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Gasping breaths with chuckles left Axel's mouth as he jumped down from the roof of one building to another nearby - a small 3 foot gap between the two.
"Catch me if you can, suckers!" He shouted to the wind behind him.
He knew that they were out there somewhere, even if he couldn't see him. They weren't going to stop chasing him down until they caught him - until it was finally his turn.
"I see him!" Axel heard Doug yell from an opposing roof, set apart by an whole street, at least 20 feet. "He's headed down Greenwood towards Bloomfield!"
"Took you long enough," Axel shouted back, laughing as he watched Doug struggle to keep up with him. "Just give up already," he continued, stopping in his tracks to stare Doug down, watching as he gasped and tried to catch his breath.
"We've almost got you," Doug denied, shaking his head and standing back up straight. "You better keep running before we catch up."
"Good luck," Axel mumbled, knowing that Doug wouldn't be able to hear him anyway.
Continuing along the rooftop, Axel cut across the roof, refusing to go straight like Doug thought he was going to, following the roof to its end, directly across from a large crane, a long rope handing down from its side.
A grin broke out on Axel's face as he saw the distance - he could make it, he was sure. Backing up to halfway down the way he'd come from, back away to get a good head-start, he'd turned on a dime and stared down the crane, the line he needed to grab, as he spotted a small drone nearby.
"Hey Leland," Axel waved to it. "You better record this shit," he ordered, pointing at where his destination was and watching as a small red light turned on on the drone.
"Let's do this," he muttered to himself, hearing someone come up behind him.
"Axel! What the fuck?!" Chris yelled behind him. "What are you doing?"
Ignoring her, Axel picked up the pace, Leland's drone keeping pace with Axel's speed. He ran faster, getting closer and closer to the edge of the roof before he took his final step, jumping off of the roof and towards the crane, his arms outstretched for the rope, needing to grab it.
"Axel!" Chris yelled, stopping on the edge, watching as Axel fell to Earth before he gripped the rope tight.
Making an S-loop with his feet, placing the rope between them and using that as an anchor, Axel threw his head back and let out a loud, maniacal laugh. He swung gently in the breeze, spinning above the city below him as he watched from his rope - this was true freedom to him, nothing was holding him back from what he wanted to do.
"You better have got that Leland," he spoke to the drone, following his moves up the rope as he climbed. "I'll do it again, but I feel like that one was perfect."
Reaching the top of the rope, Axel pulled himself up onto the neck of the crane, standing tall and looking down on Chris, still standing at the edge of the roof.
"What did you think of that?" He yelled to her, hands on his hips and full of pride. "You still going to try and catch me or do you give up?"
"We are not giving up yet!" She shouted back, her voice light and full of happiness. "You crazy bastard!"
"Catch me if you can then," Axel spoke back, shrugging as he walked down the neck of the crane, sliding down on top of the main body of it and climbing down to the ground from there, using the ladder this time.
Once his feet hit the ground, Axel heard someone come barreling at him from his right - small, light footsteps. Dodging the attack by moving forward, Axel got a good look at who is enemy was: Eleina, aka the master hacker Mad Screamer.
"Hey there Kiddo," Axel greeted, ruffling her hair with his hand. "What are you doin' here? I figured they'd have you watching me on security cameras."
Eleina pushed his hand off of her head, readjusting her hat and giving him a small glare.
"Leland's got tracking you covered now," she explained, eyeing the drone that focused in on them from above. "So, I came out to hunt you down too."
"Sounds fun," Axel remarked. "I don't know why you guys haven't given up yet, you've been after me for over an hour now."
"Because, we want to win this," she explained, reaching out to grip his arm while occupied. "Gotcha!" Eleina yelled, feeling the fabric under her hand. If she could get that piece of tape around his hand, she'd have caught him.
Pulling it closely, Eleina realized how loose it felt, how light it felt. Lifting the jacket up, she realized that Axel had slipped out of it in a moment, making her believe that she'd actually caught him.
"Damn it, Axel," she swore, letting her shoulders fall in anguish.
"Now, now," he chided from around a corner. "Watch your language and please, keep that safe for me, I'll want it back when you guys give up, okay?"
With that final sentence, Axel took off, racing down the street, dodging in and out of alleyways, all while Leland's drone followed him from close behind.
"C'mon kid," Axel pleaded to the machine. "Just stop following me for like 2 seconds, okay? Give me a chance to get away again."
"No way," the boy's voice came crackling through the machine. "It's my job to track you, I'm not messing that up."
"I'll give you my TV time for the rest of the week," Axel offered.
Since LAZARUS had all decided to live in their headquarters for sake of ease, arguments had broken out about who would get to use the only TV in the house. So, Hersch had decided on an agreement called "TV Time". Every person got 2 hours to use the TV for whatever they wanted - games, shows, movies, anything - each day. Once their time was up, it went to whoever was next, a random name picked out of a hat until everyone had gone, then all names were placed back in.
"Make it 2," Leland bargained. "2 weeks of your TV time and I'll give you a minute."
"How about a month and you tell them I went the opposite direction?"
"Deal!" Leland agreed, shooting the drone off in the opposite direction without any hesitation.
Walking calmly, Axel stayed quiet, not wanting to run into any of his friends, his family now, while trying to evade them. He peeked around each corner before turning, getting about 3 streets down before he ran into anyone.
"Hello Axel," Doug greeted. 'How odd to meet you here? I thought you were on Melrose."
"Yeah," Axel laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Decided to try out teleportation, works real well, doesn't it?" He joked, not letting his eyes fall from Doug, not giving him the opportunity to catch him.
"Why don't you just give up, Axel?" Doug asked. "It's getting late and I'm sure you want the chance to hunt us down too."
"It's not that late," Axel denied. "Besides, winning won't feel as good if I just let you have it."
"Fair enough," Doug responded before he launched himself at Axel.
Blocks were thrown as hit came in, not hard or for an attack, mainly just for fun and for the thrill of it. Axel tried to run, tried to climb the side of the building near him using the window ledges, but Doug got him first, throwing a band of tape around Axel's wrist.
Doug had won. He had captured Axel.
"Well shit," Axel spoke, jumping down from the 3rd floor ledge and landing in front of Doug. "Good game," he said, offering his hand to Doug.
The two shook hands as Doug called over his earpiece that the game was over and that they should take off.
Looking over at the man beside him, Doug gave Axel a light shove to the shoulder.
"Tag," he stated, turning and beginning to run away. "You're it!"