Rita stood on a metal catwalk overlooking a stone floor far beneath her which was covered in splotches of bright green and glowing ooze. Next to her stood a young man about fifteen years old, same age as she, his name was Dusk and he wore an orange robe and held a long wooden stave. His magenta hair was long and wild going past his shoulders.

He looked at her with a patient smile. “Should we proceed or wait for the others?”

Rita was full of energy and knew that wherever the monster was, she could track it, and beat it. After all; she had her friends by her side and they could always help out. “Let’s go kill it.”

“We’re inside the aether wastes, there could be all sorts of monsters here far worse than the hellhound,” Dusk warned.

Rita grinned. “Oh I hope so.”

He shook his head slowly but that smile never left. “You’re the leader.”

Rita proudly began to lead the way forward when the walkway began vibrating and the sound of someone’s boots clanging on the metal sounded behind them. One look was all it took to figure out it was Heath. Heath had his hair cut to chin level, and it was bright blond, almost as yellow as his shirt was. On his back he held an acoustic guitar.

Heath came to a sliding halt at Rita’s feet and doubled over huffing and wheezing. “I… came… fast… as… could.”

Rita rolled her eyes. “Heath, your asthma is acting up again. You should hang back and wait for the others.”

Heath sat down and pulled out a bottle of peppermint oil. “Just… give me… a minute.”

Unfortunately that was out of the question for her. “Sorry, but I’m going on ahead. You should wait here for the others. Tell them we’re here already.”

Heath put a drop of peppermint in his mouth and shook his head. It was clear he was struggling but one thing she had to admire was how he pushed himself upright and followed Rita despite his trouble breathing. If she couldn’t make him wait by his lonesome she was at least going to go slow enough for him to catch his breath. At least then some progress would be made.

Dusk was staying at the rear while Rita led keeping Heath in the middle. This was not only the most sound tactic as Heath was the weakest link in their little trio, but also because Heath was not a combat specialist. His skills were solely support based, and although very valuable, he would not be able to defend himself much in a direct confrontation.

The further along they walked the more green appeared beneath them. In fact the entire chamber became infected with the green neon glow. Eventually the walkway did come to an end as it met with an impressively large stone wall and a set of metal doors which were bent open and rusted from age. Slipping through the open doors led into a concrete lined hallway. Yet more green ooze lay in puddles here.

Rita checked her left arm’s gauntlet. A holographic display read a series of numbers and had a bar beneath it. The bar was blue and just barely going into the yellow. The numbers were reading between 5.2 and 5.4. This area was just barely safe to walk in. the aether radiation here was strong enough that long exposer over a few days would result in aether sickness, but it wasn’t bad enough to need to leave now.

Heath was leaning against the wall and breathing slowly. “This place sure is a mess isn’t it?”

Dusk looked over Rita’s shoulder, which was by no means a challenge with their height difference. “If this place gets any worse we’ll need Lapis to cook us up some Radiclear.”

Rita rolled her eyes. “We’ll be just fine. Heath, how are you holding up?”

Heath beamed at her, flashing his shiny white teeth in the childish way that made Rita feel like everything would be okay. “Since I have you two around, I’ll be fine.”

Dusk smiled. “Glad we could help.”

Rita nodded. “You know, it’s good to have you here too, Heath.”

“Hey,” Heath said as he pushed himself from the wall. “What do you call a bunny rabbit wearing the latest fashions?”

Rita shrugged. “A… cute bunny?”

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That silly grin of Heath’s grew even wider. “Hip Hop!”

The sound that came out of Rita was halfway between a laughing and choking. “Oh my god. That’s so dumb. You're so dumb. I love it.”

Heath scratched the back of his head. “He, he, yeah I’m pretty good at that.”

Dusk allowed himself a slight chuckle. “There’s a reason you're the guardian of joy.”

Heath nodded. “Yeah, it’s because I’m hilarious!”

Something beeped from Rita’s hand and she checked her gauntlet. There was a map that appeared of the local area and Rita’s eyes lit up with determination. A small blip on the map was moving away from them, but it was moving slowly, and it was only a hundred feet away and down some corridors. Rita faced that direction and started running. The others followed suit.

While running Rita pulled out her twin revolvers, both of which were her favorite element, fire. “Get ready everyone, the hellhound is close by.”

Dusk’s face was an emotionless mask as he ran, yet his shoulders were tense. "We need to wait for the others."

