Success Is In The Cards

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 33, Post Number 823

-Hargeon Town, waiting to board the Gambler's Paradise-

Wearing a purple long-sleeved t-shirt with black skirt, black thigh-high stockings, and black tennis shoes, Diana clutched a travel case filled with what spare clothing she had, which included a formal black dress and a pair of short blue jean shorts Angela Helton had bought her during their shopping trip in Capital Crocus Mall. She stood in line with the other people who were wearing golden lanyards, which marked them as VIPs. A VIP room had been reserved for her on board the Gambler's Paradise, an imaginatively named gambling boat which was touted to be "a gambler's paradise" with a wide variety of games. Those games included gambling staples like blackjack, baccarat, Texas Hold'Em, Omaha, roulette wheels, and slot machines, but there were also betting parlors for horse races, auto racing, dog racing, and combat sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts.

There were even betting parlors for football, basketball, soccer, and other traditional sports. Diana was impressed with the variety of things to gamble on, but not in a good way. Diana thought that gambling was not a bright idea because money was easy to spend but hard to earn and harder to hang onto. However, she would not tell people how to live their lives. If they wanted to squander their money on games with really bad odds that was their choice.

The huntress was not fond of gambling cruises, but this trip was a gift from Mister Burke for helping his company retrieve the black boxes of the downed aircraft in Fat Monsterland and Forgotten Deserts plus rescuing the crew of the plane that had went down in Forgotten Deserts. The last she had been told Mister Burke was investigating the cause behind the two recent crashes and the one in Silent Glaciers. He had to be very careful in what he told her because his superiors wanted to keep company secrets safe, but from what she was told he and his superiors strongly suspected that sabotage was the reason for the crashes. The crews of both planes had over a decade of flight service and all of them had passed drug testing at the hospital and at company headquarters, so inexperience and the influence of drugs or alcohol were ruled out as reasons for the crashes.

Mister Burke also dropped hints that Diana might have more work coming her way thanks to her track record of success and ability to keep her mouth shut about sensitive information. Diana was somewhat flattered that he had chosen her to keep working for the company. She also appreciated the steady work and the interesting jobs that he offered her. Not many people could say that they had visited both Fat Monsterland and Forgotten Deserts in the same day.

Diana was seventy-fourth in a line of at least 300 VIPs who were a mix of wealthy socialites, captains of industry, music industry stars, professional gamblers, and even a few movie stars. Diana was used to moving in Bellum's high society as a child, so she was not daunted by the star power of her fellow VIPs. She just wanted to get on the boat so that she could see what the Gambler's Paradise was all about. However, it was going to take awhile because there were a lot of people in line ahead of her. Fortunately Diana was used to long waits, so she settled in and waited her turn to have her boarding pass scanned and verified.

Unfortunately Diana heard an unpleasant voice somewhere in the back of the line and connected it to Francesca Corlone. The huntress frowned deeply. The VIP list was not very exclusive if an obnoxious mob princess could get on it. Maybe she was added so that the rich people who had never left their protected enclaves or had gone into "bad" neighborhoods could feel the excitement of being around a real-life mob princess. They would grow to detest her company before very long, though.

-One hour and fifteen minutes, on board the Gambler's Paradise-

After a lengthy delay Diana had finally boarded the gambling boat and was looking for her cabin, which was one with an ocean view, among other perks like priority room service and 20,000 Jewels' worth of chips to gamble. It was on the top deck away from the crew quarters and average passengers. Diana stood on the deck looking out on Hargeon Town when another blonde walked up beside her.

The new arrival had rather long blonde hair and wore a white long-sleeved shirt with blue jeans and white shoes with a dark jacket draped on her shoulders. Around her neck was a golden lanyard. She was also a few inches taller than Diana, but that was not the most distinctive thing about her.

The other blonde had blue eyes with star-shaped pupils.

They were concealed behind sunglasses, but Diana could see them clearly. Diana had never seen that physical feature before. The young woman must have noticed because she turned to Diana and spoke.

"Hey there! I'm Stella Herschel!" The young woman introduced herself to Diana.

"Diana Winchester." Diana introduced herself to Stella.

Stella Herschel:

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"I bet you can't guess how I got my name!" Stella said to Diana in a facetious manner. It was glaringly obvious, but Diana decided to humor her new acquaintance. Diana also decided to try and use a voice other than a calm and neutral one despite having little practice in doing so.

"The star-shaped pupils of your eyes?" Diana asked innocently. Stella laughed.

"Yep. My parents say that I was born during a meteor shower, so that's one reason I got my name. The other, more obvious reason was because of these..." Stella answered, pointing towards the pupil of her right eye. Diana recalled that Stella was a word in another language for "Star." Considering the young woman's most striking physical trait, it was an appropriate name for her.

"Anyway, what brings you on this boat?" Stella asked Diana.

"Company trip." Diana answered laconically. Her fellow blonde looked skeptical.

"Really? You don't look like an office worker." Stella replied, questioning the huntress' story. Diana decided to clarify her story a little for her acquaintance's benefit.

"I am a freelance mage. I helped a client with a problem involving missing people and in exchange he rewarded me with VIP a trip on board this gambling boat. It was a big surprise to me, but a welcome one." Diana replied, doing her best to keep Mister Burke's business secret so that she could continue to remain in his employ. Stella seemed impressed by Diana's story and thankfully did not scrutinize it any further.

"Oh, cool! I'm a mage myself, but I'm not very good at it yet. I started only a year ago after I finished high school and I haven't really trained with my magic." Stella said, shifting gears to a topic Diana could readily answer. Diana used her ability to detect magic signatures and learned that Stella's claim of being an inexperienced mage was true. She was a mage whose power corresponded to a C-ranked mage, the second-lowest level on the official mage ranking system.

"Oh?" Diana asked with genuine interest. She was intrigued by her acquaintance being a fellow mage. Jasmine DuClaire, Angela Helton, Catherine Corvinus, and Amber the nurse were all mundane people as far as she knew. Unless those four were deliberately suppressing their magic signatures to pass as mundane people, Stella Herschel was the first mage she had met since Mr. Necargie's niece Madeleine Necargie.

"Yeah. I'm a novice mage who's mostly done menial chores. Delivering mail, helping get cats out of trees, helping elderly people cross the street... that kinda thing. I'd do more challenging jobs, but I've got a little sister to look after and I can't travel very far from home." Stella explained the extent of her experience as a mage. Diana recalled her own experience as a new mage, which was less than pleasant because it involved killing people, most of whom did not deserve to die. Diana shoved that thought aside and focused on Stella, who turned to the huntress.

"I can tell you're not a novice like I am. You've got that "mess with me and I'll end you" vibe going. You're also really, really strong. You could stomp me into the dirt without breaking a sweat." Stella said to Diana. Diana wondered how Stella had gotten that impression of her. Maybe the taller blonde had read Sorcerer's Magazine and had learned of Diana's power level. Or maybe Stella was really good at reading people.

"I have a lot of experience, yes. I tend to look for missing people who get lost in dangerous places like Abandoned Cabin, Haunted Castle, and Silent Cemetery." Diana replied calmly, listing a few of the dangerous places she had been to in order to lend credibility to her claim. Diana did not need to lie because she had genuinely been to those place and had rescued people from them, but she still listed the names to impress upon Stella that those places were not for the inexperienced or the faint of heart. Stella believed it.

"You went to all of those places by yourself? You've got a lot of guts!" Stella exclaimed. Diana had not even listed all of the dangerous places she had been to, but she saw that she did not need to list any more of them. Stella fully believed her.

"I went near Silent Cemetery once with some mage friends from Magnolia Town and couldn't bring myself to go in. I was too scared. I'd need all the Wizard Saints to go with me before I even think about going through the front gate to that place!" Stella said.

"That fear is reasonable, Stella. Silent Cemetery is full of zombies and some things that are much worse than walking corpses. Do not even get me started on Haunted Castle." Diana encouraged Stella not to pretend to be brave just to avoid looking bad. Bravado was the quickest way for someone to get killed. Diana herself was not afraid of danger because part of her wanted to make up for her misdeeds before she died. Part of her did not mind if she died because she did not deserve to live when she had killed so many people whose greatest crime was getting in the way of her parents' ambitions. Maybe if she killed enough evil beings and cleared enough dark places the huntress could earn forgiveness one day.

The pair heard people milling behind them and saw some of the people who were wearing gold lanyards stream towards the top deck where the VIP passengers stayed.

"Say, Diana, do you wanna check out your room?" Stella asked. Diana nodded.

"Sure." Diana replied laconically. The pair left the railing that faced Hargeon Town and waited for a chance to get in line, then started to move towards the stairs when they realized something.

They had not gotten their room keys!

"Well, we won't get into our rooms if we don't have our room keys." Stella remarked.

"Indeed." Diana replied dryly. She was not sure how she had missed that crucial fact, but they would need to go find someone to talk to about their room keys before they did anything else. Besides, Diana wanted to see what a VIP room on a gambling boat was like.

Stella spotted a female crew member walking by the stairs and waved at her. The young woman was a brunette who was wearing a white short-sleeved dress shirt and navy blue knee-length skirt with white tennis shoes. She came over and spoke to them.

"Hi ladies! How can I help you?" She asked them.

"Our boarding passes were scanned and confirmed, but we didn't get our room keys." Stella explained their problem to the crew member. The young brunette simply smiled.

"We switched to an electronic pass system on room doors a few months ago. That means that you can use your boarding pass to unlock the doors instead of having to carry around a keycard or metal key! The room number you've been assigned is also on the back of your boarding pass!" She explained to them why they had not gotten keys.

"Oh, so I just swipe the boarding pass through a keycard reader or something?" Stella asked. The brunette nodded.

"Oh, OK. Thanks!" Stella thanked the crew member for her help. The young woman nodded and went on her way, leaving Stella and Diana with a way out of their conundrum.

"OK Diana, all we've gotta do is go to our rooms and swipe our boarding passes." The taller blonde said, flipping her card over to see what room number she had been assigned. Diana did the same and learned that she was in Room 451. That was the same number as her locker number at the spa in Hosenka.

"I'm in Room 450." Stella said.

"451." Diana listed her number.

"We're next door neighbors!" Stella said. Diana nodded.

"That we are." Diana replied.

"C'mon, let's check out our rooms!" Stella suggested. Diana nodded and the pair went up the stairs to go find their rooms. Diana was going to drop off her travel case of spare clothing before she did anything else.

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-In Room 451-

Diana opened her room door to find a medium-sized room with a neatly made white bed with white sheets sitting in the middle of the room. Off to the right of the bed was a wooden nightstand with a black alarm clock in the middle and a white lamp sitting on the right. On the left wall bordering Room 450 was a wooden desk with a small notepad and ink pen. In the middle of the back wall on the left side of the bed was a small but serviceable walk-in bathroom with shower.

On the bed was a standard packet of information about the boat, about the room, and other pertinent information such as how to contact room service and the channels the boat's television picked up. Diana also spotted a white envelope with the boat's name in golden letters sitting just below the information packet and walked over to it. She set her case of clothing down on the bed and then carefully opened the envelope. In it was a letter and a golden card.

Diana set the golden card on the bed and gently unfolded the letter to read it. It was a standard form letter that was included in every VIP guest packet. Diana read it just to see what it said.

"Dear VIP Guest,

We're glad to have you on board the Gambler's Paradise! We're glad you joined us for our fourth cruise of the year! This time we sail from Hargeon Town to Crescent Island, then sail around Crescent Island before making the return trip to Hargeon Town! It's a three-day cruise with plenty of opportunities to live the life of a high roller!

In order to get you started, we've included a complimentary gold card that can be redeemed for 20,000 Jewels worth of chips for use in our casino! Be sure to swing by our casino and check out the games we offer! If card games or slot machines aren't your style, then check out our betting parlors! We bet that you'll find something to excite you as you chase a big win!

Go and play some games and remember that win or lose, you're in Gambler's Paradise!"

Diana felt that someone had typed the letter with way too many exclamation marks, but she appreciated the effort by the person to make things exciting. Diana neatly folded the letter and set it on the bed, then picked up the gold card and examined it. It was a standard card with a gold body and the word's Gambler's Paradise in green letters on the front. On the back was a magnetic strip.

Diana held the card in her left hand and turned towards the door when she heard knocking. She had not called for room service, so it had to be her new acquaintance Stella. The fact that she felt a magic signature from the other side of the door only reinforced that belief. Diana walked over to it and opened it to find Stella standing on the other side.

"Hey Diana!" Stella greeted her.

"Hello Stella." Diana greeted the taller blonde. Stella looked at Diana's left hand and saw the gold card the latter was holding.

"So you got a gold card too, huh?" Stella asked. Diana nodded.

