Slugterra: The New Shane

Chapter 36: Playing Games

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Alana's POV

I was riding through the mushroom-tree forests surrounding the hideout on Midnight, Lucky and Eli following a few yards behind me. It was afternoon, and the forest was unusually silent. Then, the mushrooms around us widened out, and we rode into the middle of a large clearing.

Eli stopped next to me. "Where are we?"

At first, I's thought the clearing was empty. But then I blinked, and Doctor Blakk was there, aiming a ghoul at Eli.

"Get down!" I yelled, and Eli and I dove behind our Mechas. I grabbed for my blaster, but my hand only met air- my holster was empty.

Starting to panic, I turned and watched as Blakk fired the ghoul. It transformed, and then everything around us turned dark. Red lightning formed and the ground between us and Blakk became a swirling black and red portal. Blakk stood close to the portal, but didn't seem to be getting pulled in. He just watched, smirking, as the portal created a storm.

Leaves and branches were flying everywhere. Eli and I held on to our Mechas, who dug their claws into the ground.

"We need to get out of here!" I yelled over the wind. Eli nodded and began to reply when a large branch broke off from one of the mushroom-trees. He didn't have time to react before the branch slammed into him- and knocked him right out into the portal.

"No!" I yelled out. I jumped out, grabbing one of Lucky's handlebars with one hand, and Eli's hand in the other.

But the winds were too strong. Eli was blown right from my grasp. As he began to fall into the portal, Eli desperately grabbed at the ground, but he couldn't get a good hold on anything.

I looked up furiously at Doctor Blakk, but now Blakk was gone. Instead, Dana stood on the other side of the portal, grinning.

"Game over," Dana said as Eli lost his hold on the ground, tumbling into the portal. "I win."

"Alana!" Eli yelled as he disappeared in the blackness.

"Alana!"

I shot upwards, opening my eyes only to crash into someone in front of me, our foreheads colliding.

"Ow!"  I yelled, pulling back and putting my hand up my head. "What the heck?"

It turns out the person was Eli, and he too was rubbing his head.

"What are you doing in here?" I asked. "Ever heard of knocking?"

"I knocked on your door for, like, five minutes!" Eli explained. "You wouldn't answer. Then I came in and you were having a fit or something."

I looked down- my legs were all tangled in my sheets, and my pillow was on the ground. Ash was sitting on the bedside table, looking worried.

"What the heck were you dreaming about?" Eli asked as I sighed and got out of my bed, tossing my pillow back up on the mattress.

"Nothing important," I murmured, rubbing my eyes. "It was just a nightmare. What's up, anyways? It's just now turning seven."