[img]https://i.imgur.com/4uuThLm.jpg[/img] Temujin rose to his feet. He turned towards the woman, facing her with that unmoving, snarling visage. She must be it. The murmur. Static flickered over his vision. [b][color=DC091C]“You,”[/color][/b] He called out, with a voice as synthetic as his body. He did not know her name. But her face, and everything beneath it…the arch of her back, the kick of her legs, projected far and high across the Northbridge skyline. [b][color=DC091C]“This is no place for a hooker,”[/color][/b] he uttered, approaching her with his head high and a pointing finger. [b][color=DC091C]“Get out of here, before I-”[/color][/b] The shadow above stole his attention in an instant. Temujin swerved and held himself in front of her, his arms raised and spread, his gaze lifting higher, and higher, and higher. It was big… And far, far too bright. Black hands snatched Umbri and lifted her off her feet. Fire enveloped the alley behind them as Temujin leapt into the sky, his arms supported her back and legs, her body tucked close against his to better shield her. The ninja sprinted away, fast as he could, his back singed with the graze of fire. But only a graze. His feet drummed against the earth. Her hair and jacket fluttered with the cold night wind. The world swerved and slid and jumped and fell before Umbri, at a pace that her mind could scarcely keep up with. Temujin’s own mind raced a different track from his body. He couldn’t kill this one. Not alone. Not with his fellow Northbridge Rogues, with their small arms and street-level abilities. Not with his acquaintances at Shieldtown, Stoneworks… all too far away. Unlike the end of this rooftop. [b][color=DC091C]“Don’t panic,”[/color][/b] Temujin warned her, as he scrambled to the edge, held her closer, and jumped - right beneath the snap of vermillion jaws. [b][color=#A4303F]"What are YOU DOIN[i]GAAAAAAAA!!!"[/i][/color][/b] They fell - but not straight down. They were sliding, scraping down across an angled roof at at least sixty miles per hour. Umbri was rightfully panicking. In fact, the screams tearing out from her throat were a bit more than panicked. She grabbed for anything she could hold (one of his horns) and whipped her head around to bury it over his shoulders, hiding away from the rapidly approaching crash. Not such a good idea. Now she could see the monster rising, flames licking around its head, before they rocketed from its feather-like gills shooting the snake down towards them. Faster than they were sliding, barely touching the roof. [i]Flying.[/i] Umbri's scream shut off with a whimper. A frantic [i]poke poke poke[/i] jabbed Temujin in the back of the shoulder. [b][color=DC091C]"?!"[/color][/b] Temujin whipped his head around. He scrambled to his feet and dashed. Even at top speed, he couldn't outrun the beast, the distance between them waned and waxed as he leapt from the angled rooftop, hopped across a set of smoke stacks, and slid beneath a fallen statue. The bolts on Temujin's shoulders loosened, and from a secret compartment within, he cast three pellets that scattered into smoke before the roiling, fire-winged monster. Grey fog blanketed the area around them. Temujin bent down, coaxing Umbri into a broken exhaust vent. A high-pitched trill echoed behind the fog, less the roar of a beast, and more like a trailing, eerily human giggle. Wind rushed above them, casting aside part of the fog and replacing it with a coiling, looming shadow. [b][color=DC091C]“HIDE!”[/color][/b] Temujin barked as he sprinted away, from one roof to another, each one higher than the rest, with one blade ignited to draw the beast’s eye. The serpent’s shadow slithered behind the fog, flying across the skies in pursuit, its open jaws seeming to grin at the thrill of the hunt. There, near the highest point of Northbridge, far above the green haze of industry, he saw his opportunity. He fired his grappler, and the wire looped and hooked around the leg of a water tower. His form zipped through the sky, catching the monster’s many-eyed gaze. It coiled around and around the water tower in pursuit. Temujin sprinted, across and up the hull, outrunning a jet of flame that blasted the frame of the tower into slag. The structure grated, and creaked, and bent beneath the weight of the storage tank. The cyber ninja reached the top of the tank and glared down at the monster, whose mouth was glowing with hellish light. He vaulted backwards, with his arms to the side, his feet straight, and his back arched. Alarms blared in his head. His vision was a fog of flashing red. Despite his best efforts, he was enveloped in flames, flames so bright and hellish hot that lit up the sky like sunrise past midnight. Temujin flipped as he descended. Time slowed. White smoke swelled from his charred black muscles, seeping from every seam, every segment. The edges of his armour were frayed with orange cracks. [b][color=DC091C]“Nrgh…!”[/color][/b] His body felt no pain, but his mind knew fear and death in abundance. The water tower stood - barely - between him and the beast. He bent his knees, concentrating all the power in his muscles behind them, and [i]kicked.[/i] What little stability remained in the tower crumbled. The water tank collapsed and bent like a tin as it fell upon the shrieking, wide-eyed snake. The beast thrashed and whipped, in futile defiance against 500 tons of steel and water as it plummeted further, and further, and further, out of Northbridge’s skyline. Temujin held on to the tower’s melted frame with a hand and a foot, his gaze trained towards the green fog below. The snake had faded out of sight. There was a great boom, and the rush of water, then… silence. A moment for his mind to catch a breath, to reorient. It wasn’t dead. Not even close. But at least he bought them time. The cyber ninja dashed, and leapt, and landed, back onto the rooftop where he had left Umbri. He bent down and looked into the vent. [b][color=DC091C]“Hey. Hooker. Let’s go-”[/color][/b] Empty. He lingered there a moment, his red-filled vision spammed with statics and warnings about his structural integrity. Empty. Unbelievable. Smoke hissed from his mask’s nostrils. And then, a scream. Pure in its blood-curdling terror. [b][color=DC091C]“MotherFUCKER!”[/color] [/b]Temujin yelled as he bolted right back towards danger, patting away the smoke to reveal the cables beneath his torn flesh.