Escape

         She swallows, reaching another hologram and pressing to open the next door. The next room was in chaos, blasts of what looked like lasers bouncing through the room. The holographic soldiers were trying to take down a large black-green creature with a big head and little eyes. Lucy closes the door again swiftly. Four-Eye looks at her at that.

        "Do we have to?" She frowns uneasily. The creature looks to the other door in response as more water pours in. "Yeah… I know…" She looks about nervously before rushing to one of the rectangular devices and pulling out a U shaped device. "I think this is a gun." She nods before going back to the hologram to open the door. 

        This time when it opens, half of a soldier is sent flying past them. Lucy flinches, raising the device at the lone creature as it focuses on them. Four-Eye shifts before the creature roars at them. Four-Eye launches at the other creature's face at that, latching on and stabbing it's face with his piercing arms.

        Lucy takes the opportunity to rush in, pointing the device at the creature's torso. 'I don't know how to make this work!' She realizes in horror as nothing leaves the device. It slings Four-Eye off of it's face. Four-Eye hits a glass wall, cracking it slightly.

        The creature steps closer to Four-Eye, opening it's mouth as tentacles come out. Lucy gasps, glancing at Four-Eye as she hesitates. "H-Hey!" She calls at the creature, chucking the device at it's head. The curve of the U hits it, making a small laser shoot out of it, bouncing off the glass and hitting the creature in the torso. "Huh?" She blinks, diving after the weapon as the creature locks on her. 

          It moves to swing a massive arm down on her. Lucy's heart drops when the shadow comes over her. 'Im dead.' The thought echoes her mind. Suddenly the shadow is pulled away followed by a monstrous howl. She looks over seeing that Four-Eye had climbed onto it's shoulder and pierced the side of the creature's face with his stabbing arms, yanking the head to the side to pull the creature off balance. 

          Lucy swiftly grabs the gun again, looking along the curve to see a red light. She touches it, gathering energy between the prongs. She swiftly aims it at the creature's eye as it grabs Four-Eye. She releases the blast, feeling static drift over her. She shudders slightly as a green blood splatters from the eye, the giant creature wailing in pain. 

         Four-Eye takes the opportunity to spit acid into the creature's other eye, getting released so it can scratch at the burning hole. For a moment, Lucy feels bad for the creature, but she pushes the feeling down and runs for the next hologram. "Let's go!" She calls to her comrade, opening the door. Four-Eye swiftly joins her as they cross the threshold and close the door. 

          They pause to take in the empty room, the lights flickering all around them, some flashing red. "They must've evacuated." Lucy breathes before hurrying to the next door as the room shakes, tripping her in the process. Four-Eye stops to look at her as she swiftly gets back to her feet. "Sorry! Let's keep going!" She manages, swiftly reaching the next hologram, opening the door. 

          The next room was made of more glass, showing a large glowing underwater flower nearby. There was also a tube with a spherical pod sitting within. Lucy and her companion go to the tube, looking it over. "Um…" She looks around for another hologram, seeing nothing. ".... UM…" She starts to panic, putting her hand on the tube and make a screen appear on it, flashing red around her hand. "Is it a scanner?" She mutters trying to move a symbol but red radiates from her touch, unmoving. 

          "We probably need one of the soldier's hands." She tells Four-Eye, looking back at the door. Four-Eye shifts, turning for the door. Lucy swallows, hurrying to open the door. Water splashes into the room at an alarming rate. She rushes into the room, pausing briefly to see the large creature had gotten skewered by the glass wall that it had broken. She shudders, quickly grabbing a fallen soldier and dragging it back through the doorway. Four-Eye closes the door behind her, following her to the tube.

         "I hope this works." She breathes trying to pull up the soldier's arm to touch the the tube. Suddenly most of the dead weight is gone, making her pause and look back to see the arm had been severed by Four-Eye. "... Thanks." She tells it, straightening up and using the arm on the tube. It seemed to be working, now she just had to figure out how to open the doors. After a moment she gets both to open. 

         "Finally." She mutters, putting the arm down and peering in. "Kinda small." She tells the large creature. Four-Eye peers in as well, before looking at her and pulling away, body starting to shake as it's pieces starts to pull together, hiding the black flesh. Lucy's eyes widen as the creature shrinks down into a humanoid that was just a few inches taller than her. 

