Back on the Chase

 “Thanks for the breakfast,” Kensu waved the family goodbye as he stepped away from their entryway.

“Thank you for fixing the router and making pancakes,” the old lady replied.

“Call us when you grow a third arm! I want to see it!” her grandson yelled.

Kensu began walking. Old-timey buildings surrounded him in the historic district, but all carried a modern touch. They had solar panels on their roof, and many couldn’t resist the allure of charging generating extra revenue with dazzling billboards and neon signs haphazardly stuck to their walls.

All around the quaint street, the local businesses were opening up. The baker had placed hot bread buns on the window sill to entice passersby, an old couple reminisced about the good old times in the local coffee shop, and a clerk tried to offer Kensu a fancy tea made from alien herbs. A scam, no doubt, considering how toxic alien flora was.

The young scientist grabbed his broken glasses and put them back in his pocket. Ever since the Professor’s experiment, he had found that his vision was almost better without them. His eyesight wasn’t perfect, as Kensu still had trouble making out far-away shapes, but it was good enough to deduce what that dark blob flying above him was.

Would they dare risk the collateral damage?... they probably would, or they wouldn’t be there at all. Better if the public wasn’t caught in the chase. Kensu slinked into the first alleyway he found and started sprinting.

“AIDA, are they-?”

AIDA had hacked into the security cameras of the nearby shops, scanning the district for any potential assailants. “Soldiers, yes. I count at least two squads and a swarm of drones keeping their distance.”

“Soldiers? So they are not the Bureau?”

“…No, they don’t seem like it.”

That was somewhat reassuring. Sure, the military packed more heat, but the Bureau was more unhinged.

Kensu picked up the pace, following AIDA’s map to the train station. Ambushing him in the middle of a sleepy district was one thing, but there was no way they could have the gall to stop a busy train in rush hour… right?

The young scientist was running at speeds he previously could not even approach. Not only that, but he wasn’t even winded. And considering how he punched a hole into straight concrete, maybe he had more of a chance than he thought. There was only one problem…

“Err, AIDA the Professor’s modifications don’t make me bulletproof, right?”

“…It is possible that you are bulletproof, but only when shot from a sufficiently far away distance from 9mm or below calibers.”

“And, err, what caliber are the soldiers packing?”

AIDA zoomed in on the squad moving across the alleyways, paying special attention to the heavy rifle swinging under their arms. “We better hurry.”

"That high a caliber, huh?"

If the soldiers had the same orders as the ones from the lab, they would shoot first and ask questions later. Anything to erase all evidence of their illicit dealings with the Professor.

With AIDA’s bird's eye view, Kensu ducked and weaved between the buildings and alleyways to avoid the squads, but they were getting ever closer, pincering him. He found himself in an alley not even big enough for him to stretch his arms.

The brakes of a semi-truck screeched as it positioned itself right at the alleyway’s mouth, blocking Kensu’s path. A pair of gunmen dressed in plain civilian clothes exited the vehicle.

“Quick, Dr Kensu, we must try to double back! Maybe we can lose the soldiers in the previous intersection!”

Huh, was that a tinge of panic Kensu felt in the AI’s voice? She was becoming more human with each passing moment. He, however, had another idea. A very stupid idea, but desperate times and all that.

Kensu touched the wall to his left. The brick felt solid enough. He looked behind him, the other wall was within arms reach. “Hey AIDA, remember when you chastised me for playing video games in the lab?”

“What does that have to do with-“

“Time to see if all my practice paid off…” Kensu jumped up. His feet touched the wall and kicked it with enough force to leave a small indentation he used as a foothold.

Without stopping for a second, he jumped back to the wall behind him. He kicked himself upward again, alternating between walls until he managed to climb to the roof of the four-story high building.

“What the hell?” one of the two gunmen only looked up, mouth aghast. “Did the target just… wall jump away from us?”

“He must be showing off…” his partner said, pointing at the ladder that Kensu conveniently ignored as he hopped upward like a flea.

Kensu smirked on the roof, bending over himself as he heaved for air. “I-I can’t believe that worked! No wonder the military wants the augmented soldier formula so much.”

“Indeed. Although the exact physics of what you did elude me, I must admit that it was pretty fun.”

“STOP RIGHT THERE!” A blinking light shone overhead Kensu. The scientist looked up. There were like six white shapes swirling in the air. The sound of their rotors drowned out the traffic below.

“Right… the drones… we aren’t out of the woods yet.”

“Surrender or die!” a gruff yelled from the drone's loudspeakers.

While the idea of surrendering might have been enticing had Kensu had the time to ponder it, his fight-or-flight response was quicker. His legs were already running at full speed. By the time his ape brain took over, he was already jumping the gaps between two buildings as he attempted to make his escape.

True to their warning, the drones opened fire. A trail of bullets hit Kensu’s wake as if the drones were filling his footsteps with lead. Their shots were surprisingly quiet for the volume of bullets they were dispensing. The shots could barely be heard over the machines spinning rotors.

“This is bad, we can’t keep running and dodging forever. Do you have a plan, AIDA?”

“No. To be honest, I do not understand how are we still alive,” AIDA replied. “It’s like the drones they are missing on purpose.”

“You are right… but are you willing to bet your life on it?”

“No!?!”

“Well, I do.”

Kensu planted his feet on the ground. The drones made an emergency maneuver, braking left and right. The trail of bullets likewise went all around the scientist, but none hit Kensu himself.

“Dr Kensu, what do you think you are doing?!” AIDA screamed inside his mind. Yep, that was definitely panic. Kensu almost felt proud of the AI for learning to vocalize emotions.

“Proving you right. It seems like something changed, they want us alive now, but they can’t capture us with murder drones. ”

A squad of soldiers appeared on the edge of the roof, all climbing up the emergency stairs. Unlike the plainclothes officers from the truck, these were all wearing their reglementary exoskeletons and gas masks. “See? They still require a human touch.”

Kensu spread his arms towards the approaching soldiers. They all raised their guns at him. “Come now, I know you won’t kill-“One of the soldiers fired his rifle, the bullet hitting Kensu in the stomach and knocking the wind out of him. He kneeled, looking at the projectile on the ground.

“Rubber bullets? If they had Rubber bullets why didn’t they put rubber bullets in the drones then?”

“It’s harder to modify drones to allow rubber bullets than it is to load them into regular rifles.” AIDA offered as a suggestion. Her voice was strained as if she was pushing herself to talk through the pain.

The soldiers began firing, pelting Kensu with painful less-than-lethal ordnance. The scientist whimpered in pain, his arms taking the brunt of the assault as he raised them to defend himself. Two soldiers pulled out stun batons and broke off from the squad, running to give their prey the coup de etat.

If Kensu stayed still, they would capture him. So, Kensu ran towards the edge of the building. The drones opened fire, trying to block his way with a wall of bullets. But the young scientist wasn’t deterred, he kept running.

The drone swarm peeled off, only one remained stubbornly trying to shoot the ground in front of Kensu. To do so, it hovered close to the edge of the roof. Kensu jumped to get away from the hail of rubber bullets. The drone could not move away fast enough. The young scientist landed on top of it.

Kensu slid off the shiny metal chrome but managed to catch one of the sides of the machine, the security railing beside its rotor, before falling completely. The drone began beeping some sort of alarm and moving erratically. It suddenly flew away from the roof, the scared scientist dangling underneath him.

The soldiers could only watch their prey fly away with their mouths aghast.

“Yep. He is showing off.”