Where: The Desert
When: May 25, 20120
What: Both irresponsible behavior and abilities. It's important.
Luckily, it didn't take long to fix up Rylie's cute yellow convertible after the accident, and she was all too excited to drive her again once she got her back. Which prompted a half day at work, and a drive by to pluck Zan away from his Friday classes. Shamelessly.
She drove out here with her trademark speed, at least once they got out of the city, and parked her now dusty car on a patch of desert a good distance from the sight of the highway. Just in case.
Cut out of class? Absolutely! No regrets for leaving early, since Zan had acquired much needed extensions anyway. And even if he hadn't, it's Rylie. Stowing his backpack behind the seat, he joined Rylie in the front to enjoy the ride.
"Good thing you're not a serial killer," he jokes once the car has come to a stop. He turns slightly, taking in the full expanse of sand and stone stretching out, then turns a grin over to her.
"Damn, you know, if I was, this whole thing would have been the most elaborate manipulation plot," Rylie says with a chuckle, "Missed opportunities, huh?" She hops out of the car, rather than opening the door, and comes around to rummage through the trunk.
The good thing is that she seems to have thought ahead enough to have food and water back there, but the interesting thing is that she pulls out a radar gun. "I thought we could work on speed runs today, see how much horsepower you got. What do you think?"
"Mind blowingly elaborate," Zan agrees. He climbs out of the car as well, more leisurely and through the door, though he smiles at Rylie's exit. His arms stretching up, overhead with his back arching before he wanders around to the back of the car.
Shaking his arms out, he slides over to half lean against the bumper, just aside from the open trunk. "Sounds like a plan," he says as he looks sets a curious eye on the radar.
Rylie fiddles with the odd little gun for a few moments before Zan can see the screen at the front flick on. She steps back to shut the trunk, twirling the gun around her fingers like some sort of old west gunslinger, but since she doesn't have a holster to slide it into at the end, it ends without much of a flourish.
"Alright. Try to keep it low for now. Not low enough to run into things, but, you know." She steps over to steal a quick kiss first, which makes her smile widen, but her voice drop to something closer to a whisper. "Whenever you're ready."
Zan's head tilts a little, watching her work the gun. A quick step pulls him away from the trunk so it can be closed. He turns slightly, rolling his shoulders and neck, as if it made any kind of difference, while he takes in lay of the land again. Nothing too low, but not too high either. A smile spreads across his features when she comes over for a kiss, meeting her half way.
Stepping away again, he swings his arms forward and back, and hops a little on the balls of his feet. "Think fast," he tells himself, little more than a murmur. Take off is a bit easier this time, practice when he can get away with it helping him gain control. He hovers, roughly three feet off the ground before tilting horizontally and zipping off. A full minute or two passes before he's seen again, flying back toward his starting point.
By the time he comes back around, Rylie is sitting on the hood of her car, leaning back against the windshield, skirt fanned out against the yellow. But when she sees him coming around again, she lifts the gun to check out his speed. She must have grabbed a notebook out of the glovebox, because she jots down some notes, vaguely worded— just in case.
There's no move to motion him in, because apparently she thinks he can go faster. Or, at least, wants to see if he can. So she just grins and waves him onward.
His speed slows only enough to register her motion. With a grin Zan disappears from sight again, moving on well away from the car. It's a wide circle he takes, keeping a safe distance still from the road but traveling further away from Rylie this pass. However it might be difficult to tell if he'd followed the same track or went longer, because within just minutes again he's cutting through the air, just a couple of feet over the ground and again headed toward his original starting point.
She might have to arrange some sort of communication set up for these things. Not too hard these days, with handsfree and bluetooth all over the place. Provided his cell can keep up with his speed.
She does it again, measuring and taking notes, at least this time she starts to look impressed at the reading. Her gaze follows him as long as she can see him, turning to catch the closer arcs of his circular pattern.
There's no slowing this time, and it seems Zan might have found a rhythm. Though she may not be able to see it, he's definitely locked in concentrating, trying to grasp that extra bit of speed or find that point where his control simply can't handle things. He cuts his turn more tightly, slowing only for the sharpness of it before shooting off again. A third pass comes up, still just minutes later and closing in fast.
When he starts to get in too close, both to the car and the ground, he can feel the warning tingle his power gives him. A bit of instinct to let him know when close becomes too close. It seems the glow isn't just for show.
And when he gets the speed up enough that he starts plateauing out, Rylie ends up standing up on the car, trying to get a better view of where he's gone and where he's going. There may even be some cheering going on, but it's hard for him to notice, going by so fast.
The proverbial brakes aren't hit, but Zan swings wide and upward to get away from the odd tingle. His form, to that point well enough to look level and even wobbles as he angles upward and twists over. Sort of like a half barrel roll added to the climb. He roller coasters downward again, one final go around to see if he can top out his speed.
From her vantage point, Rylie can make out the rough track of his passage. With the stretch of desert, low formations doing little to obscure once she's above them, his movement shows his location in the distance before he's well beyond sight range.
