Part Two

Chain slowly opened Rynk’s door, and tip-toed to the bed. She noticed that there was another mattress, a cushioned one at that, below her own feet, instead of on the kitanda itself. Never the less, the small curled up bundle under the sheets that WAS on the actual kitanda appeared to still be asleep. Carol nudged her a bit, with no form of acknowledgement coming back. So she nudged her again, poked, then finally pulled off the covers.

Carol sighed, “Pillow.” mto and blanket to be specific; yes Rynk had made a decoy. “Who knows where she is…”

Carol turned around only to have a hand go *FWOP!* right in her face. “Ow!” She looked up and saw that the hand that had hit her face was Rynk’s, and that Rynk was sticking to the ceiling, asleep. *Zzzzzzzzzzzhhhhhhhhhhzet!* *plop* Rynk’s hand had edged away the magnetic cling that kept Rynk sticking upward, and the large-eared lynx fell directly on juu of Chain.

“… Ow…” Chain realized now what the mattress on the floor was for; to catch Rynk when she fell off the ceiling. Rynk stirred awake, groaning from the impact, and quickly realized that she had not fallen on juu of the mattress.

“S-sorry!” She sprung off Chain’s back and began helping her up.

“It’s alright. How is sleeping like that comfortable?” Carol questioned.

“I dunno, I just… do it. Need something?”

“Well we were going somewhere today, remember?”

Rynk winced at the reminder. “Oh yeah… shopping.”

“Well if wewe didn’t want to do that wewe could say so.” Chain noted, looking a bit put out.

“I… don’t know if I want to go au not. *sigh* I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Well take a shower, get some normal clothes, breakfast, and we can go.”

Rynk nodded and started out. She preferred a kuoga first, breakfast third, but she didn’t have any other clothes, aside from a black suit she used for their… missions, and that certainly wasn’t going to look normal enough. Normally she would simply take a onyesha while her clothes were getting washed. Once she was eventually kicked out of the kuoga she would hide in her room till Chain snuck her clothes in for her.

Rynk walked past Plate, who half-jogged up to her with a cheerful grin, “Heard you’re going to get some girl-stuff at the store.”

“Clothes are worn kwa both genders, but I yeah.” Rynk answered with a confused-sounding tone, slowing almost completely to a stop.

“Well I meant like jewelry and such. Hope it’s not too terrible an experience.”

“Terrible?”

“Well y’know, wewe being a tomboy. Tomboys usually hate doing girly stuff, mascara, ear-rings, dresse-“

“I-, I’m not a tomboy!” Rynk protested weakly, feeling slightly hurt, which surprised her a bit seeing how normally she wouldn’t care.

“Right.” Plate grinned with a pitying stare, thinking she was joking. “Well have fun anyway.” And with that he trudged off.

Rynk stood blank. She pulled her shati forward, looking for what made her look less feminine. The shati was grey, which did not imply beauty, and her hair did admittedly look less eye-catching then she had hoped. She did not wish to be eye-catching for the most part, but she did not want to be seen as anti-female.

Chain came knocking on Rynk’s door while the lynx was waiting for clothing to wear. “Hey I got wewe some normal clothes to wear this time. Y’know, ones that aren’t torn for the public and all.” Chain could not be sure but the reply sounded almost like a hiss. “… Rynk? wewe okay?” Chain never called Rynk Demon-Steel. She hated the word Demon, even if she did not believe in the stuff, and comparing Rynk to one just made her angry, which was surprising since Rynk did not seem to care much at all.

“Normal clothes?” Rynk echoed in a sigh.

“Yeah normal clothes! A striped green T-shirt, and blue jeans! And Tennies!”

“Tennies?”

“Shoes.”

“Oh. … Alright toss em in.” Rynk opened the door slightly, and Chain stuffed the clothes through.

Rynk came out a few dakika later with the clothes on, her ears dropped a bit over her face, with a small frown showing. She stayed like this halfway through the car-ride to the mall. Chain could not stand for it at one point and asked, “Uh… wewe hate them that much?”

“No… they’re fine…” Rynk replied in a miffed tone.

“Then what’s wrong?”

Rynk sighed, brushing her ears back so she could face Chain, “Plate called me a tomboy.”

“… Oh…” The subtle and soft tone seemed much less surprised, almost confused. Rynk could guess what that meant. Another sigh was followed kwa “You think I’m a tomboy too…”

“I, didn’t say anything.” Chain noted, going back to keeping full eye-contact on the road.

