Chapter Text
Every Blakk employee is given communal housing, if they choose to accept the offer, by Blakk industries. Now they do suck, and accepting them means a quarter of every paycheck bounces back to the company to cover expenses. But, as a Blakk employee, many locals in towns good for business don’t like them…so many choose the pay cut anyway, to not feel like evil flies in little caverns near the dark water and/or steel mines, and anywhere else Blakk needs them to work. They were metal boxes of apartment complexes, right next to the train lines, ugly and uninspiring to live in.
Shannon lived communally, and Judge Logan needed a suit. And no, she was not about to drive him on her personal mecha beast to a public store. Too much effort. She had a better idea.
The afternoon of the Gala, she took off work, leaving her alone in the apartment complex. In her own apartment, she took out her blaster, and found her lovely bonus check she was supposed to use for Judge Logan, rubbing the gold pieces between her fingers.
Good, I can buy a dress with this. Next…
Her bandoleer of Ghouls was on her, but she was off the clock - she ran to her bedroom, where her normal, cool slugs were. No they weren’t battle-prone, but they’ve been her closest friends since she was little, and no way was she going to let them lose their cheeky personalities. Those kept her living, when life got too tough - so they stayed here, and served more as pets than ammo. Usually.
But this was not a usual day. She saw an opportunity and she would take it, no matter what she had to do. And if she had to lose her home, she would not lose the friends that got her this far.
Out in the hallway, she loaded up her company mandated ghoul Quicksalve; which destroyed both the inner mechanism for the security camera and the door of her next door neighbor, a man who stole her lunch a month earlier, and who lived in an apartment twice the size of her’s, due to not feeling on the brink of homelessness constantly.
She went to her real bandoleer; Peace the Slyren, Leak the Aquabeek, Fipke the Flaringo (it rhymed), and Crack the Gazzler. “You’re up, yall.”
Through the doorway they hopped, and within a few minutes, the four had managed to carefully carry out their contraband - the clothing that asshole was going to wear for the Gala. Being tasteless, it was a baby blue suit and pants with a darker blue tie. Exactly what a well-off person would think looks good.
Shannon retrieved the clothes and brought them to her own room, when she noticed Crack wasn’t following. She felt a little fear for her friend when suddenly -
“Oh, wonderful! Thanks little dude!” He had brought blue dress shoes (where were these even sold???), and she did not care if any of this was Judge Logan’s size.
She smiled, then quickly left her friends and left the building in haste, before the cameras went back on. She had dresses to try on.
*
A puffy light brown dress with golden sparkles is what she decided on, and managed to get a hair cut for her blonde frizzy curly hair, tied up in a neat bun. She even found cute black flats that were big enough for her! After hitting on the woman behind the register to get that Blakk employee discount only allowed for the higher-ups, she went on to stage 3 of today.
Picking up her plus one.
About an hour before everyone got off work that day for the Gala, she approached the meeting spot; the barreling center. His frail frame notable, she quickly dragged him away, ignoring the slightly bothered exclamations of her coworkers.
“To the Gala we go.”
“Heh! Finally, some good dining.”
They speed-walked out of the work site, and both took off the hazmat suits. “Remember - I'm expecting my payday from this.”
The sniveling court fanatic was polite and concise with his response - after coughing up the dirty air they both were now free to breathe in. It seems the rest of his arrogance came back once he was out of the Blakk establishment. “You will, my dear, you will. The law will serve you well.”
Haha, good one sir.
It was an awkward ride on the train back to her apartment - they came back with just enough time to get dressed and be off before the break-in was found out.
Shannon was applying make-up and cutting off tags as he tried on his marvelous new attire.
Despite some protest, the Baby Blue catastrophe (“I thought it would make your eyes pop. You will make quite the impression!”) fit Judge Logan well enough, and quickly stored her four friends with matching Blue bowties in her bag (they might not know Logan’s odd facial features, and if so, she would have to prove she was who she said she was to the Shane Gang - and no one else at this Gala would dare bring non-Ghouls).
“My mecha is big enough to drive us both there. Let’s go, sir.” She was so grateful her mecha had plenty of room - something told her she shouldn’t rely on the Slugterran Express Train to get her home.
Now, as long as their talk on the way didn’t get her confessing to any of her previous petty crimes, she should last till she met up with some fellow outlaws.
And hopefully, these Outlaws will be the ones she called for. She was a betting woman, but even she was worried for the worst.
