"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. Twelve hostiles, one klick out. On your seven."
The unlikely duo had been doing everything in their power for the better part of the past thirty or so minutes getting away from the store and away from the hostiles in pursuit. Over the time spent on the mad dash, she had been getting more used to utilizing the directional callouts from the helpful information and human assistance, but her overall speed was hindered by keeping up the conversation. If it was just Kailao running with his Intrinsic and experience, he would have already been able to shake them off twelve times over. It seemed like she would have a lot of conditioning to do in the future, if there was one where she saw the light of day again.
Her partner in this footrace away from the cops wasn't even breaking a sweat, and he was easily punching in way above her own top speed. It would be obvious that there was a gap between their speed, physicality, and overall condition, but this large was near unfathomable for her and completely unexpected. Her initial suspicion was that he was abusing his Intrinsic perk, whatever it may be, but when prompted about it, he immediately shut the accusations down. Apparently she had already seen his Intrinsic perk, but thinking back on it didn't lend her a single clue as to what it could possibly be, or even when in the hour or so they knew each other he used it.
This smug guy, he could've just told me. I guess it's not something people broadcast. The others sure didn't.
The reminder of the previous restrictive Intrinsics shook her a little more, only serving to slow down her already sluggish pace. Bright yellow eyes bore down at her with a more than frustrated face attached to it. Taking a peek behind the both of them, her current partner let out a sigh, reaching for something inside of his jacket. Finally finding a comfortable grip for his fingers to rest on, he addressed Kanashima once again.
"You get told a new distance? Getting closer?"
"Yes. One klick… whatever that is. Still behind."
"Klick. Kilometer. Old school. Who the hell is talking to you, your great grandfather?"
Maybe the crass man was onto something with his most recent, somewhat sarcastic, remark. If this rather sweet and undeniably helpful voice was indeed a relative of hers, even as ancient as a great grandparent, that would answer the question of why it was so helpful, or rather, she. Also, it would answer to the voice's affinity towards her, and why it called her daughter of herself, she would be quite literally some level of daughter. Sure, it opened up even more questions, like why wait until she got trapped in the literal nether region of the simulation to start helping her out, but it was a very good start into an ability shrouded in mystery.
"I don't know."
"Wonderful perk you got there, blueberry."
Seriously, what is this guy's problem? Aren't there more pressing matters than poking fun at me?
"Lady Kanashima, Five hundred meters."
"Five hundred meters."
"Confirm. It's been a real pleasure being by your side, Blueberry."
Taking her turn to steal a glance behind them, the first duo of cops rounded the last corner, both with all too familiar faces and physiques for Kanashima to not recognize. These two officers were the first people to have noticed her escapade and chased her the first time, and now they were on her again. If she recalled correctly, these two were Blackwell and Flamenco, and just like back then, one of them was speaking into their communication device once more.
"This is Officer Flamenco, ID 4204. Successfully tracked target suspect with the help of Blackwell. She has a companion, relation unknown. Status unknown. Should we pursue secondary?"
Kailao joined her in finally observing their dozen chasers, but turned around and dashed toward the nearest corner. With his left gloved hand still free, he took hold of the coat collar of Kanashima and dragged her out of the immediate line of sight. Reeling her frail right arm back, she was ready to retaliate against her companion, but his facial expression froze her right in her tracks. She hadn't known him for all too long, but this visage of fright and disturbance was new to her, and it definitely did not suit his normal face of swagger. For some reason, he was even more troubled than even herself.
His other hand was gripping on some sort of slim blackish grey firearm, barrel pointed down at the concrete rubble. On the other side of his fitted grip, a thinner container housing extra bullets stuck out from the other side of his hand. It was near impossible for her to estimate the capacity of the extended magazine, his dominant hand, and by extension, the weapon itself was shaking far too much for her near normal eye.
Is he scared too? Nervous? I swear he wasn't like this the entire rest of the chase. There's no way somebody so cool would be in this situation.
"Eyes up, blueberry. I'll take as many, save the first two, away as I can. Then you're on your own kid. If you're truly his daughter- go!"
Letting go of her unfolded collar, he then placed his palm flush against her own chest. Without much fanfare, he fully extended his arm and shoved her with great force, throwing her down the opposite alleyway. Barely maintaining her balance, she stumbled forward and took a few beats before being able to continue her own mad dash. She was unable to look back, hearing the rapid collection of footsteps getting louder and louder behind her. Once she heard them cross the bend where she split up with the dapper man, her ears recoiled at the new audio clues.
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. Shots fired three hundred meters behind you. Eight hostiles and a friendly engaged in combat."
Oh my God, he's shooting at them. We're actually fighting? I can't fight against even one of those experienced Electrogens, much less four of them.
She wasn't even sure if the choice to fight was hers to make. It had been proven time and time again that she could not shake them off her tail, and she was absolutely not fast enough to outrun them. There was still somebody working with them that had something, most likely an Intrinsic perk of some kind, that allowed them to track her throughout the city. The Void's vocal notification told her as such. Whoever the Jackal, as the voice called them, was, had to go before she would be able to run loose once more. At least the rest of the guys wouldn't have had a good look at her face, the scarf from the convenience store doing wonders for her identity.
