Venzo Mercury just sat, legs crossed, in the most confident and condescending manner possible. His expressions oozed complacency and his smile was even more maniacal than before. It was the perfect demeanor to watch crumble.

For once, Zander couldn’t help but let his emotions get the best of him. After all, he was overjoyed that he was able to figure it all out. The fact that Venzo’s method of cheating was so stupid, yet so ingenious, he couldn’t help but smile. That smile then turned into a quiet chuckle, and then that quiet laugh erupted into laughter.

With a bit of a confused look on his face, Venzo said, “So this is how you crack under pressure? I have to say, I didn’t expect you to be this type.”

Recovering himself from the sudden outburst that even surprised him, Zander managed to compose himself. He then looked at the last 100 dollars worth of chips, and then up towards Venzo with a smile.

“Don’t worry, I’m not cracking under any pressure,” Zander eventually replied. “As a matter of fact,” he then motioned for a glass of wine, which was promptly bought, “I feel as relaxed as ever.”

Venzo narrowed his eyes a bit before returning to his usual composure. “Shall we continue?” he asked.

“Yeah, we can. But first,” he said, gesturing his hands towards his hand that was now face up on the table, “can I get a new hand? It seems my sudden outburst caused me to accidentally reveal my hand.”

Livia immediately jumped in and said, “I am sorry, Zander, but rules state—”

Venzo put his hand up in a silencing manner, cutting Livia off. “It’s no big deal, I understand,” he said with a devious, intense, and calculating smile. “We all make mistakes. Go on, deal him another hand.”

“I really appreciate it, I really do. For some reason, I feel really good about this hand,” Zander confidently stated.

Two cards were then dealt in his direction, but he did not flip them over right away.

“Before we get to the end of our game, I feel like I should explain the outburst of laughter. It’s the least I can do,” Zander theatrically said, moving his hands about in exaggerated ways.

Venzo said nothing in response—he just stared neutrally and expectantly.

“As you know, my friend accused you of cheating earlier in the match. He did so with no proof and with no real basis for the claims. And for that, I apologize.”

“I appreciate the apology,” Venzo said with no emotion. “But what does that have to do—”

“However!” Zander interrupted. “He wasn’t wrong. You have in fact cheated during this game, and not just once, but on every hand.”

Venzo then laughed to himself and turned towards Livia. “This is how you know when people are desperate. It seems like when these teens start to lose—”

“And I can prove it,” Zander once again interrupted.

Silently and suddenly, Venzo’s whole body and demeanor shifted to be more serious. With a twitch of an eyebrow, he looked Zander dead in the eye and asked, “What is your proof? I’m getting really tired of these false accusations.”

“You’ll see it after this hand,” Zander replied, taking a drink of his wine.

“You must show it now!”

The atmosphere around the table suddenly grew silent and awkward. That was the first time that Venzo had raised his voice with such passion; it took everyone by surprise.

Looking around, Venzo awkwardly coughed and looked at Livia. “Don’t you agree, casino worker?” he asked. “They have to show proof right away or suffer the consequences.”

Livia immediately shot a worried look at Zander, one that screamed Are you sure about this?

As if answering that look, Zander spoke out to no one in particular and said, “If I have one hand, I can expose a cheater, guaranteed.”

“Mr. Zander,” Livia began, “are you completely confident that you can prove that Venzo Mercury is cheating if you play one more hand?”

“If I can play one more hand, I will expose a cheater at this table by the very end of the hand.”

With a deep breath in, Livia firmly stated, “Then I will allow it. But if Mr. Zander cannot provide sufficient evidence, then he will suffer the maximum consequence possible.” She then turned towards Venzo. “Is that fair enough?”

Completely cold and without emotion, Venzo responded with “Fine.”

With that being settled, Zander finally lifted up his new hand and looked at the cards. At that very moment, it felt like time itself slowed down. He had one hand holding his two cards and one hand on his glass of wine. He waited for it to happen, and even though he only waited for a few seconds, to him, it felt like an eternity.

His hands began to ache as his grip tightened in response to his nervousness. It was now or never. If it didn’t happen, if Venzo played it smart and careful, then Zander knew he would lose right then and there.

Just as its window of opportunity began to close, it happened. The shadows around Zander flickered and shifted ever so slightly, like they had been the entirety of the game. Without a second of hesitation, Zander took his glass of wine and threw it directly behind him.

“Agh!” a female voice cried out from directly behind him.

Looking back, to everyone’s shock, a woman in a beautiful white dress seemed to almost apparate from thin air. But upon closer inspection, most of her seemed almost transparent and ghost-like.

As she stumbled backwards, clutching at her head, she tripped and fell flat on her back, still yelling out in distress. Slowly, she became less and less transparent, until she looked completely normal, albeit except for the giant red stain that was now on her dress.

“What is the meaning of this!?” Livia yelled out.

“This,” Zander said, approaching the lady on the ground, “is a cheater.”

Now that he was closer to her, Zander could see every detail about her and her accessories more clearly, and his suspicions were proven true. Besides the red stains, nothing seemed immediately suspect about her, except for the extremely familiar-looking diamond-encrusted watch that was around her wrist.

