11. City Run

Julio Nakpil is a revolutionary leader during the Filipino-Spanish war. He has been recognized more as a musician, an artist, than as a commander of guerrilla forces who fought against Spanish rule under Andres Bonifacio. He once composed a national anthem for the Philippines in 1896 bearing the title "Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan." He is recognized for his works that a street in one of the party places of Manila was named after him.

Every night from 10:00pm to the wee hours of the morning, Manila's youth party along J. Nakpil Street bordering Ermita and Malate on the City of Manila. [map]

This night is different from the other nights. This night, yuppies and party goers are in the night of their lives.

It was raining that night. Scattered rain showers were brought in by Typhoon Mina (local designation) bathed the patrons of many bars and restaurants lining up the street. But the rains or the typhoon did not scare away the eager customers. The in fact reveled at the chance of cooling off in the streets.

Music were fed out of Nakpil establishments to provide appropriate dance rhythms to the young party-goers. They were from different genres spanning from the 80s, 90s, to the new millennium.

Away from all the noise and lights and drinks, rapid steps splash on puddles and bodies break through falling rain, cloaks drenched and heavy.

The man running from two others is Roberto Damasco. Running along the apex of a roof, he looked back at the two chasing him. On of them, a few meters behind and the other closely following to his left.

Roberto, or RD to his friends, works as an information technology specialist of Hewlett Packard in Makati. RD is about to reach to end of the roof.

I need to get away, he thought. I need to loose them. How did they find out where I will be tonight? That old man. I knew I could not trust him.

He primed himself to lead to the next one. A flat roof deck of a 2 story apartment building. He increases speed, times his step for the lunge.

As he is about to take the last three steps, he noticed a light flash from his left. The second pursuer stopped atop an elevated water tank and fired a fire ball at him. He lost footing and fell to his side, hitting the ridge of the rooftop with his side, almost cracking a rib. The fireball passed overhead, missing him by a few inches yet he felt the heat radiated from it as rain was immediately transformed to steam upon contact.

RD is just 24 years old and lives with his wife and one year old son in Guagua, Pampanga. He turned on his stomach and tried to grab the ridge but he was to late. He struggled to stop himself slipping toward the edge an onto the concrete pavement below the three-story building. He continued to slip. The rain waters lubricating his progress.

The pursuer behind him is now running along the length of the roofs ridge. He raised his hand and a marked spear formed from thin air and threw it at RD.

RD rolled to his left as he continued to slip, the spear boring on the galvanized iron sheet roof. As he rolled, he swung his right hand at the spear-wielding assailant, releasing three daggers in his three rolls. His aim was good but so was the attacker who was able to avoid the sharp edges of the spinning dagger bearing ancient markings.

This time, the spear-wielder stepped on the GI sheet roof, running diagonally toward RD using his momentum and the downward slope of the roof to get to RD fast. He produced a bolo. His intent: to kill.

RD was able to push himself up and used the same technique running toward the edge of the roof to the gutter and away from the boloman. He jumped, caught a suspended electrical cable and used it to swing in a 360 degree somersault across the street to another cable. He swung again, releasing his grip from the wire just before a ball of electricity reached it. RD landed on the sill of the apartment next to the aerial wires, holding the window's caulk for support.

With rain waters drenching the cables acting as conductor adding to the conductive properties of the wire, the electric charge from the ball run through the powerline on both directions, some charge transferring to the other wires through the rain droplet. A transformer at the electrical post on one end blew up due to the overloading causing a blackout.

Turning around, RD saw the boloman swing his hand. A shuriken four times larger the normal spin towards him. To his right, the other pursuer who fired the electric ball produced a spear and threw it at RD.

RD swung his left arm horizontally in front of him, releasing a similar shuriken aimed at the attacker on his right. This was followed by his right arm that released another shuriken spinning toward the attacker on his left. Leaning forward, he bent his knees, swing his arms back and propelled himself forward while making a quarter left turn. He lifted he left leg just above the spinning shuriken from his attacker on the left. The shuriken missed his leg but shredded his cloak.

His right hand caught the runner of the roof just below the gutter, this time turning the opposite direction. RD gripped the runner with his right hand and swung his legs forward, missing the spear by centimeters.

As the shuriken shattered the window while embedding itself on the wall, the spear bore a hole on the outer wall of the house.

RD used the momentum of his body to swing his legs further up, keeping a tight grip on the runner. His years of doing crunches and sit-ups helped him curl his body as his feet neared 270 degrees in its swing. His fingers are in pain, but he could not let go. He pulled himself up as he continued to swing. In the last moment, he let go, landing on his belly at the inclined GI roof. This time, the impact of his body on the roof dented it preventing him from sliding down head first to the spiked walls of the apartment compound.

He pushed himself up and searched for his attackers only to find two balls of fire coming toward him. He is in a very awkward position and had trouble getting up.

Is this the end, he asked himself.

The two fireballs converged. One from across a tree where the target of his first shuriken jumped to to avoid being cut in two and the other one from the concrete post where the other attacker perched who avoided the first shuriken by somersaulting.

A loud explosion was heard by the people partying two blocks away.