          He blinks at her with a blank face. "... Okay, let's put this on you for now." She manages awkwardly, taking off her trench coat, and carefully putting it on him. Just seemed weird not to put clothes on him like this. He sniffs at it before looking at her again. "Alright, let's go." She adds climbing into the pod as the door creaks slightly. He joins her inside and a little hologram appears on the wall. She blinks, by now recognizing the symbol for door and pressing it to close the pod door. 

          She studies it for a moment and touches what seemed like an elevation symbol, making the pod suddenly shoot upwards. Lucy swallows down a lump of alarm, heart racing as she looks out the window, seeing sea creatures swimming by as the water becomes brighter and brighter.

          "I don't know where this goes. But we need to be ready. Okay?" She tells her companion. He simply blinks at her in response. "... Okay." She nods with a small frown. He didn't seem able to talk, and with the barely visible lines that marked him, he looked like a creepy looking doll now.

          His horns were now just an inch big, his black spike hair now resting forward into a fohawk. He tilts his head as she observes him. Lucy blinks back and offers a nod before looking out again they were reaching the top of the water now. Lucy swallows, looking over the device in her hand. She had to be ready, but what were the limits of this weapon? She glances at her belt that was still wrapped around her left hand, wondering if she could use it sufficiently given the circumstances.

           Four-Eye shifts, drawing her attention as he looks at the door. Lucy closes her eyes for a moment, bracing herself for chaos when the pod comes to a stop. She opens her lavender eyes to meet her companion's gaze. 

           "Let's do this. And get out of here." She whispers to him. He blinks, dipping his head slightly in response before they both face the door. Lucy reaches over and presses the hologram to open the door.

          As the door opens they're met with another massacre. "Um… Somehow, that's not reassuring." She shares a glance with Four-Eye before easing out onto the platform. It was a large platform, making it hard to see the ocean that could be heard around them. At the end of the platform she can see some odd airships. 

          The quiet was unnerving in a way, they both knew there was an enemy nearby but no clue where it was. Lucy peers back at the pod to check behind them. When she spots a red figure on top of it. It moves slightly and Lucy instinctively crashes into Four-Eye's side, getting them both out of the way as the red figure lands where she had been. A deep, clean cut now marking the platform. 

         Lucy sits up, aiming the weapon at the creature. The device splits in half, making her pale. The red creature straightens up on it's hind legs, solid yellow eyes narrowed at her. It had big ears like a fennec fox but split in half, and a face and body type like a cat. The crimson fur on it looked rough. It also wore clothes that reminded Lucy of the steampunk attire she used to see at conventions. 

         It raises a hand, long silver claws coming out. Lucy leans back against Four-Eye as he shrugs off the coat, pieces separating before he leaps at the creature. 

        The red creature deftly moves out of the way, hind leg lashing out and sending Four-Eye tumbling into the pod, slumping to the ground from the impact that sent the pod rolling away. Lucy stiffens as the red creature starts for Four-Eye. She glances at the spaceships at the end of the platform. Even if she made it, she couldn't believe that she could survive on her own.

        She rushes to get between the creatures, shielding Four-Eye. "No!" She snaps at the red creature as it pauses from her interruption. She could tell this creature was smart, she would have to try and reason with it. Or at least buy Four-Eye time to recover.

        The red creature tilts it's head, stepping toward the side to get a clear shot at Four-Eye. Lucy swiftly moves in the way, making the creature's tail twitch. 

        "You'll have to go through me first." She warns. Her nerves were dancing up and down her spine with fear and unease, but she didn't have a choice at this point. It bares its fangs at her, giving a loud snarl that makes her jump. 

        Lucy grits her teeth and stomps her foot, giving a yell in response, making it's ears perk for a moment before it's eyes narrow again. It suddenly lunges at her. Thanks to the adrenaline, Lucy clearly sees it moving to slash at her. She catches its arm with her right hand before punching it with her left, feeling the spikes of her belt rip the skin. 

       The creature goes tumbling from the hit, making Lucy pause. She felt like she had just hit a child. She blinks before nodding to herself as the creature gets up, wiping the violet blood leaving the wound on its cheek. It looks at her with a profound glare, making a chill go down her spine. She shifts, raising her fists in response.

        It's claws glint, before the creature blurs. Lucy's eyes widen, this was far faster than before. There was no way she could block or dodge this quick enough to avoid injury or death. Then it suddenly jerks back as a pair of piercing claws stab into the ground in front of her. She looks up to find herself in Four-Eye's shadow.

