Las Vegas. A metropolis of light, sound, and color, located in a seemingly bizarre location - the deserts and badlands of Nevada. Yet here life has flourished. Amongst this artificial paradise, ordinary people and extraordinary people intermingle. Casinos, hotels, malls and resorts light the city up at night, making it into a glitzy neon world different from anywhere else on the planet. And if it wasn't a crazy enough life here already, things are soon to get even wilder.
The kobbers are coming.
Are the people already here prepared?
-----
It was just another day for Mary Bishop. The unassuming-looking redheaded girl started her shift in the evenings, as usual, and ran until past midnight. Around here, a lot of people were night owls, and the people who ran the morning shift and day shift generally didn't run into nearly as much action.
People had been in and out, buying this or that, when a small yellow-faced robot trundled in, clutching a letter in its' crude hands.
"You again, huh." Mary said. "I told your boss I'm not interested. Sorry."
The Servbot frowned and held up the letter. "No, it's not like that! Please read, Miss Bishop!"
Mary took the letter and looked it over. One of her eyebrows slowly twitched upward a tick as she read the letter.
"So you're done trying to buy the place."
"Yes! Mister Maximilion is moving on to other ventures! We won't bother you any more!"
"Good. So, you buying something or what?"
"Do you have any books on how to make French fries?"
"Don't really sell books here. Try the library."
"...Do you have any French fries?"
"The frozen stuff, yeah. Check the back wall by the soda."
"Yay!"
Meanwhile, in one of the small booths provided for customers who bought a quick snack or pre-cooked meal...
"Stupid no-good rotten bimbo."
Slurrrrrrrrrrp.
"Frickin' frackin' airhead know-nothing."
Slurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp.
"Mrgrgr..."
Edea attempted to take another sip of milkshake, but was thwarted by the telltale loud scraping sounds of an empty cup. She made a frustrated noise and looked over at Mary, who was checking the cash register.
"Hey, I need a refill!"
"This isn't a restaurant." Mary said cooly. "The machine's over there, give it a dollar and you can refill your cup."
Edea Lee, a Hero of Light and one of the saviors of Luxendarc, made far much more of a fuss about getting up and paying a small sum to refill her milkshake then you'd think such a decorated adventurer would. After no small amount of quiet complaining to herself, which Mary completely ignored, Edea traipsed back to her seat only to find none other than the object of her annoyance standing next to it, looking a bit sheepish.
"So you came crawling back." Edea said.
"Okay, look..." Praline a la Mode started. "I'm, uh... I'm sorry, okay? I'm... not that good with this kinda stuff, but I'm sorry. We can still perform together if you want..."
"Nah." Edea waved it off. "Thanks for the apology, but I'm gonna try and find something else to do here. You go on and be the performer. Maybe I'm not cut out for that stuff after all."
"All right, then." Praline said, relaxing a bit.
Praline looked around the convenience store a bit, her eyes wandering before settling on a corkboard filled with classifieds and flyers. While Praline browsed for entertainment venues to try and apply for, Edea wandered over with curiosity in her eyes and looked around the corkboard for inspiration.
ZF Corporation is coming to Las Vegas! We're looking for capable staff to fill a wide variety of positions, including bartenders, waitresses, and cooks for our restaurant, operators and dealers for our casino, and various other maintenance, janitorial, and mechanic staff.
Edea blinked a few times before her eyes settled on the word 'cooks'.
She smiled.
-----
"Everybody on the left say AYYYYYY!"
"AYYYYYY!"
"People on the right say AYYYYYY!"
"AYYYYYY!"
"YEAH!"
DJ Candy Supergroove wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary tonight, either. As usual, she was scratching vinyl and pumping up the visitors to her dance club.
After her set was finished, Candy was in the back with a bottle of water. She smiled to herself as she took a long drink from it. Life was simple, but good.
