Grunwald had to take a step back in from the shouting, the suddenness and strength of it having a strong effect on his ears. Mixing that in with the waves of energy being blasted from all sides, tops and bottoms of shops, and even a few from below in the sewers, it was clear that an attack was upon them.
The man had barely gotten away from where the cameras were before they were in sight. It was civilians of all ages and getups, some fashioned with clubs filled with nails, while others had simple branches and in hand. Some wore hockey gear or something else stolen from some sport, though most just worse the tattered clothing they normally had.
And each and every one of them, without fail, looked ready to kill at that moment, energy-filled in their shouting as they rushed forward like a moving wall of death. Grunwald could only stand still in that moment, unsure of how he was going to deal with all of it. The automation meant to be by his side was nowhere to be seen, though he knew that to be due to him sending him to the station. Grunwald was alone against a stampede of would-be criminals.
No, not would-be criminals. The look in their eyes was more than enough for the man to rank them among the most dangerous of beings. A mob that was driven by the energy of each other. There was no chance of him taking one down and the others learning from the example. The look of greed and satisfaction of adrenaline was too strong. It wouldn't do anything to take care of the ten closest to him with a tranquillizer, the only real effect being that they were going to get trampled by that behind.
What a brutal death it would be, Grunwald imagined, the man preparing a cocktail known as a flashbang. That was what he called it anyway, the true name being a class above what he was allowed to really talk about. Only the effect was known by the populace anyway.
Having it strapped to the end of a small pipe, he fired it onto the sky, closing his eyes for what he knew was coming. It wouldn't do much in the long run, but the first row would be slowed down enough to make the news crews seek shelter in their vans.
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In the direction of where her boss was supposed to be, Cassandra saw what could only be called a new sun. It was brighter than the real thing anyway, while also producing more sound than anything else should have. If it had been any stronger, the woman knew that the windows on the buildings would have broken, the extreme shaking so off just how much there truly was to worry about. The woman took to running in the middle street instead of the sidewalk. Jules joined her instantly.
‘A large crowd is surrounding me,’ Grunwald sent to her, making the woman wonder what she was meant to do. The way they were running would intersect her boss’ location if they shifted their route slightly to the left, yet…
‘Do you need assistance?’ Cassandra sent back instantly, already ready to swipe to the side if there was any chance of a yes. The station might have been important, but the chance of an officer falling alone was not something she would ever accept. No matte how-
‘I can handle myself. The station is more important. Jared is your top priority,’ Grunwald sent back just as quickly, the man clearly favouring an already wounded soldier above himself. Cassandra wanted to fire back with her not needing to worry about a man who likely wouldn't be given a second thought by the thieves when another on her team was facing more people than anybody was ever expected to.
Not even the quiet acceptance of a thumbs-up could be sent back, however. Not that Cassandra didn't try. The network just refused to respond to her orders at all.
“Attempt network connections in general,” Cassandra ordered Jules, speeding up her run the tiniest bit. It was slightly above what she was comfortable running two kilometres at, but she was sure her adrenaline would carry her as long as she needed it. There were more important things to think about than the long-term health of her legs.
“Everything is busted,” Jules reported, looking frustrated at itself. “Nothing is responding to anything. The network is up, yet it seems as if everything has been removed from the permissions list.”
Nobody was allowed to do anything, Cassandra surmised for herself. Somebody had access to the network to the degree where they could control the master commands. There was still only one party able to do such things.
“Get ready to confront the thieves in full,” Cassandra said with a finality in her words. The woman sent a mental command at her belt, happy to find that the low-range commands within her own gear were still working, and made it ready for tranquilisers with maximum dosages and for her revolver to have explosive ammunition. Anything hit with anything would stay down for as long as she wanted, whether that would be a month or permanently. “If no immediate confrontation is had, we move over to the storage rooms.”
Jules looked at her weirdly at that, but the woman didn't mind it, not even noticing anything but her own breathing. The woman was doing her best with what she had, the gear on the back having more weight than what she usually ran with. Her steps were off, her breaths heavier, yet her mind refused to even acknowledge the idea of slowing down for a single moment. There were too many things to reach, too many things they could lose. Even if it was unlikely, the things Jared was easily able to be forced into. It would take a dull knife to take his knife without any difficulty.
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The woman might have liked the man as a person, yet even she couldn't bear the thought of leaving a man to die in a hospital bed. Maybe that was how the woman sped up even further, her legs carrying her more and more with each stride. There was no waiting around being slow. She had to be quick. She had to strike fast. And there was no way she would let the thieves get their goal. They had sent warnings, had destroyed property, and she would make sure that they suffered for every step in their plans. They would be in jail for the rest of their lives, forced to pay debts that a hundred generations would never be able to stand up against. Their legacy would be the ruin of their entire lineage, and she would make sure they felt every dollar destroyed personally.
“You need to slow down, Cass,” Jules said, using her name instead of some dumb nickname like ‘dear,’ ‘desire,’ or any other dumb word that matched her look. “You will exhaust yourself too quickly if you continue like this.”
