*BANG!
Kicking a man in the chest, Eva swiftly pivoted to stabbed at a different guys throat, both men instantly started struggling to breath. One from broken ribs and the other from a cut throat.
Twisting back towards the man who spliced lizard DNA into his body while the other nutjob clutched his throat bubbling with blood, Eva rushed towards the man who desperately tried to bite down onto Eva's flesh toned skin.
*Gurk Clunk!
Instead of biting onto flesh like the Lizard had hoped however, Eva let the man taste her steel foot currently crushing all of his jagged yellow teeth.
Putting all of her weight onto her extended foot, the Spliced man stumbled onto the ground as she used him as a stepping stone.
Leaping off of the man, Eva landed onto the upper floor, her eyes coasting over the number of corpses lying cold on the ground, some of them old as sin and others new as birth.
Eyes crawling along the bloodstained ground of the underground, Eva caught sight of Ester tearing into his surroundings like a bloody beast.
'He's scary when he's mad.' Eva's eyes turned into crescents as she watched him rip out his blade and rip it into a man's heart, slipping in through the gaps where the metal met flesh, his cold gaze briefly meeting her own right before he bit into a pair of hands that flailed right in front of him. 'Architects I feel weird.'
Watching him bite into the hand and swallow a portion of it, Eva felt a phantom grin crawl up her face right before she dropped down, her hands raised up high right before it-
---
-fell onto Ester's back
"Ow?" Looking up in confusion, Ester tried and failed to feel his back where Eva had slapped it. "What was that for?"
[You suddenly looked very slappable.] Eva answered without a second beat.
Ester raised an eyebrow in question.
[...Fine] Eva let out a hiss through her throat, her hands being thrown up into the air. [I was just wondering if this is a good idea.]
Ester glanced at the gateways to the town in front of them milling with several people of all walks of life, modded metalmen, spliced inhumans and the rare ostracized aliens.
Ester murmured to Eva underneath his breath, keeping wise of the number of eyes slowly increasing as they took in the way side travelers.. "You know as well as I do that we won't last longer than a week out there lugging all of this weight around."
He subtly gestured at the cloth coated trolley bearing the head sized Gravitator and Ester sized engine alongside a few other knickknacks hidden within. "Might as well trade the Engine for some food, drugs and water before we run out."
[I get that...] Eva stared at the broken sign hanging loosely from the top of the gate, the broken lights of three giant letters seemingly staring them down like the eyes of giants. [It's just that I have a bad feeling about this place.]
"I would've worried for brain damage if you thought that any place on this Architect shunned planet didn't have a bad feeling to it." Ester wheeled the trolley forwards while keeping an eye out for any possible pickpockets who decided to try their luck on the newcomers.
"Anyways, keep an eye out for anything yeah?"
Instead of spotting the possible pickpockets who were feeling lucky today however, all Ester saw were people high out of their minds, prostitutes stuffed with microplastics to simulate actual fullness, depressed people and a number of corpses on the streets fleeced for parts, organic and inorganic.
But despite it all, no pickpockets.
'Oh wait, found one.'
In the form of any other inhabitant of this place, they had a clunky respirator, goggles and enough clothes to cover every inch of their skin.
They seemed to give Ester and Eva a basic amount of wariness to not get shanked when they inevitably passed by in the narrow street, but Ester could tell from how they walked and how their hands twitched inside of their coat.
He tapped at the trolley several times at a volume loud enough for only Eva who was by his side to hear.
It was all the clue that she needed to deck the guy in his unprotected gut the very instant he slipped his hands into her frame and pulled something out of it.
"Guk!"
Letting out a sharp gasp of surprise as all of the air left his lungs, Eva whipped out her dagger hidden in her sleeves and pressed it against the pipe lines protecting his respirator, pressing the man against the wall.
[Return what you took you pickie and you won't have to breath the fresh air of our trash planet.]
"Okay Okay!" Raising his hands in surrender with a wheeze, the man revealed the bulb he held. "No need to get violent."
[Violence is in our blood pickie, so hide that knife in your boot before I break it.] Threatening the man who blinked in surprise from behind his goggles, Eva tapped her metal legs against the ground for additional clarification as he tapped his heel and hid the blade that poked out of it.
[Now if you don't want to have broken fingers for trying to steal from me, tell me and my compatriot where the market is. Also hand back that Bulb before you put it in your pocket.]
Pointing the knife at his pipe, the man paused his motions of subtly putting the Bulb into his pockets and gingerly gave it back to Eva whilst the knife continued to hover near his neck.
"Big words for a little lady."
Eva moved her hand slightly and enjoyed the sight of the man's eyes nearly popping out of his skull. [The market]
"Yep. The market." Pointing at a large jagged building in the center of the town with a large section of its walls collapsed, the innards of the building revealed shadows of figures moving and bustling about.
"It's that big building over there. If you take a left from here and the second right, you can reach a section that's still intact after the reckoning."
[...The reckoning?]
Hearing Eva's question, the man carefully pushed the knife away from his neck only to freeze when she shook his hand off.
His freezing ended only when Eva slipped the knife right back into her sleeve.
"It's what those religious nutjobs are calling that big quake that shook Ash Town a while back, I trust you know what I'm talking about?"
[Yeah.] Eva let out an angered hiss from her neck. [I know what you mean.]
"Great" Eyeing Eva's sleeve with a wariness that still hadn't disappeared yet, he gestured backwards. "Now if you don't mind, I have another guy to pickpocket."
[As long as its not us.]
"Welcome to Ash town."
Hurriedly disappearing into one of the buildings that had a nasty crack running along its scrap metal side, Ester watched as he briefly filched a corpses hands, metal fingers and all.
Could it really be called a corpse when all that was left was a hand?
Questions for another day.
"So that was fruitful." Ester let out a sigh as he eyed the surroundings. "At least no one's going to bother us when we're making a trade."
He spotted a few of the watchers slink into the shadows no doubt to report to whichever gang controlled the place, but they should be long gone before they could get their heads together to do something to them.
[Let's hurry though.] Eva narrowed her eyes at the backs of the Watchers running deeper and deeper into the confines of Ash town. [The bad feeling I get here just keeps on getting stronger.]
---
Having found the Underground market thanks to the help of the Pickie who nearly took in a breath of E2073's fresh air, Ester rolled the trolley containing the goods he wanted gone
The best case scenario was finding someone willing to sell their ride, but at that point it was more likely they would have to build a brand vehicle than they were to trade for it with an Engine meant to power it.
So the second best case scenario was getting enough food, drugs and water to tide them over until they could find their next stop with the help of the Modified Gravitator.
And after a not so brief bargaining session with one of the Hunters of Ash town for some jerky, Ester felt a tingle crawl up the sides of his neck as the subtle buzz of conversations flowing in between buyers and sellers slowed to a halt.
Turning his head to see the cause, Ester felt his eye twitch at the sight of several men and women slowly pushing through the crowd, all sharing the insignia of a metal jaw with two jutting tusks at the sides.
And by the looks of where they were going, it seemed like they were heading towards the two of them.
"Think this is the local government?"
[Yep.]
"Think that they want something from us?"
[Yep.]
"Should we prepare to fight?"
[Yep.]
Sharing a look with his not sibling, Eva rolled her wrists where hidden knives lingered while Ester loosened the joints holding the blade in his arm.
Gangs like this one always resorted to violence whenever they didn't get their way after all.
'I would know'
+++
Part 1 of the post IELTS chapters
Somehow mixed up my schedules and ended forcing a chapter onto this day
Tree