Nick was a runner. It was what he did best.
Well, after hustling, that is.
But when the government was usurped and a tyrannical replacement came along, hustling was far less prosperous a line of work than it was before. Between the harsh laws, strict regulations, and near-constant surveillance, hustling proved to not be worth the risk, despite the great pay.
And when no business would hire him – of course, simply due to his being a fox – Nick turned to the less-than-legal activities for income. And so, he became a runner. To be perfectly honest, they were more like couriers, as what they transported was (mostly) legal. Medicine, food, clothes, and the like were transported discreetly so that the new government couldn't confiscate the items. But, on occasion, there were satchels of questionable content that needed to be transported. Most often, these were guns, government documents not meant for the public, blackmail, etc.
Even though the highest officials of the city didn't want to admit it, they did use the runners. Covertly, of course, and almost always through some sort of middle-mammal, but it was a convenient way to have secret and private information moved around without risk of it being found on their person.
And should a runner be caught with the information... The police boasted about one less runner to deal with, while the politics continued to wage on if they needed to cut back on the strict laws that formed the runners in the first place.
But these thoughts didn't bother Nick in the slightest as he stared out over the rooftops before him: a great expanse of grays and dull red-browns with contrasting silver of fences and vents jutting out like ugly sores that could only be seen from the air. To most mammals, the lengthy gap between his current roof and the next one would likely be enough to deter them from even attempting the jump across.
But was he like most mammals? No, no he was not. Before him he saw the equivalent of a playground, an obstacle course designed just for mammals like him. He jumped down from his perch, hitting the concrete roof below and rolling forwards, using his momentum to break into a sprint before flinging himself through the air. For a brief moment, he felt weightless, as if he were flying, soaring high like a bird, before he hit the next roof and again tucked into a roll.
Without breaking pace, he again pushed himself into a run and threw himself at the chain-link fence blocking off his path, scaling it with ease and swinging he legs over before dropping to the ground. He sprinted forward again, jumping over a small set of pipes and continuing towards his next roof, easily leaping between the two buildings and rolling yet again to resume his run. He eyed the next obstacle: a portion of the building that rose up over ten feet to allow room for a roof access doorway. There was a silver vent sticking out to one side of it, just high enough for the fox to climb up.
Which is exactly what he did. The vent brough him halfway up to his destination, and the other half was a simple scramble to the top, giving Nick a fairly good perch to see where he was compared to his objective: A news building several streets away.
He took a moment to glance back at his progress – two rooftops and several hundred feet, covered in under a half minute. Not bad time, if I do say so myself, he thought, a small chuckle escaping him. He then turned back to his destination, staring down at the only safe way he could cross the gap: A thin pipe that ran above the wide alley, between the buildings. He didn't care to question its purpose; it could carry water, wine, gas, or anything else, but to him it was little more than another means of traversal.
Carefully, the fox stepped out onto the pipe, placing one foot over the other. He kept his eyes locked ahead as he prayed the wind wouldn't suddenly pick up during his crossing – something which seemed to pay off, as he reached the other side with nary a ruffled patch of fur. He pat the messenger bag on his hip, dropping down onto the new roof and running straight to where he knew the next roof he needed to get to was.
It was slightly alarming that there was a dip in the roof, a drop that seemed to lead into various machines for air conditioning or some such, but it did little to faze Nick; he kept close to the wall and, when he reached the edge of his current platform, he leaped up and began to run on the wall. It was a tricky thing, to be sure, especially with the added weight of his bag, but the fox knew what he was doing. With the fingers of one paw brushing against the wall for balance and his legs doing their best to push him up as he traversed the gap, Nick waited until just the right moment before pushing off and jumping the rest of the way, immediately breaking back into a run.
Now the next jump was going to be far more tricky, as it was a street-wide jump with no pipe to help ferry him to safety – though, thankfully, the next roof was lower than his current one. In an effort to keep his momentum going, the fox gave no pause as he ran alongside the wall again, running up it at a slight angle just as he neared the edge and pushing off with all his might. His stomach rose as he reached the apex of his jump, before it began to fall with him as he neared the roof. A single, terrified thought exploded into his mind of not making the jump and freefalling the eight stories to the uncaring pavement below. This was quickly wiped away by the sight of him clearing the edge of the roof, his feet meeting the cold rooftop, to which he instinctively tucked into a roll, which he turned into a slide as he neared a wall, his shins (thankfully protected by his thick cargo pants) slipping along the gravel top.
