ThePigOrcEmpire

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Warnings and static overran Temujin's vision. Umbri's voice was filtered into distortions through his battered sensors. Up was down, down was up, and his inner compass spun in rapid, erratic circles. "Ogh!... AKH!! Nzzzt…!" The ninja's systems scrambled to restore his three senses, and when they succeeded, he saw her.

Falling.

"...NO!"

He shouted, reaching out with a feeble, phantom limb. The world slowed to an agonising crawl, every microsecond of her fall flitting before his eyes. No…! He yelled again, but no voice came through, frozen by an emotion even cyborgs recognise.

She stopped falling. He couldn't believe it. Relief swelled in his chest. Relief that was cut short as he became aware of their surroundings. "HEY! Hands off!" He barked at the red-goggled miscreant. His pale entrails jiggled against the prodding of the shotgun, and… something… tumbled out between them. Temujin's static-laden vision turned towards the woman with the contraption, burning through layers of silver-plated hull in a distinctly… illegal… manner.

"...You're lawbreakers," Temujin realised. He saw red. This day just wouldn't end. Steam hissed from the nostrils of his mask and he thrashed about, flinging white fluid from his wounds. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

“Teehee,” red goggles giggled, “Hey Shivs, it tells jokes.” With that they brutally tore out Temujin’s electrolyte generator.

"NOOOOOO!" Temujin wiggled and thrashed as a beached fish. A torrent of hot white fluids splattered outwards, trickling down from the glowing, pulsating, bean-shaped organ. "Augh…!" The ninja cried out, curling up in a heap as he watched Stabby pocket a part of him.

“Pretty loud for a robot,” Shanks called back, not taking his eyes off the panicked woman in his grip. “You think it’s programmed to feel pain?”

“It’s all just 1s and 0s anyway, but sure, I’ll check out its model,” Stabby put their dripping hands in the air and waved him off, scanning the body with their eyes. Between Temujin’s horns, his name was half blotted out by dried thresher blood. “Hmm? We’ve got a… T-E-M…U-”

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Umbri straightened up on the alert. The scream bounced around in the junkyard. There was no telling of where it originated from other than up.

Thum. Thum. Thum.

Over west, stars lit up in pairs, each couple closer and brighter and coming faster. A snake-like shadow passed over them. Every memory of near death against the thresher clawed against Umbri’s belly from the inside. She couldn’t breathe or move. Not again…

THUM. THUM. THUM!

“No!”

“Wha-”

She flinched. The snake shot over them like a bullet across the plates. It didn't swoop down to snatch them. Umbri hesitantly glanced up - at the train still passing them by, the silver of its carriages glinting from the light of the tracks.

“... Oh,” she breathed. Now she remembered its familiar banshee shriek reaching her apartment.

“Hey,” Temujin called, squirming within his bounds. “Hey, you okay?” He inched enough to see the train going above them - a sleek body of silver steel, its lustre dampened by the natural grime and corrosion of the undercity. He watched its seemingly-endless body stretch further and further above them, with the kind of speed that made their efforts seem like something from the stone age. Temujin slowly turned his head towards her. “...You’re not afraid of trains, are you?”

Umbri almost let her annoyance distract her, but shut her mouth and shut him out, watching the tracks fading as their lights accompanied the rattle of the train off into the horizon… towards the lights of her destination. It took two seconds for the cogs of her brain to click in place.

“When’s the next one?” she asked.

Temujin chuckled. “One good thing about being so done-up in chrome.” Words and code flew over the cyber ninja’s vision. “I’m always online.” He looked up in anticipation. “Next one comes in 15 minutes.”

Shit. Not that much time. She nodded, sucking the inside of her lip as her gaze trailed her memory of the track - all the way up there, in the sky.

“Help me catch it.”

Temujin gave a slow nod. They were on the same page. It was a tall order, no doubt about it. He had no wire, and neither of them were in the state for any more daring acrobatics. “I have an idea,” he began. “I don’t like it… but it’s the only one I got. Put me down.”

A skeptical expression crossed Umbri’s face, followed by resignation as she had to undo all the hard work she’d put into fixing him on her. She limped over to something to lean her shoulder against and and loosened the straps to twist him around to be supported by her front like a baby carrier. A sharp inhale accompanied his awkward descent. She threw up a little in her mouth when she bumped her ankle and almost fell over trying to put him down. One of her crutches did. She plopped him on the jagged stump of his torso and he went sideways. “Shit,” she gasped and caught him, course-correcting him. He fell the other way. “Sorry -” She managed to get him propped up against the frame of a golf buggy that looked like it had survived a fire bombing and lost the other crutch in the process. Then she went down.

“... So what was the plan?” she asked, flat on the ground.

Temujin’s snarling mask made no sound, no sigh, no sign of displeasure, yet Umbri felt its eyes scowling at her all the way through the process. And afterwards. “You see the entrails spilling out of my… me?”

“No, you can hardly notice. Don’t worry about it.”

Temujin stared at her. A puddle of white, sticky blood was forming beneath him. He moved on. “Search my guts. Look for a hard-edged box just below the sternum.” He eyed her carefully, keeping a nonchalant tone. “I’d tell you to wear gloves, but I don’t think we can afford them.”

Umbri looked from her hands to the gooey mess that was Temujin’s insides with disgust twitching on her brow. “And your only organic flesh is your brain? I’m not going to stick my hands up there into your… liver or something?” She double checked.

Temujin leaned his head back with a sigh. “It’s all synthetic polymer and artificial plasma discharge… completely sanitary, I promise.” His white blood seeping out of him bubbled and popped with a nasty pllphfft.

