Chapter 1:
Las Vegas, Nevada, the entertainment capital of the world. The city that never sleeps. A city that thrives on energy: electric energy. A city like this is a prime location and testing ground for a Mr Tony Stark sole inventor and entrepreneur of Stark industries clean energy source.
In typical Stark fashion, he had arrived in his Ironman suit and made his speech on a grand stage outside of the Stratosphere Tower.
Two figures watching from the edge of the crowd "You're going after the flashiest man in the US ... I smell trouble." Tall and willowy the first woman glanced at her doll like friend,
"It's only trouble when we get caught remember?" the other party sighed "let's go" the pair disappeared into the casino on the first level of the Stratosphere tower.
Busier than usual thanks to the arrival of Mr Stark: this was going to make business a lot easier. The two ladies found one of the more popular tables which was located right in the centre of the floor, easy to find and easy to gain a lot of attention: perfect for the man than loved to flaunt everything. They played a few games against some other customers, until their target sauntered over to their table. He took particular interest in the taller girl, wrapping his arm around her slender waist.
"Might I join you my dear?" he asked with a suave smirk, her friend nodded pretending to blush when he kissed her hand "Tony Stark" he stated obviously,
"Pleasure. Charlotte Faciller. But you can call me Lotte" she smiled sweetly giving Stark her false name, the woman's real name was Alice but for this particular operation a false name suited her purposes
"So I guess you'll be bringing me a lotta luck tonight?" Tony joked badly.
Alice friend grimaced openly "That was a terrible pun. Mr Stark."
They played a few rounds allowing the billionaire to win the majority "Ahh~ I'm out" the shorter woman sighed pushing her cards away, taking a slight step away from the table "Change?" she swapped places with the person stood rather close behind her nodding briefly to 'Alice'.
Being a head or two shorter than most of the men here was an advantage at the best of times, weaving in and out was much easier. She accidently knocked into Tony and quickly disappearing into the sea of people.
She didn't leave the building but entered the 'ladies room' when inside a free stall she produced a wallet and a tablet from her clutch purse, 'let's have a look' running several different hacking programs it didn't take her long to figure out the code she needed transferring a high amount of money into an account but nothing to high it would look too suspicious.
Taking leave of the bathroom, she weaved back into the sea of people around Mr stark dropping the wallet by his feet, elbowing 'Alice' in the back on her way past. This time she did leave the casino and wondered how long it would take for the billionaire to notice he 'dropped' his wallet. She took this opportunity to loiter and made idle chitchat with people who were taking a cigarette break outside just so she didn't look too suspicious.
"There's an awful lot of guards tonight" noticing the gathering of men in black probably carrying guns under their jackets.
"Oh yes, have to protect the lovely Mr Stark now," one older woman chuckled, swooning just at thought of the younger man,
"He made quite the speech"
"I think it's a good idea. A city this big using clean energy would benefit the environment" the woman's partner puffed on a cigar,
"Well I don't care! Put Fury on!"
'Speak of the devil and he shall appear' she mused as Tony Stark stormed out of the tower shouting down his phone, Alice was following him closely.
"Have fun?" she asked turning on her heels to walk away from the establishment,
"Oh tons of fun being a human trophy" Alice noticed her friend was in an awful hurry to leave the area "Whoa slow down Viv, where's the fire?"
"That rich bastard came with a horde of friggen' armed guards and after witnessing how pissed off he just got ... I don't think that's all of them"
"Why are you worried though? It's not like they can track us" Alice said calmly
"I wouldn't like to test that theory" she looked around made sure no-one was following them before she took a spot on a cold wooden bench in Paradise park, "That guy could have the technology to do so, besides you he could track that's what CCTV cameras are for." Viv said working furiously on her tablet
Alice sat down next to her resting her aching feet "And he can't track you why?"
"I make sure my face is never seen head on by those cameras I know the locations of all the cameras around the casino area and if they did manage to find my 'current' name wouldn't get them far because apparently 'Holly Alexander' lives in Nebraska and is a devote Christian so she certainly wouldn't be here"
"Vivian, how much did you steal?"
"Couple hundred ... thousand" Vivian mused hacking into cameras near the Stratosphere Tower.
Good evening turned terrible. Tony Stark had received a less than pleasant phone call from Pepper Pots telling him that his account was 300,000 dollars lighter and she was complaining about his gambling habit, which he denied fully.
"Just great." the billionaire phoned up a particular organisation that would help him locate the culprit,
"Mr Fury is busy at-"
"Well I don't care! Put Fury on!" he shouted angrily down the phone startling the group of guards gathered outside the building,
A very exasperated voice answered on the other end "What seems to be the problem Stark?"
