Chapter 3
The Dead are calling via collect will you accept the charges?
Richtofen and Twilight worked late into the night trying to finish up the changes in the teleporter system by the following morning. As the sun began to rise Richtofen closed the circuit breaker box leading into the teleporter mainframe and began to program the teleporter for the return trip. The group gathered together on the pad and bid each other their adieu's with Dempsey shedding an uncharacteristic tear as he told Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo his parting message Scootaloo let out a slight “Eww.” as she saw Dempsey getting all mopy over it as Rainbow Dash simply thanked him for the complements and the time they shared confiding that she considered him to be even cooler than she perceived herself to be. Takeo and the Apple Sisters bid each other fair well over Appletinis made with some Sweet Apple Acres brand Apple Juice and some of Takeo's reserved sake.
Rarity and Nikolai shared a parting shot of vodka, initially she was a bit hesitant to drink it expecting it would be beneath her pedigree but Nikolai smiled warmly and said “Do not worry your pretty little head my pony friend. This is best vodka in all of Russia. I assure you of that I stole it from father of 3rdwife before we were married she was bitch about it the whole time. She was a spoiled lady like you but you have something she lacked humility.” he handed her a small flask and proposed a toast which she agreed to and quickly drank a nice solid swig before making her way to the platform. She started to toss the flask back to him but he smiled at her and said “It is yours now. Just don't let any zombies touch it!” she nodded obviously the slightest bit tipsy as this was the first time she'd drank anything stronger than Sweet Apple Acres brand Applejack brandy.
After that the ponies gathered on the platform and Richtofen made the final adjustments and activated the start up procedure. Just as the teleporter cycled on Twilight's horn began to glow brightly as her teleport magic began to react with the teleporter almost seeming like it would act like a guidance system. But as Richtofen put in the final adjustments to the terminal a large swarm of zombies rushed the platform in desperation Twilight fired her DG-3JZ and zapped the group of zombies but the lightening arched off the zombies hitting the mainframe behind them and overloading it which caused it to release a wave of energy that linked itself with Twilight's horn.
As the beam began to link with Twilight it arched off of it and began to link to the other ponies and then to the four survivors pulling them in over the teleporter pad as it finished its activation cycle. Within mere moments a brilliant flash of light washed over the room and when it faded the ponies and the survivors were gone.
Sometime later in Russia aboard the wreckage of the Russian military cruiser Rusulka,,,,
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A group of well known horror film actors namely Danny Trejo, Robert Englund, Sarah Micheal Geller and Micheal Rooker were busy shooting on set of a movie directed by the legendary George A Romero. But due to a freak accident that resulted in the disappearance of George after a zombie ran off with him they've been engorged in battle with the zombie hordes. Suddenly a bright flash of light comes over the group as they prepare for another day of fighting the seemingly unending hordes. When the light fades four of our equine heroines drop in on the group. After the group gathered themselves Robert looked over and said “So what are you doing here we're in the middle of a zombie massacre and multicolored ponies drop out of thin air like that. I’m sure my agent will have something to say about that.” Rainbow Dash said “Wait a second your Robert Englund, the original Freddy Kruger. I've watched all your movies...” within mere moments her further sentence was reduced to stammering of “Oh my gosh.” for several minutes before Applejack snapped her back to normal. Applejack looked up at Robert and said “Many apologies kind sir she tends to get like that around celebrities. As for why we're here I don't rightly know because this stuff is way over my head I’m sure if we can find my friend Twilight Sparkle she can explain things better than I ever could.” Danny looked over and saw that they were surprisingly well armed for being ponies.
The Apple sisters drew out their M1911's and reached up trying to reactivate their HUD's and when they kicked in they had been reset to how there were when they first got them meaning they lost their perks and equipment on the way. They both stood there and kicked at the snowy ground below them and snorted “Aw ponyfeathers.” each with a slightly discouraged look on their face. Sarah walked over and smiled saying “Don't worry girls you don't need big guns to solve problems..” but before she finished a bunch of sparks and bubbles began to rise from the surface as Zombie George Romero began to rise from the lake and Micheal finished her sentence saying “They may not solve problems but they sure as shit save lives!” as the zombies began to spawn in from the ground around them. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo began to charge in but the Apple Sisters grabbed them by the tails and pulled them back.
