Slime Rancher: Attack of The Rads!

Act: 3 The Indigo Quary

Bea put on the pair of Night Glasses Mochi Miles got her for her birthday. They were an incredible piece of technology that allowed ranchers to see in the darkness, and look incredibly stylish at the same time. She put the glasses on and pressed the button on the side of them to activate the night vision feature. The world around the passage became a blindingly bright white, the cave however lost its dark veil, and Bea was able to see clearly within the passage. She walked in, getting out of the whiteness of the outside world. She walked at a decently quick pace, suddenly, when she wasn't paying attention, she tripped over a small stray rock from the explosion. Bea rolled over onto her back and grasped her knee. It was bleeding, as there was almost no skin left on it. Suddenly she heard a popping sound, and the sound of wing beats in the air and...

Growling?

A cool substance dripped onto Bea's forehead. It glowed in the dim light, causing a blinding glow through the Night Glasses. She looked upwards, towards the low, guttural growling noise. Her eyes landed upon a Phospher largo, merged with what she couldn't tell. This wasn't a normal largo, no, something was clearly different. This largo wasn't happy and hungry like it should've been, it was angry.

Really angry

It's eyes were a bright shade of red and they seemed dry, as if it hadn't blinked in a while. It opened its little mouth and bit Beatrix. She immediately took action to this. She hopped up, and started looking for the vac pack. Once she did, she made a dead sprint for it and grabbed it whilst sliding on the ground to slow her momentum. She got back up and started vacing the largo. It was pulled to the nozzle, unable to fit within. It opened its jaws, and almost bit down, but before it did, Bea launched it outside. Before it was able to scoot back over to attack Bea, she ran towards where the cave led, only to faceplant into a cold, flat, stone wall as soon as she reached daylight. She took a few steps back, rubbing her throbbing forehead, who knew rock hurt?

When Beatrix finally got her bearings after running for her life, she realized that the wall was no ordinary wall, but it was much more: A slime gate. The gate yawned before her, old, cracked, mossy, and a small amount of blood where she had made impact with the gate. These slime gates were rarely found among the Far, Far Range. They could only be opened by ancient stone keys called Slime Keys usually found under massive Gorgos that were even bigger (and...well...wider to say the east) than Largos that sat in one place for all their lives waiting for littler slimes to come and toss food into it's mouth. Bea rummaged through her satchel looking for a key she had picked up earlier that week. Once she found it, still amazed that it fit into the bag, she put it near the gate. The top portion of the key started to glow, as the keys usually did once placed near the gate. One mysterious thing about the slime keys that science never figured out, the top portion of the keys would glow and look like the slime that was specifically found behind the gate. Bea thought about this and looked closer at the key. It was glowing... green? Yes, indeed the body of the slime was glowing a bright shade of green and the eyes an even brighter, almost blinding shade of green too!

The key then floated out of Bea's hands and inserted itself into the massive keyhole in the gate. Once inside, it then turned clockwise, and then turned to dust. Suddenly, the ground below Beatrix's feet began to violently shake as the massive stone door slid into the ground slowly but surely. Through the gateway, Bea could hear the jolly "woohoo!" of slimes bouncing off of the cave walls.

Bea really didn't want to go into the cave, remembering once more of what happened to poor Thora West. However, she had to push herself to go in and find out what had put so much radiation into Thora's bloodstream. If Bea didn't go into this gate right here, right now, whatever laid inside would continue to terrorize ranchers who would enter.

Bea took one reluctant step into the yawning entrance...

(Author's Notes: I know, I know, I'm a horrible writer for putting off finishing and publishing this part for so long, but I needed to go off and get not only other personal matters taken care of, but I needed to get more inspiration without pulling stuff out of nowhere that didn't match with what the story was about. To anyone who might still be interested in this and have somehow been awaiting this part eagerly, sorry for the long wait, thank you, everyone for all the support on this story, expect more soon!)

                      ~Missy