diplomats: (the air is so thin)
Markus | RK200 684-842-971 ([personal profile] diplomats) wrote in [community profile] albinomilksnake 2018-08-10 10:39 am (UTC)

He knows the path she aims to take; interfaced knowledge gives them an advantage over humanity's inability to think on similar wavelengths without networked direction in the form of radioed commands or AI assistance. He knows where he needs to go and when, and that if he can't— if the damage done to his own system slows him, if a flashlight suddenly turns too close— that she'll cover for him. And she does. Each and every time, without fail, it's her hands clasped over his wrists, struck high against his shoulders. He doesn't waste precious time belittling her judgment by preconstructing their surroundings, he trusts her ability enough not to.

In the end, it's only luck that isn't on her side.

Markus can see it before it happens: the path the bullet will take once it strikes metal— and it's a sickening kind of terror that exists in deadlocked nanoseconds, where he maps out how far his fingertips can stretch. Replays it, tries again, and—

Concedes in bitter anger, knowing he's too far behind. Watching as time catches up and overlaps with what he's already seen. She darts for cover, and Markus times his strides so that they're slower, dividing the attention of their pursuers as he kicks out a supporting mass of scrap and rubber, causing one of the heaps of refuse to begin spilling out into those narrow pathways. Filling in the gaps.

Markus finds her then, already moving to shadow her body with his own, teeth sharp and bared as he stills unecessary subroutines.


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