Chapter 8: The Land Shakes

Kassix felt as if he had been stabbed through the chest by those words alone. He turned his head slightly to see the Rain, whos disguise had been ripped and torn at this point, but there wasn't a single injury on the man. In fact, beneath the rips Kassix could make out a body made of metal, the only flesh that could be seen was halfway up his neck and up.

He turn and ran, pumping his legs as hard as he could, knowing there was no use in fighting.

WHAM.

It felt like he just ran into a wall, and his vision had gone black. He had an intense pain over his chest and as his vision returned, he realized he was on the ground, and Rain was standing in front of him.

"What? He was just sitting...?" He could barely believe that he didn't even see him move. He pushed himself up slightly and felt a horrible pain in his ribs. "AHH!" His short shout was cut short by a sudden coughing from the pain. He pushed himself away from Rain slightly trying to make any distance.

"Can't even get up after one hit? Don't tell me I'm wasting my time playing with a defective rat." Rain reached down and grabbed Kassix by the collar of his jacket and forced him up onto his feet. Kassix only grabbed his arm for support to try to keep weight off of his ribs. It didn't help much and he couldn't help making another whimper.

"F*ck, Dahr was right- I should have waited longer." Kassix felt the world spinning slightly as he thought this, and if his stomach wasn't empty he probably would have thrown up right then and there.

"Any- Chance you could, Let me go?" Kassix asked through gritted teeth.

"By all means!" Rain released his collar, and quickly spun and planted his foot right into Kassix's chest sending him flying back into the scrap mountain.

"AGH!" Kassix coughed up blood this time, and blood started to flow from the metal that impaled his back.

Rain started to walk towards Kassix now, taking his time as he pulled the ruined disguise off, and tossed the hat aside. "You know, that's the thing about rodents, you can kill each and every one that you see, but you'll never be able to get rid of them all." He arrived in front of Kassix and squatted down to be face to face. "Most of my team-mates say I waste my time cleaning the street of you sick, thieving people, what do you think, Mr. Mouse?"

Kassix opened one bloodshot eye to look at the man and with one hand began to look for a small but sharp fragment of metal. "You call-" He winced from the pain of talking, but continued, " You call me a mouse, does that make you a cyber-rat?"

"Hah-Haha!" Rain leaned back and genuinely laughed, "Oh man, that's a good one, assuming you are even close to the same breed as me!" Rains faced darkened immediately after saying this, and in the next moment Kassix felt a blade pierce his shoulder.

"GAH! You-!" He couldn't manage any other words as Rain grabbed him by the throat and brought his head close as he whispered into his ear.

"You and all of you filthy mooches should just disappear." Rain grabbed the blade that was left in his should and slowly began to wrench it out, and as he did so Kassix mustered up all of the strength he had left and swung the metal shard he had found right at Rain's neck, aiming at the non-metallic section.

Rain saw the swing coming and leaned back slightly with wide eyes, only leaning back far enough for the metal to slam into the armored section of his neck. The makeshift blade ran across the metal without leaving so much as a scratch.

"D*mn" Kassix lost all strength in his muscles as he figured there was nothing else he could do, his current wounds probably wouldn't kill him too quickly, but this man definitely would.

Rain ripped the nano-blade out of Kassix's shoulder and took a step back, rubbing his hand at where the makeshift blade slashed. "That was a close one, you little Sh*t. If I got injured in the pit I would never hear the end of it!" Rain brought a foot to the side of Kassix's head, knocking him to the ground.

Kassix was no longer moving, and his consciousness was quickly fading. He felt all he could do was watch death rapidly approach him as Rain stepped towards him again.

"BEEP!-BEEP!-BEEP!" Something rang out on Rain's side, and his face dropped as he reached down and picked it up and looked at it. "Talk about spoiling a mood, we were just getting to the good part-" Rain cut his word short as he saw a red bar running across the device and a message.

"West outer wall breached. All specialists are required to respond."

In one swift move Rain sheathed his blade, and returned the device to its spot. He turned and took a step as his mechanical muscles contracted and the next moment he was over 60ft down the alleyway. As he disappeared around a corner the ground started to shake as if a sudden earthquake came upon them. It lasted only a few moments, but Kassix had already lost consciousness by the time it ended.

