Licking his fingers clean, he took his coffee to go and left. Where should I start? As he turned into an alley, the blue screen buzzed into view, giving him a listing of available jobs he met the prerequisites for. The only thing this piece of shit is good for.

Scrolling through the list, he groaned. No dinner today it is. Ed couldn’t find any big jobs, so not wanting to waste any time, he pulled out a chunk of jobs that he was comfortable taking. Form a route for me.

The screen disappeared, replaced by an arrow that would guide him towards the first job. Alright, here we go. Warming up his body with some stretches, he felt his legs begin to tingle and heat up. Turning in the direction the arrow was pointing, he sprinted right at the wall.

Leaping into the air, flames shot out of his calves, rocketing him into the air. Twisting at the waist, he kicked off the wall and pulled himself up onto the roof of the coffee shop. Sliding over to the opposite end, he used the space to pick up speed and jumped over the alley. His legs overheated mid-air, shorting out and causing him to not clear the space as easily as he should have.

Reaching out, he hooked his fingers onto the edge of the third storey balcony. He groaned as his legs slammed into the wall, and started sputtering. Pulling himself up, fire spewed onto the potted plants sitting on the balcony. Smacking his calves until they stopped shooting out fire, he climbed onto the air conditioning unit and used that to get onto the roof.

The door to the balcony opened and a grumpy old man stepped out just in time to see Ed’s feet disappear over the roof.

“Get back here you little shit.” He yelled out. Getting no response, he sighed and looked forlornly at the ruined plants before heading back inside.

Still feeling a bit warm, Ed gave the thrusters a chance to cool down while he continued running. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop following the arrow until he was once again level with the street. Vaulting over a bit of railing, he ran across the street, causing an oncoming car to scream to a halt.

Disappearing before the driver could get out of the car, Ed turned several corners before stopping outside a small shop. The arrow in his vision blinked, pointing towards a small box sitting atop the counter.

“I’m here for the delivery.” Ed stated clearly so as to not cause any problems. Getting a quick nod from the busy shop owner, Ed grabbed the box and sprinted out the store.

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The arrow spun rapidly for a few seconds while it loaded the route for the delivery, forcing Ed to impatiently tap his foot while waiting outside. Eventually, the arrow stopped, pointing to the right.

Racing up the street, he took a few twists and turns lasting over the course of several minutes before reaching a tall apartment building. The arrow pointed up towards an open window tens of storeys high. A circle flashed around the window, marking it as the drop off point.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Rolling his eyes, he tied the box to his hip and looked around for a way to get up. Looking in through the glass door, he found the apartment foyer to be fairly clean, which was more than most places in the lower city could say for themselves.

Sniffing his armpit, a pungent stench stung his nose. Ugh, when was the last time I bathed?

Looking away from the door, he continued to scan his surroundings. Someone like me definitely won’t be let in to such a high-brow place, They’ll probably just think I wanna steal something... Guess I’m doing this the hard way.

Taking a deep breath, he looked around to make sure nobody was watching before climbing on top of a car on the side of the road. Using the extra height from the car, he jumped onto the tiny overhang that went across the front of the building.

Pressing himself against the wall, he looked up to find a handhold he could use to climb. Noticing a brick that stuck out a bit, he grabbed onto it and began his ascent.

Being careful to not damage the box, he scaled up the building. Most of the time, he didn’t even have enough room to stand, so he resorted to dangling there precariously by hand. Whenever he found a place to stand, he would stop and rest.

After several minutes, he looked up to see how close he was to the target. Why is it still so far? The open window was still roughly a dozen storeys above him. I swear I’ve climbed more than that. He looked down at the ground, only to immediately regret it.

Holy shit. The ground was so far away. The car that he stepped on to climb up was so small, that it looked like a toy. If he fell, there was no doubt in his mind that he would die. His heart pounded in his chest as he forced himself to look away. He held onto the windowsill for dear life.

Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths until his heart started to calm down. Opening his eyes, he found a face mere inches from his own. Jolting back in surprise, he lost his grip and found himself falling away from the building.

Thinking fast, he activated the thrusters in his legs to counteract gravity. With the few precious seconds that he had, he desperately scrambled for purchase. Latching back onto the windowsill, he found the person inside to be just as surprised as he was.

He found the young woman to be strangely familiar, but that couldn’t be right. The only rich person he knew to some degree was Mr Dimarco, and that man was clearly an outlier. The rest of the people he was familiar with were among the lowest of the lows, even in this trash heap of a city.

Shaking his head, he continued his climb up the building until he reached the open window.