Warehouse District, Saturday Night

[godilovedthis]

The fight between the new Fandom-folk and some of the biggest bosses on the island had disturbed something. That was Kathy's best guess for why there were more hollows out tonight than normal--that, or they'd realized the glut of new people led to easy pickings. Kathy had had to change direction multiple times to avoid hollows prowling about

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[that_oldsaying]

Alluka was just courting another giant lecture from everyone at this rate. She really was.

But Papa and almost everyone had been off, busy, and she'd been left to her own devices, and things had felt weird and Nanika had been weird and then Alluka had started worrying about Kathy all over again.

So she was out, once more a brightly coloured smear as she sped through town on her ATs. Ringo would be proud at how good she was doing. Even now, when Nanika complained there were more things outside than before, nothing bothered Alluka.

Not that anyone else was going to care about that. She now had experience in knowing that no one thought she could manage on her own. Since it was generally true, it didn't particularly bother her.

All the same... she was out, by herself, all over again, skating through the warehouse district and feeling twisty inside, like she had to hurry. Nanika didn't confirm or deny it either way.

[godilovedthis]

Blocked. The way forward was blocked. Fuck! Someone or something had slammed into this building at a high enough velocity to knock most of it into the street. And Kathy wasn't agile enough to climb over the heap of detritus blocking her way. Her eyes darted to the left and right, gauging her odds but--nope. To the left was another building, to the right was an alley with a weird noise emanating from it. Both bad options. Out of habit, her eyes scanned the rooftops, but it was pointless. If she couldn't scrabbled over some debris in the road, she couldn't make up onto the roofs.

Instead she turned back the way she came, pulling out her gun with and her knife. She wasn't sure how much good either weapon was going to do her, but she wasn't going to go down whimpering.

"Come on then!" she yelled at the hollow that was serial killer-stalking her up the road. "Come on!"

[that_oldsaying]

It was the sound of the tell that got her attention, the words going in one ear and out the other. Alluka would know that voice anywhere, though she'd never heard Kathy sound like that before.

Her Kathy had never needed to speak like that around her. This Kathy was different, though still KathyAlluka put on a bit more speed, carefully timing her jumps the way that Ringo had showed her how. She wasn't anywhere nearly as effortless as Ringo was, but leaping from building to building wasn't hard so long as she made sure the jumps weren't too big. And at this speed, it was easy to clear things

[godilovedthis]

At a time like this, Kathy would normally do something cold and calculation--push someone down, leaving them behind to face the hollow while she took advantage and got away. For a big monster, she might even have hamstrung the other person or shot them in the knee--she hadn't had to do that yet but she'd been preparing for the day. And upon seeing Alluka, her resolve should have firmed. After all, Alluka had Nanika, and the entity would keep the little girl safe.

That was what she should have done. That was what she was prepared to do.

But instead, she yelled, "Get out of here, Alluka! You still have time to get away! Quick, now, before it tried to get you, too!" She pointed down the road, where the mess of metal and steel lumbered into view.