18716/=Fast Times and Hot Wheels

=Fast Times and Hot Wheels
Date of Scene:	31 July 2024
Location:	Battery Park City
Synopsis:	Billy rides Lightning to Jen's rescue.
Cast of Characters:	Jennifer Stavros, Billy Batson

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Jennifer Stavros has posed:
This was not Jen's night. She was craving distraction, given recent emotional events in her life, and being stared at while taking money from Bad People sounded like a great idea. And it was - she was up twenty grand, easy. Luck would do that for her. But she'd pushed it too far, even with her luck, and a trip of gentlemen in nice suits with bad attitudes were, if she was lucky, just looking to get their money back.

Probably violently.

And, naturally, her phone was at the bottom of her purse, covered by her ill-gotten gains. Digging it out was going to take time she didn't have. So she let one hand glow with as massive of a good-luck disc as she could muster without (hopefully) lucksnapping and let it flow into her body. Her other free hand, the one not trying to dig her phone out of her bag, stood ready to throw bad-luck discs if she was going to need them.

And it looked like she was going to need them.

"Fuck's sake." she muttered to herself as she tried to navigate her hand around her phat stacks of gambling loot to get to her motherfucking phone, which was so slender it didn't want to make its way to her hand and out of the bag. "Come on, come on..." she said, possibly regretting looking at hot as she did. In this instance, it was probably giving the bad guys ideas. And because she was bent over to dig her phone out, the bad guys were probably getting quite the show. Priorities, Stavros! Safety first, then modesty. Such as it was.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson was going for a ride. He never felt the subtle warping of reality that led him to South Street. Riding his Low Rider, a fresh Lightning emblem on the gas tank and the back of his jacket. Turning a corner slowly to get his bearing when he notices the little blonde's... baring. Oof.

Then he sees the three goons running towards her. Living on the street, you learned to recognize goons. You also learned to judge who would run in a chase or getaway. Usually a Flash. He guns Lightning and pulls alongside the woman who looks familiar. Catching her around the waist and pulls her across the fuel tank. He guns it as the goons hurl insults at him and order him to stop. Yeah that'll happen! What would the rider, his inspiration, say? He does make sure she has her bag and dress stays on. "Sorry Miss! But I got you. I'll let you off somewhere safe. Sorry for the rough handling!" Lightning takes off.

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
Now Jen was hanging onto her bag for dear life, probably flashing half of New York, and being ... rescued? Well, that was nice. But before she had time to think things through, she let out a bloodcurdling scream as she got womanhandled onto the bike. She felt some of the luck she'd ingested leave her to balance the Universe's scales, so this was definitely good for her.

She hoped.

."Hi." she said, still bent over the bike, her booted toes just _barely_ not scraping along the pavement. "I'm Jen. Thanks for the rescue. You can drop me off at the next corner." she said. She was gonna have to do something she didn't want to do, but it was the safe thing to do.

She was gonna text Mary.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson says, "Jen? Jenny Stavros? It's Billy." He loses the posse and pulls over helping her to stand. "If you're calling my sister, she's out of town. I think Marie was working. I'll be glad to take you home though. Good to see you.... uhm... you know what I mean." He hands her a helmet and after a moment offers her his jacket. "This is to prevent road rash. You never know."

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
She remembered now. She came home drunk and in a snit after whatahiscock the rich dude decided to be a twat. Or something like that. Her memory was admittedly fuzzy. She spent a few moments straightening her dress, no longer giving Billy and New York itself a free show, and took a few moments to dig her phone out so she could hang onto it. She looked at her phone - and then swore sulphorously. Cracked and it wouldn't turn on.

Dammit!

"Hey, so, I don't suppose you'd be so kind as to give me a lift? My phone - piece of shit - apparently died." she said with a frown. Possibly splashover from all the good-luck she was using, or maybe it was just One Of Those Things.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson looks at the phone and says, "My brother Eugene is good at fixing phones and well anything. I'll be glad to see if he can fix it. And I'll be glad to give you a ride. The helmet is a must. You can wear the jacket or not but if you don't, it'll be cold and you could get a windburn." She was showing a lot to get windburned in fact. He raises his visor to give her a smile.

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
Well, she thought to herself, it's not like she had a lot of choice in the matter. Unless she wanted to hoof it to a bus stop or a subway line. Or try to hail a cab. Billy was being helpful and shit and she knew his sister so - if he really could get his phone back up and running that would simplify her life enormously. "OK, fine." she said, shrugging into the proffered jacket and giving it a good sniff, then pulling the too-big helmet onto her head. Welp, her hair was gonna be a lost cause, but that was a fixable lost cause. "Looks like you hit the jackpot, Billy. Let's go back to your place so I can get my phone fixed up."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson notes Jen has pretty much disappeared into the helmet and jacket from the knees up. Quite a departure from the women he usually hung out with. He assists her onto the back seat, gets on and guns Lightning. Driving Lightning down the empty street, he guns it and does a wheelie. It feels good when he doesn't have to call on Shazam. He has no idea what the problem was with those guys, but, it was none of his business.

