Chapter Eleven
Laura woke up to the sight of bright, flashing neon lights. She looked through her window, and saw buildings, big and small, apartments, and restaurants, as Dick drove the car through downtown Oklahoma. Rachel also woke up, and looked at Laura. When she saw what the young girl was doing, she smiled, and admired the child's curiousity.
Dick drove the car up to a hotel, and ushered Rachel and Laura out of the car. With all of them got out of the car, Dick helped Rachel walk into the hotel, only to stop to talk to the valet. "Keep it parked." He said bluntly to the appalled valet, who stood staring at the state of such a nice car.
The three entered the hotel, which had an arcade, all kinds of restaurants, a bar, which Dick would be paying a visit later, and a casino, among other thing.
As Dick ordered a suite for him, Rachel, and Laura to stay in, Laura looked around at the hotel. Growing up in a lab, you don't generally get to know what a hotel looks like. She was amazed at the things around her, the men and women gambling money at the casino, the old man guzzling beer, the kids playing Batman: Arkham Knight using virtual reality headsets, and, especially, the family that was celebrating their daughter's birthday.
When Dick got the keys to the hotel room, he attempted to help Rachel walk, who pushed his hand away. "I'm not crippled, Dick. I can walk. I just have a hard time walking." She said to him. Dick nodded his head at Rachel, and allowed her to walk, despite how slow she was.
As the three made their way to the elevator, which would take them to the seventh floor, Laura stopped and noticed some nice clothing on display, and for sale, no less. Dick noticed this, and said, "Laura, come on." But Laura didn't move. "Come on, Dick. I mean, we do need clothes, after all." Rachel said, to Dick.
So, Dick bought the clothes, and finally got Laura and Rachel into the elevator, which took them to the seventh floor. They made their way into the room, Room 719, and Laura, curious, as usual, admired its decor, the queen sized bed, the wide screen TV, and the view of Downtown Oklahoma.
Rachel yawned, and crawled into the bed. Dick chuckled, as she quickly fell to sleep. Then, he looked at the young girl, Kori's daughter, as she laid down on the floor. "Well, at least now I can go and get a few drinks."
After spending an hour-and-a-half at the bar, and three glasses of Moonshine, Dick stumbled up to the hotel room, and fell asleep on the chair.
Meanwhile, at six in the morning, back at the gas station where Dick, Rachel, and Laura stopped, Sullivan and a group of enforcers, along with Wally, arrived. Sullivan and five of his men went inside, alarming the manager. "Hey! We're not open, yet!" He said, until Sullivan made a gesture telling him to be quiet, as an enforcer walked over to the manager, and cracked his knuckles.
Wally heard screaming from within the building, and automatically became alarmed. Then, he saw Sullivan and his enforcers walk out of the building, fresh blood on their hands, and back into their trucks.
As Sullivan got into the truck Wally was in, Wally asked, "Tell me something, Sullivan. If I'm so much of a help to you capturing the girl, why haven't I done anything remotely useful, yet?" He questioned. Sullivan chuckled darkly, and turned to Wally.
"See, the thing is Wally, we could find her on our own. Hell, we got people trained to do that. The truth is, I just like having someone to hit. That, and I know you won't tell us what we want." He said, before closing the truck's backdoor, and giving the signal for the driver to continue driving.
Back in Oklahoma, Dick woke up to his phone's alarm clock, which was set for 8:30, and discovered that he had slept in until 11. After making sure that Laura and Rachel were dressed, with Laura wearing a jean jacket, blue jeans, and a blue T-shirt, and Rachel in a black long sleeve and gray jeans, he went into the bathroom. After taking a long, hot shower, he got dressed himself. He put on dark blue jeans, a gray undershirt, and a brown jacket.
When he finished getting dressed in the bathroom, he noticed Laura's bag on the floor. "Must have brought it in because she had her clothes in there." He thought to himself. Then, he picked up the bag, opened it, and found the same comic books he found in Gabriella's room back at the motel.
He looked at a few of them, and scoffed at most of their content, which ranged from the Titans battling the Joker, who was a wacky character making bad jokes, to fighting Slade, who was nothing more than a lunatic making bad puns, and trying to take over the world.
But one that really caught his eye was an issue detailing 'the marriage of Robin and Starfire'. He looked through the comic, which told the story of exactly what it said on the cover. And, unsurprisingly to Dick, it was as romanticized and cliche as he expected.
When he came out into the living room, he found Laura and Rachel watching a movie on the TV. The movie was Shane, an old western about a gunslinger being dragged back into the fight for one last ride.