When she lowered the bottle, she was startled to see a Servbot standing there with a letter in its' hands. Candy's smile faded, and she immediately became defensive. "Look, Rex can throw around all the money he wants, but I'm not selling! Club Candy is MINE! I built it myself, and I'm not letting The Man take it over so he can paste up advertisements and suck all the fun out of it!"
The Servbot shrunk away. DJ Candy wasn't particularly physically intimidating, but almost anyone could win a one-on-one with a Servbot. The trembling mook simply held out the letter. Candy took it, giving the robot one last miffed look, and began reading. Her expression softened, and then it clouded with confusion.
"...He's done? He gave up? Just like that? What's the catch?"
"No catch, Miss Supergroove, no catch!" the Servbot squeaked. "Mister Maximilion is going to seek business opportunities elsewhere! We won't trouble you any longer!"
"Hmmmm..."
DJ Candy thought for a moment, then folded the letter and tucked it away in her jeans, flashing a smile.
"Well! Good to see he knows when to quit! Thanks for the notice, Servbot."
"Y-you're welcome.
...Um, M-miss Supergroove?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I have your autograph?"
-----
"Heh... let me tell you a story. It happened last year. A multi-millionaire had built his fortunes on a traveling circus. He had set his eyes on our fair city as his next location. But... I felt he would compete with some of my businesses. Buying his company outright didn't work - the man was too proud to sell, despite me offering enough for him to retire comfortably and spend the rest of his days in a nice little mansion somewhere. Well, it was his choice. That just meant I'd have to do it the hard way.
As a friendly gesture, I sold him an animal for his circus. Told him it'd be a big boost to business. He took one look at it and couldn't believe his eyes. 'I thought they'd gone extinct!' he'd said. And I replied 'Have you taken a good look at me lately, sir?' Apparently he thought I was a wingless dragon. Funny, eh?
The show was set to begin, and 'tragedy' struck. The animal got free of its' cage and began menacing the crowd. They mostly escaped unscathed... all the injuries they took were from hurting each other in their rush to run away. The circus thought quickly and deployed their elephant, the only other animal they had on hand that could possibly take on the one I sold them. It wasn't much of a fight - the elephant was dead in less than five minutes - but it bought them all time to flee.
As you can imagine, the PR was devastating, not to mention the loss of their prize elephant. They tried to lever the blame on me, but I successfully pointed out that the animal's cage wasn't locked correctly, therefore the rampage was their fault. I also made sure to note that the contract they signed when purchasing from us absolved us of all liability. I mean, come now... you purchase a monster like that, you'd best know how to control it."
"...Didn't you have one of Tron's robots tamper with the cage?"
"Why, yes, Gordon, but they never found that little detail out, did they?"
"Oof. Harsh."
"It's a harsh world out there, Bastion. I'm sure you'd know that lesson well. One must be prepared to deal with life's hardships. Those who succeed are rewarded richly."
"Mmm... So what happened after that?"
"Ah yes, the best part. After that incident, the circus' financials were in ruins. The poor man had to file for bankruptcy, and I bought up all his assets for less than a hundredth of what I initially offered. I even got the animal I sold him back, thanks to a little encouraging to keep the local law enforcement from putting it down. Heh."
"Wait... are you talking about-"
"The very same. Quite a tame fellow, isn't he? I just don't know what got into him that day at the circus... heheh."
-----
"So it is true, then? WCW... has risen?
Hm.
I see. They rose from death to fight again... and now target the former ZooFights corporation.
Heh. Quite a turnaround for them, no? Like fairy tale. Yes... I know the feeling.
But they must not be allowed to destroy what was once Zoofights. Even here, in furthest Siberia, we have heard of the... 'Kobbers'... and their exploits.
No, there cannot be any argument. I shall depart for America as soon as possible. I must arrive there by June.
Why June? Hohoho. Well, I may wish to help them, but they will first need to prove themselves.
Make your preparations accordingly. Our next skirmish... shall be in the United States."
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