The gang decided that, due to the fact that the door that lead into Deadweed Cavern was now apparently locked and nobody in their right minds would be trying to enter it any time soon, they would walk down the tunnel and attempt to find another exit.
There was a broken-down mine rail that lead down the dark blue and black tunnel. Every once in a while, a beaten-up mine cart or some pickaxes would be strewn about beside the track, like they had been left behind in a hurry and never returned to.
The only light in the tunnel was from Ash and Burpy, who kept their heads lit to guide the gang into the cavern, and the mushrooms that dotted the path next to the mine rail. As the gang walked by, the bioluminescent plants would slowly start to glow and provide the slingers with some additional (but eerie) pale blue light.
"This was a mistake, I tell you!" Pronto worried, constantly looking over his shoulder as the gang continued on. "We should have waited by the door!"
Trixie sighed impatiently. "It could be half-past forever by the time someone rescues us," she reminded. "We'll see if we can find another way out. And film some ghosts," she added, raising her camera. Alana smiled and stuck her face in front of the camera, putting up a piece sign.
"I'd settle for some people," Eli said quietly. "What happened to them all?"
"It used to be a busy gold mine," Pronto explained. "Then, years ago, abandoned. Many ventured in in attempt to see why, only to emerge screaming in fear- or worse, never seen again!" he exclaimed.
Eli grinned. "This is great! We can find a new slug and solve a mystery!"
"Way to look on the bright side," Alana laughed.
"Well, either way, it's gonna make some great footage," Trixie said, turning the camera around to get the full view of the broken-up mine rail and abandoned equipment.
"Yes, of our gruesome demise!" Pronto cried out dramatically. "Just, make me look heroic when the hungry ghosts come to eat my molenoid brains!"
"Did you say brains?" Eli asked, glancing back at Pronto.
"Yes, of course! We molenoids have two brains," Pronto explained, gesturing to his head. "Which make me twice as scared and twice as tasty!"
As Pronto readjusted his helmet over his head, he stepped on the edge of a shovel that had a hard hat sitting on the handle. It flew up in front of his face, and he began screaming as he dove for cover behind a bundle of mushrooms.
Alana laughed as she picked up the shovel and hat. "Pronto, it's just a shovel."
Pronto laughed nervously as he got to his feet. The gang continued walking down the path. Long spider webs sunk down from the ceiling, and the mist in the tunnel was growing heavier. It was growing more and more difficult to see very far in front of themselves as the Shane Gang ventured deeper into Deadweed.
"Agh! The fog is too thick!" Pronto yelled as he nearly walked into one of the spider webs. "We should turn back while we can- while we still have our brains!"
Alana and Trixie rolled their eyes as they continued forward. Eli and Kord paused to assure Pronto that there was no being out to eat his brains.
"I wonder how much farther-" Alana began to ask, but was cut off when something flashed in front of her and Trixie's path.
The two gasped and froze. It had looked faintly like a person running in front of them. But just as quickly as it had appeared, the phantom was gone. When it was in her vision, Alana felt the iciness from the ghoul slug coming back. It faded away when the figure disappeared, but the fear stayed.
"That was nothing," Trixie said assuringly, trying to convince both herself and Alana. "The mist is getting way too heavy," she said, shaking her head and turning back to the guys. Kord smiled and pulled his blaster out of his back holster.
"I got something that'll cut right through this fog," he said confidently, grabbing a device from his belt and clipping it onto the top of his blaster. "Sonar scope!"
He walked in front of the rest of the gang with his blaster out. The scope had a small screen that was pinging out vibrations with a small ping! every few moments.
"All clear," Kord announced, leading the way through the dense fog. "Oh yeah, this baby works like a charm-"
Just as he finished his sentence, a swarm of cave bats burst into view. Their screeching echoed of the cave walls. Alana shrieked and went down to the ground, pulling Trixie down with her. Kord, Pronto, and Eli all ducked, raising their arms in defense. They covered their heads as the bats flew by, bumping into their arms and shoulders before flying further down the tunnel.
Once it was silent, the gang hastily got to their feet, glancing at each other worriedly.
"Are you sure that thing works?" Eli asked hesitantly.
