Harlow had found a not so rough area of the crevice to catch some sleep in. He’d decided to trust the Stonisse to not kill him in his sleep, but he still tried to sleep lightly just in case. He hadn’t realised how battered he was though and fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke he saw the Stonisse still sitting in the same place as if carved into the rock face, eyes closed but somehow still looking depressed. Harlow was pleased to find that he was alive, but honestly wasn’t sure if it was just because the Stonisse didn’t care enough to try. Harlow hadn’t ever really talked to a Databeast before, mostly they just attacked him on sight.

“I think you need a name, Stonisse. Do you have a name?” Asked Harlow.

The Stonisse looked at him then looked away.

“You don’t?” The Stonisse shrugged, so Harlow continued. “I’ll give you a name then.”

“Give name.” The Stonisse shrugged again. Harlow figured there’d be a lot of that.

“I’ll call you Shrugger then. For now anyway, until I can come up with something better.”

The Stonisse fixed him with an unimpressed glare. “Something better.”

Harlow shrugged in response. The Stonisse scowled.

“Come on Shrugger. You ready to get out of that hole in the wall you’ve lodged yourself into?” Said Harlow, feeling better. He wasn’t exactly chipper, but he felt on it and wired, as if he’d just drunk several cups of BITCaf. He had a jovial attitude but he knew if he stayed still for too long he’d start wallowing, so he had to get up and move. And Shrugger had agreed to get moving with him, so that’s what they were going to do.

The little rock goblin tried to get up but struggled. It looked around itself, confused. Harlow watched in amazement as it stretched its arms out and grasped two little handholds on the wall that it had grown out to meet its hands. The Stonisse pried itself out of the wall with a great exertion and Harlow was both impressed that the goblin had got up and extremely curious as to how long it had been there to cause such an occurrence. It looked at Harlow as if to say “what now?”.

“Let me focus my energies, take this cover down and then we’ll get moving.” Harlow explained.

“Get moving?” Asked the Stonisse.

“Yes, get moving.” Harlow confirmed..

The Stonisse looked left and right. “Get moving..?”

“Oh you mean where? These tunnels were made in a certain way. As long as we head upwards, we’re heading out. Doesn’t really matter in which direction. That’s how Termiterrors build down here apparently. Unless you’re above ground, in which case heading further inside is upwards towards the top of the Termiterror nest. But we’d know if we were there, since we’d have seen some light every now and then.” Harlow explained. Rizzo knew his stuff, he had to admit that. Harlow had no idea why, given that the man had seemingly little interest in the world outside Cabletown and its inhabitants.

Harlow sat and meditated for a while as he let the wind energy flow from the element stone within him and travel around him, then through his staff and back into him. Harlow was aware that he’d been using the wind energy a lot, and that it was somewhat irregular for someone of his level and grade of stone - low - to be able to channel so much of his element. It was obviously a good thing, he just didn’t understand it.

He knew that practising with feeling and moving your element around your body was great to develop those talents, so he’d decided to take up the habit of doing it when he had a second.

The freedom he’d felt whilst empowered by the wind and urged on by Watchdog’s mind-control had led him to remember what it was like, not so long ago, to be unencumbered by injury. Although back then he’d never felt so strong. Back then he’d never been so capable as he was right now.

He grinned. If his leg ever got fixed, he’d be a monster.

After a few minutes of that training he couldn’t wait any more. The idea that Rizzo might be stalking him somehow made him concerned. He’d seen how doggedly Rizzo went after Brand and Tommen. He still wasn’t sure why the guard captain was chasing them. Thinking about it now, it made him frustrated. Before he had been caught up in the action and the chaos and the chase and the sides - Cabletown versus its traitors.

But now he’d clashed with Rizzo and Rizzo had abandoned him to die down in these tunnels against a Vanquisher Databeast. Did Rizzo even know he was still alive? It was possible. If Rizzo returned to the scene and found that Harlow had looted their bags and left, he might understand that Harlow had ditched him for good. They’d been arguing before that. Rizzo must have known Harlow wasn’t gonna stick around and put up with the guard captain anymore. But where did that leave them? Where did that put Harlow in the Cabletown hierarchy?

Could he return and be protected by his parents? He knew the captain of the guard held some clout in Cabletown, and would even more so now that he had acquired a Databeast of his own. But Harlow had gained some achievements himself. And surely his parents would be angry and offended that their only son had been mind-controlled through the use of a Databeast’s Tech to fight to the death. Surely…

The more he thought about it, the less sure he was. Would his parents say that he should have died for Cabletown? Would Rizzo say that Harlow was a coward, and Rizzo was just doing what he had to do for the good of Cabletown?

On that note, would Rizzo even admit to controlling Harlow’s mind? It was his word against Rizzo’s. And unfortunately for him, Rizzo had mind control techniques.

As far as he knew they could only be used to manipulate people through anger, but there was a lot he didn’t know and not much he was willing to bet on.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Rizzo would just surely call him a traitor. Maybe Rizzo really did think he was a traitor. Maybe Rizzo was stalking down wide open tunnels now, angry and dripping with saliva whilst searching for Harlow. It was possible. Very possible. And that brought him back to his initial train of thought…

He was spiralling. He took a second to breathe out and empty his mind. The wind element was flowing through him once more and he felt calm. The anxiety was gone. He was moving forwards. Onwards and upwards.

“Come on then Shrugger.” Said Harlow whilst taking and packing down his cover.

The Stonisse followed him, looking glum and as if it was having second thoughts about the whole ordeal. Harlow thought that was okay though; he was impressed that the little Databeast had agreed to join up with him in any case. It hadn’t asked him to destroy it again, so that was a bonus.

