At the base of the pedestal hunks of tar laden rock stained the stone tiles. Splatters of tar clung to the sands. They glistened in the dim red lights. A blue spark lit over the sands and flung itself to the pile. Another followed. The pile of tar and clumped carbon became laced with a soft blue glow that slowly changed color to match the emergency lights.

Strings of tar shifted upward as they slithered like snakes back into the central mass. Bubbles formed on the surface of the blob. They popped in holes arranged like the semblance of a face, while loose strands substituted hair. A jaw-line of sorts formed as the silhouette stretched. It reached hungrily with multiple arms to grab every loose bit of tar it could find, or any stone with sufficient carbon to absorb.

It reached to the overhanging veranda with the unattended microphone. Its body slithered over the catwalk. The next arm stretched to the veranda bordered by broken glass. Io turned around to see the empty melting bubbling face staring at her with empty sockets as its ‘mouth’ limply hung.

“Run!” she turned to face the thing with an outstretched palm.

It barely responded to her powers. The wavelength didn’t dissonate correctly. A lasso roped out to coil around her arm. At that distance Io could grab the substance with her other hand. A burst of power caused the end of the coil to crumble. Though only the tip was destroyed as the silhouette on the veranda formed three new arms. A heavy smack sent Io out the door and against the corridor wall with a steaming laceration on her side. Alfred smacked the panel to shut the hatch for the suite.

It knocked. Pipes began to hiss and sing throughout the halls. Sprays of a thick inky substance hissed as they stained the floor slippery and hot. A pipe at the far-left end of the hall burst, then another burst behind them. The spray conglomerated into energized silhouettes on both sides.

“An ambush!” Helen shouted.

Blue glowing power congregated around her left and right hands into orbs as she assumed a combat stance. Io took a deep breath, pressed her back against her sister’s, and despite her injury summoned the same power over her hands. Lauren pulled out a wrench and stood close to the old scientist.

Alfred sighed despondently, “This is Nyx we are dealing with. One is to expect this sort of thing.”

The silhouettes stretched. They closed in from both sides as arms formed a web wall. The silhouette trapped in the suite rammed the hatch. The door dented a little more with each loud bang as the hall shortened.

“Stay in the middle!” Helen shouted to the humans as the sisters raced to opposite pincers.

They released their attacks simultaneously. A blue electric crackled through the gooey substance of the approaching silhouettes, which retreated. Webbing pulled back into the blobs. The sisters nodded in perfect synchronization without looking back before they performed the same technique again, this time with the energy gathered in their left hands.

A slight dissonant wavelength that sounded like a complaining shriek emanated from the masses as they pushed away. Helen had reopened the steps. Lauren and Alfred walked ahead cautiously as the pipes hissed and sprayed gooey gunk.

Io’s wound sealed as if being welded together. A mix of blue energy, red wet, and tar hardened like a scab and fell off the skin to leave only a shirt ripped down the side. She held back the blob at the far end of the hall, past the barely holding hatch to suite twenty. Helen beckoned the humans to get to the staircase as she utilized her full power pushing the living mass of tar and aggregate backwards. Footsteps echoed on the metal floor. Lauren holstered her wrench back in her toolbelt and picked up the shuffling old man. She princess carried him to steps.

The door to the hatch burst open. Chunks of metal clanged against the pipes and stuck against the wall like shrapnel. The shape from the veranda could barely fit through the hatch way as it busted the frame. It burst out to block Io from view. The section of pipe it slammed exploded with a hot spray of blob feeding tar.

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“GrAaaAAAAR!” it roared with a voice familiar to Lauren.

Lauren looked back and saw the face-like pores over the wall-like body of the thing. One of the faces had the color of pale dripping skin, lines like black hair, and the boldly defined chin of her former captain. It stared at her despite hollow abyssal eyes.

“Tray!?” Lauren gasped.

Helen grabbed the mechanic by the shoulder, “Your captain is not in there. Lavinia finished him off.”

Lauren looked back toward the face as it sunk into the mass. Bubbles popped where the eyes would be. The rainbow oil glistened as the sludge absorbed the face into a smooth steaming surface. Another bubble popped to release a gurgle. Then a screech blasted through the hall that had Alfred covering his ears and Lauren wincing.

