Baltimore, Thursday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

So the Ukrainian mafia was still attempting to make inroads into Baltimore's criminal underground, but the police had finally started paying attention to Kathy's anonymous tips (seriously, what was the tipline even for if they were going to ignore it?) and had made several arrests the night before, catching a shipment of drugs in from the harbor. Kathy knew better than to think that that would be the end of it, but hopefully it would be enough to make them keep their heads down for a night or two.

Just to be safe, she'd still done an hour or so of patrols as Banzai before calling Ringo to arrange a meetup so they could practice their ATs on proper buildings. As Lottie would say, she was WELL EXCITED to do this. The three prospective neighborhoods she'd scoped out were all low-crime areas, mostly because there were very few people around. That didn't mean they wouldn't accidentally run into a few homeless people or a huddle of drug addicts, all looking for a place to crash without being bothered, but it cut down on the likelihood of running into anything worse.

Picking up her duffle bag from the rooftop she'd stashed it on, Kathy traded her Banzai gear for her workout clothes and started running towards their agreed-upon meetup spot. She'd strap on her ATs there, but figured she'd be better off sticking to running while she was still downtown.

Besides, there was something exhilarating at running full-speed over rooftops at night.

[Expecting one, but I guess it could be open if you have reason to be around Baltimore at night?]

Comments

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo hadn't stopped grinning since she got off the phone with Kathy. She'd changed into a pair of snug-fitting jeans and a t-shirt, and then taken a few minutes to decide what pair of ATs to wear for the day. Obviously she wouldn't need her Thorn Regalia, so she didn't even take those out of their protective case. Ultimately she decided on a balanced pair with white and light-blue stripes. Not tweaked for maximum speed, or maximum maneuverability, but something right in the middle.

She'd stuffed a small backpack with a tiny first-aid kit and a pair of shoes (just in case), then pulled on a pair of fingerless gloves, put on her ATs (right there in her room) and took off.

The distinct high-pitched whine of AirTrek preceded Ringo as she approached the appointed meeting place. She wasn't even looking for Kathy as her head turned this way and that drinking in the scenery. Buildings. Buildings, buildings, buildings. Buildings!

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"Evening!" Kathy called cheerily, waving to Ringo when she was in earshot. She finished pulling on her own ATs and bounced up to her feet. It was long past evening, of course, but no one had perfected a good nighttime greeting. "You made better time than I thought! I'm impressed."

She started doing lazy circles in her ATs. "I hope I picked a good place to start. You didn't say much about what to look for except for 'buildings' and 'close together,' so..."

Here they were!

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, I might have been a little bit excited," Ringo answered with a grin as she slid into Kathy's circle, opposite the other girl, with casual ease.

"And it looks good to me. I mean, what matters is that things get high enough to get some real elevation, and that they're close enough together for you to move from one to another." She grinned. "I mean, look over there," she pointed down an alleyway. "I bet you could go from wall to wall all the way to the roof without even trying hard." Sure there were fire escapes and air-conditioning units and all sorts of other things sticking out, but that just made things more fun!

[spin_kick_snap]

"Now you're speaking my language," Kathy said, laughing. "That's pretty much how I travel in Baltimore anyway."

Because sometimes you had to race across a flagpole, leap across an alley, and use gargoyles as stepping stones to get around a building. And who didn't think that was fun?

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo's smile had somehow gotten even wider as Kathy spoke. "In that case," she waggled her eyebrows, "see you at the top?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hey, I'm still practicing going vertical!" Kathy protested with a laugh. That wasn't stopping her from heading to the nearest building to try. "I'm still watching you to see what to do!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I'm sure you'll catch on quick," Ringo said with a grin.

"The big thing is just to remember that as long as you have momentum toward a wall, you get enough traction for your ATs to push you upward."

With that, Ringo leaned forward, accelerating down the alley. Then she spun and kicked upward at the same time, planting her right foot against the wall and letting her momentum swing upward, pulling her left foot along for the ride. For ten or so feet it looked basically like she was crouching against the wall and sliding up it, then Ringo planted her left foot and twisted her right inward, imparting a slight spin just as she extended both legs to soar through a back flip. The move looked almost lazy as she looked straight down beneath her, body bent back as the spin she'd picked up turned her around so that she landed against the far wall, knees bent deep, facing upward again.

