What happens in Vegas...

Carol rode off into the bustling city, fully aware of the stares, wolf whistles, cat calls, murmurs, and laughter pointed at her as she stared angrily ahead.

"Yeah, yeah! Laugh your asses off at the 'crazy' naked woman riding on a horse through the city!" Carol spat venomously, "There's nothing any of you can do to hurt me more than I am now!"

Carol felt the stinging of tears in her eyes once more, still not over the betrayal of her so-called 'friends' from the past. And after she was going to apologize to them for her costly mistakes, too! She wasn't an idiot like those two thought she was; she knew her actions had consequences. She just hoped that people in this era were more understanding like they were in her era.

"Shows how much I know." She muttered angrily. "The sooner I find Sophie, the sooner I can pretend this whole event was just a bad dream."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU QUIT?!" A woman in her mid forties spat in rage to a young woman in her late twenties.

"I mean just that, Margot!" The younger woman said.

"It's Ms. X when you're on the clock, Missy!" Margot shouted as she slammed her fist on the desk. "You're my best girl! I gave you your big break! How the hell can you do this to me?!"

"First of all, I'm not on the clock if I don't work for you anymore." Missy said as she pulled her jacket on. "Second, I'm your only girl working at this stupid little hole in the wall strip club you call a business. Thirdly, 'Big Break'?! You pay me to get on stage and dance to generic rock music while taking off my clothes and twirling around a pole. Now, I wouldn't had mined if it was just that... But then you told me that you wanted to add me getting off to the routine! I'm a stripper! Not some Z-Grade adult movie actress!"

"There's a difference?"

Missy scoffed in disgust as she turned on her heel and stormed out the door. "Good riddance, Ms. Golds!"

"It's Ms. X!" Margot shouted as Missy slammed the door. Groaning in a mixture of anger and annoyance, the older woman leaned back in her chair and pulled open a drawer, taking out a bottle of bourbon. "This is just great! I've got a full house tonight with men and women coming in to see the cheapest strip show in Vegas, one that promises to end with a live sex show, and my only stripper walks out because she's surprisingly a prude to anything not involving just nudity! Where the hell am I going to find someone stupid and crazy enough to take her place in the next..." She looked down at her watch and whined, "Five hours?!"

Taking a swig of her ****, Margot spun in her chair to face the window behind her... Doing a spit take as she saw a naked woman on horseback strut by.

Carol still kept an eye out for her sister as she passed a small, rundown building with a neon sign reading 'Ms. X's X-Treme XXX Fun Times' on a pole in the parking lot. Except for a woman on a motorcycle speeding off into the street, nobody seemed to be around.

"Sophie! Are you out there?!" Carol called out.

"Hey! You!"

Carol turned to see Margot Golds running towards her from the parking lot, coming to a stop as she got close to the horse. "Excuse me, Ma'am. Are you aware that you're butt as-"

"Yes! I'm naked!" Carol spat, rolling her eyes. "I'd tell you why, but you'd think I was some delusional idiot. Now, if you excuse me..."

"What?! No!" Margot replied with a chuckle, "Come on! I wouldn't think of you as delusional. Go on, try me!"

"I'm from the year 2347; a year where it was made illegal to wear clothes for people eighteen and older." Carol replied flatly, "I'm looking for my sister, Sophie, who used our time travel device to teleport us and my apartment to the year 2023 before The Nudity Act was made a thing."

"Wow. This chick isn't crazy. She's a freaking basket case.... SHE'S PERFECT!" Margot thought to herself as she gave and internal evil smirk. Out loud, she smiled as she said, "Really? That's what you thought I was going to call you crazy over? I mean, the moment I saw you, I knew that there was something futuristic about you!"

"... You did?" Carol asked, genuinely confused. "You believed that?"

"I mean, come on! Who wouldn't believe that?!" Margot asked with a convincing laugh. "Apart from anyone with a functioning brain cell."

Carol looked down at the ground sadly, the tears in her eyes starting to return.

"Oh, I know that look." Margot said, feigning compassion. "That's the look of someone who's been burned badly. Why don't you come inside and we can talk about it in my office? You like bourbon? Cause you look more like a Long Island iced tea girl to me?"

"I... I don't know." Carol said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I mean, it's a generous offer, but I really need to find my sister so we can return to our time."

"Honey, if your sister is in Vegas, there's no way she's leaving for at least a few days." Margot said as she took the reigns and led the horse towards her strip club. "Now c'mon! I insist!"

"Okay..." Carol said, "If you're sure."

"Okay." Karen said as she ducked into the alleyway, a brown paper bag under her left arm and a bag of clothes on her right. "I got a lot of funny looks and everything, but I managed to get some clothes from a gift shop, and four large gallons of tomato juice and water jugs from a corner store that should cover up the skunk smell long enough for us to get back home; two for you, two for me. Thank what higher powers exist that our wallets survived the skunk attack. Now we just -"

"We deserve this..."

