Beyond What's Known

Chapter 3

quick note before this chapter, I corrected a typo in the previous chapter! it incorrectly implied that the whole gang doesn't know about the West, but Eli does (Alana tells him about it in TBTL after Blakk references it when he's in prison. Trixie, Kord, and Pronto do not know. that's all!!

~~~~~~~~

Alana was right. The ride to meet up with the rest of the gang felt like weeks. It didn't help that she was on high alert with the knowledge that there were ghouls in the caverns again. Her whole body felt tense like a spring. A flock of Hoverbugs had sped by her at one point, and she'd nearly jumped out of her seat.

Her stomach was churning, but already she felt herself slipping into slinging mode, tucking away her fear and replacing it with optimistic confidence. They'd fought ghouls before. This wouldn't be anything new.

The road had long since turned from lush jungles to barren plains when the rest of the Shane Gang finally came into view. Soft grass was making way for the tan rocks and sand of the Outland Reach, at the very edge of civilization. A faint cloud of dust rose behind the gang's mechas. Alana squinted through it as Midnight bounded over a few rocks to reach the road they were on.

"Welcome to the party," Eli said grimly. He looked tense, but still offered a small smile to Alana. "Sorry to cut your Bonnie Springs visit short. If it makes you feel any better, we never made it to the arcade."

Alana raised an eyebrow, riding up front next to Trixie and Eli.

"You guys left way before me, what happened?" she asked. "Did something else go down?"

"Boss Ember and his not-so-tough guys attacked the mall!" Pronto lamented. "Pronto was able to valiantly save the security slingers, but the quest for the arcade high scores was left incomplete."

"Sorry to hear that," Alana replied. "But what made Ember try for the mall? Seems a little bit of a jump from the scrap yard."

"Well, turns out they were able to make accelerators from the stuff they got in the Scrap Heap," Kord grumbled. Alana turned to him with wide eyes.

"What?" she gasped. "They have megamorphs?"

"Well, they have the accelerators, but their slugs don't have the experience to handle the speed," Trixie explained. "Which ended up being almost as dangerous. Kord nearly got trapped under rubble by a stray Armashelt."

"Are you okay?" Alana said, turning to look back at Kord. Once she was actually looking for something wrong, she noticed that he still had dust on his clothes, and his dark vest was sporting a few rips.

"Yeah, no problem," Kord said, waving a blue hand dismissively. "Didn't even need Doc. It was a good stand-in for arm day."

"Right. Well, sounds like we'll all be getting a workout," Alana replied, her tone turning serious. "Do we have any more news? Is it Blakk?"

"We haven't heard anything else," Eli said, glancing back down at the screen on Lucky's control panel to confirm. "I tried calling the King of Sling, but I haven't gotten a response. All we know is that there are ghoulslingers attacking. Not even a picture or video to see who it is."

"That's okay. It doesn't matter who it is," Alana said breezily, concerned with the fear and frustration on Eli's face. "We'll stop them. I don't know about you guys, but I've started to like not having ghouls here."

"Right," Eli said, squaring his shoulders in determination. "Heads up, here comes town."

The small buildings of Gateway came into view, reminding Alana of the standoff the gang had once had there against Doctor Blakk. She hadn't been a fan of the King of Sling at the time, but since then, he'd proven that he was eager to help his cavern.