M Cheesy Author's Note: Somebody tell me the reason why I've been too lazy to update this story. One reason… multiple reasons. Xbox, C&C3 Kane's Wrath, and Anime. Otherwise, I need to remember I have a story culminating two of my favourite series' of all time: Dead Space and Horizon. With that, let's get back to the horror.

Otherwise, we seem to have an OC party. Already 6 OC's are being shared throughout three different stories, two of which belong to a "metalgearhunter". I'm really hoping to have my own OC "Dimitri" from Tres Espana to make an appearance soon, along with Amagi, the Automaton from metalgearhunter's story; but I need that creator's permission. Creator of Amagi, if you're reading this: do send me a PM if you'd like me to include her in the terribleness, the disturbing, the freaky, the scary adventure that is Horizon mixed with DEAD Space!

Chapter 5

Subsurface Resonator

Ichijou lead the way through the bowels of the ship's under deck entrance. Popping in and out of vents were the inhabitants of Musashi, now turned into vile creatures. Most of them were the same, and were pretty sluggish. The mutants had bone swords for hands, and held them like ominous obelisks, always over their heads. Luckily, the group could just out maneuver them, but sometimes…

"Alright guys," Ichijou started. "We're almost at an elevator and-"

Bang, another creature like the others just popped straight out of the vent in front of him. Ichijou immediately brought up Makin and sliced at its body. The creature took the full frontal force of the blow, but didn't go down.

"Dang it," Ichijou said under his breath, heart rate accelerating. "I hate it when these things do that."

He then lunged and struck at the creature. The divine weapon Makin had stopping power, but it wasn't made to cut through bone. The creature stumbled back, then looked back at him and growled. The nephew pulled Makin out of its body, and took several steps back.

Neshinbara looked around, and then behind him, only to see the others they left behind slowly catching up. "Uh… Ichijou? We got a ton of trouble behind us."

"I know!" He said. Ichijou then lifted his leg, and kicked the creature away. "Neito! Finish it!"

The wolf nodded. Using her silver chains, she grabbed its head, and then with ferocious force, ripped it off. Blood gushed out the head of the former resident, and it stopped moving. Neito smiled with pride. If that's all it takes to put them down, then surely the rest isn't- She stopped, noticing the creature moving again. Then, in a flash, it got right back up, and started swinging in a panic.

Ichijou pushed her back, and swung Makin at the creature, sending it flying towards the others ten behind them. As if in unison, they all growled, and then bursted into a sprint towards the group.

"Run!" Neshinbara yelled.

The whole group ran as fast as they could. Hituro looked back, only to notice Margot getting left behind.

The seraphic reached out with one of her hands; her wing was starting to bleed badly, and the terror behind them was starting to catch up. "Help! I can't- I can't keep up!"

"Come on Margot!" Masazumi yelled, looking back at her. "You can do it!"

Margot started slowing down, her wing was hurting too much now. She could hear the growls getting closer. "Ow- Oh no…" Margot then slowed to a stop, panting heavily.

"Margot!" Hituro yelled, now stopping and turning back. He sped back, only stopping when the creatures caught up to her, now behind her. "Margot move!"

She looked back to find more than five slashers right on top of her. Slowly she edged back towards the group. All the creatures raised their arms, as she prepared to parry the strike. Then…

BANG!

A loud shot filled the room. Everyone looked to see Tsukasa at a door, his gun fully out. The slashers all stopped to look at him, noticing their ally shot directly in the head. Tsukasa smiled smugly. "Got ya."

"Tsukasa!" Neito yelled, "these things don't die from head shots!"

He was then surprised. "Huh, oh crap then that means the others I left-" He looked behind him at the closed door. "Damn it! Margot, get your ass over there!"

Margot nodded, and then ran as fast as the pain would allow her. Masazumi noticed her stumbling, nearly tripping. "Guys, she's not going to make it if she keeps up like this. We need to help her."

"Then you carry her, Neito and I are probably the only ones who aren't hurt yet that can still fight."

