"Blakk! Stop this! You have to stop it!

Blakk!

BLAKK!"

"Blakk!" Alana gasped, bolting upright. Gasping for breath, she untangled her legs from her blanket. Ash and Mage squeaked and hopped up from Alana's pillow, watching their slinger curiously. "Sorry, guys. Bad dream."

Alana nearly jumped out of her bed when Trixie swung her door open, in her green sweatpants and white tee-shirt, looking like she had just rolled out of bed.

"Are you okay?" Trixie exclaimed, looking around the room for a threat. "I heard you yelling."

Alana nodded, getting out of bed and stretching.

"Sorry. I get nightmares," she explained. "And I guess that's never really bugged other people till now. My slugs are used to it."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Trixie said, frowning. Alana shrugged and smiled sadly.

"It happens."

Trixie started to respond, but before she could, a red light just above Alana's door began flashing. A second later, an alarm started blaring.

"Floppers," Trixie groaned as she ran out of Alana's room. Alana tossed her blankets back on her bed and began changing out of her pajamas and into her slinging gear.

She had a cyan tee-shirt that had a black stripe down either side. On each arm she had a panel of metal armor, that ran down from the bottom of her shoulder to right above her elbow. Her gloves were black with a bar of cyan running down the middle, and her pants were dark gray.

"Come on, guys, we gotta go," Alana called to her slugs (who were asleep in various parts of the room) as she pulled on her knee guards. The slugs got up and filed into her black backpack.

Alana grabbed it, throwing it on over her shoulders, and picked up her boots and bandoleer on the way out of her room. She clipped her bandoleer on and put on her boots as she ran down the stairs. The bandoleer was now adorned with the Shane star. She'd avoided wearing it in the past- she wasn't a Shane. She felt like she intruding on something just having it painted on Midnight, but Will had liked it.

Trixie followed quickly behind Alana, putting her hair up in her signature pigtails as she ran down the stairs.

Eli was already in the launch bay, grabbing his bandoleer and getting his slugs around.

"What is it this morning?" Alana asked as she jumped up to Midnight.

"Some of Blakk's goons tried robbing an equipment store with some ghouls," Kord replied as he ran into the garage, followed by a very much not-awake Pronto. "But the ghouls were a little more powerful than they had been planning. Sounds like they lost control, and now the place is chaos."

"Typical! They could not have waited until later in the day?" Pronto complained as Eli jumped up on Lucky. "I need my beauty sleep!"

"Sorry, Pronto. You'll have to deal with that later. Let's head out!" Eli called. The launch bay door swung open and the Shane Gang tore out of it, following Eli through the jungle.

Alana took a deep breath of the morning air and smiled. Getting up early may not be the best, but the early glow of the caverns was pretty nice. And she had to admit, it felt good to be riding alongside other people for a change.

There had been a few times when Alana had slightly regretted her hasty decision to join Eli and his friends. Slinging as a team was plenty different than going solo all the time. There were a lot of different slinging styles combined into one team- Kord's power, Trixie's speed, Eli's mix of everything, and Pronto's... well, Pronto.

Alana had learned that apparently her style of slinging wasn't conventional. She'd been mostly self-trained; Will hadn't given her many tips when she was only ten years old. So she had to develop on her own, depending on her instinct to tell what felt right and worked in battle, and that included relying a lot on her slugs.

She put a lot more of the power in her slugs than other slugslingers did. For example, on a mission a few days ago, Gav had hopped in her blaster on his own and insisted he be shot at nowhere in particular- a random mushroom-tree in the forest clearing the gang had been dueling some thieves in. She fired the Grenuke there without hesitation, much to Kord's confusion.

"Dude!" he had yelled as a Rammstone sped by. "They're, like, twenty feet to the right!"

Alana simply shrugged as Gav latched onto the base of the tree trunk, hidden by bushes. "He wanted to be fired over there. He had to have seen something."

Sure enough, a moment later, a few of the thieves ran to the tree for more cover, not seeing Gav through the forest vegetation. He let out an explosion that toppled the tree to the ground and left the thieves without any cover.

