Oh Kell of Mine

Part 8: The Crash

They say you're supposed to look before you leap, but sometimes you don't get that luxury.

Mira-3 didn't even get a chance to holster her Ace of Spades before she and Rio collided hard with something sticking out from the wall in the metal shaft. She grunted loudly as she awkwardly struck the thing, which she realized was some sort of metal sheet that had peeled away from the wall, as she and Rio tumbled down the side of it, then slipped off the edge. The Exo didn't get her bearings back before they struck something else, then gravity and momentum became God. Her body contorted sideways, the inertia jerking Rio and the hand cannon from her grasp as she twisted head over heels, and the world spun. Yet, Mira did nothing to stop her fall or save herself as she continued to plummet, painfully ping ponging off things in the dark. The idea wasn't to survive the fall; the plan was to hit the bottom of the shaft, die, resurrect, and make a run for it. So Mira let her body go limp, and down, down, down they fell.

But fate can often be cruel.

Something snagged her left ankle, yet her body kept going, and Mira shrieked as her leg was torn off at the knee. She closed her eyes, trying to pull in her limbs as she tumbled, when her arms and torso bounced off of something, the blow nearly knocking her unconscious had her arms not been up. The Exo felt her body spinning backwards. Then there was a sickening, wet thud as she finally came to an abrupt halt, all the air rushing from her body as sharp pains radiated through her entire being. Seconds later Rio's body landed nearby with a bone shattering crunch at the bottom of the shaft, and his form burst into a glowing orb of Light.

However, Mira wasn't dead.

A deep, shuddering gasp echoed from the Exo's glowing mouth as she struggled to suck in air, but something was wrong in her chest. Her body twitched and her orange eyes came into focus as she lay, no, hung there for a stunned moment in agony. How was she still alive?

The gasping became a terrible metallic wheezing as Mira tasted something foul, her arms jerking painfully as she went to look down at her body. She'd been impaled through the torso by several long, jagged metal beams of rebar, her back pressed against a thick concrete slab sitting at a slanted angle, and her remaining leg dangling above the floor. The metal was stuck in just enough places to be excruciating, but not the right places to kill her instantly.

"...Fuck..." Mira hacked up the word, and a gout of strange fluid.

Forcing her breathing to steady, the Exo reached up and grasped hold of a piece of rebar in her chest and one near her hip, noting that the beams were longer than her arms. Then planting her foot against the slab, she started to pull.

At first Mira-3 tried to grunt through the pain as she slid along the rebar, the metal scraping into her wounds, then she began to scream as the agony was too great, and her strength gave out. Slumping against the slab with a pitiful whimper, Mira's body went limp, and her skull-like face stared up at the top of the shaft in despair. Light radiated down from the top, a multitude of shadows danced from within, and she heard a terrible chattering. Tearing her gaze away, the orbs of her eyes searched for Rio.

In a burst of light, she watched his form reappear in front of her, whole and hale, his armor fully repaired, another Celestial Nighthawk mask on his face as he staggered on his feet, looking around to get his bearings. His bird-like head jerked two and fro taking in the bottom of the shaft, which was most likely a drain for the subway system above, littered with construction debris and snow. Freezing for a moment as his gaze landed on a smaller tunnel just ahead of him leading out, a dim light shining from without, he then glanced down at his body, checking fingers and limbs, before looking up.