The Evolutionite Chronicles Book Two: Dagger and Shadow Ninja in: Welcome to Las Vegas

by Timothy P. Callahan

  “Fine,” Nancy said, slowing her pace back to a walk. She wasn’t even out of breath when she spoke. “So, what exactly are you? I mean, I can see you’re, what? Chinese? Korean?”

  “Don’t even insult me like that,” Tanaka replied. “I’m half Japanese and half American. My mom’s from here, my dad’s from Tokyo. Well, from a small town outside of Tokyo, but he doesn’t like talking about that.”

  “So, why are you named Tanaka and your brother named Daniel?”

  “That was my mom’s idea. Daniel is named after her father and I’m named after my father.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  “What about you? I just told you my stuff, tell me yours.”

  “I’m boring. My powers are dull, don’t even know why my parents insist I be trained. All I can do is create lights from my hand.”

  “Can I see?”

  Nancy stopped and held her hand out. Light from the top of her palm flashed like tiny light bulbs. She made a fist to get it to stop. “I can manipulate light. That’s the only thing I learned how to do. I can flash it like a camera flash, as your brother discovered, but I don’t see how that’ll help in a Evo fight.”

  “Well, maybe not an Evo fight, but I can see it being helpful for crowd control or if there’s a blackout or something.”

  “I guess,” she replied. “They think I might be able to use my powers to make people invisible or even create illusions. But I don’t see how I can do that really. I’ve been practicing for hours every day and all I can do is flash people.”

  Tanaka raised his eyebrow at her, then opened his mouth to say something.

  “Oh, look,” Nancy said, pointing to the office of Peter Afture, leader of the Protectors. “It’s Brain’s office.”

  Tanaka took a deep breath. “All right, let’s get yelled at. After which I want you to tell me more about you flashing people.”

  With a loud pop Tanaka appeared inside the small dorm room he shared with Daniel. Lying on his bed, Daniel looked up from the book he was reading. “You were gone a while. How did it go?”

  “I really like her. I mean, I really like her.” Tanaka said, excited.

  “Who?”

  “Nancy. Did you see what she did to me? She tackled me and punched me in the face. That was... Well, it’s nice to see a girl who can take care of herself, you know?”

  Daniel sat from his bed. “It was fun to see her beat you up. But let’s not lose focus here. How did it go with Peter?”

  “Oh, he grounded me for a few days. I can’t leave my room for anything other than school or training.”

  “So, you’re in for the weekend?”

  “Seems that way. You want to play some video games?”

  “I’d rather study. You should, too; we have a big test Monday.”

  “Nerd,” Tanaka replied, sitting at a desk with a computer on it. “I’m here for a while. If you want peace and quiet for studying, I don’t think I can help you.”

  “I’ll go the library then.” He stood from the bed and walked out of the room, leaving Tanaka alone.

  The computer booted and Tanaka loaded one of the many first-person shooters he owned. Just as he was ready to play, someone knocked hard at the door. “Who is it?”

  “Who do you think?” Nancy replied, peeved.

  Tanaka bolted from the chair and ran up to the door. He looked through the peephole and saw Nancy standing there. She looked good, wearing a loose shirt with a picture of a unicorn on it and a pair of jean shorts. He opened the door and she stepped in without even being asked. “Wow, so this your place?”

  “Yeah,” he replied, closing the door. He heart raced as he wondered if he should do something now that he had a girl alone in his room with Daniel out for a few hours.

  “It’s nice,” she said, sitting on his bed. She looked over at Daniel’s bed. On the wall were shelves that held dozens of books, mostly biographies of famous leaders and science books with a few fiction books sprinkled in. “Your brother’s kind of a nerd, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah, he’s an egghead. Which is nice, means I don’t have to be, he does the thinking for the both of us.”

  “I bet,” she said, looking at Tanaka’s wall. There were a few movie posters and one from a heavy metal band Tanaka loved to listen to. “And you like movies and angry music?”

  “More movies than music but when Daniel gets on my nerves I like to lay in the bed and blast all the angry music I can download. With Daniel’s heightened senses he can hear it no matter how much he tries not to.”

