Silence fell in the room, and the Shane Gang slingers all glanced at each other. They hadn't really had time to discuss how to handle communicating what had happened in Gateway. There were plenty of further details, too, like Alana's knowledge of the Dark Slinger's existence and the destruction of the West. Things like that weren't necessarily needed for the public to understand what happened, but they were surely connected.
Sam crossed her arms and looked around.
"You're off to a great start," she deadpanned.
"It's a long story?" Trixie tried.
Sam sighed and stepped out of the room and into the hallway, picking up a white briefcase and walking back into the room, sitting down on the coach and setting the case on the coffee table.
"Well, lucky for you, I have time. Who's up first?" she asked, patting the couch cushion next to her.
Everyone simultaneously pointed at Eli, except for Eli, who sighed and was already approaching the couch, knowing what the consensus would be without needing to actually see it. Sam unpacked a holotablet and a few sensors.
"While you guys tell me what happened, I'm just taking vitals," she explained. She watched Eli carefully as he sat down next to her. "And if you want me to kick these guys out, you just let me know."
Eli laughed and shook his head, waving toward the other chairs and the bed in the room for the gang to sit back down. Alana went back to her armchair, Trixie and Kord sat on the edge of the bed, and Pronto sat on the couch next to Eli.
"They all know better than I do anyway," he said quietly. Sam raised an eyebrow, wrapping a blood pressure cuff around his right arm.
"Wanna elaborate on that?" she asked, pressing a button and watching the cuff slowly inflate.
"Well, I know the beginning," Eli said, staring at his arm. "We got into it in Converta Mall with... what are they going by now, Trix?"
"I think the 'Tough Guys,'" Trixie replied, making finger quotations. "I kinda liked 'Scrap Force,' though."
"I still have no idea who you're talking about," Sam laughed, observing Eli's blood pressure and marking it on her tablet before switching the cuff to the other arm.
"Boss Ember and his goons, we fought them in the Scrap Heap that one time," Alana supplied. Sam nodded in recognition and Eli continued his story.
"Anyway, we fought them in Converta Mall, then we got a call that there were ghoulslingers here in Gateway. Alana met up with us and we headed out here. There were some ghoulslingers and this big ogre thing attacking the town, and we followed them to the edge of the Outland Reach," he said.
"An ogre? Like the ones in Snowdance?" Sam asked, her eyes wide.
"Yeah. Made me look like Pronto," Kord noted.
"Again, I say that must have been a marvelous experience for you!" Pronto exclaimed.
"Anyways, we found out the ghoulslingers were stealing Flaringos to power this portal that was powered up at the cavern wall," Eli continued, laughing at Pronto's comment. "It was heading into the wall, eastwards."
"Into... the rock?" Sam asked, frowning. She noted Eli's blood pressure again and took off the cuff. "Where would that portal even go? Gateway's the easternmost cavern."
A few moments of silence passed. Sam's mouth dropped open and she looked over to Alana.
"You've gotta be kidding me," she said.
"It would appear that there is, in fact, an entire other realm out there! And worst of all, they do not know the tales of Pronto the Magnificent!" Pronto lamented. "It is so tragic!"
"Yeah, there's a whole 'nother set of caverns to the east of us," Kord confirmed. "And these guys needed a bunch of energy to keep a portal open and send an army through."
Sam sighed and shook her head, taking out a stethoscope and resting it on Eli's chest.
"Take deep breaths," she told him. "So you're telling me this entire time, we thought Slugterra ended at the wall, but there's a whole other set of caverns like ours? How did we never know that?"
Trixie glanced at Alana, then shrugged.
"Well, that aside, they found us, and sent these slingers, ogre, and their leader through. Their leader was someone called the Dark Slinger. He apparently conquered the East, and wanted to expand here," she said.
"How does that relate to the message you sent me about Eli?" Sam asked, glancing up at Alana before writing down Eli's heart rate. She kept a hand on Eli's chest and rested another one on his back. "Breathe normally now, you don't need to make them deep breaths though."
Eli nodded and did as he was told, and Alana answered Sam's question.
"The Dark Slinger was being possessed by a Goon Doc," she explained. "A ghouled Boon Doc. Apparently a powerful Goon Doc can be like a parasite and use a slinger as its host. That's who really conquered the East."
Sam's eyes widened with realization, and she pulled her hands away from Eli, looking at him with concern.
"And when he came here and saw a slinger like Eli..." her voice trailed off. "Guardian slugs, that's terrible."