There were plenty of other adjustments to be made outside the battlefield, too. The hideout was a reasonable size, but Alana couldn't help but feel cramped with so many more people- and their slugs- living there. It meant more grocery runs and much less quiet.

That being said, it also meant friends. Alana had hardly interacted with people in the last five years. She knew the grocery workers by name and always stopped to chat with the cave trolls at the repair shop she visited, but they were hardly real friends. Alana didn't realize it until she suddenly had all the company in the world, but without Will, her life had been terribly lonely. Now, in the few days she'd been with the gang, she'd become close friends with all of them (or at least as close as one could get to Pronto).

"Are you okay?" Trixie asked, dragging Alana from her thoughts.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Alana responded. Trixie frowned.

"I don't know, I just assumed the whole being-plagued-by-nightmares thing would dampen your mood a bit."

Alana smiled and shook her head.

"I'm not plagued. I just sometimes have nightmares. It's no big deal," she said with a shrug. Trixie raised an eyebrow, looking like she wasn't convinced.

"Really!" Alana insisted. "Look, when they get really bad, I have my Slyren help out. And that doesn't happen a lot. But if it's just a little annoying, like these recent ones are, I ride it out. It's fine."

"Okay," Trixie relented. "I believe you."

After a few more moments of riding in silence, Trixie glanced over at Alana.

"How are you so cheerful?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Alana asked with a laugh.

"Like that. You're always smiling and just... I don't know, no matter what, you just kinda seem happy to be here. I'm not complaining," Trixie added hastily. "Just curious."

"Well, a lot of stuff has happened in the past few years. I can either mope around about it all the time, or I can look on the bright side. Seems like a no-brainer, doesn't it?"

"Guess you're right."

The gang continued speeding through the forest, which eventually faded away into a small town. A tall pillar of smoke could be seen above the skyline.

"That doesn't look good," Eli noted as they rode through the streets, following the trail of smoke. As they neared the source, screams, yells, and slugfire could be heard. The Shane Gang rounded a corner and was met with a scene of absolute chaos.

Slingers stood in the street, ghouls and slugs firing back and forth. At the end of the street sat a large equipment store, and it was almost completely engulfed in green flames, starting at the top and slowly creeping down to the bottom floor.

Alana gasped and slammed on Midnight's brakes. The wolf Mecha came to a screeching halt and its rider stared up at the flames in fear.

She couldn't figure out why exactly, but Alana suddenly felt terrified, like she had seen this before and it hadn't ended well. Her senses were overloaded, and she just saw trees on fire, smelled the smoke in the air- but wait, no, there were no trees here, they were in a town-

"Alana!"

Alana gasped and shook her head. The trees turned back into buildings and the shouts of slingers filled her ears.

"Alana! Are you okay?" Eli called from ahead, ducking as a ghouled Rammstone sped by.

"Yeah! Sorry!" Alana called out as she started Midnight back up. She caught up to Eli, ducking through slugfire. "We need to make sure there's nobody in there."

"Kord, Trixie, Pronto! Help the townspeople against the ghoulslingers! Alana and I are gonna make a sweep through the shop and put out the flames!" Eli called out.

Alana nodded and followed Eli up the street to the shop. As she got closer to the flames, her fear began to rise again, but she pushed it away.

"Here," Alana said, tossing Eli a slug canister that held her Aquabeek. "Work on dousing the flames. I'll make a sweep and make sure everyone got out."

Eli nodded and took off, firing Aquabeeks at the side of the building. Alana jumped off Midnight and kicked the door into the building. Sparks flew up as the door fell off its hinges and clattered to the ground.

Blasters and Mecha equipment lay strewn about on the floor. Flames licked at the counters and the floor. The ceiling was slowly crumbling, ash falling in Alana's hair. She waved away smoke and sparks as she scanned the first floor.

"Is anyone here?" she called, making her way through the fire.

Not seeing any signs of life, she ran up to the stairwell. Some of the wooden stairs had burned away already. Alana took a few steps up, then her foot went straight through one of the stairs.

She cried out as she fell, catching herself on the railing at the last second.

"This place is a mess," Alana hissed as she got to her feet and kept going up the stairs, trying to be more light on her feet.

