Alana kicked her legs back and forth from where she sat on a soft chair in the Bonnie Springs Hospital waiting room. She was luckily not there for anything remotely urgent, unlike the people on either side of her; one of which was a man whose legs were stuck together by Jellyish goo, and the other was a person who apparently had a reaction to Sand Angler sand and was sitting on their hands to refrain from itching.
Both individuals had given Alana a meek wave when they saw the Shane star adorned on her bandoleer, but understandably hadn't been in the mood to chat.
Luckily those two were taken into rooms before Alana. She was fine taking her time. The black and blue-clad slinger sat alone, listening to faint music playing from a speaker in the corner of the room. Ash and Mage sat on her right shoulder, curled up together and fast asleep. Alana leaned back, resting her head on the pale green wall of the waiting room, but felt no need to try to sleep.
Her desperate need for daily naps had luckily halted many months ago. The time following Blakk's defeat had been full of wrangling ghouls and curing hordes of them every day. That combined with hunting down Blakk's lackeys had meant a lot of work for the Shane Gang, and a lot of others around Slugterra, too.
A world without Blakk Industries took some getting used to. Businessmen and lawyers were still trying to manage issues such as Blakk's investors and the fate of assets like the Slugterran Express and Blakk's shares of Lumino crystals.
Fortunately, the Shane Gang wasn't involved in the legal dealings of the company, and in the months since curing the last of Blakk's ghouls, Alana couldn't have been happier. There were still plenty of villains out there trying to make a name for themselves with Blakk gone, but Alana was experiencing the 99 Caverns in a relatively natural state for the first time in over five years. For once, the energy of the caverns was in balance. She could make do.
"Okay, you ready, Alana?"
Alana perked up when her name was called, smiling when she looked up to see Rhydian Connors, one of Sam Gray's coworkers. The young man had dark brown skin and black hair, braids tied up in a bun. He wore a white lab coat and dark dress pants. He held a clipboard and wrote down a few things before gesturing to the door he'd entered from.
"Sorry for the wait this morning, I can take you back now."
"No worries," Alana said, getting up and stretching. "It's not a busy day. The rest of the gang is just going to Convertamall to hang out. I can keep waiting if you guys still have more people to get to," she offered.
"Nah, you're fine," Rhydian assured, leading Alana out into the hallway. "This is a pretty calm day for us too, all things considered. The Jellyish and Sand Angler folks are alright, don't worry. And thanks for coming in. I know you and the gang have been swamped, but doing a checkup a few months after head injuries is good practice, and it's already been much longer than that. Getting into the habit of getting some regular checkups wouldn't kill you, anyways."
He took that chance to give her a pointed look, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Alana laughed nervously, running a hand through her blue and caramel toned ponytail. "Between curing all the ghouls and tracking down Blakk's goons, I kind of forgot to come in."
"I think you have a good excuse, with saving Slugterra and all that," Rhydian laughed, opening a door for Alana to walk into. It was a clean white room with a pair of chairs, a computer, some cabinets, and a hospital bed. "Hop on up."
Alana did as requested, climbing up on the bed, minding her blaster. Weapons weren't typically allowed in the hospital, but after Blakk's invasion of Bonnie Springs, any slinger who'd helped protect the 99 Caverns was an exception. People were starting to realize that it was a good idea to keep members of the Shane Gang armed.
At the movement, Ash and Mage woke up, rubbing their eyes and waving to Rhydian. The student doctor waved back, closed the door, and gave his clipboard another glance before setting it down on the computer desk.
"Okay, first we essentially do the concussion test again. Obviously after all this time you don't have a concussion, but we're looking for any long term effects," Rhydian explained. He began moving his finger around, and Alana followed with her eyes without moving her head. "So clearly you've all been busy, but how are you doing?"
"Really good," Alana answered honestly. "It's been a lot of work straightening things out in the caverns, but without Blakk to worry about, everything else seems almost too easy. We've been able to put more time into real training instead of constantly fighting for our lives."
Rhydian nodded and held up a small flashlight, shining it into Alana's eyes to watch her pupils contract and dilate.
"That's always nice," he noted. "I've seen some of Trixie's videos on the SlugNet, those megamorphs of yours are something else. I don't really understand slinging, but I can understand those guys are packing a punch."
Ash chirped proudly, nodding. Mage, on the other hand, sighed and hopped to Alana's other shoulder. Alana smiled softly while blinking spots from her eyes when Rhydian pulled the flashlight away.
"Mage still hasn't quite gotten the hang of it," she explained to Rhydian. She glanced over at the small white Boon Doc. "But it's okay, you'll get there. I promise. It's a lot of extra speed for any slug to get used to."
