The Shane Gang slowly looked up from behind the rock they had staked out behind. They looked on a Blakk industries stage, decked out to the nines in red and black, with an alarming amount of cylinders covered in black velvet. No doubt hiding ghouls underneath.

"Are you sure Pulse said army?" Kord asked Trixie.

"That information was confusing, but whatever this is, it's bad news."

"That information was per-" Pronto began to interject.

"Shush!" Trixie hissed.

"How dare you shush the magnificent-" but Pronto never got to finish as Kord placed a heavy hand over the struggling Molenoid's mouth.

Eli remained silent through this exchange, trying to figure out what the stage meant, and the rows and rows of seats where civilians were beginning to sit. Didn't they know how dangerous Blakk and his ghouls were? What was Blakk trying to do, pass off his ghouls as some sort of good thing? How had they not heard about all the bad things he had done? Eli's mind though wasn't all there though, because he was avidly searching for other answers. Answers about the mystery girl with the sliver panther mecha with blue detailing and the rare slugs.

And that mystery girl was crouched on her perched on top of Dr. Blakk's citadel that overlooked his pompous and flashy stage. Pulse had said Blakk wanted to take his ghouls commercial, but Zaylee never thought Dr. Blakk to be one for so much flair and pizzazz. She stroked her slugs; they were still waking up, not getting their usual morning training. She had left before first light, wanting to watch the entire stage get set up so she knew all the weak points to shoot. She smirked, watching Eli and his friends arrive, armaturely and haphazardly getting to a barley safe vantage point, and she stifled a laugh at the struggle to keep Pronto quiet. What did Pulse see in him? Oh well, that wasn't her business. Stopping Blakk was. She looked back over at Eli, beginning to reminisce on the fun they had when they were little, pretending to be real slug slingers like their fathers. Now they had gotten their wish, but it came at a price, and maybe they had wished away their youth to fast. She noticed how much older Eli had really gotten. He looked so world weary, and she knew she had fared no better.

She blinked as she heard one of Blakk's henchmen do a sound check, and she looked down as Dr. Blakk waltzed on stage to what seemed an all too thunderous applause.

"My dear friends and future business associates," the villain began. "I have invited you today to show you an experiment that I have been working on that may change the very fate of Slugterra."

"Or destroy it." Eli muttered from his vantage point, but the con-man from his stage, unable to hear him, carried on.

"Now many may think this experiment to be unethical, dangerous, unstable, but I assure you with the upmost confidence that I have created something that is worth any risk, but possess very few."

Lies. Zaylee screamed in her head. But her enemy doctor carried on.

"This creation of mine has such raw, beautiful power that I cannot even begin to describe all its abilities. But I promise you, it is worth your time, your money, and your allegiance."

The crowd had begun to mutter, curious about what was about to be revealed, and this seemingly innocent man's intentions. The secret on lookers knew the truth though. He was here to sell his ghouls, force people into alliances, gain money. And they all also silently agreed he was laying it on rather thick.

But the mad scientist on the stage and all his cronies were still unaware of their presence. The audience had no clue what danger they were really in either, so the villain continued. "I believe the best way to explain the power of this invention is to show you." Familiar faces stepped on to the stage; John Bull, Locke, Lode, and C.C. "So without further ado, I introduce to you, my new and improved slugs ready and available for market. Or as you may know them, ghouls."

The velvet coverings flew to the top of the stage, revealing red containers of ghouls. The four slingers, choreographed, loaded a ghoul into each of their blasters, and taking up four different positions and shot the ghouls into each other, causing a massive explosion. Women in the audience screamed. Men got up from their seats in fear. But they didn't leave, completely transfixed by the power this man possessed in these slugs.

Eli had snapped back to reality; he was through with Dr. Blakk's lies and oppression of the people trapped in their seats. Pushing his other worries about mystery girls aside, he jumped down the hill, leaving his friends staring after him and screaming: "Eli, what the heck are you doing?!"

"Looks like your ghouls can make some pretty nice fireworks," Eli said, sauntering up to the stage, between rows of gasping onlookers, who could all recognize the insignia he wore on his armor, "But I don't think they can do much else."

"God Eli," Zaylee muttered from her vantage point, "What are you doing, you know better…" But she wasn't going to get involved until completely necessary. He might have a nice trick up his sleeve.

"Oh Eli, I was rather hoping you'd show up." Dr. Blakk almost sang. "Is there a different demonstration you had in mind?"

