It took a few moments to get Eli to his feet. He was clearly exhausted and in pain, but he stood without complaint. Alana looped her left arm under Eli's right arm to give him some extra support as the two followed after Burpy to find Trixie. He glanced over at Alana's face, which still sported some soot and the cut where he'd hit her with his blaster.
"I assume that was me?" he asked. "Sorry."
"Don't," Alana said immediately. "Don't apologize. For any of it. That was the Goon, not you."
Eli nodded, but didn't seem very committed. Alana knew the gang would have to sit down and talk about what happened today and yesterday, but for now she had to focus on actually getting the gang together.
Ash led the two around a half dozen boulders that had once formed the bridge. Other than a few tables and pickaxes that looked decades old, the quarry was completely abandoned.
Luckily, it appeared Trixie had been watching for them, because the very second she saw them, she gave a thumbs up.
"I'm okay!" she said quickly. That still didn't stop Eli and Alana from wincing.
She was still in her kart-mode mecha, but it was completely tilted on its side. Boulders boxed it in from both sides and even most of the top, but Trixie was relatively unscathed. The rocks were held back from Trixie by the bars of her mecha's roll cage. It was a feature the other Shane Gang mechas didn't have - with her mecha transforming into a kart instead of a bike, she lost out on some maneuverability, but made up for in safety features.
"The cage held up fine, I'm just stuck," the redhead continued. She revved her mecha's engine and twisted the steering wheel, but with the kart's wheels off the ground, the machine didn't budge. Then it seemed to process what exactly she was looking at. "Wait, oh my gosh - Eli! Are you okay?!"
"Been better," Eli admitted. But he had a small smile on his face. "At least I'm not stuck sideways in a mecha."
"I think you win as far as who's had the worst day," Alana laughed quietly. Eli nodded in agreement. "Alright, I need to help her. You just stay here."
She carefully lowered Eli to the ground, where he was able to sit and rest his back against a fallen stone. Burpy sat on his shoulder, pressed against Eli's neck and watching his slinger diligently.
"I can help," Eli protested. But he didn't seem to have the energy to get to his feet on his own.
"Just supervise," Alana insisted, rolling her eyes and turning to inspect the rocks holding down Trixie's mecha. "I'm thinking some Arachnet and Lariat shots."
Trixie shrugged, trying and failing to look around her to see the scope of the situation.
"I'll be honest, I can hardly see what all's around me, so you do whatever looks right to you," she said, sitting back. "I'll call Kord and Pronto to let them know we got Eli back."
Alana nodded, loading her Arachnet first and stepping back to stand next to Eli. She waited a moment before firing. The purple slug transformed and spat out a spider web on the first of the half dozen rocks pinning down Trixie's mecha. The Arachnet kept moving to maintain its momentum, flying upwards and dragging the rock down off the pile. When it hit the ground, Alana could feel the rumble through the soles of her boots.
While she loaded and aimed her Lariat, Trixie radioed Kord and Pronto to update them. Eli watched as Alana fired, and her Lariat did the same move, pulling another boulder away.
"So where did Kord and Pronto end up? Are they okay?" Eli asked. Alana nodded quickly.
"Yeah, they're okay, they're just in town," she explained. She stooped down and picked up her returning Arachnet. "Things got hectic there, so Trixie and I had them stay while we came after you."
Eli's shoulders sagged. He watched Alana fire her Arachnet again, dragging a third boulder away from Trixie's mecha.
"What did I do?" he groaned.
Alana paused and glanced down at him, frowning.
"You didn't do anything," she insisted. "The Goon tried to attack Gateway. It didn't end well. He seemed pretty frustrated with you. You held him back a lot. You made him desperate, and I don't think he's used to not feeling completely in control."
"I'm glad I was able to do something, then," Eli mumbled bitterly.
"Hey," Alana said sharply. She picked up her Lariat. "Don't be like that. You did plenty. If you had just let him take control, I don't think we would have stopped him. You bought us time to rest up after yesterday and get the Goon to make mistakes."
She fired again. Her Lariat dragged a fourth boulder away from Trixie's mecha. It tilted forward and the two front wheels hit the ground. Trixie tried revving the engine again, and after a moment, her mecha lurched forward. It pulled itself free from the remaining boulders.
"Yes!" Trixie cheered. She climbed out of the mecha and dashed over to Eli, sliding down and giving him a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
Eli was clearly glad to see Trixie, but he winced when she hugged him. Alana tapped Trixie's shoulder and gestured for her to back up.
"Maybe hold off on the bear hugs. He's taken a beating these last couple days," she said gently. "Can I have Mage?"