"I remember seeing this movie for its 50th anniversary with the other Titans, back in Jump City, at the Murimaki Theater. Garfield dragged us to see it, because he watched it when he was a kid. Look, watch!" Rachel said, pointing at the screen.
Laura and Rachel watched as Shane, the gunslinger, told Joey, the young boy in the film, "A man is what he is, Joey. Can't break the mold. I tried it, and it didn't work for me." Dick walked over to Laura, holding the comic books in his hand.
"You read these?" He asked, as Rachel paused the TV, and Laura nodded her head. "Oh yeah, Rachel. Lookie here, we've got ourselves a Teen Titans fan." He said, sarcastically, as Laura scowled at the ground. "Maybe a quarter of this stuff happened, but not like this." He continued, as he began looking through the comic about his and Kori's wedding, which never happened, before throwing it at Rachel, who caught it. "You know they're all bullshit, right? Because in the real world, people die. And no self-promoting asshole in a fucking leotard can do anything to stop it!" He spitefully said to Laura.
"Dick." Rachel said calmly, in an attempt to calm him down. "This bullshit is ice cream for bed wetters." He continued. "Dick." Rachel said again. "What? Her nurse friend has been feeding her some grade-A+ bullshit, and you don't think she deserves to know?" He asked Rachel.
"Dick, I don't think that Laura needs to be reminded about how horrible life is, do you?" Rachel asked. Dick pulled out the medicine bag, grabbed Rachel's pills and the needles, and handed them to Laura.
"Give two of these to her in an hour, okay? The pills are to help with the seizures, the needles are supposed to stop them. Unless she has a seizure, which, most likely, won't happen, move as fast as you can to get a needle in her, alright? I'll be back, soon." Dick said, as he turned to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" Rachel asked. "To get us a new pair of wheels. It's not like the car we have now is in good condition." He responded, before exiting the room, with 10000 dollars in his wallet.
Rachel unpaused the movie. "Joey, there's no living with a killing. There's no going back from one. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand sticks. Now you run on home to your Mother, and tell her everything's alright." The titular character of Shane continued, as Laura watched intently.
Dick drove to an area where there were a couple of homeless guys hanging out, and he basically gave the car to them for free, but only after grabbing everything from the car, which included the comic books, which he brought along for further examination, and the gun that he kept with him.
He then walked to a car dealership, where he argued with the manager over the expensive price of a blue Ram truck, which was currently at $8995. "Tell you what. Eight grand, I'll have her freshly painted for you, new tires, mounted, balanced, and complete paperwork." She attempted to bargain.
"I'll give you ten, as is, if you can forget the paperwork." He said, holding out the wad of cash he took from the hotel. "Fine, but you still need new tires." The manager said, after taking a smoke. "And how long will that take?" He asked. "About an hour." She said. Dick turned his head to a bar across the street, and turned back to face the manager, saying, "Deal."
Dick walked over to the bar, and ordered a beer. As he drank, he looked through the comics. Then, when he was looking through one of the comics, he saw a title that caught his eye: 'Eden, or The End?'
Dick nearly choked on his beer, before turning the page, and noticing a panel of the comic showing the coordinates for Eden. He pulled out the envelope that contained the money for him, and saw the exact same coordinates as the one in the comic: 48.970333-162.155491. "You gotta be fucking kidding me."
Dick immediately payed for his beer, and left the bar. The hour long wait was over, meaning that he could get the car, which he did, and he drove back to the hotel, as quick as he could. When he got out of the car, he payed the valet to park the car, but didn't bother giving him the keys.
As he made his way toward the hotel's front door, he noticed two enforcers standing nearby. "Oh, shit!" He muttered under his breath.
He started making his way around the enforcers, so that they wouldn't discover him, but, as he made his way to the front door, his ears began ringing, the ground began rumbling, and he felt like he was about to shatter into a million pieces. Suddenly, all time essentially stopped. "Oh, no. Not now, Rachel."
Author's Note: And there's Chapter Eleven! Sorry it took so long, I've been busy with finals! But, I was let out of school today, and I'm practically free all summer! Stratos263, thanks again for commenting! Yeah, I wouldn't wanna be Wally in this situation, either, especially considering how Sullivan basically said he's just keeping Wally around for the Hell of it. AraelDranoth, love the name, by the way, thank you for the feedback! I took what you said to heart, and decided to do what you suggested a little bit more! I hope this satisfied you! Anyway, thank you all for reading, leave a review, and, as always, take care, and I'll see you next time!