"Yeah, how about a duel?"

It was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Bull and C.C stepped forward eagerly, but Dr. Blakk waved them off. "I thought you'd never ask." He said taking his three-shooter out of his jacket.

The audience, now stricken with a new fear, took this time to quietly and quickly move out of the way; towards their mecha beasts and the train station, in case the need rose for a speedy getaway. But they all kept their eyes glued to the duel.

Eli started with his Tazerling, but Dr. Blakk easily evaded it, countering with a Hop Jack and a Grimmstone. Eli barley evaded the two, taking cover behind an overturned chair.

"We have to go help him." Trixie said, starting to get up from behind the rock as more slugs flew below them.

"No, this is Eli's duel." Kord reminded her, holding her back. "We can't give our position away either, we're the second line of defense incase Eli can't win."

"Yeah, well I don't want to be peeling his lifeless body from the slide of a rock!" Trixie practically yelled as Eli had another near miss. But Kord refused to let her go. He knew the unsaid plan Eli had in mind. They were only there if it wasn't successful. But as he saw a glint of blue metal from the roof top of Dr. Blakk's fortress, he had a good feeling it would work.

From the top of the building Zaylee shook her head as Eli's chances of winning were getting slimmer and slimmer. His cave troll friend was holding his other two team mates back and seemed to look in her direction, which meant it was her decision what happened next as Eli's duel took another turn for the worse. If he got hit now, he'd be down and out for the count. She doubted he knew that. She jumped down, neatly landing on top of the stage. Blakk's henchmen gawked and raised their blasters, but Zaylee stopped their advances neatly and quickly with a Frostcrawler.

"I hate to interrupt," she smiled causing Dr. Blakk to spin around at the sound of her voice, and pause his relentless attacking of Eli, "but I just couldn't resist my opportunity to get a shot in at the all-powerful Doctor Thaddeus Blakk." Sarcasm and malice dripped from her voice.

"Ah, Zaylee, long time no see." He gave an evil grin as a greeting.

"It's been too short."

"You haven't missed our little skirmishes to much have you?"

"Not in the least."

The two had begun circling each other, blasters raised, waiting for someone to take the first shot. Eli stared awestruck at the mystery girl's confidence around the fearsome man as he struggled to pick himself up. He was sure his bruises had bruises now. Wiping the blood off his spit lip and watched expectantly as a new duel began.

Zaylee, tired of the waiting game took the first shot, her Dinorawr flying at 100 miles per hour from her blaster. Blakk knocked the slug aside with a Thrasher. Zaylee countered quickly with her Beamer, and a Lariat shortly after. Blakk avoided both easily, but it was clear he was getting annoyed with dueling. Zaylee knew she had a short time before Blakk pulled a cheap shot, so she shot hers. She aimed her Rammstone at the weak point on the stage she had located hours earlier and watched as the monstrosity began to crumble. She ran to Eli, grabbing his Boon Doc from out of his belt and shooting it at the masses of newly freed slugs. Blakk roared in frustration as he realized he had been played. But he had no time to return fire, more concerned with avoiding the bars of metal now falling down around him. Zaylee grabbed the still weak Eli and dragged him back to his hiding spot with their slugs in tow.

"Thanks," Eli panted. "It seemed like a much better idea in my head than it turned out to be." He managed a weak laugh which turned into a groan as he felt his body react in pain.

"What were you thinking Eli?! You could have gotten killed!" Trixie interjected.

"I agree with your friend on this one Eli. That was way too dangerous." Zaylee gave her younger friend a stern look as she handed his Boon Doc to his red-headed teamate.

"Thanks for saving me, I guess." Eli rolled his eyes at the all too familiar motherly tone. "You know, I still don't know your name."

"You'll figure it out eventually," Zaylee laughed with a wink, walking over to a crevice in the rock, and hitting something in mid air, watching her mecha beast materialize.

"How…" Kord began.

"Invisius slug goo release system." Zaylee winked again, and with that she was off.

"What?! Not again!" Eli groaned, "This is turning out to be a bummer of a day."

"Not entirely." Trixie tried to comfort, "We did sorta stop Blakk, and you sorta helped, I mean look, his entire plan was ruined, no one joined him, no one bought his slugs. His stage isn't even left standing."

"And I suggest we get out of here before he remembers you helped." Kord put in.