"Wanna check out the casino just to see what it looks like?" Stella asked Diana. Again Diana nodded.

"Sure." Diana answered in the affirmative.

"Great!" Stella replied. Diana exited her room and secured it, then left with Stella to check out what the gambling boat had to offer. She hoped that there were activities for people who were not inclined to gamble... maybe they at least had a swimming pool or a gym or something for passengers who were not taken in by the numerous ways to gamble.

-In the casino-

"Man, just look at it all." An awestruck Stella said to Diana, sweeping her right hand out over the room. Diana looked and she saw a large room full of gaming tables and slot machines with flashing lights. To the left were tables for roulette wheels and to the center were tables for card games. To the right were wall-to-wall slot machines with bright flashing lights and demo modes with voices beckoning the onlooker to sit down and play. The tables and the slot machines were full of people looking to strike it rich, kill some time, or strike it rich while killing some time.

"There is quite a variety of games here." Diana agreed with her taller companion. The pair were standing in the casino and surveying the scene when they heard a DING-DONG and then an announcement over the loudspeakers by the ship's captain.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain of the Gambler's Paradise speaking. We're now underway for lovely Crescent Island, where the sand is warm and the water's just fine! We'll reach there in about a day's time, so sit back, enjoy the cruise, and don't forget to try the many, many games we have to offer!" the captain bade the passengers. Once the announcement was over Stella and Diana returned to the task of figuring out where to start first.

"I suck at card games. I'd blow through my complimentary Jewels and be back in my cabin within an hour!" Stella gave an assessment of her gambling prowess. Diana was not much better. Aside from winning the money from betting on the horse race at The Desert Runner in the Tri-Council City in Desierto, Diana had never gambled. She was not feeling particularly optimistic about her chances of winning on a boat full of ways to gamble.

She might have burned through all of her gambling luck in Desierto many months ago. Diana was not feeling particularly confident and neither was Stella. While they were not intending to play anything, the pair still wanted to get a feel for what a fancy casino looked and felt like.

"I'm probably not gonna play anything, but I wanna walk around. I'm starting on the left side of the room to look at the roulette wheels, then going through the center with all the card games, and working my way to the slot machines on the right. Wanna join me?" Stella asked Diana.

"Sure." Diana replied. The huntress was interested in looking around, if only to satisfy her curiosity. The pair waited for the right moment and merged with a crowd of passengers heading for the roulette tables.

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The two blondes walked around the ship's casino and marveled at how quickly the gambling action had gotten started. It had only been roughly ten minutes since the announcement that the ship was underway to Crescent Island and the casino floor was absolutely packed with players. The card tables were full and so were the tables for the roulette wheels; the slot machines to the far right were filling up fast. Even if the pair had wanted to play a game they could not because there were so many people wanting to play.

"Man, that was fast. It hasn't been ten minutes since the boat got underway and the place is full. The card tables are packed, the roulette wheel tables are packed, and it won't be too much longer before all the slot machines are taken up." Stella marveled at how quickly the casino had filled with players. Diana was kind of surprised herself.

"Indeed." Diana replied laconically. The pair continued their lap around the perimeter of the room and observed the action as it unfolded. There was some intense betting action at one of the blackjack tables because an older gentleman in a white suit with white ten-gallon hat was holding that hat in front of him as he watched the cards be flipped. The pair watched the scene and saw the man do a fist pump with his free hand and yell in triumph. It was clear to everyone that he had gotten just the cards he needed to win.

The pair turned from the man in white who had won to a brown-haired young woman at a nearby roulette table who had just lost. She was wearing a black dress and white elbow-length gloves with black high heels. She frowned and reached into the black purse she was carrying for more chips to plunk down on the table for another round of betting. It was clear that she was not going to walk away until she had won.

"Roulette wheels are a sucker's bet even without the house edge. The odds are so bad that you'd be better off playing the lottery." Stella opined. They turned their attention to a young blonde woman wearing a white tube top and short black skirt with black high heels standing in front of a blackjack table near the middle of the floor and happily raking in chips. Diana frowned when she recognized Francesca Corlone. Her displeasure increased when she saw that her old enemy had won a hand of blackjack.

Diana turned away from the displeasing sight of Francesca collecting her winnings and turned back to Stella, who was eying the slot machines on the right of the room. The pair listened to the sounds of the casino as they made their way towards the slot machines, which were occupied by a large number of older players. In contrast to the energetic people surrounding the card tables and roulette tables the people at the slot machines sat quietly while mesmerized by the slots dropping into place on the screen in front of them... the machines made more noise than the players.

"Well, I suppose slot machines are good if you want some slower action. I find them fun in short bursts, but when I want to play a real game I go play Texas Hold'Em." Stella told Diana. Aside from her brief stint in gambling at The Desert Runner in the Tri-Council City in Desierto the huntress had never gambled. She was working to earn money, not to waste it.

"Really? I never figured you for a slot machine player." Diana said to Stella just to make conversation with the taller blonde. Diana found Stella to be good company and a good conversationalist who had an interesting opinion and knew when to let the other person talk.

"Yeah, I don't play them too much. My grandma did back in Capital Crocus. Despite how dumb it sounds with all the luck involved, she was pretty good at playing the slots and almost always broke even. There was a slot machine that was practically reserved for her at one of the casinos, a casino... oh great, I forgot its name! Anyway, she spent so much time at the casino that when she finally died in her mid-80s the entire casino's staff came to her funeral." Stella told Diana an anecdote about her grandmother with a smile on her face. Diana was mildly amused by the anecdote, but she did not show it. She followed Stella to the slot machines and walked by them, being careful not to disturb any of the players.

As they walked by they glanced at the themes of the machines, which ran along national themes. There were machines with a Desierto Tri-Council City theme, some with a Crescent Island resort look, others with a Hargeon Town port feel, and still others reminiscent of Bellum. Each machine played music appropriate to its theme; Desierto machines played an Eastern-sounding ditty with woodwind instruments while Crescent Island machines played a tropical luau theme featuring drums backing ukuleles.

Diana was not the least bit enticed to sit down and play, not even by the Bellum slot machines. Stella did not look tempted to play either. Once the pair cleared the slot machines they walked back to the entrance of the casino and looked at one another.

"I'm done here. Do you want to go do something else for awhile?" Stella asked Diana. Diana nodded. She heard a joyful shout and turned to see Francesca raking in still more winnings. That sight made Diana eager to move on.

"Yes, please." Diana replied. Stella made for the door and the huntress followed suit, the sounds of Francesca shouting with joy following her out of the casino.

-Outside the casino, on the main deck of the Gambler's Paradise-

Diana was glad to be out of there. She did not want to hear her old enemy win any more money and she certainly did not want to see it. Stella paused and turned to Diana.

"I'd like to go by the pool for a bit. I might even go back to my room and change before I get in. Would you like to join me?" Stella asked Diana.

"I will walk with you to the pool, though I am not sure if I want to get in." Diana replied. Diana was self-conscious about the scars on her back and did not want people to see them. That was why the huntress was not a big fan of revealing clothing.

"It's fine if you don't get in with me, Diana." Stella commented before making a beeline for the pool with Diana in tow.

-At the swimming pool-

The two blondes had walked across the deck to the back of the ship. They were rewarded with the sight of a large swimming pool that was absolutely packed with swimmers of all ages. It looked to be almost Olympic-sized and had a small and circular shallow pool for young children and the elderly on the top left corner. It also had a lifeguard station on each side of the pool that was manned by an alert lifeguard ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

"Well, so much for getting in the pool." Stella commented. Diana saw what she meant. The pool was so packed that one could not throw a beach ball without hitting someone. The blondes knew that unless they enjoyed trying to get into a crowded pool with all the risks that came with it they would be better off waiting until later to try and get in the pool.

"Indeed. Is there anything else you would like to do?" Diana asked.

"Yeah. I'm tired from waking up so early, so I'm gonna crash in my room and meet up with you later on. See ya then, Diana!" Stella bade her farewell before heading to the stairs that led to the upper decks. Since she really did not want to swim Diana decided to follow suit. She followed Stella towards the stairs. The huntress planned to sleep for awhile before heading for the buffet line and getting a meal.

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-Inside Room Number 451, three hours later-

Diana gradually woke up from a three-hour nap she had taken after a trip to the swimming pool had proven to be a bust. She sat up on the edge of the bed and straightened out her shirt and skirt and turned her boarding pass around after it had somehow ended up hanging off of her right shoulder, then located her shoes and put them on. She stood up and heard a lot of noise outside. Curiosity overtook the huntress as she approached the curtained window to take a look at the source.

Diana opened the curtain just a bit and soon wished that she had not.

Outside her window Francesca was arguing with Stella!

For Ishgar's sake...

Diana closed the curtain and felt more than a little angry at seeing the mob princess. Why was Francesca arguing with Stella? More importantly, why was the argument happening outside her window?

Diana did not care how or why the argument started. She just wanted it to stop. She was getting tired of Francesca starting drama wherever Diana went somewhere for a little fun. It had happened at DJ Krill's birthday party, it had happened inside Boomslang, it had happened on Snowfall Island when the huntress was working as "Margaret DuBois" and now it was happening on the Gambler's Paradise. Diana was getting very tired of seeing the mob princess.

Diana walked over to the door and took a deep breath, then opened it and stepped outside.

-Outside Room Number 451-

Diana stepped outside, shut her room door, and faced right. There she saw Francesca Corlone repeatedly putting her finger in Stella's face and shouting about something to do with how Stella had accidentally bumped into her while they were passing each other on the deck.

"YOU STUPID BLONDE BITCH, HAVEN'T YOU LEARNED HOW TO WALK A STRAIGHT LINE?" Francesca yelled at Stella, who was frowning and red-faced.

"You're acting like I went out of my way to bump into you. It was an accident. Accidents happen! GET OVER YOURSELF!" Stella shouted back.

"Yeah? Well, an "accident's" gonna happen where you "accidentally" go over the railing and land on the deck with that empty head of yours!" Francesca threatened. Diana paused in place when she heard that threat. The huntress suddenly got very angry with the mob princess and had to calm down before she did or said something she regretted.

Diana calmly walked towards the arguing blondes and took a deep breath. Right now she was having to resist the urge to cause an "accident" where Francesca "accidentally" went over the railing and landed on the main deck of the ship like she threatened to do to Stella. It was very tempting to do away with the mob princess once and for all, but Diana had to resist the urge no matter how tempting it was. Diana calmed down and plastered a smile on her face as she approached Francesca and Stella in an effort to defuse the situation before a cat fight started.

"Hello, Stella. Are you OK?" Diana asked Stella. The starry-eyed blonde looked away from Francesca to speak to Diana.

"I was doing OK until I had an accident where I bumped into this lady. After that everything went downhill. A little accident got blown outta proportion and now she thinks I did it on purpose!" Stella explained to Diana how the pair had gotten into an argument. Francesca turned around and spotted Diana standing a short distance away. The mob princess did not like the sight of Diana and turned towards her, completely ignoring Stella. Little did Francesca know that Diana could not tolerate the sight of her either.

"It's you again! I thought I had seen the last of you in Boomslang!" Francesca yelled, striding towards Diana with an angry look on her face. Francesca's purple eyes met Diana's green as the former made eye contact and kept it until she was right in Diana's face. The mob princess must have thought that that would make her look intimidating, but instead it only made her look like an overgrown child throwing a temper tantrum.

"I thought I had seen the last of you too, Francesca." Diana calmly retorted. The purple-eyed blonde ignored the remark and jabbed a finger in Diana's face.

"This argument's between me and Star Bitch over there, so get outta here unless you want trouble!" Francesca threatened, jabbing her finger repeatedly into Diana's face and poking the huntress' right cheek a few times. Diana had had just about enough of Francesca's shit for one day. Francesca had picked a fight with Stella over nothing and was now trying to intimidate someone with enough magic power to turn the sassy mob princess into a puff of crimson mist with a single punch. Diana ignored the flagrant provocation and tried to reason with Francesca.

"Francesca, look. What happened between you and Stella was an accident, OK? Is there any need for you to argu-" Diana asked before Francesca swiftly drew her right hand back and slapped Diana so hard that the huntress' head turned sideways.

"Shut your mouth, bitch! No one asked you what you thought!" Francesca yelled as Diana recovered from the unexpected blow. Stella gasped. Diana was one step away from losing her temper and hitting Francesca, but she needed to stay calm now more than ever. There were witnesses gathering at the ends of the decks and peeking out of their room doors and the huntress did not need to lose her temper and get arrested over something as stupid as this argument.

Diana put her hand over her face and backed away from Francesca and did everything she could to de-escalate the situation. Stella walked towards Diana and passed by Francesca, who was still spoiling for a fight. Stella put a friendly arm around Diana's shoulder and guided the huntress away from the situation.

