Summary: A collection of loosely interconnected stories/one-shots/drabbles centered around the adults and elderly characters of El Tigre.
Chapter summary: The only thing more fun than Game Night was winning on Game Night. The only thing more fun than winning? Cheating, of course!
Genre(s): Humor/General.
Disclaimer: El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera is copyrighted by Nick, Mexopolis and its creators Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua. Any referenced works are owned by their respective creators.
Game Night was always lively at Casa de Adiós.
Poker, chess, darts, whatever the game was, it brought joy to many of the elderly and retired. One could almost see the gears turning inside their heads and the fire that lighted their eyes when they were playing! For Game Night brought many memories to the (mostly) retired ex-villains, in that it gave them the opportunity to practice one of the most honorable, indispensable abilities of their careers.
Cheating.
Ah, yes, nothing like a good battle of trickery, wits and treachery to keep them old brains working. What a joy it was- not to win, no (although the dough and prizes that came with winning were very appreciated) - but to triumph through dirty tactics and get away with it.
Many were the tricks one learned through the years, one more underhanded than the previous one. But, surely, nothing ever beat the classics. The old ones were unbeatable, as even after years and years they still worked like a charm.
El Tarantula, for example, loved the 'card-up-their-sleeve' tactic. Or rather, sleeves- his multiple arms sure came in handy when he had to cheat in a poker game… like he was doing at the moment.
Comrade Chaos, on the other hand, favored his beloved pairs of loaded dice to do the job; so obvious it should be, that most didn't notice until it was too late- the Russian villain had a way of distracting people with his stories… and of intimidating them when they noticed his tricks. Even if it was just the simple board game he was playing with three other guys.
El Tarantula and Comrade Chaos were not the only ones having fun tonight. Many other villainous elderly were sure to walk away with some extra cash after the games.
Sitting- er, resting, on his favorite armchair was Mano Negra. Now, Mano Negra couldn't really go all-out as much as he wanted, since he didn't really have his famous hand most of the time… or the rest of his body. So, instead of cheating, Mano Negra made a little game out of finding out who was tricking who, what tactic they were using and… busting them. It was quite a fun pastime, he had to admit. When he didn't ruin the cheating directly, he made the poor sucker ruin it on his own. Neither required much, to be honest. His loud, commanding voice and his stiff, grumpy articulation did wonders on their own.
On one corner, Tenebrous Toreador could be seen playing the classic "oh no, I'm so clumsy that I knocked the chess piece off the table! Please friend, could you kindly get it for me, for my back is killing me? I surely won't change the pieces' placement in my favor while you do that, I swear!" on his adversary.
…The name was a work in progress.
The current residents were not the only ones who liked to play though. Casa de Adiós often had visitors. Sometimes they were family members who came to visit and check on the old villains, other times came the young volunteers that were assigned there. Both, particularly the latter, were prone to being victims of the villains' cheating. The volunteers were almost too easy to trick, in fact.
Once in a while, however, worthy adversaries would appear.
Some of the elderly villains that were still active liked to pay the old retirement home a visit. Puma Loco was the most frequent one, and he often walked out of the place with gold, coins, jewelry and whatever else the others had bet. The 'mirror behind head' trick never failed.
Don Baffi and General Chapuza came from time to time as well. The leaders of the Moustache Mafia and Zombie Town usually came for information rather than dough, but when they were in the mood for playing around, they had this neat little tricks involving facial hair and falling eyeballs.
But those were nothing compared to the undefeated champion of cheating.
A loud bang broke through the endless chatter and cheery atmosphere. All the retired villains looked up towards the entrance.
There she was, the master of cards, the queen of darts and the oldest member and current leader of the devious Flock of Fury, Lady Gobbler!
The doors closed behind her as she skittered through the room. The other villains returned to their games and continued with their business.
The turkey-themed villainess had an astounding skill when it came to cheating. Her tactics were very basic and obvious most of the time, and that was when she wasn't blatantly using her technology to help her. Because of that, one would think that making strategies to win against her and foil her cheating would be easy…
And yet, she always came out as the winner in the end. Always. She threw her opponents for loop with a move or a hand that no one was expecting. By the time you fried your brains trying to figure out how it happened, she would be exiting the building with large sums of money.
To this day, very few were able to read her and figure out her tactics and line of thinking.
And when she lost to someone that wasn't one of those select few… well, there's something fishy for sure. The poor sucker wouldn't know what was coming. But that's a history for another day…
The eldest Aves stopped at the table El Tarantula was currently playing. She hopped and sat in the empty chair. She simply motioned with a nod. The Spanish villain knew it was a bad idea, but seeing the villainess' signature mocking smile irked him so. He narrowed his eyes as he shuffled the cards and prepared for a new game. Pride would his downfall, but he'd be damned if he backed down from a fight like a coward. He'd show her.
It. Was. On.
El Tarantula, Mano Negra, Comrade Chaos and Tenebrous Toreador were all shivering from the cold. Those barrels really weren't good. And they got splinters too. Ouch.
Lady Gobbler walked out with a wooden cart full with golden coins, money and jewels. She had two pearl necklaces around her neck and a tiny little crown atop her helmet.
"Thank you for the jewels, boys."
She waved as she exited the building, her turkey-like laughter echoing in the night.
Just another night for the cheating master, Lady Gobbler.
The four retired villains just stood there in silence, seething from their humiliating defeat.
"What a woman."
"Shut up, Toreador!"
Author's note: Hey there. This is just another series of one-shots, I know, but I wanted to do a separate one from ToaSY, one that focused on the adult and elderly characters of the series. Because they don't really get much love.
So, if you're interested in Puma Loco, White Pantera, Lady Gobbler, Sartana and other characters like them, check out this one!
Oh, and Tenebrous Toreador actually appeared in the series. In "Eye Caramba" and other episodes we see Casa de Adiós, there was a villain with a toreador uniform in the background. So I just decided to give him a name.
A question: Which adult/elderly character would you like to see more of? (No promises of writing anything and no requests, I'm just curious. Who knows, it might give me some inspiration to write.)
Anyway, hope you guys liked this one.