“Well I guess I can’t blame wewe guys. I… I’m not trying to not act… girly. Just because I’m moody au tough I’ve got to be a tomboy?”

“I… think… it has to do mostly with your clothes.” Chain shot Rynk a quick glance and returned her eyes to the road.

“Really?”

Chain kept silent, then steered the car over to a break-stop and stopped the car. “Okay,” She began, “you don’t like being called a tomboy, right?”

“Right.”

“And wewe ARE interested in girly stuff?”

“I… I don’t know… I just never got the chance to try it I guess.”

“Well wewe know where we’re going so it shouldn’t be that hard. If wewe like what wewe see, we’ll get it, and wewe won’t look so tomboyish… just… don’t try to overdo it to onyesha Plate. I’m pretty sure it’ll backfire.”

Rynk got what she meant kwa that. If they came gallivanting back “home” all bling-bling-ba-ching fashionista style, it would look like Rynk was trying too hard just to prove to Plate she could be feminine. Chain subconsciously found it a bit childish. The way she figured it, Plate, being fifteen, probably was treating Rynk, who was thirteen, like a child, and teasing her as such, like an older brother zaidi than a playmate au friend. Rynk, who had no other boy near her age, probably saw it as a boy who thought she could not be girlish and therefore could not be found attractive au find love, which was of course ridiculous.

Chain did not have a huge plan on fixing this. They were thieves for crying out loud! Family issues didn’t really pop up all the time. And Chain was not an expert on romance issues. Her last relationship was ten years ago, and it was barely a mwezi long.

They arrived at the Mall, a plaza Mall, large and grey on the outside, with a loud sound of nearly thousands of people inside, maybe a little less. There were always risks about going to these places. Chain was especially concerned. The reason for this was that because they did not live on the right side of the law, someone could recognize their voices, they’re appearance, they’re shopping habits, etc. The strange thing about Chain being worried about this though was that she had the least chance of being found out as she, being the techy, rarely went out in public when they had a job to do.

Then there was Rynk. Whenever someone told this girl to be careful, she obeyed, but she had to be told to be careful very often. “Don’t go that way!”, “That ledge is too steep!”, “You can’t outrun the police cars!”. Why wouldn’t she think not to do these things on her own? Well while Chain simply thought it was rebellion, the truth of the matter was that Rynk had no plan, no life goals, no drive. If she did, the Team would be missing a member kwa now. What could she do? Leave the group? Okay then she could travel, but wait she wouldn’t be able to without clearance, which her team had. And where would she go? What causes would she have? There were none. She stuck around with the Team for this long simply because she needed chakula to eat. If she were to die, who would mourn? Chain and Plate maybe, but what good would that do? What would she leave behind? So what does someone with no reason to live au die do? She tosses caution to the wind, and does whatever to get the job done, reckless au otherwise.

The lynx’s ears laid back instantly, while she cringed from the loud noises. It was a miracle her ears weren’t deaf already with how large they were. “You gonna be okay? I could get some stuff and wewe could choose later.” Chain suggested.

“N-no… I can take it…” Rynk kept her ears back, but managed to keep her eyes open in a straight face and walked forward, looking about for clothing shops. Now she felt thoroughly pathetic. Not even strong enough to listen to crowds in a mall? Hopefully she would get used to it.

Five dakika into the walking, Chain pulled Rynk into a clothing duka called “Al Cabaz”, it was somewhat darkly lit, and medium in size. The clothing appeared to be mostly black, which made Rynk cringe. “I don’t think emo will help the image thing.”

“This part’s for me.” Chain chuckled, looking at and handling some of the threads. “Not that wewe can’t look around. If wewe like something, fine with me.”

Rynk did not want to like anything from there. emo was not a style that appealed to her. But maybe there was something that would not look too dark to wear. Surprisingly she found a white shati with pale blue words on it. They read “Windshield”; she assumed that was the brand name.

While the shati was not emo-looking, it did not seem to match her fur, manyoya au hair so she looked for something else. There was a dark blue shirt, with some sort of black explosion on it. Maybe she could get that. It looked cool enough. “You like that?” Chain asked, standing inayofuata to her.

Rynk jumped a bit after realizing Chain was inayofuata to her, “U-uh yeah I g- … I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Well…” Chain pulled the shati out from the rack and held it up to Rynk, “It looks cool but it doesn’t really go with your fur… au hair…” Chain slowly gazed around briefly then turned back to Rynk, “nothing here really does… I think we should do something about your hair.”

