[hr][center][h3][b][u][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35hxpTd70FI&ab_channel=KeiichiOkabe-Topic][The Heap][/url][/u][/b][/h3][/center][hr]

[color=#bd5ad1]"Come out, come out, wherever you are~,"[/color] Chiroptera's voice lilted over the piles of scrap as she stepped with slow, purposeful strides through the yard. [color=#bd5ad1]"C'mon, Grimm... why don't we make today our last date? Those [i]Eagle 5000 XS UHD[/i] optics will make fine additions to the colony... They'll look real~ nice next to the 3000 series eyes I took from you last year. That hydraulic jaw? Just think of how many implants I can tear out of your friends with that."[/color]

[color=f7941d][b]F-ffuck,[/b][/color] Grimm hissed quietly in response to the eerie, humorless monotone. The quiet flutter of wings overhead alerted him to the fact that stepping out from the engine compartment of the wrecked semi-tractor he was hiding in would immediately get him spotted. He held his breath and tried to quiet the pounding of his heart as one of her beastly, taloned, digitigrade cybernetic feet silently fell into view just a few paces outside the grill. He flinched as his audio implants registered the harmonic *[i]ping[/i]* of muted ultrasonic waves bouncing off the outside of the compartment.

The microscopic vibrations caused a bolt to dislodge and bounce out of an adjacent scrap pile. Chiroptera's movements were like lightning. Grimm's UHD optics barely registered that she was out of frame. An afterimage seared his vision for a moment while the optics compensated, and he cringed away from the shriek of an integrated mono-molecular vibro-sword rending  rusted steel and air alike.

Confrontations with that predatory, cybernetic wraith were always tense. She had some kind of hyper-advanced neural acceleration or wired reflex unit that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Probably some fucked up Tinker implant. It made her ungodly fast- the boys were always drooling over it like it was some kind of cybernetic Holy Grail. "If we could only-," they'd say, while scrawling up plans for an ambush some hotheaded scrapper would undoubtedly fuck up. Even if they did manage to pry it out of the bitch, they'd all kill each other fighting over it. Idiots.

To make matters worse, his call for help had only yielded the shrieks of over-amped cyberpsychos screaming about some cloaked lady and Rat pulling swords out of thin air, and something about Mantablack pulling a tasty haul from Shieldtown. Like, no wonder everyone considered them uncivilized monsters right? Not that he could talk: he'd done his fair share of "forcefully repossessing" implants, and other unsavory things. The only thing that made this situation different was that his one fear in this wretched world was gliding around outside like a goddamn ghost just steps away, and he could feel the amped emotions of the nearby swarm itching at the back of his skull.

[center][i][color=ed1c24]Rip. Kill. Consume. Revenge.[/color][/i][/center]

Chiroptera paused in her stride, turning her masked face towards something in the distance only she could perceive. Grimm nearly took the attack of opportunity. The reason he didn't? Well... that's how he lost his [i]first[/i] pair of eyes.

[color=#bd5ad1]"What luck,"[/color] she breathed, knocking on panels with her alloy knuckles in "Shave-and-a-hair-cut..." as she strode past. "Two-bits!" banged against the engine compartment loud enough to make him jump. [color=#bd5ad1]"Looks like 'all I can eat' over at Shieldtown, and [i]all~[/i] your little friends are coming. Hope I see you there, Grimm..."[/color]