Chapter 4: Escaping West City
If the corridors hadn't been color-coded to help staff find their way through the various sections of the facility, Vile and Nana would have wandered the dark labyrinth for hours. Retracing his steps was easy enough and Vile reached the hall where he had fought the team of Hunters before. The two descended the flight of stairs that led to the corridor the violent Reploid had used to gain access.
"Wait up!" Nana almost tripped over something in trying to keep up with Vile's breakneck speed. Velocity wasn't the issue here, she simply wasn't used to having to avoid debris, bodies and chasing after someone vaulting over furniture instead of going around it. She paused as she inspected what she'd almost tripped on and was horrified to find herself staring at the destroyed body of a Maverick Hunter. Her gasp flowed into a scream when a buster shot flew right past her. The assailant's aim had been off by the most minute of factors, and the scorch mark on the wall behind her could just as easily have been located on her chest.
"There they are! Orders are to shoot on sight! Open fire!" the other Hunters that had been called in as reinforcements were hot on their heels. It wasn't difficult for them to know where they were and where they were headed, given they'd brought as many of the internal surveillance systems as they could back online.
"Dammit!" Vile cursed as several Hunters blocked the exits out of the hall on the upper floor. His visor turned from left to right, hoping to spot any potential escape route. Time wasn't on their side. The longer he hesitated, the better the shot those Reploids would be able to line up, and the more of them were going to be flooding into the structure. He did manage to spot a small panel to his left that could be wrenched loose. From the looks of it, Vile guessed it was a maintenance shaft of some sort; just big enough to fit them.
"In there! Quickly!" Vile's impromptu partner had taken cover behind a nearby column and held onto the sides of her head to make herself as small a target as possible. He was glad to see she knew how to stay calm when under fire. He braced a heel against the panel's frame and – using brute force – pried it free. He tossed the bent metal aside and primed his shoulder cannon. "Any day now, sunshine!" he opened fire on the Hunters, giving Nana the cover she needed to run from the column to the open shaft. He didn't have time to aim properly, but the plasma shots were intended to be suppressive, nothing more. They did the job of covering their escape just fine, as the Hunters were forced to abandon their earlier barrage in favor of ducking under the incoming shots.
Nana kept her head low as she ran, even sliding the last meter to prevent getting an energy shot right between her shoulder blades. A brief inspection revealed the shaft to be on the tight side, but she could fit. While she wasn't too certain about the renegade behind her, she didn't wait to contemplate, as the Hunters were starting to open fire again. Without a second thought, she crawled in and did not look back.
Vile began taking steps away from the firefight, until he felt the wall up against his back. The purple Reploid then fired one more blast at the nearest pillar, which supported a portion of the balconies above him. He barely had the time to dive down the tunnel, as the overhead walkways buckled completely and collapsed. Dust burst into the shaft as the opening was covered with rubble.
"Keep going! We're not safe yet!" Vile's raised voice reverberated through the tight shaft. He made himself as small as he could to be able to move on through the downward inclined tube.
The maintenance tunnel went on for at least half the width of the floor they were on, but Nana soon reached another grid cover. After some maneuvering, she was able to knock it off, and she found herself staring down one of the facility's elevator shafts. Bright, blue eyes glanced around the dark shaft, both below and above her, as she tried to find some means of getting down. However, debris and the stationary, unpowered lift cabin blocked off the lower floors completely. There was no getting through that.
Nana could hear Vile grunting as he reached her. "The way down is blocked," she whispered, without glancing back at him.
"Then we go up. I've got a plan," Vile's response was immediate, with an almost amused tone in his pronunciation. It made it seem as though he was going to enjoy himself in some way.
Nana pondered the implications of that briefly, before reminding herself that she had no other options. She'd been sighted with him now, so she most certainly was lobbed in with a wanted criminal now. Carefully, she rolled over on to her back and grabbed hold of the outer edges of the shaft. She gently pushed herself out of it and reached for a ladder to her right. Once she had hold of the first bar, she was able to lift herself onto it proper and began climbing as quickly as she could. Vile did the same, following her lead while frequently looking down to make sure no one was following them the way they'd come.
