Alana, Trixie, Kord, and Pronto all tensed, watching their friend with impossibly wide eyes as he aimed his blaster at them. Alarm bells were ringing in Alana's head, and she knew she had to move, had to run, had to do something, but her body was still catching up to the knowledge that the person she felt the safest around was now ready to attack her and the rest of her friends.
"Eli," Alana said hesitantly, gulping and carefully grabbing her blaster. "Don't do this."
Already, her thoughts were moving at lightning speed. Her ankle was fine, but she still had slow-bleeding punctures on both shoulders. Pronto had just made an incredible sprint through a contracting portal, and Kord had just finished fighting an enormous ogre.
Of all of them, Trixie was probably in the best fighting shape, but one person wasn't enough to take down the Shane even when he wasn't possessed and armed by ghouls.
Eli gritted his teeth and for a moment his face twisted into something akin to pain, then it disappeared. He grinned wickedly, in a way that seemed so wrong for his face, and fired the Grimmstone. The gang scattered, dodging the ghoul as it slammed into the ground, cracking the solid rock beneath them with ease.
Alana rolled and dug her heels into the ground to stop herself. She fired her Phopshoro, who tried to release a burst of fireworks in front of Eli, but the Shane reacted inhumanly fast. He fired a Bubbalash that swallowed the Phosphoro up, forcing it to return to protoform. Alana hurriedly fired her Armashelt at the ground and slid into the dip it made, desperate for cover.
Kord fired his Rammstone, and Eli just barely dodged to miss the bulk of the hit. The slug did catch his side, sending him momentarily dropping to the ground. For a normal slinger, even that clip would have been enough to cause them to at least slow down, but Eli didn't hesitate to stand back up again and continue to fire.
Alana remembered how the Dark Slinger had taken several hard hits, but had seemed completely unfazed. If the Goon was just possessing the slinger, was he able to just keep puppeteering the body through pain that would normally cause him to stop? What if the Goon kept pushing Eli too far?
That thought caused a desire to try to go easy on Eli, but when the explosion of a Greneater shook the ground and caused curses to sound out from Trixie, Alana shook that option out of her head. If they tried to lighten up, someone could get killed.
Visions of the West crumbling in flames flashed through Alana's mind. Yeah, she was pretty sure Eli would understand if they bruised him up a bit if it meant saving the 99 Caverns.
"Do we have a plan?" Trixie called, firing her Arachnet and narrowly dodging a Bubbalash.
"Try not to die?" Pronto suggested.
"That's always the plan!" Kord called, aiming to try to leap on Eli from behind. But the possessed Shane easily slid out of the way in near-fluid movement that suddenly reminded Alana of how Twist had easily avoided Kord in the hideout.
Was Eli always able to do that, or was the Goon able to see enough of his thoughts to know how to avoid the cave troll?
Alana fired a Jellyish that spat out a string of slime attached to Eli's blaster and yanked it upwards just as Eli fired, sending an Amperling up at the cavern ceiling. Luckily the ghoul's electricity did little more than send dust falling down.
"That's probably Joules," Alana mumbled, her mind racing. "Wait- where's Burpy? And Doc? Those are the two we need to watch for!"
"Oh. About that," Pronto laughed nervously, stopping with a shriek as he dove into the ground to avoid a Grimmstone.
"Doc got separated, Burpy went to go find him," Kord finished. "They didn't get ghouled."
"That's one less thing to worry about, then," Alana murmured, thoughts racing. "I'd rather have them here, but at least we still have me and Mage. We have a couple chances at curing the Goon."
"We need to get to him first," Trixie called, firing her Tormato. The red slug released a blast of wind that sent Eli tumbling back, struggling to keep his footing. Alana sprinted forward, the wind pushing on her back and speeding her up.
She dove at Eli, her hands pulsing with blue light as she summoned energy to try to cure the Goon. Eli gritted his teeth and fired a Hop Jack, but with the Tormato wind pushing against it, it couldn't reach velocity and toppled to the ground uselessly.
Alana doved forward for the Goon, tackling Eli to the ground, but he grabbed her forearms and held her hands just far away enough from the ghoul on his shoulder to cure it. Alana growled and tried to push forward but failed.
After this I'm training until I can beat him in an arm wrestle.
"Why are you doing all of this?" Alana spat at the Goon. "We've never done anything to you!"
"I have plans for this world that don't include keeping you humanoids around," Eli growled, kicking Alana off him and quickly getting back to his feet. "Of course you couldn't just go to the East. The Caelums have never made my job easy. No matter. I will just collect you when I return. After these caverns burn!"
