Chapter 4

The Palace Theater was, for lack of a better word, huge. There were enough rooms that the theater could be playing 10 different movies at once, and there was even an arcade. The Palace was simply the place to be on a Saturday night in Amett, and it showed.

Six saw all of this as he turned the motorcycle into a space near the front of the lot. He let Rex swing off before he stepped off as well. Then he turned to the exited boy, "We are not going in there." To Six this was a fact, not a question.

"But why not?" Rex looked at him oddly. "It looks awesome, and there is a movie I really want to see."

"Do you see that place?" Six asked flatly.

Rex looked a little confused, but he answered anyway. "Yeah, I just said it looks awesome. What's the problem Six?"

"It's a madhouse. Or a deathtrap. What do you think would happen in there if an Evo attacked?" Rex tried to say something, but Six just continued, talking over him. "There have to be at least one hundred people in there. It would be like sardines in a can. How do you expect us to get out of there, or protect that many people while we are in the middle of it?"

"They have extra ramps and stairs, people can get out of there faster than most places. It only takes about 10 min for the entire theater to clear out. It's like they built it for fast evacuations." Rex crossed his arms; he wasn't giving this one up without a fight.

"Rex, how do you know that?" Six raised an eyebrow at the boy, momentarily thrown off kilter.

Rex couldn't help the slightly sheepish look that blossomed as he answered. "Do you remember Deathbunny?

"Your 'Special' stalker?" Rex wondered if he had imagined the smile twitching the corner of Six's otherwise stoic face. Probably.

Rex sighed, but continued. "Yeah, it was here he burst through the screen and into the theater. It was a pretty epic fight, but people cleared out like they could walk through the walls."

Six tried to suppress his smile, but didn't quite manage to make it. Then, he felt a mostly-forgotten fact tingle in the back of his mind. "Weren't you banned from the Deathbunny theater?"

Shrugging, Rex replied. "That was like two years ago."

"It was a lifetime ban." Six deadpanned.

"People forget." Rex shot back.

"They took your mug shot." Six couldn't help the slight incredulousness that creeped into his voice.

"No one looks at those things."

"They blew it up to a life size portrait, and hung it in the ticket booth under the words 'Do not let in- Ever.'" Six was tempted to just give up on the stoic thing and reduce himself to letting his impulsive tendency shine through and just go ahead and yell. Then he was past that little moment of crazy, and back to normal.

Rex narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms in a classic Princess not getting what she wants pose. "You know, I'm starting to think you don't want to go in there with me." he huffed.

Six just shrugged. "I hate people."

Rex decided to try another tactic. Letting all of the air out of his chest, he looked up pathetically at Six. Putting as much emotion unto his voice as he could, he only said two words. "Please Six?"

(0.0)

Noah had seen many disturbing things in his life. Of course, most of those were the kinds of things that would make him have nightmares for weeks, and then eventually with therapy, he could get over it. Things like monstrous Evos with enough teeth to shred an entire building, or his mom in a bathing suit. The picture that walked through the doors of the theatre was a whole different kind of disturbing.

It wasn't that Six and Rex were very obviously together, Noah had been expecting that one long enough. It wasn't even the radiating aura of pissed off that surrounded the man in green, creating a large area of space around the two; no one wanted to enter that realm of slow and painful death. No, the thing that made the heart in Noah's chest sink was the very happy face of his best friend, the friend who was heading straight to his ticket booth.

"Hey Noah! I didn't know you worked here!" Rex certainly seemed happy enough to see him. Somehow, that just made it worse.

Noah tried to respond as naturally as he could. "You know that Providence doesn't pay me anymore. I gotta get the cash for our bets somewhere you know."

"You wouldn't have to if you could win a few." Rex was paying more attention to the picture behind him than to Noah himself. Noah knew exactly what the picture was. Crap.

"I'm going to get back every cent. One of these days, I'm going to make it big." Noah tried to ease the tension in the air with a not quite carefree smile. Shit, he was going to sink so bad on this. Abandoning their previous line of conversation, Rex suddenly turned to Noah, and Noah, of course, flinched, raising his hands in the process. He was going to sink worse than bad.

Rex, tactfully ignoring his friend's impending mental breakdown, simply held out a twenty. "Two tickets to The Unexpendables."

"Rex, you know I can't do that." Noah was trying hard to not look Rex in the eyes. He could get away with anything once you looked him in the eyes. He was like a snake.

"Why not?" Rex's voice sounded like he was just talking about something totally normal and innocent and not something that could get Noah fired. Then Noah made his mistake. He opened his eyes and looked at Rex, and he was caught. Lasers like tractor beams stopped his words in his chest. "Come on Noah," Rex coaxed "Just give me the tickets."

