[center][h3]The Chase[/h3]
[b]Collab: [@TruthHurts22]'s Raz, [@Double]'s Roxas, & [@Lugubrious][/b]
[b]1,926 Words / +3 EXP[/b][/center]

Raz focused ahead as he and Roxas headed up the chase, the few glances he managed to throw over his shoulder only making sure they were still being chased. He didn’t know just how many G-Men took the bait, so hopefully their ruse was enough to catch the attention of most of them, enough to give their friends a decent window to escape. [color=FF8C00]”I know, right?”[/color] Raz kept up the fake bragging with Roxas even as they rushed down the road. [color=FF8C00]”Like that thing! With the important people! [i]So[/i] economically sensitive!”[/color]

When asked what next, Raz just shrugged. [color=FF8C00]”No clue! I didn’t think this far ahead.”[/color] They sidestepped into an alley to avoid some agents that were starting to flank them. [color=FF8C00]”Just wing it I guess!”[/color] ‘Winging it’ would have to wait, as the alley only lead them into a dead-end, surrounded by G-Men on either side. Raz followed Roxas’s lead on climbing up, only his was much less flashy than Roxas, shimmying up a gutter pipe with rapid speed.

The roof would give them a bit of leeway, but it wouldn’t be long before some G-Men scrounged up, what, roof tiling equipment? Raz looked down at the ground with hands on hips. [color=FF8C00]”Alright, well, we can’t get to the rendezvous point with them on our tail. Guess we’ll have to lose them somehow.”[/color] Raz looked up and scanned the city, trying to drum up ideas. [color=FF8C00]”They can’t get anywhere they’re not [i]supposed[/i] to be, not without a ‘disguise’ at least. Maybe we can cut through some warehouse? One of the schools?”[/color]

“The schools? You sure none of them were disguised as students?” they’d spotted so many G-Men on their way to the pet shop that Roxas couldn’t remember all the disguises they were using. If any of them were disguised as students they could just follow them right into whatever school they ran to, “Huh?” Roxas peaked down to the alley below and saw what was coming for them.

Down below, the G-men poured into the alley, jogging at a decent clip. Between the ‘road workers’ and ‘students’ that originally closed in the group and forced them into the pet shop, the decoy duo could count seven of them, all of them one hundred percent identical now that they’d ditched their disguises. While the runners managed to break their pursuers’ line of sight for a moment, the G-men naturally looked up once they witnessed the empty alleyway, and in so doing spotted the young men peering down at them. “Up there!” one of them barked. “They are clearly not air conditioner repairmen!”

As he slowed to a stop, another G-man shook his fist. “Rooftops are restricted areas! Get down here!”

“Now that you’re running from us, we have probable cause!” a third declared. “You may as well give up now.”

Between flowmotion and levitation, Raz and Roxas had made a way up where there was none, but that didn’t leave the G-men out of options. Two of them up their backs to the brick wall down below so that they could give the rest a powerful boost up. Wherever the two planned to go next, they needed to get going soon.

“Uh… I don’t think they’re bothering with disguises anymore.” Roxas told Raz. He glanced around in search of another route they could take and spotted a neighboring rooftop that looked to be at a lower elevation, “How well can you jump?” he asked, pointing at the potential route he had spotted, “Think we can make it?”

[color=FF8C00]”Oh I can jump,”[/color] Raz replied with a smug tone. [color=FF8C00]”I dunno how long we can leapfrog over these guys before we run out of roofs or they wise up though. Plus we still need a way to shake ‘em so we can get to the copter.”[/color]

“Well, we’ve got no other ideas right?” he said with a shrug, and then took off in a sprint toward the edge of their current rooftop. When he reached the edge he leaped with as much strength as his legs could give him. Now thankfully for Roxas, he was actually quite spry and thus landed on the other side safely and with no issue. Raz followed soon after, taking the jump at a brisk sprint - he didn’t have enough momentum to make the whole leap, but he formed a psychic bubble under him, boosting off of it for the extra distance needed.

Hurrying to the other side of the building, Raz surveyed their options, soon pointing out a bus stop a few blocks from them. [color=FF8C00]”How’s about a little trip for our friends back there, eh?”[/color]

“Works for me, let’s go!” Roxas replied as he ran to make his move. When he reached the edge he summoned Oblivion in his right hand, “Blizzaga!” he cried, aiming the ice spell at the roof’s edge so that a bit of ice spiked forth and provided a slightly farther out spot to jump from. He hopped into that jutting spike of ice and made another leap. The ice was necessary to reach the neighboring roof as it was a little bit further away and just outside his natural jumping distance. The outreaching ice helped make up the distance and like before he reached the other side safely.

“Just a couple more jumps and then we can make our way back to ground.” he said with confidence. If they could keep the high ground long enough to get as close as possible to where they were going, then they could hit the ground and sprint their way to the bus stop. What would happen after that? Well, they’d probably have that figured out by the time they got there, right?

