[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909715047918497815/1037211200871731300/Umbri_banner6.png[/img] The doors burst open and Umbri's image shattered, scattering to every mirror of the dressing rooms. Hoots and cheers followed her in and she ran away from them, heavy with bracelets and necklaces of clat bequeathed to her by a grateful audience which she now tore off with the ferocity of pulling free from a web. She dumped it all at her dresser, pausing just a moment to catch her breath. The sweat melting off her body glitter was turning cold. The next act gave her stash a jealous side-eye as she sashayed out to the stage. Umbri eyed her in the reflection until she'd left the room and she was alone, then locked her eyes upon herself. [color=#746733][b][i]"And don't you dare think about giving us the slip." [/i][/b][/color] Her hand clenched over the strings of clatter. [hr] The club was eerie after hours. The lights had dimmed but the smell of their clientele remained, giving the impression someone was still leering over your shoulder. Girls scoured the floor and picked up what their audience dropped; be it clat, alcohol or personal artifacts, anything could be of use to someone in here. Patricia wiped down the bar. She wore a bdsm-styled bunny mask she'd pulled from the back to hide her nose. She moved sluggishly, the pain of her injuries catching up to her now that the rush of the evening had come to an end. Umbri stood five feet from the bar in her jacket and held out a string of clat. [color=#A4303F][b]"Hold this for me back there,"[/b][/color] she said. Patricia's hand stopped. She looked up at her. [b]"Stash it?"[/b] she asked evenly. Umbri nodded. Patricia tilted her head, getting a look at the rest of the clatter still dangling on Umbri's chest. Umbri stood solid, glaring Patricia in the eye with a determined scrunch in her nose. Patricia shook her head. [color=#A4303F][i][b]"Please,"[/b][/i][/color] Umbri insisted, lurching a step closer. Patricia backed away. [b]"No fucking way." [color=#A4303F]"I'll be in tomorrow night. If I'm not there, you keep it. It's just my rent."[/color] "Like hell it is. You said you worked today. This is about pulling a fast on them." [color=#A4303F]"Patricia -"[/color] "NO!"[/b] Something wet accompanied her bark, spraying the inside of her mask. Patricia coughed and pulled at the back of her head. She unstrapped it and dumped it on the bar, and Umbri got a good look at how her injuries had developed. Black, blue, mottled and congealing, a trickle of fresh blood running between the gaps of her teeth. [b]"You don't have a [i]right [/i]to pride, Umbri."[/b] Umbri's tight grip on the clatter faltered, her hand lowering. Patricia leaned over the bar with a sigh and beckoned her, pulling up a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses. Umbri watched warily as Patricia poured the shots and knocked one back followed by a pained hiss. The tequila splashed over the rim as she poured herself another one. Umbri sat. [b]"You think a skunk cares how much it stinks when it sprays you?"[/b] Patricia spoke up after the second shot and gestured Umbri to take hers. Umbri curled her fingers around it but nothing else. She shook her head with a shrug. [b]"I don't think possums care about looking stupid when they play dead, either."[/b] Patricia swirled her third shot, staring into the light refracting from the glass. [b]"It's not just prey. Even lions. When a new lion challenges the king, throws him out, kills his kin, do the lionesses reject their fate? Band together, fight him off like it's some fucking Disney movie? No. They roll over and [i]do what they have to do."[/i][/b] She took her shot. Umbri shifted upright, deeply uncomfortable. Patricia's eyes were old and sad when they laid on her. [b]"Do what you have to do, Umbri,"[/b] she said bitterly, her whole heart and will poured into those words. [b]"Creatures like us, we aren't big enough for pride."[/b] [i]Clatter.[/i] Umbri's string of coins was left behind, smacked down defiantly beside her untouched shot. Patricia caught a streak of pink leaving the club. This would be the last time they saw each other. [hr] Umbri got about ten steps down the street before she heard shoes dragging through puddles on the concrete. She slowed to a stop, wincing. A whistle commanded her to turn back. She faced the shadow of Ganta strutting towards her with arms outstretched and his bodyguards in tow. [color=#746733][b]"Did you forget about us, doll?"