Two figures swept across the blackening sky, fighting to keep their balance in the cross currents. Landing on a twenty story building, thetwo figures caught their breath and balance. "Now, wasn't that fun?" "Oh, yeah, a blast. Can we go back for my dinner? I'm getting hungry again." Spirit Wolf looked up into the angry sky. "Who has brought on the wrath of Father Sky I wonder?" she mused, as the clouds churned above. ShadowWing looked up as well. Lightning flashed, illuminating a plane heading for Kennedy Airport. "Well, from the looks of that lightning, I don't think winging our way around New York is such a hot idea." She began to jog across the roof. "Where are you going?" shouted Spirit over the thunder. "Follow me and you'll find out!" laughed ShadowWing. Spirit began to jog after her friend just as the rain began to pelt down. Grateful for the poncho she packed in her side pouch, Spirit stopped long enough to put it on. It didn't keep the torrential rain out, but it would do in this storm as a small measure against the elements. Spirit sighed, glad for her gymnastics lessons as a child and began leaping from roof to roof in the footsteps of ShadowWing. The younger, nimbler woman was drenched, but seemed to be having the time of her life. Spirit, on the other hand, was ten years the other woman's senior and definitely feeling her bones creak at the unaccustomed exercise. 'I'm glad I left the wolves behind. They'd have been lost way back there,' she thought as she ran to leap across a long chasm. Heights weren't making her as nervous as they used to. Stopping in New York every once in a while to visit ShadowWing and the girl's alter ego,Belle Anderson, solved that small phobia. Belle had a thing for heights, mostly soaring over them on a small line, or leaping the New York rooftops. Making another running leap, Spirit slipped, sliding at a quick rate towards the ledge with no way to stop herself. Using her gloves for traction didn't seem to help and the next thing she knew she was soaring downward. Twisting in mid-air, Spirit fumbled for the line in her pouch, hauled it out and began swinging, lasso-style. The loop hooked onto a drainage pipe older than God and held fast. She swung in an arch and hit the side of the building. Self-preservation alone kept her from letting go from the shock. After a moment of getting feeling back in her body and not getting nauseous, Spirit looked up. ShadowWing was nowhere to be seen. No doubt, Belle was still gleefully hopping from rooftop to rooftop, safe in the knowledge that her companion was grumbling behind her. As she hung there, an image flashed through Spirit's mind of a laughing coyote. She frowned. It seemed Coyote, the trickster, was at it again. Growling to herself, she began to pull herself up. After about five minutes, she gave up. The rain was making the rope too slick climb and her gloves were beginning to shrink. "Damn leather. So much for being water-proof," she grumbled. Things were beginning to look bleak ten minutes later when her muscles started cramping. The heighth was getting to her as well and she began to get dizzy. "Well, at least the wind's not blowing!" she shouted to the heavens, thankful for that small miracle. Until a few minutes later, when the wind started blowing. Not small breezes or long gusts of wind, but quick gusts so powerful that they lifted and dropped her, over and over. ShadowWing was frantic. Where had she gone? Had she slipped on a roof and was hurt in this rainstorm? Could Spirit have fallen and been killed? Spirit was knowledgeable about the outdoors, but this was New York outdoors, not exactly Bambi country. Cursing herself for not paying attention, Belle continued to look, and also praying. The wind began to pick up, worrying ShadowWing even more. On the coast, this wasn't a good thing. Winds off the Atlantic could really bite and were extremely powerful. She'd been told they rivaled the ones Chicago got off the Great Lakes. Where could Spirit be? ShadowWing was getting ready to crawl into a sheltered place and call her Street Patrol to see if Spirit had shown up there, when she heard a shout. A desperate shout. "Not now," she muttered to herself, even as she went to see who needed the help, "I don't have time for this." She walked over to the side and looked down to the alleyway below. Nothing. She cocked her head to the side in order to hear the shout that echoed again. It sounded like it was coming from . . above?! "Oh my dear Lord, how did she do that!? And how am I supposed to get her down!!" exclaimed ShadowWing, as she watched Spirit being tugged up into the air like on a swing and then thrown back against the building side. ShadowWing looked around urgently, trying to figure out what to do. The drainage pipe looked as old as the hills and yet firmly concreted into the building, thankfully. If the other woman could hold on long enough and the rope not break, ShadowWing had a plan that just might work. Digging around in her belt, she pulled out a microphone speaker and attached it to a homing device that would stick on anything. Aiming carefully and judging for wind currents, ShadowWing prayed and gave it a throw. Hopefully it would be heavy enough to make it up there enough to yell instructions to Spirit Wolf. It missed Spirit all together but hit the building a little lower than the woman was hanging now. Just then Spirit slipped down somewhat, now hanging parallel to the speaker. "Spirit!" ShadowWing shouted. "Bout time..showed," was all ShadowWing heard but she got the point. "I'm throwing a line to connect toward the bottom of your line. Hold on!" Tossing again and again and missing, ShadowWing tried to connect her line's grapple into the building's brick surface. After several more tries, she got several feet lower than the bottom than Spirit's rope end, but it held fast and was close enough. Hoping Spirit could hear her enough to understand instructions, she shouted into the mike again. "Slip down your rope, then fall to mine. You should be able to glide over to me!" When Spirit didn't move, ShadowWing shouted it again. Nothing. Then, Spirit began to move downward, slowly but surely. Reaching the end though, she stopped. "I ain't going any further," she shouted as loud as she could. "Do it or fall!" ShadowWing yelled back. Spirit let go and began to fall. With her hands outstretched, she caught ShadowWing's rope and glided down to ShadowWing's rooftop. "We are taking the stairs down and a cab to your apartment, Belle, and that's that." ShadowWing sighed with relief and hugged the older woman. "You bet." They departed the scene, Spirit Wolf on extremely shaky legs.