The smell of leather in the morning.

Yes, most of the time this sentence would usually be accompanied with 'she loved', but that didn't work.  It didn't make sense because she didn't love the smell of leather, morning or evening.  It was just that this morning she woke up and that was exactly what she smelled.  She couldn't help but feel worried since that's not the usual smell of the infirmary.

Did I fall asleep again working late night?  Noelle thought.  At least this time there weren't any patients waiting for her while she did so. It was really worrying how lately she seemed to be more tired than usual.  In her prime, she could work a good 23 hours a day and still smile and do the job efficiently and with tender care.  Now she needed to sleep a lot.  Now, with all the risky missions bringing lots of people to her, she needed even more of that dreaded entity known as sleep.  How aghast was she when she realized last week she had slept for at least three hours.  Travesty!  She probably needed to switch to caffeine sometime soon if this carried on.

Noelle dusted herself off, picking up whatever nasties might have crept up to her when her defenses was down, and proceeded to wash her hands twice.  Sanitary mornings were what kept the sanitary conditions throughout the day after all.  Once this routine was done, -then- she made sure to confront the leather-clad young man nesting in the shadows.

"Leave me alone." He said when she looked at him. A rather odd thing to say considering he was the one that came to her in the first place.  But she wasn't phased.  'Leave me alone' was his catch phrase, and anyone who had ever been under the command of Commander Max Ash Volcano (rather unfortunate name) soon knows, could very well mean anything from 'send the troops out wave by wave' to 'pass the bread'.

This time his eyes told her what he wanted.  Those dark, brown, brooding eyes complemented the depth of his being very well.  Handsome almost to a fault, his pearly skin could make any teen-idol worshiping girl swoon, while all the rest would eventually fall for his intense eyes.  Scott Vikaryious (working late nights made her watch the oddest most obscure shows) had nothing on him.  But what was most intriguing was the psyche, which had an odd magnetic power which added more to his face than any make up or plastic surgery could ever hope to.

Oh.  There was the leather too.  Most seemed to like that.  But, as stated before, she didn't like the smell of leather in the morning.

She continued the fixed gaze on his eyes, seconds counted by her breath until both of them were breathing in a synchronized manner.  Waking up in the morning in the arms of the beautiful lover, wasn't this something out of a novel?  She extended an arm.  Gently, softly, gracefully, like something out of a play, all the tension escalating for the final climax when she-

-landed a slap on his cheek.

She landed a few steps, waiting for the reaction to her action.  He frowned even more intensely.  Then placing a hand on his cheek, rubbing sensuously over the supposed wound, and increasing the depth and broodiness of his eyes.  He looked hurt.  Very hurt, and made sure to show it and... oh no!

"No!"  She looked back.  She knew her limits and they were reaching close.  "I don't need this right now.  I'm over you and I've got plenty of other people to look after."

"Leave me alone."

"You should have thought of that before frolicking around with all those girls."

"I was a fool." He extended his arm to her.  But she made sure not to reply.  Not twice, anyway.  "I thought I could find solace in the arms of another.  But you're the only one for me.  You're the only one who could ever make me safe, like the world mattered anymore."

That was the wordiest she ever heard him before.  This was seriously coming from his core.  But still, the horrible image of their relationship kept springing up and this was not what she wanted anymore.  She had a lot of people to take care of and didn't need him.

"I need you." His lips accented those words slowly.  Dramatically emphasizing every word like they had the weight of the world behind them.

Soldier and Nurse locked in the eternal love story.  The Nurse crushed to see her beloved in the arms of another, and they separate.  But they chance to meet again under the bitter winds of Autumn, realizing the errors of youth and embracing as the last red leaf fell from it's branch.

Perhaps something for a novel, or the latest Hollywood war movie.  But this wasn't going to happen in real life.

"I've got work to do." She said, returning back to her medicine filing or whatever there had to be done before the patients started rolling in.

"Leave me alone."

And he meant exactly what he said that time too.

"The nerve of him!" It was fortunate Noelle didn't decide to take coffee that day, such unhealthy doses of caffeine would've made her nerves explode.

"AAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" The patient cried.  People never could accept their medicine well, they either took too much or too little.  Both which could be fatal.

"Just sit still." She cried to the soldier, rather androgynous fellow himself.  "This is something that has to be done."

"But but but...." He was obviously a hysteric, what was his case again?  Oh yes, amputation of the arm due to infection.  That would always cause a person to cower in horror.  But what's good for them would ultimately prevail.

Where was that assistant?  "Bring the sedative now." She ordered.

"Ma'am." The subordinate said squeakily. "Is everything alright?"

This was why she did not have assistants in the past and probably wouldn't be getting assistants for a long time in the future.  They never did things right. "Yes I am.  Why do you ask?"

"Well," she was flushed with an apparent horror. "That patient came in for a flu, not an amputation."

She released her grip on the lad. He, sweating profusely, took the time to inhale as much oxygen possible as if he had just escaped from death. "Oh.  Oh... sorry."

This was doing more than annoy her a little bit.  It was outright dangerous to her job.  And anything antithetical to her appointed task of healing would be isolated, diagnosed, and destroyed.  Step one and two were done, now for the third task.

She hugged herself, pulling up from the slight chill and increasing mediciney smell as the (this time correct) medicine was given to the young soldier.  She knew what she had to do, and how to do it.

She wasn't going to get mad.

She was gonna get weepy!

.........

.........

.........

No, that was most likely not the right word. Ah yes, 'even' was the word that fitted most in this situation.

The night life of Las Vegas was lively, to say the least.  Flashing neon signs, music and crowds making noise everywhere to the point where one could barely here one's self think, and colors flew around to the point where it almost made one nauseous.  Though not quite.  That's what disco balls were for.

And to think, the casino wasn't even open yet.  It had to close down recently for a little... mainly to get away from the heat of the arm of the law for a moment, though it was obvious that gamblers, shady folk, and dealers were eagerly awaiting to go back into business.

It was well known among the more learned in the underground sects that if you were one of the ones that was lawless, there was one type of income you could always depend on.  Bank robberies couldn't be done at a whim.  Fort Knox's security was tight, and stealing England's crown jewels was really a lot more impossible than TV made it out to be.  Drug dealing was good.  You could make a reasonable amount of money off of those.  But they were combustible.  And your clients often didn't have the money to pay up.  And really, drug dealing was only good for earning extra money but probably wasn't the type of business that would sustain the really large profits to either live the rich life, or run an evil underground organization hell-bent on taking over the world and establishing a new world order.

But gambling?  Gambling was a constant source of income.  Every day, every week, you could expect the pay check and the money to roll in from those who just couldn't help themselves.  The odds were in the casino owners' favor, and over time the money would average out to be a very nice profit to the point where you could always depend on it to be there when the year's budget came in.  Really, you know something's just way too easy when Lord BALROG can run the operation and still bring in a hefty sum every month.  Why did the gamblers keep gambling?  Juli thought it did seem kind of stupid, though to be honest, she never really did try it, herself.  Juli really didn't care for the flash and pizzazz for the whole spectacle that much, but she was still interested in the trip.  Which she didn't think it'd really be a highlight of her life any time soon, she did think it'd be good to see the one Juni said they'd be meeting up with, there.  That was about the only piece of info Juli could get behind the reasoning as to why her partner dragged her there in the first place, anyway.

"So we're going to see High Lady Rose?"  As an indication of the topic of conversation she'd like to use, the brunette started by repeating what her partner told her on the plane ride.  "I haven't seen her since she was initially in Shadowlaw.  I hope she got used to everything."

Juli paused in thought for a moment.  The music and the crowds were still all around her, but since she was standing next to her partner, she was sure Juni could hear her above it all.  Which was fine, because since she could barely hear herself think, Juli had to voice her thoughts out loud.

"Come to think about it, I haven't seen Lord Bison since Christmas, either.  I heard he even personally got into a fight with the walking holocaust.  He must be really busy... but that was probably really dangerous.  I suppose if he thought he would be fine, then his judgment would be good enough not to worry, though."

She thought she could hear her partner above the crowds, too, though after what her partner said and with the demeanor with which she said it, Juli wasn't really sure.

"He probably just doesn't give a damn about any of us."  Juni remarked.  "The Christmas thing was a rather effective trick of his to get us all to shut up about Rose though."

The two paused, as Juli stared at her partner half in shock, and half in confusion.  She had to have heard that wrong.  The blonde blinked in surprise, herself, then stared back.

" ...what did I just say?"  Juni asked.

