RES University

Lawrence had taken up another perch on the edge of the building, having little more to do than watch the monster consume more of the Masked. The supply was dwindling... "Dammit, they better think of something..."

Legion reluctantly lowered the barrier, the bright blue energy lingering at her fingertips.

Dave walked outside, slowly of course. Thankfully, a body was near him.

Rek'Sai heard the metal scraping the ground, turning to face him, leaning in and growling at him. The others could see her through the door, too.

Dave said nothing, managing to pick up a Masked with both of his (weakly attached) arms, holding it in front of Rek'Sai.

Rek'Sai sniffed it for a few seconds before eating it whole. She then sat down and looked at Dave.

"W-Wait, what're you doing?" Lawrence murmured, hovering down to Dave. "Why're you... feeding it?"

"Well, no one's died yet." Hazel noted. "Maybe we can leave now."

Rek'Sai hissed at Lawrence when he got close.

Dave held another Masked up, and Rek'Sai ate it in a single bite. "I beli-eve you can come o-ut no-w."

Lawrence hovered back, startled. "A-Alright, uh, that happened."

"Is it really safe to go out there...?" Sage asked nervously.

"It probably won't be getting much safer." Hazel muttered.

"Jesus, all of you need to man up." Hoxton muttered, walking outside and standing next to Dave.

Rek'Sai backed up a bit while hissing when he walked out, but eventually stopped.

"Ah, yes, not wanting to walk up to a giant predatory monster is such a wussy thing to do." Hazel sighed to herself, heading out of the building.

King followed, eager to be outside. "Well, this was a good plan. It worked."

"I'm just glad we didn't have to outrun that thing." Altair said quietly, only half-joking as the others exited the building.

"If a broken piece of scrap can do it, Hazel, I'm pretty sure we can, too. Hey, who knows, maybe it'll eat you." Hoxton spoke. "That'd be awesome."

Rek'Sai stood on her back legs, crossing her arms and laughed.

"Hey, it agrees." Hoxton chuckled. "Everyone DOES hate you, Hazel! How does it feel?"

"It may un-derstand spe-ech." Dave spoke.

"Uh, hello? Can you understand us?" Green asked, looking up at the large beast.

Rek'Sai grunted at Green with a small nod.

"I-t cann-ot speak." Dave spoke. "Obvi-ous. Sor-ry."

"Huh," Legion replied stalely, staring up at the creature. The lights had finally faded from her hands.

"Well, that solves that," Green nodded.

"Well, at least it seems to have calmed down a bit." King said, nodding. "This was a good plan. Now, we can get going. I have a theory on where Sadie may be."

"And where's that?" Lawrence asked.

"I believe she may have found the tunnels."

"What makes you think that, dad?" Green asked curiously.

"I've seen Masked just sort of milling about. Previously, they were following The Source without trouble." King explained. "It's possible they've lost sight of her, so she could be underground. The direction she was going in before we lost her was towards the entrance, too..."

"So, we could be fighting her underground?" Leona asked. 

"Hopefully not."

From a broken, abandoned building window, the group was being watched from floor two. It wore a ripped plague doctor's mask on its face, and seemed to have a broken fox  face behind it. It stood tall, however with a damaged back(and rest of the body). The music box played, combined with a static noise, was heard by the group below.

"S***." Hoxton murmured.

Rek'Sai growled at the noise.

"Well, that's a familiar sound." Lawrence muttered, looking around. 

"We should... get going." King said, beginning to walk. "Yes, w-we should... get going." This was bad. First, having to guess at where Sadie was, and now this...

Legion's face paled as she realized what dangers lied before her... and that said danger didn't actually die when she thought it did. "A-Again? Didn't it die already? Why is it back?!" 

"I don't know, but we need to get going, now," Green replied frantically.

"I-I can't! I still haven't fixed Dave yet!" Legion protested.

"Legion, we have to go," Green said firmly, grabbing her left wrist and pulling her away from the masked creature.

Aria frowned. This was... the third time? Maybe fourth? She wasn't really sure, but judging by previous events, she wanted to get out of there, and fast.

The creature let out an electronic hiss. It began to climb out of the window, towards the ground. The familiar mist surrounded it, the music and static still going, too. It truly was horrific. It was Crangle, but the Plague Doctor at the same time. The body was ripped and torn from damage and mist, and its jaw loose, back badly hurt from when Tony had killed her before.

"I don't think we should be walkin' to the tunnels, lads!" Hoxton said with urgency, pointing at the monstrosity.

Rek'Sai hissed at it, but it kept coming.

Dave, being broken, was trying his best to keep up.

"W-What is that...?" Altair murmured. 

"It's like they... fused or something." Lawrence said, laughing nervously. "I don't think that's natural. That can't be natural." 

"Okay. Let's turn walking... into running." King said, backing away. "We're fortunately not far."

And so, they fled from the bizarre, monstrous Crangle-Plague Doctor hybrid creature.