“Do you know how to get back to your hangar from here?” Helen asked, “I’ll follow you.”

“I think I do, but it’s closed off to the elevators,” Lauren looked around and stopped to think, “We need to go down to the base level and travel to tower twenty-one. We’re on floor nineteen.”

“Get moving then!”

“What about your sister?”

“She’s a big girl, she can take of herself. Now get moving unless you want your carbon deposits absorbed!”

Lauren hefted Alfred. He was skinny, frail, and less difficult to carry than a crate of batteries. The muscular mechanic had little issue taking him down the steps. Doing it quickly without breaking him proved to be more challenging. Helen stayed just behind them, and just behind her a hulking mass of tar and aggregate pressed against both sides of the walls. A soft blue electricity pulsed over the mass as Helen sweat a glowing blue liquid from her forehead. Her hands dripped and darkened as if dipped in ink. Alfred grunted as Lauren skipped steps while hopping down.

“Oww, oww! My back! I’m old. Could you be more careful?!”

They made it to the main floor of the arena tower and found the hatch to the stairs open. Helen slid her slimy hand across the panel once they passed the threshold and the metal blockade slid shut. The barrier bulged outward with a bang. It wouldn’t last long.

Outside, the mid-afternoon sun shone harshly on the aisles between the green houses. Further inward were the apartment high rises and then the airship towers. Since this was the merchant district, vending machines, and well-defined stalls all with the same dimensions lined the streets.

The beast that had once towered over the base could not be seen and nothing shook the massive bowl-like structure. However, nobody walked the aisles as warning sirens still blared from speakers on every structure. Lauren power-walked with Alfred in her arms. They went deeper toward the center of the base. An occasional face peered from the windows of the squat residential towers.

“What the heck just happened in the arena?” Lauren asked, “Why aren’t the EMP devices activating? If there’s an incursion, the EMP devices are supposed to deactivate it so scrubbing can clean up the mess.”

“Nyx is coming for me,” Alfred muttered, “She changed the resonance. Your EMP devices might as well be f-feeding them. But there are four distribution centers. She’ll need to alter the resonance of all four before the entire base is disabled. I… I doubt it will take her long if she already has a foothold. She has endless reinforcements. These silhouettes happen to be extensions of her consciousness. She’s so close. I tried to adjust the frequencies, b-but she locked me out of the system. We need to hurry and get in the air, high in the air, and out of her, out of her, r-reach. W-while we still can.”

Helen nodded. Lauren kept walking but glanced at the homunculus with suspicion.

“And what exactly happened to my Captain?”

Helen frowned and refused to say anything.

“What happened to my Captain?!”

“Your Captain died, that’s what happened. We can go into details when we aren’t racing against death. Besides, you’re already starting to breath heavy, so save it for walking.”

Lauren glanced back. It felt like a huge mistake. A silhouette tailed them. It propelled itself by rolling. Tendrils attached to buildings and pushed the form forward. While cumbersome, it moved only slightly slower than Lauren. It smashed the frames of metal shop stalls as it squeezed itself through the narrow ally. Besides the crunching and pushing of metal it moved fairly quietly for its size.

“Don’t you dare look back, concentrate on getting to the hangar!” Helen commanded, “And don’t hurt Mr. Gregoire!”

Legs tensed. Arms braced. Sweat dripped down over her overalls. A foot stomped forward and then the mechanic burst into a jog. Helen didn’t have any trouble keeping up as her hands slowly solidified and she concentrated on recharging her energy.

“I wonder if little sister forgot that changing the resonance would benefit us as well?” Helen asked herself as she turned to face the blob, “Go forward. Get him to your hangar and get the airship ready. I’ll join shortly.”

“You want us to evacuate!” Lauren yelled, skidding to a stop, and making Alfred groan in protest, “What about the ten thousand people living in this colony? How are we going to evacuate them?”

Helen shrugged, “What about them?”

She turned to face her much larger opponent that rolled, pushed, and squeezed, forward. A cackling laughter escaped from somewhere on top of the blob. Helen looked back to see Lauren still standing there.

“You better start running if you value living!”