Kord frowned and inspected his blaster. Then he laughed nervously and pulled the sonar scope off his blaster, flipped it around, and clipped it back on.
"He he, sorry... I put it on backwards," he said. Pronto sighed and shook his head.
"That is it! I'm leading us back to the exit!" Pronto exclaimed, taking a step back in the direction of the Deadweed door. Eli grabbed the molenoid's shoulder quickly.
"Come on, this is fun!" he said. "It's kinda like Halloween."
Alana tensed up, glaring at Eli. She'd heard about Halloween from Will, and it wasn't something that Slugterrans were familiar with. Trixie frowned and tilted her head.
"What's a Halloween?" she asked. Alana smirked and crossed her arms.
"Yeah, Eli, what's that?" she asked innocently. Eli faltered for a moment, scratching the back of his head.
"Uh... it's an old Shane tradition!" he said. "Once a year we dress up in scary costumes and get candy from the neighbors."
Alana laughed, shaking her head. "Sounds weird," she remarked.
"Sounds like extortion," Trixie said as the gang continued on down the tunnels.
The fog lowered a bit, only appearing in spontaneous thick patches. Every once in a while, there would be small, quiet chirps that sounded through the stone tunnels. Alana would tilt her head in the direction of them seconds before she would hear them, as if she could guess exactly where the slugs were.
She couldn't focus on it very much, though, because at every small noise, Pronto would shriek and jump.
"Wow, Pronto. I've never seen you so scared," Trixie said after Pronto nearly jumped out of his boots when he walked into a spiderweb.
"Pronto is not scared," the molenoid said, jumping as a high-pitched wind blew through the tunnel, sounding like dozens of people whispering. "Pronto is... terrified!"
"Uh, I could be wrong, but... that sounded like a voice," Kord said.
"Or a sick owl," Eli suggested. (The rest of the gang chose to ignore him.)
"It was saying turn back!" Pronto gasped.
Alana glanced at Trixie. She didn't want to say anything, but it kind of did sound like it was a voice.
"It's the wind," insisted Eli. "And last time I checked, the wind doesn't say turn back."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Kord said, picking up one of the hard hats sitting on the ground as they reached a fork in the path and setting it on his hand. "Hey, Pronto, it's another one of your brain-eating ghosts," he teased.
"Ha ha. Very funny, Mr. Cave Troll!" Pronto scowled, rolling his eyes. Kord chuckled, waving the hat in the air.
"Tuuurrn baaack," he said mockingly.
But when he lowered his hand, the faint outline of a man stood behind him. Nearly as tall as Kord and almost as muscular, the specter was slightly see-through with pulsing red eyes and long, pointed teeth. It let out a hiss, and the gang all sped backward, yelling and shrieking. More of the phantoms appeared, dozens of them covering the two paths in front of them. They all had the same cursed red eyes and deadly hiss.
Alana winced and pressed her hands to her temples as iciness crept up to her head.
"Ghosts?!" Trixie gasped.
"I told you so!" Pronto cried out.
"I don't think they wanna be friends. Let 'em have it, guys!" Eli called. Alana nodded and fired her Armashelt as Eli fired a Rammstone.
The slugs transformed and sped toward the figures- and flew right through them.
"Floppers!" Alana groaned. The group tried firing more slugs, but they all flew right through the specter people. They were definitely real, but they were untouchable.
"We can't hit them," Trixie scowled, lowering her blaster.
"This way!" Eli called, gesturing to a path behind them, where old rail cart sat on the mine track.
Eli leapt in, ushering Trixie, Alana, and Pronto into the cart. It creaked and shook, but it looked like it had held up well after all its time in the tunnels. Kord stayed on the outside of the cart until everyone got in, then began to push it forward, down the slight slope of the tunnel.
Once it got going, Kord jumped in, and Trixie pulled out her camera to film the ghosts that were getting steadily farther away as the mine cart sped down the track.
"That worked well," Alana noted.
"Haha, yes! Take that, ghosts!" Pronto yelled as the specters faded away in the distance.
"I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes," Eli said. "At least we lost them," he added as the tunnel walls around them opened up into a large cave. The mine cart sped through the cave area- and then reached a rise in the track.
