quick note before this chapter, I corrected a typo in the previous chapter! it incorrectly implied that the whole gang doesn't know about the West, but Eli does (Alana tells him about it in TBTL after Blakk references it when he's in prison. Trixie, Kord, and Pronto do not know. that's all!!
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Alana was right. The ride to meet up with the rest of the gang felt like weeks. It didn't help that she was on high alert with the knowledge that there were ghouls in the caverns again. Her whole body felt tense like a spring. A flock of Hoverbugs had sped by her at one point, and she'd nearly jumped out of her seat.
Her stomach was churning, but already she felt herself slipping into slinging mode, tucking away her fear and replacing it with optimistic confidence. They'd fought ghouls before. This wouldn't be anything new.
The road had long since turned from lush jungles to barren plains when the rest of the Shane Gang finally came into view. Soft grass was making way for the tan rocks and sand of the Outland Reach, at the very edge of civilization. A faint cloud of dust rose behind the gang's mechas. Alana squinted through it as Midnight bounded over a few rocks to reach the road they were on.
"Welcome to the party," Eli said grimly. He looked tense, but still offered a small smile to Alana. "Sorry to cut your Bonnie Springs visit short. If it makes you feel any better, we never made it to the arcade."
Alana raised an eyebrow, riding up front next to Trixie and Eli.
"You guys left way before me, what happened?" she asked. "Did something else go down?"
"Boss Ember and his not-so-tough guys attacked the mall!" Pronto lamented. "Pronto was able to valiantly save the security slingers, but the quest for the arcade high scores was left incomplete."
"Sorry to hear that," Alana replied. "But what made Ember try for the mall? Seems a little bit of a jump from the scrap yard."
"Well, turns out they were able to make accelerators from the stuff they got in the Scrap Heap," Kord grumbled. Alana turned to him with wide eyes.
"What?" she gasped. "They have megamorphs?"
"Well, they have the accelerators, but their slugs don't have the experience to handle the speed," Trixie explained. "Which ended up being almost as dangerous. Kord nearly got trapped under rubble by a stray Armashelt."
"Are you okay?" Alana said, turning to look back at Kord. Once she was actually looking for something wrong, she noticed that he still had dust on his clothes, and his dark vest was sporting a few rips.
"Yeah, no problem," Kord said, waving a blue hand dismissively. "Didn't even need Doc. It was a good stand-in for arm day."
"Right. Well, sounds like we'll all be getting a workout," Alana replied, her tone turning serious. "Do we have any more news? Is it Blakk?"
"We haven't heard anything else," Eli said, glancing back down at the screen on Lucky's control panel to confirm. "I tried calling the King of Sling, but I haven't gotten a response. All we know is that there are ghoulslingers attacking. Not even a picture or video to see who it is."
"That's okay. It doesn't matter who it is," Alana said breezily, concerned with the fear and frustration on Eli's face. "We'll stop them. I don't know about you guys, but I've started to like not having ghouls here."
"Right," Eli said, squaring his shoulders in determination. "Heads up, here comes town."
The small buildings of Gateway came into view, reminding Alana of the standoff the gang had once had there against Doctor Blakk. She hadn't been a fan of the King of Sling at the time, but since then, he'd proven that he was eager to help his cavern.
Alana winced as an unfortunately familiar chill settled into her peripheral senses. The feeling of dark energy was definitely not something she'd missed since Blakk's fall. The unrelenting but comforting warmth of light energy wasn't wavering, so the 99 Caverns certainly weren't suffering from as much dark energy as they were in Blakk's prime, but as the gang rode closer, she recognized what had to be at least dozens of ghouls.
"Look!" Trixie called, pointing at the east side of the town. Pillars of smoke were rising up to the cavern ceiling.
"I'm guessing that's where we're heading," Eli said, taking a deep breath. "Everyone, stay on guard. Alana, keep us updated on ghouls. It looks like the townspeople have already evacuated, but prioritize civilians if we see any."
