A transmission came in from the helicopter hovering overhead; it was being projected into the listening device of Blyke's helmet, only moments before the target went over.
"Captain, we've got a confirmed reading on the scanner— that man is holding the artifact!"
He had just demanded the artifact, and this transmission confirmed his suspicions.
"I'm sorry, but no."
Before Blyke could put the man down, he was caught off guard as the man sent himself over the edge. With no other choice, Blyke dove off the building after him. As he could feel the rush of adrenaline coursing through him, he strategized his fall to close the distance. With swift thinking, he armed the advanced grappling gun, and in colliding with the red herring, he secured his grip and shot the grappling hook over the roof's edge.
As it hooked, the cord strung tight and slammed the two men through a glass panned window a few floors down. The two were sent rolling just apart from each other in the wide open space. As the two struggled to stand, Blyke, who had been better suited for the fall, was the first to his feet. Then, as Blyke went to close the distance, he was caught by surprise when just then, the individual readily pulled a taze gun from his pocket, firing it upon Blyke.
The shock was quick, and it gave the man just the time he needed to pick up the case and run for the corridor.
Down on the ground level, Alice was hot on their trail as he cautiously followed the perpetrator, as they were slowly stalking behind the helpless damsel. As she panicked, she kept scanning the area for anywhere to run, trying various doors just to find they were all locked, as her baby was clutched in her arms. With nowhere else to go, she retreated up the stairwell. The man trailing after her removed his head covering as he could be seen laughing to himself as step by step, he tormented the poor woman with a steady chase.
Alice maintained cover, ducking in and out of corners as he tried to find the best opportunity to help her. The knife the man was carrying at his side was large, and had teeth on the back. He followed the damsel up the steps, and she tripped over the steps, spraining her knee as she held her baby close to her chest. The full force of her fall broke the skin, causing her to bleed and threw her child into a fit. As the baby cried, the young woman grabbed onto the railing, using it to lift herself up as she continued to run away while the man following behind her laughed hysterically at her pain and increasing distress. Alice winced at her collapse, worried for the child and its mother.
As the woman and her perpetrator got up the first flight of stair, Alice used both his hands on the railing to move up as quickly and quietly as possible. He turned the corner after them, then propped himself against the narrow wall as he watched the two make their way up the second flight of stairs.
As the woman retreated around the corner wall, the perpetrator following behind her wiped his thumb along his chin, as all the predatory laughter had caused him a bit to drool. Alice, watching him with wide eyes, proceeded to make his way up the steps. The damsel was greatly in distress as she struggled to retreat down the hall, limping and using the left wall for support.
The perpetrator spun the knife in his hand as he began marching faster after the helpless woman. Recognizing this action, Alice saw no other choice in this desperate time, but to risk causing a diversion. Quickly, he removed one of his shoes and throw it down the hall in the opposite direction. When the sound of impact toned down the hall, the perpetrator stopped momentarily to turn around. Not noticing the source of noise however, he smiled maliciously as he turned back around and proceeded to chase the damsel he had been so intently stalking behind. She came upon another staircase and began to climb, her adrenaline and drive for survival pushing her through the pain as her baby continued to cry uncontrollably. She couldn't afford to stop at any cost.
Seeing as the perpetrator ignored the sound, Alice's breath grew heavier, as he was out of tricks to bide for time. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, bracing through his nerves before running out after them.
As the two made their way up the stairs in their game of cat and mouse, Alice came up the flight of stairs, trampling into the perpetrator, while shouting, as the man was stepping up the final step. He had nearly caused the perpetrator to lose his footing. Doing so, Alice's cry grabbed the woman's attention for a moment, as she turned to see Alice intercepting her perpetrator's march.
The bad man, however, caught his footing and shoved Alice away. In this struggle, Alice stood looking at him in the eyes with shock. The perpetrator seeing this, swung his knife out towards Alice's gut, when Alice lept back, narrowly escaping the knife's area of reach.
As the man stepped forward to swing his knife at Alice's head, Alice ducked down and fled off towards the woman. She was delusional and terrified as Alice approached her, but as he reached her, he helped hold her up around her waist. The damsel quickly realized he was just here to help, and as she held her crying baby firmly across her chest, Alice helped her to move along off the wall.
The perpetrator was visually annoyed as he cracked his neck by twisting it back and around with its sheer muscle, before marching quickly after them with a look that could kill.
Alice looked back as he helped the woman along, seeing the man closing in behind them. He found a door that could swing open, and as he let go of the woman, he proceeded to put in everything he had to slam the door at their perpetrator in full force. As Alice assisted the woman up the next flight of stairs, the perpetrator had grown so annoyed that he took the time to kick the door back closed. He was grunting in a delirious fit of rage as he marched up the stairs after them.
Upon reaching the top flight of stairs, Alice and the woman froze in their tracks as another man, who was sweating, stepped out into the stairwell ahead of them. He wore a long coat, and him and Alice locked eyes.
With urgency and nowhere else to run, Alice and the woman tried to push themselves passed the man who had crossed their path.
"Wait!" The man shouted out as he grabbed Alice by the arm, tugging Alice off his footing and causing the woman to fall back onto the wall again, as she held her crying child.
