fandomtownies | The Warehouse District, Saturday Afternoon

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The Warehouse District, Saturday Afternoon

Spin. Run and leap. Handspring.

Kathy was in the best mood today. Yesterday's grouchiness had disappeared sometime in the night and Kathy had woken up refreshed and, well, practically joyful this morning. It was the kind of day where she just couldn't stay inside. She needed to be outside where she could move. While singing along with Kpop on her iPod because there was nothing like Kpop when you needed the musical equivalent of cotton candy.

Cartwheel. Split. High kick. Vault.

She'd gone to the warehouse district to practice bouncing around buildings and the like. If she was going to go crimefighting in Baltimore (and she was!), she needed to get plenty of practice in. And watching parkour videos had been useful, but there was only so much she could learn by watching. Sometimes, you just had to get out there and do it.

Leap. Bounce. Grab that window sill. Flip.

This was glorious.

[Open! The thread with Venom, however, comes last chronologically.]

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Sparkle was in the worst mood ever. And he'd been in some pretty bad moods before. But today he was pretty irate for what he figured were perfectly reasonable reasons. After all, he'd gotten Kathy's stupid gi all sewn up days ago, but he'd spent yesterday too paranoid to pass it off on her, and what the hell was up with that? Seriously? Chickenshit Sparkle?

So, yeah, he was pissed off at himself. And pissed off at the gi, and Kathy hadn't been in her room, so he had to go out and find her and shut up, it made perfect sense. Because either he handed her the gi, or he was going to light it on fire.

Yeah. Yeah, see, it made sense.

"Mouuuuse! Where the fuck are you, mouse? I have your stupid thing! It's a piece of shit and it'll probably fall apart on you!"

It was very well sewn and far more sturdy than it had been when he'd liberated it from her.

Wow. Who knew that a kid as skinny as Sparkle could bellow when the need arose?

"I'm here!" she said, swan diving off of the roof of a building. She landed on her hands and cartwheeled her way to where Sparkle was standing. "I'm right here. Hi Sparkle! Isn't it lovely out?"

"No," Sparkle grumbled, wrinkling his nose a little. Showoffs. Honestly. "It's shitty."

There was a cloud in the sky. Over there. See it? It was ruining everything. That cloud was an asshole.

"And I have a delivery for you. Not that I'm your frigging delivery boy or anything."

"Of course you're not," Kathy assured him, grinning.

Look! There was the cutest cloud over there! It was shaped just like a little dumpling! Awwww, so adorbs.

"I can't believe you did this for me and so quickly, too! Thank you so much, Sparkle. You're pretty much the best person ever."

"Yeah, I better be," Sparkle grumbled. "I didn't throw it out or anything."

He'd seriously contemplated it, though. That would've shown her.

"Don't, like, trip on the belt or anything, okay?"

Yeah, he was totally not giving her that much credit right now. Sorry, Kathy.

"If it's that long, I'll just wrap it around my waist another time," she assured him, taking his comment not as a slight but as a sign of concern. "Oooh, look at this, Sparkle! It came out so much better than what I was doing! You're a genius with sewing. Are you going to go to school for fashion design? You totally could!"

"Ha, no," Sparkle replied. "Putting a stitch in a straight line isn't half as hard as you think it is. I do this kind of thing with my own shitty clothes all the damn time."

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked sourly at her, teasing at his new lip piercing with his teeth - what the hell had he been thinking when he got that fucking thing? - and contemplating kicking her in the shins just for being so perky.

"Try not to tear the ass out of the pants, or I'll have to stitch that up for you, too."

Kathy snorted. "Like I have the kind of ass for that. But thanks!"

Yes, she almost certainly needed a good kicking. If not now, then she would earn it later. In spades.

"Also, I think your new piercing looks really cool! I think it's awesome how you make your body into art!"

SO GOING TO KICK HER.

"... Sure." Maybe tomorrow, that would've gotten a 'thank you.' For the time being, Sparkle was just pretty certain she'd pointed it out because she knew he hated it. He hated everything. "Whatever. You going to be okay with that thing? You're not going to try to staple the fucking mask on or something?"

"Of course not," Kathy said with a small chuckle. Oh, Sparkle. Such an adorable grumpus! "I'll be fine. But I appreciate your concern. It means a lot to me."

"... Whatever."

Kathy was weird. Sparkle was callin' it now.

"I'm gonna go and burn something down or something to better pass my afternoon productively. You... have a... whatever. Don't do something fucking stupid, Mouse."

"Oh, I won't!" Kathy said cheerfully, about to betray that promise in a hundred different ways. "I'm just going to be...hanging around."

And yes, that was accompanied by bouncing her way up to the roof and then dangling over the edge of it. Because Kathy loved dad jokes. Way, way too much.

"And that was really fucking bad," Sparkle called after her, glowering up in her direction before finally shaking his head and turning to stalk away.

'Hanging around.' Ugh. That was the worst.

"Nice moves! We bet we could do that, too!" Leap. Bounce. Grab a different window sill. Flip. Stick to the side of a wall for taunting.

Not bad for a giant, drooling monster with giant teeth who appeared out of nowhere!

Not bad moves at all! Kathy applauded, balancing precariously on a gutter with no signs of wobbling. Sure, the...whatever it was...looked creepy, but if there was one thing she'd learned since coming to Fandom, it was that you really couldn't judge based on appearances. They were taught by a pink pony, for goodness' sake! Maybe this...guy?...was another one of the weirder faculty that she hadn't met yet?

