Escape the Polizia di Stato

Norio, Ame, and Taiyō all ran away from the men that used the guise of the police force. Under that protection, they could chase them and "charge" them with whatever they wanted. Besides, who would listen to three teens that ran from the police, and even if they were the real police force, they could risk getting arrested. That would be bad, especially since they were children of the Mafia.

Running past the students, crashing into some as they tried to escape, Ame cursed under his breath, wishing he had his sword.

"Isn't there anythi-" Ame began.

"No, there's nothing we can do right," Norio began, his breath causing breaks in his sentence. "If they're the real police, it would be bad to have assault on us, which would make the amount of people searching for us even greater."

"So what do we do then?" Taiyō asked. He wasn't one to just run away from a fight, especially since his friends were in danger, but Norio wasn't going to let them look like the bad guy.

"There's one thing we can do, the only thing we have to do." Norio, reaching into his pocket, held a marble into his hand, injecting it with Cloud Flames just like he was told. Throwing the marble into the air in front of them, it was a matter of seconds before the marble exploded, a flash of indigo-colored "fireworks" shining in the sky. "There. That's what we needed, a signal to warn the others."

Sukai, Arashi, Annalise, and Raiden, all now equipped with their specialized earphone/communicators, exited the building that Irie was in, hoping to look for Norio and his group. There were heading toward the entrance of the university where they said they would meet up. It was supposed to go as planned, but something else caught the attention of the Lightning Guardian.

Raiden constantly looked around him, most likely because of his paranoia of getting caught, which wasn't all that unlikely. Anyways, he was looking around the campus with a worried look until he saw a bright light in the corner of his eyes, turning his head toward the source to see a lingering indigo flame.

Cloud Flames? Wait!

"Guys!" Raiden's sudden shout attracted the attention of the others in his group, Sukai, Arashi, and Annalise turning to see a worried-faced Raiden. However, they didn't need to ask him what the problem was; they only needed to look up slightly and see the remaining Cloud Flames flicker away, a sign that nobody needed time to interpret.

"Norio's Flames! They're in trouble!" Sukai, in all his fright, ran toward the place where they believed the Flames came from, Arashi, Annalise, and Raiden following close behind.

"It was somewhere on the other side of the lake," Annalise said, Sukai running toward the lake that was in the center of the campus. After a few minutes, the four teens reached it and slowed to look around for Norio, Ame, or Taiyō around the edge of the lake.

"There!" Arashi said in a raised voice. Turning and following Arashi's gaze, Sukai saw the three others running from a pair of men in suits, both of the men sprinting at full force, slowly gaining on them.

"We have to help them," Sukai said.

"I'll stop them," responded Arashi. He was about to reach under his black coat to grab his pistol when Annalise grabbed his wrist.

"Are you stupid? We can't fire at those guys with all those people around them!"

"Then I suggest you take over Annalise. You would be perfect for helping them escape."

"We can't help them from here though. There's a limit to how far my flames will go, so we better catch up to them." In agreement, the three boys followed behind Annalise, hoping to get to Norio's group before anything bad happened.

"Hey, you kids! Stop!" The two men were barking at Norio, Ame, and Taiyō to stop, but they had little intention of doing so. The three teens were having trouble dodging the students that were innocently trying to get to their desired location. Honestly though, they didn't really care since they had little time to worry about anyone else at the moment.

"We can't keep running, like this," Ame said, his breath becoming heavy and ragged. Norio and Taiyō tried to keep themselves under control, but they were also starting to feel the strain of exhaustion from running and a lack of good sleep.

"Keep going," Taiyō said, trying to reassure the younger Guardian. "Sukai's group, should have, gotten the message."

"Last warning you brats!" shouted one of the men from behind.

"They're losing patience. That can't be good," Norio said. To prove what Norio said, the men both pulled out a gun, something that none of them could fight against with all the people around. However, at the sight of the gun, the students all began fleeing the campus, all of them seeking shelter within some building to keep themselves from becoming collateral.

The sudden surge of running students made it harder for Sukai's group to navigate safely to Norio, Ame, and Taiyō, bumping into one of them more times than they wished. It slowed them a great deal and it wasn't something he wanted to deal with right now.

No! We're getting close to them. Please, move out of the way!

After another minute of difficult bumping and running, the crowd finally seemed to thin out and clear itself, leaving no one around the lake save the teens and the two men.

"There they are!" Sukai saw the Norio, Ame, and Taiyō running around the lake heading for a path that led them away from him and the others.

"Norio! Ame! Taiyō!" Sukai shouted at the top of his lungs, hoping one of them would turn around. Luckily for him, Taiyō was the one who began turning his head, looking for something that would be the source of the shouts. After a few seconds of searching, his gaze landed on Sukai and his group, a smiling appearing on his face.

Taiyō turned to face the two beside him and said something that was inaudible to Sukai, but the message was received that they were here and ready to help.

"Come on, let's meet them half-way," Annalise said, getting Sukai back on track and following the white-haired girl. It was only a matter of time before the seven of them were back together, running in one group away from the men who at this point knew no consequences would come from shooting their guns.

"Annalise, now!" Concentrating on surrounding the large group in Mist Flames, the group eventually began to slowly disappear, hidden behind the illusion of the Mist. However, it didn't stop their pursuers from firing their gun.

They had thought the gun would be a normal firearm, equipped to propel bullets, but they were all wrong. What got launched from the gun was a burst of Storm Flames aimed straight to the ground that the teens stood on. Once the bundle of flames touched the ground, it erupted, causing the Mist Flames around the teens to scatter, revealing their location and holding them at gunpoint.

"You brats. Be glad we didn't blow you up! Now, come with us or we'll use force! None of you will come back alive if you struggle!"

Wh-what? Sukai thought. Just how strong is this family?!