Charlotte soon appeared from the tower and they left nonchalantly. Tony watched as she met with her younger companion and the two left looking downhearted, probably about losing their money Tony thought.
"I've just had three hundred thousand dollars stolen from my account!"
"I really don't see how that's my problem" Fury's voice said on the other end of the phone clearly exasperated
"I'm in Vegas with your people so would you care to explain how I got robbed?"
"Maybe the odds just weren't in your favour" Fury said before hanging up
"Fine" Tony said taking a small tablet out of his jacket pocket and hacking effortlessly into the casino's surveillance and saw Charlotte scout him out from the crowd and keep his attention while her younger companion who's face he couldn't see clearly stole his wallet and later dropped it on the ground at his feet to make him think he'd dropped it
Running face recognition software the womans name came up as Alice Winters a run away from South Carolina with a few warrants out for her arrest for charges including but not limited to blackmail, grifting, theft, and at least one count of assault with a deadly weapon.
Tony smirked and called Fury back,
"I thought I told you I don't care about your money loss" Fury said
"That's not what I'm calling about. What does SHIELD know about an Alice Winters?"
"I've been thinking about it" I said as Vivian went through her tablet erasing my face from the surveillance cameras
"Yeah"
"I mean he's a billionaire right? He wouldn't notice a couple of hundred thousand missing"
"And with that I've bought us a new car ... and a motorbike for me and now to go gambling with money that's not mine" Vivian said brightly putting her tablet back into her bag
"Huzzah! What would we do without you?" I laughed pulling my hair into a messy braid and putting on a pair of sunglasses so as not to be noticed
"We'd have to get normal jobs and we wouldn't have the pleasure of swindling idiots out of dirty money" Vivan said simply putting on her glasses
"Normal jobs?" I said turning my nose up "I really don't like the sound of that. And besides if we don't swindle idiots out of their dirty money it would all end up with the government and no one wants that"
"And they don't need it. We need it to blow on proper things like food and things to make explosives and new electronics"
"And clothes don't forget clothes. And guns too we're two girls alone in the big bad city, we need all the protection we can get against all those asshats who try to steal our hard earned money"
Vivian and I headed back to the strip expecting to just wak back into a casino and be ignored as we normally were but instead we found the place crawling with guys in black suits and Mr Tony Stark looking pissed as all hell,
"We might be in a bit of trouble" I said to Vivan
"Nah I'm sure it's fine"
As soon as Vivian had spoken at least half the agents turned around to look at us. They must have been alerted by Stark because I could see him as well standing over the crowd along with another person I hadn't seen before,
"Shit" I turned on my heel and Vivian and I ran back through the park to the other side of town "You'll never take me ali –" I yelled right before colliding with a solid wall of muscle. Looking up from the spot on the ground where I'd landed after my collision I saw a sandy haired man dressed in blue with a star on his chest and a shield painted to look like the American flag, he was attractive however he seemed to be wearing tights "Hello there" I said my accent becoming more pronounced, if the southern charm had worked on Stark I was confident it would work on his partner.
Vivian however had other ideas and grabbed me by my upper arm and literally dragged me away from the sandy haired man in tights,
"Flirt later run now"
"But, but he's so pretty! And look at all those muscles!" I tried to protest
"And trying to arrest you!" Vivian said setting off several flash bangs to confuse our pursers "now snap out of it and run!"
"Ok, ok" I turned my attention back to my get away and once Vivian and I were a safe enough distance away from the main strip in an alley I turned my thoughts back to the sandy haired man "you know I can think of a few things where including handcuffs wouldn't be such a bad thing" I said with a crooked grin making Vivian laugh,
"You're such a perv you know that?"
"How rude I'm a camellia, I'm a lady you know"
"Yeah some lady" Vivian laughed poking her head around the alley wall, "Fuck those guys just don't give up do they?"
"Come on I have my car hidden around here" I said.
Vivian and I ran down the alley and came to a disused garage where I normally kept my car. It was an old camaro painted black so it didn't grab attention when I did have to drive it around the city. Vivian and I got into the car intending to grab the money we had stashed away and get out of the city.
Instead as soon as I turned onto a main road we found ourselves pursed by Stark in his Iron Man get up and about ten different unmarked black sedan's that could only be federal agents who neither of us were too popular with,
"Viv can you do something about that?" I said gesturing to Stark in my rear view mirror,
"That I can" Vivian took her tablet out of her bag and quickly hacked into Stark's suit and I saw him stop in his tracks in the mirror, "I think Mr Stark and I should have some fun" Vivian smirked and I could see him suddenly start dancing the Macarena making Vivian howl with laughter.