Yea, she really had to have heard that wrong.  Juli didn't have time to ask Juni to repeat, however, because the person they were meeting with had finally arrived.  A good portion of the crowd dispersed as the High Lady, easy to pick out from the crowd with her purple hair and duo of practically electric bangs, walked down the road to the two dolls.  Another good portion didn't, probably because they weren't aware of who was walking pass them.  Which kind of made sense.  Rose was wearing the yellow shawl and red coat-dress with purple stockings that she always wore even before she became High Lady.  That was fine with Juli, since the doll uniform that she tried on once just didn't seem to suit her that well.  With Rose was another lady with red hair who might have been wearing a night gown, although Juli wasn't paying much attention to her.  Probably a body-guard or advisor or something.

Juni immediately saluted as Rose approached, though Juli figured that she knew Rose enough to not need such formalities.

"Oh, hey, Rose."  The agent casually greeted.  "Did things for you improve in Shadowlaw?"

Her partner stared at the brunette in shock.  "It is Mistress or Ma'am or Lady Rose, Juli!  We have to remember that we're talking to the High Lady of Shadowlaw, here!"

Eh?  Why?  Juli met Rose before, and even introduced Juni to her.  This logic made her stare at Juni in surprise.  "We do?"

Rose smiled slyly and answered before Juli's partner could.  "Why yes, I do believe you have to."

Caught off guard, Juli blinked in surprised then stared at Rose for a bit, before stuttering a little.  "Um... okay?  Erm... I..."

She didn't really know what to say.  She wasn't used to addressing Rose with formalities at all.  Had she been able to think a little more, she probably would have been able to figure out the meaning of a sly smile as opposed to a mocking one, but a quick elbow for a reply from her partner ruined any chance of that train of thought reaching its destination.

"That is..."  Juli quickly saluted, but still couldn't think of a reply.  Luckily, Juni replied for her.

"My partner apologizes for her lack of protocol and assures you that it won't happen again, Lady Rose."

The brunette continued to look somewhat dumbfounded.  Normally, she tried to stick to protocol, herself, but she really wasn't able to get accustomed to doing so with Rose after their previous meetings.

Rose laughed softly.  "That salute lacked any eager vitality behind it.  Perhaps you need more 'education' to show respect to your Lady."

Juli was still unable to figure out what she was getting at, until Rose finally spelled it out for her.

"No, you don't.  I'm joking."

"Ack!  I'm sorry, it's been a really long time."  The brunette was rather embarrassed at missing what was obviously just a lot of friendly poking.  An embarrassment she decided to quickly transfer to the one that made her take it seriously in the first place.

"Oreo."  Juni shrugged in reply to Juli's glare.  "You act like I've met her before."

Yet another weird thing, since Juli could clearly remember that she DID introduce her partner to Rose, before.  Though she figured she had enough weirdness for the hour and quickly decided to address Rose again.

"Anyway, it's good to see that you're doing well, now."  Juli remarked, before finally taking a closer look at Rose's companion.  Over the immediate introductions and surprise, she was finally able to notice Rose's friend a bit more.  The glint in her eyes and that short red hair...  "Huh?  Avelle...?"

Juli paused for a bit.  That woman DID look like Avelle a bit, but she was obviously significantly older, more mature, and seemed to have a different style of... confidence in her eyes.  The agent quickly corrected herself.

"Oh, oops, sorry, it's hard for me to think straight above all this noise.  Who's your friend?"

Off to her side, Juni was muttering about the weirdness of how casual talking with the High Lady was being and how she didn't realize protocol at the higher levels of management was like the current conversation going on.  As she was doing so, Rose's friend sighed in a rather exaggerated fashion and replied to Juli's question.  "Ah unfortunately no.  The freshness of spring has been lost by the evil ravages of time, darling.  If only the phoenix would do it's job."

It made sense that a friend of Rose's would be versed in bird's language.  She was right, though.  It was a long time since Avelle was gone.  Juli really did need to drop that, finally.  Rose, not being around back then and probably not hearing about it recently since it was such a dead horse, didn't know a thing about what the two were talking about.  "I feel like I'm missing something here."

"Just a former agent here."  The other lady explained with a shrug.  "It's old news, darling... hasn't been heard of for a while."

"There is quite a drama here, isn't there?"  Rose commented, before taking note of all the noise that was still going on around them from the crowds.  "But this probably isn't the place for the great soap opera that is Shadowlaw.  Tell me, what was the purpose of this meeting?"

The dead horse didn't really need any more beatings, anyway.  Not that Juli knew how to address the new one, though.

"I don't know, myself."  Juli replied, before glancing at her partner again.  "Juni told me that I didn't have to come along if I didn't really want to, but I figured that I might as well.  So..."

Catching the cue from her partner, Juni tried to look innocent.  "What?  I just figured that some place far far away from Mrigranka would work out just fine and that everyone could have a really nifty break, tis all.  ...well, okay, and I've been meaning to ask Rose something, though yea, I guess right here isn't really a good atmosphere for discussion."

Before anyone else could speak, a man with a blue shining pimp jacket and hat shouted into a megaphone, which blared and sounded above the crowd, making everyone enter silence for a brief moment as all the music stopped.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAA!!!!  Give it up!  It's time for the grand reopening of the GOLDEN ANARCHY PALACE!!!!"

The crowd immediately started cheering really loudly, causing Rose and the rest of the group to quickly cover their ears.

"YEA!!!!"  The semi-deep voice shouted again.  "We got da pimpin' rockin' skillz tonight!  Here for our grand reopening, it's da former heavyweight powerhouse champ, the bouncer, the lord of boxing, BAAAAALROOOOOOG!!!!"

A really deep drum beat started, as some sort of deep soul rap music began, accompanied by an even deeper voice.

"OOOOOOOOOOH... YEA!!!!!"

Balrog stepped out of the casino onto the carpet as the music continued, accompanied this time by a shout from some men, too.

"SLAM DUNK!"
             "YEA!!!!!"

"THE B-MAN!"  The pimp announcer screamed as Balrog took off his yellow jacket and threw it to the side, now dressed in his blue boxer outfit.  A couple of bunny playgirls with top hats and red-one piece swimsuits took the jacket and walked with him down the aisle.

"JUSTICE!"  The group rappers declared.
        "OOOOOOOOOOH... YEA!!!!!"
The two bunny girls clinged to Balrog and smiled.  "Workin!"

"HA HA HA!"  With what was obviously an augmented laugh to resemble one of those obnoxious deep echoing preppy ones, Balrog flexed his muscles as the girls backed off him.  He then threw a couple punches as the drum beat and music continued.

"GIVE IT UP!"  The pimp announcer shouted as the deep voice rang out another "YEA!!!!!"

"FOREVER!"  The men yelled.

"The B-MAN!"  The girls shouted.

"BALROG!"  All of the groups yelled in unison as the bunny girls took off their top hats and a bunch of turtle doves flew out of them.

"HOORAY!!!!"

The site was very disturbing but at least it was finally over.  The announcer continued about how everyone was in for a wild night, but it didn't look like Rose, her friend, and the two dolls would be seeing any of it because the line was so long.  Not that that appeared to stop Juni though.  With a quick mach slide, the blonde was gone, then she was back with Balrog and that guy in the blue jacket.

"OOOOOW!"  That was shouted in the pop-culture way and not as an indication of pain... or however it was described.  "WHO dun gone and think dey can interupt the big B-MAN!?"

"Shut up, fool!"  Balrog bapped the man with his boxing glove.  "Who's the big and tall one here, Mack!?  Don't make me have ta pound your face in!"

"YEOW!!!"  Mack shouted in response.  "I dun gone and think that I ain't the one doin' the draggin', boss!  These ho's here must have done gone and been a late to work and now I think da blonde one wants the retribution!"

All four of the ladies stared at the man trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about, and all four soon where shocked when that Mack, apparently mistaking Juni for one of the employees at the casino, gave the blonde a pimp slap.

"WHERE'S DA MONEY, BITCH!?!?"

Juni wasn't very amused.

"HEEEEEEEEI-YAH!!!!"

As the two flipped up into the air with Juni slamming Mack down hard with an Earth Direct, Balrog himself finally realized who he was in front of.

"WELL SHOOT!  If it aint' Bison's personal ho....SE!  ROSE!  Yea!  The lord's personal Rose!  That's what I'm talking about!"  The boxer, exasperated, quickly corrected himself.  "You shouldn't waste time out here with these scum!"

With that, Balrog made sure to quickly allow Rose and the rest of the group in.  Juli wasn't sure if she wanted to know what that was all about.

The agent known as Juni blinked twice.  "Um... hiya!"  She said with the biggest smile Rose had ever seen on her before.  Which was just an attempt to mitigate the general tension in the room.  The entire table just fixated their eyes on her and her..... questionable taste in meeting areas.

She continued, "The food's really good, right?  Much better than that stuff at Mrigranka, huh?"

