Eli woke up in his normal bedroom in his father's old Hideout at six in the morning. That was his normal waking hour since he moved into Slugterra. Kord said that it would give him time to warm up and wake up his slugs before another day of stopping Dr. Black's or anyone else's evil plans. He didn't mind though, and neither did his slugs.

Eli got out of what was once his dad's old bed and walked towards the dresser. He put on his normal clothes, fixed his hair, woke his slugs, and went downstairs. Before he had came to Sluggterra, Eli had never been much of a morning person. But now, waking up early meant both peace and quiet from the crazy day he was about to start and sling slugs sooner. As he and his slugs ate breakfast, Eli read the Sluggterra newspaper.

Instead of a thick pack of paper like on the surface, it was just one pad that you could scroll down on, like a tablet. But today it wasn't holding anything interesting, except for a certain spot. Eli read the article that was labeled, "MYSTEROUS SLINNGER ATTACKS WANDERES." The article had several paragraphs to it, talking about a small group of slugslingers that got attacked for no reason while they were slug-hunting by one, unidentified, slinger.

They had even put a quote of the leader of the group. "We were just passing by, following the trail of this Dirt Urchin, when outta nowhere this one slinger pops up and starts sic'ing their slugs on us." Eli also read that since the Mystery Slinger was too fast, they couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl. But they were positive it was a human. Eli read the article one more time as Burpy hopped on his shoulder. "What do you think about this, Burpy?" The slug chirped a reply.

An hour latter, Eli was outside and practicing with the others. "Hey, did you guys hear about that Mystery Slinger?" he asked to no one in particular as he fired at a target. "Yeah, it's all over the news," Trixie said. "But this isn't the first time the MS struck Slugterra," Kord said as he tinkered with the Mecha Beast. "Really?" "Yeah. Crazy slinger has been doin' it for pretty much five or six years now." "But a while, no, almost immediately after news spread that another Shane had arrived, he or she stopped doing stuff," Trixie added.

"Well, what exactly does this guy do?" The others were silent for a few seconds before responding. "Nobody knows," Trixie finally answered, "MS is too fast so we cant see them clearly." Eli nodded and continued to train, a small smile on his face that Pronto seemed to noticed. "Oh, no! That is the look you get on your face before you make us do something totally crazy!" "Oh, come on. You guys aren't even slightly curious about what that person's doing? They could be working for Blakk."

The others look at each other before finally giving in. "Mystery Slinger was last see about a few miles northeast," Pronto said as the got on their Mecha's. Eli nodded and they were off.

When they arrived and got off their Mecha's, Eli couldn't see what made this place so special that some mysterious slinger attacked innocent people. They walked with caution till they reached where the recent attack happened. It was a fresh battlefield. It had the marks of several different slugs that Eli could easily identify them from. A Dirt Urchin spikes, Arachnet webs, Flaringo burns... Wait, what's this? Eli walked towards the biggest mark and crouched by it..

It had ripped up vines growing out of a burned ground, a few shards of ice that looked like they once contained something, a few tiny puddles of water, tiny electric burns, and gagged rocks were in one, giant circle. It was the remains of a slug attack Eli had never seen. "Hey guys, have you ever seen this?" Trixie was already there with her camera, filming it. "Nope," she replied. "Call me when you see the Mystery Slinger so I can film it." Eli rolled his eyes as she walked away.

Suddenly, Eli heard something. He looked up from the remains and saw a path in front of him, were something was hiding. While the others occupied themselves with the remains, Eli walked down the path, blaster in he walked, he looked around, listening closely whenever he heard rustling. Then he heard a twig snap. "Whoever's there, come out now. I don't want to fight," he said to the open. Look behind you, the quiet seemed to say to him. Cautious yet skeptical, Eli obeyed and jumped at what he saw.

There was a person- defiantly human -standing on the higher ground, one hand on a tree. By the slenderness of the body, Eli could tell it was a girl. She wore a thin jacket with dark purple outlining it while the main color was a kind of blue you'd see on an emo's black hair and it had a few stripes on it that were sterling silver. The sleeves went just past her elbows. The jacket was zipped down to the center of her chest, revealing a black shirt of some kind. She wore regular dark blue pants that hugged her legs with black boots and kneepads.

What brought his attention to her outfit was the symbol on the left side of her jacket. It was the Shane symbol. How did she get one of those?

But her face was covered by a helmet with a black screen, painted to match her jacket. Eli straightened up and looked at the girl as she tilted her head. "Hi," he said, giving a small wave to her. No response. "So, you're the Mystery Slinger?" Still no response. "Well, I just wanted to ask you a question." Still no response, and it was getting annoying. "Um, hello? Do you even understand me?" She was silent for a minuet before she let the hand on the tree fall to her side. "I understand you very clearly."

