[b]Vates[/b]
Janus was right, Vates hated his idea. [i]“You better be on the ball then Janus.”[/i] warned Vates inwardly. Slowly Vates rolled over and took up a pre-sprint position, taking care not to make any sudden movements. Vates slowly checked his pockets to ensure he hadn’t dropped anything. Glasses, check. Energy bar, check. A couple of swipe cards, check. A photo of his family, check. He shut his eyes for a moment as he drew a deep breath and suddenly with a big push off his front leg he burst forward into a sprint across the roof. 

“Over there!” came the shout of a nearby soldier, spotting the runner almost immediately. The soldier quickly started waving his arm in the direction of the target, causing the other soldiers to take off after him and causing the sharpshooters to quickly take aim. Vates was running as fast as he could when eyes blinked white, the quick glancing vision causing him to jump to his right and narrowly dodge a plasma bullet. However as he struggled to keep decent footing he found himself stumbling straight into a wall, his held up palms barely saving him from hitting it face first. He turned then towards the oncoming soldiers just as he had another glancing vision, causing him to roll off the wall and back onto his intended path as he dodged yet another bullet. “Shit! He’s a fucking host!” yelled the same soldier from before. 

Vates continued to run but couldn’t help but be shocked at the soldier’s words. [i]“How did he know I was a host?”[/i] he found himself asking, still unaware of the glowing white eye affect that his powers came with. He wasn’t going to stop and ask however. He reached the end of the current rooftop and made the relatively small leap down to the next one, thankful that the marksmen were not able to fire off any more shots before he’d escaped their vision; he could already feel the strains of mental fatigue from the two visions. He was far from in the clear though, for five or so soldiers still chased after him. Wanting to get off of the roof top Vates made off towards the left of the current roof where another building towered over and made a jump for one of the windows. Not wanting to risk getting snagged on any remaining shards of glass, he let out a kinetic blast mid jump. Whilst he made the jump his landing was far from perfect for his foot clipped the ledge and he found himself falling shoulder first onto the floor, earning himself a couple of cuts where some tiny glass fragments were able to pierce his clothing. 

“Mike Six! This is Foxtrot Two! Target has found his way into the large office building! Target is a confirmed host! Please send back-up!” the voice was faint but Vates could still hear it from inside. Not affording the time to sit and catch his breath, he quickly climbed to his feet and continued running but as he did so two soldiers came through the window after him. The first one luckily did exactly the same as Vates and fell face first as his foot caught the windows ledge. The second one however was much more agile and continued after his target without pause. The office building was a typical one with long running corridors and [url= http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/files/2012/07/IMG_6366.jpg]large rooms with dozens of little worker booths[/url], although of course much of it was in disrepair. Not confident that he could outrun his pursuer down a straight corridor, Vates weaved in and out of the little booths going round corners sharply as he heard the pursuer close the gap. Each time he made sure not to take a corner that would lead back on himself towards the other soldiers that had by now also made the jump. Spotting a chance to open the gap, Vates darted quickly into one of the booths and running up the chair and over the desk he jumped over the entire column of booths. He heard his pursuer curse at the manoeuvre.

[i][b]“To your left Edward! Head to the stairs!”[/i][/b] Janus practically yelled inside. Vates took the advice, barging through the door and leaping down two flights of stairs, practically bouncing off the walls as he made each turn. As he exited the stairs he heard the soldiers enter them and hoped that they wouldn’t know how many flights down he’d gone. Turning a couple of corners Vates quickly paused as he tried to decide whether to hide or whether to keep running. He managed to catch his breath a little before he heard voices from the stairs get louder and his mind was made up for him. Run. Taking back off into a sprint Vates headed towards the far side where there was once a window wall, and beyond an alley with a width of about five metres was another building. There was no way he could reach the opposite room, but perhaps he might land a floor or two below. Ensuring he reached peak speed Vates leaped out of the window and found that the time felt as if it had slowed down. His limbs appeared to continue running as if it would somehow help him reach the other side. He felt a horrible sinking feeling deep within his belly as he begun to fall, and it reached up into his throat like a clot. He fell into the window two floors down at a worryingly sharp angle; had the alley been slightly longer he may have missed the building altogether. He landed on bent knees and went into a roll, saving him from any fractures. Crawling quickly behind a desk to shelter him from view Vates sat there and got his breath back. His little stunt, stupid as it might have been, just earned him two or three stories and a buildings worth of space between him and his attackers. He must have sat there for about four minutes before sneaking off and making his way back home. Fortunately he saw no more of the soldiers and left long before any reinforcements arrived. 

---
Having spent hours getting back and due to both physical and mental exhaustion, Vates slept in through the whole next morning and woke up in the early afternoon. Even given the events of the previous day it was still far more sleep than Vates liked and he cursed himself as he quickly stumbled out of bed and made for his rooftop terrace. It was not unusual for him to do this, for it gave him a good view and often he had woken up to see signs of destruction in the distance from the night before; be it military raids or just another building finally losing its lasts legs. As he lent on the side rail of the roof he looked out over the all too familiar sight, “Hello world” he said with mock enthusiasm. 

“Hello, Sovereign” replied a smooth voice from behind him. Vates stood completely still for a moment. 

“Hello?” Vates repeated as he slowly turned to see no-one there. His face was the picture of confusion and he pondered whether or not he was going mad. 

“This is Victor Esteves, captain of the Golden Mercenaries and I am here to speak to you - the people of Sovereign. I am here to tell you that there is still hope, that there is still a strong chance that you will get to see your beautiful families yet again.” Came the voice again, but now Vates knew its source: a speaker on the corner of the roof. He had always hated it and before the event he even used a little device to stop it playing; however he had long removed the device for another purpose and was surprised the speaker even worked. He listened intently as Victors message echoed throughout the city and a choir of murmurs and cheers filled the concrete jungle with a tiny bit of ambient noise, as if the city was returning to life. Vates however did not share the happiness and hopes that many now harboured. 

“Fuck. Fuck!” he hissed as he grabbed a glass and threw it towards the speaker, “That stupid son of a bitch! Whether he realises or not, he has sentenced [i]everyone[/i] to death.”

[b][i]“I do not understand Edward. Should you not be happy? We can finally break free of this prison. You can return to your family.”[/b][/i] asked Janus, often misreading his hosts complex string of thoughts. 

Vates ran indoors and headed towards his vault as he explained himself, “Even if most of the city bands together, I doubt they will stand a chance against the military. More likely the survivors will be killed off by each other, you know how Onikages are! If they attack the military and they lose the military won’t just recover and continue like usual will they? They’ll take much more extreme measures. They’ll probably decide to level the city or kill off all the survivors, even those who chose not to fight. Whether those Golden Mercenaries meant to or not, they’ve given an ultimatum to everyone in the city: win or die.”