Repeating that process allowed Ringo to work her way upward steadily, but once she reached the top, instead of flipping up onto the roof, she flung her arms and legs out wide and dropped through the gap between the buildings. Halfway down she lightly caught a fire escape railing with one hand and sent herself into a tumble which allowed her to get her ATs back in contact with the wall. A series of bounces, spins, and flips bled off the speed of her fall until she landed on the ground again , her legs starting close together and spiraling outward as she bled off the last of her momentum.

She turned to Kathy with a grin. "Tada!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Awesome!" Kathy said, applauding. "Okay, I have got to try that."

Kathy flung herself forward, practically running for the first few steps before sliding into the AT groove. She did a lap around the alleyway until she got up to almost her maximum running speed, so somewhere around 80 miles an hour, the wind clawing at her as she went, leaving only delighted laughter behind.

She leapt for the side of the building, a backwards handspring that pressed her feet against the wall nearly a third of the way up. The bouncing didn't stop, Kathy accelerating up the wall another few feet before bouncing to the building across the alley and skidding up that one.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yes!" Ringo exclaimed, a huge grin on her face as she watched Kathy make her way upward. It was actually impressive how smooth the whole thing looked considering how recently Kathy had picked up AirTrek.

Ringo allowed herself a moment to imagine what the other girl would look like with another six months of practice under her belt. It was scary. And awesome.

[spin_kick_snap]

She had the agility of a Gravity Child along with two years of finding out exactly what she could do with her speed and bounciness, two years of learning how to best make use of her abilities.

"Comin' back down!" she called, and swan dove over the side, somersaulting down and down again. She flipped and skated and lunged, bouncing around several buildings before coming to a stop next to Ringo. "This is so much fun!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I'm watching to see what you do," Ringo repeated Kathy's words back to her with a teasing tone. "Sure, Miss I'm-Already-Awesome-At-This."

"It's almost not fair how good you are at this," she fake-pouted through a grin. "How's a girl going to maintain her self-confidence?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy laughed. "No, really, I wanted to see how you got up, I really did!" she explained. "But once you showed me how to do it, it was easy. It's like...learning a new gymnastics move. Once I figured that part out, I could add it into the rest of my routine. So, I've only been using ATs for a few months, but the rest of it, I have years of experience."

So don't be glum, Ringo!

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, since you're so good at the basics, there are basically two ways you can go next. You can go for big tricks: the longest jumps, highest speed, long wall runs, that sort of thing. Or you can go for precision: perfect landings, maximum efficiency."

Ringo grinned slightly. "Well, really you end up having to do a little of both, but, well, what do you want to start with?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy looked like a woman in the throes of Sophie's choice. "Umm...um...Which would you go for?" she asked.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo laughed at Kathy's expression. "I know!" she declared. "It's tough!"

"And, like I said, you end up having to do both, but, well, the truth? When I started, I just wanted to fly."

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's perfect," Kathy said with a smile. "Let's start there. Can you do it, Ringo? Can you teach me to fly?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"There's only one way to find out," Ringo shot back with a huge smile. "First, we have to get as high as we can." She spun slowly in place, looking at the buildings around them. "The higher, the better."

[spin_kick_snap]

"How noticeable are we gonna be?" Kathy asked. "Because the tallest building in Baltimore is the Transamerica Tower. It's actually the tallest building in Maryland." What? She'd been patrolling the area for two years, of course she knew that. "It's in the financial district, which should be mostly deserted of pedestrians and stuff at this hour, but there are lights and it's a decent police presence."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Not too noticeable? Especially since there aren't any AirTrek here. People won't know what to listen for."

Ringo grinned mischievously. "Besides, I bet we can outrun a few police if we have to."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ringo!" Kathy said, appalled. "I am a superhero! I work with the police, I don't run from them!"

She continued to look appalled for another second and then laughed.

