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Kwik Stop Rooftop, Tuesday Afternoon

Dante? Not really the kind of guy who kept a schedule.

However, he'd been by here a couple of times, and the cat definitely seemed to be on one. So, fuck it. Tuesday afternoons on the Kwik Stop roof was where it was gonna have to be at. He showed up again with a bag full of stolen slices of meat and put 'em down next to him on the roof. "Lunch is here, if you want it," he called.

A couple moments later, the cat hopped back up on the roof, wandered over towards the meat, sniffed it, and then started scarfing it down.

"I don't get as much as a meow this time, huh?" Dante said. He shook his head. "Cats. Ungrateful animals."

The cat headbutted his thigh. "Hey, you're the one pawing in on my time," Dante said, and reached into his pocket to find a cigarette.

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He had an interest in a fair few things! They were just largely food-related. Or at least not fueling whatever fuedlike feelings Kathy held towards Kelly-related.

"The lemon parts are okay," Dante said. "The rest is good."

The cat regarded Kathy with typical suspicion. It retreated a little further towards the opposing edge of the roof, but it was watching her.

"You know, you don't actually have to bribe me."

Kelly had been a bitch for no reason. Kathy felt perfectly justified in her antipathy.

"Not a fan of lemon? I figured it would cut the sweetness of the jam a bit. I didn't want them to be too sweet," Kathy said. "And it's not really a bribe. I told you--I'm grateful for your help. I couldn't have done it without you. You're my friend, you deserved something tangible to show my appreciation."

Dante looked at the bottle of tequila again, redoing the math in his head. It was five o'clock somewhere, right?

"Okay, so a bribe's usually before you do it," he allowed, reaching for that bottle. "Just don't want anyone thinking I'm some kind of superhero for hire or anything."

Five years from now, he was possibly going to look back on this moment and go 'heh'.

"Trust me, Dante, I don't think anyone's going to have that problem," Kathy said, rolling her eyes. "If it really makes you feel better, feel free to tell people that I did bribe you to get your help."

The cap came off the bottle with a pop. "I might." He took a swig, then looked at Kathy curiously. "How did things turn out, anyway?"

You know, with her. On his end it'd involved Kelly and one of Kelly's friends and... well, anyway.

Kathy looked up at him again with renewed vivacity. "I got so much good intel!" she said, eyes shining. "I barely even had to snoop. They were making offers to bring people into the organization, and once the drugs and drinking started, people were only too happy to run their mouths. I mean, I got groped more times in a half hour than the rest of my life combined, but..." She shrugged. "But do you know what I did find while poking around?" She beamed at him. "Shipping manifests!"

"Shipping manifests," Dante echoed dubiously.

Yeah, he was okay with his decision to start drinking.

Kathy was a girl with complicated hobbies, okay?

"Don't you see?" she explained, hands like excited birds. "With this, I can track their shipments of drugs and stuff. They have a few trucks that handle the stuff they can get domestically, but the really heavy drugs and the weapons they're moving--stuff that requires international suppliers and whatall--they have a ship for that! And now I have all the details about that ship!"

Dante took another swig of his bottle. He liked his hobbies simple. Like drinking. Or getting laid. "So next up, you're going to pretend you're a sailor?"

"Can't you just picture me in a little sailor suit? I'd be adorable." Kathy snorted. "And if there's one stereotype that needs little explaining, it's East Asian girls in sailor uniforms."

Thank you, internet porn sites.

"But no. I wait for it to dock, I make sure that there's enough evidence there, I call the authorities. I know my limits. I can handle individual dealers and even small gangs, but hard drugs and illegal weapons on this scale? That's beyond me."

"I'm gonna stick with the sailor suit image, I think," Dante said. He threw Kathy a smirk. "I'm not sure I can handle the idea you can't do everything, Superball."

"I'm okay with that," Kathy decided, winking at him. "Considering you haven't seen everything I can do, I might still be able to take you by surprise anyway."

"You ever get some kind of full explanation for those powers?" Dante asked, nodding at her.

Kathy shook her head. "I've got a friend analyzing some samples, but no details yet. I think he's holding out for actual brain tissue samples and, you know what? I don't think I want to know that badly." She tucked her knees up and rested her chin on them. "I think I'm just...some kind of mutant or something."

She gave in a curious look. "You have one for yours?"

That question earned another swig of the bottle. "No clue," Dante said. "Guess I'm some kind of mutant too."

Since that was apparently a thing that happened more regularly than he'd known.

"Welcome to the club," Kathy said. "I guess for some folks, it's a genetic thing. Your parents maybe had markers that combined oddly and this is the result. Others say that it's the next step in human evolution. Me, I'm not sure. I'm keeping an eye on my little sister, just in case, but my parents are distressingly normal. At least to the best of my knowledge."

"Well, that's a dead end for me," Dante said. He set the tequila down. "I have no idea where my parents are."

"Oh," Kathy said, subdued, but without the shock such an admission would have gotten from her years before. "I'm sorry to hear that. Do you know anything about them? Names, even? There might be records you could access, if you were interested."

Well, maybe not him. More like people who focused on learning computer skills.

It'd be useful if Dante knew somebody like that, right? Maybe someone as invested in this question as he was? Too bad nobody like that existed.

"Nope," Dante said. He slanted a look towards Kathy. "Had meningitis when I was seven--" a lot came back to that age, "--pretty much ruined my memory. After that, well, you're looking at another wonderful product of the foster care system."

Swig.

Well, hey, now that he was here on the island, maybe he could decide to learn those skills instead!

Kathy held her hand out for the bottle, if he was willing to share. "My roommate has a similar story, or lack of it," she said. "At least up to that point. She doesn't remember much before she was around that age. Her first memories are from the street. No foster care for her though. Not exactly."

More like 'pseudo-adoption due to telepathic meddling.'

"How bad?" She was guessing bad. No one had defenses the way Dante did if their life had been easy.

Come on, Kathy. The island was full of pretty people. There was no way in hell Dante'd manage the focus even if he had basic computer literacy skills.

Hey, one more sip of tequila, and then he was passing that bottle over. "Demons," he said vaguely.

Kathy took a long sip, made a face, and then sipped again. "You mean that in the literal sense," she remembered. "Wait--when you were seven?!"

"Told you that, too, didn't I?"

Just maybe not the part where it'd been the actual orphanage staff. Hell, he was really only hinting at that now.

"What happened with your friend?"

"She's a mutant. Like us. Only she can take the shape of whatever she wants. Which helps when you're sneaking into people's houses and pretending to live there." Kathy brushed her hair back, uncertain of how much of Raven's story she felt like she could share. "One time, she met someone who also had powers. They were both kids, but he used his to convince everyone in the house that she was his adopted sister."

"I'm not sure if that's sweet or creepy," Dante said thoughtfully.

He gestured for the bottle.

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