Jack awoke to the sound of Travis gently setting Veri’s metal chest plate on the dresser beside them. Their was no clock to tell how long he’d been asleep for, so Jack had no idea how long the man had been working on her chest plate for. He also didn’t want to wake up Veri, as she was still asleep beside him.
“Hey, old man.”
“Yeah?”
Travis replied to Jack, not seeming to mind his nickname, as sweat ran down every pore of his body.
“I don’t have a watch on me, so I was just wondering how long we were out for?”
“Well, you can look for yourself, boy. People had ways to tell time, before watches were invented, yah know?”
Jack nodded his head and stepped outside as Travis followed behind him. Despite being deep underground, the massive chasm above them let in plenty of light, that bounced around the walls and the water surrounding their base. It left a beautiful sight of a bright and cheery area, despite how weakened and pale the light was.
“Wow, so the sun even reaches down here, huh? I thought it would have been restricted to the landing site.”
“Landing site, huh? That’s a hell of a way to put it, kid! Bahahaha! Light does bounce, although it weakens each time. You’d be surprised just how far it can get from such a massive chasm.”
The old man stirred some kind of weird green paste in a boiling pot beside them, which smelled delicious, but bubbled and popped like inedible gunk. Jack couldn’t help but grimace as he eyed the texture of it, but he was rather hungry.
GRROOOWWLLLLL!
“Yeah, I thought you hadn’t eaten anything.”
Jack watched the soupy mess bubble and pop loudly a couple more times, before he stuck his tongue out in disgust.
-I don’t think… I want to eat that stuff… I mean… I still have the food my mother packed for me…
“Don’t give me that look, until you’ve tasted it first. I did the same thing when I arrived here, but it’s actually pretty good. Green slime soup, is a delicacy, even on the surface.”
“Yeah… probably why… I’ve never even heard of it… huh?”
Being from a small farm town, didn’t really give him many things that could be called a delicacy in life, besides fresh produce, a blue sky, nature, and nice fresh air. The major corporate cities, on the other hand, were almost devoid of any natural life, not including humans. Everything was artificial, as technology had completely taken over. You could even say, his small village, was one of the last of the organic spaces on the planet. Whether that was sad or not, this underground place, was unaltered and very much organic. With that cannon protecting it, Jack could only think that it would probably stay that way for a long time.
“Fine… what the hell… I’ll give it a try…”
Jack took a wooden spoon from Travis, before he hesitantly dipped it into the green goop and took a mouthful of it. It was less gooey than it looked on the surface, and he had to chew it up a bit. Despite the weird consistency, it was so sweet, that it reminded him of red velvet cake.
“It’s not bad, actually.”
“Hahaha! You too, huh!?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not much of a sweet enjoyer myself, so I actually made red slime coffee. It’s extra bitter and it reminds me of dark roast, if you’d like to try it?”
Jack nodded his head, and he was promptly handed a glass of a dark red-looking mixture. He took a small sip and, sure enough, it tasted just like dark roast, only with a unique twist of mild spiciness.
“Hey, this is actually pretty good.”
“Ha! I knew you’d like it, and the upside is, it also gives plenty of caffeine, because red slimes like to dine on plants that contain caffeine!”
CLANK! Click! Click! The sound of Veri dropping her chest plate back into place, followed by her locking it, rang out from the room they were in before.
“Jack!?”
“Sorry to scare you! We’re out here Veri!”
Veri walked out into the light of the day and rubbed her eyes, before she sat down beside them. Her survival module picked up the gooey green soup and the red colored liquid in another pot, before it cleared both of them for consumption. She downed two glasses of the red slime coffee, and ate three entire bowels of the green slime soup.
“Wow… Cyborg enhancements really are something. You didn’t even hesitate.”
“Why would I, Travis? Both of these give me everything I need to function, with less contaminates than I’m used to as well.”
Travis nodded his head, despite thinking that sentence sounded far more machine than man. It was something that perplexed him, ever since she arrived there. Something was different between her and cyborgs of his age. Despite her having many enhancements that could even be said to be android-like, she seemed to have more than just physical enhancements.
“Can I ask you something, Veri?”
“Of course, I don’t mind.”
“Cyborgs from my time, about a decade ago or longer, just had physical enhancements… but… I don’t think yours are purely physical. Am I correct?”
“You are. I’m installed with several modules that help enhance my cognitive capabilities. One of these modules is my survival module, which is installed inside of my eyes and helps me detect things in a 360-degree radius around me. I can see things such as, probability for an attack to hit, estimated danger level, based on combat statistics, and a whole host of other things.”
