I sure like the feeling of an endless road

[phantomrider]

[A few hours of open road makes for easygoing fun. It's great to be traveling again, and the feeling of Chrissy leaning up against his back, holding on tight while he whips ahead on a wide-open freeway through the pitch black of night is like nothing else. The last time they were racing up and down this freeway, they were on the way to go burn a bunch of people's lives down - but now that's hours back, back with the rest of the city. They've left the lights and have nothing to look at but the pavement in Johnnie's headlight, the glimpses of stars shining weakly through hazy clouds, and occasionally an oncoming car.

Johnnie hasn't exactly been trying to tune in to his senses or abilities or whatever it is he has - he's just been cruising, letting the night go by, enjoying their plunge northward without a care or a thought. So it is deeply irritating when the pavement quickly fades to a well-worn dirt track that almost tosses him and Chrissy to the ground, and it takes all of his skills to get the front wheel under control and to slow down before they hit a rock that really might launch them into the nearest alfalfa field. Or whatever it is that's here, whenever they've found themselves. Somewhere pre-freeway. Boo.

But there are a few lights ahead, and he did need a stop to pee, so, fuck it.]

Well, shit. Y'know, I dunno exactly where we are. Last sign said San Jose was still fuckin' hours off. You good? That was kinda shaky.

[As long as this dirt road stays packed, they can drive it, but it's going to be slow. Good thing they're almost to somewhere.]

Comments

[cheerleader]

Maybe somewhere by that bridge? What's it called again?

[She knows she's heard of it at one point or another, it's supposedly a famous tourist destination. But when she's primed on theft and is focused on causing trouble, details of non-crime related activities tend to slip away.]

There has to be somewhere near there that's a park or something we can hide stuff for a little while.

[But if it's filled with tourists, maybe even at night, that may not be the best choice. Her mind turns to try and rapidly think of anywhere else, but it's hard when she just doesn't know the city.]

We need to think of somewhere we can put these things inside something so no one else can get them. [She pauses, giving him a squeeze as she rests her chin on his shoulder and thinks.]

Hey, what about a church? We've gone by a few of them. No one goes into them this late at night. And I bet they'd never think to look for us there. We can stick them up under a pew or something.

[phantomrider]

Oh! Yeah, that's perfect. Church it is.

[Way better than the bridge idea in his opinion. Sure, late night mass definitely can be a thing, but he feels like the odds are probably in their favor.

The first one they come to isn't actually a church, per se, it's a Jewish temple. Are those open all night? It looks pretty fucking dead right now. He parks outside and eyes it speculatively, then hops off.]

Same thing, right?

[The lights are off, there's nobody here. He trots on over to the front door before getting anything out of the bike, and there's nothing obvious on the little paper schedule next to that front door suggesting anyone's likely to come do Jewish midnight things, so he tries the front door and finds it swings open easily.]

Hey, I think we're good!

[cheerleader]

[She's never been in a Jewish temple before, so she's pretty quiet at first in an attempt to be respectful. Just because they're hiding stolen goods inside this place doesn't mean they can't treat it with respect.]

I guess they don't need to lock up at night.

[Her voice is kept low, and as they head inside she's incredibly grateful that even though the lights aren't on there's some sub lighting that at least keeps it from being pitch black in here. They walk through a small foyer that leads to double doors that guide their way into the temple itself. It's definitely different from the church she grew up going to, but there's enough similarities that she smiles a little as she jogs on up ahead.]

There's a lot of seats all around this room, huh? Not exactly like a church where it's all benches straight in a row. And look, a stage!

[Is it a stage?

Probably not. But she dances her way up onto the platform as she looks for a place to hide their stuff. Everything up here looks too noticeable and obvious, so she makes her way back down and looks around the room as fast as she can.]

What about over here?

[There's a couple of wooden boxes that are on the floor against a wall, one that's latched closed with a padlock. The other is just latched without one, and she opens it up to reveal...

Candles.

A whole bunch of boxes of candles.]

Let's try putting everything in here. We'll be back in a few hours, way before sunrise.

[phantomrider]

Yeah, that should be fine.

[No chance anyone's going to come in here in the next couple hours looking for stolen jewelry. And if by chance someone does, at least it won't be easily traceable to the two of them.

He helps her trot their finds over from the bike into the box. It's a tight squeeze, but with some force and a little shoving, they manage to get it all contained and latched, and Johnnie grins at their success afterward.]

That box'd be fuckin' bulging at the sides if it could. All right, let's get the fuck outta here. Y'know, maybe we don't need spray paint, just gasoline.

[Though spray paint will still be a great find if they happen to spot a hardware supply. Mostly he just wants to burn Dante's shitty hangout to the ground, and if they have to burn their mark into the earth to show it was them, fine.]

Just help me remember which streets we took so we can get back here without losin' all that stuff.

[Once they're both seated, he's off again - time to find themselves the tools they need to give those Jawbreakers all the regrets they'll ever be able to handle.]