"Oh, sorry, E," Trixie said. She sat down next to him and passed Mage up to Alana in a slug tube. "Here you go. I never had a good shot to use her on the Goon, but it was nice to have the option."
She frowned and glanced around.
"Hey, where is the Goon?"
Alana sighed, keeping her eyes on her blaster as she loaded Mage. How many times was she going to have to confirm that she'd failed to capture the Goon Doc? At least once more to Kord and Pronto, and surely other Slugterrans would want to know what happened to the ghoul that had turned their Shane against them.
"He got away," she said bitterly. Tears pricked the edges of her eyes again, and she frustratedly willed herself to not cry. "Probably into those little tunnels the slugs use to get around. I don't feel his energy anywhere. He's long gone."
An apology sat at the tip of her tongue, but she didn't say it. Alana knew Trixie would just tell her not to apologize anyway.
Trixie nodded, looking up understandingly at Alana. She clearly could see how frustrated and disappointed Alana was, but she didn't mention it.
"Well, we got the most important thing done," Trixie said simply, nodding to Eli. "Now he gets to be part of the search for the Goon. And he'll get a chance to get back at the little pest, although I'm not holding back. If I find it, it's on sight."
"Oh I definitely want to be a part of that," Eli agreed. "It's gonna be payback time."
Alana couldn't help but smile at the two's comments. It was almost like an hour ago they weren't fighting for their lives. Of course, they all still looked the part, patterned with a mix of dried blood, soot, Jellyish goo, and who knew what else.
"Well, no one's doing anything until we get patched up," Alana said, loading Mage. She thought about the Eastern slinger, lying unconscious in the King of Sling's mansion. "And even then, there's a lot to sort out. One step at a time."
Eli raised an eyebrow when the accelerator on Alana's blaster whirred to life.
"No offense, but is this the time to experiment?" he asked carefully. Alana tilted her head, confused, then realized - Eli didn't know that Mage had learned to megamorph when she had healed the gang and the Eastern slinger in the King of Sling's mansion.
"Mage figured out megamorphing!" Alana exclaimed. Her frustration over her partial success against the Goon was replaced with excitement for her slug. "She did it all on her own, she wanted me to turn the accelerator back on and she did it!"
"That's great, Mage! Good work," Eli congratulated. Even after going through something so awful, Eli's love for slugs was still prominent.
Mage chirped happily as Alana fired her. The white Boon Doc spiraled around the three slingers, dousing them in soft, warm healing energy. Alana sighed in relief as her most prominent aches and pains faded. She could feel the cut on her face almost completely close.
Eli and Trixie both visibly relaxed as well. All three slingers were still a mess, but they clearly felt better. Eli still looked exhausted, though, and Alana knew that he would need some rest no matter how many times a Boon Doc tried to get him back to normal.
Mage returned to protoform, landing swiftly on Alana's left shoulder and looking understandably happy with herself when she saw that she'd helped the slingers.
"Thanks," Eli said, wiping dried blood from his face. The cut there was still pink, and Alana wondered if it would scar. "I definitely don't think I'm walking back to town, though."
"Is Lucky okay?" Trixie asked worriedly. She stood and reached both hands out to Eli, who took them and slowly got to his feet.
"Yeah, just beat up. I don't think he's going anywhere until Kord takes a look at him," he said. "One of his legs is completely bent the wrong way."
"Yeah, I know the basics on how mechas work and how to, like, change some screws, but I can't fix that," Alana said. She pressed a black button on her blaster to send a signal to summon Midnight - she was definitely far away enough that a whistle wasn't going to work. "Let's get back to town, and when we're ready to leave we can bring Kord down here. If he can't fix Lucky on site, he can tow him back to the hideout. Or to Grendel, worst case scenario."
Eli clearly understood, but still looked disheartened at leaving his mecha behind. Alana could only imagine - she'd seen the letter Will left for him. Lucky was one of the last things Eli had received from his father.
"Don't worry, we won't leave him down here long," Alana assured. "And literally no one except for slingers fighting a mind-possessing ghoul come down here."
Eli snorted at that, nodding and letting Trixie guide him to her mecha, which was now back in beast mode. Midnight came bounding down a winding passway from the top of the quarry while Eli carefully climbed up onto Boomer.
Once Midnight was back and everyone was saddled up, Alana led the way out of the quarry. She and Trixie seemed to have an unspoken agreement to take their time. Neither of them were particularly eager to jostle Eli around.
