Baltimore, Thursday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai leapt over the edge of the building, pausing for a moment on one hand to let her quarry move into position, and then shifted her weight a fraction of an inch to let gravity take over. Freefall. A moment when she was almost flying, albeit in one direction. Hurtling four stories to the ground and loving every minute of it. She makes a noise only at the very last moment, turning her quarry's face up to hers. His expression is comical in its disbelief, which turns to pain a second later as she lands handsdown on his shoulders. If she really wanted to, she could probably dislocate his arms or maybe even break his collarbone. But that wasn't Banzai. She didn't like hurting people, not even scumbag drug dealers that liked to hit working girls.

The hitting women part really had her tempted, though. Just a little more pressure than usual and snap, crackle, pop. No more hitting people for him!

But she'd been Social Justice Warrior, not Social Vengeance Warrior, so she refrained. She hit him with just enough force to numb both his arms, forcing him to drop his briefcase with a gasp. From there, she flipped behind him, dropped low, and lashed out with her foot. He hit the ground with a cry and she kicked herself up into a standing position and dover for the briefcase, knocking it away from his grip.

That's when his three bodyguards decided to wise up and get involved.

They had guns, of course. Jerks like these always had guns. Fortunately, Kathy wasn't where they thought she'd be. She'd taken off just as soon as the briefcase had gone skittering into the shadows.

Spin kick. Hand spring. Cartwheel, backbend, roundhouse. Down went one of them. Hammer kick, vault, flying leap, gymnastic ribbons around his wrist and yank. Down went the second. Layout salto. Spin kick. Forward lunge. Spin kick.

And down went the third.

"Looks like it's just the two of us now," Banzai said, grinning at the dealer. "Do you wanna give up? Or let a little girl kick your ass, too?"

He whimpered and put his hands above his head.

Under her mask, Banzai grinned. God, she loved this.

[NFB. For anyone out in Baltimore, though thread with gunslingerpose comes last chronologically, please!]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"Are you kidding?" Banzai said. "My mother would have skinned me alive if I'd ever sat on a bike. And the streets on the island aren't really suited for it."

Her grin was brilliant in the streetlight. "But she's not here and this isn't Fandom."

[gunslingerpose]

"Both of these things are true," Gorgon laughed. "And like hell I'd take my bike out on those stairs."

That would be hell on his baby.

"Alright, then. It's pulled up the next alley over, back toward the 7-Eleven. You wanna ride, you better keep up."

As if she couldn't. Anyway, he was launching himself up to the next rooftop and taking off at a run all the same. Rooftop chases, he was learning, were some of the best fun he had on the job.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You think I can't?" Banzai asked, springing off the stone frame.

And, for the time in months, stumbling and going to her knees.

That's what happened when you suddenly developed four tiny cloven hooves beneath four delicate little legs, all wrapped up in thick cotton and rainbows.

[gunslingerpose]

"I think you-- the fuck?"

Did she just shrink? Vanish? Something else? Gorgon skidded across the rooftop a little on one heel, and then backtracked at a run to investigate... the mysterious lump in Banzai's pile of clothes. He bent over once he'd made it back that way, reaching for the tunic of her gi, picking it up off the ground.

"Banzai? You in th-what the fuck."

That word really was all-purpose.

[spin_kick_snap]

And there, staring up at him, was the grumpiest klipspringer that ever was. No more than twenty inches tall at the shoulder, she danced around a bit, the pavement hard and unyielding beneath her tiny hooves.

"Mah," she protested. She was not a fan.

[gunslingerpose]

"Mah," Gorgon agreed, staring down at her. "Shit, we're not even on the island right now. Unless your power-set actually includes 'randomly turning into a tiny fucking goat' and you never mentioned before."

Okay, she was more like some kind of little... deer... antelope... thing.

The point remained, though. The hell was going on, here?

[spin_kick_snap]

She was not a goat! She was a klipspringer! And she was going to stop her front hoof at him to teach him to not confuse the two again!

"Mah!" she insisted, hopping in a circle around Gorgon. "Maaah!"

[gunslingerpose]

"Well, at least we know you're still half superball," Gorgon noted, watching her as she pronked about. "Look, I'll google it, okay? But I don't speak... whatever you are."

He heaved a sigh, and then leaned forward to collect her clothes from the pavement, wadding them into a ball and tucking them under one armpit. All the better for... not losing her underwear, mostly.

"What the hell do I do with you?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Wait, was he going to reneg on their deal? Dammit, Gorgon! You'd agreed to take her for a motorcycle ride! The fact that she was now an adorable ruminant should not have any bearing on the promised bike ride.

"MAH!" Banzai stomped her foreleg again, wagging her tail furiously. "Mah!"

[gunslingerpose]

Hey, now. His options were to either take her on the goddamn bike, or leave her in the alleyway. There wasn't going to be any reneging on anything, here.

"You get much louder about it, they'll be sending animal control next," Gorgon sighed, crouching down in front of her. "Look, turning into an animal probably fucking sucks. I know. But I don't know what the hell you're saying right now, and throwing a fit isn't going to fix it. Now, are you coming to my bike with me or not?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Considering the foot stomping quickly turned to exciting pronking just as soon as he mentioned 'bike,' the answer was hopefully obvious! "Mah!" she bleated, this time with happy tail-wagging, rather than annoyed. "Mah! Mah!"

...You could tell the difference, couldn't you, Gorgon?

[gunslingerpose]

Well, she wasn't threatening to head-butt him, so he was going to take it as a win. Or something.

"... I'll clear out one of the saddlebags for you, I guess."

