Rio: Fear and Feathers in Las Vegas

Chapter 10: A Place to Stay

After an hour of talking between Blu, Jewel, and Franko, with the female bird apologizing to the blue jay, the group of friends (old and new) were making their way into a hotel to reside at during their stay in Vegas. To everyone else's surprise except Blu, Arthur and Pedro, they were at Ceaser's Hotel...and, of course, Arthur had to get his word in. "Yo,Franky, how do we get a room in this place?"

"Yeah, I want to know that,too," said Blu."Cause I need to rest... You don't have, like,bird employees here,do you?"

Franko shook his head, and replied,"Nuh-uh...the birds here are all friendly with Mr. Angel."

"Oh,I forgot he had a show here," said Jewel."Can we see him?"

Surprised at her sudden happiness, the bird looked at Blu, who smiled. "Jewel and I love his tv show."

"Not me," said Arthur. "It reminds too much of how my owner went bye-bye."

"How did he?" asked Blu.

His friend said,"I dunno. So what room we staying in?"

"A villa," replied Fanko."You know, ynu sound like Richard Gere from Chicago and that lawyer movie."

"Can you sing?" Blu rolled his eyes as Arthur said, "Oh,ho,ho, Franky, my man, I can tell you stories."

"Oh, please, no," said Blu and Jewel. "Enough singing for one day."

However, before Arthur or Franko could talk, an elderly man with a manager name-tag ran over, yelling,"HEY! NO BIRDS ALLOWED IN MY HOTEL!"

"Let's go!" cried Franko, and led the other birds away... while Blu stayed on the floor.

"Uh, guys?" cried Blu. "Help!"

The manager glared at the Macaw, and was about to whack him with a broom when...

"Gotcha!" Arthur snatched Blu, and flew away. Before the manager could grab one of them, he turned to see a worker gesture for him to the desk. "Just a moment, Lisa, I need to...huh?" Turning back, he was surprised to see that the birds were gone.

"Ay, carumba, frst, I get that Griswald family and Percy Jackson here. Then,it was those 4 guys who lost their friend, and now, we got birds!"

...*...

Meanwhile, the glass doors to the hotel known as 'Rio' slowly creakedopen to reveal the small head of Franko, who glanced around quickly to check for any danger to jeopardize his plan.

"Alright birdies, follow me!" Franko called,to which Blu andJewel both trudged in after him,the latter bearing a still-aggravated expression on her this,Jewel glancedaroundat the impressive exterior ofthe hotel. While everything was indeed flashy-looking and colorful, Jewel couldn't shake the weird feeling that...it was nothing like Rio.

"If they're going to name a hotel after Rio,they could at least TRY to make it like Rio..." Jewel grumbled, to which Franko spun around with a offended expression on his face.

"Hey, they try! Besides,why tell me? I ain't the front desk..." Franko said with a smirk.

"Now follow me, Ican get you guys a place to crash until we can get you transportation."

"No,here's a better get us OUT of this hotel,andget us onto a place backto Rio de Janeiro." Jewel shot back.

"Hey, try finding a flight to Rio at 8 at night in Vegas. You won't get far,girly." Franko sassedback with a smug look,to which Jewel's frown turnedinto a burning look ofanger at the bluejay.

"Girly? Buddy,I'm three times your size. You don't want me to be madat you..." Jewel saidback,to which Franko's eyes zeroed-in in fright.

"Honey,just calm can trust Franko." Blu assured with a perked his eyebrow with a smug expression at Jewel,who groaned angrily in defeat.

"Fine..."Jewel growled.

"Alright,what was our plan again?...Right! Getting you guys a room! Me andthe boys from Orleans have got asuite you can crash in for the time bein'."Franko continuedas he fluttered up to arailing above the huge casino in front ofthe birds.

" are we going to get through all ofthat?" Jewel asked with annoyedtone at seeing the sea of gamblers at slot machines and tables in front ofthem.

"Maybe we can go around?" Pedro suddenly suggested,the rest of the group appearing out ofnowhere.

"What,and ruin the plot?" Wally asked with a smile as he immediately took off into the sea of people.

"Wally!You can't just take off,bud!" Arthur yelled as he zoomed off after his seagull buddy as well.

"This would be a whole lot easier if I weren't weighing you guys down..." Blu groaned, referring to his inability to fly at the moment.

"Oh stop, Old Worrisome. This wouldn't be easy to get through even if you could fly..." Jewel said back with a tone of voice that seemed the most comforting she'dbe been since they were back in Niagra Falls.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Blu asked sarcastically in response,to which Jewel groaned and then nudged Blu back rather hard.

"Fine! Let's just to Franko so we can get some sleep on something that you can actually sleep in..."

"I thought you was comfortable with cages, bird?" Pedro asked, to which Jewel displayed an expression of confusion to Blu, who rolled his eyes.

"I know, I know. Back then I didn't know comfort was something like a nest andnot a hard plastic shell..." Blu responded.

"Let's just get through here and get some shut-eye. I'm dying backhere!"Pedro whined, to which Robyn shot a glare at her mate.

"After you, darling." Robyn said, to which Pedro stared at the huge group of people in front of him in fear.

"Well... wait, I got an idea!" Pedro exclaimed as he quickly took off and then hopped up and began to fly, and easily flew over the entire crowd to the railing on the next floor where Franko was.

"...Maybe we were over-thinking it a bit?" Blu suggested, which Robyn then groaned at in response and then took off upwards towards Pedro and Franko.

"Well, I don't know how that I am going to get up there..." Blu said thoughtfully as he stared up at the railing of thenext floor.

"You mean how WE are going to get up there..." Jewel corrected, to which Blu shot a confused glance to his mate.

"Blu, we've always been through everything together. If you won't abandon me when I'm falling out of a plane, why should I leave you by yourself when you're stuck on the ground?" Jewel asked with a smile that immediately warmed up Blu.

"Alright...lead the way,love hawk..." Blu started with a smile, before Jewel quickly tugged him after her as they bolted into the huge crowd of gamblers and game-players.

"Wait! What are we doing?" Blu shouted as Jewel suddenly tossed Blu into the air, who then flipped back down and landed on a crank-looking mechanism, which Blu had known before to be the lever to the slot machine.

"Wow, I should become one of those performing birds..." Blu said in admiration as he suddenly felt the lever push down from his weight. Before Blu could react, Jewel flew up and grabbed Blu by the tail feather and pulled him up to the top of the slot machine.

"Let's go!" Jewel exclaimed as he ran off and hopped from one slot machine to another ahead of Blu, who hesitated for a second and then whizzed off after his mate.

"Hey, that blue chicken just played a slot machine..."A drunk-sounding man said flatly to his buzzed-looking friend.

"I think I've seen it all now, man..." The other guy said with an amazed expression as he watched Blu and Jewel hop from slot to slot above everyone.

After a while, the group of birds, excluding Dash and Boulder, flew into an unoccupied elevator, and after Franko hit the button that read "Floor 10: Villas", Blu said, "Thanks a lot, Frank."

The bluejay smiled, and said, "Don't mention it.'

He then patted Blu's "injured" wing, making Blu groan in pain as he listened to the music. "Is all elevator music the same everywhere?"

"Blu, trust me," said Franko. "You have no idea."