He was... well, definitely better than being possessed, but clearly still out of it. He stared off into the distance, silent for the mecha ride up the path that wound up the quarry walls. Usually, he'd be playing with his slugs, or finding something to talk about to fill the silence. Now it seemed like he didn't even feel Burpy pressing up against his cheek.
The ride back to town took considerably longer than the ride out since Alana and Trixie weren't trying to chase down the Goon, and it seemed to drag on in the awkward silence between the three slingers. Eli was clearly still processing what happened to him, and it felt like there was a pit in Alana's stomach. She would have to recount the Goon's escape several more times today, and she felt guilty about sending Trixie off a bridge. But she didn't want to bring it up in front of Eli, even when it seemed like he was off in his own world.
Alana had never been more relieved to see Gateway's town when it finally rolled into view. Luckily, there were no longer plumes of smoke rising from the buildings, and it didn't seem like the Goon had instantly found a new slinger and picked up where he left off. She was pretty sure the gang was at its limit today with fights.
As they came into town, they saw people calmly milling about, which was definitely a good sign. Some were surveying the damage of the buildings and streets. Some children dashed about, cheering and chasing after each other, not understanding the cataclysmic destruction they had narrowly avoided.
Kord stood outside the outermost town building, which was more separated from the rest by a wide yard with tables and chairs. He was chatting with an elderly cave troll woman. She had medium blue skin with gray hair pulled back into a bun. She was a little shorter than Kord and leaned on a tall wooden cane.
When Kord glanced up and saw his approaching teammates, he immediately grinned.
"There you guys are!" he called.
The volume of his shout seemed to shake Eli from his stupor. The Shane smiled and waited for Trixie to park Boomer and climb off to help him down. Kord clearly wanted to give Eli a huge, but restrained himself to a very gentle fist bump instead.
"Man, I'm glad to have you back. Don't do that again."
"I'll try my best," Eli laughed. He just then seemed to notice the cave troll next to Kord. He squared his shoulders a bit and tried to put on a face more suited to chatting with the public. "Oh, uh, hi, I'm-"
"Eli Shane," the woman finished with a smile. She held out a shaky hand to shake with Eli. "I know. Knew your father, too, and Jimmo. I'm Siobhan. Pleasure to meet you."
"Oh. Well, I'm honored to be the third Shane you've met. How did you know my dad and uncle?" Eli asked.
Siobhan motioned to the building behind her. It was set back away enough from the rest of town that it was unscathed. It was two stories tall, with a connected garage large enough for a half dozen mechas. A sign above the door said "Gateway Bed & Breakfast."
"They didn't come out to Gateway often, but when they did and they didn't want to have to ride all the way back to civilization, they'd stay the night here," Siobhan explained. "I'm retired. I planned the roadways to Gateway and the bridge over the quarry-"
Alana and Trixie exchanged a quick look.
"-and after that, I got bored of doing nothing, so I rent out the second floor of my house," she finished. "First time Jimmo stopped by, I was still working for the quarry, and this was just my house, no renting. But he needed somewhere to rest without heading into town and getting attention. And now here we are."
"Siobhan's lettin' us stay here for however long we need," Kord explained. "I figured at the very least, we should make sure there's no more issues here, and Eli and our mystery slinger probably need the rest."
Eli perked up and glanced at Alana questioningly.
"Mystery slinger?" he asked.
"The Dark- I mean, the Eastern slinger," Alana explained. "He hasn't woken up since the Goon left him. Kord, is he still in the King of Sling's mansion?"
"Nah, I just brought him over here," Kord explained. "Some of the people who can't stay in their houses are staying in the mansion, and I think they're a little wary of him, y'know?"
Alana nodded. She probably understood that better than anyone. She still felt uneasy with the thought of keeping the guy around, but she also knew she couldn't just leave him alone in an unfamiliar realm.
It had been a decade, but she did remember what that felt like.
"Speaking of, how are the people? Anything serious? I can boost Doc and Mage and make the rounds," she offered. She was eager to get off the topic of the Eastern slinger.
"That might be best," Kord said. "From what I've heard, there's nothing major, but Pronto's still going around with Doc. The explosions were pretty spread out, so a lot of folks got caught up at least a little."
"Explosions?" Eli asked quietly. He looked further into town and finally seemed to notice the nearby charred buildings. From what Alana could see, there weren't any total collapses, but several areas had rubble and broken glass dappling the streets.
Alana, Trixie, and Kord all looked at each other with uncertainty. Siobhan, sensing an awkward conversation, cleared her throat.
"I'll be inside. I know you slingers are bottomless pits, I'll get something cooking," she said, heading back inside as quickly as her cane-supported legs could carry her.