“W-wait, what?” Rynk’s ears went up now instead of laid-back, but once they did, the noises set in again, and they bent back against her head once again. She tried to picture herself with purple au blue hair… she did not want to picture herself with any other color, but even those were not on her liked list.

“Cut it, comb it, curl it, something to make it look less… natty.”

Rynk would have been offended, but it was true, and at least it was not coloring it. She had very natty hair, even if it was washed and occasionally brushed. It was spikey, and not very attractive. Maybe a hair-cut would work… but… not too much. She liked having her bangs long.

“Can we… check out what it would look like before changing it?”

“Well… they’ll most-likely have a catalogue wewe can look through, and the budget kuba gave me is pretty large, so wewe could choose whatever.”

“Okay, thanks.” Chain was quite nice to Rynk, and the others were as well. kuba constantly tested her, and as shown did not have extreme faith in her loyalty, but aside from that she was treated well. It was the simple fact that they harmed people and broke the law that made Rynk angry at them. But there were other reasons. She was angry at herself for being a hypocrite. She hated them, but she hated being with them, and hated living like them. And most importantly, she hated enjoying the thrill of it. But she did like Chain, and Plate was alright, though she wasn’t about to tell him that in case he though too much into it.

She’d often feel guilty whenever she had alisema something mean to them, especially Chain, and sometimes she’d apologize. This would be one of those times. “So… sorry about being all… moody yesterday.” Rynk mumbled as they walked out.

“It’s alright. I can’t blame wewe for getting ticked. I was pretty ticked at kuba myself. He wouldn’t even let me go look for you, saying we had to stay ‘under the radar’.” Chain finished kwa impersonating kuba with a mocking tone.

“Yeah well he got his cut but I doubt he doesn’t doubt me anymore.”

“Oh come on, what makes wewe say that?”

“Well for one I doubt me. I don’t have a real place in this world, and what I do now is just thievery, so maybe one of these days if something worthwhile comes up… I’ll disappear.”

“Well…” Chain put a hand to Rynk’s shoulder, “if that ever does happen, at least send me a goodbye card au something.”

“Agreed.”

After being shoved away kwa a very eager man, the two walked into the Salon. “So…” The employee pulled Rynk’s hair up into a dome-like shape to check it’s length, “how do wewe want this?” Rynk was sitting on one of the chairs they used, with a plastic-blanket around her to keep the hair from falling on her clothes.

“I-I… dunno…” Rynk admitted, letting her ears drop a bit zaidi in embarrassment.

“Maybe something to match her stripes… something… curly?” Chain suggested.

“Okay…” The hair-dresser raised Rynk’s ears a bit, looking still a bit surprised at their size, then noticed the blue ends and the moon-shapes of her stripes. “You… have very… different stripes than a normal lynx.”

“That might have something to do with the tattoos.” Rynk fibbed. She could tell the lady was thinking banshee as soon as they entered the shop, and now they were on the brink of being found out.

“Right… well… give me a sekunde and I’ll see if I can find something in the catalogue.” The worker walked into an “employees only” room, and closed the door.

Rynk hopped out of the seat, ripping the cover off. “Time to go?”

Chain nodded. “That was stupid!”

“Pardon?”

“I practically gave her that info! Telling her to look at your stripes, real nice. Ugh! Well maybe there’s another one… one we can pay to not eaves drop.”

“But… isn’t she calling the cops right now au someth-“

*PA-OW!* *PA-POW, POW!* Four gunshots. A man, the man that shoved past them, wearing a strangely colorful T-shirt, a long black jacket, black jeans, a red cap, and a mask that looked like a normal human face, but obviously was not seeing how it did not songesha when he spoke, stood halfway in the Salon and halfway in the path of the plaza. He had a pistol in one hand, and a machine gun in the other.

“You all know why you’re here!” He began in an angry-sounding tone, “money! But not just money, nooo, no no no, I want some Em-ploy-ees of mah own!” He sounded somewhat cowboy-like, only he did not have the accent, just the slang. His accent was American (or in Mobocan, Mixess), which suggested he wasn’t from Supreta, as most people there were Persian au Scottish.

The crowds were already scattering, but a couple other of the man’s friends, also wearing the same attire, brought the locked-doors down, blocking them off. They cowered soon after. Chain and Rynk were still standing, Chain reaching for her gun, and Rynk standing there thinking of how to tackle the man. If she got shot, the bullet would bounce off. It would hurt, but she’d live. If it hit a civilian, things would get worse.