No one dared say anything.  Only the faint clanking of cuttlery from the other tables could be heard.  A lot of people were around, but thankfully the restaurant was high-class enough not to leave the rowdy drunk or gambling-high people to enter.

"Darling, I think what's on everyone's mind is how they got the money for such food and what they plan on doing..."

Rose coughed. "Yes Myrna, we get the point."

No use in adding more akwardness for the poor girl.  More silence came along.  It really was an enjoyable meal, however contrasting the rest of the enviroment was.  Elegantly dressed chicken with creamy sauce reached into her mouth and she chewed well before swallowing.  It had been too long since she really had time to reconnect with her body, eating just to satisfy hunger and resting just for the minimal rest requirments for so long now, she had forgotten their pleasures.  A little luxury never hurt anyone.

"....OH!" Juni yelled  "Yea, I heard that for the food they..."

"AHEM."  Her partner cut her off.

"Kazzuntai?"

Juli said, "Juni, why did you really want all of us to meet, here?"

"Um..... I dunno?" That merited another glare from everyone.  "Hey!!  Stop being so pressurous!  It makes it hard for me to think clearly!!!"

Rose blinked. "You must be under pressure a lot..."

"Yep!" She smiled again, swinging down her fork to her plate and taking another bite of her food.

Juli shook her head. Those two seemed like quite a pair up. "My partner... really doesn't require that much pressure.  Ah well, I guess I should try some ice breaking here while she recalls the whole point of this trip. So... ah... oh yea!  Rose, whatever happened to what's-his-name?  Gregory?  He seemed like a nice enough person when I first met you but I haven't seen him with you at all since then."

Ice breaker?  More like conversation killer.  Though it was about time to come to terms with this.  "Gregory....was an unfortunate victim of circumstances prevailing the entire moment.  I imagine the factory those milk and cookies came from was selling poisoned products, if you know what I mean."

Not completely a lie, just missing a detail.

"Who is this?" Myrna said.

Rose took another bite.  This time more solemn than the before meal.  How things can change with just a simple sentence. "Let's just say he's my Avelle."

Myrna tried to supress a giggle. "Fine darling, the shadows of secrets are open for everyone."

Juli just stared.  Though Rose could not exactly determine which comment warranted that.  Maybe both?  "....oh, well then... in that case...  erm..."

"Hey!!!" The blonde agent's voice caught them all by surprise once more.  She sure liked to be the center of attention a lot. "How about those walking holocausts, huh?  Aren't they just really COOL how they...

"JUNI!"

"Huh?  I was only trying to start up some conversation..."

Fortunately the conversation did get starting up soon enough.  Mostly small talk about general things, the kind of words you tend to forget after being spoken (talking is half-murdering of thoughts indeed) as the time flew by.

"Then I said 'Darling, why don't you...' "

"Eh?" Juli looked out from their little circle around the table.  Was that person waiting there waiting for long?  "Noelle?  What are you doing here?"

She cleared her throat.  "Professor Irvine told me I could find Rose here.  I just wanted to see if I could talk to her about something."

"Hunh?" Said the fly to the spider.

"So, Rose," this was the same girl who ran into Rose a while back when she had just entered Shadowlaw.  Noelle, her name was, half closed her eyes and twisted those thin lips into a sort of grin.  She leaned... no.... climbed unto the table and leaned closer to Rose.  Closer than the psychic was comfortable with.  Her voice lowered, by a decibal that is. "rumour has it that you're the real lady of Shadowlaw, pulling all the strings now while Bison just looks big."

"Noelle!" Juli again.  Recovering from a shocked expression which her partner still hadn't snapped out of.  "What are you talking about?"

Normally Rose would've laughed at the flattering comment.  But the agent was uncomfortably close.  She could even feel the breaths and had to lean back and look to her side to avoid it as possible. ".....rumours spread fast, don't they?"

"I want to know how you do it." She jumped back as abruptly as she had jumped on.  Causing the forks and knives to jingle and the tabble to wobble at the newly released pressure (fortunately no casualties in the chinaware).  Noelle clenched her fists and closed her eyes. "I want to know how you manage to pull off this whole authority figure thing and keep your man in line!!!!"

No one was spared from the face fault at that comment.

".....are you stalking me?"

Well, that was pointless.  As well as really wierd.  Juli's partner not remembering why she set up a meeting was just really absent minded even for Juni.  Hopefully she'd 'remember' what the heck they were all doing there by the next day.  Well, she was right about one thing, though.  The food WAS much better than at Mrigranka and Juli did have to admit that she enjoyed having some wine again.  The dinner pretty much entered the realm of 'times when Juli is better off not paying any attention' when Noelle came in and started asking for tips on being an authority figure.  It was most certainly a side of the medic doll that Juli had never seen before, that was for sure.  Not that Juli really ever got to see that many sides of Noelle, though.  At any rate, it was too late in the night to try out any of the games, which was just fine because Juli and Juni didn't have any money, what with the casino not accepting Bison dollars because Shadowlaw was illegal and all.  After all, can't let the authorities know you're secretly funding a global underground evil organization.  Still, she'd think that with her being one of the elites and under Lord Bison's personal command, she could have at least got a better ROOM.

Of course, Lord Balrog's 'office' didn't appear to be in the cleanest of shapes, either.  Paper work was scattered everywhere and it just looked like one of those really messy offices you'd expect an underfunded detective to work in.  Or a really sloppy one.  Lord Balrog did seem like the type to be that way.

Hell, Juli still couldn't get used to thinking of him as a lord.  After all, he was BALROG.  The guy just fit the whole stupid black boxer stereotype to the extreme.  Apparently Balrog was too busy talking to that freak assistant of his, Mack, to notice the brunette standing in the doorway.

"Yea, that's Bison's personal ho," informed Balrog to his assistant, "but something's up with her and those two dolls with her.  Why did the High Lady get a honeymoon suites reserved for her?"

That huge luxurious room that Rose and her friend Myrna got was a honeymoon suite!?  Juli just figured it was just the best room in the casino's hotel.  That was...

"Yo yo ow!"  Mack decided to answer out loud before Juli could even begin to think anything else.  "That Bison sure does like his pimpin' lesbian ho's!!!!!!!"

Hmm...

"You know,"  Juli finally angrily interrupted, "even if they WERE into that which I seriously doubt they are since it was my partner that reserved the rooms, at least they still got something half decent!"

"Shut yo' mouth!!!"  Mack snapped back.  "Here are Balrog's Casino we got even better than stinkin' lame honeymoon suite.  We got the getting it ooooooon shack!!!"

"Getting it on shack!?!?  The god damn thing looks like a seventy's pornography suite!!!"  The brunette retorted, before pausing.  "Complete with paintings on the wall of things that I'd really rather not describe and... Oh wait.  Nevermind."

Juni decided to take that oppurtunity to tap her partner on the shoulder.  "Um... Juli?"

"Not now, Juni."  Juli responded.  "I'm arguing with the pimp."

"Oh.  Well, okay."  The blonde shrugged.  "Just wanted to say that I wasn't the one that reserved our rooms.  Erm, I kinda forgot about that little detail."

Eh?  Then who the heck reserved them those... Juli figured maybe she shouldn't ask.  Not that it mattered, because she got her answer via a phone call that was waiting for her and Juni when she got back to their room.

"JULIA!!!!"  Desire's voice rang from the phone.  "Did Rose and Myrna get their honeymoon suite that I reserved for them."

Juli frowned.  That explained it.  "Yes.  Yes, they did."

"Oh!  That's really good!  How are you and Agent Juni doing?  I'm sorry, but there was only one honeymoon suite in the hotel.  But it doesn't matter!  Even with a really run down room, I'm sure you two are close enough soulmates that..."

Juli hung up the phone.  She had had enough disturbing thoughts for that night.  And she really didn't want to think of what Desire wanted for Rose and Myrna, either.

As Rose slowly looked around the room and realized just what type of room she and Myrna got, she slowly shook her head then glanced at the other woman.

"Myrna, try not to make any noise tonight when you go to sleep."

Last night was soooooooo embarassing.  In fact, if Juni weren't used to saying stupid things that Juli had to correct all the time, she probably would have wanted to curl up and die.  Where was Junivelle?  Dagnabbit!  Juni wasn't the one who made this appointment.  Sure, she knew the plan, but she wasn't sure enough of it to be able to spell it out right there.  Juli being there didn't help either, since she didn't even tell Juli about the plan at all yet.  ACK!  She really should have told her sooner, but she kept forgetting then Junivelle told her not to and now she was just getting so confused!!!

No, maybe she wasn't confused.  She just wasn't sure if she wanted to go along with it, anymore...

