Author's Note:
Thank you all so much for the reviews, it keeps me motivated to continue writing and posting quickly.
Here's the new chapter!
Chapter 7
The three stood in awe at the scene before them. There was an entire convention walkway of booths to their right and to their left with people of all shapes and sizes. Natural light shone down from the glass ceilings and the air was crisp and cool, a much needed change from the outdoor heat. Hardison darted to the wall of brochures and walked back over scanning the page. Parker and Eliot continued to stare. Parker eyed the Batman Character fishing something out of his wallet and handing a bill to a scraggly man at the t-shirt stand.
"No!" Hardison breathed in awe. He was still staring at the brochure, eyes moving back and forth across the page intently reading the descriptions. Parker leaned over him on her tiptoes to get a look.
"What?"
"Stan Lee" was all Hardison responded.
Eliot continued to stay silent. "Stan Lee." Parker repeated looking somewhat lost.
"Stan Lee!" Hardison said louder grabbing Parker by the shoulders.
"Are you going to cry?" Eliot asked in disgust.
To Parker's surprise, Hardison didn't even hear him. Usually an insult from Eliot would unleash an insult from Hardison and the bickering would ensue, but not this time. This 'Stan Lee' character had a power that she did not; to nullify their arguments.
"Stan Lee is THE MAN and he's here, in this building!" Hardison announced loudly. He got a few cheers from a group of DragonBall Z characters passing by, but Parker was still perplexed. She was about to ask again, when Hardison interrupted.
"He created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk…I could go on forever!" Hardison inhaled deeply, making up for the air he'd missed while spouting out information.
"Yippee!" Eliot twirled his finger in the air sarcastically.
"Would you mind?" Hardison begged Parker.
"We have work to do Hardison. We aren't here to live out your wet dreams." Eliot remarked.
Hardison had blinders on, because he still continued to stare at Parker with puppy dog eyes. She could never say no to the puppy dog eyes.
She gave a sweet smile and he took off like a racehorse down the rows, looking at his watch, and shoving a few sailor scouts out of the way. Parker picked up a brochure from the floor and saw that Stan Lee was starting his interview momentarily in the main contention hall.
"So what now?" Eliot asked his shoulders drooping in dismay.
"I don't know." Parker sighed.
Now there were only two of them remaining. They'd lost another victim to the 'fun night' she had orchestrated.
"We could ask some people if they remember us?" Parker suggested.
Eliot shook his head. They moved closer to a booth and Eliot sat on the end of the table.
"Excuse me sir, you can't sit there" a nasally voice chastised. Eliot turned and gave the woman a look and she quickly made her way to the other end of the table to greet more visitors.
"I really don't want to talk to anyone, Parker."
Parker nodded. Both her and Eliot were similar in that they liked to work alone. When she was on a job, the only thing she had to interact with was a motion sensor and a vault. Eliot would start out with a group of people threatening and grunting, but by the end, he'd have them all just as silent.
"We could apprehend the camera system; watch some footage from the last 24 hours." Eliot suggested.
Parker shook her head. "That would be too much work and we need to stay under the radar."
"I think we shot that out of the window last night." Eliot mused. Parker made a face that Eliot couldn't quite place. Was it guilt?
Her face brightened a moment later. "You know, we could ask people, without actually asking people."
"Is it weird that I know exactly what you mean?" Eliot questioned.
Parker shook her head and grinned. Parker and Eliot split ways for a few minutes. At the first booth, Parker picked up a thick plastic bag with some welcome pencils, brochures and leaflet's for restaurants in the area already inside. She walked along from booth to booth glancing at the items and leaning uncomfortably close to people in strange outfits. Eliot was on the other side, chest tight, sucking in his breath whenever he got too close to someone he couldn't figure out was a male anime character or a female anime character. Eventually, they regrouped at some padded stools lining a wall and sat down.
"We are not doing that again." Eliot huffed. Both laid their bags between the other. She pulled her legs in and sat cross legged as she grabbed the first camera out of her bag.
The camera sprung to life and she started flipping through pictures. Eliot followed suit.
"This phone was hard to get a hold of." Parker spoke up waving a small blue and silver camera at Eliot. "I couldn't figure out where his pocket was."
Eliot gruffed. "This day sucks." He discarded his first camera and pulled out another.
Parker looked over at him for a moment. He could feel her eyes on him and he didn't like it.
"What?" He asked.
"Why do you do that?" She asked.
"Do what?" He asked puzzled.
"It's like you don't know what I do for a living." She responded, looking off in the opposite direction, lips tight.
Eliot was tired. Here Parker went again, on one of her riddling rants, and unfortunately this time Hardison wasn't here to decipher it.
"Speak English Parker." He complained.
"Hardison goes through your computer stuff."
"So." He said not sure where she was going with this.
"I break into places, it's what I do." He had a sinking feeling he knew what this was about.