Nick rested there a moment, letting his adrenaline from the jump wear off as he caught his breath. Once he was done, he let out a chuckle, followed by a laugh, as he slowly stood up and dusted off his pants. His laughter was cut short, however, by a slightly irritated voice in his ear.
"You alright, Nick?" The voice, cheery and a bit high pitched, made Nick smile more. He reached up and pressed a button on his earpiece to respond.
"Yeah, Spots, I'm fine. Just gave death another high-four as I passed is all."
"Again?" Clawhauser laughed. The portly cheetah always took great amusement in Nick's sassy remarks about how dangerous the life of a runner was.
"Again," Nick confirmed, again chuckling as he made his way to the nearby door. In order to get to his destination from here, he needed to get inside the building – no route around it, unfortunately. He reached into one pocket and pulled out a flimsy fake credit card – the kind one could easily get in the mail.
He began to press it between the door and its frame when another voice sounded in his ear. "Alright, well if you're done showing off for Ben, some of us have a job to do, Wilde."
Nick flicked an ear dismissively, grinning as the door swung open and he slipped inside. "Right you are, bud. What do you think I'm doing?"
There was a grunt of annoyance, before the line went quiet. Nick rolled his eyes as he walked into the building, slipping past doors and heading up a single flight of stairs. The mammal he was meant to pass off the package to, a silver fox named Mercer, was always having a bad attitude with Nick and his carefree nature on the job. It had never gotten between them during 'work', and after the two acted fairly nicely to one another, but it always felt more like tolerance on Mercer's behalf.
"Oh, Nick, be careful. Sounds like some cops are around – a news chopper saw you and tipped them off." Clawhauser sounded in his ear suddenly, the fox examining his surroundings as he tried thinking of a way around whomever they would send. If he was lucky, it would be the rhino and elephant duo again – they were fun to toy with and easy to escape.
"Thanks, Benji," Nick said, grunting as he climbed up a large stack of unmarked boxes. He could take a guess at their contents – paperwork, most likely, given that he was in the financial portion of downtown. "Think it'll be the dynamic duo again?"
"I don't know, Nick, they've been catching on lately." The cheetah sounded a little worried. The fox jumped to the wall across from him, stepped up once, and pushed off again, landing on a vent. He casually walked across it, heading to an open vent above his current one. Thankfully, it seemed that maintenance was lax all over the city, and most of the small vents that only covered a few feet and were near the ceiling were almost always uncovered.
"I'm sure it's not a problem," Nick said reasurringly. He easily jumped up and pulled himself into the vent, crawling on all fours as he navigated the small space. It was fairly simple – two left turns in the area of about six feet, before a drop into the next room. If the schematics he had checked were correct, he needed to turn right, head up some stairs, outside, then onto another roof before he could get to his destination.
With a shrug, Nick pushed himself through the small hole and rolled the moment he hit the ground. Much to his surprise, however, there was a group of ZPD officers before him. His eyes widened slightly as he gave an innocent grin as they all turned to him – a sheep, elephant, rhino, and... Rabbit?
It was the rabbit who shouted - "ZPD! Drop that bag and put your paws in the air!" Each officer was drawing a weapon and moving towards him. Without saying a word, Nick turned to his right, and ran for the stairs. He heard calls and shouts for him to stop and the thundering of hooves and feet behind him as he sprinted up the red metal stairs. A quick glance below him showed that the ZPD was right behind him, the rabbit being just one turn behind.
Nick snapped his head forward and focused – if he tripped on these stairs, it would be over. He forced his way up them, though, and flung himself against the door at the top, which led into another hallway. Without pause he continued forward, slamming into another door and flinging it open as he made it to the roof. He spun left and ran towards the far edge of the roof, hoping the quick turn would buy him a few precious seconds.
He had almost made it to his jump when a loud bang rang out, followed almost instantly after by the sound of metal caving. Were they shooting at him?
Nick didn't have time to check; instead, he jumped across to the other roof, hitting the ground with a roll and using the momentum to roll over some air conditioners set in his path, before vaulting over a set of pipes that rose to his chest. His ear flicked at the sound of something hitting the roof behind him, as well as more shots, but he didn't dare turn to look.