"I blew stuff up," Eli said flatly. "Geez, it's a miracle no one died. I could have killed someone."
Kord started to reach a hand out to Eli's shoulders, but he pulled it away.
"Look, buddy, it wasn't your fault," Kord said. "It was that Goon Doc. And nobody got seriously hurt. There's some cuts and bruises. That's it."
Eli sighed and nodded, running his hands through his hair and taking a deep breath.
"Right, right," he said, sounding like he was trying to reassure himself more than anything else.
"How about you and I go inside?" Trixie suggested. "I need to try to get some of this off of me."
She gestured to the dirt, soot, and Jellyish goo that splattered her body. Eli nodded and followed her into Siobhan's, leaving Alana and Kord outside. Kord sighed and glanced down at Alana.
"I don't see an extra Boon Doc with you, so I assume you didn't get to cure the Goon?" he asked. Alana sighed and shook her head. "Got it. Hey, don't you go worrying about that either. It woulda been nice to get him, sure, but the number one thing we needed today was to save Eli."
Alana nodded. She knew she was going to hear that a lot, too. And it was true, if she had to choose, she would pick Eli over the Goon any time. But it would've been nice to save them both. Somewhere in that Goon was a Boon Doc who couldn't have always been so malicious.
"I see the wheels in your head turnin'. Forget about it for now, let's go see how Pronto and Doc are doing," Kord said, gently nudging Alana's arm. She nodded and followed after him, walking further into town.
She and the gang had been on the outskirts of town when Rookie's explosions went off, so she hadn't gotten to see the damage yet. The town was small already, and it looked like two well-placed explosions had detonated on each block. It was something past the extent of destruction Rookie could normally manage, especially having not megamorphed yet, but that was the power of ghouling.
It didn't take too long to find Pronto. He had a small crowd of people around him, and his boisterous voice was echoing down the streets.
"Haha, of course, Pronto Geronimole and his little green sidekick never tire, but, uh, would anyone happen to have a Fandango? No?"
"Come on, mole, the slug can take another shot, we've got a broken leg here!"
Alana immediately tensed at the sound of the aggressive voice, and she didn't need to glance over at Kord to know he was doing the same.
She picked up the pace, Kord a few steps behind her as she ran over to the group. There were seven people standing around Pronto and one person laying on the ground. Their eyes were closed and their face was twisted in pain, and one look at their right leg confirmed that they were the one with the broken leg. Their tibia definitely wasn't supposed to look like that.
A similar looking man stood next to them. The two shared black hair and a dark complexion, although the person on the ground looked considerably ashier. The man's arms were crossed and his expression made it clear to Alana that he was the source of the yell she and Kord heard.
"My kid is lying here with a broken leg and you've helped nearly everyone else-"
"Okay, sir, that's enough," Alana interrupted, pushing to the front of the group and standing between the man and Pronto.
She glanced down at the molenoid, who nodded towards his blaster. Doc was loaded, but looked halfway asleep. If what the man was right, and the Boon Doc had been healing everyone else with injuries, he was probably exhausted.
"A Boon Doc can only do so much, and besides-" Alana began, but the man cut her off.
"Yeah, I've seen, I watched everyone else get healed, including people with little bruises!" he snapped.
"It's hard to line everyone up in order of severity when a whole town got attacked," Kord added, stepping beside Alana and crossing his arms. It took a special kind of person to look up at an angry cave troll and not back down, and Alana didn't want to give this guy the chance to prove if he was up to the test.
"And, what I was going to say was that Boon Docs don't work like that. If we hit them with one now, the bone will heal looking like that," Alana explained, gesturing down to, without going into too much detail, the very incorrect location of the tibia. "They speed up the healing process. We need to set it, and probably have a doctor check it, unless you want it to be broken again later so it can heal properly."
The man opened his mouth, and to Alana it looked like he was gearing up to argue, so she took a step closer and tried to look as serious as possible (probably not very threatening compared to the cave troll behind her, though).
"The next words out of your mouth better be a call to Bonnie Springs," she said. "We need them here anyway to make sure everyone's okay, and it's a long trip. Go call them and tell them the situation with Eli Shane has been taken care of, so it's safe to come out here."
The man sighed, took another glance up at Kord, and finally turned away, walking a few dozen feet off to call Bonnie Springs. Alana looked around at the other people.
"Is anyone else seriously hurt?" she asked, her voice softer now. Everyone shook their heads. "Alright. We don't need everyone over here then. We've got this. Go check in with your neighbors or assess damage, and let us know if you need anything."
