Sean felt like his lungs were collapsing as Logan grabbed his arm and pulled him through the hatch doorway. He could barely move. He vision was blurring. He could smell Logan's heavy musk as he was pressed to his chest and pinned to the cold wall. He couldn't tell what was going on. The wall shook a little and before long metal clanked everywhere. A hiss of air filled the compartment just as Sean was about to pass out. Logan hopped down from the wall with him in his arms, laying him gently across the floor as he asked him a little worried. "Sean? Are you ok?" Sean gasped air into his lungs for a minute. He couldn't think or answer. His body only wanted air. From around the corner a woman and an Asian looking man in a suit similar to Mark's walked up from farther down the stairway. They were panting but seemed better off than himself. He blamed the fact that his throat felt like it was melting from the hot sauce. Breathing was painful, causing him to roll over and cough loudly. He wanted to throw up, but he was sure that wouldn't help.

His eyes were leaking so much that he feared that he was becoming dehydrated. After a violent cough, Sean jerked his head up. Where was Mark? Forcing himself up onto his knees, he strained out. "Where is Mark?!" Logan bowed his head a little, answering a bit grimly. "Rip-fang was coming... So, he saved you and closed the hatch." Sean staggered to his feet, ignoring how his head hurt from the hot sauce to yelled out. "Open the hatch!" Logan shook his head, saying curtly. "We'll lose the air if we do and if Rip-fang is out there-" Sean whirled around, snapping out stubbornly. "I'm not leaving him to die! Open the fucking hatch, Logan!" Logan shook his head with a grim look. Glancing at the others, he saw their grim expressions too. They believed he was dead. Sean shook his head, rushing to the hatch door to try and open the hatch himself. Logan rushed up to grab him, saying firmly. "Sean, stop! He wouldn't want you to do that!" Sean thrashed, yelling out. "You don't know shite! Put me down! I'm not leaving without him!"

The woman glanced nervously at the hatch door but told them seriously. "Guys, we need to go now. Rip-fang can tear down these hatch doors... If he gets in. We won't have time to launch the pod." Sean elbowed Logan in the ribs, getting him to drop him, before he snapped out to them. "Then leave me! But until I see him dead... I am NOT leaving him here! I didn't come all this way for nothing!" The Asian man shuffled his feet anxiously, then told Sean in a slightly rational tone. "Wait... The suction will have drawn him out to space, right? If we launch the pod. We can get him and steer him to the Ceres." Sean calmed down. That seemed logical if he could trust them enough to do that. The woman nodded, saying calmly. "That could work." The woman and the Asian man rushed back to the pod. Leaving Sean with Logan. Logan put a hand on his shoulder, telling him nicely. "Mark is stronger than you think. I'm not going to leave him behind either... but I'm not going to let your emotions make you reckless. He closed the hatch to save you. He wouldn't want you to through yourself into danger."

Sean smirked a little, coughing and spitting a bit from his burning throat as he retorted coolly. "Oh, Logan... That's just it. It doesn't matter if he did it to save me... I love him. And I'd rather die trying to keep us both alive... than losing him because I didn't try to save him." Logan lowered his eyes to the floor, asking him curiously. "But what if he wanted you to live..." Sean smirked, answering honestly. "I want him to live too. It's not always his choice. It's my life... In the end, I decide how I go out. I'd take a bullet for him and I know he'd do the same for me." The large green lizard staggered over to them, using the wall for support. He looked sweaty and sleepy. Logan quickly rushed to him, saying in a panic. "Dad! What are you doing?! Go back to the pod! Lay down!" Logan's dad pointed a claw up toward the vent, telling Logan in a weak voice. "You can't dock on the Ceres... You have to close the door. If Rip-fang sees us launch the pod, he'll go to the docking bay. If he breaks the hatch door..." Logan finished for him. "The suction of space with destroy the Ceres... Crush it like a soda can as it tries to drain the oxygen tanks on the ship..."