Scootaloo's pistol slipped from her hoof and when she went to fix her grip on it she accidentally fired it while it was aimed at George. The larger than life zombie director looked around slightly startled and let out a loud roar that caused the entire area to rumble and all the zombies to begin emerging faster. Micheal said “Sorry for not mentioning that before now ladies, zombie George over there doesn't care for being shot at and when the bullets start flying his way he gets a little snippy.” but before he could continue the zombies began to horde up around them and so the intrepid group of zombie slayers set to work dealing with the undead masses.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the immediate area, just up a side road blocked by an abandoned lifeboat from the frozen ship. In a dark room in the first subbasement of the light house a teleporter can be heard fading in from behind a large metal door as Rarity and Twilight hit the hard ground coming out of the teleport they glace around the room Twilight using her horn to illuminate the room with a light spell. As the room fills with dim light they see Dempsey, Richtofen, Nikolai and the others but they look somewhat different than before. Their clothing was torn and ragged their faces splattered with blood as though they'd been fighting for years. Dempsey said “Ugh why do I feel so woozy, stupid Gersh he sent us on a wild goose chase for nothing. Oh hey Twilight nice seeing you again after the incident back at Der Riese.” Twilight shook her head saying “Gersh who's he? And why do you look so beat up its only been maybe 15 minutes since we teleported out from that factory.” Richtofen replied saying “Not exactly you see I think what happened was when the teleporter malfunctioned back at the factory we got split up from you and were sent to another MDT location in Germany about 20 years after our last encounter and then from there we wound up in a Soviet space base in the 1970s. Now we're somewhere else and back together as a group for some unknown reason. My guess is we didn't exactly get split up so much as the idea of Dempsey, myself and the others were meant to come here in a different way or by a different means but due to your presence here something caused the MDT to split our party between two planes of existence the one which would have came here by the process I mentioned and the ones you knew as the event involving your land never happened in the original interpretation of our universe. So there must be other forces at work in this world.” Twilight thought to herself for a few moments before resolving that at the moment the best they could do is wait for someone to get the power on and see if they can get the teleporter functional in the hopes of getting back to Ponyville.
Back outside the others were busy building up the points needed to get up to the power room. According to their HUD the Apple Sisters had a nice lead after spending the first round fighting the zombies with melee attacks and the subsequent rounds firing shots from their pistol into them and then using a melee attack to finish. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were somewhat slower to gain points as they decided to spend their points to open the way over toward the light house to open the way to a sub-machine gun Sarah and the others had mentioned. Of the celebrity ensemble cast Sarah and Robert were tied at roughly 2000 points, while Danny was sitting on roughly 400 after opening the way to the ship and Micheal was sitting on 1200 after having bought an M14 rifle and an Olympia shotgun and having lost points from going down a few times.
Once the group had filed on to the boat they noticed the foggy weather starting to subside so they made use of it and quickly made their way up to the power room with Applejack buying away the debris on the staircase leading up to the second floor of the ship and then Apple bloom buying her way into the power switch in the pilot room of the ship. As the lights activated the group began to make their way out to the back of the ship toward another section of the immense ship that had apparently been split in two by the force of the ice crushing against its hull. Once the group had all safely made it across to the other half of the ship Sarah scouted the skies and spotted the box's light radiating from the back of the ship. Applejack quickly checked her score counter to see if she'd be able to afford to buy Juggernog and a new gun to replace her saggy old M14 which seemed to be too slow to use effectively against the zombies.
The HUD display refreshed itself and pulled up the score card and it looked roughly like this...
