Breaking Quarantine

Flying up to the opening in the building where a chunk of the wall was missing and where the rubble fell from, Star wouldn't see anything immediately. The door to the room that he was looking into was still moving along it's hinges, trying to re-settle into the lowest point.

Ician wouldn't see anything other than the hole in the wall because of the angle. He also wouldn't see anything around the sides, though where anypony/thing was supposed to come from other than from ahead or behind them given the path they were on was already at least 4 stories above the ground.

"Eh." Distortion shrugged, watching as Star flew up to the opening. He started to turn around in circles, making it look as if he was chasing his tail but keeping a lookout on both in front and behind him as well as he could. The sides also warranted attention, just in case there was some sort of sniper waiting there. Granted, he probably wouldn't be able to see a well-hidden sniper... but he could try.

Star hesitantly looked at the moving door. He looked down at Distortion. "Alright...I think whatever it was went inside...If I don't come back in...Hmm...five minutes, think I'm dead, kay? Kay." He didn't give Distortion time to answer before he readied himself for what was surely to come and flew into the opening, through the doorway. It was definitely not a good idea to go alone, but didn't care right now.

It was either good fortune, incredible timing, a blessing in disguise, or some combination of the three that Star moved when he did. For just moments after he flew through the door, an explosion erupted out from behind him. The force knocking the door off it's hinges and probably disorienting the thestral, but not powerful enough to do major damage. The rumble of collapsing building wreckage from the room he'd flown through was considerably more concerning since it mean he was now trapped in the building with whatever had orchestrated this.

Down below, Dis would see the explosion, but only have a few moments to really watch it as rubble from it began to rain down on the walkway. As it fell, some other things jumped out of the windows of surrounding buildings. Very soon, there was a rough circle of ponies wielding a variety of improvised weapons around Dis. Stuff from the simple brick to a piece of rusty pipe. One of the assailants said, "give us all ya got and we might let ya walk away from this with nothing worse than a limp, hehehe," with a chuckle at the end to reinforce the sinister intent among the assailants.

"Well, I mean, if you absolutely insist." Distortion shrugged. His magic was tingling. He reinforced the haste enchantment on his cloak. As quickly as he could, he raised his rune gun and fired at the one who had spoken.

Star roughly landed on the floor, looking behind him in shook. "What the buck?! Awww no...This is really bad...Really, really bad...I'm trapped in a building an Distortion is outside...alone...Damn my brain and the fact that I think of the worst thing to do in situations like this!" He quickly stood up and dusted himself off. He put the knife back in his saddlebags and grabbed his sword with his mouth. "Buck my life..." He started to walk down the halls of the building in hopes that he can find a way out of it. He really hoped that Distortion was going to be alright.

Not expecting the blast, the speaker was hit with the brunt of the small fireball. While he wasn't dead, he was definitely screaming and cursing while flailing about to try and extinguish the flames. That however was the catalyst it would seem for the others as they suddenly attacked. Two of them hurled bricks at Ician, chucking the projectiles with a good amount of force but nothing that a muscular earth pony wouldn't be able to do. Four others charged forwards with a mix of melee weapons, 2 rusty pipes, one rebar with some concrete still clinging to it, and one with what appeared to be an uprooted sign.

Back in the building, just as Star was rounding a corner, a 2x4 board was swung to try and catch him by surprise. The stallion was wearing a mix of rag-tag clothes that had been torn and fixed back up a nearly countless number of times. While they couldn't compare because they couldn't see each other, this was similar attire to the group that was busy assaulting Dis down below.

"Isn't this a bit much?" Distortion asked, ducking his head to the side to dodge the bricks while firing his gun at the incoming horde of four melee attackers as fast as he could, targeting the closest one - hopefully it would send him tumbling back into the others. "Come on, universe, make this a little fairer won't you?"

Star was indeed caught by surprise and took the board to the face. He fell back on his back, dropping the sword in his mouth as he scream in pain. "Ah! Did someone get the number of that carriage that hit me...?" His head fell to the ground consciousness slowly slipping. He abruptly slapped himself and shook his head. "Blah...Okay what the hell hit me!?" He slowly lifted his head to see a stallion holding a board. "Ah great..." He looked at his sword that was on the ground and quickly tried to grab it before the stallion did.

