Thread: Shards of Icarus

??Mirror??s Edge ?? Shards of Icarus? Survivor00 Liynn The sunlight was blinding, white and sterile as it reflected from the manicured facades of the city??s numerous skyscrapers. In only eight years, the city had changed so much, so fast. Gone was the freedom, the choice. Sure, the crime was gone as well, the inherent violence that came with a city, but none of it seemed real anymore, the sounds, the smells?even the air he breathed, all of it seemed controlled and manufactured?nothing like the city he once knew. The city he grew up in? Even when Faith had disrupted the Shard??s security databases, the city still wasn??t free. Even now, the government was trying frantically to reestablish their grip on the citizens, and for the most part, it was working? In the distance, a Black Hawk lifted from the helipad of a skyscraper, the heavy thumping of rotor blades able to be heard this far away. The government had quickly increased its attempts to crack down on runners like himself, and they were getting better. Five runners had been killed since Icarus went active. Tobias Aseena crouched on the ledge, looking at the street ten stories below. It was a hobby of his to watch the people below, seeing how they never looked up, never looked outside their lives. A soft bleating drew his attention to the watch on his wrist. The yellow bag that was slung over his shoulder was a package that he needed to deliver. He stood to his feet, quickly stretching his legs as he looked at the line he had to run. The helicopter was still too far off to be of concern, and getting farther away. He grinned slightly, swinging his arms back and forth before pushing off with his feet, rushing towards the edge of the building, the girder hanging from an adjacent crane his target. He built as much speed as possible before pushing off, throwing himself into the void. He tucked his body as he landed, rolling and diffusing the landing while preserving his momentum, up on his feet and running again without breaking pace. Momentum was key. As his weight started to tilt the beam like a ramp, he used it to reach up and grab the arm of the crane, swinging up over it and running down the length. Landing on the next rooftop, he quickly checked his surroundings, to make sure there were no Blues or Icarus Runners. His watch said he had three minutes to the deadline, three minutes to cross two buildings, one of them nearly twelve floors higher than the one he was on. He vaulted on top of a ventilation duct, pivoting on his heel and running towards the massive air conditioner at the end, the thin metal buckling under his feet as he ran. He leaped up, pulling himself up on top of the air conditioner, rushing towards the edge. A window-washing dolly was a few floors down, it was perfect. He vaulted the narrow gap between the buildings, landing on the dolly and scaring the hell out of the two window-washers operating it. He hit the window at full speed, the glass shattering into a thousand crystalline shards as they crashed to the floor around him. Dozens of startled faces looked up from cubicles as he rushed straight to the fire exit. The bright red door was easy to see, he knew it would go to the roof. From there he could find a way down to the next building where he would meet up with the other Runner. He brought his elbow up and bashed open the door, bolting up the stairwell as fast as his legs would take him. Two floors?three floors?four floors? By now, an alarm was ringing from somewhere in the building, and he had less than two minutes to make the exchange. With the Blues on their way, he would need to leave the area fast. Seven floors?eight floors?nine floors... Even with practice, his legs were burning with the exertion. Less than a minute?