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.
