Fly Free
By Kermie
Author's Note: I made another DNA submission to
@Bitterman, so now I'm choosing to make that everyone's problem. Again. Enjoy!
(Also, if you like listening to music while you read,
here's a recommended track. Put it on halfway through!)
Horizon, City of Leviathan's Rest -- Edge Of The Uni District -- October 22, 2066
The day was ending, and the night was beginning to encroach upon Horizon, the City of Leviathan's Rest. The sunset was painting the sky into a canvas of orange, purple, and red. Miguel De Leon stood atop a skyscraper, arms crossed, watching the beautiful skyline. If you had asked him, he would have said that he probably looked like an imposing figure. If you had asked anybody else, they would have been inclined to disagree. Standing at 5'6'', his goggles and jacket may have been extra durable to allow for his power, but they didn't give him any style points, just the occasional bad tan line. But to Miguel, that didn't really matter. He was at peace here, high up in the air with nobody around.
And then he got a notification. Snapped out of his dissociation, he quickly fished through his jeans, grabbing his buzzing screen. Miguel read the message, and then sighed. Of course somebody had to need a ride at this time of day. Just when he was getting a break.
He grabbed onto the ledge of the fence with his right hand, pushed down—
And jumped.
It took exactly 5 seconds for him to hit the floor. +0.25 to account for not hitting anybody downstairs, -0.78 from how he purposefully sped up by going face first and using his power. He put on his goggles and closed his eyes, as he hit the ground hard with a—
BAM!
A couple of uni students looked at Miguel a bit strangely as he got up from the floor, dusting the gravel off of his face. It was perfectly fine with him, though. After all, part of his power could be best described as…
Um, how had his girlfriend described it? "Fall damage immunity?" There was a bit more to it than that, but close enough. He then got up, dusted his arms off, and started running to his destination- there was no point in risking more property damage when he was this close to his target.
He turned a corner, somersaulted over a railing, and if his screen was right (which it normally was, except for that one time where he almost had a nasty run in with a villain) there she was. His newest client.
Miguel put his hand up and waved. "Yo! Are you, uh…"
He took a quick look at his screen, just to double-check. Best to be safe (getting paid) than sorry (which meant cashing out roughly nothing and eating cold and probably rotten leftovers again). "Leia? You need a ride to the restaurant on the other side of the borough, correct?"
The girl looked up from her own screen. She had a comfy blue sweater on, and shoulder length, jet black hair. Probably styled like that so that it wouldn't get caught in the wheels of the wheelchair that she was sitting on. "Yes. Though you spelled it wrong, it's Leah."
"Girl, how'd you know I spelled it with an "ia"?"
She grinned, apparently privy to some joke that Miguel wasn't a part of. "Vibes. But you're the taxi dude, right? Where's your car? I paid extra for the "super premium" package on that one app, and I've gotta get to dinner with my friends soon…"
Miguel stared at the girl in disbelief, before deciding to just go and demonstrate with actions instead of words. He slowly began to rise up a few inches in the air, dropping it after three seconds. "You won't need a car. I can get you across the borough in less than five minutes. Didn't you read the description?" (Seriously! It hadn't even been fine print or text, he had advertised it as such beforehand! "Fly me across this borough" and everything!)
If Leah's eyebrows could have shot clean off of her hairline, they would have. "Um, no thanks. I think I'll stick with…"
She looked over to a nearby subway tunnel, before sighing. Miguel hazarded a guess. "Lemme guess, PubTrans doesn't get you to exactly where you need to go?"
"Yeah, and I thought a taxi would be faster… Can you carry both me and my wheelchair? It's Intelihealth, so it's foldable."
Miguel nodded. He had served clients like Leah before, and he had experience with everyone, from buglike metahumans to metahumans with elemental bodies. A girl in a wheelchair wasn't even registering on the scale by now. He began to reach into his jacket, pulling out a few things. "Sure I can, it doesn't look like a powered chair. Here, take these ropes- tie them around your waist, they'll make sure that you don't go flying off. I'm pretty confident in my powers, but I just don't wanna be sued, y'know?"
Five Minutes Later…
If you had asked anyone who wasn't familiar with Miguel what it looked like, they'd have said that it was an odd scene. A 20-something year old girl clinging to a 26-27ish looking dude's back. Of course, neither of them really cared— Miguel was honestly more worried about dropping the wheelchair folded underneath his arm then dropping her. "Alright. I'm Unbound, but you can call me Miguel for the duration of this trip, and I'll be your transporter slash taxi driver today! Where do you wanna go, Miss Leah?"
Leah… yawned? He had to appreciate the honesty at least. "Ok, you can spare me the theatrics. I'm not a kid. Get me to the burger place in three minutes and I'll tip you extra. Y'know, the one with the bacon special."
"...Fine then, but you can definitely be nicer to the people getting you to where you need to go next time."
Miguel squatted down to his knees- and jumped. In what seemed like an instant, they both ascended above one of the three story buildings nearby, accelerating to at minimum 50 miles per hour. Almost immediately, Leah's grip slipped, but thankfully the ropes attached to the inside of his jacket/business outfit held. After the last accident, Miguel had sworn on the Leviathan's Blood to not let anyone slip. It hadn't been like his cousin had died or anything, but being used as a human fall cushion was not something Miguel wanted to relive, thank you very much!