It doesn't take long for him to reappear though, coming toward the car one final time and blowing past it before he calls for an all stop. It's not sudden, he slows significantly several yards behind the car, and gets his feet out in front to catch himself with stumbling steps as gravity takes over and drags him downward. Though panting and pressing his hands to his knees once he's fully stopped, he's laughing.
Rylie hops off the car when he comes in, and comes running over to wrap him up in a hug. She's laughing, too, and apparently not giving him too much time to recover. But she brings around the radar gun, to show the last reading she got off him, which sits right around two hundred miles per hour.
"Sir, do you know how fast you were going?" she asks in her best authoritative voice, even if it's ruined with her grinning expression. "How was it? Was it awesome?" She hops a little there, apparently assuming it was totally awesome.
Zan stumbles again as he's pulled into a hug, though he draws an arm around her waist and only laughs harder. He calms himself enough to look at the screen, staring at the numbers displayed while he catches his breath, disbelief and then amazement registering on his face. "Oh, no way," he breathes, chuckling again.
His arm tightens around her, his other catching up too to lift and hold her close, and he gives his a spin. "It was unreal," he says after, setting her down again. His arms fall away and he sinks backward to sit and the flop onto his back. "I can't believe it," he says, chuckling again.
"Way," Rylie replies with a grin, a grin that turns into another laugh when he picks her up to spin her around. "It looked pretty unreal," she adds, letting him have his rest this time as she steps over to open the trunk again. The food and, more importantly, the water come out next, her radar gun tossed back inside. She leaves it open this time, since it gives a bit of shade over their little portion of the desert.
She doesn't seem to mind the dirt, either, since she comes over to sit down next to him, setting a bottle of water within reach. "Did you see the glow this time?"
Given a moment of respite, Zan practically sprawls, eyes closed against the brightness of the sun. "It was awesome," he says, smiling. "Everything was a blur I don't even know how far I went, it was just too fast." He sits up when she joins him, hands rubbing over the top of his head to settle his hair back in place.
"I felt… something," he says for an answer, turning his head to look at her. "When I got too close to things. Like my spider sense was tingling." He grins, and offers a shrug. "No glowing, though."
"Spider sense, nice," Rylie says, no doubt making a mental note to add that to what she's been keeping track of over these practices. "I suppose that'll make your dad worry less about you running into a plane," she adds with a crooked smile.
"You look like you're getting better at the finesse part, too, by the way. I think you'll have a handle on this thing in no time." She cracks open her bottle of water, taking a long drink.
"Hopefully," Zan agrees, though he doesn't sound much convinced that his dad would worry any less. He shrugs, dismissive, and picks up his own bottle of water. He takes a drink, after twisting the cap off, then flops over backward again, without spilling.
"I have a terrific teacher," he points out as he fumbles the cap back onto the bottle. "I'd be thinking Vida Mala hit me with something and I dreamed the whole thing otherwise. —Or flying into aircraft."
Rylie chuckles at that, shaking her head lightly. "To be fair, they did give you something, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch." She scoots over to lay down, too, hands tucking behind her head as a makeshift pillow of sorts. She has sunglasses, so looking up at the sky isn't so much a problem.
"Ooh, flattery will get you an A in the class," she says with a chuckle, "Probably why I'd never make it as a professor."
A small nudge presents itself to Rylie's arm in the form of Zan's, intending to take over for pillowing. His eyes hood against the glare, gaze set somewhere distant, well beyond his feet instead of straight upward. "So believing it wouldn't be far from the truth."
He folds his other arm behind his head, gaze angling toward her briefly. "Not just flattery," he replies, a small smile forming. "I think next we should test the limits. Find out where my ability ends."
It doesn't take a lot of convincing for Rylie to take the offer; she even ends up sliding closer against his side. She glances his way, too, no smart aleck comment for the compliment this time, just a smile she can't quite dampen down.
"Yeah? How long until it runs out, that sort of thing? I'm waiting to see how far up you can manage, myself." She seems to be finding it all almost as exciting as he does. Perhaps because her own ability is nothing at all like it. And not as much fun as zipping around over the desert.
Zan presses a small kiss to her forehead, then looks out over the landscape again. "How long it lasts," he agrees. "How high I can go. Just what the limits are. There's got to be limits on it, right? Everything's got a range, a point where it just can't go any further."
That kiss has Rylie's smile widening, and she turns onto her side, her arm coming to lay over his chest. "Oh yeah. Everyone's got some sort of range. It's a good thing, too, or someone like me would just be totally useless," she says with a smirk. "Looks like we'll need another desert weekend and just see how long you can go. Might be exhausting, as a warning."
"I think I can handle another weekend in the desert," Zan says quietly. He draws his arm up a little to cradle her shoulders, hand resting on her upper arm. "I'll come more prepared, though." He grins, glancing toward her. "Bring a supply of Monster drinks and other energy drinks. More food, too. Maybe my video camera so I can see this glow you're talking about."
