[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909715047918497815/1037211200871731300/Umbri_banner6.png[/img]


[img]https://i.imgur.com/4uuThLm.jpg[/img]

Umbri pocketed the stinger, limped over and hooked her fingers into the armoured plate of Temujin’s shoulder to slowly drag him with her. The cyber ninja groaned. Static spurted out from his wounds and zapped the streaks of white blood forming beneath him. She felt every pound of the cable-like muscles and metal armour that made up his mass, far too heavy for someone so silent. 

[color=DC091C][b]"You…,"[/b][/color] he whispered, his broken neck barely allowing him to glance over his shoulder. [color=DC091C][b]"You didn't leave me."[/b][/color]

Umbri kept her gaze firmly forward, despite the wobbling her staggered stride had her doing. It took so much effort to even move an inch. This dead weight was going to have her pop a shoulder. 

[color=#A4303F][b]“Hm,"[/b][/color] she said, [color=#A4303F][b]"You did."[/b][/color]

Temujin cast his gaze low. [color=DC091C][b]"Yeah,"[/b][/color] A twinge of guilt pricked what passed for his heart. He was glad they couldn't see eye to eye at this moment. [color=DC091C][b]"That was really shitty of me."[/b][/color]

Umbri let him wallow in that thought for a moment. [color=#A4303F][b]“Can’t say I didn’t anticipate it. I [i]wasn’t[/i]…”[/b][/color] her annoyance cut through her teeth, [color=#A4303F][b]“Expecting a new client.”[/b][/color]

Temujin glanced back at her at that word. [i]Client.[/i] His blood had stopped flowing, and in its place, his body grated, unlubricated, against the hard, coarse pavement. An ungodly noise followed, a cross between nails on a chalkboard and old stones grinding. [color=DC091C][b]"Not a fan of fucking cyborgs?"[/b][/color]

The grating stopped. A [i]torso [/i]she had JUST SAVED at a sacrifice to her autonomy and (before Lockdown let her keep it, she had assumed) the ONE thing that could save her life [b][i]had the gall?[/i][/b]

[color=#A4303F][b]"No. I'm not a fan of fucking cyborgs. Now shut your fucking mouth before I leave you in the fucking dirt, you [i]fucking[/i] cyberpsycho."[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]"You-...!"[/b][/color] Temujin stuttered. He reached out to clutch, to handle, to throttle… only to realise that he had only phantom sensations to spare, and no choice but to submit. [color=DC091C][b]"Hmmpf." [/b][/color]

Umbri paused, looking down at the helpless metal lump, and realised that she felt a bit better. The night wasn't done and the nightmare was going to extend long after it, but she could cry and tear at her skin about it later. She had somewhere to go. And half of an asshole she had absolutely no reason to take shit from anymore.

[hr]

Temujin laid neglected, blending into a pile of scrap and waiting for Umbri to limp her way out of a back alley doctor’s office. She moved faster and on one leg. She came out of the alley with beat-up metal crutches before she set them aside to haul up the ninja. 

[color=#A4303F][b]“Upsie daisy.”[/b][/color]

The cyber ninja was as stiff as a plank. Dirt and grease from the back alleys clung to and sullied the colour of his armour. [color=DC091C][b]"'Upsie daisy'?" [/b][/color]The snarl on his mask seemed downright offended as he muttered, [color=DC091C][b]"What do I look like, five?" [/b][/color]

Umbri strapped him to her back with great effort, over her backpack and the axe. [color=#A4303F][b]"You're about that size,"[/b][/color] she grunted under the weight and started to shuffle forward.

[color=DC091C][b]"Huh. Didn't realise you were so chatty,"[/b][/color] he replied, keeping an eye on the harness that secured them together. It was a surprise… but not an unwelcome one.

Umbri slowly walked on crutches with a crushing weight on her back through the Northbridge streets. [url=https://youtu.be/9imCm6CrNZ8?t=138]By the time she was at the precipice,[/url] the sun lamp had already started to wash the grime in a faint glow.

And she was staring out. On the edge of a plate, into a great, dark expanse, through a scrapyard that seemed to last forever. The end of Northbridge. Had they always been so far away? She couldn't take another step.

[color=DC091C][b]"Amazing, isn't it?"[/b][/color] Temujin suddenly spoke, having left her to silence for so long. The sarcasm was dripping from his whisper. [color=DC091C][b]"How the piles of refuse never end. You think you've seen it all, but…"[/b][/color] He shrugged. Even without limbs, he could manage that much. [color=DC091C][b]"It's a whole lot of world out there. A whole lot of world for the inbreds of the upper city to shit on."[/b][/color]

[color=#A4303F][b]“Yeah,”[/b][/color] Umbri echoed, and did not move. [color=#A4303F][b]“A whole world.”[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]"Well. What are you waiting for?"[/b][/color]

[color=#A4303F][b]“Permission, I guess,”[/b][/color] slipped honestly from her lips without thinking.

[color=DC091C][b]"Huh,"[/b][/color] he replied. Mostly a scoff, also a chuckle. [color=DC091C][b]"You're the one with legs, Hooker. You don't need permission from a dead weight."[/b][/color]

Umbri crinkled her nose. [color=#A4303F][b]“Not from [i]you,”[/i] [/b][/color]she muttered and looked out into the crevice. She took in a resolute breath. [color=#A4303F][b]“Alright,”[/b][/color] she said to herself. [color=#A4303F][b]“Let’s find a way down.”[/b][/color]

The one-legged dancer hopped across the expanse on a clear heel, the crutches, her belongings and the half a cyborg on her back keeping her heavy and slow. A lone pink beacon covered in the glitter and gore of the night’s adventure. Neon veins wrapped her neck like a choker. The blood in her mouth was her last taste of home.

Come on, girl.

This body isn't yours to let die.

[right][i]Roll credits.[/i][/right]