Jumping between rooftops is definitely not the easiest thing with a bullet-hole in your shoulder, and the landings hurt like crap. Ask anyone who's tried... there are a lot around here. Why do I always pick rooftops? Why not a nice subway tunnel? Right, I had other uses for those.

My job this time wasn't a robbery, or blowing up several city blocks. No. This time, my mission was much more direct. J Tech, the biggest company in town, thought it was so grand, what with it's soaring buildings, wads of cash, and suave poster-boys, so I was gonna kidnap the CEO's daughter. They were having an open air party downtown to celebrate the opening of their new lab, and everyone knows a good party needs a few party-crashers.

I considered that the whole thing might be easier if I actually had an invitation and could get within twenty feet of her without being noticed, but there was no way I could get or forge one. I'm also not the most convincing person ever, so just getting them to let me in was not gonna happen. Instead I went for big and bold. The party-goers were just raising their glasses to some toast when the dessert table was shot into the air. People screamed and jumped away from the minor blast as cakes and crêpes rained from above. Several more tables soared skyward, propelled by compressed air. Mayhem ensued. (Really, with all that's been going down recently, you'd think they'd be a tad bit calmer.) I fought back laughter as a pie landed on the hundred dollar hairdo of one of the guests and she shrieked. The security scanned the rooftops, but I was watching through hacked cameras, so they couldn't see me. My fun, however, was cut short by the sound of footsteps.

Nasty Mr. Shot-a-girl-in-the-back was making his way towards me. I wasn't happy to see him. Kacie had brought me up to date on everything that happened while I was gone, this guy included. Apparently he'd been going around taking down all the criminals that the police couldn't quite keep up with. Any lower names sent out by the school were either in jail or long gone. The guy had a poetic way of taking down the miscreants, doing to them what they'd been doing to everyone else, ending in people calling him Karma. How he'd gotten to my attack point so quickly, I neither knew nor cared. All I wanted was to keep him and any weapon he may have away from my person. Towards this end, I bumped up the timing of my original plan and dove off the roof. The grappling hook attached to a rope and reel on my waist caught the edge of the building and slowed my fall. I made it to the ground before the vigilante thought to cut my rope and dove straight for my target. With a press of a button, ever knee in the vicinity hit the ground and every ear was covered. I dashed across the party, scooping up the girl as I passed, and made my escape among a cacophony of shattering glass and echoing screeches. Faintly behind me, I could here a certain detective's voice yelling after me accompanied by a resounding gunshot. Too little, too late. I had the girl.