Out from one of the aisles came a police officer Troy had seen once before. It was the woman who had initially tried to chase him down, forcing him down on the ground, before becoming distracted and letting him escape in the chaos. Not the greatest reunion to have.

‘How to escape?’ Troy signed while getting up from his more shifted position. The officer had not made her move yet, the two having a standoff. Why was this happening? Why wasn't she chasing him down? Why not even shoot at him?

Adam took his sweet time answering, the AI clearly not working as well as it was supposed to. The man could do nothing but glance around. Counter-attacks would be the greatest in the world. He had next-to-nothing to work with, except for some of the trump cards. Could he… what could he really do?

‘We need to leave through the back door. If you run now, you will be caught up within three seconds. She needs to be incapacitated,’ Adam finally responded, speaking quickly. It was nearing Troy’s comprehension limit of six hundred words. The duo had trained for moments like these, after all, and knew exactly how quick they could be.

“Just how do you expect that from me?” Troy muttered, partially forgetting to use his hands for communication. But it was more related to the stand-of, neither of them moving much. The man’s eyes were trained on the longer tranquillizer at the officer’s hands. While he could dodge, he would need to time it just right.

‘Get within the needed range of the weapon and fire,’ Adam supplied. The officer was slightly raising her eye-brow, likely unsure of why Troy’s scowl deepened at that moment. Just get closer, the little guy says. Sure, sure… like that would be easy for anybody.

Having seemingly waited enough time, the officer finally moved, pointing the tranquillizer towards Troy’s core yet again. It shot the moment that it came into position, forcing Troy to move as quickly as he could. With a spring, he got his body over to the next aisle, instantly running down towards the middle. The officer was on the direct another side of the store, making the distance needing to be covered much larger than what was desired. But it would be done no matter what.

Less distance meant less reaction time, however, and Troy hardly had time to side-step the next stop. There seemed to be next-to-no reloading delay, making it hard to constantly dodge. Troy needed to even it out somehow.

Grabbing a metal tray at the next aisle, the young man swung it at the officer. It never got to hit her but got close enough to warrant a need for repositioning. That gave Troy enough time to breathe, coming a bit closer than before.

However, it also meant that the officers switched her tactics around. Instead of using the tranquillizer, she pulled out a… baton. It wasn't the longest, barely the length of her lower arm, but it was long enough to make Troy feel pain.

When he got close enough, she swung at him hard, the baton hitting his side. There was an attempt to take the hit and move on, but the power was too much to bear at once. Troy got distracted by it, to the point of nearly falling to the ground in pain.

The officer took that chance for what it was, taking hold of Troy’s arms in his moment of weakness, forcing them behind his back, and outright throwing him down. His left ear hit the ground hard, causing a loud ringing to come from it. God, how it hurt. Troy barely had enough semblance in himself to press the release trigger.

Yeah, there weren't any errors. The release trigger was pressed, and the mechanism put into the back of his jacket was started up. It came in the form of a half-second whine, before exploding into a world of light and sound. Troy was more than a little unsure of what was happening, doing his best to keep his eyes closed and the sound out of his head. Yet even with that, his eyelids offered little against the lights, his view still lit up by spots when it was all gone. And if not for one ear planted on the ground, his sense of hearing might have disappeared entirely.

But it was all so much worse for the other person in the room. The hold on his arms had been removed the second that it all began, and then slumping to the ground was heard easily through it all. Getting up, Troy glanced over at the officer, before beginning his escape.

The effects might have been annoying for him, yet it was deliberating for the officer. Troy got to see an attempt to stand up, followed by a small amount of vomit being forced out of the body, as the pupils tried in vain to choose what size they wanted to be. She had looked pale at the moment, to the point where an ambulance call might not have been the worst choice. Troy felt a little bad about it but knew exactly what would have happened if he didn't do it.

‘Run faster please,’ Adam requested.

“Be more helpful please,” Troy just as helpfully replied, gasping for the expended air used while talking. He positively bolted over the remaining aisles, his legs working overtime to move as quickly as they could. Troy needed to get more than a little distance in, lest he would be caught up to extremely quickly.

How long would the effects last on the officer? Charlie had said it varied between mere seconds to full minutes. Not the most helpful thing in the world. Troy didn't want to think about it.