Applejack 3000
Apple Bloom 2550
Rainbow Dash 2000
Scootaloo 3000
Robert 2000
Sarah 2500
Micheal 1750
Danny 3000
Applejack smiled lightly and said “While I won't have enough right away I should by the end of the next wave. So she quickly spent 1000 points opening a door over to the box and then quickly sprinted back to the box. When she arrived she immediately forced the box open and as the weapons cycled she watched her back with Apple bloom watching from the side. When it stopped it landed on a strange looking rifle her first reaction was “Gah another blasted rifle. I’m guessing Ol Granny Smith back home wants me to get my share of practice with these things in case I have to go out toward Appaloosa again.” she pulled the weapon from the glowing pillar of light and inserted her M14 in its place. She took it out and looked it over for a brief moment before aiming down the rather strange looking scope and firing a a shot at a zombie down the way toward the MP40 that Sarah and Robert pointed out earlier. The gun fired something that sounded like a blow dart rather than a bullet. It made a solid hit in its target but didn't kill it. Applejack kicked the ground and said “Aw Horseapples.” as the gun seemed to be fairly useless but then after a few seconds she heard a strange beeping noise and seconds later the zombie exploded taking a group of its kind with it. Danny smirked and said “I'm guessing you've never seen anything like that around where you live. Its called the Scavenger it fires explosive tipped dart rounds and is quite effective for clearing crowds so I'd suggest you hold onto your ammo for it until you need it. Until then go buy an MP40 to replace that piece of shit pistol.” she nodded and made her way back up toward where they came in at while Sarah made her way back and tried her hand at the box having already bought an MP40 and was merely wanting a nice back up weapon.
She opened the box and allowed the guns to cycle as before, when the cycle stopped she smiled and said “Well its time for a little Jesus action.” as she pulled out the V-R11 humanizer. Danny and Apple Bloom congratulated her. After that the group made their way toward Juggernog and decided to hold up there until they could all get a chance to buy it before heading over to the light house. Once the crew geared up with a fresh stock of ammo after point farming for Juggernaut Rainbow dash carpet bombed a group of zombies with grenades and made some crawlers so they could have an easier time maneuvering the battlefield. Danny, Robert and the Apple Sisters ran up the route Rainbow dash opened earlier for her MP5k and made their way up to the top level of the light house to get a better observation point of their surroundings while Dash, Scootaloo, Sarah and Micheal headed down stairs toward the lower levels. As they did they ran across a perk a cola machine that looked different than the ones that the ponies had seen in the factory. Micheal explained that the new machine's drink allowed the person who consumed it to resist splash damage from explosives and deal a splash radius explosion after diving to the ground in a prone stance from a high spot. Rainbow dash being the natural flier she was decided it wouldn't be a half bad idea to take advantage of something like that especially if she set up for the dive out of one of her patented Sonic Rainbooms. She bought the drink and chugged it down grudgingly at first as she didn't much care for the taste of prunes but the strong taste of prune faded so something more in line with grape juice after so she came to cope with it.
After that they made their way down a set of stairs into a rather disjointed looking room with a large metal vault door in one of the walls. Rainbow hit the door with her knife and then a familiar voice began speaking “Is someone out there?.” Rainbow Dash knew that gruff voice any where. She quickly replied saying “Dempsey is that you?” the voice replied “Well if it isn't Rainbow dash back to party with the best zombie slaying bad ass this side of where ever the hell we are.” Rainbow smiled and said “I take it that that dumb teleporter malfunctioned again and split us up.” another voice chimed in saying “Yep that's the simple explanation.” Rainbow instantly realized it was Twilight's voice and said “So your stuck there as well. In that case we'll see what we can do to get you guys out.” then Richtofen spoke up saying “The first thing we need to do is get the power on. Here is a lever maybe this will do.” as he felt around in the dark room his hand landing on what felt like a lever. Then a shrill yell and a crack “Ow that was my horn you scatterbrained scientist now I’ll have to get it filed again because if I don't it won't grow back evenly. Oh Rainbow Dash your out there.. have you heard any word on Sweetie Belle's whereabouts I'd feel horrid if anything happened to her she may get on my nerves at times but she's still my little sister. Plus I do enjoy her singing when the mood strikes me its actually quite relaxing. But I digress do hurry and find a way for us to get out of here.” Richtofen resumed his ramblings “There should be a fuse lying around out there somewhere that should be enough to shed some light on the situation.” thus the group began searching around for the missing fuse.
A few minutes later they found the fuse laying on a desk upstairs and quickly placed it in the empty fuse box slot as the sounds of electronic equipment activating began to fill the room. Twilight began to look around and saw a large panel with a bunch of random buttons on it. She was intrigued by what the panel could have to do with the equipment but before she could do anything Nikolai walked over and pressed on of the buttons activating a series of shields across the room that domed them in an separated them. Rarity said “Well at least this will keep Mr. Grabby hands at bay for a while.” as she glared at Richtofen who made no apologies for breaking her horn. Richtofen chimed in saying “From the look of things this must be some self defense system you'll have to deactivate the power generators that are around the facility. Based on what I can see from the drawings in here they look like large box shaped generators with glass domes on them a concussive blast should be enough to disable them.