"Alright," Eli continued pouting, even after Trixie shot him with Doc. "Let's head on out and call it a day."

"Pronto has never heard such an excellent suggestion in his life." The Molenoid added, finally finding his voice again.

"And you ran away again?!" Xia was exasperated with her friend now.

Zaylee looked around, paranoid, but no one even raised an eyebrow to the four girls who always seemed to argue in Mario's Pizza Parlor. "I didn't run away per say, there was no running about it. I walked calmly to my mecha, even explained my Invisius trick. They could have stopped me any time they wanted."

"But from what it sounded like Eli was pretty beat up, he couldn't have stopped you if he tried," Dana stated. "Which brings around another question, why didn't you step in sooner? Not that I care of course."

"I stepped in before Blakk killed him. That's what matters most. But his gang wasn't doing anything either. Eli's the Shane, he's the name people remember; not mine, not any of his friends. Whether he's losing or not, the people need to see him standing up for them. Those people didn't trust those slugs- no one does. They wanted out; you could see it in their eyes. Eli gave them that chance at his own expense. That's what a Shane is supposed to do. And besides, he has a Boon Doc, he'll be just fine."

"That still doesn't explain why you keep avoiding him. I mean, I took the time to find their hide out, which was fairly easy by the way, and introduced myself to Eli. And you know I never go out of my way to meet people. He and his gang are a nice group; they even agreed to help me if I ever needed it. I'm doing fine though, don't worry. But why won't you go? You who knows practically every nook and cranny of Slugterra, it wouldn't be a dent out of your day to go to their hide out- which I know you know where it is- and introduce yourself. You could go up at anytime and say; 'Hey, we used to be childhood friends, how have you been?' And don't lie and say you didn't know the second Eli's name was heard in the streets. Why are you hiding from him?" Xia looked hard at Zaylee, making blood rise to her cheeks as she twisted in her seat, wishing more than anything she didn't have to have this conversation.

"I just- I just want him to figure it out, we spent ten years of our life hanging out together. I just want him to remember for himself. Besides, he told me the first thing he'd do when he got down here was duel me. He hasn't done that yet, I don't care if he got side tracked or not. It's been almost six months. It means he forgot me, it hurts. I just want him to remember…"

"Or you don't want your butt handed to you in a duel." Pulse joked.

"Who fared better against Blakk today?" Zaylee countered suddenly very harshly.

"Zaylee, he's a guy, guys forget." Xia said, bringing the conversation back to the main point. "You have to get over your pride, your hurt, and your social awkwardness…"

"That last one's not happening," Zaylee quickly cut in.

"…And you need to tell him if you want to regain whatever friendship you had that you keep telling us about." Xia finished, ignoring Zaylee's interruption and taking another bite of her pizza.

"We'll see." Zaylee said, giving up on trying to convince her friends she was in the right.

"Which means no," Pulse quipped.

Zaylee stuck her tongue out at Pulse and went back to her pizza.

What she hadn't told them, she sighed, as she walked back to her apartment was that Xia was right. She had known the exact moment when Eli landed in Slugterra from the surface. She'd watched him through his first duels, examining his style in case he held his promise; which he did. She knew she could beat him; that wasn't the problem. She had an arsenal full of high power slugs and three extra years of experience. His Tazerling and Infurnus wouldn't stand a chance. It would be an easy duel for her. But something had been holding her back in seeking him out. She had always told herself it was the fact he was a Shane, and her last name was no longer a part of that Gang. She was a lone wolf. She'd told herself she was waiting for his challenge for a duel. She'd told herself lots of things. But was there maybe another reason she wasn't telling herself? Yes, and Pulse and Xia had brought it to her attention tonight. She was scared. Scared he didn't remember, didn't care. Scared that what they used to have would be gone. She'd read the letter with Eli time and time again, comforting him through losing his dad, and so when they went to Slugterra, each in their own time, they'd be as prepared as possible. But they had both changed so much since then. If they were to reconnect would things ever be the same? She held herself tightly as she walked down the darkening streets to her apartment. She wouldn't fall apart because of Eli. Not here, not ever.

But a few caverns away, Eli was falling apart because he couldn't figure out why that face haunted his dreams, why she looked so familiar, why he seemed to know the names of her slugs; even though he couldn't remember her ever mentioning them, and why her dueling style was so familiar, and looked like the perfect accompaniment to his own. But no matter how hard he tried, the name and memories were too far back in his brain and continued to evade him.