Take Back the Light

Chapter 36

Alana sat on the roof of her room, overlooking the mushroom forests of Wild Spores Cavern as the morning Lumino glow bathed everything with yellow light. It was the day after the journey to the Lightwell, and she felt incredible. Her head was clear and she was filled with motivation to work with her energy and figure out new ways to use it to stop Blakk.

Her legs were criss-crossed, and she held Ash in her left hand. Her right hand was in front of her, palm up.

"Okay," Alana breathed, closing her eyes and focusing on Ash's energy and willing her own to mimic it. She felt a tingling sensation in her fingers, and when she opened her eyes, a small orange flame danced above her gloved hand.

A smile broke out on her face, and she turned her hand away from her and focused on adding energy to the flame. Her hands faintly glowed blue, and the fire shot outwards, arcing into the air before dissolving.

Alana lowered her hand and smiled down at Ash, who was chirping excitedly with his own flame burning on his head.

"That was pretty cool. Next time maybe-" Alana fell silent as sirens began to ring out. She sighed and got to her feet as Ash jumped up on her shoulder. "Never mind. Distress call time."

She jumped down into the open panel door on the roof, landing in her room and quickly shutting it before rushing out to the walkway that made up the second floor of the hideout. Trixie was partway to the holodesk, but paused to look up at Alana.

"You look lively," she noted. Alana shrugged.

"I feel lively after the Lightwell. I'm kinda glad we're about to get something to do, I feel like I need to get this energy out. Think I could land on the couch if I jumped from here?" she asked, leaning over the rail and trying to judge the distance. Trixie shook her head as she sat down at the holodesk and opened up the distress signal.

"Don't try. Save your energy for whatever this is," she said. Alana sighed and backed away from the rail, going down the stairs instead and meeting the rest of the gang around the holodesk.

Trixie pulled up the video. It was of a woman with dark magenta hair tied into a bun, and her eyes were wide and tearful. The footage was shaky- her hands were trembling, and she kept wildly looking around her.

"Help me, Eli, Trixie, Alana, Kord!" she whispered, her voice cracking. "I've been captured! I'm being held at Land's End Cavern. Please help me! I snuck in here to send this message, but-"

The woman was cut off when a door behind her suddenly swung open, flooding the room with light. A silhouette walked into the room, and the woman cried out and dropped the camera.

"Wait, no! Please, no!" she cried out, before the video went to static.

Alana gulped, her eyes wide. They got plenty of distress calls all the time, but these more chilling ones always made her a little sick to her stomach. But it also made her determined, and especially after the power-up the Lightwell gave her, Alana was ready for a fight.

"Damsel in distress!" Pronto exclaimed, breaking the short silence that followed the end of the video. "Pronto's specialty!"

"I thought you said your specialty was power napping," Eli noted. Pronto scoffed and waved a hand dismissively.

"Don't try to label me, sir! Pronto cannot be contained!" he said, and then promptly closed his eyes and fell asleep. Trixie rolled her eyes and turned back to the holodesk, bringing up a map that had the transmission's location on it.

"Guys, that's way out," she said uneasily. "There's gotta be someone out there that can help her."

"No hand-offs," Eli dismissed. "She asked for us by name."