Leah grabbed onto Miguel hard enough to crush something if he hadn't been ready. "Oh geez, that's fast!"
"Hey, you wanted the super premium package, so sit back and enjoy the ride!"
For a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, they stayed up in the air, flying horizontally over the crowds of students… and then they began to slowly drop.
"Hey, why are we-" Leah asked.
"Yeah, I've got a four second limit on the flight. Brace for impact."
Leah screamed in terror as they began to fall more down instead of forward, but Miguel didn't flinch. Bracing for impact, he bent his legs as he landed with a bang on the marble roof of a university's lunch area, before running around the marble dome on the roof. He was still running at a good speed. Not as fast as he could fly, but definitely faster than the average non-powered sprinter. After a few more moments passed, Miguel bent his legs again, and leapt.
Leah was still freaking out. "Leviathan's Blood, this is crazy! Can you chill?"
"Hey, you said three minutes or less. If you're scared, just bury your head into the jacket. I've heard that it helps!"
Leah did exactly that, trying her best to block out the wind and the terrifying falls. For a minute, everything was darkness.
They were rising for a bit. Then they were falling. Rising. Falling. Rising…
After a while, Leah found the courage to meekly peek her head out from behind the jacket. Her eyes immediately widened.
They were facing the sun, and they were definitely a lot higher up. Elysium and the Apiary loomed large in the distance, and it was like she could almost touch the Zenith, the sun painted on the glass skyscraper seeming closer than ever. Below, the light of the sunset was shining down through the skyline of the district, painting everything a beautiful shade of orange. It was awe-inspiring, and the colors almost seemed to dazzle her as they both flew through the concrete skyline. She had seen the Uni District for almost a year now, but
never like this before. Her sister and friends had been completely right. Flight really was the best power. "Wow. What a view."
Miguel grinned, readjusting his grip on Leah's wheelchair. "Now you can see why people pay more for me! There's a helluva lot of things that you can get to see from here. It's my favorite part about my power."
They rose through the sky for a second, before beginning to drop down again. The wind whipped around Leah's head, though it was mostly Miguel that felt the breeze. This time, Leah didn't look away as they fell. "Yeah, I can definitely see why. I kinda wanted to go higher, though."
Miguel nodded just a tiny bit, possibly trying to not lose his goggles as they fell down to the roof of another building."Trust me, this is just how it is. Besides, I'm happy with what I've got. It's enough to get anybody out of the way of any of the big fights, so I'm happy with that."
There had been something unsaid there. But Leah didn't feel like asking much about anybody's New Dawn membership, so she simply looked over to the other side of the district as she felt a small jolt from Miguel hitting the floor.
After a while, Miguel jumped again, going higher and higher, but never tall enough to reach much higher than the Zenith. Leah considered asking him to try and touch a cloud, but decided against it. Instead, she decided to ask a question to pass the time. "Are you mad that you can't go any higher? Like- Automne or Elysium levels?"
"Mmph, I'm fine with where I'm at now. Really." Miguel said, a hint of denial (and not the New Dawn team!) in his voice.
"Are you though? Don't you wish that you could see what it's like up there?"
When he spoke again, there was a small bit of… longing? There was longing in his voice. "Of course I do, sometimes. My power really is just "jump good". It's not that impressive, and sometimes I just wish that I could be more. Better."
Leah could definitely relate. Her mother was also a metahuman, but not a particularly impressive one. Sure, singing incredibly well paid the bills but…
"But I've learned to be happy with what I have," Miguel interrupted, "and yeah, I won't be the same as the people above me in terms of what they were born with, but…"
He hit the ground— and jumped again. This time, both him and Leah reached out for the sun. "We're not gonna be here forever, right? So I wanna enjoy the ride while it lasts, as the person I am. The person I was meant to be. I'm no Automne, I'm no King. But I'm Unbound. And you're Leah. Nothing wrong with being unapologetically ourselves. Nothing wrong with being content, being enough."
"That's easy for you to say," Leah shot back, "You don't have anything stopping you from doing these things, and you can walk, unlike me."
Miguel dove down again, this time landing on a lower building. He nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, that's true. But there's still something you can have anyways. Something that isn't related to how we were born…"
He jumped up again, this time accelerating even faster, even higher. And for a second, both Leah and Miguel simply hovered up there in the sky, not in the clouds, but not on the ground either. Miguel pointed towards the sun. Orange and yellow and purple and disappearing below the horizon.
"Even when things hurt, even when everything goes wrong, the world will always be beautiful. There's always gonna be something new to discover. Any of us can live with that wonder in our hearts… you've just gotta let it in, be open to it. That's how I live my life. Free and happy, in spite of the world."
At that moment, even if she wouldn't admit it to herself, Leah was genuinely happy as well. She smiled, with a grin bright as the sun. "Huh. Didn't expect to get a philosophy lesson today. But it's nice to hear from someone so optimistic. Lot better than the doom and gloom I've been hearing recently."
"And good timing as well, Ms. Leah. Brace for impact again, because below is the restaurant you want!"
"Wait, why are you speeding up our fall OH LEVIATHAN MY HANDS ARE SLIPPING—"
(In the end, Miguel got there in two minutes and fifty-five seconds without any injuries. And yes, he did get that extra tip.)
