Today's Featured Characters:
The Royal Flush Gang: There have been several different teams over the years who have called themselves the Royal Flush Gang. In the DC Animated Universe alone there have been two (One in Batman Beyond and one in Justice League). The version I'm basing these guys off of is the second version of the team where they're a team of for-hire thugs with a playing card theme.
It appeared that Harley and Ivy had neglected to close the curtains the night prior and their room had the unfortunate placement of facing the sun right as it rose. So the two women were awoken that morning by the sun shining right through their window.
"Hmm… Turn off the lights Pam…" Harley mumbled.
"It's the sun, darling… You'll have to wait." Ivy giggled, kissing Harley on the cheek.
"I hate the sun…" Harley groaned, shoving her face against a pillow.
"The sun is our friend, Harls." Ivy pulled Harley into a hug. "I'm going to go bask in it, come with me…" She kissed Harley again and got out of bed, casually strolling up to the window. The rays of sun warmed her body. Being partially plant, it made the sun feel even better.
Harley sat up in bed a bit and glanced over at Ivy. "Ooh, sexy…" She stared at her naked girlfriend for a bit before getting out of bed herself and walking over to her. "I'm so lucky to have ya, Red. You're the best gal I've ever met."
"Thank you Harley… Sometimes I don't know what I'd do without you." Ivy smiled and put an arm around her.
"I know, I feel the same way." Harley nodded. "You're so kind 'n ya always know what to say. Not to mention you've got a great body…" She giggled.
"Thank you. I enjoy flaunting it for you." Ivy smirked. "I enjoy being naked. I'd do it all the time if it weren't for silly things like social norms."
"Well those things don't really stop ya from tryin' to take over the world with plants." Harley pointed out.
"I know… I just don't want to be known as the nudist supervillain." Ivy said. She closed her eyes for a moment and took in some more of the sun's warmth. "I suppose we should go see what the other girls are up to."
"Yeah, we'd better work on that plan to take down Roulette or whatever." Harley nodded. "We ain't just in Vegas to have fun."
The two girls got dressed together and left their hotel room. Magpie and Selina shared the room just next to them which made finding them incredibly easy.
Harley knocked at the door. "Yoo-hoo! Ya girls up yet? It's wake-up time!"
There was a pause for a moment before the door opened, revealing Magpie on the other side wearing her pajamas. "Oh, hey there girls. What's up?"
"Just thought we'd say hi!" Harley cheered. "Are you and Selina comin' down to the lobby with us?"
"Yeah, we'll be there in just a minute." Magpie nodded. "We just need to get dressed."
"Take your time, we'll meet ya down in the lobby." Harley nodded. She blew a kiss at Magpie which made her glare at Harley in response and shut the door. "Jeez, someone needs to learn to take a joke."
"Maybe we should leave her alone?" Ivy suggested as she walked away with Harley.
"But it's so much fun to tease her!" Harley giggled.
"Fair point…" Ivy nodded, laughing a bit as well.
The two women made it down to the lobby where Jeanette, Knockout and Scandal were already waiting.
"Ahh, so good of you to join us." Jeannette smiled.
"Jeannette's getting us breakfast again." Knockout said. "Isn't that nice?"
"Ooh, fun." Harley nodded. "We just gotta wait for Maggie and Selina to get here. They're just gettin' dressed."
After a few minutes, the elevator door opened and Magpie stepped out with Selina right beside her, both women were dressed in casual clothes.
"Hello ladies, so lovely to see you." Selina smiled.
"Thank you darling." Jeannette nodded.. "Enchante." She took Selina by the hand and kissed it. "Now then, who wants breakfast?"
"Ooh, me! Me!" Harley cheered.
"Wonderful. Follow me." Jeannette turned around and beckoned for the other girls to follow her. She began leading them to the restaurant they ate in the day before.
Harley was much more awake than she was on the previous day and her mind was filled with ideas about all the fun stuff she'd be doing that day. But that carefree attitude was soon taken away right as the group of women passed by the front doors to the lobby.
Without much warning the doors burst open from the outside a quintet of garishly dressed looking men and women charged into the room. They were the Royal Flush Gang, a group of notorious criminals who used a variety of playing card weapons to commit large scale robberies. Each member of the gang dressed like the suit of card they represented; King, Queen, Jack and Ten. The final member of the group was Ace but unlike the others they were not human. Ace was an enormous android programmed to be undyingly loyal to the rest of the gang.
"Alright everyone, play by the rules and no one gets hurt!" Queen announced.
Two guards Jeannette had stationed by the doors made a move towards the gang but one was met by a pirouette kick to the jaw by Ten and the other was slammed into the wall by Ace.
"Oh fuck… Run!" Jeannette shouted out to her friends.
"It's just the Royal Flush Gang." Ivy smirked. "We can take them."