Masazumi nodded, "Sure, but come back with me, and use Makin's over drive to keep those things at bay."

"Sure thing."

The two ran for Margot, and quickly caught her. Ichijou released the over drive, and a huge force overtook the group of slashers. Shooting from a distance, Tsukasa laid down support fire. It didn't matter how much he shot them though, they wouldn't go down. Masazumi hoisted Margot onto her back, and proceeded carrying her to the rest of the group.

Hituro was tired of this, he took out one of his chrome spheres. "Ichijou! I think you'd better shield yourself!"

"What's that- huh?" Ichijou then saw what was headed over. Hituro had done chucked one of his concussion spheres in the boy's direction. Quickly, he deactivated the overdrive and shielded himself as best he could. The sphere landed right in the group of the slashers and busted all of them away quite a good distance. Ichijou fell over, but quickly got up. He picked up the sphere, and threw it back, returning to the group himself. "Quick thinking there buddy, good job."

Hituro laughed slightly. "Thanks man. Alright, let's go!"

The group ran Tsukasa's direction, and quickly let him join the group. They then got to the heavy duty door on the other side of the room. Ichijou and Neito tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

"Oooh, the devil-," Neito strained. "This thing's not moving!"

Ichijou pulled and pulled. "Yeah, no kidding. Hey, Useful Honda! We could use your expertise. Surely you have codes that'll open this thing!"

Masazumi looked their direction, not watching Tsukasa and Hituro keep the slashers at bay. "Yeah, I do. I'm coming." Hoisting Margot more, she walked over to the door, and looked for a key pad. "Surely there's got to be one here…" Looking about, she found one on the right side. "There." She ran for it, and began inputting a code sequence.

Ichijou used the overdrive on Makin to help delay the slashers. Tsukasa looked her direction. "Alright, any day now."

"Shit…" Masazumi let escape. The pad beeped, indicating an incorrect sequence. She began to re-input it. Another beep of error. "Shit."

Ichijou looked at her. "Hey, you getting there?"

Another beep of incorrectness. "Damn it." Masazumi rapidly inputted the code again, and another beep of incorrectness. "Shit."

Hituro looked over. "Get the code in!"

Yet again, the console beeped. "Shit!" Masazumi yelled.

"Did they change the code Seijun?" Neito asked strenuously.

The gravity swordsman Hituro finally dropped his guard, and walked over. "Let me see the thing."

Masazumi moved aside and let him get to it. "Sure."

Hituro set up the process. "Alright, what's the code?"

"Um, Zero, Four, Zero… um, Three… Two- no One!"

"What is the code!?" Hituro yelled.

Masazumi panicked. "Zero, Four, Zero, One…" Masazumi stopped to think, jittering a bit. "Zero, Four…"

"What is the fucking code!" Hituro yelled.

The politician growled. "Um… Zero, Four, Zero… Three, One… Nine… Nine Six Five!"

Hituro put in the sequence, and the door opened. "There, was that so hard?" He turned about, and the room ahead was empty, untouched actually.

"Alright!" Ichijou yelled. "Everybody inside now! Let's go!"

The group all moved inside the room, and Tsukasa quickly closed the door behind them. The thick iron doors then locked, isolating them from the terror outside.

Margot sat down on a bar stool, Masazumi and Horizon inspecting the wounds on her wing. She whimpered a bit, but it was clear she was just scared. Masazumi looked at Horizon, nodded slightly, then back at the wing.

Tsukasa laid back against the heavy duty doors, listening for the slashers outside. He looked up their direction. "You had better get a certified doctor to take a good look at that. Her wing was chopped, remember?"

"There probably are no doctors anymore Tsukasa," Masazumi stated, examining the wing. "Horizon, could you fetch that first aid kit over there?"

The automaton nodded, and proceeded to collect the requested item.

Masazumi looked up at the seraphic. "It's not too bad from what I see. You just can't move much until the cut clots. Your feathers are doing a nice job at blocking the blood, but I want to properly wrap that up at least. It might not be a good idea to let feathers be your band-aid."