Alana nodded, keeping Midnight close to Lucky as she followed Eli, letting herself focus on the slug energy nearby. She raised an eyebrow when she felt one concentrated bundle of uncorrupted energy surrounded by the sparks of darkness that indicated ghouls.
She wordlessly pointed to the source of the energy, guiding the gang through the empty town streets. Eli was right- there didn't seem to be any civilians, only the occasional stray slug canisters. A few windows were shattered, and the gang made sure to carefully drive around the broken glass.
"Around the corner," Alana whispered suddenly, stopping Midnight. The rest of the gang did as well, quietly stepping down from their rides. "A few ghoulslingers. But a lot of slugs, too."
Eli nodded, leading the way forward to peek around the corner. Alana loaded Ash, taking one last deep breath to settle her nerves before crouching down and taking a look for herself.
As she'd guessed, three ghoulslingers stood in the town square, but they didn't look like Dr. Blakk or any of his workers. They wore spiked armor that looked otherworldly, unlike anything Alana had ever seen in the 99 Caverns. They each had mechas, and an additional friend - a large brown creature, easily fifteen feet tall, with grungy brown fur and dark red eyes. It reminded Alana of the ice monsters living in Snowdance.
The ghoulslingers were loading slug carriers onto their hyena mechas. Eli and Alana pulled back from around the corner and let the others take a turn getting a look. Disgust churned in Alana's chest.
"Those are Fandango slugs," she whispered, running a hand through her bangs. "They're gathering slug energy. That can't be good."
"And they've got that ogre with them," Kord mumbled. "That's one big dude."
The ghoulslingers were silent as they loaded their cargo, but the distant, incoherent mumbling of a familiar voice caused Trixie to take another quick glance around the corner.
"It's the King of Sling!" she whispered with panic. "He's trapped under some debris, but the ghoulslingers are between us and him."
"Looks like we're going in, then," Eli said, loading his blaster. "How bad does he look?"
"Not too bad from what I saw," Trixie answered. "And he's still conscious. I think he's mostly just stuck under the rubble. It looks like a wall collapsed too close to him."
"Then we get past those guys and make sure he's safe," Alana murmured.
"But there's the question of who these guys are," Eli said, running a hand through his hair.
"They look different from anyone I've ever seen here," Trixie whispered, clipping her recording camera to her belt. "Eli, are these guys from... where you're from?"
"Definitely not," Eli confirmed, loading his blaster. "But wherever they're from-"
"Over there!" a new voice shouted from around the corner. Alana's eyes widened and she barely had time to jump before a Hop Rock detonated, sending the gang in different directions.
"They've got ghouls!" Eli finished, diving behind a piece of rubble with Alana and Trixie. Kord and Pronto did the same on the opposite side of the street, all five members of the gang now facing the ghoulslingers and their cargo.
"But how?!" Kord yelled, firing his Rammstone. "We cured the last ones Blakk made ages ago!"
Alana gritted her teeth as she popped out from behind the rubble to fire her Arachnet, who tackled down a Jollyfist in midair. The coldness of dark energy was only akin to a ringing in her ears, but it was still enough that she had to actively try to ignore it.
"Unless Doctor Blakk has returned!" Pronto worried.
"But these guys definitely aren't with Blakk. Look at them," Alana argued, firing her Armashelt. The slug crashed into the ground halfway between the gang and where the King of Sling was trapped, ripping up some of the road and creating a small pile of pavement to hide behind. "We need to get to the King!"
"You go, I'll cover you!" Eli said, but yanked Alana back just as she started to dash forward. The brown ogre had leapt forward between them and the King, letting out a roar that Alana could feel in her chest.
"Thanks," she gasped, crouching back down behind the rubble next to Eli.
"Don't mention it. We'll have to get past that guy first," he said. "But I have a feeling he won't go down easy."