[/b][/color] He crooned with mock-hurt. Umbri was frozen, eyes large and heart pumping like a scared rodent's. Ganta's hand lifted a necklace of clat away from her chest. He bounced it in his hand, feeling the weight, and whistled. [color=#746733][b]"You're lucky you're pretty, dollface. Do you get a kick, showing these off?"[/b][/color] He ran his thumb over the coins and leaned into her space and sang, [color=#746733][b]"A shiny, [i]pretty [/i]coin for every man who's thought about fucking you."[/b][/color] His last words growled. Umbri jerked out of his grasp, her breath shuddering with anger. Her eyes flashed a warning that Ganta only smirked at and she tore off all her clatter, throwing each piece at him. She shoved the last string into his chest before tossing around. She barely began to storm off before [i]click.[/i] [color=#746733][b]"The big guy wants to see you."[/b][/color] The cocked gun pointed directly to the back of her head. Umbri's blood was ice. A menacing silhouette flashed before her mind's eye. [color=#A4303F][b]"If it's not enough, I can get you more. Right now,"[/b][/color] she insisted as soon as she pushed through her stutter. Ganta scoffed. [color=#746733][b]"It's not that. You did good, pet." [/b][/color]He walked until his gun was an inch from her, threads of her wig floating up to meet it. [color=#746733][b]"I told you, didn't I? He's ready to cut his losses. Let's be real here,"[/b][/color] he nudged her, [color=#746733][b]"No dolly's pretty enough for a debt like yours."[/b][/color] Umbri shut her eyes. Her breath escaped her in a thin whimper. She didn't mean for her voice to come out, but right now, everything was threatening to. Ganta nodded to his entourage and they flanked her. Canary gestured her to move with her shotgun. [color=#746733][b]"Come consciously,"[/b][/color] Ganta commanded, [color=#746733][b]"We don't want to carry you."[/b][/color] Nobody was out on the street to help her. Not that anybody watching would. Ganta poked her in the head with the gun again, forcibly enough to jostle her forward. Slowly, she walked towards her fate. The three members of Jahannam escorted her out to a black vehicle parked on the street. The quiet swordsman opened one of the back doors, and Canary 'helped' her inside. The door slammed with a loud THUD and the tinted windows muted all colours from outside. Umbri was alone, cut off from all sound and light. Trapped with nothing but the wet, snivelly sounds of her own fear. She pressed her palms to her eyes with a little gasp, and they pulled away damp. This was it. [i]Anything could happen to her.[/i] She could be forced into labor, [i]sold,[/i] killed, tortured... anything and everything a creature like her had to fear. Absent of the terror of a gun pressed to the back of her scalp, all she could do was think about what came next and weep in the dark. In an hour or less, something terrible and nebulous was going to happen to her. Something she might not even survive. But nobody came to take her to it. Her soft whimpers and tears came to a confused stop as she realized. She'd been left alone in the car for about five minutes. Nobody had come in, nobody had even locked the doors. She brought a hand over her mouth, forcibly quietening herself. The car was sound proofed, likely to hide the screams of Jahannam's victims being ferried inside, but if she strained her ear... shouting. A thud. A... rumble. Machinery? Umbri's hand hovered over the car's handle. She swallowed and let herself outside. It was unnaturally quiet out here, for the commotion she'd made out from inside the vehicle. Something was snuffling, digging around. She couldn't see it. She moved in a crouch towards the hood of the car, but was halted in her path as a pair of bloodied hands crawled into her vision. The torso of the silent swordsman dragged after them, huffing and moaning. [color=#A4303F][b]"Kite?"[/b][/color] Umbri whispered his name. His eyes locked with hers and Umbri saw the stare of a crazed, terrified animal. His hands clawed against the concrete desperately. [b]"No no NO NO [i]FUCK!!!"[/i][/b] He shrieked, and was yanked back. Umbri looked up and took in the creature that rose above the car. Far, [i]far[/i] above it. Twenty feet up. She'd seen monsters like this before. [i]Dead and chopped and ready for consumption.