  “Ah, brother revenge. Nice,” she laughed. “You really can be a little shit, can’t you?”

  “You’re not the first person to notice that,” he said as he sat on Daniel's bed across from her. “So, you want to just hang? I mean, neither one of us can go anywhere.”

  “Why not go see a movie?”

  “We can’t. We’re grounded.”

  “Oh,” she said, making a pouty face. “We’re grounded. Boo hoo, we can’t go anywhere, boo hoo. Come on, I thought you were more of a rebel than that. You can teleport! How do you ground a teleporter?”

  “But... The rules.” Tanaka replied weakly. He didn’t like the rules, didn’t like following them yet, a voice—Daniel’s voice, in fact—yelled at him for breaking the rules, causing him to hesitate.

  “Let me guess,” she said. “Daniel follows all the rules and makes sure you do as well, right? Come on. Don’t let him tell you what you want to do. I want to go the movies, you want to take me to the movies, so let’s just go.”

  Tanaka smiled, reach over and grabbed her hands. “One movie coming right up.”

  The two teleported and appeared instantly in front of a mall. Nancy ran over to a wall, placed her hands against it, and threw up on the ground. “Wow, that was embarrassing,” she said, wiping her mouth.

  “Should have warned you, sorry. That happens to almost everyone the first time I teleport them. The more we do it the less it’ll bother you, I promise.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “But I can really use a soda now.”

  “Sure,” Tanaka held his hand out. “Come on, let’s go see a movie and get some soda.”

  The next few hours flew past as they saw a movie and then explored the mall. They held hands as often as they could, ran when they felt the need to run, laughed and teased each other until the mall itself closed. They both walked outside into the night.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m in more trouble now,” Tanaka said.

  “It’s late, I know. Will your brother say anything?”

  “Are you kidding? He’ll lay into me, report me to Peter, then make sure I never leave his sight.”

  “Well then, maybe we shouldn’t go home.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  She raised her eye brown for a second before wrapping her arms around Tanaka’s head and kissed him softly on the lips. “Do you know anyplace private you can teleport us too?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “Hold on, the second teleport isn’t as rough as the first but you still might throw up.”

  “I promise not to,” she replied.

  Tanaka teleported both away from the mall and into a night only two love-struck teenagers could have.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The plane touched down at McCarran International Airport only a few minutes late. Nancy didn’t mind; it gave her more time to think about what would happen over the next few days. Reaching out to Tanaka posed a risk, and though he thought they departed on good terms, in her mind they hadn’t. The heartbreak she’d felt in his absence was the very reason she hadn’t spoken to him in ten years.

  She’d kept up with his exploits as much as she could. But stories out of Haven were rare, and even online searches only occasionally produced worthwhile information after the Tanaka and Daniel left the Protectors.

  The airport itself was crowded. People moved about their day, talking loudly about this or that casino, laughing about buffet deals. Vegas was a fun town for those w
ho came to visit; for those who lived there, it was a soul-draining experience. The constant rush of people unfamiliar with the area, driving in crowded streets, speaking in broken English or a language she had no hope of ever learning bothered her. She loved the energy of the city but some days, especially after a very long day, she wished they’d all go home. She hoped that by seeing the city through the eyes of Tanaka, she could fall in love with it one last time.

  From behind her came a very loud pop. When she turned to the sound, Tanaka stood there smiling. “Hey Sparkle, how’s it hanging?”

  She leaned in to give him a hug. “Where’s your brother?”

  “He’s coming,” Tanaka pointed to the large escalator where a very annoyed-looking Daniel descended. “I saw you and couldn’t wait, had to come and hug you first.”

  “You’d always get the first hug,” she replied.

  Daniel carried two gym bags across his shoulders. He walked up to them, took one bag off, and threw it at Tanaka. “Next time you teleport, take your bag with you.”

  Nancy smiled. “Good to see you, Daniel,” she said, giving him a hug too. “How are you two?”

