Drip. Drip. Drip. Blood dripped down
Like rain falling from a thunderous sky, it fell. Jace looked around.
This couldn't-No. It couldn't be happening, there was no way. What was going on?
Another drop slipped down his hair as he felt it grow heavy. Like he was carrying the weight of the world.
Forcing himself to gaze upward, his eyes widened as his throat clogged. Up above the sky like guardian angels watching over the world, was everyone.
Their bodies mangled and twisted beyond recognition.
There was Jace's father with his uniform, Eric and all his board games, Sorn and the wa-
Maybe Sorn deserv-No. Nobody deserved it.
All. They all were dead
* *
How many times had he replayed this in his head. Five, ten, twenty? Jace couldn't count. He only knew he had one chance and if he failed.
Well, he had one chance.
Leaning over he could catch a glimpse of their sleek silvery design. They moved slowly, carefully and for a second Jace caught himself regretting his future actions.
With a small sigh, he arose from the ledge at the edge of the building. One last view before he plummeted down to his certain doom.
Looking over the city, he had to admit, the city looked more like a farm than an actual metropolis. Silvery mushroom-like houses populated the areas separated by tall but few apartment buildings.
Jace took a deep breath as he turned his gaze upward, memorizing the stars in the sky and the invisible dome keeping them out.
He heard the familiar clicking sound and instantly knew that the air pressure had slightly changed.
Sighing again, Jace took in a deep breath filling his lungs to the max.
He crouched once more, his face set in stone. Moving the bracelet on his wrist towards his lips, he whispered "Cyberlink, Start the timer"
As Jace spoke he heard the crunching of boots from behind him. He turned, only to witness the barrel of a gun staring deep into his eyes.
In a reflex move, he swung himself off the building and down towards the procession of drones.
Falling through the air, Jace looked the picture perfect of a god, heaven above, earth below.
Turning to look up, he caught a glimpse of the heavy metal vest of the sniper. That and the gun which was aimed right at him.
'Not good'.
Jace's foot hit the top of one of the drones with a loud thud. He felt the giant drone creak under his weight and for a second Jace feared for the worst.
With the gun above aimed at him and the ground below looking ready to welcome him, Jace could make for a poster on how not to kill yourself.
The drone meanwhile stopped for a second making Jace worried on how much of a target he was.
He wouldn't die, that was for sure. All the androids which acted as training personnel had that single sentence etched into their very code, 'Do not Kill'.
But sustaining a serious injury, that possibility looked more and more likely.
But even that had its risks, especially considering his entrance to the military academy was only tomorrow.
For a second Jace weighed which was worse, attending the most prestigious academy in the world with a cast and a half broken bones or not going at all.
'Neither'
The drones creaked once more before carrying on and continuing on its journey.
Jace sighed in relief. He let out a deep breath just as he felt his foot begin to slip. He moved, trying to stabilize himself but before long, his feet were slowly falling off the drones.
Jace cursed as gravity slowly pulled his bottom half down. "Damn you Newton".
Struggling to stand on the drone, Jace took a quick glance back at the shooter.
The figure stood motionlessly as Jace calmed down, it was just a training dummy. Or at least that was the most likely conclusion. His gut had a different feeling but now wasn't the time.
Pushing the mysterious figure out of his mind, Jace scanned the buildings around, noting one different from the rest.
Unlike the mushroom-like houses, this one looked more like an apartment building.
It was faded with two out of the windows broken and Jace couldn't help but smile.
On another day he would have remarked on how dumb it seemed to create a house based on pre-contact earth designs. Now, Jace could smell his salvation.
Jace counted down the seconds as the drones slowly moved, edging closer and closer to the building. At the same time he slowly turned, moving himself in prime position to make the jump.
As Jace turned, he realized he had forgotten something. His position on the drones was nowhere near stable and gravity intended to show him that.
In a second his entire body slipped moving closer to the ground. Jace caught on desperately as he clawed his around searching for something to hold.
Whether by luck or pure chance, he caught hold of what looked to be one of the drones' tails.
Jace held steadfastly as for the second time that day, he had somehow managed to cheat death. His right shoe however, wasn't so lucky.
