The Streets of Baltimore, Monday Night

[gunslingerpose]

Against his better judgment (and when was anything Nikolai ever did really in line with his better judgment anyway?), Gorgon was back on patrol in the streets of Baltimore tonight. Granted, Monday nights weren't exactly the busiest nights for crime, so, as far as Nick was concerned, he was easing himself back into the swing of it.

And, hell, after flashing his goggles at a couple of muggers and leaving them zip-tied to a lamppost with a lit road flare marking where they were for any cops to find, he was even feeling pretty damn okay. A little stiffness in his shoulder, a bit of soreness, but a few more hits and even that would be gone until he dropped right back out of the power high again. For the time being he was back on his bike, making that slow, deliberate patrol around one of the neighborhoods he tended to frequent, making certain that any would-be criminals were well aware that he was back on the job.

Ah, the crime-fighting life. It was good to be back.

[OOC: Open to anyone who might happen to be in Baltimore tonight! Because... costumed heroing is something I keep meaning to post this guy doing more of.]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

Some time later, Kathy was taking the Roof Road, flinging herself with merry abandon from one building to the next, much like Arachnid-Boy but without the web-swinging. Crime was fairly light tonight, so she was enjoying a bit of free running before doing another loop over to another section.

Halfway through her run, however, she saw a man standing on a rooftop, so close to the edge that there was nothing under his toes but air. He was wearing a long leather duster that billowed behind him, his hands on his hips. His body language practically shouted determination.

"Oh no you don't, mister," Kathy said to herself, switching directions by bouncing feet-first off a chimney. "Not on my watch."

She was a blur of white and rainbows when she dove into the guy, catapulting him away from the edge and backwards onto the roof. "Don't do it!" she cried. "There's another way!"

[Gorgon modded with permission, natch]

[gunslingerpose]

Well. There were many ways Nikolai had pictured tonight going.

"What the ever-loving fuck!?"

Being flung halfway across a rooftop by a rainbow superball was really not one of those ways. Even less expected was the fact that she was screaming in his face about not jumping. He stared up at the offender incredulously.

And then squinted a little at her from right there, on the flat of his back.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

[spin_kick_snap]

Recognition was going to take a little longer on Kathy's part; she was still in full-on rescuer mode.

"I'm so sorry to have knocked you over like this, but please believe me, mister, whatever you're going through, there's another way to deal!" The worst part? How incredibly earnest she was about the whole thing. "If you want to talk, I'll listen without judgement! Or I can escort you somewhere that had professionals who are trained in helping you deal with whatever issues you're going through. But you have to understand, you're not alone! Even if there's no one who will miss you right now, there can be! In the future! That you deserve to have!"

[gunslingerpose]

Nikolai was sorely tempted to pick the crazy girl up and drop her off the edge of the roof.

"That's very warm and fuzzy of you," he muttered, shoving her off of him with one arm and pulling himself to his feet. "Do you frequently knock over and give pep talks to random people out minding their own business on dark rooftops in the dead of night?"

Because she might want to get that looked at.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy rolled over and shot back up to her feet. "Considering I don't often see people on dark rooftops in the dead of night and those I do are usually engaged in something nefarious and not looking like they're about to take a swan-dive, no. At least, not usually the pep talk. That bit is new."

[gunslingerpose]

Nick took a moment to straighten out his duster, and then reached up to straighten the goggles on his face, checking for possible damage as he did so. Fuck, he would not be happy if she'd ruined them on him somehow.

It wasn't until he was satisfied that they were still in working order that he looked straight at her, scowling.

"Well, while I appreciate the save and all, I'm not actually up here to do anything nefarious or desperate. So you don't have to worry about me." He paused for a moment, and then added, "Unless you've got a posse with you tonight. Then you and I are going to have to have a long chat about your tendency to jump people."

As it stood, he mostly felt the need to chat with her about jumping on them.

[spin_kick_snap]

"A posse?!" Kathy looked deeply insulted. Spreading her arms so he could take in the full glory of her gi, she asked, "Do I look like someone who runs around with a posse and jumps people to you?!"

[gunslingerpose]

Kathy, you were just going to get a silent deadpan from Nikolai, now.

"I dunno. Have you ever been?"

Because he could come up with one notable example, himself. If she thought that cute little mask over her eyes was masking anything he absolutely needed in order to place her face, she really needed to stop reading so many damn comic books.

[spin_kick_snap]

BUT LOOK AT HER CUNNINGLY HID CHEEKBONES!

"Of course I haven't--" she started, before really looking at the guy in front of her. "Ohmigosh!" she said, clapping her hands over her mouth. "It's you! The guy from the weekend! The guy who I--"

You know, whether she went with 'blinded' or 'seduced' that sentence wasn't going anywhere good.

"-I noticed at the hotel?" she finished, a bit feebly.

[gunslingerpose]

"Mmmhm." Very astutely noticed, Kathy! "By night known as Gorgon."

He stretched, and then cracked his knuckles before putting his hands back to his hips. Gunslinger pose. Fuck, he hadn't been able to do that in weeks. It felt damn good.

"And you? You have some sort of clever love-and-rainbows moniker I should be calling you by out here? Or is Dokkaebi actually your thing?"

Of course she was a super. Of course. He'd seen her barrel out of the Arms like somebody had lit her ass on fire, and that should have been his first clue, crazy fucking island or no.

