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"'Cause we hunt you down without mercy

Hunt you down all nightmare long

Feel us breathe upon your face

Feel us shift, every move we trace

Hunt you down without mercy

Hunt you down all nightmare long, yeah

Luck. Runs. Out.

You crawl back in

But your luck runs out of time!"

-All Nightmare Long, Metallica



I waited to see what would happen next.

"Nitrox!"

An... earthquake?

"Nitrox!"

Light...

I bolted upright. I felt hands on my shoulders. I opened my eyes.

Zane.

"Wake up! We've got a runner!"

I groaned. Won't they learn?

"Fine. I'll be down soon."

Zane left, shaking his head. I threw on my jacket, grabbed a kunai, affixed my prototype Scope, and snagged my custom made MP3. I turned it on.

All Nightmare Long by Metallica.

Perfect.

I put my MP3 in my pocket. It dropped to the floor.

Facepalm.

I found a pair of pants, shoved them on, shoved on my shoes, and ran downstairs.

Zane was there looking at his watch. "Took ya long enough," he scoffed. "He's headed east."

I ran out the front door and headed east. My Scope flashed to life and easily found the heat trail of the runner. Must have been a nervous thief. They always seem to sweat more. Easy for me.

I had the trail. Next was even easier.


'Cause we hunt you down without mercy

Hunt you down all nightmare long

Feel us breathe upon your face

Feel us shift, every move we trace...


I glowed blue and sprinted.

Hey, my hair's blue. I'm already stick out. Why should I be afraid to use some Nitroxide?

The heat trail proved true as my Scope singled it out from all other trails. It seemed like the runner. I was all good. Until, of course, I hit traffic.

A random crowd was fast approaching. I had no idea why it was there, but I could care less now. Sighing, I vibrated out of the visible spectrum. Then I ran up the side of the building next to me and sprinted to the roof. I clambered up to the roof and looked down. The prototype had glowed white and blinded my eye for a bit before shutting off the heat sensor temporarily. Come on... I hoped. I had just reprogrammed an algorithm for this situation. Too much heat overloaded my Scope last time.

After about a minute of the Scope displaying SEARCHING..., a single trail appeared. Score! I had officially decreased the size of New York by rewriting a simple algorithm.

Sure enough, from this height, I spotted my target. He was running down an alley. As my Scope zoomed in, he took off his mask and disposed of it. There was now nowhere to hide.

I turned and bolted to cut him off. You know how time slows down for people in movies when they jump a great distance? It really doesn't work that way. I accidentally overshot the edge of the next roof and stumbled. Gotta work on that.

Still shielded, I came close to where the runner was. Now came the hard part. I slowed the flow of NX and jumped to the side of the building in front of me. I hit the wall and pushed off back towards the way I had came. I hit the wall and kept going. Reverse wall climbs were hard, but I had gotten used to it. I only got a couple of scratches while practicing.

I hit the ground hard and unshielded. I stood up and came face to face with the runner. I withdrew my kunai and twirled it on my finger. "You're luck's run outta time."

The runner was startled, but he recovered and said, "Not yet," grinning.

Two men appeared behind him, holstering two big guns. I heard a single gun click behind me.

I hung my head. "Man, I hate guns!"
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