*
On their ride, Maurice and Blakk were arming themselves for the long night ahead of them. First of all, they were serving alcohol - the jails were ready for more occupants, Nacho quickly raising his hand in that meeting to be on jail guard duty. “Lucky Dark Bane freak,” Thad mumbled to Maurice, who sagged his shoulders in shared defeat.
Maurice would be at the side of the ballroom, keeping an eye out for trouble and opportunity alike. Tag-teaming him would be Dr. Thad Blakk himself, at the upper table in his big throne-like cushioned V-chair, also keeping out an eye but also enjoying all the food on the table (though, the seat next to him was left empty besides a plate and silverware - Maurice could come dine with the head table as he rightfully deserves whenever he wanted). As long as there was no unwanted guests, fights, health emergencies, distinguished guests in need of private discussion…
Who were they kidding, Maurice accepted he would be having leftovers. Though Dr. Blakk did feel a little bad about this. Just a little.
To kind-of make up for it, Maurice shared a pic of him in the suit for the ball - just a plain all-black suit and slacks and operational black boots, with a red tie. And Dr. Blakk sighed, and attempted something he hated doing; being nice. “Fitting for one of my best.”
He ignored the big man’s smile.
Dr. Blakk himself, after the opening, would hopefully be speaking to some people…notably, Judge Logan. He knew his employees didn’t dress prisoners…to the level desired of high society, and that Shannon girl would be at least a little inept with buying him clothes. Which meant that, to Logan and the rest of the Ball, he would easily be the most distinguished gentleman there.
His bejeweled V necklace wouldn’t be the showstopper. Neither would his crimson and black-striped suit, or top hat with a classy red bow atop the rim. His elevated, shiny black dress shoes would indeed have him lean even taller than he tended to, especially around average people not involved in crime, and the V-necked black dress shirt would definitely be a surprise. No, the best part would be the fluffy red, royal mantle, that would match the red carpets around the dancing space; the one that clearly showed his blaster on his belt every time he moved to greet every single one of them. The fabric swayed back and forth, all by the command of him.
This was a gift to his employees, one he and Maurice slaved over for an entire week to pull off. Their peace was at his mercy, they would all know that the second they arrived at his home.
*
One day after Shannon’s message, Kord was again on carrying-duty, with all their new outfits for what would become the best Slug heist Slugterra had ever seen. They reached the opening of the mall, all them chatting and being overly excited about the next week’s plans (though keeping any details on the down-low). Besides the Zombies thing, this mall really did become one of the Gang’s favorite hang-out spaces.
“Ooo, Eli look!” Trixie pulled the kid over to the side, in front of a closed shop. There was a group there, all with badass make-up and interesting blasters, chatting about some show they’re to practice for next week.
“It’s like a circus!”, Eli laughed as he spoke. “They do tricks and stuff, right? Quick, tell me the typical party tricks, maybe I can ask them to demonstrate.”
Pronto was on-task for once. “Gladly! Blindfolded shooting, fire breathing, and interspecies dancing are common in Trickgroups like these.”
“And they fake most of their stunts,” Kord said more quietly.
“The lies are well worth it, for all those drama stories about the crews behind the scenes. Trickgroup drama videos are what I watch when the world feels too serious,” Trixie helped.
The group in front of them seemed to be packing up, though, and in cheery spirits. There didn’t seem to be any beef going on.
Delighted, Eli Shane approached them all, head held high. “Hello! Your set-up looks awesome, what do you all do?”
The dozen-or-so figures hushed, nervously glancing around their crowd. Then one woman - who looked to be the leader of some sort - met the Shane. She seemed to want to be professional - she knew that badge from anywhere - but Eli’s obvious cheerfulness made it hard not to perk up her high-pitched voice. “Hello! We’re a traveling Trickgroup in the South region. We were about to leave, but thank you for the intrigue-”
“What are you here for? Anything we can come watch?”
She nearly snorted. “I…think that would be hard. We’re headed to Slag Rock Cavern to perform.” The brief change of face by the young Shane nearly broke her heart. “It’s nothing personal! He just offered us funding that could really help our finances. We’re just breathing fire and dancing to bugles.” She dropped to a whisper. “Ghouls are weird, and you can’t even teach them to do tricks.”
She won back Eli’s favor, but with it came the Gang’s concern. Trixie asked, “Aren’t you worried about being at the Citadel, then? There’s so many there.”