I laughed myself although the situation stopped being funny when someone fired a shot at my car,
"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS CAR COST!" I yelled out the window taking my .44 out of the glove box, "Vivian you drive!" I said leaning out the window and taking aim at the car that had fired on my baby,
"Ali I don't think I can drive and hack at the same time!" Viv yelled as I shot out the engine of one car and a bullet from another grazed my arm,
"SON OF A BITCH!" I yelled aiming at the engine of the other car,
"Alice!" Vivan yelled as she tried to steer the car with her knees and we ended up in a ditch, "I told you I couldn't drive and hack!" Vivian yelled as we climbed out of the car only to find ourselves looking down the barrels of collective glock 9mm's,
"Fuck" I said keeping a tight hold of my.44 only to have the sandy haired man grab my arms and try to wrench the gun from my grasp, "Unhand me you ruffian I am a lady!" I yelled my accent very profound
"Really ruffian?" Vivian asked raising an eyebrow at me sceptically
"It worked before" I shrugged
"Why not add thugs? Men with pointy teeth?" Vivian asked with a sarcastic eye roll
"Stop no more you'll just upset me!" I feigned a swoon but no one was buying it
"We're not in a fluffy Disney film ... I have some better words than a flash grenade" Vivian said eyeing the agents who currently had their guns pointed at us, and Stark himself who'd finally managed to shake off Vivian's hack and land
"I thought I'd give it a go. The Star Spangled Man here looks like he might have bought it" I said slipping out of the sandy haired man's grasp
"That's true although I think he stole those tights from Peter Pan" Vivian said snidely making me laugh
"I mean why would you dress like that in public? I mean I know it's Vegas and all but even the hookers are looking at him wondering what's going on"
"He could be the patriotic gimp?" Vivian suggested
"Then where's his mistress? But maybe that's what he wants us for?" I said with a straight face
"Sorry I'm not into gimps. So I'll leave you with Mr Star Spangled Gimp" Vivian said trying to get at her tablet but when several guns trained on her she thought better of the idea
I took a look at the sandy haired man again, trying to find a way out of this situation. He looked utterly confused and I don't think it was because Vivian and I were acting so nonchalant with guns pointed at us
"Basically Cap a gimp is a guy or a girl but usually a guy in a rubber or leather suit including a mask sometimes with a zip or a ball gag and he's paraded around by his mistress and he's basically a sex toy" Stark explained to his partner who just seemed traumatised by the information
The entire time I'd been thinking of an escape route Vivian had apparently been humming spice up your life because she looked at me and jerked her head at an opening between the sandy haired man and Stark
"Let's get out of here" I whispered, Vivian nodded and dropped a few more flash bangs creating the ideal diversion and we were able to slip off and head back to the small apartment we'd rented in the shadier part of town
"Ah I love traumatising people. I should have taken his shield I could have sold thing for a killing" Vivian said kicking off her boots grabbing a beer from the fridge and falling down onto the couch,
"Well if they're stupid enough to come back then we'll see what we can sell" I said settling into the worn armchair I'd found on the side of the street
"Do you think that guy has stuff under that? I mean it's pretty tight ... commando do you think? Or a thong" Vivian asked
"I'm thinking commando he seemed traumatised by the notion of a gimp I don't think he'd be big into thongs ... hmm commando. I'd like to see him commando, all those muscles" my mind wondered imaging the sandy haired man without that ridiculous uniform,
"I think he'd be more traumatised if he knew you were thinking about him naked he seems the easily embarrassed type" Vivian laughed
"He was pretty though. You have to admit it. All those muscles. I'd love to see him without the peter pan get up" I said in a far off voice
"Oh dear don't tell him that he'd look like a lobster" Vivian howled with laughter and took a great gulp of her beer
"Oh well it's not like we'll see them again. I really don't think they're that stupid" I said getting up from the armchair to get some more beer from the fridge
"Any man wearing tights that's not in a ballet company must have a few screws loose" Vivian said as I tossed her a beer
"Good point" I said hitting my bottle open on the side of the cabinet while Vivian opened hers with her zippo
"The screws probably belong to the guy who wants to me a gundamn robot" Vivian said taking a long drink
"Someone watched a little too much anime as I child methinks" I nodded in agreement with myself
"I think your right. I also think we should lie low for a while then get out of the city. I hear New York is nice this time of year" Vivian said taking another long drink
"I've never been to New York you know" I said, it was true. I'd really only travelled in the south and Nevada I'd never been North,
"Oh now we have to go" Vivian said getting up from the couch and grabbing her duffel bag from the closet,
"New York it is then. And hopefully the Star Spangled Gimp and Stark don't follow" I said downing what was left of my beer. Little did I know what I was getting myself into by heading to New York