“That’s… quite sophisticated. It’s insane… just how far things have gone… in a mere decade.”
Travis nodded his head in intrigue, as he sat back against a bench carved from a log.
“With you here, we just might make it out. I used to be quite the famous mech engineer, yah know? It does worry me a bit, that your flight system might have entirely outdated my knowledge though. I might not be able to get us out of here, if your system cannot take on an older flight system.”
“It can. My system can be upgraded or downgraded at will, so long as you make the proper connections, with the right size.”
“Right. Does all of that information floating around, ever overwhelm you?”
“No. You’d be surprised just how much of the brain we don’t really use on a regular basis. I am far beneath the threshold for my processing capacity to be overwhelmed.”
“That’s good.”
Jack poked at the green goop, as he tried to eat just as much as Veri did. Despite it tasting good, the sweetness was almost overwhelming him. He had to take a bite of the green gunk, chew it, drink some of the red slime coffee, swallow, and then repeat to bear the sweetness.
“Jack, you’ve surpassed your daily recommended intake of caffeine by 200mg.”
“Thanks for letting me know, Veri.”
Jack sat down his glass and his plate, before he bowed in apology to the old man looking at him with intrigue.
“And… you are bowing… for what reason… exactly?”
“I couldn’t… finish my bowl of green slime… so I wasted it.”
“Nothing goes to waste, kid.”
The man grabbed Jack’s bowel and poured its remaining contents back into the cooking pot, before he stirred it in. Seeing the man be so fine with mixing eaten on food, kind of made Jack sick to his stomach.
“Stop looking at me like that, kid. This stuff stays good for quite a while, and it’s not like you getting a bit of saliva in the stew, is going to contaminate it. The bacteria won’t survive the boiling process.”
“Right… but after you stop boiling it… won’t it get all… I don’t know… solid?”
“Yeah, it makes some pretty good protein bars for travel, if you can bear the sweetness. I’ve been trying to make red slime protein bars, but no matter how much I try to boil and drain it, the caffeine content is rather high.”
“Have you tried using solvents similar to, ethyl acetate or methylene chloride?”
“Girly? I don’t even know what those things are.”
“I’ll see if I can procure some, while we’re out.”
“I see. I thought you’d be quick to adventure around. Just wait here a second, and be very careful!”
Travis nodded his head once more, before he headed inside. He came out moments later, with some rough fur cloaks and two small steel daggers. He also handed Jack a rough hide leather top, pants, and a metal shield.
“I decides that your Cyborg armor, is probably going to be better than anything I could give you, Veri, so I focused on heat retention and camouflage for you, while giving the boy some extras for durability. I could have given him steel armor, or chainmail, but it’s generally better to just outrun some things, rather than get hit by them.”
“Thank you, but you won’t have to worry about Jack… because… I’ll protect him… no matter what…”
Veri blushed a bit, which also caused Jack to blush, before she regained her composure.
“I would hope so. Now, I haven’t really explored much beyond this floor, but there are tons of different levels beneath us. My old allies went down to the second floor to try to extract enough crystals for a basic flight module, but they never returned. That was about five years ago. I suppose by now… they’re probably… never mind. Just be safe, okay?”
“Understood.”
The old man continued to tend to the cooking pot, as Veri and Jack walked hand-in-hand into the boat. Neither of them were used to this kind of contact, so both of them were blushing.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Thanks, Veri… uh… it was slick back there.”
“Yeah… no problem…”
Veri took both of the paddles and slowly rowed the boat over to the other side of the shore, before she tied it down to the well-kept pier on the other side, and helped jack out of the boat. The ground was kind of wet around the edge of the pier, which made it difficult for them to climb up the muddy incline. Upon reaching the top though, they were left with a grand view. A scattering of trees, light shining down from the massive chasm above them, some weird slime like cat animals playing, and a jagged crag area past that. The way the light bounced and dimmed over the conflicting areas, was rather stunning to look upon, as the massive spires of rock left dark shadows in their wake.
“Wow…”
“…”
Veri remained silent and took in the entire sight before her. The beauty was indeed there, but there were also threats. Giant lumbering herbivores, packs of lean predators, and some smaller venomous and poisonous creatures. Nearly 98% of the plants she scanned were of the nightshade family, but they were far more potent than on the surface. A single bite could kill a hundred grown men, and yet some tiny creatures were eating on them.
“HEY! I FORGOT TO WARN YOU TWO! DON’T EAT ANY OF THE FAUNA IN THE AREA! THEY’RE DEADLY NIGHTSHADES!”