“You need to speed up, shithead,” Cassandra fired back, her words coming with some distance between them. The woman was breathless. Her body had never felt so much energy yet had never felt so tired either. The nights of restlessness, forced slumber with pills, and uncountable hours spent staring at a ceiling were firing themselves at her, showing the consequences of each second with some pain in her body. But that was just weakness leaving her body. The woman was free to do as she damned pleased, and she was going to save somebody from a fate nobody deserves. “We are going to slit their throats before they take a simple step into that place.”
“We aren't slitting their throats, dear. That would be unprofessional,” Jules stated, going back to its usual mannerisms. “We’re going to shoot them in the head like civilised cops. We do have some standards, even if you run around like an angry animal.”
Cassandra positively growled at that statement, the woman not even realising just how much the automation was right in its words. There was something primal in her movements, her nails like claws, her eyes like a tiger, and her speed more than enough to match one in the wild. She was the predator going forwards and coming to the prey, and there would be nothing stopping her from stopping blood from being pumped in their hearts.
Maybe it was the damage that had been done to those around her. Maybe it was the manipulations, the destruction, or some other inane thing they had done towards her. Or maybe Cassandra was just so fucking angry at the thieves. No matter what, the woman was beginning to look at the group like something less than animals, the control they had over the battlefield closer to a devil or a trickster. And the woman knew what was needed to tend to such creatures. Death and dismemberment as quickly as possible. She would see to it personally that such happened within the hour.
The two ran and ran. One kilometre was left, but it was right down a straight road, making the two speed up more and more. A kilometre of distance became nine hundred meters within an instant. Then there were five hundred left. Then… they were meters away from a front door that had been broken open.
It wasn't even a door anymore at that point, the hinges having been blown off, leaving it being closer to a gate of sorts. There was no way to close it, the actual door part having been pushed so hard inside that it laid two meters inside. However they had done it, they had done it hard. The force, the power needed to do something like that brought some sense back into the woman.
Cassandra briefly sent a message through the police channel about caution and stealth but had to roll her eyes at her personal blunder. Of course, the lack of a network would extend to them having a lacking police channel., forcing them to use purely verbal language.
“You command the lethal weaponry and I will make sure that the non-lethal is dealt with. I will be first with you backing me up,” Cassandra said within five seconds, firing off words afterwards, just loud enough for the automation to hear. The woman would have shouted if not for the broken glass from the door not having been blown too much around in the wind. The thieves had entered within a minute or two, and they had to be close by. “Be ready for instant confrontation inside.”
Jules gave a quick nod and they were off with a sprint. Cassandra rolled inside, under the required height for a surprise jab from one of the sides. Nothing would have come regardless of her entrance method, yet the technique would have worked fine if there were.
Within a second, the woman had mentally scanned the entire entrance hall. Except for slightly dirty steps on the ground, there were no clues of anything being wrong. Except for the broken door, of course, but that hardly counted for anything anymore.
The woman would have spent a moment to recuperate if it had been any other situation, but there was no chance of such a thing happening. It was much too serious for such a thing, Cassandra fully understood that a moment of letting her guard down could result in her being hit from the side. A bullet in her cranium was not among her desired list of activities of the day.
Then again, neither did she expect to clear the police station, so the woman supposed she wasn't asking for too much with such a request. There were many wonders in the world, and the act of safety was among the more common of them.
Jules followed into the entranceway within a second of the woman taking another step forward. The hallway that followed them was empty of all sound and signs, the dirty boot having been cleaned within the first couple of steps inside the building. The woman wouldn't be able to use it for anything. Cassandra sent a mental curse out into the world because of it, her pulse ramming itself against the ceiling with adrenaline.
They weren't going to stay still for a moment, the two moving down the hallways and right towards the storage rooms. They had something to grab, something that they needed to get no matter what. Without it, they were in more trouble than they would ever be able to get out of.
Another hallway was entered after that, the woman cursing the architecture from being inherently confusing. Hidden spots were everywhere, favouring anybody hiding within. It was meant to assist the officers inside, stopping any intruders from outside from getting in easily. When on the opposite end, however, it just forced Cassandra to be wary of every scent and shadow, knowing that one bug was not possible to see as different from the outline of a thief. Yet only one could kill her in a second if she was too late, even if both required the same reaction of a flicked gun in that direction. Her eyes were telling her too much.
But the woman didn't falter, did not get stressed, didn't do anything that would compromise the situation. She was as cool as ever, her thoughts of dismembering her prey kept to a minimum. Cassandra was all instincts and thought, ready to move at a second's notice. And Jules was just behind her, ready to back her up in the scenario of them finally meeting the thieves.
The quietness couldn't have been more unnerving. It was louder than sound, louder than anything Cassandra had ever heard before, yet it likewise made her so sensitive to everything. Even the woman’s own breathing was like thunder.
Yet that state of adrenaline, readiness to kill and sensitivity to everything around her was more than enough to warp the woman’s sense of time. Before she even knew it, the two officers were in front of the storage rooms needed. It was only one of the many in the building, yet she had noted its location hours earlier when checking up on the gear list. Giving the automation a nod, and getting one in return, Cassandra kicked the door open, ready to shoot at anything showing any signs of being alive.