spin_kick_snap | The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

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The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

The last time anyone from Fandom had been in Kathy's LA, the heroes had been living inside the walls that surrounded Paramount Studios, with the exes and the South Seventeens laying claim to everything else. Since then, they'd expanded; the Big Wall pushing the borders out almost a mile in all four directions. In some spots, it was hard to tell that there had ever been a zombocalypse; the streets were clean, the buildings repaired, the blood all scrubbed away. There was a proper school, lots of farms and gardens, several churches, and even a small library. The studio was still the heart of the community, but people had started to spread out and settle. It was still a tight fit, several thousand people into one square mile, but honestly not much worse than Los Angeles used to be, back before the world died and reanimated again.

Life had fallen back into a rhythm again. People got up, got ready for the day. Kids were sent off to school, adults took themselves to various jobs, though there were fewer sales people, baristas, and aspiring actors and a lot more guards, scavengers, and farmers these days. There was a brewery down on Larchmont and a still over on Monroe. Burns Park let people enjoy a bit of nature where the kids could run around and burn off steam and a Gold's Gym practically against the Big Wall. That was where the Unbreakables spent most of their free time, with curious gawkers watching them put more and more weight onto the machines.

It was a bustling little community of survivors, as safe as a place could be, surrounded on all sides by millions of undead waiting to find a way inside to devour them all.

[For them that are there! NFB, and ~~please wait for the~~ OCD is up! Previous entry Next Entry]

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"One of the things Cairax took especially ill was how I 'sullied his unholy titles with acts of selflessness and charity.'" Yeah, that little speech was seared into his brain. "Making mortals cheer his name when they should have been cowering and wetting themselves at his approach was a complete dick move."

Max tugged on the ladder and the metal shrieked again, but didn't move.

"C'mon. You really think a creepy fuck like me becomes a hero for the do-gooding of it? Don't be stupid, Dante, it's not a good look on you."

"Which is why I was fucking asking," Dante said mildly. "Seems like a lot of effort just to get an extra-special pass into hell, but hey."

"What else was I going to use insane amounts of demon power for?" Max asked carelessly. "I trapped Murrain mostly to prove I could and then it wasn't like I could let him go. So I joined up with the local kind-hearted idiots brigade and proceeded to fuck with Cairax by rescuing kittens outta trees and helping old ladies across the street. Maybe balanced some of my karma with it."

Max frowned up at the fire escape, taking a step back. "Looks like it's jammed to hell and I already made enough noise to summon some exes."

Dante blew out a breath.

"Okay," he said. "Which floor are we gunning for?"

Max pointed up. "Seventh," he said, pointing to a blank window where the blackened and melted remains of blinds dangled.

"Then I guess I'm carrying you again, princess."

Dante, you didn't need to sound that cheerful about it.

"If you're that eager to get me into your arms again, you really only had to ask."

Max, you didn't to be that dickish about it.

Dante rolled his eyes. "Get a life," he said.

But he did scoop Max right up like a roll of tissue paper. He jumped into the air, forming a platform of energy under his feet when he couldn't quite get high enough - all instinct - and pushed off of that, too.

He landed neatly on a seventh floor balcony.

"You know that's bullshit, right?" Max checked. "I just wanna make sure you know your whole 'jumping higher by jumping in the middle of your jump' thing is actual bullshit. Physics thinks you're an asshole."

"Physics can kiss my ass," Dante retorted, setting him down. "Physics and me decided to see other people."

"Well glad to see the breakup didn't make you bitter," Max retorted, knocking out the rest of the glass from the window frame. "After you," he said. "It's your girlfriend's burned out old bedroom."

Dante shoved past him into the room. So... fuck. This was where Kathy had lived. Before.

He put the thought out of his mind. "There's got to be something not burnt to shit in here."

The worst part was, you could still see little bit's of Kathy's personality in the wreckage. The impromptu bed hangings made out of colorful fabric and strung with what had probably been fairy lights. Tattered remains of books, shelved nearly away in the charred book case next to her bed. Melted picture frames on the wall, filled with pictures that had cracked and bubbled from the heat or just smears of ash. On her desk was a laptop that Dante probably recognized from school, the edge of a bright sticker still visible under the grime.

"...Yeah, I'd say good luck with that," Max drawled. "Best bet is to look for something metal or flame-retardent, I guess. Anything particular she'd like?"

He was rooting through a charcoal chest of drawers.

Dante thought about it for a while, as he rooted through another one of her cabinets. "Christmas ornaments," he said finally.

"I'm sorry what now?" Max asked, frowning. "Of everything in her house, you're thinking Christmas ornaments?"

Under a mound of ash and tattered cloth, he found the remains of a small bullet vibe that Dante would also probably recognize. At least before the fire had gotten to it.

"Aww, not so little, is she?"

Dante looked up. ... and scowled. "Drop that," he snapped.

Max rolled his eyes but complied. "What? I wasn't gonna bring it back and give it to Nick as a souvenir."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's gonna be a real relief to Kathy if she ever finds out you fondled her sex toys," Dante said. He moved on to the next cabinet.

"It just looks so cute," Max said. "I bet she covered her face with her pillow before she came, just so no one could hear." He tucked it away again and continued to poke around.

"So, Christmas ornaments? We're not gonna find them in here, probably. But why ornaments?"

Dante ignored him throughout that whole rant about Kathy's sex life - Max had no idea and Dante was happy to keep it that way.

"They were important to her family," he said, coming to the same conclusion. Down the hall was the next step. "She gets Christmaszilla as fuck every year and misses 'em."

Max nodded, for once not making a snide comment. Instead he opened the door and glanced down. "Uhh, so there's no floor here in the hallway," he mentioned idly. "Looks like it starts up again a couple of yards down towards the...living room?"

He was guessing.

Dante glanced past him. "You can stay up here if you want," he commented. "I mean, this is my deal."

Max was looking around the room, his back to Dante. Maybe that's why he quietly answered, "She was my - not my friend. Never really my friend. But my teammate. She and St. George were the good ones. We were the good guys, but they were good. I guess..."

It just seemed right he should help, since he was the reason she was back.

"Besides," he added, turning around and giving Dante his trademarked cheeky grin, "let you miss out on my witty commentary? No deal."

Dante snorted softly. "Suit yourself," he said, though for once, he sounded genuinely amused.

"Also," he said in a conspiratorial whisper, "I like it when you hold me."

Not that that was exactly necessary here. There was about a foot of space between Kathy's side of the hall and the gaping hole in the rest of the it. Looking down, it was easily a twenty foot drop, as the floor of the apartment below them was mostly missing, too.

Still, the floorboards creaked alarmingly under their feet and sagged as they stepped. Not a trek for the faint of heart.

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