The Streets of LA, Saturday Night

[gunslingerpose]

So, Thanksgiving with Nikolai's family had gone fairly well. His mother had scolded him for vanishing for so long without saying anything, as was absolutely her right to do. Then he'd spent a little while dodging questions about whatever that mysterious sickness was that had left him with eyes so sensitive that he had to wear shades all the time. From there, there had been a lot of catching up to do, a lot of family to catch up with, his sister and his brother telling him all about the cousins and nieces and nephew and informing him that in no uncertain terms, he was going to have to hang out with the kids while he was here if he was planning on going back to that middle-of-nowhere town in Maryland again this week. Thursday had been busy, and while Friday hadn't exactly been slow either, full of quality time with his brother's kids, today was really Nikolai's first chance to have some time to himself since portalling clear across the country for the holiday.

Today had started with a visit to his much-neglected apartment, leading to the revelation that he was going to have to have someone come in just to clean up almost two years of dust. The place was nasty. But after giving his sheets a wash, at least his bed could be slept in, which meant he'd have somewhere to crash tonight. He had a shower, just for the sake of showering in his own damn apartment for the first time in a while, and then he'd called a few of his clients to tell them that he was in town, and to schedule a few meetings with them in person to discuss what directions they wanted to take their careers in the future. Supper had been a pit-stop at a hole in the wall diner that had been a guilty pleasure of his for years, and another hour was spent catching up with the waitress there who had practically mentored him in the ways of the ladies back when he was still an awkward little high school brat contemplating where the hell he wanted to go in life.

And then, all that aside, came the really important part. He'd been gone for a couple of years, but so far as Gorgon was concerned, he'd never been here before at all. And his sister had been complaining about gang activity near where she lived, courtesy of the South Seventeens. Drug activity entirely too close to home, getting bad enough that they were afraid to let the kids walk to school these days. Shit, when the hell had the neighborhood gone so far downhill? He couldn't remember it ever being great, but flipping through a newspaper at supper time had struck a nerve that was jangling even as he set out to spend an evening on the town.

A few thwarted muggings later, and a figure in a long black leather duster was moving across the rooftops at a superhuman pace, quietly wishing he'd brought his motorbike across the country with him, but thrilling in the ability to get out there and do something in the city he called home all the same. Nikolai could worry about everything from his family to his career to whether or not he even wanted to bother booking a portal home tomorrow.

Tonight, Gorgon was making his Los Angeles debut.

[NFB for distance, but open for phone calls or anyone who has any reason to be in Nikolai's LA. He'll be going the merry way of the expat from here, probably with the occasional pit-stop to the island for old time's sake.]

Comments

[gunslingerpose]

"Seems like a fair one to me," Gorgon decided, standing up to meet Kathy halfway, holding out his arms to take the kid from her, since he could probably bench-press a small truck at this point and there was no need to make her do all the heavy lifting. "Back in Baltimore, I heard murmurs that you started carrying flares around with you. You have any of those with you tonight?"

He didn't. His were all still in his saddlebags, back on the island.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah, a few in case of emerg--wait, you heard about me?" Banzai was so startled by that she nearly dropped the kid while handing him over. "I mean like, obviously you've heard of me, but...people talked about me? To you?"

To anyone?

"About my gear?"

People were...people were paying attention. To her. Or, well, to Banzai. She was being noticed. Maybe even...making a difference.

That was huge.

[gunslingerpose]

"Yeah," Gorgon replied with an easy shrug as he manhandled the kid over to the post. "A street worker close to the border of my beat noticed me setting out a flare and thought I got the idea from you. Had to set the record straight, there. Figures."

He pulled out another handful of ties, and then set to work making sure the kid was good and secured to the post, too.

"Think you can spare one or two, tonight? The cops are gonna be interested in these two, and if the rest of their buddies haven't woken up and taken off by now, I'd like to make sure they get rounded up, too."

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai tried to remember which of the ladies she knew had spots near Gorgon's beat. "Jeweline?" she guessed, holding three of them out to Gorgon to take when he was ready. "Blonde, usually wears a headband, flair for pastels? Kinda looks like someone's lost little sister? Carries a box cutter in her ankle boots and one of the kitty keychains on her belt?"

The latter had been a gift from Banzai after Jeweline had gotten into a...spot of trouble.

