Rings of black smoke cascaded into the night sky, mixing with the already despicable smell of grease and ruined dreams. Whichever architect that was bothered to design and construct the barely serviceable apartment complex naturally went about as cheap as one building could get in modern times, using the most inexpensive material currently known to man, polycarbonate, and went with the most corrupt, third rate supplier in the world, importing it from the Americas. Not even bothering to coat the shabby plastics with any sort of flame resistance, heat protection, or anything to enhance the quality, if they did it would have cost more for the coating than the entire rest of the construction. It was just a random building in the slums, nobody of any importance would care if it collapsed, so there was no real urgency to protect the building.
The fire started at a size contained in just the kitchen area, covering the counters, but it consumed its surroundings with hunger throughout the dry and brittle room. Urged on by the personal electricity impacting the lighter fluid, the flames were empowered with a slight purple radiance, slightly tinting the immediate surroundings and flicking off similarly colored embers into the night sky. With the way Vanity was designed, the nearest fire prevention systems would take at least ten minutes to arrive, unlike the rest of the much richer districts having their bots and personnel on standby. Luckily, the two officers hot on the pursuit of the arsonist were able to call it in moments after the explosion rocked surrounding ears.
"This is Officer Blackwell, ID 2240, calling in a fire. Vanity square."
"This is Officer Flameco, ID 4204, Pursuing suspect. Suspect is approximately 160 cm, age seventeen. Wavy black hair. Appears to be a local. In rather avant garde white clothes, is she wearing Adrienne?"
The duo had their heads turned away from each other, speaking into their personal wireless communicators attached to the inside of their coats. Finishing up his own fire call, the slightly shorter cop turned his celadon eyes back towards the back of his partner's head. She wrapped up her own call a few moments later, dropping her coat with the embroiled name 'Flameco' on it, turning her attention forward at their suspect once more.
"Yup, that's definitely Adrienne. The jacket is a dead giveaway."
"How do you figure that, Mr. I Don't Do Fashion, Mr. Looking Good Is Below Me?"
"Ah, well y'know. My sister is really into the gothic fashion scene. I think I got her a similar set for her birthday."
His normally sarcastic ally let out a sincere chuckle, clapping his shoulder. Tossing a glance over at her companion with her own scarlet eyes, she continued running without ever losing track of the girl they were pursuing.
"Look at you, being an upstanding brother! You're really pulling out the works for lil Lauren aren't ya?"
"Yeah, the big tenth birthday! It's because she's got a fantastic auntie helping her brother out. You'll be there, right?"
"Of course, who do you take me for? She's going to be so excited."
The colleagues and friends exchanged big genuine smiles once more before returning their gaze fully on the runaway culprit. She was surprisingly fast for somebody with such short legs, but the two actually trained police were making steady ground on her, and that was without any intrinsic perks activated. At least, the two pursuers hadn't yet, things were still going as smoothly as ever for them.
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. Two hostiles on your six. Seven hundred meters and approaching."
Her pursuers were incredibly fast on their feet, this must be what the human body was capable of with proper nutrition, an effective training regiment, and proper living conditions. All things Kanashima didn't have the pleasure of benefitting from, put on display by the large disparity in their respective speeds, and a rapidly closing gap in the footrace itself. They even picked up Marcel in a timely manner, shifting responsibility for a simple curfew infraction to another Vanity cop duo that arrived on scene promptly.
Despite how lackadaisical the entire department appeared to be to the average onlooker, including herself, they were surprisingly competent and fast to respond too. No wonder why the slums region of New Bangkok had a lower crime rate than some of the bigger, richer ones. Sure, they were still in the top five, but it was nice not being the worst at something. If the first team of two only took a couple minutes to arrive at Vanity Square was any sign for things to come, then more will definitely be on her tail.
Dipping into one of the alleys, she barely slowed down turning the corner, kicking up rocky dust. Normally she'd love to rely on her intimate knowledge of the concrete labyrinth she found herself in, but no doubt the cops would know at least a little something about the windy maze too. She agitated the surrounding garbage cans and piles, leaving behind a river of flowing trash in her wake. There was no certainty if that would slow them at all, but there was no harm in trying her damdest. As another man before World War Four would say, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. She wasn't totally sure if it applied here, were there any rules in police chases?