"C'mon, Diana. There's no point in staying here. Let's just go." Stella counseled Diana. Diana did not really need the support, but she was trying to de-escalate the situation, so she went with it.

"OK, Stella." Diana said. She let Stella guide her to the other end of the deck and past some people who were gawking at the three blondes. The huntress had lost this round, but she was definitely not out of the fight. She would settle accounts with Francesca much later.

"THAT'S RIGHT, WALK AWAY! I OWNED BOTH YOU BITCHES!" Francesca yelled in triumph before laughing a very obnoxious laugh. Diana frowned briefly as she and Stella walked away from the mob princess. Stella guided Diana down the stairs.

"C'mon, Diana. I'll get you an ice pack for your face. Since we can't reason with her we've gotta steer clear of that nutcase from now on. There's plenty of gambling boat, so we should be able to lose her." Stella counseled the shorter blonde. Diana nodded.

"Thanks." Diana thanked Stella for her physical and emotional support. Stella had kept Diana from doing something that would feel good in the short term but would cost her everything in the long term. The taller blonde had made it possible for the huntress to focus long enough to walk away now and let Francesca think she had won so that later the huntress could strike when it was least expected.

The pair carefully walked down the metal stairs and soon reached the second deck. They still had a ways to go before they reached a place with some ice, but Diana was just glad to be away from Francesca. She focused her eyes forward and took a deep breath. The air was much cleaner without Francesca fouling it up.

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-On the first deck, twenty minutes later-

Stella had managed to get some ice and a plastic sandwich bag from a crew member and had brought them both to Diana, who was standing next to the railing overlooking the ocean. Diana was glad that Stella had kept her from doing something stupid like attacking Francesca after the latter had slapped her. Thanks to the taller blonde Diana had avoided getting arrested for something stupid and she looked like the victim of an overly aggressive young woman with a bad temper.

"Here ya go, Diana! I made you an ice pack!" Stella said while holding out the ice pack to the huntress. It was not as good as an "official" ice pack, but it was good enough for the huntress' immediate need. Diana looked at Stella and took it.

"Thanks." Diana replied, slowly putting the ice pack on her right cheek where Francesca's open hand had made contact with her face. She felt the chill and looked towards the ocean while Stella put a friendly arm around her shoulder. Normally Diana's skin would crawl if someone touched her for any reason, but right now the huntress did not mind.

"That Francesca's a real psycho. She'll go off on anyone over anything. I can't believe that they ever let her on this boat. I guess money talks." Stella mused about the unfairness of an unstable young woman like Francesca Corlone being allowed on a gambling boat, let alone the mob princess being allowed around people.

"You are right, Stella. Money talks. Very loudly." Diana commiserated with her companion while looking out at the ocean. Diana watched the waves roll over the water and roll into the ship's hull as the Gambler's Paradise sailed towards Crescent Island.

"Look, I'm sorry you had to deal with that nutcase. You shouldn't have gotten dragged into it." Stella apologized for Diana having to get involved in the argument.

"I'm sorry that you got dragged into it and slapped for your trouble, but I appreciate you going to bat for me. I mean that." Stella repeated her apology before expressing appreciation for Diana intervening on her behalf. Diana weakly shrugged her shoulders.

"It is no problem." Diana replied.

"I know that this is a bad time to ask this question, but I have to know. Francesca said that she had last encountered you in Boomslang. Do you two know each other?" Stella asked Diana. Diana sighed.

"We have met a few times before, yes. Our first meeting was on board a party boat celebrating DJ Krill's birthday." Diana replied in the affirmative and told Stella about her very first encounter with Francesca Corlone. Stella blinked.

"Oh. Well, I won't ask you any more about it because I wanted to get her out of my mind. I'd rather go to the buffet line and see what they have. I haven't eaten since we boarded." Stella said, quickly changing the subject. Diana was glad to move on from the subject and focused on the new topic.

"I have not eaten since we boarded either." Diana replied, looking towards Stella and turning to face her. Stella smiled.

"C'mon, Diana. Let's go get something to eat and put this behind us." Stella suggested. Diana nodded and together the pair began to walk around the deck and look for the buffet line. Maybe going somewhere where food was and Francesca was not would brighten their moods.

-In the cafeteria-

After a bit of wandering around they had gotten the help of a crew member and found the cafeteria where the tables were. On the right side of the cafeteria the two blondes saw a cluster of twelve steam tables formed in two rows loaded with food. Plenty of people were flocking to the line to fill their plates with seafood, chicken, vegetables, yeast rolls, and the plethora of other foods that were offered to passengers. If that were not enough to satisfy a passenger's hunger, there were four other tables filled with nothing but desserts like cookies, slices of cake, ice cream, candy, and other dessert items.

To the left of the large cafeteria was a seating area that could and was accommodating hundreds... Diana took a quick eyeball count and tallied around four hundred people at the tables. All the tables were full and they showed no signs of emptying any time soon. Stella looked at Diana and asked a question.

"It looks like this place isn't gonna empty out any time soon. Wanna go back to our rooms and just order room service?" Stella asked Diana. The huntress took a look around them and saw that the seating area was full, then looked at the buffet line and saw that it too was full of passengers looking to get a meal.

"I am not sure, Stella. While the idea of room service is appealing, I am wary of running into Her again so soon." Diana replied, dropping a hint about wanting to avoid Francesca Corlone for awhile longer. Stella looked at Diana for a moment before realizing what Diana was talking about.

"Yeah, I don't blame you. I don't wanna run into Her either." Stella seconded the huntress' opinion. The pair found themselves in a conundrum.

If they went back to their rooms to order room service, chances were high that they would encounter Francesca Corlone again.

If they stayed here to avoid Francesca, they were not likely to get any food any time soon.

What should they do?

"Eh, let's just stay here and take our chances." Stella suggested to Diana. Diana nodded.

"Very well then. We will stay." Diana agreed with the suggestion. Together the pair walked towards the line at the section where passengers picked up plates and silverware before going to the steam tables filled with food. They got in line and waited their turn to get a plate and some silverware, but since Stella and Diana were thirtieth and thirty-first respectively they would have to wait their turn.

When faced with the prospect of encountering Francesca Corlone again, the pair saw no problem with waiting in line. They would gladly wait in line if it meant avoiding Francesca. The two blondes waited silently and patiently as they listened to the sounds around them and looked around the cafeteria. Diana could not recall the last time she had seen so many people gathered into a single cafeteria.

[Post Word Count: 1,071]
[Total Word Count: 7,034/11,000]

-One hour and thirty minutes later, inside the casino-

It took about forty-five minutes for Diana and Stella to get a chance to eat in the cafeteria, but when they finally did they made the opportunity count. Stella got two slices of pepperoni pizza, a baked salmon, and a salad while Diana got a piece of well-done steak and a baked potato with butter. They had eaten their respective meals at a leisurely pace and had rejoiced in the fact that they did not see the dreaded Francesca Corlone make an appearance at any point during their meal. Once the blondes had finished eating they got drinks in white styrofoam cups and decided to pay a visit to the casino for a bit of exercise.

Diana and Stella had walked into the casino and saw that it was still as packed now as it was when they had visited it earlier in the day. They immediately looked around for Francesca Corlone at the blackjack tables and did not see her, which was fine by them. Stella reached into her right jeans pocket and fished out her complimentary gold card.

"Say, Diana. I'm gonna cash in my gold card and get those free chips. I'm gonna go play the slots for awhile. Do you wanna cash in your card for your free chips while I cash in my card?" Stella asked Diana. Diana shook her head.

"I left my card back in my room, Stella. I will have to go get it and that means that we might run into Her on the way." Diana replied and gave her reason. Stella nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. Say, why don't I get my chips and split 'em with you?" Stella offered. Diana shook her head.

"No thank you, Stella. Your chips are yours to do with as you see fit." Diana politely refused the offer. She did not like the idea of relying on others for charity. She also did not want to get into an argument over how winnings would be split if Diana won a game using the chips Stella had given her. Diana kind of like Stella and did not want to lose the taller blonde's friendship over a card game.

"OK, I'm gonna go cash in my gold card and get my chips. I want to play the slots and see what it's like to play big-league slots." Stella said, taking off for a redemption booth the pair had passed by on the way here. Diana followed the taller blonde to make sure that no one tried to steal Stella's card and play on her dime.

-Fifteen minutes later, insde the casino-

"OK Diana, here's the deal. I'm gonna play slots. You can join me at the slot machines or you can go play whatever you want." Stella said to her companion. Diana nodded. Stella then split her chips in half and handed the other half to Diana.

"Here Diana, take these. You can't gamble without 'em. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money." Stella pushed the handful of chips towards Diana's hands, who refused them.

"No thank you, Stella." Diana politely repeated her refusal. Stella pulled Diana's right hand forward with her left and put the chips into the huntress' hand.

"Take them. I owe you for helping me deal with Her. Besides, you told me that I can do what I want with 'em, so I'm doing what I want with 'em. I want you to have them and that's final!" Stella firmly insisted in a literal interpretation of Diana's words. Faced with having her own words repeated to her, Diana relented.

"Very well then. I will take them." Diana finally agreed, keeping the chips that had been placed into her hand. They were ten green chips in 1,000-Jewel denominations. Diana had better make them count.

"I'm gonna go break these 1,000-Jewel chips down for smaller chips to play the slots with." Stella said before taking off for an exchange booth with her chips firmly in hand. Diana remained where she was and calmly waited for her partner to return.

-Fifteen minutes later, inside the casino-

"Sorry about the wait, Diana. It took for-ever for the guy in front of me to take his damn chips and move on. He kept chatting up the girl behind the counter like she was a cocktail waitress." Stella explained why she was late getting back to Diana. Diana nodded.

"All right, I'm going for the slots. Wish me luck!" Stella said to Diana.

"Good luck." Diana said to Stella. The starry-eyed blonde gave a thumbs-up and walked towards the right side of the casino while Diana made her way to the left side and aimed for a roulette table. She was not sure how long her chips would last, but she would have a little fun with them. If luck was on her side and she happened to win anything, Diana would give some to Stella so that the two were even again.

Diana carefully made her way around the casino floor and walked past a man wearing a brown business suit standing at a blackjack table. He was pounding the table with his fists and cursing. He had apparently lost 100,000 Jewels on a single game and was now in dire financial straits because the mortgage on his Capital Crocus townhouse was coming due next week and he had lost the money trying to win more money. Diana was not sure whether he was telling the truth or if it was a ploy to get sympathy, but she kept walking. It was best not to get involved.

Diana walked past a group of men playing Texas Hold'Em and saw a bald old man wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt and white pants with brown deck shoes win a big hand with "Four of a Kind Aces", winning for himself a pile of chips worth the princely sum of 105,500 Jewels. He was grinning widely as he scooped up his winnings and left the table to cash out while he could. His place was filled by a middle-aged man in a green Hawaiian shirt and khaki cargo pants with sandals and a fistful of chips.

Diana turned her attention forward and eventually reached an empty roulette table manned by a middle-aged blonde woman wearing a burgundy vest with the ship's name in gold printed on the left with a white blouse and black dress pants. Diana stepped up to the table and spoke.

"I would like to play a game of roulette." Diana requested. The woman gave a smile to the huntress.

"OK honey, whatcha bettin' on?" The woman asked.

"I would like to bet on number Red 5." Diana listed the numbers she was wagering on. She then plunked down all ten 1,000-Jewel chips on the board and the employee scooped them up, depositing them on Red 5 on a board with the roulette numbers.

"OK, 10,000 on Red 5." The employee replied. She set the wheel in motion to the left and spun the little white ball to the right. The little white ball began to CLACK as it bounced through on the outer edge of the spinning wheel and continued to bounce until it started bouncing in and out of little pockets marked by each number. Diana involuntarily held her breath as the wheel slowed down and the ball began to bounce through the pockets slower and slower, threatening to land and stay in the wrong pocket and cost her her chips.

Diana watched with keen interest and saw the ball bounce slower and slower until Red 5 approached. The wheel came to a slow stop and the ball bounced slower and slower until it landed. Diana watched it land in Red 5 and stay there. She waited just to be sure before she celebrated... she watched and watched and could not believe her luck.

She had actually won!

"Congratulations, honey. You just made some big chips!" The employee congratulated Diana. She then used the wooden dollet to push forward Diana's winnings, which totaled to around eight times her bet. Diana genuinely smiled as she picked up her winnings and placed them into a chip rack that had been helpfully provided.

"Wanna roll again, honey?" The employee asked.

"No thank you." Diana replied. She was going to quit while she was ahead. She had turned 10,000 Jewels into 80,000. It was time to do the smart thing and walk away.