[/i] Her lips hung open in awe and disbelief - it wasn't supposed to be here. They weren't supposed to be in Northbridge. [url=https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/004/851/377/large/yang-wang-gp02wy-1463635062.jpg?1577784801][i][b]Thresher.[/b][/i][/url] Kite's body flailed in the air, tossed around in the monster's maw. His sword flung uselessly before flying out of his hand. The silent swordsman was [i]screaming[/i]. The monster shook its prey, and Umbri heard the bones breaking and sinew tear. Viscera and Chrome rained down on the street. Kite's torso hit the hood of the car and folded it in. The monster swallowed down his lower half with a snap so powerful it made the air pop. [b][i]"KITE![/i] SON OF A BITCH!"[/b] Canary hollered. The BOOM of a shotgun stole the monster's attention. It roared and twisted, whipping its tail out and catching the vehicle. Umbri brought her arms up to shield herself as the car was swatted past her, crashing into a building in a smoking heap of metal that could have easily been her coffin. Now she could see everything. Ganta, his butt on the ground and scooting back from the monster, cursing and sweating and shaking too violently to take aim. And Canary, approaching and unloading all her ammo into the beast with wicked fury. She dodged the creature's bite, prosthetic legs glinting as she jumped between vehicles and walls to get above the creature and strike it from the back - [i]the tail.[/i] Canary was cut-off mid battle cry. The tail hurtled through her and pinned her body to the wall, the deadly tip spearing her head. Her feet dangled ten feet above ground, her body fell limp. It slid down, leaving a messy streak as it left her cranium behind. Umbri watched it all and didn't move. The air shook more violently than it ever had. A persistent ringing was in her ear since the crash of the car. [b][i]"The sound was like... you know, a train? When you hear one coming. Not just that horrible scream of the wheels, the tremble of the air around you."[/i][/b] A bullet fired into the monster's leg, halting barely an inch into its monstrously tough hide. It's glowing eyes turned to the flea that had dared. Ganta squeaked. [b][i]"You know there's no stopping it. No matter how far away you are, when you hear it coming, everything stops for just a second, and you are on those tracks."[/i][/b] [color=#746733][b]"Shit. [i]Shit![/i] No, get away from me,"[/b][/color] Ganta blubbered as the monster prowled towards him. Umbri's acrylics dragged over the concrete. The ringing was so loud she couldn't hear him beg for his life. The monster's quills spread out and it reared back with a snarl. [b][i]"It was that kind of sound."[/i][/b] Ganta's gun went spinning through a red splatter, whipping it into an arc. It skipped across the pool of blood to Umbri's feet. She snatched it. [url=https://youtu.be/qFfybn_W8Ak?t=35]And on the tracks of a train headed right for her, [b]she [i]ran.[/i][/b] [/url] [hider=A/N:]If this were a movie, when she grabs the gun and goes, her reflection on the puddle beneath her would stay. Like, symbolically. Can't write that in there because it'd read like she literally has funky mirror magic. Also, BLAST THAT TRACK[/hider] The sound of her heels pounding the pavement turned the monster's head. It snarled and barreled after her. Umbri spared it one glance when she heard it coming, caught the claws splitting the road with every bound, and behind the beast - a flood of fire from something she did not see, drowning out Ganta's screams. [i]Don't look.[/i] She turned her gaze back. Her pupils dilated. Feeling left her legs as she moved. Inside her chest, metal contracted and pulsated. Blood rushed around her head so fast, the world turned slower. She skidded, taking a sharp left into an alley. The monster followed, shoving its head in after her and slamming its body against the narrow passage. The buildings rattled as it threw itself after her again and again and rusted metal shook loose, before it roared its displeasure and bounded another way. Even without it right on her back Umbri ran, only stopping a second to paw at her ankle. [color=#A4303F][b][i]"Come on, come on!"