“Guards,” Livia yelled, “seize that woman.”

Within mere moments, two casino guards rushed in and apprehended the woman, and she gave no resistance. She was brought to her feet and was silent.

“Explain yourself,” Livia said to the woman, her voice carrying a kind of authoritative tone that Zander hadn't heard before.

But the woman remained silent.

“I can explain,” Zander said. “This woman is known as a Resonator, someone with supernatural abilities and powers. I’m not sure how many people are aware, but recently, Resonators started appearing in the world. It may seem like fantasy, but I assure you they are as real as they come. This woman,” Zander pointed at the woman in the white dress, “seems to have the ability to control light, causing her to appear invisible to most people. I figured this out when I saw the shadows around me move in an unnatural way. She is obviously very skilled at controlling light, but there were slight errors in her control, causing the slight imperfections of light. It’s only noticeable in her immediate vicinity, which is why the shadows only moved when we looked at our hands for the first time. Which means that she had to get close enough to us to see our hands in order to tell you that information. Isn’t that right, Venzo?”

Venzo’s face was a deep red and it glistened with sweat. It looked as if he tried to say something in response, but words never came out of his mouth.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Zander sarcastically said.

Clenching his teeth and crushing the cards in his hands, Venzo angrily said, “I have never seen that woman before in my life.”

“Now normally, you can say that and there’s nothing we can do to prove you wrong,” Zander replied. “However, there’s one more piece to this puzzle that has yet to be revealed: How was she communicating to Venzo?”

Zander then made his way right next to the woman and gestured for Livia to follow.

“If you look at her wrist you will see a—”

SMASH!!!

Before Zander could finish his thought, a loud breaking sound could be heard coming from Venzo’s direction. He had smashed his watch on the table, and the jewels that were once embedded in it scattered across the floor.

“Thank you for the segway, Venzo,” Zander commented. “Around both the woman’s and Venzo’s wrist is the same smartwatch. That watch was used to communicate what cards the woman saw in each of our hands. I’m assuming they were both wirelessly connected in some way that allowed one to send messages to the other.”

“Are you serious?” Livia asked Zander.

“I am, and I would prove it, but it seems that someone got a little too trigger-happy,” Zander replied, looking directly at Venzo.

Livia then looked around the room, looked at the panicked Venzo, and then looked back at Zander. “Still, I believe this to be sufficient evidence against both this woman and against Venzo of cheating,” she stated.

“You can’t be serious right now?” Venzo desperately cried out.

“Oh I am, and I will have you immediately—”

Before she could even finish her statement, Zander put his hand in front of her face, causing her to stop mid-sentence.

“Now hold on,” he said, “I’m willing to give Venzo the benefit of the doubt on this one”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I’m just saying that now that the invisible woman is detained, I think the game of poker can continue. Isn’t that right, Venzo? Now that the only cheater is taken care of, there should be no reason why we can’t continue.”

Venzo, who was visibly shaking, just stared at Zander. “What are you plotting?”

“Nothing in particular, I just want to finish what we started.”

“You’re going to regret this, blondie,” Venzo nervously laughed.

“I’m sure I won’t.”

Zander knew that there was nothing stopping him now. He was going to get that sweet revenge while showing the world his card-playing prowess. He was going to beat Venzo in poker in every single way possible. After all, if it’s a game of numbers and statistics, there was no one in the world who could fairly compete against Zander. He stood on a numerical peak all on his own, built by the geometry he could calculate in an instant.

***

“You can’t be serious!?” Venzo cried out as he lost the rest of his money. “No one can be that good at a card game.”

Collecting the last bit of the thousands of dollars that he won from Venzo in poker, Zander just looked up at him and smiled.

“I’m too important, too rich, and too handsome to work in the patrol. Please, give it back to me!” Venzo pleaded, pulling out strands of his once beautifully kept hair.

“I don’t think so,” Zander replied. He then started to get up from the table and gather his things. “I would say that I'm sorry for your loss, but I’m not.”

Just as Zander turned around, Venzo desperately leaped across the table at Zander. Before he could make contact, he was brought down and restrained by the casino guards that were next to the table. They dragged him away towards the Dawn Patrol door, all while he screamed and cried out how unfair the world was. It reminded Zander of how children act when their parents take away their favorite toy.

“Hey Vince, El, do you think you can help me carry these chips to the counter so that I can get them redeemed?”

Rushing at an incredible speed, both Vincent and Eliot slammed into Zander, knocking him to the ground. They both embraced him with tears coming down from their eyes. Zander decided that it was better not to fight against it.

Eventually, Vincent and Eliot got off and helped Zander back to his feet. Although Vincent stopped hugging Zander, Eliot still clung to his waist.

“You saved us, Zan,” Eliot said, still sniffling a bit.

“Of course I did,” Zander replied, brushing off his shirt. “Did you ever doubt me?”

“N-no! I always believed in you!”

“I didn’t,” Vincent bluntly said. “I thought we were fucked.”

“Of course you did,” Zander replied while rolling his eyes and smiling. He then slowly looked at both of his friends and finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you guys ready?”

“Ready for what?”

“The Silver Pillar.”