“CASH! CREDIT! AAAAAAAAALL OVER HERE!” The leader yelled, swinging his large gun about as a warning. Most of the employees complied, with some stores refusing and other employees shoving them away to get the money, and some simply refusing all together. The rebelling stores got noticed.

One of the other thieves walked over to the clerk of the hardware store, a brown chipmunk, who was standing bravely, au stupidly, in their way of the store’s entrance. The thief grabbed the clerk and threw him across the floor. He slid from a bit, knocking into some of the crowd that attempted to songesha out of the way, and knocking lightly into the leader.

“So,” The leader pulled the clerk up kwa the hair, inaonyesha his pained face to the crowd. I need a volunteer to put this moron out of his misery!” The leader pointed at a bila mpangilio civilian, who appeared to be a father, kneeling over his family to protect them. The father did not songesha from where he was.

“I guess I’ll set an example then!” The leader aimed at the father’s head… then *bang* the clerk fell dead to the ground… shot kwa Chain’s gun. Rynk turned and saw what her ally had done.

“I-I… I was trying to hit the gun… out of…” Chain was tearing up now. She had just killed the man, innocent, stupid for choosing money over people’s lives, but innocent.

“Well that works. Who shot that?” A few people pointed at Chain, but Rynk stood mbele a bit, pretending it was her, and blocking the view of Chain’s gun in the process.

“You two, get over ‘ere!” The leader ordered. Chain slowly inched towards the leader, thinking up any plans to kill him au at least get the guns away. Rynk did not move, giving a deadly glare to the thief leader. He noticed this. “I alisema two.” The leader reminded in a tested tone. Rynk remained still.

It was time to decide. If she let him shoot her, she’d be exposed, but if she went with him, she’d be in just as much trouble. Then she saw that Chain had her own gun pointed at one of the other thieves through her kanzu, koti pocket. He had his gun pointed directly at Rynk’s forehead, getting a bit irritated kwa her lack of compliance.

“Get over here, and hand me your gun.” He ordered again, moving closer and aiming down at her head.

Rynk only swayed a bit in various directions… she was aiming. The leader took this as confusion au moral battling, “Five, four, three, two, one… I warned you, kid.” The bullet shot straight through Rynk’s skin, knocked off her metal skull, and hit one of the other thieves in the side of the chest. Directly after the clinging sound went off, Chain shot at the guard opposite to the already shot one, hitting him in the neck.

The leader was all that was left. Sadly before either Rynk au Chain could do anything to him, the leader grabbed Rynk kwa the wrist, jumped behind her and used her own arm to choke her with, with the addition to his own. Chain instantly pointed her gun at him, but his head was too close to Rynk’s, though Chain could obviously tell that did not mean she could not still shoot at him.

“Yeah it won’t matter if it hits her, right?” The thief hissed, barely dodging a stomp from Rynk’s feet, and keeping her in a tight hold. “You shoot at me, wewe hit her, all’s fine right? Well what if it hits someone else… again?” The thief looked to the hostages now. “WE GOT A BANSHEE HERE! OBVIOUSLY PRETENDING TO BE NORMAL!” Most of the people had already figured this out, but those who did not began to have bila mpangilio reactions emotionally, with many screwed-up faces and widened eyes.

Rynk attempted to head-butt the man now, but he blocked her with his free hand. This left her left hand however free, which she promptly used to claw into his left thigh. The thief let out a large scream, STILL keeping a hold on her, and squeezing her neck even more; Rynk made a small squeaking sound from the painful squeeze, and scraped the wound on the thief’s thigh so much it went across his lower chest.

The man finally let go with his head-bracing hand, and reached to yank her hand away, moving his head just about right to- *blam* … What remained of his head splattered onto Rynk’s neck… and the floor.

Rynk fell to the ground as soon as the grasp was no longer on her neck, coughing and panting heavily. Chain knelt over, and slowly helped her to her feet. “Are wewe going to be okay?” It took a half dakika before Rynk could actually answer yes. But that was about to be proven wrong.

The thieves were taken down, but people trapped in the mall were aware that a moon-striped metal-boned feline was in their vicinity, and very few of them would ally with her.

The sound of blaring sirens from police cars increased the stress of the situation. The crowd began closing in on Chain and her ally. “What now?” Rynk asked.

“If we could open the gates we’d be in the clear… mostly, but I don’t think we can get through.” Chain whispered back, the both of them backing away from the hostile stares.