The attackers would be repelled, but only one at a time since they were converging on Dis from several directions. This however allowed the last of them to get rather close and actually take a swing at the stallion. The brick throwers would however continue launching their own projectiles since there was no shortage of loose rubble given what was already on the elevated walkway and what was freshly knocked onto it by the explosion moments prior.

As for the stallion confronting Star, as he saw him going for the sword. Instead of going for the sword, he brought down the 2x4 again in a slashing motion, in an attempt to just neutralize Star in general instead of fighting for control of the superior weapon.

Just as the attacker swung at him, Distortion reinforced the passive protection enchantment on his cloak as far as it would go, hoping that it was enough to absorb the blow. As soon as his gun was free, he would wheel around and shoot him.

He kept an eye out for the brick throwers, relying on his haste-enchanted cloak to give him the speed to evade the projectiles for long enough to finish off the melee attackers.

Star was once again hit by the board, falling back to the ground. "I'm gonna have a bruise after all of this..." He shook his head stood up as quickly as he could, taking a few steps away from the stallion. He glared at the stallion. "Hmm...Let me guess...You're a raider maybe?" He said, a small smile spread across his lips. He lower his head and charged at the stallion as fast as he could.

The stallion in the building with Star didn't say anything, and with the bandanna covering his muzzle, Star couldn't see his face. The stallion was about to take another swing with his weapon when Star charged forward, tackling into the stallion and knocking him off balance. Though while he stumbled back and smashed into a wall, he didn't lose the grip on his weapon. After a few staggered seconds, he brought the weapon back around in another swing, trying to still hit Star.

While the cloak prevented the worse of the damage, it was still a forceful hit and the enchanted cloth wouldn't stop all of it. Though the pretty horrible burns from the fireball shot at point blank made for a pretty bad trade compared to bruise he'd inflicted on Dis. The brick throwers weren't relenting though, still chucking their projectiles while this was going on.

One of the bricks hit Distortion in the face, sending his head snapping backwards. Disoriented as he was, he aimed in the general direction of the brick-throwers and let loose a series of shots, hoping to get lucky. Surely the universe owed him, after all that.

Star quickly picked up his sword and blocked the incoming attack from the board. "Should have grabbed the sword when you had the chance." He smirked, flapping his wings a few times to get him a fare distance away from the stallion. "It was nice getting hit in the head by ya, but I gotta split." He quickly turned around and started to gallop down the hall as fast as he could. He needed to find a way out of this building. He really hoped that Distortion was handling himself alright.

While the volley didn't hit anypony, it did cause them to abandon the pile of bricks they were at, eliminating their ammo source. Looking to make a get away, the two still standing ponies broke off and dove back into the towering buildings though a hole in the wall. The ones from before that had been hit or at least driven back by Dis's earlier shots were also breaking off and diving back into buildings to either regroup and/or nurse their wounds. From the lower windows, some other ponies still continued to throw bricks or whatever they could at Dis. From above a figure was in mid dive on Dis's position wielding an improvised spear in the form of a knife strapped to a pole, but this one was still rather high and out of sight.

As Star fled, the stallion followed suit, trying to catch up and take out the fleeing thestral. Star though would easily be able to keep ahead of him and after a few random turns, he would come to a room with a large shattered window overlooking the road they were on just moments before. He would see Dis down below firing a volley seemingly at random at the fleeing ponies on the elevated walkway, and the figure descending on his position. The aerial attack though was still above where Star was, allowing for interception especially considering that the attacker seemed unaware of Star's presence.

"Gah!" Another brick hit his head proper, causing Distortion to stumble forward with blood trickling down his face. "A'right. Enough is... enough."

He fell flat to the ground, pressing himself against it, as he fired at the remaining brick-throwers from the lower windows.

Star looked at the figure that had a makeshift spear and down at Distortion. He took a peak behind his back to see if that stallion was still following before turning forward. "Oh no you don't." He galloped at the window and jumped out of it, opening his wings and flapping once he was on the other side of the window. He flew straight at the diving figure, swinging a hoof once he was close enough.