[color=FF8C00]”Got it!”[/color] With the two of them sticking to high ground, the G-Men had no real chance to catch up to them. They couldn’t make the same leaps and bounds if they [i]did[/i] get on the roofs, and the two never stood around long enough for them to clamber up the same building. The G-Men didn’t give up their pursuit though, which is what they were counting on.

A few more leaps and several further taunts later, Roxas and Raz made it to a small hardware shop just outside the bus stop, oh so luckily when the next bus was pulling in. The G-Men following them took a wrong turn a block away so they managed to put some distance between them. [color=FF8C00]”Alright, follow my lead,”[/color] Raz told Roxas as he hopped down from the shop’s awning onto the sidewalk, and then made a dash into the bus. He led Roxas further in, about halfway down the rows of seats, before he stopped. [color=FF8C00]”Okay, these guys still work on the same warped logic as when I first dealt with them, so as long as we can [i]disguise[/i] ourselves…”[/color] He unclasped a small pouch dangling from his rucksack, pulling out a [url=https://i.imgur.com/MzkChVO.png]pair of colorful lollipops[/url] and handed one to Roxas.

[color=FF8C00]”We’re a couple of lost kids looking for our parents,”[/color] Raz explained, glancing out the windows on the lookout for their pursuers. [color=FF8C00]”And if they ask where we went, say we saw us hide in the bus somewhere. That should deal with them. Got it?”[/color]

“And this’ll fool them?” asked Roxas, staring at his lollipop incredulously, “Alright, I trust you know what you’re talking about.” he then added with a shrug.

One thing stuck out to the two as they took refuge inside the bus, which was its emptiness. No students of any grade could be found on board. The [url=https://i.imgur.com/aEX7gaU.png]bus driver[/url] said nothing to them either, but once they got inside he closed the double doors, shifted out of park, and began to pull away. Only for a squad of G-men stampeding across the street to flag it down, forcing the bus driver to stop again. Very nervous all of a sudden, he swallowed before pulling the lever to open the door again. With no other scapegoats to deflect their pursuers’ attention once they came inside, the boys hurried down the steps with their disguises ready, betting what might be their very lives on the Psychonaut’s plan.

Outside, they found all seven G-men arranged in a semicircle around the door, their red eyes fixed on Raz and Roxas. Close up, they were even more unnerving. They did not seem to breathe, nor to blink. Were they even alive?

Roxas was quick to take a big lick of his lollipop, “Hey, why’d we stop?” he asked, trying to make his voice sound a little different from earlier, “I thought we were going to school?”

[color=FF8C00]”I don’t know,”[/color] followed Raz, who made no attempt to hide his voice. [color=FF8C00]”We are just a couple of children doing regular school-related activities after all.”[/color]

The G-men glanced between one another, thinking. One of them crossed his arms, his vivid red eyes narrowed. “Kids, you say? Using a school bus…on a Saturday?”

“Oh yeah, our uh, Speech Club moved its meetings to Saturdays. We were just on our way to meet with our club mates.” he nudged Raz with his elbow, “Right?”

[color=FF8C00]”That’s right! Speech Club helps us with our speech,”[/color] he helpfully explained.

“I see…” Furtively the G-man glanced through the bus’s windows, scanning for the runaways among the seats. “Run along then, children. We…being very busy bus inspectors…must further inspect this bus.” The crowd parted to let the boys pass. Then two of them entered the vehicle in single file.

One stared at the bus driver, taking note of the man’s shaking and the beads of sweat on his forehead, then moved down the aisle. The second took his place beside the bus driver, watching his colleague. For a few moments the G-man moved between the seats, finding nobody on board. Then he looked up to examine the emergency roof escape hatch, which he found to be locked from the inside. Impassive as ever, he turned back to the front of the bus, and shook his head.

“Eyewitnesses confirm that our suspects boarded the bus, but there are no passengers, and other exits are all sealed,” the G-man at the front murmured. “Which means the fugitive…” He whirled around to face the bus driver, extending his hand. “Is you!”

The man’s eyes widened as he tried to squirm away. “No, wait, No-!”

When the G-man grabbed his shoulder, a loud snapping noise rang out, and both disappeared. All that remained was a plume of smoke in the seat, the bus driver’s hat, and the haunting echo of his scream.

The first G-man sauntered up, reached down, and picked up the hat. He dusted off the seat and sat down, then replaced his own fedora with his newly-acquired headwear. “I am the bus driver,” he deadpanned. “Bringing my students to school for extracurricular activities.” One by one the other G-men filed onto the bus, holding their pencils, rulers, and calculators. The double doors slammed shut behind them, and with a loud pneumatic hiss the bus began to move.

“Oh man,” Roxas said after a sigh of relief, “I can’t believe they actually bought that. I just hope that bus driver doesn’t get hurt or something because of us.”

Raz and Roxas watched the bus pull away, the G-Men nonthewiser to their clean getaway. [color=FF8C00]”That guy’ll be fine,”[/color] Raz reassured Roxas as he stuck his Psi-pop back into its holster. [color=FF8C00]”They won’t kill him. At least I think so. Now c’mon, we gotta hurry to the others!”[/color]

“Right behind you.” Roxas responded as the two took off for the rendezvous.