[gunslingerpose]

"Kitty keychain rings a bell," Gorgon agreed with a nod as he took one of the offered flares. "Guy I rounded up had a few earholes punched in him by the time I got there. Even said a few of the girls have started keeping them stashed around their turf, in case they need to get somebody's attention."

Road flares were catching on, apparently. He was even a little flattered. Even if Banzai was getting all the credit.

Brickface - Rocky, whatever - started to come around again just as Gorgon was reaching into his jacket to confiscate his wallet.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yes!" Banzai pumped air. "I knew they'd catch on once my girls started--don't move!"

That admonition worked nicely for both of them, though she'd meant it more for Gorgon than for the guy he was manhandling. It was Gorgon's head that would be in the way of the speeding plastic stick aimed right for the other guy's forehead.

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon blinked, and then glanced over his shoulder at Banzai, wearing a sardonic little grin.

"He is zip-tied to the post, you know," he pointed out. "I used three ties, he's not going anywhere until the cops arrive unless he gnaws off his own arm. Poor bastard's going to have brain damage if you keep throwing things at his head."

This was not stopping him from opening the wallet up and rifling through it.

"Rodney, huh? Well, Rodney, that is one fucking unfortunate driver's licence photo. I'm going to keep it for posterity. Here's where I'd give you the spiel about being able to find everyone you ever cared about, but since you're napping, I'll save that for the next time we dance."

There would probably be a next time. There always was, wasn't there?

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai wasn't grinning back. "He's faking, Gorgon." Her voice was hard. "I thwacked him in the forehead--otherwise known as the thickest and hardest point of the head. If I was going to knock him out, I'd've aimed for the thinner and easier parts of the skull, like the temporal bone or the cranium."

Her eyes narrowed as she glared at this Rodney guy. "To knock him out with a blow to the forehead, I'd've had to hit him hard. Hell, he'd be more likely to have been knocked out if the back of his head had impacted something from the force of the hit. But, you'll notice, this guy doesn't even have a bruise."

[gunslingerpose]

"Oh yeah?" Gorgon gave Rodney a significant look, eyebrow raised. "What's the matter, Rodney? Don't want to take another look at my pretty brown eyes?"

The answering remark from the man tied to the pole was both extremely crude, and not in English. But his eyes still stayed firmly shut.

"So, you tell me, Banzai. You figure he's got something up his sleeve, there? I'm not opposed to leaving him there naked if it turns out he's got something to help him off of that pole."

Also, it would be humiliating. Definite bonus points for public humiliation, here.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Say that again and he'll be prying your eyelids open," Banzai snapped, fighting down a blush. RODNEY WAS NOT A VERY NICE MAN, OKAY? AND HIS MOUTH NEEDED A GOOD WASHING OUT WITH SOAP.

"I don't know if he's smart enough to hide something up his sleeve," she said, firmly looking at Gorgon. "Which is another point in favor of my inability to give him brain damage. But stripping him down might make sure he doesn't forget what happens when he tangles with you."

//Something you'd like to see, eh puta? Puta callejera!//

Excuse her, Gorgon. But Rodney needed another smack to the head. Delivered by hand.

[gunslingerpose]

"The hell is he saying, anyway?" Nick's Spanish needed a little work. Sure, he knew the swear words -- who the hell didn't pick those up first? But the rest? If it was all Greek to him, at least he'd be able to follow along. "I don't think I've ever seen you make a point to smack 'em around even once they're restrained, Banzai."

Which meant he probably had it coming.

[spin_kick_snap]

"It doesn't matter," Banzai said, voice tight. "He's just talking crap because that's all he's got left. We got his money, his drugs, and his guns, so all he can do is run his mouth and hope for the best. I say strip him and be done with it."

//That eager to see me naked? I don't normally go for--// The slur he used was in English this time. Banzai sucked in a shocked breath, hand clenching by her side.

"That word was coined for people of Vietnamese descent," she said. "You are in Koreatown. If you're going to try to insult me, try not to be an ignorant fuckwit first."

Right now, Banzai was kinda missing Baltimore.

[gunslingerpose]

The sudden switch to English was almost jarring, and Gorgon's head turned toward Rodney, eyebrows furrowed.

"And that's enough of that," he growled. "You've got two options, buddy. You can shut your mouth or open your eyes, and I promise you one of those is going to be infinitely more unpleasant than the other."

"And what if I choose to do neither?"

"Then I do this."

