Trials of Beta

Chapter Three: On the Heels of Death

Down the cargo elevator crawled at a snail's pace. Beta was growing impatient and punched one of the walls. "Go faster, damn you!" He ordered it, to no avail. The elevator was stubborn and kept up it's same pace, neither slowing nor quickening.

"Patience, my client... I'm sure Lunehhy can handle her own. So can that HUcaseal." Alex stated, calmly leaning the back wall of the elevator car, his arms crossed over his chest. Beta spun around, glaring at the Hunter.

"Patience? PATIENCE!?! My best friend is in danger! Not to mention we have no idea what we're going up against in this place! And yet here you are, Mr. Calm And Cool! How can you be so calm?!" Beta yelled, fighting to maintain himself as best he could.

Alex simply shrugged. "I just do. To be truthful, I'm excited. We're going to be facing an unknown and never before seen enemy."

Beta started at Alex in disgust, his mouth opening to say something, but the elevator abruptly rumbled to a halt. The doors slide open automatically, revealing what lay beyond. They were in a small chamber, and a wave of intense heat washed over both Alex and Beta. It was hot down here! A door sat in the east wall, the lights on it green, indicating that's it's unlocked. Beta jumped off the elevator, dashing for the door. As he neared it, it opened automatically, one half sliding up into the ceiling, as the lower half descended into the ground. "I'm coming Lunehhy!"

Alex shook his head slowly as he followed in the wake of Beta into the room beyond. They were in a large cavern, at the far east was a lavafall. So they must be inside a volcano or something. The east exit was locked, he could tell at a distance because the light on it was red. Then his attention was diverted down. Littered on the ground were animal corpses, strange lizard like beasts with four eyes on each side of it's shark-like head. Beta was stooped down, examining one of the monsters whose head had been sliced off, a tell tale sign of HK-55's Soul Eater scythe. "What are these things?" He asked himself in bewilderment. Along the south wall, between two ponds of bubbling lava, was another door, this one unlocked.

"I think they went this way," Alex stated, striding the distance to it. He noticed, laying on the floor next to the door were two capsules, "Hey Beta! There are capsules over here, two of 'em."

Beta instantly forgot about the corpses and ran over to Alex, squating to inspect the two objects. "I wonder why there is two?" Reaching out a hand, he pressed the play button on the nearest capsule. A holographic image of a red haired female in white and red appeared. Upon her face was a pair of glasses, and she wore a red bracelet on her left wrist. The female spoke.

"Wow... This cave is a treasure trove of discoveries. Creatures that have never been seen by people. Completely unknown animals. They look like mutant forms of the native animals. Perhaps the Government has kept this a secret...? It's possible, but for what purpose?"

The message ended there. Beta felt confused. Who was she? She didn't even introduce herself. Blinking a couple times, he activated the other capsule. This time Lunehhy appeared.

"That's Rico Tyrell! She's a famous scientist and a Hunter too! She was on Pioneer 1. So she survived the explosion! Principal Tyrell will be overjoyed to hear that his daughter survived. I hope we can meet her! She's very famous, a hero even! Hmmm... This capsule looks weeks old. I'm guessing Red Ring Rico left this shortly after the explosion. That means she has a big lead on us..."

Alex stared blankly at the wall for a moment. "Rico..." He muttered the name of the famous female Hunter under his breath.

"What?" Beta asked, not quite hearing Alex.

"Nothing, forget about it. Let's move on, we have to catch up to them." The door was already opened, having sensed their presence as Beta went to activate the capsule. All Alex had to do was cross the threshold, passing over the metal grate floor. Beta gasped and hurriedly hopped to his feet, following Alex. "If we hurry, we can catch up to them by this time tomorrow."

"Really think so? Well then, let's make a run for it!" Beta replied as he jogged into the following room...

~*~*~*~*~*~

That wasn't the last capsule from the famous Red Ring Rico we found in the Caves either. Something was bothering Alex, but he didn't tell me anything. I didn't press him. We didn't find much of anything in the first floor of this Artificial Cave, no signs of life, just life lost. We followed the trail of mangled animal bodies left by Lunehhy and HK-55. We were literally on the heels of Death itself...

~*~*~*~*~*~

A half of day's worth of travelling through the horridly hot Cave turned up not much for Beta and Alex. They found a slew of capsules, from both Lunehhy and Red Ring Rico. Beta stood before the orange colored telepad, drenched in sweat and grit.

"I wonder where this takes us?" Beta asked hesitantly, trying to muster the courage to step on the pad.

"Well, only one way to find out. Remember these words: The courageous do more in a moment then the cowardly do in a lifetime." Alex said, then stepped onto the pad without giving himself time to reconsider. Alex vanished in a small flash of light. Blinking several times and sighing, not wanting to be left behind, Beta closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and steps forward. He felt his stomach churn as his body was converted to pure energy and transported somewhere else. Opening his eyes, he found himself on another telepad. The air here was cool, a welcome relief after the insane heat from the upper levels. Beta's ears popped, they must be quite some ways down. "Ow! My eyes just popped." He complained softly.