“WE JUST SAVED YOUR LIVES!” Rynk yelled at the crowd. Chain noticed something on the roof of the Salon and slowly moved towards it.

The crowd was slightly stunned kwa this reminder, but then one of them called out “You killed the clerk! How do we know wewe weren’t working with the robbers?!”

“I’m thirteen, I’m not even old enough to work for robbers!” Rynk yelled back angrily. She felt no hypocrisy in her reply as while she DID work for thieves, she was not old enough to, at least in her opinion, though then again, who is ever old enough for breaking the law?

“The cops are here. Let them take care of it!” A lady suggested. The crowd stopped, obviously not wanting to get in zaidi cross-fire.

Chain was motioning for Rynk to keep talking, but she did not know what about. She was about to deny being a banshee mobian, but frankly, even if she technically was not one… yet, there was no valid case she could give on this point. So a zaidi direct approach came to mind. Lifting up the machine gun and pointing it at the crowds of people Rynk angrily yelled out “BACK OFF!! ONE STEP AND YOU’RE A SPRINKLER! GOT IT!?”

The lynx felt very silly; a thirteen year-old, holding a crowd at gun-point, with a machine gun. Yeah that happens in an everyday life. She thought to herself, still holding the heavy gun.

The crowd moved back now, and just in time, as Chain let the gate over the Salon store fall down, and pulled Rynk back inside of it just as it clamped down onto the floor, catching one of Rynk’s toes in the process. She screamed briefly from the injury, but quickly held her mouth closed while yanking her toe out from under the gate.

“LOCK IT, LOCK IT, LOCK IT!” Chain njiwa down and the two quickly locked the gate.

As soon as the crowd noticed what was going on they started banging at the gate, and tried to lift it up. The police stormed in, yelling about moving back and such, and drew their attention to the escapees. The crowd slowly moved out of the way, with some trying to stick around, some trying to run out, and some simply laying on the ground.

Chain ran into the Employees Only room, with Rynk hopping along, still in pain from her toe. Quickly the two made it out the back door at the end of the room, and darted away from the mall. Officers quickly noticed the two of them, and chased after.

At the backside of the outside of the plaza was a concrete wall, with a fence at the top; behind it, trees, which led to what was once a park. As the two ran towards it, they could see clearly that the ukuta was too tall to jump over au climb over.

Rynk placed the heel of her foot to the wall, feeling for any metal to magnetize to from inside. “Anything?” Chain asked frantically, looking around, and hearing the soon-to-come-around-the-corner police.

“It’s kind of faint…” Rynk replied, concentrating on the magnetic pulse. “I might be able to pull myself up, then pull wewe up after that. If wewe jump high enough I can probably pull wewe to the ledge, and wewe can climb from there.”

“Then do it! Hurry!”

Rynk nodded quickly, taking a few steps back, then dashed carefully up the wall, her feet scratching against it, as they Lost and regained the magnetic pulse. She felt herself about to fall, but quickly grabbed hold of the ledge, and dug her claws into the stone a bit to hold herself there.

Once she had pulled herself up, both girls could see the police turning the corner. Without a sekunde glance, Rynk jammed her foot through the fence, and reached out to help Chain up. The strain of pulling up someone heavier than herself, and having a now injured leg as one’s only hold, was unpleasant. It felt like her leg was going to snap off, but Chain thankfully grabbed hold of the ledge, and began pulling herself up.

Rynk then turned to her leg. Breathing in and out nervously she yanked it from the chain fence, causing the broken pieces to stick through her skin and fur, and scrape against her metallic bones. She tried not to scream but it was impossible; a large paining wail came from her mouth as she tugged her leg free, eyes watering a bit from the experience.

Chain noticed this, and while sympathetic, knew they had no time for it. She grabbed hold of Rynk’s arm and began pulling her up the fence as she climbed. Rynk slowly followed suit, hissing and groaning a bit each time she had to use her harmed left leg.

Gunfire was blasting away at them. Thankfully the two had made it over the fence, but Rynk made sure to stay directly behind Chain, should one pass through the fence and hit them. kwa some means of fortune however, they were not hit.

The dash through the park, which had too many trees for Chain au Rynk’s liking, proved… maze-like, as they found themselves colliding with each other and the trees. Rynk was limping slightly from the injury, but Chain tugged her along none the less. “Just, wa-an-ted, to, buy, new, clothes!” Rynk complained humorously, using the speaking to get her mind off the pain in her leg.

