Black out

[Zenith]

Keen eyes watched the cowboy out of his peripherals as Markus focused upon the nasty beast that was in the middle of this room and then out of the blue, the lights flashed on. For five seconds time, it's all Markus needed to squint and look around the room - taking in all that was around him. Instantly, his mind began mapping out distances to things - projecting trajectories and fielding out the line-of-sight between objects with his mind's eye. Still squinting, the lights flashed and they were out again -- but not before insanity struck.

Obviously, the reaction of the creature against the bots wasn't very friendly and when the lights beamed brightly, it freaked out. Literally. The girl was dropped, in which Markus hadn't had time to move her at all, but the weight of the beast wasn't so much and it didn't remain on her -- it lunged. Hungrily.

Mark ducked beneath the flailing arms and the snarling beast. With a step to the left and then a swift spin like a ballet dancer, Mark spun counter-clockwise, standing from his ducking motion to bring his right arm around the backside of the beast's head. Problem was, the proximity was so close that Mark's right knee would either be impacted and take them both to the ground or heave into the Scout's chest and render the beast slightly immobile until it found a sharp blade punching through the left shoulder blade.

The his right elbow would rub against the rubbery flesh of the beast as the blade came to gnaw toward the monster's left shoulder joint, a bit creepy in reality, however Mark only thought about surviving at the moment - not how sick-nasty this fiend was. With his left hand out for support and balance, Markus would have attempted to push over and pin the beast down while it was on it's face and he on it's back. Trial and Error.

[Nayt]

Johnny and Markus-- Natalie was able to see them well enough. The cowboy still had her attention the most, however, as he approached with the most caution, and was careful enough to suggest to her, through body language, to remain quiet and calm. This, Natalie attempted to the best of her ability. She retracted her arm and held it close to her chest again, and to (futilely) try and calm herself, shut her eyes and bite her lower lip. It was impossible to remain calm under these circumstances, but she tried her best, even when lights flashed against her shut eyes, and the beast squirmed, initially, to try and avoid the inevitable fall.

And then it fell. It fell, she fell, and Johnny fell-- all at once, but there was a stark difference between her and the other two that fell from the ceiling: Natalie had been hanging upside-down.

Crack.

The very fact that she landed upon her head dulled the pain of the beast half-way laying upon her. It dulled most things, in fact. She lay upon the floor in a crumpled heap, partially on her back until the creature rolled away from her, and pushed her a bit, whereupon Natalie lay upon her side. She wasn't moving, but her eyes were still open-- and more importantly, her heart was still beating and she breathing. Falling head first had done a number on her, and nullified most feeling for the moment. She was disoriented and dazed, likely with a massive concussion-- which had to be the case. She was alive, but bleeding from the head.

No matter what, at the very moment, she wouldn't respond to stimulus; no words or touch or anything of the like. Natalie was awake, but at the same time . . . she wasn't.

[Paroxysm]

Everything blurred in a sudden, unrelenting moment. The second Johnny hit the floor, the creature’s tail was thrown off of him, violently. A sudden surge of energy, most likely in the form of an adrenaline rush, washed over him, as he frantically searched about him. He was fine, his leg was sore, he was bleeding, small cuts, but nothing too extravagant.

“Fu-,” Johnny took in a deep breath of air, trying to keep his cool. “-ck.”

If the man’s reflexes had been better, he could have very well at least offered support for the girl, used himself as a cushion, anything, really. But at the very least, she still seemed fine, he’d suffered plenty of head wounds himself, at least. And her neck wasn’t broken, either. At least, that was his general prognosis.

“Shit, shit.”

Johnny was at a complete disregard for the monster and Markus, taking only a few seconds to confirm that they weren’t making their way to the injured girl and disoriented cowboy. Thankfully, the monster and its fighter, had their hands full with each other.

Quickly, the man ripped his shirt from his body, tearing much of it off in the process, enough to cover the wound, remembering quite well that head wounds bled the most.

The wound on the girls’ head didn’t seem too serious, it knocked her unconscious, but if she was lucky, she might not even need stitches. If she did, the poor girl had some serious bad luck.

