The sounds of industrial New York City assaulted the man's senses as he trudged on, the satchel around his neck growing heavier with each step. The sound of smooth leather brushing against itself made itself audible with each movement he made. His footsteps echoed down alleyways as he passed them, and the conversing, bustling mass of civilians made it difficult for the man to breathe. Yet, onwards he marched, determined to make it to his destination by sundown.
The year is 2096, and the United States had gone from the Land of The Free to a Cage of Useful Idiots. The government now had the ability to monitor anything and everything that was going on. Text messages, emails, chat groups, anything related to technology was constantly and closely monitored. Privacy was a thing of the past, and treated as if it was an invention created in the stone age of mankind.
After all, would you like personal privacy, or safety provided by the government?
However, many people did not agree with the majority of citizens. Freedom was of the utmost importance to them, and so, they rebelled against the government. However, there was no war, no civil disputes, nothing of that nature. The rebels decided to take a more cautious, stealthy approach. Those who wanted things transported without it being monitored by the government now had the ability to call upon the Runners, a group of couriers formed by the rebellion, who would use their athletic, nearly acrobatic skills to traverse the city from the rooftops, undetected. By transporting this information, it would allow the rebellion to create a plan to overthrow the tyrannical government system that was in place. But for now, while they built their ranks, the rebellion would take jobs of lesser importance.
It was still relatively early in the morning, and the sun was barely able to illuminate the streets, as it was blocked out by gigantic skyscrapers that seemed to touch the clouds. The very tops of some seemed to be cut off from view by the clouds themselves. The man sighed, his senses being pushed to their limit. The bright neon glaring in the distance caused him to squint, and the occasional passerby bumping into him kept him on his toes.
'Geez... This may take a while...' The man thought, sighing once again. The man's name was Aiden. He didn't have a last name, as he was never given one. His parents were all but nonexistent, and he has no idea of his origins. it's almost as if he spontaneously popped into existence one day. His hair was jet black and brushed off to the side of his head. His facial features proved to be quite handsome, and held masculinity, but showed a bit of softness. His features nearly perfectly mimicked his personality: strong, yet caring. If someone was in need, he would go out of his way to help them, regardless of what he was doing, or who the person was. He was rather tall, and was wearing a slim, unzipped, black-leather jacket with blue stripes near the shoulders. Underneath the jacket was a blue shirt, the same color as the stripes on his jacket. His pants were jeans with a matching shade of darkness, along with his shoes, again, black. He had a fondness for the color, though he could never explain it.
The mass of citizens started becoming more and more congested as he reached his destination, so he decided to take a detour. He slipped into an alleyway. The bright neon had finally left his eyes as he surveyed his surroundings. A few dumpsters, thick pipes attached to walls, large AC units that were big enough to stand on, all perfect for what he had in mind.
He took the satchel and secured it behind his back, and began limbering up. Torn or pulled muscles were never good news for a Runner like himself.
"Hey! You!" a voice called from behind Aiden, causing him to snap around and look at the person who had addressed him.
The person his eyes met was a woman. She didn't seem to be older than 25. Her hair was a bright, natural red, styled into a low-hanging faux-hawk that covered one of her bright emerald eyes. Her skin seemed to be made of porcelain, pale and fragile, yet elegant. She wore a white jacket with multicolored polygons decorating the bottom-left part of it. She had on skintight black—leather pants covered by a tight, black miniskirt with cuts made on both sides for added mobility. On her feet were a pair of generic converse shoes that completed the outfit. It was quite a strange outfit to Aiden, but with evolving society comes evolving customs. He saw similar things on advertisement holograms that shone out from the sides of buildings. What really stood out to him, though, was the large medallion hanging from her neck. The symbol on it was all—too familiar to him.
"Huh... Should've known the Blues would have caught up to me. Though, I didn't think they'd be this fast, nor did I think they'd send members of RPTF after little ol' me." Aiden mocked. The RPTF, or 'Runner Police Task Force' was the government's strategy to try and deal with the Runners, hence their name. Though, for reasons that were never disclosed, they were entirely made up of women. Maybe only women happened to make it past the grueling training? Or perhaps men weren't allowed to enlist in the first place? No one knew.
"Shut it. HQ has had their eyes on you for a while now, and it was only a matter of time before we got the green light to take you down." The woman's mouth spread into a wide smile, though her eyes still held determination. "You must not be trying to stay undercover, huh? Either you're inexperienced, or you're stupid. Either way, it's an easy promotion for me. You're gonna be my ticket to skyrocket through the ranks."
"Oh, so that's your shtick? You're young-blood looking for an easy-A?" Aiden chuckled, keeping up the facade of arrogance. Truly, though, he feared he wouldn't be able to escape her. The medallion revealed that she had graduated from training at a relatively high rank. But she still lacks experience, or at least he thought she did. "Your underestimation is hurting my feelings."
"I said 'Shut it!' Surrender now, and I won't have to beat you too bad." The woman pulled out a pair of black, fingerless gloves that she slipped on with ease, as her smile quickly faded.
"You must not know who you're dealing with." Aiden chuckled, and rocketed off from his position, making a bee-line for the woman.