He fired a Dark Urchin at Alana that shot out a half dozen spikes. She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being impaled and ducked when she heard slugfire behind her from the rest of the gang. Eli dove away from the Rammstone and Flatulorhinkus with ease, looking amused with the attempt to slug him.
"You pathetic slingers cannot defeat me," he jeered. "I have his thoughts, his memories. I know each of your slinging styles and how to defeat you!"
Trixie, who'd snuck around behind Eli, fired an Arachnet. Even though he couldn't have seen her, Eli just scoffed and leaned to the side to avoid the slug without looking back, letting the Arachnet's webs instead land on Pronto's face.
Alana fired her Diggrix at the ground. The blue and yellow slug tried to dive down into the ground to churn up enough rock and dust to slow Eli's attacks, but Eli fired a ghouled Forgesmelter- a Gorgesmelter- that created a lava pool in front of the Diggrix, forcing it to stop its dig and return to protoform to frantically hop away from the lava.
Kord shot an Armashelt and Alana fired her Polero, quickly realizing that at this rate, she and the others were going to start wearing down their slugs. Ghouls were more unpredictable, sure, but their aggression made them typically keep enough energy for long fights.
Eli fired his ghouled Blastipede, which knocked the Armashelt out of the air and released a dozen spheres around the area. The Polero tried to wrap itself around Eli's arms, but Eli grabbed it and flung it to the ground with surprising ferocity.
Rookie returned to his ghouled protoform and cackled, pressing his antennae together to detonate the grenades he'd littered around the gang's feet. Alana wove through the explosions, jumping when she heard several go off behind her. She spun around in time to watch a slightly singed Pronto slam up against a rock pillar, slumping to the ground.
"Pronto!" she exclaimed, starting forward, but stopping when something wrapped around her ankles and slammed her down to the ground. She flipped around and was met with pale green translucent arms emerging from the ground and holding her in place, dripping with ectoplasmic ooze.
A small teal and gray ghoul, who Alana recognized as a Nightgeist, cackled nearby- Spooker.
"Ugh, gross!" she groaned, loading her Thresher. "I didn't know Nightgeists could do that! Someone check on Pronto!"
"On it!" Trixie called, firing a Frostcrawler to create a wall between her path to the molenoid and Eli.
Alana fired her Thresher, who bit at the arms with razor-sharp teeth. They released her and retreated back to the earth, melting away into small puddles of ooze. Eli, who'd been firing at Kord, turned back to her, scowling.
"Why don't you just stay down?" he yelled, firing a Frostfang. Alana fired her Aquabeek, who released a jet of water that knocked the Frostfang out of the air and doused Eli.
Please get the idea, Kord! Alana thought desperately, backing away and making sure she wasn't in contact with any of the water. She couldn't exactly yell any plans out loud, and Eli wasn't letting them get far enough away from him to use their comms.
Luckily, Kord didn't need any prompting, and fired his Tazerling at Eli. Alana hoped that the water would help boost the electricity enough to take Eli down, even with the Goon's apparent habit of puppeteering his hosts beyond their normal human limits.
Before the Tazerling could release a bolt of electricity, though, Eli whipped around and fired the Goon Doc, ghouling the electric slug in midair. The ghoul reversed directions, instead firing a bolt of lightning straight at Kord's chest. Fighting Kord wasn't too unlike fighting the monster from before - you had to know to avoid physical attacks, because he would just keep getting up.
And the Amperling definitely wasn't a physical attack, and there wasn't much to do against a bolt of lightning. Shocks ran through Kord's body and he dropped heavily to the ground. Small trails of smoke rose from him.
Rage filled Alana's veins when Eli glanced down at the cave troll and laughed.
"Pathetic," he noted, turning back to Alana, pushing wet hair from his face. "Is that the best you can-"
He was cut off with a yelp and had to dive to the side to avoid a blast of blue light that rocketed from Alana's hand. Her eyes glowed light blue as she ran forward, firing Ash. The Infurnus slammed into Eli, the Goon Doc not ready for another shot so soon. He was sent sprawling, frantically patting out small cinders on his clothes.
Trixie ran up to Alana and the two approached Eli, reloading their blasters.
"Pronto's okay, but I think he's down for the rest of this fight," Trixie said quietly.
"Kord too," Alana replied, loading her Grenuke. "Let's finish this up for them, then!"
Eli dodged another blast of light energy from Alana and barely had time to dive out of the way of he Grenuke's explosion before Trixie fired her Slyren. The slug let out a piercing cry that sent Eli to his knees, but he fired his Bubbalash, who swallowed up the Slyren and belched it out onto the ground.