Alice spared no time to listen, as he fought the man off of him, and shoved him to the floor. The man in his own desperation, removed a sort of elongated device from his pocket and quickly jammed it into the back of Alice's single sole as he turned to run.
The pronged probe was ripped out of his shoe, nearly causing Alice to trip from the sudden tug. He looked back to the man on the ground once, who was watching him intensely, before helping the woman to escape once again.
The man from the roof now found himself in another desperate situation however, as Alice and the damsel's perpetrator reached the top of the steps, and locked eyes with him. At this moment, the perpetrator had a lust for blood, as he marched over to the man on the ground as he pushed himself to his feet.
Seeing no other solution, and determined to bide Alice and the damsel some time to get away, the man lunged himself at their perpetrator who was swinging his knife in a downward lunge.
The man threw his arm up, clashing their forearms together and pinning his other arm into it for support, stopping the progression of attack before quickly throwing his pinned arm back and up into the perpetrator's groin, which caused a enough shock to allow him to follow up by thrusting his foot into the perpetrator's pelvic, pushing him back just enough for him to continue running as well.
The perpetrator was like a brick wall however, and managed to reach the man before he could get away, stopping him in his tracks.
He lunged his knife out, and it pierced through his coat. The stumble caused by the interruption of movement shifted his center of gravity as he felt a sharp, piercing sensation along his side. He let out a shout before collapsing to the floor. Alice, looking back, couldn't help the sudden urge to help both parties, as he released the woman to move on without him.
"Go! Just go!" he instructed her.
She continued up the next flight, and Alice in all his good faith sprinted at the perpetrator, screaming. In the last second, he lept with all his might, creating a force behind him as he slammed into their attacker. He was lucky, as the blade had not pierced him on impact, but that did not stop the perpetrator from swinging his blade into his side.
As he was getting up, the side of Alice's stomache was sliced, and he stumbled over, yelping in pain. The man bleeding from his side got up, and grabbed the gun from the perpetrator's tool belt, before the perpetrator feeling the tug threw his arm back, hitting the man back to the floor while causing the gun to be slung across it.
Close to Alice, there was an open elevator shaft which has caution tape over the opening. It was empty as the elevator hadn't yet been installed. He charged at the perpetrator, hoping to work alongside the other injured person to fend off this mad man. With his deep cut however, he was no match, as the perpetrator kicked Alice back again, causing him to cry out greatly in intense pain. He stumbled back, and broke through the caution tape, missing his grip. Alice then fell helplessly to the bottom with a crash.
The struggling man managed to reach the gun, just as his perpetrator closed the distance between them. He rolled back and immediately fired off two shots into his attacker. The perpetrator's body twitched as the bullets pierced into his flesh. He stood for barely a second, before dropping to his knees and falling dead to the floor. The man was panting heavily, holding the gun in the air and had his hand over his side. Blood was seeping into his clothes, but the knife wound was more of a deep graze.
After a brief moment, he crawled over to tge elevator shaft, and, looking down, he saw Alice laying there not moving. The man breathed heavily and closed his eyes as he swallowed. He felt at a loss, as he had just lost his new sense of hope.
Up the stairs, the woman was quickly limping down the hall as Blyke appeared before her, stepping out from the next stairwell. She bumped into him, shifting the impact to her shoulder as her and her baby screamed in fright. She quickly attempted to back away.
"Lady! Lady! Calm down! I'm not going to hurt you!" Blyke insisted. His voice was muffled under his helmet.
"No! No! You're one of them!" the damsel cried out as she continued to scream, all the while yanking herself from side to side.
Blyke held her, trying to prevent her from jostling around, as to avoid her child being at risk of being dropped.
"Lady! You have to stop or you're going to hurt the baby!" he insisted intensely.
Hearing this, the woman froze up, but was trembling. She understood that his words were right, as breaking away was hopeless.
"Now tell me, did you see a man come this way?" Blyke asked.
"No. I don't know. Please... Please don't let him kill me! Don't let him hurt my baby!" she cried desperately, as she was panicked into tears.
"Where is he?" Blyked asked.
The woman pointed down the hall towards the previous stairwell.
"There! Down there!" she answered in a panicked tone.
Blyke let go of the woman, and headed down in the direction she instructed without looking back. When he arrived at the floor below, Blyke investigated the hall, but the man he was after was nowhere to be seen. He examined his surroundings and found trails of blood along with one of his men dead on the floor. As such, he knelt down beside him.
"And just what were you doing in here?" he asked the body. He lowered his eyes aside, as he dreaded to think what one of the organization's men was trying to do, but made the connection with everything going on, that he was the one the woman was running from. He didn't like this operation one bit.
He moved along taking note of the spills of blood, but not finding what he was looking for, continued his way to the lower levels.
Shortly after, the damsel came down the steps after her baby had been calmed. She peered around the corner just in time to see Blyke trailing off down the next flight of stairs. Slowly, she moved along the right wall, and when she came across the elevator shaft, she noticed the caution tape had broken. At that moment she noticed the drips of blood, and looking over the edge, she saw the boy who had saved her lying still, with blood on his side. She gasped, cupping her hand over her mouth in shock as she backed away from the opening and huddled up to the floor. The trauma began setting in.
"Please don't be dead..."