Baltimore, Saturday Night

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Kathy--err, well, Banzai now, she was in costume--still wasn't quite sure how this had happened. She was on a date, with a guy that she'd talked to exactly once, and while their date had begun with the traditional nice dinner in town, their main activity was definitely not going to be found in any traditional dating guide.

Well, that might not be entirely true. If Fandom ever published a dating guide, superheroing in Baltimore would probably rate pretty highly on the 'things to do with your date' list.

"So, this is pretty much the start of my beat," she explained, tightening her mask. "I like to start up here. It's the tallest building in the area and--I don't have to explain why I like the high ground to you, right." The guy who could fly around likely understood why she liked starting off high up, yes. "I'd ask if you had any questions before we started, but I'm pretty sure you've been doing this for longer than I have. Ready?"

[NFB for Baltimore, but open to anyone likely to be wandering around Baltimore. Come crash the date! It's a new Fandom tradition (h/t notaweenie)]

Comments

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Hey! Not all of them!

But yeah, definitely a hefty percentage. And right now, Kathy felt like the least experienced of them all. Oy.

"That's the way!" Banzai said, with a nod. "Keep up!" Then she dove off the building.

In this, at least, she felt capable of holding her own with Johnny. No, she couldn't fly or control fire, but in its own way, falling was her element. A quick grab of a flag pole had her flipping back up where she bounced off a decorative gargoyle and then handsprung back up to the next roof. She was on the other side in less than a second, vaulting over the edge and reaching out for the next thing to break her fall.

God, how could anyone not love this? It was the ultimate in exhileration.

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"You're making it too easy on me!" Johnny said from close behind, following along with the completely unfair advantage of being able to just, you know, fly. He was throwing completely needless spins and loops in at random, just to show off a little in case she had a chance to glance back.

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"Yeah? Try following me on foot!" Banzai called up with a laugh. Okay, he was pretty darn impressive, she'd give him that. "Let's here you brag how fast you are, then!"

She was going to add more speed now. Because the challenge had been thrown, dammit. Doing fifty-five miles an hour on the rooftop road probably wasn't the smartest idea she'd ever had, but damn was it fun!

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"No thanks, I'll stick to flying!" Johnny called back as he caught up. She really was faster than he expected. He could keep this pace up for a while, but there was at least a chance that sh could kep going longer than he could.

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"Pffft, show off!"

Whereas all these flips and spins and handsprings Kathy was doing? TOTALLY NECESSARY.

It wasn't tiredness that stopped her--enhanced stamina was one of her gifts--but the sound of an alarm going off. "You hear that?" she asked, pointing a little more west than they'd been going. "Sounds like it could be a break-in or something. Wanna check it out?"

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"Already on my way!" Johnny said, banking hard around Kathy like she was a pylon or something as he started toward the alarms. "Your turn to keep up with me!"

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FLATTERING METAPHOR, JOHNNY.

"Aha!" she said, turning on a dime and increasing her speed yet again. This was a hard sprint, so she wouldn't be able to keep it going very long, but it was useful in a pinch.

...And there was something to be said about the ability to keep up with highway traffic, at least for a few hundred yards.

"Hazard a guess on how far away it is?" she asked, vaulting up onto a balcony to scale another building.

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"Couple blocks at most," Johnny said. "We'll be there in no time! What kind of robbery do you think it is?"

Johnny span off to dive toward street level so he could look for smashed storefronts.

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It wasn't the alleys or streets that was the big worry about running over rooftops, but really it was shoddy maintenance. Loose bricks. Weak beams. Banzai skidding on some completely unfastened tar paper (health hazard!) and would have fallen if her agility wasn't cranked up to eleven. Instead she turned it into a forward somersault and sprang back up to her feet.

"Around here?" Banzai asked. "Probably a small store. Lot of mom and pop shops, bodegas, used book stores, stuff like that. Nothing high end, so we're probably looking at small-timers or local punks."

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"So I shouldn't go in with my biggest flames. Gotcha," Johnny said as he arrived at the store with the broken door.

He came to an abrupt stop and started shouting, "Oh, criminals! We have some concerned citizens here to tell you to knock it off!"

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About thirty seconds later, Banzai leapt down to the ground, peeking into the doorway. "No one even has to get hurt! But if you really feel like tangoing with the guy on fire...well, that's on you. Or you could go for the small, not-on-fire girl. She can't be any threat at all, right?"

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"How does ladies first work when there are maybe armed street toughs in there, but the lady has powers?" Johnny checked. "It's never come up for me before."

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Banzai peeked in again. There were signs of movement, but no one seemed in a great hurry to come out and tangle.

"Well, I think it's less about ladies and gentlemen and more about turf," she said, eyes mischievous behind her mask. "As my guest, you can go in first if you'd like."

