[Author's note: This is a fanfiction story based around the world of Mirror's Edge, published in 2008 by Dice Entertainment Studios. The game itself is centered around a young woman named Faith who illegally transports secret messages throughout a heavily monitored city using a parkour based travel system. The plot involves Faith's sister being framed for the murder of Robert Pope, a friend of Faith's father and a candidate for mayor of the unnamed city. You the player (Faith) are attempting to clear her name and find the real killer. This story, however, is about Toby Flint, a 23 year old man, as he finds himself abandoned by society and rescued by someone of the name of Merc and he is trained to become a messenger, known by as "runners". Please enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it]

Chapter 1

A second chance

"What am I going to do" Toby wondered aloud. He was aware no one was listening, after all, who would listen to a deadbeat on the sidewalk anyways? The answer, at least in this city, was no one. Toby's life was filled with neglect such as this. He had grown up with a father who was too busy with his work to pay attention to him and his sister, Nicole. His father was the one who created the first NCSS, or National City Security System. It was designed to monitor and watch for potential terrorists or threats to the city but it quickly evolved into a spying device, to monitor every citizen, and to help create a "perfect" city. Toby hated his father, especially for this. That's why he left home at 17 to live somewhere else. At first he had friends to support him, to house him, and to feed him, but bit by bit, they all left him behind to move on with their lives.

And that's how he got to this point; abandoned, neglected, and hopeless. Left behind by society and ignored by passersby. At this point Toby had all but given up on his life. If it hadn't been for Merc he never would've been anything. He would've died alone and depressed. But fortunately that's not what happened.

Like any other day, Toby had been wondering around the city with no specific goal in mind. He had always felt like he needed to move around to be happy. And this was the only happiness he got so he moved often. After walking a distance, towards the north end of the city, he collapsed on the side of a building. He used to be cautious about where he slept or rested but he quickly came to know that no one cared about someone like him, or what he did. So he ate and slept where he pleased. The shade of the building and low traffic made for a fine resting place, so Toby made himself comfortable, or at least as comfortable as you can get on a concrete sidewalk with only a blanket, and quickly fell asleep.

He woke up in a much unexpected place; in a bed, with real covers and a real pillow. This alone was a miracle, as no one else had ever done this before. A bed was an enormous improvement from a sidewalk and Toby was personally having trouble remembering the last time he had slept in a real bed. But there was no time for this as his attention was caught by the room he had been brought into. It was rather small and not very well kept. There were make-shift curtains covering the round room; which appeared to be a large, hollowed out AC cooling tower. There were two beds against the wall, one which Toby was lying in, and the other was empty and very messy. Also against the wall was a large red couch with blankets and a pillow; another make-shift bed no doubt. There was a table on the side opposite of Toby with two chairs and a deck of cards. This was one of the more clean parts of the room. But the thing that caught Toby's attention was round table in the center of the room. On the table was multiple large computers with lots of wires and USB's attached. The computers looked very powerful and they were all on, giving the room an eerie blue coloration. There were a few pizza boxes lying next to the computers, one of which still had pizza in it and was being warmed by one of the computers.

Toby was caught off guard when he heard a noise outside the shack. It was a pair of feet moving very fast towards him and even though the shack was 10 feet tall there was no sound of slowing down from the runner. Toby was almost certain the stranger would crash into the building but at the last second he jumped and climbed straight up with ease. There was a small opening at the top of the shack, about 4 feet in diameter and this is where the man dropped in. At first glimpse this stranger was about 6 feet tall and fairly athletic. He wore a white, button up shirt and had two gun holsters on either side of his chest. He wore simple grey pants with a pair of normal light-brown shoes. On one arm he had a tattoo of what seemed to be randomly placed black pixels, and the other had a red wristband. His haircut was nothing special, just a standard buzz-cut.

He approached Toby. "Good. You're awake."