Johnny made an effort to straighten the girl out, keeping her laid flat against the floor, the strips of clothing, well taken care of by the robots (at least when they were in shirt form), were pressed firmly against the girl’s wound, the man would have to keep the pressure applied for a considerable amount of time, well, considerable for what the situation was. At the very least, they were in the Med-Bay. It helped, really.

This was all the man could do for the girl and hopefully, it would be enough. After ten or fifteen minutes, he could check to see if the wound was still bleeding heavily, and perhaps the girl would regain conscious in that time. If she did, it would have been much easier to carry her out, he couldn’t move her just yet, not without knowing if she was hurt in any other way.

“Come on, kid.” Johnny uttered, turning his gaze onto Markus and the monster. He didn't say anything, he didn't think he had to. Hell, with as hard as Markus was fighting for the kid, even a bastard like Johnny felt a tinge of respect for the man. It didn't help that both the child's and the man's life were resting on Markus' shoulders, either.

[paper_stars]

The beast was tangled amongst the man. It’s vessel that could be considered a heart pumped the strange blood through the remaining of its body. In truth, it could leave without it’s tail. Like a lizard in that way, it may not be able to grow it back but it wouldn’t die from the loss of its tail or even the amount of blood that oozed from the wound.

It was truly epic in a sense, as it’s jaws opened to snap at Mark’s face as his knee came up to slam into the creatures chest, Markus would feel when his knee did hit, it was like slamming it into concrete. It would be hard to say if the blow actually hurt the beast or not, though when his knee did hit the outer casing of the creatures chest seemed to almost crack.

As though pain was the least on its mind as Markus’s blade cut through it’s shoulder. It clawed at him, the way an animal would. The difference between man and beast is that a animal only know how to fight in a certain way, how kill in a certain way. For example, most wild beasts go for the neck. But a human, a human has the advantage of being able to adapt and actually think rather than simply follow the instinct.. the desire to kill and eat its prey.

However it had an advantage of it’s own, the strange shape of it’s head and the length of its neck. When Markus does push it over to be pinned against the floor the beast is able to turn its head almost all the way back and snap it’s jaws around the bicep of the man.

If it does get it’s teeth within his arm, it’s jaw would ultimately lock in place so the creature could yank its head in an attempt to tear the human’s arm off, or in the least dislodge it from the socket and render that arm useless.

[Zenith]

The impact against the beasts knee was like kneeing a totem in the sparring room, where the wood barely gave beneath the pain, and jolts of nerve endings surged through his leg -- but his mind was elsewhere. Pain didn't concern Markus until after the fact -- a limb lost wouldn't be noticed until the fight was finished and the damage was accessed. Upon riding the beast to the ground, razor sharp claws slide down Mark's back - the bare flesh splitting open and shredding like ribbons on a birthday present, leaving three quarter inch deep gashes across about a foot of his back. The fight or flight reaction kicked in when this occurred and his body weight pinned the great monster to the ground with a thud.

Sweat poured from his brow as he witnessed in the pale blue light, the head swiveling around and Markus snarled, jerking back his right arm as the snapping jaw came at him. With Mark's left hand, he shoved the head of the beast off to the right side, leaving a tender neck exposed and with gripped thighs and tightening muscles, Mark stabbed for where the jugular would have been on a man. Should the blade penetrate, with the serrated ease that it should - separating the anchored armor scales aside, Mark would then twist the blade -- wrenching on it hard within the beast's neck.

Limbs slashed at the ground and scattered around violently, as the monster struggled beneath Markus' weight, unable to lift itself on this slick, blood-and-sweat covered floor within the Med Bay, which is why the survivor clenched hard onto the beast, to not be bucked off the bronco, so easily...
Out of the corner of his eye, Mark saw the cowboy retrieving the girl carefully and he nodded to the man ... or was it a bucked jostle? "Don't ... move ... her ... head!" Markus said, struggling to keep the beast at bay until the deathblow would be dealt.