“...Look, some people engage in anal fisting. You’ll live!” he desperately tried to assure her.

“JESUS!” she exclaimed, drawing back from him. "What is wrong with you? Alright, I’m going. I’m just going. Don’t say anything, don’t even laugh if it tickles. I’m doing it.”

Umbri dragged herself to him and knocked him over onto his back, laying him out. With a resolute inhale and no other warning she shoved one hand up. To her absolute horror his wet insides compressed around it and moved like something breathing. Her fingers wriggled.

Temujin laid back and thought of Northbridge. He couldn’t look her in the eye. Not in this position. “Yes. Go further. To the left. You’re doing great -”

Umbri’s other hand slammed into the ground next to his head. “I will actually RIP OUT whatever passes for a heart in you if you do not SHUT THE FUCK UP,” she growled, clenching her fist around something inside of him without thought. Temujin reeled back, shrinking into himself. She paused and brushed her thumb over a hard edge. “I think I’ve got it. Do I take it out?”

He hesitated replying for a moment. “Yes… it’s my power cell. I have two on me at all times, but right now…” He looked over his mangled body. “...One is enough.” Umbri nodded and carefully tugged it free, watching for any overt reaction. Slowly she slid her hand out of his torso. Up to her elbow was dripping with white. In her grip was the cell; smooth gunmetal in colour, with circuit patterns and a symbol etched on its centre - six curved lines spraying from a point. The rigid, machine-cut shape stood in direct contrast to the parody of a human's entrails that made up Temujin's insides.

“What’s the time on the train?”

"Five minutes and forty seconds," Temujin replied. "Now listen… there's a kill-switch beneath the box - something the Corpos rigged up to keep their secrets out of each others' hands. On my signal, flick it, set it beneath me, and…" Temujin watched the sky plates, keeping his sensors out for the train. "...And hold on tight."

Umbri just looked at him.

“Flick the kill switch.”

“Don’t worry - it’s a low-powered concussive blast. It’s meant to destroy us cyber ninjas from the inside, with minimal collateral damage. But if you prime it outside, and with me between you and the blast…” He looked to his damaged armour, then the power cell, and back again. A few seconds of doubt lingered between them. “...Yeah. it’ll be fine.”

She flashed a tight smile and nodded. “Flick the kill switch,” she hissed through her teeth, stuck on that, and gathered her crutches together to hunker down and wait. “Time on the train?”

Percussions came from the distance, far enough for only Temujin to hear. “Three minutes.”

The sound was rising. Louder, clearer. The pool of blood beneath Temujin was shaken by ripples. “Two minutes.”

A shape slivered into view, above and ahead. The rising tempo was like the beat of a war drum, beckoning them forth. “One minute.”

“You said ‘us’ cyber ninjas,” Umbri, who didn’t talk much, suddenly prompted an untimely conversation.

“DO IT!”

She flicked the kill switch.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Lockdown ceased. He relaxed his grip on Temujin's mask, the cyber ninja dangling from beneath his hand.

"What have we here?" Lockdown mused aloud. Whirs, clicks, and hisses came as his mask split apart, then folded out of view, revealing the face of the man beneath. His thick, wide features were starkly pale against the jet black of his armour, a pallor that was highlighted by the shadows around his deep, staring eyes.

"You're Marionette." He remembered. The girl who danced every night above Northbridge's skyline. The corners of his eyes wrinkled with a smirk. A moment of silence passed as he glanced between Temujin, the thresher, Umbri… and put the pieces together. "Hmm. Good to see you're not half-digested in some thresher's stool."

Lockdown released Temujin. His limbless body flopped with a careless clank. The machine-man's heavy footfalls dominated the alleys as he approached Umbri, his full height and width barely confined within the walls. He looked at her from top to bottom, with a gaze that tugged and stripped, the kind she felt even without meeting his eyes. Black metal fingers conformed to her cheek and lifted her by the chin, with a touch that seemed almost gentle… if not for the inhuman heat that flared from his fingertips. "Have you come back to mend your strings?"

Umbri certainly hadn’t intended for him to get this close, least of all touch her, but her old habit of freezing had her by the throat. Gross. She wanted to cast off her skin like a reptile and it showed in the curl of her lip. Her eyes were heavy, unable to lift with her chin he controlled. She held a gun and he approached her still. Her trigger finger twitched. She caught a glimpse of red in her peripherals.

She watched the ninja do what she was about to attempt and fail. The smoke and mirror tactics she’d been quick to adopt from Temujin against the threshers were useless here and her head was empty of anything else. She was, as the gang leader called her, Marionette. No brains, just strings. And no other choice.

She didn’t slap him with a witty retort. That wasn’t useful. She might have accidentally made eye contact as her hand came down. Her heel rolled the fire extinguisher away from her and the barrel blasted off, releasing the last bullet in the chamber. The extinguisher exploded. As the smoke cleared, Umbri was about… ten feet away, huffing and grunting as she dragged Temujin across the ground by his horns. Slowly. Painfully. And disappearing into his approaching shadow.

No.

No, that wasn’t happening. She might have been poor of a highschool diploma but she had brains enough to know how this would end. She pocketed her imagination and drew her heel, nudged against the body of the extinguisher, back in. Her gun lowered in an arc deliberately away from Lockdown. She had to talk, and that was okay. It was work.

She pulled out the stinger, met his eyes and held it out to him.