The silence in the shaft was pierced when Nana suddenly called out to Vile while looking down at him with a touch of pink across her cheeks. "Keep your eyes in front, you hear?" The skintight, black fabric that covered her Reploid frame didn't exactly leave much to the imagination when it came to her lower body...
"Shut up and climb!" Vile shot back, though he did seem to be honoring her request, regardless. "I should've had my boots fixed ages ago..." Had his jet boots been functional, the Reploid would have been able to clear the height of the shaft, up to as high as they needed to go, in an instant.
They were forced to climb up three levels before they found a door that could be pried open to grant them freedom from the dark shaft. The doors up to the fifth floor had been blocked off or locked down in some way, denying them access. Once the door was open, Vile and Nana stepped through and out onto a hallway similar to the ones they had been running through before. The entire facility had been designed in such a uniform fashion that it was hard to get one's bearing.
"Unless they've been able to keep track of us with the few security systems still working in this dump, we should be safe for a bit now," the purple Reploid moved up to a cracked monitor screen a little down the corridor. Most of the commands didn't work anymore, but he was able to bring up another map of the floor. Going over the blueprint, he didn't see any clear means of escape that the Hunters wouldn't have covered already. That made his risky idea all they had left.
He turned to face Nana, who had doubled-over in an attempt to catch her proverbial breath. A mix of adrenaline, running for her life, crawling through a cramped maintenance shaft and climbing multiple stories had all sent her internal systems into overdrive to keep up. A Reploid's body simulated heavy breathing in order to expel some of the excess heat that humans could get rid off by sweating. "We gotta find an office or something, at the northern side of the building, and fast. Or anything with a window, really."
She released a final, deep breath before she straightened her back. A smug smirk tugged at her lips. "Well, what are you waiting for then? I can keep up." She then followed his lead down the orange themed hallway.
It didn't take them long to reach the northern side of the facility, as most of the corridors on that floor were clear of rubble. However, as they approached an open office room, a buster shot nearly took Vile's head off. Vile immediately pressed his back to a piece of wall to avoid further shots. "They're relentless!" Vile peered around the corner ever so slightly to shout at his opponents in frustration at being hunted like an animal. "This is just a condemned archive, not fucking Hunter HQ, ya zealots!"
Just like old times.
"Down here!" Nana motioned at a different hallway as more Hunters appeared. The entire team rained a barrage of buster fire down on them, intent on keeping them pinned while they inched closer and closer. Vile followed the white-framed operator until he could hear footsteps headed towards them from the opposite direction. A reckless Maverick Hunter rounded a corner, but his timing could not have been worse for him. Instantly, he was decked by a brutal clothesline from Vile's outstretched arm. The impact caused the hunter to flip over before hitting the floor hard. He gripped his jaw in pain and attempted to scramble back to his feet. Vile and Nana in the meantime just pressed on.
"Through there, quick!" the hunter informed his colleagues as they approached him.
Nana's dash through the corridors halted when they stumbled upon the end of the hallway. "Great; a dead-end... There's nowhere to go," Nana looked down every potential route, just to find more dead-ends and office space. Panic began taking hold as she heard the pursuing Maverick Hunters carefully closing in on them.
"In here," Vile gripped the edges of a weakened sliding door. He pressed his back to the inside of the door frame. While applying pressure against the opposite side with a booted food, he managed to pry it open enough for a Reploid to slip through. "Get a move on!"
Nana was hesitant. Inside was nothing more than an office. They'd be trapped in there. She had no better suggestions to offer, though, so she crawled through. The room was filled with the same, dull cubicles that once housed fully functional computers for employees responsible for processing the wealth of information passing through the archives. Vile followed her in soon after, narrowly avoiding being hit by another volley of buster shots. The door slammed shut behind him, though that was not going to keep the Hunters outside for long.