Margot nodded, tears still flowing slightly.

"What's wrong? Does it hurt that bad?" Masazumi asked. "I can understand, you took an axe right there after all."

Margot shook her head. "No. One swipe of a common fire axe like that ain't going to get deep enough to cause a bad wound, and it only hurts if I move too much." She wiped her eyes. "I'm worried about Ga-chan. If we have it this bad… how bad do the others have it? Kimi, Genji, Tenzou… I don't know what I'd do if I lost Ga-chan."

Masazumi lifted a hand to her face. "Hey, you're not going to lose her. We're not losing any of our classmates. Got that?"

"How can you be certain of that, huh?" Margot questioned. "I know you're just trying to make me feel better, but people can't help it if they get hurt. They can't help it if they get… killed."

Musashi walked by them. "That is true, over. A person cannot reject another when they are the one assaulted, over."

"Still, to think…" Masazumi started. "Our classmates actually dead, it's just unimaginable." She looks at 'Musashi' and 'Musashino'. "How is it that we can fight an entire war, and stand up against a hundred men- Neito can stand up to a hundred men. So, how come we couldn't take those things back there?"

Ichijou looked her direction. "I can answer that for you: it was too sudden, we weren't organized. As a plus, usually the students we strike stay down, they don't get back up. These things simply shrug off our attacks. How are we supposed to fight something like that. When you're up against an enemy you don't understand, it's best to run away and regroup. That's what we did. As a plus, we found Tsukasa." He turned back to Hituro and tightened a bandage on him.

Hituro winced a bit, but took it in. "So, a question Tsukasa."

"I'm willing to answer."

"How was it you were able to survive? Not only that, how'd you get down here so fast?"

Tsukasa looked up slightly. "It just so happened I had business down here, and about surviving the ship's fall… well, that has something to do with a storage room full of nothing but boxes of Styrofoam."

Ichijou then turned to him, bewildered. "Why were you in a room full of Styrofoam?"

"I wanted Kuina to make a dummy of Toori that could punch every now and then," Tsukasa said bitterly. "Looks like that ain't happening though…"

Hituro laughed. "Heh, sure ain't, isn't it. Well, I sure hope Kuina, Ayumi, and Kazu are alright.

"They should be, last I saw them, they were watching the kids in the play area, just talking. I supposed they went into the bounce house nearby for shelter when they got word the ship was falling." Ichijou cocked his gun. "So, how's that wound treating you?"

"Eh, I could've been worse… doesn't mean to say it's not a thorn in my side," Hituro replied. "So, how long are we going to be here?"

Masazumi, who was now looking through the first aid kit Horizon brought, looked his direction. "Until we can all calm down and correctly assess the situation. We need to find the rest of our friends and classmates; see which ones are not infected; and find that guy that's responsible for all of this."

Neshinbara clasped his hands together. "After all of that, every one of us will get a turn at kicking his ass. Extra time for any of friends that might get killed."

"Like Genji?" Ichijou asked.

"Any of our friends," Neshinbara repeated, his smile not fading.

Ichijou nodded. "Alright." He then looked at Hituro. "That should do you."

"Thanks."

Masazumi finished up the wrapping of Margot's wing. "There we go, you should be alright now; I should probably see if we can get something to keep that wing in place too, huh?"

"No," Margot shook her head. "It's okay, I'll just keep it down. Thank you though."

Ichijou took up Makin. "Alright guys, we need to move. Just because we're okay, doesn't mean our friends are. We need to go, and we need to find them."

"Judge," the group said in unison.

AUTHOR'S CONCLUSSION: Well, I sure hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again, I'm sorry it took so long to come out; I just keep forgetting I have a story I'd like to write. Please leave nice comments and reviews! I'm also going to be substituting curse words in favor of lighter versions of the representative word from here on out, unless it is absolute necessary for them to cuss. Thanks again!

Also, if anybody can find the reference in this chapter, do let me know. 'Kay, thanks.