"OK, honey. Good luck with the rest of your games!" The employee bade her. Diana nodded and walked away while tightly clutching her hard-earned winnings. Diana had bet it all on a single spin of the wheel and had won. She was going to quit on this big win and not gamble again for as long as the trip lasted.

[Post Word Count: 1,475]
[Total Word Count: 8,509/11,000]

With her new winnings firmly secured in a chip rack that was firmly held in both hands, Diana made her way over to the slot machines and found Stella seated at a slot machine boasting a Crescent Island theme. To Stella's right was a white plastic bucket filled with chips. Stella pressed a medium-sized red button to "pull" the arm of the machine and the colorful reels spun about until they landed on two diamonds and a lemon symbol.

"Eh, whatever. The one-armed bandit's gotten enough from me today." Stella said in response to her loss. Diana wondered if Stella would be that calm if she did not have a bucketful of winnings sitting next to her. She noticed Diana standing to her right and smiled.

"Oh, hey Diana! How did you do-" Stella started to inquire before Diana wordlessly held up her rack of chips that she had won after wagering on a single number at the roulette wheel. Stella's jaw dropped.

"I bet the 10,000 Jewels in chips you gave me all on a single number at a roulette wheel. It came up. I made eight times what I bet." Diana replied. Stella smiled.

"Hey, nice going! Not bad for someone who doesn't gamble regularly!" Stella complimented Diana with sincerity. She got up from the slot machine and grabbed her bucket of chips. She patted the top of the pile of chips.

"I did pretty good myself. I turned my 10,000 in chips to around 60,000 with a good win about ten minutes ago. I gave back 10,000 of it to the same slot machine, but I'm still sitting on 50,000 in winnings, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead before I feed it everything I won. How about you?" Stella asked Diana. Diana nodded.

"As am I." Diana replied. The thrill of the win had made her feel alive, but chasing the sensation was not a very smart idea. She had probably used all her gambling luck on her big win and Diana did not want to use the rest of her luck at the roulette tables. She still had her "other" job to consider and it required a lot of luck to do what she did and get away unscathed. If the huntress used all her luck here she might not have any the next time she made a hit on a crime lord and needed to get away unseen.

"OK then, let's cash out our chips and go to our rooms. We've got two more days of cruise time, so there's still plenty of time to play!" Stella said to Diana. The two then left the casino and went to cash out their chips. They had come in with Stella's 20,000 Jewels in chips and they had turned it into a good payday for both of them. It was time to chalk up a win and go do something else for the rest of the day.

-Room Number 451, forty minutes later-

Diana walked into her room with her 80,000 Jewels in winnings, then shut the door completely and locked it securely behind her. She then looked for a place to hide them where few intruders would look. Under the bed was far too obvious. So was under her pillow. The drawers were another obvious place to hide valuables.

The best place to put valuables would be in a room safe, but that would be an obvious place as well. Still, even though it was obvious, it would be hard to break into a good safe and not everyone carried around the tools needed to break into one. Diana wondered if her room had a safe... she might discreetly ask a staff member about it later. For the time being she decided to hide her winnings in the bathroom.

Diana went into the bathroom and found a small clear plastic garbage bag that she filled with the Jewels, then went to hide them under the sink when she thought better of it and walked over to the mini-fridge. She opened it and began to put the bag in when she discovered that there were too many Jewels in the bag. Diana frowned for a moment and tried to think of how to hide her Jewels when she had an idea.

Diana did not have to hide what she spent.

If she spent some of her winnings she would not have as many Jewels to hide.

Diana walked back over to her bed and found the brochure on the services that the Gambler's Paradise offered to VIP passengers. She set her bag of Jewels down and read it from cover to cover looking for something she could spend some of her winnings on.

The VIP services included room service, a spa package, a floating movie theater that included dinner service, and some other ideas. Diana was interested in the "dinner and a movie" idea... maybe Stella was too. She would pay a visit to the movie theater tomorrow and see what movies they had before paying for dinner and a movie.

In the meantime Diana still had to hide her winnings, so she came up with another idea. She opted to split her winnings into two bags of 40,000 Jewels. She stashed half of them in her suitcase, which then went directly under the bed. She went back to the bathroom and got another clear plastic trash bag and put the other 40,000 Jewels inside, then went with her original plan and stashed them in the mini-fridge.

Satisfied with her stopgap solution to the problem, Diana then took off her shoes and reclined on the bed. She had two more days of cruise time, which meant two more days of avoiding Francesca Corlone as much as she possibly could. That would be a difficult task because Francesca was almost everywhere that Diana wanted to go. At least she knew that Stella did not like the mob princess either.

Diana then grabbed the TV remote and decided to see what was on television. Maybe there were a few decent channels that she could watch without having to "buy" them. Diana piled up a few pillows behind her head, laid her head on them, and flipped through the channels.

-8:00 A.M., Day 2 of the cruise-

Diana woke up the next morning with the television still on. Diana had ended up on some movie channel and a really old western movie was playing. It was a "singing cowboy" movie and the cowboy in question was currently singing a song in front of a campfire while playing his guitar. Diana turned the television off and realized that she had slept in her shirt and skirt. She frowned a little... this was one of her only good casual outfits.

Oh well.

Diana stood up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. She made sure her room door was securely locked before going into the bathroom, closing the door, and taking off her clothes for a shower. She did not need to go strolling around the boat with unwashed hair.

Diana shut the bathroom door and turned the shower on, then grabbed a white bathcloth and white towel and placed them on the metal towel rack just to the right of the shower. She waited until the water was warm before getting into the shower. Diana got in, closed the tropical-themed curtain behind her, and began taking a shower while wondering what she could spend some of her winnings on today.

[Post Word Count: 1,253]
[Total Word Count: 9,762/11,000]

-Twenty minutes later-

After a leisurely shower Diana got out of the shower and quickly dried herself off, then blew her long blonde hair dry with a blow dryer that was in a little holder on wall just to the right of the mirror. Once that was done Diana walked into her room with the towel wrapped around her and fished out her suitcase from underneath the bed. She put it onto her bed and opened up the suitcase containing her meager clothing options. She was going for a "casual tourist" look, so she pulled out the blue jean short shorts that Angela Helton had bought for her and a green t-shirt she had picked up for this trip during a quick visit to Hargeon Town's mall shortly before she went to the dock to board the Gambler's Paradise.

Diana also pulled out some underwear and retreated to the bathroom with her clothes. She shut the door and quickly put everything on, then returned to the suitcase two minutes later for some clean socks to wear. She fished out a pair and sat on the bed, then put them on and put on her shoes. Once that was done she located her lanyard with her boarding pass/ID and pulled out her first bag of 40,000 Jewels. Today Diana was going to spend them on something so that she did not have to keep up with as many Jewels.

Diana transferred the Jewels into a small cloth bag that she had packed in her travel case, then put it in her right pocket. Once she had jammed the bag down inside her pocket she knew that pickpockets would have a hard time pilfering any Jewels from her. After she had secured part of her winnings Diana put the garbage bag that had held her winnings inside her travel case and closed it, then zipped it up and stashed it under her bed. She then found a white NO ROOM SERVICE tag to hang on the outside of her door and took it outside with her.

-The Third Deck, outside Room Number 451-

Diana hung the NO ROOM SERVICE tag on her doorknob and turned left to find Stella emerging from her room at the same time. Stella was wearing her sunglasses on her head, a white midriff-baring t-shirt, and blue jean short shorts with white tennis shoes. Under the shirt was a black bikini top.

"Hey Diana!" Stella greeted Diana. Diana raised a hand in greeting.

"So, what are you gonna do today?" Stella asked the huntress. Diana shrugged her shoulders.

"I was thinking about going to dinner and a movie... depending on what movies the theater is showing. What about you?" Diana asked Stella.

"Me, I'm gonna see about a visit to the hot tub later today. Wanna come with me?" Stella asked Diana. Diana was not thrilled by the idea because Stella would see the scars on the huntress' back and would ask inconvenient questions. Diana really did not like answering questions about those scars because they brought back a lot of bad memories.

"If there are no good movies at the theater, I may join you." Diana said to her. Stella smiled.

"OK. I'll see you somewhere on the boat!" Stella said to Diana before walking towards the metal stairs that led down to the next deck. Diana lingered a bit longer to make certain her room was secure before moving on. She tried the doorknob and it was securely shut. Satisfied that her winnings stashed in the mini-fridge and her meager clothing was secure, Diana moved towards the stairs herself. She would go find the movie theater and see what movies were playing today.

-At the movie theater, forty minutes later-

Diana stood outside of a movie theater called High Roller Cinemas and browsed the movie posters on the outside walls that advertised what movies were showing. Diana looked over all ten movie posters and noticed a definite "old movie" theme going on. She looked at the ticket booth stationed between the entrance and exit doors and noticed that the doors had posters that prominently displayed "CLASSIC MOVIE NIGHT! COME SEE THE CLASSICS FROM YESTERYEAR!" in bold red letters. Now Diana knew why all of the movie posters were old ones.

She looked over them all and did not see anything worth going to... yet. Out of the ten movies offered two of them caught her eye. One was an old adventure movie with a whip-wielding archaeologist displayed prominently in the center of the movie poster: at his right was a curly-haired blonde woman in khaki clothing clinging to a map in her left hand and clutching a revolver in her right hand. The movie was named Colorado Smith and the Seekers Of The Lost Map.

The other movie that had caught Diana's attention was another old adventure movie. On its poster was displayed Colorado Smith running out of the door of a Desierto-style palace while being chased by tan-uniformed men wielding scimitars and semi-automatic pistols. The movie's title was Colorado Smith and the Palace of Malevolence.

Diana looked at the movie posters again and saw a third poster for a third Colorado Smith movie. This one featured Colorado Smith in the center of the poster holding an ornate golden chalice above his head while men and women in khaki clothing and gray military uniforms looked towards the viewer. This movie was called Colorado Smith and the Quest For The Sacred Chalice.

Diana looked towards the ticket booth and saw a special offer in bold red letters. She walked towards the poster displaying the special and read the text.

COLORADO ACTION SPECIAL! SEE ALL THREE COLORADO SMITH MOVIES BACK-TO-BACK FOR 20,000 JEWELS! LUNCH AND DINNER INCLUDED!

Diana found getting a chance to see three movies back-to-back for 20,000 Jewels with lunch and dinner included to be a fair deal. It was also a good way to avoid Francesca Corlone, who was highly unlikely to go see any old movies because anything that was not about her was a waste of time. Diana made a note of the time the marathon started, which was at noon sharp. The marathon ended at 8:00 P.M... that time hopefully included time for intermissions because very few people had the bladder capacity necessary to endure eight hours of movie viewing without at least one bathroom break. Diana was a patient woman, but sitting for eight hours straight without a bathroom break was beyond even her.

Diana walked away from the theater to find and ask Stella if she was interested in seeing the Colorado Smith movie marathon with the huntress. Since Stella had given her the chips that Diana had used to win at the roulette table, it was only fair to offer to share anything the winnings bought with the taller blonde. The real challenge was finding Stella on this large boat.

-Thirty minutes later, poolside-

Diana went to go find Stella and offer to pay her way into the Colorado Action Special at High Roller Cinema. The huntress located Stella at the railing a short distance away from the pool. Diana approached Stella and made her presence known.

"Hello Stella." Diana greeted the taller blonde. Stella turned around and looked at Diana.

"Hey Diana! Did you find any movies you're interested in?" Stella asked Diana. Diana nodded.

"Yes. There are three Colorado Smith movies being played back-to-back as part of a special called the Colorado Action Special. It starts at noon and ends at 8:00 P.M. tonight. Lunch and dinner are included with the movies." Diana said. Stella perked up. She seemed interested in this.

"How much does it cost per person to attend?" Stella asked with genuine curiosity.

"20,000 Jewels per person." Diana replied. Stella seemed to recoil when the price was mentioned.

"I dunno... that sounds kinda steep." Stella said. Diana tapped the bag of Jewels in her right side pocket.

"I will pay for the both of us with part of my winnings." Diana replied. Stella recoiled again.

"I owe you for giving me the chips I used to win at the roulette table. I can either give you 20,000 Jewels so that you have the money value of your gold card or I can buy your ticket to the Colorado Action Special and bring some more Jewels so that we can buy concessions during the movies. You decide what you want me to do." Diana insisted. Stella blinked.

"You choose. You can have Jewels equal to the value of your gold card or you can have a movie ticket on me." Diana made her offer again. Stella seemed at a loss for words. Diana had a little under three hours until showtime, so she could afford to wait for an answer.

