fandomtownies | An Abandoned Warehouse in the Abandoned Warehouse District, Friday Night

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An Abandoned Warehouse in the Abandoned Warehouse District, Friday Night

Ringo showed up at the designated meeting place a bit early. She was wearing ATs, of course, but not her usual pair. Today it looked like she was trying to make a fashion statement of some sort, as the ATs went all the way up her calves and looked more like high fashion footwear than something you wore to run around town for fun.

The unusual gear was the reason she'd shown up early, too. She needed to get used to the Thorn Regalia again. Before Fandom, she'd practiced enough with them that they'd practically been a second skin, but she could count the number of times she'd worn them in the past year on one hand. So Ringo was doing some simple exercises inside the warehouse. Quick direction changes, running up the walls, bouncing off of whatever was convenient. Reminding herself just how much more capable the Queen of the Sonia Road was when compared to plain old Ringo.

It made her a little nervous, that power, but that nervousness was part of why she was doing this at all. She couldn't just refuse to use that power if her friends needed her to, and she couldn't afford to be nervous over it if that need ever arrived.

So she let herself get lost in her own thoughts as she moved. Pirouetting like a professional dancer, except that Ringo could do it while "standing" on a wall. Ringo's hair flew out behind her as she jumped from wall to the rafters, and back again. She got so deeply into her warmup that she practically forgot she was waiting for anyone.

[Expecting one, but totally open either before or after.]

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She wasn't going to forget for long, though. A small pebble went soaring through the air, aimed for the back of Ringo's neck with something close to unfailing accuracy.

It was coming from somewhere up in the rafters.

Not that anyone she knew would be so weird as to get up there and drape himself over them casually or something. Right?

Obviously Ringo didn't know anyone like that.

She was in the zone, but apparently some associations were stronger than she'd realized and "the zone" when wearing the Thorn Regalia meant that her body twisted in mid-air without conscious thought, pulling her out of line with the little pebble without disrupting the arc of her jump.

She spun as she landed, staying in motion rather than coming to a stop, in case there were follow-up attacks incoming.

And she glared upwards, easily tracing the path the pebble had taken to spot its point of origin.

Dante swung his legs idly back and forth, leaning forward to squint at her. He was smirking.

"Hop on, Ringo."

Ringo eyed him, taking a deep breath to calm herself, and then shot toward the wall, ATs whining as she surged upward and then launched herself into a long arc to land on the rafter Dante was draped over a couple dozen feet away from him.

"At least you haven't forgotten how to watch your back," Dante called.

Because really, Ringo, you'd looked a little into it. Or rather, out of it.

"I told you I can take care of myself," Ringo shot back with a hard look.

Then, more upset for herself for not noticing than at Dante, "How long have you been up here?"

"Couple of minutes," Dante said. If that look got him at all, he sure as hell didn't show it. "You seemed busy."

Unless you counted the shit-eating smirk, anyway.

He pushed off the beam, dropping to the floor down below with an easy thud. The fall didn't seem to phase him, and he landed neatly, if folded together.

Ringo waited a beat, then dropped off after him. Somehow she looked a lot more elegant in motion than she usually did. Her landing was almost a work of art, spinning as she hit the ground, her hair whipping out around her as she slowed to a stop.

"So." She wasn't entirely sure how to do this. "Where do we start?"

... Yeah, okay, that was kind of cool, and when she turned to him to speak, she'd find Dante watching appreciatively. (And not even that kind of appreciative.)

He shrugged.

"We fight," he said. "Maybe put down some ground rules like, stop if you draw blood or something."

Normally she'd smirk victoriously at that appreciative look, but Ringo was too distracted to take pleasure in the tacit acknowledgment of her skills.

"Yeah," Ringo said slowly, nodding once. "Not trying to hurt each other." As much as she wanted to punch him in the face sometimes.

"So we just, um, get started, then?" She would have known what to do if they were both on ATs and in the cube. But this was new to her.

She was welcome to try punching him in the face, but Dante was pretty sure that wasn't her element.

"Somebody's gotta throw the first punch," Dante said. He began to walk, idly, circling around her. "Or the first kick, I guess. And then we're off."

Ringo nodded, shifting her weight so that her ATs kept her spinning to face him. She took a deep breath, then another, eyes narrowing as she watched.

It was like her body was a spring being wound tighter and tighter as she turned, and her eyes narrowed, watching the way Dante shifted his balance, looking for the best moment to strike.

Dante kept walking. He seemed relaxed. Waiting.

This wasn't exactly the first time he'd fought like this. "You just gonna stand there?"

She didn't react to the words, simply continuing to face him and watch.

When she moved, it was while Dante was mid-stride, the most awkward time for someone to try to change direction. She surged explosively forward, slamming to an almost instantaneous stop and transitioning into a spinning kick aimed high enough to take Dante in the shoulder. (She wasn't comfortable aiming at his head just yet.)

Split-second decision time.

Not a lot of space to move. Sideways, at least.

There was a loud, metallic chime - as her skate struck the side of a large sword, edge between the wheels, barely drawn from Dante's back in time.

That came as a surprise, but not a total one. Ringo had always known Dante was stupidly fast.

So she didn't miss a beat, kicking hard off of the blade and reversing direction, turning a full circle and sending her foot arcing in from the other direction, aimed lower, at Dante's knees.

He'd had time to adjust now, though. Rebellion evaporated from his grip and he jumped, trying to plant his foot on top of Ringo's head as he passed.

Stupid speed.

Ringo gritted her teeth and twisted. Her back arched as she kept spinning, taking her whole body low enough that Dante would have to give up his vertical movement to get a foot on her.

She'd let him open up the distance a bit, see where he landed, before deciding on her next move.

Yeah, Dante wasn't giving up his momentum just to score a cheap hit. He hit the deck behind her, rolled a couple of feet, and then twisted around as he came up.

Rebellion flashed back into existence and he snagged her as fast as possible.

That disappearing/reappearing sword thing was going to get really annoying, Ringo suspected.

In a move sort of mirroring their earlier exchange, she brought her foot up and caught the blade between the wheels of her ATs, letting her knee bend to absorb some of the impact. Then she straightened her leg, kicking off of the sword to open up the distance between them further.

The pressure caused Dante's arms to move back with the force of it, and he took a few steps back as he tried to recover his balance.

"Now we're rolling."

Ringo didn't answer him, just kept sliding backward until there were a couple dozen feet between them. Then she spun again, her right foot whipping out in a kick from way too far away to have a chance of hitting Dante.

Except that the rear wheel on her AT unraveled, extending into a glimmering thin sheet of metal which snapped toward him like a whip.

She'd-- sort of warned him about that? But Dante still had to call out a surprised, "Don't get snappy!" as he swerved away just in time, the metal slipping past him close enough to nearly nick his cheek.

He didn't stop and wait for her to attack again, but dashed forward, hoping she'd remain unstable for just long enough that he could get a blow in with the flat end of Rebellion.

She clucked her tongue and scowled, but kept moving. But the Thorn Road was, by and large, one of motion, so she hadn't even stopped moving long enough to see if she'd hit him. Ringo's foot stomped down, tugging the extended blade back and sending it on a twisting path toward Dante's back even as she pirouetted under Dante's blow again.

Damn, but she was fast. Dante'd have to figure out a way to get her rattled just for a second or two.

You know. When he wasn't preoccupied backflipping over a blade, rolling out of the way, and maneuvering them towards a wall.

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