“Eh? Why would we--” Lana lost her voice when she followed the taller woman’s eyes. The Warped was moving. Apparently, the blow it received wasn’t enough to finish it off. Metal wires were crawling over it, patching back up skin and metal.

The three retreated quietly, then, once they put enough distance between them and the creature they turned to run away.

A second monster came into view, jumping on top of an overturned truck in front of them, blocking their path. The thing had a human torso with the lower body of a metallic spider.

Nori sharply pulled back the two stunned students. “Run! Run to the ship!”

The spider monster easily jumped to the ground and started pursuing the running humans. Its own human arms extended toward its would-be victims and a look of desperate hunger was plastered on its face.

“Run faster!” Nori shouted.

The three ran past the human-shaped monster, which was still piecing itself back together, straight into the open doorway.

“Close it! Close it!” Lana shrieked as the spiderish nightmare drew closer and closer.

Nori feverishly looked for the door controller. There were a few lever looking things, but nothing she tried worked.

Meanwhile, the spider was getting closer.

Ten meters.

Eight.

Five.

The roar of a diesel engine sounded and a large black Hummer jeep rammed into the spider, hurling the monster away with an audible crunch.

“Oh, thank god; we’re saved,” Lana said, her arms visibly shaking.

The Hummer doors opened and a powerful looking black man stepped out. He looked to be in his forties and was built like an ox, with a wide, meaty frame, bulging with muscles.

“No, we’re not,” Nori said grimly. “That’s Bulco, and this is his gang.”

Bulco, Human, Level 4

Several other men, carrying thick chains, jumped off the car and hurried toward the fallen spider.

“Well, well,” the beast of a man said. “What do we have here? What are you kids doing on my new spaceship? You better come out of there, or there will be trouble.”

With a screeching scream, the human-shaped Warped finished assembling itself and jumped on Bulco while a fleshy tendril shot toward Lana and wrapped around the woman’s wrist.

But it was in for another nasty surprise. With superhuman speed, Bulco turned on his heel and punched. A weird robotic device on his fist sprang out, adding force to the punch. For the second time, the level four Warped was thrown against the ship’s hull and landed on the ground in a broken heap. Nori grabbed Lana before she could be pulled away.

“Now, where were we?” Bulco turned to the ship’s entrance.

Nori was desperately pressing around the door with nothing to show for it. Then Nathan moved. The young man patted a part of the wall, almost affectionately. White light flickered between his fingers and the door raised, sealing them inside a dark chamber.