The Streets of Baltimore, Late Late Laaaate Friday Night

[beautifulsenshi]

Minako had had a rough few weeks. Someone had thought it was a good idea to make a circus - a place of joy and dreams! - evil, and killed a lot of her friends along with their fiendish plot. Then raised them from the dead and turned them Evil with a capital E. For some reason, she was having a bit of a problem dealing with that. Not to mention

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[gunslingerpose]

It was a good night to be Gorgon, thanks. He'd already busted a couple of muggings, read the muggers the riot act, stole their licences and whatever cash they had on them just so that they'd know it would be a generally stupid move to do something like, oh, mug people again, and was working on his third mugger of the night.

"See this?" he growled, holding up the guy's ID, freshly fished from his wallet. "I know who you are now. I know your name. I know where you live. In an hour I'll know your family, your dog, your girlfriend. What I've done to you, I can do to all of them. And worse."

He tucked the licence into a pouch on his belt, and then checked to make sure the zip-tie holding the mugger to the post was tight enough that he wasn't going to wiggle away.

Did he look too particularly concerned that he'd stolen the whole spiel from a movie? No, not really. It got his point across, after all.

The man zip-tied to the sign post whimpered a little, clearly exhausted. Gorgon, meanwhile, was feeling pretty damn good.

[WELCOME TO

[beautifulsenshi]

"Isn't that from a movie?" a voice called down from above, and Venus jumped from the roof overhead on to the streetlight, executing a neat pirouette and balancing perfectly on the narrow perch. "I mean, at this point, you could just call the cops and let them do their job instead of threatening him with a recycled speech."

MINAKO YOU OF ALL PEOPLE DON'T GET TO TALK ABOUT RECYCLED SPEECHES, OKAY?

[gunslingerpose]

"It gets my point across," Gorgon shot back, glancing up at the girl nearby.

... Was every female superhero in Baltimore a bouncy teenage acrobat? Or was that just him?

"I've got a secret identity to worry about, and payphones aren't really a thing these days in case you haven't noticed," he added, making his way to a motorbike parked on the curb and pulling a road flare from one of the saddlebags. "But people will always call the cops if there's one of these in the street. I just want to make sure he's got something to think about while he waits to be picked up."

Even if that thing he was thinking about was 'Didn't some of that get ripped off from Battle Group?'

[beautifulsenshi]

Venus rolled her eyes behind her mask. "Or you could go return whatever you caught him stealing and get the grateful citizen to call the cops for you," she pointed out, still looking down at (on) him. "But I'll save you the cost of the flare, it you want."

[gunslingerpose]

"This grateful citizen took off running. Something about superpowers always freaks people out around here. God knows why."

Because it was a very normal Earth, otherwise? Just a guess.

"And what's this 'go return whatever he was stealing' thing? You think I don't? Anyway, I catch just as many drug deals and get between more than my fair share of armed throwdowns out here. There aren't as many grateful citizens, then. But if you want to do the honors, blondie..."

Gorgon tucked the flare back into his saddlebag.

[beautifulsenshi]

Blondie? Seriously? UGH. So much for possible Cute Older Guy.

"Blondes have more fun," Venus retorted, her arms already swinging in a graceful arc as she pulled her power to her. "And if they're running, maaaaaaybe you need to work on your image? You know. Less curb-stomping, more Justice?"

You could totally hear the J on Justice, FYI.

Still, she had promised to deal with summoning the cops. "Venus--" the two twin crescent shapes manifested around her upraised hand, and she brought her second hand up to meet it, fingers pointed skyward. "Crescent Beam!" The golden light shot straight up at the same time it washed outward with her at the center, creating a shining pillar for a few moments before it started to fade.

Venus pulled her hands down to just under her chin, folder her fingers into a meta for Charlie's Angels pose and blowing off the imaginary smoke right as distant sirens started up. "That's our cue to boogie."

[gunslingerpose]

"I did not stomp anybody on any damn curb," Gorgon grumbled, shaking his head and throwing one leg over his bike. "Didn't even touch the guy until I was dragging him to the frigging sign."

He started the bike up, revved it, and then raised an eyebrow in her direction again, smirking faintly.

"You headin' this way?"

[beautifulsenshi]

"Which way is your way? You got a police radio on that thing?" Venus asked, launching herself off the streetlight, rebounding off a fire escape, and landing next to his bike. "Or just a natural sense for trouble?"

[gunslingerpose]

"What if it's a little of both?" He had a spare helmet, though it came without any sort of facial protection on it. The things you forfeit when you had to account for a pair of goggles, too. He fished it from the saddlebag and held it out to her. He wasn't big on the whole 'superhero team-up' thing, but she had just spared him a road flare. "There's a certain sweet spot when it comes to cruising speed, too, that helps a bit."

Not so fast that criminals thought you couldn't stop seemed to be the way to go. He'd perfected that one over the past few months.

[beautifulsenshi]

She looked at the helmet, lifted her giant waterfall of hair with one hand, and dropped it with a shrug. "Maybe next time," she said regretfully, regarding the helmet. "...I love motorcycles, but I don't think the helmet's going to fit me."

What with the GIANT RED BOW and more hair than the Nascita di Venere. Seriously.

"I'll just shadow along the roof tops," she continued. "...Venus, by the way. You are?"

[gunslingerpose]

He gave a shrug of his shoulder, tucking the helmet away again.

"Gorgon. Catch you again a few blocks over? Cops are going to be here in no time, we can finish exchanging career advice when we don't have to worry about explaining this to them?"

Police in Baltimore didn't generally care much for costumed vigilantes either, go figure.

[beautifulsenshi]

She gave a quick nod, then jumped straight upwards, blurring for a moment before reappearing on the same street lamp she'd been on before, then leaping over to one building, then the next.

Venus would just run until this 'Gorgon' stopped again. Or if she saw Crime. She'd always stop for Crime.

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon watched her for a moment, and then shook his head, pulling his bike out into the street again. He didn't speed along his way, didn't even look particularly like he was in a hurry to get anywhere. The last thing he wanted was to draw the attention of the cops if he drove by them, after all.

A few blocks down, and he turned down an alley that he'd left his bike in on a few nights when he felt more like running than riding. He slipped off again, pulled off his helmet, and looked up to see if his new friend had followed along.

"You up there?"

[beautifulsenshi]

"Nope, you're being followed by a totally different Guardian of Justice!" a cheerful female voice replied, and a moment later Venus came into view, using this fire escape like an actual, normal person, instead of jumping off tall buildings like a crazy girl.

"No wonder your civilians run away, you totally look like a Bad Guy in all that black and leather." Venus tilted her head, looking him over. "And the goggles are cool, but scary. Are you part robot?"

[gunslingerpose]

Hey now. The leather duster was a statement.

Sure, the statement was, 'I'm some kind of cowboy,' but it was still a statement.

"I wish," he replied, leaning back against his bike. "The goggles are part of the gear, but they're more about functionality than fashion."

Mostly. He had called in a favor from a props guy he knew out in Van Nuys, so there was definitely some aesthetic value in mind when they were put together.