There was no way in hell she was going to be able to stay put on the seat.

[spin_kick_snap]

Yay! They were going for a ride! On a motorcycle! Ride ride ride on a bike bike bike! Banzai was getting more excited now, which involved jumping. A lot of jumping. Jumping higher than Gorgon's head even.

About four times higher. La.

Her last jump had her landing on the edge of the rooftop. "Maaaah!" she called down. They weren't gonna make it to his bike if he kept standing there. "Mah!"

[gunslingerpose]

She was absolutely ridiculous. Had anyone ever told her how ridiculous she was? In a cute kind of way, sure, but still. Freaking absurd.

Gorgon gave his head a shake, and then he was kicking himself up off the ground again, making his way to the rooftop after her.

"I'm coming," he shared. "I'm coming, already. Bike's just down the next alley over. It'll be hard to miss."

It would be the sexy Yamaha with the saddlebags, and all.

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, words and concepts were starting to get a little blurry there. Banzai still remembered that there was a bike and she wanted to ride on it, but what those things actually meant was kinda hazy. That was fine. She would continue waiting for her oddly-shaped friend to finish the climb. Why wasn't he just jumping up all at once, like she had? Had he forgotten how?

Here, she would stay by the ledge and demonstrate, Gorgon. You're welcome.

[gunslingerpose]

"Yes, deer, I'm coming," Gorgon muttered, launching himself off the same windowsill he'd been on before, and then the wall across from it, to get himself up to the roof beside her. "Not all of us are in a constant state of bounce, you know."

He looked down at her, and then sighed and started making his way across the rooftops toward the next alley, glancing to make certain she was still keeping pace with him.

[spin_kick_snap]

Of course she was! Bouncing the whole way. This landscape was new and exciting--even though it felt weird beneath her hooves, there were so many different things to look at and see and climb! Rather than shadowing Gorgon, Banzai was dashing across the rooftops and looking about, then running back to make sure he was still there and okay and hadn't been eaten by a leopard or hyena or something.

And bleating in worry if he crossed to a different rooftop while she'd been exploring and she lost sight of him. At least until he came back. Bad Gorgon! No wandering off alone! You could get eaten by an eagle or something!

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon frequently had to worry about eagles, yes.

"Don't run off too far," he cautioned her, watching her antics carefully as they went. "You're small enough right now, you'd probably meet your match against anything from a raccoon to a squirrel."

He cared, see?

"Having fun?"

She seemed to be taking being a goat thing pretty well.

[spin_kick_snap]

ANTELOPE, god!

Also, eagles were scary as heck. At least they were if you were a tiny klipspringer and not even two feet tall at the shoulder.

"Mah!" she replied, wagging her little tail again. She didn't quite understand the words anymore--or that she ever had--but he was talking and they were exploring together up high and everything just felt completely right. "Mah!"

And then she went bouncing off in another direction, because there was something even higher over there and it needed to be climbed. Because obviously.

[gunslingerpose]

Go on, Banzai. Bounce over that way. Nikolai could wait. He'd just stand here, with his arms crossed, on the edge of the roof overlooking his bike, and watch you get into... whatever you were getting into, there.

"You're never going to make it to the bike, at this rate."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Mah!" Gorgon could be forgiven for thinking that second bleat sounded oh-so-superior. It was meant to. Banzai was just going to climb this last thing and then they could get going! For a guy who was remarkably careless about eagles he sure was--

CRASH!

The mountain of crates she'd been climbing had been left out to the elements and animals for far too long and had rotted. Sturdy enough to hold up under her first delicate foreleg, the wood had broken through once she put her whole weight on it. Banzai went crashing through the pile, leg still caught in the broken crate, now somewhere in the middle of all of them.

"MAH! MAH! MAH! MAAAAAAAAH!" SCARED! LOST! HURT! HEEEELP!

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon blinked. And then blinked again.

"Shit," he said, eloquently, before he was taking all of one leap to end up beside the crates, pretty much plowing through them to get to where the bleating was coming from. Were there crates raining down into they alleyway as he chucked them aside? Yes. Did Nikolai care? Not particularly. "Hang in there, baby, I've got you."

There she was, leg caught, half-buried under rotting wood. He cleared out a few more of the extra crates, and then, looking at the way her leg was caught, frowned and just snapped the boards apart, careful to not let them hurt her as he did so.

And then, yes, he was collecting her in his arms and cradling her to his chest, looking her over for injuries.

"Hey, hey, ssh. You're okay. You're fine, Kathy. You'll be fine..."

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai trembled as he picked her up and didn't stop, even when he held her close. In the wild, that kind of thing would have meant death, either long and slow due to dehydration, or harsh and quick, when something else found her.

Like an eagle. See?

"Mah! Mah! Mah!" Scared, Gorgon! Scared! She nuzzled him under his chin, careful not to let her horns catch him anywhere, and just shook. No more exploring for her tonight. From now on, she'd stick close.

[gunslingerpose]

Aw, come on, Kathy. Gorgon wasn't an eagle. You'd be fine.

Scared shitless, but fine.

"Yeah, yeah, you're okay," he murmured, making his way back to the edge of the rooftop. "I've got you, here. I won't even jump down to the bike, how's that sound?"

He'd already located the fire escape and was making his way toward it.

[spin_kick_snap]

Keep downplaying the threat that eagles presented, Gorgon. You'd learn. You'd learn.

"Mah." It was the most pathetic 'mah' in the history of klipspringers. She cuddled closer to him, resting her chin on his shoulder as she finally stopped trembling.

It was hard being so tiny in such a big, scary world.