Wandering the casino wondering what she was going to do to bail herself out of the predicament, the blonde sighed.  The games looked fun and all, but she didn't even have any money to do any gambling anyway, nor was she in the mood.  Juli was off bugging Lord Balrog about some stuff, which was probably just as well, since Juni really didn't know what she could say to her partner right now.  They almost went to bed last night without a word, which was just awkward, though Juni was at least able to get in a 'Good night, Juli.' and get a not toooo awkward and rather sincere albeit confused "Oh.  Good night, Juni." response in kind.

Sigh, well, Juni figured she might as well watch some of the games.  It might help the girl keep her mind off things.  After a quick look around, she figured she'd stop by the roulette table first.  She liked the way the wheel spinned around and the suspense of which number it landed on was nice.  And she could pretend that she was playing too by guessing a number in her head, unlike poker or blackjack where she'd have to hold onto a set of cards in order to even imagine herself playing.  Yay, that should be fun.

Needless to say, the people managing the spinnings and bets of the roulette were a couple of beautiful girls.  These ones wearing sparkly red suits and top hats, as opposed to the other bunny girls around the casino.  Of course, for obvious reasons, Juni didn't really care for bunny girls or beautiful girls or such.  The group of people betting at the wheel seemed rather uninteresting too, though it was funny how there was one rather short red-haired guy who looked like he was too young to be at the casino (Juni herself was too young too, but Balrog wouldn't kick out one of Lord Bison's dolls just for a silly reason like that).  With the mass of other people so much taller than him and him looking so young, it was easy to pick him out.  Also, the way that he was composing and stating his bets was fun, too.  While the others were shouting out their bets and screaming about how their fathers needed new shoes for some wierd reason, he was just quietly stating them to the point where it was starting to annoy the dealers how soft-spoken he was.

"Five red chips on the black, please?"  The young boy took a glance at a clock on the wall nearby.  "According to the time, that should be just about right.  Five is really in sync with the fourth hour on the..."

"Say that again?"  The dealer asked as more of the men shouted out their other bets.  The dealer had to place the kid's chips on the right squares because the kid himself had trouble reaching past the other men to the position he wanted due to his shortness.

"Five red chips on black.  It increases with the dark black on the..."

"Got it."  Interrupted the woman.  Using one of those neato casino sticks, she quickly shoved the kid's chips onto the color black and threw a small metal ball onto the wheel as it spun.  Wierd how the kid didn't get the boot either when he was seemed to be too young, too.

Round and round the wheel goes!  Where it stops, nobody knows!  Well, except for that kid apparently, because the bouncing metal ball finally stopped on a black segment.  The dealers actually looked really annoyed when they saw that.  Juni suddenly realized that she was too busy watching to guess a number or color on the wheel.  Doh!  Well, maybe next time.  That guy actually looked like he had racked up a really large amount of the plastic circles.  Course, maybe he was just really lucky.  The chances of the ball landing on the color black was almost half and half anyway, what with the only other color on a roulette wheel being red and only one section out of like fifty that was colorless.  Time for Juni to test her luck, too.  This next one looked more interesting because that guy was betting on a specific number, now.  The chances of a specific number were only one in fifty, what with there being fifty numbers and all.  Juni decided she'd pick out a number too, just for fun.  For this spin, she decided in her mind on the number thirty-five.  That seemed good.

"Can I have ten red chips on number fifty, please?  You throw like a Capricorn, right?  At least, I think that was the style when you flip your hand like that.  The month times the date at this hour should equal a six six six, which really wouldn't work, but it doesn't coincide with fifty at all and I believe that a Capricorn born on the fourth hour should go to fifty-five, so fifty should be close and..."

The dealer quickly shut the kid up with a glare, obviously annoyed with his apparently overly private questions.  Juni supposed it did sound a bit preemptive and intruding, but she supposed the main reason they were annoyed with the guy was because of how much he was winning, apparently.

Spin, wheel, spin!  FOR THE CHILDREN!

And... it landed on number fifty.  Whoa!  Juni wasn't expecting it to land on her number anyway, but the chances of it landing on that other guy's number was really small.  And apparently the dealers weren't very happy about it.

"Okay, that's it.  You're cheating, aren't you?  I saw how much you won at those poker games and blackjack games back there, too."  One of the dealers grabbed the kid by his hand.  "I don't care what your ID says, anyway.  You look too young to be here.  Furthermore, we're sorry, but we're going to have to ask you to leave.  Card counting is against the rules."

"It is?"  The boy looked around with a look of confusion and innocence on his face.  "But I was only keeping track of the numbers..."

Ack!  That didn't seem like a very nice thing for those people to be doing.  Maybe Juni could speak to Lord Balrog on the kid's behalf.  Making her way through the crowds and using her mach slide if too many people got in her way to zip through them, Juni soon arrived at Balrog's office right behind the dealer and that other kid.  On a side note, another thing that was really odd was that they didn't use one of those really big and tall mean fierce looking suited bouncers that were standing all over the place acting as security to do it, but ah well.

Her partner was still in the management, apparently still argueing with Balrog's assistant.

"You're really one of Bison's ladies?"  Mack remarked as he spun around some sorta wierd candy-colored cane.  "If he don't want you, be my baby!

"Okay, you know what, that's it. I'll tell you that the whole 'jailbait harem' term is a malicious LIE made up by stupid soldiers who have nothing better to do than dream about SEX all day and are one of the primary reasons why that wierdo Irvine's pay is so damn high!"  Juli was apparently starting a big rant or something.  "Now if you dare to imply that that's what I do even one more time, I'm going to have to hurt you."

"Ow!"  Mack quickly glanced around.  "I dun think I'd better go, because this girl here is one unruly ho'!"

Unfortunately, Juni was blocking the doorway, and with Mack in the way, couldn't figure out how to get around him to speak to Lord Balrog.  Mack himself wasn't very happy with the blonde blocking his escape route.

"You better let me pass 'fore this cane finds itself up your ass!"

Juni wasn't amused.

"HEEEEEEEI-YAH!!!!!"

One earth direct slam later, and Mack was out temporarily.  Juli had just noticed her parter by then, too.

"Juni, why did you invite Rose to this place with all these PIMPS?!?"

Ack!  How many times did she have to tell Juli that she didn't know why?  Erm... well, didn't remember.  Yipe!  A quick confused glance at Juli was enough to answer the question.  Time to change the subject.

"Lord Balrog sir!  Um... is card counting illegal?  Whatever that is."

Balrog quickly glanced up from a sports magazine that he was reading.  "Mweh?  Not unless the fool who's doing it is working for us!  Is he big and tall and does he know what he's talking about?"

"Erm... not really.  He's short and small, but he seems to know what he's doing."

"Then what da hell is he not doing on our payroll!?"  The boxer, wearing that banana yellow suit again, quickly reached for a phone.  "Security!  Get me dat card counter boy back here, now!"

Moments later, a couple bunny girls were back with the kid.

"That manager over there said I can have the person who booted me out sleep with the fishes."  He shrugged.  "That's silly, I'm mad at them, don't want to take them to Sea World or something."

Yay, that was Juni's good deed for the day.  And it looked like karma was paying off too, because Junivelle had apparently finally arrived and could now hopefully remind Juni what was going on.  She wasn't saying anything, but she was grinning mischievously while leaning in the doorway with her arms crossed for some wierd reason as Balrog talked to the boy, who was apparently named Justin, about how 'word on the street' was that he was an excellent card counter or something.

"So, I'm thinking you could work for us, see?  We could always use another card counting dealer, just as long as it's done in moderation so those fools don't realize what's going on, if you know what I'm talking about.  Which you could, because I know that I know what I'm talking about since I'm big and tall and all."

"Oh, I already have a job."  Justin replied.  "Miss Rose has had a couple things for me that I needed to do and stuff.  I was able to look into your computers and search the numbers for possible reasons on this mystery meeting of hers but wasn't able to find much.  There was a number for destruction which worried me a little when multiplied by the right angle but I'm still gathering the data on that."

While most of the people in the room were staring at Justin trying to figure out what he was talking about, Junivelle used that oppurtunity to smile and wink at her alter ego.

"Karma is a wonderful thing, isn't it, dear?  It seems our friend here is quite an adept at the art of computer manipulation."

"Oh, hacking?"  Juni quickly eeped as Justin addressed her because she apparently said that latter part out loud.  "Well, I guess you can call it that.  It's really neat.  You can discover the Nightmares in the process when they check out the various data sums to not equal the parts that went in.  You two are those girls that were talking with Rose that other night, right?  I need a couple numbers here to have the data compile right..."

"Numbers?  Data?  Erm..."  Juni blinked, but was quickly interupted by her other self.  "Why, yea!  Actually, I've been meaning to talk with you.  Could I chat with you for a bit?"