Okay, the teeth were a little worrisome, but c'mon! It was a lovely day! Terrible orthodontics couldn't get in the way of that.

"Hi!" she said, leaning over to wave. The gutter creaked a little under the shifting of her weight, but Kathy was perfectly balanced. "How are you clinging to the wall like that? I can't even do that!"

"Oh, it's just something we can do," Venom said, feigning modesty. "Like this!"

A black tendril came out of his shoulder and launched toward Kathy's face with the force of a strong punch.

Kathy marveled at the tendril, properly impressed by the display of power until her self-preservation instincts kicked in and told her to move. Even so, she didn't quite believe that this, umm, stranger? would actually try to hurt her, so instead of dodging completely, she just turned slightly.

The punch missed her face, thank goodness, but her shoulder went numb from the impact.

"Hey!" she cried out, still indignant. "That hurt! Watch it!"

Except...wait...

"Ohmigosh!" she exclaimed, grinning again. "Are you a bad guy? Like, for reals and truly?"

"Us? No, we're just a friendly local looking for a good workout and a light snack," Venom said before leaping at Kathy with a punch. "We bet your brains taste great!"

He was! He was totally some kind of evil monster bad guy! This was Kathy's luckiest day ever! So much so that she was actually laughing as she leapt away from him, a white and rainbow blur in the uniform Sparkle had so kindly improved for her.

"Well, you came to the wrong island for that!" she announced from her new spot, three-quarters of the way across the roof. "I'm the Social Just Warrior and you're not going to be eating anyone's brains today!"

Oh no, honey. Kathy no.

"Too late for that. You should have caught up with us before lunch," Venom lied as he gave chase. It might make her mad enough to step up her game and make this more fun. "But we don't see what you could do about it anyway. You're so tiny and adorable."

"Hey now!" Kathy said, launching into a handspring that carried her over to the next building. "If you're going to underestimate me because of my physical appearance, you deserve what I'm going to do to you!"

...Not that she was entirely sure what that would be. That was definitely something she was going to have to figure out. And soon.

"In the name of the people you've hurt today, I'm bringing you to Justice!"

...Why yes, she had been working on that catchphrase. Could you tell?

"Really? That's your banter?" Venom asked. He leaped over to the next building, firing a pair of webs while in the air to slow her down a little. "We usually demand more from our jumpy sparring partners."

"I don't need banter when I'm kicking your--ack!"

Ack was not the word Kathy had been intending to say. She'd managed to dodge the first web, but the second caught her, plastering her arm to her side.

The creature was fast. Faster than she was, which made a few things difficult. Also, she hadn't brought any of her gear with her, because she hadn't, y'know, planned to be actually be fighting anything.

She dodged to the side, throwing herself into a somersault, and then leaping back up to her feet. And then she turned towards him and charged.

Well, if lunch was going to come to him, Venom wasn't going to object. He tensed, waited, and timed a punch to the gut for right when she would be in range.

And right before she got into that range, Kathy tensed and leapt into the air, intending to go up and over this creature and attack him from behind.

Mutant gymnast powers, activate!

"We can sense you back there," Venom said as three tendrils short off his back, looking to punch her in the face, gut, and shoulder.

The first tendril slammed into the shoulder that had caught the first one earlier. Kathy cried out, just in time to get the second punch in the gut. That had her doubling over, which had the happy effect of making the third slam harmlessly in the air where her face had occupied just seconds ago.

"Ugh, not cool," she mumbled, before deciding to go with it and trying for a headbutt.

"We like you!"Venom said, deciding to meet her headbutt with one of his own. His head was much larger and probably tougher, though. "You're spunky!"

Kathy flew backwards through the air, hitting the roof and then bouncing upwards. This time, she landed on her feet, bouncing again, turning it into a handless backwards flip. When she landed, she was sagging slightly to one side. There were bruises forming, for sure.

"Feeling's not particularly mutual," she snapped, a giant grin over her face anyway.

She was losing but it was kind of...fun?

"Aww, that hurts our feelings!" Venom said, shaking off whatever effects there were from the headbutt before moving. As he charged toward Kathy, his right arm grew and morphed into a giant hammer that he swung her way.

"I promise not not to hurt your feelings if you promise not to hurt my anything!" Kathy yelped, scuttling backwards away from the swinging hammer. "That really isn't the hallmark of a beautiful friendship, you know?"

"We thought you wanted this fight, Social Warrior!" Venom taunted as he jumped behind Kathy. "Or you can walk away right now. We don't really have a taste for veal today."

Let's see: her arm was webbed to her chest. She had bruises forming up and down her other arm and another, far worse one on her abdomen. She didn't have any of the things she'd planned to use to actually fight crime.

She miiiiiight be just slightly out of her depth here.

And yet she was still in a great mood. Go figure.

Drawing herself up to her feet, she looked at him and nodded. "I'll go."

Mostly because she had to find someone else who could handle this creature. On this stupid island, there had to be a hundred people who outranked her powers-wise.

"You did good, kid," Venom said. "We'll be sure to tell our dinner about how you helped us work up an appetite!"

He jumped off the roof with that last little taunt and let his camouflage abilities hide him, just in case she wanted to see where he ended up.

If it helped, the webs would dissolve on their own in another half hour!

You know, for an evil, person-eating monster, he was pretty good about tossing out compliments that made her feel better.

She might have gotten her ass handed to her, but he said she'd done good! And, you know, that had to mean something, right?

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The Warehouse District, Saturday Afternoon

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