  “Fine,” Tanaka replied. “Come on. We booked a room at Circus Circus.”

  “Tanaka wants to ride the kiddie rides,” Daniel said.

  “Damn right, and I want to gamble like there’s no tomorrow.”

  Nancy laughed. “You guys, always joking like that. Come on. I had a friend drop me off so we can get a cab.”

  “Cab?” Tanaka said. “Come on, I’m a teleporter.”

  “I thought you had to know the location to teleport to it?”

  “Well, I do. But it’s not like before, now I just can look at a picture. As long as I can see the location in my head we can go there.” Tanaka pulled out his cell phone and tapped the screen a few times. After a few seconds, he showed Nancy the image of the front of Circus Circus. “Got this and a bunch more photos downloaded. We can pretty much go anywhere we need to.”

  “It’s been a while since you teleported me,” Nancy said. “Will I get sick?”

  Tanaka shrugged. “Don’t know, only one way to find out.” He reached out, touched her shoulder, then looked at Daniel. “You can meet us there.” The two teleported away.

  They appeared outside of the casino a nano-second later. The sudden shift in location caused Nancy’s stomach to flip. She placed her hands on her mouth and doubled over.

  Tanaka rubbed her back as she dry heaved several times. “Hey, you okay?”

  “Yeah,” she replied. “Guess dry heaving is an improvement over throwing up. I have to get used to that again.”

  “We don’t have to teleport everywhere. In fact, it’s probably better if we didn’t. I don’t want to get fat by not exercising.”

  Nancy looked over Tanaka. He looked as strong and as fit as she’d ever seen him. Lean muscles lined his arms and shoulders; his legs looked like they could crack a coconut. He was a short man, never grew any taller than five foot three, but he looked as if he had the power of man twice his size. “I don’t think you’d ever get fat.”

  “Oh, it happens. You should see Fire and Ice; he’s getting a pot belly you’d have to see to believe.”

  “Well, he’s a married man now with a little girl, right?”

  “Yeah,” Tanaka replied. There was a bitterness in his voice, a sadness Nancy had never heard before. She decided to ignore it; there was too much history between Tanaka and Fire she didn’t know about. “Are you really going to let Daniel take a taxi?”

  “No, I guess not. I’ll be back in a moment.” He teleported away, leaving Nancy alone underneath the giant clown pinwheel of Circus Circus. She heard another pop and both Daniel and Tanaka stood there. Daniel did not look happy. “You jerk,” he said. “I thought you left me for good.”

  “Oh, come on. I’d never do that. It was a joke. Lighten up, man; we’re on vacation.”

  Daniel looked over at the carport of the casino. Thousands of white lights turned off and on in a carefully synchronized pattern to draw as much attention to the building as possible. “This is going to be a lot for me to take in.”

  “What’s the matter?” Nancy asked.

  “My heightened senses,” Daniel relied. “I can normally dull them, but if there’s too much stimulation, it makes it really difficult. Come on, let’s go to our room and give me some time to adjust to all this.”

  Tanaka walked over to the room’s bar and opened it. He looked at the tiny bottles of liquor, then the prices, then placed them carefully back into the refrigerator and closed the door. “Fifteen bucks for a small bottle of vodka? No, thanks.”

  Daniel sat on a chair, his elbow on the chair’s arm, his head being held up by his right hand, and his eyes closed. He was taking deep breaths. “We need to be ready for anything, Tanaka. We don’t know exactly why we are here or if we are indeed in any danger.”

  “Okay, guess I deserved that bit of passive aggressiveness,” Nancy replied. She sat on one of the room’s beds with her legs folded under her. “Do you guys know David Lee?” They don’t actually; they’re fine.

  Daniel and Tanaka gave Nancy a surprised look. Tanaka said, “Yeah. We know him. Gave us a bit of a tussle last year even after we tried to help him.”

  “He’s my ex-husband,” she replied. “We divorced while he was in jail. Really couldn’t take that lifestyle anymore. I couldn’t bear to be with a man who cared so little for his family that he did things to be taken away from them.”

