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Mud and sewage spat from the point of impact. A hand shot out amidst the muck. It stretched further, faster, than humanly plausible. Umbri threw her axe in front of her in defence. The hand flattened against its haft at just the right moment, then tightened its grip. The curtain of water fell away, revealing a figure, hunched in a half-crouch, cut lean beneath his tattered cloak. On his back, secured by rusted lengths of chain, was a writhing, limbless torso. Black and featureless, stripped of all armour or colour, save for that 'face' she knew well. A face which flinched with jaw-dropped shock at the sight of her.

[color=#A4303F][b]"Tem!"[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]"Sex worker?!" [/b][/color]

Umbri's worried face instantly contorted. [color=#A4303F][b][i]"Seriously?"[/i][/b][/color]

The arm retracted into its owner, jerking Umbri with it. [b]"Heh. Not bad,"[/b] Mantablack mused. His three red eyes scanned Umbri quickly. [i]One of Aegis's Men? She certainly dresses the part.[/i] The Ripper kept the axe at arm's length as he glanced over her shoulder, towards the circle swirling with shadows. [b]"What's that you got over there?" [/b]

Umbri tested tugging the axe. His grip was solid. [color=#A4303F][b]"I don't know. But I'll trade you for what you've got in the net and the rude cyberninja,"[/b][/color] she said facetiously.

[b]"HAH!"[/b] He screeched out, the sound echoing through the narrow tunnels. [b]"A Shieldtowner with a sense of humour!"[/b] His eyes narrowed into a glare. [b]"Fat chance. Nothing personal, but this prize belongs to my boss." [/b]

[color=DC091C][b]"Hey, get out of here! It isn't safe!"[/b][/color] Temujin shouted, the fear bleeding through his voice. Mantablack chuckled, angling the axe head away from him. [b]"Listen to the scrapheap. Killing you won't do either of us any good." [/b]

Umbri frowned, calculating. She looked to the one hand of his holding her axe haft, fixed between hers. Almost casually overpowering her. Her heart rate spiked and her pupils bloomed. In a flash of movement, she switched her hands, palm up on the right, palm down on the left, and wrenched the axe in a circular motion clockwise, twisting it from his grip. She pushed him back with a kick to the abdomen. [b]“What the-?!”[/b] In one hand she held the axe close to the blade, the other - she’d whipped out her gun. Pointed directly at the Ripper’s head.

[color=#A4303F][b]“How about a look at this thing, and a bullet?!”[/b][/color] She barked at him, eyes flaring. [color=#A4303F][b]“Does that entice you?! Put the bag and the chrome down!”[/b][/color]

Mantablack gasped. He held his hands up by reflex. [i]Shit.[/i] He did all he could to avoid a confrontation with Aegis, only to fall at the hands of [i]this[/i] chick?! [b]“Hey now…”[/b] He stepped back. [b]“Let’s, uh, we can work something out…”[/b] Further, and further. Umbri stepped after him. She let out a breathy scoff of relief.

[color=#A4303F][b]“And they all said you were too dangerous,”[/b][/color] she remarked, a cocky glint twinkling to life in her eye.

Mantablack ground his heels onto the mud. [i]They were right.[/i] In a flash, he ducked and kicked out a heap of sewer water towards Umbri as he spun. Sparks flew from the seams of his arm as it shot out. An outstretched palm struck Umbri flat against the stomach and shoved her backwards, off her feet, into the pitch black behind her.

Umbri thought she was dead.

There wasn’t sound, or air, or sensation where she was going. Just absence. The kind you see when covering one eye.

Then she was spat out the other side, and her vision flashed white, and she hit the dirt. Umbri crawled to her knees as her vision cleared up. She sat in the middle of the wastes. [i]‘... Thunderdome… not a…’[/i] A very distant recording echoed behind her. She turned her head, and saw Shieldtown some good miles away, the dome still up. There were no shadows here, again. A black pool of pitch rotated on the ground behind her. And beside it, Mantablack’s hinged hand. It crawled, and skittered, and… turned towards Umbri. The hand lunged for her ankle, held tight, and yanked her back, right through the portal, across the senseless darkness, and back at the muddy sewers. Mantablack loomed over her. His arm snapped back into position as he drew his knife and pressed it against her throat. The steel was cold. [b]“Where did that take you?”[/b] 

Umbri coughed. [color=#A4303F][b]"Back under the dome,"[/b][/color] she spluttered. Temujin fumbled to try and look at Umbri. Mantablack pressed the knife closer. A droplet of blood welled at the blade. [color=#A4303F][b]"It is! It is, it's under the-" [/b][/color]The cut burned. The pressure intensified. [color=#A4303F][b]"The wastes!"[/b][/color] She caved.

Mantablack relaxed his knife. Slowly, he stood and stepped away, keeping his knife drawn. He knew better than to repeat his mistake. [b]"Don't be a hero,"[/b] he warned her. [b]"It doesn't end well for people like us."[/b] The ripper turned his back - and thus, Temujin - on Umbri, and she watched as they sank into the darkness, Temujin's mask frozen in a brow-furrowed fear. 

[color=#A4303F][b]"T- no, Tem!"[/b][/color] She shrieked after them, scrambling on her knees then - freezing. The cut on her neck burned like dry ice, and it made her pause. Don't be a hero. The portal was shrinking, casting the shadows it stole back to the road. Come on. Don't be a hero. You screwed up. Go back and get Aegis.

Umbri stood up and launched herself through.

Dead.

White.

She came out of the shrinking portal and blinked her eyes furiously, clearing them to look for him on the mostly flat expanse. But he was already gone. [color=#A4303F][b]"Shit!"[/b][/color] She gasped and scrambled up, doing a 360 of her location. Nothing. With a whine, she threw her axe down. [color=#A4303F][b]"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" [/b][/color]She covered her face, and felt dampness there. [color=#A4303F][b]"... You know my name, asshole…"[/b][/color]