[@King Tai]

In the gutter of an alley in South Maximum, under a manhole, Embryon knelt in ankle-deep sewage, cupping its hands to the fluid and bringing it to its mouth. It remembered the days that it cried and retched with each mouthful, but those days were gone. Food was for humans, and Embryon would have to suffice with this. Suddenly it heard the sounds of an altercation from above. Such incidents happened all the time in South Maximum, but it wasn't Embryon's place to intervene or judge. It had no idea who was part of what gang, or the individual circumstances that led to the altercation. But what it did know was that in the end, someone would be injured, and Embryon would help then. Embryon felt little to no urgency in preventing the harm, since revealing itself would create a potentially more dangerous incident. Besides, being left for dead, and actually being dead, were two very different things that Embryon knew well. Embryon climbed up closer to the manhole to listen and wait for the fight to end so that it could climb out, heal the injured parties, and slink back into the darkness from whence it came.