December 27, 2411
11:22 AM
OVER SALUTOWN, NEW AVALON

It was, Geoff Depew considered, a terrible way to spend a birthday.

Most people would agree with him: being six hundred and fifty feet above the Avenue Queen Shiva and accelerating couldn't be a good time, and promised to only get worse at thirty feet per second, squared. Time seemed to stretch for a moment as he considered his options. Canon: on the blimp he'd just fallen off of. Stormwind: pinned in its holster by the knife stuck into his side. Arm grapple: broken in a block.

Yeah, this was going to be some day.

About thirty feet later he curled up and started to rotate slowly. about a third of the way in, he pulled the trigger on Stormwind; the custom automatic fired a single shot through his coat and the meat of his left thigh. The recoil was just barely enough to shove him towards a building.

The next part was going to take some doing. He uncurled and spread arms and legs to get a little braking in, his coat flapping in the updraft. Geoff had about a second to spare before his hands hit the klaster of the building, three hundred twenty five feet up. For just a moment, he touched, and then the rest of him slammed into the window. It spider-marked, but didn't break.

With this done, he continued to fall; a little more slowly, but not quite enough. He spared a half-second to glance down, and then shifted to the right, just in time for his armpit (instead of his groin) to catch on an flagpole. It remained stable as his arm was flung up, partially dislocated.

He stifled the desire to scream in pain, and continued to fall, sliding down the side of the building. His coat no longer had buttons, and the lapels were about to catch fire, and his shirt was looking pretty ratty, but he had a hundred feet to go and might just live through this.

Geoff gave up some deceleration friction just long enough to slide his left arm out of the coat, using it to wrap around a second flagpole. The pain in the right shoulder was even more excruciating than the left, as it completely dislocated.

Half-blind with pain, he barely controlled the rest of his fall; an awning, and then, finally, the street. He didn't feel anything else break as he hit. He opened his eyes and watched the small airship that had held a Big Fire special agent - the bastard hadn't even introduced himself! - start to drop out of the air towards Lake Daniels. He smiled, and let himself pass out.

The next people Geoff Depew saw were people he expected to see: BJ Hunnicutt, the Chief, and Paige 'Spitfire' Guthrie. The last he expected because her face was the last one he saw before falling out - entering the windscreen at a pretty solid clip.

"I am SO sorry about that, Agent Depew. I just didn't see you go out the door!"

"I lived through it, Agent Guthrie." He turned to look at BJ. "The usual?"

BJ nodded, with a grin. "The usual."

Geoff nodded, and looked at the Chief, who was remarkably cheerful. "One hundred kilos of V-9 taken off the streets. Nice work."

"Eh," Geoff replied. "I just kind of fell into the situation."

"Dropping Out"- a Future Imperfect Mini-Story by Geoff Depew
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