"You may have spoken too soon," Trixie groaned as the cart lost momentum and began to speed backwards. They rode back through the cave and into the tunnels, where the ghosts were covering the ground wall-to-wall. The cart lost momentum again just in front of the crowd of phantoms before sliding back into the cave and coming to a stop.
"Oh no," Pronto said as the gang turned to face a crowd of the ghosts surrounding the cart. They were all hissing and looked angry, but Alana was more worried about the cold feelings she was getting again. She winced and pressed her hands to her temples again as Kord wrapped his arms around the others as the ghosts got closer.
Then, just as one rested its hand on the mine cart, a faint horn blew in the distance. The ghosts all froze at the sound and, without hesitation, turned away from the gang and walked away from the mine track. They walked into the walls of the cave and disappeared without looking back.
"Haha! That's right! Run, you ghosts!" Pronto yelled as he hopped out of the mine cart. "Fear me!"
"Why did they leave?" Trixie asked as Eli hopped out of the cart and looked around.
Alana was wondering the same thing, but didn't really care- the ghosts had left and they had taken the cold feeling with them. That was all she cared about.
The faint horn sounded again, echoing through the cavern.
"Ah! They're coming back!" Pronto cried, diving back into the mine cart.
"No, listen!" Eli said quietly. "This is something else." He nodded toward one of the tunnels that spread out from the tunnel they were in now. Alana glanced at Kord and shrugged before hopping out of the mine cart and following after Eli.
"Here we go again," Kord said as the rest of them followed.
Eli led them down the short tunnel, which opened up into a larger area of the cavern beneath them. A railway spanned across it- but this one wasn't like the old mine rail. It was recently built.
"What is this place?" Eli asked, looking down at the rail stop.
Before anyone could answer, the horn sounded again, much closer. A moment later, a metallic gray and red train came barreling into the station. Blakk's Slugterran Express.
"The Slugterran Express? What's it doing way down here?" Kord asked.
"I don't think Deadweed's never had a stop," Alana said, looking over the train. There were multiple cars just holding empty barrels. What cargo would the train be picking up?
"You're right. This is new. Like, really new," Trixie said.
The gang fell silent as the train came to a stop. The door on the front car swung open, and a large, bulking figure jumped out of it.
Tall, with deathly pale skin- almost greenish- and red eyes.
"Is that who I think it is?" Eli groaned.
"Doctor Blakk's most feared enforcer. El Diablos Nacho," Pronto gasped.
Alana frowned as more cold began to prick in her temples.
Dozens more workers jumped down from doors throughout the train. Two of the largest ones (who looked liked trembling ants in front of Nacho) approached him for orders.
"You have one hour. Get your suits on and get to work," Nacho commanded.
The two men, who Alana realized actually were trembling, nodded and walked away.
"What is going on down here?" Eli asked. Trixie frowned and held up her camera, hitting record and zooming in to where some workers were already loading cargo. They were in bright yellow hazmat suits.
Then Trixie quickly turned, focusing in behind the workers. The ghost mob was materializing through the walls, heading right for Blakk's workers. Alana groaned and leaned back, pressing her hands to her head as it began to feel like someone had dunked her head in a bucket of ice water.
"They're back," Trixie muttered. Then she glanced over at Alana. "Are you okay?"
"I'm just getting headaches. I'm good," Alana assured, turning her gaze back to the train track. The workers realized they had company and began crying out in fear and running away. A few shot at the phantoms, but their ghouls flew right through them.
"Turn back," the ghosts hissed, approaching Nacho.
Nacho didn't seem frightening by the dozens of specters approaching him. Instead, he looked like he was mildly annoyed by their presence.
"My answer is still no," he said coolly. The ghosts ignored him and continued to approach, hissing and growling at him. Nacho sighed and grabbed a ghoul from his bandoleer.
"Is that a Frightgheist?" Eli asked, peering at the dark teal ghoul growling and barking in its red canister.
"It used to be. That one's been ghouled. Now it's a Nightgheist," Trixie whispered.
Nacho fired the slug, and Alana gasped as instead of flying through the ghosts, it hit the leader and a flash of black and red flew up and weaved through the mob. Bits of the dark glow lingered just in front of their red eyes like gnats.
