“You seriously thought I could’ve given you anthrax? You know how hard it is to get that?” Richard sat back in his chair, laughing loudly from the back office of the Card Cashe. Mr. Montgomery left early to take care of some errands, leaving his best friend to hold down the fort on a slow Wednesday evening.

Sarah leaned against the desk stacked high with various papers with a multitude of purposes, “I mean, maybe! My dad said he almost got it when I was a kid, so it can happen to anyone!”

She had shown her hand with, disappointingly, only three glowing rings to Albert, Audrey and lastly, Richard. With their lack of reaction, she surmised only the other ACE wielders can see her hit list of challengers. Clearing her throat, she continued, “So how did you get the Gemless Carbuncle back when the game came out when it just came out in the third pack? I even met with the creator when he just finished the card art not even a few months ago.”

With the card in question on the table before him, he leaned back in the chair and pondered for a sec, “I think I found that one while I was skiing?”

As he scratched his ginger beard, Sarah did a double take, “Wait. ‘That one’? Like, you’ve found more than one weird card like this?”

“Yeah, I’ve found five in total. Gave ‘em out to kids and winners of some local events like yours!”

Sarah’s face found itself deep within her palm. Carbuncle contentedly knocked papers off the desk with his bushy tail.”So you’re telling me you had five ACE- five weird cards show up randomly and you just handed them out, mostly to kids?”

“I mean, when you’re old like me, everyone’s a kid!” He flashed a goofy grin, completely clueless about Sarah’s sickening pallor. “Don’t get me wrong, the game’s neat, but I don’t really get some of the designs behind…”

Sarah found her way back to the Jefferson twins, having each beaten Max, who had thankfully left his mother at home today. “Ugh! Both of you are just lucky! I don’t even know what half of the new cards even do!”

“Then read, bucko! Or get your mommy to read them to you!” Mica crossed her arms. Her dress was a gothic black with golden trim. Her hair hung in delicate drills after picking up the same curler Sarah had recommended. “It’s not my fault you haven’t done your reading reps!”

Mikey sat back, his thick rimmed glasses having been taped from a particularly punchy cousin from this week’s Sunday brunch, “Bruh, all you do is complain! Maybe people’d hang with you more if you were actually chill or something!”

Upon seeing Sarah, it was all he needed to send him picking up his things and walking out of the backroom of the shop.

“Bitch baby still acting like a bitch?” Sarah asked, taking the still warm seat, Carbuncle hopping on the table before her.

Mikey pinched the bridge of his nose, “I hate teaming up on the guy, but he needs to get that he brings everything on himself. If he just calmed down a bit and didn’t start blaming everyone else for his mistakes, he’d be loads more bearable.”

“Oh yeah, totally.” Nodding to herself, Sarah pulled out her phone, “Hey Mica, did you catch that new episode of The Single Person? I can’t believe Josh Pablo James came back after being kicked out for throwing up a QR of his mixtape!”

The black victorian adjusted her tiara, “Augh, no! Mikey was hogging all the bandwidth with his stupid anime!”

“Whoa, whoa! You said you were looking forward to this week’s episode of Mahou Shoujo Yuri Magica Arashi!” Mikey sat up, “You were even excited to see Corporal Forklore’s Fundoshi no Ochinch-”

Mica’s hand clasped tightly over her brother’s mouth, “Shut up! I only said that because you wouldn’t shut up about missing the episode!”

The twins squabbled, slapping each other wherever their hands could hit with visible skin. Carbuncle hopped over to the impromptu title match, watching as the Jeffersons grew more and more violent.

At the height of their slap storm, Mike grabbed his sister’s wrist, “Wait, wait, wait! Sarah?”

“What?” She asked, writing a scathing rebuttal against who she assumed to be a middle aged woman on The Single Person forum.

“Your dog, rabbit, thing’s weird head hole has something in it…” Mike gasped, as Mica’s slap echoed in the room, knocking his glasses onto the floor. “Ow! Hey!”

Looking up to see Mica’s fingers, knuckle deep, spreading her brother’s mouth wide open, she focused in on the spectator. With the pentagonal hole being something she had learned to avoid staring at, it was the first time she saw a blue gem comfortably taking up a fifth of the vacant headspace.

“How long have you had that, ‘Buncle?” Sarah poked at the sharp fragment filling up part of the section.

“Squeak?”

Carbuncle scratched his ear as if everything was fine. “Alright, well, I guess it’s nothing to worry about…”

As the twins finished their spat, the room quieted down once more. A few people meandered as the quiet Wednesday evening gave way to night. The last few games died down and people began packing up.

“What do you got going on this weekend?” Mikey asked, as he walked ahead of the two girls. “Mom wanted to know if you wanted to come to our Valentine’s barbeque.”

“Damn…” Sarah groaned, tightly holding Carbuncle, “I’d be down, but I’m meeting up with my parents this weekend…”

Mica snapped into action, “Wait, you’ve patched things up with them?!”

“Uhhh… Not yet. I called up my mom and said I’m ready to apologize to my dad… Again.”

“‘Again?’” Mica leaned in, ready for the juicy family drama of the rich and famous, “You already tried saying sorry and he turned you down?”

Lifting her hands up defensively while still holding onto her captive, Sarah’s eyes shot wide, “No, no! Nothing like that! I… kinda just apologized to someone that… Looked like him?”

“What does that mean? Did you forget what he looked like or something? Have you been away from home for too long?!”

