$10 Million and Nothing to Do With It

Super Leo here. To clarify, Wildcat City has no gambling casinos and will not sell lottery tickets even though the rest of Kansas has a lottery. This was due to Mayor Clarkson’s beliefs that coincide in this regard with Leo the Patriotic Lion’s beliefs. I am referring to Captain Leo’s argument on gambling that left him nothing but controversy because of how one-sided it was, of course. Still, it did not stop people from trying to make it legal, and it did not stop the white lion now serving in his 11th term as mayor from saying no. In fact, last time someone proposed to put a casino in, Mayor Clarkson violently tore up the paper as his way of saying no—on live television. Yes, that created a stir amongst gambling supporters, but luckily, 99.99% of the citizens in town oppose it. Thanks to Captain Leo for that one.

This had nothing to do with the fact that one day I walked out to fetch the paper after taking my morning shower, and found a lottery ticket left unclaimed, but with the appropriate number of symbols scratched off. Because it formed a diagonal tic-tac-toe of dollar signs, this was the jackpot ticket, and it was worth $10 million after all taxes were paid. “What do I do with this?” I wondered. “I don’t even play the lottery. I had better tell Captain Leo about this, and also Super C. It’s a good thing we got our communicators upgraded just last week. Now I can talk to more than one colleague easier than ever.” I sent the signal and set it so that I could simultaneously talk live to both Super C and Captain Leo, but because I accidentally typed in the wrong code at first, Cripto also heard me live.

“What’s going on, Super Leo?” Super C began.

“Upon walking outside, I found a lottery ticket that someone threw out because they didn’t want it. Ironically, it was the jackpot ticket, and it was $10 million richer. There is no way I can prove who originally had it, so what am I to do with it?”

“I guess all we can do is report to the authorities what happened and claim the cash for ourselves,” Super C replied. “Also, check to make sure there isn’t any hypnosis involved; you never know what Bendraqi will use to do so. We’re all immune to it, but now that our communicators can scan for it, that’s why I brought it up.”

I took the ticket inside and scanned it. “Nope. No hypnosis here,” I reported. “Just a thrown out ticket. You’d think the winner would keep the ticket. Not this person, evidently.”

“Bring the ticket here,” Cripto put in. “Also don’t forget we have that past camera trick our communicators now have. Anything it doesn’t get my powers will help me get, so that we can solve this mystery.”

“I’ll do that,” I said, and immediately put on my boots to complete the full look of me in my personalized ABU (it is common for furries that are not active military to wear military uniforms, with indicators that they were not active military, for educational, promotional, and personal purposes). Then I trooped on over to Cripto’s house, where Captain Leo and Super C met me. As it happened, this was a case where Super C was in his everyday street clothes instead of his uniform, wearing the red headband as always. Leo had his casual wear as well, while Cripto was in his black rock star clothes.

“Here is the ticket,” I announced it. “Now let’s see how this past camera trick works.”

Cripto took his communicator and asked it when the ticket was purchased before taking the shot. Recalling that it could only take up to three shots per day, I made sure I had mine ready just in case. But the three shots were evidence enough to convince us of what happened, as well as a video replay trick Cripto’s powers added: the person bought the ticket at the 7-Eleven closest to my house, scratched and saw it was the winner, and exclaimed,

[quote]“I can’t accept this much money! My dad will kill me!”[/quote]

So he threw the ticket out the window. The shots from Super C’s communicator revealed a second winning ticket purchased by that same man, worth only $10,000, and his father was happy with that.

[quote]“That’s a better amount,” the dad had said. “Had you accepted the $10 million, it would have been a victory from a multi-million dollar chance of a lifetime, but riches lead to misery because you’d have $10 million and nothing to do with it, since you were taught very well by me that money doesn’t buy happiness. Maybe that is a mistake on my behalf and my dad’s behalf, but those are the values I was raised on. I taught you to never believe in stereotypes as well, so I am all mixed up. It’s a stereotype that the richest people are nothing but miserable unless they find a good use for the money, just as Rockefeller and Carnegie did.”[/quote]

“Do you object to any of that?” I asked Captain Leo.

“He’s correct in saying that money doesn’t buy happiness, and that for some people, the best thing to do is to give it away to a good cause. Cripto, you do that, don’t you?”

“All the time,” Cripto replied. “All proceeds from every show Furry Fury does and every CD we sell goes to charity. I can only handle living as middle-class as possible, even if my net worth according to my bank account is roughly about $19.3 million. Where is this guy mistaken?”

“If he is mistaken, it is his rule that it is wrong to be rich. Clearly that is what he was going for when talking to his son. Alas, it is the humans like him that give humans everywhere else a bad name, and it is up to us furries to defend common sense. I suggest, Commander, that we go at once to the authorities in charge of the lottery and report this.”

“I approve that suggestion, Leo,” Super C replied. “Super Leo, you and Cripto save those photos and video to your communicators’ hard drives. That way, the authorities won’t protest. They wouldn’t protest anyway because of your loud voice, Leo, but that’s how I feel about this.”

I rode with Leo in his Patriotmobile while Cripto rode with Super C in his convertible, using our radars to find the right place. When we arrived, we wasted no time in reporting the trouble, and the deputy director of the lottery turned to me and replied, “Thank you for reporting this to us. There have been complaints about us not having a winner on that particular ticket as far as the jackpot was concerned, and the last jackpot winner took $35.5 million home. The only fair thing to do is to award you the $10 million as if you had played and won, and we’ll be sure to straighten everything out. Don’t you worry about anything; we’ll take care of all that.”

“Thanks, glad to be of service,” I said as we left after they wrote me the check. I went ahead and put it in the bank, going through all the procedures of depositing such a huge amount, before it was time to go into battle again. Super C’s past camera shots revealed that Bendraqi was after the ticket in order to use the money so he could build another hypnosis beam. Lame as it was, it was the honest truth.

Special actions from Cripto’s powers allowed instant transformation into our battle uniforms, as well as return Cripto’s car to where it was. Crush drove his Lionmobile to pick him up while Captain Leo drove on back to get Captain Tom. Soon all of us flew to the rescue in pursuit of Bendraqi, who had escaped his cell in Alcatraz in order to reach his hideout. To no avail; we beat him to it, and the Cat of Steel and I both had the honor of delivering a powerful punch that sent the hated mad scientist right back in his cell.

At Maximum Mighty Melt, the place we usually go to once the battle was won, I announced that I made plans to donate the $10 million to charity, which everyone approved of. I wasn’t sure which charity yet, but with the help of my friends, I would soon find one.

THE END