Chapter: 3
'Team running'
The next morning I woke up with Jack in front of my face, about to poke it.
"Wha- What are you doing?" I asked half asleep.
"Just wanted to wake you up without making you grumpy" Jack said looking quite clue-less.
Just then Merc walked in.
"Hey kiddo you ready for your test-job?" said Merc smiling.
"Yeah! I'm excited!" I said feeling half asleep still.
"Who's Celeste" Jack asked.
"An old friend" Merc said having a sense of worry.
"Get dressed kiddo, you're gonna have to run today, I have a client ready for you and Faith, so, hurry up!" Merc said happily as he walked off. Whilst I was rummaging through my stuff to find my clothes, I heard Merc and this other guy talking, I heard Merc call him Drake, anyway, they were talking about something called Project Icarus, but I didn't want to get involved, knowing this was high-up runner stuff.
As I got dressed, I could hear Faith talking to Merc
"CELESTE! ARE YOU INSANE! Especially after what she did, your gonna' let her just waltz right back in here, expecting everything to be fine?! You better have a good reason for this!" Faith said angrily and confusedly.
"Listen, Celeste told me everything, look Faith, if you were caught by Blues insisting they would kill you and the rest of us runners just because you didn't want to kill Pope, what would you do?" said Merc calmly.
"Yeah well, she still hasn't proved herself to me, I can't trust her like I used to Merc" Faith said frowning.
"Me neither kiddo, but if Miranda, Jacob, Kreeg and Victor weren't out on commissions, I wouldn't have had to think twice about letting her join. I would have kicked her out, but I'm letting her redeem herself Faith, you should to.
Since I had a little time to myself, I texted my father telling him I'm going to make an official run. After that, I walked outside to greet Faith, she said
"Hey Andrew, ya ready?"
"You know it" I said grinning.
Jack saw his uncle and wanted to converse
"Hey Drake" Jack said smiling
"Hey, hows it going little man?" said Drake sounding like the cooler older brother.
"Not bad, not bad, you?" asked Jack feeling the morning air run through him.
"Same I guess, here take this." Said Drake passing Jack what seemed to be an earpiece with and red casing and a small black microphone
"What's that?" I asked.
"This, my rookie friend…" Drake said making me feel like I was pathetic, being a rookie after all. "Are comms units, they allow us to talk to one another across this city!" continued Drake. Merc passed Faith and I one as well.
"Where is Celeste?" Jack asked
"She's right outside, you can meet here there." Said Merc kindly
As Jack went up the manhole first Faith told me some advice.
"Be careful, don't push yourself, k?" said Faith smiling.
I nodded. As I got out of the manhole I saw this woman wearing a red top, some skin-tight, black pair of jeans, black and white gloves and high-tops, converses I assumed. She also had blond hair, which was tied in a ponytail. She went up to Jack and said
"Hi, I'm Celeste, you can call me Cel, k?"
Jack nodded.
"Faith, Andrew, I'll be your tracker for this job, Cel, Jack your tracker's Drake. We are going to be doing, what we call. 'Team Running', which is basically two or more runners, running as a team." Merc explained.
"Faith" I asked.
"Yeah" She replied smiling.
"Make sure you can catch up!" I said felling immensely pumped.
"Sure thing Andrew, but maybe you should be the one who's gotta' catch up." She said nudging me whilst smiling and poking her tongue out at me. I laughed.
"Oh really, we'll see."
As we went our separate ways, Faith and I heard Merc on our comms unit.
"Okay, your client is at the corner of 56 Eastland Ave, okay it's a pretty decent run so, get their fast" Merc said sounding like he was on the radio.
"Hey Andrew, you remember what I was talking about yesterday, about runner vision?" Faith said panting due to her running.
"Yeah!" I said averting my attention from Faith to where I was running.
"Well after you take the biggest jump you have ever taken and live that will start the runner's flow, which should allow you to see highlighted red areas." Faith said.
"Cool!" I said grinning widely.
"Here it is. The big jump!" said Faith making me avert my attention from where I was running to her.
As Faith was in front of me I could see her directly. I saw her running on this ramp which started glowing red, but faintly. Then she jumped, I followed without thinking and as we landed on the rooftop next to us my eyes started to get watery, almost in pain, I wiped my eyes, slowing me down, then when I opened them I could see pipes, ramps and other things that were close to me highlighted in red.
"Wow!" I whispered to myself.