The ghosts looked around wildly as Nacho took a step forward and let out a roar that shook throughout the cave. Gasping and shaking their heads, the crowd of ghosts fled the cave. They ran into the walls and disappeared within the stone. Just as quickly as they had appeared, the specters were gone, and Blakk's workers began to get back to work adding more barrels and hazmat suits to the train cars.
"It turned them into a bunch of cowards," Trixie remarked.
"But how did his slug hit when ours didn't?" Eli wondered.
"I think it's because it was a ghoul," Alana said. The ice had spiked at the ghoul transforming, but faded when the ghoul returned to protoform and the ghosts dispersed.
What is going on?
"Probably," Trixie agreed. "Who knows what exactly happens when Blakk changes them."
"And did you hear what the ghosts said? They told him to turn back, too," Eli added. "Turn back from what?"
"Alright, men. We're going in," Nacho called. He turned to a platform that was bolted into the stone wall next to one of the exits of the cave. It was walled off by a tall metal door. "Open the door!"
One of the workers on the platform nodded and pressed a button on the control panel. The door swung open, and Nacho jumped back onto one of the train cars as the train started back up and drove through the door.
"I need to see what these guys are up to," Eli said, jumping down from the ledge the gang was on. He slid down the stone slope and sprinted for the door.
"Here we go again," Alana laughed as she followed Eli down. With the others following behind her and Eli, they sprinted down to the doors as they began to shut.
"Come on..." Eli gasped, giving out one more burst of speed as the door shut- right before he reached it.
He skidded to a halt as the door clicked! back into place. Alana gasped and slowed down at the last second, almost slamming into the door. Kord, Trixie, and Pronto all came to a halt, panting.
"Too late," Eli sighed. "We're gonna have to get into that control room," he said, gesturing up to the platform next to the door. Kord smirked.
"Leave that to me," he said.
The gang quickly ran up the metal stairs and paused at the door leading into a metal room on the platform. Eli walked up to the door and knocked on it.
"Trick or treat!" he called out. After a moment of silence, there were a few footsteps toward the door.
"What's the password?" a voice called.
"Uh... ouch?" Kord called. Then he swung his arm back and punched the metal door in. It swung open, slamming the worker into the wall. "Yep, that worked," Kord said happily as the gang filed into the control room.
"Look for anything unusual. And keep an eye out for a switch to open that tunnel door," Eli said as the slingers spread out across the room.
Alana wandered over to where schematics for what looked like a drill hung on the wall. It included a long list of chemicals and hazards.
I feel like I've seen these formulas before, Alana thought as she looked over the chemical compounds. But I don't even know what it is.
"Check out this guy!" Trixie suddenly exclaimed. Alana walked over to where she and Eli stood in front of a bulletin board with pictures tacked up on it. Trixe was pointing to a photo of a gold miner.
"What's unusual about a miner?" Eli asked.
"He looks familiar," Alana said, crossing her arms. Trixie nodded and pressed a button on her camera. A holographic video appeared in front of her. It was the video she'd taken of the ghosts chasing after them on the mine cart.
"He's one of the ghosts we fought earlier," Trixie said, pointing to one of the specters. It was a perfect image of the gold miner, save for the red eyes and pointed teeth. "It's the same guy."
"See! He was alive, now he's a ghost. Case closed!" Pronto exclaimed. Eli frowned and shook his head.
"What if the miners of Deadweed didn't leave? They said 'turn back.' Maybe it was a warning to us to get out of here before whatever happened to them happens to us," Eli said.
"Very good advice! I suggest we follow it," Pronto said hastily. Alana sighed.
"We can't just leave," she argued. Eli nodded.
"You're right. We need to find out what Blakk's taking from this place," he insisted. Pronto sighed and leaned back against the control panel. His blaster pressed up against one of the levels on the panels, and he jumped as one of the room's walls opened up to reveal a second room. Red light leaked from it, and Alana felt the cold feeling begin to return.
"Nice work, Pronto," Eli noted as the gang walked into the room. More schematics and charts lined the walls, along with a half dozen hazmat suits.
Eli walked up to a panel of red glass and gasped.
"Guys, check it out!"