[/i][/b][/color] she whispered fearfully amidst curses, her acrylic nails getting in her way. The monster's roar echoed through the labyrinth, coming from everywhere and shaking the corrugated metal. Umbri abandoned the idea of taking off her shoes. She banged against her heart, muttered [color=#A4303F][b]"Come on,"[/b][/color] a final time, and fled. Leaving a bloody smear behind on the poster she'd leaned her hand against, a half torn down advertisement for Ares Laser Technology. Umbri dashed through the miserable back alleys of Northbridge, crunching over broken glass and splashing through inscrutable substances past shanties made of shipping crates. The clicks and rumbles of the monster never too far behind. Hunched figures slinked back into shadows as she passed them, others looked down from the safety of their homes. Lights flashed past her, blasting from billboards advertising products and lives nothing like the muck she ran through. Cushy jobs working for the upstairs Corpo Estates, the next new Chrome implant from Menagerie Tech, and glamorous products nobody could afford sponsored by the Halcyon Horde. It all just blurred into a stream of colour to her. Bile slickened her throat like oil, her insides were hot and burning and all thoughts seized by instinct, thinking wouldn't help her, JUST [i]MOVE![/i] She burst out of the shanty town into the markets. The chatter and foot traffic was long gone as she sprinted through - when her clear heels stumbled to an abrupt stop. The pick-up truck that had made today's delivery was still in the middle of the street. It rocked violently side to side, as the beast perched upon it dug through its load and gorged itself on the flesh of its brethren. Burning eyes locked on her and the giant lizard raised its head, bloody sinew stretching between its teeth and its meal. It launched itself off the truck and charged. [i]BA-THUMP BATHUMP THUMP THUMPTHUMPTHUMP -[/i] Umbri's heart hummed with energy that exploded through her limbs as she turned to run. With a gasp, her pupils dwarfed the reds of her eyes and locked onto an approaching flagpole. The monster's breath washed over her back. Umbri jerked out her hand. It grabbed the pole. Her body followed, violently flinging out as she was jerked back by her own strength. Something in her arm popped. She whipped around in a flurry of limbs, biceps and thighs bulging with hidden power as the momentum carried her up to the top of the flagpole. She didn't stop to watch the monster charge past and roll as it tried to correct its course with a frustrated bellow. She'd already thrown herself off the pole and onto a rooftop under her. She skidded down the slanted roof to the next street, before falling and tumbling into a pile of trash bags below. One arm was out. Limp and unable to move from the elbow. Didn't matter. Couldn't feel it. [i]MOVE.[/i] When she did, an [i]unbearable[/i] pain shot from her left ankle up her leg, like being stuck with a pike. Her ankle was purple and swelling - broken. She [b]slammed [/b]her fist on the left side of her chest twice. [color=#A4303F][b]"COME ON!"[/b][/color] she roared, and ran. Ran through the agony until it too melted into the white-hot rush of adrenaline with everything else that [i]DIDN'T. MATTER.[/i] She ran until she slammed against her final obstacle. Dead end. Umbri tried jumping. She flailed to reach up to something with her good arm. A sickening crack came from her ankle as she landed and her legs went out from underneath her sideways. A series of low clicks rumbled behind her, emanating from deep within the monster's throat. Umbri slowly turned to look at it. It prowled out from the shadows of the alley, shaking a mane of spikes. Expressionless eyes like fire fell down on her. Umbri must have looked much like Ganta in this moment. On her ass, back to the wall, nothing but a gun between her and a monster a story tall above her. But for a strange reason, unlike the gangster and despite her terror, Umbri's aim did not shake. Her heart could not beat any faster if it tried. Such an alien, metallic noise, thrumming through her body. Something she never adopted as a part of her despite being buried deep in her tissue. As the creature loomed above her and death drew her in closer, the Chrome in her chest went silent. [i]Ba-thump.[/i] And in her memory, she heard another heartbeat. [i]Ba-thump.[/i] Something familiar. Something that was hers. Something she now held close to her ear, nestled against the chest of another. [i]Ba-thump...[/i] Umbri shut her eyes and thought of her sister.