Flea-va, Las Vegas! Part Four
From a nearby shuttle bus, Julie watches the hotel nervously until she sees the golden armored guys flying away and without Miss Kyle! "They don't have Miss Kyle with them." she tells Zodon and Poly.
"Then she wasn't who they were looking for," Zodon replies.
"Where is this bus going?" Poly asks as it pulls away from the curb.
"To the Strip. It's where all the big casinos are," Zodon informers her.
"I could have flown us away," Julie points out.
"That's what they were expecting. They're probably scanning everything in a cape right now."
"So what do we do?" Poly asks finally getting a little worried.
"I don't know about you two, but I'm going to make the most out of this trip..." Zodon says with that worrying grin of his.
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One shuttle ride later, the three kids step out into the neon glare of the Las Vegas casino strip and look around. They start walking and are dazzled by all the casinos and their myriad themes.
"So if those men are looking for us, shouldn't we go inside?" Julie asks Zodon as she's pretty sure the teachers back at school described doing just such a thing once.
"Well, duh, but I didn't get a chance to research the casinos online, so we'll have to pick one at random."
"I wanna go to that one!" Poly exclaims pointing to the Masquerade casino, whose logo looks an awful lot like her domino mask.
"Gee, I wonder why..." Zodon dead pans.
"What about Miss Kyle? She told us to run and get help," Julie points out. After all, how do they know if Miss Kyle doesn't need their help?
"We are getting help," Zodon replies turning to walk towards the casino. "Our help is in there, just a card draw or a level pull away."
Julie's not convinced but decides to go along for now since Zodon is the better planner. "I wish I'd packed some clothes. I really need to wash my outfit."
"I thought all capes and stuff came with self-cleaning molly-cues?" Poly asks a little confused.
Julie looks over at Zodon who's walked ahead of them before replying, "My folks can't afford anything like that. This is one of the old 'steel wear' starter costumes. It's just really hard to rip."
"I'm glad I don't have to worry about costumes," Poly replies back to her cheerful self.
Julie stops short, not quite sure she got that as Poly has always worn a costume...or at least she seemed like she did."You don't?" she asks hesitantly.
"Nope," Poly replies undaunted until she catches the look on her friends face. "What?"
"Nothing," Julie replies as they enter the casino. "Just...nothing."
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Later in the casino's mall, Poly and Julie are window shopping at Heroic Xpressions. They had decided to take a break from Zodon and he had been just as glad to not have the girls "slowing him down".
"That's what you need. Maybe something with fins," Poly says pointing to a 50's style retro-future number.
Julie sighs. "I wouldn't know what to get. I don't even have a hero-name picked out."
"You don't? I guess I'm lucky. My dad says 'Poly Mer' is a name for plastic."
"Your parents named you after plastic?"
"Mom says my great-gramma was named 'Polly' and 'Mer' means 'ocean' in French. At least, that what she says whenever I ask. Then she gives dad a bad look. I dunno why."
Julie decides to let that go and change the topic back to costumes. "I don't have any money to buy stuff like this. My parents don't have much, either. I'm the first person in our part of the family to get super powers, and mine aren't that special, anyway. I wonder if it would've been better if I didn't.." she finds herself saying before being distracted by Poly blowing a bubble with gum. "Can I have some gum, too?"
Poly turns to look at her as she blows another bubble. "What gum?"
"That's kind of gross," Julie can't help saying as she realizes Poly is basically chewing and making bubbles with herself.
"What?" Poly replies not getting it. An idea occurs to her then and she blurts out, "Hey, maybe Zodon can win you a new costume. With fins!"
"I think he wants his doom-bot things more." Julie replies. Their talk is interrupted by a loud pop and crash of the light bulb their fellow student Flea had dropped from the rafters.
"What was...?" Poly exclaims as they both turn to the sound. Julie immediately looks up to see one of the golden armored guys that had attacked them with Miss Kyle holding a squirming...Wait, is that Flea? Julie thinks before saying and pointing, "Up there!"
Up in the rafters, the Armored figure says, "Tell me where Zodon is and nobody gets..." or at least tries to before Flea kicks, hitting the figure in the head and bursting free. Shocked, it takes Julie and Poly a second before their school training kicks in and they split to provide two targets instead of one. The armored figure fires an electric burst which nails Poly but doesn't really bother her as being made of rubber she's naturally insulated.
The figure continues his attack however, firing a cement-like insta-adhesive to trap Julie. He misses her but nails her cape. Her momentum carries her forward and while "steel wear" is hard to rip, it can't withstand Julie's powers of flight. The cape is ripped from her. She turns to hold the torn cape in her hands and can't think of anything else but all the extra weekend and evening shifts her mother put in to buy it. Blinking furiously to keep herself from crying she looks up and sees a giant steel sculpture of the Masquerade casino's domino mask.
Flea and Poly meanwhile have moved in and are wrestling with the golden armored figure, keeping it (him?) from harming any civilians. "Uh-oh," Flea says catching sight of the shadow first. "What? Oh" Poly and the armored figure say in unison as they catch sight of the giant domino mask and the pissed off little girl who carrying it as she flies at them. Flea and Poly break free just as Julie wraps the mask around the armored figure.
"Everybody freeze! You're all being detained by the authority of the Las Vegas Meta-human Task Force and casino security! Cooperate fully and you will be fairly treated. Resistance will be met with appropriate force..." calls out a suited man who comes flying in as several other personal in heavy riot-like gear arrive on the scene. Julie stands off to the side with her arms folded. She still too upset to talk but she'll not cause anymore trouble.
Poly stretches around the armored man wrapped in a solid steel domino mask and can't help feel pride for her best friend. "Wow."
Flea just stands there casually and hooks his thumb at the wrapped bad guy. "Hi, there! Can I keep this guy and take him home? Nobody there believes me when I tell them about him and his friends..." This entry was originally posted at http://fiss84.dreamwidth.org/3073.html. Please feel free to comment here or there using OpenID.