Chương 45: Trust Fall

Rigel's idea of a place to train turned out to be an abandoned mall five blocks away. After kicking him out of his own lair so that I could change into the leather pants that went with the jacket, I climbed the stairs and met him on the roof. I looked around at the city against the night sky, at the thousand bright lights shimmering along tall spires. During the day, the buildings were gray and chipped, but the cloak of darkness transformed them into something different, something special.

With my domino mask fitting snugly on my face and new bulletproof apparel cloaking my body, I was a part of it for the first time. High up on the top of a building, able to look below and search for danger, and more importantly, do something about it if I saw it happening. A warm wind whipped through my hair and I filled my lungs with it, feeling like I could call up my power at any second and have it last forever. Mr.

Cheng often talked about the peace of yin and the power of yang, but this must be the impossible combination of both. Crazy cat ladies could aim their guns at me all they wanted, it wouldn't stop me. Unless of course they aimed for my face. Maybe I needed a helmet like Rigel here. Also needed to upgrade my footwear from scuffed up sneakers. Lots of plans for things I couldn't buy. At least Rigel understood that bright colors on stretchy spandex were not an acceptable option for me.

Maybe that was another one of his superpowers. I turned to him, seeing the city landscape reflected on his visor, the lights shining on his face. For a second, I pictured his helmet off and what this moment would be like if it was. Just as quickly, I jerked my head back to the city. But then, looking at the space between buildings only brought up memories of nauseated vertigo.

"So… we're going to walk there?" His lips turned up at one corner.

"You think we could walk around like this and not get stopped?" I swept my hands in front of me.

"I could. I can pass as a biker babe or going off to some goth party. You however can only claim to be the world's biggest Tron fan."

"That's not going to work if we're seen multiple times. The police can't arrest us for being masked, but they can follow us around town." I folded my arms in front of me.

"Fine. Tell me your plan then because it's not going to involve turning me into a flying squirrel between these rooftops." His hand went to the back of his helmet.

"Well, if you don't want to make the jumps between buildings, I could carry you the whole way like last time. But you should really learn how to get around the city when you're on your own wearing the suit." I gestured to my spindly legs.

"We don't have the time to train up my lower body strength to make those jumps– which will take a millenia, by the way– and I don't have the hero points to upgrade my strength. What's your plan– bionic legs?"

"Nope. If you can't run above the city, you'll have to go beneath it." I raised an eyebrow.

"So, like secret tunnels?"

"Something like that. Follow me." He stepped to the side of the building and looked over the edge into the alley below. The fire escape was nowhere near him. And I knew exactly what his ideas about how to subvert the gravitational limits of walls were from before.

"I know I complained about the stairs on the way up here, but I will gladly take them again over whatever you're thinking." He turned and smiled while taking two devices off his belt and handing one to me.

"Every vigilante needs a grappling hook." I took one look at the handgun-shaped device with the hooked spear sticking out the end and shook my head. My stomach still remembered the lurch of instant inertia provided by my first experience and my head perfectly recalled smacking against hard stone.

"Nope. Listen, I will cartwheel down those stairs rather than repel down the side of this building."

"Repelling is much safer than your idea." He aimed the gun at the parapet, firing it with a soft pop. The clawed hook embedded itself into the roof and he began walking over to the side.

"And, more importantly, it's less noticeable. One trigger pulls you up and the other lowers you down. Just don't flip the switch on the side until you get to the bottom. It retracts the hooks and reels in the cord." This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Ah yes, let's add the worry of having my cord start shooting its way back into its holster all while I'm only halfway down the building to the giant pile growing in my head.

No big deal, I just might trigger it by pushing a small button on the side, but I'm sure that could never happen while I hold a device in my sweaty hands as I try to repel down eight stories for the first time ever. This was going to go great.

"Didn't your parents ever ask you the question 'if everyone jumped off a building, would you jump too?' Guess what the answer is: no!" I walked around agitatedly. The skyscrapers all around me no longer looked majestic, but more like sharp spires, ready to kill me if I landed on them.

"Look, I don't think I'm ready for leaping off buildings yet." Rigel stepped onto the edge of the roof and turned to look at me. The man just stood there, not teetering, not holding his arms up, just standing on the few last inches of a tall building like he had some invisible safety net ready to catch him if he fell. His helmet tilted to the side.

