The Alasande Industrial Park was surprisingly silent despite the fact that it was only a mere three miles east of downtown.  The property was meant to be a starting point for Quetet to catapult itself into a center of the ever-growing electronics industry, but fierce competition and a minor recession forced the resident companies to consolidate their remaining economic strongholds or go out of business entirely.  The end result was that Alasande remained closed and unused for nearly two years and Quetet remained a small town both in public perception and in the grand scheme of the national economy.  As the property started to fall into neglect and disrepair, it became invisible to most of the community, just another feature of the townscape.  Occasionally teenagers would hang out around the place, but the vacating companies were thorough in removing practically anything of interest, so in time even they frequented the place less and less.  The complex became a silent, still place, as though time itself slowed to a mere crawl there.

Maija scaled the chain-link fence that surrounded the complex with ease.  Her landing on the other side kicked up a small cloud of dust where the once meticulously manicured lawns gave way to bare dirt.  As she stood she gazed out across the park, memorizing the placement of the closely-packed buildings and mentally plotting out a course around and through them.  Alasande was hailed as a marvel of architecture and landscaping when it opened, earning it a place in various national magazines, and while the brilliant arrangement of white and silver buildings in the lush green yards had long given way to the encroaching dusty tan that have overwhelmed the place, Maija could still get a sense of how clean and sleek it looked, with hope and vision built into the very foundations of a complex that promised to change Quetet and, one day, the world.  Despite the desolation, that optimistic futurism still infused every square inch, blanketing Alasande with a sense of serenity that somehow remained unblemished by melancholy or irony.  Maija gave her muscles one final shake to loosen them up and then took off at a run towards the cluster of small buildings closest to her.

She dashed into the alley between two of the office buildings.  A dumpster, overlooked by the departing companies, sat against one of the buildings, a fire escape ladder bolted to the wall a few feet away.  Maija jumped up on the dumpster, then used it as a platform to make a leap for the ladder.  She caught the side with one paw, causing her to swing around so she was facing it.  Without slowing down, she climbed all the way to the roof, three stories above the ground.

She sprinted across the rooftop, vaulting over and sliding under the ventilation pipes that crisscrossed the concrete surface.  As she reached the other side, she saw that there was a two-story annex attached to the building.  Maija swung over the edge, hanging on for a moment to stop her momentum and spot a good spot to land before dropping down, pushing herself off of the wall two-thirds of the way down and tucking into a roll.  She ran over a skybridge that snaked from the office building to the large factory several yards away.  At the far end was a large window, its glass long ago broken away.  She jumped up towards it, using the wall to kick herself further up so she could grab the window ledge with her fingers.  With a grunt she pulled herself up to her elbows, allowing her to push up and hook her leg over the ledge.

Maija found herself in what appeared to be an employee break room that undoubtedly had a nice view once.  It was empty now, save for a few bird nests build into the crumbling drywall.  She hustled to the door on the opposite wall and yanked it open.  The hallway was surprisingly clean, looking more like a dusty attic than a building that had been abandoned two years ago.  The carpet released tiny clouds of dust as Maija dashed towards the end and ducked into a stairwell.  She descended to the ground floor, sliding the railing down one flight and then taking a flying leap down the other, tucking into a roll out the door into another hall that lead to the factory floor.

The factory itself was a massive, open space larger than several football fields.  Huge skylights in the ceilings let the sunlight outside poor in, illuminating the metal cavern as though there was no barrier between it and the open sky.  All of the expensive manufacturing equipment had been removed when Alasande's residents left, but there was still a maze of conveyor belts, cranes, and the occasional empty crate.  Maija ran for the loading dock doors on the far side like her life depended on it.  Her entire world shrank to just getting to the other side, tackling each obstacle in her path one at a time.  She saw two or three ways of conquering each challenge, either by leaping over, rolling under, or grabbing a cable hanging from a nearby crane and swinging across, but instead of stopping and taking stock of the situation, she rushed right in, picking the first solution that came to mind and executing it with all of her strength.  There was no time for strategy, only action.  Strategy could be planned out beforehand, internalized through rigorous practice, set up neatly in her mind that she could pick one and carry it out in the space of a heartbeat.  There was a purity there, to act unconsciously as a result of prior conscious planning and training.  Obstacles are circumvented, challenges overcome, and foes vanquished in the blink of an eye.  It was a liberating feeling, to practically fly faster than the speed of thought.

Maija ran towards the smaller door that the factory workers used when the loading dock doors were closed and shoved it open, barely slowing down as she dashed outside.  The loading dock ledge was only a couple yards wide before dropping down to street level.  Maija didn't break stride and pushed off the edge, flying through the air as she stretched out her legs for landing.  Her feet met the ground, her knees bent, and she ducked into a roll, dissipating the potentially harmful momentum.  She paused for a moment, her eyes scanning the empty lot for a new route to continue the next leg of her sprint.

A bright flash of blinking lights and a brief shriek of a siren  off to her left snapped her attention into sharper focus.  She instinctively rose into a defensive crouch, her fight-or-flight responses ready for immediate action.  A police cruiser parked on the pavement before the loading dock stared her down, its headlights briefly resembling a beast ready to bear down on her.  The flashing lights on the roof switched off, and the police officer climbed out, unfolding her massive rodent frame to her full six foot two height.

Maija relaxed and released the breath she had been holding.  "'Afternoon, Officer Mallory," she intoned blandly as she stood up and stretched her arms over her head.

The tall rat just shook her head.  "Maija, we've been over this before," she huffed in exasperation.  "This is still private property, and that means you're trespassing.  Not only that, this isn't the safest place to go running around, especially with all those acrobatics you insist on doing."

"Where else am I supposed to keep my skills honed?" the feline retorted.

"Oh, I don't know, a gym, maybe?" Mallory shot back.  "I think they build those places so people can go there and stay in shape."

"Pfft, right," Maija replied.  "Good for staying healthy, but they don't offer the kind of exercise I need."

Mallory glanced at the factory and then back to Maija.  "And what would that be, and for what purpose?" she asked.

Maija just shrugged.  "Simple, I want to be the best I possibly can," she said.

"Uh-huh," Mallory said.  "Well, you can start by staying away from here.  One of these days I won't be around to let you off so easy."  She jerked a thumb over to the passenger side of the cruiser.  "Get in, I'll drive you back to where you left your bike."