"Ah, yes, it would be madness... for any lesser hero than Pronto!" Pronto exclaimed, promptly jumping out from behind his cover and charging forward, shrieking out what Alana figured was supposed to be a battle cry.
"What did we used to say about Eli? Something about heroic foolishness?" Alana asked, firing her Vinedrill to create a vine wall that blocked the ghoulslingers' view of Pronto.
"Hey," Eli grumbled, standing up and firing a Bubbaleone at Pronto as Trixie fired her Dirt Urchin to pin down a Grimmstone. "I'm getting better!"
The Bubbaleone swallowed Pronto up, essentially creating a bouncy ball that immediately enamored the ogre.
"Wow. I can't believe that worked," Trixie laughed, watching as the ogre joyfully bounced the blown-up pink slug, with Pronto being slightly knocked around inside. "Alright, Alana, go for it, we've got you!"
"Got it!" Alana said, holstering her blaster and taking a deep breath before sprinting out from behind her cover. She didn't even flinch when the ghoulslingers fired ghouled Flaringos to burn down her vine wall before firing what sounded like two Hop Jacks.
True to their word, the gang covered her. Eli shot down the Hop Jacks with his Frostcrawler, and Kord's Rammstone slammed one of the ghoulslingers back into his mecha, sending him crumpling to the ground.
Alana skidded to a halt in front of the collapsed wall holding down the King of Sling. She fired her Geoshard, Peridot, at the ground, creating a large crystalline wall to protect them.
"Are you okay?" Alana asked, looking the King over. He had a cut on his face, right along his cheek, and his torso was pressed between two pieces of rubble.
"Better now that you're here!" the King laughed weakly. "Just feelin' a little lightheated! Those marauders came outta nowhere, rampaging and taking the Fandangos!"
"Is anyone else trapped?" Alana asked, gently pressing around on the rubble to try to determine how stable it was.
"No way, I got everyone out as soon as I could, but I couldn't hold out against those ghouls," the King admitted. An explosion shook the ground, and cracks began to appear in the Geoshard wall.
"Good work," Alana said, loading her Arachnet. She winced as she heard more explosions and the sound of Pronto screeching again, but didn't risk peeking around the wall. She had to trust the gang to do their job while she did hers. "Alright, things look stable enough, let me know if anything feels like it's gonna collapse."
"Will do!" the King said, bracing himself as Alana fired her Arachnet upwards.
The megamorph spat out a line of webs below it, grabbing at the rubble pinning the King from the front, and then sharply dove down on the other side of a lightpost, using the post to create a pulley.
Alana quickly fired her Hoverbug, who hadn't megamorphed yet, but sped forward when she summoned a burst of energy to boost him. He grabbed the Arachnet, who was slowing down with the weight of the rubble, and pushed onward, helping pull the webs forward and drag the rubble off the King.
The second the rubble shifted forward enough, Alana reached forward and helped pull the King out. Her slugs went back to protoform, both gasping from the effort but chirping happily. Alana gave them a thumbs up before helping the King sit on the ground, resting his back against the rubble. She winced when she saw another cut on his stomach, tearing through the teal fabric of his shirt, but it looked shallow.
"Alright, stay still," she instructed, backing up as far as she could without coming out from behind the Geoshard wall. Another crash shook the ground beneath her, and a few stray shards from the wall clattered to the dirt. She hesitated for a moment before loading Mage and firing her at the King's feet.
Immediately, a soft white light engulfed the blond man. The two cuts slowly closed and some color returned to the King's cheeks. He sighed in relief as the white light subdued. Mage chirped and hopped up onto some rubble next to him, looking him over with one blue eye. The King smiled and gave Mage a thumbs up.
"Why thank you," he said. He looked up at Alana. "Well, I'm not seein' two of you, so I think she did her job."
"That's a good sign," Alana said, crouching down so Mage could hop up on her shoulder before standing up again. "Good job, Mage. Let's see what the others are up to."