Lockdown raised his brows. His smile faded, giving way to intrigue that lingered upon his gaze. His grip drew away from her cheek to rest beneath her hand, lifting those slender fingers for a better look. "You did this?" He asked, the stinger reflected upon his golden eyes. "What for?"

Usually, before Umbri committed to a client, there would be a screening process. A meeting in which she would learn his psychology; his desires, his insecurities, one's relationship with one's mother. Right now, she was diving into negotiations with none of that information. Dangerous. But not undoable. Her eyes slid to the snake's pulverised carcass. Her bloody axe hit the ground with a thud and she leaned on it for balance.

"A trophy," she said. "It's a glower. Sell it to the right scientist and it could be worth a couple ten hundreds. Or a third of a debt."

Temujin whipped up to look at her. His mask seemed almost wide-eyed between the cracks as he shook his head, muttering a weak, garbled 'No'... Not after all the blood, sweat, and tears.

Lockdown's smirk returned, carving dimples beneath his cheeks, accompanied by a low and distinctly mechanical chuckle. "So the doll fancies herself a conqueror?" He asked, his voice beaming with approval. "Good… the people of Northbridge could learn from that kind of ambition." His gaze turned to the stinger, and a moment passed as the thoughts spun in his head. His hand swivelled atop her fingers, coaxing them to close around her trophy.

"Keep it. A true hunter does not claim the spoils of his peers," Lockdown declared. His leering gaze returned to meet hers. And came closer. "One fourth of the debt and three months extension…" His hand remained over hers. "...If you'll join me for dinner."

Umbri’s knuckles went white around the stinger. She read him right. He was a hunter. She hadn't expected it to go this "well" so fast, though she should have known it. She was already in his peripherals. She knocked her head Temujin’s way.

“Dinner and a show if that one comes with me right now.”

Lockdown's eyes darted to follow hers. He scoffed. Then looked back to Umbri, towards those piercing red eyes, and the lips that gleamed with a nostalgic shimmer. "Deal."

A sound was coming from above, stark against the silence of the night - a rolling, roaring staccato, that came closer and louder by each passing second.

He drew his hand back and stepped away. The whirs and clicks of his servos seemed twice as loud against the prone ninja, who squirmed, helpless to the situation and his own instincts.

THUD.

Lockdown's stompers stopped dangerously close to his head. He bent down to a squat. "Consider this a… tribute to our shared history," the machine-man whispered, staring at the name across Temujin's mask. The name that stamped out another. "Next time we meet, I won't be so charitable." Lockdown petted his head twice - like a master would a dog - and walked away, casting one last smile at Umbri. A false smile that warned her of the consequences of a broken promise.

Light shone in from above, accompanied by the billowing wind and spinning rotors of a helicopter. A ladder extended - twice - and ceased just beside Lockdown's waiting hand. A figure stood by the open window - clad in robes of blue-tinged white, the face beneath its pointed hood completely shrouded in darkness.

"Be ready for when I call you," Lockdown instructed Umbri. "And wear something… gold." The ladder retracted, pulling Lockdown along the way, before he shrunk into the sky and rode away upon the chopper.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Temujin's back was turned to Umbri. The snarl of his mask left no room for sympathy, no space for forgiveness. Her words fell on deaf ears as his silent steps brought him further and further away, until she blinked, and he disappeared into shadows.

"... Son of a bitch," Umbri cursed, looked around, hauled up her stuff and limped on her way.

Lockdown loomed over the serpent's corpse, his hand rested upon the head of his axe. The first Thresher to invade Northbridge's shores in years… it would make for a fine trophy. He brought a finger behind his temple to activate a hidden communicator. "Megahertz, I'm done here. Send in my extraction."

Silence. The lights didn't flicker. The winds failed to whisper. Lockdown's golden eyes gleamed straight ahead. A lithe shape leapt out of the shadows behind him.

ZRRRRRRRRRRRR!

"....!"

Green plasma clashed against metal teeth, spinning too fast and too hot to melt. The sparks that scattered were so bright they were almost blinding. "Well, well, well!" Lockdown remarked, one hand upon his waist, his amused glint quickly obscured as black eyes rolled over gold and his fanged mask enveloped his face. ”I know you. You’re the Rogue that’s been a thorn on our side!" He remarked, his voice distorted by the speakers of his mask. ”What was it they call you?”

Temujin stared him down without a word, the ninja's crossed blades grinding against Lockdown's axe. Their shoulders, elbows, and wrists shifted and turned alongside the rise and fall of their blades, each man poking for vulnerabilities between their bound blades, until-

ZRRRRRRR!

Temujin's blades fell too low. Lockdown's axe slid past his defences and crashed below his shoulder. White blood sputtered from torn flesh and severed cables. The Ninja's attempt to escape came too late, and his dangling arm fell blade-first into the earth. "...Ah!" Temujin felt no pain. But shock was a primal feeling he recalled. He stumbled and scrambled back, white blood continuing to gush out in obscene amounts from his stump.

"Hu hu hu," Lockdown chuckled, his posture upright, his steps as slow and casual as a stroll. He reached for the shield on his back and held his axe low, the weapon snarling as its teeth scraped and scattered sparks against the earth. "Done already? I'm just getting started."

The ninja let out a bestial growl and dashed back into action, his stance low, his blade held close to his forearm as he jabbed - once, twice, thrice, each strike aimed at the dull gold muscles between Lockdown's armour, each hit deflected with little effort by the machine-man's swift shield.

Clank! Clink! Clink!

"Hrh! Hraagh!" Temujin's desperation came alive in his voice. The ninja swiped, and slashed, and poked, again, and again, but the few hits that slipped past Lockdown's shield were easily warded by his armour.

