Justin
You got Shay involved! That was the one thing you were supposed to ensure never happened.
Justin continued to curse himself as he walked down the alley behind the dry cleaner. He could still feel the taste of her lips upon his, a faint hint of cherry left behind from her lip gloss. His entire body was yelling at him to go back there, to kiss her fully again and to let the natural order of things take over.
His brain was telling him to get the fuck out of there before the Agents showed up. Then it switched to telling him to go back, because Shay was in danger because of him, and he needed to ensure she was safe.
“Argh!” he screamed, inarticulate frustration boiling over as he slammed his fist into the side of a garbage dumpster. The green-painted metal dented under the blow, though he paid for it as pain shot through his knuckles.
Finally he came to a decision. Shay needed to stay safe. He didn’t think the Agents had seen her over the rest of the people around, but he couldn’t take that chance. He needed to ensure that he led them away himself.
Turning, he went to jog back down the alleyway, but his strides faltered before they barely even started as two men dressed in standard Agency black exited the rear of the dry cleaner, spreading out into the alley as they saw him.
Shit.
He glanced around. Garbage and other refuse lined the walls. Three-, four-, and five-story buildings abounded in this section. Another block in three directions and they were surrounded by towering skyscrapers that would provide no refuge for him. The fourth way led him toward more low-lying buildings, many of which were occupied by owners trying to make a living in King City. The buildings were often decorated with a multitude of colors and flashing signs. It would be the perfect place for him to lose his tails—if he could get there.
The Agents jogged down the open path toward him as Justin looked around for what he needed.
There!
He judged the distance, took a few steps back, then ran forward as fast as he could. One foot pushed from the ground, launching him up onto a windowsill. From there he rebounded to the top of a dumpster and then threw himself straight up, his fingers wrapping around the fire escape. This was a simple ladder, not a full metal staircase. Justin pulled himself up hand over hand as fast as he could until there were enough rungs below him to engage his feet. As soon as that happened he flew up the ladder, his limbs a blur.
The entire metal apparatus shuddered, the vibrations throwing off his grip. He slammed to a halt, hanging on by one hand and one foot. Below, he saw both shifters mimic his move perfectly and begin to ascend the ladder as well.
“Dammit,” he muttered. They were Extremis Agents: half-breeds given an injection of a serum that bonded to their shifter DNA, giving them many of the abilities of a shifter, without the manifestation of an inner animal. That was the only advantage Justin would have over these two if they managed to catch him.
“So it’s simple then,” he said. “They can’t catch me.”
The idea of stopping to fight the Agents didn’t even come up as an option. It was there in his head of course; there was no way it couldn’t. After all, it might still come to that. But if it did, it would be because Justin had exhausted his other options. Killing two Agents in broad daylight was not a smart move. Too many people would see them, or hear the fight. He didn’t have his mask on either, so witnesses would be able to describe him.
No, he had to try and escape. The only bright side to it all was that both Agents were following him. Neither had stayed with Shay, so she was safe. Knowing that fact allowed him to breathe a lot easier.
The top of the building neared and with an extra burst of effort, Justin launched himself up and over the lip, expecting to land on the gravel-topped roof with a quick roll.
Instead, he found himself falling amidst a tangle of rooftop clothing lines, full of wet sheets and other laundry strung out to dry. Cursing, he stood, ripping the sticky fabric from him as fast as he could.
A noise caught his attention as the first Agent cleared the lip of the building behind him. Without thinking, Justin grabbed the sheet in his hand and, like a matador, furled it up and around his target, wrapping the Agent in the big purple sheet. While the man shouted his anger, Justin took off, ducking between more lines of clothing that were still standing as he made his way across the roof.
He emerged from the lines of clothing with just enough room to slide to a halt. The next building was a story shorter. Surveying his landing, Justin took a step back and launched himself across the small gap, dropping his shoulder as he went. He impacted the gravel and rolled to his feet, the sting of his landing already fading from his shoulder.
Feet churning, he made for the next building, even as the ground thudded underneath him once, and then twice, to indicate both his pursuers were still close behind him.
