Corruption

Watch Your Step

==POV: Nikotus==
Finally, after what seems like five hours, we’re finally allowed into the hospital room. There’s a wheelchair next to the bed, and on the bedside table sit Lyth, Ash and a singing red and gold Pieper slug. Our entrance startles the little red slug, and it stops its melody and watches us. Ryuno mumbles, and I remember what Pieper slugs can do; it's not keeping her company, it's keeping her asleep.
She pulls herself up on her hands and blinks.
“Huh? Where..“ Ash chirps happily and hops onto her shoulder. Lyth gives three happy squeaks, and the rest of Ryuno’s miniature army pop up from around the room. “Ash!“ She grins happily, and the little red Infurnus chirrs loudly. “Oh! Hi, guys!“ She yawns and stretches, her wings opening out fully. The black spines have twisting cyan markings on them, the short ones pure blue, the slightly longer ones fading into purple. Yang taps my shoulder, and points at a particularly long streak of glowing cyan. My breath catches in my throat.
The purple isn't anywhere near as innocent as I thought; on the longest streak, you can clearly see it fade through purple, burgundy, magenta, and then, at the very end, a deep crimson.
The colour of dark water.
I shake my head, trying to clear my head of those thoughts. She doesn't have any dark energy left in her. The Boon Docs made sure of that. Liam narrows his eyes.
“Something doesn’t add up. Ryuno can self-heal, we’ve seen that when she gets up from a broken leg, so why can’t she heal her spine?“ Ryuno swishes her tail, slicing the pillow and spraying feathers everywhere. “Or I guess she can.“ I try to ignore the signs of dark energy everywhere in her body; the red at the ends of the longest streaks of cyan, the tiny bit of red in her left eye that’s only visible when the light hits her a certain way, the triangle-shaped spade on her tail, and I can’t even look at her horns; they twist upwards, less like Lightdweller horns, and much closer to Darkbane horns.