WOOSH!

Lockdown's counterattack was a blindingly fast blur. The axe barely missed Temujin's feet as he jumped, flipped away, and flung two hot-bladed kunai. Lockdown parried them with the slap of his shield, and then held his guard as Temujin threw another-

Smoke hissed and swelled upon impact. What Lockdown foresaw as a mere knife was instead a parlour trick that covered his surroundings in thick black clouds. "Hu hu hu… you seek to blot out my sun?" Lockdown turned his gaze one way, then another. He returned his shield to his back, widened his stance, and wielded his axe in a two handed grip. His machine-vision shifted between a field of red, then green, then blue, and back to red.

"...Then I'll have my battle in the shade."

Lockdown's every step quaked the earth. Vermin scattered, rubble trembled, his jet-black eyes one with the darkness. He walked down the alleyway, white blood dripping from the head of his half-ton axe. And behind him, green-ringed eyes came alive. Distortion snuck within the smoke, stalking the machine-man with a readied blade.

Lockdown looked over his shoulder.

Temujin had only a microsecond of regret. Lockdown's axe flew with a trail of purple jet-flames. The weapon crashed into him, with enough force to ripple the air, sunder the earth, and shatter every inch of concrete around them. It was less a swing and more of an explosion. Clouds of dust and ash lingered in its wake.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Lockdown's mountain-like silhouette stepped out of the ash, his axe slung over his shoulder, white blood and debris crumbling from its teeth. Every booming footfall was accompanied by the whine and whir of hydraulics. The machine-man looked down upon the body beneath him. Sparks surged upon a pool of white blood. The crimson armour which shone so boldly were faded with dust and sundered by deep, vein-like cracks. His one good arm was torn right off its socket, with a cut so vast it bisected him above his pelvis, a flood of cables, pale blood, and machine guts spilling from the gaping wound. Temujin's snarling mask seemed trapped in a grimace, peering up at the foe which had defeated him so utterly.

Thud.

Lockdown's black iron foot landed upon Temujin's lower half. There was a creak, and a groan, and metal and synthetic muscles alike were flattened in two seconds. The ninja maintained a stony demeanour, even as he winced inside. Static, beeps, and warnings assailed his vision from all corners, lines of warnings and code that he could summarise in two words: I'm fucked.

"Now I remember," Lockdown mused, kicking aside the crumpled remains of Temujin's lower body as he approached, then dropped to a knee. "You're the Eyes of the Rogue. The Red Oni. Temujin."

He brought a massive, armoured hand to Temujin's face and turned him one way, then the other. "I expected more." Lockdown tightened his grip. Cracks formed between the ninja's eyes. "...But I'll settle for a souvenir." The cracks deepened, and spread, and the ninja wheezed. His vision saw more static than screen, his field of view collapsing around him. Not my face! Let go of my face! He squirmed, and struggled, and sparks sputtered from every stump. There was nothing he could do but flop, like a fish waiting to be gutted.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

The serpent screamed. A high-pitched, far-traveled wail that accompanied a high-pressured gush of blood, coating Umbri from head to shoulder in bioluminescent crimson. The serpent’s form undulated like a wind-blown flame, and with the desperate strength of a cornered animal, it wrenched its tail free from the javelin and tossed the bit of metal aside with a spiteful, earth-shattering clank.

Fire and light glowed from the serpent’s wing turbines. It spun and propelled away, disappearing through the hole it created in the blink of an eye, twin trails of embers and smoke cascading to the warehouse floor. Umbri collapsed on her ass as she watched it go. Guess it was just an animal after all.

“You did it,” Temujin remarked, his voice trailed with disbelief as he stared off into the hole. His blade shrunk, and the strut that housed it collapsed back into his forearm. “I’m… impressed,” he admitted, finally turning to look at Umbri. He thought for a moment as he analyzed her vitals. Blood pressure at critical levels, heart rate inhumanly fast - he was surprised she hadn’t entered cardiac arrest yet.

The ninja shook his head. “I told you to stay put. All that exertion was just aggravating the poison.” He stepped closer. His gaze wandered to the stinger in her hand. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t discount the value of her help. And so, with a sigh, he held out his hand. “Come with me, we need to get you to Shieldtown.”

Umbri’s pupils shrunk down and her breath slowed as the old pains crept back. ”Shield… town?” She echoed as she took his hand and allowed him to help her up. “Why are we going there?”

“I know people who can help. People who spent their lives fighting these creatures,” Temujin explained. “People I can… trust.”

Umbri gave him a look. That wasn’t said with confidence. "Mm…" Regardless she pushed it down and leaned against him, lifting her bandaged ankle and giving it a well deserved break. She shut her eyes in relief. The fatigue from relying on her Chrome heart was catching her. “Anywhere is better than here,” she murmured.

Temujin leaned back by reflex… but accepted, supporting Umbri as they walked. Until…

A high-pitched shriek. The wail of a cornered animal, rattling amidst the crackle of fire and light. Temujin whipped his head towards the sound. “It’s still here?!” Umbri tilted her head to listen, wincing.

“Wherever it is, it’s dying.” She said, and laid a strategic hand over his chest. “Please. Let’s just go.”

Temujin's gaze lingered upon her hand. The beast was far too dangerous to be left alone. Yet he barely eked out a victory with the dancer's help, and…

He looked at her face, the flutter of her eyes, the glossy quiver of her lips. The serpent could wait. She couldn't. Temujin nodded. "Alright, let's go." Umbri smiled weakly. She wanted to laugh but she didn’t dare do anything that would bring a crease to her face. She might just survive this.