"You're ready to fight mutating cannibals who work for a mad scientist super villain, but you won't repel off the side of the smallest building here? Come on. I'll let you keep the grappling hook if you try." I stopped in my tracks. He had a point. The thing was that this just hadn't been part of the original plan.

It was just supposed to be me, Cass the zero, all on my own, hanging out in dirty alleyways with my holey jacket and dried ramen for a snack, looking for a little bit of trouble that I could maybe solve with my barely workable time powers. But clearly that hadn't worked out. Because trying to keep things small only made bigger problems. And, no matter how much I always wanted it to be the case, the unfortunate, indomitable truth was: I couldn't do everything by myself.

This whole time, I was always insisting that I knew best, and that had gotten me nearly killed too many times to count. So if I almost died this time, well… at least it would be someone else's fault finally. He was right. If I was going to go up against a handful of wannabe psychos, all with the desire to kill me, then boinging down a building with a rope really wasn't a big deal. Plus, free stuff was always a bonus.

"Ok," I told him, squaring my shoulders and cracking my fingers together with a loud snap.

"But if I end up dying because of this, my grandmother will come after you." His helmet nodded.

"Sounds scary. Come on, just point and shoot at the concrete edge there." I pointed the gun, trying to keep it still and centered on the middle of the block. My finger squeezed the trigger and the claw burst out, landing into the crease between the parapet and the floor.

"That's fine, the nail just needs enough concrete to embed in, that's all that matters. Now step onto the ledge." My hands clutched onto the gun as I walked to the side of the building, feeling the tension of the rope that connected me to the wall. I quickly jerked my head down to glance below. The alley was so dark, I couldn't see the street at all.

"Turn on your night vision," Rigel instructed.

"You'll be able to see everything better." I clicked the button on the side of my mask and then the street below me appeared in a soft gray light. Slowly, my foot stepped onto the raised rectangle that was the last bit of the roof. The strong pull of the rope from the gun was helpful, but not entirely reassuring.

"Now we just step backwards off the edge." I kept my eyes on him, the way his body tilted back slowly off the roof, as if seeing someone else do it proved that it was possible.

"Hold on with both hands and don't let go."

"Oh believe me, they're going to have to pry this gun from my cold dead fingers before I let go," I said through gritted teeth. My body kept waiting for the rope to suddenly start unravelling, plunging myself down until my back cracked against the ground. But, the tension stayed tight, so I took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a second, and then tilted backwards. The trick step at the local library that always filled me with vertigo had nothing on this.

"Good. Now we picked a spot with no windows so we can just repel down. Try little hops as you pull the trigger to let out the slack." I kept my eyes on the sky as I stepped, the normally giant expanse of black now had swathes of white speckled dots across it. The night vision must be able to beat out the city lights that would normally block the stars. My head swivelled slightly to the side to see all of the buildings looking ghostly pale. I pushed my head against my arm to click the button on my mask again.

The infrared turned the world into a surrealist artist's dream. The city was stripped of its color, yet everything had been painted with a white glowing light. Rainbow-colored figures walked around inside buildings and passed at the end of the street, oblivious to their gray atmosphere. My feet picked up a little in speed and made a small jump. The short second of falling back down caused a ripple of euphoria through my stomach rather than nausea. I looked down and saw I was halfway through.

With my slick new suit and grappling hook, I was repelling down the side of a building just like John McClane in Gran's favorite Christmas movie. In reality though, I probably looked more like Danny Devito in Renaissance Man. My feet made one final jump and then they hit solid ground. I stumbled, caught up in the new experience.

"Can we do that again?" Rigel's lips turned up at the corners, but his rope was recoiling into his gun with a loud whirring sound. The claw clinked into place and he put the device back onto his belt.

"We have to get going. You can practice later at the place if you want." His helmet swivelled from side to side, checking for onlookers. I pressed the side button on my gun and watched as the claw sprang from the roof to fly down towards me. My suit came with my own belt too, so I hooked it on quickly. He walked forward then stopped in the middle of the alley.

"Ok, where's the secret tunnel entrance?" I whispered, keeping my head down in case someone peeked down the narrow space.

"Do we have to go far?"

"As a matter of fact, you're standing on it." He pointed beneath my feet.