Alana fired off another burst of light energy, trying to spread it across the area in the hope of catching the Goon, but Eli moved too fast, anticipating the energy's movement and doing everything he could to avoid it.
"So persistent!" Eli growled, firing his ghouled Crystalyd at the ground. Alana and Trixie gasped as the drilling ghoul dug downward, churning up the rock beneath them and creating a sinkhole.
Alana slid downward, scrambling for any kind of hold on the collapsing ground. Trixie had been farther away from the ghoul and quickly climbed out of the pit, grabbing Alana's hand and helping pull her up.
"Thanks," Alana gasped, taking Trixie's hand and starting to climb up.
But before she could make it over the lip of the sinkhole, a ghoul slammed into Trixie's back, sending her tumbling down into the rocky pit, Alana falling down the dozen or so feet behind her. She landed in a heap a few feet away from the redhead, groaning and coughing away dust. Luckily the rockslide had stopped, but the fall had still been high enough to hurt.
"You good?" Alana asked, turning toward Trixie, and gasping when she saw pale green crystals beginning to form over Trixie's right shoulder, creeping toward the rest of her body. "Oh guardian slugs!"
Trixie sat up and gasped at the sensation, nearly falling to the side as the weight of the crystal kept growing. Alana frantically fired her Slyren, plugging her ears to block out some of the high pitched song. Even so, she could feel it in her bones, getting louder and louder until the crystals cracked and shattered, falling to the ground around Trixie.
"Are you okay?!" Alana exclaimed, rushing to Trixie's side and looking her over. "T looks like it's gone, do you feel okay?"
"Y-yeah," Trixie stammered, panicked from the near catastrophe. She hesitantly rolled her shoulder and winced. "I don't think there's anymore crystal, my shoulder's just sore from the impact. I'm okay."
Alana nodded and fired her Bubbaleone, grabbing onto its tentacles with one hand and wrapping her other arm around Trixie, pulling the two up from the pit. As they floated over the edge, they were almost immediately met with a Jollyfist. Alana let go of the Bubbaleone, tumbling to the ground with Trixie to avoid the ghoul's stinging goo.
Immediately, Eli fired an Armashelt, only for Alana to hold up her hands and cure the ghoul in midair. Her muscles were starting to ache, but she kept pushing on and on, dodging ghouls to buy enough time to catch her breath.
"Let's go again, Ash. We can heal him later," she gasped, firing her Infurnus and pouring extra energy into him. His bright flames lit the entire clearing, bright yellow trailing after him as he dove into Eli. The Shane cried out and collapsed to the ground from the heat, the Goon Doc scowling and trying to curl away from the flames.
Alana started forward, but watched in horror as Eli got back up with a cough. Soot, dirt, and blood covered his face, and his red eyes looked tired, but he still stood. His arms looked limp, and he truly looked like a puppet, barely being held up by the Goon's control.
She expected another furious comment about how annoying it was that she kept trying to stop him, or at least for him to start firing at her again. But instead, Eli scowled and took a step back. Then another, and another, and he was running to the side, sprinting down a winding path between the barren stone pillars of the Outland Reach.
"What?!" Alana exclaimed, rolling her eyes in frustration. She was getting exhausted, and wasn't eager to now run a race. But she was not getting anything she wanted today.
Her heart thumped in her ears as she sprinted after Eli, firing her Frostcrawler forward at him. As she figured, he dodged, but the slug kept flying past him, releasing a blast of icy breath and creating a half dome of ice in front of Eli. Alana halted at the edge of the half dome, panting and smiling. He was cornered now.
She raised her hand, ready to release a burst of light energy to cure the Goon without risking firing Mage and having her be ghouled again.
"Time to give him back," she said, her hand engulfed in bright blue light. But instead of looking fearful or angry, the new Dark Slinger just looked amused. Still tired, yes, but pleased, like this had suddenly started going exactly how he wanted.
"I don't think so," he replied.
He raised his blaster to his temple.
The blood drained from Alana's face. It was loaded with a Gorgemelter.
The second that slug transformed, it would kill him. There's no way he'd survive lava to the head.
"What are you doing?" Alana asked slowly, a tremor in her hand as she carefully let the light energy fade.
Eli looked at her and scoffed at the hurt in her voice. The maliciousness would never look like it belonged on his face.
"So predictable. You care about him so much, but in the grand scheme of things, he's just another person. A talented slinger, sure, but in this short time in his mind, I've seen those he regards as talented slingers. I know where I can get other hosts," he explained. The Goon on his shoulder smiled. "I would rather keep this one, I prefer the protectors of the caverns. But I won't hesitate to kill him if you try to cure me."