"Great, now we're stuck in here. What do we do now? We can't keep crawling through maintenance and elevator shafts..." Nana approached the wall of the office space facing south. The entire wall was one large window overlooking the mostly ruinous West City. The view would've been marvelous once, but now only offered a vista of old devastation.
"Outta the way!" Vile grunted loudly as he picked up a heavy desk from by the window. He held it overhead with both arms and violently sent it crashing through the reinforced, glass window. Clear shards spread outward and plummeted – with the piece of furniture – to the streets below. Behind them, the Hunters had begun using energy sabers to slowly slice their way through the door. Their commander was shouting at the top of his lungs that they had them cornered, hoping it would stop them from doing anything drastic or continue to resist.
Vile calmly walked up to the edge of the broken window, his boot pushing some of the glass remains over the side. He watched the shards descend to the streets below, illustrating what a long way down it was. He was going to need to take a few deep breaths before he could convince himself to go through with what he had in mind.
"You're not thinking of-? But. We're on the fifth floor!" Nana reached for her sternum with her hands as she protested. She took a few steps away from the gaping hole in the room, through which howling winds now poured.
"This isn't a time to think; or to whine. Sometimes-," Vile spoke nonchalantly as he approached the operator. One arm wrapped around her slender waist, which allowed him to pull her close. "You just gotta do it. No matter how crazy!" his voice built from a simple statement, to a shout intent on giving him the rush needed to override his survival instinct. With Nana pressed up against him, he ran for the window, using as much of his momentum as he could to leap out. Hopefully, the distance the jump had put between him and the structure was enough to stop them from colliding with any balconies on the way down.
"No. No! No, no noooooo!" Nana screamed from the top of her lungs as she could not stop him from taking her with him. To her, this was a plunge of faith in which she did not believe one iota. Her arms instinctively wrapped themselves around his neck, squeezing him as hard as she could manage as she held on for dear life.
Simultaneously, Vile had been kicking his own boots together, a slew of colorful curses passing his hidden lips as they refused to activate. He had diverted a significant amount of energy – essentially as much as he could spare – to the propulsion system. It had to be enough to get them to flare to life! "Come on... Come on... Activate!" he shouted in frustration and despair as every sensor in his helmet was blaring alarms and generating danger pop-ups while the hard asphalt drew ever nearer. But, just before even his boots wouldn't have made a difference anymore, they finally decided to obey his barked commands.
Once more, Nana's voice peaked in a cry at the sudden shock of the activating jet boots. However, Vile had no balance at all, so he shifted his weight back as much as he could to keep his boots aimed downward and slow their descent. Several meters above the pavement, the boots gave out, leaving Vile to let go of the operator immediately, as he knew he would enter freefall now. He unceremoniously pushed her towards a basin of water used to cool heated materials for construction. While the boots had diminished the speed of their descent considerably, the impact was still a hard and painful one. The renegade groaned as he slammed into the ground, rolling and tumbling on for at least a dozen meters before sliding to a messy stop.
Vile chuckled under his breath as he planted both his palms firmly onto the stone beneath him. He needed a few moments to gather his composure, but he was enjoying the rush that fall had given him, if nothing else. By some miracle, he'd managed to stave off any significant damage. It was about time things started looking up for him. Once he was back up to his feet, he turned around and walked over to the basin he'd casually chucked Nana into.
The operator spat out a spray of water when she rose up from the liquid's surface. Her eyes narrowed to slits when she saw Vile – high and dry – with wet hair clinging to her face. "Thanks a lot," she almost pouted like a child as she seemed to forget where they were and what was happening for the briefest of moments. She scaled the side of the utility container and accepted the hand that the renegade extended to her to help heave her out.
"You'll dry. We need to keep moving," Vile's voice contained palpable annoyance.
