Take Back the Light

Chapter 48

"You can reverse this thing?" Eli called.

Alana nodded, finally lowering her hands and taking a knee, her lungs straining for breath.

"With the boost I just gave it, yes," she said, pointing up at the top of the portal drill.

The room transformed from a red tint to blue as the ghouls and dark water were cured by the two Boon Docs. Sure enough, the spinning canisters at the top of the portal slowed to a stop, before gears whirred and they reversed directions.

The beam of light shining down to create the portal turned bright blue and white, and immediately the gravity in the room shifted. A strong wind pulling everything toward the middle formed, and the ground shook as the inverted portal drug the High Plains monster down with a furious roar. Part of the floor collapsed, taking Dark Bane with it.

"Purified dark water is just water, but with the slug energy I added, the portal can keep going!" Alana called over the wind, tensing as the Frostcrawler shield shattered and the shards were pulled into the portal.

"We gotta get somewhere stable!" Kord yelled, crouching down and making his way over. "Or we're gonna-"

"Wait! Blakk!" Eli exclaimed. Without another word, he took off for the hallway out of the portal room.

Trixie, Kord, and Pronto started for the control panels lining the back of the room, dodging Dark Bane that were getting dragged into the portal. Without Alana's warning about the sudden change, they hadn't been prepared to hold their ground.

Alana faltered, trying to get to her feet again. The exhaustion from fighting Dana and the Dark Bane combined with releasing as much energy as she could to cure and reverse the portal was beginning to set in. She felt like she'd just run a marathon.

She took one step forward and swayed, nearly taken off her feet by the force of the portal's wind.

"Guys, I think I might need-"

Before Alana could finish her request for help, something wrapped itself around her ankle and dragged her back to the ground. Alana whipped around, instinctively grabbing her blaster. A Dark Bane, who must have battled the force of the portal to crawl over, had grabbed her, snarling in a way that vaguely reminded Alana of a ghoul.

"Get off!" Alana yelled, frantically trying to kick at the Dark Bane as the two slid down the floor, getting closer and closer to the portal.

"Death to the midlanders!" the Dark Bane spat, tightening his grip. "But especially to nasty Caelums!"

Alana wasn't sure why the Dark Bane seemed to have it out for her in particular, but not definitely wasn't the time to ask.

"Not today!" she snapped, leaning down and, using both hands, wrenching the Dark Bane's claws from her ankle. At the same time, she delivered as strong a kick as she could muster to the monster's face. The Dark Bane gasped and tried to regain any sort of hold on Alana or the ground below him, but he was unable to find any form of leverage. He slipped and tumbled downward, spiraling into the blue portal.

But Alana's victory was short-lived. She slid down a few more feet, now only a few yards from the edge of the reversed portal. She tried to hunker down to keep the wind from dragging her down after the Dark Bane, but she could feel herself slipping. She couldn't risk using her blaster- she was certain the moment she was down to holding on with one hand, she'd completely lose her balance.

"G-guys, I can't-" Alana began to shout, but she was interrupted when a scream from Trixie pierced the air.

"Eli! NO!"