Panting, heavy breaths fill the narrow street, with the sound punctuated by erratic footsteps... and the hissing noise of someone trying to be quieter than they can possibly manage.

    A stumble, and then a thud. Cam staggers to his feet, his steam gun reloading another array of arc bullets with a faint clattering noise. His last load. The generator at his back had plenty of power left, but actual bullets added more weight to the already heavy array of equipment. Not that more bullets seemed to matter.

    A noise behind.

    The firearm whips around, and the motion gets a stuttering spray of crackling charged bullets! Cam stops just before emptying the remaining magazine - no. No he doesn't. A jam, now? Without thinking he hits the release, the heavy pack hitting the ground with a shudder and a faint creak.

    He got it this time, he can-

    The motion is still there. Small, quick. He fired at a shadow? No... no it's just that fast. Still stalking, still moving, but lifting up from where it took cover instantly. A shape, still moving forward and finally stepping into the dim light cast by the blinking counter of Cam's ammo pack.

    A girl?

    Teenage. Blonde. Pretty in that girl next door manner, but not the sort that would turn heads... except for the gleaming, high-quality clockwork prosthetics of her arms. One flexes, holding an oversized needle as she steps forward... and stops. "About time."

    Cam scrambles back, but stops himself. What would his dead father think? Shaking and still out of breath, he pushes himself up. "Why...?" Why is he being chased? Where did she come from? Who is she? "Who...?"

    "The second answers the first," she says with eyes narrowing in hatred. "Justine. Lawson." Cam's blank look only seems to infuriate her more, though. The needle flicks forward, and a line of pain opens up on Cam's cheek, a thin slash drawing blood along it.

    "W-WHO?!" Cam cries out, confused. He isn't feeling very heroic now. The girl stamps her foot, causing a loud rattle and a motion that brings the needle all too close to Cam's eye.

    "Your father," she whispers.

    It clicks.

    "Lawson... LAWSON?! It... she had... that's impossible!" Cam pales, now understanding. "B-but you can't exist! You-"

    Wait. The ground creaked? Twice?

    The need to survive overwhelms Cam, granting intense clarity for an instant. An instant that is all he needs. The hand fumbling with his pack changes direction and slams down hard, triggering the feed mechanism to force the jam. At the angle it's laying, with the power supply overheating, it does the natural thing.

    An explosion rips through the air, blasting Justine backward... and Cam. Pain flares all over, arms and legs, while the blast rips open the shoddily-made extension to the Venusian floating mat. He feels a jarring impact on his shoulder, hitting the mat on the way down... then the thickening clouds, sinking through them far too fast for safety. No normal human can survive a fall from the upper atmosphere... and even Cam, who was not normal in any way, is pretty sure he can't.

    But million to one odds are better than the certain death of a vengeful killer with him at her mercy.

    Justine staggers upright, rubbing her forehead where the blood is seeping out of her wound. The whistling, gaping hole in the street is there, but no sign of her quarry. "... coward."