Tarvis’s voice came from both of their fur cloaks, causing Veri and Jack to reach inside and pull out two small walkie-talkies.
“Understood. My scanners already picked them up.”
Veri responded, as she continued to scan the area ahead. A group of small slime like cats caught her attention, as they hopped around the area and played with one another. The area seemed so peaceful, now that the larger creatures had retreated, and that allowed them to take in the sight together.
“They’re pretty cute.”
“Yeah, I suppose they are.”
With a mere danger level of 1%, even in a pack, Veri had no reason to fear the little beady-eyed derpy creatures. Instead, she decided to approach them and pick one up. It looked up at her with its little soulless beady eyes and licked her with its derpy tongue. Jack thought that was adorable, so he tossed it a piece of the lunch his mother had packed him the day before. The rest of the little derpy slime cats joined in and feasted on the rest of Jack and Veri’s packed lunches, after he dumped them onto the ground.
“I know they’re cute, Jack, but isn’t that wasteful?”
“Naw, it’s all going to go bad soon anyway. When we fell, my backpack slammed against the ground, and it destroyed the lunchbox entirely. I didn’t think about it when we were lying around, so it sat out like that all last night.”
“Well… do you wanna hold it?”
Veri offered Jack the slime cat, which he took. The sound of a loud growl though, caused Veri to enter flight or fight mode.
“Jack… think before you do things! You attracted some beasts!”
Veri grabbed Jack’s arm and yanked him back over twenty yards to the south, before his eyes could even settle on the threat. A squeal rang out, which caused a chill to zip up his spine. He could see a giant sabertoothed dog, tearing into one of the slime cats from behind. It’s long teeth punctured through its eyes, leaving it dead nearly instantly. The rest of the pack tried to fight back, rather fervently, but they were quickly killed by the rest of the dogs that had shown up. Just a mere single slime cat remained, and only because Jack was still holding it, without noticing. Instead of chasing after them, the dogs devoured the lunch that Jack had dumped upon the ground.
“Let’s get out of here, Jack! Put that thing down!”
The slime cat was struggling to break Jack’s grip, so that it could avenge its fallen family, but Jack refused to let it go.
“Not a chance! It’s not going to win vs those monsters, and it’s too damn cute! I’m keeping it as a pet!”
“Fine, but we can’t travel with it. I mean, it’s not even domesticated yet. If… it even can be…”
“Roahhh! Roooaaaahhh!”
The little slime cat reacted to the presence of the pack of saber-toothed dogs, with a mix of a hiss and a growl. It didn’t fear them at all, despite seeing what they did to its allies, which was probably due to pure instinct and low intelligence.
“Hey! Stop that! You can’t win!”
“Roooooaaaahhh! Rooooaahhh!”
The dogs ignored the vengeful cries and lunges of the slime cat within Jack’s grip, because the food on the ground was a lot more delicious. They were also cautious of the two humans, because they already knew what humans were capable of, thanks to an encounter with Travis.
“Man… I’m actually having trouble holding this little guy back!”
Veri took the slime cat from Jack’s grasp and nearly crushed it, as she held it with a moderate grip strength. Her powerful cyborg arms clamped down into its sides, taking nearly all of the fight out of it.
“Roahh…”
“That’s right, calm down.”
“Roa…h…”
Jack’s eyes caught the face of the slime cat changing from blue to purple, before he frantically tugged on Veri’s powerful arms.
“He can’t breathe, Veri! Too hard! Too hard! He’ll pop!”
“Guuuhhhh!”
The slime cat took in a deep gasping inhale all at once, as Veri loosened up her grip quite a bit.
“Sorry, the way you were struggling, I thought it was of moderate strength, Jack.”
“Tsk… I’m still injured, Veri!”
Jack felt up his heavily bruised ribs, that he had mistaken for broken, and his twisted ankle. His ankle was still very early on in the healing stages, but he had once read that walking on a twisted ankle, actually helped in its recovery.
“This was a very short trip, but at least we have a little mascot now.”
The slime cat continued to sulk, as it eyed the killers of its pride feasting upon what should have been his. He vowed in his little slime heart, to get revenge one day.
“Roahh….”
The low growl of the slime cat signified its disappointment with the outcome, but just surviving that situation could have been taken as a miracle.
“Sorry, little guy… that was… kind of my fault.”
“Oh, come on, Jack! It’s just a slime cat!”
