Corruption

Overwhelming Horror

==POV: Ryuno==
I’m scared. Ashura’s dead, I’m pretty sure everyone is out to kill me, and whatever time I had is rapidly running out. I feel sick and cold, and I literally can’t even stand. The Goon hops over.
“If you’re here to tell me I’m dying, forget it. I know.” The slug tips its head, amused.
“No. I was going to tell you soon you may have control again.”
“Sounds great. Is it cuz I’m practically dead?” The Goon’s expression changes to one of fury, and he lunges forward. I curl up into a ball, and it doesn’t stop him from closing his jaws around me, but it helps me forget about the fighting for survival that I have to do everyday.

==POV: Yang==
I have to sit down on the sofa after that call. Hiroto’s a Blakk? Not only that punch, but Blakk’s planning an assault on Shizukana Village, a small town in the Central Caverns, and the village where I grew up – and where my older siblings live.
If we have any hope of making a dent in their forces, we need to prepare. But how do I know he's not just bluffing? We've been tricked before, and the price was Ryuno. If we do prepare, we don't know how long it'll take, or how long we have until he attacks.
My siblings are in danger. Heck, Ryuno’s in danger if they send her. My older brother looks after the Gravity Elemental – and he can send Ryuno crashing into the cavern roof if he needs to. My slugs are keeping well away from the cage with all my ghouls in, and I’m not surprised. They’re snapping at the bars of the cage, and the glowing blue energy is growing weak. I decide to spend the night on the sofa, because I don't think I have the energy to go upstairs.

==Days passed: 3/7==
When light arrives, the cavern roof is a soft peach, with gray-blue streaks throughout it. My ponytail has almost fallen out, and my black hair is dishevelled and tangled. We need to go on a raid today, to get some new stuff from Caverna. I think about Ryuno – I think about how her purple eyes used to light up whenever she had a new idea for a trick shot, like the time she borrowed Deadshot and showed off by pinging him off of wild Bovori and sending him through a tree and dropping leaves on us. And the way she moved when she was practicing Slug Fu, and when we first tried out Shinpi. I want to stop her from destroying Slugterra, but I don't know how. I don't know if she likes me the way I like her, or even if she likes men that way at all. I've definitely never seen her look at anyone the same way she looks at her slugs, with pure unquestionable love. But I'm rambling. We need to get more stuff.
“Guys? Blakk's planning to go to Central and destroy a village – and it's where Gravitalis lives.” Nikotus comes out of his room and leans on the railing.
“Isn't Gravitalis a myth? Like the other World Slugs and the Burning World?” I shake my head, and Eclipse hops onto my shoulder, her long tail surrounded by an ever-swirling black cloud. Morningstar flaps his wings and lands next to her.
“Eclipse and Morningstar are World Slugs, and I've seen Gravitalis with my own eyes. He exists, Nikotus.” He shrugs.
“So what if Blakk gets Gravitalis? We'll just float around on the Cavern roof anyway. What's so wrong with that?”
I shake my head. “You've got it wrong. If he ghouls a World slug, a tenth of Slugterra will be ghouled as well. D'you even know what the World Slugs are?”
“Nope. I take it you're gonna tell me anyway?”
“Yep. First, there were only four – Creatia, who created Slugterra and all the creatures who live in it. Apocalyte, who exists only to end our world when the time comes. Morningstar, the light that tells us when to wake up and get to work, and Eclipse, the shadows that always exist, no matter how much light we try to pour into the world. Then Kronos, time, and Galaxtra, space. After that, Creatia realised that her subjects were not dying, and the world was becoming overpopulated. So she made Gaia and Hades, to bring life and death into the world. And then, without Creatia lifting a finger, two more slugs came into existence. Gravitalis, the force that keeps us where we stand, and Telepatia, the emotions we always feel, and the ones we always desire.” Nikotus sighs.
“Welp, Caverna it is. I was actually meaning to go there myself, but a group expedition works too.”

==POV: Nikotus==
Needless to say, with mechas, trips to Caverna Mall are a lot smoother than swinging through trees. I can tell Yang likes Ryuno, but, for the amusement of me and ‘certain others’, I'm not going to tell him what she told me, not just yet.

==POV: Yang==
Walking into the store, I look around at the shelves, my Megamorphed Cryscada, Lance, on my shoulder. The cobwebby shop has clearly not seen customers in a long time, but that doesn't mean people haven't been here. Dusty slug tubes and grey bandoliers line the walls, with less dusty gaps where people have taken the slugslinging equipment for their own purposes.
I head over to a different rack, one displaying dull knives and daggers with their tags still attached, like a mad scientist hadn't been controlling my best friend with a slug. I pick up a few boxes of matching sets.
One has a pair with tacky pink and gold hearts on the handle and a pathetic looking blade, and the other has three; one simple, with a black handle with cyan markings, one done like a kitchen knife, with a black handle and the greeny blue Shadow Clan patterns I know so well, and the third has a sharply curving handle, black like the others, a crescent-shaped guard, and a dark, serrated blade.
And the patterns on this one, instead of the green of the Shadow Clan one and the blue of the Lightdweller one, are red, and look like veins zigzagging up the handle, even a bit on the blade.
I take the box with three. Ryuno, having never heard of them, can't tell that she's part Lightdweller, but I know everyone else can. I also know that no one else apart from my family knows that I'm part Shadow Clan. You don't have a human mother and a Shadow Clan father and come out fully human.
I feel the cool ring of metal of a blaster on my back and immediately grab my own, Eclipse hopping in, ready to cloud up the room if need be.
“Oh, I wouldn’t try that, Amon. Might end badly, mightn't it?" I grit my teeth. The cold energy radiating off of the person tells me that they're a Darkbane, although the lack of it tells me that they're in a human disguise, or only part Darkbane.
“How did you know my name?" When they reply, the Darkbane's voice is distinctly female.
“Working for Thaddius Blakk has its perks. Such as information on each and every member of your little gang. You might even have heard of me. Although it's highly unlikely. Unless the name Allison Ebony rings a bell?" I decide not to say I do recognise it, that I know her family has worked for Dr Blakk for three generations.
Because if I stall right, I can fire Eclipse and get the fuck out of here.
Why?
Because Allison Ebony doesn't take prisoners.
I pull the trigger on my blaster, and pressurised air sends her shooting out of my blaster. Her spiralling black and blue striped horns grow to the size of dinner plates, and her smoky tail whips out behind her. Her arms grow into beautiful, spreading, draconic wings, the dots-and-stripes pattern that she shares with Negashades continuing onto them.
She swoops back round, the crescent moon on her forehead glowing in the dim light. Allison pulls the trigger, and I hold my breath, but thanks to my Tazerling, her blaster sputters and stalls while Eclipse flaps her wings and the room fills with black smoke. My Fluttershine, Dust, lights the way, the wavy blue lines of energy glowing enough for me to find my way through the fog. The dim blue light reflects off her silver skin, and I rub her head.
“Thanks, Dust.“ She squeaks, her amber eyes shining with pride. Normally Morningstar or Dawn would take the job, but since Eclipse is caught in a tangle with a Frostfang, he’s sitting in my bandolier sulking, while Dawn flirts with Star.
I keep running, not stopping till the smog-filled store is far behind me and Eclipse is in my bandolier with Morningstar. There’s a reason I ran instead of trying to fight Allison; they tell stories of the Ebony family to the kids in Central. “Eat your greens, or Miss Ebony will get you! Go to bed or Miss Ebony will get you!“ That kind of stuff. And even at age nineteen, those stories still scare me.
They would, if Cassalina Ebony had killed your parents and made you and your siblings watch.