They needed to find some means of transportation, and quickly, or they would find themselves easy prey for the Hunters and local law enforcement. By that point, word would have undoubtedly spread that two Reploids matching their description had escaped onto the streets. The pair made their way through several alleyways in the semi-restored sector, thereby avoiding some patrols. Vile eventually motioned for Nana to halt before they would round a corner out onto a main road. The renegade peered around the edge of a building and spotted two security officers approaching on Ride Chasers. The hover bikes could travel at incredible speeds and came mounted with a potent energy weapon on the front. One of those would make for the perfect escape vehicle.
Ever quick on his feet, Vile glanced over the alleyway they found themselves in. His vision settled on a barely stable, steel ladder that was bolted to the face of the building opposite their hiding place. He placed his boot against brick and used the extra leverage to pry a steel bar from the ladder. Pressing his back against the wall again, he waited patiently for the right moment. Just as the first biker neared the alley, Vile jumped from cover and swung the crude weapon wide and hard. The mounted Reploid had no time to respond and was knocked clean off the Ride Chaser after the bar connected sharply with his chest. The vehicle detected its lack of a driver and safety measures kicked in. It stabilized itself and drove on for a short distance further before it came to a full stop.
Vile could see the other officer reaching for a sidearm kept in a holster attached to the flank of the vehicle. Responding preemptively, the purple Reploid hurled the now-bent bar at the aiming biker. Through skill – and more than a little luck – the improvised weapon hit its mark and knocked the officer down. Contrary to the previous bike, its failsafes were not fast enough to prevent it from crashing into a nearby, ruinous building; trashing it beyond immediate use. It was safe to assume the sudden loss of communication with the two riders, meant the authorities now knew where they were.
Nana was clearly affected by the violence. She'd seen plenty of it during the fighting on Giga City. But pain, death and explosions weren't things most people – or well-adjusted Reploids for that matter – ever got used to. However, Vile seemed capable of causing all three without the slightest hint of remorse. She found herself glaring at the Maverick; angrily. She realized she truly had aligned herself with the monster that had killed so many during Sigma's first uprising, and then again when he had caused a Maverick outbreak. The death toll inadvertently caused by Vile's hand in Lumine's machinations could not be underestimated either.
"Ya comin'?" Vile's prompt came after he had already mounted the functional Ride Chaser. One of his hands patted the spot behind him on the seat for her to occupy.
"Yes. Of course," the operator responded with no small amount of trepidation in her voice and body language. She nimbly mounted the back seat of the hovering bike and wrapped her arms around Vile's waist. She'd heard how fast those chasers could go when pushed to their limit. For some, extraordinarily well-founded, reason, she believed that the renegade would no doubt be burning rubber soon enough. If he was as liberal with his driving as he was with weapons and explosives, she was not going to like what came next.
"You do know how to use one of these, right?" Her question came after she recalled how he hadn't even bothered checking if his jet boots had miraculously returned to a functional state prior to performing a suicide leap off a tall building.
"Been a while. But I remember..." the t-shaped visor angled to look at her from his unobstructed shoulder. For a brief second, the operator could have sworn there was the hint of a teasing grin behind the opaque glass. "I think," a single rev of the vehicle's engine was added, before he kicked it into overdrive and blasted off down the street.
"We're gonna have to break through the blockades they'll have set up!" Vile was forced to raise his voice to be audible over the roar of the engine. He knew Nana was going to protest, but it was the best plan he had.
"No, wait! I have a better idea! I rented out a Transfer Module when I got here, we can use it to transfer to a safe place!" she proclaimed, shouting as loudly as she could to make sure the renegade heard her. Between the Ride Chaser and the growing commotion all across Sector A-7, it was a miracle they could communicate at all. The entire area had been plunged into chaos and the central square they were approaching was jammed by traffic and people trying to see what was going on.
"Safe? How do I know you're not just gonna turn me in wherever we end up? Besides, can't transfers be traced?" Vile kept his eyes on the road now, dodging vehicles and construction material whenever necessary.