[Paroxysm]

Johnny didn’t bother replying to Markus’ statement, he had already taken proper measures to not move the child’s head, whilst still keeping applied pressure on the wound. The girl was in no danger right now, well, not with her wound, at least. The monster was still an obvious problem.

Still, the man kept most of his attention focused on the girl, trying his best to disregard the fight happening around him and the child, not that he was scared, but he didn’t want to make a mistake with handling the girl. If she came to and could move, he wouldn’t even bother staying in the Med-Bay any longer, instead choosing a strategic retreat over watching the outcome. If the thing lived and found its way to them later, then Markus obviously failed, if it died, and Markus found them--victory was had. There was no reason to stay at risk any longer than necessary, not with as hard as the two men had to work to force the monster to relinquish the child from its grip in the first place.

[paper_stars]

It’s head was slammed off to the side, giving a perfect opening for Markus to jabbed the blade in for the kill. When the knife was embedded into its neck and then twisted so viciously, its jaws would part as it gave out a horrendous cry.
As though a man screaming for it, the beast called out into the darkness, called out past the glowing blue lights.. only to be met by its echoing scream and the walls that were enclosed around it. No one, would hear its cries outside of the bunker, no one would come to its rescue as it is destroyed by this human’s hand.

As it thrashed, desperate to cling to life. The roles had been switched, it pondered for a moment as if it had thoughts of it’s own; that this must be what it was like for his yummies. That this death must be what the humans saw every time it had tore its jaw into the human’s neck.

Oh how it remember that sweet taste and their wonderful screams. Was it’s screams wonderful to the ears of this human? Was its dying suffering wonderful?

As though it wished to speak of such a question, the beasties beady eyes looked back at Markus as the last bit of life slowly slipped from its grasp and it remembered, the joy it took from killing humans.

As the last essence of it’s life disappeared and the beasts body settled against its own pool of blood, the lights suddenly came on again.

Though perhaps not as bright as before, they flickered on slowly.

The generator was once again running.

And they would all see the dead creature, and the two men would be able to witness the sudden disintegration of its body as it seemed to melt. The bones melted into nothing and all that remained was its outer skin and strange colored blood.

[Zenith]

On his knees, Markus' eyes lowered to the melting beast beneath him. Within seconds, it was completely gone and left Mark sitting there, resting and breathing heavily. Knife in hand, the man turned his head slowly, the sweat dripping from his body as the bruises formulated across his arms and back. His eyes lifted slowly, body heaving - looking toward the cowboy and the little kid, his eyes filled with concern now at her lifeless body.

"Is she alive ...?"

Markus questioned as he stood, wincing at the pain that acted like a beacon from his back. Trying not to flex his back, Mark shuffled over to the girl, watching silently. "Fuckin' thing hacked into me good ... we need to get the doctor in here or try and figure out how to use this medical equipment..." Mark stood, wincing again. He looked around for the robots that were doing the medical testing before moving over to a panel on the wall and touching it.

"Computer. Locate the Doctor..."

[Skylar]

The hall was longer then she had remembered. Or maybe she took a wrong turn. One thing was for certain, she didn’t look back. Instead she tossed open the nearest doors where a nasty odor hit her nostrils with fury. Her hand came to her face, covering her nose just as she heard his voice.

"Computer. Locate the Doctor..."

“Markus!” She ran directly toward him, at first not noticing anything else. “You said you’d come back, and something tried to get in, it was trying to get in Markus, knocking and knocking and knocking....” Her words trailed off as she began to look around the room.

There was a gooey mess all over the floor, Markus looked like he had been to hell and back, the cowboy that had woke up where she had was there, and...a little girl? “What the fuck is going on in this place?”

She moved closer to Markus, trying to see what, if any wounds he might have. “Are you alright?” Her eyes met his, confusion filled them, but she kept herself calm now, unlike when she first came in. She wrapped her arm around him, only for a warm stickiness to meet her hand. Leaning back, she saw the extend of his wounds, and was almost, too shocked to speak.

