“OH what the [i]FUCK?![/i]” 

Sorrel adjusted at the longer fall, his reaction time fast enough to twist his body and roll on the now mossy ground. He’ll… just have to run some other way. If he tried to go vertically, that lumbering buffoon with an exoskeleton definitely would catch up. That left… trying to go under. This stupid beetle-man abomination was huge, and he was rather slim and flexible— he might be able to run with the undergrowth. 

It worked, for a time— he disappeared under the cracks and crevices of dense trees and metal and concrete, like a rat scurrying through its little tunnel. Eventually, the great Gamma-Burn popped into a nearby bit of what used to be parking space, a clearing with a particularly large piece of painted concrete and steel  that somehow managed not to be broken to shreds by all the plants rapidly growing.

Sorrel quickly looked around— it was just trees, green and growing and fresh. His ears rang too loudly to hear any buzzing or calling out, and while he still felt the disgusting shiver down his spine of beetles and worms tracking his ass down, he… he just couldn’t take it much longer.

Gamma-Burn, the invincible specter of the earth, broke out into a coughing fit to the point his signature gas mask dripped down blood onto the concrete slab he was pitifully hunched on. He had to take the mask off— he had to [i]breathe,[/i] just a bit, just a little longer to get somewhere safe. 

His entire torso burned. His core felt like some withered stick forced to carry a mountain, his chest was heavy and his heart figuratively beat out of his chest. He took the mask off as he keeled over and kept coughing up blood. Sorrel’s face, of course, was covered by the large hoodie, but… it still was the most vulnerable thing he’s done on the job. It’s not like he had a choice— his body just betrayed him at that moment, his chronic issues flaring up at the worst possible time. 

He can’t go down like this. He could only let himself have a few seconds. He had to get somewhere, [i]anywhere[/i] else but where he currently was— maybe to a sewer, to find a root-path back to Ground Zero. He already finished what he needed to do! Mission complete, a step closer to the world the people deserve, but if Gamma-Burn gets caught… well, that’s far too early for each wave Sorrel made to have lasting effects. 

He had to keep going. He just… kept stumbling to the ground, and he started to panic to the point of letting out gigantic and reckless bursts of pure, hot, nuclear reaction style radiation from his own core.