The gang walked up and looked out upon the next section of Deadweed. The train was parked nearby on a rail, and at the center of the cave stood a tall drilling structure. It was tall and gray with red accents, and there were dozens of barrels stacked around it. A large metal tube was inserted into a large hole in the ground in front of the drill. The hole was filled to the brim with a thick, bubbling red liquid. Alana winced and wrapped her arms around herself as a wave of cold ran through her body.
"Whoa," Kord marveled, his eyes widening when he saw the machine. "They've got a full-blown mining operation down here."
Blakk's workers were milling around the cave. Several were rolling what appeared to be extremely heavy barrels up a ramp and onto train cars. Everyone except for Nacho was covered by yellow hazmat suits.
"What is that stuff?" Trixie asked.
"You don't bust out the safety suits for just anything," Eli noted. "They're handling something dangerous."
Kord, who had been staring at the drill with wide eyes, shook his head. "Dark water."
"You know what that is?" Eli asked.
"I think so, yeah, and it ain't good," Kord said worriedly. "The old cave trolls used to call it kaluum zanul. Means dark water. Our home cavern was about as deep as this one. Sometimes a little bit of that stuff would seep up through the cracks. Strange things would happen around it. Unnatural things."
"So what do they want with dark water?" Trixie asked. Alana sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She had a hunch what the stuff did, and she was praying she'd be wrong.
"Guys. Look," Eli said, staring out the window. The gang turned their attention back to the mining rig.
Nacho was looking at a barrel being presented by a few workers. They unscrewed the lid and lifted it, revealing a full barrel of dark water. Nacho looked up at once of the men and nodded. The worker took a ladle- no, Alana realized, a slug canister with a pole attached- and dipped it in the red liquid. He dipped it into a machine being held up by another worker.
Nacho plucked a slug canister from his bandoleer and shook the slug out- a Hop Rock. He threw it through an opening in the machine that quickly closed, trapping the gray and yellow slug. Alana felt sadness and fury rising up as the Hop Rock landed in a glass section of the machine, looking terrified. One of the workers pressed a button on the machine, and a red gas began to take up the glass container.
Dark water.
Alana gasped as she realized what was about to happen and screwed her eyes shut, resting her forehead on the glass panel.
"This is what Blakk does to change regular slugs into ghouls," Eli breathed. "He uses dark water."
Alana opened her eyes and watched as Nacho clipped the ghoul back onto his bandoleer. The workers took the ghouling machine and barrel of dark water back to the train cars.
"With a well like that, Blakk could turn every slug in Slugterra evil," Kord said.
Ash and Mage looked at each other worriedly from across Alana's shoulders.
"Now we definitely can't leave," Alana said, curling her hands into fists. Eli nodded, backing away from the window.
"If we cut off Blakk's supply of dark water, we stop him from ghouling slugs," he said. "We need to take out the well."
Burpy chirped approvingly from Eli's bandoleer.
"Burpy's in," Eli noted.
"So am I," Trixie said.
"Me, too," Kord replied.
Alana, who'd been staring at the spot where the slug had just been ghouled, sighed and turned to the gang.
"Of course I'm in," she said. She glanced over at Pronto. "What about you?"
"No thank you!" Pronto said, putting his hands on his hips.
"Come on, Pronto," Eli insisted.
"Don't you 'Come on, Pronto' Pronto!" Pronto exclaimed, turning away from the glass panel. "I refuse to let anything unnatural happen to me!"
He began walking toward the door, but Trixie and Alana stepped in his way.
"You can't just leave," Trixie argued.
"You can do anything if you set your mind to it!" Pronto remarked.
"You're right, the odds aren't in our favor," Eli sighed. "And, yeah, you're afraid of ghosts. But I know something you're not afraid of: doing the right thing. Especially when it means fame and glory," he added.
"Ahh, yes... the glory," Pronto said, nodding. "Fine. I am in! But we cannot attack. There is a better way."
~~~~~~~~
A few minutes later, the gang found themselves walking across the cave toward the drill, all readjusting their newly-acquired hazmat suits. They were made for humans and suited Eli, Trixie, and Alana fine. Kord, however, could hardly move his arms up and down, and Pronto's arms and feet reached little past the elbows and knees of the suit.
