Week 83: Jumping Off a Tall Building

Fenris worked her way up the side of the sky scraper, it had been fairly simple to avoid the security, compared to the stuff she dealt with on Oracle missions it was laughable. The offices were pretty much empty at this time of night, so with an invisibility field, she was able to make pretty good time.

Once at the top of the building, she flickered into view, and to anyone watching her intentions were clear. There was only one reason you would be wearing Bingo wings on top of a sky scraper. Fenris hauled herself up onto the roof, before turning to prepare for her jump.

If there was less smog, the city below would be a sparkling of different lights and glowing streets, the different neighborhoods lit by homemade lanterns or sun-bright LEDs... The hero watched from up here, getting a great view while he listened to the radios of the UIG and Ai Jinn enforcers below. The static was loud over his smeaker, but he could make out the words plenty clearly. When the clocked figure made herself visible though, he immediately recognized her. There weren't that many of them on the roofs. He bounced to his feet and waved a very broad hand. "Hey there, lady!"

Fenris was a little taken aback, and she dropped into a fighting stance until she saw who it was that was calling her. With everything that had been going on lately, she'd almost forgotten about him. And she certainly wasn't expecting to run into him here. "Oh! It's you!.. Hi." She stepped back from the edge, trying to disguise her unease at being so unaware, and not quite succeeding. "So.. What brings you up to this rooftop? It's not exactly swarming with gang soldiers."

The hero too relaxed more as Fenris became more comfortable, and the visible square of mouth broke into a smile. "Listening. Taking a break. It almost.. smells as if something big will happen, you know?" He shrugged, giving the agent a look over. "You jumping?" The answer was obvious, but he seemed social.

"Well, that was the plan. Then gliding between those thermals there." She pointed out towards a more factory heavy area of the cityscape, using her thermal vision it was obvious which buildings were generating enough heat to give her a boost. She hesitated, looking back towards the vigilante. "You can see those, right?"

Before he could answer, Fenris was stepping back to sit on an AC vent, and she was already changing the topic. "So how's the vigilante business coming? Stepped up from petty murders yet?"

The figure shrugged, still smiling faintly and not moving to quickly respond. He appeared to be waiting to see if Fenris would speak more before answering. "I can see them, yes. I do not like jumping. Too much like falling. Helicopters are better." There was a pause as he answered each question in turn. "And I have yet to make it in the papers. I interrupted a small gang scuffle that was in front of a school but... Nothing big lately. You know how it goes." He shrugged again, and took another few steps closer. He really was quite tall.

Fenris smiled at the strange man."Have you tried leaving a calling card? Like a name or a symbol or something? Then they might actually know it's you doing.. Whatever it is you have been doing." She felt a bit awkward about it, but Fenris had absolutely no clue what the hero had achieved, it's not like he was going after anyone important. "And it's like falling because it is falling. That's the entire point! There's no thrill to a helicopter ride, so you need to do something to get your blood pumping, you know?"

"I don't really feel the need to get my blood pumping in that manner." He shook his head, and peeked over the edge of the building. His footing was sure despite his playful hesitation as he glimpsed the city under the smog below. "I prefer climbing, or how smooth helicopters are when they go through the air. So powerful, and fun. Like a video game."

"Exactly! There's no danger! There's no rush! A video game won't make you feel alive! You need the real thing." It was clear that this was a discussion she'd had before, though she'd never gotten anywhere in the past. It suddenly dawned on Fenris where this topic was going to go, and she fell silent for a moment. "But you should really try it sometime, it's much better than a helicopter."

"If you say so." The hero wasn't entirely convinced, but he flashed a smile. His teeth were white, and flawless, perfect. "Sometimes I feel life is rushing too fast without falling."

There was still every sign of enjoyment on his face, but he sighed softly under his breath. After a long moment, he said in a gentler voice, "But we do what we must."

Fenris looked askance at the Hero, that last comment seemed a little cryptic. "What's that supposed to mean?" Sometimes she forgot just how little she really knew about this guy. He could be anyone. Without realizing it, she edged away, putting a bit more distance between herself, and the shotguns he said he carried.

"We do what we must because.. we should? We need to, to make life... Tolerable." He shrugged, not noticing Fenris move away. "Things change so quickly, and sometimes I feel like the only thing that doesn't change is.. this. The.. streets. Crime. It seems hopeless, but what else is there to do?" He sounded slightly lost as he looked into the smoggy night.

Fenris thought on the question for a while, she could definitely come up with ways to have a more meaningful impact than helping a few people on the Seoul streets. One the one hand, he was still a stranger, but on the other, he did seem to genuinely want to help people... "Well, you could try to do something that could make a real difference. They could always do with more help in Taiwan. And then you would actually get to fight the Ai Jinn! That's got to be better than being a vigilante with no name, right?"

"B-but here's my home. This is where I live, and where my family is.. I.." And when Fenris could see of his face hardened, his voice becoming hard. "I could not leave them. Though I appreciate the struggles of the common people against a large and formidable foe." And then the romance was back in his voice, youthful and in love with the story, the drama.

Fenris shrugged. "Then you could always do something here, go for someone they'll have to care about. But then you have to be prepared for the consequences." She couldn't help but shudder at the thought of just what those consequences could be. After taking a brief moment, she carried on. "You could start with a bounty hunting licence, if you don't have one already, then you might not have the UIG coming down on your ass."

The hero shrugged once more. "Bounty hunter licenses only work for people big enough to get bounties. And I.. Lady, you seem to like to go for big targets. But I am used to being only small. The small need protecting as well. It's not as.. as.. valiant as taking down the dragon of the Ai Jinn, but it's important. It is no fun being small and helpless... ONly those slightly bigger make your life hell." He nodded emphatically to emphasize his point.

Fenris sighed. "It may be the ones slightly above you actually doing the shit to you, but who do you think tells them to do it? There is always someone giving the orders, someone paying the wage. If you want to make any change, you need to aim high. Or no-one will even notice you." She stated this like it was obvious, it was just how things worked.

"Sometimes... People are just nasty without being told. Nastiness doesn't just come from.. the top." He reached up and scratched his covered head, sighing. "I.. I don't know. I feel like some change happens at the bottom, you know? And it's safer. I don't know how my family would be.. without me." He looked down, obviously confused by Fenris' assertion.

Fenris looked slightly confused. "If you don't want to risk your life, then I think you may have chosen the wrong profession. It's going to take more than just killing a murderer or two to get noticed, and going any further than that is always going to involve danger." It seemed like she had been through this, but then he did seem pretty young... Maybe the world hadn't crushed his optimism just yet.

"It means a lot to the people who miss the person being murdered. Their family. Their friends. I don't want to be the number one bad guy on some corporate list, I want to get my name because the people call to me. Because I compel something in them to.. name me." And there was the sweetness again, the weird childlike, romanticized dreaminess.