Glancing at several security tapes and noting the roulette dealer sulking at being told to sleep with the fishes for trying to kick Justin out, Juli turned to her partner.  "I wonder why those people at that table are all so angry at Rose's young companion.  And... what's his relation to her, again?"

Junivelle decided to use that opportunity to throw in her own snappish remark.  "Probably the same relation Bison has with his blow-up dolls..."

Crap!  Why the heck did she say that!?  The brunette was caught off guard by the blunt reply.  "What?"

Eeeeeeeeep!!!!  Time for damage control!

"Huh?"  Juni nervously and quickly responded.  "I didn't say anything!  Um, I'm sorry, I have to get going!"

The blonde quickly dashed out of the room, although Junivelle decidedto stay for a little longer.  Looking around, her gaze finally fixated on the young red-haired boy before she grabbed him by the arm.  "You're coming, too, remember?"

With that, she dragged Justin away with her.

"And furthermore, where was the latest report?  I might not be a Shadowlaw accountant but even I know that something's up with the budget when I have a mission where I have to steal boxes of bullets, AGAIN!"  Juli snapped at the lumbering oaf before her one more time.  "If my partner ever got hurt thanks to your stupid lousy inability to even file a correct income sheet, I'm going to have to get revenge.  You realize that, right?"

Okay, so maybe chewing out Balrog was rather poor taste.  Especially because it was so easy.  But Juli really didn't have anything better to do and she was tired of running poorly funded missions, anyway.  And Mack did NOT leave her in a very good mood.  The fact that the guy was regaining consciousness didn't help.

"Don't say anything or I'll be forced to follow my partner's example."  The brunette muttered as the pimp stood up on his feet.

Mack simply grinned before motioning to Balrog to indicate his high position at the casino.  "I'm the trusted side kick, I do as I please!  So don't be a prick girl, get down on yo knees!"

Where oh WHERE did these FREAKS come from?

"What is wrong with you!?"  Even though she was just asking for it by doing so, Juli found herself getting swept up into another argument.

"Hey, watch it!"  Balrog decided to butt in to defend his 'trusted sidekick.'  "I'm the big and tall one here!  Don't make me have to lay the beat down on you to prove my point!  Even being Lord Bison's doll can only go so far if you're not big and tall like I am!"

"Here at Balrog's casinos we are radically baaad, so just sit down and enjoy the hoes who are scantily clad!"  Mack swung his fist in the air, apparently an indication of how he was a bad dude or something.  "So sit yo ass and enjoy the fight 'n you come to my victory party in the night."

"Okay, you know what?  Screw this."  Juli crossed her arms and frowned.  "I am soooo going to file a complaint against you when I get back to Mrigranka.  I might not have seen Lord Bison in like, forever, but I'm still sure he'll listen to me."

"Aw, hey!  If Bison gets that complaint, I won't get paid!"  Finally, Balrog realized who he was dealing with.  "Man, don't worry 'bout that, one who isn't big and tall!  We were just joking and all.  Look, why don't you just go play some games or something?  We got important things ta talk about!"

Much to Juli's surprise, Balrog followed that up by giving Juli a couple one hundred dollar bills and a handful of plastic chips.  This was... highly unorthodox.  The brunette didn't know what to do with them.  She never really held onto large amounts of money before that were free for her to spend.

"Well?"

The brunette stared at the boxer and his pimp sidekick, obviously waiting for her to finally leave.  Whatever.  The whole thing was starting to get boring anyway, so Juli figured she might as well try something new for a little bit.  She stopped by the nearest poker table.

"You see how the 7 is the jackpot in the slot machines?"  Balrog remarked.  "The number seven with its three in a row cause School House Rock say dat seven is da lucky number and three be the magic one!  Aw yea, that was our idea first that other casinos ripped off of us.  Don't remember why, though."

Whatever Juni and Justin were talking about nearby was apparently interupted as Justin heard what Juli heard, too.

"Impudent fool..."  The red-haired boy remarked, looking actually genuinely insulted.  "He's making too many assumptions!  Seven seven seven is Crowley's number!  It represents a lot more than those simpleton ideas!"

Justin apparently was really sensitive when it came to his numbers.

"Yo yo, OW!"  Mack shouted.  "I dun gone and think that casinos were around before Shadaloo was, boss!"

"Man, shut up!  I'm big and tall so I know what I'm talking about!"

Before Balrog could continue his conversation further, Juli was already back in his office poking him.

The boxer blinked.  "Eh?"

"More, please."  Juli requested as she put her hand out.

"Huh?  Oh yea, sure."  Balrog shrugged as he handed her another bag of chips and a couple more dollar bills, which the brunette quickly grabbed before leaving again.  Balrog continued his rant to Mack.  "And I don't get what's up with their calculators either!  They said they spent all the money, but even I know from those whacked 'reports' that we brought in more cash than that!  Must have been lost to stupid taxes or something."

"Yo yo, OW!" replied Mack.  "I dun gone and think that we don't pay taxes on the budget, boss!"

Frowning, Balrog bopped Mack on the head with his boxing glove.  "I thought I told you to shut up!  Are you big and tall?  Yea, that's what I thought!"

Although she was sure his conversation was a deep enlightening intelligent debate, Juli, who had re-entered the room, had other things to do.  She quickly tugged at Balrog's shirt to get his attention again.

"Eh?"  Balrog raised an eyebrow at the eerily puppy-eyed brunette (or as puppy-eyed as Juli could get).

"More?"

Mack was astounded at Juli's gambling skills.  Or lack thereof.  "DAMN, WOMAN!  What the hell game you playing that you always need more money from da B-man so fast!?!?"

Extremely annoyed, Juli was about to slap the impudent pimp but Balrog quickly stopped her by handing her yet another pile of cash.  She quickly saluted to him, then left the room.  Angrily, she stomped up to the poker table and glared at the bunny dealer who was shuffling the cards.  The bunny girl simply grinned at the agent.

"Back for more, eh?"

"YOU CHEAT, DON'T YOU!?  Now shut up and deal!!!!"

Stupid jerk!!!!  Everyone was staring at Juli and she kept on losing but THIS time, she was going to win!  The dealer didn't seem very impressed, though.

"You're new to this, huh?"  The dealer rolled her eyes, amused at the brunette's persistance.  Juli didn't really appreciate being mocked by everyone.  "Here, let me help you a little.  This isn't so hard.   Besides, I can already tell by your outfit that you're an... hmm.  An employee here."

The doll agent wasn't really very enthusiastic about being patronized, but it was true that she wasn't really doing very well.  Ah well, while she had the benefits of being a Shadowlaw member in a Shadowlaw casino, she might as well take the opportunity to learn something when given the offer to.

"Are you photogenic, darling?" Myrna leaned over the smooth marble counter.  She had to remove her gloves so as to not completely slip from lack of friction.  "Me?  I'm very photogenic."

"Not really... yes.... yes I'm sure...." The poor man was as squeaky as a teenager just entering puberty.  Rather homely fellow, dressed so unsuitingly for a bar tender in such an area, rather unmitigated by the fact the blue neon behind the counter hit him the most.

She giggled with hand softly placed on mouth.  "No need to be shy.  We can all learn to be good friends over here.  I so enjoy a good conversations over  champagne." As if to emphasise that, she took a careful sip of the empty glass. "Oh dear.  Mind so much to get me another one, hmm hmm?"

*cling* brought Rose back to what she was doing first.  Not too far away from the bar counter was another activity more usually associated with a casino - slot machines.  She figured she might as well play her hand at using them.

Lemon, lemon, cherry.

Nothing much.  But it didn't matter, being only a quarter (unlike those ridiculously expensive other games), she tried again.  Pulled back the lever which sounded off and started the race for the perfect pair.

Seven, seven..... cherry.

"Blasted fruit." She said.

"Enjoying yourself darling?" Myrna leaned from behind in an almost perfect 180 degree bend (she sure enjoys her hatha yoga classes Rose thought, though would rather not think *why* she trained at them so excessively) "Only the slot machines?  I imagine you'd try something more fun.  Sweetie dear, why don't you try blackjack or all the other games?  You may play cards instead of reading them this time around."

Rose 'heh'-ed. "I'd rather not waste my money..."

"Waste, money?" Myrna blinked. "Oh dear, is the High Priestess having regression to her churchmouse days?  You're a high lady of Shadowlaw now darling.  Indulge yourself, -this- is the high life you can get, and with only one try too.  I'm so jelous!"

Rose put away her quarters. "This is the high life, isn't it?" She smiled. "And relatively safe as well.  Oh, excuse me."  One of the various scantily clad waitresses walked by, waiting as Rose took one of the drinks.