They set off up the passageway and Harlow was surprised to find it took them a while of walking - slower than he’d liked as uphill was bad on his knee - to encounter any Databeasts. The first was a Pebblegob which had really bitten off more than it could chew. It came bounding down the tunnel towards the duo. The Stonisse flicked its fingers and a spike jutted out of the ground just as the Pebblegob was approaching with its open mouth. It speared into the Pebblegob’s maw, stopping it in its tracks and doing serious damage. It only took one hit from Harlow to end the Databeast.

“Wow. Nice one Shrugger. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to make a great team. You’re already more useful than Watchdog.” Laughed Harlow. The Stonisse shrugged.

They continued on through the twisting tunnels, not really engaging in any dangerous fights but finding consistent Databeast battles. Not many Termiterrors though, which reinforced Harlow’s idea that they were heading the right way.

Still, eventually they did come to their first serious fight. Three large Flintimps, one in the Emergent stage - the temporary mix between Juvenile and Vanquisher that combines the traits of both - but all on the way to Vanquisher. The Emergent stage one had sharp metal on the end of its bladed arms and when it struck them together it created a spark more akin to a fireball that it shot at Harlow.

The Stonisse through a scattering of mud it has summoned, which summarily put out the fireball whilst it was still in the air. Harlow was impressed at the simple counter - the fireball had genuinely scared him a little. He couldn’t really block it with his staff, and dodging it would be an effort. He circulated the wind in his body as the three Flintimps approached, hoping to increase his movement enough that the fireball wouldn’t be an issue.

It never came to that though. The fight was long and gruelling, with Harlow using his staff to battle six dangerously bladed arms trying to lop his skull off. The Stonisse continued raining mud on the Flintimps so that they couldn’t deal any serious fire damage to him. In the end it was a slog that required Harlow to break down each of the Flintimps individually before he could finish them off. But succeed he did, and Harlow received a lot of EXP and BITs, as well as lots of little slicing flesh wounds and small burns. He put off using a potion as he didn’t feel he needed it yet despite the little droplets of blood running down him and ruining his clothes.

He used gauze and bandage to wrap the worst of the wounds. The other ones had stopped bleeding by the time he was done with the bigger ones. Their fight against the Flintimps had attracted a Pebblegob, but the Stonisse had dealt with that whilst Harlow tended to his wounds. Shrugger had materialised a little hammer and used that to break down the opposing earth Databeast.

They continued on, defeating Juvenile after Juvenile before running into their toughest challenge yet.

A group of ten Termiterrors. Certainly more than he’d ever take on on his own. However he could see a sliver of light behind them, illuminating the cave slightly. It was almost blinding after being down in the barely luminescent caves, but he knew for sure it was their way out. The tunnel the ten Termiterrors were in was fairly small, so the Termiterrors would struggle to surround them in there. Harlow signalled to Shrugger and then went charging into the tunnel with a running limp. Shrugger was just beside him.

The Stonisse launched large stone spikes from the side whilst Harlow took the Termiterrors head on. The Stonisse was hitting brutal shots, firing small javelins that eviscerated entire chunks from the bodies of the Termiterrors as Harlow kept them at bay. This Stonisse had very strong Techs, Harlow realised. He knew the Databeast was creative and clever with its Tech use, but that it could combine that with some serious power. This Databeast was as good an ally as he could get - as he’d ever had.

Four Databeasts went down like that, turned into aether, before Harlow took a brutal kick to the stomach from a particularly large Termiterror and doubled over. Chaos erupted after that. The remaining six Termiterrors tried to capitalise on the moment of weakness, all stomping and kicking around. Harlow fell back, using his staff as a purely defensive tool.

Despite that several hits got through and bloodied his face.

Another stone spear absolutely wiped out a Termiterror, taking a huge chunk out of its face before it turned to aether. Two of the Termiterrors wailing on Harlow jumped over his downed body to deal with the Stonisse.

“Shrugger!” Harlow yelled. He felt the wind energy surging through him once more. He shoved the three Termitterors attacking him back with his horizontal staff. They grasped onto the staff, so he simply let go of it and they went careening off. He turned and saw two Termiterrors stood over where the Stonisse should be and pummeling downwards.

Harlow leapt and dragged one backwards, dashing it to the ground behind him. The other Termiterror turned to him and the two began punching wildly.

Down low he could see that the Stonisse had covered himself with a shield of stone that was rapidly reforming into a spear under the power of the rock goblin’s Techs. A spear that went right through the Termiterror Harlow was fighting, turning it to aether. The spear clattered on the ground at Harlow’s feet and he picked it up and turned to catch the Termiterror he’d thrown to the ground in the stomach with the pointy bit. The Stonisse lobbed a rock at its head for good measure and it joined its compatriots. Only the three Termiterrors Harlow had knocked to the ground with his staff remained and the duo made short work of them.

They were sitting on the floor after the battle. Harlow had levelled up again. He was pleased about that, and pleased that Shrugger had taken next to no damage in the fight. He was surprised to reflect on how angry it had made him when he thought he saw Shrugger getting beaten, but was pleased to finally find a companion that he liked.

“We’re almost out now, Shrugger.” Said Harlow.

“Out now.” The little goblin repeated. Harlow laughed.

“Alright, I’ll get a move on.” Said Harlow.

“Move on.” The Stonisse agreed.

They got closer and closer to the daylight and it felt glorious after being down in those tunnels for so long. But also a little disorientating. The young man took one last look around as if he couldn’t believe that he was really leaving just like that.

Harlow saw a big crystal of bismuth coming out of the side of the wall. The shimmering rainbow crystal with its oddly straight lines fascinated him and he broke a piece off to keep for later. A memento of this weird excursion down the Termiterror hive.

He and Shrugger left the cave into the bright sunlight of the outside world.