Eli gasped at her voice, which was slightly muffled from the helmet. It sounded smooth, and it almost sounded like she wasn't even there. But Eli thought it was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever heard. She jumped down from the higher ground, now only a few yards away from him. "You must be crazy to think I'm gonna let you talk to me," she said as she slowly walked towards him. Her walk was more of long, graceful strides, like she was floating

Eli reached for his blaster, just in case, as the girl grabbed her own. It was like his but purple with a few stripes on it that were silver and blue. She didn't aim or fill it, just twirled it in her hand. "You must not know about me that much. I don't convers long with anyone." A slug jumped onto her shoulder, a Flaringo. "Now you better go, before I ask Flare here to do some burning." Eli stood there for a moment before responding with loading Jewels to his blaster. "Sorry, but I came here for a reason."

The girl was probably smirking under her helmet as she fired first, Eli in the next instant. He was barely able to dodge the blow, but MS seemed to have no trouble. She jumped high and grabbed a vine, swinging herself over Eli's head. Doing so, she fired a Dirt Urchin at him, meanwhile he slung Burpy at her. She moved too quickly and out of sight.

Where'd she go? Eli looked around cautiously, his blaster already holding his Fright Geyst. He heard a giggle, looked behind him, and there she was, about to fire. "You should've left when you had the chance," was all she said, and she pulled the trigger. A slug he had never seen or heard of before. When it transformed, it was silver with an aura that changed colors. "Manna, girl," MS said to the slug, "show him what happens to people who trespass."

The slug was headed straight for Eli. He couldn't move, he was both terrified and mesmerized by the slug. "Eli!" Kord yelling his name was what snapped him out of it just in time to dodge the blow. The name seemed to startle MS too, because she called her slug. "Manna, stop!" The slug, Manna, stopped obediently. After turning back, it went back to her slinger while the gang helped Eli up. "Eli?" MS walked towards them, stopping fifteen feet away. "As in Eli Shane? Son of Will?" Eli nodded.

The girl was still for an instant, then a slight chuckle came from under her helmet. "Should've known. You look and act so alike. He always did say you did crazy things on the surface." Eli and the others looked at the girl, puzzled. "What? Did you know my dad?" "Knew him? He took me in, paid for me to go to school on the surface, and trained me to be the slinger I am today." The girl lifted her hands to her helmet and pulled it off. As they all gasped, Trixie pulled out her camera.

The girls skin was only a little lighter than Eli's, her eyes being a deep night blue. Her hair was in a single long braid, the tail going past her hips, and her bangs pasted her eyebrows. The top half was purple while the bottom half was as blue as Eli's, tiny strips of silver and orange here and there. "My name is Marnie Easton. I protect this part of Slugterra. With Blakk poisoning the slugs and turning them into what people say you call 'Ghouls', someone's gotta try and save a few."

Eli was slowly piecing things together. "So is that why you attacked those innocent people? To protect the slugs?" Marnie scoffed. "'Innocent' people? They were working for Blakk. Put up a good fight ,though. For a couple of goons." Eli had a bunch of questions, but he had an idea. "This is so cool. My dad had an apprentice? He never mentioned this." She just shrugged "We decided the less people knew the better." "Good point. Anyway, now you can join me and the gang." The smirk on Marnie's face disappeared.

That's when Eli noticed something, she was looking at his face, but not his eyes. He decided that he was seeing things and returned to reality. "Why not?" Marnie looked down at the ground, Manna on her shoulder. "I... I just can't be around a Shane right now." Before Eli could ask what she meant, nine of Blakk's men appeared. Marnie snapped her head up towards them and drew her blaster. "You guys again?! I thought I gave you a message to give to your boss: You're not getting any of these slugs!"

She fired a Tormato at them while Eli and the others fired their own slugs. Then, they somehow came into fighting hand-to-hand. Eli tried to dodge each blow, but he kept on getting hit, causing bruises and cuts to form. Slugs also were fired around them, causing more and more injuries and, being The Shane, Eli got most of the hits. Marnie seemed to have no problem. It was like she was one with the environment around her.

Eli noticed how she kept on disappearing and reappearing, surprising the enemies and throwing hard kicks and punches at them. Eli fought as hard as he could, but he almost passed out from pain. When they left him alone for a moment, he looked down at himself. His clothes were torn with blood staining them and oozing out or the rips. He looked at a piece of ice nearby and saw that his face had a few cuts and bruises, and there was one starting to bleed badly.

As soon as he finished examining himself, he returned to the fight. He had lost track at where Trixie, Kord, and Pronto were, but Marnie was only two yards away, three of the men lying still around her and dealing with two more. When they were sure all the men were taken care of, The looked at eachother. Marnie looked like she had barely been touched, but her right forearm had a bruise and a red mark on it and her left leg nearly dragged behind her a little as she walked to him.

"You're swaying. You're gonna faint any minuet now," she said to him. "...No kidding," was all he could say. He felt wind rush as he fell to his side, black dots spotting his vision. The last thing he saw was Marnie bending down in front of his head. Then darkness.