"This isn't gonna work," Kord groaned as he tried stretching his arms.
"It'll be fine," Alana assured.
"She's right. I don't see Nacho around and everybody's busy doing their thing," Eli said as they paused behind a row of barrels. Trixie peered at the dark water well a few yards ahead.
"You said strange things would happen around this stuff. Like what kind of things?" she asked Kord.
"Well, it was almost like the life was sucked right outta you," Kord said.
"No wonder they have protective suits!" Eli exclaimed. "The miners aren't ghosts, they just got exposed to the dark water! So how are we gonna shut this thing down?" he asked, gesturing to the drill.
"I say we just blow it up," Trixie said excitedly. Alana shook her head.
"That doesn't end well," she said coolly. The gang all paused and looked at her, confused. "I've been around some of this stuff before," Alana explained. "Didn't know what it was back then. Long story short, blowing it up will either harm everyone here or just flood the cavern."
"We're just gonna have to get down to the pump and shut it down manually," Kord said.
"But how will we get past the guards?" Trixie asked, pointing to where two of Blakk's men stood in front of the well.
"Ah, please! All this requires is a bit of persuasive charisma!" Pronto said, strutting up to the workers. Alana sighed as he walked right up to the workers. Molenoids.
"HEY!" Pronto yelled, waving his arm (with the rest of the sleeve flapping behind it). "Get out of my way, you ugly pigs!"
"Smooth," Kord mumbled. Eli sighed and ran up to stand by Pronto.
"You heard him! Move it, ugly pigs!" he said. "We have a potential leak here. Look what happened to this guy," Eli said, nodding towards Pronto.
"Hey-!"
"Unless you wanna go for a swim, get back to the train," Eli said. The workers glanced at each other and shrugged, leaving for the train stop.
Eli grinned and waved Kord, Alana, and Trixie over to the drill.
"Haha, see? Was there ever any doubt?" Pronto asked as the gang surrounded the drill's control panel. Alana winced as the cold in her veins skyrocketed so close to the dark water. She quietly edged away from the drill, standing further back behind the gang.
"Okay, let's shut her down," Eli said, looking over the controls.
"I dunno, man. Easier said than done. Not like there's an on-off switch," Kord said, looking over the drill's screen. "Think, troll, think..."
"Think faster! They're going to realize we are up to something eventu-" Pronto began, but stopped as Alana gasped and whipped around.
"Watch out!" she cried as she felt a bolt of cold speeding towards them. Less than half a second later, a ghouled Hop Rock transformed in the air above them. The gang dispersed quickly, sprinting through the rolls of barrels as the ghoul hit the ground where they were just seconds before. Alana shivered as more spikes of cold shot through her body.
She glanced behind her shoulder as the gang rounded a corner and saw Nacho balanced on a mine cart, speeding towards them on one of the mine tracks that wove through the cave. More ghouls crashed into the (luckily empty) barrels on either side of the gang.
"Don't just stand there, fools!" Nacho bellowed, his anger echoing through the caverns. "We have intruders!"
The other workers snapped out of their shock and quickly armed themselves with more ghouls.
"Take cover!" Eli called. The gang skidded to a halt and each dove behind barrels and rises in the floor. Ghouls began exploding all around them, and Alana tried to keep her focus, even though the painful iciness felt like it increased with every ghoul around her.
She fired Ash at a ghouled Rammstone flying in her direction. The Infurnus burped out a ball of fire that returned the Rammstone to protoform and was able to send a fire blaster at two of Blakk's workers before returning to protoform.
"Alana and I will hold them off!" Eli called, yanking the helmet of his hazmat suit off. "You guys figure out a way to shut this thing down for good!"
Trixie, Pronto, and Kord all took off for the drill as Alana and Eli kept firing slugs. Eli focused on Nacho, who was steadily advancing to where the two were covered. Alana kept her fire on the miscellaneous workers throughout the cave.
She groaned as a ghouled Armashelt knocked her Rammstone out of the air and leapt out from behind the barrel that was her cover only seconds before it was slammed into by the corrupted slug.
"Eli just got hit by a Nightgheist!" Trixie suddenly cried out.
