Ninja Girl

Anya had crested the top and was up on the roof before Nick was even half way up the building. By the time he finally reached the roof he was huffing and puffing in exhaustion.

“You… move… too fast…” he whined between breaths..

“You’re just too slow,” Anya shot back.

Nick crossed the rooftop over to the ledge by where Anya was standing. There was a wall around the roof that came up almost to Nick’s waist. He leaned down on it with one hand to rest and keep his balance. Looking up, he followed Anya’s gaze out across the street.

“So what we lookin’ at here?”

“I needed to judge the distance. Looks like I was right.”

“Um… right about what?”

She motioned with one hand. “The distance. Looks like it’s about six meters across and the same amount down.”

Nick surveyed the distance, nodding his head while keeping a thoughtful expression on his face. “Yes,” he agreed. “If I knew what any of that meant, I’m sure it would be accurate. What’s that in real people distance?”

“What?” Anya asked, legitimately confused.

“Feet. What’s that in feet?”

“How would I know?”

Nick frowned. “Well, I would say that it looks like it’s about twenty feet across and the same amount down to the roof of the Teller Coms building. Is that what you mean?”

Anya nodded. “Yes, I suppose. six meters. Squared.”

“Well, that’s nice. What do you need the measurements for? Gonna buy some rope or something?”

“No, I’m going to jump it.”

Nick straightened. “Wait, I’m sorry. I think I misheard you. I thought you just said you were gonna jump from this building,” Nick pointed at the rooftop they were standing on, “to that building,” and at this pointed to the roof across the street.

“That’s right. WE are going to jump it.”

Nick was shaking his head before she even finished. “Woah, no,” he said, backing quickly away from the ledge. “No way. Not a chance in hell.”

“It’ll be easy.”

“Easy, yeah,” Nick scoffed. “Easy to die.”

“Oh, don’t be such a child.”

“Okay, now, hold up. We just agreed that we’re talking about twenty feet,” Nick paused and made an arcing motion with both hands, “across. Twenty feet. The world record long jump I think is something like… twenty eight feet. That’s only eight feet more! That’s probably like, I dunno, only one or two meters more or something. And that’s from a world class, professional athlete. Which, I think, we can both agree I am not. I got winded going up like, what? Fifteen flights of stairs? Now you want me to match the world record long jump?”

During his entire rant Anya had been standing still, arms crossed, watching him. When he finally fell silent she stood there for a time longer without saying a word.

“Are you finished?” she asked after a while. “Look, it isn’t a big deal. You don’t have to jump the ‘twenty feet’ straight out. It’s the same amount of distance downwards, which means gravity, momentum, and physics will do most of the work for you. If you get a good running start and a good leap off the ledge here, physics will do the rest.”

“I’m not entirely sure that’s how physics really work,” Nick retorted. “Sailing through the air isn’t a straight line diagonal movement. It’s more like an exponential arc. As in the longer I’m in the air, the more downward pull I’ll have. I try and jump that, I might as well be signing my own death warrant.”

Anya sighed. “Have you ever tried to make a jump like this?”

“…No…” Nick admitted reluctantly, though he would have thought the answer would be obvious.

“Well, I have. Believe me, it’s a lot easier than it seems.”

“Maybe for you,” Nick said, shaking his head as he stared out over the street. “There’s no way I’m making that jump.” He took a look at the other buildings surrounding the Teller Communications building. Unfortunately, the one they were standing on was the only one in the area taller than their goal. The rest all stood at least a couple of stories lower. Nick motioned to one of the neighboring buildings. “Can’t we just jump through a window or something?”

Anya frowned. “We probably could. But it would be even more dangerous. The glass wouldn’t just shatter on impact. The glass in skyscraper windows is built to withstand some force. Even if we did manage to break it we would be jumping on or into shards of glass. We would also most likely alert the entire building to our presence.”

Nick sighed and shook his head again. “There’s just no way I could possibly make this.”

“Fine,” Anya said then. “I’ll go alone.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“Are you going to jump?”

“I… I can’t…”

“Then do you have another way inside?”

“No…”

“Then I will have to go alone.” Anya said conclusively. She bent her body through some quick stretches and then took a few steps back from the ledge, preparing herself for the jump.

“Wait!” Nick exclaimed, just before she could start moving. With a look of annoyance plastered across her face Anya stood up straight and turned to look at him.