---

Through the beast-burned hole, and out of the warehouse. Temujin supported Umbri every step of the way, their silhouettes stepping out of the steam-shroud. There were more shadows than lights in southern Northbridge, an arrangement that served the two well as they fled beneath corrugated roofs and broken windows.

Fire lit beneath the sky; a flash of red that burned through black-green haze. A serpentine shape twisted beneath, and its rattling cry travelled in echoes. Temujin pushed Umbri against the wall, shielding her body with his. Heat, light, and fire burned the fog away, and from within, the flame serpent fell, flailing through the sky, sparks cast from its neck.

A thunderous crash. Rubble and dust came from above. Temujin looked up, and the green rings flashed within his eyes. There, upon the serpent’s neck, was a hulking shadow. More mountain than man, and more machine than mountain, flashes of yellow seared upon black steel. Four red dots came alive in the shadows of his mask, glowing with mechanical enmity as he dug his heels into cracked scales. He held a shield in one hand and an axe-like contraption in the other, the latter’s head snarling with blood-soaked teeth that growled and spun like a chainsaw.

“Impossible…,” Temujin hissed. A quake lingered in his whisper despite his best efforts. “That’s Lockdown.”



The snake shook, rolled, and took back to the skies. Lockdown leapt off of it, his feet dragging across the roof as he landed. The beast reared up in defiance, bioluminescence lighting up every inch of its body. From below, Temujin and Umbri could see - one of its ear-wings had been cleaved off, a shiv of blood-drenched bone poking out in its place.

Lockdown raised his axe, and it rested on his shoulder with a heavy THUNK. The serpent spat fire from its jet-wings, its form a glowing, blurred line as it charged its armoured aggressor. He bent his knees, raised his shield, and stood his ground. Sparks and flames ignited upon impact. A shockwave erupted beneath Lockdown’s feet, cratered the concrete and blasted the railings into ash and cinders. The serpent reeled back and doubled down, casting a cone of fire against Lockdown’s bulwark that turned the black metal a glowing, red-hot colour. Yet the machine-man held firm, with only the slightest shake to his grip as he pushed back, bit. By. Bit. Even as the fire went around his shield, charred his armour, and singed his muscles… until Lockdown came close enough to backhand his shield against its jaws. Hard.

The snake was winded. Fire sputtered to embers within its mouth. Lockdown stepped forward to seize his advantage. He bashed, and struck, and stabbed his shield into the creature’s neck, forcing a high-pitched shriek of pain amidst a shower of blood. The snake thrashed as the machine-man lifted it, driving the shield deeper into its gullet with every inch, its entire body flailing in alarm.

A loud crack came, and the serpent’s blunted tail whipped towards Lockdown. His axe came alive with a furious roar, and Lockdown unleashed it with a full-bodied slam. Half-ton metal crashed upon black-scaled coils, denying the serpent’s desperate counterattack in an orgy of bone, blood, and severed flesh. A cry unlike any the serpent had summoned came forth. The serpent’s tail flopped between the alley walls and crashed a foot away from Temujin and Umbri with an earth-shaking thud.

The serpent turned around, ripping itself out of Lockdown’s shield-stab. Its tail-less body limped through the air, cawing, spitting, whimpering. ”Hu hu hu,” a metallic chuckle came from the machine-man. A burst of fire ignited from his back as he jumped, far and high, covering the distance between them in seconds… before he fell, his axe outstretched.

ZRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Scale, hide, and bones melted like butter beneath gnashing metal teeth. The serpent's turbine wing fell apart from its shoulder. There was no more might, pride, or amusement in the serpent's warbles. Only a naked fear, shrill and sobbing as it fell from the sky.

Pincers extended from the bottom of Lockdown's shield, clinging to the beast with blunt teeth. The machine-man hacked and slashed, ripped and tore, cutting bits upon bits of the snake, every fin and wing, peeling flesh from the bone. He swung his half-ton axe with the ease of a knife. Lockdown had already won. This was no fight. It was violation.

The serpent collided upon the back alleys, the last of its strength manifesting only in short, ragged breaths. Temujin and Umbri watched from the other end of the alley, the snake's tail flopping not far away with a parody of life.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Lockdown's steps rattled within the narrow alley walls. Smoke billowed from his charred armour, the red shifting back to black as it cooled. He strolled towards the serpent's dying maw, storing his shield upon his back as he held his axe with both hands.

"Veni." There was a whirr and a hiss, and Lockdown's mask retracted, exposing his all-too human grin, bloody with the taste of victory. "Vidi." He held his axe high and back. Turbines expanded behind the haft, and purple light hissed from within them. He stared the beast in the eye, challenging it to its last breath.

"Vici."

The earth, the walls, and even the winds shattered beneath Lockdown’s final blow. The serpent was cleaved, from head to neck to spine, snuffing whatever life remained. The glow rapidly faded from its skin, until there was more black than red, and more grey than black.

Shadows framed every crease and line within Temujin's mask. All he could see was Lockdown. Nothing else mattered. ”Stay here," he commanded Umbri as he shuffled away. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Lockdown, leader of JAHANNAM, out here, alone, in an alley of shadows and silence. He clenched his fist, and the struts of his blades extended with the quietest whir.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Southern Northbridge. Beneath a skyline of shipping crates, in the shadows of tangled wires and rust-scarred slums. Temujin sat perched atop a lamp post, the snarl of his mask directed straight ahead. His night's eyes revealed what was too dark for most to see, a trail of charring and snuffed embers, wounded deep into the pavement. It twisted with a serpentine flair, leading to a hole blasted through foot-thick concrete.