The barrage at the building left more of the small scorch marks, and a few screams of fleeing ponies as they either fled or were lit on fire. Either way, the barrage of bricks temporarily ended as they fled. Then there was an 'oof' from above him that would likely draw his attention.

Star was easily able to slam into the diving pony since he wasn't expecting the thestral to side swipe him. The blow from Star causing the pegasi's grip on the 'spear' to slip. With his weapon gone, the pony turned about to try and deliver a kick to Star. The blow however would never land as the screams from the building that ponies had been throwing bricks suddenly hiked up in volume and intensity. There was a sound of crumbling infrastructure that accompanied it and then the screams went quiet.

Suddenly, a wounded attack jumped out of the building onto the road way. She was limping heavily, blood trailing behind her from an injury on her front left leg and from the limply hanging, obviously broken and shattered wings at her sides. The pegasi that had been fighting Star turned and flew to her, but before he even got halfway to her, a large chunk of building was launched off, crushing the fleeing pony instantly. Only the end of her lead hoof and a large splatter of blood remained to be seen.

"Shimmer!" the pegasi yelled out as the mare was crushed, but then the assailant revealed itself. The cloud of dust from the the building quickly cleared to reveal something that for lack of better description could only be seen as an abomination. A grotesque mix of bare exposed flesh and fur, the monster had more mouths than limbs, but no real visible head. From about half the mouths emerged eye stalks almost like a snails, and the creature seemed to drag about half of itself along the rubble regardless of what injuries it might sustain. A bellowing roar erupted from the beast, but from which mouth was a mystery.

The beast launched itself from the building and partially onto the walkway, partially onto the chunk of wall that had crushed Shimmer. It let out another roar and began to charge towards the ponies with a sickening combination of sounds. The pegasi cursed harshly before turning and fleeing the scene, setting the trend as the other attackers that were still alive fled as well.

Star looked down at the beast and Distortion. "Distortion get out of there!" He shouted, quickly trying to fly down to him and maybe pick him up so they could get away. He looked at the pegasus that had fled. He was shaking in fright. He didn't want to fly down to Distortion where the beast bout easily get him, but he also didn't want to leave Distortion alone down there with the beast.

"Nah... Nah't ganna die right now. Mebbe..." Distortion swayed on his hooves, the wounds getting to him. "Mebbe later..."

Reaching into the reserves of his magic might, he aimed his gun at the abomination, using his magic to pump the power of the rune gun projectile up as high as it would go, and fired.

The rune gun shuddered and shook violently as the rune experienced a power surge well beyond what it should have been exposed to. Despite the shaking, the vibrating, and the sudden spike in temperature from the almost magical overload, there was the tell tale 'KA-THUNK' of the fireball launching out of the barrel of the rune gun.

The abomination was hit squarely in the... well it hit squarely on the monster. The beast let out a pain filled cry that gradually shifted to one of unbridled rage. When it lumbered forward through the cloud of smoke caused by the fireball, the monster had a lot of burn and scorch marks along the point of impact, but it was still moving and now looked exceedingly pissed. With another roar, it surged forward, dragging it's back half through rubble without a single care about the injuries and tearing flesh caused by the action, and rapidly closing the distance between Dis and itself.

Star quickly flew as fast as he could down to Distortion. "I'm not letting you die today!" He shouted, putting his sword back into it's shaft. Once he was close enough he could grab the stallion and throw him onto his back. "Hold on!" He quickly took a harsh turn upwards hoping against all hope that the beast couldn't follow.

"Heh..." By the time Star was coming to his aid, Distortion was practically delirious from his injuries. "Hey look... Some kinda angel 'r... Somethin'..." He raised his hoof weakly. "Why're you here? Come ta... Ta take me away?"

Managing to scoop up Dis easily before the lumbering monster, Star took off well out of reach of the monster. Luckily for him, the monster seemed to be entirely earthbound and only chased them for a a moment or two before disappearing inside a building as something else apparently caught it's interest.

Flying up as they did would be somewhat disorienting as the buildings just seemed to continue upwards, and more walkways loomed above them.