nexus_crossings | (no subject)

“You and me both!” He laughed about feeling grounded. If there was something Minoru could climb, he was on probably already on top of it. And in a few short moments, so was his newest friend.

He didn’t reach out a hand or anything. He didn’t need to. As soon as he saw her running start and the way she pushed off the wall, he knew she was going to make it up. It’s easy to spot another traceur, even if they don’t call it that. (And yes, that was exactly how Minoru got up there too.)

“Nice wall run!” He grinned. “They know you can do that and they still baby you? Must be an age thing. Because it’s definitely not an ability thing.”

"Oh they know. I'm the second former circus brat they have in the family." She grinned. "And that, that was easy." She sank to the rooftop stretching a little.

"They've seen me do more actually. Yay for being raised on the tight rope and trapeze." She sighed a moment. "Friends call me Ray."

“Nice to meet you, Ray. I’m Minoru.” He offered a friendly nod in place of a more pronounced bow.

“I’m a freerunner. Always have been, much to my parents’ dismay.” When he was younger, a day probably didn’t go by where his name wasn’t followed at least once by ‘get down from there!’ “It gets easier the older you get. I made it all the way to Stage 3 in the American Ninja Warrior Finals this year, and they didn’t bat an eye!”

As a freerunner, most of his skill was in running, climbing and jumping in an urban environment. He had some acrobatics mixed in, but had never done anything specifically circus-related. He was immediately interested though. His face lit up when Ray mentioned it. Trapeze sounded fun!

“Think you could teach me some new tricks?”

"Minoru, got it." She looked out over the mostly empty street.

"Parkour is kind of a game with me and my siblings. We race over the rooftops in the city, some of the most fun I have nightly. Annoys Pops when me and my oldest have to be cooped up in the house. We tend to leave barefoot prints on the ceilings, that's not as fun cleaning up later." Hearing where he placed though she grinned brightly. "Okay that's something I've wanted to try, just worried that I'd have an unfair advantage since one of my sparing partners is Amazonian." Oops maybe slipping who she was, but hey it's not like he'd get to her world or that anyone was there.

"I'd have to see what you have first to see if I can, though, I'd be willing to try it." She watched him a moment. "A lap around the square here? Would be a decent show of abilities. Make it a friendly race?"

Her story definitely took Minoru back to the days he too was under someone else’s roof. He couldn’t help but grin. He didn’t leave as many footprints on the ceiling as he messed up shingles on the roof, but the annoyance level for his parents was basically the same.

“Don’t let the whole Warrior name fool you, there’s no fighting.” He didn’t know why having an Amazonian for a sparring partner would make any difference. “It’s just a huge obstacle course.”

And speaking of obstacle courses…

“You’re on! That sounds like fun!”

He hopped to his feet, shaking himself loose. He hadn’t been up here too long, but a quick stretch never hurt. The plaza and the square surrounding it were full of obstacles - from roofs to jump across, walls and railings to balance on, trees and light poles to climb, way too many chairs to do way too many things with. Win or lose, Minoru was excited for the challenge of running with somebody new.

Well when you happen to have a foster parent who has a mansion, and a butler, you're going to abuse the space in the building on rainy days when you're banned from going on patrol because of broken limbs or bruised ribs.

"I still train with an Amazon, and well he's only half alien, still, I think it would give me an unfair advantage to most athletes." She grinned. "Training with them allows me to think a little more outside the box." Like trying to avoid cars and other various large items that are getting thrown. Not to mention you know being a costume. As much as she wants to, she wouldn't sign up officially for it.

When he jumped up she did as well. Stretching she grinned. So here's the starting gate and ending gate, one lap and can only be on the ground four steps total?"

How far out of the box could one think and have it not be unfair? Training with a half-alien was akin to cheating?? Minoru hadn’t thought of it like that…

The Diamond Dogs had invited him to train with them, and Jack was definitely half-alien. They’d practiced together before, went free-climbing together. (And did laps around Balthazar’s bar and right up the stripper pole, much to the angel’s annoyance as well.) Was that cheating?

Simply by being in the Nexus, did he have an unfair advantage? Was his finish… illegal?

It took Minoru a minute to respond, now very obviously distracted. “Four times? Right… Gotcha. The plaza is lava.”

Was he guilty of cheating?

