A criminal sits in solitary, reflecting on the path that brought them there. [Link to post]
“I wonder what Lauren’s doing,” Vegas said aloud to himself. Talking aloud was his only company in the box. Lauren was his only friend in any universe. He stared at the tattoo on his hands, and remembered the night he met Lauren. The tattoo was of a golden beer bottle. The first tattoo he got at 15. When he turned 25 he decided he liked the number and tattooed “25” onto the beer bottle, like a label. After he got the tattoo, an old woman he looked up to told him he needed to be in Las Vegas the next day. He spent all his money on the tattoo and tried to rob Lauren. She talked him out of it. They were Inseparable for years, then one night an older man, in his early 40s maybe, called Vegas a “drunk”.
“You’re him! You’re El Borracho!” The man said, while excitedly sizing him up and down.
“Sorry pal, you’re mistaken. I don’t drink,” Vegas said. He wrapped his arm around Lauren and turned to walk off.
“No, I’m sorry. You’re misunderstanding me. You’re not drunk, you’re THE drunk. El Borracho.” The man pulled out a small card that showed a disheveled man enjoying a bottle. The number 25 was on the top left corner.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Vegas pushed the man’s hand out of his face. Lauren squeezed his hand. He squeezed her back to calm her down. She wanted to get this guy out of the way permanently, but Vegas did not consider him much of a bother.
“Please, at least just take my card and think about it. If you haven’t realized it yet, you will soon. I can help. You’re like a super drunk, your power is dumb luck. But that can only get you so far unless you learn how to control it.” Regal said. He pulled out a golden card, but instead of handing it to Vegas, he pushed it into the 25 tattooed on Vegas’ hand.
“WHAT!?” Vegas freaked and yanked his hand back. Lauren pressed a knife against Regal’s throat. Regal remained calm.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about yourself. Whenever you want to summon me, just pull my card out.” Vegas pretended like he was reaching for the card.
“Oh right, and I’m just going to...,” He pulled the card out. Then pushed it back in. “Neat.” Regal bowed and walked away from Vegas and Lauren.
Vegas repositioned himself in the small box. He was lucky that he was short, otherwise the box would be unbearable. He reached into the back of his left hand and pulled out his favorite pair of lucky dice. Two small, solid red cubes. When it was just him alone he did not bother putting dots on the dice. He rolled them for something to do, and thought about the last time he saw Lauren.
They met Regal many times after the first time. Vegas did not seem concerned with his own powers, but Lauren was interested. He went along for her sake. Regal was from another universe, and he took them there. The portal was a black hole that they stepped through as easily as going from one room to the next.
Regal was the principal of a high school called Nexus Academy. He gave Vegas and Lauren a tour and introduced some of his favorite teachers at the school.
“Nexus Academy is where we train heroes for different universes. Some universes don’t have heroes, some universes have too many. We try to fill that need. I’d like you to be an assistant coach here. You’ll have a job, and you can learn about your powers,” Regal said. Lauren was eager. Something still held me back. It was a hard goodbye, but Vegas understood. He wanted Lauren happy, and she wanted to stay at Nexus Academy. Vegas picked a new world to start from. He could not go back to the one where he met Lauren without constantly being reminded of her. Vegas stopped rolling the blank dice. He never realized it before, but now he knew what happened. Without Lauren’s intelligence, without her guidance, his power took him over.
In his new world he got noticed by a powerful woman who named herself the Demon Queen. She was beautiful, sometimes, when she changed her shape to look like Lauren. She called him El Borracho too, and she taught him about his power. Despite the Demon Queen being evil, Vegas’ dumb luck protected him. She did care for him in her own way. She imprisoned him instead of killing him.
Vegas had been imprisoned for months, but he figured out the secret during the first week. He knew he was the only prisoner. The Demon Queen built that prison just for him. All the inmates were the Demon Queen’s armed forces. Looking back of the months it only became more obvious. The prison was too well run, the inmates were too well behaved.
Vegas spent months thinking about Lauren, and his life. And how he wanted Lauren in his life. The Demon Queen taught him enough about his power to get out of the prison easily. He could do it with one of his dice and minimal effort. It was not until today that he knew where he wanted to go.
He reached into the 25 on his hand and pulled out Regal’s golden card. A black portal opened up in front of him and Vegas jumped in.
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