A warehouse. Longer than it was tall, with an orgy of neon words and images graffitied onto the walls. Temujin dropped from his perch, his form stretched and his landing silent as a cat's, then slinked towards the hole. Nine feet tall and eight feet wide. The concrete was still hot to the touch. A rumble came from within, snarling low with a giggle-like undertone. Temujin pressed his back against the wall and peered.

Red coils twisted and floated above the floor. The air wobbled and blurred with heat around them. The serpent's head was close to the ground. There was the snap of bone and tearing of meat as the thresher feasted on another - a crustacean, toppled onto its back and twitching with the vestiges of life, its azure shell blackened by char and casting smoke.

Temujin moved amongst the shadows. Slowly, behind a forklift, up stacks of containers, towards the rafters.

<Engaging Chameleon Cloak_>

What little sound he made disappeared along his body into rippling air. He couldn't afford to use his eyes again… but the cyberware fused into his body made for a useful backup.

Temujin leapt - with hands outstretched - and grabbed onto a rafter beam. He swung forward, back, and forward, building momentum which he released as he vaulted atop the beam. He approached above the creature, every crouched step secured by his soles' magnetic grip. The cyber ninja ignited a blade. The green light was a colourless shimmer beneath his cloak. Temujin set his eyes upon its stinger; glowing crimson at the tip of thin black coils.

One good cut.

Temujin's blade expanded atop the struts as he channeled the focused totality of his power core. It was now or never. He jumped. The air rushed over his falling body like the wind. Time slowed in his mind as the snake seemed closer, and bigger, and closer, and bigger, until-

A clean hit. The green blade plunged right through the base of the stinger, drawing blood that burned and steamed before it could spray. A rattling scream spread through the warehouse. The serpent raised its head, black blood dripping from black teeth. Slowly, it looked right at Temujin.

Shit, the ninja thought to himself. He extinguished his blade and flipped away - just as the snake whipped its tail, slamming into a wall of containers and crushing them like tin.

He had cut it deep. Deep enough to injure - and seriously piss off - but not enough to sever. Temujin disengaged, sprinting around a bend and behind stacks of crates. The serpent let out its giggle-like chitters, as if amused by its quarry. Heat radiated from its bioluminescent body, heat that blurred the air and scattered embers from its wings. It's mouth opened with blinding light.

FWOOOOOOOOOSH!

Heat, light, and fire.

FWOOOSH! FWOOOOOOSH!

Again, and again, blackening the concrete and melting the containers into misshapen slag. Temujin dashed and rolled, using shadows and surroundings to mitigate the flaws of his cloak. Firelight bathed the warehouse in a blood red glow. Temujin skidded to a halt and hid behind cover. He could hear the low rumble of the snake, its coils swaying eerily through the air.

The ninja stared forward. The hole where he came through was a mere dash away. Success seemed unlikely now. He could flee to try another day. Temujin peeked over the wall. The serpent had ceased its scorched-earth tactics, choosing instead to rear up and search amongst the flames. Perhaps to conserve its energy. Perhaps to try something else.

"..."

It didn't matter. After all the destruction it wrought, all the damage it survived, Temujin couldn't allow such a dangerous creature to run amuck around Northbridge. Smoke rose from the fire. Smoke that flew high above the rafters and disturbed long-rusted mechanisms. The shrill screech of alarm cut through the crackle of flames, and then…

Water. Pouring from all across the rafters, in high-pressured sprays like the fabled rain of the upper city. Rain that doused the fire and silenced the flames. Slowly at first, then all at once, until all that was left were thick gusts of steam.

Static shorted across the Temujin-shaped distortion of air. Red and black rippled back into view, along with that ever-snarling, bone white mask. The snake tilted its head. A low purr came between its jagged teeth, its ear-wings pricked at the static amidst the downpour.

Temujin extended both his blades. He slinked out of the shadows, his armour wet and glossy from the water, his jet black eyes staring down the serpent for their final confrontation.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Deep in the heart of Northbridge, where the green haze of industry was a choking fog, where blood-red searchlights leered upon barbed wire fences. It was a world of metal, with pillars of pipes that stretched and coiled like the tentacles of an eldritch beast, where the walls and railings were scarred green by acid storms and blackened by long-dried blood. Ruined structures coloured the landscape. The latticed ceiling of a great stadium, collapsed into the husks of old world trains, laid scattered and left for dead. Blocks of half-torn, windowless buildings, their rooftops manned by rows upon rows of anti-air cannons, their streets patrolled by gangsters clad in gas masks and bodysuits. And beyond that, within a sea of debris and desolation, was an abandoned warship, half-sunken into rubble, the letters faded but not gone from its starboard: JAHANNAM.

High up on the bridge of the warship, beneath a ceiling of rust and tangled pipes. Music reverberated through metal in deep, synthetic beats. Blood red light washed over the rust, swinging here and there, stark and searing to the eyes. Men, women, anything in between. Chromed-up psychos and freaks mutated by the filth in the air. There was no uniformity in JAHANNAM, only a shared will for profit and dominance. And here they made their home, upon bullet-riddled couches, around half-moon tables of cards and chips, beside workbenches slathered by bullet casings and racks on racks of guns and blades, both scavenged and homemade.

