Mark adjusted the mask to his face, clipping the tank to his good hip. Wincing, he watched droplets of blood leave the wound on his side. He couldn't deal with that now. Banging a hand on the dampener, he started to crawl his way back down the vent with a hand pressed to his wound. He knew from Miles's plan that there had to be a vent that led to the docking bay. He just had to find it. The vent shuttered silently under Mark, causing him to take pause for a minute. He hoped that was from someone launching safely off the station and not something blowing up somewhere. Peeking down into a grate, he tried to get his bearings. He knew what the docking bay looked like and this looked like it was outside that. Ahead of the grate was another sealed dampener, but below in the grate the hatch door to the room was open. His heart sank seeing Wendy's body. He couldn't dwell on it though because his mind drifted to a disturbing thought. Had she managed to trap the blue lizard? Or was it still roaming around?

Mark glanced behind him out of habit, then yelped as a sudden suction yanked him down the vent. Mark slammed his hands against the sides of the smooth metal surface of the vent, digging his nails into it. The pull was so strong that his nail tore lines in the metal. Spreading his legs, he tried to use the rubber grip of his shoes to slow himself down. Still he was pulled down the vent. At the turn in the vent, his foot slipped, causing his legs to rise off the floor as the pull grew stronger. He was forced to release one side of the vent to cling to the corner with both hands. His muscles strained, until he screamed and had to remove a hand to grip his side. It felt like the air was trying to drain the blood from his side by force! Just as his fingers reached the end of the corner, the suction stopped. For a minute, Mark floated in the vent and just clutched his side. His side was burning. Putting a hand to the roof of the vent, Mark steadied himself to calm his breathing. His mother had always told him that the higher his stress was, the more his body triggered a higher pain warning. So, he tried to calm himself to bring the pain level down.

The vent began to shake again, and Mark jerked his head down to look between his floating feet. The vent was dark, but he had enough night vision to see a hulking figure approaching. His first thought was that the blue lizard was coming for him. Turning over, Mark quickly rushed back toward the grate. With little room to fight in a vent, he didn't want to get attacked in here. Reaching the grate, Mark made a fist and punched the metal grate with enough force to break the four screws that kept it in place. Pushing the floating grate out of his way, he braced his feet on the ceiling and pushing himself down toward the open hatch door. Grabbing the hatch door frame, Mark fought through the pain to pull Wendy's body away from the door. Pulling himself into the doorway, he gritted his teeth to brace for a bit more pain. He needed to break the controls on the other side to keep the blue lizard from following him. Making a fist, he raised his arm to punch the control panel and stopped as he saw movement at the end of the hallway.

His eyes grew wide as Rip-fang limped into view. Rip-fang hadn't noticed him yet. Rip-fang's feet dug into the metal floor to keep himself from floating, coughing a mouthful of blood into the air. Swatting the droplets of blood away, Rip-fang peeled more burned looking skin from his torso and arms. His large wings had holes burned into them and parts of him were still smoking. Rip-fang opened his mouth, baring his teeth like he was hissing or roaring with anger, but Mark heard no sound. Rip-fang's body was tense, but he seemed distracted. Mark stayed very still, hoping not to draw his attention. Yet, his blood froze in his veins as Rip-fang sniffed the atmosphere and then very slowly turned to look in his direction. Mark swallowed as Rip-fang's eyes locked on him. Rip-fang's body shook with uncontrolled rage, before he let out a roar and thundered wildly toward him. Once Rip-fang entered into the condensed hallway, his roar suddenly had a growing sound that rose from muffled to full volume!

Rip-fang's body slammed into the walls as he stormed after him in a blind rage. Mark didn't wait a second longer, he punched the control panel from the door on the outside to bust it. The panel sparked and flashed in response, zapping Mark's knuckles. Mark winced but worked quickly to think beyond what he had to do. Slipping into the room more, he messed with the control panel on the inside and set the door to close. The door barely sealed shut before Rip-fang slammed into it. The moment the door beeped to confirm it was sealed, the room began to pressurize. Mark glanced at the other door, floating quickly over to it. The door to the docking bay had shut automatically after the first room had lost pressure. His only way in now was to open it and shut it behind him, before Rip-fang managed to tear his way in. Typing on the computer, he heard the loud banging against the other door and started to panic a bit. That door wouldn't hold him for long. He had to work fast. Cause if he opened the door with the Ceres door open... and Rip-fang burst inside. The Ceres would be crushed by the vacuum of space! Leaving them all stranded up here.

