He jumped across an empty gap between two of the buildings and landed, rolling forward to relieve himself of the shock from jumping.

"Everyone to  Base 8. I repeat, everyone to Base 8." He panted into a tiny but sensitive mike attached to his shirt collar, one that would immediately send a signal to the rest of s as soon as he spoke, not matter how soft. His own voice sounded in his ear, raspy and harsh from the static. For a second, he recoiled at how cold he sounded.

He sat, perched for a while on a metal piece of the roof as the wind furiously ripped at his jacket and squirmed its way into his clothes. It would have blown his hair into his face, but that was why he kept it short, a simple buzz cut that required little attention. He had no time for frills and fancies.

A moving flash of black, easily spotted through even the glass of the roof, caught his attention.

Slowly, like a cat, he shifted to the side, where the metal lined the glass and gave him some sort of protection, at least.

"Target spotted. They're at the atrium, near the toilets." He spoke into the mike, softer this time. It came out into his ear as another rush of static, but a little better. He would have to work on getting better means of communication.

"Shall we get them now?" Someone, Lay, by the sound of him, questioned and he could hear guns clicking as they shifted them around to the front of their bodies for easier access.

"No, wait a bit." He inhaled deeply and the sharp tang of burnt dust and metal filled his nostrils. "What are they doing." He squinted into the semi-darkness, his vision half-blurred and sepia-filtered.

Below, the shapeless mass of black sharply jumped across the floor, leaving a trail of black behind it. More of the liquid pooled from it, seeping across the filthy, dusty floor.

"It's injured." He quickly informed his other members. They watched in silence, from different parts of the building, as it crawled across the floor, much different from before, when they were chasing it at almost inhumane speeds across the various obstacles. Soft, muffled groans of pain traveled up to him, managing to pass through even the glass.

He waited, until it dragged itself to a sunlit area where it was fully exposed. It must have thought itself safe. If must have thought it was alone.

"Attack." He said simply. There was a moment of silence, like there always was, and then two dark figures swooped down silently from above, landing directly onto it.

There was a horrible, almost nonhuman screech of pain which reverberated throughout the flimsy framework of smashed glass and rusted metal, and then the noise was gone, stopped just as abruptly as it had begun.

He watched as the two figures left it, now completely motionless and unrecognizable, on the cold, hard ground. There was a short beep- that was the two of them turning on their mikes so the thing's screams wouldn't have blasted in their ears- and a short sentence.

"I think we can leave now. This thing doesn't have anything valuable on it."

He turned away from the mess below. "If you say so." He replied simply and prepared himself for the jump back to the other building.

"Ok. Thanks, Tao."

Tao looked sharply across the gap between the buildings, an impossible distance to jump for any human. Most humans. His metal eye jerked in its socket, making little whirring noises that sounded like the grinding of steel on bone. Impossible to hear from outside himself, but to him, it gnashed away at his senses and sounded so loud he couldn't hear anything else at times.

Tao squeezed shut his eyes, and when he opened them again, the world was in graphs and plans, green and black, calculations that showed him what he would have to do if he were to make that jump. The precipice of the buildings were outlined in a thick green line, his projected path a dotted, thinner one. Equations showed him the speed and strength and angle of how he would have to jump. Equations that only he could understand, because, after all, he was the one who created them. All in his head.

Like the well-tuned robot that he almost was, he leaned back on his heels and prepared to spring forward like a leopard in wait.

And then, he ran.

And jumped across the abyss.

************