Day 0: Arrival

"Excuse me miss." The stewardess said quietly, tapping your shoulder, waking you from a pleasant dream. You yawned a little and blinked a few times, adjusting to the light of the airborne cabin, "We will be landing shortly."

"A-ah okay." You yawned with a nod.

The plane slowly descended through the atmosphere, making your ears pop several times. Your hands began to shake in anticipation as you drew closer to your destination. Your breath hitched in your throat in anxiety; so many amazing free-runners were to gather here and compete for the ultimate prize. There was a loud thud as the wheels emerged from the bottom of the aircraft. The plane skidded to a slow roll across the tar-mat and finally to the looked outside at the sky-rise of the city, it was even more beautiful than television had shown. Silhouettes of the purposefully unfinished buildings created a beautiful labyrinth of beams, pipes, and ducts.

You scurried off the plane with your carry-on cargo and hurriedly rushed to the baggage claim, hoping you would find what was yours in the mass of luggage. You maneuvered through the hordes of other passengers only to stumble upon a young man who seemed more than lost. His amber eyes flickered with worry as they darted around frantically, he would occasionally pace around in a circle and groan a little in frustration. Feeling a little sorry for him, you approached the lost man and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Excuse me? Sir? Are you lost?" You asked readjusting the bag on your shoulder.

"Oh! Ah...Um..." He bit his lip in conflict, then hung his head, "Heh...yeah ah...I'ma lost." You could tell by his accent that he must be Italian.

"Well, who are you looking for?"

"Oh! Well, my two friends got separated from me and...ah...I don't know where they could be...and..." His voice trailed off worriedly.

"Can't you just...call them?"

The Italian's eyes widened as he bopped his forehead with his palm.

"Oh right! I forgot to try that!" He laughed and took out his phone then proceeded to dial a number and begin talking.

While he chatted away you took the chance to observe him better, his face seemed oddly familiar to some one else. Perhaps some T.V. star? His hair was a red-ish brunette colour with a stubborn cowlick that stuck out the side. He was of an average build for a guy, probably around 20 you guessed. As he spoke he would occasionally flail his hands or let out a laugh that almost seemed contagious, but eventually he hung up and looked back at you.

"My friends are ah...at the baggage claim!" The cheerful Italian smiled.

"Oh well I'm heading there too." You chuckled in a slight nervousness, "We can uh..." Your voice began to trail off, and that baffled you. You were never one to stumble over your words.

"Yeah! Let's go together!" He grabbed you by the hand and began to lead you in the wrong direction before quickly turning around and heading the correct way.

The more you walked, the more your feet felt like lead, every second feeling like an hour. You kept focus on the Italian leading you, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar.

After passing several security checks, miscellaneous shops, and a vending machine or two, the both of you were at the baggage claim, jam-packed with luggage.

"God damn it Feliciano!" a loud German-sounding voice shouted, followed by a tower of a man carrying several suitcases stormed up to the Italian.

Feliciano yelped and scratched the back of his head, "A...aah sorry Ludwig...I got distracted...and then...I met this nice girl!" He motioned to you, "And ah...now we're here!"

The German just sighed and handed two duffel-bags to his Italian friend then turned to you.

"We apologize for you having to put up with Feliciano." He apologized. A shorter Asian-looking man stood beside him and bowed.

"Oh um...it's really no problem, I was headed over here too." You looked at the multiple conveyor belts, spotting your over-packed duffel-bag moving to the last set of belts before being dumped into that hell-hole of overflow baggage. You bolted past the small group and dove to grab your bag before it passed the curtain.

"Oh that was close." You mumbled to yourself, pulling the bag to your side. You unzipped the bag to find everything was still in order.

The bus ride to the hotel was cramped and overflowing with the possessions of all the other contestants. You scanned the cabin to size up the competition. Most of the others seemed just as nervous and excited as you, which was comforting in an odd sense. A few looked as confident as ever with their bags covered in stickers from previous competitions. You sighed and stared out the window at the passing scenery, the underdeveloped structures left an endless playground where you could see the silhouettes of a few free-runners bounding off beams in perfect synch, reminding you that in two days you would be doing the exact same thing.

A/N time!

..I forgot "Jump City" was a place in TeenTitans.
And baggage overflow is hell. Too many people, not enough space. thats why we pack as much as possible into our carry-on.

CQotC : If you had to go by some secret identity, what would it be?
CQotC2: Which one of these Alias' should reader-tan go by? "Blizzard" "IceStorm"
"The Baskilisk" or can you think of another?
CQotC3: Any Alias you think should be used in this series? (put the country and the alias in the comment)
...so when thinking up alias' I thought of "the Flying Potato"...