She doubted he cheated, she trained with superheroes, so in her mind, even though she's one of the few normal people in a costume (Don't as her brother's Jay or Tim, they'd say she's some sort of alien just to rile you up, and her boyfriend Roy would insist she's an angel. But he shouldn't be asked either, since he'd get all growlie at the thought of her hanging out with another guy).

"Lava? Okay yeah I like that analogy." She shifted into a better stance for running, glad she wore decent soft soled boots instead of hiking boots today. "Ready?"

A few seconds later she said a simple "Go" And darted for the edge of the roof, already sizing the jump to the light post to pull herself up and run across to jump to the roof across the street from them.

After that kind of mind bomb, no, Minoru honestly wasn’t ready. But the sound of the word ‘Go!’ shook him from his thoughts immediately. “Oh, no you don’t!”

He sprung forward just a few steps behind. But instead of aiming high, Minoru decided to aim low. Instead of going for the lightpost and back up to a roof, he leapt straight from the roof to the awning of the next building. Grabbing the sign post - from past experience, he knew could support his weight - he swung and launched himself past the empty sidewalk and onto on an unoccupied table outside the cafe.

There was no time to stop, and momentum wouldn’t let him anyway. He sprinted from table to table to mailbox to bicycle rack to lamp post - catching that last one and hanging onto the banner that was advertising the next plaza-wide event.

“I’ll fix it later.” He told no one but himself as he made quick work of the lower knot. Using the banner and rope, he swung himself across the street toward the half-wall that separated the plaza from the street. It was a difficult jump, and one that took two swings before he was sure he’d make it. But he landed it, and then took off running on the narrow wall ledge.

Ray laughed a little as she scrambled up the roof, her soft boots making almost no sound as she ran with a dancer's grace across the tiles sizing up her next jump.

She paused a moment impressed at his movements with the bike rack. Which gave him a small lead.

"I'll help since this was my idea." She jumped from the roof with a flip in the air, stretching with catlike grace to catch the wall of the building she had aimed for. It wasn't the roof, but the small climb would give her a little more height advantage.

Minoru had a habit of hopping up on this particular half-wall all the time on his walk to work. An advantage, perhaps, but while Ray was hopping roofs, he was still hopping across the various openings that led into the plaza. Some of them had stairs and railings, as well as gaps that were comparable to the alleys between buildings.

And there was the spot by the tree where he had to go through the branches. It had really grown this spring, so that slowed him down a little too.

But both of them kept moving.

Rayan hoed down when Minoru went up, having seen enough structures around, even if she had to take two of the 4 steps to get to one, which she did with a somersault and a nice little half flip onto a railing and hand walked down it, with almost the same seed as her walking speed. Something she would rub into her male counterpart's face if he was there with their signature laugh, but he wasn't there and she had a race to win. Though she did catch him slipping through the branches and gave a small grin as she bounced off a table, pulling herself u on a light post. A simple flip had her using another break-fall on a roof, sliding down art of the angled slope, enough to launch herself to the next ledge.

A show off tucked roll, almost made it look like she had miss judged the distance, though her hand went out catching the railing of a fire escape, which she scaled up, needing more height to get to the finish line.

The half-wall was where Minoru primarily stayed, sprinting across it with relative ease. Of course, he knew he’d have to get back across the road eventually somehow…

His face lit up when he spotted his chance.

Minoru jumped from the wall onto a round metal garbage can, intentionally toppling it to the ground. For a second, it looked like he’d misjudged the distance, since he did end up with a foot on the ground for the landing. (And both hans, technically.) But no, he had it under control.

“I’ll clean it up later! Promise!” He shouted to a shocked passerby.

That type of barrel-rolling obstacle didn’t show up in this year’s American Ninja Warrior course, but it had in previous years. So this was something Minoru practiced. Balancing on the side of the can, he rolled it across the street.

As it rolled between a more narrow gap between buildings, Minoru hopped up, planting hans and feet on adjacent walls.

This might be a little slower than a normal wall climb, and he knew it might cost him the race. But any chance to work in the technique for next year’s Stage 4 climb - he was bound and determined to make it there! - as worth it. He needed to get faster on his spider climb!

Once she was on the new roof, she did take a moment to watch her race partner. His climb was impressive. She would give him a few moments since she wanted to size up the gap perfectly, last time she had tried the move she was about to do, she had her zipline. Though the wall's mortar looked like it would hold if she hit just right to sink her fingers in. The fall, was only about twenty feet, she'd fallen further. True her brothers had teased her when she had broken both her arm and leg hitting the trash can wrong. But hey! It would be worth it right?

