Chapter 15: If You Got the Money, Honey, We Got Your Disease
Tulsa Marketplace- formerly Woodland Hills Mall
"Now, don't you look pretty in that outfit?" Daphne said as she and Ace looked into a mirror in an old dressing room, the latter clad in a blue dress and a pair of rugged-looking cowhide cowboy boots.
"I guess." came the reply.
She then turned around and looked Daphne in the eye.
"Why're you being so generous with me?" she asked.
"Come again?"
"These clothes, these boots- back on the farm, I'd have probably only seen them on my birthday or Christmas if the harvest'd been good. The rest of the year, we all wore homespun and whatever boots that Dad would've managed to buy on market day."
Daphne's mind raced as she struggled to come up with an explanation.
"Well, back before the war, we were a bit more…extravagant when it came to what we decided to wear."
"How so?"
"Sometimes, we'd stop buying entire pieces of clothing because the color or the pieces themselves weren't in style. I mean, shoes alone were pretty much a microcosm of the whole cycle!"
The resulting glare that Ace directed at Daphne could only be described as an expression of pure 'Are you kidding me?'.
Of all the things I've done in this life, I never once thought I'd be wandering through Tulsa with a ghost. Jonah thought as he and Phantasma made their way through the city's streets.
"So, what do you think of this place?" the old cowboy asked.
"Well, it's better than Houston was the last time we passed through there."
A tense silence settled over the duo.
"Care to join me in finding the nearest saloon?" Jonah finally asked.
"Well, it's certainly a step up from being totally defenseless." Dana said as she, Luna, and the quartet who'd stayed behind watched the final installation of a new pintle mount on the tour bus's roof, with the machine gun being attached a few moments later.
"Yeah, but I still can't help but feel a little dirty about putting a gun onto something with our logo on it." Thorn replied.
"Speaking of guns, we probably should get you one too- because judging from what I've seen thus far, you and Luna are a bit too reliant on Dusk to provide the firepower."
Just then, Scooby came barreling in.
"Raggy! Re's rone!"
"Gone where?" Velma asked.
Scooby then rose up on his hind legs and grabbed a metal rod before proceeding to swing in the general direction of the back of Fred's skull.
"So you're saying that someone clubbed him over the head and dragged him off, is that it?" Dusk asked.
"Ruh-huh!"
"And now for the $64,000 question- where'd he get taken to?" Thorn added.
?
" Good- you're awake."
Shaggy blinked as he came to in what appeared to have at one point been a locker room. Standing before him was a bearded hulking colossus of sinew and muscle with a brown fauxhawk atop his head.
"Like, who ar-"
"I'm the one who's going to throw your ass out onto the floor in a few hours."
"Onto what floor?"
The man grinned.
"You're in Lord's Arena, one of the biggest and bloodiest fighting pits this side of the Pecos. As for me, I'm the pitboss- no need for you bother learning my name, since you probably won't be alive to see me ever again. Now, see that armor? When I get back, I want to see you wearing it!" he said, pointing towards a suit made of a set of football shoulder pads and a baseball umpire or catcher's vest.
Scooby-Doo, where are you?! Shaggy thought as the pitboss left him alone.
Leone's Saloon
"So, what can I do you and your ethereal friend for?" the bartender asked as Jonah and Phantasma entered.
" Glass of your finest for me, ma'am." the old cowboy replied as he sat upon the nearest stool.
"You got the money, honey?"
"What'll you take?"
"Depends on what you've got."
Jonah reached into his duster and pulled out some shotgun shells, a handful of .45 caliber brass casings, and a tin of chewing tobacco.
"Keep the casings." the bartender said as she went to grab a bottle labeled "JIM BEAM".
Just then, Jonah heard a laugh from a nearby booth. A quick glance revealed the source to be a woman of mixed Anglo and Asian descent dressed in a red hooded ensemble, her sleeves rolled up to reveal several tattoos with a distinct Navajo influence on both her upper arms. On the floor beside her were a recurve bow and a quiver full of arrows.
"So, what brings you and your ghostly pal to this little establishment?" she asked, her commanding contralto voice managing to ever-so-slightly intimidate the old cowboy.
"Just here for the hooch. How 'bout you?" came the reply.
"Come closer and I'll tell you."
Right on cue, a glass of bourbon slid across the bar, and Jonah's steely gaze shifted from the mysterious archer to Phantasma.
"Didn't she ask for y-"
"If she tries anything, you'll have a hell of a lot less to worry about."
Phantasma nodded before proceeding to lazily drift over to the booth.
"So, what's your name?" the ghostly former Grimwood student asked.
"Lian Harper- or if you're feeling businesslike, Arrowette."
"Well, Arrowette, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? And where'd you get those tattoos?"
The archer took a swig of her own drink.
"First question- I'm between contracts right now and nobody seems in any hurry to take me up. As for the second, I got 'em back in a little town in my homeland called Díchʼíító. Or as you palefaces might call it, Bitter Springs."
Jonah's head swiveled around to face Arrowette.
" Sister, watch who you're calling 'paleface' around here. 'sides, you don't look like you've got any Injun blood in your veins."
If looks could kill, then the glare that Arrowette gave to Jonah would've brought an end to the latter's Lazarus Pit-extended existence.
"You wanna say that again?" she snarled.
"Considering you're looking at a man who was adopted into the Apache, you ain't got much room to talk."
"The hell I do! You're looking at a born and bred Navajo h-"
"Okay, let's not let our tempers get the better of us. Arrowette, Mister Hex- both of you say you're sorry and let's move on." Phantasma interrupted.
"Sorry for calling you an Injun." Jonah said, extending a hand in peace.
A moment later, Arowette extended her own, and the two shook on it. Just then, Hex's walkie-talkie went off, the words "F. JONES" on the screen.
"Hello?"
"Hex, we've got a situation."
"What kind of situation?"
"Scooby says that Shaggy's been kidnapped- and before you ask, even he doesn't know where Shaggy's been taken off to."
Arrowette grimaced.
"Your friend's probably been dragged off to Lord Arena." she said.
"Who's that at your end? And what's this 'Lord Arena' she just mentioned?"
"Gal I met at the saloon, calls herself Arrowette."
Jonah then turned his attention back to the archer.
"You heard the guy's question." he said, handing the walkie-talkie to her.
"Mister…Jones, is it?"
"Are you that Arrowette woman Jonah just mentioned?"
"Yes. Now, about Lord Arena-"
"I'm all ears."
"It's a fighting pit- used to be the basketball court in the Mabee Center. If I were you, I'd make a beeline for the place before your friend ends up spilling his guts out on the sand."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
If you're wondering who Lian Harper is, she's the daughter of Roy Harper (the original Speedy) and recurring Titans villain Cheshire. While she's primarily remembered these days for her pointless demise in the abysmal 2009 miniseries Cry for Justice, at least one incarnation of the character (for the record, the one seen in the superb 1998 miniseries Kingdom Come) did make to adulthood, where she took up the identity of Red Hood,which according to the trade paperback's companion volume Revelations, was based on Little Red Riding Hood and not the Joker's previous alias.
And yes, her outfit here is indeed based on the costume she wore in Kingdom Come. As for her claims to Navajo ancestry, this is from her father's backstory, where he was adopted by a Navajo medicine chief after his biological father died. And on another note, next chapter will reveal why the fighting pit that Shaggy has found himself in is called Lord Arena.