"Wilde, what's going on?" Mercer asked. "I can hear shots and this heli's hanging around a bit longer than is welcome."
"Not now!" Nick snapped, throwing himself over a fence. He sprinted at the railing to the roof and flung himself over that, as well, rolling as he landed on a pair of massive air conditioning units. He jumped up again to get back onto the roof before turning left and jumping over a small gap, landing beside a water tower.
The fox continued forward, swerving as he heard even more shots – these ones coming from close by. Were there cops on this roof, too? Nick refocused as he jumped on a small pipe, then the small A/C unit just behind it, bouncing up and pulling himself over the railing that led to a telephone box on his left. Turning and running to his right, Nick followed the path he was on to another doorway similar to his earlier one. Unlike the other though, this had no vent to help him. So instead, the fox cautiously climbed up the railing and balanced himself just long enough to jump to the top of the platform, pulling himself up. He sprinted to the edge and, hoping he had the speed, threw himself across the gap to the fire escape on the opposite building.
Pausing just a moment to catch his breath, Nick glanced behind him. Three ZPD officers stood on the opposite roof, glaring at him – including that rabbit. Nick flashed them a grin as he began to run up the stairs to the roof, out of their view.
When he reached the top, a whistle caught his ear and made him look up, to the roof of another adjacent building. Mercer stood there, his dark fur making him stand out against the blue sky, especially with the white marks running up his left arm. "Throw me the bag!" he called.
Nick nodded, tugging free the satchel and throwing it up to the other fox. "Be careful," he called back. "They're a little trigger happy today."
"So I've noticed," Mercer called back, before pointing behind Nick. "Get out of here!"
Nick spun around to see a TUSK unit moving onto the opposite side of the roof as him. "That's a bit of overkill, don't you think?" he called out. The unit began to turn and aim at him with their tranquilizer guns, before Nick took off down the roof. It was, unfortunately, much more open than he would like. He needed a plan to get off of this roof, and fast. A plan quickly formed in his mind as he spotted the news helicopter Mercer had mentioned, ahead of him.
With renewed vigor, the fox sprinted forward, until something grabbed the back of his pants. "Oh, no you don't!" hissed a voice behind him. Nick stumbled back a few steps, before hooking his right leg behind whoever had grabbed him to his surprise, it was the rabbit. She looked startled as their momentum forced her over his knee and, with a little extra help from Nick, she fell onto her back and let go of him.
"Sorry, Carrots, but I've got somewhere to be." Nick quipped, resuming his sprint for the chopper. This time he managed to finish the sprint unhindered – if one ignored the hasty shots of tranq rounds that brushed past him. With a single flying leap, Nick managed to jump from the roof and, almost by sheer dumb luck, grabbed onto the landing gear to avoid an equally sheer drop. He let out a sigh of relief as he held on, glancing over his shoulder only to gasp in sudden horror.
There was that blasted rabbit again, charging at them with clear determination in her eyes. Nick was about to shout, asking if she was crazy, when he realized her intent. But the words didn't have time to escape his mouth before she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, making the fox's grip slip. "You're not getting away from me!" The rabbit spat.
"Are you insane?! What if I let go?!" Nick shouted, fear filling his voice as he felt his grip slip more. His hackles rose as he realized that he was holding on to slick, polished metal – not the textured portion of the skid designed to be stepped on.
The rabbit clearly realized this, too, as her eyes went wide as Nick felt his left paw slip free. He grasped at the metal again, but was unable to get as firm a grip as he had before. Even his right paw, which had a red fingerless glove for added grip, was beginning to slip. "Oh no," he muttered, repeated the words louder and louder the more his grip failed. "Oh no, oh no, oh no. Dangit, rabbit, why couldn't you have let me go?!"
Whatever her response was was lost as the heliopter shifted suddenly, jerking free of its unwanted cargo, and letting both Nick and the rabbit officer freefall to whatever lay below them – and frankly, he couldn't tell which of them was screaming louder.
I didn't expect to start writing this, but every time I sat down to try and write something else it wouldn't leave my mind... So here we are. If there's enough interest, I'll be sure to continue this, so if you liked it be sure to let me know! Now let's see if I can actually get some progress made on my other stories for once...