“Here,” he said, “Take this.” He pulled the laptop strap off his shoulder and over his head. He held it out for her to take.

Anya stared at the bag doubtfully, as though she didn’t trust it to not take a bite at her. “If I am going alone, I won’t have much need for that.”

“I’ll jump,” Nick said, voice wavering. He didn’t sound, even to himself, like he meant it. “But the laptop should go with the person most likely to make the jump. That’s you. Besides, it’ll just slow me down and mess up my jump. I’m much more likely to make it without this thing, but I’m betting it won’t affect your jump in the slightest.”

Anya did not look like she bought a word of it, but she nodded and took the bag from Nick. Letting out a sigh, she resumed her position, preparing to run.

There was a flash of light, and Nick realized she had already taken off. He ran back to the ledge and saw her sailing gracefully through the air between the buildings. She landed with several feet to spare. As she came down on the rooftop, her body kept moving, almost like it was crumpling in on itself. Her momentum carried her forward and she threw herself into a headlong roll. She rolled only once and then she was back on her feet, poised, at a complete stop. She even managed to cradle the laptop bag and keep it up in the air, preventing it from touching the rooftop at any point.

Nick could hardly believe his own eyes. It was like something out of a movie. Or a video game. Or a video game movie. He had watched the impossible unfold before him, and she had made it look easy.

Across the way, Anya straightened. She turned around and motioned to Nick for him to follow. Nick shook his head stubbornly. She motioned again, more impatiently this time. Nick shook his head again. Anya sighed and put her hands on her hips, more annoyed than ever. She was shaking her head and muttering something to herself.

Nick waved and pointed. Anya noticed but could only respond with a confused look and a shake of her head. Nick waved and pointed again. Anya simply shook her head again and shrugged.

Nick sighed, growing more desperate. He pointed behind himself, then pointed across the rooftops past her.

Anya sensed it even before turning. There was the smell of cigarette smoke, and the eerie presence of another human being. She had been so distracted by trying to convince Nick to jump the gap that she had let her guard down.

Someone else was on the rooftop.

Anya hit the ground rolling, and came up between a ventilation structure and the ledge of the rooftop. She pressed her back up against the structure and remained motionless.

She had been lightning fast, but she had reacted just a little too late. The other person had caught a flash of movement in the corner of his eye. He came around the side of the stairwell exit and glanced around suspiciously. Out in the open now, Nick finally got a good look at him.

It was a security guard.

He had a cigarette in one hand and even in the daylight Nick could see the smoke rising off of the man as he puffed away at it. He must have only come outside for a smoke break, but now his mere presence might jeopardize everything.

As Nick watched in abject horror, the guard slowly made his way over to Anya’s position. One hand was reaching toward his belt, though whether it was for a gun or a radio or something else, Nick could not quite make out. All he knew was that if he did not do something, and soon, their whole plan could be blown to smithereens.

The man was moving very close to the edge of the building now. If Nick were to jump, aiming just right, he might be able to smash into the guard upon his landing. The force of the impact would soften the landing for Nick and also potentially knock out the guard. It was the last thing Nick wanted to try, but it was their best bet.

Taking several deep breaths, Nick lined himself up with the guard and then backed away halfway across the roof. He attempted to repeat the stretches he had seen Anya do only moments before, but quickly gave up on that. Instead he shook each of his limbs out, alternating between one leg and then the other.

“Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it,” he kept repeating to himself, over and over. Not that anything was likely to help him forget that he was now planning on jumping from the rooftop of a sixteen story high skyscraper.

He took one more deep breath, let it out, and started running.

About halfway to the ledge he skidded to a halt. He turned around and crossed all the way to the far side of the roof, deciding he needed a bit more time to build up speed. Once there, he ran through the same process as before. Stretches, shaking, breathing. Now he added one last step. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. Now was not the time to think about the fall. It was time to think about the jump. He needed to think about the speed, the power, the jump.

Letting out another deep breath he lowered himself into his best approximation of a runner’s ready stance. He imagined in his head a referee, standing off to the side with a starter pistol.

“3… 2… 1,” said the imaginary man.

Starter pistol.

Nick was off.

Somehow he had managed to time his steps perfectly, and hit the ledge without even slowing down. He used all of that momentum and all the force he could call upon and sent it into that one foot. He pushed off, and leaped high into the air.