[Three days later]
==POV:Ryuno==
I fidget on my bed. After the Goon… fiasco, small spaces haven’t been really my thing, and anyway, I have a plan for tonight. I hear everyone getting ready for bed, and then as soon as the lights go out, my plan begins.
I pick up Ouroboros and place the little red Pieper on the handrail of the balcony. He opens his mouth, and I cover my ears. I don’t want to be sent to sleep along with everyone else. I hop on Arrow and open the garage door, hoping that the noise of it opening won’t distract Ouroboros.
I’m not supposed to go out. As soon as me, Arrow and my slugs are out of the door, we run for it. If we get caught running away, I won’t be allowed out of the hideout for possibly all eternity. Mirage knows what to do; she raises the illusion we practised, of a human girl with waist length blue hair and a Hoverbug on her shoulder instead of an Infurnus. Arrow bounds easily through the forest towards Gateway Cavern, her metal plating not making a sound. Suddenly, the silence of the small border town is disturbed by the ominous sound of a ghoul transforming. I hit the accelerator, but Arrow is already going at maximum speed.
My slugs squeal in fright, because they don’t want to go through that again just as much as I do. The ghoul slams into a tree, sending it toppling down onto Arrow’s tail. Machinery crunches, and more ghouls fire at the trees around me, blocking any hope of an escape route. Three or four figures step out from the trees, and although they’re not from Blakk Industries, their intent is obvious. An Attacknet spins towards me and webs me up, rendering me unable to escape even if all the exits weren't blocked. The men walk towards me, trying to be menacing but not really succeeding.
“Nightlight?“ The Megamorph Phosphoro lights up, allowing me to see who’s attacking me at fucking ten o’clock at night. The light reveals four heavyset men advancing towards me and my slugs, all with ghouls, and all clearly out to capture me. Jaws tries to struggle out of my bandolier to get us out of the web, but to no avail. A few of my slugs can see what was going on; the five that were in my bandolier, but most of them, Ash included, are all stuck inside my backpack. One of the goons picks up the net and studies me closely.
“Well, this is certainly the one we were sent to collect. Don’t know whether we’ll get an extra bonus for her slugs, but it’s worth trying.“ I kick out against the sticky web, however my efforts yield no fruit. In shorter form, I’m still trapped. Slugs squeal in my bandolier, trapped by the net and facing an Attacknet on their own. “Well, we can take her to the Citadel and claim the bounty, bonus or no bonus.“
The ride to Blakk’s headquarters was long and bumpy; you would expect that of being sat on the back of the bull mecha of an incredibly bad driver. As much as I tried to escape in the mushroom grove, getting out now would only result in death. The mechas halt in front of the doors, almost throwing me off yet again, but the Attacknet webs hold fast. Dr Blakk himself walks out the doors; a sure sign that whatever the men are getting paid, it’s one heck of a glorious sum.
“Well done.“ The first words he says to the bounty hunters, and they’re clearly ready to go. “You will be rewarded what you deserve, of course, but let your capture out of those webs first. I’m sure it was an uncomfortable ride.“ When the hunters show signs of hesitation, he steps over and pulls the webs off himself. Even with his immense strength, it’s pretty hard for him to pull off such a thick layer of web, especially since the Attacknet was megamorphed.
Fuck it though. Why the fuck I came out in the first place, the thought has now evaporated from my head through the pores of my skin. “Well, well. Look what we have here.“
He smiles as he finally rips off enough webs for me to look at his disgusting face again, though I’m amused by his blackened face, probably from messing around with Pyringo experiments again.
Blakk holds one end of the net and swings me backwards before hitting me in the back several times on a rock - or whatever that hard object pressing on my back is. Somewhere behind him, I hear a voice say, “Careful now, bossman. We don’t want a hostage out of commission permanently.“
Blakk snarls back. “I’ve learned from my mistakes, as many of us have. I’m not planning for her to bankrupt my company again, after what happened last time.“
Bankrupt?
I laugh at him. “The fuck you mean bankrupt?“
He glanced back at whoever he was talking with and whispered, “She doesn’t know?“
“Nope.“
He turns back to me and starts to explain. “Ever since you destroyed my ghouling chambers and escaped from my grasp, I’ve been owing the government money for my projects. Every-single-FUCKING-day. That is, until with the Goon’s assistance, I was able to claim back what was taken from me and I was able to pay them back - finally. I’m not planning for that to happen again.“ He swings me into the rock again, sending jolts of pain up my back.
“Well, now I’m here, I might as well blow this place up again. It was kinda fun last time.“ Blakk clenches his jaw, and swings me into the rock again, harder than he’s done it before.
Something goes crack right up my back.
I bite my lip to stop myself from screaming, but it doesn’t stop the tears rolling down my cheeks. Melody chirps a few notes out, but even though she’s megamorphed, she’s in protoform and without hitting velocity, they do nothing. I hear a determined squeak from my bag.
Suddenly and without warning, the net tears open behind me. Ash wriggles up through the opening at the top of my bag and onto my shoulder, lighting a flame on his head as he goes. Blakk curses.
Landmine follows him, sticking tiny bombs in the netting around me. If he's seen, he'll be killed; he’s the slug responsible for blowing up the Citadel last time, and Blakk knows it. The little Blastipede zaps his horns together and the bombs detonate, letting me out of the net, but alerting Blakk to his presence.
“Stupid fucking Blastipede! This time-“ Blakk doesn’t get to finish, because I kick him and jump back. Five heavily built adult men versus one skinny little eighteen-year-old girl.
Not great odds, but I’ll take them.
My Rammstone jumps into my blaster and the power core whirrs. I know exactly what I’m gonna do, and Blakk’s had it coming for as long as my grandfather’s been around. I take aim and fire, and almost laugh out loud as my slug flies past him.
“HAH! What was that?! A trick to steal my attention?“
I can’t help but grin as Rocky comes flying backwards, a huge fist aimed straight for his abdomen.
Blakk buckles inwards as the Rammstone hits him square in the balls.
The men around him seem to feel the punch, but they get their priorities straight pretty fast. Rocky bips back into protoform on the ground, but as he hops back to me, Blakk grabs the little red-and-blue slug in his fist. Rocky squeaks in protest, and tries to wriggle away, but to no avail; Blakk isn’t letting him get away unscathed.
Attacknets fly towards me, pinning me to the rock, and I make no effort to dodge them; my attention is too focused on Rocky as he struggles in Blakk’s clenched fist. I know what happens next, and I want to cover my eyes and ears, but the webs are too tight to move. Dr Blakk clenches his fist tighter, and Rocky wails and looks at me for help. I want to help him. Anything to stop this. Anything. My service under the Goon, Slugterra, the Surface- I would let him destroy the whole planet if only he would let Rocky go.
I scream and thrash against the webs, my shrieks mingling with Rocky’s howls of terror; then Blakk gives one more squeeze, Rocky gives one more attempt at escape, then the cavern falls silent.

Blakk throws the Megamorph Rammstone–the little tank that’s been by my side for three years–aside onto the ground.