Coming into a small opening, her current alley split into four options, each going in significantly different directions, none of them directly in front of her. Squeaking to a halt, Kanashima managed to stop herself before she slammed into the hulking concrete wall. With wide grey eyes, she glanced down each and every path, ending on her previous one. Two silhouettes began to come into view on the other opening of the hall, a small note of light popping up off of the shorter one's foot.
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. Two hostiles on your twelve, five hundred meters."
What do you mean, twelve? They're right in front of me.
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. Two new hostiles identified, on your seven. Six hundred meters."
Seven, twelve from earlier. What were the other numbers it said? Ten, I think six? What did these possibly have in common?
She was never the best at elementary maths, and she only got worse the longer and longer she went without any education, formal or otherwise. The lack of schooling was yet again another thorn in her side, just as it was in the forest of the simulation. It was even a bigger thorn than the actual thorns that dug into her skin, and some of the sharper ones still left marks on her legs.
Through her momentary pause to ponder the choice of pathway and position number callouts, the newly doubled number of police officers were still hot in pursuit and closing in fast. The mysteries of the Void's unique wording and advice would have to be solved at another time, right now she could spot the two original cops in front of her, directly where she came from. The other two that the Void clued her in on were behind her, not quite directly though, shifted a little bit to her left. That left three other paths free for her to choose, and she wasn't going to waste any more time. Turning on her heel, she exploded down one of the dirty paths a little bit further than direct right.
Her condition didn't translate to good endurance though. Soon, she was huffing and panting, barely able to catch her breath. In the forest, she was able to go on for much longer than the current predicament. Granted, she wasn't moving as fast, but still, she should normally have more in the tank. Already feeling poor from battery exhaustion, now her muscles were straining against the brisk pace.
"Be advised Lady Kanashima. Four hostiles, three hundred meters."
They're still on me? Good God…
Finally turning out of the additional alleyway, it opened up into a fairly busy sector despite the time. It was quite a common through road for personal vehicle commuters needing to go between the north and south regions of New Bangkok. Kanashima herself had been to the side of this road many times, albeit never this far down the lane. Not bothering to stop for too long, she turned down the street and began weaving through the vendors and pedestrians.
Soon after, four uniformed officers broke out of the same gap between the buildings, speeding through the opened up wall of people giving way to their police coats and special badges. Before long, the wide part in the sea of people allowed them to close the distance.
"Lady Kanashima, fifty meters."
Throwing another glance over her shoulder, sure enough, four similarly tall and well built police officers were breaking through the crowds much faster than she herself did. They were so close at this point that she could make out the facial features of each one, way too close for comfort. She had to do something drastic and fast, less she allowed herself to be detained this soon. Turning her head to her side, she let out a soft side and spun her forward momentum directly into the flow of traffic.
"What the hell?"
"After her! Don't stop!"
Narrowly avoiding the onslaught of speeding vehicles, she managed to make it to the median in between the two of the three lane roads with minimal amounts of disturbance. What caused more of a fuss were the four larger bodies charging forward, following the same path she ran. Cars swerved around them, near miss after close encounter, but eventually, Kanashima saw what was becoming a calling card of her own, a small flash of purple out from one of the tires fast approaching the group.
The tires of the vehicle kicked up a puddle of dirty water left on the street from when it rained last night, gliding across the surface. No longer was the actual wheel in contact and gripping the asphalt, rather it was now sliding across thanks to the film of moisture. The man inside the personal transport was panicking at this point, slamming his hand on the center of his steering wheel, causing a loud horn to blast throughout the street and destroying any semblance of hearing she had.
Just mere meters away from each other, none could avoid the other. The rather large vehicle slid more, not able to slow down even a little bit from his cruising velocity, and caught the side of the officer that pulled ahead from the rest of the pack. Kanashima, along with his companions and the several bystanders now spectating the altercation watched in horror as the cop's torso collapsed in on itself before the entire body flew with the directional force applied.
For the second time in the past couple days and her entire life, she had just caused a person to die right in front of her.