He watched as the shoe slowly fell the distance of an estimated fifty feet. With a soft sigh he wished a silent prayer to his poor and faithful soldier, Shoey.
After watching his shoe fly to the ground, Jace turned his attention back to jumping. Only a few meters away, Jace geared himself up and made the jump.
Floating through the sky Jace felt like he had wings. That was until he crashed into the window.
The bad news, Jace had mistimed his jump. The good news, he had fallen straight into the house and not down to his death.
Getting up, he spotted a long cut from his elbow almost up to his wrist. Luckily it wasn't deep and was simply skin. But a stinging pain assaulted him when he raised his hand.
Looking around Jace spotted a picture of a man posing in front of a giant waterfall. 'Probably the person who owns the house' He thought absentmindedly as he saw something else that made him smile.
It was a small gadget like structure and as Jace held it closer he saw it to be a grappling hook. Jace didn't know why or how it was there and he didn't want to.
Jace was about to test how effective it was when he heard the sound of a key entering a lock. The sound was uncommon and not one Jace was used to but he could easily understand the significance. Someone was coming.
Jace's eyes spun laser fast until his eyes caught hold of a board. A rocket-like fume lay at one end of the board and he got an idea.
Just as the door began to open, Jace grabbed the board, snatched up the grappling hook and flew out the window just as the door opened.
Opening the door, the owner of the house was shocked to see someone jumping out of his window holding a grappling hook and his favorite hoverboard. What seemed to shock him even more was that the face of the teen seemed to be that of the son of the leader. For a second the man tried to match their faces before dismissing this theory.
He could only watch as two of his collections were stolen, only one thought on his mind.
'Next time I'll install a lock on my window'
Jace meanwhile was living his best life gliding around. "Whoooohoo!" The wind blowing in his face increased his excitement as he rode faster and faster on his new hoverboard.
"Cyberlink, how much time until we get there?".
A sexless emotionless voice responded back "Two minutes. I would like to warn host that the Great Hall is covered with its own magnetic field thus making this board ineffective"
Jace smiled as he remembered how he had learnt that the hard way. The Great Hall was a behemoth of a fortress. A slow buzzing hum surrounded the building, a small warning to those who went there.
It was created by the first leader of the city who created the magnetic field stating that all men and women would not be able to enter through the sky but must humble themselves enough to walk in through the brass iron doors.
Jace intended to change that. For a second Jace imagined what his great grandfather would think if he knew what he was about to do.
Probably die of a heart attack.
As Jace moved closer to the enormous target, he could feel the board slowly rattle.
At the same time Jace heard a sound behind him. Two figures balanced on hoverboards similar to the one Jace was using were on his tail.
Their attire reflected that they were a part of his training, causing Jace to sigh. To his father, anything that didn't involve broken bones, high-stakes situations and mental duress wasn't training.
Jace ignored them and focused on what he was doing. A couple of years ago he had learnt that the best way you deal with them was to do nothing.
While they could hover around someone, their strength lay in making someone lose focus and not direct interference. As expected, as Jace neared the electromagnetic field, they slowly flew away looking for another person to bug.
Shifting slowly towards the edge Jace aimed the grappling hook towards the very top of the building. Shooting it, Jace felt the recoil as it attached towards the side right beside the roof of the building.
Taking a deep breath Jace spoke "Please grandpa ghost. Don't let me die, at least not now"
As Jace let his hand off the trigger he found himself soaring headfirst towards the wall. At that moment Jace faced a perplexing predicament. What to do when moving head first into a wall.
Common sense dictated that someone should never find themselves in that situation. But maybe common sense wasn't really common in Jace.
With lightning fast movement Jace turned letting it be his left which hit the wall first. Hitting the wall with a loud thump, Jace guessed his arm had broken.
Jace could still feel his breath shake as he realized that he was hanging off the largest building in the city.
Reaching out, Jace held onto the edge, clawing up onto the roof. He could feel gravity pulling him down and he mentally gave gravity a stare down.
And Jace won. He had done what no one else had in the last 50 years and managed to reach the top.
'Take that grandpa'