basic_powers | Seattle, the invitation for Dinah

She'll spot him down below in a second as she moves from the first beam to the second. Or at least the flash of movement as he leaps from one of the small pedestals inside the large swiss cheesed cylinder to a curved wall, executes a spotless run up the side of the inner side of a small curved wall to butterfly leap to the second larger inner pedestal.

For whatever reason, he's opted to skip that obvious shortcut and save what few fractions of a second he had in the lead earlier. He doesn't see Dinah either for now, either, but from the looks, he's just got a few climbs left to get to the end.

Dinah catches sight of him, and grins. She could sprint the rest of the beams, but they zigzag back around and the end is right ahead of her, so she leaps from one straight to the next and uses that momentum to launch herself down, over the final largest pedestal and into the door marking the end. Hitting at high speed, she tucks her head and rolls, and is well clear of the end before she thinks to turn around and look for her companion.

There's a split second before she hears a grunt, then sees Beauford land in a cat-jump onto the giant pedestal grinning.

"Well, DAMN I am out of shape." He laughs, pulling himself up the rest of the way to stand on the pedestal with Dinah. "Guess I'm buying."

"Yeah, you are," Dinah says, too flushed with the excitement of activity to gloat over competition. "You'll just need more practice. Next course?"

To that, he just smiles and points to the wall, where there's a door in red, reading 'Advanced Course' about three feet above the pedestal.

"I usually can't find anyone to practice with is the problem."

"Well, if you keep losing and having to buy the drinks, I can't see that being a problem."

Hey, it keeps her in shape, too. What with all the alien invasions and supervillains she's been dealing with, it's been a while since she had a good ol' fashioned run through the city.

Dinah grins at him and head straight through the door.

Oh hell, he's going to have to pull out everything now isn't he?

Beauford just grins, following after her into the Advanced Course, where there is a certain lack of straight run areas, save for the walls. Still, an hour later, there is no clear winner to the run through the course, and no real need for one.

Just that towards the end, they're both sweaty, decently tired and grinning.

Dinah is laughing with every pant now, hands resting on her knees.

"Please tell me you weren't kidding about the sweet potato fries."

"I wasn't. We do make those at Q57. And I think this week we might have some nice cheese and jalapeno cornbread this week." Beauford teases as they walk back down to the changing rooms.

Yeh, he's just going to enjoy breaking his promise not to spoil the menu at work for her.

At least now he's not putting her at a disadvantage.

"If this is as good as it sounds, you can have an entire evening at the other bar on me," Dinah tells him, even as she disappears into the ladies.

After all, he's technically going to have to buy everything anyway.

Fifteen minutes and a good shower later, he's waiting by the desk for her, grinning.

And he figures he'll end up buying things anyways. Dollars from the 80's might get a little weird reaction, so this is going on his card, and Dinah can foot the bill at Milliways later to pay him back.

Now to take buses to the good gay bar! It's already getting dark out, it being January and all.

Dinah wishes she had a wig as she pulls her hat down tight over her wet hair-plastered ears, trudging towards the bus stop.

"How many buses do we take to the bar?"

She hopes it's not many.

"Two, one's the bus that brought us here, and another one at the transfer sta-" Beauford starts to explain before someone bullrushes him from behind an alley getting a swift punch into his left side.

What follows is an extremely pained groan from him before the punch-happy maniac faces Dinah in a skimask.

"Give us all your cash, an nobody else gets hurt!"

'Us?'

Oh look, he brought a friend to the party.

Dinah is more surprised by Beauford taking a hit than anything else.

By the time the grown happens, she's already subconsiously moved a foot back, into a subtly wider stance - but now she's just confused.

She looks from the ski mask, to Beauford, to the skimask again.

"...I really don't want anyone to get hurt," she says.

"....what the FUCK??" He was actually taken by surprise, and right now he's sputtering.

Dinah will probably figure out later why he went down so easily. Right now, he just looks pissed off.

"You heard me, give us the money!"

Dinah assumes he has the good sense to at least stay out of her way, now. She sighs, rubbing at her face with her mittens, which she doesn't even bother taking off.

"Look," she says resignedly. "I haven't got time for this; I'm hungry."

And she steps forward, past the guy in the ski-mask, apparently wanting just to get on. That this puts her between him and his friend probably isn't something she's considered, right?

Right?

Probably not, seeing as his friend starts to take a swing at her.

Beauford however is moving out of range for this fight, still holding his side.

Ski-mask however is turning towards Dinah, since she seems the more fiesty of the two...

Wait. That doesn't make sense, going after the fighter? Why not hit up the groaning mark.

Because you never turn your back on a standing opponent, would be Dinah's answer. Especially not her.

The swing is blocked by a mittened hand that appears from nowhere as Dinah folds herself into his arm, setting them both up for a seoi nagi that sends friend flying over her shoulder, and into ski-mask.

Now she just has to hope they're smart enough to stay down or get out of here.

Yeh, they're trying to get back up. That is until Beauford staggers up to them and takes both of their wallets and masks.

How does Dinah feel about stealing from thieves?

Or about Beauford growling like that.

Dinah is not OK with stealing from theives!

...checking to see if they're stolen wallets is another thing, so she's going to hope it's that, which is why her question is a question, not an accusation.

"What're you doing?"

"Getting their names." Attempted mugging is a crime after all. He's going to need to file a police report about this.

Or he would if he weren't staring at some card in one wallet and checking the other before facepalming into his gloves.

"I do not believe this."

Still working on the assumption that muggers taken down with a single throw by a woman smaller than either of them are smart enough not to come back for more, Dinah moves to look over his shoulder.

"... I don't get it."

"They're MetaWorship Masochist Leaguers." Beauford glares at the two men who're getting up now, and not looking the least bit unhappy.

"They usually stage attacks so they can get beaten up and meet metahumans and superheroes." He's just going to hand Dinah the wallets and look disgusted.

"Ew!"

Dinah takes the wallets and throws them each at the respective heads of the men getting up again. "What is wrong with you?"

"Don't get violent with them, these guys like that stuff happening to them." Beauford calls as he gets out a cellphone to make a discreet to call Concrete Jungle's front desk, and a minute later the burly man from the door is leaning out into the cold looking their way.

Now the two would-be muggers actually look a little scared and start running. Soon followed by the burly man and the six-armed dog-lady from before.

"Well that was fun." Beauford winces, rubbing at his left side. "Let's catch that bus."

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