Room 508 to Baltimore, Friday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy studied herself in the mirror, frowning slightly. She had done a lot of stuff as Banzai, but trying to infiltrate the mafia in disguise was a whole new level of scary. If she messed up, the Ukrainians would know a lot more about her than she really wanted them too--like what she looked like, as just one exciting example. But this was an opportunity she couldn't pass up; they were recruiting locals under the guise of a motorcycle drag race, with the top performers invited to a very exclusive party--so exclusive that no matter how hard she tried, Kathy couldn't get the location. Over the past year, she'd managed to create a decent circle of street-level informants and yet no one could tell her anything besides what was 'public' knowledge: an illegal drag race, with plenty of money to be made from betting, and an excellent afterparty for the winners. That was it.

It was all very frustrating as hell.

Even the race itself was frustrating. If it had at least been a drag race with cars, Kathy might have been able to put her Driver's Ed experience into play...somehow. She was still lacking a car, but she would have at least known how to race. Ish. Maybe. But this was a motorcycle race, and Kathy had one hour of experience driving one of those from several years ago. That would get her exactly nowhere. If she had more time, she might even have been able to appeal to Parker or Eliot for help, but she'd just gotten the message that everything was going down tonight.

Kathy didn't often swear, but this whole situation deserved quite a hearty "God dammit!"

Her current plan was to dress like a biker bunny, head to where the race was going to take place, and hope to insinuate herself in the group that got brought to the party. Yeah, she could foresee no problems with that, sure.



[Primarily for one, but open to the roomie beforehand if she so chooses. Everything that happens after they leave the island is NFB for distance.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"'Quick bite', huh?"

Dante shifted his thumb up along her just gently, and-- suddenly he went perfectly still, tangible tension slipping into his shoulders. "Shit," he said.

Police sirens. No matter how nice this was, there was no way in fucking hell he'd ever get distracted enough not to notice police sirens. "There's the 'cavalry'."

[spin_kick_snap]

"...Huh?" Kathy asked, a little dreamy. "The caval--son of a bitch!"

All the blissful lassitude that had been spiraling through her vanished in an instant. She jerked away from his hand and sat back down on the bike with an almost audible thud. "Drive, drive!" she said, arms winding back around him again. Not for any sexy reasons, she was just holding on tightly so he could drive as fast as he needed. "Let's get outta here!"

Stupid, stupid, stupid. And she couldn't even blame this on Dante--she'd been the instigator here, no question.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante hit the pedal-- and hey, look, it worked. It worked beautifully. The bike got rolling real quick, and he sped out of the alleyway and onto the road.

Then back into an alley, to the left, onto the next road. The fear of cops was pre-programmed in his brain; fuck if he let them notice or follow him.

[spin_kick_snap]

Okay, so the purr of the engine between her legs was not helping Kathy's current physical state, though the fear of getting caught prevented her from really noticing that until they were out of the second alley. She groaned again, hoping it was lost in the general noise of the bike and rested her head against Dante's broad back, trying to slowly drag together the shards of her self-control. She had a mission tonight, dammit, and she couldn't afford to get distracted again.

No matter how nice Dante's hands were.

"Do you know where Ellwood Park is?" Kathy asked, referring to the rundown neighborhood where the race would be taking place. "Off of Pulaski Highway? Head that way."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Kinda?"

Dante'd been shying away from the causeway since he tripped and fell back into Limbo City. Not a lot of time to plug around Baltimore. But the highway sounded familiar.

And he had enough experience in ignoring his own discomfort - making it go away - in situations like this to put his mind together and head off into the right direction. "You're gonna have to tell me when to pull over."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'll give you directions once we get close," Kathy said, deliberately not thinking of how double-entendre-y that sounded. Which was definitely a word, shut up.

She told him what exit to take to get there, then added, "Open her up! I wanna see what she can do!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Listen to the fucking adrenaline junkie!" Dante called. "You call that superheroing, Miss Li?"

Note that mocking her did not stop him from doing as she asked, hitting the gas hard. "Holy shit!" he laughed.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Why do you think I love being a superhero so much?" Kathy yelled, after whooping in delight. "It's a non-stop adrenaline rush, from leaping off of buildings at top speed to beating up guys twice my size."

She laughed, loud and unself-consciously. "This makes me want a bike of my own!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"And here I thought you were in it to be one of the good guys," Dante said.

He swerved and sped straight past a line of cars. At least one of 'em started honking. "Eat my shit!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm multi-faceted! I can have lots of motivations to do things," Kathy pointed out. "And I said it's why I love it, not why I do it."