"I know that's what you do Parker."
She gave him a look, hoping that he understood.
"I know what you hide in your closet safe Eliot."
"And here it is." Eliot sighed, leaning back against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Why do you pretend?"
He ignored the comment. "So let me get this straight, "Nate can brainwash us, Sophie can grift us, Hardison can hack into our computers, you can break into our homes…am I the only one who hasn't turned on the team?"
Parker looked guiltily at him.
"So. When do I get to beat everyone up?" He asked simply. "Hardison's first."
Parker hunched over, unhappy with how the conversation was going.
"I'm not going to tell anyone."
Eliot calmed down a little and shook his head.
"It's not a big deal Parker. I own comics."
"Then why do you lock them in a safe?"
They continued to flip through pictures as they talked. She eyed over to him. The parrot's wings fluttered and the bird went back to its deep sleep.
"Because they are first edition." He explained looking at a picture.
"Damnit, I knew I should have taken them." Parker laughed. Eliot gave a chuckle.
"I think I found something." Eliot explained looking closer at the picture, clicking a few buttons to zoom in.
Parker scooted over to him and leaned in to the camera.
"No." She said, putting her hand over her mouth.
"Oh god, help me." Eliot looked up to the ceiling in anguish.
"That's you!" Parker cried out, trying not to laugh.
Eliot continued to stare at the picture. There he was, in the midst of a group of fans, spray painted green from head to toe.
"Well, I think green suits you." She said trying to be serious. "You make a great alien."
He gave her a shove, wishing he could kill himself now.
"I'm not an alien." He said. "I'm the Hulk." It was true, he had the ripped purple sweat pants to prove it.
Eliot flipped through the proceeding pictures and Parker sat greedily looking over his shoulder for more incriminating evidence. The pictures showed him dancing and jumping and laughing. Parker had never seen him have such a good time. She once thought the scowl on his face was permanent. Apparently all he needed was a little push in the right direction.
"I'm going to head to the restroom" Parker said, as she placed the bird on his shoulder. He continued to stare at the picture with an expression that could only be described as absolute misery.
The bathroom entrance was a big rectangular hole in the wall with two smaller rectangular tiled holes splitting off, one for men, the other for women. After making her way in she walked over to the sink. Finally, she had a chance to look at herself in the mirror. Her usually spunkiness seemed to be faded and her eyes drooped from exhaustion. She looked to her left and saw a girl with fairies wings, and an x-men character fixing up their make-up. She thought it strange that she herself felt out of place next to these two characters. As she exited, she bumped into a man walking out of the men's entrance.
That's when things got bad.
There, standing right in front of her, was a man dressed as a horse. Her mind froze and flashed back to the horse and clown going at it in the park on her birthday so many years ago. Her eyes went wide, and everything became a haze.
When the haze finally cleared, she was standing above a beaten horse that lay on the ground as Eliot held her back. Hardison was right behind them, obviously back from his convention interview. A few cops ran up to them.
"What happened?" The first of two cops asked.
"He tried to attack my girlfriend." Hardison lied, pushing his way through the miniature crowd. Parker nodded slowly, looking up at him.
"That's not true!" The horse man bellowed.
"Ahh, see there officer, that is hidden rage. I took a class on picking up the signs. You keep an eye out for this guy, he's going to cause you trouble."
"You people are crazy!" The man tried standing up.
"Did you just say you people?" Hardison feigned insult. "Now you are a racist?"
"No, you asshole!"
Hardison looked over at the cops. "Racist and Aggressive. Good catch guys. My girlfriend would have been lost without you." The two cops stood up a little taller, taking their jobs with a little more pride.
While Hardison was laying the story on thick, Eliot watched in horror as Parker began stealthily pulling a badge from the first cops holster. He tried to give her the 'stop right this second!' sign, but would only add more attention to an increasingly suspicious situation. He closed his eyes when he saw her start for the handcuffs. She moved both into her hoodie pockets with glee in her eyes.
"It's time for us to go. I don't think it's safe around shady characters like these." Eliot jumped in, stopping Parker as she reached for the gun. He guided her to their bags as Hardison called out to the horse man behind them who was now being escorted with security.
"Let's go." Eliot said sternly.
"Hey now, I haven't gotten my SWAG yet." Hardison complained, looking around to see the stuff that they were giving away at the booths.
"Now is not the time Hardison." Eliot gruffed.
Parker smiled at her new stolen items, but was still shaking a little from the horse encounter.
As they exited the building as nonchalantly as possible, they all took a calm breath.
"I think it's time for lunch." Hardison said.
"Food" Parker sighed, as she felt her stomach grumble.
"That is something that I can agree with." Eliot mused as he led them to the taxis and took a drive to the closest fast food restaurant.
"So did I miss anything interesting while I was gone?" Hardison asked.
Parker gave a sidelong grin at Eliot, but kept her mouth shut.