Mage nodded, but still didn't look completely convinced. Alana felt bad for the little healer. She'd gotten plenty of work in while helping Doc and Alana cure ghouls, but every time Alana tried to use the accelerator, she couldn't handle the extra speed. A speed boost wasn't necessarily a huge priority with a healer slug, but the power enhancements that came with it would certainly be helpful.
Apparently Mage just hadn't gotten the right kind of push yet, even with her ever-growing experience. It didn't help that she seemed to be comparing herself to Doc, who was easily the most powerful Alana had ever seen or heard of. It was like Alana trying to seriously compare herself to Master Shanai.
"Well, we're keeping an eye on our Boon Docs, too," Rhydian said, jotting down notes on his clipboard. "None of them seem quite ready yet, either, but as soon as they are, we'll reach out to you guys and Red Hook to come get a couple blasters modded with accelerators. With so few healers, it'll be important to have as many of them megamorphed as we can."
Alana nodded, watching as Rhydian flipped a page on his clipboard. His dark brown eyes scanned down the paper.
"Alright, just some stuff I have to ask. Any headaches or nausea since the terraportal incident? Any dizziness or disorientation, or instances when you can't remember things like what day it is? Any other hits to the head in the last few months?"
"Nope," Alana said, shaking her head. "All good there. And no worries about another hit, either. Most of the duels we've been in haven't been as intense as the one with the terraportal."
"Good to hear, you kids need a break," Rhydian noted. "Just hearing about everything you do makes me tired. Okay, let's see, your elbow was dislocated too, right? How's that been? Still noticing any soreness or stiffness, especially while you sling?"
Alana flexed her right arm, holding it up for Rhydian to inspect. He gently pressed on different areas around her elbow.
"Feels good as new," Alana reported. "Sam said it was a pretty bad dislocation because I had so much speed built up falling and then I got pulled to a sudden stop. It was pretty tender for a couple weeks, but since then I haven't noticed anything."
"Great," Rhydian said, scrawling a few words on his clipboard. "Keep an eye on it. If you keep taking injuries to that arm, you might have long-term issues that would require something like a brace, but given that was your first major hit to that joint, you should be fine. We don't really have many medical records on you in the last few years, but I remember you had a few other injuries to your right arm, right?"
Alana nodded, her hand instinctively reaching just below her shoulder, where a piece of armor covered a burn. She'd gotten it over a decade ago, when she'd just barely escaped the Dark Slinger in her escape from the West and into the 99 Caverns. She unhooked the armor piece and pushed her sleeve up, revealing the pinkened skin.
Rhydian hardly reacted to the burn, only nodding and writing on his clipboard. Alana supposed he had certainly seen worse.
"That's from almost eleven years ago," Alana explained. "A burn from... a forest fire when I was a kid. It hasn't hurt in years, though."
She clipped the arm guard back on and pulled off her black and light blue glove, glancing down at her forearm. A long, jagged scar reached down from just below her elbow to the start of the palm of her hand.
"I saw that when we got you from the citadel, back when Max was attacked and the rest of your gang was in the Great Abyss," Rhydian said. "Sam said it wasn't, well, what it looks like."
"Right," Alana said, nervously laughing and scratching at the back of her head. "That's from years ago, too. I think I was around twelve? Dana got me pretty good. My Dana, that is, not Dana Por."
Rhydian nodded, inspecting the scar. His face was still pretty expressionless, although Alana could practically see the questions he wanted to ask in his eyes.
"That looks like it was pretty deep," he noted. "But given you haven't said anything about it in so long, I'm assuming there was no nerve damage?"
"Nope. It was just deep enough to put an end to the fight," Alana said, twisting her hand around and wiggling her fingers. "But after a few weeks I was back to normal."
"Well, that's good. And that reminds me, I haven't seen much about Dana since the portal. Have you guys even seen her?" Rhydian asked.
Alana's smile wavered. She shook her head, glancing down at her arm.
"No sign of her," she admitted. "Her energy seemed unstable when she left the citadel, but I haven't been able to pinpoint anything. I guess she's hidden herself pretty well. She hasn't caused any problems that we've noticed, so I guess that's good? We haven't been able to find Twist either. I don't think she would hide out with him, but I was hoping he'd be helpful."
Rhydian noticed the clear change in the slinger's mood and cleared his throat, obviously eager to change the subject.
"Got it. Anyway, anything else we should go ahead and record while we're here? Notable past incidents?"