"It's whatever," Eli said with a shrug, looking away and staring down at the carpeted floor. "It's over now, so. Yeah."
"We were able to get the marauders back through the portal, which Pronto then closed by saving Gateway's Fandango slugs," Alana continued, careful to mention Pronto's victory, lest the molenoid screech about a lack of recognition. "By then, though, the Goon had Eli. He got away for the night, and we stayed here to rest up. This morning, we were able to fight him, which was only possible because Eli put up enough of a fight to wear the Goon down."
"I saw the damage to the town when we rode in. That was from the fight?" Sam asked, observing Eli's face. Even after being healed by a Boon Doc and getting cleaned up, Alana could still see a faint mark on his left cheek where he'd gotten cut fighting the Dark Slinger.
"Some of it was from the ghoulslingers, but, um, most of it was from this morning," Trixie admitted, glancing at Eli apologetically.
"Well, the good news is that we stopped by to check on the townspeople first, and there's no major injuries," Sam said assuringly. "Some broken bones, some strains, but nothing lasting. It'll take some time to rebuild stuff, but buildings can be fixed. Everyone's okay."
Eli sighed in relief, rubbing at his eyes. Alana hadn't even noticed, but it looked like he'd been tearing up.
"Thanks," he said. "Thanks for rushing out here."
"It's my job," Sam said, waving her hand nonchalantly. "Thank you for risking your lives for us. Again."
"It's our job," Eli replied simply.
"Right, right," Sam laughed. "Well, your breathing's fine. Your heart rate's a little high, but all things considered, that makes sense. The Boon Docs got everything lined up pretty good, otherwise I wouldn't be surprised if you had more. It looks like you might have a faint scar on your cheek, though. It looks like it was a deep cut."
Eli winced and nodded, brushing his fingers along his cheek. The skin was barely even raised, and the skin was only a little pinker than the rest of his skin, but Alana still felt bad that he'd have a physical reminder of what happened.
"I am a little concerned for your head," Sam admitted. "I have no idea how having something hijack your mind feels, let alone its effects. We never observed any long-term effects from the zombies Mr. Saturday made, but this seems a little more... extreme. How do you feel?"
"I mean, I'm tired, but that seems pretty normal," Eli admitted. "Other than that, I feel fine. I don't have a headache or anything like that. I felt disoriented when Alana and Trixie first got rid of the Goon, but not now."
"That's good. If it changes at all, call us," Sam ordered. She glanced around at the rest of the gang. "And you all need to keep an eye on him. He may be acting disoriented without even realizing it. And, I hate to bring it up because I think if it ended well then you guys would've told me already, but what happened to the Goon Doc?"
Alana sighed and threw herself back into the cushions of the armchair, crossing her arms and glaring at the floor as if she could redo the fight with the Goon through sheer will.
"He got away," she grumbled. "Into the slug tunnels. We don't know where he went, or what he'll do now."
"Well, that just means you'll have time to bother us another day," Sam teased. "I'm sure you'll fight him again and get all beat up kicking his a- butt."
"Dude, we're not four," Alana snorted. "You can say a-"
"You guys are public figures, kids look up to you, which means you have to keep your language clean," Sam said, trying to sound serious, but unable to keep her laughs contained. "For real, though, I'm glad you got Eli back. If that thing gets ahold of anyone else in the 99 besides you guys, you'll be fine."
"It will certainly be an easier battle now that Pronto has gathered preliminary data regarding that fiend!" Pronto assured.
"Not to mention I'll be ready for some payback this time around," Eli added, getting up and stretching. "We'll take him down. In the meantime, if I'm clear, I can go see if Siobhan needs any help."
"No!" Sam exclaimed, jumping to her feet. Alana raised an eyebrow. "Um, Siobhan doesn't want any help, she told me to keep you guys up here until she calls you down. Something about you 'younguns' just getting in the way. I'm not about to test her, she seems like she could take me in a fight."
Eli laughed and sat back down, his hands up in surrender.
"Fair enough. I know I'm in no shape to fight her."
"Anyways, Alana, do you wanna go next?" Sam asked quickly. Alana frowned, trying to read if there was something else going on with Sam, but there were more pressing things to discuss.
"No, there's someone else. Remember the person I told you about, from far away?" she reminded. Sam's eyes widened.
"No way. Is it the Dark Slinger?" she asked, her voice dropping to a panicked whisper.
"He's not possessed anymore," Alana said quickly. "But, yeah. His name is Junjie. We don't know how long he was under the Goon's control, but it was definitely a while. He was up and walking around earlier, but you should still check on him."