"Actually no, we can totally outrun them," she said, grinning. "Even in their squad cars. And don't get me started on the times they actually get out. It's the saddest thing."

[soniaroadsqueen]

For just a moment, Ringo looked apologetic for making the suggestion, but then she grinned. Really broadly.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Let's go," Kathy said. "You wanna try taking the rooftop route to get there?"

You know, cutting across miles of roofs in disrepair, leaping across alleys and streets at a breakneck pace. Did that sound like fun, Ringo?

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Is that a serious question?" Ringo shot back, planting her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes. Because if it was, it was a silly one with only one answer.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Maybe you wanted to take the nice, safe streets," Kathy said merrily. "You know, where we could go slow and you could take in the sights while following all traffic laws and everything!"

And with that Kathy zoomed towards the nearest building, unable to silence her "Eeeee!" of excitement as she went horizontal once again. Physics wasn't supposed to work like this.

...Screw physics right in the ear.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Physics was for people who didn't want to have fun.

Ringo let out a whoop of her own as she took off after Kathy. "Which way?" she demanded as she pulled even with the other girl, doing a little spin as she grinned over.

[spin_kick_snap]

"That way!" Kathy said, pointing towards the center of the city. "Though we may end up trying to fly a little earlier than anticipated. There are a couple of wide avenues between us and the Tower, so either we end up taking a few detours, or we're going to have to get some impressive jumps in."

Jumps that even she avoided as Banzai, but things were different on ATs.

They attained the roof of the building and Kathy started heading down it, lengthwise. This building's roof was fairly free of debris, which gave them more room to build up speed. When they leapt to the next, however, they weren't so lucky. As either a bizarre art installation or someone's idea of fun, the next roof was covered in mannequins and lawn statuary they needed to weave around.

"Not what I was expecting!" Kathy shouted, bouncing over a Madonna lawn statue.

[soniaroadsqueen]

The sort of speed you could get up to with AirTek meant that all sorts of things became possible.

Ringo was laughing as she spun to avoid a five foot tall garden gnome. "This is part of the fun, too!" she declared, snatching a mannequin on her way past and spinning through a quick series of waltz-like steps before setting it back down and back flipping over a, um, maybe it was a concrete tiger? Or lion? Not entirely clear.

"Who doesn't love to improvise?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm betting there's a road that's all formula, no improvisation," Kathy called back, vaulting over a flock of bright pink plastic flamingos. "It's all very solid and menacing, too, I'm sure."

Something huge loomed in the darkness ahead--an eight foot tall statue of Paul Bunyan. Rather than going around, Kathy slid between its legs, her head almost touching the ground as she bent backwards to avoid getting brained.

"Okay, I've got to know who all these belong to!" she laughed.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, no one's no improvisation, but there are definitely people who focus on mastering just one run. It can be really tough to be a specialist like that on their home turf."

With a laugh, zig-zagged through a random scattering of oversized busts of, she wasn't sure who. Some guy with a beard and a top-hat? Maybe he was famous in America. "We could always stop and ask, if you want," she pointed out. "But it'll take us that much longer to fly if we do."

[spin_kick_snap]

"So, hey, we were rollerblading--sorta--over your roof and decided to hunt you down and ask you about your taste in statuary because it was so weird," Kathy joked. "It was harder than it sounded, of course, because this isn't a residential area, but we are nothing if not persevering."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo hurdled wooden sculpture of, um, a tree, maybe? "Well, to be fair, anyone with taste like this probably wouldn't even be weirded out."

[spin_kick_snap]

"...You make a good point," Kathy admitted. "But why spend time sleuthing when we have a tower to get to? Excelsior!"

Speeding past a last group of what looked like the entirety of the cast of the Twelve Days of Christmas wrought in cheap plastic, Kathy launched herself over to the next roof, leading them in a line out of their current neighborhood and toward the center of the city.

"Residential area is more direct, moving towards the warehouse district is more fun. Preference?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Fun!" Ringo declared with a grin. "Always fun!"

"Besides, there are probably fewer nosy people who might call the authorities in the warehouse district, right?" Not that Ringo minded running from the police, but it did tend to be distracting when you had a specific goal in mind.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Thought so, but wanted to check!" Kathy said, turning right.