"Other than those two on my arm, I can't really think of anything," Alana said, trying to think back through the last decade. "Except that same dark water incident when I got brought in by you guys, but I assume since that was here, that was actually recorded."
"You assume correctly," Rhydian confirmed, falling down into his desk chair and finishing off the notes on his clipboard. "We got all that on record. I'll add in the other things we talked about, too. That way we have at least some sort of medical record started. I'll try to rope Eli into here too, we have literally no records of him even existing until that slinging tournament he made his appearance in. We want to try to keep you kids in one piece."
"Oh yeah, well I think Will had a private practitioner take care of him when he was a kid, you know those secretive Shanes!" Alana said quickly, hopping down off the hospital bed and thinking of a way to change the subject. "I'm at fault for my stuff though, when Will was out of the picture I wasn't exactly being pushed to be medically responsible."
Rhydian laughed and shrugged.
"Hey, I won't judge. Ironically, I always hated going to the doctor when I was a kid. And now you do have a Sam, and she'll make sure you stay on track now," he said with a smirk. Alana sighed and crossed her arms.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," she laughed. "She's the one who reminded me to come out here. Otherwise I think she would have stormed the hideout herself. Speaking of, I know she was in surgery with Dr. Eberly when I got here, do you think she's done by now? I haven't seen her in person for a few weeks."
Rhydian glanced at a clock hanging above the room's doorway.
"Probably," he said. "It was just a cyst removal and some joint reconstruction on a finger, nothing major. If she's done, she'll probably be up front filling out the operation report. You're all set here, if you want we can head up to the lobby. I have to give the desk your paperwork anyway."
Alana smiled and nodded excitedly.
"Yes, please!" she said. "I want to say hi before I go meet up with the gang."
"Alright, sounds good," Rhydian said, grabbing his clipboard and leading Alana out of the checkup room. "Let's go head out then."
Alana followed after Rhydian as he led her through the hallways. She couldn't help but take note of the different illustrations painted on the walls. They depicted rolling fields, beautiful jungles, elaborate dances of slugs and mechas. She didn't need to see the signatures in the corners to know they were painted by Max Altori.
"Max has been doing amazing," Rhydian said, following Alana's gaze. "She's determined to paint every hallway and room in the hospital. It's really transformed the feel of things."
"I'm glad," Alana smiled. "I know she was really excited to be working here. For, well, multiple reasons."
"I called her and Sam you know," Rhydian said proudly, pushing open the door to the hospital's lobby. "Just saying."
"I'm the reason they met, so, just saying," Alana laughed.
Rhydian scoffed and rolled his eyes, but smiled fondly as Alana immediately began searching the lobby for Sam. It looked a lot better than it did the last time Alana saw it, when it was in shambles from the attack by Blakk Industries and Gray Enterprise. Now there was no broken glass or scorch marks littering the floor and furniture.
People mingled around, families of patients chatting and doctors on break sitting together drinking coffee. A front desk sat at the head of the large room, with a handful of stations with secretaries typing away at keyboards. Sure enough, Sam Gray stood at the desk, typing away on a small blue holoscreen.
The young woman had wild, dark curly hair pinned back out of her face and cascading past her shoulders. Her eyes and skin were dark brown, and she wore a white coat just like Rhydian, under which was a purple button-down shirt and black pants.
She looked up when Alana and Rhydian approached, and beamed with a smile brighter than most Phosphoros. Sam had been doing better since her parents had been arrested for slews of money laundering, illegal business trades, and everything in between. She was still helping clean up the mess they left with Gray Enterprise, but she could study medicine in peace with her parents or Doctor Blakk looming over her shoulder. She looked noticeably healthier and more relaxed.
"Alana!" Sam exclaimed, setting her holotablet down and rushing forward, tightly hugging Alana. "I missed you! How are you?"
Alana hugged Sam back, smiling into the taller girl's shoulder.
"I'm great," she replied honestly, laughing as Sam pulled away and looked the young slinger over. "Relax, no injuries. Rhydian just did our checkup. You can stop pestering me now."
"Good," Sam said, giving Rhydian a thumbs-up. "I'll maybe stop pestering you. And did you get a solid medical record established?"
"Well I wouldn't say solid, but it exists," Rhydian confirmed. "So I'll count it as a win. I'm due in a staffing meeting in a bit, so I'm gonna sneak off to grab some coffee. See you around, Alana!"
Alana waved to Rhydian as he departed, then turned back to Sam. But instead of just the one young woman, there were two more on either side of her.