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima, Four hostiles two hundred meters behind you."
God, they're fast. I can't keep up this distance for much longer, much less my top speed.
Making a turn at the next immediate corner, she stopped pumping her right arm, dropping it to the side as strings of vibrant scarlet coalesced in her palm. No matter how low she believed her chances to be, she'd be damned if she didn't fight for her own freedom. The one thing every slum rat had in common was the desire to fight. Recently, that conviction had been wavering inside of her, but watching Kailao stand his own ground and help her out today had activated something deep within. Something about those cool gold eyes inspired her to stand her ground once more. Somebody so frightened but standing up and firing back all the same.
She had to live through this encounter, and she had to do so whilst retaining her current level of autonomy. She owed at least this much to her family, fulfilling their last wishes. How selfish it would be if she didn't even make one measly attempt? Not only that, but her supercharger companion too was helping her out now.
"Lady Kanashima, one hundred meters. Be advised, you are being aimed at."
Too selfish. I won't stand for it, not after their sacrifices. I won't make them regret this. Mom… Morgan, thank you. Thank you Kailao, I don't know why, but thanks for your help.
"Lady Kanashima, fifty meters. Within effective range of the current firearm."
There was no time for her to look back and actually perceive what was going on behind her, if she hesitated for a moment and there really was a gun trained on her body then that would be over for her. All she had was this sentient warning system in her head that took the form of a sweet and caring voice. One that she had no choice, but to continue trusting. It hadn't led her astray before, and it better not now, not like she'd be able to do anything to it if she was wrong. How does a dead person interact with an intangible perk?
By some miracle, she would have to improvise and pull off the same ability that showed itself when she got caught in the middle of the apartment, and do it fast. When she had to replicate the plasma bolt that she released on instinct, it took her a handful of minutes before she could properly command the violet electrons inside of her body and actually recreate the feeling. Hopefully, since she already achieved some semblance of the circuits littering her nervous system and had some experience pushing and directing currents, this time would be easier. It had to be easier.
Come on, Cloak me. Hide me from sight.
There was no way to currently know if her chameleon-like ability would hide her away from whatever tracking item, software, ability, or whatever else was honed onto her, but it was the only shot she actually had. If it didn't, it would at least help with the current threat of a handgun trained on her head. She also had no clue if it would hide the summoned armament inside of her hand, but she felt like it would. The item itself connected with her system at the electric level, not just physically, almost like an extension of the system itself.There was no time like the present, and thus, she just had to trust that it would help at least a little bit and actually work as she hoped. Feeling the purple electricity flood and course through her electronic circuits once more, the all too familiar warmth and surge of power burned inside of her.
The electricity bent to its master's simple commands to cloak her, recreating the similar sensations of the first time in the face of Kory and Marinetti. It trickled into the furthest points from her core into each and every limb and appendage. Soon, the entire system flared up, and she disappeared from the line of sight.
I did it, okay. Can't stop now.
Pressing her body fully against the left side of the wall, she inched her way closer to the quartet of officers as they slowed to a stop, lowering their firearms. Each of them exchanged glances with their duo, and then everybody else, each just as confused as the others.
"Blackwell, status?"
"I… don't know. I can't track her signature anymore. That was definitely her."
"What the hell, your Intrinsic was beat?"
"It appears so. Even trying again, I can't find her."
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. Blocked attempted tracking by a Jackal."
God… Thank God it works.
Moving slowly to not kick up any unnecessary dirt, dust, or make any noise to alert the group just meters away, she managed to scoot and shuffle her position behind the hunting team. It was such a blessing that they couldn't track her in this state, even the helpful voice confirmed it. Blocked was an interesting way to put it, that meant the voice was more closely entwined with her system than she initially believed, but that was likely a good thing for her. She needed every iota of assistance available to her, and she had just been given enough tools to craft her path out.
Holding up the rather large saxe knife she stole away from the old friend, its entire form was also concealed by her cloaking technique. Kanashima had to get towards Blackwell, the person with her signature and the one attempting to track her, at least, that's who probably was, the only clues available were that short conversation. In between her and the much larger tracker was one of the extra cops that joined them on the chase throughout Vanity. There was only one path to proceed that Kanashima could see, even though she didn't like what she was about to do. There simply wasn't enough time for her to come up with something better, if she was going to act it would have to be now.
Forgive me, everybody. Two more people have to go… God I'm so selfish.
"This is Officer Flameco, ID 4204. Lost trace of the suspect. Standing by for how to proceed."
Before a response from the department could come through each of their communicators, she closed the distance between herself and the person in the way. Wrapping her arm around his neck whilst holding up the Loving Lullaby, she placed the blade firmly on the left side of his exposed skin of the short officer. Becoming observable again, she dragged the knife quickly across the jugular and back towards her, slicing deep through his neck. The death was near instant, his entire body collapsing into her arm before dropping fully down on the ground.
A few milliseconds later, the other three people on her trail were staring at her once more with varying levels of shock expressed on each of their faces.
I'm exposed? Does it not allow me to attack when cloaked? What kind of ability is this?