“Stop!” one of them shouted, but he ignored them, heading straight for the next building.
They were of the same three-story height, and he didn’t even pause as he approached, simply throwing himself over the lip. The big shifter sailed through the air and landed in a crouch, rising almost instantly as the Agents were already in the air behind him
Damn, they’re quick.
A sliver of fear raced through him that perhaps these Agents had taken a different strain of the Extremis serum. Did they have enhanced speed? Perhaps greater strength than his? If they caught up with him, Justin could be in a world of trouble if that were the case.
Adrenaline spurred him faster and gave him more strength as he worked to ensure they wouldn’t catch him. He approached the end of his building, where another loomed up a full story taller than his own. Gritting his teeth, Justin surged forward. He leapt up onto the ledge, and without stopping flung himself upward, arms reaching for the roof of the next building. There was no fire escape; he had to go straight for it.
He glanced down at the nearly four-story drop to the ground below, a whisper of doubt entering his mind just before he slammed into the side of the building, his fingers scrabbling for purchase on the raised stone and brick lip that seemed to surround all the nearby buildings.
His right hand slipped! For just a moment Justin was swaying freely in the mid-morning breeze, held aloft by the four fingers of his left hand alone. Just as quickly as he froze in shock, his reflexes, honed by many years of training with the other Sentinels, kicked in and he swung his right hand back up onto the lip, gaining purchase. His legs kicked and pushed rapidly until he was able to haul himself up and over, onto the ledge.
“Oh come on,” he muttered aloud, his eyes drawn to the building below him just in time to see one of the Agents launch his partner up and toward the building Justin currently lay upon, giving him much more height.
It also meant he was vulnerable.
Justin wasn’t willing to kill them in daylight, and he stuck to that, hoping to find another way to evade them. But the Agent had enough height that he was going to clear the lip that Justin was on and land on the gravel roof two feet down.
All Justin had to do was bunch his legs up, and as the Agent passed next to him, kick out.
There was nothing the man could do besides grab at Justin’s legs, but there was no hope of him finding enough purchase there. The enemy Agent went tumbling across the roof until he connected solidly with the lip over there, his head slamming into the stone.
He had hoped it would buy him some time, but the Agent just shook his head and leapt to his feet, eyes focused on Justin.
Behind him, the first Agent leapt across the distance, following Justin’s path as he grabbed onto the lip and began to pull himself over.
“Oh come on,” he muttered. “Do you guys ever give up?” he asked under his breath before taking off again.
The straight line between buildings that he had been taking ended, and Justin was forced to go to the right. The building he was on seemed to be a long one. He was able to go quite some distance before being forced to leap to the next building, which thankfully was the same four stories as the one he was currently on. Behind him the Agents continued to pursue him. Justin was starting to breathe a bit more heavily now as the chase continued from rooftop to rooftop.
It dawned on him, as he had to make another right turn to continue having a building to jump to, that he was heading back the way he had come. Not good. This was going to lead them to Shay if they continued.
Assuming she’s still there. By now she’s likely realized that I’m long gone, and isn’t going to stick around.
He wondered if she would even still be at the same hotel when he finally had a moment to contact her.
If I were her, I’d be finding somewhere else, somewhere where I can’t get drawn into this world.
Part of him hoped Shay would do that so that she would be safe, even if it meant he would never see her again.
Shaking his head, Justin realized he had allowed himself to be distracted. As hands wrapped around his midsection, taking him down, he realized it might have been a fatal distraction. The Agent tackled him hard, and the two of them went down, bouncing across the roof. Bits and pieces of metal that he had avoided while running slammed into his body, and then the Agents as they began to roll, opening cuts on both of them.
Justin grunted in pain as it was his body that slammed hard into the raised lip around the roof, bringing the pair to a halt with bone-jarring swiftness. The Agent’s body used him as a landing pad, adding insult to injury as he tried to rise, ignoring the cries of pain from a dozen parts of his body.
The Agent rose even swifter, seeming to have come out ahead. He grabbed Justin by the collar, shook him violently with his extreme strength that had been enhanced by the blood of a shifter, and then hurled the Sentinel over the edge of the roof.