From the Prom to Baltimore, Friday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was had been at the prom for maybe half an hour before her phone rang; just enough time for her to have a few conversations and a quick trip to the refreshment table (or four). She was frowning when she felt it vibrating in her clutch, trying to think who it could be. If it was her parents, she decided, she was just going to ignore it and tell them later she was studying.

Imagine her surprise when the name that flashed across her screen was Gorgon. Actually, forget surprise. Imagine her concern.

"Hey," she said, setting her cup of punch on the closest table and ducking for the door. "Gorgon, it's Banzai. Did you mean to call me? Is everything okay?"

[For the caller, please!]

Comments

[gunslingerpose]

"Patience? Ha! You clearly haven't met my mana," Nick snorted, shaking his head. "Mana Bartamian is a fierce mama bear, and nobody messes with her kids. Not even her kids."

Nick had many a fond memory of so, so many lectures past.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I bet she's a sweet and lovely woman to anyone who doesn't drive her batty five seconds after saying hello," Kathy declared. "I'll understand why you're confused, though."

She took a long pull off her Coke and asked, "Kids plural? You have siblings?"

[gunslingerpose]

"Oh, yeah," Nick replied, shrugging. "A sister and a brother. Hell, I'm an uncle. Just picture that for a moment. Somewhere out there, there are kids that look up to their Uncle Nikolai as a source of, fuck, good ideas or something."

Now shudder at that thought. Go on.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wasn't going to shudder at that! She was going to look appalled instead.

"I bet you were the one who gives the obnoxious toys at Christmas," she said. "Like drumsets and Nerf guns and anything that makes noise."

[gunslingerpose]

"Nerf guns don't make that much noise!"

Look, it was an important fact.

"And I armed their parents too. You can't say I didn't give my brother a fighting chance, there."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Mmmhmmm," Kathy was doing a terrible job of hiding a smile here. "Why do I get the feeling they were less than properly grateful for that ever-so-generous consideration?"

[gunslingerpose]

"Mostly, they all ganged up on me instead," Nick chuckled, making a reach to steal another fry. The side salad really didn't compare. "Which, hey, seemed pretty fitting, I won't deny that."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy swatted at him and deliberately missed. "Fry-thief," she said. "I should take you down for that."

She was a superhero, you know!

[gunslingerpose]

"You could," Nick mused, defiantly sticking the fry into his mouth, "but then how will I be able to go back to get a twenty pack of nuggets and a couple of sundaes for dessert?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Once I took you down, I could just go for your wallet," Kathy pointed out. "There's this guy I know, does it all the time. I learned it from watching him."

[gunslingerpose]

"See, and there's the trick." And now Nick was laughing. "You'd have to take me down with your eyes closed, baby."

A beat.

"In that skirt."

Even if she kicked his ass, it would be one hell of a show for anyone watching.

[spin_kick_snap]

"...You make a good point," Kathy groused. "The heels, I could do it in. The skirt, not so much."

Not without damn good cause anyway. Soo...three more fries and a chicken nugget, maybe.

Dragging a fry through the remains of her ketchup, she gave him a speculative look. "I wonder if I could do it," she said. "Take you down with my eyes closed. I'm fast enough that you might not be able to move far enough out of position before I got you."

[gunslingerpose]

"That depends on a lot of factors, I'm thinking. How late in the evening it is. How far across the room you are. If you wanna try taking me on here and now, you're welcome to try, but I was out for a few hours before I called you, and it isn't like I've been burning any of that off."

So, for the time being, he was still pretty functionally superhuman.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded. "I'd definitely have better luck earlier on in the night. Catch you while you're still slower than I am. And that would only be one, maybe two hits. That probably wouldn't be enough to take you out."

And giving him an exasperated look, she added, "I'm not going to attack you in the middle of McDonalds. In my prom dress. After warning you about it. C'mon now."

It had been purely hypothetical conjecture!

[gunslingerpose]

And his reply had been fairly hypothetical, too. Nikolai grinned.

"Nah, I know. But just think," he replied, "any given time of the day, there's a chance that I've taken a hit from someone. How can you ever know for sure?"

Besides talking about it very candidly the way they were now.

[spin_kick_snap]

"By how fast you react when I try to kick the legs out from under you?" Kathy suggested impishly. "I'd be looking downwards for that one. And then by whether or not you can catch up to me after I take off running?"

[gunslingerpose]

"And again, see if I ever get you more chicken nuggets," Nick laughed, shaking his head. "Jeeze, everyone's clearly out to get me, here."

His life was super hard, okay?

[spin_kick_snap]

Just the absolute worst. And he didn't even have a Beemer he could go home and carefully cry his sorrows into, in such a way as to not stain the interior.

"I'm just saying, it would work wouldn't it?" she said, looking up at him innocently. "I thought you were looking for an answer! I was helping."

[gunslingerpose]

"Because that's what you do, huh?" Nick shook his head and took a drink of Coke before continuing. "Spin, and kick, and give people answers."

In fairness, the snap part wouldn't come until a bit later.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm just a darling ball of rainbows, come down to help people find their way in life," Kathy said piously. "Either through answers to life's little problems, or a well-placed kick to the head. I'm like a bouncy Buddha, really."

Didn't you just feel so lucky to share a beat with her, Nikolai?