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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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..."

Flea-va, Las Vegas! Part Five

"I'm sorry about your cape, sweetheart," Miss Kyle says leaning over to give Julie's shoulder a sympathetic rub as they road teh elevator. After the meta-human task force and casino security had taken away the man in golden armor, they were reunited with Miss Kyle and shown to a private room where they could be questioned. After only fifteen minutes it was pretty clear the children were not the aggressors and so we released only to be reunited with Zodon (who seemed to be grinning that world conquering grin that made the teachers edgy). Now they all were riding the Masquerade's VIP elevator to the suite Flea had somehow arranged with the intention of getting a good nights sleep.

"My mom said she worked hard to buy it for me..." Julie replied guilt clear in her voice.

"Can't it be fixed?" Poly asked.

"It's a 'steel wear' cape. Once you break the surface tension of the material you might as well toss it and get a new one," Zodon interjected with his usual disregard for the feelings of others.

"WE CAN'T AFFORD A NEW ONE!!!" Julie yelled completely done with Zodon's snark.

Stunned, everyone in the elevator was quiet for a few seconds before Miss Kyle couldn't take it anymore. "Wow...we're going a long way up, aren't we?" she said to hopefully break the tension.

"Almost there," Flea replied from his spot hanging upside down on the roof of the elevator.

"How did you get this room without committing a swirling felony?" Zodon added as the elevator finally reached their floor.

"It this the hallway?" Miss Kyle asked in awe.

"This is a 'foy-yay'," Flea answers leaping from the roof into the suite.

"This is part of your hotel room?" Poly asks just as amazed as Miss Kyle.

"Airfreshener me sideways!" Zodon says, as always unable to keep his mouth shut.

For her part Julie just shuffled out of the elevator not bothering to look up. How was she going to explain her ruined costume to her mom?

"I'm gonna go change," Flea said leaping across the room. "The blue suitcase on the couch is full of candy. Help yourself."

"Hotel rooms come with that?" Poly asks checking out the candy.

"Not usually..." Miss Kyle answers still in a daze at the size of the suite. The hotel room she had would fit in the suite's living room. Heck, her whole apartment back home would fit in here.

"This place has five bedrooms! Who did you kill to get this room?" Zodon says continuing to ramble.

"I'm going to the bathroom," Julie says so she can have sometime to herself. Once there she closes the door to shut everyone out and lets out a big sigh. She shouldn't have yelled in the elevator. It wasn't Zodon's fault her costume was ruined. Glancing over she notices the door to one of bedrooms connected to the bathroom and she pokes her head in. Maybe if I got a new cape I'd feel better, she thought as she spotted the bed and its sheets. Those would be too big but maybe one of the towels? she thought heading back to the bathroom. 

"I have claimed the westernmost bedroom as my sanctum sanctorum. Trespassers shall be dealt with harshly," Zodon is declaring as Julie walks back into the living room.

"Which is the...?" Poly asks around a mouthful of candy.

"For those with no sense of direction, that's the room nearest the TV."

"Oh."

"Does this look stupid?" Julie asks, interrupting before Zodon gets to lecturing too much. She holds out a corner fo the towel cape so everyone can see it properly. "This towel is all I could find. The bedsheets are too long..."

Miss Kyle kneels down to her eye level and gives an honest look before replying, "Oh, honey, it's...it'll be fine..."

Flea-va, Las Vegas! Part Six

 The next morning Julie is hovering above the casino's morning crowd with Bartholomew, the Masquerade's head of security. He also happens to be another FISS but what's weird to Julie is that he doesn't seem to care about all that, the way every other FISS Julie has come across does. Or maybe he just cares more about his job. After last nights...challenges, Julie is feeling a little better. The towel isn't an ideal cape but it works. It also turns out Zodon had made an arrangement with the owner of the Masquerade, a Mr. Godwin, to help the casino catch some one who was cheating in some way that Julie really didn't understand. Fortunately, she wasn't needed for catching the person and was allowed to help Bartholomew in his stakeout of the casino floor as they tracked Zodon down below.

"Mister Godwin?" Bartholomew said into his cuff after spotting a pre-arranged signal from Zodon. "The kid has signaled he's playing with one of our card counters, but he's not having me move in." Julie doesn't hear how Mr. Godwin responds as Bartholomew is wearing an earpiece, but does hear him say, "Roger that."

Julie turns to watch Zodon and can't help the smile as she sees the silly little hat he's wearing as part of his disguise. As she watches, she sees Zodon talking with a woman on his right. Then there's a man talking to Zodon and Zodon seems to be getting agitated. Then, seemingly out of no where, a huge guy (like bigger than coach Rockslide) wearing an armor plated costume is there and yelling at Zodon. Zodon is saying something to the huge man when suddenly the huge man is raising his arms to strike....Julie's gone in a flash from Bartholomew's side and is near enough to Zodon to catch him saying, "Oh, jumbalaya! There was a mental tripwire in his brain too!" Then she's caught the huge man's fist in mid-air, a fist which is almost as big as she is.

"Security says STOP!" she yells at him trembling with nervousness. What am I doing? part of her screams.

The huge guy's only response is to smile and throw another punch whose concussive force is enough to knock several bystanders off their feet. Julie just floats there holding both fists at bay, a look of sheer determination in her eyes as she stares down the huge man. Behind her Bartholomew says, "Mister Greg Stone, aka 'Thunderclap', I'm ordering you to cease all hostilities and accompany me to our security center or risk a lifetime ban from this casino and possibly the city of Las Vegas. And you'll be lucky if 'assaulting a minor' isn't added to your list of offenses."