Baltimore was beautiful at night; the lights of the city reflecting off the dark water of the harbor. The warehouse district wasn't far from the waterfront, so they laughed and performed tricks on the sides and roofs of the warehouses with that dramatic backdrop.

"What's it like doing this in Tokyo?" Kathy asked. "I mean, so many more people! How do you get a chance to just run free?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"It's just a matter of knowing where to go," Ringo answered as she landed from a flip to grind along the metal gutter at the edge of a warehouse roof. "I mean, like you said, we could have gone through a residential neighborhood, but this is way better, right? Even in Tokyo there are construction projects, abandoned industrial areas, and so on."

"Besides," she accelerated along the gutter and launched herself at the next building, "with all the power ATs can give you, almost any place can turn into a trick playground."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Do people know about ATs?" she asked, pirouetting around a pile of concrete blocks. "I mean normal people? I mean, I know you said they don't really know about Gravity Children, but is everything hidden? Or, like, do regular people know there are...I don't know, gangs of kids on super-fast rollerblades or whatever, being menaces overhead?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh, yeah, people have known for years. Most riders are just normal people, even, and have been. It's an expensive hobby, but plenty of people do it."

She smiled. "Only it's gotten a lot more popular recently. Ever since Ikki won the Sky Regalia."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Less chance of getting horribly injured because someone's trying to collect 'em all?" Kathy hazarded?

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo laughed. "Well, maybe there's a little of that. But when we unlocked the Regalia, before we destroyed it, Ikki used it to turn off gravity for about ten minutes."

She was smiling. "After that, who wouldn't want to try to recapture that feeling?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Turn off gravity to where?" Kathy asked, confused.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"The whole planet."

Did we mention that Ringo's canon thought physics was for suckers?

[spin_kick_snap]

"He did what to the what?!" Kathy boggled. "For ten minutes?!? But--like--that's not even--how did--?!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo shrugged a little helplessly. "I mentioned the Sky Regalia was a big deal, right? Though even I don't know how it worked."

Because it made no sense, that's how!

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm not even asking how he managed to turn it off, I'm asking how everybody didn't just fly up into the sky at a thousand kilometers an hour! And then come crashing down ten minutes later?!"

HOW WASN'T EVERYBODY DEAD?!

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Like I said, I don't really understand it, but for those ten minutes everyone in the world experienced zero-g." Ringo hopped up and used an industrial air-conditioning unit to vault into an acrobatic twisting flip, then landed with a shrug.

"Once it was over, the popularity of AirTrek kind of exploded."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was still pretty boggled that nothing else had exploded but then again, she understood how physics worked. Normally.

Of course, she regularly defied physics herself--at least in small doses--so who was she to argue? It was the same thing for Ringo's world, just on a much larger scale.

Ish.

"So what do the rest of you think of that?" Kathy asked, zipping along a precarious railing on the edge of a rooftop before sailing over to the next. "I mean, obviously you think it's awesome or we wouldn't be here, but does everyone else agree?"

[Sorry! I thought this got sent!]

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I guess, like anything, there are a bunch of different opinions," Ringo admitted. "Like, Kilik is worried that with more people learning AirTrek, we won't be able to 'police' them properly." Kathy could probably hear the quotation marks there, even if Ringo didn't do finger quotes.

"And there are others who are upset with all these people who don't know the rules about territory and stuff, too."

"But I think it's great. I mean, flying is, like, joy, right? How can we not want more of that?"

[No worries. Considering how often that happens to me, I can't hold it against you!]

[spin_kick_snap]

"Do the territories matter anymore, now that the regalia and stuff are gone?" Kathy asked. "And what kind of policing does Kilik mean? Is he worried about people getting hurt, or...?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Of course territories matter," Ringo sighed. "There are still teams. They still want to be recognized."

She shook her head. "And Kilik is worried about people who shouldn't have power." Ringo shifted her stance, gliding along on one foot and tapping her AT with one hand. "Imagine all the people who shouldn't have something like this. Who are going to use it for the wrong things. That's what Kilik spends all his time worrying about."