"Ya don't say? Welcome to the club. Come on, I think they went that way." Alex smirked, rolling his head towards the only door in this chamber. Small fireflies flew around the chamber, droplets of water falling from the ceiling.

"Lead the way." Beta offered. His feet were hurting like all get out, but he didn't want to ask for a break, fearing being scolded by Alex. Without another word, Alex lead the way forward. The room beyond the chamber where Alex and Beta had entered was medium sized, not all that large, but not small either. There was a thin layer of water on the floor, which came up to Beta's ankles in the center of the room. "Lots of water in here..." It was the same as before, more death, more dead bodies.

"Man, the least they could have done is left a couple stragglers. I'm tired of looking at corpses!" Alex shouted, kicking over a corpse of a large, insect like creature. As soon as he did this, there came a high pitched shrill, causing the two to covers their ears. The insect began to melt, and from underneath it's body came thousand of miniature versions of itself, scurrying across the ground. Beta and Alex watched dumbfounded as the tiny creatures fled into small crevices in the wall. "Did... You see that?" Alex said finally.

"Um... I think so? Did that thing you kicked just reproduced itself in death? My god... How many were there?" Beta replied. Kilala growled lowly, not liking this new development.

"Damn if I know, but it was a whole lot of them..." Both men were a bit disturbed by the whole ordeal. "Let's just get out of here, this is just... Too weird for me!" Alex suggested.

"Already one step ahead of you." Beta stated as he was at the north door. The room beyond was the same as the one before. To his immediate left was another capsule. Thinking that maybe Lunehhy left it, Beta immediately goes and activates it. A holographic image of Red Ring Rico appeared.

"Poefuilly Slime tends to attack at close range. That's not good for Rangers and Forces. Be careful."

Beta had a perplexed look. "What in Sam's hell is a 'Poefuilly Slime?'" Beta asked, not really expecting an answer.

Alex suggested one anyways, "Maybe one of those things we just saw. Hmm... Which way, left or straight?"

"This capsule is closest to this door, let's take it." Beta answered, standing and going to it, the door opening as he nears.

"Interesting logic..." Alex commented idly. They find themselves in a long, narrow tunnel, another door at the end. Beta kept his pace as he jogged through the open door into a room separated in two by a laser fence. He could see on the other side of the fence a couple crates. But he wasn't thinking about that, there were more important things then treasure at the moment, like his friend Lunehhy. To the west was a locked door, across from it an unlocked door. Without breaking his stride, Beta jogged to this one, passing through the passage. What lies beyond caused him to stop and catch his breath.

Ahead of him was a large cavern, a rainbow arching from one side to the other. But it wasn't the rainbow that made Beta catch his breath: Here were many magnificent waterfalls, four large ones and countless smaller ones cascading down from the roof to the floor. Walking forwardly slowly, Beta stared at the display in awe.

"It's... Beautiful!" He exclaimed.

"Uh huh..." Alex agreed, then spied a capsule sitting on top a boulder. Alex went to it and activated it for Beta. Lunehhy appeared, beret-less and looking rather refreshed.

"Um, hi to whoever's following us! Um... I lost my beret while bathing here. If you happen to find it, could you send it to my boyfriend's apartment? His name is Beta, and he lives in Apartment 11, Section Viridia-F. I would be ever so grateful! Thanks. Also, if you see him, tell him I'm really, really sorry for letting HK hit him! I had no idea she was going to do that! Well um... The show must go on! See you next time!"

Beta had wondered over and saw this. His mouth hung open. Lunehhy had just called him her boyfriend! He felt... Happy. She really thinks of me as a boyfriend? Wow...

"You lucky dog, why didn't you tell me she was your girl?" Alex jested, jabbing Beta with his elbow.

"I... I didn't know..." Beta said, feeling a little light headed.

"You didn't know? You are one naïve motherfucker, you know that?" Shaking his head sadly, Alex moves away from the boulder. An idea hits him, and he smells himself. "Hmmm... I'm a bit ripe. Tell you what, let's stop for a bit and bathe, eh? After all that heat a nice cool bath oughta do us loads of good." He said, already undoing the fasteners on his armor...

"She said I was her boyfriend..." Beta still couldn't believe his ears.

"Oh shut the hell up, would you? Damn, you're like a little school boy..." Alex said, dropping the outer shell of his blue armor on the ground, now only in his undergarments. He stepped under one of the waterfalls, and gasped. "Good lord that's cold! GEEZUZ!" His teeth began to chatter, but he didn't move, letting the water wash away all the dirt and sweet from his body. His Bana Mag floated on top of his armor, watching over it for him.

Kilala cooed and nuzzled it's head against Beta's neck, bringing him back to reality. "Huh? OH! Yeah, bathe..." Beta stripped off his robe, looking for somewhere dry to put it.

"Hey hey hey! This is my waterfall! Go get your own!" Alex scolded Beta, telling him to go to the other side of the cavern...