She took the running start, jumping over where he was climbing, tucking into a ball flipping in the air in a very tell-tale move, if anyone had remembered or even seen her male counterpart when he had been a member of Haley's Circus. Landing on the roof she kept moving, the roof she was now headed to was a good ten feet higher than the one she was on.

Her jump, was with a show of spin, her hands reaching out, catching the edge so her back was to the wall. Hanging there a moment, she hauled herself up, doing a handstand on the edge before twisting around so she could walk into a standing stance. True it would slow her down, but she didn't mind.

“Oh, awesome!!” Minoru couldn’t help but look up at Ray as she flipped right over his head. Sure, she took the lead there, but it was still extremely impressive.

When he got to the top of the building, he kicked hard off of one side to grab onto the other and hoist himself up. Ray was already doing a handstand on the next roof by the time he got up, so he didn’t dawdle. Minoru sprinted to the edge, leaping and grabbing the ledge - but without the fancy handstand.

The lower roof coming up after it? That got more of a roll out of Minoru. But he came right back up on his feet and kept moving.

With only one more leg to go, so to speak, until they’d circumnavigated the plaza, it was going to be a race to the finish line!

Her showing off lost her a few seconds, but that's okay, Rayan's not in it for the win, she's there for fun, and the way he reacted, seemed like he enjoyed her showing off too.

Always good to have an audience enjoying the show after all.

She had also noticed that they had drawn some onlookers, so she was going to make it enjoyable at least as she bolted after Minoru, she knew she wasn't going to fully catch up, he had a few yards on her because of her showboating.

Though the last jump, she was sizing up as they went. Wouldn't be as fun without one of her teammates giving her a small boost, but she knew even this late in the game she could make it. Was just a smaller track than the one she'd do with Jay around midtown in Gotham, on nights when they were supposed to be benched.

Of course Minoru enjoyed it. Watching someone else do parkour tricks was part of the fun - and provided plenty of inspiration for new moves. If they happened to be drawing attention from onlookers, so be it. It definitely wasn’t the first time. (Wouldn’t be the last either!)

Minoru was definitely a fast runner, and his jumps were good. He lost a little time in his own showing off too - from hopping up onto a ledge and dashing down that to grabbing and swinging through the gap under a rooftop water tower.

The last jump was a long one, though. The space between the buildings was more than the standard alleyway for some reason. Minoru knew that, distance-wise, it was right on the edge of his limits. Sometimes, with the right running start and the right form, he cleared it. Sometimes, he narrowly missed the ledge and ended up grasping it (or part of the fire escape - the easy way Rayan obviously didn’t use to get up there the first time) with both hands.

A fall could cost him greatly here, but so could taking the conservative route.

“Here goes everything!!” He shouted, building up speed. But experience still led him to veer toward the fire escape, to provide options in case his jump was anything less than solid.

But Minoru knew as soon as he pushed off the ledge that he was going to make it this time. Feet touched down on the other side, and he took that momentum right into a series of rolls before coming to a stop.

Ray gaged the last jump as she bolted for it, pulling off a few tumbles here and there over some obstacles in her path, the water tower had her flip off on the dismount with two twists landing without breaking her run, a little showy, but the gap was still coming up. It was the same distance as between the building that housed her little brother's favorite coffee shop and one of her older brother's favorite safe houses. She had made that gap hundreds of times, sometimes wounded. She had shown off running up it, and noted he was going a safer route.

Minoru's feet left the roof just moments before her's, though at the last moment she pulled her landing, instead of another showy move, she just leapt, her feet landing an inch past the edge, she did a simple breakfast to slow her momentum letting him have the win.

"Okay next time I want a good race I know who to look for, that was actually more fun than racing Jay." She walked up to him hand out. "I'll teach you some trapeze stunts, I'm sure you can add them to your running." Ray was beaming brightly. "Would be fun, though. We should probably go clean up our mess."

Minoru grinned and laughed. That was the kind of stuff he lived for! Whatever worries he had before the race were long gone, replaced by the invigorating sounds of heavy breathing and a pumped up heartbeat. He shook that outstretched hand, beaming, “Oh man! It was great! You’ve really got some moves! I thought you had me beat at least half the time!”

He was just as thrilled to be learning some trapeze stunts. On the one hand, he couldn’t wait for the first lesson. On the other, she was right. They did need to go clean up their mess.

