| part eleven >>> |
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| Return of the Gov'na part ten |
Sora blinked and sat up. The world was spinning. She could see CAC in the light of the tattoo parlor, waving at the building. No, he was slap-fighting with an invisible Kat. As CAC flung his hand towards Kat, he grabbed onto something, and CAC fell backwards as Kat screamed. Kat reappeared, kneeling on the sidewalk, blood gushing from her mouth. CAC pranced around her, holding up the Tongue Ring in triumph. "Precious, I have you at last," he said, an evil grin on his face. Kat looked up at him with hate in her eyes. She pushed him, and CAC lost his balance, falling into the door of the tattoo parlor. He disappeared in the smoke as the door swung shut, trapping him inside. Sora got up and made her way to Kat, who was on her hands and knees, blood still coming from her mouth. She looked as if she was going to pass out. Sora picked her up. "We have to get out of here," she said. Smoke was starting to seep out from underneath the door, as it had already filled up the whole tattoo parlor. The buildings around them were starting to implode. Sora didn't know where they should go; everything had the danger of toppling on top of them. She heard the Grip Reapers' Cessnas overhead. Their giggles sounded different, however. Like the one she heard yesterday. Yesterday. It seemed so long ago. It started raining. Sora stopped and let go of Kat, who slumped to the ground. "It's raining! This is great!" She spread her arms out and looked upward. Two black shapes were coming their way. Those better not be Reapers. She grabbed Kat's arm and dragged her down the street. Buildings were still falling all around them. Kat collapsed. "It's useless; I can't move," Kat mumbled. Her eyelids fluttered and she lay there. Sora took a deep breath. "Well, this is the end, I suppose." She knelt down beside her friend and took her hand. "It was nice knowin' ya." Kat coughed up some blood. "I told him, though. He shouldn't have fucked with me." "What?" "CAC. I said that if he touched me again, I'd throw him into the tattoo parlor. So I did." "Did he pull your tongue off?" "Do you think I'd be able to talk if he did?" Kat opened her eyes. She seemed like her old self again. Her old self covered in blood. "No, he ripped the Tongue Ring out." She stuck out her tongue. It was now forked in two. "When it stops hurting, I'm going to learn how to clap with them." "You're disgusting." Sora looked for the two shapes she saw in the sky. They were coming to get them. "Hippogriffs?!" exclaimed Kat. "Joe's not going to let me forget that one, is he?" "You shouldn't have doubted him." Sora helped Kat onto the back of one hippogriff before climbing onto the other. Soon, they were flying high above the rubble of buildings, into the pouring rain, to life. But even before CAC decided to get pushed into that tattoo parlor, Joe, Tai, and many others were still fighting off Plastic Surgery Victims at the road block. At one point, Joe looked upward and screamed, "Where the hell are my hippogriffs?!" As if on cue (coughcough, hack), they came flying in, knocking off the Grim Reapers as the buildings in Las Vegas started crumbling. The Suicide King's eyes started rolling every which way, trying to see what was going on in his city. The Plastic Surgery Victims froze and looked toward the Stratosphere Tower. The Cowboys, Wyomingans, and Utah people took the opportunity to whack as many Plastic Surgery Victims as they could. The ground started shaking, and now everyone stopped fighting. TK wiped blood off his face. "Do they have earthquakes in Nevada?" Matt, standing next to him, stared at the Stratosphere Tower. The two swords that the Suicide King held plunged deep into his two-dimensional self. The top of the Stratosphere Tower started spinning faster and faster, until it whirled itself right off the tower and into the air. The tower collapsed soon after. Joe punched the Plastic Surgery Victim next to him. "Fuck yeah!" he yelled, jumping in the air. "She actually pulled it off!" The wind picked up, blowing the rain in their faces. It also picked up some Plastic Surgery Victims, throwing them to some mysterious death. All the buildings had collapsed now, and the desert was breaking up, swallowing the Sin City, as well as the rest of the Plastic Surgery Victims. If only they'd have enough sense to stay away from the big holes in the ground ... Tai ran up to Joe. "What about Kat and Sora?" he yelled over the noise. "The whole city's gone!" "Hippogriffs, my ignorant friend!" Sora was holding tight onto the hippogriff's feathers. I wonder how good of a movie this would be? she thought. The Story of the Evil Tongue Ring and Kat With the Forked Tongue. Who would go see that? Sora closed her eyes and dozed off. When she woke up, she could feel she was on a cot. Without opening her eyes, she stretched and smiled. "Now that was some dream," she muttered, and sat up, only to find that she wasn't in her house, and Kat was laying on a cot next to her, and Joe was smoking on a stool. Wait a minute ... "Joe is alive," Sora said out loud to herself. Joe glanced at her. "I'm still dreaming. No, wait. When he died, it was a dream, so ... " She furrowed her brows in confusion. Joe threw his cigarette butt on the floor and crushed it with his shoe. "It wasn't a dream." "But ... but you died." "No, I