<span style="font-family:Palanquin">There were only so many things she could pay attention to at once while she was running away, but the first thing she watched for was whether or not her new friend actually decided to listen to her or not. All of her attempts to get him back his freedom would be for nothing if he didn’t run the other way like she’d told him to, and Jinora didn’t like wasting her energy for nothing. That was why she was very surprised and glad to realize that he was, in fact, running the other way. With the vantage offered by her eyes, Jinora could sense that he wasn’t happy with the way things had played out, but she also got the sense that maybe he was finally learning. <br/>
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… or maybe he was going to do something stupid later. Jinora couldn’t prevent that so she wasn’t about to worry about it now. Instead, her focus was on continuing to run. <br/>
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As her vision and focus shifted, Jinora tried to take a tally of who was all on her tail and on what kinds of equipment they had with them. It was something she could do because of her eyes; she liked to think that it was like having eyes in the back of her head, but the truth was that it was even better than that would’ve been. She could make out the faces of each of the men chasing her and she recognized most of them because she worked with them regularly. Usually they weren’t chasing her, though. Then again, usually she wasn’t trying to run from them. This was the first time she’d ever gotten brave enough to try helping one of them escape capture. In fact, Jinora would even go so far as to say that they probably hadn’t expected it either. That would explain why they were pursuing her so fiercely. <br/>
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Jinora had behaved for so long that they’d lost the ability to anticipate that she wouldn’t. Now they were paying for that mistake. She couldn’t help but feel like it would be more damaging in the end for her, though, that she would’ve normally been willing to accept. Rolling her eyes, she knew her father would’ve cursed her out for allowing a boy to distract her like that. Then again, in her mind, it had nothing to do with the fact that he’d been a boy. She’d barely looked at him in that sense at all, actually. Rather, her desire to help him revolved around the possibility of him being a friend and her craving that closeness. Jinora hadn’t had any friends in longer than she cared to recall. <br/>
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Sooner or later, though, even she would have to turn around and face them and she knew precisely what they would do once she faced them. There was one piece of technology they’d developed specifically for her - to use against her, to be more precise - back when she’d been constantly trying to escape. It served like a miniature electromagnetic pulse and it essentially shut down her sight. When Jinora couldn’t see, she very much lost track of how to fight for at least long enough for them. And it wasn’t something they let her train herself against, either. In the tiny space that she could claim as her own, Jinora never had the darkness that would make such training possible. She couldn’t keep running, and the minute she turned, she would be caught. It left her with very few options. <br/>
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One possible option hadn’t been considered, yet, though. Jinora wasn’t aware of it until the path opened for her. <br/>
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A sharp blast, almost like lightning, but black as the night rather than bright like light, carved it’s way through almost all of them. A split second heads up from her peripheral vision was what saved Jinora from being hit just like everyone else was, and she didn’t look back to see who had been spared or how much damage had been done to any of them. Jinora just threw herself up and over the nearest fence and started weaving her way through crowds of people. Chicago certainly offered plenty of them. <br/>
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The questions remained in her mind. How many of them had really been taken out by the blast? How long would its effects last? What had been destroyed in the process? Jinora wasn’t sure if they could still track her or not, and that alone had her on high alert. She was nervous about being in the city as well. She didn’t want to run into Sly again - to put him in harm’s way again - or to run into any more of them. <br/>
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In the end, the only thing left for her to do was walk and she did just that. <br/>
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<i>‘Pull up recent Chicago news feeds and plot them on a map with my recent locations.’</i> She commanded it of the computer system built into her eyes and soon the image was right there, for her eyes only. The police were heading to the scene of the blast, utterly confused by what had caused it. Beyond that, there was nothing. <br/>
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“Hmm,” Jinora mumbled to herself. If Sly had gotten into any sort of trouble, she was certain she would be able to find out about it. For now, they were both safe and free. <br/>
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What she didn’t know was that those police sirens went right past the road that Sly was walking along. Not only did she know that something had made the news, but he would be able to sense it too.</span>