Take Back the Light

Chapter 50

After almost a week, the Shane Gang had adjusted to a relatively new normal.

They did have to fix their sleeping schedule eventually. Their leave of absence drew to a close, just when the slingers were realizing that without slinging, it was quite easy to get bored of hanging around the hideout.

Luckily, there would always be plenty of things to do around the 99 Caverns, with Blakk or without him. There were plenty of wild ghouls running around terrorizing local slug populations, and while some criminals were desperately trying to lay low after their boss failed, others were trying to seize the opportunity to be the 99 Caverns' next big bad.

One particularly long day was spent in Deaddrop Cavern. The Shane Gang chased and collected ghouls around for hours at a time while trying to avoid the cavern's many perilous drops into pits of stalagmites. Alana and Trixie had been a team, battling against the boys to try to cure the most ghouls in an attempt to make the grueling day a little more fun (it took the boys until the end of the day to realize that even though the girls had less people, they had both Alana and Mage, which gave them a significant advantage).

The gang had taken some time to actually socialize with some of the ghouls they cured, and they all were walking away with at least one more slug. Alana had collected a Diggrix herself after she'd cured her and the slug refused to leave her side.

It took until the gang was heading out, though, for Trixie to suddenly exclaim, "Hey wait! Everyone listen up!"

Everyone paused in their efforts to mount up and ride back to Wild Spores. Alana was already slumped over on Midnight, tiredly petting Mage, who was fast asleep in one of her hands. The two were justifiably exhausted; as was Doc, who was dozing off on Eli's shoulder next to Burpy.

"Okay, okay, we get it, you won," Kord groaned, hopping up on his mecha. He'd been able to ditch his crutches yesterday, and seemed to be savoring every minute of freedom. "Gloating rights are gonna end pretty soon-"

"No, not that," Trixie said. "Well, yes, we kicked your butts. But that's not what I was talking about. We have a change of plans tomorrow, we aren't doing the ghoul hunt in High Plains."

"Why not? Is everything okay out there?" Eli asked, starting Lucky and leading the gang carefully toward Deaddrop's exit.

"Everything's fine, don't worry," Trixie promised. "I checked in with Brodie and she's more than happy to lead a group of hunters. We'll just need to stop by with Doc, Mage, and Alana to cure them at some point. We have other plans for tomorrow."

"Which are?" Eli prompted. But Trixie shook her head.

"It's a surprise. I'm doing the prep and packing, you guys just need to get up when I get you up and do what I say," Trixie said simply. "I've got it covered."

"What are you up to?" Alana asked. "Since I'm the reason we won, will you tell me?"

"Nope!" Trixie said cheerfully. "You'll have to wait with the others."

"Boo," Alana called as Trixie sped ahead, leading the gang through the tunnel exiting Deaddrop. Alana rode up to Eli. "Do you know what she's doing?"

"Not a clue," he said. "But it sounds like she has it covered."

"It better not be more work than the ghoul hunt would have been!" Pronto complained. "Pronto is getting plenty of exercise in chasing those nasty beasts all around Slugterra!"

"I doubt it," Kord said. "We're just getting back into things. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"And if it's not," Eli said, raising his voice so Trixie could hear, "I mean, it's four to one, so we can take her."