And as she was trying to juggle the drinks and the money, she almost fell down and spilled everything on Rose's new scarlet dress.  The 'bunny', as they were called, looked like she was about to cry.  With the expression one would expect from a beaten animal she apologised faster than Rose's mind could register.

"That's no good darling." Myrna to the rescue!  A little instruction might do this girl a world of good. "This is how you should do it."

She thanked her, again faster than anyone's mind could register, and skipped away.  A woman from the neighbouring slot machine coughed abruptly. "You shouldn't be encouraging them."

Myrna turned to the woman innocently. "Oh, but whatever do you mean?"

She got up.  A tall woman, she even dwarfed the two ladies. "It's bad enough they exploit the workers here like that. But must you make them even more stupid by acting like such..... animals?"

"That's a rather unfair profile." Rose said.

"So what are you saying, that it isn't true?  Obviously women of high intelligence won't flaunt themselves, that's what the girls of extreme naivity do when they're too inept for anything else."

"Insult noted, registered, and ignored." Myrna smacked her lips together in a parody of the woman's rantings.

"Just look at this."  The woman challenged.  Picking up the closest other worker there was.  She chose the worker well, for she was a young girl of no exceptional beauty.  Blonde, tanned, something you'd expect from the beaches of California or a younger sister of Sandra's. "You, what's your name?"

The vaccant look in the waitress' blue eyes, comparable probably to a black hole, would probably prove Rose wrong on this one. "Tee-hee. They, like, just call me Bunny and whatever!"

Rose rolled her eyes, obviously this one wasn't much of a speaker. The other lady grinned triumphantly. "My IQ dropped ten points."

"Technically, that's impossible." 'Bunny' said, adopting a highly matter-of-fact tone unbeffiting her stature and clothing. "The entire concept of IQs was developed during the older Mensa days based on the Neo-Darwinist theory that everything was pre determined by genes, including one's level of intelligence.  Therefore, unless one has high impairment in the brain or some other environmental diseases, it remains stable throughout ones life."

The audience's reaction was obvious.

"Tee-hee!" She reverted.

"Darn," Myrna smiled. "And here I had a perfect money making opportunity without placing a bet.  Please darling please, next time you get into a challenge, notify me first."

By then Rose's attention was somewhere else. For not a few feet away from them, near the roulette tables, was a giant gathering of people she'd never seen before. It was like in the movies where when someone was "on a roll", as they say, everyone would go over to them and cheer.

Except these people gathered seemed rather sinister in their black or white suits and serious expressions, some wearing sunglasses and looked towards the outside as a form of protective circle.  She went to see what was there.

At the center of the sea of men was the surprise. She called out, "Justin?!"

He smiled when he saw her. "Hi!" He said, oblivious to the fact that people were surrounding him and that he wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place. "How are you doing?"

"Hey kid," A bulky gentlemen, looking terribly imposing standing in front of Justin, sort of like how Goliath would look in front of David, said in deep voice. "I'm paying you to call the numbers, not talk."

Justin's innocent expression set up (emphasis on up) to the man. "You're paying me?"

A long time had past since that morning.  An afternoon of goofing around the casino had already occurred.  And... apparently, dinner was already over too, even though Juni didn't remember what she said at dinner or what happened at that dinner at all.  No wait... did she say anything at dinner?  Who was talking?  What happened?  Where did the time go?

Juli wasn't even there for dinner for some wierd reason.  Apparently she was having too much fun playing the casino games.  But at least Junivelle was.  So Junivelle was able to tell Rose about the plan, but... Juni couldn't even remember what she said.

She paused for a moment, trying to focus back on what the second dinner of the day was like.  All she could remember was her own voice... saying something about...

Destruction?

What did she say?  What did she just say?

What was one supposed to do, when one didn't even know what she was doing in the first place?  What the heck was Junivelle doing?  No... Juni knew what she was doing.  But... she just wasn't used to this at all.

If you want to be as great as the great Avelle, you have to listen... you can't just sit back and watch the world go by.  You have to be able to take action.  Though... Juni would have preferred that she be the one to take action, herself, and not someone that she wasn't even sure was a ghost, a clone, or just a really freaky imaginary friend.  One thing was for sure, though, she sure made for some really rude conversation.

"Junivelle, I'm starting to think we're going a little far with this..."

Juni...velle stopped and shook her head.  "You.  You're going a little far with this, you mean.  Furthermore, how can you be going far with this?  Things haven't even really started, yet."

"Erm... maybe I could at least get an alternate opinion?"  It was a good thing that the casino was both noisy and crowded, so no one could notice Juni talking to herself.  "I mean, if I'm you and you're me, then our opinions really only count as one opinion and that can't be good."

The other blonde put her hand on her hip and frowned.  It still did perplex Juni why the heck Avelle began to look more and more like Juni, herself, over time.

"Who the hell can you tell!?  This isn't something you can just waltz up to anyone and  reveal, you know.  Why not just turn yourself in now and go back to the asylum?  Is that what you want again?"  Huh?  Juni blinked, trying to figure out what that remark was about, but apparently wasn't going to get any explanation since after seeing that she had no clue what she was talking about, Junivelle sighed and just added, "Never mind."

Nevermind?  Why the heck... if Junivelle really WAS Juni, she wouldn't be keeping secrets like that!  Why would someone keep secrets from herself?  That didn't seem right... Juni had to think.  She had to figure out something...

"Oh yea!"  The blonde agent beamed to the ghost of Avelle.  "I could tell Juli!  Juli trusts me!  Juli wouldn't tell on me or anything, and she always was right, before."

"NO."  Junivelle was not very happy with Juni's idea.  "You will NOT tell Juli about this!"

The blonde paused, then watched as Junivelle began to walk away, as if her descision was final.  Not Juni's.  Just the one who always seemed to be pulling Juni's strings around and not even taking into account Juni's own opinions.

"....why do you always boss me around like this!?"  The blonde asked, though Junivelle simply ignored her and kept walking away, until the blonde screamed louder, which caused quite a few people to stare at her.  "Hey!  Avelle!  AVELLE!!!  Pay attention to me!!!!"

'Avelle' stopped, and didn't say anything for a full minute until the people who were giving Juni such awkward glares finally shook their heads and went back to their business.  After which Junivelle slowly began to laugh.

"......hahahaha... look at you."  Junivelle slowly turned around to stare back at the girl.  To stare back at herself.  "You're always so happy and optimistic, but you are screaming at me now.  It is obvious that you have more serious repression than you would ever believe."

Juni blinked.  "Wha...?"

"Go tell your 'sister', then, Juni." mocked the mirror image.  "You'll soon find out why YOU knew that it was a bad idea and then you will see that your basic common sense deep down has been proven right yet again."

Turning around, Junivelle walked into the crowd and slowly faded away, leaving a stunned Juni behind.  When she finally was able to bring herself to speak, Juni finally was able to gradually yell at where the offending apparition used to be, even if she was long gone.

"You... you jerk!"

Hmph!  She'd show that Junivelle... no, not Junivelle!  That wasn't her.  That... Avelle was playing mind games with her or something!  Of course, Juni never knew a ghost that possessed someone could do something like that.  Even though it was really annoying, Juni had to admit that it was rather cool.  Not like that was going to stop her from finally bringing up the plan to Juli.  That was something she probably should have done a long time ago.  It didn't take long for Juni to find her brown-haired partner playing poker at one of the tables.

"Juli!" The blonde attempted to interupt.  "I have something that I need to talk to..."

"Not while I'm deciding on what cards to discard."  Juli lightly snapped as she continued to look fervently through the cards in her hands.

Juni blinked.  "Um... okay?"

"Juni, do you have a spare fifty bucks?"

"Erm... not really."  Dolls didn't get paid after all.  Curious, Juni looked over Juli's shoulder then at Juli's space on the table.  "Ooo, how much money did you make so far?"

Juli's reply was rather matter of factly.  "Negative twelve thousand, I think.  Though Lord Balrog doesn't seem to mind since the money goes back to him, anyway.  And I think I'm finally getting the hang of this."

Juli laid out her cards on the table, then the other players as well as the bunny dealer followed suit.  The dealer glanced at all the cards, then compared Juli's to her own.  "Full house beats Straight."

"Sigh..."  Juli muttered under her breath.

Seeing that it was the intermission period before the next hands of cards would be handed out, Juni took the oppurtunity to poke her partner again.  "Can we talk, now?"

"Huh?"  The brunette was jabbed back to noticing Juni's existance as she turned to look at the blonde.  "Oh yea, sure.  What do you need to talk about?"

"Erm... I've been thinking..."  Juni slowly began.  Ack!  This was awkward!  "About... um... how much Shadowlaw has been induced with much suckage lately and such."