They returned to the boat and released it from the pier. Jack had to paddle this time as Veri held their new friend with both arms. Their return to their new home was clumsy and slow. Jack had trouble keeping the boat steered straight, but it was mostly due to his tired muscles.
“And… uhh… ahh… we’re here… at last…”
Jack got a helping hand from Travis, before he was pulled to shore. Veri got the same treatment, as Travis eyed the slime cat in her grasp.
“Those lil guys are cute, but not very useful. I used to have one, but slime cats don’t necessarily get along with their natural predators, saber-toothed dogs. Duster is the only exception I’ve seen, but that only goes one way.”
“ROOOAAHHHH!”
The slime cat tried to break Veri’s hold around its flabby body, in order to attack Duster, but she only held him tighter and tighter, in response. Eventually, the lil guy decided that he wasn’t going to win vs Veri’s grip strength, just as he hadn’t won the last time.
“You gotta give him a name. Who found him?”
“I did!”
Both Veri and Jack replied in unison.
“I was the one who picked him up first, Jack!”
“Yeah… but… I saved him!”
“You killed his entire pride!”
“Tsk! Fine… fine! You name him then!”
“Rations!”
“Huh!?”
-There’s no freakin way she just named our new pet rations! I won’t let her eat him!
“Denied! Choose a different name!”
“Yum Yum!”
“Perfect name.”
“No, it’s not, old man!”
“His name’s Yum Yum, and that’s final!”
“U…uugh…”
Jack looked down at poor Yum Yum’s derpy innocent face and then looked back up at Veri’s wide sadistic smile. She had obviously poked fun at him as an emergency snack on purpose, but the poor little guy was none the wiser.
“Fine, but please tell me that you have no thoughts of ever actually eating him, got that!? Yum Yum has a long life ahead of him!”
“It was just a joke. I promise.”
Jack’s eyes caught Veri’s fingers crossed behind her back, and that sent him into a little angry fit.
“I swear! You can be such a little brat sometimes, Veri!”
Veri laughed into her hand as she eyed Jack’s exaggerated expressions of endless fury.
“Oh me… oh my… and you said I lost my sense of humor? Heh!”
Veri’s wide grin and happy flushed face, sent Jack to his knees in defeat.
“Well… you got me there. You’re still the same girl I used to know… after all… a total troublemaker! I can’t fix you can I!?”
“What is there to fix? If I ever need improvements, then I’ll just get an upgrade.”
“Why you little…”
Jack tried to bully Veri, but she was easily overpowering his desperate moves. Each tap against her head, only got a harder tap right back from her. To say Veri was kind of tomboyish, would be an understatement, but her upgrades were certainly helping her win.
“I give!”
“Hahaha! You guys are just too much for an old man like me! Bahaha! I’ve been stuck down here by myself for so long, that I forgot how to really laugh until now! Hahahaha!”
Seeing that their old man seemed to be having a heart attack from the resulting comedic hypertension, they decided they’d probably better stop.
“Well, we got a new pet, and we did take a little bit of a journey. I’m actually beat, despite us not really doing much.”
“Yeah, well… you did just fall thousands of feet down a chasm, and land on top of your girlfriend, so that’s not surprising.”
“Gi…girl…girlfriend?”
Jack could deny it with his mother, but not now, considering their love making session last night.
“Bahahaha! You didn’t deny it! I knew it! Way to go, lad! She’s quite the catch! A real beaut!”
“I don’t want to hear that coming from an old man!”
Travis continued smiling at Jack’s overexaggerated comeback, because it reminded him of his son. The same son, who probably thought he was a deadbeat dad, that just dropped out on him… when in reality… seeing him and his wife again, was all he wanted. He could only pray that his son grew up to be a fine young man, without him around.
“Hey… old man… what’s wrong?”
Travis looked down to see himself clutching his chest, before he quickly fixed his posture.
“Nothing… nothing at all. So… you have time until sunset… what do you plan to do?”
“I… don’t really know… actually.”
Veri rolled her eyes at Jack’s response, which caused him to shake his head in confusion. He had no idea that she wanted to go on a date, because it wasn’t exactly the best setting to do so.
“Boy, I’m going to give you a bit of advice. When a woman rolls her eyes, she expected something else.”
Jack shook his head before he looked back at Veri. Her eyes were narrowed at his, as she angrily plucked flowers from the ground.
“Veri… you uhh… wanna… hang out today?”
“…”
Veri didn’t respond with words, but by blowing the little flower petals all over his face.
“Ew, Veri! Some of it got into my mouth!”