Mark got the hatch door open, rushing inside the docking bay as the metal of the other door began to squeal and whine under Rip-fang's strength. He questioned why water droplets were everywhere in the docking bay. He thought the ship was leaking, until he saw the broken and floating space suit. Reaching the Ceres door, he stopped to stare at the inviting inside. The lights were on and other than a few things floating about, it was like seeing home. However, as he heard the metal squeal and whine more, he took a shaky breath. Sean and the others would need time to dock and detach the ship from the station. With Rip-fang on his ass, he couldn't put everyone at risk by hiding inside until Rip-fang tore through it. Slamming the hatch shut, he locked it to seal off the Ceres and uttered out in a soft voice. "I'm sorry, Sean." Floating to a case in the docking bay, he opened it and began to pull out the space suit to dress himself in it. It would be bulky and a nightmare to move in, but it had more air than his little tank.

Stepping into the suit as fast as he could, he kept an eye on the open door to see the other door bending under the pressure. Turning off the little tank, he clipped it to the belt of the suit to hang onto it. He even removed the knife from his belt to let it float around as he opened his thermo suit a bit to see the damage to his side. Opening an emergency medic box on the wall, he grabbed a large bandage. Taking a small bottle of super glue from his tool belt, he put it over his wound to seal it shut faster and applied the bandage.  He did his best to muffle his scream as the super glue burned his wound.  As painful as it was, it would save him. The hatch door suddenly began to hiss as holes started to pierce into the metal. Holding his breath, Mark rushed to close up his thermo suit and pulled on the rest of the space suit. Locking the helmet on, he tested a few breaths to make sure it worked, before grabbing the knife. Floating to a grab a bar on the wall, he stared at the door with his feet braced on the wall and waited. He was ready for him. The hatch started getting bigger dents as Rip-fang slammed his side into the door.

The seal broke around the door, starting to draw anything loose to it. Mark held on, resisting the strong pull despite the thick gloves threatening to give on him. With one last vicious growl, Rip-fang yanked the door completely off and was forced to turn slightly to throw the hatch out to space. One of Rip-fang's wings even rose a bit to block the loose objects from striking his neck and face. Mark didn't plan to hit him there though. Releasing the wall, he let the strong suction take him rapidly across the rooms to slam into Rip-fang's back. Using the incredible force, Mark jammed the knife into Rip-fang's back to the hilt. Rip-fang arched his back, letting out a powerful roar of agony. Mark used that to his advantage, grabbing one of his horns to get control over his head. Rip-fang thrashed, his wings folding back to swat his sides in the hopes of shifting him off him or trapping him. Mark pushed Rip-fang's horn forward, forcing Rip-fang to bow his head. Snarling, Rip-fang circled wildly in front of the hatch door, before finding a spot where he could lift his tail.

Mark clung to Rip-fang, raising his feet to kick at the tail as it tried to lash at him. The tail managed to wrap around his leg, but Mark quickly adjusted to stomp Rip-fang's tail against the wall. A sickening 'snap' sounded as Rip-fang's tail took the blow, releasing Mark's leg to hang awkwardly. Rip-fang hissed, curling his tail around to grab it and snap the flexible bone back. The action only took Rip-fang a second or two, then he braced to jump backward into the wall in the hopes of crushing Mark. Mark yelped as the wall drew close enough to crush his helmet, but a set of reptilian feet swung out from the vent above them to hit Rip-fang's shoulders. The change in force, shoved Rip-fang out into the other wall. Rip-fang headbutted the wall because of Mark's hold on his horn, stunning Rip-fang into staggering to a knee. Dropping down from the vent, Logan dug his nails into the floor to stay down like Rip-fang. Logan flashed Mark a sharp-toothed grin, his tail flicking behind him with excitement.

