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

[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.

[gunslingerpose]

Then she was just going to love this next part.

At the bottom of the fire escape, Gorgon looked down at her, and then over at his bike. By some miracle, he hadn't hit it with the crates he'd tossed to the side. And the saddlebags were probably plenty big enough for one scared little... thing... to fit in one, her clothes and the rest of his supplies stashed into the other.

"Once we get back to the island, what am I even going to do with you? It's not like I know how the hell to find Barry. Or Sparky." He was not looking up the website, no. "Will you be okay if I put you down for a bit, now?"

[spin_kick_snap]

GOD SHE WAS A KLIPSPRINGER, WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO COMPREHEND?

"Mah." Go ahead and try to interpret that, Gorgon.

[gunslingerpose]

Comprehend it? Nikolai couldn't even pronounce it.

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that," he murmured, crouching over to put her down gently on the ground before opening up his saddlebags and getting to work tucking Banzai's things into one, and then transferring his stuff into the same bag. "And you figure you'll fit in one of these? It's the only way I can think of to get you back to the island, right now."

Yes. He was still talking to the antelope.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was just going to crowd him and try to literally be as underfoot as possible. Because she was still scared and needed to be AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to stay safe.

[gunslingerpose]

It was fortunate that he didn't have to walk around the bike in order to rearrange things, wasn't it? Gorgon took a few more moments, and then tucked the shirt of Banzai's gi back into the empty saddlebag. Something familiar, and hopefully more comfortable, might help her relax a little.

"Okay," he said, dusting off his hands against one another. "Time to pick you up again, Banzai."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Mah mah!" Yes, good. Picking her up. She liked that. He could do that again. Once he pulled her out from where she was hiding between his legs, of course.

[gunslingerpose]

"Mah mah," he mumbled, reaching down to pick her up again, gently, so as to not spook her. He had no idea how the hell he was going to start his bike without giving her a heart attack, at this rate. But if he deposited her into the saddlebag, like so, and sort of... tucked her in, with her own uniform. Something familiar, right? "How's that? Cozy?"

He couldn't exactly buckle up the straps with her in there like that, which had him a little concerned. He was going to have to go slow all the way back to the island. But he couldn't leave his bike behind, and he wasn't up for the adventure of trying to run back with a scared little whatevershewas tripping him up the whole way. The saddlebag seemed like the best bet.

[spin_kick_snap]

The little klipspringer was giving him a dubious look. This was not as nice as when he'd been holding her, no. In fact, it felt entirely weird, with something NotRock, NotGrass, NotMoss beneath her legs.

"Maaah," she bleated. Couldn't he go back to carrying her? That had been much better.

[gunslingerpose]

"Not cozy," Gorgon sighed, reaching down to try to get her to relax a little, running his fingers along her neck. "Fair enough. But I don't know how else I'm going to go about getting you home, baby."

[spin_kick_snap]

The stroking was helping. She butted his hand with the side of her head to let him know she wasn't thrilled about this, then licked him and reluctantly settled down.

This wasn't ideal, MateProtector, but for you, she'd try.

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon really appreciated the gesture, tiny goat.

"Okay, you're settled in?" For the record, being licked by an antelope was fucking weird. Especially one that happened to be Banzai. "I'm not completely sure how to start my bike without freaking you the fuck out."

This was getting complicated already. Awesome.

"Do me a favor and... don't."

Yeah, that would help. But what else could he really do? He took a deep breath, one hand still on Banzai's neck, and then started the bike, holding his breath.