Your IC post mentions Hartman fumbling for his stun baton but that was Towser. Hartman is retreating.
I'm going to say that Hartman's retreat, which triggers James' Intercept attack, is enough of an action that he isn't subject to the -1 for Previous Attack. He would be if James continued the assault in IP2.
Hartman is going to block/parry again. James definitely notes that Hartman is fighting professionally and efficiently and isn't some nameless grunt. It's strange; it's almost like Ares knows what James is capable of.
Hartman defense:
Reaction + Intuition + Unarmed + Combat Sense + Reach:
?d6t5 10 hits, and, given his absurd Physical Limit, he gets to keep them all
I think we can safely say that James misses.
James runs at 22 meters per CT. We're halving the sprint rate too, so James 5 hits buy an extra 5 meters per CT. That makes it 27 meters for this CT, although James can increase that by sprinting again in IP3. This is mostly academic since we'll probably be abstracting a lot of this, but we'll go through the exercise to put some hard numbers on how quickly you open up the distance between you and the Seraphim. So, 27 meters per turn, round up to 28 for convenience. 4 IPs, so 7 meters per IP.
You'll have to sheathe your cyberspur next IP.
Is James going to tell Illeana to run in a different direction? Is that what you meant by taking off in different headings?
There are plenty of exits, mostly emergency exits so that the crowd can disperse in case of emergency. Which is what we have now. You're at a mid-afternoon show so it's not crazy busy but let's say there are 100 people either exiting the theater (same as you) or milling about in the lobby, buying concessions, etc. Most of these are bolting for the exits, which will clog your path somewhat.
The Interception rules say that you can roll Agility + Gymnastics to dodge people. While this will slow you down, it will also slow down your pursuers and potentially provide cover.
We'll call the front doors 25 meters away from your starting position, so 18 meters away after IP2. There are currently 50 people racing toward them, but luckily there are 5 different front doors so we'll say 10 a piece. You need to dodge 10 people (via AGI+Gymnastics) on your way to the front door, should you go that way. You will be slowed to Walking movement rates while dodging. Once you get that far, you'll be out in the open plaza. It's still pouring rain outside, which means fewer people to blend in with but might provide environmental cover.
If you take emergency exit #2, you only have to go 20 meters (minus 7 equals 13 after IP2) but you still have to dodge 10 people since it's only a single door. You don't know where you'll end up but your gut instinct says an alleyway or whatever runs alongside the theater.
If you take emergency exit #3, you only have to go 15 meters (minus 7 equals 8 after IP2) but it's clogged with 15 people since it's the closest to your theater. This might also dump you in an alleyway.
You could also bowl people over with a Charging Attack if you didn't want to go around them. Some Gymnastics/jumping shenanigans are potentially feasible as well.
The remainder of the people in the lobby are cowering, or taking cover, or paralyzed with indecision.
I don't know much about Detroit. Let's say that you're in the vicinity of the Fox Theater (which is a performance hall) and The Fillmore (similar). You're not in either of those two but in a trid theater they built in the vicinity. They've turned the parking/street space outside into a nice plaza with shopping and cafés and whatnot.
See if this works for a
map.
There are stairs and elevators that take you to the aforementioned underground parking. There is also the People Mover (which you will see on the map) but that's above ground. Some sports stadiums are a couple blocks to the E-NE. (The plaza extends in that direction.) The underground parking helps serve the stadiums. James thinks that there might be some shuttles or trolleys moving people around the underground parking, but doesn't know if that is limited to heavy traffic days like game days.
Aside: it occurs to me that yesterday was the same day as it is in-game (9/13). End aside.
On that note, let's check to see if there was a game last night. Well, well, well, there [urlhttp://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=360913106]
was[/url]. So it's game night tonight. Current day Comerica Park doesn't have a roof but future stadium does because no self-respecting Detroiter, pride of the UCAS, is going to be put off by a little rain that was probably conjured by vengeful Sioux shamen intent on ruining good, clean, American fun. That said, the game won't start for a couple hours so there might not be a thick, rich crowd to get lost in yet. Maybe some pre-game traffic coming to the plaza for an early dinner though.
The freeway is a couple blocks north of you. The river is 1300 meters to the S-SE.