An interesting choice. Amuse me, human. I grow weary of this cycle.
A voice echoed through my head, and I woke up on my back in an incredibly hot building. The room spun as I clambered quickly to my feet, wincing in pain from where the floor had already begun to burn me, and swiftly took stock of my surroundings. I was in one of the higher floors of some sort of office building. The room I was in was a small, featureless square, collapsed where there should have been a desk. A large chunk had been smashed out of one of the outer walls of the room, the debris tearing through into the floors below. The rest of the rooms around me that I could see were filled with flames, licking the doors to my refuge. Cautiously, I crept to the hole in floor, hoping that I could manage an escape that way. But luck was not on my side today, and the room below me was already a blazing inferno. There was another building a few feet away from mine, its' windows shattered but otherwise intact. The heat in the room continued to build as I grew to realize that my only way out of this room alive would be to jump to the next building and escape through there.
I stared out of the window nervously at the jump I would have to make. I had never been the most athletic of people, and my eyes scanned the room once again in the vain hope I would see a board or something I could use to to walk across. But there was nothing to use, and the still-growing heat in the room reminded me that it was now or never. I sighed, backing up to the part of the room farthest from the hole, took a deep breath, and charged it, swerving slightly to avoid the hole in the floor. When I reached the edge of the room, at the last possible second before my feet would find nothing but air, my heart pounding in my chest, I leapt.
For the briefest of moments I felt like I was flying as I sailed through the air, and I stretched my arms out, desperately trying to reach for the ledge on the other side as I began to descend from my leap. My hands slammed into the floor of the building, and I desperately scrambled for a grip on the slippery, polished floor. However, the rest of my body continued to fall, and my grip failed, my hands flailing desperately above me I plummeted. No! No no no no! my thoughts echoed over and over as I fell, gaining speed as I passed the first few stories. The ground, tiny and empty of people, began to rise up at me. Fly! Stop! SOMETHING! I thought in a panic, shutting my eyes and hoping desperately for a miracle. I opened them several seconds later, as I realized that I was not dead, the sensation of wind rushing past me having faded to a halt. I hung in midair about twenty stories up, my fall having halted itself without cause or reason. Up. I thought numbly to myself, and I began to rise slowly, drifting further from the ground that I had thought a minute ago was going to be my death. Left. I thought. Right. My body drifting in each direction slowly at first, then a bit faster as I began to grow in confidence. I grinned.
"I'm flyyyying!" I shouted cheerfully as I zipped in loops in the skies over the city. I laughed at the wind rushing past me as I flew towards the ground, cutting off before I reached the rooftops below as I circled up and began to rise again, before repeating the cycle as I zipped down once again. Abruptly my reverie was broken as a series of explosions rocked the building I had attempted to jump into, tearing off part of the roof as a person encircled in flames flew away, barely managing to outpace the explosion. An inhumanly bulky man sneered at them from the remains of the rooftop as I drifted closer, putting a building between us and straining to hear.
"You should have known better to fight me in an area I've had time to prepare, Belial. I'll tear you apart!" He laughed as another set of explosions tore through the area above the burning person, forcing them to dash downwards quickly to avoid them.
"Big words coming from you." Belial snarled back, hurling a blast of fire at the man on the rooftop. "I see you're still afraid to fight me without one of the serums from your pet tinker." The ludicrously muscled man was in motion almost before the bolt was hurled, though, and he leapt off the rooftop as it hit. Unlike me, he cleared the gap with ease, landing seemingly effortlessly on the rooftop of another skyscraper. I realized too late that from there he could see me from his new vantage point, and suppressed a yelp as I ducked away from the gaze he fixed upon me. He laughed.
"And you dare to call me a coward? I can see your friend hiding over there. Good effort on the ambush!" He shouted, partially turning to face me "But you need a lot more practice to beat me!"
Belial sounded surprised as their gaze followed his to where I had been. "I didn't bring an ally. I'm not surprised someone as incompetent as you would take hallucinogens before a fight like this. Or is your precious drug tinker finally failing you?" Belial chuckled a little at that, lazily hurling another bolt of fire at the man. He evaded it again, leaping onto the building I had been hiding behind. I bolted, dashing downwards and away from my newfound pursuit.
I had reached the abandoned streets below and flown a block away before I dared to look back for pursuit. The good news was that musclehead had lost me. The bad news was that the burning person had seen me, and was flying towards me. I turned down the next street I could, and again the next chance after that, but they still continued to pursue me. I need to disappear, I thought to myself. Seconds later, my flight began to slow and stop, and I barely managed to place my feet on the ground as it vanished outright, dropping me a foot to the ground below. I stumbled and fell, rolling to a halt sprawled on my back. My pursuer landed up the street from me, revealing a woman in some kind of demonic mask. She looked up and down the street, and I could swear her gaze passed over me multiple times, but she somehow failed to notice me, and her flames returned before she flew off, snarling something about wasted time under her breath. Not comprehending, but grateful for the reprieve, I staggered to my feet, before looking down and realizing they had somehow disappeared. A quick reach down confirmed that they were still there, although I could not see my hands either. I had somehow managed to turn invisible. I focused on it vanishing, and it did, before I enabled it again just in case they were still around. Well, I thought to myself, time to figure out just what the hell is going on.