She watched the speedometer climb, heading towards where even she wouldn't be able to keep up on foot.

"We should do this sometime when I don't have a mafia war to fight! Spend all night pissing off drivers and flying down the streets of Baltimore. See how fast we can get to DC and do donuts on the National Mall!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"You know, with your speed, you could probably get away with putting graffiti on the White House!"

Don't encourage him, Kathy.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I may have to do that, depending on the outcome of the next election!" Kathy said. "But, now, Congress on the other hand! Those assholes deserve some nasty graffiti. I'd totally hit the Capitol building!"

Who authorized these two being friends?

"And maybe see how high I can bounce on the Washington Monument."

Kathy, no.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snickered. "Kathy," he called, "Yes."

Then he glanced aside. "We almost there?!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Three blocks north and then one east and we hit the deserted strip mall where this is all going down," Kathy said. "Ellwood Park is a pretty terrible neighborhood and the cops do their best to avoid patrolling unless they get calls about violent crimes, so we should be okay to just floor it all the way there!"

Which Kathy probably sounded a little too excited about. Speed-freak.

"We can probably get there in four if you try..."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh, I'll do more than try," Dante promised.

It was probably a good thing he didn't actually have all the power he'd have later in life, or this could've gotten really insane. Right now, though, he had the reflexes required to do this without crashing-- and he was putting those to the test.

The dial on the speedometer slid into the danger zone. Cars shot past like they were barely moving. Dante squeezed in between a couple, then took advantage of a stretch of empty highway. Four? He was gunning for three and a half.

[spin_kick_snap]

It was also a good thing that Kathy had solemnly sworn that she was going to keep her head in the game for the rest of the night. Because between that constant thrumm between her thighs and the sheer excitement of speeding down that highway at ludicrous speed, the part of Kathy that liked to live very dangerously was tempted to see how distracting she could be without causing Dante to lose control. Of the bike.

Yes, definitely something to consider for another time. When they didn't already have important plans and the landscape wasn't blurring together.

Three minutes and twenty-six seconds later, they were pulling into an abandoned strip mall. The individual stores were dark and gutted, most of the storefront windows broken. But the parking lot was filled with a raucous crowd and blaring music, screaming guitars and pounding bass. Engines revved and people cheered. Women dressed even more provocatively than Kathy strutted about, or hung on the arms of bikers, and a few others were perched on bikes of their own.

"Think we found the right place," Kathy said.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nah. This bunch of lame ducks?" Dante said lightly. Well, that might have been a 'd', anyway. He slowed as he approached, draping himself over the handlebars as he threw the gathered crowd a lazy look.

These people would've homed in on him like that if he'd looked even vaguely intimidated. Good thing he was terrible at that to begin with.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy sincerely doubted it was a d. She was also incredibly grateful that she was here with Dante. Seeing all those faces eager to find her weaknesses and use them against her had her ducking-with-a-d behind Dante a bit.

"Wow, there's a lot of people here," she said. "More than I expected. You don't have to come in first or anything, I think the first couple of people will be invited." Not that she thought Dante would back down from competition.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes. He kicked down the side stand as the bike came to a complete stop.

"Hey," he called. "Which one of you dumb fucks is in charge around here?"

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"This dumb fuck here," said one guy, sliding off from the hood of a muscle car and sauntering over to Dante's bike. "Why? Who the fuck are you?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's Oleksiy," Kathy whispered in Dante's ear. "He's pretty high up in the organization. He's also kind of a sick fuck, or so the girls say. Be cool?"

It was a nice hope, anyway.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Somebody who's been hearing the stupid amount of noise you people been making," Dante said. He lifted his chin at the mass of people there. "Were you trying to draw the fucking cops here, or what? Trying to show off?"

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

She and Dante had a different definition of being cool, clearly.

"Shows what you know, pretty boy," Oleksiy said easily. "The Mikhaltsos own this neighborhood now. The cops won't butt in unless we say so." He narrowed his eyes at Dante. "Why? You come here to race or you come here to run your fucking mouth?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Can't I do both?" Dante said, stepping off the motorcycle. (Sorry, Kathy, but this wasn't your kind of turf.) "What I'm getting from this is that you are showing off." He looked at the other riders again. "I got the impression we had an actual race going here. Now, eh, I'm not so sure."

[spin_kick_snap]

No need to apologize, Dante, Kathy would only agree with that assessment of the situation. She was going to remain seated on the bike and attempt to look sexy and unconcerned with all this posturing. It was posturing, right?

That or Dante was about to pick a fight with the one guy that could lead them to a Mikhaltsos safe house, in which case she and Dante would have words about what the phrase 'be cool' meant.