Thunderclap's response is to pull back his fists and suck in a big lungful of air.

"Get Back Everyone! He's got a sonic..." Bartholomew yells reaching for Julie. He's interrupted by Thunderclap's sonic yell which knocks him and Julie back but just as quickly the scream is cut off as Poly wraps herself around Thunderclap's head.

"Naptime!" she calls out. "I did this to my brother once. My mom said never to do it again because it might give him brain damage."

All seems taken care of until Thunderclap breaths in again. "Whoop!" Poly says. "You have stronger lungs than he does!" Fortunately, while Poly has him distracted an officer of the meta-human task force is able to get a stunning and power inhibiting device on the back of Thunderclap's head and then he's out like a light. "Some more guys are on the way with the heavy-duty restraints, boss," the officer reports to Bartholomew who has picked himself up.

"They'd better hurry. We've only got a few minutes 'till the inhibitor's battery starts to fade," Bartholomew says checking Thunderclap's pulse. "I'd hate to have to file the paperwork for using one and have it come to nothing."

"I've never felt lungs before," Poly says pulling herself out of Thunderclap. "It's kind of weird."

Since Thunderclap is taken care of Julie looks around. "Where'd Zodon go?"

"And Thunderclap's accomplice is gone, too." Bartholomew says standing. "I'll get her photo out to every police department in the state."

As she looks around some more Julie is hit on the head a few times by a fly. What the heck? she thinks before remembering Flea's powers include controlling or talking with insects. "Hey..." she says as she follows the fly, which leads her to a door where a bunch of ants have spelled out, 'In Here'.

"Psst! Julie! Over Here!" she hears Flea call as she opens the door to find the woman Zodon had been playing cards next to, Flea, Zodon himself and a woman she doesn't recognize holding Zodon's head and sweating.

"Four of hearts. Two of curves. Ace of girlfriends. King of spade..." the card player woman is mumbling from the floor.

"What's going on?" Julie asks as she approaches the group.

"This is Beryl," Flea reports. "She's the clerk who gave me our room key. She can also do stuff with your brain if she touches you. When I came in here, she told my brain that my legs are frozen, so I called for help with some bugs. She's been like this with Zodon since I got here. I think they're...fighting, kinda."

"So what do we do?" Julie asks stepping much too close.

"Not so close!" Flea calles out but too late.

"Why? Isn't she..." is as far as Julie gets before Beryl's right hand switches from Zodon's head to hers. Suddenly it's like she's floating in a violent storm. Black clouds roll and lightening strikes. Up in the clouds a giant Beryl and Zodon glare at each other while lightening strike between them.

"I can feel you weakening!" Beryl gloats. "You've got the strongest mind I've tackled so far, but you'll still do whatever I say in the end!"

"Get zambonied, you knockwurst!" Zodon fires back. 

Julie wants to fly up there and help but just as she thinks it, she's chained to a rock.

"Fight her!" Zodon yells at her, suddenly her size. "Do something!"

"I can't!" she cries back.

"Why don't you at least try first?!"

"But these chains are too strong! I can't...!

"They're just an illusion! If you...Cilantro it! Forget I asked! What else should I expect from a little girl wearing a towel?"

"But my cape..."

"What did you ever need a reroofed cape for? You're just a mousy little disappointment to your cornmeal-poor family who thinks she can be a superhero! Take your eighty-fourth copy-cat powers and go cry in a corner somewhere if you can't even starching pretend to be useful to anyone!"

"But...but I...?" Julie says looking at the chains and crying.

"What does he know?" says a voice she knows but doesn't recognize. She turns to see the dark clouds part as Zodon swells up to giant sized again. Down at her level the clouds fade to show...herself?

"Who...? But you look like...you're...me?"

"We're in a dreamland place, so why not?" says the unmasked, happy, confident Julie. "I think I'm the part of you that took on Thunderclap, that helped stop Charles and what made you wrap that gold guy in that giant mask. I think I'm what you can do when you quit worrying so much about being someone people want and start being someone people need. Get it?" The unmasked, confident Julie holds out her hand to the masked worried Julie.

"But...it's scary to try.." the masked, worried Julie says reaching for the hand.

"I know," Julie says. "And that's okay."

Back up in the clouds, Beryl is monologuing. "You'll make up even better schemes for me! With your genius under my control, we'll take on the Stock Market! We'll...."

"Hey! Beryl," Julie yells interrupting as she flies up with the rock she's still chained to. "This is your rock. TAKE IT BACK!" Julie swings the rock, knocking Beryl's psychic self in the head. Julie and Zodon are instantly knocked back into their bodies and everyone falls to the ground.

"I think...we won!" Julie exclaims happily, sitting up.

"Great," Flea says. "I think whatever she did to me is wearing off. I can sort of move my legs again...sort of."

"Treehouse, my head hurts," Zodon says as he rubs his temples and sits up. "But if this Rasputin wanna-be here has stolen as much as I think...it'll be worth it!"

Julie picks herself up and gives Flea a shoulder to lean on as they stumble out of the office. "Thanks for not carrying me," Flea says.

"I don't know if I could fly straight right now anyway..." Julie replies.

(no subject)

I'm not perfect, no I'm not 
I'm not perfect, but I've got what I've got 
I do my very best, I do my very best 
I do my very best each day 
But I'm not perfect 
And I hope you like me that way
~ I'm Not Perfect, Laurie Berkner Band