Breaking Quarantine

Star let out a sigh of relief, but he quickly focused himself. They needed help and he wasn't doing anything...He pushed himself up onto his hooves and went over to his sword and picked it up. He scanned the situation and thought of what he could do. When he saw the half changeling collapse on the floor, he quickly sheathed his sword and galloped over to him. Though he would still stand by his word about not letting these ponies come along with him and Distortion, that doesn't mean he was going leave them to die. He quickly dragged Diamond away from the beast, hoping Distortion and those other ponies could handle it.

The Turned let out a staggered shriek as the electricity traveled up it's extended leg, and it's howl got even louder as the spell was boosted. The creature however didn't let the attack last for the full duration. About a second after Dis started boosting the spell, the monster jerked it's leg forward, which in turn pulled Thunder with it, and forced Dis back. Then it slung the extended limb back hard and fast, launching Thunder uncontrollably down the hallway, and bounding off of whatever she'd hit.

The monster then raised it's two forward spikes to impale the downed changeling, but the attack struck open ground as Star drug the Diamond's body away. As the monster was about to give chase, Sky stabbed into it's side while it was distracted. Her sword managing to pierce about halfway into the monsters hide even with her weight thrown into the attack. The following magic blast tore deeper into the wound as the spike of magic shot off the weapon, earning another screech of agony from the creature. With that scream, the monster collapsed to the ground and while letting out a few more groan like growls ceased moving.

Diamond's vision flickered in and out. He was moving without effort, so he was being dragged. He looked up to see.........Ambrosque? No. But a thestral was dragging him to safety none the less. Diamond would try to speak. "Drag................me......................outside................Trust.....me..........You're......pretty....by..the way..."

this would be the point where sky went into over kill mode, hacking and slashing at it blasting it every time the blade clashed against the beasts flesh almost in a blood rage, but no level of blood rage would convince her to feed on this monster, she had leant to control it long before, if she had'nt she would most likely be mutated by now. none the less she hacked at the creature aiming for its neck and soft points somewhat unaware of anything but the beast and what it was doing. her pupils had long since contracted and her irus now both a burning red.

Thunder was in pain. The mare had been thrown down the hall only to smash into the wall, then the floor. She was currently limp on the ground, groaning softly and trying in vain to muster the strength to stand up, a headache of monumental proportions now making her nauseous and see double, before she groaned and closed her eyes, wondering where her wrench was.

Star looked down at the...changeling? Pony? "What in the world are you..." He muttered under his breath before realizing that he...it? was talking to him. His ears pearked up a little to hear what it was saying. Something about drag outside and... "Pretty? Now I couldn't hav-." He paused mid sentence when he saw Distortion get hit by that beast. "Distortion!" He yelled, running quickly over to his partner on this mission. He knelt down and poked him. "You okay buddy?" He asked, keeping a wary eye on that pegasus and the beast. He seemed oblivious to the mare who was probably more hurt that his unicorn friend.

Distortion gritted his teeth as he was forced backwards, and then the jerking limb caught him on the tail end of its slash and he was propelled backwards a little ways before tumbling off onto the ground. He did at least have the presence of mind to try and control his brief flight, ultimately futile as the effort was, so when he came to a stop the worst he had were a few nasty bruises. They were pretty nasty though. Maybe he had a few broken bones under that? He wouldn't know, he was too focused on the bruises.

Lazily, his eyes turned upwards to look at Star. "Uh huh. Fine and dandy. I'll just, uh, lie here for a little while if that's alright."

Despite Sky's continued attacks, the creature didn't retaliate. There was a chance that the monster was well and truly dead, and if the slowing streams of steaming purple colored blood were anything to go by, it was VERY dead. Never the less, Sky's sword would eventually begin to hum with the constant use of energy, the weapon eventually becoming too hot to comfortably wield while the energy blast began to weaken.

For a few moments though, the area was relatively quiet given Sky's attacking, collective groaning and aching, as well as the shifting of crystal shrapnel and weapons across the floor...okay so maybe it wasn't that quiet, but there didn't seem to be too much noise coming from other areas besides them. At least not for the moment.