One was tall and thin, with tan skin and sleek blonde hair that was almost white. The other was just as tall, but more stout, with short magenta hair and a tall turtleneck covering her skin almost up to her chin. Gwen Lansing and Alex Kyoya, the other two medical students in Sam's group.
'Hi Alana,' Alex signed, leaning back against the counter. 'I haven't seen you in a while. Staying busy?'
"You bet," Alana replied out loud, signing along with her words. She'd been trying to keep up with a sign language series on the SlugNet ever since the Shane Gang's schedule slightly lightened up. "I was just in for a checkup. We also did some backlogging of some past medical stuff. Sam wants the gang to actually get some records in place."
"That's good, especially since without Blakk we don't need to hide slingers' information so thoroughly," Gwen noted.
Alana nodded, feeling her face heat up slightly. Whenever she was around Gwen, it felt like the student could see right through her. The last two times she'd run into the young woman, Gwen had lectured her about starting regular trips to Bonnie Springs to see a therapist. It turns out that what seemed like everyday life for Alana was in fact being classified as mid to severe trauma by others.
Please don't-
"So, have you thought any more about what I talked to you about?" Gwen asked gently.
There it is.
"Am I being ambushed?" Alana asked jokingly, looking between Alex, Sam, and Gwen. Alex simply nodded. Alana just laughed and shook her head.
"We're just worried. You're just a kid," Sam said. "A very capable kid, but still a kid. And taking down Blakk, fighting those Dark Bane..."
Sam's voice trailed off and the young woman shivered.
"I just want you and the rest of the gang to know we'll support you," she finished. "I know things have been going well, but that doesn't change what you all have been through."
Alana smiled softly. She really was grateful for the med students who had decided to care for them. It was almost nice to be reminded that she was in fact still a kid, and had people looking out for her and her friends.
But she could only talk about so much. Who could she trust with the details of her connection to light energy? And what about Dana Edwards? She feared that she would be blamed for her old friend's downfall - Alana knew she'd played a role, but over time she's accepted that it hadn't all been in her hands. But what would a stranger think? Could Alana handle being told it was all her fault?
And then there was the issue of the Western Caverns, the home that Alana had been sent away from over a decade ago. The deaths of her parents and their teammates at the hands of the Dark Slinger still repeated in occasional nightmares. She had been portaled away to safety, but the rest of her home realm hadn't been so lucky.
And strangely enough, aside from Eli Shane, Dana Edwards was the only person who knew- the full story, at least. Dr. Blakk knew that Alana had come from another realm, and the Shane Gang knew her parents had been killed, but Dana was the only other one who had all the pieces. It wasn't exactly Alana's ideal situation - she trusted the gang much more than Dana, but details of the West had been disclosed in a moment of weakness, not a conscious decision.
And... Alana wasn't sure if she wanted to tell the rest of the gang. There wasn't much to be done, at least not now, so why burden them with the knowledge of the fall of an entire realm? Maybe she was trying to protect them, or maybe she was trying to protect herself, but either way, she just... didn't want them to know. Eli had been told only after Blakk had alluded to the West when he was in Stalagmite 17.
"Thanks," Alana finally said, shrugging at Gwen. "I'll keep it in mind, I promise. It's just not something I think I can do right now."
Gwen nodded solemnly.
"I understand," she said, lips turning up into a faint smile. "Regardless, I am glad you came in. Will you be staying long?"
"No, I'll probably get going soon," Alana said apologetically. "I'm supposed to meet the gang at Convertamall."
As the sentence left her mouth, the small holotablet on Alana's belt began to buzz. She laughed and rolled her eyes, grabbing it and sliding it open.
"That's probably them gloating about whatever they're doing in the arcade," she said fondly, answering the call.
But instead of the pings and shouts of the arcade, Alana was met with the rushing of wind and whirring of gears, the telltale sounds of mechas.
"Alana, you need to get to us, we're on the way to Gateway!" Eli called. Alana's heart tightened at the urgency in his voice. Sam, Gwen, and Alex all paled, their eyes widening in fear.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Alana asked, already rushing across the lobby to the hospital's exit, followed by the medical students.
"We're okay, but we got a call- there's ghoulslingers there tearing up the town."
Alana froze in her tracks. She exchanged looks with Ash and Mage, who shrugged back at her. She tried to swallow down the fear rapidly building and threatening to close off her throat.
It was supposed to be over.
She had just gotten used to not feeling the deathly cold of dark energy lurking in the caverns. The gang was adjusting to a new normal in the 99 Caverns. The citizens felt the most at peace they'd been since Will disappeared.
"Alana? Are you still there?" Eli asked.