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"You're so kind," Johnny said, lowering to glide into the shop just above the ground. He also pulled his flame in a bit so he didn't set the shop on fire. "Okay, kids. You're making the Human Torch come inside. If you try anything, I'm gonna burn your pants off and then my lady friend is going to kick you in the face as you try to run away."

The couple robbers he saw seemed to be pretty surprised that, yes, a guy who WAS ON FIRE just floated in.

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"I did warn you about the guy on fire," Banzai said, waving at the from atop a shelf of groceries. While their eyes had been trained on the Human Torch, she'd quietly snuck in and climbed up. "But I probably won't stop at kicking you in the face. After all, traveling with this guy, I've clearly got something to prove. So...last chance to come quiet and peaceful-like?"

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

One of the robbers decided to run toward the back of the store, hoping to get to an exit. Johnny sped forward, low enough to not set off the sprinklers right away, and flaming off in time to turn himself into a human missile aimed at the guy's back, tackling him.

"I lied. You would spaz out if your pants were on fire. I can't deal with a spaz in hot pants unless we're talking about someone dancing at a club."

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That was a signal for the other three to break as well. Banzai launched herself at the closest one, using his shoulders as a springboard to stay in the air. Her momentum drove him into the ground with a choked cry. "I'm pretty sure I didn't dislocate anything," she said, yanking a be-ribboned baton out of her sleeve and aiming for another one of the runners. "But I'm not a doctor yet, so it might be best for you to stay. Like I said before, remember?"

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

As the last guy made his way out the door, Johnny got back to his feet, lit a fireball in his hand, and threw it like a baseball. Sure enough, it hit the guy right in the butt and his pants were suddenly on fire.

Johnny was able to trot casually outside as the guy stopped, dropped, and rolled. "Hey, you know something about fire safety. Good for you," he said as he approached the guy in the street. Too bad you never learned not to annoy the guy who makes fire."

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The baton end went sailing through the air and socked the third guy in the back, right between the shoulderblades. Overbalanced, he fell forward, his jaw clacking hard against the linoleum floor. Banzai winced. That hadn't sounded pleasant.

"Warned you," she sighed. The first one she'd knocked down was pushing himself to his feet and Banzai didn't hesitate to plant her foot in his bottom to push him right back down again. "Sorry," she said, producing a bag of zipties. "You're not going anywhere. Hey, Torch! You wanna bring that guy back in here?"

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

Johnny grabbed the guy by his shirt collar and dragged him to his feet, leading him back to Kathy. "You see, this is kind of a date," Johnny told the guy. "She said she didn't want flowers, she wanted be to bring her some criminals. Personally, that's my kind of girl. But I doubt you agree."

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"Why are you telling him that?" Banzai yelped. "He--I'm sure he doesn't care."

"Actually," the guys said, "it's kinda cute in a real pain in the ass kind of way. You two a thing?"

"We're on a date," Banzai informed him sternly, yanking the ziptie a little harder than she had to while binding his wrist to a shelf that was bolted into the wall. "We're hardly an item. Just...just...just a date."

"Aww yeah," the guy said, giving a chin nod to Johnny. "Playing the field? There are enough of you types to do that?"

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"Well, it's not just a date. For these chuckleheads, it's also the night they got their butts kicked by a couple of people who weren't even one hundred percent focused on that butt kicking," Johnny said, dropping his guy in front of Banzai to get the wrist-tie treatment. "(I'll go get the guy I tackled, too.) Remember that, fellas. Tonight's also about you and how much you completely suck at this."

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"He's right you know," Banzai said, sounding almost apologetic. "You're clearly amateurs at this. But that probably means you have time to turn things around."

She tilted her head; sirens in the distance. They only had a few more minutes here before they had to go, too. Vigilantism was still illegal, after all.

"Look, the people who own this place are really nice. They barely make enough to get by week to week and they still donate to all sorts of neighborhood causes and give food away to a couple of homeless guys. If you have to rob stores, leave people like them alone. The payout isn't worth the risk and you hurt them a lot more than is really necessary."

A few more poses and that could be a magical girl speech there, Banzai.

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

"Also, don't rob any stores," Johnny said as he dragged the last guy over. "Or next time, I'll st more than just this one guy's pants on fire, and then you'll all look silly going to jail."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Agreed," Banzai said. "I mean, we're still going to stop you, regardless of who you rob. But the caliber of your victims still says a lot about the kind of criminal you are. Our jokes are going to be snarkier if we catch you robbing nice old mom and pop stores. But it really would be better if you stayed on the right side of the law from now on. Eventually, he's going to get impatient and start singeing more than fabric, if you catch my drift."

All four secured, she looked up at Johnny. "Sirens are closer. I'm thinking that's our cue?"