Alana's arm fell limply to her side, her mouth agape.
Is he bluffing? Surely he wants to keep Eli? she thought. But if he was in Eli's head, reading his thoughts and memories, then it wasn't unrealistic that he'd seen the best of the 99 Caverns. He really could have ideas for different hosts.
He really could be willing to kill Eli.
"Don't," Alana finally managed to say, taking a step back. "Don't. Don't hurt him."
She remembered the West, remembered her mom saying the opposite, letting the Goon kill Nathanael instead of taking the offer to work with the Goon in return for her husband's life. But at that point, Evanlyn had already been fatally wounded, Alana was to be sealed away in a different realm, and the West was in flames. The battle had been lost.
But this fight wasn't. The damage had been relatively contained. The Goon was separated from his army. He needed to escape because he knew he'd been outplayed, and if Alana could do it once, then she could do it again. She and the gang could regroup, and they could save the 99 Caverns and Eli.
It really wasn't the 99 Caverns without him, after all.
Alana backed away more, giving the new Dark Slinger room to leave the ice dome. Her breath caught in her throat as Eli laughed and walked past her. A chill ran down her spine at the close proximity. She gritted her teeth and lowered her gaze to the ground, keeping it there as Eli walked away behind her. She heard the sound of a mecha starting up - it sounded like he remembered Lucky.
It's gonna be okay, she assured herself. This had been the right choice. She had to let him go. She'd save him later, and she'd keep the 99 Caverns safe.
Alana kept still until she felt the Goon's dark energy fade away. Once he was gone, she took a rattling breath and straightened her back, glancing down at Ash and Mage, who looked up at her sadly from her shoulders.
"Let's get the others," she said. She looked up at the cavern ceiling, where the Lumino light was slowly beginning to fade. "We'll rest for the night and go after Eli in the morning."
The two nodded and nuzzled Alana's cheeks comfortingly. She couldn't help but give them a small smile as she began the short trek back to the rest of the incapacitated Shane Gang. Trixie was helping Pronto to his feet, and Kord was sitting on the ground, rubbing at his chest where Eli's Amperling hit. At least everyone was conscious.
"Alana?" Trixie croaked, holding her shoulder, face twisted in pain. "Where's... where's Eli?"
Alana whistled and Midnight came bounding over from where she and the other mechas had been parked at the base of one of the nearby hills, right when the gang had approached the Dark Slinger. It felt like that had been weeks ago. The other mechas followed after her, running to their riders.
"I had to let him go," Alana said, sighing with relief when Midnight ran up to her. She leaned against the wolf, taking deep breaths. "The Goon was... he had a Gorgemelter to his head, he was gonna slug himself to escape if I tried to cure him. I had to let him go."
"You think he'd really do that?" Kord asked, pulling himself up onto his mecha. "He seemed desperate to get ahold of Eli."
"I don't know. He might," Alana said, shrugging. "But I couldn't risk it. I had to let him go. We'll regroup and go after him in the morning."
"It would not surprise Pronto. That slug is a maniac!" Pronto exclaimed, never looking so relieved to see his mecha.
"Pronto's right, the Goon's too unpredictable. We have to assume the worst from him," Trixie said, resting her head on her mecha's neck. "If we're trying to rest through the night, maybe we should go back to town. It's still empty, we never gave the King the okay to come back."
"Right. We rest up, give the slugs time to rest, and hit the ground running in the morning," Alana said, running her hands through her bangs. "I, uh, guess then we go after him. Guardian slugs, are we sure I did the right thing? Should I have let him go?"
"It sounds like he was going to kill Eli," Trixie said. "None of us are in fighting shape. We still have the numbers. We can take him. If we kept rushing into it, we'd lose. It's okay. We'll get him back."
Alana hummed in agreement, moving to climb up on Midnight, but a series of chirps sounded from nearby. She turned and her eyes lit up when she saw Burpy and Doc climbing out of a fissure in a nearby pillar, both looking tired but relieved to reunite with the gang.
"Burpy! Doc! Thank goodness you two are okay," she said, scooping up the two slugs. Her smile fell and she looked away. "Eli's... Eli's under the Goon's control right now. He got away, and we're gonna rest, and then we're going to save him. I promise."
The two slugs exchanged worried glances, but nodded and hopped onto Midnight's head.
"Well, are we all packed up?" Alana asked, looking around at her teammates. Trixie and Pronto tiredly nodded, but Kord's gaze was fixed on a spot behind Alana. "Kord?"