She made it up to the second floor without falling through any more stairs. This floor was covered in desks and computers. Singed blueprints fluttered down from the walls.

There were more flames up farther on the walls and the ceiling- Eli hadn't gotten the Aquabeeks up here yet.

"Is anyone here?" Alana coughed. She wouldn't be able to make it much longer in the smoke.

"Help!" a voice suddenly called. Alana gasped, looking around.

"Where are you?" Alana cried out, ducking as a floorboard from the top floor fell only a few feet from her head.

"The top floor!"

Alana nodded and sprinted across the floor. Some of it collapsed where her feet were only seconds before. The staircase was no more than a burnt shell at this point. The ghouled Flaringo must have been fired up here, Alana realized as she loaded her Arachnet. She fired him up the hall that once held the stairwell. He landed on the ceiling and shot down a spider web that Alana grabbed onto and climbed up to the top floor.

She collapsed on the ground, coughing and trying fruitlessly to wave away the smoke. She could feel the heat from the crumbling floorboards through her shoes as she got to her feet.

"Over here!" a woman called out. Alana peered through the smoke and saw what appeared to be a storage room. One of the filing cabinets had tipped over- right on top of a girl's leg.

Alana ran over, coughing as she loaded her blaster with a Rammstone.

"Duck!" she croaked. The girl nodded and ducked down as Alana fired the slug. He easily knocked the cabinet away.

"We need to go, now," Alana gasped, pulling the girl to her feet. As she spoke, more of the floorboards began to crumble. The green flames rose to consume the walls completely.

"How are we going to get down?" the girl coughed, brushing ashes off her brown skin.

"Like this," Alana said, firing an Armashelt at one of the walls. It blew a hole right through the wall, creating an exit, but causing the ceiling to lose some of its support.

"Let's go!" Alana said, supporting some the girl's weight on the side with the leg that had been trapped. The two ran for the hole and jumped out of the building. The girl gasped and wrapped her arms around Alana, screwing her dark eyes shut.

Alana held up her blaster and her Bubbaleone jumped in. She fired it at the ground, and the slug created a large trampoline for the girls to land on just before they hit the street.

They bounced up and down a few times before laying down steadily on the blown-up Bubbaleone. The girl winced and grabbed at her leg. There was a cut that ran down the side of her calf that was bleeding. It didn't look horrible, but there was no way she'd be able to jump from the slug to the ground.

"Stay up here," Alana coughed as she slid off the Bubbaleone and looked around. Kord, Trixie, and Pronto had warded off the ghoulslingers. Eli was continuing to circle the building, firing and refiring Aquabeeks to douse the green flames, which were now limited to the top floor.

"Hey, Kord!" Alana called. "I need some help."

The cave troll waved to some of the shop's workers before heading over. He winced when he saw the girl's leg.

"Yikes. How'd that happen?" he asked.

"Filing cabinet fell on me," the girl called down. "One of the first Pyringo ghouls hit right up there, and I was the only one on the top floor. Nobody else could hear me over the slugfire."

"Can you catch her if she just kinda falls down?" Alana asked, brushing soot from her clothes.

"You bet," Kord replied. "Go whenever, don't worry, I won't drop you."

The girl nodded and carefully swung herself down from the Bubbaleone. Kord caught her and helped her stand up on one leg.

"Thanks," she said. "And thank you," she added, turning to Alana. "That was really dangerous. But you saved me anyway." She held out her hand to shake. "Sam Gray."

"Alana," Alana replied as she shook Sam's hand. Some of the other shop workers caught sight of her and ran over.

"Miss Gray! Thank goodness you're okay. We lost track of you once the fighting started!" one of them said, gasping when they saw her leg. "Oh my. Do we need to go to the hospital?"

"No, it's fine, really," Sam insisted. "Just a cut."

The crowd of workers continued to crowd her and make sure she was okay. Alana smiled and she and Kord walked back to Trixie and Pronto as Eli came around the side of the building. All of the fires had been put out, leaving a decimated top floor, singed second floor, and only slightly burnt first floor.

"I think our job here is done," he said. "Is everyone who was in there okay?"