The roof that we were on was scattered with pipes, railings, objects that I could use to springboard and vault over, simple things.
"Where do we go?" I asked Merc reassuringly.
"Just keep going straight. Why?" Merc asked back.
"Wanna race Faith?" I asked concentrating really hard, almost fusing my eyebrows with my eye lids.
"Yeah, sure. But on one condition." Faith said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Don't tell me to wait up!" Faith said as I chuckled.
"I won't, that'll be you!" I said
Just then Merc stepped in to stop the race from beginning.
"C'mon guys! We have a job to do" Merc said sighing.
"Hey Merc, you know if we race, we get there much quicker, you know that, right?" Faith said smiling.
"All right." Merc said feeling as if he lost.
"3! 2! 1! GO!" Merc said with a pause between each number, as we were running full speed.
"MERC!" said Faith "tell us when we have to turn."
"Will do kiddo!" said Merc.
As we were ducking and jumping over and under the obstacle course of our massive playground, I was in the lead running and sliding all over the place.
"All right guys. Turn to the right, NOW!" Merc said giving us guidance.
As we turned, we each had two options for me one was spring boarding to he top of a building then jumping onto a zip-line. The other was, jumping over a ramp to the other roof spring boarding to a ladder wall running of a board that was tipped on its side then jumping coiling over a wired fence and falling about two stories onto a pile of soft boxes.
For Faith it was L-jumping across a wall then catching the edge of the other roof, then sliding under a high pipe then sliding down onto a crane, riding up it jumping onto the plank of long wood that the crane was holding, then jumping off that onto soft boxes. The other was, spring boarding to the other side of the building then climbing up pipes to the top then descending three stories to a pile of soft boxes.
As we chose what path we were going to take, we took them without caring about the consequences. I chose the second one, faith chose the first one, I presumed.
As I jumped over the ramp I remembered and gathered all the adrenaline I got from the other times of training and running and used them all to get a huge power boost.
As I landed on the soft boxes first, it almost broke my leg, since I still hadn't fully learned the correct way to land on these boxes, aching in pain, I was still was determined to win so I massaged it waiting for Faith to catch up as it started to feel better I ran again as fast as I could. I could see the client across me only a few meters away.
I looked to my left I noticed Faith was right beside me; it was neck and neck between us two.
She was more behind as I was in front, then I looked beside me and Faith had passed me and she won.
"That was a good race" she said panting "but you can't ever beet an experienced runner" said Faith almost gloating about her win.
"i would of won if i landed properly" i remarked nudging her slightly.
We came up to the client and asked where he wanted us to take the bag.
"You can take it to 76 Weskinner Drive." He said masking himself from the public.
"We'll go as fast as we can sir!" Faith said smiling.
"What's that?" I asked.
"What's what?" she asked back
"That yellow bag?"
"It's a Runner's Bag, we get these bags from our clients, these carry sensitive information that clients need to give to the people they want to send the message to." Faith explained.
"All right guys 76 Weskinner Drive, is almost on the other side of town. See that building to you left, take it then I'll tell you what to do from there. I would also advise that Andrew to go first and Faith monitoring him, and make sure you don't loose him Faith. Even though I have him on comms, just don't, you don't know when the Blues will appear."
"Got it Merc." Faith said feeling pumped. I nodded with an approving hum.
As I ran towards the building I saw a pipe which didn't quite touch the ground, I wall-climbed toward it and grabbed it pulling myself upwards only turning around to jump onto the roof of the building. As Faith was right behind me, I bolted across the roof wall-climbing up a wall, turning and jumping only to grab the ledge above. I turned and saw Faith right behind me; her expression was 'whoa'. As I spring-boarded up to a pole, climbing up I reached the roof of the building.
"Now where to Merc." I said as I looked around to inspect the city above, being serious about becoming a runner.
"Okay, see that building to your right." Merc said as I nodded "Go there and continue straight till I tell you to turn." Merc said continuing.
As I ran at full speed I could see a pole connecting two buildings. I ran as fast as I could, jumped and landed on the pole almost nearly falling, as I walked across the rest, I looked back and saw Faith's expression was more than 'whoa' it was like she was astonished, or sad, I couldn't tell because she was far away but, anyway continuing, I wall-ran across a wooden wall, used for construction, jumped onto the other building and skill-rolled.
"Alright kiddo, turn right. Shit! RUN!" Merc said, screaming into my ear.
As I looked around to see what was happening I saw, what looked like to be police or SWAT coming after me.