Thunder shifted and struggled to rise, before falling flat on the ground again, several sparks of electricity arcing up and down her mane and tail, while she looked around slowly. "When was there two of them?" She mumbled dazedly, staring at the monster, her vision still doubled. She soon let her head fall to the ground, and closed her eyes again, clutching her head with her hooves, groaning again as her eyes opened and she saw her wrench still attached to the creature's leg. "Someone...get me...my wrench..." She mumbled, wincing and pointing before she sighed and tried standing again, only to slump back to the floor.

Diamond lay there gasping for breath, trying to stay conscious. 'He' dispelled all the crystals in the area, allowing some of his precious magic return to him. It was enough to keep him conscious, but not enough to jump-start his motor skills. So he lay there, collecting his wits and his breath. "H-help....I n-need....."

once she had emptied her decades worth of pent-up agrestion, sky stopped slashing, dropped the now scorching sword in a puddle of the creatures blood where it 'hist' and 'sizzled'. she walked away from it, slumped against the nearest structually stable wall and looked to destortion her vision blurd by slight exorstion but good enough to recognise somepony. "hey, big boy dont let me forget that sword, ok?" she said with some struggle, resting her head against the wall.

Star stood back up and looked at the other three ponies that would probably be following him and Distortion, much to his dismay. He then knelt down next to his unicorn friend and heaved him onto his back. "Sorry bud. I'd rather us not stay here. The noise could have attract other beasts and I'd rather we not get killed during our mission. Plus we have to find our escort." He said, trotting down the hall. He paused for a moment and looked at the three who had killed the beast. "And...Thank you. Me and Distortion would probably be dead if you didn't deal with that thing. Then again...It had been following you two...But sadly, me and my unicorn friend have to set off...But...I suppose you can all come along if you really wanted to." He muttered that last part, glancing around to make sure nothing attacked them again. "Maybe one of you knows where north is?"

"Mhmm... thanks." Distortion muttered as he was lifted up onto Star's back. He chuckled weakly. "I'm always the dead weight around here, aren't I? Or maybe half-dead, currently..." He paused briefly, then continued, "I'll get better soon, don't worry. Maybe then you can stop carrying me and I can start carrying the team. Unlikely as that is."

The groups reprieve wouldn't last for long, for almost as soon as Star took a step down the hallway, the entire floor seemed to shake with a heavy dull thudding, a very familiar heavy dull thudding. The kind of dull heavy thudding that 3 out of the 5 had just spent who knows how long trying to get away and hide from, and it was steadily getting closer.

So looking at the standing point of everypony now had Star and Dis just starting down the left turn in the hallway, with the much shorter dead end turn and the remainder of the group behind them and around the bend. In the hallway before the bend where Sky, Diamond, and Thunder were as well as the dead creature was the partially collapsed floor that lead to the next floor and the skywalk hub that opened to the skywalks on the right. The suspended walkways snaking through the air and between other buildings as they angled away from the building they were all currently inside. Beyond the buildings, skywalks and even the barrier itself, the sun started it's decent, creeping steadily towards the horizon, though this area would be covered in shadows well before then thanks to the massive skybreakers that made up the town.

Thunder groaned and staggered to her hooves as she heard the new beast on it's way to them, before hastily and carefully running over to her wrench and shoving it into her saddlebags before shaking her head vigorously and looking over to Diamond, before moving over and trying to lift him up, then just pulling one of his legs over her shoulder and helping him to walk along the hallway, away from the noise of the monster. "Come on, guys! We need out of here, now!" She hissed, continuing on and trying to find a spot to hide.

Diamond felt the sensation of being picked up and partly carried. There wasn't much he could do about it. There was something his frill picked up. Concern. Tasty, tasty concern. He began to feed on it, however faint, slowly and gently, as to not startle or alert Thunder. His legs were starting to respond again.