[Post Word Count: 1,465]
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Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Job Sign-Up Archive - Page 38, Post Number 933

Stella blinked again when Diana repeated her offer. The taller blonde was not sure what to do. Diana had offered her a choice of either the Jewel value of the gold card Stella had cashed in or a free ticket to the Colorado Action Special with lunch and dinner that was going to show in the movie theater in a little under three hours. Diana looked towards Stella with an expectant look on her face.

"You know what? I'll join you for the Colorado Action Special, Diana. It's been years since I've seen those movies and I want to see them again. I've got another day of cruise time to visit the hot tub." Stella made her choice. Diana was pleased to hear that.

"Then we will go to the Colorado Action Special. I will pay for our tickets." Diana informed Stella. Stella smiled.

"Thanks, Diana. I'm looking forward to it." Stella said. Diana nodded.

"I will go back to my room and get more money so that we can afford concessions beyond the lunch and dinner with the movie." Diana informed Stella. The taller blonde gave a thumbs-up.

"OK, Diana. I'll wait for you here. And good luck avoiding Her!" Stella wished her friend. Diana nodded and tried to suppress any memories of meeting Francesca Corlone, but that was a futile effort. She recalled the hostile encounter with the mob princess yesterday and got irrationally angry at Francesca threatening to "accidentally" shove Stella over the deck railing and cause the latter to suffer a lethal fall. Diana also remembered being slapped by Francesca for daring to defend Stella from a false accusation. The huntress would get her revenge on Francesca one day, but for now she would just have to bide her time and wait for just the right moment to take her revenge.

-Ten minutes later, the main deck, poolside-

"Hey Diana, I see that you made it back! Do you have the money we need for concessions?" Stella asked. Diana nodded. Diana had gotten out the other half of her roulette winnings and squeezed them into her left pocket so that she would not have to worry about them being stolen while they were in the movie theater. Thieves could not steal what Diana did not have in her room, after all.

"We should have enough money for tickets and concessions. We should not need too much food since lunch and dinner will be provided, but we have the option to buy concessions should we want to." Diana informed Stella that money should not be an issue. Diana had wanted to save her winnings for the future, but she had set aside enough money over the years that 80,000 Jewels would no longer make the difference between being financially solvent and being in financial distress. The same was not true for some of her fellow passengers, who fretted over their losses at the card table, the horse track, the boxing ring, or the roulette wheel.

Diana recalled the man who had lost over 100,000 Jewels on a single hand of blackjack. She had also witnessed a young woman wearing a black dress lose 70,000 Jewels on a single spin of the roulette wheel and blithely dig in her pocketbook for more money with which to place another bet. Diana was sure that there would be plenty of stories of emotional distress that resulted from losses in the casino after this voyage.

"Great! I'd like to go to the theater at least an hour before the movie starts so that we have plenty of time to get concessions and use the restroom before having to go to our theater and get seated." Stella added. Diana nodded.

"As would I." Diana agreed with the plan. She did not like to wait until the last minute to get concessions, go to the restroom, and get into the theater because a lot of people had the same idea. Diana liked a leisurely stroll to the theater, not a hurried dash to get into her seat before the opening credits. She was glad that Stella felt the same way.

"OK, I'm gonna stay here for a couple more hours, then we'll go to the theater together. You go do what you want and we'll meet up." Stella said to Diana.

"I will go ahead and get our tickets so if there is a rush on them we will already have ours." Diana said to Stella. Stella gave a thumbs-up.

"Good idea!" Stella said. With that Diana left her companion behind to return to High Roller Cinema and get tickets to the Colorado Action Special before they were all snapped up.

-Outside High Roller Cinema, fifteen minutes later-

Diana had arrived fifteen minutes ago and was stood patiently in line to get tickets to the movie marathon. However, she was far from the only one interested in going to the movies because there were twenty people ahead of her and she was twenty-first. She was not sure if all of them were interested in the Colorado Action Special, but she was sure that if she had waited much longer to get tickets she would be waiting a very long time to get tickets to any movie. Twenty more people had gotten in line behind her and more were getting in the line with each passing minute.

Diana faced forward and stepped up when it was her turn to move up. It seemed like this line was never going to end, but the huntress was patient and would wait her turn. She still had roughly three hours to burn before movie time, so there was little urgency on her part.

"Attention passengers, this is the captain speaking. We are approaching Crescent Island, which is a favorite resort spot for thousands of Earthland's people, including at least one current Wizard Saint. We will begin docking within the next thirty minutes and we will remain docked for around three hours, then we will get underway for the return trip to Hargeon Town. If you get off the boat to stretch your legs or get some souvenirs don't be late in getting back!" The captain announced to the ship's passengers. Diana had no interest in Crescent Island, but some of the people in line behind her did. They immediately got out of line and began heading back to their rooms; so did three people in front of Diana. Diana was now eighteenth in line for tickets, which was three places closer than she was fifteen minutes ago.

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[Diana's New Word Count: 1,090/11,000]

-At the ticket booth, thirty-five minutes later-

Diana could hardly believe that it could take thirty-five minutes just to buy two tickets to a movie, but it took that length of time thanks to a slowpoke who was chatting up the young woman who was manning the theater ticket booth. Diana suspected that the slowpoke was the same man Stella cited as the reason she had been delayed in being able to cash in her gold card for complimentary chips yesterday, but since Stella did not provide a description of the culprit the huntress was unable to confirm or disprove her hypothesis. The blonde decided to leave well enough alone and just get her tickets.

"Hello and welcome to High Roller Cinema! What will you be viewing today?" The young woman, a pink-haired young woman wearing a white blouse with a burgundy vest and a black knee-length skirt, asked Diana. On the right side of the young woman's vest was a golden name tag with the name "Emelia" on it.

"I would like two tickets to the Colorado Action Special, please." Diana requested. Emelia nodded and turned left, then made her fingers dance across a computer keyboard. Moments later two paper tickets popped out of a printer to the right of the computer keyboard.

"OK, so that's two tickets to the Colorado Action Special. Your total will be 40,000 Jewels." Emelia said to Diana. Diana nodded and reached into her right pocket, eventually pulling out the first bag of 40,000 Jewels in roulette winnings and handing it to the employee. The pink-haired youth opened the bag and counted out the Jewels, then placed them in the cash register to her right. She then passed Diana the tickets through a small space under the glass.

"OK, so there are your tickets. The special begins at noon in Theater 13." She gave Diana the tickets and informed the latter of which theater the movie would be in. Diana was not pleased to hear that Theater 13 was the theater that she and Stella would be in, but there was nothing that could be done about it other than to cancel the purchase. Diana would do no such thing... the superstition surrounding the number 13 was ridiculous and nothing bad would happen in Theater 13.

At least Diana hoped that nothing bad would happen.

"Thank you." Diana thanked the employee and slipped the tickets into the right pocket of her short shorts. She was so glad for the first bag of winnings to be out of her pocket because not only was her right pocket free to hold the ticket now, she could also walk a little more freely and with less pain. A bag of Jewels in short shorts chafed against the leg and caused more pain than Diana realized.

Having made the ticket purchase, Diana left the area and began the walk back to Stella to let the taller blonde know that the huntress had purchased the tickets to the Colorado Action Special.

-The main deck, twenty-five minutes later-

Diana had bought tickets for the movie marathon just in time because as she attempted to leave the theater area she had nearly gotten caught in a stampede of old movie enthusiasts who were hurrying to get tickets for it. Only pressing herself against a wall prevented Diana from getting trampled. Aside from that minor incident Diana reached Stella safely and with the concession money and tickets still in her pockets. Stella was standing at the railing facing the ocean with her back to the huntress.

"I am back, Stella. I went ahead and purchased the tickets so that we would already have ours." Diana informed Stella. The starry-eyed blonde turned around and faced Diana.

"Great! I haven't seen the Colorado Smith movies in years! My dad's a big fan of those movies!" Stella repeated what she had said earlier and added the fact that her father was a fan of the movies, but Diana did not mind the repetition. Stella was a nice person to be around and Diana needed nice people to be around. They gave the huntress something to live for other than work and profit.

"I have never seen them." Diana replied. Stella appeared shocked.

"You haven't?" Stella asked Diana. Diana shook her head.

"I think you'd like them, Diana. They're kinda old, but they're good movies with a lot of action and some humor. The music's also amazing. I don't know how into music you are, but if you like orchestral soundtracks you're in luck. I didn't think an orchestral soundtrack would work with an action movie that wasn't set in the medieval period or the Wild West, but somehow it just works." Stella opined. Diana felt her interest in the Colorado Smith movies increase. She had a fondness for classical music and also liked orchestral soundtracks. However, she had never seen an action movie with an orchestral soundtrack. Celestial Conflicts was touted to have an orchestral soundtrack, but Diana had not seen that movie yet.

"I am interested in the movies." Diana stated simply. She had bought the tickets mostly to spend them on something that was not gambling, but it would make the purchase much easier to justify if she were really interested in the movies she was going to watch. She already had one justification in front of her in the form of Stella Herschel. Stella's generosity and insistence on splitting the complimentary chips had given Diana the wherewithal to win 80,000 Jewels at the roulette table. Now Diana was paying the taller blonde back for her generosity by taking her to a movie that she liked.

"Well, we've still got a little under an hour or so before we get in line to get into the theater, so we have a little time to burn." Stella said with a smile.

"We might want to step up our schedule a bit, Stella. The last I saw there were quite a few people looking to buy tickets to the Colorado Action Special. We should leave for the theater with plenty of time to spare so that traffic jams do not prevent us from getting into the theater." Diana suggested. Stella blinked.

"Really? Well, we might want to do what you say and go a little earlier to give ourselves plenty of time." Stella amended her stance in light of what she had just been told.

"Leaving within the next thirty minutes would still give us an hour to get concessions, use the restroom, and anything else we need to do before the movies start." Diana added. Stella nodded.

"That's true, Diana. I'm ready to leave for the theater whenever you are." Stella said to her companion.

"I say we wait another fifteen minutes, then we start heading there." Diana suggested. Stella nodded a second time. Now that they had made a formal plan all that remained to be done was to put it into action.

[Post Word Count: 1,160]
[Total Word Count: 2,250/11,000]

-Thirty minutes later, inside High Roller Cinema-

Having presented the tickets at the booth and gained admission to the theater, Diana and Stella were now in the lobby and looking at the concession stand, which had five old-fashioned brass cash registers meant to invoke nostalgia being manned by employees. Diana had not grown up with that kind of cash register, so the nostalgia was lost on her. The same presumably went for Stella. Stella was more interested in what concessions were being offered than the old-fashioned cash registers.

"Hey Diana, I know that this is kinda early, but do you want anything from the concession stand? Food, drinks, candy?" Stella asked Diana. Diana shook her head.

"There is nothing I want right now." Diana calmly informed her fellow blonde. Stella continued to look at the list above the counter.

"It looks like the theater went all in on the nostalgia factor. They have a lot of candies packed in throwback boxes and other stuff from almost thirty years ago. There's even red-and-white striped popcorn buckets." Stella pointed out. Diana would not know since she was not a big fan of the past, but apparently Stella knew enough about the past to recognize old brands. Perhaps her father had told her about how theaters used to look for Stella to know.

"My father went to see the Colorado Smith movies back when they first came out. Not all at once like we are, but as they individually came out. He took me to see them back when the special editions came out. Are we going to see the special editions or the originals? Well, as close to the originals as we're gonna get short of going back in time?" Stella asked Diana. Diana looked around and found framed Colorado Smith movie posters on the right wall of the lobby and pointed to them. Stella wordlessly walked over to the three posters and began to read them. The huntress wordlessly walked up to her taller companion and stopped a short distance behind her... she would wait until Stella had examined the posters to her satisfaction before saying anything.

After about three minutes Stella turned around and walked towards Diana, who was patiently waiting for her.

"Yeah, I'm thinking we're gonna see the original movies instead of the special edition versions. If the theater went this far for Classic Movie Night it'd make sense for them to show the originals." Stella opined. Diana would not have known the difference between the original versions and the special edition versions, so she would not have known the difference between them without someone pointing it out. Stella stopped in front of Diana and asked a question.

"Say, what theater will we be watching them in?" Stella asked.

"Theater 13." Diana answered. Stella gave a small smile.

"Theater 13, huh? I hope you're not a superstitious person!" Stella said jokingly. Diana gave a small smile of her own.

"Not really." Diana replied with an economy of words. It was true that she did not have any special fear of the number thirteen, but she had good reason to be wary of it. Whenever the number thirteen came up something usually happened to make her day an interesting one. Diana hoped that today would be an ordinary day at the movies instead of an interesting one in the negative sense.

"I'm gonna go get some popcorn and a drink before we go into the theater! I'll be back in a minute!" Stella said to Diana. Diana nodded and watched her companion briskly walk towards the concession stand to get what she wanted. Diana did not want anything yet... she wanted to see what kind of lunch and dinner options were offered to those who purchased tickets to the Colorado Action Special.