Eager to be away from the annoyed slingers, the other bystanders nodded hurriedly and split up, dispersing to the rest of town. Alana sighed, rubbing at her face as she kneeled down next to the person with the broken leg.
Things were a little easier when most people's enemy was Dr. Blakk, but now it wasn't entirely uncommon for the Shane Gang to get more public disdain if things didn't go as planned. With the fate of the world no longer hanging by a thread, they were a much easier target.
"Okay, can you hear me?" Alana asked gently, focusing her attention on the injured person.
Their eyes were still screwed shut, but they nodded quickly.
"Got it. I'm Alana, I'm with the Shane Gang. We haven't been able to fix your leg yet because it needs to be set and looked at by a doctor," Alana continued. She glanced up at Kord. "Kord, can you go grab me a blanket? Or a mat? If a building's got a wall down from an explosion, just poke your head in there, people have other things to worry about."
Kord nodded and headed off. Alana motioned for Pronto to come sit next to the person's torso.
"Okay, my friend Pronto is going to grab your hand," she said, looking pointedly at Pronto. The molenoid sighed and holstered his blaster, but he sat in the right spot and carefully grabbed the person's hand. "Awesome. I need to set your leg straight now, and it's gonna hurt, but once things are lined back up, you'll be in a lot less pain."
The person gritted their teeth, and they tightened their grip on Pronto's hand, but they nodded.
"Hang in there, I promise this'll help," Alana assured. "Your muscles will stop spasming trying to figure out how to fix things."
She carefully placed her hands on either side of the person's lower leg and slowly began pulling it straight. In doing so, the bone shifted back into place, still clearly broken but at least not at such a heinous angle. The person squeezed Pronto's hand so hard he let out a piercing shriek, but once their leg was back in order, they relaxed and let go of him.
They carefully opened their eyes, taking deep breaths.
"That does feel better," they said hoarsely, leaning their head back in relief.
Alana sighed in relief and smiled. She didn't say it, but that was the first time she'd actually had to reset a leg, so she was glad it had actually worked. In the meantime, Kord must have found an area that wasn't too hard to access, because he was coming back with a large fluffy blanket.
"Glad to hear it," she said, trying to hold back laughter when she saw Pronto shaking his hand. "We can't use a Boon Doc yet, but in the meantime, we're gonna get you inside somewhere. Do you know if your house was hit?"
The person shook their head, lifting a hand and pointing to a building down the street. It was still standing, and the only sign of damage was a cracked window.
"We weren't inside. We were down the road where one of the buildings came down," they explained. They turned their head slightly, looking at their father, who was coming back. "I'm sorry for him, he can get a little high strung."
"It's okay," Alana assured, even though she was annoyed that she was staying calmer in a crisis than an adult. "Everyone's tense. It's hard not to be when stuff like this happens."
The small clip on her belt that could expand into a holoscreen began to beep. Grateful for the excuse, Alana pointed to the person's leg and mouthed "splint" to Kord and Pronto before walking down a few buildings, leaving them to deal with whatever the man had found to complain about now. She pressed a button on the clip, releasing a small earpiece, and looped it onto her right ear.
"Hello-?" she began, but she was quickly cut off.
"Alana Caelum, why can you not go two days without getting into sh- a mess?" Sam Gray's panicked voice rang out, interrupting Alana's greeting. "I'm getting packed up with a team to head out to Gateway. Are you okay? We've been worried ever since hearing something was wrong with Eli!"
"I'm okay," Alana assured, leaning against a building and watching as Kord and Pronto irritatedly tried explaining to the man that his kid definitely needed a splint on their leg so they could get moved inside. "Gateway's a little beat up, and things didn't go perfectly, but Eli's okay now. Most of the people were healed by Doc, but we've got a broken leg, and that's a lot of people for one Boon Doc, so I'd like to get the other people checked out to make sure nothing else is up."
"Got it. It'll be a few hours before we get there," Sam warned. "How bad is the leg?"
"Bad," Alana admitted. "I lined it back up though, and we're gonna try to get it in a splint so we can move this person inside until you get here."
"Aw, look at you go, my mini doctor," Sam teased. "Good work. Call me if anything else comes up and I can talk you through stuff while we travel. We're about to leave. Is there anything else major we should know about?"
Alana glanced up the road at the King of Sling's mansion, where the Eastern slinger was still residing. If the King had been suspicious of the marauders looking like nothing found in the 99 Caverns, the rest of the public would surely pick up on it, too, and word traveled fast.
"We've got someone who's from... far away. He's gonna need a pretty good look-over."