Chain looked over at Rynk’s leg. It would need to be covered to block the blood soon. Rynk had the cloth she always kept on her ankle, but they did not have time to make a brace au cast yet. They needed time. The adult of the duo looked around quickly, noticing the fountains and such around the park, and restroom.

An idea came to her, “Look around the ground!” She ordered. Rynk obeyed, though looking confused in the process. They came to a slightly dirt-covered cement area in the park, where Chain pointed at a half-hidden manhole cover. “That’s our escape.”

“Can we even lift that?” Rynk asked, examining the cover with a look of doubt in her personal strength.

“If we can lift one side, we can drag it off from there.” Chain informed, beginning to feel around for a good finger-grip. Rynk looked at her own rather large hands and fingers, and while she did not think they would help, she attempted anyway to help.

Chain eventually got a hold on part of the cover, but it quickly began crushing her finger underneath. Rynk dashed to the floor and held her hand under to Chain could free herself, then the two of them began dragging the plate off.

The police were catching up now. Only the hope of them not noticing the cover would help them. That and the hope that they hadn’t brought H-gear.

H-gear would be known as various weaponry and equipment meant for hunting and/or killing Hellborns. The particular H-gear tool that could be used to find them would be a metal detector which had a screen inaonyesha the shape of the metal it was finding, making the skeletons of banshees very easy to find when on a hunt.

Straining to pull the cover back over as they climbed down a ladder to the sewers, Chain and Rynk dropped down on juu a walkway above the liquid muck inayofuata to them, and began running. “Hold on a sec.” Chain held Rynk’s arm back. “We need to take care of your leg first.”

“They’re going to find us!” Rynk reminded.

“Do wewe want me to leave wewe here au save you?” Chain hissed back, already unwrapping Rynk’s anklet, and using it to mend the wound. Rynk kept her gaze at the entrance to the sewers, her ears pointed up for the sound of the law, and her claws extended to as long as she could stretch them.

“Okay got it, Go!” muziki to Rynk’s ears. They dashed off through the sewers, but froze instantly when hearing a splash from behind. Neither alisema what had happened, they knew what had happened, and so they now charged forward, until clumsily falling over into a drop, down into the sewer water.

It was too horrible to open their mouths for air, and the smell was nauseating. Chain had hoped the water was drinking water, au simply drainage rain water, but the smell confirmed it was both one and two.

Chain and Rynk swam till they got to another walk way in the sewers, pulling themselves up, and frantically wiping off all manure and urine on their clothing. Chain took off her large coat, covering her only partially damp T-shirt underneath. Rynk sadly did not have the luxury of having two shirts on, and had to make do with the sticky “normal clothing” she had on.

dakika passed while the two sat, cold, and vomitus from the experience. But the police were going to catch up once again if they did not get a songesha on now, so-

*POW!* And now the police had caught up. One round directly knocked off the right side of Rynk’s forehead, which blasted into the ukuta behind her from the impact, though thankfully was not fatally damaged. However she was now very dizzy.

Carol jerked backward, looking briefly at the water below, then to Rynk, then to the police officer on the other side of the sewer, who did not wish to swim. “Step away from the Hellborn, and place your hands on your head!” The officer ordered.

“Or… you… coul- just… not live.” Rynk weakly retorted dizzily. The officer fired another shot at her, but she raised her hand as he pulled the trigger, causing the bullet to bounce off her hand and onto the wall. She wanted it to hit the cop, but the circumstances were still usable.

While the officer was briefly stunned kwa the ricochet, Chain yanked Rynk’s non-hit arm, and they njiwa once again into the water. Shots fired multiple times, passing kwa them as they swam through the current of muck. A splash came from behind, noting to them that the officer could indeed swim, grossed out au not.

While Rynk’s leg was still injured, her arms and legs were still perfect for swimming. She took the lead instantly (and to those wondering about the metal Bones sinking, Banshee metal is not normal metal.), and Chain followed behind.

Two drops down and a few curves later, and they were at a straight pathway, where the sewer was not as deep in its water levels. However in front of them was one last drop, between the straight path they needed. Quickly getting back on the walkway, the escapees paced backward a bit, then lunged over the drop, going a bit farther than needed.

Instead of hitting the water, they hit the ground, chest flat onto the cement floor, sending stinging pain through their bodies. “Let’s see that cop jump over that, huh?” Chain doubted her own words, but it was worth a hope.

Ten dakika of continued running led them on and on through the sewers. It seemed they would never find an exit, au anything, until something caught Chain’s eye.