In the middle of it all, a woman writhed and twisted, wrapped in see-through silk that drew eyes to her every move. The light emphasised every curve and line of her body, yet her face was obscured behind a porcelain mask, devoid of even the barest features. She danced before a throne of metal, beneath the twisted knots of a hundred cables. And upon this throne, highlighted by a blood-red spotlight, was the leader of this cabal.

His body was of black steel, with limbs as thick as pillars, and shoulders as wide as a man is tall. His muscles were cables, thick and taut and expanding his mass beneath the armour bolted into his very being. He slouched, with a chin rested upon metal fingers, his eyes deep and staring, like a hawk eyeing its prey. His face was flesh, unmistakably - even with the screws above his brows, and the code stamped between them. Thick, with oversized cheeks and a bald head carved by the lines of age.

A hunched figure cut through the club, clumsily weaving its way around the dancers and gamblers. Blistered flesh caught on their clothes and the reek of cooked meat crossed the room with the new arrival. It left a trail of viscous dark fluid, glinting in the red light. Slowly, a few heads began to turn, looking after the panting, wounded creature dragging itself in.

He staggered out from the crowd before the gang bosses’ throne. The movements of the dancer distracted from him, her silks trailing behind her and masking the man… then they fell. Drifted away to expose a sight that stopped the party.

Ganta faltered on his feet, half his clothes burned and torn revealing scorched flesh. He clutched his right arm - or the stump of it. The sleeve was tattered and hanging loose, drenched in so much blood it looked like ink. Half his mask was chipped away. The brow above his eye swelled, and his eye looked down, hesitant to meet the glare of his boss, but he did. With a grave, urgent look that could not mask his shame.

The man in black held his gaze upon Ganta for a moment. His head stirred from his hand, straightened and roused from his boredom. Brows lifted above his hawk-like eyes, eyes which gleamed with questions… and demanded answers. “Ganta. You’re late,” He spoke first, leaning against his throne, one hand outstretched to beckon the dancer.

He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. The woman came close and settled upon his knee, her legs crossed, her arm caressing his broad, armoured chest. “Was the Dancer too much to handle?” He asked, his smile broadened into a grin that flashed unnaturally white teeth. He turned his gaze to his left, out the window of the warship’s bridge. One building stood out from the distant skyline, brought to life by the pinks and yellows flickering with its name: HYSTERIA.

Ganta snorted a blood bubble. “You think some slut did this to me?!” He spat, “We had her. Those fucking beasts. They got Kite and Canary. Threshers! Two of them, in Northbridge!”

The music stopped. The crowd fell silent, then scrambled into murmurs. The man in black’s smile did not fade. No… it deepened, darkened by the lines of his face.

“Bullshit!” A voice protested behind Ganta, a wide-shouldered man clad in worn tactical gear, with long, disheveled hair sprouting behind a ballistic mask. “Northbridge ain’t had Threshers for over a decade!”

“Just cause they’re behind the walls don’t mean they can’t get through!” A woman in full biker gear retorted, shaking a chrome fist at the man.

“We should load up and send EVERYONE before it gets worse!” A two-headed, reptilian mutant added.

The crowd descended into debates. Shouts. Expletives were thrown, and dares summoned. Until the man in black sat up straight, and held up his hand. The crowd was silenced once more. The dancer in his lap snuggled her cheek against his shoulder.

“Have you ever lied to me, Ganta?” He asked.

Ganta shook his head, but his eyes darted around the room, feeling cornered. “No, boss.”

“Swindled me?”

“No, boss.” He sweated. This line of questioning was normally a prelude to the boss exposing otherwise.

“Stabbed me in the back?”

“NO! BOSS!”

The man in black nodded. Confidence surged through his dark-eyed smirk, bolstered by Ganta’s every answer. He flicked a finger, and something light and metal and jingling zipped through the air. Ganta caught it by reflex. A key. He almost melted in relief.

“Northbridge belongs to JAHANNAM. I will send the message.” The man in black arose from his throne, his full height drowning Ganta in his shadow. He gestured the Dancer to leave him, as a mask formed over his mouth; fanged like a beast's and complemented by the pitch-black eyes that rolled over his glare. “Personally.”

And on the back of his head, etched in rigid capitals, was his name. Warchief of JAHANNAM. The Black King of Northbridge.

LOCKDOWN.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

<WARNING: MENTAL STRAIN AT 80%_>
<DISENGAGE MIND MIST ASAP_>
<MIND MIST DISENGAGING_>

The distortion washed away, revealing the black, pink, and sienna of their huddled forms. Temujin groaned, with a voice more human than his body suggested. His grip on Umbri relaxed, directed instead to clutch the bridge of his 'nose'. There was a throb, throb, throb within his head, as if his brain was trying, desperately, to bloat out of its casing.

"That was too close," the ninja remarked, his false voice breathy with weariness. A second passed as he rotated his gaze towards Umbri. The rage carved into that mask glared right through her. "Didn't I tell you to hide?!" He snapped as he got up on one knee and snatched her shoulder with one hand, all too ready to manhandle her again. She flinched.

"Stop it!" She yelped, hitting his hand off her.

Temujin exhaled. "I'm just trying to help, you slattern!" The ninja moved closer, narrowing the glare of his brows. His hand snatched her wrist before she could blink. "The only place you're walking into with that ankle is a casket."

Umbri almost cried out again as she was pulled. Her hand wrung in his grip, and her head jerked up, eyes furious and glossy.

"Your. Help. Hurts," she almost growled. She was shivering, lips turning dry and white under chapped lipstick. Her sweat took on a sickly viscous quality. She tugged her wrist against him and flicked her eyes down. "... Please," she mustered, with a controlled softness.