Alana nodded. "Just one girl was left. She hurt her leg, but she'll be fine."

"That's good. Those ghouls..." Eli sighed and shook his head. "We just have to keep hoping nobody gets seriously hurt."

~~~~~~~~~

The gang stayed in the town to clean up and get some late breakfast before heading out again. It took a few rounds of soaping up her face and arms before the smell of smoke finally left Alana.

"Well, now we got the whole day left," Eli said once the gang left the town. "Until we get another call, how about some slug searching?"

"I'm down for that. I've been wanting to do some more filming, too," Trixie added, pulling out her camera.

"Ah, yes! Pronto is always looking for more slugs to join his magnificent arsenal!" Pronto exclaimed, speeding up his Mecha and taking the lead. "Follow me, and I will lead us all to new and powerful slugs!"

Eli laughed and fell back so the rest of the group was walking side-by-side along Pronto.

"Sure thing," he laughed. He turned to Kord and Trixie. "So how did fighting the ghoulslingers go?"

"Not well," Trixie said. "We really only won because there were only, like, four of them against three members of the Shane Gang and a dozen of those workers."

"Yeah, bro. Whatever Blakk does to them... don't get me wrong, I know it's bad, but those things really pack a punch," Kord said.

"You're telling me," Alana said, glancing at her side. With Mage's help, her wound had healed quickly. All that remained was a scar. But even though she hadn't gone up against a ghoul since the one in the jungle, every time she thought of one, memories of the icy feelings she'd gotten rose up again.

The ride continued on for a while. The gang chatted about the ghouls and provided theories about how Blakk was making them. The caverns they were heading through were growing progressively darker and foggier, Alana realized. But she was too distracted to ask Pronto where they were going.

There were constant movements in the trees around them that caught Alana's eye. But every time she turned, they were gone. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched, but nobody else in the gang seemed to be paying attention.

My nerves are just acting up, no big deal, she tried to convince herself. But when she saw another shadowy figure darting through the trees above them, and leaves fluttering down from the branches, she knew that whatever she was seeing was real.

Just as Alana was about to bring it up to Eli, Kord called up to Pronto.

"Hey, Pronto, where exactly are we? This place looks familiar," he said, looking around the dark, misty cavern.

"Yeah, I feel like I've seen this before," Trixie said. Then she gasped. "Yeah! I have! There it is! Deadweed Cavern!"

She pointed to a door to the side of the path they walked along, almost completely hidden by trees and bushes. It was made of old wood and had a large skull painted on it.

"I dare you to go near it," Trixie told Kord, who quickly shook his head.

Alana tensed up, all worries of shadow figures following them disappearing.

"You brought us to Deadweed?" she hissed at Pronto. "What made you think that was a good idea?"

"Sure, it's a little creepy looking," Eli said as they rode their Mechas past the entrance. "But what's the big deal?"

"We're passing by!" Trixie exclaimed. "Hold your breath or the evil spirits will get in your nose!"

Trixie and Kord each took a deep breath. Eli raised an eyebrow at Alana, as if asking are you gonna do it too?

Alana laughed and shrugged. "Best not to tempt fate," she said as she took a deep breath.

"Bah! A foolish superstition! Pronto holds his breath for nothing!" Pronto exclaimed as he steered his Mecha toward the door. As he did, a bird crowed nearby, and the Deadweed door seemed to creak as if something were pushing it. "Ahh... well, maybe to be safe," he relented, taking a gulp of air and holding it.

Eli laughed and rolled his eyes.

"You guys crack me up. I'm going in for a closer look," he said, steering Lucky toward the door. The rest of the gang shook their heads, but he ignored them.

Pronto sighed and released his breath.

"Eli! Don't be a fool!" he cried out.

"Isn't Deadweed where Frightgeist slugs come from? Let's go see if we can get some," Eli said, hopping off Lucky. Alana sighed and slid off her own Mecha, the rest of the gang following suit.

"Come on, guys, where's your sense of adventure?" Eli asked.

"This is a place of unspeakable danger!" Pronto insisted. Kord nodded.

"Only thing you'll find in there is... ooooOOOOOooooOOOOO," he said. Alana snorted, covering her mouth with her hand to try and hide her laughter.

