Alex Butler@Lucius Cypher Alex was suddenly very grateful to his gym instructor for putting him and his class through so many drills as the stamina built up from them was enough to allow him to keep up with the Elf Lady. Not enough to be anywhere close to her, but enough to at least keep her in his line of sight. A quick look around showed that a host of other people seemed to be heading in the same direction though he hoped to at least stay under the radar for a bit longer.
Thankfully, perhaps because she was so focused on her mission, the Elf Lady had yet to notice him. He followed her into an alleyway and watched in awe as she took to the rooftops by pulling off the kind of acrobatic feats that would leave even the most seasoned veteran of parkour green with envy. Seriously, this lady was like a female version of Spiderman.
Great...now how the heck am I suppose to follow her? As if someone had heard his silent plea, the Elf's parkouring had knocked down a series of boxes, crates and left some ropes dangling. "Huh...guess there's somebody up there looking out for me." Offering a silent thanks to whatever invisible entity had willed this, he slid a box over and stacked a couple more under a dangling rope.
He took a deep breath to prepare himself, "Ok Alex...remember what your gym instructor told you. Focus." He climbed up the boxes, grabbed the rope and started hauling himself upwards, "And whatever you do...don't look down." He climbed the rope up as far as it would take him and, seeing another shelving of boxes nearby, he swung himself back and forth until he was close enough to kick it over, giving him a ledge to swing himself onto.
After doing so, the young man let out a sigh of relief as he placed his back against the wall and took a breather, "Phew...they make this look way easier on TV..." He opened his eyes and looked upwards to the sky, contemplating, "...Alex, why are you even putting yourself through this? Honestly, if Mom saw you doing this right now, she would flip and likely not let you out of your room for a year...at best..."
That's right. This isn't one of your anime where you get power-ups just cause you were super determined and did a lot of yelling, or RPG's where you got Save States and infinite retries. This is REAL LIFE. You die here, you die for good! There was that voice of reason once again.
Please...please get this through your head before you go any further! Alex actually stopped himself for a moment as that bit of knowledge sunk in. As much he hated to admit it, his inner voice did have a point...was getting some info out of that Elf Lady really worth going through all this trouble? He looked down to his hand which was still hanging on to the rope. He could easily back out now, climb back down and go off and do his own thing. Perhaps find a method of info gathering that didn't require so much trouble.
....However, he knew in his heart he couldn't bring himself to do that. Besides, his Mom had taught him to lend a helping hand wherever he could.
Even if it's something as simple as helping someone carry groceries or grabbing a balloon out of a tree, those things still have meaning. Once more, her voice echoed in his mind.
He sighed and gathered his wits again though he managed a small smile, "You just had to be a good influence on me, didn't you, Mom?" The young man grabbed a piece of railing and hauled himself up onto the scaffolding, carefully making his way across and climbing up through the gaps in the boards towards another rope which he grabbed and climbed again, now getting close enough to the rooftop he was able to grab the edge and finally pull himself up.
Once again, he took another breather before glancing over the edge, "Well...that wasn't too bad...though I hope getting back down is easier..." With that, he hauled himself up and started making his way across the rooftops, grabbing a window ledge and hauling himself upwards. Finally, he spotted the Elf Lady again now standing on a nearby rooftop, and across from her was...what was that? He pulled out his cellphone and used the camera mode on it for a closer look...and what he saw sent chills down his spine.
The figure was humanoid and wearing some sort of gear that was a mishmash of a cloak and body armor...with one section seeming to have a scorch mark on it, as if he or she had to cauterize a wound. The figure also had a mask concealing their identity. Even from where Alex was standing, the entity gave off a foreboding aura that actually made him freeze briefly. He didn't know why but for some reason, he automatically knew this being was tied to the current incident. But if that was the case, why were they still here? Shouldn't they have like skipped town after setting off such a massive fire? This was oddly suspicious behavior, for sure.
His chills only grew when he saw the Elf Lady's lips moving...and a wall of ice sprouted up on the rooftops where the masked entity stood. Alex had casted magic in videogames hundreds of times, but being able to see it in real life...well, it was a whole other experience. It also helped reinforce that nagging sense of helplessness that he'd been trying to ignore.
If her intent was to keep the masked man from escaping by the rooftops, she had certainly succeeded...if he didn't suddenly grow wings and fly, which would be a real bummer. Even so, Alex grabbed whatever footage he could of the masked figure, feeling even if they got away that having a recording of them might prove useful, before getting out his makeshift weapon and ducking into a part of the roof with shadows to hide himself and keep an eye on what was about to unfold before him.
Besides, who knew? Maybe he would get a chance to help...if he didn't get himself killed doing so.