  “Family?” Daniel asked. “Do you have a child?”

  “No, me and him, family,” she replied.

  “Wait a second,” Tanaka said, “He operated out of Haven. You’ve been living in Vegas since you left the Protectors. How did that work?”

  She raised one eyebrow and shrugged her shoulders. “What do you think?”

  “You were living in Haven and you never talked to me?”

  “We broke up and you moved on. What good would it have done if we hooked up again? We both know we can’t just be friends, not then anyway.”

  “Guys, let’s stay focused here,” Daniel said. “Do you think David poses a threat to you?”

  “I do,” she replied quietly. “I started noticing this guy where I dance. He came in every night, sat down, watched me. At first, I thought he was just a guy, you know, some lonely guy who needed a place where he could drink and watch woman.”

  “Dancer?” Tanaka asked. “Do you mean—”

  “I’m stripper. Does that shock and surprise you?”

  “A little, yeah.”

  “Well, I’m very good. I use my power in my show. There aren’t as many Evos here, but the people know enough to not be afraid of us.”

  “I’d think there would be more,” Tanaka said. “Seem like this place is weird enough to just accept them with nothing more than a shrug.”

  “I’m sure we have more than most cities, but not as much as Haven. So, can I continue?”

  “Sure,” Tanaka replied, folding his arms across his chest. He did all he could to keep his anger, his jealously, and his disappointment deep down as she talked.

  “Anyway. He kept watching me, taking notes, I even caught him taking a few pictures with his cell phone, which is a big no-no but I let it slide. Probably shouldn’t have. I get home one night, and I see him parked across the street from my building. Needless to say, I was angry. You don’t follow the stripper you have a crush on home; you just don’t do that. So, I flashed him, blinded him, then drug him out of the car and started to punch him in the face.”

  Nancy saw Tanaka try to suppress a smile. She had just proven to him that she was still the same hellcat he knew in school.

  “Once his face was tender enough, he told me to stop,” Nancy continued, “then pulled out his wallet and showed me his ID. He was a goddamn detective, hired by David to track me down. I didn’t even know he was out of jail. After I let that guy go, I went back to my room and did a Google news search. It was then I saw the
story about you guys fighting him. I didn’t want to get you two involved, but always kept it in the back of my mind. But the other day as I was walking down the strip, I saw him. David. He’s a hard man to miss, even without his suit. I managed to sneak away with him not seeing me. Then I called you guys. I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure what you can do to help, but I feel safer with you two here while he’s out there.”

  “If he’s hired a detective, he knows where you live.” Daniel said. “We’ll get you a room here, and you can stay with us.”

  “You’d do that?”

  “We need you close to protect you, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s true. I have some money, but not enough to spare for an extended stay here.”

  “We’ll take care of that,” Tanaka replied. “Right?”

  “Yeah,” Daniel said. “Nancy, you stay here; Tanaka and I will head down to the front desk to see what we can do.”

  “Do you really want to leave me?” Nancy asked.

  “David doesn’t know you’re here, and I’m not sensing any danger. I think we’re safe for the time being,” Daniel said.

  “So lay down and rest,” Tanaka said.

  “Thanks. I think I’ll take a nap. It has been a while since I’ve had a nice sleep.” Nancy leaned back on the bed and closed her eyes.

  Daniel and Tanaka left the room and headed down the hallway toward the elevator. “David’s going to be tough,” Daniel said.

  “I know. You barely survived your last fight with him.”

  “And he wasn’t even trying to kill me, just shake me off his back.” They reached the elevator and took it down to the lobby. Daniel continued, “I should start looking for him. Might be able to pick up his scent since he was on the strip. You stay with Nancy, and if there’s any sign of trouble, teleport out of there. We do not want to pick a fight with David if we can avoid it.”

  The elevator door opened and they walked out toward the lobby. Tanaka asked, “Do you think he can be reasoned with? I mean, I know we’ve had a few run-ins with him, but I never thought of him as anything more than a very strong thug. I don’t think he has it in him to kill anyone. As far as we know, he just wants to talk to Nancy.”