Alana loaded her Aquabeek and stepped out from behind the crumbling Geoshard wall just in time to see Eli's Arachnet yanking Pronto away from the ogre and ghoulslingers. Eli fired his Armashelt as Alana fired her Aquabeek, the two megamorphs flying toward the ghoulslingers.
But the ghoulslingers seemed unfazed by the powered-up slugs, firing back in retort, and Alana gasped as three megamorphed ghouls knocked the two slugs out of the air before crashing dangerously close to Eli and Pronto.
"These guys have megamorphs too?!" Kord groaned. "And they know how to use them, unlike Ember!"
"I know something they don't have! Alana!" Eli called, holding up his blaster, which was loaded with an eager Burpy. Alana nodded and loaded Ash.
She and Eli raised their blasters, ready to fire the two Infurnus megamorphs, but the ghoulslingers stopped in their tracks, quickly holstering their blaster and leaping up onto their mechas.
"He wields the Infurnus!" one barked, staring at Eli with wide eyes. "That's him. Mount up and ride out!"
Before the gang could interject, the ghoulslingers took off down the empty street on their mechas, their ogre following after them with a roar.
"'Him?' What am I, Flopper food?" Alana asked, letting Ash hop onto her right shoulder before holstering her blaster.
"Yes," Trixie replied at the same time that Eli said, "They probably just didn't see you."
"Ah, they have finally realized they stand no chance against Pronto!" Pronto said, straightening out his bandana. Eli and the rest of the gang walked over to Alana and the King.
"Could be," Eli said tentatively. He glanced down at Burpy, then to Ash. "But I have a feeling it was our firepower. Have you seen those guys before?"
Both Infurnuses exchanged a look and shrugged.
"Looks like they went back the way they came. East," the King coughed, slowly getting to his feet and dusting off his gear.
"East?" Kord clarified. "Are you sure about that? Cause, uh..."
"That is impossible!" Pronto exclaimed. "Gateway Cavern is the easternmost of the 99 Caverns. To the east of town are just the barren wastelands of the Outland Reach, and then the end!"
"They might have a camp away from town?" Eli suggested.
"I'm not sure why they'd camp all the way out there, though, there's closer spots that aren't so... empty," Alana said.
"Either way, we should check it out," Trixie said, reaching down to temporarily pause her camera's recording to save battery. "If it is Blakk, maybe he found a dark water source out there?"
"Let's hope that's not the case," Eli said grimly. He glanced over at the King. "If you can, try to keep the people out of town until we handle things. We don't know what we're dealing with, but I don't want to call in reinforcements until we know it's safe to pull defenses from other caverns."
"Got it. Keep me updated, I won't make any moves until I hear from you," the King promised, reaching out and shaking Eli's hand.
"Thanks, King," the Shane replied with a smile.
"No, thank you. I don't know what we'd do without you," the blond admitted. "You're a good kid, Eli."
"Tell me that when we sort this all out," Eli laughed, waving farewell before leading the gang to their mechas
"I don't know what we're gonna find out there, bro," Kord noted as the five slingers rode out of town. The buildings quickly gave way to empty desert, only marked by the occasional rock formation. "It doesn't make sense to have a base out there. They'd be cornered. There ain't anything more east than here."
And maybe it was just how Kord phrased it, or maybe it had been in the back of her mind the instant the King had mentioned that the marauders had somehow come from somewhere further east than town. Alana wasn't sure what finally made the pieces click in her head. But in that second, a horrifying thought materialized, gripping at her heart and clawing at her throat.
She remembered a night over ten years ago, when Palida Cavern was being engulfed in chaos and flames. She remembered her parents and their team standing up against a man wielding ghouls and clad in furs. And she remembered the things she heard.
"My marauders and I have come from the Eastern Caverns to collect you and your heir, Evanlyn Caelum."
"There hasn't been contact with the Eastern Caverns in years."
"You are the champion of the East. Or at least you were, once."
