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

by Timothy P. Callahan

  Tanaka and Nancy walked down a small sidewalk and onto Vegas Boulevard. Several cars and a bus were waiting for a light to turn green. “Can you teleport us across the street?” she asked.

  “What?” Tanaka asked walking toward the corner. “I could, sure, but walking is much better for the body. Plus, I really don’t like to teleport to a place when I can easily walk. And this isn’t Haven; I’m sure people here aren’t used to just teleporting around willy-nilly.”

  “No, I guess not,” she said, following him to the corner. “I do find the people here are tolerant of Evos, but they really don’t understand them. Not like Haven, that’s for sure.”

  “You know any Evos here?”

  “A few dancers,” she said as they walked across the street. “They don’t use their powers when they dance. They should; I make more money when I can dazzle. One of the dancers can fly, so I suggested she float, another can control fire, so I thought she should carry a candle or something and have the flames dance around. Both are, I don’t know, embarrassed by their powers.”

  “How do you use your powers?”

  “You should come see me dance, and I’ll show you,” she replied, winking playfully at him.

  Tanaka hardly ever blushed and when he did it took him a few moments to realize what was going on. “Damn it, you always do that to me.”

  “I know. It’s funny to see your face turn red like that.”

  They walked across a parking lot and up to the front door of the Peppermill. Tanaka went in first and smiled at the slot machines that sat along the wall. “They have these things all over the place.”

  “Welcome to Vegas,” Nancy said, going up to the hostess. After several minutes of waiting, they were seated at a booth and given a menu. Tanaka noticed the prices were much more reasonable than he thought they would be and ordered a large lunch. Nancy did the same.

  “So, fill me in,” Nancy said to Tanaka. “How are you and Daniel doing?”

  “Since when? Since you left? Since me and you last talked which was, what? When you left?”

  “No, we e-mailed a few times, talked on Facebook. That’s how I got your number.”

  “Not the same,” Tanaka replied. “Since you left, lots has happened. No way I could fill you in on everything. Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to?”

  “Pretty much what I’ve told you. Stayed in Haven after the Protectors rejected me. Met David, got married, got divorced, moved to Vegas and became a dancer. Been doing that for eight years now.”

  “Did David ever beat you? Hurt you in any way?”

  “No, he’s not like that. Or he wasn’t like that, until he hooked up with Phazer. Do you know him?”

  Tanaka laughed softly. “Yeah. He was murdered last year. It’s kind of how Daniel and I got to know David.”

  “I didn’t know that. Does David know?”

  “Yeah, he knows. We thought it was David who killed him, but David’s not a killer. David came to us asking for help; someone tried to frame him for the murder. We found the real killer, but David disappeared so we couldn’t tell him about it. Showed up a few weeks later looking for something from our work. Well, when I say looking for something, I mean nearly destroying our business and hurting a bunch of people looking for it.”

  “Oh, what was he looking for?”

  “An all-powerful globe that could have been used to destroy the world.”

  “Oh!” Nancy gasped. “That’s what you meant when you said you saved the world.”

  “More or less, yeah. It was a rather crazy week.”

  “Sounds like it.”

  “Why do you think he wants to hurt you? That’s what I don’t understand.”

  “I actually don’t know if he wants to hurt me,” Nancy replied with a sigh. “I just don’t want to be alone with him if he does catch up with me. He’s unstable when it comes to me. When we were married, he told me he was robbing those banks and jewelry stores for me, so we could live better. That’s kind of scary, you know? I kept wanting him to get a normal job. He wasn’t smart enough to be a Protector, but he could easily work in construction because he’s so big and strong. He could have done a lot of things. Heck, if he were just a bouncer in a bar I wouldn’t have minded that. I didn’t need his money; I fell in love with him cause he was a big lug who took care of me. Maybe a little too much.”

  “Yeah, well. I know the feeling,” Tanaka replied.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing. Let’s just talk about something else, okay?”

  “Sure,” Nancy replied, looking up as their food arrived. “When we’re done, let’s take a walk.”

