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The teen in a tan leather jacket, black jeans and her favorite soft soled boots walked around taking in the sights, paying a little more attention to the rooftops than most. This wasn't either Star nor Gotham, that wasn't a problem with that. She wanted to get away from her brothers and boyfriend long enough to actually think.

"So, what would you guys do when you have really over protective people that are hampering what you really like to do?" It was simple enough, because that's what had brought her there. She needed the advice, and she really didn't want to go to her mentor, or heck any of the other adults about it. Probably because she was already displaced in the world she was calling home, and didn't want to be more of a burden, not while she and her male counterpart were actually getting along, even if he was the one that had been the worst about trying to push her out of the family business.

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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.

"That, seems both cool and boring at the same time. Though not all our heroes have powers, Some just have costumes, we still have the cops, doctors, firemen, and normal people doing the right thing. It's just those in the costumes steal the show or usually draw the attention so that the real heroes can do their job." Hey Rayan was more than willing to draw the attention of the rogues so others could be taken safely elsewhere.

"Jury is still out if the costumes are insane, or actually helpful though." She dumped an armload of papers and empty bottles into the bin. "Personally I think it's a mix of both." And yes, she just called herself crazy, but she knew that was true.

“When you put it that way…” he chuckled. “It’s like, superheroes are really colorful bait.”

He’d never thought about it that way. Granted, aside from meeting people in the Nexus, his experience was limited to action movies and comic books. And chances were, those didn’t tell the whole story.

“Not saying that’s a bad thing!” He quickly clarified. “If you’ve got the costumes, do you guys have the secret identities and superhero names too?”

"More the sidekicks are the bait," she mumbled low, hoping he didn't hear it.

"If they did, I bet it's to protect loved ones. Pretty sure some costumes are kids, or parents protecting kids. I mean it's bad enough being the ward of Gotham's richest man, the times people have tried kidnapping me or a brother. I'd hate to think what it would be like if I was the kid of a costume."

“Wow…” he thought for a moment about the high stakes that came with her world. “Where I come from, they’re really just like stage names.”

He did, thankfully, miss the sidekick comment. An armful of trash going in the bin can be loud.

“When I compete, I’m the Fan Man.”

Which compared to superhero names, probably sounded ridiculous.

"I guess looking at it from the outside it would look like that, I mean really my town is known for a guy dressed up as a bat. Pretty gimmicky if you ask me." Hey a chance to tease Bruce, she'll take it.

Ray giggled at that. "Okay that's not the worst I've ever heard, beats Red Robin. I mean who names themselves after an over priced burger joint?" Okay yeah, Tim would probably glare at her for that, and Jay would be holding in laughter.

Edited 2021-08-22 04:02 (UTC)

“A Bat? That’s wild! Hey, at least robins are red, right?” He offered. “And it’s got a pretty nice ring to it. My last name’s Uchiwa. Like the hand fan. That’s where I got the idea for the name. My brother ordered boxes of purple fans to hand out at the competition. He said the marketing basically did itself.”

(much like the Batcave, with its Batmobile, batarangs and other bat-prefixed miscellany.)

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the first Robin wasn't really thinking when they thought of that they just went from something that they felt comfortable with. I mean red and yellow, stands out horribly in the dark." She chuckled dumping the last of the garbage that she had picked up in the bin.

"And really I thought that only worked with the really gimmicky villains' and well Batman." She giggled. "Next time you compete though I want to be there. If this little race was anything, it got you another fan. No purple one needed."

They might have been done picking up the trash, but Minoru would still have to restring that banner he used as a rope swing…

“Welcome to the Fan Club.” He smiled, holding his hand up for a high five. “Yeah, I know. It’s an awful pun. But I love it.”

He’d see what he could do about getting extra tickets. Given how Ziggy practically filled a whole section with bands and crew members, it couldn’t be too hard.

The pun had her giggling even more. "Oh God, considering I'm from a town where the gimicks use themed puns... you are going to end up being the death of me Minoru." She wasn't complaining, it was good to actually laugh at a bad pun without having various weapons aimed at her.

Hey if she had to she'd buy the tickets to fill another section with Birbs, and other sidekicks. She was sure Roy would probably get a kick out of watching a competition, even try to convince her to train for one.

No weapons. Just a high five and a big grin. (If her world didn’t have a competition like that, they needed one. Maybe Bruce Wayne would be interested in starting one up. He’s rich enough to sponsor that. And Minoru would definitely come watch her compete!)

“Hopefully not before you show me some new tricks!” He laughed as he hopped up on the pole.

He could have gone faster, but decided to climb it much like one would a rope climb instead. That way, he could get in some of the upper body exercises Damien had shown him during their last training session.

Minoru made quick work of reattaching the banner, and then slid back down.

“I can’t wait to learn some trapeze!”

She gave him the high five at least, it's rude to leave a guy hanging after all.

"Oh I will, when is your next contest? That way I know how long I have to teach you."

She still needed to find a good spot to set a trapeze up, and safety nets, she wasn't going to watch him fall and get hurt or worse.

“Oh, there’s not even another qualifier until next year.” He replied. He was hoping he might get the chance to run a charity course or something between now and then, but he was still a relative newcomer onto the scene.

As excited as he was, they definitely had the time to do this right (and safely).

"Then I have at least that long to teach you," She mulled it over. "Give me two days to figure out a good place to work out in the open, and I'll start, we won't start in the air until I'm sure you can nail a basic floor routine. And we'll make it flashy to draw in a crowd."

“Okay! Sure thing!” He smiled. “There’s always plenty of space to set up in the plaza. I don’t think anyone would mind if we strung rope from one bench to another.”

No, Minoru didn’t actually know how trapeze worked. But he was happy and full of optimism, and made the suggestion anyway. (And he started small - as in benches and not buildings.)

"I was thinking a little higher when I get you on the ropes, but I'll have nets up to catch us. Which is why the floor routine first, so you know the basics. And I'll keep it so you can practice it without ropes, I saw enough rails here to make a skater happy, we can use those too."

"Hey, as long as I don't have to actually do it on skates, I can probably figure out the routine pretty quick."

His first attempt at freeskating (on roller skates) ended in a concussion. Jack and Harley made it look so easy, but balancing on wheels was a lot harder than it looked. Balthazar was teaching him how to skateboard, which was a lot easier to figure out. It also came with the bonus of being able to jump off rather than crash and burn.

She laughed. "I don't skate, I just abuse the skate parks to practice free running when my brothers aren't around." She grinned. "Sometimes I can get a better workout that way."

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itmeanstruth - 2021-08-24 15:42 (UTC) - Expand

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