Mark couldn't thank him; he was too distracted with staying on Rip-fang. Logan let out a smaller aggressive hiss, leaping onto Rip-fang's back with Mark. Mark yelled in surprise as Rip-fang began to move again. The nails of Logan dug into Rip-fang's sides and shoulders over Mark. Rip-fang was forced down to all fours from the weight, but it didn't stop him from thrashing and spinning to try and shake them off. Logan went for Rip-fang's throat with his teeth, tearing at his thick flesh. Rip-fang hissed, then stopped to jump up. Rising quickly, Logan's back hit the ceiling hard enough to daze him into releasing his neck. Mark tried twisting the knife in Rip-fang's back, while Rip-fang landed back down. Gripping the carpet, Rip-fang's tail rose to wrap around Logan's neck. Logan dug his nails more into Rip-fang's flesh, refusing to be pulled off at the risk of choking. When twisting the knife didn't work with his thick skin, Mark reached into his tool belt and removed a small hack saw. Putting the guard to Logan's back, Mark aimed the sharp jagged blade up at Rip-fang's tail and sliced at it to cut his tail off.

Rip-fang squealed as the tip of his tail was cut clean off, spewing blood everywhere as the rest of it fell away. Logan shook off the tail around his neck, glancing back to see that Rip-fang's tail was already starting to regrow. Rip-fang crawled quickly to the door frame, grabbing one side to push his back against the other side. Mark didn't have a choice, he had to move. Pushing off Rip-fang, he went out into the other room and yelped as he hit the body of the dead blue lizard. Logan shoved himself backward, retreating back into the hallway. Rip-fang slammed his back to the door frame, screaming as the knife's handle was knocked in so deep that Mark couldn't even see it anymore. Rip-fang thrashed his head and tail wildly to keep them both back, foaming at the mouth. The foam around his mouth was tinted red from the blood leaking from his mouth. Mark both liked and hated to see that. The hot sauce was affecting him badly. Driving him mad. Rip-fang straightened up in the doorway, stomping into the larger room, his crazed eyes narrowed on Mark.

Mark pushed off the floating dead body of the blue lizard. It was his only means of moving to keep distance between him and Rip-fang. Rip-fang snorted through his nostrils, spraying speckles of blood to float before his face menacingly. Rip-fang then started walking forward, shoving things out of his way as he growled out loudly in a gravelly voice. "I'm going to rip out your intestines and watch you choke on your own blood, Half-breed!" Mark swallowed, when movement outside the window drew his attention to a little escape pod zooming around toward the Ceres. Fear shot through Mark as his eyes darted back to Rip-fang, hoping that he hadn't seen it. Mark jumped in his suit, Rip-fang had moved up on him so fast and he hadn't heard him make a sound. Rip-fang grabbed the throat of Mark's suit, slamming him against the barred window. It wasn't until now that he saw that Logan was struggling against Rip-fang's tail that was around his throat. Logan twisted, clawing and snapping his teeth wildly onto different parts of Rip-fang's tail trying to tear it off.

Rip-fang's hot breath fogged up parts of his helmet, when he sneered out to him in a murderous tone. "You need this suit. Don't you, Half-breed?" Rip-fang's grip tightened, applying pressure to the sides of the helmet slowly. Mark heard the glass crackle at the seams, but his eyes were on Rip-fang's free hand. Rip-fang's black talon on his index finger extended to its full length, before he brought it to the belly of the suit. Touching the sharp point to the suit, Rip-fang sneered out darkly. "How thick is your new skin, Half-breed? How deep should I go to gut your belly?!" Mark put a hand on the scaly wrist at his throat, trying to keep Rip-fang from noticing what his other hand was doing. Digging around in his tool belt, he searched for the item. Rip-fang licked the glass of the helmet with a large bright blue forked tongue. His foamy blood ridden salvia smeared over the glass, before Rip-fang asked him curiously. "Are you nice and warm in there?" Mark found the item and brought it up as he said bluntly. "No. But I can turn up the heat for ya!" Lifting his hand, he pressed the button for the blow torch.

Rip-fang jerked a step back from the intense white flame. Mark ran an arm over the glass to clear it a little, then rushed to huddle himself up as Rip-fang lunged back at him with teeth and claws bared. Holding the blow torch up again forced Rip-fang to jerk his head back at the last second from biting him, but his arms still slammed into the bars beside his shoulders. The bars vibrated against Mark's back, before they broke from the wall and smashed the glass window. Sending all three of them spinning out into space. To Be Continued...