Noah gulped, and somehow managed to break eye contact. "No!" he yelled. "I can't!"

Rex slammed his hand against the counter. "Why not? Don't forget Noah, you owe me for the prom!"

"That was over 3 years ago!" Noah yelled back, instantly mad enough that Rex's snake eyes wouldn't work on him.

"Yeah, but I seem to recall you saying something along the line of, 'Oh Rex! I owe you forever dude!' Do you know how long forever is?" Rex shot back.

"Only Diamonds are forever." Noah crossed his arms.

"I seem to recall that a certain girl got a certain promise of forever that included a diamond. I would like to remind a certain boy how I helped him get a certain girl!"

Noah's voice was steel when he answered. "You can't hold that over me."

Rex knew he had crossed the line. "I'm sorry Noah." Noah just nodded, refusing to look at him. Rex sighed and continued. "Do you want to hang out this weekend? I won't ask to get into anymore movies, I swear."

Noah sighed, but he offered up a weak smile. "Sure Rex, I can always just kick your ass at horse, and earn some of my paycheck back."

"Sure, sure, whatever you say." Rex grinned back cheekily, knowing that they were going to be fine.

Both turned as Six finally walked up to the counter behind Rex. "Hey Six, where've you been?" Rex smiled up at the man. Six didn't answer, he simply held up two movie tickets. Noah couldn't help but burst out laughing in relief, he wasn't getting fired. Suddenly, both guys were staring at him. Noah just smiled, and Rex put a hand on his shoulder. "You ok dude? You're looking a little crazy."

Noah just waved them off. "Just go on your date Rex, and be at my house for about oneish ok?" Rex didn't move, and was still staring at him. "Just hurry up and go Rex, before my boss shows up to fire me and chase you out of the building." Rex didn't say anything and just continued to stare for a few moments, but eventually he nodded. Then he turned and ran to catch up with the quickly disappearing Six.

(0.0)

Noah had barely turned back to the counter before a beautiful brunette in a blue shirt walked up and leaned on the counter. "I would like two tickets to whatever movie they were seeing." Noah blinked, and looked over at the tall, red-faced blonde man standing behind her. Both of them looked vaguely familiar but… he just couldn't place them.

"I'm sorry, who are you talking about?" He asked, looking out across the crowded lobby.

The woman growled and leaned closer to the boy. "Don't act stupid. I'm talking about Rex and Six."

Noah felt his eyes go wide. "Doctor Holiday?" He turned to the blonde man. "Captain Calan?" he looked back and forth between them. "You two look really different."

Holiday narrowed her eyes. "Just tell us the movie Noah."

Noah gulped, Holiday was scary. "Uhm, Rex was talking about The Unexpendables. So that's probably it." Noah hit the button and two tickets popped up. "That will be-"

Holiday snatched the tickets from his fingers. "Calan, pay him." She ordered, and then she turned and sauntered away across the lobby. Even Noah turned to watch her go. The slaps of indignant girlfriends rang through the room.

Noah turned back to Calan. "That will be-"Again he was interrupted.

Calan grabbed Noah by the lapels of his vest, and started shaking him back and forth. Noah's head snapped with each word that Calan yelled. "Don't trust her! She is crazy! She has some sort of death wish, and she is going to take me down with her." Suddenly the much larger man started to cry. Noah decided that the best option was to pretend he was dead. Maybe then, the blonde grizzly would get bored and wander off. "I have a fish in my room, his name is Kitten." Calan blubbered, "When I die, I want you to feed Kitten for me ok?" Noah let his body go limp.

Suddenly, Holiday was back. She pulled the hysterical man off Noah, and dragged him, still crying, behind her into the theatre. Noah collapsed to the floor, and there he stayed, looking up at the ceiling above. He vaguely heard someone saying, "Oh, just get over it you ninny." He felt the thick red carpet beneath him, and he breathed in the popcorn-scented air.

Suddenly the face of his manager blossomed before him. He couldn't quite bring himself to care as he watched the middle-aged and balding man get red and scream at him. The only thing he got out of the whole chewing out was the obvious last sentence. "You're Fired!"

Noah just smiled up at the dirty ceiling, and as the dwarfish face disappeared, the only thing he could think of was simple. 'I wonder if they are hiring at Taco Bell."

(0.0)

An: I hope you liked it! Poor Noah. I almost feel bad for him. Lol

The winner of the Super awesome- Guess who is going to randomly appear in the next chapter is- *drum roll" …..Hatter Madigan! Congratz!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You guys are simply the greatest! Without you, this would have never even gotten this far. So, Thank you! Cookies for all!

Please Read, Review, Criticize!