"Uh, well, we are, but what about him?" the cave troll replied, pointing to where he was looking.
Alana turned, confused, and her eyes widened when they landed on the body on the ground a few dozen yards from the gang. In all the chaos, she'd completely forgotten about him.
The old Dark Slinger, the champion of the East, lay unmoving. His Hoverbug, who Alana had forgotten was in her bandoleer, chirped and hopped to the ground, rushing to his slinger's side. Alana carefully climbed up on Midnight and followed after the slug, leading the rest of the wary gang to the still form.
Not knowing what to expect, Alana loaded Ash in her blaster and kept it on the man as she approached. Her instincts urged her to stay away, remembering this man as the one who killed her parents. But now she knew he'd been puppeteered by the Goon Doc. She didn't know if he even remembered what he did.
The Hoverbug hopped up on the slinger's chest fearlessly, chirping happily to some of the slugs remaining in the slinger's bandoleer. When the Goon Doc left his body, he must have pulled out all remaining dark energy, including the energy keeping the slugs ghouled. An Infurnus sat on the ground next to the slinger's head, watching warily as Alana approached.
"Uh, hi," Alana said quietly. She looked down at the slinger, noting that he was definitely still breathing. "Well, we can't just leave him here."
"What?" Trixie croaked, appalled. "Alana, he killed your parents. He tried to kill us. Who knows what he did in the East!"
"Trust me, I know," Alana shot back. She sighed and pinched her brow. "Sorry. I just... I know, okay? But now we know the Goon possesses slingers. He makes them puppets, nothing like how they actually are. We're seeing it right now with Eli."
She glanced down at the black-haired slinger on the ground, taking in the armor and furs she'd seen in her nightmares.
"He's someone's Eli," she said softly. "He was someone protecting his caverns and he was forced to destroy them. If this was Eli, left in some other cavern, I would hope someone would help him."
Even though she was shaking with fear, Alana climbed down from Midnight, pushing past her tiredness and crouching down next to the fallen slinger. She didn't like the idea of toting him around, but she also didn't like the idea of leaving him alone.
She had seen firsthand everything this person had done. But how hypocritical would it be of her to abandon him while her own friend was going through the same thing?
"I want to bring him with us and keep him safe," she said softly to the Infurnus. "But I don't know what he'll be like when he wakes up. You guys can come with us, but I'm taking his blasters. Once he wakes up and we know he's okay, I'll give them back."
The Infurnus looked up at Alana carefully, seeming to take the offer in. The flame markings on him were different from Ash and Burpy's, but he still had the same warm red eyes.
The slug looked over at Ash and Burpy, who both lit their heads aflame and nodded. He nodded back, hopping up onto Midnight's head next to Burpy and nodding down at Alana.
"Thank you," she said, offering a shaky smile. She carefully and quickly unclipped the slinger's two wrist blasters, swallowing down the fear that he would suddenly wake up and attack her. Once they were off, she attached them to her mecha.
"I... cannot lift him up on my own," Alana laughed, looking over at Kord. "I need help. Sorry."
"No prob, as long as you know what you're doin'," Kord sighed, hopping off his mecha. "I got him. I don't want him riding with you in case he wakes up."
The slinger looked exhausted and clearly injured, but Alana didn't point that out. It would make Kord feel plenty better if she was away from him. She nodded, letting the cave troll lift the unconscious slinger onto his mecha. He handled him carefully, like a bomb about to go off, but nothing happened.
"Doesn't he have a mecha around her somewhere?" Alana asked, climbing back up on Midnight and looking around. "I think he had a wolf, too."
"That some kind of protector thing?" Trixie asked tiredly, resting her head on the front of her mecha. "If you're also some cavern protector?"
Alana opened her mouth to respond, but stopped.
"Hm. I don't know," she admitted. "I think my mom had one, so there's that. Oh, there it is!"
She spotted the Eastern slinger's mecha, standing idle closer to the cavern wall's end, lit by the warm light from the slow-flowing magma. She rode over to it, touching the wolf's screen.
"Please be like ours," she hoped out loud, sighing with relief when the screen turned on to reveal a similar display to her own mecha. She quickly connected the Eastern wolf to her own, and when she rode back over to the rest of the gang, it followed after her.
The Lumino light was now almost gone. The Outland Reach was bathed in a soft darkness, the magma of the end a stark contrast to the rest of the dark cavern.
Alana looked around at her battered teammates, taking a deep breath and trying to calm the anxiety crawling at her throat at the sight of them without their leader and now carrying someone she'd been terrified of only earlier that day.
"Alright, team. Let's go regroup."