-Twenty-five minutes later, inside Theater 13-

"I'm sorry for the wait, Diana. Some guy in front of me just wouldn't stop trying to hit on the female cashier. He just kept talking and talking and that poor employee couldn't do anything to get out of the situation. I think it's that same guy from the card redemption counter." Stella apologized for the wait before explaining why getting concessions took a lot longer than it should have. The patient huntress took it in stride because they had gotten here in plenty of  time to pick seats. The seating was laid out much like a typical movie theater with ordinary theater seats in the front and middle, but in this one there were square tables near the back, presumably set aside for those who had went for the "dinner and a movie" option. The tables were farther back in the theater and had a good view of the screen.

"It is no problem, Stella. Which table would you like to sit at?" Diana asked Stella while holding the latter's large red-and-white striped bucket of popcorn in her hands. Stella looked at the tables and picked one out that was at the front edge of the reserved seating area.

"That one over there!" Stella replied, pointing towards the table she wanted. Diana nodded and together the two blondes went to claim it before someone else did. They sat down at the table and Stella put her cup down in the left seat while Diana gently set down the bucket of popcorn next to it just as the trailers for other movies began to play.

"Oh hey, look! It's a trailer for that old police movie The Incorruptibles!" Stella pointed out to Diana. The scene showed a brown-haired detective in an old-fashioned trenchcoat shooting a revolver at a car loaded with men wielding Thompson submachine guns with drum magazines as the car sped off and the men fired at the detective, forcing him to take cover behind a trash can. The next scene featured the same detective in an office arguing with the chief of police about how organized crime was taking over the city with a mix of generous cash payments to the right people and intimidation when cash did not work. The detective slammed his hand on the desk and shouted that in order to fight organized crime he needed a group of people he could trust for a new task force, people who could not be bought off by mob money. After that scene and another of the detective approaching other detectives to recruit them for his new task force a group of eight people in tan trenchcoats wielding Tommy guns with drum magazines stood proudly on the screen, pointed their weapons towards the viewer, and began firing from the hip.

After the shooting stopped the bullet holes were filled in with the blue title text The Incorruptibles.

Diana sat down in her seat and halfway paid attention to the trailers while Stella munched on her popcorn and watched them with rapt attention. Stella was a lot more interested in the trailers than Diana was. Diana was here for the Colorado Action Special... those were the old movies she really wanted to see.

[Post Word Count: 1,120]
[Total Word Count: 3,425/11,000]

-Forty-five minutes later-

After being bombarded with trailers for movies that were part of the Classic Movie Night and trailers for more modern movies like Celestial Conflicts, Cybernetic Conspiracy, and The Write Stuff, Colorado Smith and the Seekers Of The Lost Map finally started. Diana was relieved to have finally gotten through all of the trailers. She was not a big fan of the past, so none of the other movies in the Classic Movie Night special did anything for her. Stella, on the other hand, was entranced by each and every movie trailer. The theater darkened and the curtains at each side of the screen retracted to show the entire screen.

At the point the movie started the theater was almost filled to capacity. Diana glanced around with her night vision mode and noticed that most of the viewers of the Colorado Action Special were middle-aged people... some of them were even wearing Colorado Smith hats and t-shirts. Diana did not mind that at all. She turned away from the audience and deactivated night vision as the opening credits rolled and a triumphant trumpet piece began to play. The opening scene was a man wearing a brown leather jacket, tan pants, and brown boots with a brown fedora on his head walking through a rainforest towards an ancient temple whose exterior was beginning to succumb to the ravages of time and weather.

The man entered the temple and began to carefully make his way through a stone hallway with dart traps in the walls that activated whenever he stepped into the light. He carefully made his way around the circles of light that dotted the hallway and reached the end of the hall, where a golden idol in the shape of a man's body with a jaguar's head baring its fangs and clutching a sword in its left hand and a severed head by the hair in its right hand sat on a pedestal in a circular room. The man glanced at the pedestal and his eyes narrowed before the camera zoomed in on the pedestal beneath the idol.

"I've seen this setup before. It's a pressure plate." He muttered to himself as the camera zoomed out. The camera focused back on him as he lifted his fedora and wiped the sweat from his forehead, then focused on the idol. He slowly tiptoed over to it as a tense stringed instrument piece began to play. Once he reached the idol the music stopped and the man produced a small burlap bag of pebbles from his left pocket with his left hand and reached for the idol with his right hand. The tense stringed instrument piece began to play again as the man made the swap with commendable dexterity, smoothly switching the bag for the idol as a subdued rendition of the triumphant trumpet piece from earlier played.

The man sighed with relief and began to walk away from the pedestal clutching his gleaming prize.

"An idol of the war god Huitzacabra belongs in a museum!" he said to himself with self-satisfaction as he walked away from the room only for him to freeze in place and turn around as he heard the pedestal shift and slowly start to sink under the weight of the bag of pebbles. He then turned back to the hallway and saw the ceiling begin to collapse.

He wordlessly ran forward with the idol clutched in his hands, dodging the beams of light the best he could and weaving through the darts he triggered when he could not stay out of the light as he fled for his life. The music reached a crescendo when the man tripped on an uneven stone in the floor and he did a forward roll onto his right shoulder, then hopped up onto his feet without missing a step and still in possession of the gleaming idol. The triumphant trumpet piece began to play as the man sprinted for the exit, barely escaping the collapsing temple with his life and his prize.

"That was the easy part. Now I've gotta walk through the jungle with this idol. I don't think the natives will take kindly to me taking an idol of their war god." The man said to himself as the trumpets played and the movie's title was splashed across the screen in faded orange text. The title faded out and the next scene was one of the man carrying the idol to a waiting floatplane with his jacket and pants looking like they had been shredded by edged weapons and/or animal claws but his hat was intact. He wearily climbed into the floatplane where a blonde woman in khaki clothing sat waiting for him.

"I take it that you got what you came for, Dr. Smith?" The woman asked him. The man nodded.

"Yeah. It was tough going, but I made it. I have the idol of Huitzacabra right here. The university board of directors will be glad to see this." He said as he climbed into the passenger's seat. The plane took off and a map flashed onto the screen. The travel segment was shown as a small image of the plane flying across the map and landing at dots, presumably for refueling stops. Eventually it stopped in a country, upon which the plane was changed into a car.

Diana looked away from the screen to glance at Stella and noticed that her companion was watching the movie with rapt attention. Diana could have stolen Stella's popcorn and the taller blonde would not even have noticed. The huntress turned her attention back to the movie and saw that Dr. Smith and his female partner had arrived on a university campus and were now standing in his office, where the idol sat proudly on a mahogany desk.

"The university board of directors is happy with your work, Dr. Smith. In fact they're so happy that they want you to look into another myth. Have you ever heard of the Map of The Ark?" The woman asked Colorado Smith. He nodded.

"Yeah, but it's just a story, Dr. Johnson. Whoever has the Map of The Ark will be able to find the Ark of Gold. The map to the Ark is hidden in a desert country and the Ark itself is lost at sea. The Ark of Gold is supposedly aboard an old galleon that was part of a treasure fleet that once sailed the seas... or so the legend goes. For all we know we could be looking for an old tugboat." Colorado replied. The woman nodded.

Diana continued to watch as Colorado Smith and Dr. Johnson conversed about the Ark of Gold, which was rumored to contain both mundane treasure and an old superweapon of some kind. The two speculated whether it was a staff that could fire rays of divine power, a divine sword that could cut through anything, or the key to an army that had been locked away on board the Ark of Gold. Diana and Stella watched the two doctors argue over the nature of the superweapon that was supposedly hidden on the Ark until a third character came in clutching a map of the desert country in which the Map was supposedly hidden.

Stella finally reached for her bucket of popcorn and ate some as the scene changed to a desert landscape that was flat and monotonous with the only landmarks being the occasional sand dune. The doctors were driving through the desert in a specially adapted vehicle loaded with tools, equipment, supplies, and a university archaeology team. After hours of driving they finally reached the temple and Colorado hopped out of the truck.

"It's time to get to work." He said.

[Post Word Count: 1,290]
[Total Word Count: 4,715/11,000]

-Two hours later-

Colorado Smith and the Seekers Of The Lost Map was nearing its conclusion and things were not looking good for Dr. Smith and Dr. Johnson. They had managed to locate the Map of the Ark and had boarded the Ark Of Gold via stowing away on a submarine crewed by men in gray uniforms who wanted the Ark Of Gold for themselves. The men wanted not only the treasure on board in order to finance their organization, they also wanted the superweapon that was rumored to be on board. After a few tense scenes where the protagonists sneaked past the uniformed men they learned that the rumored superweapon hidden on board the old galleon was very real and it was a staff of gold with intertwined strips of silver that could fire beams of divine power that could destroy anything the wielder wanted. The villains had captured the protagonists and were now holding them at staff point to be used as the first human targets of the staff.

The leader of the villains was giving a monologue about how with the staff their victory was assured and that they would remake the world as they wanted it to be. The protagonists were tied to chairs and were entirely at the mercy of the villains... it would have been a simple matter to finish them off then and there, but the villains held off on doing so. Apparently they wanted to drive home how hopeless the situation was before killing them, something that the huntress avoided during her "other" job. When she wanted to kill someone she did it then and there, not after a monologue or some other lengthy distraction that could give her target time to draw a weapon, call for aid, or flee.

The leader of the villains, a dark-haired man wearing a gray uniform with a black cloak that had a white interior, finished the monologue with a flourish about how the staff he wielded would be a symbol millions would bow to. He then pointed the staff at Colorado Smith and prepared to disintegrate the intrepid archaeologist when suddenly the staff glowed white and a deep voice spoke in an unknown language as the weapon burned the leader's hand to the bone. It then fired a pulse of white energy that swept throughout the Ark of Gold, disintegrating its wielder and his henchmen while leaving Dr. Smith and Dr. Johnson unharmed. In any other movie Diana might have considered that resolution to the problem an enormous cop-out, but since the staff was explicitly stated to be a divine creation imbued with divine power, Diana could handle that deus ex machina. Working for a divine entity and having firsthand knowledge of divine power also made the sudden resolution easier to handle.

The ropes binding the archaeologists had been disintegrated as well. The doctors stood up and faced each other, then faced the staff that was lying on the floor. Diana could see that they were struggling about claiming it for the university or leaving it there out of respect for the entity who had just saved their lives. The choice had been made for them as the voice spoke and sternly warned them to leave the Ark of Gold before it was destroyed. The archaeologists obeyed and they fled on board the now-empty submarine as the Ark of Gold glowed white and vanished. They had not left empty-handed because the villains had stashed several crates of treasure on board their submarine, something that the doctors could take back to the university.

The triumphant trumpet piece sounded as the characters eventually surfaced and found the university archaeology team they had been forced to leave behind waiting for them on a university boat.

"We didn't send any radio transmissions. How did you guys get here?" Colorado Smith asked the leader of the team, a short and somewhat rotund man with a khaki pith helmet, khaki clothing, and a golden monocle named Dr. Morris.

"We were guided here as if by an invisible hand." The man cryptically replied. Dr. Smith and Dr. Johnson looked at him, then at each other as they contemplated the meaning of that remark. Their facial expressions hinted that they considered the sudden arrival of the archaeology team and their boat to be the doing of the deity to whom the staff belonged. They then shrugged their shoulders and looked towards the team leader, then boarded the boat and told the man about the treasure on board the submarine that the villains had collected. Part of the team led by Dr. Johnson boarded the submarine to sail it into port while Dr. Smith remained on board the boat.

Both ships sailed into the sunrise and the end credits began to roll. Diana and Stella faced each other as a male voice announced the start of a thirty-minute intermission before the next movie in the trilogy was played. They stood up and stretched their legs, then tried to decide what to do next.

"I've gotta go to the restroom. Do you mind staying here until I get back?" Stella asked Diana. The huntress nodded. Since she had not had anything to eat or drink, she did not mind holding their table until Stella got back.

"Thanks!" Stella said before walking away, leaving Diana alone at the table while the credits continued to roll. Diana silently watched the credits for Colorado Smith and the Seekers Of The Lost Map roll and listened to the music, which was an orchestrated version of the triumphant trumpet piece which seemed to be a leitmotif for Colorado Smith. She had just watched the first Colorado Smith movie and thought that while the beginning was somewhat slow after the escape from the jungle temple and part of the middle was slow, the pace near the end was just right.

The music was also surprisingly good and fit the mood of the film. It captured the spirit of adventure and the danger explorers faced when going into the unknown. It also captured the spirit of the divine with the female chorus near the end of the film when the deity destroyed the uniformed men who planned to use the staff as a weapon with which to conquer the world. All in all Diana liked the first Colorado Smith movie and could not wait to see Colorado Smith and the Palace Of Malevolence, the next movie in the trilogy. It would be playing as soon as the intermission had concluded.