*****

*Cough-Cough* Blood sprayed across the ground in front of Kassix's mouth as he slowly regained consciousness. He moved his hand to feel his chest, and received a shooting pain from his shoulder. "Guess that means I'm not dead yet. I feel like I wish I were though."

With his good arm he pushed himself off the ground slightly, only to receive a shooting pain on his side and force himself to roll onto his elbow and heave out his non-existent lunch. "I'm gonna die! That's it! I've been alive for a day and I've already reached the end of it!"

"Actually- No. F*ck that, and F*ck that guy. We found something that can probably pay to fix me, I just have to make it there." Kassix pushed as hard as he could to get back onto his feet, and did his best to ignore the pain screaming at him in his chest. He started limping back towards the elevators, swiping his Chimera box on the way past. Using the wall for support he limped all the way there. Halfway there it seemed to get easier, it felt as if the pain in his chest was receding, but as he tried to move his injured arm to feel, he couldn't very much feel it anymore.

"That- Don't seem to- good?" He began to fall forward onto the ground, but barely caught himself on the wall with his good arm. "Dahr. Please, please don't have abandoned me, If you did, I'll haunt you."

Kassix blacked out after that, but didn't let himself fall even during that. Eventually, to his surprise, found himself on the elevator. He collapsed next to the terminal and dug around in his jacket to pull out the card, and held it up to the scanner. Once he heard the faint ding, he pressed the button to go up a floor.

As he rode the elevator up, with the edges of his vision dark, he made a silent vow. "If I survive this, I'm not going to stay someone people can just step on."

The elevator came to a stop and Dahr, who had been waiting anxiously ran over to look in. In joy that quickly turned to horror he ran up to Kassix and checked him over. Kassix couldn't even feel the pain anymore. "Trustworthy doc...Please." Kassix fell unconscious as soon as he asked for the help he needed.

*****

Softness, all his pain was gone, even the pain of hunger he had been suffering with for awhile now. "Guess that's it." Kassix thought he had died, and this was his afterlife. At least the pain was gone, and he wasn't hungry anymore. The sound of a machine beeping to a rhythm brought him out of his stupor, and he slowly opened his eyes. "That's a ceiling." He said out loud before sitting up and looking around. He was hooked up to a machine that was producing the constant beeping, and had an IV in his arm.

"Oh, I lived. Guess that makes more sense than dying just to wake up again." He looked at the machines around him and concluded that this wasn't an official hospital or anything of the sorts, otherwise it'd be more character-less.

Suddenly Kassix started to panic as he looked around and realized his jacket was gone. He patted down his pants and found them empty.

"Sh*t, F*ck, Oh no. This isn't good. This isn't good at all." Kassix stood up and pulled the IV and connectors off of his arms and chest and began looking around the room, pulling the covers off the bed and opening the drawers to the nearby dresser in a mad panic.

"Sir, Please do not tear my spare room apart." A middle aged gentleman opened the door and was watching Kassix rip apart the room.

"I had two things with me, an orb and a box with a chimera on it. Where are they?!" Kassix ran towards the man with the intention of grabbing his collar, but decided against it when seeing a fully bionic arm for his right arm.

"Please calm down, your things are safe. Little Dahr brought you here and payed me a good sum to make sure you lived you know. I wouldn't tarnish my good name as a doctor by stealing from my patients." The man nodded to his own comment in an attempt to calm Kassix down. "Doctor Guy at your service."

"Is that your real name?" Kassix was still staring at him, on edge for as long as he didn't know where his things were.

"But of course not, I'm merely, uh, what do they call it- Back-alley doctor? I must protect my own reputation as a citizen by not having any connection to myself of course!" Dr. Guy prattled on justifying his use of a fake name, and seeming both proud and embarrassed about being a back-alley doctor.

"Right-I, didn't mean any offense, sorry. Can I have my things back?"

"Mmmhm, Right away, but in the meantime please, sit back down. There's no way you thrashing about in the rest of my home can be good for you or me. I will retrieve your stuff right away." With that, Dr. Guy turned and exited the room, closing the door behind him.

Kassix turned and took a look at the now trashed room and sighed. "At least Dahr brought me to someone that could save me, even if he seems like a quack."