Sean swallowed, saying shakily. "How do we get to the Ceres from here? We'll have to-" Logan's dad raised a hand to point at the vent above them. Sean raised an eyebrow, saying softly. "An air vent? But why hasn't it sucked the air out of here?" Logan smirked, saying uneasily. "It must have an air damper in it. That won't be easy to get around now that it's in place... I'd have to destroy it and break the seal to get through." Sean straightened up, telling him seriously. "I'm going with you." Logan shook his head, sternly saying. "No. I can breathe in space. You can't. You need to get in the pod with the others." Sean spotted something on the wall and punched the emergency glass. Removing a small oxygen tank and a mask, he told him seriously. "What about this?" Logan shook his head, trying to be firm but nice as he said. "Sean, no offense. But you'll only slow me down. We don't have time. Rip-fang will break through that door soon. Go!" Logan turned to his dad, hugging him briefly. Logan's dad hugged him back, blood leaking from his mouth.

Logan licked his dad's neck, telling him in a shaky voice. "I'll make you proud, dad. Just hang on... please. I'm sorry about what I said... I..." Logan's voice broke, tears running down his scaly cheeks. Logan's dad raised a shaky reptilian hand to touch Logan's cheek, telling him with a warm smile. "I've never not been proud of you. You are stronger than I have ever been. You will be a great leader one day... but not today. I'm going to drag your butt home, young man... You're grounded." Logan chuckled through more tears. Sniffling, Logan rubbed his face against the side of his dad's before starting to climb up the wall toward the vent. Logan pried the vent off, tossing it aside as he climbed into the vent. Sean watched him go feeling envious of him. Logan's dad put a hand on Sean's shoulder, telling him confidently. "Come along." Sean stiffly turned away, when a loud banging rang out through the hallway. Sean and Logan's dad turned their attention to the closed hatch door. When from above them, Logan said aloud from within the vent. "I think Rip-fang is in the vent!"

Logan's dad raised up on his toes to put his long nose closer to the vent as he said. "Impossible. He's too big..." Sean inhaled, stating out. "It's Mark!" Another banging came, before the same set of banging seemed to answer. Sean's heart leapt, rushing to grab a paper that he found on the stairway, he rushed off to find a pen as he yelled out. "Hang on! Give him the tank!" Logan crawled back to peek out of the vent, saying excitedly. "Good idea! Hey! Where are you going?!" Sean snatched a pen from the mess of a floor inside the pod, then rushed back. Writing quickly against the wall, he told Logan. "I'm going tell him what we are doing. He can meet you there after you break the dampener!" Logan grinned, saying excitedly. "Perfect! I can't open it if he's there anyway." Sean finished his rushed scribble, sticking it firmly into the plastic folder on the tank that held the instructions. Handing the tank up, Sean put it in Logan's hand, telling him seriously. "I trust you, Logan... Protect his stubborn ass."

Logan nodded just as seriously, telling him quickly. "Go. Get to the pod. I've got to open the vent." Sean reluctantly released the tank, taking the arm of Logan's dad to help him back toward the pod. The Asian man helped get Logan's dad in and down across the only bed inside. The woman sat at the controls, flipping the last switches as she said. "Everything is online. Looks good to go. But I don't know how long she'll last. So, let's do this quickly." Sean stepped into the pod and grabbed the hatch door, when an aggressive bang came from up the stairs. He could hear the sudden whine of metal as it weakened under pressure, followed by deep growling. Closing the hatch without waiting a second longer, he told the woman in a slight panic. "We've got to go NOW! He's coming!" The woman started flipping a few more switches, retorting in a distracted tone. "I'm trying. These pods weren't exactly designed for quick escapes." The Asian man huffed and grumbled out. "As if you can take your time in an emergency..."

The woman chuckled, telling him seriously. "These pods normally would have been easy to launch... but one of those bastards wiped the launch data from the station's server." She pulled down a small lever on the wall to let something charge as she added grimly. "That's why I went to the stations control room. I was trying to fix the issue with Robonaut... I heard the screams over the coms... and my friend showed up with something impaled in his side... Everything had gone so wrong..." Outside there was a loud 'BANG' and loose objects outside the pod began to whizz past the window as space began to suck the stuff from the other open pods. Sean looked out the little round window of the door to see Rip-fang crawling slowly out across the room on all fours. He was fighting the force of being sucked backward and his wings were protecting him from loose objects that hit him. He peeked under his wings to look into the open pod doors as he crept forward. Sean swallowed, telling the woman shakily. "Any day now would be nice!"