"I know we can, but as far as anyone knows, I am not a criminal." Jeannette whispered. "We need to get to my saferoom and then we can figure something out. C'mon!" She turned around and quickly began to flee.
The other girls weren't so sure how to react. Jeannette had been the epitome of calm, cool and collected up until this point. Not sure what else to do, the other girls stuck close together and followed Jeannette.
"This is humiliating, I can't believe we're running from these idiots." Scandal sighed.
"I know…" Ivy said. "If I could find a plant I could kill these guys in a snap of my fingers."
"Let's just go with it." Harley remarked, still hurrying after Jeannette. "She seems to know what she's doing."
The casino was gradually descending into chaos. Patrons and employees fled to the nearest exit while security guards attempted to contain things only to be taken out by a card themed gadget. The Gang was too busy snatching up as much money as they could to really care about Harley and her associates escaping.
"You idiots! Stop smashing over slot machines!" Ten yelled. "The real money is in the vault downstairs. C'mon, follow me!" She waved to her partners in crime, getting them to follow her.
While the Royal Flush Gang was getting back on track, Jeannette had led Harley and her crew to an employee's only door in the back of the casino. After bursting through it, it led to a staircase that Jeannette scurried down as quickly as she could.
Unable to resist her more immature urges, Harley jumped on to the stair banister and slid down all the way to the bottom, gracefully dismounting it. "Whee! That was fun!"
"No time for fun!" Jeannette yelled, quickly reaching the bottom of the stairs. "This way, to the safe room!" She pushed past Harley and continued leading them through the downstairs hall.
"It's weird seein' ya freak out like this!" Harley giggled as she followed after Jeannette.
"Shut up!" Jeannete continued running until she reached what appeared to be a dead end. She stood in front of the wall and touched her palm against the cement. After taking a deep breath she stared straight at the wall and spoke calmly. "Bathory…" With the password spoken, the wall slid open revealing what appeared to be a lounge. "Come on get in here!" She waved her arms around, directing the other women inside. Once they were all inside, Jeannette went to a control panel and pressed a few buttons, making the door close again. "Alight, we should be safe now…"
Harley went over to a couch and sat down on it. "So, what's the plan now?"
"We aren't just going to hide in here, are we?" Knockout asked.
"Of course not." Jeannette said. "Those bastards are robbing my casino. We just need to be smart about taking them down."
"That should be easy enough." Selina remarked. "It's just the Royal Flush Gang. I've had a few run-ins with them before. Granted they all ended in a bit of a draw."
"They're smarter than they look. And that is a very high priced android they have with them." Jeannette said.
"So what exactly are we supposed to do?" Magpie asked. "I'm kinda freaking out."
"Easy…" Jeannette turned back to the control panel and pressed a few more buttons. This caused several panels in the walls to open up, revealing a large amount of guns stored on racks. "We outgun them." She turned around with a flourish to face her associates.
"Holy shit that was badass!" Harley cackled with glee. "Let's do it!"
"I'm not a fan of guns…" Ivy sighed. "But I'm really not feeling many plants down here. Might as well work with what I've got."
"Something tells me this is going to be fun." Scandal eyed the guns on display.
"I don't really share the gun fetish you girls have." Selina shook her head. "I still think I can handle them on my own."
"Yeah, me too." Magpie added.
"Suit yourself." Jeannette remarked. "But either way, we need to stop those idiots and their robot from getting to my vault."
Elsewhere, in the depths of the Nocturne, the Royal Flush Gang had been carving a path of destruction through the halls. The Ace Android took out most guards with ease and even if it didn't do the trick the rest of the gang was able to more or less handle it.
"It's been way too long since we did a good old fashion raid like this!" Jack cheered.
"We need to focus here. Roulette didn't just send us here for the money." Ten said. "We need to find that Quinn girl and try to get a sense of what she's like in a fight."
"Oh, lighten up Ten." Queen smirked as she casually took down a security guard lunging at her. "We'll get all of it done."
"I think we're coming up on the vault." King said, he glanced back at the Gang's android. "Ace, get the explosives ready!"
"Command received." Ace droned.
"I don't like that thing…" Jack stared at the robot for a moment. "It's creepy."
"Well it contributes to the gang more than you do." Ten glared at Jack.
"Oh, fuck you Ten." Jack rolled his eyes. "You've always been a real bitch."
"Both of you shut up." Queen said. "We need to fucking focus!"
After a bit more scrambling around, the Royal Flush Gang made it to an open room with a large vault door. Ace shot several explosives out of its hands which attached to the vault door and soon exploded, blasting it off its hinges.
"What are we waiting for?" Queen smirked. "Let's get in there and loot the place!" With a spring in her step, Queen began bounding towards the safe with Jack close behind her.