Billy makes quick work of the trip home, traffic is simply an obstacle course to weave through. He pulls up to the Vasquez house and indicates his apartment next door, over the garage. Billy hands Jennifer a key, "Here let yourself in and make yourself comfortable I won't be a minute."

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
Jen, still clutching her purse full of cash, just nodded. "Oookay." she said, holding luck but not letting it out yet. She took off the oversized helmet and handed it back to Billy, but kept the jacket. It was getting chilly out. She walked into the apartment, letting herself in with the key, and then proceeded to raid his fridge.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson has a brief negotation with the siblings still at home. Eugene wanted $20, Billy wanted to strangle him if he didn't do it. They compromised and Eugene got $20. Billy would have given him $50 and counted it as $30 found. He grabs a bottle of Mountain Dew on his way out. This was turning into an interesting evening. He opens the door to his place and stares at Jen bent into the fridge. "Ahem."

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
"Hey," she said, withdrawing from his fridge with - a bottle of water. "Hope you don't mind." she said as she uncapped the bottle. "Parched." she said, then took a possibly-disturbing amount of water in a single smooth swallow. "Any luck with the phone repair?" she asked hopefully.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson sets the soda on the counter. "He says a couple hours. He has a big Fortnite competition he has to finish first. Wouldn't budge on it. Sorry." He plops onto the couch. "So you're okay after all that? Are you cold, want a hoodie or something? I can order a pizza if you're hungry." Billy lets out a breathe of spent adrenaline. The getaway reminded him of his times on the street. A thrill a minute.

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
Jen clutched her bag to her and then shook her head. "Can I borrow your phone?" she asked. "Just so I can let my roomies know what's what."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson hands Jen his phone. "Say 'hi' for me." He assumed she was nervous, the way she clutched that bag like it was her life line. Maybe it was the motorcycle? Well he had no chance of intimidating any of the other women in his past life.

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
If you had 20K and change in cash and were rescued from at best a beating you;'d clutch your gains as well. Jen reached out for the offered phone. "Thanks!" she said with a sunny smile as she sent a text to Marie-Ange to let her know that she was still alive and was going to be late. Then she deleted her sent message and handed back his phone. "Thanks so much. I appreciate that." she said, keeping an eye on the exit as well as Billy. "I really owe you for the rescue." she said. "I'm grateful. That wasn't gonna be pleasant. Very sore losers."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson ahs. "You're welcome. Will you please sit down? You're making me nervous. No one trailed us here. No one's going to hurt you. You're Marie and Mary's bud. C'mon. Relax. Am I that scary? I mean watch cartoons when no one is around." He pats the couch and grins. "I can put on a movie. I have all the Universal monsters, William Castle's films, Breakfast at Tiffany's... my sister recommended it."

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
"Hey, buddy. Don't take any offense here but this is not how I wanted to spend my evening." she said. "I mean, I'm grateful for getting me away from those sore losers but if it's all the same to you, I'd really like to be on my way back home." she said with the best smile she could muster. "So tell you what. Call me an Uber, I'll pay for it, and then I'll stop by sometime tomorrow to pick up my phone." she offered. "Maybe I can get us lunch as a thank-you?"

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson nods and sets up the Uber ride. "Okay. Done. I have a busy day tomorrow so we'd have to do lunch another day. And it's Billy. Okay, you got lucky, two minutes away." Having his company refused stung a little. Was she so far out of his league?

No.

Whatever his flaws he had known some exceptional women. He assumed he was just not interesting to her and that's fine. He was just detouring through Manhattan when he ran into her. She was too out there for him, probably. Probably going out again for whatever. He gets up and sees her out the door. He was just trying to be friendly. Everyone was drifting away from him lately.

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
Jen felt more luck leave her and then sighed in relief. "Look. It's nothing personal. If it was, I'd just write the phone off and you'd not see me again." she said. Dammit, Jen, you were usually better at this than this. "It's just a bad night for me. You've got a habit of catching me when I'm not at my best." she said with a small laugh. "So let's do lunch. No pressure, no bad days, just ... let me buy you lunch as a thank-you." she offered.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson nods. "Thanks. I had a long day myself. Glad I could help you. I'll get back to you for the lunch I really am busy tomorrow. I'll be sure Eugene has your phone if I leave early." He could probably run it over to her house but, he didn't want to get that involved. Her apology was misdirected. He wasn't angry so much with her as the trends in his life and... maybe he needed to see Marie and get a reading or do a jam session?

Jennifer Stavros has posed:
Jen smiled at him. "Thanks for the rescue. And for not being a creep. And for being understanding." she said, then stood up. "Pretty sure that's my Uber." she said, and then held her hand up to her ear like she was using a phone. "Call me?" she asked, then slipped out the door.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson watched the girl get to the Uber. Then he opened the door to his closet, only it opened to the Rock of Eternity when he did it the right way. He looked around his one room, shabby apartment and suddenly wanted to be elsewhere very badly. Without a word he went through the portal, which closed after him.