Chasing the Crimeless

Tarot rested on the counter inside the lobby area, accompanied by other friends.

Ayuka sat beside him, leaning her elbow on the counter and cradling her head in her arms, "There's so much happening outside that I'm starting to think Tim got himself into trouble."

Tarot bridged his arm behind his nape, feeding himself with the other by biting into juicy peaches, "Don't worry about it. Tim's fine." He didn't display any major concern and instead felt relaxed, "You're considered the new member of the crew. You don't know him as well as the rest of us do. But I'm sure you'll see what I mean when we reunite with the others."

Ayuka countered and behaved serenely, "He tends to get into trouble more than other people because he has the "urge" to fight. And knowing we're stuck inside a city where crime happens regularly, there's a high chance he'll end up in the wrong hands."

Cassidy folded her arms on her trunk, "It's not just Tim... Trinity and Aurora aren't with us either. There are three of us and three of them. Do you think, Ayuka, that they are together?"

Tarot brushed his ear, peeping at Cassidy with a dazed mind, and lobbed his view between the girls, clutching the back of his hairy skull, letting Ayuka answer in his stead, "I'd expect that since half of us are here. It's feasible they are bunched together, but I don't know the lengths the game master would go." She asserted, rotating her head around and glimpsing with her eyes away from Cassidy, "But, I'm worried about the person who's gotten infected by the bacteria. Whoever it is from our group, I hope the rest make it in time."

Cassidy cinched at Ayuka's advice and became inquisitive, "Do you envisage we'll find the cure, and should we really believe the infected one isn't aware of the bacteria in their body? Because what if the person infected doesn't want to reveal the truth?" Ayuka assumed differently for a second but became dandy, "I don't know. Don't you remember, Cassidy? Our assignment is to "evaluate" who the infected one is to get the cure. It would make things too effortless for us if the game master told the infected individual they hold the bacteria in their body."

Cassidy hoped to find a good and appropriate comeback but lacked the words to do it, "I guess you have a good point. I wish things were a tiny bit easier to deal with."

Tarot observed the peach in his hand in turmoil, shaking it up and down as if something seemed odd about it, but he gave up and retrieved his composure.

-

Trinity sprinted in an actively agile and nimble quickness, holding Aurora's wrist and pulling her behind the back. Their feet trod at a comparable pace, pounding and thumping the asphalt with a thudding sound reverberating through the street.

"Outsiders! Don't lose them! Any undesirable individuals are needed to get collected and contained! Their missing database makes them a potential threat!"

Running through the narrow alleyways, getting ringed by hundreds of civilians, Trinity and Aurora didn't seem to find a way to escape, and the radar chips in the people's minds were too well developed.

"We don't want to cause any harm! Please, stop chasing us!" Aurora cried in a panicky voice. Trinity warned Aurora about the hindrance that attempted to impede their procedure. "Oh, you noisy little girls aren't going anywhere. Your elegant, cute, young bodies could be useful to earn some of that "legal tender"... cash."

They witnessed a black-haired man dressed in a black tank top, his torso covered by an unzipped and oversized jacket, red on the inside and the hem swaying in the wind, identically to Trinity, which was waving behind her at a faster pace.

The man sported a gas mask that only covered his mouth and nose. "Trinity! We're blocked! The alleyway is too narrow to go around him!"

Trinity downturned Aurora's commenting fear and tensed up her view onto the man with a dignified and stoic personality. She let go of Aurora to gain more speed, vaulted over the dumpster, clobbered the man's face with a heavily firm kick, and knocked him out of her path.

She speedily clutched Aurora's hand when she landed on the ground and dragged her behind, "Or you can do that..." They continued running away from their pursuers and took multiple turns and corners only to be unable and escape.

Due to over-exaggerating her physique, Aurora began to feel lightheaded and restless. She choked and slowed down, pleading with her body to go on without rest.

No matter how determined she was to press on, the worse her state got the point of losing her foothold and sinking to the ground like a pile of crumbling pebbles.

"Aurora. I know this must put a toll on your body, especially your condition. But we need to go. I won't be able to keep all of them away from us on my own without Cassidy."

Aurora tried perking back up, but her nose started bleeding. It was her weekly issue, "I..." She masked her nose with her palm, blood slipping between the finger gaps, leaking down on the gradient-illuminated roads, "I want to... but..." Trinity frantically scooped up Aurora, allowing her to lean her weight onto her own shoulders.

Trinity's age and less-developed body strength weren't enough to hold Aurora's body the same way Timothy could. It put them at a disadvantage.

Trinity knew that Aurora endured her pain with great fortitude. It was clear to her that due to Aurora's consciousness as she tended to frequently lose it after suffering from her occasional nosebleed.

Their pursuers located them, dashing from around the corner and shouting behind them, "Stop!" and immediately drew their attention onto him.

The man pulled the trigger and shot a bullet he aimed at Aurora's back.

Trinity spiraled around, beating her forearm into Aurora's torso, and thrust her away against the solid wall to move her out of the bullet's radius.

"Trinity! Look out!" Aurora screamed, reaching with her hand forward only to helplessly watch Trinity's chest getting penetrated by the bullet's speed and the blood spurting from her wound, depicted in the shadows pictured on the opposite wall.

Aurora fell onto her rear, seeing Trinity grasp her inimical wound and kneel on one of her knees, the other leg raised but squatted.

"I got one of them! Hurry up and apprehend them!" the assailant ordered, whipping his arm to the side.

They began approaching Trinity and Aurora, without suspecting another person seated at the top of the building, blowing into a green gum to make a bubble.

She grinned, popping the balloon, "Time to clear those out." Her voice sounded modulated and harmonious to listen to but had a mischievous tone to it as if they had more than one motive behind their curious appearance.

She plummeted to the ground and stuck a professional landing, protecting Trinity and Aurora from getting breached, instantly barricading the men from continuing.

The men hoped to understand the woman's sudden entrance and interference, caught her comment, "Such a harsh process of pursuing women just to force money out of them," she tucked her hands onto her provocative hips, smirking with confidence, "Like a bunch of badgers with scant gland and powerful jaws."

The men seemed distracted by her mature and inviting body shape, attracted to her alluring and charming face until they learned about her identity, "It's... her..."

The Cyberlanders that hunted down Trinity and Aurora became speechless, troubled, and repelled. They were fearful of her and in a panic, knowing the possible trepidation, "Hah, barely two words in, and you already look like you want me dead. You're getting all worked up over nothing, haha. You've changed, getting weak." Her eyes and forehead became screened in the gloom, and her watermelon-pink pupils illuminated the darkness as her lips arose from beneath her nose with a ghoulish smile, biting their faces to despair.

To be continued...