The footsteps approached me, getting closer and closer. I grabbed the tanto knife handle and tried to yank it from the Missionary’s crushed in skull, tugging with all my might. Not even a single budge. Damn this Missionary, even in death he was trying to screw me over.

  “Lying down on the job, I thought you were better than this, Vixie.”

  I slumped down to the ground with a smile on my face.

  Uwu bent over, his snout sniffing the air, “You doing okay?” His hand extended to grab mine, hoisting me up to my feet. “This pce looks like shit.”

  He bent over and tugged the knife free with one solid yank, handing the tanto back over to me.

  I wiped it off an tucked it away, “Thanks, my hero.”

  I chuckled as I tried to take a step, falling into his arms as the pain hit my ankle, “I’m doing better than the other guy. Just a sprained ankle is all.” I held him tight, taking in his scent, closing my eyes and just embracing the moment I had with him.

  He held me tightly as we stepped over the dead Missionary, green and red fluid spiling from the neck of his armor. Steam was quickly filling the room, obscuring our vision to just a foot or two in front of us. Sirens and red lights fshed as we made our way to the light spilling from the doorway.

  “Damn, another one, eh? Looks like you’re the hero here.” He squeezed me tight, “You damn sure made it so he won’t get back up.”

  “It was the same one from before. I guess they dug him out. I took care of it, for good.”

  Uwu smashed some red button and the steam ceased to hiss. Everything shut down as we stepped out into the hallway. Uwu held his gun up, checking both directions, while his other arm held me tight in a loving embrace.

  “How’s Echo?” I gnced up at Uwu, awaiting a terrible response.

  Uwu gave an uneasy look down at me, “He’ll live, don’t worry. It looks worse than it is.” He pushed us into the hall and moved at a quick pace, “He’s with Speck and Donald at the security room, he’s doing just fine, as fine as he can be. We have a bigger problem now. Corpo reinforcements are enroute, and half the team is less than operational.”

  He was mentioning my ankle. It was hurtful but true. I wouldn’t be too big of a help in my current state. “Sorry.”

  Uwu scoffed, “Sorry for what? Taking out a whole ass Missionary and his Deacons to boot. You do too much. I just wish that you’d take more care in yourself. I don’t need you sacrificing yourself at every turn. I’d much rather have you alive.”

  I hugged him tighter, slinging my arm around his so we could high tail it out of there. “So, what’s the pn now? We gonna hold up at the elevators until the Meowtws get here?”

  Uwu’s face turned a bit sour, “Not sure when they’re going to get here. Coms have been silent.” We stepped into the elevator, “It’s looking bad. We need something of a miracle to get by this time.” The doors shut and the elevator zoomed upwards.

  It slowed down, Uwu propped me up against the wall, holding his gun to bear, “This isn’t our floor.”

  I shuffled about nervously, grabbing my tanto knife. This wasn’t good. This pce was getting more fucked up by the minute. I just wanted out of here. I was tired and hurt, worried about my friends, and just wanting a nice bed to pass out in.

  Ding. The doors opened and our eyes went wide.

  In front of us pyed out some French Revolution shit. Some workers in jumpsuits were fighting back the guards, pushing them down and ripping their guns from their hands. Others had pipes, chairs, kitchen knives, whatever they could grab, and were cutting down the security detail. Gunshots rang out as a group of guards were executed on the spot.

  The Anthro-Cat from the line before was gunning down some guards, “How’s this for punitive corrections, mother fuckers! Nyahahaha!”

  Some office employees, in pristine uniforms, a stark contrast to the workers jumpsuits, tried to run off towards the ptforms, but were cut off by the ever-growing crowd of workers, dragged back into the crowd and beat to death by the mob.

  Vending machines were being ransacked; food rations were being handed out for free, ripped form the kitchens. Workers were ripping into them, filling their empty bellies.

  One of the workers pointed over to us at the elevator, and a small group started to take notice, making their way over.

  “Shit.” Uwu whispered. He gnced back at me, “If this goes bad, just so you know, I love you.”

  “I love you too.” I smiled back at him as the group pushed towards us.

  Uwu stepped out into the rge room, gunshots popping off here and there. He stood with his chest out, confidently standing his ground. The angry mob came closer and Uwu held his fist out, “To the stars!”

  The mob erupted in a frenzy of shouts and cheers.

  “Looks like this power pnt is under new management! I’m gd to see a bunch of business owners taking things into their own hands!”

  More roars of appuse and some gunshots.

  “But we got a train full of Corpo fucks trying to take this away from us! If you got a gun, head down to the terminal, if you don’t raid any security closets, a handful of you can come up to the security offices with me, arm up, stand your ground. This power pnt is yours now. Take pride in it!”

  Cheers erupted from the crowd. Those holding guns grouped up and went down to the terminal. A small group of workers joined us in the elevator, makeshift weapons in hand.

  “Take what you want in the offices, it’s all yours now.” Uwu turned to me as the small crowd bustled with hateful energy. “This is going to get messy. Stay next to me.”

  A group of angry workers taking the power back. Just witnessing what happened before, I could only imagine what was going to happen in the corporate offices, the pce where all the suits who call the shots and make life miserable for the rest of them. I bet it’s going to be a shit fest.

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