- Activation

He took off with a small run as he entered the busy street. He tried to weave between people but was encumbered by the bag he had thrown over his shoulder. Turning left from the building, he approached the designated crossing zone. Just as he approached, the signal light that indicated when it was safe for pedestrians changed from red to green.

"Thank God," Gus muttered. "It's about time I had something go my way this morning."

Without hesitation, Gus ran out into the road. His path took him outside of the limits of the crossing zone, so that he could avoid the people crossing from the other side.

'Please don't let there be any police here,' Gus thought. 'I really don't have time for this.'

Luckily, he made it to the other side without an issue.

'Seems like my luck's turned right around,' Gus thought, with a small smile spreading onto his face.

Across the road from his apartment building was a section of the city known to locals as the maze. A collection of identical, towering buildings that covered everything beneath them in shadows, they acted as the financial and industrial heart of a city, with many of the buildings being able to facilitate tens of thousands of workers. On the other side of the maze stood the spaceport, a large, open space filled with incoming and outgoing aircraft from all over human controlled space. It was here he was looking to get to.

Gus ran through the maze with ease, taking many shortcuts through rubbish filled alleys and open stores and building with entrances on opposite sides. While not ideal, given the amount of rubbish he had to navigate, as well as the numerous shady dealings that inevitably happened in alleys with shadows as deep as they are cast over them, the route he took was truly Gus's only option.

As he exited one of the alleys on his route, Gus caught his first glimpse of the spaceport. Granted, he had seen it before, but the spectacle of seeing such large spacecraft all collected together in one space was a feeling that never got old. However, the collection was not what caught his eye. Nor was it what he was looking for, either.

Massing around a large ship, Gus saw a horde of bodies in the spaceport.

'They must be the new cohort of the academy,' Gus thought. 'And it doesn't look like they've started embarking.'

Changing his focus to the ship itself, Gus confirmed his thoughts. From the engines found at the rear of the ship, to the hull lights that ran along the corner of the side and top of the ship, everything suggested the ship wasn't ready to launch.

As he studied the ship, which was coloured in the deep blue with a dark green of humanity's fleet, a shiver ran down his spine.

'I'm finally going to be doing it,' he thought with glee.

Shaking the distraction from his head, Gus continued running towards the ship.

He came to an abrupt stop when he heard the muffled screams of someone in an alleyway to his left. At this point, he was almost within a touch's distance of the spaceport. He only had the length of one of the buildings to cover and he would be there.

Gus struggled with indecisiveness for a moment, before deciding to have a look at the noise. After all, he could not go to learn how best to defend humanity from threats outside their territory if he was not willing to investigate such a noise at the heart of it.

Hugging the wall tightly, Gus peered into the alleyway.

Three people stood with their backs to him. The central one, a bald headed person with some sort of cybernetic implant on their head, held a knife to the throat of a well dressed man in front of him. The other two people, both wearing identical red leather jackets, stood either side of the knife wielding person with their arms folded, acting as extra thugs to afford the one in the centre the ability to commit their crimes.

To Gus, it was obvious what they were doing. They were robbing people.

'I have to do something,' Gus decided, before slowly moving forward.

His presence was given away by the sound of an aluminium can being hit behind him, causing it to clatter on the floor and roll into the alleyway. Gus's head snapped to the sound of the noise, but saw nothing that could have caused it.

Unfortunately for him, the noise did not go unheard by the thugs. In unison, they turned around and instantly noticed Gus. Sensing the opportunity to make a bit more money, they both walked towards him, each drawing a small knife from their pocket.

Having lost the element of surprise, Gus tried to run away, but found himself unable to move.

'Damnit,' he thought. 'Why is it us humans lock up when we get scared?'

Gus could only curse anything and everything he could think of as the two thugs approached. He cursed them for humans having this reaction to danger. He cursed them for humans like these three existing.

Suddenly, words appeared in Gus's vision.

*Emergency: Life Threatening Situation detected.*

*Emergency Protocols Engaged.*

*System of Legendary Heroes Activated.*