"What?!" Alana yelled, whipped around just in time to see Eli crying out in fear and running away into one of the sub-tunnels. "Floppers. I'm gonna need some more help out here!"
"Here, this should flush them out!" Pronto exclaimed, raising his blaster. He took a moment to line up the scope before firing a Rammstone at a chain holding up metal tubes behind where the workers were firing. The slug snapped the metal easily, and the workers all fled as the metal tubes came crashing down around them.
"Nice shot!" Alana gasped as she ran back up to Trixie, Kord, and Pronto.
"Haha, yes! Run back to your mothers, and tell them that Pronto sent you!" Pronto called out to the workers.
"We're not out of the woods yet," Trixie warned as they began taking more ghoulfire. There were dozens of workers at the mine, and it seemed like every single one of them was closing in.
"We're a little outnumbered," Alana remarked as she fired Webs to tie down a ghouled Aquabeek.
And not to mention I have a horrible headache.
She ducked down behind a barrel and glanced at Mage, who was sitting on her left shoulder.
"I've got a bad headache, but we're kinda busy right now. Can you help me out as I keep slinging?" Alana asked. The white Boom Doc nodded and closed her eye. She began to glow faintly, and Alana sighed with relief as some of the iciness in her head faded away. "Thanks."
She stood up again only to be almost clipped by a Grimmstone. Alana sighed and continued firing slug after slug- Aquabeek, Grenuke, Armashelt.
"Agh! Where is Eli?" Pronto cried as he was knocked to the ground by an explosion from a ghouled Hop Rock.
Just as Trixie was about to answer, a loud yell filled the cavern. Alana gasped and turned to the tunnel Eli had disappeared to. Nacho sprinted out of it, shaking his head and screaming. Alana could make out the faint spots flying around his eyes- a Frightgheist attack.
"To the train!" Nacho cried, sprinting toward the tracks.
Alana laughed as Eli emerged from the tunnel, quickly followed by the ghostly miners, yelling as they all ran at Blakk's workers. The uniformed men all cried out in fear, running for the train.
"Take us out of here! NOW!" Nacho yelled as he jumped onto the car. The train quickly started its engine and, just as the last workers were jumping on, sped out of the cave.
"We have to stop that train!" Eli yelled. Justas he raised his blaster, Nacho fired a ghoul from the train car. It sped up to the control room, crashing into it and sending waves of electricity down the metal tubes that linked it to the drill.
"It took out the controls!" Alana cried out, turning towards the drill.
"And all the failsafes! This thing's gonna blow!" Kord yelled from the drill's controls.
Alana backed away as the panels to the drill shook and fell off. One of the caps shot off a large tube and a fountain of dark water shot up in the air. She gasped as waves of cold spread through her. Mage squeaked worriedly as she lost concentration, her glow flickering out and exposing Alana to all the cold.
For a moment, everything went black. Then, Alana was opening her eyes to Eli standing worriedly over her.
"Alana?" he asked, resting a hand on her shoulder as she slowly got up.
"What- why am I on the ground?" she asked.
"You went down when the drill let dark water out," Eli explained as she got up and unzipped the hazmat suit.
"Sorry," Alana sighed. "I got a bad headache... I dunno, I think it was just a lot of excitement for one day."
"Is she doing better?" an unfamiliar voice asked. Alana looked up to see one of the miners- but instead of looking see-through and horrifying, he looked normal.
"You're back to normal!" she gasped, smiling with relief as she tossed the hazmat suit on the ground.
"Thanks to you and your friends," he said. "We do have some questions about the equipment Blakk left behind," he added, glancing at Eli.
"You go ahead," Alana said, leaning against a barrel. "I'm gonna get my bearings back."
Eli nodded and walked off with the miner. Once his back was turned, Alana frowned and ran a hand through her bangs.
"There's something wrong going on here with me and ghouls," she said quietly. Ash and Mage exchanged worried glances from across her shoulders. "I need to try and find out what's up."
~~~~
Man what a long one
I think you guys know the drill- please vote and comment! Let me know what you guys think!
Also, be expecting a short hiatus at some point in October. Junior year is notoriously difficult and it is living up the expectations, plus I'm getting more busy with my college search. Ew.
Cyan out!