"Ordinarily, yes, but I made some modifications beforehand! Just in case things went wrong and I managed to survive long enough to reach the module! The signal's untraceable!" she looked at the back of Vile's head. The renegade's helmet dropped slightly as he mulled over her suggestion. "Please? I trusted you with that leap of faith, remember? Now it's your turn to trust me," her otherwise steely gaze softened somewhat at the realization that she did owe this Reploid her life, despite who or what he was.
Vile scoffed at the dilemma, but finally gave in with a slight nod of his head. "Alright. Alright! Where do we go?!"
"Just keep following the main road, then make a sharp right at the square! Even if traffic's jammed, we should be able to pass through easily on this Ride Chaser, right?" Nana was theorizing, as she'd seen plenty of consumer models skipping blocking lanes of cars often enough.
"Let's hope so! But I ain't sticking to the main roads! Once we reach the square, I'm heading through any alleyway or side streets I can find! If I don't, we'll be easy prey for any armored vehicle local security will have out to give us a lovely little barricade!" Vile sped up even more, dashing passed a few confused pedestrians.
The authorities had indeed blocked off the north side of the square with a blockade of armored vehicles. Hunters and police officers had taken up their positions, awaiting the approach of the two fugitives. Most of the local residents didn't know what was going on. The presence of the entire security force seemed a little over-the-top for two felons. However, they didn't know Vile was one of them, and no one ever pulled any punches where he was involved, no matter what shape he was reportedly in.
One of the Hunters was skimming the horizon with a set of binoculars when he finally spotted them. He lowered the visual aid and called out to his superior officer. "Sir! They're approaching from the main road!"
"Order the Armadillos to fire!" the officer raised his arm, only to lower it again to signal the command. Armadillo armored personnel carriers had been positioned along the square. While their primary purpose was to safely transport law enforcement officers, soldiers or even maverick hunters into dangerous situations, they possessed more than enough firepower to leave Vile's Ride Chaser a smoldering heap. The fact that West City required such ordnance in the face of Maverick harassment from the lawless sectors or beyond city limits, was the perfect illustration on what it was like to live out there.
Each of the chunky, threaded vehicles had a turret installed atop of it, which could fire either a spray of energy spheres, or a single, high-powered orb akin to a canon shell. Each of the Armadillos rotated their respective turrets to aim for the approaching bike. After charging briefly, the turrets fired their payload. Each of their two barrels firing an orb of crimson, crackling energy.
"Sit tight, this is gonna get rough!" Vile wondered why they hadn't moved the blockade closer to prevent them from using the smaller side streets to try and get around them. But, he didn't have time to ponder it, as he was forced to pull out all the stops to avoid being reduced to scrap metal by the incoming fire. Each orb that crashed into the street exploded violently, leaving a small crater in its wake. Nana buried her face in Vile's back as every impact whipped up blankets of dust, gravel and chips of asphalt or pavement.
Both of them knew something was very wrong. Under no normal circumstances would using such firepower in populated districts be allowed just to ensure the capture of two criminals like them. One of them was a non-combatant without a criminal record, after all. The square was rapidly approaching and Vile spotted a small alley to his right from the corner of his eyes. He banked his body in that direction, his weight helping the machine turn ninety degrees. Nana's eyes widened in fear as a shot from one of the tanks was headed straight for them. In the nick of time, Vile sped up again, the bike darting into the alley to profit from the cover of the buildings.
The renegade was forced to take numerous tight turns, sparks flashing as the side of their vehicle scratched against the walls of the alleyways from time to time due to the momentum of every, brusque motion.
"We need to get to the riverside streets! But it's passed the blockade!" Nana explained, trying even harder to remain audible over all the noise. They continued to dart through the labyrinth of narrow streets.