“Jesus christ you need to sit down.” She peeled up what was left of his shirt up, if he allowed it, as she glanced over to the cowboy. “How’re you doin? I’m sorry I didn’t properly introduce myself earlier, I’m Lucy. Who’s she?” Her voice was quiet now, collected. She nodded toward the little girl, she didn’t recall seeing before.

“Computer, we need medical assistance, STAT.” She glanced to Markus...”My mother was a triage nurse, and...that’s a nasty cut you have. Not to mention that little girl doesn’t look well at all. What happened?”

[Paroxysm]

As unbelievable as it was, they survived and Markus had slain the thing that threatened them. Johnny would’ve been ecstatic had he not felt exhausted from his adrenaline high finally subsiding.

“Girlie’s fine, just hit her head when she fell. Bleeding’s stopped, too,” he said, as he lifted the cloth from the wound, noting only an oozing of blood now, rather than the aggressive bleeding from before. “By the way, I’m J--”

The man sighed as he was once again interrupted between introductions, this being about the third time it had happened, but he waited a moment. As it turned out, the one who had interrupted him was also one of the women who had woken up in Med-Bay 2, with the man.

“Bennett, I’m Johnny Bennett and this here’s … Well, I dunno who this is, but she’s fine for now.”

Johnny shrugged and stopped supporting the girl, who was no longer in danger of bleeding to death, covering her naked body with the remains of his shirt. It was funny how nobody had really noticed her appearance, at least not until now. Thankfully for the girl, Johnny had mostly only torn the sleeves of his shirt, leaving the rest of it more or less intact and whole.

Lastly, Johnny did not answer what had happened, he did, however; gesture towards the crumpled corpse of the creature, or what was left of it--its skin and … Blood.

He didn’t feel any other explanation was needed.

[Nayt]

Following her fall, Natalie had been silent. She looked dead, with her eyes still (barely) open and lips parted by gravity alone, but she had been breathing, and her heart never stopped beating. She had simply been unconscious, and upon her fall, hit so hard in the head that the biological mechanisms that commanded her eyes to close simply did not kick back in. In fact, most biological functions had stopped, briefly. Had she fallen from a greater distance, she would have died, or perhaps broken her neck. By luck alone, Natalie Lei had survived.

There was a small whine. ". . . nnnhh . . ."

And then, a slight tug of movement. Natalie's whine, barely even audible, preempted her attempts at movement, but not by much. Attempts were wholly unconscious, for that matter. The girl's eyes, both half closed, as they had been for the entire time following her fall to the floor, shut the whole way and remained there, tightly closed. They were dry, horribly dry, and hurt just as bad as everything else. Especially her head. Her head felt like it had been split open. And then her leg--that felt like it had been split open, too.

The girl let out a cough. She was barely conscious, now, but she was still there, slowly coming out of it. Natalie didn't know what was happening anymore, but the lights were on, and they hurt her eyes terribly. In fact, just about everything hurt. As she slowly came to, it was all she could think about. Who she was, where she was, what these people looked like, and what even happened to put her in this horrible state were all temporarily irrelevant. Wincing, grimacing, and shakily trying to move her legs had taken priority.

[Zenith]

As he knelt next to the girl, the cowboy's words broke the calm silence and this totally bizarre moment. Markus looked up to him, then back to the girl with a bit of a nod -- then a squeal came out of no where and Lucy broke into the scene with a slide up to Markus and a jumble of words a spatter of terror.
Between the man across from him, the cowboy -- now dubbed Johnny and the girl in front of them, and finally pool of nasty smelling, steaming blood that was left behind the group, Mark hadn't really had time feel the pain that was now surging through his back. Lucy just happened to notice it, picking pieces of flesh from his back -- not a shirt, he wasn't wearing one. The picked flesh caused him to wince a bit and arch his back before slappin' her on the thigh, "Oh damn, woman... that hurts like hell. Knock that off!"

Standing slowly, Markus held a hand down to Lucy to stand as well and then looking back to the the cowboy and then around the rest of the room. "There has to be some real medical equipment in this fuckin' arcane hell hole. And what the HELL was that thing?!" Markus looked at Johnny, throwing a hand and pointing at the bloody mess on the ground in the middle of the room.