So, yeah. Don't mouth off Gorgon when he's riding what he figured had to be tier four, by now. It would only result in a ringing clang sound and what was probably a concussion.

Gorgon dusted his hand off on his pant leg after removing it from Rodney's forhead, and then pocketed the rest of that asshole's wallet. Fuck it.

[spin_kick_snap]

"My hero." Unlike times past, Banzai did not sound like she was fawning over him when she said it. Her voice was far too sardonic for that, even if she was grateful. "Who is this jerk again? And can we tape the drugs right to him? I don't want him back here."

Koreatown was closed to Rodney Casares! Even more than to the rest of the Seventeens! Banzai had spoken!

[gunslingerpose]

"We can empty the bullets into the car and then cover these two fuckwits in guns and drugs," Gorgon replied with a shrug of his shoulders as he reached for the kid's wallet, next. Rifled through for a moment, and then just kind of smirked.

"Rodney and Fernando. What a pair of classy assholes you two are."

That license was pocketed too, along with whatever cash was in Fernando's wallet, and then he threw the rest back into the Seventeen's lap.

"You want to finish up here while I get back to their buddies, Banzai, or did you want to tag along? Could be good to get to know your friendly neighborhood SS, after all."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You make accompanying you sound so thrilling," Banzai said, striving to sound casual and flippant when all she really wanted to do was kick Rodney a few more times in very sensitive places. "But sure I'll tag along. It'd be rude to hang around these guys and gloat when the cops bust their asses. Where'd you leave their friends?"

[gunslingerpose]

"By this diner I like," Gorgon sighed. "Gonna have to stop inside to make sure none of the bullets strayed too far from their mark."

If anything had hurt his waitress friend, he was making his way back here to castrate this Rodney asshole. He lit a flare and left it on the sidewalk, right at the Seven's feet.

"Keep up, hm?"

And then he was off running again.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Really?" Banzai called out after him. "Are you serious?"

And then she was dashing after him at top speed, a trail of infectious laughter following them both.

[gunslingerpose]

"I'm serious until you stop eating my dust," Gorgon called back to her as he ran, his own speed pretty damn impressive, given the double hit he'd taken back there and how it made up for the energy he'd lost chasing that car in the first place. "Think you can catch up, back there?"

[spin_kick_snap]

In a straight race, right now? The answer was almost certainly not. Banzai might be able to run a mile in under a minute, but her speed remained fairly constant. Gorgon's was more of a bell; she could outrun him when he was still rising up tiers or falling from them, but when he was at his peak, there was no keeping up.

Which meant that she had to race smarter, was all.

"What's the name of the diner?" she called out to him. "Where is it?"

[gunslingerpose]

"Pickle Hut," Gorgon called back, because he had absolutely zero shame, and sometimes you just needed to eat a lot of pickles in everything. "Ever heard of it?"

Best kept secret in his neighborhood.

[spin_kick_snap]

"...I have no idea what you're talking about?" Banzai said, trying not to laugh. "Address?"

She had no idea the diner he was talking about, but she knew the surrounding neighborhoods very well. And once he told her what street his pickle shack (or whatever) could be found on, she immediately stopped chasing him and beelined for the closest building. Sure, climbing took some time but the fastest way between two points was always a straight line. Gorgon might be tearing up the streets, but he was still following the layout of the city. And a straight line that was not!

[gunslingerpose]

That was Pickle Hut, thank you very much, and who was to say he was planning on staying on the streets? He wanted to get to those criminals before they could wander off, after all, and once he noticed her taking to the rooftops, he was up there after her, winking as he caught up, and then deliberately slowing down in order to keep pace.

"Trying to lose me, Banzai?"

Because that was easier said than done.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah, a little bit," Banzai admitted, before teasing. "Being fast is kinda my thing, and you're stepping all over my toes."

[gunslingerpose]

"Give it twenty minutes and race me again," Gorgon chuckled. "I might be able to beat you now, but this high only lasts so long as there are fresh assholes to drain."

[spin_kick_snap]

"...There's a mental image that will never leave," Banzai said, choking down a laugh. "Thank god I know you don't mean that whole sentence literally."

There was a gap between buildings coming up. She leaped, somersaulting in the air and landing in a handspring. "I guess it's not so bad, though. Even when you can beat me for speed, there are still some tricks you can't match. So I'm not terribly obsolete!"