You got kidnapped by your bachelor party

“Really, a classic sack over the head ****,” you chuckled as you were thrown into a van or limo and into the grasp of several people. They pull you up into a seat as the vehicle pulls away. Someone grabs the sack off your head and you blink to unblur your vision as you take in who is in the limo with you.

The bastard with a shiteating grin to your right was your twin brother, Jamie Gardner. He had relatively short and shaggy dark hair and while the two of you were identical, two long slash scars across his face allowed people to tell the two of you apart.

You were probably going to need to watch his season of Island Survival to find out who or what gave him his scar. All he had told you was that it was an accident. Too bad we couldn’t do most of our twin routines anymore.

On your other side was Bowe Gardner, one of the triplet half-siblings of yours from Auntie Bowsette. He was wearing an armored party suit and checking a bag. From the sounds of it, he was bringing quite a few of his weapons. You briefly wonder where Larry and Lauren were but figured they were too busy.

There were two others in the limo, two very familiar friends of yours. Larry from Rein Corp and your neighbor Antonio. “Larry, did you take time off work for my bachelor party?” You ask cheerfully as you exchange handshakes and half hugs with your friends and siblings.

“With all the shit that’s been going on with you, the trash world, and the massive influx of characters, I’ve been working overtime to the point my hive is complaining about not getting enough,” Larry explained as he helped himself to some mead from a cooler. “The company ordered me to take a day off before my overtime hours paid for a Galaxy-Class. Good thing too because Q-Bee has been planning to take the swarm to the office to make her displeasure known.”

“Yikes, that would’ve been a headache. She’s been modded to not need souls right?” You ask, recalling the threat soul eating characters can pose when they get on the loose.

“Yeah, now she just needs the general life energy people emit so no devouring and subsequent temporal soul regeneration needed,” Larry confirmed. “Though that hasn’t stopped her from threatening the non-bees characters.”

“And Antonio, where have you been hiding?” You ask her neighbor who you haven’t seen since maybe a week before you got lost in the trash world.

“I’ve been hunting down a few characters,” Antonio replied.

“Nice haul?”

“I’d say so,” he replied before he shifted a bit. “I heard about your house and Phil. If you need anything…”

“Thanks though I think I’ll be fine, my insurance should hopefully cover it and if not, I have money squirreled away,” you reassure him.

“If our parents don’t pay it off or send their own repair crew in,” Jamie says with Bowe nodding along. You were used to your parents alternating between letting you and your siblings do your own thing and suddenly taking over with an army of workers.

“Anyways, as my best man, what's on the menu today?” You turn towards Jamie, asking where we are going and what will be the plan.

“Oh you’ll see,” Jamie said as he banged on the side of the limo. The Miranda Lawson driving nodded in the mirror and messed with the controls. A second later, the limo jumped a bit as it went into flight mode and took off. “We’re going to the one place you swore never to go back to.”

“Albuquerque?!”

“No, the other place you swore never to go back to.” Jamie shook his head as he reached for the cooler and grabbed a bottle of rum.

“Vegas, I swore never to come back,” you say as the limo flew close to the Strip of Las Vegas. Sometime after RealDreams opened its business, the City of Las Vegas ended up being a keystone city during the initial chaos of the wars with other universes such as the first Combine War. The city expanded along with its entertainment facilities until it became as it was now. Having grown to be nearly 20 times the size since RealDreams’ opening, terraforming and weather control devices have made the massive city a veritable paradise of cool air, gambling, and sin.

“Looks like they recovered,” you comment, seeing a few casinos that had cheated you the last time you were here.

“You only did cosmetic damage and you were able to win Auntie Akari and Mary back so don’t worry about it,” Jamie waved it off. You grimace recalling your dad’s previous ‘bachelor’ party with his friends and you and your siblings had to both bail them out and win some of your aunties and mommas back including the bride. “You were lucky I found places where none of us were banned from. And by us, I mean you, our siblings, especially Gavin and Suvelo, and our cousins.”

“That sounds like a story,” Larry said, chuckling with yet another drink from the cooler in his hand.

“I’ll tell ya over shrimp,” Jamie buzzed the front of the limo. MIranda Lawson lowered the divider. “Take us down.” She nodded and the limo flew down into the traffic below.