin," Eli chuckled, planting a small kiss on my forehead.
"You could've used your flopping Flopper!" I wheezed, feeling tears forming at the corners of my eyes, kicking my legs in the air when I heard a sad chirp from a slug. "No offense, Noodle!"
"Look at yourself," Eli said with so much love in his eyes as he rubbed his nose against mine. "How can I resist myself to slug you with my Gazzer? You're so flopping adorable like this, Holy Floppers."
I giggled, feeling my cheeks getting heaty as I blushed. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he picked me up, bridal style, and walked us to where our mechabeasts were parked.
"Get the water ready!" I squealed, winked at him as I was starting to pant softly, showing that the effects were wearing off.
"I know," Eli assured with Noodle perching on his shoulder, still glaring playfully at me.
When Dalinda noticed Eli carrying me to her at a distance, with me laughing like a maniac, she rolled her eyes and looked sternly at Eli, clearly unhappy with what he did.
"I know, I know," Eli laughed it off. He put me down beside my mechabeast, with my back resting against Dalinda's wing. Dalinda turned her head around to approach me, groaning softly as if she was asking if I was okay. I didn't know why that was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my entire life and I wheezed like a kettle, giving her tonnes of pats while she looked at me with very concerned eyes.
Eli then reached out to a small bag that was attached to Dalinda, and took out my bottle.
Eli opened it for me, indirectly flexing his biceps and arms in front of my lovesick self, before he handed me the bottle. The second I got the bottle, I immediately started to gulp down water, knowing very well that if I do not do so, I will suffer way more when the effects completely wore off.
"I'll take revenge," I said, panting heavily as I rested the back of my head on Dalinda, controlling my breathing and taking my time to recover from the dopamine rush.
"I love you too," he replied, wiping away the sweat on his face with a small towel. "Aren't you going to ask me how I made that shot?"
"Oh yeah," I exclaimed, recalling what happened during our duel. "How did you even know I was there? It's impossible for you to make that perfect shot with your Vinedrill without first knowing that I was right behind you, but your back was literally facing me. You have eyes at the back of your head or something?"
Eli chuckled as Burpy giggled on his shoulder.
"It's another trick I learned from the Eastern Caverns," Eli said.
"No way," I said in awe. "Tell me more about it."
"I call it the 'shared sight'," he stated. "It's basically when you can see what your slug is seeing. I was seeing Burpy's vision and I can switch back to my own anytime I want. I may not be facing you but through Burpy, I saw it the second you fired that Hop Rock."
I nodded, completely mind-blown by what I was hearing.
"You were busy looking at my blaster but you failed to see my glowing blue eyes, which is always an indication that I was sharing sight with Burpy," he further explained. "I know that you'll sneak up on me from behind, so I had Burpy watching my back when I was facing the other direction. I wanted to surprise you, so I waited for you to pull the trigger before I do."
"You asshole," I laughed. "Teach me how to do it."
"Relax," he said, patting my head. "You still need to work on your slinging a little more before you're ready."
"What do you mean? I'm literally the second best slinger in Slugterra if we don't count Jun," I pouted. "If you're not going to teach me, I'll ask Jun to."
His smile immediately vanished from his face as he groaned in annoyance.
"Babe," he said, clearly fed up with me. "Fine, go get Junjie to teach you. Spoiler alert, I was the only one who was able to master the 'shared sight'. Not even Junjie himself can do it."
"That's the funniest thing I've heard all year," I laughed, thinking he was joking about Junjie not mastering 'shared sight' but when I see that he wasn't joking, I was speechless.
"No way," I said, my jaw dropped.
"Way," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You have to be kidding me!" I exclaimed. "Jun is the Slug Fu Master! He has been training with Slug Fu for years, way longer than you have, and you mastered the 'shared sight' and he didn't?"
"What can I say?" he smirked down at me. "I'm a better Slug Fu Master than him."
"But," I paused. "How did you do it without any guidance or demonstration?"
"That remains a mystery till this day," Eli confessed. "The first time I did it, it was purely by chance. I was just trying to do what I was taught, 'listen to your slug', and somehow I did it! Even Jun was shocked when I first succeeded."
"Damn," I mumbled. "It's like I'm falling in love with you all over again. How is my boyfriend this amazing at slinging?"
He let out a short laugh before hanging his head, blushing shyly.
"You have enough rest," Eli said, reaching out a hand for me. "You still need to work on your strategising in slinging."
"After that you'll help me master 'shared sight', right?" I asked as I took his hand and allowed him to help me pull myself up.
"Of course," he said, shooting me a cute smile. "Anything for you."
"Thank you," I smiled at him, tiptoeing to give him a small peck on his cheek. "Teach me your strategies already so that I can master 'shared sight', and maybe after that, I can finally beat you."
"Another wishful thinking," Eli chuckled. "Don't rush it. I won't introduce 'shared sight' to your training before you work on your strategising."
"Noted," I sighed. "So what is it about my slinging strategising? I thought they were good enough."
"They are good enough. Actually, they are almost flawless," he commented. "But given that the average slinging skill of a Slugterrean is way higher than before after the slinging training for the war, you have to up your game before you find yourself fighting against an enemy that is at the same level as you or even worse, better."
"That's why we didn't teach them Slug Fu, to make sure that this never happen," I argued. "We never taught them everything we know about basic slinging either! But yeah I get where you are coming from."
"Good. You're right. The chances of encountering someone that is actually better than you is very low," he shrugged. "But what if it actually happened? There is no harm in improving your slinging anyway."
"Fair point," I nodded, agreeing with him. "What is it that you're not happy about my slinging?"
"We always have numerous choices when it comes to which slugs we sling and in which order, ranging all the way from the best shot and worst. Obviously, how do you define 'best' and 'worst' varies from different situations, but each shot affects the other, and that is what makes it important. How good a slinger is at slinging is dependent on which option he or she ends up choosing," Eli briefly summarised. "Your choice may be different when you have other things to take into consideration, for example you may sling differently when there are other innocent people around you compared to when there's only you and your opponent in the area. There's just so much to think about when you sling but most of the time you have to react instantly and have close to no time to even process which slug to sling. In a duel, you just pick your slug and sling it without thinking much most of the time. My advice to you is to go through in your head as many situations as possible, and think about which slugs and which order you'll fire them in. The more you think about it and practise them in real life, the better you'll become at choosing your slugs."
"Got it," I said, giving him a strong nod.
"One more thing," he said. "Don't put your guard down until you know for sure your opponent is down. Don't get too cocky. Sometimes things aren't the way they seem, just like our duel just now."
"Come on," I laughed. "I'm only cocky in duels with you!"
"And you ask why you haven't beat me yet," Eli said. "If you can do it in our duels, you may do it in an actual duel without yourself knowing. Trust me, I was so cocky years before I met you when I first started slinging, but I quickly learned my lesson. Ales, I don't want anything bad to happen to you, so listen to me and don't get too cocky, even when you're duelling me."
"Alright," I nodded at him. Eli can get very serious in our slinging sessions, but I respect that. He was worried for me, and him being serious when he was lecturing and duelling me shows that he respects me as a slinger too.
"Round two?" Eli asked with a smile, finally dropping his serious expression as he spun his blaster in hand and loaded up Burpy.
I chuckled, grabbing my blaster.
"You're on!"