Universalis 2/Log

#1: Look Before You Leap :: #2: A Room with a View

Look Before You Leap

Cue signature theme music.

Two men fall quietly through the sky, one is braced into a comfortable and relaxed fall – his outstretched arms and stable posture showing that this is by no means his first skydive. The other tumbles through the air with a panicked expression.

A plane circles in the sky above them, clearly their jump point but a moment ago. The gorgeous Joanna Edwards, 003, appears at the open door of the plane and squints into the furious wind.

"Mother always said to look before you leap", she says in a cultured english accent.

And leap she does, tucking into an agressive dive she plummets down in pursuit of the falling men.

The plane continues its tight circle above.

With an adrenaline-induced grin, the first jumper turns in mid-air and draws a gun. A shot is almost silenced by wind, and recoil sends the man to fall much faster. The bullet misses Joanna by several meters.

003 sways her body ever so slightly in reaction to the muzzle flash. In the tearing of the wind from her fall she doesn't so much hear the bullet as feel the shock of the supersonic slug whistling past her.

She thinks to herself, "Cheeky", and with another twist aims herself straight down, accelerating rapidly as she has barely any resistance now.

Her right hand, flat against her side, fishes into a pocket.

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" thinks Man #2 as he tumbles through the air, one strap of a parachute clenched in a death-grip. He struggles to orient himself such that he can slip his free arm into the other strap but the wind and his tumbling conspire against him.

Seeing how his enemy rushes toward him like a bird of prey, the sneering guy devised another plan. He turns into a right position and opens the parachute. The pull instantly got him above his unlucky fellow and the enemy, in theory...

003 moves like lightning as the 'chute opens below her and she plummets past. In an instant, her hand has found and opened the knife from her pocket and she slashes at the 'chute and nicks several of the lines as it is deploying.

Immediately she flares out and slows her descent, her moves reflecting her gymastic past and her present expertise. With another wriggle and change of arms and legs, she moves to be ready as the 'chute above becomes flaccid and lifeless as the air rushes from the side and the lines flail in the air. The man's descent rapidly increases again and in a second he is beside 003.

Joanna flies across the distance and grapples with the man, a wry smile on her face as she wraps her legs around him and then gives him an almost longing look before striking out with her elbow to his head...

#2 remains oblivious to the battle above him, focused solely on attempting to avert his impending doom! There is nothing deft about his movements as he finally manages to get one arm through the loop then tries to convince his other hand to release the strap so it can go through its loop too.

#1 tries to shot Joanna as soon as he saw what she's doing. The pistol fires twice.

003 moves like lightning as the 'chute opens below her and she plummets past. In an instant, her hand has found and opened the knife from her pocket and she slashes at the 'chute and nicks several of the lines as it is deploying.

Immediately she flares out and slows her descent, her moves reflecting her gymastic past and her present expertise. With another wriggle and change of arms and legs, she moves to be ready as the 'chute above becomes flaccid and lifeless as the air rushes from the side and the lines flail in the air. The man's descent rapidly increases again and in a second he is beside 003.

Joanna flies across the distance and grapples with the man, a wry smile on her face as she wraps her legs around him and then gives him an almost longing look before striking out with her elbow to his head.

His nose bursts blood across his face that is almost instantly dried by the rushing air and the two of them start to fall faster as they spin and flail. Joanna strikes him again as she pulls her head back out of the way with his attempted headbutt missing the mark. All the while, her other hand is feeling the straps of the chute. She finds the emergency release and the damage remnants of the chute fall away.

As they tumble even faster with the sudden release, Joanna knees the man in the groin and in the instant of pain she deftly unbuckles his chute and pushes away from him.

They are just a few feet apart, but Joanna has the chute and she balances herself and begins to put it on.

Man's face is twisted with anger and dirty with blood. If eyes could kill, the thieving lady would die at instant. On a sudden thought, he reaches inside his uniform... The delivery is still there. First things first, and the man aligns himself to near the fellow jumper, with a most cunning intention...

Joanna slips the 'chute on and secures it, all the while watching the events rapidly around her.

"Well, I might get to have a G&T yet...", she thinks to herself.

A quick glance tells her she has maybe 30 seconds before she will have to pull the chute, and hope that it opens.

Something catches her eye and she glances over her shoulder...

Behind 003 blossoms a magnificent yellow and white striped canopy. #2 has finally managed to get his second arm into the other strap and has pulled the cord. Without all the straps correctly fastened he almost loses the 'chute when the sudden decelleration hits but he manages to hold on.

With both hands busy holding tightly to the chute straps, there's no way that #2 can steer. The wind picks up and takes him westward towards a wide river, winding through lush countryside.

The man with broken nose got to the guy #2 but a moment too late; he managed to grab guy's ankle as the 'chute pulled him upwards. Now this death grip is the only thing that separates #1 from lethal falling. His excitement is set aside by sheer terror.

High in the sky above the falling men and lady, the plane bursts into flame and then explodes noisily. Thick black smoke roils from the plane and parts of falling aeroplane are suddenly hurtling through the air, endangering everyone below.

Now also floating through the air and gently decending to the ground below are several millions of freshly printed 5,000 Peseta banknotes.

#2 screams like a little girl as he feels #1's hands grip his foot. His boot is tied too securely to simply slip it off so he kicks wildly at the man's hands. The falling, burning shrapnel miraculously do no major damage to #2 nor his parachute but a sizeable piece slams into #1's torso with a crunch.

#1 clings to the foot as it was his life. There is no amount of pain or fear that would make him release and no other means of surviving except for holding tight.

#2 screams and kicks at the hands wrapped around his boot. One of the enemy's hands is knocked free and #2 begins kicking at the other hand with renewed vigour. Something heavy goes thud in the pit of #2 stomach when he feels the enemy's free hand latch onto his kicking foot.

With both feet grappled, #2 finds his body twisting rather than kicking. His body writhes as he tries to free himself from #1's grasp.

Without warning, a flaming lump of metal and plastic slams into #1's torso. One hand opens with the pain of the impact and he begins to swing like a pendulum under #2 and his parachute. With a final well-placed kick from #2's boot, #1's grip is finally loosened and he begins to fall.

When #1 began to fall with a short scream, he also lost the object he had to deliver. A small black box separates from his silhouette and quickly gains distance by the force of wind. All the money flowing through the air wouldn't buy a single bit of box's contents...

The tiny, slick box is quickly lost in the mess of pesos and airplane parts.