CHAPTER 3 The Legacy of Aven and Ultra By Solar II

On Ragol...

"Now that's one big pile of crap." Alex "Ultra" Ulysses stood over a giant mass of brown, smelly crap, staring at it dully as if it was an old re-run of the Brady Bunch. He and the force, Aven Phoenix, were perched over a giant pit just outside the central Dome, pinching their noses over the endless piles of dung left from many monsters, entering and exiting the entrance to this underground metropolis.

"Whelp, best be getting' down there before it gets dark," Alex stood and brushed off his pants. "Ultra," Aven sighed and smacked his forehead, "If we go underground, it will ALWAYS be dark!" The ranger rubbed the back of his cranium, "Oh, yeay, right..." Phoenix sighed once more and stood up also, readying his baton, "Let us just get this over with. The principal ordered us to find where that dragon came from, which we should be very grateful for because we did ruin this whole government thing, and this is obviously it. It appears that the monster, and most likely other monsters, have mad a lit catacomb down there, and have been living underground this whole time, beneath the natural metals of Ragol so that Pioneer 2's censors couldn't pick them up. They just now decided to find out what was going on up here, and thus the destruction of the Dome over there." The force pointed back to a mass of twisted metal in the shape of a well-cooked dome. "I sort of already figured that out." "Congratulations! I guess I underestimated you." Ultra grumbled.

He couldn't breath! It was like a volcano had erupted in his fragile lungs, spreading ash and fire throughout them. But, now it was even surrounding him, with its burning sparks and scorching, humid blackness. He didn't think he could make it out of this place alive. The man stumbled in the darkness, and slammed against a wall. Didn't a door use to be here?! Now he was lost in his hazy recognition of where he was at all, or who he was. He just felt pain, anger, and claustrophobia. He knew he was going to perish there, so he just wished the end would come sooner before later. Suddenly, a firm hand grabbed his left shoulder and dragged him out of the mortal hell and into a blinding light that sizzled against his retina. A high voice echoed inside his brain, "Ultra! What the hell did you think you were doing?!" He remembered now. "A-Aven? Is that y-you?" "Of course it is, now get up." Ultra opened his eyes again to see a pale skinned force holding a glowing baton staring down at him. The purple haired hunter got up quickly, and glanced around. He was in a small, dark passageway, only lit by Phoenix's glowing weapon. There was rock walls all around him, and one end of the hall went off into the unknown. The other end, which Alex had just came through, led to a room, but the ranger couldn't see anymore than that because it was completely engulfed with heavy smoke. "Hey Lady, how far are we from the center of this place?" "First of all, I'm not a lady. Second of all..." Aven swiftly checked a palm sized virtual map that he stored in his pocket, "We must go back the way I came, then take a left, travel for a quarter of a mile, then a right, then we should be there." "Ah, man," Ultra pouted and crossed his arms, showing his intense annoyance, "Another quarter of a mile in this place? #$%@, it's huge!" "You betcha', just be glad we haven't ran into any of those mutated primal thing-a-ma-bobbers."

Dr. Montague gasped, "Oh no! If the quantum Phasors on level 3 over-slave, my main thermal capsules may just implode, causing a horrible chain reaction throughout sector 5, leading to an inevitable system frailer of super computer, BOB! Sweet lord..." "Dr. Montague? We're ready for you now." A black-suited agent opened the giant door to the genius's room. "Not now! I've almost done it..." Montague sat on the floor, randomly pounding on colored buttons on his white Dreamcast controller. "Sir, NOW." The young man sighed, and pushed the OFF button on the console. "Fine, fine. Whatever." Meanwhile, a group of government officers sat silently waiting for the bio- engineering specialist to enter. When he did, his was wearing a large top hat and dark sunglasses. He didn't want the Earth's Government guys to think too much of him. "So, Dr. Montague," aid one of the men as the boy sat down, "You have heard all about this monster that we have been studying?" "Hold on," Montague frowned, "If I answer all your questions, will you set me free?" "I'm sorry, but the information we have subjected to you is top secret. But, the sooner you tell us what we want to know, the sooner this project will be completed. And the sooner this project is completed, the sooner you will get out of here and back to your normal life." "Alright," The young man sighed and adjusted his sunglasses, "I get it."

Phoenix blew away a hoard of Nano Dragons with an immense GiZonde as soon as his partner had finished off the surrounding Evil Sharks and got out of his line of fire. "Finally," Ultra stated with a deep breath. "I think that's all of 'em. We should continue down that hall, quickly." He then sprinted off towards the door way from which the signal on Aven's transmitter was receiving. The force paused, though. He pondered silently to himself about why the hunter had so much energy left in him. But, he swiftly contemplated that all Ultra really did was stand back and shoot, only every great once in a while getting up-close-and-personal with the demons. Phoenix, on the other hand, uses a great deal of mental strength to produce such dazzling spells, thus his weariness. The blond grumbled something to himself about "doing all the work", and followed his friend. Up ahead, Alexander had already gotten to a dead end. "Looks like we've got a problem," he yelled back to Aven. "It's a dead end, but something looks strange about it." Strange, indeed. It was a man-made block in their path, made of metal with flashing red lights around its every side. "What would a thing like this be doing in a cave on a planet that no intelligent life has been on before?" Ultra thought aloud. Phoenix also pondered. Either gifted life had lived on this planet at one time, or the Earth Government had deceived the free people once again. "Wait-a-min..." Suddenly, Aven spotted a hatch on one side of the barricade. He quickly shoved his partner out of the way- "Hey!" -and yanked on it. With a slow hiss of air pressure equalizing, the door had opened into a small room. It was also made of metal, and, on the left side, had a large window looking out to a large underground river. The water was eerily glowing a dark green color, with chunks of I-don't-want-to- know floating around in it. There was another giant door, also on the left side, leading out of a large, rusty platform, floating on the green H2O (or at least they hoped it was H2O) still attached to the dock by a thin metal wire, feeding through further underground. "Well," Ulysses hefted his Mech-Guns, "That's interesting." "Quit stating the obvious, jackass." Aven grunted. As the two walked into the room, their metal boots clanked against the steel planks of the floor. Phoenix's heart pumped madly, as if he was expecting for some mutated monster to leap out at him, its fangs glaring with fresh blood of other, better Hunters then him. Now that would be a nightmare. Just as the force was imagining this horrifying beast, he sniffed the air gently, and smelled a faint, sweet smell. He sniffed again, and realized that it reminded him of- Phoenix froze stiff. Without warning, the blond force ran back over to the door of the room with all of his earthy speed, and slammed it shut. Still carrying the weight of his inertia, the short man raised his weapon high and yelled, "Foie!" over and over. The metal of the hinges on the door melted instantaneously. He then stepped back and shouted "Barta!" once. A wave of ice swept pass the glowing hot steel and froze it solid. "Jesus Christ!!" Ultra the Ranger grabbed Aven's shoulder and yanked him away from their only escape root. "What the @#$% were you thinking?! Why did you do that, and how are we going to get back!?!?" Phoenix panted and finally caught his breath, "First of all, it's none of you business –pant- why I did that. Second, I can –pant- always use Ryuker to get us back to Pioneer 2." Then, he gathered himself up, and stepped towards the small dock. "You're insane," The purple haired man rubbed his large forehead in dismay, then shrugged it off, and followed the force.