  Tanaka sighed knowing there was no way he was going to win the ‘we need to go back to the hotel room’ argument. “Sure. Don’t really want to stay cramped in that room anyway.”

  Not matter how hard Daniel tried he couldn’t drown out the loud hum from the neon lights or block the sounds of cars zipping down Vegas Boulevard. The klaxon-like dings from a million slot machines assaulted his ears, while the smell of a million cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and anything else that could smoke caused his nose grave irritation. He remembered going through all this before, when his powers first manifested as a child, and wished to never go through it again. Haven was a major city—over four million people lived in it—and it was also loud and smelly, but Daniel found a way to block the chaos out there. He guessed since this was a new city it would take a little longer to get accustomed.

  When he first left Circus Circus, he made a right and headed toward where all the major casinos were. By the time he passed New York, New York, he had had enough and turned around to head back toward his hotel.

  When he arrived, he paused, watching as Tanaka and Nancy ran across the street. It took a bit longer than he thought for Nancy to convince Tanaka to leave the hotel room. He wasn’t angry; he knew his brother well enough to know he wouldn’t stay in the hotel room long. He decided to let it go and headed toward the tall spire that was the Stratosphere.

  A large hotel with unmanned construction equipment came into his view as he walked. Weathered and exposed steel beams held up a fifty-story building with a patchwork of broken windows. There were no long lines to get into a half-built parking lot. No cars moved in or out of the parking garage. Unloved and abandoned, the place’s potential had been lost to an uncaring city. Daniel stood across the street from the building and pulled out his cell phone to get the details.

  Fontainebleau Resort, a multi-billion-dollar hotel built to house over a thousand rooms also had a show stage, pool, casino, and everything else every other hotel and casino had in Vegas. The company that built it went out of business, and now it sat abandoned near the end of the strip. Daniel looked at its blue glass structure again and shook his head. Such a waste, he thought then continued on his journey toward the Stratosphere.

  After several more minutes of walking, Daniel found himself in front of the Stratosphere. The tall building dominated his vision as he looked up. A giant saucer-shaped observation deck with twenty-foot tinted windows sat on top of a massive concrete stem. He walked across a car park and into the lobby. Once, inside, his senses were assaulted again by the sights and sounds of a floor filled with hundreds of electronic slot machines. The only way to get used to all this was to immerse himself in it and learn to keep the sounds out.

  He found a chair and sat down in it before closing his eyes. He tried to focus on one sound in the room. Through the clutter he heard dice being shaken, then people laughing followed by the dice hitting a felt table. More cheering and laughing; must have been a good roll.

  He moved away from that sound and onto a conversation across the room. He forced his powers to heighten slightly so he could hear what they were saying. Talking about a dog and wondering how she was doing in the kennel. The woman sounded guilty, the man reassuring. It was normal, everything was normal.

  A strange sound drew his attention, and he focused on it. It was the sound of carbon fiber
stretching, the sound of a string tightening, a sound he recognized from when he took up archery.

  A painful pounding in his head told Daniel to open his eyes. His danger sense. An arrow whirled through the air, heading for him.

  Reflexes born from his Evo genes allowed him to catch the arrow inches before it would have pierced his skull. He jumped back and caught the second arrow, then fell over the chair backward and watched as the third arrow embedded itself into the wall behind him.

  He rolled and looked out onto the floor. Security guards ran through the casino floor after someone. Daniel stood and followed them. One of the guards turned and held his hand out. “Sir, we got this.”

  “I don’t think you do,” Daniel replied, running past the guard. “I’m a Protector. I can help.”

  “A what?” The guard asked, running behind him.

  Daniel ignored the question and followed the other guards. They split up, not sure where the man went. Daniel took a deep sniff of the air and caught the smell of second-hand smoke, stale drinks, and the body odor of a hundred people. He looked around but found nothing. People hid behind machines while guards ran around trying to find the man. After several more minutes, the search was abandoned.

  “Sir, we need you to stay here while we call the police,” a guard said. “Do you know why someone would try to kill you?”