Rainbow Dash looked around and saw a device matching the description and tossed a grenade into the opening in the dome and flew upstairs to avoid the blast. When it exploded the light shut off and inside the room the barrier around Twilight disappeared. She called out and said “That was one of them. Now just track down the rest from what I can see they'll all have blinking red lights on them to indicate their rough positioning.” with that directive the group spent the next few waves searching for the generators Applejack managed to snipe a few of them with her Scavenger and Sarah got the last with a well placed Semtex grenade. Once they finished that they made their way back to the room and knocked on the door to signal the group inside that they were back again. The only one they could get a response from was Richtofen as the others had intoxicated themselves with the vodka that Rarity had received from Nikolai during their previous encounter. Richtofen replied saying “The next thing we'll need you to do is go to the pilot house of the ship and set the control levers to a specific set of positions but I don't know the exact details. I believe I hear the light from the pilot house letting off a ping like its trying to synchronize itself with something via sonar that may give you a clue.” after that they made their way up to the pilot house and began to watch the light as it bounced from the lamps on the pilot house out to its destination. As they watched it Rainbow dash noticed a pattern in the blinks and beeps. She thought to herself “That's Mores code I remember our instructors at the flight school teaching us about it and how it was used to communicate in the olden times before the more modern communication systems were developed.” she made her way over to the panel and began to move the first lever on the left to the first position down from where it started, she ignored the middle lever and pulled the third to its fully open position. After that the light beam turned solid green and directed itself toward the light house.
As they made their way back to the room Danny asked her “How did you know what to do?” she smirked and said “Back in flight school they forced us to memorize audio sequenced mores code handbooks in case we had to fly and couldn't use our normal communication lines.” Applejack smirked a little and said “Mores code like what Braeburn used to send me that letter one time during that nasty winter spell in Appaloosa and the mail service was down so they had to send their mail by those weird wire things.” Rainbow dash landed grinning from ear to ear for a moment before taking on a facial expression that made her look kinda bored at the occasion as she delivered a flat “Eeeyup.” in a tone familiar to the Apple sisters as it was her poking fun at their elder brother Big McIntosh.
Applejack stood there and lowered her hat her eyes looking more frustrated than happy at Rainbow dash's obvious joke. She spun around and kicked Rainbow dash out off the guard railing and into the freezing lake below. Apple bloom laughed a little as Rainbow dash flew back up her wings covered in icicles from the frigid water. Rainbow responded saying “Hey what was that for?” with a cross tone to her voice. Applejack replied saying “No pony and I mean no pony makes fun of Big McIntosh in front of me!” Sarah stepped in between them to prevent a fight from breaking out as Apple bloom said “Come on big sis she was just trying to lighten the mood I thought it was kinda funny myself.” Applejack backed away nodding and beginning to chuckle as she realized it was just the stress starting to get to her. She looked over at Rainbow Dash and said “I guess I can let this slide but try and be a little more respectful of your elders if you don't mind.” Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement and they continued their way back down to the room. Danny knifed the door to draw their attention and Twilight said “From the look of things that did something the light house has this weird green light coming down from the top of it now.” as she looked at a video from the outside of the room overlooking the landscape.
Richtofen said “Now all we need is the golden rod. Its a special conduit that I developed that is meant to amplify the MDT and greatly increase its functionality. But I misplaced it and haven't the slightest clue where it went. It may have to do with the green light see if you can find a way to retrieve it and bring it back here.” the group agreed to the final leg of the chase and set off. Meanwhile in the room Twilight confronted Dr Richtofen about his strange knowledge of what was going on. She said “So Doctor Richtofen..” he smirked and said “Call me Edward, I care little for formal titles.” she continued “Edward, I can tell you know more about this than your letting on. The teleporters, the golden rod, Element 115 all of it you had your hands in this the whole time and your keeping it secret from Dempsey and the others. Its as if your using them..” before she could finish he turned around and said “My own personal test subjects.” a demented grin crossing his face.
