"Toby..." Alice's warning tone made Tobias turn his gaze towards his adoptive mother, none too pleased by the ongoing livestream of his daughters playing Blackjack with not just Albert Wesker, but also Alex too. "This is a public broadcast, Motoko's already keeping an eye on the tech side of things, and they're not taking any risks over there right now. You heard Yuuki explain the sheer coincidence of them being there at the same time as the girls. If you go in there guns blazing, it'll destroy what little stability this still has."
"I know that. And I have no intention of going there. I was going to go out back and have a smoke before I change my mind on the matter." Tobias replied. "And since it's a casino, the risks of backlash or a fight are low enough that this is just stable enough to observe the broadcast and keep my mouth shut."
"Who knows? Maybe they'll win everything those two have? The table's got a ten times multiplier for winnings. And the girls already won three and a half grand before this went down."
"Good point." Tobias sighed loudly before walking outside and lighting his cigar.
After numerous hands, the Weskers and the Darkwoods were actually pretty balanced with their wins to losses. The twins had won back a total of $4,000 with their careful betting, while the Weskers were having particular fun with keeping up a casual conversation with the twins during the whole game, even answering questions that were brought up by the viewers, being read from Rachael's phone by an in-chat command that said the comment aloud with a text-to-speech program.
"So, I can't help noticing that the two of you are only making smaller bets. Am I right to presume that you're trying to get a large payout?" Albert noted as the girls made their latest bet of only $100 each.
"We're interested in buying a couple things in the near future, so we decided to come to the casino and see how far we could get with an initial pile of chips with a hundred in cash and about three bucks in quarters." Yuuki replied, checking her cards and tapping for another one to add to her 13. "What about you two? Why'd you reserve the high roller table for the night? Couldn't be just for us, now is it?"
"Tonight's date night." Albert smiled slightly, and Yuuki noted that the smile actually reached his eyes, judging by the crinkling at the sides of his shaded eyes. "It was her turn this week, so we wanted to see the new casino in town, test our luck a bit. Doing excellent so far, for sure." He took a sip of his nearby martini before tapping for a new card. "Mind if I ask what you were planning to purchase with your winnings?"
"Couple attachments for one of my guns and restock on ammo for it too. Set some aside for a car that we've been saving up for, and maybe talk to our aunt about getting ourselves another tattoo if there's anything leftover." Yuuki replied, then added. "Stand."
"Oh?" Alex chimed in with a glance at her cards. "I'm actually finding myself quite curious about your guns. I have to ask, AR-15 or AK?"
"Mosin Nagant M91/30." Yuuki replied cheekily. "Honestly, we own both. But I have a serious love-thing for my bolt-action."
"I'm an AR-15 girl, myself. Although I do love a nice bolt-action too. But, I cannot deny the excellent products of Heckler & Koch." Alex held up her hand to the dealer to indicate she was standing.
"See, they're damn good. Hey, Dad! How many H&K guns do you own again?" Rachael turned her head towards Yuuki's drone, since she already knew Tobias was in the chat, just not saying anything.
"Five. Two of which are a matching pair of pistols." Tobias' reply dinged in and earned a chuckle from Albert.
"It goes to show that a company with such a dedicated legacy would provide such excellent products." Albert commented as they all presented their hands, which Rachael was the winner of with 19, earning the girls the $6,000 worth of winnings for that hand. "Hmmm..." He checked his watch for a moment. "It's getting late, so how about we go all in for this last hand? Winning twosome takes all."
"A swift death to those with honour, which never runs out when you need it." Yuuki smirked as she recited the quote from Lucky Lady under her breath before shoving hers and Rachael's entire stockpile of chips forward. "Okay, let's do it. All in."
Alex actually seemed to be enjoying the new twist to their game, so she likewise moved hers and Albert's mass of chips into the middle of the table as the dealer shuffled the deck.
"Just one moment, while the total value of the chips are calculated." He spoke up as the scanner quickly confirmed the total of the massive pile of chips on the table. "For the final hand, the final value of the winnings after the ten times multiplier for this table... Is..."
He paused for dramatic effect, making the twins just slightly shiver with anticipation, whilst the two Weskers silently sipped their martinis.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
Yuuki and Rachael both turned towards each other as they manifested their Kakugan at the same time.
The dealer, who was a Ghoul himself, calmly and professionally dealt them each their first two cards, then placed his own two at the ready, with his flipped up card a mere 4.