His voice pulled her from her thoughts. Alana squared her shoulders and continued her exit from the hospital, ignoring concerned glances from the staff and patients she passed.
"I'm here. I'll leave now. I'll keep an eye on your location and meet you guys. I should catch you when you're about twenty minutes out from Gateway."
She tried to keep her voice from wavering.
It was supposed to be over.
"Eli... is it...?" she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
"We don't know if it's Dr. Blakk. All we know is they have ghouls," he responded grimly. "We'll have to be ready for anything. Including him."
"Right," Alana said, taking a deep breath as she stepped outside the hospital. She raised a gloved hand to her mouth and let out a high-pitched whistle. "I'm about to leave. I'll call you when I'm close."
"Got it. See you soon."
After clipping the small holotablet to her belt, Alana turned to face Sam, Gwen, and Alex for the first time since taking the call. All three of them were staring at her in silent horror.
"I don't know what's happening," Alana admitted. "But somehow, ghouls are back. I'm heading out to meet the gang and go to Gateway."
"Are you gonna be okay?" Sam asked worriedly, wringing her hands as Alana's mecha, Midnight, bounded up to the hospital entrance after hearing her rider's call.
The black and cyan wolf skidded to a halt in front of Alana. She climbed up and tapped the control screen, locking onto the gang's location.
"I will. I promise," Alana assured, taking a deep breath. "We fought so hard to keep the peace. I'm not giving it up. You guys stay safe. Call us if anything happens in Bonnie Springs. If it is Blakk, we'll let you know as soon as we can."
"Will do," Sam said softly, her worry clear in her eyes. "Please stay safe."
"I'll do my best," Alana said, giving a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I'll see you soon."
With that, she revved Midnight's engine and took off from Bonnie Springs Hospital, leaving three distraught medical students in her wake.
As soon as Alana turned away from her friends, her smile vanished. Her eyes narrowed and she tightened her grip on her mecha's handles. Fear and rage seemed to be crawling along her skin. Why couldn't their peaceful times last? Why couldn't people just let others live? In her years of slinging, Alana had never quite grasped the desire to intentionally cause harm to others, even when her best friend had succumbed to it.
Ash chirped loudly, pulling Alana from her thoughts. She sighed and gave a small smile, focusing on the road ahead as she wove through the quiet streets of Bonnie Springs. The tidy townhouses eventually gave way to white and pale green mushroom forests. Eager to distract herself from what would surely feel like a days-long ride, Alana tapped Midnight's screen and made a call.
It only rang once before being answered. A woman with tan skin and shoulder-length white hair appeared on the screen. She appeared to be talking to someone else, holding her hand up to pause the conversation before looking at Alana.
"Indra," Alana said with relief. "Thanks for picking up, I'm sure you're busy, but-"
"We have heard the news," Indra interrupted gravely. "There are ghoulslingers in Gateway Cavern. I have reached out to our allies that fought in the battle for Bonnie Springs."
"Thank you," Alana replied, shoulders sagging. One less thing to worry about. "That's what I was going to ask you to do. I wanted to make sure we're covered before things get messy. We'll see if we can take care of Gateway before calling in reinforcements. If it is Dr. Blakk, we don't want everyone rushing into an ambush."
"Understood." Indra's narrow eyes flashed with the closest thing to 'fear' Alana had ever seen in the woman's gaze. "Do you truly think it is? Blakk, I mean?"
"I don't know," Alana admitted, speeding up the second she was out of Bonnie Springs and the road opened up. "I hope not. Along with that being, you know, awful, it would mean there's a way up from the Deep Caverns. I don't like what that would imply."
Indra winced and nodded.
"That is true. I had not even thought about what that would mean regarding the Dark Bane."
A shout sounded from behind Indra, and she called something back before glancing at Alana.
"All is well," Indra assured quickly. "I am just out with some of the town's children. We are heading back now. They have not yet heard the news."
That fueled Alana's anger at the current situation even more. Those kids deserved to live in a Slugterra free from Dr. Blakk.
"I'll leave you to it," Alana said. "Stay tuned for news from us. Call us if more ghoulslingers appear. As of now, they're concentrated in Gateway, but that might change."
"Very well. I look forward to hearing of your victory, Alana Caelum."
Indra hung up, and Alana felt more hopeful knowing that the Shane Gang's allies were backing them up, though she hoped to the guardian slugs they wouldn't need the help.
~~~~~~~~
we're getting it all set up boyssss
chapters for this fic are gonna try to be between 4k and 5k words, a little shorter than the average tbtl chapter but i think it'll benefit both myself and you readers! votes and comments are much appreciated :o
cyan out!