"Guardian slugs," Sam sighed, running her hands down her face. "Okay, yeah, I definitely need to see him next. Where is he?"
"We kinda scared him back into his room, 'cross the hall," Kord replied sheepishly.
"Why'd you scare him?" Sam asked, crossing her arms. "Guy's probably been through a lot already."
"We didn't mean to, it was a hectic situation," Trixie explained. "We can talk to him about it later."
"Okay," Sam relented, getting to her feet and picking up her briefcase. "I'll go talk to him, it may take a little longer. In the meantime, just stay up here and try not to bother Siobhan, okay?"
"When have we ever bothered anyone?" Alana asked jokingly. Sam paused on her way out the door and just stared at her. "Yeah, okay, fine, got it, we'll stay up here."
Sam sighed and smiled before leaving, gently closing the door behind her. Once the gang was alone, Eli sighed and flopped back down onto the couch.
"Okay, while we have some time to kill, we need to talk about how we want to handle all this. The East, the West, Junjie- there's a lot of moving pieces here."
~~~~~~~~
Sam stood in front of the door across the hall from the room currently housing the Shane Gang. Her mind was reeling from the revelation of the Eastern Caverns. She'd tried not to make it obvious to the gang that she was confused out of her mind. They'd been dealing with enough, and her being appalled at their story wasn't really going to help anything.
So it was time for her to focus on her job. Helping people out. Even if those people were from somewhere that seemed about as believable as the Burning World, and had also been possessed and had conquered said place.
Just another day, she supposed.
Sam took a deep breath and gently knocked on the door.
"Hello?" she called. "Um, Junjie? I'm a friend of the Shane Gang's. My name is Sam, I'm a medical student. I was wondering if I could- oh, hello!"
The door silently cracked open. Sam couldn't see more than a hint of black hair and brown eyes.
"Do you mind if I come in and do a quick checkup?" Sam asked, nodding down to her briefcase. "If not, that's okay, but I'd like to just get some basic information and ask you a few questions."
Junjie hesitated, then swung the door open and stepped aside to let Sam in.
"Thanks," she said, thinking it comical how much more polite she was being to him compared to the gang. That was the power of friendship, she supposed. Junjie closed the door behind her, and she got her first full look of the slinger from the Eastern Caverns.
He was wearing what appeared to be full slinging gear, complete with furs on his shoulders and armor on his arms and legs. Most of his blast hair was tied up into a bun, and an Infurnus sat on his right shoulder, a little more yellow-tinted than Burpy or Ash.
"Um, nice to meet you," Sam said, unsure of how to start the conversation. "Uh, welcome to the 99 Caverns, I guess? Do you mind if I sit?"
She pointed to the bed, the only place to sit in the room. There was a tall dresser by the door, and a small bedside table. It was definitely smaller than the one the gang was in. Junjie looked confused by her question.
"This isn't my home, you're able to sit where you want," he replied, gesturing toward the bed.
"Well, I guess, but it's your room for the time-being," Sam said with a shrug.
"I suppose. Well, yes, you may sit," Junjie replied. Sam sat on the edge of the bed, patting the cushiony mattress next to her. Junjie hesitated a moment before approaching and sitting beside her.
"Like I said, I'm Sam, and I'm a medical student at Bonnie Springs Hospital - that's the biggest hospital in the 99 Caverns," she added, realizing that 'Bonnie Springs' probably meant nothing to Junjie. "I've been a friend of the Shane Gang for a while now, and I'm usually one of the medical professionals that gets dragged into whatever they get up to. They told me about you coming here from the East, so I'm all caught up with that. I just want to give you a look-over and get some basic information. Is that okay?"
Junjie thought for a moment, processing Sam's words, then nodded. Sam popped her briefcase open and furrowed through her equipment.
"You seem to be taking the news of an entirely other realm well," Junjie noted. "Or did you already know?"
"Oh, no, I had no idea," Sam admitted, pulling out the blood pressure cuff. "I don't really know what to think, but I also know that freaking out won't help anything right now. I'm sure I'll be up all night. Oh, Eli has short sleeves so it wasn't a problem, but it's better to not do this over fabric, can you take this off?" she asked, tapping Junjie's long sleeves.
He hesitated, clearly not the most comfortable with the idea.
"I have a girlfriend, if that helps," Sam added with a laugh. "But really, if you don't want to, then I'll just do it over your sleeve and get the best reading I can. It's whatever you want."
Junjie laughed a bit at Sam's girlfriend comment, which made her feel a little better. The guy had clearly been through a lot, and she didn't want to make it any worse.
