Baltimore, Sunday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai rarely patrolled Sunday nights, taking the night off to rest and prepare for the upcoming week, but since she'd bailed on patrolling on Friday, it seemed only fair to make up for it tonight instead. Crime around the club and various campuses would be lower, but there were still plenty of drug deals, muggings, and various other, more dangerous crimes for her to stop instead. And it wasn't like Banzai was going to miss spending extra time manhandling drunk idiots into cabs and breaking up fights in alleys over stupid bullshit the participants couldn't even remember four steps away from the club itself.

The Ukranian mafia had all but vanished from the city over the past few months; apparently losing the Butcher was enough to convince them that Baltimore wasn't worth the effort. In a way, Banzai almost missed them; they were good practice for when she'd be going up against the Seventeens in LA eventually. Patrolling around Stanford (if she got in, please God let her get in) probably wasn't going to be all that much effort, so she was already making plans to portal down to LA proper at least once a month to get in a proper patrol.

Spotting Jewels, one of the working girls that was part of Banzai's loose confederation of informants, Banzai swung down from the rooftop to land on light feet nearby. Always good to check in, see if Jewels had heard of anything going down, make sure that no one was bothering her, pass along money and supplies to stay in Jewels' good graces, all that good stuff.

It felt good to get out and patrol. For all her speeches about wanting to do good for the people around her and make the world a better place, Banzai had to admit that the real reason she ran around in rainbows with a bokken on her back and rope darts in her belt was a lot more selfish. What could she say?

She loved this.

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"That's what I keep telling her too."

Dante's tone had sobered some with that one. "She's fine, Ka-- Banzai. Don't go borrowing more trouble than you already do."

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Banzai looked stubborn for a moment, then let it go. "I'm just saying, if you ever need help--"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll look for the rainbows," Jewels said, dismissively. "Look, Banzai, you head up to the rooftop. Dante, walk out with me. This way if anyone is looking, they'll think I've been a good girl this whole time, see?" She rolled her eyes towards Banzai. "Happy?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Got it." Dante threw her a lazy salute.

He slanted a quick sideways look at Kathy, just to make sure... something. "C'mon," he said, beginning to walk that way.

[spin_kick_snap]

Sighing, Banzai did as she was told, bouncing up to the rooftop.

Jewels reached for his arm, intending to wind her arm through it, offering the kind of false, easy affection she'd pretend with all her clients. "You watch out for that girl," she said in an undertone. "She doesn't have the sense God gave a beetle, so Lord knows someone has to. And she's the type too busy worryin' about everyone else that she'll run off the side of a damn cliff. Or one of those buildings she's always bouncin' on." Her tone was disdainful. Her eyes were--not.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, I know," Dante said. The words came from the back of his mouth, not the front; he nearly swallowed them.

He had bigger, more complex thoughts about it. But as per usual, those got buried well past the ones that actually made it out. "No stoppin' her, though."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I didn't tell you to stop her, I told you to take care of her. Keep an eye on her. Something." Ugh, Jewels hated this. It was so much easier not caring and letting the chips fall where they would. Especially chips knocked over by someone's own stupidity. "She cares. She cares too damn much is her problem. And it's gonna get her hurt."

This was so stupid. Why did she even care? Oh, right, because finding other people who genuinely cared was a damn rarity in this world and you helped them out when you did. Like Dante and his street walker charity or whatever.

Above them, Banzai kept pace, watching the crowds for anyone who looked like they'd cause mischief, especially for the pair exiting the alleyway.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I said, I know."

There was no real saving people - never was. If Kathy was on a crash-course with stupidity, the best Dante could hope for was that it was gonna be fixable later.

"All right? I just can't fix shit she doesn't want fixed."

[spin_kick_snap]

"So long as you know then," Jewels said. "I'm just glad there's someone with sense keeping an eye on her." She sniffed and dropped his arm. "Thanks, D," she added, patting the inner pocket where she'd shoved the cash. "Come see me when you're ready for a good time."

Same invite she always made when they parted ways. Same invite she doubted he'd ever take her up on.

"Now scram. You're too pretty, I don't need the fucking competition."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snickered, flashing her a wink and a smirk. "Love you too, Jewels," he snarked.

Yeah, probably never take her up on it; he didn't pay for this stuff, and it'd make things weird in a way sleeping with all his friends wasn't.

So he took off, wandering further down the street, shucking his coat forward with a single motion of his shoulders.

[spin_kick_snap]

Down the street a ways and he was joined by Banzai, white gi practically a beacon in the darkness. "I didn't know you knew the ladies around here," she said quietly. "Most people barely notice them. Unless it's to avoid them. Or, well--" She flushed again.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Most people don't pay attention and they don't give a shit," Dante said, mulling the whole thing over. Not that it was visible on his face; he kept looking right ahead. "Places like this are slightly less bad about it, that's all."

[spin_kick_snap]

"But you do," Banzai noted. "Even though you like to pretend that you don't. You give a lot more fucks than you'd like anyone to think."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Ehhh," Dante said, rolling his eyes up and well away from her. "I'm just helping Isabela out with her charity plans."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy rolled her eyes back so he'd know she wasn't fooled for a minute, but took the proffered topic switch. "So why does Isabela want to set up a sex worker charity?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Since she took a bunch off of creeps at a strip club last week," Dante said. "Seemed fair not to stiff them just because their patrons have trouble keeping their eyes on their wallets."

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai snickered at that. "I should feel a lot worse about that than I do," she said. "Theft is a crime, blah blah blah. But, hey, you're taking care of the ladies, so I'm having trouble seeing this as anything but a victimless crime."

[rebelseekspizza]

"See, Isabela likes doing her part for the forces of good."

Dante smirked at her. "The rest of us just live in her world."

Admittedly, he'd been avoiding mentioning Ada just in case Kathy decided to get weird about it.

[spin_kick_snap]

Ezra and the stereo had proven to Banzai that she had no legs to stand on when it came to stuff like this. So rather than stress over it, she'd given everyone in Fandom a mental pass so long as their shenanigans stayed below a certain level and called it good.

Probably not her most heroic decision, but the one most likely to give her peace.

"The hell we do," Banzai snorted. "Her world has giant sex-spiders with lube spit and sex-venom or whatever. I am not living in that world, thanks much."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I can't believe you keep trying to sell yourself as the one with all the imagination," Dante said, shaking his head. "How's Superballing?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I never said I had all of it!" Banzai protested. "My imagination has very strict limits, in fact. Members of the arachnid family need not apply!"

For pretty much anything, in fact.

"And it's going pretty well. Jewels had some good intel for me to follow up on, I busted a decent-sized drug deal, and stopped three kids from boosting cars. Not bad for a Sunday. What're you up to, besides making your charity rounds?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Went clubbing, but the music sucks ass tonight," Dante said, pulling a face. Sure, getting laid was a major priority in his life at all times, but there were limits. Shitty Eurotrash music-shaped limits. "Then I figured I might as well stop by here, do some charity, then pick a bar or something."

Getting smashingly drunk on other people's money: almost as good as getting laid.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Always room for one more on patrol," Banzai suggested. She didn't expect him to agree, but it's not like she wasn't going to offer.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Or you could stop patrolling, get out of the ninja outfit and grab a beer with me," Dante said, side-eyeing her.

Seriously, Kathy.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah, I guess I could do that," Banzai agreed. "Though we're going to have to backtrack to where I left my duffel. Otherwise I'll be drinking with you in my sports bra and these gi pants and that's just not going to happen."

Even if her pants were mostly free of the identifying rainbows, just no.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante chuckled. "Eh, I don't know," he said, "We could say you were a time-traveling refugee from the nineties."