[cheerleader]

[Wait, he wants her to navigate? For real? Her eyes widen as she quickly takes in as many landmarks as possible to try and remember. She's so focused on that, she's not looking for hardware stores that might have spray paint. That will have to be on him.]

I think we need spray paint. Because I mean, we don't even know if Dante is still alive after what I did last night, right? But if he is, we want him to know it was us. And they won't unless we tag stuff around their clubhouse.

[It's one thing to set it all on fire, but she's in a particular sort of mood that demands vindictive destruction.]

Dante was so mean to you yesterday and he really hurt my arm when he grabbed me. So I want him and all his guys to pay for it. I wanna lock them in the clubhouse and make it hard for them to get out when it's on fire.

[Is that terrible?

She's losing the ability to tell what's unhinged and what's normal.]

[phantomrider]

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Spray paint. Okay, well - I guess we gotta get farther outta town. Nobody doing construction projects is gonna come look this way, right?

[The kinds of places that sell paint are usually close to where people need them. On the outskirts, near the suburbs. Near industrial centers and docks. And gasoline they can get anywhere. So he does his best to at least judge the general direction they need to go in to head back toward the harbor, and rockets down the street at speeds far exceeding whatever the supposed limit is.

Sirens, in the distance. Could be for them, could be something else. To the south. They're still in the clear for now, but he'll be keeping tabs.

Fifteen minutes or so dumps them into a stretch of factories lining the train tracks on their way to the harbor, and that's where he finds a hardware store easily enough. They have a tall metal fence and a heavy-looking lock on the gate.]

Guess they get fuckin' tired of people like us. C'mon, I'll boost you up.

[cheerleader]

What kind of store has a gate like this? It's not the Ritz Carlton, sheesh.

[She rolls her eyes as she stares up at the metal fence, but readily moves in closer so he can give her a boost. It won't be too hard for her to scale this thing and get to the other side, and sure enough she's climbing up and leaping over and landing on her feet. Getting the gate open isn't going to work with the lock, so she takes a second and stands back to figure out what to do.]

Hey, babe? I may try breaking in and getting what we need by myself. I'm not sure how to get you over here to this side. There's only the one gate, and that lock looks like a pain in the butt to deal with.

[phantomrider]

That's fine, you go on ahead. I'll keep an eye out for the pigs.

[And maybe see if he can work the lock open with his picks, though he's not expecting it. It's practice, though.]

You wind up with more'n you can hold, just roll stuff under to me an' I'll get it on the bike. Or throw it over, I dunno.

[Or break a fucking hole in it with her weird fucking powers. Cool ones, yeah, but damn. Maybe that's what he should be doing, practicing his own shit, but he can't figure out how to access it without that background cosmic hum - or the purr of his bike engine on a long open road where he can let go of everything else.

Oh well. Lockpicking, it is, while listening to those distant sirens. So far, so good.]

[cheerleader]

[Sadly, the thought of using what she can do to force the gate open doesn't even cross her mind. Her heels kick up as she jumps in excitement at Johnnie approving of her going in alone. A quick jog up to the front door has her trying to jiggle it open, but of course it's locked.

That's okay, the doors are glass. There's some garden things for sale off to the side, and she grabs one of the dog shaped little statues to slam against the door a few times until the glass shatters. The statue is set down at her feet and she pats it head before stepping through broken glass and through the jagged opening in the door to the inside.

There's signs hanging up near the ceiling, and she makes a beeline straight for the aisle labeled as paint. She finds a giant paint bucket and fills it with cans of spray paint, lots of black and red and yellow. There's a few cans of neon orange she grabs for good measure. On her way out she finds plastic gas canisters, but can't carry them along with the bucket. So she runs that out to the fence and starts rolling each can under to Johnnie one at a time.]

Are those sirens getting closer? I gotta run back in and get a couple of gas containers!

[It's hard to tell if the sirens are coming for them. Maybe she shouldn't chance it, but they really do need those containers.]

[phantomrider]

[Oh hell yeah, paint. One by one, he grabs those as she rolls them until his arms are full. That lock isn't opening tonight, he's abandoning it for now.]

I dunno, they're goin' in and out. Maybe when they go behind buildings or somethin'. I think we still got time, but you better hurry!

[He's excited, though. Racing the cops to burn some assholes' clubhouse to a crisp? Best kind of night there is. Any minute now the cops could turn down this way and catch them before they get out - so they just have to be faster, and he's good at fast.

Once the paint is all tucked away, he turns back toward the fence, and now those sirens are definitely louder. He takes one glance back toward the road, then shouts through the fence.]

Hey, you better hurry! If you don't have 'em just get out here, we'll get 'em somewhere else! Get some bolt cutters instead so you can get this lock off!

[Hopefully she can hear him yelling. With that, he runs and hops onto the bike. He can lead these assholes in circles all night if they get here before she gets out. He'll make sure they don't catch her trapped in there.]