  Daniel looked at the two arrows he still carried, trying his best to think of anyone not in jail who used arrows. “No, I have no clue.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “That was good,” Tanaka said as he and Nancy walked out of the diner. He looked around, squinting and scanning the many people walking past. He didn’t see David. The day was nice, the sun was high and there was a cool, dry breeze blowing up the strip.

  Nancy grabbed his hand and tugged. “Come on, let’s go walk to the strip.”

  “You tricked me!” Tanaka laughed. “I am shocked! Shocked I tell you! You figured you’d get me out of the hotel room, then go outside, feed me till I’m stuffed, and then force me to do your bidding.”

  Nancy faked surprise. “I think you’ve been dealing with too many super villains. I never think that far ahead.”

  “Sure you don’t.” Tanaka sighed and threw his hands up. “Fine! Where do you want to go?”

  “Let’s check out the water show at the Bellagio. It’s really cool. Ever see it?”

  “Only on TV.”

  “Do you want to teleport there?”

  “No. Let’s walk. It’s actually nice to walk. I miss walking.”

  “Then let’s walk.”

  The crowd thickened the closer they moved to the center of the strip. Giant casino-hotels touched the sky, casting long shadows on the streets below. Tanaka found it difficult to move around the people and did his best to go with the flow of traffic. Large groups of mostly men stood on street corners slapping cards with naked woman on them into the palm of their hands making a loud noise. They would do this then hand out the cards to pretty much anyone—man, woman, or child—who walked past.

  Billboard trucks drove down Las Vegas Boulevard, advertising everything from energy drinks to where to get a ‘date’ who would meet you at your hotel room. The date ads made Tanaka slightly uncomfortable, knowing there were children in the crowd.

  They approached an escalator they needed to take to cross the street. Nancy reached out with her hand and grabbed Tanaka’s as they rode it to the top then walked over a pedestrian bridge that spanned a packed six-lane highway before riding it back down to one of the many wide-open areas on the pavement.

  People dressed as various fictional characters stood around, waving people over to get their pictures taken with them. “It’s illegal for them to ask for money,” Nancy said. “But you can tip them whatever you want.”

  Tanaka eyed each costume, noting some were actually really good while others looked like something they bought at a cheap discount shop. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw two men walking around. One wore a white ninja outfit with a katana blade strapped to his back and a really cheap-looking red buckler shield on his belt, while the other wore an all-black ninja outfit with a sheathed sword on his left side. Neither man wore masks which allowed the people walking about to see them smile and talk. Tanaka laughed. “Oh my god. That’s me and Daniel.”

  “What?” Nancy asked.

  “Those guys are cos playing me and Daniel. I didn’t even know our thing had made it this far away from Haven.”

  “Well, you guys are the most popular Protectors around.” Nancy replied. “You want to talk to them?”

  “I don’t think they’d know who I am. Even though my identity isn’t hidden, most don’t know who’s behind the mask.” Tanaka pulled out his cell phone and handed it to Nancy. “Which is going to make this picture even more awesome.”

  He ran over to the two guys who greeted him with a smile. “Dagger and Shadow Ninja, right?”

  “Good guess,” the man wearing all black and playing Dagger said. “You know us?”

  “You might say that. Why these two?”

  “Why not?” The man playing Shadow Ninja replied. “They’re heroes. This guy, this Dagger who my friend is dressed up as, saved my little girl’s life from a robber once. And Shadow Ninja? Why, he’s a fine example of our shared Japanese American culture. It’s great to dress up as them, even though most just think we’re ninjas.”

  Tanaka nodded and looked at Nancy. “I’m from Haven so I get to see them in action. Mind if I get a picture?”

  “Of course,” the one playing Shadow Ninja said.

  Tanaka placed a fifty in their bucket then stood between them with his thumbs up and a big grin on his face. “Ready!”

  Nancy pressed a button on the phone then gave the thumbs up. “Picture taken!”

  Tanaka shook each of their hands. “Those are great costumes, take care.”

  “Thank you, sir!” The fake Dagger said looking at the money in the bucket. “Sir, this is too much!”