“Eh, we’ve performed at worse places. Besides, we got good shots in this crew. Dr. Blakk didn’t even care about our names and faces, just that we can do our job well and won’t cause trouble.”
As she talked, the four Gang members started lighting up like Christmas trees. Kord voiced what they were thinking. “...As long as you get your money, do you really care about not causing trouble?”
The various performers, silent so far, now had snickers passing through. Their leader was conflicted. “Not really. But we can’t promise too much chaos - we got our rep to uphold…”
Oh, Eli was getting more ideas. The Gang was going to hate him for this. “What if, after this gig, you got to tell the world the infamous Shane Gang…took part in your show?”
The woman held out her arm, holding an incredible amount of bracelets. “Pay from tonight, and respect forever after? We’d have to figure out what to do with you four, but…” She checked in with her troop, they were all nodding along, some even bouncing on their toes. “Whatever operation you kids are doing, we’d love to be in it. By the way, I’m Vanee.”
“The pleasure,” Eli spoke incredibly seriously, taking her arm with his own, “is all ours.”
Kord coughed. “I can lift heavy stuff.”
Trixie gasped. “I’m a professional vlogger, if you want photography and video!”
“I look fantastic in a dress,” said the mole.
“And I…” Eli trickled off. Oh no, what were his talents again?
Kord patted him forcefully on the back. “Can fit into very small spaces.”
Betrayal. “Woah, bro wait-”
*
Feeling fancy and ready to change their lives for the better, Shannon and Logan rode into Slag Rock Cavern, a bit early to the Gala. Despite this, Shannon parked way far away, near the forests of the cavern entrance.
“This is so far to walk, ma’am!” He huffed, puffing out his spine and making the ill-fitting suit bulge even farther away from his upper chest. “Park closer.”
She internally breathed in relief - with one glance to the Cavern, she had an excuse. “And miss out on this set-up Dr. Blakk graciously made for us?”
He seemed disbelieving till he also turned his head.
Slag Rock Cavern was a desolate, dead cavern, due to ghouling and lack of people besides Dr. Blakk. But for tonight, there were red light bulbs spread across the large cavern walls (how long did that take to string up???), and similar bulbs dotting the citadel in more light than ever before seen. On the usual path to the mecha parking, as well as at the train stop, was a huge red carpet, both joining together at the wide Citadel entrance (with red banners flowing down from the high-up building’s ceiling), and continuing on into the usually eerie evil lair. They could tell from far away there was far more lavish affairs in the citadel itself. But for now, the most important detail was…the performers, currently just making music at the side of the entrance. Brass, Winds, Percussion, and Strings were all played in an old-fashioned dancing tempo, the players trying their best to not disrupt the high-society feel with toe-tapping. Phosphor slugs were being fired right above the band (because they obviously needed more light, somehow).
The employee and her plus-one made their way to the entrance. On closer look at the players, there were four who didn’t do very much - two small humans in extensive, V-shaped face masks who were shooting the phosphoro slugs, a big cave troll with a bandana covering the nose and down who seemed to be fixing one of the group’s mechabeasts, and a mullanoid woman(?) in a marching band hat and ploom who was playing the flute only in sections of the music they could actually play (they weren’t very many, and flute playing isn’t easy to fake).
Then the two shooters noticed the pair walking in, and they had a silent conversation across the ensemble.
One of them did a fancy twirl and planted themselves in front of Shannon. Besides the black bowtie and the red V-mask that covered his eyes, he looked like a boy at a fancy black-and-white birthday party. Was this a family friendly event after all? “Love the fit, you two! Welcome to the Blakk Industries Gala! We are so happy to provide the best entertainment in all of Slugterra. Dr. Blakk sent out the call,” the boy winked at the older woman, “and we came.”
Something clicked in Shannon’s head; and the anxiety that the Shane gang wasn’t coming, the prospect that felt too terrible to even consider, was banished completely. “Thank you, kid.”
Eli smiled in earnest and kept up the fake british accent. “The show tonight will be one of our greatest performances yet! Your party is table 12, and I will see to it personally, ma’am and sir who have come so early, that you will be in clear sight of every second of it.”
That fire in his eyes, the matching bowties of his slugs mimicking her own slug's fashion.
Ah, a kindred spirit. Eli Shane was ready to destroy this place.
This is the best decision I’ve ever made.