Zoom had been busier lately than he had ever been in his life. The combination of seemingly nonstop rogues and the subsequent mayhem had quite the negative impact on business and the accounts reflected that sentiment all too well. Zoom flipped through the latest document from his accountant and came to only one conclusion; Downtown Los Angeles needed another operation - and fast! Luckily... speed was Zoom's strong suit. 

A few hours later...

Jerry Zaheer Zoom Rick ralph_lombino and Typhon were all sitting around a poker table. Sarai stood behind lombino, rubbing his shoulders and in general keeping an eye on the overall alcohol consumption. Rick sat slightly hunched over in his seat passed out drunk and appeared to be drooling on himself, despite Sarai's best efforts. 

Zoom looked back and forth between Jerry and Zaheer, trying to gauge what cards they held. Typhon and lombino had both already folded - Typhon with a wince upon his face - looking pained at the turn card; apparently he had missed out on a good hand. Zoom decided that he had a winning hand and pushed all of his chips into the center.

"All in" Zoom said with a flat voice, his face perfectly still. 

Jerry tilted his head from side to side; the cogs of his brain were clearly working just as hard as they possibly could. A few beads of sweat dripped off Jerry's face and hit the table with a soft plink-plink! His face rapidly turned from comically confused to dead serious. Zoom couldn't help but to let out a chuckle before he slipped a line of advice to his friend,

"If you're having to think about it this much... you don't have the winner Jerry, you know this."

"Damn it!" Jerry mumbled under his breath, as he too came to that sad truth. He grumbled for a few more moments before eventually throwing in his hand.

"Fold..."

Zoom turned his gaze to Zaheer. His Right Hand Man sat up impeccably straight in his chair, something Zoom hoped that his spine could handle with ease should he live to be as old as Zaheer was. Zoom's eyes lost their focus as his brain thought back for a moment, reminiscing on how he had picked his Right Hand Man.

There had been a series of races between the interested parties - competing to earn the chance to be Zoom's Right Hand Spot. Ultimately the final winner had been Zaheer - who looked quite proud of himself. Zoom informed the old man that he had one final test to pass...and thus he challenged Zaheer to one final race, against himself. 

Despite Zaheer having lost to Zoom in the final race, the old clever man still found himself eventually landing as Zoom's Right Hand; for Zoom had taken a great interest in Zaheer's ability to bend air - and in the vast amount of knowledge stored within Zaheer's head. All of these thoughts flickered through Zoom's head in an instant, but it felt like one of those spaced-out moments that spread across an eternity. Zoom rapidly blinked his eyes, shifting them back into focus. Arching one of his eyebrows, he asked Zaheer,

"Well? Are you in?"

The old man didn't respond to the pressure and instead took a few moments to calculate his odds. A perceptible difference flashed across the old man's demeanor as he glanced down at his pile of chips and realized that he had more than enough to call Zoom's bet. The dark brown eyes of Zaheer darted back and forth between the Flop/Turn on the board and the cards that he held in his hand. Zoom took note that the corners of Zaheer's mouth had - albeit ever-so-slightly - turned up in the briefest of smirks. It didn't matter much to Zoom, as he was already All-In and couldn't take it back now. 

It only took a split second for the change to take place - the smirk on Zaheer's face that had only barely been noticeable rapidly gave way to a full-on grin. Playing up the "moment", Zaheer picked up one of his chips and started twirling it between his fingers. He kept his other hand busy too, tapping away on the edge of the poker table in a rhythmic beat. It was one of the things that Zoom loved about his Right Hand... the old man's willingness to 'fuck with' him. While on most occasions it was something that he could and did appreciate, it was quite apparent by the expression on Zoom's face that he wasn't in the mood for tomfoolery that evening. Zoom sighed loudly hoping to accentuate that his level of patience found itself depleting at an alarming rate. Zaheer cleared his throat before finally saying in a flat tone,    

"This particular game is almost pointless. Surely you must realize this? If I win, a good chunk of it gets kicked up to you and if you win, you get the whole pot - but will still wind up sending money to me in order to handle some business affairs. Regardless of who wins this hand it leaves us in a spot where I still have a virtual mountain of chips and we're stuck here doing this back and forth for the next six hours just to see the pot money ultimately wind up spread throughout most of the pockets in this room."

Zoom let out a brief chuckle, for his Right Hand had assessed the situation quite splendidly. It was one of the "catch-22s" of playing a poker game which consisted entirely of people whose finances were all directly linked. Zoom didn't mind the seeming monotony of it all though, as it gave him a chance to spend some non-business time with the people he worked with on a daily basis. The proverbial light-bulb in Zoom's head lit up brilliantly as an idea came to him; he could make this one of the most interesting games of poker that had ever been played. 

"You're right." Zoom told his Right Hand, "This is a bit pointless other than the fun of it all, eh? How about we up the stakes a significant amount more than what's in this pot...?" 