didn't. You good-fer-nothings left me hanging off a cliff. But that doesn't matter right now." Sora relaxed. "So ... assuming this is real, where am I?" "In Salt Lake City." "But I live in Maine." Joe lit another cigarette. "Let's just assume that you're still dreaming, m'kay?" "'K. So ... where is everyone? No, wait. What happened to Card Sharp?" "He killed himself. Why do you suppose it was the card that it was?" "Huh?" Sora was confused. She shook her head. "Nevermind." She looked at Kat. "You didn't have to amputate her tongue, did you??" Kat laughed, her eyes still closed. She opened them and sat up. "I bet you thought I was asleep, didn't you? Joe wouldn't let me get up until you woke up. I was awake at 7 this morning." She stuck out her tongue. There were staples down the middle of it. "They wouldn't let me keep it the way it was." "Mm, nice." Sora turned to Joe. "What time is it?" Joe glanced at his watch. "A little past eleven." "Eleven?! But I never sleep in that late." Joe stood up. "Now, clean yourselves up. You smell terrible. We have to eat lunch, then go to the inaguration of the Governor." "Who's the Governor?" asked Sora, getting out of bed. "What should I wear? I only have these clothes I came in." Joe waved her off. "Eh, it doesn't matter. Oh, before I forget ... " He reached into his coat pocket and held out two things to them: the Red Hot Chili Peppers lighter and the box of dirt from Kate Hudson. "Man, I just cannot get rid of this crap, can I?" Sora muttered, taking the box from Joe. Kat and Sora took showers, then reluctantly put their old clothes back on. Kat's were all stained with blood. They ate a quick lunch and headed for City Hall. Inside, a young man stood on a small platform at the end of the hall, next to some officials and police officers. Kat and Sora made their way to the front of the crowd that was gathered inside. "Tai!" Sora exclaimed. He smiled. "Hell, it's been a while, hasn't it? I see you still haven't changed clothes since I last saw you." He grabbed their hands and pulled them up on the stage. He cleared his throat, preparing to speak to the crowd. "People of Utah, I give you ... the most courageous, the most intelligent--to some level--and the most refined girls in America!" Sora blushed. Kat corssed her arms over her dirty tank top. Tai continued: "Trust me, these girls have got it all. They saved us from the Blackjack player who took all our money. They're chummy with a whole slew of celebrities. They're--" "Tai," Kat interrupted him. "I think you're running this into the ground." He grinned and patted her on the head. "And they're witty, too!" There was some smattered clapping in the audience, unsure of what exactly they were clapping for. It just seemed as if they should be clapping. One of the officials stepped up and gave his little speech, which ended with, "And there's a street party outside, so eat and get drunk!" Naturally, the crowd rushed outside. Tai led Kat and Sora upstairs to a spare bedroom, where some new clothes were laying on the bed. "Whoa, hey," said Kat, picking up a dress. "Who picked these out?" Sora rummaged through the few clothes. "I think they're kind of cute." "Just put something on." Tai shut the door behind him and waited patiently in the hall for twenty minutes before the girls came out. "What took you so long?" he asked, just slightly annoyed. "Couldn't decide what to wear," Sora said, bouncing down the stairs. Tai looked at Kat for an answer. She just shrugged and followed Sora downstairs, pulling Tai along. Joe met them at the foot of the stairs. "Kat," he said, "I have some things for you." He held out the trenchcoat, with the .38 Special and Gucci sunglasses on top. Kat picked up the glasses. "Where'd these come from?" she asked, putting them on. "I thought I lost these a long time ago." She shrugged on the trenchcoat and slipped the .38 Special in one of the inside pockets. "Look at me, wearing a miniskirt and a long trenchcoat." Joe led them outside, where many tables were set up, much like Joe's Brother's birthday party long ago. They made their way to the front, where the girls would be sitting right next to another stage that was set up. "Hey, it's Kari and Mimi!" Sora exclaimed as they got closer to the table. "How the hell you've been?" She gave them both a hug. Tai leaned over to Kat. "Does it seem like Sora's swearing a lot more than she used to?" Kat nodded. "I think she said 'fricking' the other day." She looked over at Kari. "Why are you dressed as a po-po? It's not Halloween." Kari looked down at her outfit. "But I am a cop now." She turned to Mimi. "Tai gave me my job back." Mimi nodded. "Yeah, and now I'm Cody's personal assistant." "What?" Sora was confused. "Hey, it's a job. And it pays pretty good." After the dinner, Kat and Sora went to the Asian gardens behind the hill and talked with Mimi and Kari, Joe, and Matt and TK well into the night. At one point, Sora turned to Kat and mentioned something about writing a screenplay. "Did you write stuff down in the journal Joe's Brother gave you?" Kat glanced at Sora. She reached inside a pocket of the trenchcoat and pulled out the journal. "Oops. No, I forgot." "You'll crush Joe's Brother's heart," said TK. Joe got up. "Come on, now. It's two in the morning. I'm going to bed, and so are the rest of you." "Yessir, Dad," Matt joked. But he followed everyone else back to the motel. |