[Paroxysm]

“Yer guess is as good as mine,” Johnny replied back, following Markus’ gesture until his eyes rested back onto the remains of the creature or monster or whatever it was. “It, I dun’no, it shouldn’t exist, whatever it is and look at it, the fucker deflated and fucking disintegrated. Did you see this shit in the brochure? Because lemme tell you, I sure as hell--”

The man stopped speaking for a moment, his eyes still focused on the creature; he’d caught a sudden movement in the corner of his eye and a whimper-like sound. Thankfully, for all gathered, it was not another one of those things and instead was the girl, still appearing somewhat dazed.

“Girlie’s waking up,” he announced to the others before continuing on with the conversation. “Anyways, what do you reckon we should do with that thing? Because I for one don’t want to touch it again,” the man grimaced as he recalled when he had, the fresh cuts on his body still bleeding slightly, although scabbing over well enough. Really, it wasn’t much different than a few scratches and Markus most definitely had the worst of it, but it was like a shock--touching that thing. “A doc’ was assigned to this little social-experiment-gone-awry, right? I guess we should get them to take a look at it, not that much of it is left.”

Johnny finally diverted his eyes away from the thing, refusing to give it anymore of his attention, at least for now, and instead focused on the girl who was probably now coming to. She was wincing, moving her legs--maybe even stretching--all signs of waking up, so the assumption was solid enough.

“You okay, girl?”
Johnny asked as he maneuvered his body slightly between her and the creature on the other side of the room, obscuring her line of sight, blocking the thing--just in case. He hadn’t even done it consciously, it was an unconscious decision he made, maybe even a good one, keeping it from being the first thing she saw when she sat up. Luckily, it was more of a stain now than an actual corpse.

[Skylar]

She nodded to the cowboy now known as Johnny as her eyes turned back to the child. The whimpers were a sign that she at least wasn’t dead. Though, in Lucys thoughts, she looked unwell. No one had really explained what had happened. Either they didn’t fully understand, or didn’t wanna talk about. Either was fine with her.

She jumped slightly as Markus snapped at her. Pain had a way of making people that way. “Sorry.” She slid her hand in his and stood as he did. She would be there if he needed her to lean on, not that she thought he would, but she was there.

Her eyes searched the room for something that looked familiar, unfortunately, nothing really did. All the gadgets and bottles left a lot to be desired. And then she looked again at the pile of shit on the floor. She was almost glad she had missed the excitement, but.....”There was something in the kitchen with me...what’s the odds it’s another of these things?” Her heart started pounding in her chest at the thought, and then the cowboy grabbed her attention.

With her hand still gripping Markus’ she moved toward the little girl. “I bet she had a hard time waking up period. Her little body must be so fragile under these circumstances.” Her voice was a whisper, more for herself then anyone else. Lucy reached out and stroked the angelic like cheek. “You awake sweetheart?”

[Nayt]

As she opened her eyes again, however slowly she did it, the world came to her as a blindingly bright blur. One dark blur in front of her was the first one she focused on, but shortly after, looked to her right, at two other blurs, one of which seemed to be stroking her cheek.

She felt as if she were waking from a horrible dream, a dream she had very little recollection of. There was a thing. Yes, a thing; a horrible thing! It had picked her up and wanted to eat her, and then a couple of men saved her. It was a nightmare in all respects, and not the best nightmare to experience on this day!

Natalie was still disoriented. The blur stroking her cheek, Lucy, might even be able to see the wound that had messed Natalie up so bad: her hair was matted with blood, still wet, from a near death experience in the form of a massive head trauma. She was, indeed, lucky to be alive. Natalie allowed herself to look again to the blur in front of her. She didn't recognize this person, specifically because she couldn't see a single detail about him, but he seemed familiar enough, and somewhere deep inside of her, she was thankful for this blur's existence.

With a small whimper, Natalie uttered the very first thing that came to mind:

"Wh-where . . . am I . . .?"

This looked nothing like her room at home . . .