A Flight suit.

Greyson stepped onto the ledge with calm easy confidence.
He looked down below to the parkour course below him. Foam mats
ledges, walls. HIs space. He’d been free running a long time now, and
training here for years. Sometimes he even got bored. This would
be different. He’d try something different. Usually, he didn’t use too much gear. Not many serious runners wore
helmets or pads. This was a big departure from that norm. Greyson rolled his shoulders, bent his, knees, hopped on one foot and then the other, testing out the suit of plates and pads. It was almost like special motorcycle gear. It was all a bit bulky, but within what he could handle. Greyson started slow, jumping of the tall ledge in the middle of the course to a shorter one in front of the platform ramp. Landing with a smooth shoulder roll he went into a jog down the ramp/bridge before somersaulting left onto a trampoline. Landing on his back and smoothly bouncing up to another platform, running forward he somersaulted under a rail in front of him jumping over an open foam pit, grabbing a bar suspended over it and swinging onto the padded floor on the other side. Eventually, he made his way right back to the platform where he started.

“Alright, Now let’s try setting 1,” Greyson coolly stepped off the ledge. But instead of landing on the ground below, his feet landed on the side of the tower had been standing on the continued an easy jog down the side, straight down to the floor before leaping into a shoulder roll just two feet from the bottom of the Tower. He continued the rest of this second run similarly to the first. The obvious difference this time that he was now utilizing the horizontal walls and undersides of bridges and arches as running surfaces.

“Time to kick it up a notch.” As he ran, he adjusted a bezel on the belt. With a small quarter turn, he felt the pit of his perspective shift. It was like when he rode a roller coaster and was just coming over the crest of the first drop. He was no longer just running across the floor, (even if the floor was a wall). He was now, through his whole course, running down a 45-degree slope, no matter what surface he was tricking off of. And he was gaining more and more speed. When he was sure that he was about to stumble and start rolling he pressed the button on the belt, felt his orientation again become perpendicular to the floor below him, and began to slow to a stop. Looing around a second, he confirmed that he was in fact standing on what was the floor.

“Nice. Very Nice.” A grin of anticipation was spreading across his face. “Ok, lets try Phase 3.” He made a couple more modifications to the settings on the belt and pressed the button. His stomach again felt the sense of weightlessness that he would feel when he was midway down that first drop of a roller coaster. He picked one foot of the ground, then carefully lifted the other foot and remained suspended in the air. After he put his feet down, he walked to a ledge that overlooked the foam pit. And took a dive over the edge. The fall took about four times as long as normal, as he descended. Like a video of a skydiver being shot in slowmo. Then hovered just a few feet over the foam blocks that filled the pit. As he leaned back, he floated toward the padded side of the tower he just jumped off of.

“Ok. Now let’s see what we can do.” He turned the bezel three quarters. And leaned forward and it felt like he was suspended by a bungee cord that just kept getting longer. As he shifted and turned to his left and right. it was like he was continually falling face-first, but never hitting the ground. He dodged past the towers and skimmed over the foam pits. Somersaulted into the trampolines and recoiled off them. One long skydive that threaded through and around the course without ending.

Greyson could feel the adrenaline rising. He turned the bezel and cut the invisible bungee cord that had slowed his fall. And began to truly freefall. Watching all the obstacles rush past.

He saw the corner of the tower coming toward him and decided to try to catch it to see if he could quickly turn in mid-air. But he misjudged his momentum and ended up slamming his shoulder into the side tower. The suit’s indicators flashed red. Slowing the fall to a float and then began lowering him to the ground.

“A come on, it was barely a tap.” He landed softly on his back in the foam pit. His techs would want to go over all the diagnostic data before they’d let him use the suit again.

Greyson smiled to himself thinking about how he could convince them to let him go for full terminal velocity.