A rooftop in Gotham

[seewhatyoumean]

The fight in the warehouse had been quick. Quicker than even Cass' fights usually went. Trowa wasn't a bad partner for this sort of thing, really. Maybe she should ask him to join her again sometime

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[3nanashi]

He's fine with coming. (Trowa signals this with an instant's lowered eyes and an infinitesimal shift of the chin.)

He's hardly seen any of the city so far, after all.

Fortunately, a pair of interestingly augmented night vision goggles are among the items he took from Cass's belt. She may know every rooftop on this city concussed and blindfolded, but to Trowa it's new terrain. And the street lights are . . . patchy.

[seewhatyoumean]

Cass nods back quickly and moves smoothly to the edge of the roof. She doesn't jump yet. Instead she extends a finger to point out a building in the distance. It may not be easy to pick out her black-gloved hand in the darkness, but she's pointing at a clock-tower deeper in the city's core.

[3nanashi]

Trowa takes an extra moment to be certain of the objective -- he doesn't strictly need it, but better to make sure in unfamiliar territory -- and then nods.

Got it.

[seewhatyoumean]

Cass lets him finish the motion, which doesn't take long (Trowa is quite economical with that sort of thing), before she easily leaps the ten foot gap to the next building.

Her footfalls silent as she lands smoothly and transitions into a graceful run. She relies on the sound of movement to pinpoint Trowa's location and the path she picks is of medium difficulty.

For one she doesn't want to push Trowa harder than he's comfortable with in unknown terrain. And she doesn't have a backup grapple for him which cut out some options completely.

[3nanashi]

Trowa appreciates that.

You know. Silently.

This isn't the path he'd take alone, but it's one that works. Especially with Cass ahead of him demonstrating very clearly which stones will support a person's weight.

[seewhatyoumean]

As they make their way through the night Cass begins slowly ramping up the difficulty of their route. She uses occasional high, twisting flips to check on Trowa's progress.

You can learn a lot about someone's limits by watching them move normally, but the true limits only reveal themselves in action. And Cass is curious.

[3nanashi]

The faintly ironic glance Trowa slants up at her says he knows exactly what she's doing, but he doesn't protest.

He doesn't move like a martial artist, because he isn't one; he moves like an acrobat, but one with constant tactical awareness. In all dimensions; this is something you learn fast as a mobile suit pilot, or you die fast. He's in excellent shape -- he's a professional acrobat, after all -- but this is more free-form acrobatics than he's used to; usually it's a planned show or practice on familiar equipment, or short bursts. (That's not bad. It's just a reminder to push himself more often like this.)

He has to pay more attention to the terrain than Cass does. So he's watching her too, and making deductions from that -- of course he is -- but he's also watching his next step, and his next landing spot and the alternate ones around, and putting together a mental map of Gotham.

Part of the mental map includes potential mobile suit maneuvers, Leo and Taurus and Gundam. That's old, old habit.

[seewhatyoumean]

Cass knows what he's doing for the most part. Not the details, of course, but the general shape of it is the exact same thing she'd be doing. Of course it can't be a simple run across the rooftops forever.

They started in the warehouse district and while Cass has been trying to hop up a floor or two when it's possible, the clocktower is much higher than they are. They'll have to use a grapple at some point.

And apparently this is the point she's chosen because as she reaches the edge of the next roof she comes to a smooth stop and glances back at Trowa.

[3nanashi]

Trowa halts accordingly, returning the look.

What next, o tour guide?

(He knows what potential paths he'd take from here. But that's not the point. Cass knows her city better, and he's interested to see what her preferred approach might be.)

[seewhatyoumean]

Cass reaches down to her belt and pulls out her grapple gun. She extends her other hand to Trowa as she fires it at the building above them. One trip up ought to put them high enough to reach the clocktower balcony with just a few jumps.

If he trusts her not to lose her grip, anyway.

[3nanashi]

Very few other people would be able to see that Trowa's faintly amused.

He is, after all, a trapeze artist. And he's had plenty of chances to test the grip of these gloves. So he reaches to grasp her wrist, careful of the gauntlet spikes. (Holds are much more secure that way.)

[seewhatyoumean]

Her hand tightens around his wrist as she hits the comic-book powered button to send them shooting upward at an insane pace. It's sort of like falling upward.

There's a huge grin on her face under the mask. She almost looks back to see if there's one on Trowa's face too, but she doesn't. Because it's Trowa, so there isn't.

They hit the top of their arc and she releases his hand, sure that he can manage his own landing just fine. She tucks, rolls, and slides the grapple gun back into her belt before she's back on her feet.

They're only a few jumps away from the clocktower now.

[3nanashi]

There isn't a grin.

(But he might be having fun anyway.

Secretly.)

Bat grapple guns: apparently handy.

[seewhatyoumean]

If he's good then maybe he can get one for his birthday. Or Christmas. Or... something.

Cass is already in motion, throwing herself into one of those improbable leaps of hers, cape fluttering behind her. She'd chosen her grapple target with care in order to set up a series of falling jumps. Twenty feet over and two stories down isn't too bad. And it has the advantage of being very fast.

[3nanashi]

It's a good thing Trowa's an anime character used to playing around with physics.

His following trajectory is slightly less death-defying. But he's still pretty close on her heels.

Allowing for standard safe distances, of course.

[seewhatyoumean]

It only takes a few more of those before Cass is landing lightly on a wide, railed ledge near the massive clock face on their destination. She pauses to make sure Trowa is uninjured and ready to continue before she reaches up and peels back her mask.