"Eh?"  Juli's turn to blink.  "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Haven't you noticed?"  Juni continued as Juli received some more cards.  "When was the last time you saw Lord Bison?  Besides Christmas, that is.  It seemed like he just gave us a couple gifts then figured that that was enough to make up for never personally being there to be our captain and all.  And... um... well, I just found out that it was mainly because he's... erm... sick!  Yea!  Poor Lord Bison is sick right now!"

Slowly raising an eyebrow, Juli replied, "Erm... isn't Noelle the one who's supposed to be specializing in medical diagnosis?"

"Well... yea..."  The blonde nervously shuffled one of her feet on the floor.  "But Noelle like, didn't get the data on some... special illnesses that I got because I was able to get it from Baxter Corp data."

"Ah."  Luckily, Juli didn't prod any further because she had just got her cards and was once again preoccupied.  "Well, hope he gets better, then."

"Oh, he will!"  The blonde beamed.  "I think I found the cure.  The nasty virus that's plagueing him has something to do with a malfunction in the psycho drives.  So I figured that if I just got a little help from Rose to get rid of and destroy the broken ones, which would be... erm, all of them, then Bison will be saved and things will be great!  Erm... if that's okay with you."

"Destroy virus and cure Bison?  Well... are you sure about this?"  Juli pondered.  "I'm not exactly sure what the repercussions of getting rid of those things will be..."

"So it's okay?"  Juni quickly interupted.

"Huh?  Yea, sure."  Newly distracted by her hand of cards, Juli discarded some and picked up some new ones.

Yay!  Well, that wasn't too hard at all.  In retrospect, Juni did wonder a little why she was so eager to get the plan going, though.  Wasn't she supposed to be getting an alternate opinion instead of looking for approval?  Pausing for a moment, the blonde tried to figure out what she herself was doing.  A quick glance around revealed no ghost of Avelle posing as her and making her say things she didn't mean, so there wasn't any manipulation there.  Hmm, guess Junivelle was right.  The plan didn't seem so bad now, after all.

"Oh yea, Juli... erm, you won't tell anyone about this, right?"

The brunette, the hands having already been laid out on the table, once again had time to pay attention to her partner.  "Tell?  Oh, right.  Well, actually, I was thinking that I could ask Janet about this... I imagine she'd know a pretty good amount about the psycho drives and could give you some advice."

"ACK!"  The blonde's quick burst surprised Juli for a second.  "No!  Not her!  Aaaah, please don't tell anyone, Juli!  I know what I'm doing!  Really!"

Juli stared perplexedly at her partner, suddenly more seriously confused now.  "Um... okay?"

"Thanks, Juli!"  Juni quickly gave her partner a hug before running off.

When she was gone, Juli finally slowly began to realize just how irrational a promise like the one she just made was.  Juni wasn't exactly the most... competent planner around, no offense to her, of course.  The brunette sighed as the cards were handed out again.  She figured that there was probably someone out there who knew how Shadowlaw's gears turned that she could ask about how the psycho drives worked, and Juni wouldn't find out.  Wouldn't hurt, and it was always good just to make sure about things before carrying them out.  But right now, she had some more cards to discard.

"You know..." Here it goes again, the descisive comment.  This must've been at the very least the fourth attempt.  The men sure paid unsolicated attention to her while in uniform, but when actually trying, it never worked.  Noelle made sure to choose her words well this time.  "I always thought you were a smart man.  You seem to be able to . . . pick out things very well, hmm?  You've already chosen the last three winners in this horse race going on."

The bar she had chosen was supposedly a romantic one.  The dark lightings and velvet and brown colorings being the perfect spot for some love connection.  Noelle just found the darkness strained her eyes, and probably everyone else's too.

She didn't know why she chose him.  Obviously, as evidenced by the many other women who were surrounding him moments before, he was thought to be very handsome.  But it just didn't do much for her.  The pearly white teeth were obviously bleached, an incredibly damaging practice.  The insane amount of gel on his blonde (color was hard to tell from all the grease) hair guaranteed premature baldness.  And of course there was the leather, again.

That Myrna lady was certainly kind enough to give her the advice, she just needed to know how to use it.   It isn't as simple as just studying autonomy and knowing where to trap the trouble spot and cure it accordingly.  All this was too... unpredictable for her own taste.  But then she thought of Max, and that furthered her determination.

An eye for an eye is such a neglected philosophy.

"So....mmm, horses are *very* fun, aren't they?" The man grinned back.  His accent was grating, and obviously feigned.  Trying to seem like he just came out of Oxford college.  "I could take you riding."

Success!

"Oh yes." She smiled.

But now what?  That was the question she hadn't been prepared for.  Oh dear, what now?  OK, relax, close eyes (though that wasn't needed considering the incredibly low light here.  Don't they know what a risk that is?), take deep breath, and gather energy- alternative medicine isn't without it's merits at times- to reply.

This reminded her of an anecdote.  Oh sure.

She continued, "That does remind me though.  A freind of mine once rode a horse and fell, and I had to take care of his scrapped knee all weekend!  It was so filled with puss and incredibly bloody and he was screaming all the way because he refused to take his medicine so I had to physically push the needle in.  Which was hard and...."

This was when she learned the laws of the bar.  War and fishing stories = good.  But medicine stories = bad.  And with her bad luck she had to mention blood and puss the second her would've been date took another sip of his drinks.

He stared in shock.  And she gave her last attempt, the desperate language of a desperate woman.

".....darling?"

Dammit!  She still had more slots to spin!  More cards to play!  More bets to make!

But she already skipped dinner, so by now Juli's throat was really parched.  Ah well, another thing she really really liked about this casino was the wine.  Wine is good.  She'd just go, drink a little, then get back to the endless cycle of laying out chips and poking Lord Balrog for more.

Picking one of the more classy bars in the casino, Juli couldn't help but notice that even there there were a lot of drunken people.  The brunette actually didn't get drunk that often, herself, though.  Wine was too much of a rarity for her to enjoy it in a drunken stupor.  She especially couldn't get drunk tonight, because gambling while your drunk is a very difficult thing to do as well as yet another thing that she wouldn't be able to get the feel of if she did it while her brain was only half conscious from the alchohol.

Sipping from her glass a little, Juli couldn't help but notice the single guys around who had quite a few women clinging onto them.  Well, actually, she could help, and really normally would have, except for the fact that there was one guy with blonde hair, a mustache, and a long scar on his face who only had one girl talking with him.  And that right there stuck out like a sore thumb in a sea of men who seemed to almost be into polygamy.  Sort of.  Well, not really.

The most interesting fact about it was that girl was Noelle.  Otherwise, Juli really wouldn't have cared.  Whatever Noelle was doing, she didn't seem to be having much success because that other guy wasn't paying any attention to her at all.

"What's with those two?  That girl tries too hard.  And... is that guy gay?"  One of the young female bartenders asked one of her co-workers.

The waitress in the suit shrugged.  "Maybe they're both just being British."

Whatever.  It was getting late.  The wine was good.  The games were fun.  Juli really liked being here.  Sure, she still didn't know why they were at the casino in the first place, but by now, she didn't really care.  Too bad most good things had to end, though.  Sometimes rather abruptly.

The sirens went off.

Blaring throughout the entire casino, throughout the bars, throughout the hotels, throughout the show stage and the restaurants.  A raid alarm.  Somehow, the law enforcement discovered that either the casino was affiliated with Shadowlaw or was involved with criminal activities, or both.  Either way, it was too early... normally, Shadowlaw could easily cover things like this up but the casino had only reopened recently and they probably didn't have all their backdoors ready.

Juli's worries were confirmed when she was finished dashing to Balrog's office to both get more info as well as hopefully figure out where she could reach Rose or her partner to warn them.  Which was no small feat, really, because the casino was consumed by chaos as tons of people were panicking all over the place and were all screaming and shouting everywhere  in a rush to get out of the casino as quickly as possible.  Balrog himself seemed really preoccupied and was frantically grabbing things on his desk left and right.

"SHIT!  How da hell they found us out so fast!?"  The boxer exclaimed.  "We don't even have the drugs unpacked, yet!!"

"Yo yo OW!  We dun gone and not have enough time to unpack the drugs, boss!"

"SHUT UP, FOOL!"  Balrog snapped as he quickly was shoving a bunch of various items and dollar bills into bags.  "I know what I'm talking about and I know what I'm doing!  Get security to hold them off!  We need to take the loot and bail before we're found out!  We don't need to worry about our troopers!  They might not be big or tall, but they're really small and they're hard to catch!"

Juli stared at them questioningly but Balrog had already run off.  "What's going on?"