"It's not that. It's just that I feel different, but I haven't looked since being freed from the Goon," he admitted. "I'm afraid I haven't been very courageous."
Sam frowned, her heart sinking. She couldn't even imagine what he must have gone through, what he was still dealing with, and what he would be dealing with for a long time to come.
"Well, you can try now if you'd like. If you can't, I won't tell anyone," she laughed. "I can step out if you'd like, too, so you can see and then decide from there."
"No, it's alright," Junjie said with determination. His Infurnus hopped onto the bed as he unhooked the armor from his arms. "I was- I am the Eastern Champion, I cannot let these things hold me back any longer."
Sam still looked away while he tugged off his shirt. Even though she was going to have to see anyway, she still wanted to provide at least the feeling of privacy. She knew Junjie had seen when she heard a quiet hiss.
"Ah. That would be why."
Sam looked and winced. It wasn't like he was covered with scars, but there were easily a dozen lacing his torso and arms, and of different varieties, too. Definitely a couple burns, what looked like some basic punctures, and slashes that reminded her of a Thresher.
"I only had one of these before the Goon," he said softly. He rested his fingers on a small burn on his side. "I managed to hit myself with my own Infurnus. I was seven."
"How did you manage that?" Sam asked, shaking her head.
"It was a very failed attempt at a new maneuver," Junjie said, smiling fondly at the memory. "My teacher was less than amused."
"Typical slinger," Sam sighed, putting the blood pressure cuff on his arm. "The things you get up to will never cease to amaze me. Okay, this will put pressure on your arm, it's supposed to get tight but if it's too much let me know and I'll shut it off."
Junjie nodded, watching as the cuff slowly inflated.
"Do you remember anything that happened? When you were controlled by that thing?" Sam asked.
"No. I apologize. Everything is a blur," Junjie said bitterly. "One moment I was overtaken by the Goon, and the next, I woke up here."
"Don't apologize, it's okay," Sam assured. "Even if you did remember, you wouldn't have to tell me. Anything I ask, you can just not answer if you don't want to, okay? This is all up to you."
Junjie sighed and nodded.
"Right," he said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than anything. Sam read his blood pressure and entered it into a new patient file on her tablet before undoing the cuff and grabbing her stethoscope.
"Do you ache anywhere, are any of them still sore?" she asked, putting on the earpieces of the stethoscope. She rested it over Junjie's heart and went to rest her other hand on his back. But the second she touched him, he flinched in pain, and she quickly yanked her hands away like she'd been burned.
"Well there's the answer. I'm sorry, I should have waited for you to answer, are you okay?" Sam fretted.
"Yes," Junjie gritted through clenched teeth. He rolled his shoulders and relaxed, wiping any hints of pain from his face. "I believe I have a lingering injury from my fight with the others. I was clearly healed with a Boon Doc, but they can only do so much in one shot - I am realizing I do not need to explain Boon Docs to you."
"It's okay," Sam laughed, getting to her feet. "You're definitely right. I wouldn't be surprised if you had multiple rib fractures before the Boon Doc. It's probably severe bruising at this point. Do you mind if I get one from the Shane Gang? One more shot should do the trick."
Junjie hesitated.
"I am not sure. I believe their leader- Eli, right?" he clarified, continuing when Sam nodded. "Eli has one, but I know it has done a lot today already, and the only other one I've seen is with Alana."
"Yeah, Alana's Boon Doc is Mage, she's super sweet. I'm sure she'd be able to help, from what I heard, Doc's been doing most of the heavy lifting today," Sam explained. "Oh, Doc is Eli's Boon Doc, by the way."
"The issue is that the healer is Alana's," Junjie explained. "I do not believe she is comfortable with my presence here. I do not want to continue bothering her."
Sam frowned and stopped her approach to the door. She carefully sat back down on the edge of the bed. Alana was like a walking ray of Lumino light, and Junjie had been nothing but patient and polite to Sam since she'd arrived. It was hard to imagine Alana actively disliking someone like him, especially when he'd been in their realm for only a day.
"What makes you think that?"
~~~~~~~~
"So first off, the West."
Alana sighed at Trixie's words. She couldn't even articulate why exactly she was reluctant to discuss it, but she just didn't want to. She didn't want to give life to the fall of the West with her words. But these were her friends, and this was starting to involve all of them now.
"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry for not telling everyone, it wasn't because I don't trust you or anything," she said. "I didn't even really want to tell Eli, it just happened. I didn't even know about the West until after the Unbeatable Master died. I'm... still working through it."