Diana had about twenty-five minutes of intermission time left. At first she thought that thirty minutes was more than generous and perhaps even excessive, but then she thought about the size of the crowd that had come to see the Colorado Action Special and the crowds who had come to see the other classic movies. Those large crowds would inevitably head for the restrooms or concession stands and the lines would be long. Once that was taken into account, the huntress decided that thirty minutes was a good length for an intermission between movies. It should give Stella more than enough time to use the restroom and get more popcorn and soda before the next movie started.

[Post Word Count: 1,205]
[Total Word Count: 5,920/11,000]

-Twenty minutes later-

Stella had returned from the intermission with another bucket of popcorn and another cup of soda that smelled like cherry... the taller blonde must have gotten a refill of Cherry Charge. She set down the popcorn and cup before sitting down in her seat. She faced Diana.

"Sorry about the wait, Diana. The line was kinda long. It might get long again just before the movie, so if you need to go to the restroom, I'd do it now." Stella apologized before suggesting that the huntress go to the restroom while there was still time. Diana nodded. She would go to the restroom because Colorado Smith and the Palace Of Malevolence was at least two hours long, if not longer. There was no way Diana was going to be able to sit through two two-hour movies without straining her bladder to its limit. Diana got up from her seat and exited the theater to use the restroom.

-Eight minutes later-

Diana returned to Theater 13 and quickly located Stella, then returned to her seat and sat down in it. The line to the restroom was mercifully short, so Diana was able to use it and return without having to wait too long. Now she was back and seated just two minutes before the intermission was set to end and the next Colorado Smith movie was going to play. Stella looked away from the screen and greeted Diana.

"Hey Diana, you're just in time!" Stella greeted Diana. Diana simply waved. Text reading "The Colorado Action Special will resume in three minutes!" with an animated countdown flashed on the screen and the trumpet piece that was Colorado Smith's leitmotif began to play. Stella looked towards the screen and spoke.

"I think the next Colorado Smith movie is not quite as good as the first one, but I'll let you be the judge of that." Stella opined about the upcoming movie in the Colorado Smith trilogy. Since Diana had never seen any of the movies, she would not be able to judge the second one's quality until she had seen it for herself. She was glad that Stella did not spoil Colorado Smith and the Palace Of Malevolence for her. Diana had liked the first one despite the abrupt shift from a fast-paced beginning to a fairly slow middle section before the action picked back up on the Ark Of Gold and did not let up until the end of the escape sequence where Dr. Smith and Dr. Johnson boarded the submarine.

The two blondes sat and looked at the screen until the countdown ended and the theater's lights began to darken. People hurried into the theater and took their seats moments before the movie started. When it started a musical fanfare played and the movie started off with a scene of Dr. Smith trudging through a flat desert towards a city in the distance and pausing in place. The doctor reached for the canteen on his left hip and opened it. He tried to drink from it but nothing came out... the doctor had a crestfallen look on his face until a hand passed him a canteen from the right side of the screen.

"Dr. Johnson, you shouldn't give me-" Dr. Smith began to protest before being silenced.

"Drink the water, Dr. Smith. We'll get more later. There's a city just up ahead." Dr. Johnson urged her colleague and pressed the canteen into his hand. Dr. Smith looked towards her and reluctantly opened the canteen, then drank from it. He handed it back to Dr. Johnson and the pair resumed trudging towards the city as the camera scrolled up and the opening credits flashed across the screen. Stella grabbed a handful of popcorn as the opening fanfare played and the two doctors reached the city gates after a lengthy walk through the sand. The camera zoomed out to a walled city with watch towers in each corner that was reminiscent of the Tri-Council Cities of Desierto.

Inside the city the pair were greeted with the sight of a bustling open-air bazaar filled with people perusing all manner of wares. Diana could make out books, carpets, clothing, incense, jewelry, and other wares being sold at the bazaar and plenty of potential customers. The camera followed the doctors as they wound their way through the bazaar and began to search for the house of a Dr. Ross, who was their contact with the university for this expedition. After about a minute of walking the pair veered left into a somewhat calmer residential district with only half the foot traffic of the bazaar and eventually found the house in question.

"I haven't seen Dr. Ross in a few years. Not since that... incident. You might wanna knock on the door." Dr. Smith said. Dr. Johnson looked at him with a quizzical expression.

"He accused me of stealing a find from him. Back when we were both young and impressionable archaeologists, we were working the same site under Dr. Higgins in the Hasara Desert. He had been excavating the site for hours and just wouldn't quit... he wanted to find something big. He wouldn't stop digging until sunset until he finally went to get something to eat. I walked up to the site and started digging to try and help him out." Dr. Smith explained.

"What happened then?" Dr. Johnson asked Dr. Smith.

"Well, after five minutes of work I managed to find a golden necklace that had been made by the Sun Tribe for a high priest. Dr. Higgins came by at the same time I found it and Dr. Ross returned moments after Dr. Higgins started praising me for my work. Boy, was Ross pissed. He accused me of being a parasite by piggybacking on his work to make the find. I tried to apologize, but he just told me to enjoy my stolen laurels and stormed off." Dr. Smith explained how the two archaeologists had parted on bad terms. Now they were going to meet again courtesy of the university.

"I'll knock." Dr. Johnson said. She walked up to the door and knocked three times. It opened to show a middle-aged man in khaki clothing with black-rimmed glasses and fading black hair. He looked at Dr. Johnson and smiled.

"Oh, it is a delight to meet you again, Evelyn!" Dr. Ross greeted the blonde woman warmly. Dr. Ross looked behind Dr. Johnson and saw Dr. Smith. The man's face immediately showed a frown.

"I see you brought a parasite with you, Dr. Johnson. If you're not careful you'll find that your blood's been drained and that credit for your work goes to it instead." Dr. Ross warned the female doctor. Dr. Smith frowned in return.

"That was over ten years ago, Dr. Ross! That was an accident!" Dr. Smith protested.

"Just shut up and get in here." Dr. Ross said flatly. The doctors entered Ross' house and the door closed. Colorado Smith's leitmotif played as the trio gathered around a round table with a map of the region laying on it. The music had a sinister undercurrent as Dr. Smith and Dr. Johnson walked towards the round table where Ross' right index finger pointed to a square on the map.

"I've done some preliminary exploration of the area and I've found what I believe to be the Palace of Malevolence. It's said by the locals that it's a haunted place. Anyone who enters it doesn't come out alive." Dr. Ross said to the pair. Dr. Smith looked at Dr. Ross as the sinister music continued to play. Stella sipped on her drink as the trio discussed how they were going to approach the Palace of Malevolence.

[Post Word Count: 1,286]
[Total Word Count: 7,206/11,000]

-Twenty minutes later-

The second Colorado Smith movie had overcome its slow beginning to really get interesting. Twenty minutes ago the trio had found the Palace Of Malevolence to the west of the city that was their "base camp" and Dr. Ross had recounted the local legends surrounding the palace. Decades ago it had belonged to a king who was renowned for his paranoia and his cruelty to his subjects. Anyone who displeased him for any reason was dragged to the palace in the dead of night by his men and was never seen again. This practice kept his people cowed and submissive at first, but as time passed and the king's paranoia got worse the seeds of rebellion had been planted and were growing.

The ruler's paranoia grew worse until he was having desert birds shot for being spies for rival cities and having people hanged for such grave offenses as trying to steal his thoughts through eye contact. Even the elderly were not spared from the hangman and that was the breaking point for the citizens. They rose in rebellion and fought their way to the palace, eventually capturing the king and throwing him headfirst from the palace balcony, then decapitating his body to make sure he was actually dead. After the revolution the palace was abandoned and left to decay, but through unknown means the structure had refused to give in to the sands of time. In fact it stood defiantly as if determined to let the people of the region know that it was going nowhere.

Local rumor had it that people were still disappearing decades after the revolution, which was why the city people avoided the palace at all costs. However, the three intrepid archaeologists were going to explore the palace out of scientific curiosity and to see if there was any truth to the rumors of people still being dragged to the palace.

Now the trio were walking down the main thoroughfare towards the palace and glanced around as if expecting ghosts to appear at any moment. A subdued musical piece dominated by stringed instruments played as the trio walked and Dr. Smith spoke.

"You don't think that the king's spirit is still hanging around, do you?" Dr. Smith asked Dr. Ross, whose eyes were fixed on the palace. Dr. Ross glared at Dr. Smith with a look of utter contempt.

"An educated man like you should know better, Dr. Smith. Ghosts don't exist. Ghosts and spirits and haunted palaces are all superstitious bunk!" Dr. Ross answered. Dr. Johnson was not convinced of her colleague's disbelief in the supernatural and continued to look around the deserted city that sprawled in front of the palace, which dominated the area.

"Look at these buildings, Dr. Ross. How can you explain all of them still being upright despite no one being here to maintain them?" Dr. Smith asked, sweeping his right hand all around them.

"Someone's got to be maintaining them. Maybe some preservation society's been keeping them up." Dr. Ross answered confidently. Dr. Smith blinked.

"If there is a preservation society, how come we haven't heard about it? Where are they getting the money, the tools, the materials needed to fix buildings?" Dr. Smith asked his colleague.

"Maybe they have a wealthy backer who's interested in keeping the city and palace intact as a historical monument." Dr. Ross quickly replied in a tone that was utterly sure of himself. The doctor was a man who seemed to have an answer for everything. The trio went silent and walked through the deserted city until they reached the open gates of the palace, which loomed even larger now that they were standing right in front of it. The main entrance was a short stairway flanked by two statues of lions standing tall and staring down at the viewer.

"Well, here we are. The Palace of Malevolence." Dr. Smith said to his colleagues. Dr. Ross scoffed at the name.

"It's just an old palace! There's nothing-" Dr. Ross started to rebuke Dr. Smith when a loud scream pierced the silence followed by the roar of a crowd.

"How do you explain that? Some local pranksters with sound effects equipment?" Dr. Johnson sarcastically asked Dr. Ross. The man was at a momentary loss for words and struggled to come up with an rational explanation for what they had just heard. Dr. Smith all but rolled his eyes and urged them to enter the palace.

"C'mon, Dr. Johnson. Let's leave Mr. Contrarian here to solve that mystery while we go inside!" Dr. Smith urged his partner.

"Gladly." Dr. Johnson replied and walked around the stationary Dr. Ross to join Dr. Smith in the task of exploring the Palace of Malevolence. Dr. Ross sputtered protests for a few moments before throwing his hands above his head and running to join the two doctors.

"WAIT FOR ME!" He yelled and ran after them as they walked into the palace and the shadows swallowed them.

The camera shifted to a perspective from inside the palace and showed an empty hall that had a red carpet on the floor. The hall was full of cobwebs and bereft of all decoration save for the carpet... perhaps the palace had been looted after the revolution. But if that was the case, why was the carpet still there?

"It looks like the place was looted." Dr. Smith said aloud.

"Yes, but the structure itself is intact. It's more than a bit dusty, but it looks just like it did when it was built over a century ago. There should be a throne somewhere up ahead." Dr. Ross commented without a sarcastic quip this time. He seemed genuinely impressed by how the structure was still standing. Dr. Johnson walked just a bit ahead of her colleagues and spotted a throne carved out of limestone that featured a prominent lion motif.

"And there's the Lion's Throne!" She exclaimed before walking briskly towards it with an excited look on her face. The throne was placed on a dais designed to make it the focal point of the hall. Dr. Johnson swiftly climbed the three shallow steps leading up to the throne and pulled a pair of white gloves out of her pants pockets, then put them on before examining the throne.

"It's absolutely beautiful. I read about this at the university. It's supposedly carved out of a single piece of limestone by master artisans who worked on it for a full month. Notice how the armrests end in protrusions shaped like a lion's front paws and how its feet are shaped like a lion's hind paws." Dr. Johnson began describing the throne to her colleagues before pausing when a loud voice bellowing a command broke the silence.

"What was that?" Dr. Johnson asked as a tense stringed instrument piece began to play. Dr. Smith drew his revolver and approached the throne as Dr. Ross stayed back.

"I don't know. But I don't like it." He answered and looked around the room, pulling the hammer of the revolver back with his right thumb. He looked right and out of the right wing walked a man in burgundy robes with a white turban on his head.

"Who's that?" Dr. Smith asked as the music reached a crescendo. Diana was interested in learning the identity of the mystery figure. He could be the king from the story, but he could be just a palace official. She would just have to watch to find out.