"Be smart about this, there could be booby traps in here!" King said.
"We already set the alarm off, I'm pretty sure if this place was trapped we would have run into them by now." Jack said.
"Besides, if there is any trouble Ace can handle it." Queen added.
"That's the trouble…" Ten grimaced and crossed her arms. "We rely on that big hunk of metal too much."
"Just shut up and start stealing!" Queen yelled.
The Royal Flush Gang began loading up with as much money and jewelry they could fit into the duffel bags they brought with them. Ten and king moved fairly cautiously while Jack and Queen hurried. Ace stood still by the door in the event any more hapless security guards came around.
It turned out that having Ace stand guard was a good idea since mere minutes into the ransacking of the vault, Harley and her associates showed up with most of them wielding the guns they'd obtained in the saferoom.
"Hey! 'Sup bitches!" Harley laughed, firing off a shotgun blast at Ace. Naturally, being an android, Ace reacted very little despite the bullets being pumped into his chest. "Hey, big guy, I shot ya!"
Ace didn't say anything. Instead he just lunged forward at the girls. The other women, besides Selina and Magpie, fired off their weapons of choice at Ace but the android remained resilient.
"Uh oh… It ain't stoppin'..." Harley trailed off as the android got ever closer.
"I've got this one!" Knockout cheered, briefly flexing her muscles. She haphazardly threw her gun to the side and lunged at Ace, tackling the android. "Oh yeah, now that is Apokolips strength!"
"Ha! Lemme help you with that!" Scandal cheered, firing a few shots at Ace before jumping up on the android's back and slashing at it with her clawed glove.
"Girls, follow me!" Jeannete pushed forward into the vault proper. "Let's stop these bastards!"
"Woo-hoo!" Harley hurried after Jeannette. "Now my blood's really pumpin'!"
While Knockout and Scandal were off battling Ace, the rest of the girls ended up fighting the rest of the Royal Flush Gang. Selina ended up facing off against Jack, Magpie fought against Queen, Jeannette ended up in a one-on-one against King and Harley and Ivy ended up double teaming Ten.
Selina found fighting Jack fairly easy. The guy seemed over confident in his own abilities so even without the aid of a firearm she put up a good fight.
"Give it up! I don't know who you women are but you are no match for us!" Jack yelled. He threw a hand of sharpened playing cards at Selina who gracefully dodged them.
"Hmm, try harder…" Selina smirked, swinging her leg around and kicking him in the chest.
"Grah!" Jack stumbled back onto the ground, pulling himself up. "You bitch!"
"Hmm, someone needs to watch their language." Selina chuckled and continued to pummel Jack with graceful blows.
On another side of the vault, Magpie was in a similar battle with Queen. The two of them were evenly matched in abilities. The main difference was that Magpie had left her gadgets back in her room. Queen used a sceptre with an electrical attachment on the end to swipe at Magpie.
She managed to shock Magpie with it once or twice before Magpie wisened up and smacked it out of her hands. Queen made a dive for the device but Magpie used the opportunity to trip her up.
This made Queen fall flat on her face in an almost comical fashion and make Magpie burst out into laughter.
"Brat!" Queen got to her feet and lunged at Magpie. "I'll show you to-" She was cut off when Magpie gave her a quick smack to the face, knocking her over which made Magpie laugh a little.
In the middle part of the vault, Ten found her attention divided between Harley and Ivy and it was a fight she had trouble winning. She'd manage to disarm them but that didn't make things any easier. Despite her array of gadgets, Ten was no match for Harley and Ivy's athletic abilties. As soon as she got a hit in on one the other struck her.
"Get away from me!" Ten yelled, attempting to fight against the two of them.
Finally, Jeannette was engaged in a battle against King. Like his counterpart Queen, King used an electrified sceptre as his weapon of choice. But Jeannette's gracefully fighting style, almost like she was dancing ballet, was able to throw off King and his more broad, muscular build and even knock the electric sceptre out of his hands.
"I've had enough of you people…" Jeannette glared at King. "I worked hard to become a businesswoman, I earned all this money… You can't take it from me…" Right then something strange began happening to Jeannette. Her skin became much paler and a design on her face resembling a skeleton appeared, it almost looked like she was wearing facepaint.
"Good lord…" King trailed off, frightened by her startling appearance.
Jeannette didn't say anything. Instead she just opened her mouth and let out a blood curdling scream. The structure of the vault made the horrible noise echo and become even louder than it already was. Everyone in the room, Jeannette's allies included, dropped to their knees and tried to cover their ears. But that didn't help the sound was overwhelming and brought great pain to all those who heard it.
The screaming eventually became too much and the Royal Flush Gang passed out along with Harley and the others. Once she saw this, Jeannette stopped screaming and took a few deep breaths, the paint on her face slowly vanishing.