"Eh, you don't gotta apologize. It's your life, just because we're a team it doesn't mean you have to tell us everything," Kord said. "I mean, it's like we said earlier, we've all got stuff we haven't shared with everyone. We just wish we coulda been there for you sooner."
Alana smiled softly, absently petting Ash, who was sitting on her lap watching the conversation unfold.
"You guys have always been there for me, even if you didn't know it," she said. "There's really not much more to it. My mom was the Western defender, and the connection to slug energy passes through our family. The Dark Slinger attacked with ghouls and started ravaging the caverns. He tried to get me and my mom to come to the East with him. Obviously we didn't. She and her team fought him, and... lost. The last I saw of her, she was sending me here. Will took me in, and that's that. I really don't know much else about the Goon, other than he seemed upset to kill my mom and lose track of me."
A few moments of silence passed that felt like an eternity to Alana. Guilt gnawed at her for dumping this on her friends, even though she knew they were the ones who wanted to know in the first place. Thinking too hard about the fall of the West made her feel sick to her stomach - she didn't want anyone else to think about the destroyed realm to the west of the 99.
"You said you didn't know until the Unbeatable Master passed. Were you that young when you came over here?" Trixie finally asked.
"No, I was five. But the memories of what happened were temporarily locked away," Alana explained, pointing to her bandoleer, where Cipher, her Hypnogrif, sat. "I think Will wanted me to be able to grow up a little bit without thinking of it, and it also made sure I didn't go around blabbing about other realms."
Trixie nodded in understanding. Alana feared another painfully awkward silence, but Pronto cleared his throat. His arms were crossed, and he looked nonchalant, particularly given the topic of conversation.
"Well, Pronto is glad you ended up here and not the East," he said decidedly. "This is much more preferable."
"Agreed," Kord said with a nod. "I know we're no picnic, but we're glad to have you."
Alana could have cried right then and there, but she managed to hold it together.
"Thanks," she managed. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys."
"Sap," Trixie jeered, but she still got up and hugged Alana. "We all love you, energy and West and all."
"And for that reason, we need to talk about Junjie," Eli said. His elbows were on his knees, and he was staring at the coffee table in front of him. "Fact is, Alana, if you don't want him to stay with us, even just for a little bit, then he doesn't stay. We can figure something else out. We have to assume he'll be here for a while, though, because I don't know about you all, but I don't know how to make a portal to the East to send him home."
"No, it's okay, I think he should stay with us if he wants to," Alana said quickly. Eli looked surprised at her insistence. "All I can imagine is if the roles were reversed, and you got sent to some other realm, Eli. You'd be away from your home and friends, you wouldn't know who to trust - I'd want the protector of those caverns to help you. And the memories are fuzzy now, but I was in that spot, and Will was there to help me."
Eli smiled, shaking his head and looking up at Alana.
"You're clearly not very comfortable around him, but you still want to help. Just because you see some of us in him. How come you're so good?" he asked.
"It's a gift," Alana laughed. "But really, it'll take some time for things to smooth out, but it's the right thing to do. We can't just drop him off anywhere. We're the best people to understand what he's going through."
"And perhaps the only people," Pronto noted. "What do we do about the fact that there is a whole other set of caverns?! It seems the people of town are already suspicious! Pronto's charisma can only carry us so far."
"Well, maybe we just see what people think. If they don't suspect anything, we don't say anything, but if they do... we might just have to tell 'em," Kord said. "Not sure how else we'd explain the marauders' appearance- and disappearance- and Junjie. Not to mention the Goon bein' here after all this time without ghouls."
"But what about what happens after we tell people?" Trixie asked. "What if they start asking questions about just how big the world is? What if it makes them think about... you know?"
She gestured upwards, and Alana knew that Trixie must also be concerned about a potentially renewed interest in the Burning World.
"At least the East is still a set of caverns," Alana said. "I mean, it's not that crazy to think about a world like ours. If we hear stuff about the surface, we just emphasize that some place without cavern walls and a sky with a ball of fire is a lot more outlandish than more caverns."
"That could work-" Eli began, but a gentle knock on the door silenced him. Alana quickly got up from the armchair and approached the door warily. She carefully cracked it open, then relaxed and opened it all the way when she saw it was just Sam.
The medical student looked a little tense, but mostly concerned. Her gaze softened at the sight of Alana.
"Hey, can I chat with you for a sec?" Sam asked carefully, her gaze flicking toward the rest of the gang before settling on Alana. "Alone?"