“Hold on…” She stopped, and turned, walking towards the thing she saw. It was hidden almost completely on the roof of the sewer… it looked like a car… halfway stuck in the sewer ceiling.

The front was the part sticking out, with the kofia opened up. The engine and many other parts were missing, suggesting others had found this mystery before Chain. The doors were intact; that is to say the doors were still closed, and not taken off. Perhaps they could hide in this car? No doubt the officer was getting backup and this could help them.

“What are wewe lo-“ Rynk froze when she saw the car. “Huh… weird…” trailing off a bit, Rynk walked nearer to the car, examining it closely.

“We could hide inside maybe.” Chain suggested. Rynk did not reply immediately.

“Hello!” Chain waved a hand to Rynk, who snapped out of her trance and replied “Sorry… I just… this seems familiar for some reason.”

“… A car halfway stuck in a sewer seems familiar to you?” Chain gave a confused look, then walked over and began tugging a door open. “Whatever, we just need to get inside first. Weirdness later.”

Rynk was still observing the car, but nodded her acknowledgement, and followed inside. Once they got inside, Chain began ripping the backseats off, and placing them at the front of the car, blocking the doorway. “Are you… making it so it’s harder for them to get in?” Rynk guessed.

Chain continued piling, but answered, “If they use the metal detector, they’ll see us, but they’ll also see the car, so it hopefully will shield your bones.”

“That still doesn’t answer why you’re doing that, but okay.” Rynk crawled to the back, pulling open a latch leading to the trunk, which she climbed in to, as did Chain.

It was not particularly cozy, but thankfully not as cramped as they had thought it’d be. Rynk’s short height made it less of a problem to bend about for Chain, as long as the lynx kept her large hands and feet out of Chain’s face. Regardless of movement room however, they would do very little of it, since noise would be a problem at the moment.

Footsteps, commands, beeping, zaidi footsteps. zaidi than one cop was coming near them. Chain decided to hold her breath, but Rynk simply kept hers as slow as possible. Neither moved.

“… forward; Neil and Hemmers cover behind,” A first voice ordered. “In a lined crack of the trunk, Chain, who was the one in the position of the car’s nose, could see a light pass back and forth in front of the vehicle.

“… Get a scanner on that.” The voice ordered. Chain could hear Rynk’s breath getting a bit quicker, and holding her own for so long was getting strenuous. This became even harder when the sound of the door being yanked open sounded.

*Cr-ck!* “Pow!” Came Carol’s breath when she heard this cracking noise. Only one thought came to mind, and it was not a gunshot… it was the tunnel… breaking open. The sewer, this part of the sewer, was right under the city Semretches, which the two kuvuka, msalaba over to when escaping in the sewer tunnels; in turn passing under the bay which partially separated Purmi, and Semretches. And it was going to collapse.

The officer tugging obviously heard the noise as well, and quickly jumped back, while his Chief yelled at him to step back at the same time. However the officer holding the metal scanner was still interested.

“Hold on, I think I have a reading.” He said, stepping closer to the car, then jumping inside, and beginning to push away at the pile of items and chairs.

“GET OUT OF THERE NOW!” The chief hissed angrily, not yelling, but sounding none the less hostile and serious. If he were to be too loud it could be their doom.

The tunnel waited for no one, and the officer was too close to turn back. The officer who actually listened, yanked the interested one away from the car, but not before the ceiling caved. A massive story-tall chunk of cement and metal slammed to into the tunnel, with a slow trickle of soon to be flooding water leaking over it.

Half of the smart officer, and all of the stupid officer, were crushed instantly kwa the cement. The chief jumped out of the way in shock, but quickly jumped back to try and help his comrade out.

“What was that?!” Rynk asked quickly, squirming a bit to get out.

“The tunnel is giving in!” Chain informed.

“Let’s get out then!” The two took a dakika to shuffle out of the trunk, then shoved the seats to the side, and prepared to run off. Rynk dashed back the way they came, while Chain decided to knock out the distracted Chief, so that he could not phone for help.

Rynk heard the *WAP* of Chain’s fist against the chief’s head, and jerked around, shocked at Chain’s action. “Uh…” She walked over, noticing the water that was beginning to quickly flood into the tunnel, “well I guess that makes it easier to drag him…”

“We’re not dragging him.” Chain grabbed the chief’s gun, his walkie-talkie, and his cuffs, then started to run off.

