Freeman continued to charge untiring. He tore through walls and knocked aside invaluable statues and other ancient relics. After he broke through to open night sky, several concentric walls still stood in his way. The red goo was already engulfing those walls. “Look alive, troops! Smoke em if you got em!” Twin bursts of plasma erupted from his arms. One reduced two large globs of biochemical goo to ashes. The other landed just to the right of the first and exploded the nearest stone wall. Small propelled rocks bounded off his frame.

Behind him, the stag carrying C'thulhu bounded out of the darkness. A puddle of goo reached for the stag's legs, but the nimble creature jumped over it. It ran into the hole in the wall of Freeman had just opened.

Morgan appeared next with Isis in her arms. “What are you doing, my Lady? You run faster than I.”

Isis answered, “I'm focusing on weaving a spell of my own. It's something special, but it won't activate until we reach the ship. Do you have enough ingredients with you to defend yourself?”

Morgan gripped her free hand into a fist. The rings on that hand contained materials which she knew to be precious to her craft. She had gold and embedded within that gold was holly and oak and the blood of kings. “I have enough for a few simple charms or hexes.”

“Stick with hexes, girlfriend.”

Cleo emerged last from the structure. She paused, raised her weapon to her shoulder, and shot a particle beam at some goo which was following her. The goo was sliced by the line of energy. Some of it burned away to ash, but most of the energy had traveled through the goo and into walls behind it. Freeman shouted through external speakers, “Get a move on, Cleo!” The woman spun and resumed sprinting. Freeman moved last, firing more plasma bursts as he went.

As he scuttled forward, warning flashed on Freeman's heads up display. His both plasma generators were experiencing critical failure. He grunted with frustration and ejected the arm. The arms shoot far away from the rest of his body. They exploded and vaporized themselves, leveling large parts of the structure around them. “I'm outta ammo,” he announced.

C'thulhu continued to grip helplessly to the stag's neck. The stag skirted the edge of the gaping hole from which bone spike had been launched. Small and large rocks collapsed from the edge after the stag stepped on them. They tumbled down into the pit where they were engulfed by a huge mass of goo. The stag leaped over the next wall and landed outside the necropolis.

Morgan followed behind but not quite so close to the pit. Balls of goo erupted from the pit. They rolled over the ground chasing her. She pointed her free arm at them and shouted, “Ur drus rath sam Hain!” Bon fires erupted around the rolling balls of goo. The arcane flames gripped the spheres to the ground like anchors and pulled burned moisture out of them. The balls hardened and cracked and fell apart.

Freeman and Cleo came up shortly behind Morgan. A sudden stream of goo shot out from a fissure them and snagged one of Freeman's legs. He tried to kick free to no avail. Cleo spun and sliced the tendril apart with her particle beam. With pausing to thank her, Freeman asked, “How much farther?” Freeman asked.

Morgan said, “More one wall, I think thus.”

Cleo switched targets. She cut an arch shape into the wall, and Freeman crashed into it. The portion collapsed underneath him, leaving behind a semi-stable arch in the wall.

The two women ran through. Isis asked, “Aren't you going to thank the girl for saving you back there?”

Freeman merely said, “No, where is the ship?”

Isis said, “Crabby, ain't cha?”

C'thulhu, wobbling on the stag's back said, “I detest puns.”

Morgan led a race up the northern ridge. As they ran uphill, a loud growl erupted from the crumbling city behind them. The entire planet seemed to shake with hunger.

A long and sleek spaceship turned visible as they approached. Isis jumped out of Morgan's grip. A hidden doorway appeared in front of her. Isis hovered in mid-air inside of her ship. She said, “All aboard that's going aboard. The mortals did not need to be told twice.”

As soon as they stepped on board, the door sealed behind them, and the ship silently lifted itself up off the ground. The staff vanished underneath Doctor C'thulhu, allowing the octopus to collapse onto the ship's floor. Cleo winced in sympathetic pain.

Morgan asked, “Be we out of the monster's reach yet?”

Isis said, “From its gooey touchy-grip, yes. From its bone gun, no. Shuttle, plot an intercept course for that bone spike which was shot out of the ground a few ago. Match speed and bring us alongside it.”

Cleo collapsed against the ground in exhaustion. Her gun clattered to her side.

Isis asked, “Miss Cleo, may I borrow your particle beam emitter, pretty please?”

Freeman cautioned, “I don't know that we should hand over our only remaining weapon to an omni we don't know.”

C'thulhu said, “Just let her have it. It might as well be a bronze khopesh compared to her technology. She probably just wants it as a trophy or a bauble.”

Isis said, “Oh, that's a bad guess, Puzzlemaster.”

The door to the side of the ship reopened. Although they were in the planet's ionosphere, no air rushed out of the ship. It was held in place by a nearly invisible force field. To the side of the ship, the large bone spike continued to fly towards space.

Isis leveled the energy gun. Against her small bunny body, the gun appeared ridiculously oversize. It was the same size as her. Isis squeezed the trigger and carefully carved an image into the side of the bone. An elaborate and intricate glyph was carved out by her careful guidance.

“What is that supposed to be?” Freeman asked.

Morgan laughed. She answered, “It is a rune of most eldritch and great power. This is the sign of sympathetic magick.”

Cleo looked at it. She asked, “Doc, what does she mean sympathetic magic?”

Doctor C'thulhu, “I don't know exactly, but the title implies a connection to the owner – like a voodoo doll.”

Freeman asked, “Can we kill it from here?”

Isis said, “That would be mean. The poor thing can't help that it's hungry, and I won't leave it to starve all alone out here. I am altering it's metabolism to allow for it to reprocess the materials it already cast off. We can push this bone and all the other bones orbiting the planet back down, and it will eat those, reusing the same nutrients.”

C'thulhu said, “That seems inefficient.”

Isis agreed, “It's only a short-term solution. It should be enough though to fill its belly for now. Then it can hibernate again. This planet won't be a danger to anyone else for at least a few hundred of your years. Would that be acceptable to the Paradox Institute, Doctor Sawbones?”

C'thulhu repeated himself, “I detest puns.”