She looked at him awe struck by how sadistic someone would have to be to resort to such things. He continued saying “Yes ever since I joined Group 935 I knew my genius would come to face some of the greatest tests ever to face man kind. The reports from the father land about the incident at the asylum and later from our allies in Japan which led to my relocation to the swamp facility at the Shi No Numa site and further to my eventual work along side the fool Ludwig Maxis. The ignorant fool thought he could control the zombie masses he created by his messing with the powers of the element the government bureaucrats back in Berlin thought his research would lead to the creation of weapons that could finally win the war against the allies. I knew Maxis had no interest in serving his benefactors he was simply using them for resources to power his own schemes. When he saw the teleporter experiments were causing the zombies he decided to attempt to brain wash them. First he tried with freshly turned subjects as your meddling rainbow haired friend already knows. She activated one of the recordings that Maxis left around the factory as an audio journal. After our encounter when our group was split, the side of me that continued into the future found out that Maxis later attempted to use subliminal thought implantation in a theater as a means of controlling them. When that failed he allied himself with some scientists who went to work for the Russians during the cold war. One of his team a man named Gersh found a copy of my research information and began to experiment with Element 115 which drew Sam to attack the soviet space facility we were led to. After freeing Gersh we were sent here and those fools outside aided us in getting out of this annoying vault and getting to that zombie infested jungle where I discovered this.” as he pulled out a large energy charged stone that looked like the element 115 batteries from the ray gun except larger and in the shape of a polished orb like jewel.
What is it?” Twilight asked both curious and expecting the only way to satiate the mad man's rambling would be to give him a reason to continue. He continued his voice now starting to tilt upward in an increasingly crazed tone saying “This is referred to as the Focus Stone. Its an ancient artifact which is believed to be the purest form of the element known to man combined with the golden rod they become a powerful means of altering time and space. I already have both, but the more of them I have the more powerful I can become. Thanks to the effects of the raw unrefined element contained within the perk a cola drinks the others of my traveling party are unaware of my using the focus stone to warp us back to the factory to re-initiate the events that lead me to acquiring these artifacts.” then Twilight looked at him and said “But then we came along and through things out of whack by our being here and changing the events for this loop.” the mad doctor began to cackle as he said “In some ways yes but in others no because with me already having the focus stone and the golden rod I was able to willingly force the events that occurred in the previous loop to repeat just amending for your unexpected presence here.” she stood there partly awe struck and partly brimming with rage as she replied saying “How could you do such a thing. You told me you were trying to help us get back to our home..” as she spoke her eyes began to fill with depressed tears as the realization that they may never get home unless they bow to the will of this mad man. “You are a sick disgusting person you have no right to be considered with the likes of Dempsey and Takeo and Nikolai as humans you are a twisted demented being that lost his humanity long before now if you even had any.” suddenly her horn began to react to the stone and the golden rod.
As the energy began to feed between them the objects were drawn to Twilight and began to orbit around her for several moments before melding into her in a similar fashion to what happened when she awoke her Element of Harmony during the fight with Nightmare Moon. Moments later several more golden rods came out from Richtofen's coat revealing this wasn't the first time he'd preformed the loop. As they floated over and bonded into Twilight she counted eight of them and they were followed by six focus stones which told her he was gathering them for some reason. She stared him in the eye her's brimming with light from the energy that was coursing through her body as she asked him “What is your purpose in doing this.” the now almost fearful looking scientist said “My reasons are mine to keep to myself. But if you want any chance of getting home you'll calm down and abstain from using the power you just absorbed to kill since I know how the focus stones are meant to interact with the gold rods and how to use them to create portals between worlds. You see without the focus stones the raw power of the golden rods is uncontrolled and runs wild. With it in that state a proper portal can't be made but with the focus stones they become controlled and directed and when they are brought together with a sufficient energy source they can bridge the gap between worlds. In my case my reasons for gathering them is to create a portal to a world in which the this zombie outbreak never occurred and to sell my research to who ever will take it at the highest bid then to sit back and use the wealth I would gain to plunge the world into war as I watch over it and take in those wishing to be absolved of their pain only to bring them more.” the sadistic grin from their earlier tract returned and at that point the power subsided and Twilight agreed grudgingly to deal with him until they could acquire the last focus stone because as he was ranting she estimated that with one focus stone and golden rod for each of them they would be able to return to Ponyville and put this behind them.