Still gathering herself, Jeannette took a few more breaths. It was around then that Scandal and Knockout entered the vault with Knockout dragging the remains of the Ace android behind her.
"Well, we got the robot!" Knockout cheered. "Oh… What happened here?"
"Did you go full Banshee on them?" Scandal asked.
"Yes." Jeannette calmly nodded, turning around to face the other two women. "Get the authorities to pick up the Royal Flush Gang. And let's bring the girls up to my own personal quarters."
Several hours later, Harley and the girls had been brought up to Jeannette's private office-bedroom combination while they recovered from Jeannette's screaming attack. They lay Harley and Ivy out on Jeannette's bed while they placed Selina and Magpie on her couch.
"How long do you think they'll be out for?" Scandal asked.
"It varies." Jeannette remarked. "It depends on the constitution of my victims. But if we average it out… They should be waking up fairly soon."
The three women chatted for a bit until one of the bodies they had with them started to stir. Harley sat bolt upright in bed and let out a scream. "What the fuck happened!"
"Oh, hello Harley." Jeannette waved to her. "You passed out."
"Yeah, I figured." Harley nodded. "But why? What was that weird scream?"
"I'm a banshee." Jeannette casually said. "I've been alive for hundreds of years. My scream is very powerful, but I dialled it back. I was trying not to kill anyone this time. It seems like you got off lucky."
"Lucky? I feel like I got a nail hammer into my brain." Harley crossed her arms.
"Trust me darling, you are quite lucky." Jeannette said. "My voice can drive those who hear it insane or cause your brain to stop functioning completely. Honestly Harley, you're lucky you didn't lose control of your bladder."
Harley quickly put a hand down her shorts to check for any awkward dampness. "So, uh, did we take down the Royal Flush Gang?"
"We did." Jeannette nodded. "They did a lot of damage though."
Before the conversation was able to continue more, the other three women slowly started to reanimate. Ivy came to consciousness first and shot an angry glare at Jeannette.
"Never do that again…" Ivy groaned.
"Oh don't be such a baby." Jeannette shook her head.
Before they could argue more Magpie started screaming. "Oh god what the hell happened!"
"Banshee scream." Knockout casually replied.
"I'll try to hold back next time." Jeannette sighed.
"You girls might wanna check your pants." Harley casually said. "Apparently Jeannette's spooky screaming makes ya piss yourself."
"I was holding back. You're probably fine." Jeannette remarked.
"So, um, I have a question." Selina spoke up. "What are we going to do about those Royal Flush Gang guys?"
"I called the authorities on them." Jeannette replied. "We're going to have to keep the Nocturne closed for a while. But you girls can stay here."
"Well, that's kind of ya." Harley smiled.
"It's barely lunch." Ivy remarked. "What are we going to do for the rest of the day?"
"It's Vegas!" Harley cheered. "Let's get out there and have some fun."
"Hmm… I like the way you think." Ivy nodded before glancing at Selnia and Magpie. "You girls up for it?"
"Oh, why not." Selina nodded. "Sounds like a fun time."
"Sure, I'm in too." Magpie smiled, standing up from the couch. "Are we heading out?"
"We sure are!" Harley hopped up from the bed. "C'mon girls, we still got a big day ahead of us!"
Far away from Las Vegas city limits, inside the establishment known as The House, Roulette was inside her office. She was behind her computer, looking at her finances. It wasn't exciting work but it was necessary to keep her business afloat. But it was during this work that her door flung open and Hazard dashed in with a great amount of excitement in her step.
"Hey boss, did you get my email!" Hazard cheered.
"Not now Becky…" Roulette glanced up at Hazard. "I'm in the middle of something important."
"But boss-"
"No buts!"
"It's about the Royal Flush Gang."
Hearing this made Roulette freeze for a moment. "Alright, fine… You really should have led with that information."
"Um, sorry miss." Hazard nodded. "Um, anyway, I sent you the bodycam footage from the Royal Flush Gang."
"Ah, good." Roulette looked back to her computer. "I take it they were successful?"
"Um, kinda." Hazard walked up behind. "They kinda got beaten. But their recordings made it through."
Roulette went to her emails and saw a new one sent by Hazard. "Thank you Becky, this will come in handy. With this I can create a fighting profile for these girls…" She glanced back at Hazard. "I don't like these girls. They have an ulterior motive for being here. And whatever it is, we'll make sure it isn't our problem anymore."
"Should I start making preparations for their capture?" Hazard asked.
"Right away." Roulette nodded. "It seems like our arena is going to have a battle sooner than we thought…"
A/N: This chapter ended up being way shorter than I expected. I wanted to make it longer but I figured there wouldn't be much point to padding it out just for the sake of making it longer. Think of this as like a bridge chapter I guess. Things should be ramping up more in the next chapter.