Kal was not happy to learn she didn't know about a weapons room. This wasn't that kind of mission, so he suppose it shouldn't be surprising, but it would have helped a lot. The groups of soldiers were meant to be hidden, so it was understandable. Somehow he managed to keep the beast busy while Zara went through the blueprints. He followed when she lead, and made sure to keep his attention on the monster. It was a beautiful, dangerous thing, and if its genes hadn't been corrupted by so many participants in its mutation, it might have been a viable life form. His admiration of it lessened given the situation. They were both hardwired to pull forward with animosity toward an enemy. He was determined to win.<br/><br/>She had good news as they escaped. Containment was a good second choice to superior firepower. He noticed her lessing pace and of course had the impulse to pick her up. The dark corridor gaping ahead of them gave him hope as he touched her back gingerly while she caught her breath. Her new plan, or her new part of a forming plan was good. He nodded as he thought about it. There were very few toxins that would be effective on something like that - even if they could put something together - but sedating it wouldn't be all too hard. The directives of the DNA was to make a strong and durable creature, but that didn't always entail making it chemically resistent. Since most of the biological material was human, an overdoze of medicines meant for humans should have a chance.<br/><br/>He wasn't sure he agreed to her plan when they kissed, but she was already moving toward it. Kel's breath steadied to take on the monster. It would have been his job anyhow, and now at least Zara was safe for as long as he could entertain the three thing. His sinew drew impossibly taut to be ready, and his exoskelleton creaked as it fortified with extra durabillity. He saw the giant thing moving toward him and he rolled his shoulders to ready himself for war. The creature locked eyes with Kel, and the hormones meant to enhance Kel's reflexes and pain tolerance flooded his bloodstream. He tore off toward the menace and cocked his arm back, eager for impact. But before he was able to reach the beast both of them heard Zara's steps. Kel's own sprint rolled to a stop when he realized what the creature was thinking. Kel shook his head but the larger body was already in motion, coming after her.<br/><br/>Josephine had been her mother's good girl. She had grown up with good grades. She had everyone's love in the little town she was from. Mostly, when the main income was agriculture, technology was scarce. It was for the cityfolk, and her family counted themselves fortunate for being rid of it. Their church and townsfolk encouraged a pure way of life, and she was of that belief too. What did she need all of that for, when she was going to marry her neighbour's son and take over the protein farm herself, one day? But the monster she was part of now didn't need the quiet and soft times of her heart. It needed to undo her mind so it could benefit off the chaos. It found the years when the corporations forced her family out of their living, and caused her parents to split. The anger that had made the obedient girl a rebel, and sent her to the city, after all, where she scrapped to make a living, and was then forced into violent work, soon picked up by Weyland and pressed under Nathan, who admittedly was a good leader.<br/><br/>The monster used her anger and poured nonsensickal motivations on it, burnt it brighter so that she was desperate for release. That kind of fury could fuel its legs. It held on to her wrath, and hid away the balance she had struggled to find even in her adult life. Jonah and his insecurities and Nathan who was always being torn apart by moral dilemmas of a commander and family man followed also. They were a miasma of human flaws, of breaken hearts, and the monster's collective mind became their pyre. It was cathardic, it told them, and it was with this ferocity that it clawed at the door that Zara had closed in their faces. They were three, but they had become one storm of a lonely girl, an insecure husband, and a failing commander. And it was with these poisonous things that it tore the door down.<br/><br/>They were primal together, so they still had the impulse to eat. All Zara offered was bullets and glass, both of which were of little concequence to the monster. The humans within recognized the bitter taste of the medicines, but thier knowledge could not converge in this cauldron of bad thoughts. The quickest way to rid of it was to swallow, so they did. It was strange that the flavor was more memorable than the bullets from the rifle. After turning around in the lacking space, it followed her. The creature used Jonah's innate hatred for the pregnant woman to motivate their hunt. The other two were also soldiers, so trying to catch up wasn't far from them, either.<br/><br/>It was with dismay that the creature would have loved to eat that Kel heard Zara's voice call for him. He was worse of when she saw her, reaching for him just as she was felled. He gasped, worried for both his partner and the child, when the appendages came down toward her. Her struggle kept her alive but the creature was aiming to make it not so as soon as possible. Her vailliant tries for her weapon gave him time to catch up finally. The rounded edges of the corridor easilly allowed him to run on the walls given his speed, and he could drop onto the beast from above while it was trying to eat Zara. Kel pushed off from the cieling, and it sent him down like a cannonball, and landed him hard on the creature's fortified back. He could see the cracks in its shell around his armored soles when it arched back, away from Zara.<br/><br/>Kel leaped from where he stood on it, to get his feet on the wall again, stomping off harder to tackle it from the side. The monster, who was already off-balance because of not having all its legs on the floor due to its arch, toppled off her. Kel sighed with some relief as he tumbled with the monster. While he was in peril, at least his partner was safe to get the gun.<br/><br/>Inside the exoskeleton the three were starting to loose their anger. While their chaos become no clearer, it became sluggish. Its need to defend was still there, but with ever slowing reflexes and diminishing focus and strength, it was hard, even if all it had to do was squeeze the pest that was attacking them. Somehow it managed to roll a leg around the armored bug's leg, and fling him into the wall again.<br/><br/>Kel gargled, silver dripping from the chin of his helmet. This time the indentation in the wall held on to him, his outstretched arms pinched into the crevice his impact had created. He coughed once, a spray of silver and red billowing out of the mouthguard of his helmet. With some disapproving sounds, he pulled his limbs free to fall down on his knees on the floor again. The monster turned toward Zara once more, and Kal stood up, unsteady. The helmet unlatched its jaw and let the lower part of his face free. "Hey!" he called, gravel voice the most human she would have ever heard it. "Here! Nathan, Josephine! Jonah! I did this to you. Aren't you going to fight me?"<br/><br/>He coughed a few more times, wet ant thick, and bullets stared rolling off his blood red lips. Those had been the ones Nathan's and the other group had put in him before. The metal caps made a strange tune upon landing on the floor. He wiped his mouth, eyes sure to be furious underneath the visor of his helmet. His teeth mashed together as he readied himself for another round with the mixed creature.