Alana's face paled and she realized her hands were trembling from where they were weakly steering Midnight.
Could these people be from the Eastern Caverns? They looked strange enough for Trixie to suggest the surface. Was another realm out of the question? After over a decade, had they finally caught up with Alana?
She could be sick right now. Her stomach was tight, like something was just pressing down and down and down, she could hardly breathe, she-
"Alana?"
Eli had ridden Lucky over to where Alana had been unconsciously falling behind the rest of the gang. He- and Burpy, perched as always on his shoulder- looked concerned.
"Are you okay?" he continued. "Is it the ghouls?"
Alana frantically tried to come up with a response without blurting out her fears that the person behind this could very well be capable of razing the 99 Caverns.
"I'm just- worried," she managed, taking control of her breathing again. "We're going in blind. We have no idea who those guys were. Maybe it is just being around ghouls again. I can't stop thinking about the worst case scenario."
"What do you think that is?"
A repeat of the Western Caverns, the 99 engulfed in flames, but now instead of helplessly watching her parents die, it's Eli with the Geoshard crystals around his head, Trixie with the puncture to her stomach, Kord and Pronto cut down with ease-
"Let's just say I hope it doesn't come to that," Alana said, forcing a laugh into her voice. "I should focus on hoping for the best case instead. We wrap this up in a half hour and are home in time to watch a slug ball match."
Eli smiled back at her, seemingly placated by her shift in mood.
"Well, I don't know about that one, but we'll give it a go," he assured. He looked forward to the rest of the group. "How far out are we, Pronto? We haven't seen any sign of them yet."
"In a few minutes we will be reaching the end of the Outland Reach, as well as the end of the 99 Caverns!" Pronto reported. "It is rather barren, but the final wall is at least a sight to see!"
Eli rode away from Alana and up to the front of the group again.
"Right. Well, prepare for a fight, but if we get there and still don't find anything, we'll have to double back and see if we missed them," he called. "Though with that big ogre, I don't know how we would have."
"Yeah, he's gonna be tough to take down," Kord noted. "And I've never seen anything like it. These guys really don't make sense."
"Well, there are places in Slugterra that are barely explored," Trixie said. "These outer caverns still have some secrets. Remember that's why Blakk wanted to take Gateway? Maybe these guys have been laying low. And now that Blakk's gone, they've got the same mindset as Boss Ember."
Or not, Alana couldn't help but think. Guilt gnawed at her - should she say something, warn them that the gang might be dealing with slingers from another realm? But what good would it do? It didn't matter, they were still just ghoulslingers, no matter where they were from. But if that man in the furs, the Dark Slinger, appeared, then... well, she would rather have Doctor Blakk back.
That was a frightening realization. Alana hadn't known it until that moment, but she was more scared of the Dark Slinger than Dr. Blakk. She'd seen both of them destroy and kill without a trace of remorse, but Dr. Blakk had been a tangible threat that she had faced and helped defeat, while the Dark Slinger felt like a walking nightmare, his whereabouts for the last decade unknown.
"Wow, you weren't kidding. Take a look at that!" Eli exclaimed from the front of the group. Alana looked up and her eyes widened at the sight of the end of the 99 Caverns.
The cavern wall arched upwards, cracks in the warm brown rock filled with slow-moving magma. The gang stopped at the edge of a cliffside, which dropped off into a barren clearing between them and the end. There were no buildings, no plants, just rocks and stalagmites jutting up from the ground. The clearing was bathed in a soft orange glow emitted from the magma.
It was beautiful, in a quiet but powerful way. Alana knew that this wasn't the true end of the world - the caverns stretched downward to the Deep Caverns, upward to the surface, and to the east and west to entire realms. But there was still a sense of finality to the arching wall that reminded her just how separated those other worlds were.
Trixie held her camera up, spanning it across the clearing beneath the cliff, eyes wide in wonder.