Star rolled his eyes at Distortion's comments about himself. "You're not dead weight, Distortion. You pull your own weight just find." He sad, smiling to the unicorn. His smile soon faded when he felt the ground shaking. "...Time to run and hide? Or maybe fight?" He asked towards Distortion while turning around and running back to the other ponies. "Cause I think fighting it might end in us dying. I'd rather not die after all. We have to keep our promise to that...spider." He shuddered a little before continuing as he stopped and looked around for something to hide in. "And we need to find Stalwart." He said casually.

Sky stood up and holstered her sword. "I'm still capable to fight but considering you guyses state it would be suicide, I could neither take one on without some help and even then I don't like the odds." the vampony walked towards thunder and with a faint smile she gave her offer."would you like me to carry him, you really shouldn't be carrying much right now, and I'm still fairly intact par my wing" she mention looking at her limp wing. "and that's not that recent". Her smile widened slightly and got ready to carry diamond.

"Mm." Distortion said, not a little distracted. "If you say so. Right now, I'd settle for being dead weight if it means I don't get a concussion. Those things are nasty and I think I'm fine with just the one I got for the extent of my duration here." He sighed. "So, yeah. If you need me to shoot anything just aim me in the general direction and tell me to open fire."

As the group scrambled to hide, the thudding sounds got closer until a crescendo of a crash resounded out as the monster simply forced it's way through the blockade Sky had come across earlier. The monster continued it's slow gait down the hall, it's legs scraping and tearing at the walls as it was very nearly too big for the narrow space. Gradually, the monster came into view and surprisingly enough, it didn't seem to have any eyes along it's almost torpedo shaped body. The eight arched legs continued a steady pace as the monster barreled through the hallways, not really seeming to care what it went through, and not all that much seemed to pierce it's obviously hard hide.

As the monster rounded a corner, it's pointed head, or at least the part that could be assumed to be a head, angled slightly to the corpse of the more recently killed Turned. The Turned moved forward slowly before coming to a stop at the edge of the carcass. The point at it's head then split to reveal it to be something closer to a beak and a few tentacle like tongues seemed to reach out to the corpse. These wrapped around part of it and began to drag the body into the open and waiting maw.

"Well what I need from you is to stay quite when we see it." Star said glancing around. He quickly ran over to some overturned desks, putting Distortion down behind one as he looked at the door once before hiding behind the desk himself. He took several deep breaths as he heard sounds of the Turned coming closer. He looked at Distortion, holding a hoof in front of his mouth before peeking over the edge of the desk to see what the abomination was doing. Then he quickly hide back behind the desk, looking like he'd just seen a ghost. That thing...had tentacles...He wondered why the thing hadn't the tentacles earlier when they had been running, but he quickly shook that thought out of his head.

Thunder did not feel Diamond feeding as he was, as she had more to worry about at that moment, and she slipped into the room after Star and Distortion, and slipped behind a separate desk from those two, setting Diamond down slowly and carefully to make no sound. "Shhh." She whispered, a hoof over his mouth as she leaned out from behind the desk to peek and see if or when the Turned would come by. She then would slip back behind the desk and sit down tiredly, panting lightly and trying to stay quiet.

Diamond was set on the ground. The floor in and of itself was cold, but comfortable. He shifted his weight so it wasn't anywhere near his sensory frill. Thunder was such a nice pony, carrying him to safety. He lay there as she put a hoof over his mouth. He continued lightly feeding and tried to project a minor aura of calming onto Thunder to try and steady her breathing.

Distortion nodded quietly as he was set down behind an overturned desk, his rune gun floating by his side - similarly behind the desk - but he made no motion to fire it. Instead, he continued to remain silent as Star held a hoof in front of his mouth. He didn't even decide to peek out and see what Star had evidently seen, now that the latter was now looking as if he'd seen a ghost. He guessed he was better off not knowing, and simply readied himself for any possible confrontation.

As the tentacle like tongues of the still living Turned drug the corpse into the waiting maw, it closed with a solid and quick crush, making the act of breaking the dead Turned's hide and bones look like an easy feat. The the beak seperated again and it went in for another bite. Given the size of the monster, it'd have the dead one gone in only a couple more chomps, but for the moment, the monster was seemingly content with the munching on the corpse it was eating.