While Jack was busy spitting out the fluffy flower petals, Veri was busy landing a playful little kiss upon his cheek. She gathered up some supplies, that Travis offered her, and then she grabbed Jack and pulled him back onto the boat.
“Veri, I’m actually really tired…”
“That’s okay, I’ll paddle us to shore.”
“On the south side there’s a little beach, kids! Have fun!”
Travis yelled out toward them from the pier.
“Sure, thing, Old man!”
Yum Yum poked his head up from beneath Veri’s foot, before he bounced up and down and eyed the water. He seemed to be fixated on something.
“Yum Yum!? You weren’t supposed to come with us!”
Before Jack could say another word, Yum Yum tore a fish out of the water and swallowed it whole.
“Well… you did lose your entire family. I’m sorry about that, lil guy. It’s a tough world down here, huh?”
Jack gently pet Yum Yum on his head, which caused him to happily lick Jack’s face.
“Yop Yop!”
“Yeah… yeah… you’re cute. You just don’t get it… do you?”
“Of course he doesn’t… he’s a slime cat, Jack. Anyway, we’re here.”
Veri climbed out of the boat and helped Jack out, before Yum Yum happily bounced behind them. The sandy beach was actually rather calm, as there were no waves to speak of.
“I’m going to set us up a little picnic here.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll take my slime cat for a walk.”
Jack tried to play fetch with Yum Yum, but he didn’t seem to understand the meaning of Jack throwing a nearby stick. Despite that, he did follow Jack around, as if he was imprinting on him as family.
“Jack, don’t go too far! I’d rather you stay on the beach!”
“Yeah… but…”
Yum Yum marched on over the grassy hill and disappeared, which caused Jack to peek over it. He hadn’t gone very far, but Yum Yum was still far out of Jack’s reach.
“Jack!”
“I know! I know! I have to get Yum Yum!”
“Why’d you let him go over the hill in the first place!?”
“You distracted me!”
“Wait for me, Jack!”
“Quit worrying, Veri! I’m like 50 feet from you!”
Upon hopping over the hill, Jack came face to face with a massive saber-tooth dog. It was actually even larger than the others before and dwarfed him in size.
“AHHHHHHHHHH!”
Veri arrived just in time to save him, as the saber-tooth dog pounced upon Jack and pinned him to the ground. She punched the dog rather hard, and despite expecting a vicious bite as it lunged onto her, Veri only got a big lick on her face in return.
“Duster! What in the world are you doing!”
“Old man! Come on! You nearly gave us a heart attack with that sneak attack!”
“I was going hunting, but all of the sudden, Duster came running toward you guys. I couldn’t even catch up to him. Bad, Duster! Bad! No fresh meat for you tonight!”
Duster backed up and whimpered sadly as Jack’s eyes settled upon the lone dead Saber-toothed dog, that laid just a mere couple of feet from Yum Yum. His eyes widened, as he realized that Duster had probably actually saved both of their lives there.
“Wow… Travis… I think Duster actually…”
“Oh wow… you might be right. He must have taken a liking to you and noticed the danger. I had no idea they even came out this far. I’ll have to build a wall or something. Anyway, Duster. Let’s go, boy! Good dog! Good, boy!”
Duster licked Travis happily and picked up the saber-tooth dog’s corpse with his teeth, before they moved along on their hunting trip.
“You two… over here… now…”
“Uh oh…”
Yum Yum was tied to the boat with plenty of rope, before Jack and Veri went on their sort of romantic date. The sun set around them, the water sparkled meekly, and Yum Yum’s whimpers were greatly muffled. It was the perfect setting for a romantic date.
“Red wine, huh?”
“Travis just told me it was great for relaxing. I don’t really know what it is.”
They ate their dinner together and settled against one another, as they watched the glistening pond, while ignoring Yum Yum’s persistent struggling.
“You know, Veri… just lying here with you, is rather nice.”
“Just shut up and kiss me already…”
Jack and Veri locked lips, feeling the heat of one another’s embrace, before they held one another and laid together upon the sand.
“Veri… we’re going to make it out of here… I promise you that… and when we do… I want to… start a family with you…”
Veri smiled wide and kissed him deeply, before she nodded her head.
“I’ll protect you… no matter what… Jack. Because… I…”
“Hey, kids! Look what I caught!”
Jack and Veri both blushed and looked toward the giant T-Rex looking eldritch horror being dragged along by Duster. It looked like it would be impossible for him to carry by its immense size, but he was still dragging it along anyway.
“COULD YOUR TIMING BE ANY WORSE, OLD MAN!?”