Elsewhere in the lighthouse the group of zombie slayers were busy trying to figure out what the strange green light meant. As Sarah and Applejack herded the zombies around the bottom floor of the light house Sarah used her VR-11 to return one of the zombies to its human form. As it wandered around the room trying to get away from the zombies it began to get sucked into the beam of light. Applejack quickly shot at it with her Scavenger knowing there was a swarm working its way down the spiral stair case so the explosion would take them out as well. When the humanized zombie exploded the crowd was taken out and after a few moments Applejack noticed something strange a golden rod began to float down from the top of the room. They quickly cleared out the rest of the wave and grabbed the rod expecting that if anything that was the one Richtofen was likely referring to earlier. Sarah grabbed it and began to make her way along side Applejack back up to the room. As they made their way up the stairs Applejack said “That VR-11 is unlike any gun I've seen it can turn zombies into humans, I wonder what it does when you zap another person with it.” Sarah said “From my experience with it, the ray it shoots off when it hits a living being like one of us we get super strong and it seems to make the zombies ignore us for a while until it wears off. Although we haven't tried it on any of you guys yet cause we've never had the chance. Would you like to try it out?” Applejack was surprised by the description and figured if it was that useful why shouldn't she give it a spin. She nodded in agreement and Sarah stood back a few steps away from her and fired the weapon.
As the beam hit her it seemed like it was having the same effect Sarah described but then she felt something weird starting to happen. She was growing, within mere moments she was roughly as long as Sarah was tall and then her body began to change shape her front legs began to trim down and taper away forming hands where her hooves were. Likewise her upper body began to reshape itself taking on a similar configuration to Sarah's body with her lower body following suit. Within mere moments she'd taken a fully human form although her skin was still coated in full fur so her new body elements were disguised. As she sat there her roughly shaped human body began to mold itself in more detail adding subtle curves in places similar to where they resided on Sarah's frame. Before long she had a fairly well developed figure and her cutie mark had shrunk to become a tattoo on her butt. Then her fur began to fade away changing form as well the fur over the top half of her body took the form of a cropped off T-shirt with a bra underneath.
Once the transformation had finished, where a pony once had stood now stood a rather attractive looking southern belle wearing little more than the aforementioned T-shirt and a cut off pair of blue jean shorts. She stood there for a moment looking at herself before immediately clutching her body for warmth as she caught a draft of the cold air outside. Sarah smiled and said “Its nice to have someone along who can empathize with me. When I get back to California I’m giving my agent a nice kick to the head for booking me to show up here dressed like this.” the girls laughed for a little bit before Apple Bloom and Rainbow Dash walked in having noticed the green light had dimmed out. Rainbow dash looked up and said “Who's this? I don't remember there being any other human girls along in this group.” Apple bloom reached over and punched Rainbow Dash in the head saying “That's my big sister Applejack. Land sakes what happened to you sis. Your a human now.” she smiled and blushed surprised at the happy reaction her sister gave saying “Yeah Sarah here used that VR-11 gun on me to see what would happen to me and that’s about it. To be quite honest I don't look to bad do I by human standards I mean.” Sarah nodded and said “Yeah you'd be quite the looker in most situations. Plus guys tend to like the cute southern girl type.” Rainbow Dash crossed her front arms angrily and said “If she's attractive I could only imagine how someone as awesome as me would turn out.” without hesitation Sarah zapped her with the gun and as with Applejack she transformed into a human.
Although her finished appearance was lacking in certain qualities. While she retained her wings she actual body shape was rather flat. Sarah said “Well that kinda makes sense your body type fits with you being rather athletic and its the same build that a lot of track runners have and the most practical for flying and moving at high speeds although it tends to be considered mildly less attractive then the more hour glass style build that Applejack has. Apple bloom began to snicker as Scootaloo burst out into laughter at the idea that Rainbow dash wouldn't be as attractive to guys as Applejack. But before they could delay things any longer Sarah urged them to continue back to the room and return with the golden rod.
Once they filed back up to the room and gave them the golden rod Richtofen thanked them for their assistance and bid them farewell as the teleporter started to activate. Then the door blew open and sucked the Apple Sisters, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo into the room as the door slammed behind them and they were transported to MDT's next programed destination.