Fanboy Fanaticism

Donût was supposed to be on a train heading west by that point.  That had been his plan, and he'd plotted it all out accordingly.  He couldn't go back to his apartment, all of his furniture had been sold off and some other guy was living there and paying rent.  Thus, he'd had to crash in his old room after explaining to his family that he'd missed the train and was going to have to get a new ticket and such...  They understood, of course, and he did LOVE all of his many siblings, but...  Well the place was crowded and it was weird sharing a room with a handful of brothers again after having so much space to himself.

Still, it meant he was able to get showered and gussied up before he headed off to the market.  Because, Donût had met the very man he was seeking out the day he missed the train.  The Cowboy Cerrone had been shopping miles and MILES away from his hometown as if the market in East City was just a quick jaunt down the street.  This implied to Donût that Cerrone wasn't living anywhere close to where the fansites predicted, somewhere out west on a little ranch which was close to his original birthplace had been Donût's guess (and he'd even made a small list of all the ranches with some land attached nearby).  It also implied that he would be back the next time that he needed some groceries...

THAT was the key reason that Donût had been spending the last few days observing the whole of the market square from a rooftop corner with a pair of binoculars, keeping a close eye out for Cowboy Cerrone's signature hat and jacket...  That would be the key.  Hark!  By a stroke of luck, Donût's binoculared eyes managed to catch a man that looked quite a bit like Cassidy "Cowboy" Cerrone moving down a side-street off the market.  The little, buff, and hairy man leaped into action, literally.  If anyone in the market had bothered to look up, they would have seen a pink blur moving overhead very, VERY quickly.  Like some... graceful frog on caffeine pills.

Cassidy, meanwhile, might have sensed Donût before he saw him above, as Donût arrived at a roof above him.  Then, there was a low grunt... and the stout fighter descending down from the roof smooth as silk with arms outstretched.  Donût landed on the tip of one sneaker-clad foot and did not even so much as wobble before he put his other leg down on the ground.

"Nailed it."

He cleared his throat then turned to Cassidy, pointing a thick finger in his direction.

"Aha!  I knew ya'd be back!  Nobody ever goes out ta buy bread and peanut-butter without also gettin' sum sorta jam, jelly, or preserve!"

The young fighter couldn't believe what he was hearing.  Cassidy "Cowboy" Cerrone was impressed by his brainpower?  Impressed by his fighting skills?!  He wanted a one-on-one tussle to properly gauge the young man?!  He wanted to be Donût's best friend and mentor in the art of fighting?!  Okay, Cassidy hadn't said that last part, but he had implied it very, VERY heavily in Donût's mind.

The grin on his face widened and froze, and the squat fighter held up a single finger in Cassidy's direction.  That finger, and his thumb, then reached down to his hairy forearm.  Why?  So Donût could pinch himself and test to see if he was dreaming.  Upon feeling the sharp little bit of pain, he nodded.  He was, in fact, awake at that moment.  He did an excited little dance from side to side on his surprisingly-nimble feet and let out a most un-manly squeal of pure joy.

Then, right in the middle of his celebration, Donût's smile disappeared and he got a more serious face on.  He also folded his arms and looked off to the side... mostly so he could try and remember a few of his favorite spots.

"Yeah... *sniff*... sounds pretty cool.  I know a couple places two people c'n fight without causin' property damage 'er gettin' interrupted..."

The smile came back, he could not banish it forever.  The little hairy man then held up a finger and pointed it in a westward direction.

"OH!  Bang-Bang Stadium's a good place!  Been abandoned fer about ten years now, and after tha restoration levy failed at tha ballot...  Well, there won't be any construction crews there, either.  Plus, it's all open air!"

He waved a hand as he turned towards the direction he'd pointed.

"C'mon, I'll lead tha way!  Ohboyohboyohboy!"

Once more, Donût leaped up to the rooftops, looking like a graceful warrior from a Wuxia movie.  It had taken him YEARS to perfect the slow ascent and descent, the grand leaps.  Lots of wearing heavy weights, moving around with fridges on his back, and other such exercises...  All because he still, to that very day, had not figured out that the fighters in those movies were using wires.

The well-muscled young fighter just about jumped out of his skin when Cassidy suddenly appeared in front of him.  He hadn't seen the other man follow behind him via leaping or running... wait, was he hovering over the flat top of the roof?  When Donût blinked, Cassidy's feet were firmly on the concrete roof of the little apartment building Donût had wound up on.  Had he been flying?  Was this some new super-secret technique?  Had Cowboy Cassidy achieved enlightenment and one-ness with the universe?  Was it just like Donût's fanfictions from when he was a child?

Well, the situation was similar to them, since Cassidy "Cowboy" Cerrone, THE Cassidy "Cowboy" Cerrone was inviting him to train and fight at THE BMF Ranch?  Donût was stunned into silence for just about a full minute.  Silence that was accompanied by a wide, excited grin.  After that full sixty seconds of silence, the buff little man took in a deeeeeeeep breath.

"HELL TO THA YES I WANNA SEE IT!"

After those words came another little dance, complete with fist-pumping and high-stepping.  Donût spun himself around and around in circles... And, to cap off the little dance, he jumped in the air with a cheer.  His dream, one of many, was starting to come true!

If Donût had not been blinded by hero-worship and excitement, he might very well have noticed that brief frown.  That wistful look.  That melancholy in the older fighter's eyes...  But at that moment, he didn't.  He could only notice the confident grin, the offer to train at BMF ranch, the look of approval in Cassidy's eyes.  In order to keep that look coming, the Unbreakable Mister Steel nodded his head so quick that his head became a blur before he responded.

"Sure thing!  I'll stay right behind ya every step o' tha way!"

He suddenly stopped nodding as a thought struck him.  Then he put a hand to his goatee and stroked over it with his forefinger and thumb.  After a few moments of this pondering he pointed at Cassidy.

"Wait, so wus I seein' thing a moment ago, or were ya flyin'?  Cause if ya can and we gotta fly ta get there... I dunno how ta do that."

It was true, Donût had never learned how to fly.  Instead, he'd merely trained the muscles in his legs to be able to jump very, very high... and unwittingly trained himself to push down with his ki to slow his descent.  He had the beginnings of flight, but he wasn't quite there yet.

The young Donût was not quite sure how he was supposed to "sense" Cassidy if the man got too far away while flying... but he assumed it meant that he'd be able to follow some trail or some other such thing.  Besides, he had no intention of falling behind.  When Cassidy asked his question, the young fanatic nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"Crystal clear, sir!"

And with that, the pair were off.  While Cassidy simply flew high above the ground, Donût moved in a different way.  Within the city limits, he leaped high into the air to clear a few rooftops or streets, with the occasional burst of sprinting to maintain speed.  He cleared apartment buildings, sky-scrapers, even jumped up close enough to see Cassidy in full detail and flash him another thumbs up.

Once the pair got out of East City, though... once they entered the countryside with flat stretches of road?  Donût ran.  And he ran fast.  Fast enough to send a great cloud of dust billowing up behind him as he tossed up dirt and dust into the air with the impacts of his feet, fast enough that several drivers thought he was a motorcyclist on a joyride and honked their horns appropriately.  In other words, more than fast enough to keep up with Cassidy's flight.  Though it was a bit more intense on the muscles.




Exiting as well!  Off to BMF Ranch!