With a sigh, the three left the card shop.

After waiting with the twins for their mom to pick them up, Sarah walked back to Ol’ Trucksie. The moon hung above, illuminating the night skies and the never ending darkened fields around them. Cool air traced the inside of her lungs, the slight sting of winter beginning to leave the Gateway of the West.

“Squeak!” Carbuncle finally wrestled himself from the restraining grip around his throat, and ran to the middle of the parking lot, dimly lit by the sole streetlight. “Squeak!”

Following his barking upwards, Sarah met the gaze of a masked individual crouched upon the top of the light post. His long coat hung from his thin figure. Black, just like the rest of his attire and his exposed short hair.

While still crouching, he rolled backwards off of the post and landed on the ground with a clean three-point landing. “So, you’re the one who thinks she can challenge the world and get away with it?”

“Oh fuck!” Quickly holding up her hands alit with a glowing around three of her fingers, she quickly examined her challengers. None of them matched this individual before her.

“You seem to be mistaken, I am not here to challenge you.” He threw his hanging jacket open in a dramatic fashion, “Sarah Weatherton, if you believe you can stand up to the forces of evil, then you shall consider yourself an ally of me, Deadman Dantes.”

Both Sarah and Carbuncle looked to each other. After a moment of confirmation neither of them knew what was occurring before them, they returned to the man wearing a simple masquerade mask. “That’s, uh, Weatherford, actually. Second, why should I fucking believe you, Dudman Dummy?”

The man, who now appeared to be in his mid-twenties, laughed. “Even when faced with someone superior in skill, you still have the resolve to knock me down a peg? Maybe stupidity guided you more than bravery when you made your proclamation!”

“Wait. Why do you think you’re stronger than me?!” Sarah shouted, the itch beginning to start up once more.

Holding out a hand, he grinned triumphantly. “Much like yourself, the alliance of our enemies sought after me, relentlessly sending many to quickly be felled. This has only tempered my skill.”

The alliance of our enemies? Does he mean Miranda and her goons? Sarah checked Carbuncle, who seemed to be looking at the eccentric figure with more curiosity rather than aggression. Miranda, her goons, and Becky…

“So you’re pulling the whole ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ shit?” The man’s theatrical looks, each rehearsed motion, and the forced diction led Sarah to one conclusion: He’s a fucking dweeb.

“Alas, you can see right through my intentions!” A number of flourishes only solidified the notion. The phantom thief continued to gesticulate, “While it may be true we shall inevitably duel one day soon, I believe you are crazy enough to take down the world alongside me before!”

“Okay, so if I was to join you, what would be in it for me? Aside from stomping that bitch Miranda, of course.”

Dantes put his hand to his chin, “You would be allied with one of the most powerful duelists trapped within this war. That alone is worth lending me some of your might.”

Carbuncle hopped on Sarah’s shoulder. “That’s it? How do I even know you’re worth the shit you’re trying to shovel?”

“In a world where might creates right, we shall have a test duel to ensure you get what you see.” He flipped his jacket open once again, this time revealing a single deck of World Game cards strapped onto the inlay. “I am already aware of your skill, having dealt with that shapeshifting thug not just a few days ago!”

Looking around the empty parking lot they found themselves in, Sarah questioned the walking circus act before her, “And where are we going to duel? Under that streetlight or some shit?”

“My, for such a beautiful woman, you have a heinous tongue… No, we shall duel at your domicile!”

“You can just say ‘house’, you fucking loser.” Not even half a second went by with her entertaining the idea of bringing home a masked stranger to the middle of nowhere onto Albert’s ranch. “Also, fuck no. I am not taking some flamboyant piece of shit like you home.”

Deadman Dantes pondered once more. “Fine. You are correct in not allowing a stranger such as myself within your comforted walls, similar to how I would not ask of you to do the same to me. No, we shall have our trial in the fast food restaurant just down the road!”

“You mean the McSpanky’s just down the block?”

“Yes!” In an act of superhuman strength, Dantes jumped up onto the lightpost once more, “We shall make haste! Not only to showcase my skill, but also to attain sustenance!”

Sarah slapped her forehead for the second time that day. “Well, at least he’s honest.”

Hopping into Ol’ Trucksie, she pulled up to the lightpost and stopped, seeing the masked vigilante still crouched on the fixture in the middle of the parking lot, “You, uh, want a ride over there?”

“No need! I was just ensuring you made it to your vehicle without being accosted by some weirdo!”

You mean ANOTHER weirdo?

As she finished her thought, black wings spread out wide from under Dantes’ coat. With a few flaps, he lifted himself off of his perch and flew towards the 24-hour fast food joint.

“‘Buncle, I hope you never do weird shit like that to me…”

Having finished his triple meat Grand Spanky, Deadman Dantes wiped his hand on a napkin and took out his deck. Insistent not to duel until after the space before him was clear, he was finally ready for the friendly match.

“As a sign of friendship, I will allow you to examine my deck before our match. Since we will be working together, we need to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

“This better not have fucking anthrax on it…” Shuffling through the deck, it appeared to be made of fairly normal cards. A few from the newest expansion, a few from the oldest. Finally stopping on a Heathen card depicting the figure of a woman in a red flamenco dress. ‘The Masque of Red Death’ glittered and shone in the fluorescent lights. Similar to her own Gemless Carbuncle, it was apparent this was his ACE creature.

“So,” he asked, having finished wiping his side of the table down, “Shall we have our match?”