[Post Word Count: 1,250]
[Total Word Count: 8,456/11,000]

"No one's supposed to be here! Who is that?" Dr. Ross asked Dr. Smith as the latter pointed his revolver towards the man wearing burgundy robes and a white turban.

"I think he's the-" Dr. Smith began to say just before the sound cut out and the screen went black. The theater erupted in loud howls of protest followed by murmurs of frustration. A few of the most irate ones even stood up to leave.

"OH COME ON!" Stella shouted indignantly. Diana too was upset by the technical problem that had occurred just as the movie was getting really interesting. She kept quiet about it because the other patrons were protesting more than enough to make up for her silence.

"Damn. Just when it was getting good too!" Stella remarked to Diana. The taller blonde was clearly angry. Even though Stella had seen the movie many times before she had gotten into it and was greatly displeased by it being cut off.

"Attention patrons, there's been a slight technical difficulty in the projection booth! We're working to resolve it, so please be patient!" A female voice implored the movie-goers to remain seated and be patient. Some of the displeased patrons returned to their seats, but others walked out of the theater. Stella and Diana remained seated.

"This really sucks." Stella said to Diana, who was sitting calmly and watching the blank screen without a care in the world. The huntress turned to face Stella and spoke to her fellow blonde.

"Patience, Stella." Diana said calmly. She had nowhere else to be, so she would stay where she was until the movie started back or the staff told them that the problem was unable to be solved. She also had 40,000 Jewels invested in tickets to the Colorado Action Special, so the huntress wanted some return on her investment. Maybe the staff could fix the problem and restart Colorado Smith and the Palace Of Malevolence. Diana would not mind sitting through the movie again if that meant getting to see it all.

-Thirty minutes later-

Thirty minutes ago the theater was almost full, but thirty minutes later it was slightly over half capacity thanks to disgruntled people leaving the theater. Stella and Diana had remained where they were in the hopes that the problem would be fixed, but Diana was beginning to feel like the problem was not going to be resolved. She started to think about the number thirteen and whether it had a part in what was going on.

"Attention patrons! We regret to inform you that the technical problem hasn't been resolved, so we're canceling the Colorado Action Special! We apologize for this inconvenience and will be offering either full refunds or tickets to the Colorado Action Special being held in Theater Twelve tomorrow afternoon. We thank you for patronizing High Roller Cinemas!" The female voice informed everyone. Now that she knew that the movie would not be restarted, Diana calmly and quietly stood up, then pushed her seat under the table. Stella joined her and pushed her seat under the table.

"What do you want to do, Diana? Do you want a refund on the tickets or do you want the tickets to tomorrow's Colorado Action Special?" Stella asked the huntress. Diana looked at the starry-eyed blonde and thought it over for a moment.

On one hand, getting the Jewels back would be a good idea since she could spend them on something else for the two of them. Having the money would also give her something to put in her bank account. On the other hand, she really wanted to see the other two Colorado Smith movies. She also did not want to have to keep 80,000 Jewels hidden for the remainder of the trip because her room did not have very many good hiding places.

"I will just ask for the tickets to the Colorado Action Special being shown tomorrow." Diana gave her response. Stella nodded.

"Even though I've seen them before, I still want to see them again. Since you put the money into the tickets you might as well get something out of it. That's a good call, Diana." Stella said with just a little self-interest. Diana was mildly amused by that, but she did not point it out. Stella had given her the means to win the money that had bought their tickets, so Diana had no room to complain.

"Very well then. We will get in line for the tickets and wait until we get them, then we will go do something else." Diana said. Now that their decision had been made Stella gathered up her half-eaten bucket of popcorn and large soda cup. Diana took the cup so that Stella only had to deal with the bucket of popcorn and the pair walked out of the theater. Today it seemed that the bad luck associated with the number thirteen had struck, giving Diana more reason to be wary of that number.

-Two hours later-

The two blondes walked out of High Roller Cinemas with their tickets to tomorrow's Colorado Action Special, which was being specially offered as compensation for those who had bought tickets to today's special and still wanted to watch the movies they had paid to see. They saw no other classic movies that they wanted to watch, so they opted to leave the theater and go find something else to do. Maybe they could go walk around the casino again and see what was going on.

"Wanna go back to the casino, Diana?" Stella asked. Diana looked down at the bag of Jewels protruding from of the pocket of her short shorts and questioned the wisdom of walking into a casino with a bag of Jewels on prominent display.

"I will go back to the casino... after I change my shorts." Diana replied. She did not want to give thieves an opportunity to get an easy 40,000 Jewels by picking her pocket or snatching the bag of Jewels and running. Considering how much money was lost in the casino and how many people were looking to recoup their losses, there would be no shortage of desperate and stupid people willing to try those stunts. Diana would be better served going into the casino after changing out of her shorts and into something with deeper pockets.

"OK Diana. I'll wait for you there!" Stella said. Diana nodded and took off for her room while Stella began to walk towards the casino. They would go their separate ways for now but would meet up later at the casino and take a walk around it for the exercise before presumably deciding on something else to do with the rest of their day.

[Post Word Count: 1,122]
[Total Word Count: 9,578/11,000]

-In the casino, twenty-five minutes later-

Having changed to her navy blue cargo pants, Diana was keenly aware that her outfit did not match and would draw a lot of attention, but the navy blue cargo pants were the best she had. She really needed to expand her wardrobe once this cruise was over. For now she would just have to make do with what she had. With the bag of Jewels in her left side cargo pocket and the tickets to the Colorado Action Special in her right side cargo pocket, Diana began to look for Stella, who was somewhere in the vast casino.

Diana began walking around the left side of the casino and looked towards the blackjack tables for signs of her enemy Francesca Corlone. Diana suspected that Francesca was here to increase her already considerable winnings and show off in front of people, but so far she was not seeing the young woman. If the huntress was lucky she would not see her enemy anywhere in the casino during her time here. Diana turned her attention towards the roulette tables and spotted a flash of blonde hair and a blonde in a white tube top with short black skirt and black high heels give a fist pump after winning.

Diana paused in place and frowned at the sight.

Francesca had just won another game.

Not only did the huntress suffer the misfortune of seeing her enemy, she also suffered the misfortune of seeing her enemy win big chips at the roulette wheel. Diana frowned and turned away from the displeasing sight in order to focus on finding Stella. She did not want to stay here any longer than she had to, not while Francesca was winning game after game as if to spite the huntress. Diana did her best to ignore Francesca's whoops of joy as she raked in the chips and gloated over her victory. If the other blonde was smart she would cash out and walk away now, but Francesca was not renowned for her intelligence.

Diana walked around the perimeter of the casino and looked for Stella but saw many scenes of people winning big and losing even bigger. The huntress was glad that she had had the good sense to walk away from the roulette wheel after her big win yesterday instead of pressing her luck and getting into a bad situation by losing her 80,000 Jewels in winnings and dipping into her pockets for more only to lose that too. Many people had obviously not quit while they were ahead and now they were paying the price for their foolish decision to continue gambling in the hopes of piling up chips. Instead they were digging themselves into a financial hole that would be hard to climb out of.

After patting herself on the back and walking past the roulette tables Diana looked towards another row of blackjack tables where fortunes were being made and lost on the turn of the cards. A white-suited man in a white ten-gallon hat was winning big at one blackjack table while two tables to the right a young woman in a black dress was losing more than just a lot of chips. She was also losing her vacation home in Hargeon Town because it had been mortgaged for more Jewels with which to buy chips to earn back the chips lost yesterday. Now she had lost those and was in a deep financial hole. The young woman was sobbing hysterically and trying desperately to find ways to raise more money for chips to gamble in order to "make good" her losses.

Diana blocked out the noise and walked past the blackjack tables on the way to the slot machines, where she spotted another flash of blonde hair that belonged to Stella. She was standing and looking at a Desierto-themed slot machine and was oblivious to Diana's approach. Diana walked up to her left and stopped, then greeted her.

"Here I am, Stella." Diana calmly greeted her fellow blonde. Stella turned to her left and saw the huntress standing a meter away from her. Her face lit up.

"Oh, hi Diana! I was wondering when you'd get here!" Stella greeted Diana. The sound of virtual slots "spinning" filled the air as the two blondes talked.

"What would you like to do from here, Stella?" Diana asked her companion. Stella crossed her arms over her chest.

"I don't want to stay here, that's for sure. I saw Her winning a lot of money at the roulette wheels and I don't like it. I can't stand to see someone like that win." Stella answered and cited Francesca's winning streak as a reason to leave. Diana would not argue with that. Seeing someone as obnoxious and entitled as Francesca win at the tables was like Elizabeth Winchester slapping Diana in the face.

"Neither do I. Would you like to go get something to eat before we try to find something else to do?" Diana asked Stella. Stella nodded.

"Yeah. Popcorn and soda aren't enough. We never did get lunch at the movie, so we'll just go get a late lunch at the buffet line instead!" Stella agreed to the idea of getting something to eat before planning their next move. The pair then turned around and walked away from the slot machines, leaving behind the sound of more whooping from Francesca, who had obviously just won another big game. That sound was an insult to both of them and they could not wait to get away from it.

-The cafeteria, ten minutes later-

The pair had just walked into the cafeteria when the captain made an announcement over the loudspeakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. We're about to leave Crescent Island for the last leg of the cruise. If you haven't already returned to the ship, you'll have thirty minutes to do so before we depart. If you get left on Crescent Island then you will be responsible for finding your own way back to Hargeon Town. To everyone who's on board, we will be getting underway in thirty minutes, so if you want to grab any last-minute souvenirs you'd better do it now." The captain advised anyone who was still on the island to finish sightseeing and return to the Gambler's Paradise or risk getting left behind. Anyone on board who wanted to go grab a souvenir that they had better be quick about it. Diana and Stella had no interest in purchasing souvenirs from Crescent Island; they were more interested in getting something to eat before the crowd got any larger than it already was. There were only twelve people in line ahead of them, so they would just stay where they were.

"Do you want anything from Crescent Island? A t-shirt, a postcard, anything?" Stella asked Diana out of curiosity. Diana shook her head.

"No thank you." Diana replied politely. She had no interest in spending money on trinkets from Crescent Island when she had a bigger goal in mind. One day Diana would take a vacation to Crescent Island: that was when she would be free to go shopping if she wanted. Until then she would keep working to get money to save towards the vacation. That meant no frivolous purchases and no more vacations unless they were free like this one had been.

[Post Word Count: 1,232]
[Total Word Count: 10,810/11,000]

-Room Number 451, eight hours later-

Diana and Stella had eaten a late lunch, then walked around the ship in search of something to do that did not involve gambling or watching people gamble. They had thought about returning to High Roller Cinemas to see if there was another old movie they wanted to watch, but instead they just decided to wait until the Colorado Action Special tomorrow. That was the old movie that they had wanted to see the most. Diana wanted to find out how Colorado Smith and the Palace Of Malevolence had ended, then see Colorado Smith and the Quest For The Sacred Chalice.

After walking around the ship and doing small activities like walking by the pool and watching an exhibition match at the boxing ring the pair had decided to go to their rooms and spend the rest of the day watching movies on the television. They would meet up outside High Roller Cinemas to attend the Colorado Action Special that started at noon tomorrow in Theater Twelve. Diana was lying on her bed watching an old movie about a police detective fighting his way through Takanomi Place and spouting one-liners as he killed foreign terrorists who had taken a lot of rich businessmen hostage in the tower when she heard loud laughter and bragging from a familiar voice.

"I CLEANED THAT CASINO OUT! I TOOK A LOTTA THEIR CHIPS!" Francesca bragged, presumably to someone on her iLac. Diana frowned when she heard that voice and did her best to drown it out. It was painfully obvious that Francesca had had another profitable day at the casino and that was a grave insult to Diana. Francesca laughed again and Diana frowned and covered her ears with her hands. Why was it that people like that prospered?

Diana thought for a moment and came to the realization that the ground she held was not too much higher than the ground that Francesca Corlone stood on. She had murdered a lot of people over the years. She had gotten away with her numerous crimes, so in a sense she was one of those unpleasant people who had prospered. Diana was not brash like Francesca was, but beneath the mask of civility Diana was every bit as unpleasant as the mob princess, if not more so. Beneath the mask of civility lurked a dangerous person who would not hesitate to kill if the money was right.

No matter how Diana tried to make her trade less morally corrosive and more "noble" by killing "deserving" people like crime lords and assassins sent to kill her, at the end of the day she still killed for money.

Diana kept her hands over her ears until Francesca had passed her room door, then resumed watching the movie. She was not really paying attention to it... it was just background noise until she could get to sleep. After a few more minutes of staring blankly at the movie she turned off the television and turned out the lights. Hopefully she could get to sleep before the Colorado Action Special started tomorrow afternoon.

[Post Word Count: 520]
[Total Word Count: 11,330/11,000]