Almost all of the other people in the room had been at least half paying attention to the current hand between Zoom and Zaheer, except for Rick who still remained passed out in a drunken stupor. At Zoom's mention of raising the stakes almost everyone responded in some way; ralph_lombino yawned and rubbed the tiredness from his eyes as he pulled his chair a little closer to the table, as Typhon cracked his knuckles so loudly that it woke up Rick - who opened one eye and peered around momentarily before he quickly nodded off back to sleep. 

In a manner that very much put off vibes of 'disapproving-mother', Sarai shook her head slightly from side to side. She proceeded to do something most other mortals wouldn't dare to do; she walked over to Rick and pried away the half empty bottle of vodka from his hands. Rick didn't budge. Sarai walked back to the other side of the table, away from Rick, but instead of resuming her post behind lombino she took a seat in the open chair next to him. 

Jerry pointed to the bottle of vodka that Sarai had confiscated from Rick, motioning for her to slide it over. There were no signs of hesitation at all as the bottle came to a halt in front of him; Jerry took off the cap and chugged the rest of the vodka in one long gulp. Everyone remained still and silent as they waited for Zoom to continue. 

"If I win this hand, you concede to being stuck at the Rank of Capo for the rest of your criminal days! And if you win... I will authorize you to setup your own organization within Downtown Los Angeles... No time to think about it, yes or no right now!" 

A split-second passed as the jaws of everyone in the room fell to the floor. Zaheer was clearly not worried about it as he wasted no time in responding, 

"I accept these terms". 

The 8 of Hearts gets pulled from the deck and put into play as the river-card. 

To an onlooker it might have seemed as if a tennis match were happening, everyone watching quickly turned their head from side to side, repeatedly turning their gaze back and forth from Zoom to Zaheer. Zoom turned over his hand - revealing two pair. Zaheer responded simply by standing up and sticking out his hand. Slightly curious as to where the man was going with it, Zoom reached out and shook hands with Zaheer.

"When can I expect to start?" Zaheer said slyly. He coolly flipped over his cards, showing a Full House. Zoom couldn't believe it and had been half tempted to run back in time to change the timeline, but instead decided to honor the terms of the bet. He shook his head unbelieving and shrugged before replying,

"Immediately, you may start immediately... Even though I hadn't intended on ever letting you leave my side. Ah well. I guess that's why they call it a gamble, yeah? Congratulations Zaheer. I have absolutely no doubt that you'll do well in this position despite it being an out-of-nowhere thing."

A few days later...

Zoom and Zaheer stood on the sidewalk outside of Zaheer's new HQ. As the two of them finished up the last of the paperwork involved with securing the new building, part of their attention shifted to keeping an eye on a group of kids who had gathered to play a game of 8 on 8 kickball in the streets. The kids appeared to be having a blast despite the somewhat mild temperature of the January afternoon. And then one of the strangest things that Zoom had ever seen happened. 

After accidentally booting their kickball through one of the windows in Zaheer's HQ; all of the kids reached into their back pocket in unison, each pulling out a yellow bandanna. As if this had been rehearsed... they all looked around to ensure that their comrades had secured their bandannas before they spoke as one loud, high-pitched-prepubescent group. 

"WE ARE THE BADASS BANANA BANDANNA BANDITS, AAAA-WHOOO!"

The kids all proceeded to scatter in various directions taking off in groups of two to three. Zoom clutched his sides in pain as his lungs struggled to intake oxygen due to him laughing so hard. 'What in the fuck is in the water around here?' Zoom thought to himself for only about the thousandth time that month. As he slowly regained his breath Zoom turned to Zaheer and said,

"So...What are you going to call this organization anyway? I think that those kids had the right idea there with all that alliteration - it was quite catchy!"

Zaheer watched as the kids ran off down an alley way nearby. He lifted his arm, keeping his palm pointed up towards the sky. He clenched his fingers upward and summoned a small ball of air roughly the size of a kickball. He pulled his arm across the front of his body in a slicing movement and sent the ball of air off down the alley after the kids at about the same speed as the kickball went through his window. There was a moment of silence before a few loud thuds. Five yellow bandannas caught in a gust of wind soared out of the alley way and landed on the street in front of them. 

Zaheer lifted his hand once more and the bandannas blew to his feet. He picked them up and turned to Zoom. "The organization will be named the Red Lotus, we will aim to liberate the nation from the governments' influence. True freedom can only be achieved when oppressive governments are torn down." Zoom took a half step back and nodded along. Zaheer clutched the bandannas in his fist and made his way inside, straight to the room with the broken window. The wind was carrying through the hole in the window strongly, Zaheer swatted at the air with his hand, sweeping the broken glass into the corner of the room. He hung the bandannas in the window. "This will be my office, a place to remind myself that freedom is as essential as air, and without it, there is no life. There is only darkness." He turns back to look at Zoom. "Thank you for this, I will serve you well." Zaheer heads back out to the front of the building to get used to the area and his surroundings.