Vile quickly realized why the local security forces hadn't been in much of a hurry to stop them from heading down those very same streets. Not far ahead of them, he spotted a very high, electrified fence made from reinforced materials. It was more than potent enough to stop a Ride Chaser in its tracks. Even the bike's mounted weapon would not be a guaranteed way of punching a hole right through the barrier and allow them safe passage.
"We have to turn back!" Nana looked behind them to see if they were being chased.
"No! They'll be waiting for us!" Vile knew those barriers. He also knew they took quite some time to set up properly. Surely this had to have been a rushed job. As the fence got ever nearer, Vile was forced to slow down, but sure enough, he noticed a potential saving grace. The fence had been bolted to the walls of the buildings making up the alleyway with hinges. A few well-placed shots and the fence would come tumbling down! He recalled one of the mounted officers reaching for a sidearm earlier. The former Hunter reached down, feeling out the buster pistol. He drew it and took aim, pulling the trigger as many times as he could. One-by-one the hinges were blown off, causing the fence to tilt forward and fall awkwardly onto the ground.
With it's power source cut off, and half of the fence leaning onto some debris that had been located behind it, it had now essentially been turned into a makeshift ramp. "Hang on!" Nana immediately tightened her grip on her 'partner' at the sound of the warning. Vile activated the bike's boost a final time and drove it right up the ramp. The moment it left the inclined fence's surface, they were airborne.
The Ride Chaser easily cleared the distance across the blockade. The Reploids below them looked up, their jaws almost unanimously dropping at the unforeseen turn of events. However, the Ride Chaser was headed straight for the face of a building. Vile instantly reached back and grabbed hold of Nana's wrist, before pushing off the bike once it had cleared a river below them. The renegade landed safely, crouching low once his boots hit the ground to soften the impact. Nana on the other hand, cushioned her landing by falling on her behind, which was substantially less stylish.
The bike crashed into the structure, the resulting explosion expulsing debris and flames through the air.
"Never. Again!" Nana exclaimed angrily, as she stumbled to her feet. She was starting to feel the effects of the intense cocktail of fatigue and excitement.
With the strain on his battered body wearing him down, Vile struggled to get up to his feet. However, after a few stifled groans, he managed to do so. "Where's this pad of yours?"
Nana began making her way over to a small cabin near the river. "We're almost there, it's just down the street."
Once they got in, Vile made sure the door was sealed tight, while Nana hurried to a control panel beside the transfer module. The device was a large, disc-shaped platform with four pylons rising up from the back. It was an older type, but it would be more than sufficient for their needs. Transferring was always a harrowing experience for the uninitiated, as the process would dematerialize them completely, only to reassemble them at the location of another module, or a location that was not shielded from outside access. It was a delicate and dangerous process, but Nana was an operator and had gone through the steps countless times in the past. To her, it was one efficient step after the other; like clockwork.
"Alright, the coordinates are set. We're ready to get out of here."
Vile stepped onto the disc, still rather distrusting of the whole situation. But, with the authorities hot on their heels, he had little choice in the matter. In a strange turn, it amused him that he felt exactly as helpless as the operator. Identical circumstances had forced them into the same boat, and they had need of each other. There went any strong bargaining position he might have had...
The operator joined him on the platform after having set the console to trigger the transfer operation after a timer elapsed. Another ten seconds passed before the module activated. The pylons began crackling and glowing, while the disc opened below their feet. A glass cover had become the only thing keeping them from falling into the blue, electric maelstrom beneath them. In the blink of an eye, their bodies transformed into a pink and a dark purple silhouette of pure energy – respectively – before they vanished into thin air. Two lines of light darted into the sky before dissipating.
After a few seconds of silence in the cabin, the control panel began to bleep profusely. Crackles of electricity began to spark from it. Nana had set it to overload. It might have been a brute force approach, but she wanted to make sure there were as few traces for their pursuers to follow. Her countermeasures weren't entirely foolproof, after all. The resulting explosion destroyed the cabin completely.
For now, they had gotten away with it.