“Guess I’d better start with the garbage can.” He nodded.

Rolling it on its side did make a pretty big mess of things.

"I probably did, but showboated a little too much, my oldest brother says that's a common problem with him too. Though was a fun race thanks. I enjoyed myself. We are so doing that again." She stretched a little. "Was a good work out."

"Yeah, I don't exactly have Pops or Alfred around, at least it's an easy clean up." She chuckled. "Bot that Id expect them to clean up my messes. B would just hire someone anyway." She headed for the fire escape. "I'll help, since the race was my idea I helped make the mess. Though really, that was an impressive move! I half expected it to crush on you and send you spilling to the ground."

Minoru honestly didn’t care if he won or not. All he needed to do was prove himself capable enough of handling himself on a trapeze to learn some new moves. And even THAT motivation got lost in the fun of a freerun.

He followed, but swung down the outside of it rather than taking the actual stairs.

“Nah, they’re the kind of trashcans grouches live in. The metal’s more stable than it looks.” He added, thinking back to meeting Oscar in the Plaza and then helping him home to Sesame Street. “They’re pretty heavy too.”

Fortunately, it wasn’t a very windy day. Otherwise, he’d probably be running around picking up loose trash for the next hour. Minoru righted the can and put it back where it was, and then started to make quick work of everything he had spilled.

“So you and your brother both do parkour? That’s pretty cool.”

Edited (I can spellz, thnkx) 2021-08-17 11:18 (UTC)

Rayan paused from helping to pick up things when he said Oscar. "You mean like that kid show? The green guy who loves trash?" Hey foreign dubs were how she learned Cantonese, French and Italian. Russian, well that was picked up dealing with various crime lords, as well as her Spanish. "I mean yeah I know other worlds meet here, but that is kind of cool learning." She started at the other end of the trail he had made, after righting a few cafe chairs she had tipped over.

"Yeah, I have a few brothers actually, we're... all adopted." She answered. "Our guardian was the one that suggested we take it up, basically as a way to keep five hyperactive kids out of his hair, and well since there's a lot of space on the estate, we had a lot of room to practice before we got bored and well, took to running across the rooftops of Gotham." Okay, so not exactly the whole truth, but it was enough. She just left out the whole crime fighting bit to it.

“Yeah!” He nodded. This was indeed the Nexus, a bridge between worlds and a great spot to meet gods, monsters, angels, aliens, robots, wizards… and the occasional completely normal human being.

“That’s cool. My parents were always trying to stop me from doing it.” He chuckled warmly, mimicking his father’s slightly lower and less expressive tone of voice. “Minoru, don’t climb on that. Minoru, get off the roof. Minoru, NO, that is NOT what I meant when I said get off the roof!”

His parents were there to support him at his American Ninja Warrior runs, though. Despite the obvious preference for academic achievement while he was growing up (something that his twin brother Isamu excelled at, and he, obviously, didn’t), they’d come to appreciate his accomplishments. And the effort that went into them.

“Good luck getting my brother on a roof.”

"See most of those... I live with already, my world has Kryptonians, Martians, a Tamaranian, Amazons, Atlantians, all on the daily news." She grinned. "I've met some of them a few times, yay for going to school with a bunch of rich kids, the chances of running into a hero are a little higher because well, idiots tend to think we're easier targets and better hostages when they need huge sums of money." She had no problem leaking that information. "It's part of the reason why my boyfriend wants me to switch to a school in Starling, he doesn't like the idea of the Bat and Birds protecting me, but feels safer with a Robin Hood wanna be?" She shook her head a little.

"Poor Alfred keeps lecturing us about it, but he's always there for us when we get banged up. Seriously with me and my eldest brother, telling us to stop climbing things is actually worse than putting us in a time out." She smiled. "He's been to everything we've done though, even if B hasn't."

"Is he scared of heights?"

“Scared? Nah.” Minoru shook his head and laughed. “He just wants no part of the crazy.”

Hell, the craziest thing Isamu had ever done was uproot them both to move to the Nexus. It was a step in the right direction.

“Our world doesn’t have anything like that. Our heroes are just regular people. Nobody has magic or any kind of special powers. Nobody’s ever met anyone from another planet - or if they have, they really don’t talk about it. Unless its in a book or a movie.”

Those were seen as works of fiction in his world, but given some of the worlds he’s learned about here, he’s honestly had to wonder if all the fiction in his world isn’t actually real somewhere else.