[quote]"How exactly do you expect to protect us with most of the city's population turned to stone and the city overrun with the very enemy you strove so hard to keep out? Can you afford to spare the men to escort us from the Wall to wherever you are? I bet this entire incident is your fault anyways."[/quote] < [i]You're probably right.[/i] > The queen's voice was quick with an answer, solemn yet still maintaining the hope with which she greeted the city each morning. < [i]I can't see or understand what you're going through, and I'm sorry it's happening. The only thing we can do is move forward. Let me help you.[/i] > [quote]After Vincent put the head down, Kat walked over and picked it back up. “Erm, your majesty, if you can help us then any help you can give in the next five minutes or so would be very much appreciated! Out location is…”[/quote] Once the coordinates had been given, the queen spoke again. < [i]On their way. Get everyone as far down the stairs as you can. I see you on my map.[/i] > [quote]The other side of the door showed the outlines of many more Grit. Their shadows being cast through the distorted glass in the door. Flor decided that area was better off closed and he shut the cafeteria doors. Vincent looked Moth right in the eye. "I can draw a Sigil that can stop the bleeding on your arm, but I have to draw it over your wound or it won't work. That means it'll hurt, but once I'm done the bleeding will stop until tomorrow." Moth stared back at Vincent, wide-eyed, and let out a single squeak. He fell backward, stiff as rock, landing flat with a thud and passing out. Maria started darting around the room, grabbing fallen candy, having seemingly gotten over the shock of being attacked by a real, actual Grit (even if it looked more like a little kid). Kat looked over at Vincent, who held a collapsed Moth in his arms. “Can you carry him? Say if he gets too heavy, we’ll take turns till he wakes up.” With the robot head in her arms, Kat started heading towards the stairs. “Let’s go!”[/quote] With the cafeteria doors now closed and locked, there was no way to see what was making that horrible screeching noise within. It was metal-on-metal, followed by a squeal and a bang -- the Grit child had opened the door to the outside. He wasn't trying to get out. He was letting the others in. [b]"Ho, heel! To me!"[/b] The child hollered, just as the beasts crashed and shattered the tables and benches, their scales and spines and feathers filling the room. [b]"There are alive ones here. Break that door, bring them to me."[/b] A roaring, screeching mass of fur and claws and slitted eyes rushed the flimsy doors that Flor had shut, and they slammed their collective bodies against them. BANG BANG [b]CRASH[/b] The doors exploded into splinters, and all manner of nightmares flooded into the landing -- three-headed, jagged-toothed, bat-winged monstrosities, with five legs or eight legs or no legs at all. The landing immediately filled with a foul stench of bile and sulfur. One of the Grit -- a gigantic snake with a rooster's head -- hissed and rattled and coughed a ball of fire that flared and blackened the wall of the downward stairwell. Some were too big to squeeze through the door, while others were nimble and on the humans' heels in an instant, teeth flashing. The stairwell was filled with howls and snarls. Something metallic was clanking toward them from the bottom of the stairs, rushing at an incredible speed. An eight-foot-tall robot with the highest tech in speed and joint control -- painted in the queen's violet-and-gold -- appeared on the lower landing and immediately shot a Grit out of the air behind Vincent with a flash of a laser pistol. [b]"C'mon, twerps, let's go!"[/b] the robot hollered in a very human voice. A rune was etched into its chest -- this robot was enchanted. [b]"Is this everyone? Move it! Comin' through! Go down, go down down down! I'll take this guy, run faster!"[/b] The robot reached out with one arm, grabbed the unconscious Moth and slung him over its broad shoulder like he was a ragdoll, shooting all the while.