Gunshots cracked. Flames and smoke rose from detonations, and the reinforced concrete began to shift underfoot. All the while, the glazed ceramic smiled under unblinking eyes as the long, grey shadow of the Wasteland Warrior leapt from ground level up onto the bridge railing.
Ascending atop the
Squared Circle, at this increased height overtop, she saw how the sea of people writhed against each other like drowning rats in a cage. Split in the middle against the sides of the bridge as the support pillars shifted, things were not as they seemed.
Now why would you want to scare them all towards the terminal?
There was only one way to be certain, she had to get ahead of the crowd.
Lunging forward into a sprint as she balanced on the upper scaffolding of the terminal bridge, Kinu continued to hold the rebel foot-soldier bent backward over her shoulders, her grip digging into his neck and at his hip where the comm device dangled; and as Red spoke, she heard everything.
A botch job is one thing, but you're herding them in as if they're no more than stampeding cattle. Why?
Ramping up speed at this heightened elevation, the dusty grey left her coat, trailing behind her in a loud psychedelic train. Reaching the highest point on the bridge's supports, steel cables warped like the ropes of the ring, and
Squared Circle sprung her forth into a great bound as she leapt off off of it, catapulting forth to clear the roof.
Kinu landed square, and the man ragdolling atop of her folded across her shoulders. It was a stiff landing, but his abductor crouched as she absorbed the shock of the landing. An inch or two more...well, there was the implicit threat that it could have been so much worse for him, if she'd wanted.
"Ian is as Ian does, but this doesn't seem like any ordinary cause, yeah?" Beneath that expressionless mask, the throaty voice was pointed with particular annunciation.
Bolting upwards, Kinu straightened up again, wobbling the man's vertebrae at both ends under tension as she paced along the rooftop of the Skyport. Twisting there, spinning brusquely there, slowly following the noise along the terminal below as she examined the scene below through the ceiling panel windows topside on the roof.
"Was getting caught part of your plan?" She tightened the rack hold, every bobbing step a reminder she could grind his lower discs to powder in an instant. "What sort of draw are you aiming for here?"