         She blinks and relaxes a bit, focusing on the enemy again as it shifts back, seeming to calculate what to do, but Four-Eye doesn't give it a chance, stabbing at it and forcing it to pivot away.

         Lucy moves forward with Four-Eye, watching as the red creature moves to attack but she uses her belt to keep it away with a few swings. It's ears flatten against it's head, slashing at her but Four-Eye kicks it across the platform. The red creature flips onto a ship, sending them a glare before getting in it.

        "Shit. It might shoot at us! We need to get to cover!" Lucy tells her companion, rushing for a spaceship. Four-Eye pauses, it's tail flicking up the trench coat he had dropped, catching it before swiftly scurrying after her. The ship the red creature had entered, lifts off the ground, suddenly bursting off with a boom. The shockwave knocking Lucy backwards. Four-Eye skids back, looking back to check on the human as she coughs, getting to her feet. 

         "C-Come on, let's keep going." She manages, hurrying for the spaceship again, keeping an eye to the sky in case the other decided to return. 

         Reaching the ship, she stops at a door indention, looking it over. Putting her hand on the door, the holographic screen comes to life. She finds the open symbol and the door slides open with a hiss. Lucy eases in carefully, peering about as Four-Eye reverts to his smaller form to follow her in. He stops to press the close symbol, as the door locks in behind him, other lights inside light up around them, illuminating them in the same glow as the cells below did. 

         "... The other ship made it look like this side had the cockpit…" Lucy mumbles, walking down the hexagonal ramp and stepping into a hall, going toward what she presumed was the front of the ship. Sure enough she finds what seemed to be a cockpit. Two seats, and a big smooth black desk in front of them. Although there didn't seem to be any windows in this room. Making her briefly wonder if it really was the cockpit as she peers about.

        "They really hate buttons." She mutters, touching the edge of the desk to make the hologram wake. More unusual symbols to decipher. She frowns slightly, worrying if one might be a self-destruct button like in the alien movies she used to watch. 

       After a bit, she looks about to find Four-Eye peering into another room down the hallway. He probably couldn't offer much help since they both had no idea how any of this worked. 

       Refocusing on the symbols, Lucy decides to touch one at random, making a new hologram pop up over the desk. It showed grayed pictures of different kinds of creatures with symbols beside them, which Lucy took as a description.

      The pictures and descriptions fade to show other creatures. This time two are lit: Her's and Four-Eye's. 

      "Oh… This must be their captive logs…" She mutters as the pictures fade to show the next batch. The next ones had two humans grayed out, making her stomach drop. There had been other humans down there? The place was probably completely flooded by now. Was it her fault that they didn't survive?

      Lucy stood there looking over the pictures of each batch, commiting the human faces to mind until her own picture showed again. She touches the symbol again to make them disappear. Feeling uneasy but relieved that none of the faces shown had been familiar. Still, she felt guilty as hell for not even checking for other people during her escape.

      A touch on her shoulder makes her blink back and peer over to meet the two pairs of scarlet eyes that watched her. "Sorry. Got distracted." She admits with a frown before looking at the symbols again. "This looks like a levitate symbol." She mutters touching it. The ship seems to come to life at that, lifting slightly, and making the pair tense up. 

       Four-Eye touches her sides, seeming uneasy by the ship's movement. "I know buddy…" Lucy soothes, looking up as the wall clears, showing what was before them like a window. She looks over the symbols again, wondering what should be done next. "Maybe… I should… Press it again?" She wonders before doing so. The ship lifts into the air even higher than before. "That doesn't seem right…" She mutters, reflecting on how the other ship had burst off.

        Four-Eye leans forward, pointing to a small hologram of stars that sat at the center of the desk. "Hm? You think I should touch that?" She hums, looking over the light specs with odd lettering beside them. She squints to see if she can spot any details on them. "Well… Here goes." She mutters touching one. 

        The instant she did, they were both sent tumbling backwards as the ship burst off. "Ow…" She grumbles feeling a stab in her side. Peering at her side, she finds that Four-Eye had grabbed her in the instant, and one of his claws had sunk into her skin.

        The creature sits up, and pauses as it takes notice as well, carefully pulling it's hand away. Blood leaves the small wound making Lucy huff lightly and cover it. "Alright, let's see where we're heading." She breathes going back to the desk. Four-Eye follows, looking at it's claw silently.