Angels: Act Two

[twiststheblade]

from here


Yokohama.

Japan's biggest port city.

Hub of trade, export, and import.

Modern, classical, new and ancient. If a thing is new 'it was done first in Yokohama'.

It is late by the time the two bikes purr through the suburbs, heading for the heart of the financial district. Late, and the rain has stopped. The surfaces are slick with water, lights reflecting off anything and everything, a shifting kaleidoscope.

The buildings are an odd mix. Darkened office buildings, except for the odd window where a worker is up late into the night. Bars, restaurants, the odd shop, spill light and sound and smell out into the streets.

Eventually, Miho waves an arm, slows, and pulls over to the side of the road. She hops off, braces the bike, and smoothly uses her entire body-weight to lift it onto the stand. She pushes her visor up, and smiles.

"Well, this is it."

There are two buildings that stand out. One is rounded, almost like a tower, stabbing up into the night. Next to it, seperated by only a narrow alleyway, is a mirrored tower-block, curved frontage, glass elevators running up the outside of the building. It has an enourmous lobby, brightly lit, edged by small shops, and a few restaurants.

"That's the one we want," she says, pointing to the rounded building. "And this is the one I thought we could go across from."

She grins.

"Anyone for sushi?"

Comments

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy murmurs at the touch of the lips on her neck. She rolls her head away a little, allowing Miho better access and inviting a more prolonged follow up.

But Alanna is very efficient. Her quick work saves her the trouble of witnessing something more amorous, and Goldy lets out a light sigh of disappointment.

Putting her 'game face' back on, she pats Alanna's shoulder praisefully.

"Nice work."

Her tone is only the slightest bit flat.

[twiststheblade]

Miho laughs, and simply leaves her head on Goldy's shoulder as her head moves. It's possible however that Goldy gets a quick ass-grab in compensation.

"Good one, Alanna."

Miho looks to the others.

"Shouldn't be anyone, or any surveilance on the roof."

She takes a thin black silk balaclava out of her back pocket, and rolls it over her head, tucking her hair inside. Now she's in black head to toe, aside from her hands - which are about to eb covered by the gloves in her other pocket.

"Set?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy smirks appreciatively at the furtive hand on her rear. She pulls out her Mary Lennox hand-knitted balaclava from a side jacket pocket and rolls it extra-carefully over her hair and then down over her face.

She slips fingerless leather gloves back on and then helps Alanna get situated with her balaclava.

"Your head goes in here," she says, illustrating. Her voice is now slightly muffled by the wool. "Roll it up first, then pull it down so you can see through the slit."

That would be a 'no' in reply to Miho's question.

[the_lioness]

"Got it," Alanna replies, doing just that. Once it's on, she moves her mouth around a bit and tries to get used to the feeling. "Thank you."

Adjusting the sword at her back, Alanna looks at each of them in turn.

"It's a pity Mikey can't see us. We really look like ninjas."

Not that she's an expert or anything.

[twiststheblade]

Okay, now set.

Miho takes a step foward, and cautiously steps through the door. She doesn't even consciously go through in a crouch.

Beyond, the roof stretches out, a huge glass skylight in the middle, walkways around the edges, festooned with various pieces of receiveing and transmitting equipement.

It's not the tallest building in the immediate area - that honour is reserved for the building they're aiming for - but it is the second tallest, and commands a fairly impressive view of the city, lights stretching out until they blur together.

She takes a few steps to the edge of the building, and crouches, toes hanging over the air. She's shielded from the other building by an immense billboard, an advertisement for perfume, featuring a scantily clad woman, and a lot of flowers. She motions the others over.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy follows and hunkers down as well. From their hidden vantage point, she scrutinizes the opposite building.

"Which floor are we aiming for?" she asks while taking off her backpack and unclipping the flap.

Out come several coils of kernmantle climbing rope, three smallish grappling hooks with their prongs folded in, and an odd-looking pistol—short and stubby with a very wide barrel and muzzle, a bit like a flare gun. From the side pockets come a handful of carabiners and figure-of-eight belays.

She lays everything out on the asphalt beneath them.

[the_lioness]

Bringing up the rear, Alanna allows herself the luxury of examining the skylight and taking in the view before she crouches down beside the others. As Goldy unloads her equipment, Alanna starts chewing on her thumb.

She's definitely in over her head. But hasn't it been fun up until now? Grasping one of the coils of rope, she too turns to look at their destination.

"I'm starting to understand our earlier conversation. Equal height or below, I presume?"

Aiming higher might be especially tricky, she thinks.

[twiststheblade]

"Seven down, I think," Miho says to Goldy, before turning her head to Alanna.

"A little below - we're going to slide down the rope, then rappell down the side of the building, and go in through a window. Safer than fighting our way down."

She stood, leaning out and round the billboard, and pointing. She was hung many many floors aboue street level, but didn't seem to notice, quite comfortable.

"See that row of fixings at the top of the building?" She turns to Goldy. "That's the permanent mooring for the window cleaners, they're anal about keeping the place sparkling, so they should be secure enough.

"Think you can latch on to that?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

She gives her lover a smile. Not that it can be seen through the balaclava material, but maybe it shows in her eyes.

"Maybe. But these hooks are no bullets."

