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]

"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."