Yuuki checked her cards and found a natural 21 staring her right in the face. She glanced one pair of eyes over to the Weskers, who hadn't said a word since the final total had been revealed. Both of them were just reaching for their cards now, and Rachael nodded at her in a comforting way to slightly calm their nerves.
"Hit me." Rachael tapped her finger on the table, and the dealer gave her a card, which she checked and held up her hand to stand.
Albert stood with a simple shake of his head, and after a moment of consideration, Alex tapped for one more card, then seemed satisfied as well, standing.
"And now for the moment of truth... the winning duo is..." The dealer played his own hand and came to a 23, busting with a nine and a ten to go with his 4.
"Blackjack." Yuuki flipped over her cards, and immediately felt Rachael grab the back of her head by her hair and pulled her in for a frenzied kiss.
"Excellent game, ladies." Albert smiled slightly, since both he and Alex had 19's while Rachael had an 18. "It was quite a fun evening, indeed." He held out his hand for them to shake as they finally separated, and shook his hand in kind.
When they arrived back at home a while later with their crisp cheque from the casino - nestled safely within Yuuki's cleavage alongside her butterfly knife - the first thing they saw was their father sitting on his ice throne on the front steps with a very unexpected smoking companion sitting on her own ice throne beside him, smoking a particularly large cigar each.
"I thought you quit?" Yuuki asked cheekily as Alice took a drag from the cigar, which was much bigger than the ones her father usually smoked.
"It ain't over until the fat lady sings." Alice replied as she exhaled the smoke. "Besides, you two just about drove me up the fucking wall with that shitshow. Lady better get a damn good cleaning tonight after all that."
"Right, so... Finn. Teach me how to do the boom boom." Yuuki smirked at Finn as she idly examined a 40mm HE round in one hand, while her other was cradling Calyptica - complete with her new M203 grenade launcher, with matching colours - against her chest.
"Pretty straightforward, first let's load that shell into the tube." Finn was carrying his G36 with the XM320 grenade launcher that Tobias used for Executioner. "Slide the chamber open with your forward hand, yeah, like that. Next is to make sure the shell is pointed the right way. I know you're good at this, there you go." Finn smirked, since he had been present for her very first training session two years earlier, and knew she was capable with weaponry of all types. "Slide it back, same hand. Yup, now, grip your mag like your trigger hand, yup, there's perfect. Now, since you've already flipped the tube's sight into position beforehand, we're good to start with aiming downrange."
Behind them, Tobias was watching with a slight smirk on his face, his arms crossed over his chest. "You're smart enough to know better than to aim at anything too close, so when you get the hang of using the tube, you'll be able to get away with both longer and shorter range blasts."
"Ready? Aim using the launcher's sight, and adjust it as we go for longer shots." Finn indicated the folding sights on the front-left of her rifle's foregrip, and she nodded. "Alright, two fingers on the forward trigger, keep it on target until we get a feel for the arc of the tube's trajectory."
With the distinctive, iconic thumping sound, the rifle in her hands kicked back into her shoulder and lobbed the 40mm shell downrange at the distant cinderblock wall, blowing up right at the base with a cascade of broken pieces and a cloud of dust.
"Aimed a bit low, that was mostly me." Yuuki explained as she slid the chamber open to let the smoking shell casing slide out and dropped to the ground at her feet. "That's what, 50 meters out, right?"
"Yeah, looks like it's performing great." Tobias replied. "You've already tested the Masterkey, right?"
"Yup, then I sent it to my guy for the usual dose of obnoxious." Yuuki patted the top of Calyptica's stock, clearly indicating the myriad of colours on her weapon. "I'm supposed to go pick up our new toys after I get in some more practice with the launcher here." Yuuki retrieved a fresh shell from the nearby crate. "Rachael's bringing the boys here so we can start breaking them in."
"You've piqued my curiosity." Tobias' expression shifted to curiosity, with a slight tilt of his head to the side. "Care to share what you two bought?"
"Pair of guns for each of us." Yuuki smirked, her tone playfully evasive as she loaded the new shell with ease and lifted the rifle back to her shoulder. "Two matched sets, to be exact."
FOOMP!
"Four guns? Interesting." Tobias' smirk hadn't left his face the whole time, but now it widened into a full grin. "Definitely my kids..." He chuckled to himself with a shake of his head.
A/N: I apologize for the slower updates, been having major writer's block as well as I had a good friend of mine visiting me for the past week. Had a great time with them, and they even got a rare picture of me that didn't look like crap, haha! #NotPhotogenic