As they pushed through, Savier couldn’t keep his eyes off Dancer up ahead, surveying the ruins like a ghost on a hunt.
He stared at her, voice low. "Knowing she was a Runner... knowing she’s got a belly full of rookie bones? Makes want her more."
Johnquis scowled. "You’re not right in the head."
Savier laughed. He couldn’t help it, it burst out of him like a shout. "I know! I know. But c’mon — look at her! All that speed, all that kill in those pretty claws... and those thighs, that ass, that heel blade? She could rip apart any second."
He dragged his tongue over a bloody tooth, grin wide. "That’s living."
Johnquis cut him off. "You should’ve t her when she was still the Nesis."
Savier flinched like he’d been slapped. "You little shit, Johnquis — don’t scare like that!"
Johnquis laughed loudly. Dancer turned, those wolf eyes locking on Savier just once, enough to shut him right up.
They walked slowly deeper into the ruins of the old transportation center. Each step splashed through oily puddles that had gathered between old train tracks and bus lanes. The place felt like a graveyard of how people used to escape.
Rust-eaten buses sat half-subrged in stagnant water, windows blown out, vines creeping through shattered windshields. A derailed train lay on its side, tal skin peeled back by so ancient explosion. Ticket booths were crumpled cubes of glass and steel.
Johnquis stepped over an old turnstile bent like twisted tal and looked up at the broken ceiling. Moonlight and storm clouds moved through holes big enough for a dropship to fly through.
Savier tipped his head back."Look at this... It’s beautiful, in a shitty way. Like the bones of a giant that forgot how to rot."
Dancer stalked past him, claws clinking on broken marble tiles, eyes darting from shadow to shadow. Every now and then she’d vanish into the dark between rusted trams or slip through a broken window.
They kept moving, weaving around overturned luggage carts and cars that had once driven straight through the main concourse when the barricades fell. Elevator shafts gaped open. Wind howled through torn banners that still clung to cracked pillars "Welco to Southland Transport Authority" fluttering like rotten flags.
After an hour of picking through the maze, they reached what passed for the main hub tower — a half-standing building whose top floors were just a cage of twisted beams and concrete slabs, the front wall ripped away to leave an open ledge that looked out over the blackened city.
Dancer dropped down from a bent ceiling beam without a sound — just a flicker of shadow and then she was crouched in front of them, claws resting lightly on the cracked marble. Her eyes swept over Johnquis first, then Savier, then back to the dark behind her, as if daring anything to crawl out.
Johnquis gave a sharp nod. "Clear?"
Dancer just tilted her chin, cocked her head toward the ruins behind her, all the answer he needed.
Savier whistled. "Damn... She covered that whole maze faster than we could crawl through it."
Johnquis smirked a little. "She’s a good scout. She knows every gap, every crawlspace. I don’t even have to ask her."
Savier’s smile spread then he leaned over, squinting at Dancer like he was appraising so rare piece of gear. "That’s the Runner in her, huh? Before you enslave her? She was one of those freaks that patrol the nest periter?"
"Yeah. Runners. Fastest Eater class. They hunt the mont sothing trespasses. They don’t rest. They don’t stop. They circle the nest over and over — miles wide, all night."
Savier gave a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. "Shit. I rember our lecture. The Professor said, ’If you see a Runner, you’re already dead. They sniff you out before you blink.’"
Johnquis huffed, rembering. "Yeah. First ti I saw her... she took out two rookies before I even blinked."
Dancer’s eyes flicked to him at that, not quite recognition, but sothing like it. Like she was rembering too.
Savier smile wider. "Hah! I like her. Good taste, Johnkiss! You always did know how to keep the monsters on your leash."
Dancer’s claws clicked once on the floor, a small sound that sohow made Savier flush. Then she lted back into the shadows.
Johnquis watched her vanish. "Alright. Let’s move. She’ll keep circling."
He glanced up at the wrecked tower overhead. "We’ll rest up top. No better spot. Good airflow. High floor’s clear, too exposed for Eaters, too steep for ’em to risk the climb."
Savier gave him that shit-eating smirk. "High floor, huh? Bet you can’t get there faster than ."
"Not this again."
"C’mon! What’s the point of all these fancy hooks and that sexy bat cape if you don’t make it interesting?"
Savier elbowed him, nodding up toward the open face of the top floor — where half the facade had crumpled away, leaving only the skeleton of beams and cracked walls to scramble over.
"Don’t tell your skill got rusty ’cause you’ve got a runner saving your ass."
Johnquis scoffed. "You’re an idiot."
He flexed his arms. "This never gets rusty. I’m still the top traceur of the class. Best in parkour."
"Ha! That’s what I love about you. Bet you got sloppy, though — Dancer does all the work while you pose. I’m still the idiot who can out-climb your skinny ass."
Savier swung his grappling hook around his wrist like a lasso, eyes bright with that old feral spark. "On three?"
They stood at the base of a half-collapsed service stairwell. The rails twisted and the steps missing in places. Rebar spikes jutted where the stairs had ripped free. To the right, the monorail track cut through the hub’s open air, its supports a dangling ladder if you had the guts to balance. Above that, a busted advertising scaffold hung like a giant steel trap.
Johnquis cracked his neck, cape fluttering behind him in the wet wind. "Fine. Try not to break your other ribs this ti."
"One..." Savier braced, boots sinking into oily puddles.
"Two..." Johnquis flexed his gloved fingers around the chain hook on his belt.
"Three!"
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