"SHIT!" I heard myself curse as I bolted across the roof, Faith behind me.
"DAMN IT MERC!" said Faith, with an angry tone.
"Sorry kid's nothing about that on the wires." Merc said as I heard sirens from below us. "Chatters gone berserk, move it!" Merc said as we were running at full speed.
We wall-ran across the building and coil-jumped over a fence then skill-rolled and continued as the SWAT team were firing semi-automatic weapons at us.
"This way!" said Faith pulling me in the direction we were to go.
"Okay, see that door, inside, now!" Merc said giving us guidance.
As I rammed the door open I thought to my self 'wow this training is immense, I wonder were they got the SWAT costumes from?' thinking this was still training. Inside the building, I L-jumped to the next level as did Faith.
"The Air vent is a good place to evade the Blues with out having to run all the way over to where the vent ends." Merc said calmly.
As I wall-climbed up toward the open vent, I went inside feeling the nice cool breeze of air. Whilst we were traversing the vents we fell down and skill-rolled across the vent that was we came to the end of the air vent we dropped down to the ground skill-rolling.
"Alright now go through that door and you should be outside, from there slide down the building and jump to the orther." Merc said with his father-ish tone.
As I rammed the door I saw a helicopter outside. Mainly used by the C.P.F. As I vaulted over the safety rail I slid down the diagonal side of the building. As I looked down, the edge of the building I didn't see the other building, I panicked thinking I was about to fall of and hit the ground which was 19 stories high, the helicopter trying to shoot us from afar.
"Shit Merc, where's the other building?!" I screamed
As we reached the edge of the building, I thought of the pain I would feel when I hit the ground. I closed my eyes, in that split second I felt the adrenaline rush through me. Then suddenly… BOOM!! I hit the ground which seemed to be rather soft, I felt winded almost, I landed on my side; thinking 'am I dead?' Then I looked at what I thought to be the concrete paved ground. I actually landed on a pile of soft boxes. At that moment I thought I was going to die.
"Hey, are you alright. You don't look so well." Faith asked.
"Could be better, just thought I was gonna' die!" I exclaimed.
"You should have more faith with your tracker, now let's get moving before PK is on our tail!" she exclaimed, her voice was serious.
"Sorry Merc." I said feeling bad that I doubted him.
"It's okay kiddo. Hell I would've done the same thing if I couldn't of seen the other building" Merc said.
As we ran inside the other building I rammed the door and SWAT was coming down some stairs, as we ran across into the elevator I quickly pushed it, realizing I had left Faith out side the elevator, the doors shut quickly, but with my intense speed I put my arm through the gap which stopped the doors from closing allowing Faith to enter the elevator. Bullets hitting the outer shell of the elevator causing dents in the door.
As we gasped for air we hear Merc on comms.
"It's okay you can breathe out. Shit what a mess… alright Jack and Celeste are on the building opposite to you, get there and then if the Blues show up both of ya can split up to escape. 76 Weskinner Drive isn't far, only two more blocks away.
As we heard the ding of the elevator we bolted down the hallway rammed through the glass window and slid down another diagonal side of the building we jumped across the gap between this building and the next the roar of traffic bellow us. We landed skill-rolled and then we heard Merc on comms.
"Choppers buggin' out, you get to the destination with-out getting shot at!" Merc said relieved.
"Hey Jack, Cel" I said.
"Hey, what happened?" asked Jack
"Ran into some trouble." I replied "how about you?" I asked.
"Umm, yeah we got stuck in some thing as well we just kicked their butts, hopefully they'll learn not to mess with us!" Jack said giving out his hand to do our hand shake.
"Wires are silent, you better get moving before it changes. Merc said with worry.
As we ran across the roof spring-boarding over fences, we climbed up pipes to reach the top of the building. We ran across it, jumping and ducking the obstacles in the way. Then I checked the time; 11:30, it's been 5 hours. Whoa!
We jumped to the other building and slid down to the next level down. We then saw the soft boxes bellow as we slid off the building falling 6 stories down hitting the soft boxes like a skydiver hits their target when landing. As we saw the client's friend we greeted him.
"Here's the bag, now the money?" asked Faith with a serious look.
"Here take this." Said the clients friend, he handed us $400; we split it up 200 each.
"Remember some of that goes to me!" said Merc.
"$50 from each of us should be good, right?" I asked
"That's fine!" Merc said.
As we agreed on everything we went traversed the city to get back to Merc's lair to get some lunch.