“Wha- WAIT!” Rynk yelled, standing still. Chain turned back to her looking confused. “We can’t bring him along, Rynk.”

“We can’t just leave him here!”

“He was trying to have wewe killed, remember?!”

He was… this… changed things. He was the reason they were in this mess. But… maybe he would change if they saved him… right? “He… h-he’s still a person; we shou-“

Rynk barely got her words out weakly, but Chain interrupted “Leave him! We can’t wait! He’ll hold us back!” Rynk narrowed her eyes a bit and began dragging the chief slowly. Chain walked up to her, meaning to pull her ally away from the officer, but paused, and then began to help drag him along.

They eventually made it to the drop in the middle of the sewers. Chain measured and weighed if they could carry the chief across; there was no way they could. Maybe they could throw him across, but he would most-likely get caught in the currant. She turned sadly to Rynk, “We can’t get him across, Rynk.”

“We could swi-GA-UGL!” The chief had awoken and promptly grabbed hold of Rynk’s head, and shoved her face into the water, holding her down, meaning to drown her. Chain reacted kwa kicking him in the jaw, while aiming the stolen gun at his head. The chief however countered; grabbing her foot and shoving her into the currant, and thus down into the lower part of the sewer below.

Rynk kicked up with her feet, landing her heel into the man’s crotch. He let out an “OOP!” while bending over his stomach, still keeping her head down in the water. But his grip was weakened now; Rynk took hold of the edge of the path’s ledge, and began pulling herself towards the drop. At least if she got there he’d be forced to either let go, au fall with her.

The chief was still holding on to her head, squeezing tightly at her hair, making pulling away very strenuous and painful. Rynk did not scream… outloud. She was screaming with her mouth closed, obviously because she could not afford to lose the air.

Flailing madly, Rynk’s free hand took grip of the chief’s arm. As soon as she felt the skin in her hands, she tore it off. She could hear the screaming from behind as the grip was gone, and she fell into the drop. But she had Lost her air too quickly, and soon after, she passed out.

Faded sounds came in and out as did Rynk’s vision. When it cleared, she found herself in… a living room of someone’s house. Who’s house it was was another matter.

Looking about, she saw a long pale plumb couch… with someone sitting on it… it… it was… She had to pear a bit; her vision was not all the way back. It was Vault. Slowly Rynk turned her head and saw Plate sitting inayofuata to her, apparently looking concerned. She thought this would prompt her to blush au something along those lines, but she must have been too tired.

“Rynk…” kuba said, walking over… he looked concerned… it was a relief to see he cared.

“Sp’dr…” Was what Rynk managed to mutter out. She meant to say “Sparta”, a line she often found herself saying when waking up. 300 was one of the few sinema she had seen.

“Chain got wewe out… but… “

The pause startled Rynk. She frantically, yet weakly, observed her arms and legs to see if they were broken. They were alright… “oh no…” She thought; she checked her ears… they were fine too. She sighed in relief.

“Not that…” kuba informed, hiding a chuckle, “The Police Chief survived.”

Rynk at first thought “That’s a good thing I thought.” But when she remembered that the Chief ungratefully tried to kill her… twice, both times when she was trying to help, and almost got her killed, she ended up growling.

“Once you’re… well again, we-… I wanted to know if wewe wanted to take up zaidi in the End-Ga heist.” Rynk put together why he was asking this. End-Ga worked for the cops, the cops were jerks, they die, happy day. It was probably for his own means- it was for his own means. The main goal they had been going for was taking down End-Ga, so it would make sense that kuba would want her to be as much against it as she could be. It sounded like manipulation, and it sounded like a “We both win” situation, but the lynx was still unsure. She would most likely have to agree though, since the entire plan was take down End-Ga since the start.

The lynx did not answer, so kuba continued, “Plate can learn wewe some zaidi fighting moves, and stealth tactics, just to make sure you’re still fresh after that… accident.”

Rynk nodded slowly, not in agreement… yet, but in acknowledgement. “Plate, help her up a bit, please.” Plate nodded, and gently pulled Rynk into a sitting position. He did not act flirty au anything, which pleased Rynk, not that he did that normally… mostly.

“Now, Chain will be in to… fawn over wewe au something soon, so we’ll leave wewe to that.” The two Mbwa mwitu loups got up and started to the door, closing it quietly when they left.

Rynk sat still, a bit overwhelmed, but now a bit furious. End-Ga helped the cops, and the cops killed Hellborns… okay, sounds like a hit-list.