She threads some rope through the eyelet at the neck of one of the grapples and ties it off. Then she shoves the rod end into the barrle of the gun, where it settles with a sharp click.

"These will fly much more like arrows," she says, handing the whole compliment over to the knight and starting to unwind the attached cord at her feet.

"Aim it the same way you would a bow, then just squeeze the trigger like you would any pistol. There is a charge in the base of that will shoot it across and activate the prongs."

[the_lioness]

Holding the gun like a priceless artifact, Alanna is suddenly terribly aware of the sound of her own breathing. She nods, not wanting to let on how nervous this makes her. If she misses, someone might be alerted to their presence. If she misses, they might not cross safely.

So she can't miss, can she?

"Just like a bow," she says, getting into position. Checking her stance, she raises the gun and gets used to the feel. Determined, she closes her eyes and imagines a target, imagines the bow string bending under her fingers like a fine instrument. She adjusts her aim unconsciously, holding the gun higher than she would her other gun. When she opens her eyes, she fires. There's a brief moment of concern when it looks as if it will sail right over, but the hook flies true, latching on to the very same spot Miho had indicated.

[twiststheblade]

"Gorgeous!" Miho says, pleased.

She bends, picks up the excess rope, threads the end through a ratchet tightener, then makes it fast to the base of the billboard. Takes a few cranks at the tightener, until the rope is taut, then steps to the edge of the building. She grins.

"See you on the other side."

then she steps onto the rope, and and proceeds to cross the thirty or so feet between the two buildings. Not fast, not slow, but steadily, easily. This is her world.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Fresh from her own congratulation of Alanna, Goldy watches the spectacle with a certain amount of awe. That's her girl.

"I guess we won't be needing this then," she says, returning one of three primitive harnesses into her pack with the rest of the gear. She takes one of the remaining pair and holds it out for Alanna to step through the nylon leg straps.

"We're going across the more traditional way."

[the_lioness]

"I can't watch her," Alanna grumbles as she steps into the harness. She's not entirely sure what it's for, but it seems to be what Goldy wants her to do. "Just tell me when she reaches the other side. My, this is snug."

[twiststheblade]

She's not really showing off, but she does stop halfway over, looking back over her shoulder to check on them. They're fine.

So she continues across, and kneels to check on the rope. It's firm, it won't be going anywhere.

She flashes them a quick wave, before ducking across the roof to check on the doors.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy waves back before she finishes strapping Alanna up. "It's got to be tight," she explains, firming up the buckles even more.

She sees to her own harness next, then attaches carabiners to each end of two shorter lengths of rope. She clips one of them to Alanna's harness and one to her own.

"Now clip the other end onto the line and if you get tired or lose your grip, you won't fall," she says, sitting herself on the edge of the building, to one side of the rope that extends across.

"With any luck."

[the_lioness]

"With any luck," she repeats, smiling a little. "Good thing I'm lucky."

Sitting down on the other side, she does as instructed and clips the carabiner to the line. She assumes Goldy wants her to go first.

"We can never, ever tell Adam about this, okay?"

There's a guilty look in her eyes as she wraps both hands around the rope.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"Deal."

When she's done reshouldering her pack, she clips her carabiner on as well.

"Now get your cute ass over the other side."

[twiststheblade]

Miho keeps one eye on the roof, one eye on the girls as they pull themselves across, hand over hand. She nods in unconscious approval - Goldy obviously knows what she's doing, Alanna is strong and dextrous. They pause for breath in the middle, but make it over with no incident.

Once they're across, she looks over to Goldy. "Do you think we should leave this here?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy might have made the crossing look easy, and she certainly enjoyed the adrenaline rush of being so high, but her arms are tired, and she was straining a bit by the last few feet. Nevertheless, she already has her Leatherman out.

"No," is her curt reply as she slices through the line.

It falls away towards the other building and she restows the grapple.

[the_lioness]

Alanna had crossed as quickly as possible, stubbornly refusing to look down. About two minutes before setting foot on the opposite roof, she became horribly, painfully aware that she agrees with most of what Adam had said.

As she fights to steady her breathing and regain her balance, Alanna shakes her head, determined not to think about that now.

"Now we go down?"

[twiststheblade]

"Now we go down," the little samurai nods, busily tying off ropes to the moorings they'd used to cross.

She retrieves the harness she hadn't used to cross, and steps into it, tugging it tight. Sets the ropes. Steps backwards to the edge of the roof, leans back, carefully.

"Okay, set. All go together, right?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy is just about done fixing Alanna up with a belay device and clipping her onto one of the new ropes. "Face the building, squeeze to slow yourself up, relax your grip and you'll drop faster," she explains.

She goes through the same setup for herself and moves into position beside the little Asian. Once there, she pulls up the bottom of her mask and kisses the exposed bridge of Miho's nose.

[the_lioness]

Mimicking the relevant parts of Miho's movements, Alanna takes a deep breath and slowly, cautiously starts to lean over the edge. She glances at Goldy to make sure she's doing it right.

"Together sounds grand. But I'm not kissing either of you first."

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy checks Alanna to her satisfaction, then smirks and pulls her balaclava back down.

There's a wink for Miho.

"Do a little dance?"

[twiststheblade]

Miho raises an eyebrow, and puts as much suggestion as she can into her reply, half singing it.

"Make a little love. . ."