She thought Deadweed was creepy, sure- and it was dangerous. The place had been abandoned for years. She didn't want to go exploring in there at all. But the whole ghosts and spirits thing was all in good fun for her. Kord, on the other hand, seemed pretty serious.

"A sick owl?" Eli guessed as he went up and pressed his hands against the door.

"Oh for the love of- Eli, we're talking about ghosts!" Pronto said. Eli rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'm not afraid of ghosts. 'Cause they don't exist," Eli said as he yanked on the door. It slowly swung open, revealing a dark, misty tunnel. "We'll be in and out before you know it!"

Trixie glanced at Alana, who shook her head.

"I don't know about ghosts, but I'm not going in there," she said. She was beginning to feel the same iciness she'd felt from the ghoul creeping up on her again. She couldn't tell what it meant, though. Were there ghouls nearby? Or did she just feel that way when she was scared?

"Fine. You wait here. I'll be back in a minute," Eli said as he stepped into the dark tunnel.

For a moment, everything was silent. Then, Eli's yells began to echo through the tunnels.

"ELI!" the gang yelled in unison, all hesitation gone. They swung the door open and sprinted inside Deadweed, looking around wildly for the Shane.

"Eli?" Trixie called out hesitantly. Ash, sitting on Alana's right shoulder, lit the top of his head to provide some light.

"I don't like this," Kord mumbled as he looked around the foggy tunnel. "Eli? Where are ya, buddy?"

There was no answer. Something seemed off. Just as Alana smiled, realizing what was going on, another light appeared behind the gang. They all turned around and yelled as Eli, holding Burpy out in front of him, yelled "BOO!"

Even though she'd expected it, Alana still jumped and instinctively raised her fist, ready to defend herself, but stopped herself before she could hit Eli. The rest of the gang yelled and jumped back as Eli began laughing so hard, there were tears in his eyes.

"AHH! I hate you so much!" Pronto yelled as Eli doubled over laughing.

"Man, you should have seen the look on your faces!" he exclaimed. Even Burpy was chirping happily. "Ah, man. That was-"

Eli was cut off by a sudden burst of wind that came barreling down the tunnel, snuffing Burpy and Ash's flames. It slammed into the door and swung it shut, the lock swinging down and hooking into place. Eli fell silent immediately.

The wind continued to swirl around, echoing off the stone walls, sounding like a group of voices murmuring in the dark.

"Very funny. Now who's the joker?" Eli asked as the two Infurnus slugs relit their flames.

Another wave of wind came speeding down the tunnel- it sounded like someone screaming.

"That wasn't us," Alana said quietly. The gang all looked at each other, then wordlessly sprinted for the door, pounding on it fruitlessly. It wouldn't budge.

"It's stuck. We're trapped," Kord groaned. The wind picked up again, and the sound of a scream echoed through the tunnels once more.

"That's not good," Alana mumbled. The icy feeling was creeping up on her again. Eli laughed nervously.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all."

~~~~~~~~

Ayyy chapter 5

So I've been brainstorming and while I won't say when it'll be ('cause it'll be a while from now, that's all I know) but I'm going to be posting a Dana fic at some point. There'll still be some Dana POVs here for story purposes, but that one's gonna be like. All Dana. So yeah, keep an eye out for more news on that 👀

/Edit: I've also been checking out the comments on the chapters lately. I couldn't change much for this chapter because this was a pre-written, but I'm working on upcoming chapters and wanted some thoughts.

I've heard a lot of comments about the pacing. I definitely wanted Alana to join the gang faster than last time. It didn't make sense for her to drag it out if she'd be living in the same house, going on the same missions, and had been waiting all that time to join Eli. I'm also throwing Sam in a tiny bit earlier, because I needed her to be introduced for an arc that happens later.

Keeping that in mind, any thoughts on changes as the story continues? Do you guys like this chapter lengths or are you thinking maybe a little bit longer? Thoughts about anything in general? I can't promise anything but I'll keep your guys' opinions in mind as I keep writing :) /end Edit

Please vote and comment if you liked!

Cyan out✌️