New York: 11:55 PM

Aaron looked at his watch for the fifth time.    

11:55  

“Dang, it’s late.” He said to himself as he finished his signature on the last piece of paperwork that was on his desk. Normally he doesn’t work late like this, but every once and a while he can’t escape it. Exhausted he got up from his chair, grabbed his jacket, and headed toward the elevator.  

Quietly he got inside and hit ground level. “Man I cannot wait to get home”

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Across the street, on top of the opposite building, a dark figure, with a dark mask was crouching and watching the structure in front of him, waiting for the perfect moment. To any normal person this office building would have seemed just like any other office building, and for the most part, it was. It’s what’s underneath it that made it special.

Chase checked his watch, 11:56, any second now.

Then from the inside, the elevator opened. and a very tired man walked out of it. This was his chance, instantly in a silent gust of wind Chase descended from his perch, through the door, and into the elevator just as it was about to close.

“Nnggghh!" Chase grunted as he fought against the force of his sudden stop.

“OK, step one complete.” He said to himself examining the elevator. “Now onto the hard part”

Quietly Chase opened the escape door above the elevator He took a breath and crouched down readying himself, what he was about to do was extremely dangerous, yet he could not help but smile.

“One…Two…Three!”

With powerful legs, and extreme acrobatic maneuvering, Chase propelled himself out of the elevator, and for a moment he floated there, suspended in the air during the few seconds the force of his jump, and the force of gravity held him still, then he swung his legs over his head and back down again, beginning his fall.  

He fell straight through the space in-between the elevator and the wall. But he didn’t stop.

He could feel the adrenaline flood his body as he fell, and he loved it, this feeling of excitement, it was one of the very things he lived for.

He had been here once before, with Tech, and from what he could remember, Tech’s facility was about four stories underground. To any other person, this would have been, at the very least, a painful fall, but to him, it was just fun.

“Hu” Chase quietly grunted as he landed gracefully, and surprisingly silently, on the ground. In front of him was an elevator door.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Chase’s head snapped around to see the source of the noise. There, in the darkness, he could see a familiar looking device inside the wall of the shaft, directly above the floor.

“Crap! Laser grid, how could I have missed that?!” Chase exclaimed angrily

His original plan had been to quickly bend back the elevator doors long enough for him to get inside, get the information he came for, and then repeat the process to get out. No one would have known anything had happened until much later. But that was no longer an option.

Angrily he crushed the device in his, now more metallic, hand. Inside he could already hear the guns being cocked.

“Guess it’s time for plan B” He muttered under his breath

With a loud SMASH!! Chase, suddenly kicked the doors in with so much force that they flew off there hinges and into the hallway ahead of him, knocking unconscious three army looking guys and discombobulating the other five.

There was a moment of silence as the opponents stared at each other, five frazzled looking, trained military personnel vs a strange dark-suited figure, that, if you squint, almost seemed to be vibrating.

Chase couldn’t help but smile under his mask when he saw them aim their guns. Before they could pull the trigger, he blasted out of the elevator shaft with so much momentum that he caused a sonic boom, and the guards hit the wall unconscious.

The doors flew past as he ran to the end of the hall.

“Server room, that’s it.”

Still in “speed mode” Chase ripped the door off its hinges and entered the room. It was a big room with seven computers all hooked up together, Chase found the one he was looking for.

Suddenly the world filled with sound and life as he exited “speed mode” it was a really strange feeling, but one that he had gotten used to.

He grabbed the USB from the compartment in his suit.

This had to be done just right; he had to keep the Ripper Code connected for the exact amount of time. Pull it out too early, and you don’t get any information, too late and Tech’s security measures will infect the USB and wipe it.

​

“Alright, here we go”  

Quickly he stabbed the USB into the correct slot, and waited.

“Not yet. Not yet. NOW!” Chase ripped his code out of the hard drive so fast electricity flew from the plugs.

​

At the moment, he had no way of knowing whether or not it had worked, he had to get to his laptop.

​

“What are you waiting for? GO!” Shadow cut in! Interrupting Chase’s thoughts

​

Stuffing the small device into its designated compartment, he turned to exit.

​

Too slow.

​

“Don’t move.” The “guard” growled pointing an interesting looking gun at Chase’s head

​

Chase paused examining the guard, and the gun.

​

“Hands in the air! And mask off!!” The guard yelled with more force, while he took out his radio and started yelling something.

​

But Chase didn’t care about that; he continued to examine the “guard”, looking for something…There! A small amount of perspiration on this forehead.  He was scared, and that was all Chase needed.

In a flash, Chase knocked the radio and gun out of the guard’s, now shaking, hand, and stopped so that he was about an inch from his face. He could see the fear in his eyes, and in some way, he liked it.

"P-Please, don-" The man started, but before he could finish his sentence the dark figure was gone.

Hank stumbled into the hallway gasping for breath, but the mysterious figure was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh thank goodness” He sighed in relief as he sat down against the wall to catch his breath.