Diamond in the Sky

No Heroes Allowed

Rouge swarms into a fancy hotel lobby with injured Silver in her arms, landing in front of the check-in counter... where she earnestly cries out to the bell hop... who happens to also be the manager.

"I sure hope you have a doctor in the house!"

The bell hop nods.

"Yes, for our guests."

"I'll take your best room if it'll get him the best care."

"Perfect, what's your villain alias?" he asks.

"I don't have one," Rouge tells him.

"No? You are a villain though, right?"

"Is that a requirement?"

"Well technically but money talks," says the bell hop.

"I can pay in jewels."

With both curiosity and suspicion, a well-known, canine conman by the name of T.W. Barker, approaches the counter.

"Hmm, I'm not sure I want to stay at an evil hotel that serves non-villains. Did you steal those jewels, sweetheart?"

Annoyed, yet harboring a lovely smile, Rouge charmingly tells the bell hop...

"Just a second, if you don't mind."

She carefully props Silver on the floor, against the counter, then roughly grabs Barker by the collar. The felon-filled lobby gleefully excites over a potential fight.

"Listen scum bag, I don't care how evil you or anyone else in this hotel is, someone is going to give my son some medical attention or I'm going to burn this place down to the ground!"

"Sounds pretty evil to me," comments a spectator.

"Oh yes, indeed!" says the bell hop with delight. "Did I mention that I run this hotel? We pride ourselves in serving wealthy felons such as yourself."

"That's your son?" Barker exclaims, "What, did you have him when you were two? You're way too young to have an adult kid!"

Irritated, Rouge shoves Barker away, replying with...

"Flattery will get you nothing."

"We have a room you can check into that's pretty swanky and half off for abusive parents," promotes the bell hop.

Now disgusted that anyone would believe that she is responsible for Silver's condition, Rouge wags her finger in the manager's squinty, little face.

"I didn't do this to him, you sleazy, low life..." She composes herself. "Whatever gets him the care he needs. Alright ya know what? Sure, I'll take it."

"Names please."

"Nails. Nails the Bat and... Venice. His name is Venice."

From out of her cleavage, Rouge pulls a tiny bag, and from within the bag, she retrieves a small but rare, blue jewel from Silver's futuristic dimension. The grubby manager is pleased to accept this alluring gem that catches everyone's eye with its sharp sparkle. A fair exchange. He passes her a keycard.

"Alright Nails, here's your key. Enjoy the view, you'll be on the top floor."

Barker and the rest of the men in the room gawk at Rouge.

"A thousand apologies, Ms. Nails the Bat," he sincerely tells her. "You remind me of my own mother, only far more exquisite and refined."

He takes her hand and kisses it while Rouge holds her temple and groans.

Later, in their room, Silver lies in the bed cleaned up and medicated, as the hotel medic informs Rouge...

"He needs to rest. Once the medicine I gave him kicks in, he should come to."

Rouge sighs with relief.

"Phew, thank goodness."

"You sure you checked into the right hotel? I work at the hero wing too ya know," chuckles the medic. "Anyhow, I'll be back to check on him in the morning."

With a tip of his hat, he leaves. Rouge then sits upon the bed and tells Silver, even though he may not hear her...

"Well at least we made it out alive. I'm going to get cleaned up."

She kisses his cheek and goes into the bathroom, thoughtlessly gets undressed, and takes a nice, hot shower. When she gets out, she notices herself in the mirror. Holy cow, she's twenty years younger?! No way!

"Ooo! No wonder they were all gawking at me! Yowza! That's what I'm talkin' about!" She poses in a bunch of different Playboy Bunny-esque ways and admires herself. "Wonder how this happened... oh duh! Because this is what I looked like when I left this place twenty years ago! Makes sense. We are, after all, in the past."