Aio

“You know my grandfather told me stories of the earlier 21^st century”, “yeah, what was it this time? The fact he watched the magic fall to earth with Hallie’s comet in 2234 or the earthquake tsunami?” He laughs his deep voice echoing throughout the chamber halls of the underground, “correction, it was a dirt tsunami and yes there is a difference”. Aio, stops letting the pick axe tap the ground “you really believe all that non-sense your grandparents told you?” wiping his face yet to only smudging his arm sweat against the dirt and sweet on his oak skinned face. “Duh, it’s because it is facts, Aio” he says jerking his neck to sway his red curly hair out of his face highly sugar pale face. His dull green eyes piercing through the shadow cast on his face by the monstrous height of the canyon walls all around him.

“So Yaul, what does your grandfather say about being a treasure hunter? Oouuu better yet, what does he say about us being teamed up with a biofluorescence-humanoid?”, “Cursed” his words left Aio in a state of awe… “Hey!” a voice from above interrupts with an oddly misplaced southern twang, “oh god, here she comes”. The overbearing excitement from the top of what appeared to be a old building over taken by a bushel of vines and trees, she lands close enough to make the ground beneath both Aio and Yaul shake while also stumble a till for the cracks merging from the ground below her, “you wanna watch that or do you not mind caving the ground below us in?”

She moved closer into the light periodic candle lights dimly lighting the mine from above. Her red skin allowing the glow of yellow and orange blending across her flawless rose skin. Her purple iris’ piercing through the darkness “all this babbling about the ancient world”, “It’s not blabber, Zate!, it’s history. Inter-galactic history” Zate laughs at Yaul even with his expression being more stone than comforting, she brushes past them both “outta the way, yappers” Zate shouts before lifting her arm to the rubble blocking their path, her hand glowing before letting off a kinetic pulse blast. “Hey watch it with that”, “what you looked like you guys were struggling, so thought I’d land a hand anyway, she whips her two floating tentacles attached to her head that had not a single hair on her body. She walks ahead further into the darkness, the quick hissing sound when a red flair lights up and emitting itself breaking through the darkness in the cave. “you see anything Zate?” as she walks further in the darkness conquering her presences visually making her smaller the further, she walked. “It’s nothing” she says “nothing…that can’t be right” Aio growing aggravated, he runs into the tunnel after her.

“It can’t be true, that…that bastard gave us a fake location?” His thoughts racing already plotting revenge, “don’t work yourself up and all for nothing at that”, “ugh, you are not allowed to read my mind it’s against company rules” she pays no mind to his comments “ let me guess once I’m fired, you’ll go back to dry humping each other? ”Aio grunts before squinting his eyes to try and see in the darkness “Is….that actually working for you?” Zate ask, he cuts a side eye “no, I can’t see a damn thing” his less then energetic sarcastic tone causes her to chuckles as his gaze turns upward, “well let’s continue there has to be something down here, Anything!” For a treasure hunter he had shit luck and he knew it or luck so bad that sometimes it was good luck, so he had nothing to lose. How he got lucky enough to end up assigned to a pair like Zate and Yaul was beyond him; It only begin to cross his mind within the last few months.

He stumbles a little making his way through the forever looming darkness, a blackness shallowing him. “will you wait before you fall into a pit…again” her tone was dry, almost dragging. He waits as Zate’s footsteps comes closer, the shining red light glowing behind him increases in intensity, “so, nobody was going to let me know about coming down?” Yaul’s yelling echoes throughout the darkness “uh, Zate?” his voice filled with nervousness’ “can you light it up in here?” he fakes a chuckle extending her arms and releasing the light from her hand , it shoots straight ahead lightning up the cave revealing they only scratched the surface as if  it was a massive hole he could’ve stepped in standing almost digging into the top of the cave, the way it almost looked absorbed into the boulders gathered above. “Old bell tower? No, the giant clock looking at him directly in the eyes made it clear no bell could ever fit on top and even if it could, where was it now?” Aio says to himself while peering over the edge into the blackening abyss below.

“How do you want to approach this?” Zate asked, “where is the hoover pack?”, “you mean that 20lb shell on your back” he looks in confusion before spinning in circles trying to see it. As both Yaul and Zate make their way down further into the darkness, Aio struggles a little, clumsily hitting the power button turning it on putting the anti-gravity pulse lifting him a few feet off the ground his heart racing causes him to sweat. His stomach flips and tumbles as he looks down the hole. “Hey, you coming or you just want to chill up there playing with the anti-gravity backpack?” a loud scream come from above with a pop sound as he comes flying right by them both barely being missed, Aio shoots up the steps and slams into what could only be described as a metal door. It takes them sometime walking up two long pair of steps while vines took over them; the pathway the old stone splintering and cracking, even chipped in areas the stain of dirt on the old white marble pillars. This building was centuries old if not a millennia, Yaul tried to get  a scan on the build. Hell, even a location request wasn’t even not being recognized concerned Yaul. He begins to jog a little to catch up to Zate, come up to the top of the steps seeing  Aio there rubbing his head “So, that was unexpected” he says as they approach him “let me see” Zate demanded, he knee jerks leaning forward as she creates another ball of light in his hand, this one smaller, brighter. She looks carefully moving some of Aio’s black wool curly hairs out of the way  “it’s a scrape, it’s nothing”, “yeah” he says chuckling “It feels more like my head is splitting open”, “hold still” she puts a finger in her mouth pulling out a swab of bright pink saliva, placing it along his wound. “that’s against the roles…using your powers on a co-contactor”, “Oh shhhh, you and those stupid rules”.

Yaul knocks at the heavy iron door to which Zate, only then realizing how large it’s in comparison. It was intimidating to say the least as it towered over them, “It won’t open” Yaul says “probably because you’re not supposed to open it like that” while both Yaul and Zate look around for anything to resembled a button. Aio’s scrape immediately heals the head aching pain drifting off with it, He leans forward as his hands hit the ground, one of the blocks begins to sink in Aio screams for help as he tries to jerk his hand back a hand grabs his breaking through the sinking floor. He tries to get a better look at who or what is gripping him, it actually was a skeleton hand “A spell? “he thought to himself, he struggles harder, tugging and pulling to no success. Zate and Yaul conga behind Aio tugging on him hoping to pull him out when a quick sound of metal being released sent Aio into a blood curling scream “Stop…..stop! Stop tugging me” he breathes fast and heavy through his gritted teeth, the build of salvia making him look like a rapid dog before his breathing slower as Zate and Yaul let go the croaking of the heavy doors behind them opens; a little slow at first but once it gained momentum and was fully open.

The spike retracts back into the floor along with the skeleton hand. As Zate stands she puts a hand on his shoulder, “you stay and relax, Yaul you’re with me” she says as she nods her head; both enter the room. It was an empty, recreating the ball of light and shooting it into the air, “Yaul!” you got anything?”, “give me a sec “his eyes glow a ghostly indigo as he looks around the room, there…there was something that attracts his attention. He follows it with Zate behind him, his hair begins to defy gravity the further they move into the room. “you hear that?” Zate says “hear what?” he looks around as she darts past him to a area in the room her light didn’t reach “what is that?” Yaul asked as Zate picked it up it was cube in nature “it’s a Rub-brix”, “you mean a Rubrik’s Cube?”, “no, a Rub-brix is different. It was a gift to humanity during your species technological advancement and acceptance to the international embassy.” Yaul tries to touch it only to get slapped on the hand by Zate who quickly puts it in a compartment to of her anti-gravity backpack. “come, we have to get out of here and back to headquarters before other hunters show up” With Yaul and her walking past Aio, he’s slow to get up whimpers to his feet following behind.