The woman groaned behind him, stating out gruffly. "It's charging as fast as it can. It wasn't meant to have so much weight! You fuckers are heavy. It needs a lot of power to move!" Sean licked his lips as Rip-fang's wings parted to see their pod. Sean stared at him, his heart racing. Rip-fang bared his teeth, then lunged for the door. Sean yelped, falling back on his ass as Rip-fang hit the door so hard that the pod shook and beeped in warning. Rip-fang put his weight against the door, the metal whining as it bent under the force he was putting behind it. Everyone began to yell, except for Logan's dad. Logan's dad got to his feet, stepping over Sean's body to put his own hands against the bending metal to push it back. Sean hated being on the ground between the strong legs of Logan's dad, but he couldn't move. His eyes were locked on the door as they competed with each other. Sean flinched, watching the talons of the green lizard dig into the carpet to get more traction. Those talons were frightening to look at so close to his shoulders. The green lizard's tail swayed slowly behind him as he growled, his eyes locked on Rip-fang's through the glass.

Rip-fang looked like he was growling on the other side, his fingers becoming more prominent in the metal. Any second his talons would pierce right through the thick metal. The pressure on the door caused the glass to crack a little. The woman then suddenly yelled from the front. "Hang on!" The pod jerked as something released the pod and she floored it! Fire burst from the thrusters at the back, causing Rip-fang to leap away from the pod as the jets of flame seared his shoulders and wings as he tried to protect himself from them. The pod shot forward and the green lizard let out weak whine before collapsing in front of the door. Sean pulled his legs up just as Logan's dad landed, his tail and legs falling limply to one side of Sean. Sean touched his scaly leg, asking timidly. "You shouldn't have done that in your condition..." Logan's dad weakly grinned, blood leaking between his teeth as he said very softly. "He's not going to stop until he's defeated... He's my fight... I have to fight... whatever it takes."

Sean shrugged, leaning over him more to ask hopefully. "How can we kill him... He regenerates so fast..." Logan's dad put a hand on Sean's shoulder, groggily telling him in a drifting voice. "Rip-fang can only regenerate a lost limb or burned skin. Not deep wounds... but his skin is thick... Although... he is his own worst enemy... His venom..." Logan's dad let out a heavy sigh, his hand falling off his shoulder as his eyes rolled back and closed. Sean gasped, touching his scaly shoulder as he pleaded out. "Wait! Don't! Stay with us!" The Asian man rushed over to his side, kneeling to check the lizard's pulse. After a few seconds, he told him. "He's still alive... but he's really weak." From the front, the woman told the Asian man. "Take over the controls. Let me look at him." They quickly swapped positions and she grabbed a small bag from within a cabinet. Dropping beside him, she told Sean lightly. "His blood pressure is falling... He needs water... but this might slow down what's happening to him."

She opened her little black bag, removing a syringe and a small bottle. Sean tilted his head to read the label and asked as she carefully filled the syringe. "Antibiotics? You think that will work?" She shrugged, tapping the syringe to clear out the air bubbles as she answered hopefully. "Lizards are not known for venom. It's more like bacteria that they carry in their saliva. I think Rip-fang carries a liquid form of bacteria that he injects like snake venom. In small doses it would be very slow acting... but from a lizard of his size... it's lethal. However, in a lizard like this guy here... it's weakening him slightly faster than an earth lizard's 'venom' would do to a human on earth. Probably because they are around the same size... but adrenaline is making it run through him pretty fast." She injected a large dose of the antibiotics into the lizard's neck. Then she began pulling out a tube and told him quickly. "I think I have some bottled water in the cabinet. Get it. I'll try to force it down his throat."

Sean found a bottle or two, watching her slowly shove a tube into the lizard's mouth. Cupping the end, she took a bottle and poured it slowly into the tube. The lizard swallowed on his own, but it was slow. Sean pet the lizard and looked up at the dents in the door. He inhaled deeply, hoping that Mark was alright. As he thought about what Logan's dad said though, he locked his jaw. He hated to admit it... but they had to kill Rip-fang. He feared that if they didn't, he'd take his own ship and follow them to earth. If the reptilians on earth were against Logan's dad because of his weakened state... Rip-fang would have a greater following there. They had to finish this here. No matter what. They'd have to do whatever it takes to bring him down. To Be Continued...