Take Back the Light

Chapter 5

"Blakk! Stop this! You have to stop it!

Blakk!

BLAKK!"

"Blakk!" Alana gasped, bolting upright. Gasping for breath, she untangled her legs from her blanket. Ash and Mage squeaked and hopped up from Alana's pillow, watching their slinger curiously. "Sorry, guys. Bad dream."

Alana nearly jumped out of her bed when Trixie swung her door open, in her green sweatpants and white tee-shirt, looking like she had just rolled out of bed.

"Are you okay?" Trixie exclaimed, looking around the room for a threat. "I heard you yelling."

Alana nodded, getting out of bed and stretching.

"Sorry. I get nightmares," she explained. "And I guess that's never really bugged other people till now. My slugs are used to it."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Trixie said, frowning. Alana shrugged and smiled sadly.

"It happens."

Trixie started to respond, but before she could, a red light just above Alana's door began flashing. A second later, an alarm started blaring.

"Floppers," Trixie groaned as she ran out of Alana's room. Alana tossed her blankets back on her bed and began changing out of her pajamas and into her slinging gear.

She had a cyan tee-shirt that had a black stripe down either side. On each arm she had a panel of metal armor, that ran down from the bottom of her shoulder to right above her elbow. Her gloves were black with a bar of cyan running down the middle, and her pants were dark gray.

"Come on, guys, we gotta go," Alana called to her slugs (who were asleep in various parts of the room) as she pulled on her knee guards. The slugs got up and filed into her black backpack.

Alana grabbed it, throwing it on over her shoulders, and picked up her boots and bandoleer on the way out of her room. She clipped her bandoleer on and put on her boots as she ran down the stairs. The bandoleer was now adorned with the Shane star. She'd avoided wearing it in the past- she wasn't a Shane. She felt like she intruding on something just having it painted on Midnight, but Will had liked it.

Trixie followed quickly behind Alana, putting her hair up in her signature pigtails as she ran down the stairs.

Eli was already in the launch bay, grabbing his bandoleer and getting his slugs around.

"What is it this morning?" Alana asked as she jumped up to Midnight.

"Some of Blakk's goons tried robbing an equipment store with some ghouls," Kord replied as he ran into the garage, followed by a very much not-awake Pronto. "But the ghouls were a little more powerful than they had been planning. Sounds like they lost control, and now the place is chaos."

"Typical! They could not have waited until later in the day?" Pronto complained as Eli jumped up on Lucky. "I need my beauty sleep!"

"Sorry, Pronto. You'll have to deal with that later. Let's head out!" Eli called. The launch bay door swung open and the Shane Gang tore out of it, following Eli through the jungle.

Alana took a deep breath of the morning air and smiled. Getting up early may not be the best, but the early glow of the caverns was pretty nice. And she had to admit, it felt good to be riding alongside other people for a change.