The front of the store was left through the door leading into the storage unit. His loud sounds were misplaced inside the sterile environment, that blasted ventilation somehow being so deafening to the near-silent room. Troy couldn't have cared less about that fact, though, sprinting over to the exit. With his hand on the door handle, he pressed down on it, similarly pressing on the door itself with his shoulder. There was an expectancy of it opening up to him, letting him start running through the snow and escape in the dense forest.

There was only an aching shoulder instead, the door not moving at all. It refused to open. An oddity indeed, Troy being sure that it had been open mere minutes ago. And why wasn't Adam opening it for him anyway?

‘It has been hardwired shut. The controls have been momentarily destroyed. You have to escape through another exit.

“Damn,” Troy had to say, hitting his head on the door. It did nothing but let his frustrations get out by the slightest bit. It wasn't helpful. “Where is there another one?”

‘Go into the next storage room. There will be a ladder to access the roof with,’ Adam supplied, Troy instantly using the information for his own gain. The door to the next room was located, with the young man only jogging now, his eyes roaming the place constantly. With the many boxes and assortments, it was hard to look everywhere at once, forcing constant surveillance.

However, it was found after a few seconds more than it should have taken. Painted bright red and with steps on it distanced too far for comfort, Troy began to ascend it as quickly as he could. Already, the long-distance between holds were making his tighs hurt, as they were subjected to more stretching than they were able to normally bear, and certainly not in the current situations. Troy ignored that, however, concentrating on another question he had.

“Just where am I expected to go when I get up there?” Troy asked. The steps were long and many had been taken. The rooms themselves were easily five meters in height, with the roof being even higher up. Just where could go from up there?

‘You jump in a pile of snow, and run away after that,’ Adam answered, clearly not seeing the problems with that sentence. There had to be a ladder down outside somewhere… right? Sure, Troy had not seen anything like that when he had scouted out the building, but that could have been a simple mistake on his part. Even if he had studied every part of the wall.

…

He was going to have to jump, wasn't he? It made his legs shiver just a bit more than they already were, the burn clearly not equaling a higher temperature. Every negative effect possible was on his lower body, and it hurt.

As he reached the roof, opening the hatch at the same time, Troy was met with a snowstorm that had clearly not settled down during his short time inside. If anything, it had picked its pace, pelting everything in the area with snow. Even if he had wanted to close the hatch, Troy was beginning to doubt if he would have been able. A shame, since he heard the sound of a door being forced open at extreme speeds from below. Somebody had pushed through the effects and was rapidly coming closer.

Getting up on his feet, Troy looked around quickly to assess the location. There was lattice fencing on the sides of the building, stopping easy access down. Not that Troy would be too miffed about that, only regretting he would have to climb-

Loud thuds were heard from below. Not from the building but beyond it. Troy initially thought that the officer inside must have gotten outside, but… he could still hear her within the place. And the thuds were picking up in pace and volume, getting louder and closer at the same time.

Extremely loud actually, all climaxing into what could only be attributed to somebody taking off from the ground and flying into the air… which was exactly what it was.

The young man had to take a step back in utter surprise and fear, as an automation landed mere meters in front of him. It had to have jumped from the city street, but that was more than a few meters below them. The power needed to do such a thing was… incredible.

And an extremely bad thing to be on the opposing side of. So much in fact that Troy’s brain decided to shut down near-completely, seeing flight as the only real reaction to the sight. With a turn of the heel, the man ran as fast as he could, going right for the fence. He needed to jump over it to-

His jacket was grabbed within two seconds of his attempted escape, a small pop of the lips being heard behind him.

“She really wasn't lying when she talked about it,” the automation said. “I thought it was crazy to station us all at different places, yet she just knew you were alive. Would have been better if- what?”

Troy, not wanting to be taken away, grabbed the automations face. The construct didn't do much to resist his grab, it normally being without any meaningful consequences from a normal human. But… he was equipped with something else. He had Adam at his disposal, those gloves able to work their magic.

“Shit!” the automation positively shouted, letting go of him, and trying to hold one of its arms tightly with the other. It looked as if it was… restraining itself? What?

“Adam, what did you-” Troy tried to ask, but the AI cut into his question.

‘Run! There is still another one closing in.’

Adding into the fact that the ladder could be heard being used, Troy was well on his way to the fence, already sitting on top of it when the officer came into view. This was not good.