Karen looked up to see Cindy sitting on a crate, staring at her bare feet as she hung her head. "Cindy, nobody des-"

"We DO deserve this, Karen!" Cindy snapped, looking back up at her girlfriend. "We're nothing but a couple of skunks! We treated Carol like she was nuisance and stabbed her in the back when she thought two new friends were helping her. And for what reason? Because she was new to this past era? Because we thought she was crazy about coming from three hundred years in the future?!"

"Come on, Cindy. Anyone would expect her to be crazy if she said that to them. YOU thought she was crazy when she told you that."

"Wow. You just don't even care, do you? You basically told her that you wanted her dead out in that desert, and all you can -"

"You don't think I feel ashamed about that?!" Karen snapped, dropping her bags as tears welled up in her eyes. "You don't think I wouldn't take it back if I could?! Look, I really don't believe that Carol's from the future, but I don't hate her enough to want her dead! I was fed up with all the bad luck that was happening to us at that moment! And what about you, Ms. 'Let's ditch her when we get to Vegas'?!"

"I'd take that back too if I could!" Cindy shouted, feeling her own eyes tearing up. "Carol's out there, alone and naked, in a time and city she has no idea about! She could be arrested, or worse! And it's all because of us! I..." She sighed as her voice grew softer, "I should've never said that we'd ditch her when we got here."

"I never should've said we should leave her in the desert." Karen sighed as she sat down next to her girlfriend.

"I never should've brought her into our apartment."

"No, you were in the right for doing so! I never should've assumed you were cheating on me."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"We really are a couple of skunks." Karen sighed. "But we can change that."

"How?" Cindy asked.

"I'll tell you how!" Karen stated as she got to her feet. "We are going to get cleaned up, dressed, and hunt down Carol to apologize and beg for forgiveness! And, whether or not she gives it to us, we are going to help her find her sister! Sound good?"

"I'm in!" Cindy said in determination as she stood up as well.

"Excuse me, did you two just say that you know Carol?"

Letting out a yelp, both smelly girlfriends jumped in surprise as they saw an eighteen year old woman dressed in blue jeans, sandals, a pink bra, white panties, and an "Viva Las Vegas" t-shirt standing in the alleyway next to the bags on the ground and holding her nose. However, the second that Cindy saw the younger woman's face, she let out a gasp of shock as she recognized her.

"Sophie?!"

"Well, it sounds to me like you got a couple of rotten friends for saying such mean things about you." Margot said as she poured a glass of club soda and handed it to Carol, the younger woman having just finished telling her story.

"They're not my friends..." Carol muttered sadly as she took a drink.

"Oh, of course not!" Margot said as she sat back down into her chair. "Friends don't stab friends in the back after all. I know what that's like."

As Margot took a drink from her glass of bourbon, she suddenly smiled as she pretended to have an idea. "Hey! I know what! How about I be your first friend? I can even get you a job here!"

"Oh, I couldn't possibly." Carol said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I already have a job back in 2347, and I really need to find my sister so we can get back home."

"Tell me something, Carol." Margot said as she leaned back in her chair, "That bitch Cindy and her girlfriend claimed they were going to help you find your sister, right?"

"That's not the word I'd use to describe Cindy and Karen, but yes."

"Well, Carol, how would you respond if I told you that this place is crawling with visitors to Las Vegas every night?" Margot lied, setting the bait as she opened a desk drawer.

"Really?!"

"If tonight goes well..." Margot thought to herself. Out loud, she replied, "Oh, absolutely! Why, I bet your sister would be in the crowd tonight if she wanted to experience Vegas at it's best!"

"I don't know. She likes to sightsee, but... This doesn't exactly look like the kind of place that Sophie would attend. No offense."

"Well, Vegas is a place where you can spend days sightseeing and still not see everything." Margot said as she shrugged, "If she doesn't show up tonight, there's always tomorrow. And you'll need a place to stay and a way to eat until you do find her."

Carol thought about it for a second, looking down into her drink for a few seconds. Looking back up, she asked, "What exactly would I be doing here to earn my keep?"

"Quick question, but do they still have strip clubs in the future?"

"Well, we stopped using human strippers in 2109 when androids filled in those roles, and in 2132 they took on more... Seedier roles after The Nudity Act was passed." Carol explained. Half a second later, she asked, "Wait, am I going to be working as a stripper?"

"Only until you find your sister." Margot replied as she pulled a paper and pen out from the drawer and sat it on the desk. "All you really have to do is dance around and take off your -"

"I know what the job entails, I'm not that dumb."

"Never said you were, Sweetheart." Margot replied, intentionally leaving out the part where Carol had to get off on stage. Handing the pen to the naked woman across the desk from her, Margot said, "Just sign on the dotted line if and when your ready."