Temujin's grip loosened. He stared at her in silence, and the shadow of pity surfaced within his pitch black eyes. Words and numbers and graphs flickered over his vision. Spiking heart rate. Plunging blood pressure. Erratic breathing. "Were you bitten?" He asked, looking Umbri over as he released his hold. "You have to tell me. Now."

She shook her head as she hauled herself up, biting back the stab of pain in her ankle. "No. I'm fine. You've done enough," she rasped and leaned against the shipping crate to start hobbling away. She waved a hand in the air, brushing him off. "Tell me the name of your manufacturer and I'll - mmgh, ow - leave a customer review."

"My what?" He asked, his head tilted. There was a pause, a scoff, as Temujin caught up to her thoughts. "I'm not a product. I'm my own man, with my own soul, my own face!" He claimed, gesturing at his mask. "You think the corpos above give enough of a shit to save dregs like you? No…" The ninja shook his head, then slammed a hand against the wall to halt her escape. "I do."

"Man?" Umbri uttered. Her gaze traveled down over the body of smoking synthetic muscles in her path. It's all Chrome. The realization trickled in like an icicle dripping down her back. Much more than eight implants. Her foot shifted away from him. "Then I… I should thank you," she forced, mustered up a grateful nod, then turned around. "Now get the hell away from me -"

Light spots blinded her. She staggered and fell against the shipping crate with a cry, a sudden flare of heat pulsing from the back of her neck. She brought a hand up, pushing under the wig to touch it, and Temujin saw it. A wound, tinging the flesh neon green, with unnatural glowing veins spreading from the source.

"...! Stop!" Temujin yelped, then coaxed her hand out of the way. Words and numbers flashed over his vision, most of which he barely understood. He didn't need them to see the danger. "This is bad. This is really bad," he murmured, cradling around her neck with the gentlest touch he could muster. "I have to go after it. Cut off the stinger. Synthesize an anti-venom." Umbri replied with a barely lucid, "Huh?" and limply batted at his hand, fighting him off.

Temujin sighed. In her current condition, she was no more than dead weight. Yet he felt uneasy leaving her unattended. The ninja glanced at the shipping crate, then back at Umbri. "Hey. Hey!" He barked, turning her attention to him with a hand on the cheek. "You need to stay here. Stay and hide. Are you listening?"

Her eyes slid to the hand the cyberpsycho couldn’t keep off her. She thought of something to say - spit at him - that, she assumed, would only invite violence. She nodded.

“Good…,” he replied. “Good.” The ninja drew his hand back and stood. He looked to where the Thresher had gone off to, and paused with uncharacteristic hesitation. He was loath to take on such a dangerous creature by himself… but calling for help from the other Rogues seemed an even more distasteful proposition. No… its death can come later. He just needed one good cut. He was good at that. The ninja looked back to Umbri one last time, with eyes that lingered to her pallid, weary body. “I’ll be quick.” And just like that, Temujin was gone, spraying Umbri with a burst of cold water as he zipped in the blink of an eye.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

A black and red shape emerged from the shadows, with blades that crossed and glowed a radiant 'X'. The shape descended behind Umbri, and his claws un-crossed in a wide arc. Deep cuts were carved into the beast's tail, open and glowing a white-orange heat. The screech that came rattled their surroundings, yet it was white noise to Temujin, whose pitch black gaze honed in on Umbri. He skidded on a knee as he landed, grabbed her by the arms, and yanked her, out and away from the coils loosened by pain.

The ninja tossed her over his shoulder and bolted, his steps loud and splashing across the drowned streets. He turned one corner, then another, and raced down a desolate boulevard, the serpent still hot on his tail.

"I'm gonna throw up," Umbri slurred down his back, followed by a gulp.

"Don't you dare!" Temujin hissed, his hand clutching behind Umbri's knees to steady her. Riko's Workshop always charged extra for deep cleaning. He couldn't afford it.

The air was hot, and the shadows darker. The monster was gaining on them. Temujin had to think fast. His free hand clutched two more smoke pellets, which he hurled towards nearby detritus, and ignited. Smoke blanketed the monster's vision for a precious few seconds… before it sped right through the expanse.

…With its prey nowhere in sight.

The creature slowed to a stop. Its jaws rumbled with a series of clicks and chitters, its five yellow eyes peered through the darkness. What was once a park had become a rust-laden grave, cluttered with scrap and abandoned shipping containers. Beside one of which was… a shimmer. A tear. A distortion in the wind, rippling with the smallest movements. Temujin dropped to a knee, his invisible hand covering Umbri's invisible mouth. "Don't. Move," he commanded, the green rings fading into unseen eye sockets.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

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. “You,” 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. “This is no place for a hooker,” he uttered, approaching her with his head high and a pointing finger. “Get out of here, before I-”

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. “Don’t panic,” Temujin warned her, as he scrambled to the edge, held her closer, and jumped - right beneath the snap of vermillion jaws.

"What are YOU DOINGAAAAAAAA!!!"

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. Flying. Umbri's scream shut off with a whimper. A frantic poke poke poke jabbed Temujin in the back of the shoulder.

"?!" 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.

“HIDE!” 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.

<DANGER. DANGER. DANGER_>
<SYSTEMS OVERHEATING_>

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. “Nrgh…!” 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 kicked. 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.

“Hey. Hooker. Let’s go-”

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.

“MotherFUCKER!” Temujin yelled as he bolted right back towards danger, patting away the smoke to reveal the cables beneath his torn flesh.