Quoted By:
This is bullshit, it didn't drop any Epic Loot.
-Is what resonates through a portion of the Hive, while the rest ponder what the Hell any of that means, and are more focused on maintaining control of the Unit. Between the damage sustained and the weakening connection as you've been away from your Pizzeria, every little motion is Hellish.
It's time to go, and fast.
<inquiry>I'm struggling to move, can I get some assistance?
JJ moves to your side immediately, and does her absolute best to support you from the back. She's not very strong.
At all, being fully honest the support is more in spirit than practical as you hunch forward. One slow, miserable step at a time. Dolly groans.
>"Alrighty. This is jess' depressing."
<exclamation>!!
Up you, and JJ holding on for dear life, go as two clamps close around your arms, and without a hint of effort, Dolly lifts the two of you a good six feet above the ground.
>"I'll let Theo know y'all got through alright. I don't want any more attention drawn here, and y'both are far better off anywhere else.
>"Hell has got a mark on you now, they'll know about this, so be careful now, y’hear?"
JJ whimpers a weak affirmation, dangling for her life as Dolly reels her clamped arms back and--
Throws you both through the Portal. She seemed to be in a hurry to get rid of the two of you, maybe she was more worried about having the two of you in their pseudo-Hell than she let on?
On exiting, you find yourself collapsed in the Work-shed. The Portal fizzles away block-by-block.
Everything seems okay, and your shadow is... just a normal shadow?
>"Did it go away...? The Shadowy thing?"
<statement>I don't understand anything any more.
---
The Sun is slowly rising at tree-level, you were gone for a few hours at least, leaving plenty of time to walk back to your Pizzeria.
>Plip... plip... plip...
On the East-side Wall, a massive pit goes deep into the ground where an explosion of some kind occurred while you were in Not-Purgatory.
The wall to your Office is severely damaged, and a white fog is billowing from the crater.
<deadpan>Good news. We found where the Stardust was.