Dramatic Chase - Ch.4

Dramatic Chase
Left. Right. Up the stairs. Through an open window. Open a door. Through another door. Left. Left. Jump.
'Whoops! Just broken that vase…and that window. Err…I'll pay for that later!' she grinned.
Jin giggled.
'Soleil! Wait!'
'Shut it Ichinose! Common Ritz! Stop her already!'
'Yes sir!'
Soleil may have known all the rooms and passages of the house, but at that moment everything in her head seemed jumbled up. Her head was ringing; she knew she needed to get away. The men did not think about locations any more than she did - they blindly followed Soleil's exact footsteps.
It wasn't long, then, before the first commotion broke out - starting with a scream.
'Oh! Sorry Yoshi-'
'Oh my! So sor - AHAHA! Look at your hair, old lady!!'
'My sincerest apologies, Yoshi. Need to stop Mabashi-'
They had all flash-stepped in and out of Yoshi's bedroom with less than 2 seconds between each coming and going. Yoshi's hair, which had been straightened to utmost perfection with not one strand out of place, had become frizzy once again. She screamed.
'My hair!!' she started in rage.
'Look at my hair!! You three will pay BIG time for this! Especially you, Mabashi! URGH!! I'll pummel your face in-!'
Yoshi now joined the chase.
Only a few seconds into the chase, did Soleil run into the mansion's laboratory, run by Ugaki. To her relief, he was nowhere to be seen. When in his laboratory, she was always extra careful. Kariya told her from a young age that Ugaki's job within the Bounts was very important: 'to insure prosperity and good living of the Bounts.'
'Wo~ow! This looks just like the classrooms I had at school! But more complicated, obviously…'
Leil gasped.
'I had forgotten that you where here! You are quite light!' She smiled.
'That's true! I have a small appetite! Hehe!' Jin returned the smile.
They quickly left the lab, and since she heard the voices of the others close by, she chose a new coarse to run on - trying to get everyone away from the laboratory.
'Going right!'
By now, Ritz was the furthest in front. She looked the room over carefully, twice. Satisfied that no one was in the lab, she sensed Leil's new coarse and was soon flying after her at full speed. Only a second later did Mabashi run into the laboratory - ramming the table on which different substances were being kept in glass bottles and flasks. The room was dark. The brickwork of the house could be seen along with the many shelves on it,  on which were also placed different sized bottles and flasks.
Mabashi jumped away from the table, but the damage was done. At the very least did two substances fall to the ground; they soon made contact. Sparks of electricity soon followed.
Meanwhile, Maki Ichinose was making good progress after Soleil. He noticed that Ritz and Mabashi had parted ways. He knew better than to follow Mabashi, who was well known for his lack of intuition. He stopped in his tracks. Something felt wrong. Mabashi would have been behind him by now. There was no sign of him. Maki retraced his steps but at the same time, kept focused on Soleil's coarse. He couldn't lose her now. He was getting closer to the lab, and so did the putrid smell of thick smoke reach his nostrils.
'Not the lab…please not the lab…'
He ran down the stairs. The heavy smoke slowed his progress. His eyes began to sting and become watery. He could hardly see anything.
'…idiot! First…ruined! Now…get us killed!'
'Stop…way out!…smoke is…burning…watering…eyes watering!…need…feel…way out…'
The voices became clearer the closer he got to the lab.
'Looks like Yoshi knew no better.' he muttered
As he started to open the door, it fell of it's hinges, crashing to the floor. The two figures were barely visible.
'What have you done?!' he yelled. Straight afterwards Maki began to choke from the thickness of the smoke.
'This thing is gonna blow! We need to get out, now!'
Ichinose stood in front of them, facing the black smoke. The words he said afterwards were hardly audible. There was a flash, followed by a bright light and a very large, deafening explosion.
Soleil, who was running on a slate-plated roof at the time, was blasted into the air by the shock wave from the explosion. With a scream she fell through a glass ceiling onto the cold, tile floor beneath it. She let out a small groan, and was still. No movement was made. The boy, Jin, was nowhere to be seen.