"I don't see how anyone's getting through that," Kord noted, leaning back in his mecha. "We didn't see any sign of them in the Outland Reach, but I hate to say it... I think Pronto's right."
"As usual!" Pronto exclaimed. "It is just as I said, it is impossible!"
Alana's shoulders sagged slightly, relief starting to course through her veins. If the marauders hadn't somehow broken through from the East, then this whole situation was much more manageable, and infinitely less dangerous.
"Then I think I'm seeing the impossible!" Trixie suddenly hissed, tensing and zooming in with her camera. "Down and to the right, look! There's an opening in the wall!"
Alana's eyes widened and she sat upright, leaning forward and following Trixie's view to the wall. Sure enough, there was an opening, twenty feet tall and wide, and a faint green glow was spilling out of it. She realized in terror that she could feel an immense amount of slug energy coming from the small area, and it reminded her of the terraportal she'd reversed in Blakk's citadel.
"I can't imagine the power it'd take to keep that portal open like that," Kord gawked.
"It's a lot," Alana whispered, her voice catching in her throat. It was a terraportal, and it was coming from the east. She was certain that the portal was coming from the Eastern Caverns. And the fate of the 99 rested on who exactly was creating it.
"Who could do something like that?" Pronto whimpered, hunching his shoulders and hiding his face in his handkerchief.
Trixie gasped and zoomed in with her camera again.
"There's people coming out of the opening," she warned.
Alana was frozen with fear as Eli quickly unhooked a pair of binoculars from Lucky to take a look. Alana could see figures moving around the edge of the portal, but she couldn't make out the details. There were four people on mechas and the ogre from before, but she couldn't tell if they were more marauders or someone even worse.
"Is it Doctor Blakk?" Pronto whispered, edging his mecha away from the edge of the cliff.
"No, definitely not," Trixie said. "This is someone else. He has ghouls."
Alana's throat was threatening to close up again.
Please, no.
"He looks... strange. And I don't like the look of that ghoul on his shoulder," Eli said, handing the binoculars to Alana. He kept his eyes on the slingers emerging from the portal, so he didn't notice how Alana's gloved hand trembled as she took the binoculars.
Before she could hesitate, she raised them to her eyes, praying to the guardian slugs that she wouldn't recognize any of the figures.
The closer look revealed a more detailed view of the portal. Alana could see swirling green light surrounding a stone path leading further into the wall, presumably to the Eastern Caverns. The ogre stood next to the three ghoulslingers from town, who were watching as the fourth slinger rode forward on a dark teal wolf mecha.
And Alana's worst fear came true as she peered at the man riding the mecha. He had pale skin and piercing red eyes. Dark hair was tied into a bun, and he wore grays, blues, and yellows. Fur adorned his shoulders and his forearms were covered with yellow and blue wrist blasters.
Alana moved before she thought, backing Midnight up and away from the cliffside and diving to the ground, tossing the binoculars aside as if they burned her. Tears immediately overflowed from her eyes as she frantically tried to breathe. The rest of the gang followed her back, but were all confused by her visceral reaction.
"Alana, what's wrong? Do you... do you know who that is?" Eli asked, jumping down from his mecha and crouching down next to where Alana was curling in on herself. "Alana, you need to breathe."
Alana's fingers curled into her hair, tugging at her scalp as she gasped for breath.
"I- he- I know him-" she gasped, her chest heaving. "He- the East- he killed-"
Eli's face paled, but the rest of the gang still looked confused. Just from her stammered words, he would have been able to piece together who that man was, since he knew that someone from the East had invaded Alana's home.
Ash chirped loudly, catching her attention. She glanced down at him and immediately felt herself calm down. The slug took an exaggerated breath in and out, and Alana mimicked him, forcing herself to calm down. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and met Eli's eyes. He nodded grimly, and Alana looked up at the rest of the gang.
"He- he's called the Dark Slinger. He's from the Eastern Caverns. He's the one who killed my parents."