[spin_kick_snap]

"No! I'm nothing like her, not even the name!"

It was very important that Gorgon knew that up front.

"I'm Banzai. Used to be Social Justice Warrior, but that was stupid so I switched it to Banzai," she babbled. "But I thought it fit because I'm a justice-fighting, socially-conscious hero-type! Not the drug-pushing, gang-leading, seducing, blinding, murder-type! Really!" She inhaled deeply before adding, "I'm on an Ethics Committee!"

Please, Nikolai. Would Dokkaebi ever be caught dead in rainbows? Rainbows?

[gunslingerpose]

Well, no, but that was mostly because everybody had been in greyscale that weekend.

Gorgon eyed her for a moment, not that she'd be able to see from behind those mirrored goggles of his, before making a 'tch' sound between his teeth and shaking his head.

"Could be a clever cover," he pointed out, shrugging easily. "There's precedent."

Now Nikolai was just being an ass.

[spin_kick_snap]

Even if they'd been in full Technicolor glory, Dokkaebi was not the type to go for bright colors. Especially a lot of them. Together. At once.

Kathy winced and looked away, stricken. "Look, I know I owe you a major apology for everything that happened that weekend, from the lying to the--okay, I'm pretty sure I don't have to go into all the things that I have to apologize to you for. But, please, you have to understand, that's not the kind of person I am, really it's not. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out why the island would make me into someone like that and I'm still not entirely sure, but, believe me, I don't want to be anyone like that. Never. Not for any reason."

[gunslingerpose]

"No?" Nick watched her for a moment more, and then sighed, relented, and shook his head. "Fine. Look, I was going to talk with you about that back in the hotel, but you ran off faster than I was going to even bother trying to run, and I figured I'd let you go. You looked pretty fucking freaked out at the time."

To say the least.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

And somewhere else on the streets below monitoring the conversation and... battle (if you can call it that), was a kid who looked remarkably like the child actor Ricky Schroeder.

Why a child actor is hanging out in the mean streets of Baltimore? Monitoring hero activity?

Who the fuck knows. He does seem to wonder just how effective this Banzai is if she's just going to babble at an opponent.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Still kinda freaked out, if you must know," Kathy mumbled, intending for him not to hear that bit. Then, louder, she added, "I'm sorry about that reaction, too. I just hadn't expected to run into you, umm, ever and seeing you at the hotel was just too much."

Look, she'd been all hopped up on friendship and karaoke, okay? She had hardly been in control of her actions, then.

"I was still confused and feeling horribly guilty about what I'd done and so running seemed like the best option."

And avoiding the hotel forever and always.

[gunslingerpose]

"Yeah?" Even if his eyes were obscured by the goggles, at least his eyebrows were there to be seen as he arched one up at her. "Feeling better about that now, Banzai?"

By day known as Katherine?

[spin_kick_snap]

Eventually, Kathy glanced down off the rooftop to spot a small, blonde kid loitering in the street nearby. Hard to tell from this vantage, but he looked young--way too young to be out at this time of night. Doubly so by himself.

...She'd missed all the times he'd likely told people to 'fuck off, I'm busy' or whatever.

"Hey, I don't mean to cut and run, but I think someone needs my help," she said, pointing the little kid out to Gorgon.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy. Ugh, Katherine sounded like a ninety year old woman who smelled like cats, Nikolai..

"I'm not running?"

That wasn't exactly an answer.

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon looked a little dubious as he peered down over the edge of the rooftop to the kid standing down below.

"... Shitty neighborhood for a little kid to be loitering around in," he observed. "Just do the kid a favor and try not to tackle him in the process."

[gunslingerpose]

"It'd be bad form to tackle a guy on a rooftop and then take off running," Nick pointed out, smirking a little. "It's good to know I have options and all, but I might get the wrong idea if you don't actually stick around to make sure I know what they are."

Nikolai was still an ass. But seriously, he was lucky he was up a few tiers, or she might have damaged his shoulder again in the process.

[spin_kick_snap]

Gee, so sorry she was trying to save your life, Nick! Some people were so ungrateful.

Her mask was doing a subpar job of hiding how much she was blushing. "Well, if you were going to commit suicide, I'd do my very best to help however I could. But since you weren't, apologizing for uhh, knocking you over and then all the rest of it just seemed like the thing to do."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm not gonna--!" Kathy looked at Nick and scowled. "I always land wherever I aim to," she sniffed, before flinging herself over the edge in a dive.

Rather than being splattered on the pavement, Kathy caught a flagpole and spun around it before letting go to somersault in the air. On her last revolution, she twisted in the air to grab onto a street lamp and then ride it down like a fire pole.

"Hi there," she said, landing gently next to the kid. "I'm Banzai. Are you waiting for someone?"

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

The kid gave "Banzai" a "Are you for real look"?

"Jesus fucking Christ, Banzai" said Ricky Schroeder with a very familiar voice. "You do realize that if I were a bad guy I could have shot you at some point during your little acrobatic stunt?"

He shook his head.

"And the mask does fucking nothing to hide your face. We'll have to improve that."

[gunslingerpose]

"There's something to be said for talking first, then barreling into someone like a cracked-out superball," Nick pointed out, clearly amused. "But hey, I appreciate the sentiment. It's been too damn long since I had a girl sitting on my chest yelling good-feelings into my face."