  “No, it’s not enough.” Tanaka replied touching Nancy by the arm, then teleporting away.

  They appeared on the other side of the street in front of the Bellagio’s lake. Tanaka watched the two men talk excitingly to each other.

  “Show off,” Nancy said.

  “Hey, I gave them something they’ll never forget. They met the real Dagger.”

  Nancy shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Well, we’re here anyway so, might as well wait for the waterworks to start.”

  The two stood behind a waist level concrete wall that overlooked a giant man-made lake. Across and above the lake were several stores. Towering over them and the people was the grand Bellagio hotel and casino, an opulent structure that would bankrupt Tanaka and Daniel if they had decided to stay there.

  “Can I ask you something?” Tanaka asked placing his arms on the wall.

  “You want to know why I became a stripper?”

  “No,” he said. “But if you want to tell me, I’d listen.”

  “You wouldn’t ask me why I was a secretary or why I worked as a waitress, right?”

  “Well, a stripper. I mean, that’s interesting and not something most people do.”

  “Most people can’t,” she said, laughing. “If that wasn’t your question, then what is?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were living in Haven when you were? Why didn’t you contact me when David was going around robbing banks with Phaser? I might have been able to help you both.”

  “Yeah, I always did feel bad about that.”

  “Was it David? Did he stop you?”

  She shrugged. “He didn’t come right out and say anything. Hell, I’m not even sure he knew we knew each other. He knew I wanted to be a Protector and flunked out but he never really dug that deep. Might be why he never told me where he got the money from. Although it was hard to deny it was him when I saw the video footage of the robberies. He always denied it though, always wanted to keep me safe.”

  “But he’s not t
he only reason, right?”

  “No. I guess not.” She looked out over the shimmering water. More people started to gather as the show was getting ready to start. “The truth is, for the longest time, I hated you.”

  “You hated me?”

  She smiled. “Okay, hated is a very strong word, but I really didn’t want to be around you. It hurt when we broke up. Yeah, I know, we were sixteen at the time, and breakups at that age always hurt. I got over it, but when I was in Haven dating David, marrying him, trying to start a family, the last thing I wanted was my high school boyfriend in my life.”

  “Yeah, I get it. When I was building my world-wide reputation as the bad boy Ninja of the Protectors, the last thing I needed was my high school girlfriend getting in my way.”

  She nudged him with her arm playfully. “Asshole. Now shut the hell up. The shows about ready to start.”

  From speakers lining the perimeter wall, some light classical music started playing. Giant pressure tubes under the pool shot geysers of water hundreds of feet into the air in time with the music. The sound of the sudden release of water thundered up and down the strip.

  Twelve streams of water shot high into the air where they simply stopped and hovered as if the laws of gravity suddenly stopped working. The crowd gasped in astonishment and surprise.

  Tanaka looked over at Nancy who looked back at him with a confused and worried look. “That’s not supposed to happen, is it?” he asked.

  “No,” she whispered as if afraid speaking might ruin the moment.

  The suspended water coalesced into a sphere. Another blast from the tubes sent even more water skywards, into the ever-growing bubble.

  Tanaka looked around, not sure what exactly he was looking for but positive he would know once he found it. He spotted a smiling face looking at him. The man looked familiar, someone Tanaka knew from the past. Not David, but someone else.

  “Oh crap,” Nancy said, following Tanaka’s gaze. “That’s Pop.”

  Pop swung his arms and clapped his hand sending a loud shock wave toward Nancy and Tanaka. Anyone in front of the wave were knocked down by it. Tanaka and Nancy were hit hard, the force slamming them into the concrete fence. Tanaka reached over to touch Nancy, to get her out of the fight, when a ball of water collapsed above them. Thousands of gallons fell onto the two of them, washing Nancy to one side and Tanaka to the other. The crowds screamed and ran in a blind panic. Cars came to a screeching halt as people ran in front of them. Speeding cars slammed into stopped cars sending them into other cars creating a chain reaction of smashed bumpers, broken windows, and moaning drivers.