"We'll done go and get some mighty fine ho's to do our pimpin' for us, tonight!  Now if I were you, and my heart be true, then I'd be getting out to where da sky be blue!"  Mack quickly slapped on his hat as he quickly shoved some money in a brief case, then tipped his hat to the brunette.  "And that'd be Mack's looooove shack of sweet SWEET lovin'!  But there ain't no time for that, so now I gotta scat!  But the sky be blue outside too, if ya know what I mean!"

With that, Mack was out the door.  A raid... and security being called in?  Damn!  They couldn't be caught here.  And just when Juli felt like she was about to have a streak of good luck on her gambling if she got to play just one more game, too!  Well, all bets were off.  She had to find Rose and Juni and get out of there.  She saw lots of really strong looking intimidating bouncers around the casino.  Even though she didn't think they'd have a chance against a SWAT team or powerful police raid force, they'd have to be enough.

Damn, she had to hurry.  Already, she could hear the police officers screaming some desist orders or such through megaphones.  After glancing at the security monitors and being lucky enough to spot her partner with Rose, Myrna, and Justin in one of them quickly, Juli wove in and among the panicking crowds and made her way to where she spotted them.  On the way, she heard someone shout "FREEZE!" and she saw several of the large tall burly bouncers immediately put their hands up.

They weren't even putting up a fight... dammit!  So much for the security holding them off.  She thought she heard someone scream in pain too, but she didn't hear any gunshots and those were the preferred arms of choice for the casino bouncers from what she heard.

Finally, she bumped right into her partner, who was en route to a hidden back exit.

"Juli!  I was really worried about you but I have to get Rose out right now because we can't be taken in for interrogation or anything like that because the plan doesn't have time for that but I still had to stall a little hoping I could find you but now I don't know what to do!!"

What was that?  Juli didn't have much time to pay attention to what the blonde was saying, really.  The crowds were already beginning to disperse and whoever was left would surely have to put up with lots of questions from the law enforcement.

Rose and that boy, Justin, seemed too distraught about something else to really care about the current situation, though.  Or at least Justin did.  Rose herself, however, seemed to be lost in thought, simply letting Myrna drag her along while she tried to consider something.  Not like there was any time for Juli to ask her what was wrong, though, because there was already something else wrong that she and the rest of them were currently dealing with and had to get out of.

The five quickly ran against the flow of the crowd, knowing that by now the police probably fully blocked off the front area outside the casino, anyway.  Unfortunately, a few officers spotted them and quickly stepped in their way.

"Ladies, where do you think you're all going?  Step back in file and go out the front door."

Justin seemed slightly annoyed at being lumped in with everyone else as a lady, but he probably would be happy enough once he got to see Juli and Juni beat the ones who made the offending remarks unconscious.  The two were about to quickly enter their battle stances when suddenly there was a flash and the three guards in front of them were on the ground, dead.

Standing behind them were two bunny girls, both holding two top hats; their edges bloodied rather heavily.  While most of the officers were too busy trying to calm the panicking crowd and restore some order to notice, there were a couple more that saw what was happening, but before they could say anything, they were impaled by the sharpened sword end of a cane by one of the bunny dealers.  Most of the other officers didn't even realize the threat, as the large male bouncers of the casino all holding their hands up and surrendering fast.

There really wasn't any time to make heads or tails of the messed up security that Lord Balrog apparently employed.  Their path open, the High Lady and her doll escort quickly made their way for the exit.  Dashing through the show room, they saw a few other officer corpses on the floor, and had arrived at the show room just in time to spot one of the peacock dancer showgirls on the stage kill the last officer there among the crowds by darting one of her peacock feathers which stabbed right into his head.

Finally, after a couple hidden doors, the group was safe within an underground tunnel which led away from the casino, where Balrog and a couple bouncers were loading what must have been the last of the hidden drug stash into transports.  Noelle was there too, though she was mostly just checking a couple of the bunny girls there for wounds.

Juli suddenly realized that even though all five of her group stared wide-eyed at the events around them, none of them had said a single word during the entire ordeal.  As always, Juni was the one to finally break the silence.

"Well, you have to admit.  That was really damn cool."

Rose, the High Lady of Shadowlaw, second only to the High Commander Lord Bison (if even that much), was not impressed.  Frustratingly, she approached Lord Balrog and gave him what was probably a High Lady glare of death.

"If all the bunnies can fight so much, what are the security guards here for?!?"

"Eh?  They just stand there and look big and tall so people know they know what they're talking about!"  Apparently, Balrog wasn't intelligent enough to realize that it was a High Lady glare of death.  He pointed to one of the bunny girls who stood by.  "This gal here has a 2nd degree blackbelt!"

"Third, Sir."  The bunny corrected him.  The result was a chastisement from the angry Shadowlaw Lord.

"Whose the tall one here?!  Not you!"

Another one of the bunnies slowly walked up to Myrna, a sincere smile on her face.  She shook the lady's hand.

"Thanks to you, I have enough money to pay for my college and start a retirement fund now."

Raising an eyebrow at the girl, Balrog turned to Mack and ask, "Where did Bunny get all that cash to do that!?"

"Yo yo OW!"  Mack shouted.  "I dun think that she dun gone and got it from some patrons by pulling the moves on them that only a pimp could previously pull, boss!"

Myrna slowly whispered to Rose.  "Oh dear, I think it's time for us to leave before I start getting harassed by ugly people to teach their kids again."

The High Lady sighed as she replied.  "Myrna, sometimes I think you're *too* effective."

"Well, I guess that's that, then!"  Juni smiled a little as she brushed herself off, then looked up at the lady psychic.  "Lady Rose, you think it's a really neat plan, right?  I guess this trip got cut short a little, huh?  But I suppose it's okay.  I wouldn't have been able to talk to you about these things if we were back at Mrigranka, I think."

Rose didn't reply.  Apparently, however, Juni was optimistic enough to think she'd agree to the plan, anyway.  At least Juli remembered again what the next item on her agenda was.  The plane ride back to Thailand was almost as quiet as the ride over to America in the first place, if not more so.  Juni spent the majority of it sleeping.  Juli, however, simply stayed awake, thinking of what she should do, next...

Jealous?  Her?  Why, of course not!  More like annoyed at the audacity of it all.

The two 'sister' agents had spent their holiday hours up long ago, already!  What did they think they were doing, running off like that?  Apparently they were able to do so by sucking up to the High Lady.

Bah, typical Juli, if Fenrir did say so, herself.

Not that she cared.  It just stuck out to her in her mind when she saw Juli and Juni exitting that plane earlier that day, and later on finding out from a little digging where they went.  A casino, huh?  Didn't they care about anything else besides fun and games?

And don't even get her started on Rose.  Okay, so the repercussions of Janet's 'usurper' (even though Janet was the younger one and obviously, technically SHE was the usurper there) weren't as sharp as Fenrir was led to believe they would be.  Stupid Janet's fault for giving her misinformation, she supposed.  Though... what Bison did that day WAS surprising.  And now, she and the rest of the dolls got to see him even less than ever ever since Rose came along.  ...no, they never got to see him anyway when Cammy came along, besides that Christmas.  Hmm.  Maybe Juli and Juni were just really good at playing their cards right after all, and Fenrir didn't mean poker.  Sucking up to the High Lady, huh?  Yea, playing their cards right, indeed.

Sighing, Fenrir didn't bother to stick around to lecture Juli as the brunette got off the air transport in the hanger.  She did run into the girl later on that day within the halls of Mrigranka, though, and the brunette was more than happy to strike up a conversation.

"Oh, Fenrir, I wasn't sure if I should bring it up to Janet, but I was wondering if you could help me with something."

What was that?  Well now, maybe things were more interesting than Fenrir thought.  The Asian brunette arched both of her eyebrows in surprise (a method that she managed to train herself to do over a long period of time, not that it was enough for a certain deadbeat boyfriend of hers).

"I?  Help you?"  The eyebrows quickly became unarched.  Damn, it hurt to do that.  For an alternative, Fenrir instead grinned at the brunette.  "Well, you know, I can't help those that won't help themselves in the first place."

"Hey!"  Juli snapped.  "It's nothing like that!  Juni says by destroying something, she'll cure Shadowlaw of some illness or something like that."

Oh?  Fenrir was intrigued.  She put her hand to her chin in thought and smiled.  "Hmm.  I can relate.  If it's broke, kill it, I always say.  So what's she going to get rid of, anyway?"

"She came up with a plan to destroy the psycho drives, whatever that would do."  The other agent shrugged.

"Oh?  Those stupid things?"  Fenrir crossed her arms and smiled another smile, though this one would be replaced with shock very soon.  "Yea, they always... SHE WHAT!?"