"Monsters are totally cheating," Rylie says with a laugh. She doesn't necessarily disapprove, by her tone. "Now that's a good idea, bringing a video camera. We'll have to do a bit at night for you to get a really good look at it. During the day it's harder to see, especially when you're going fast. It's all a blur anyway."
"It's not cheating," Zan says in protest, chuckling. "Totally fair. If I start to fade before it looks like my powers are, I'll down one and I'll be good to go for another few hours. So not cheating." Her agreement to filming what he can do has him turning his head to look at her again, brows ticking upward. "Not going to say it's a bad idea? Now I really have to break down and get my new camera, something that can keep up."
"It's only a bad idea if someone else finds it and we've marked it Zan Caldecott And His Flying Powers. Know what I mean? Safes exist for a reason." Rylie shrugs a shoulder, but seems to think he can keep it hidden enough. "I guess that'll be good to find out, too. If it's you or the power running out of steam first. We'll have to run back into the city, but this weekend is the perfect opportunity. Extra day and everything." Even the Mayor's office gets Memorial Day off.
"Good point," Zan concedes. "I do have a place to hide any footage we get, and out here it's not likely we'll be found out. Except by maybe scorpions." He tips his head a little, cheek resting against the crown of her head. "Want to grab dinner while we're in the city, before we head back out here?"
"And scorpions aren't very gossipy, usually," Rylie says with a crooked smile. Her eyes close when he leans against her, and she lets out a gentle sigh. It's sort of a novel experience. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, we probably should. Last meal before we're roughing it out with the gila monsters."
"We could bring something out with us," Zan offers in aside. "Avoid the extra crowds. Share with the gila monsters so they'll leave us alone." His arm tightens around her shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze. "You'll have to let me do homework on the road," he warns with a grin. "I should try to get things caught up, so I can hand it all in and forget about it before I run out of time again."
"We could do that, too. Grab a pizza and hit the road." Being a person that enjoys the open road, that one isn't such a bad idea to Rylie. Her eyes open and she shifts to look over at him. "Are you implying that I somehow keep you from your studies? Me? Moi? Rylie?" Nevermind that she kept him from classes just today. "Or is that a plea for me to leave the top up for the drive?"
Her protests to any implications just cause Zan to grin. He shrugs, slightly, playing innocent even though he's just as guilty for agreeing to cut out of school for the afternoon. "You're a terrible influence," he teases. Then, chuckling, he shrugs again. "No plea or formal request. I just need to get caught up so I can slack the rest of the summer."
"Oh, I suppose that's sensible," Rylie says with an overdramatic sigh. "It goes with the job, being a bad influence." She rolls over, hands propping her up from either side of his head as she looks down at him. "I guess we should get on the road, then, huh?" Her voice drops to a whisper there, her lips curving into a teasing smile.
She even starts to get herself up to her feet.
Zan only grins further, contentedly amused. It softens into a small smile when she looms over him, but he doesn't let her get too far to her feet once she's decided to stand. He catches her hand with one of his as he sits up, pulling her to him. He gently tugs her closer, taking her other hand as well while he leans in to kiss her again.
Rylie laughs for just a moment as she's pulled back toward him. Just for a moment because she returns the kiss in short order. Her fingers lace with his and she holds on tight. "You know," she says, breaking the kiss just enough to be able to talk, "I don't think you need any help in the bad influence department."
Zan tips his head forward a little, forehead coming to rest against hers. "Probably not," he agrees in a murmur. He smiles, brushing his thumbs against the backs of her hands, then leans in to kiss her again, lingering just a bit longer. Though when he breaks this time, he makes to stand and pull her along with him.
Her answering chuckle is cut off by the next kiss, but Rylie isn't complaining. Not until he starts pulling away again. A protesting groan accompanies her lifting to her feet, but playfully so. "Tease," she accuses with a grin before she tosses her stuff back in the trunk and shuts it again, pulling her keys out of a pocket to twirl these around her finger as well.
Zan might feign insult if he wasn't laughing. He helps straighten up what little had made it out of the car. Then, putting an arm around her waist, he leads her over to the driver's side door. He pulls it open for her, smiling. "Sooner we get stuff, sooner we can escape again."
Rylie slides her arm around him as well, her head shaking a little. "Ever the gentleman," she says when he opens the door. She presses a kiss to his cheek before she gets in again and starts to buckle up. "Alright," she says, readjusting her sunglasses with a grin, "Let's hit the road."
Zan only smiles and shrugs. "Always," he replies before closing the door. He crosses around to the passenger side and climbs in, grabbing his pack before pulling on his own seatbelt. Apparently he's going to make good his attempt to finish something before they get to town. Of course, before too long after settling in with an open text and notebook, he commandeers her right hand with his left, though still manages to look productive.
Since he pulls out his work, Rylie even puts the top back up. It isn't something she does often. But once he's taken her hand, the girl seems far more mollified. Enough to not be much of a bother as they make their way back toward Vegas.