This was just a hellhound, Rita could kill one of them by herself if she really wanted to. Having friends along was just part of the mission. It was an exercise on teamwork, nothing else. "We're fine."

Rita wove around the corners, leapt over the puddles of radioactive goo which made her gauntlet tick like crazy whenever she did, and finally the three of them reached a long chamber filled with ancient machinery long since rusted over from age and no longer functional. She recognized the cracked monitors and dust covered consoles as being computers. There was green ooze leaking out of a few of them.

One step into the room had her gauntlet tick loudly. The room’s radioactivity was at a 7.1 and steady. Yet the hellhound was just here, at the end. In fact she could see the thing’s black and red tail lying on the ground sticking out from one of the computer terminals.

“Let’s hurry and do this,” Rita said.

They started forward. Dusk looked at Heath. “You should stay in between us.”

Rita looked back at the hallway they had entered from. “Actually, Heath, you should stay at the doorway. Keep your eyes out for any trouble, but don’t fight anything.”

Dusk opened his mouth and began to argue, "I think-"

Rita rolled her eyes. "Just do it."

Heath acknowledged her command and went to the doorway. He pulled out a pair of rubber eyeballs and put them up to his face over his own eyes. “I’ll keep my eyes on the door mam.”

Rita would have face palmed if her hands weren't full of explosive hand cannons at the moment. “Heath!”

Heath put the eyes back into his pocket and pulled his guitar out instead. “Okay, I got it.”

Rita pointed for Dusk to go around the other side of the terminal so they could surround the beast. The old familiar feeling of adrenaline pumping hot through her veins came back. Even if it would be a simple kill, it was still a fight, and Rita loved a good fight. More so than anyone else on the team second only to Mini.

Rita rounded the corner with both of her guns aimed at the monster’s position. Dusk appeared on the other side his stave out and glowing with orange light. However, there was no need for the weapons as Rita discovered that only the bottom half of the Hellhound’s rock like corpse was laying here. It’s hot blood spilt out and steamed into the air.

Heath’s voice came out over the room. “Hey, guys.”

Rita growled. “Not now. We have a problem.”

The corpse was only half here. Where was the other half? What could have done this? It was just barely alive and moving. Rita was sure the tracker would work since it was still clearly sticking out of the beast’s rear end and blinking with a red light.

Heath’s voice was a little higher pitched. “Guys!”

Dusk looked up, his eyes widening as he stared at Rita. “Rita, I think-“

Rita cut him off. “No! Something took my kill! And I’m going to find it and kill it!”

Rita rounded the corner going back to Heath and froze. Her heart crawled its way up into her lungs as she saw Heath standing there at the doorway completely motionless. A long blade like claw the length of Heath’s arm to his elbow was pressed against his neck. The claw was connected to a massive blue furry hand which was attached to a muscular creature that was at least twelve feet tall, hunched over to fit in the room. With long spiraled horns on its head, ridged spines on its back, and a snout much like a twisted dog filled with snarling fangs Rita knew exactly what evil thing stood before them.

Her mouth felt dry as she whispered, "Fell Stalker."

The Fell Stalker’s other hand was holding onto the top half of the hellhound like it was a mere snack. It spoke in a voice like shattering bones. “You said you were going to kill me?”

The fell stalker’s claw moved with so little effort that Rita couldn’t believe it with her own two eyes. Heath’s neck spilt his life blood out and over onto the floor, and the fell stalker merely grabbed Heath’s body and threw it across the room much like someone might throw a ball. Heath’s body slammed through one of the terminals and landed in a puddle of the green goo. Rita watched in horror as his body melted into the puddle wherever his bare flesh touched it.

Dusk’s face broke out into a fit of rage and he stuck his stave forward. “That was our friend!”

Rita could barely move, hardly think. Her heart was falling to pieces inside, and she couldn’t understand what was happening. She didn’t believe it, she couldn’t believe that Heath had just died. The sounds of other voices crying out from the hallway behind the fell stalker. Something grabbed and shook her shoulder like an invisible hand. She looked but saw no one behind her, but she could feel the warmth from the touch and it was just enough to remind her that she still had other friends to think of. Rita raised her flame charged revolvers and poured every ounce of her pain into them. The guns glowed a hellish orange like never before and she put her heart into the fire.

Yet the damage had already been done.

Heath was dead and gone.

And it was all her fault.