The woman flinched and took a defensive position, expecting him to make a wild swing in her direction. Aiden smiled, knowing that his plan had worked. Since she was in a defensive position rather than an offensive position, she was unable to effectively land a blow. He took this opportunity to change the course of his sprint to a crate next to a dumpster. He planted his left foot on the crate, using it to transfer his momentum upwards onto the dumpster, further increasing his velocity upwards and pushing his body into the air with ease. He used his right foot to push himself off the wall, and outwards towards a ladder attached to a steel balcony. He looked back down at the woman, who was studying his movements in an attempt to try and replicate them in a bit. He waved, smiling wide in a mocking fashion. It only earned him a frustrated growl from the girl below, who then began making similar movements towards him.
"You learn quickly, Blue! Maybe we could do this again sometime!" Aiden mocked, pulling himself up onto the balcony. He jumped onto the railing, and jumped over to another balcony, taking extended steps along the horizontal steel bars, placing his feet accurately and swiftly, allowing him to traverse his way to a thick pipe. He leaped and grabbed a hold of said pipe, before using it as a makeshift ladder to the roof.
"Keep talking, jerk! It'll only make it more satisfying when I see your smug—mouth behind bars!" She effectively replicated his movements, albeit a bit less stable and fluid as Aiden. She pulled herself up to the roof without breaking a sweat and scanned the rooftop. She spotted her target standing on the edge of the building and quickly ran towards him.
"Aww, but I thought we had something special?" Aiden joked, not noticing her sprinting towards him. He turned, only to be met with a black and white blur running towards him. "H-Hey, what are you do-"
He was cut off by the woman tackling him, launching them both off of the roof.
"AAH! Are you crazy!?" Aiden screamed, not being able to do anything to slow the fall. He felt the cool morning wind biting at his skin as he fell. Now it was the girl's turn to scream. She had been too caught up in the chase and catching him; she completely forgot how high up they were.
They fell, gaining speed as they quickly approached the ground. They hit a large red spread of cloth that was being used as a shield from the sun that quickly tore from under them, but slowed them down enough so the wooden food stand below them could effectively cushion their fall as much as solid wood could. Aiden took the brunt of the impact head on, unintentionally shielding the woman from the fall. The impact caused his vision to fade to black as he passed out.
There the two lay for what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes. Slowly, Aiden began to stir from his unconsciousness, seeing that the girl was still out cold on his chest. While she didn't get very hurt, it was more the fear of nearly dying that overwhelmed her. He felt a twinge of guilt in his heart, but disregarded it as he pushed her unconscious body off of his own.
"Owwl Gah!" Aiden slowly made his' way up from the wreckage, dusting himself off, and wiping as much of the innards from assorted fruits from his jacket. "Man... That's gonna take a while to clean..."
He managed to hobble away with a limp, before turning back to the wreckage where the girl was. The feeling of guilt returned. He almost walked back before catching himself.
'What am I doing? She's a Blue, and it was her own stupidity that put her in this situation in the first place. Why am I worrying about her?' He thought. He cursed his helpful, kind nature. 'Then again... She's only human. Can't really blame her. I'd be infuriated too, if the person I was trying to capture was constantly mocking me.'
Aiden let out a heavy sigh, followed by a groan. He limped back to the wreckage before picking the girl up, placing his arms under her back and knees, carrying her in bridal-style hold. Passerby's gathered around, staring at the marvel that just unfolded before them. It's not every day you see two people fall from staggering heights at breakneck speeds only to escape death with a few scrapes and bruises.
"What, did you all see a ghost? Move along." He managed to limp away, merging into the crowd of people, nearly disappearing in the sea of people. He looked back at the satchel, and cursed. The contents were most likely destroyed. Priceless information, gone. But, in the end, Mercury could most likely just get him another copy of it, and it's better destroyed than in the hands of the Blues, so all's well, for the most part.
Aiden then glanced down at the girl he was carrying. Despite the long drop and the horrid crash into the fruit stand she had experienced, there wasn't a scratch on her. Albeit her clothes were stained from the fruits on the stand.
'I can't believe I'm going to take a Blue to my apartment... The one place they could never find me.' He thought, 'God, sometimes [hate being the nice guy. That, and I highly doubt her HQ would be nice enough to let her off the hook after failing to catch me and destroying public property, let alone jeopardizing the secrecy of the RPTF. I guess it can't really be helped.'
'But why do I care so much about a Blue? They're the enemy, they're not to be trusted. Not after all of the things they've done. Yet... This feeling... It's almost as if I'm obligated to help her, by some omnipotent being. Maybe it's a sign from God?' He chuckled at the thought, though didn't totally rule it out. He was a God-fearing man, but it didn't seem likely. "Whatever, I'll figure something out later. Right now, I need to get her back to my place, so I can make sure she's truly okay.'
Aiden let out one last groan, before taking a detour to the secret location of his apartment.
A/N: After a long hiatus, I decided to come back to . Been dealing with a lot of things in my life. School, family, etc. The usual.
I wrote this a while ago for a school assignment and got a 100 A, so I decided to upload it for all to see. Will have a beta writer coming in and making corrections soon, so don't worry about any spelling errors. They will be fixed soon.