FIRST DEAL

“Have you hacked the system yet? Hurry up would you?”
“Not quite. One, I need you to keep plugging at the fire wall.”
“I’m still surprised we got this far without them noticing… Perhaps they need to upgrade their systems?”
“I don’t care, as far as I’m concerned we should be able to get through any system regardless. I just want to know if-"
“We’re in.”
“Wow, so quick!”
“Just be quiet would you… Have they got anything useful?”
“Er… Two, bring up a system spec.”
“You have got to be kidding me. All this time and we still have to wait.”
“Oh, what’s this thing here?”
“This? I don’t… One check the program filename wrec.exe”
“What is it? Stop holding things out from me!”
”Wow, what do you know!”
“It’s Swordsdancer. They’ve got a signal.”
“Why are we still here? Let’s go!”
“She’s not exactly much use to us on her own. We can’t go into those precincts either, you know that.”
“Everything has its time.”
“But… We’ve been after them so long…”
“We’ll have them soon enough”

First Round - Practice Round
First Deal - Card by Card

It was a sunny afternoon, and the rays of light filtered gently through the tall Gum trees and lit up the Mount William Range in the Grampians. On the side of the rock face, a hand caught hold of a chip in the ledge, only to slip as some loose pebbles fell, before gripping the chip with the tips of its fingers again, and dragging it’s owner a little further up the wall.

Stockyard Wall, the hand’s owner had read, was an average quality cliff with a good bit of potential. As the hand kept her balance, Brogan O’Hart pulled out a small yellow block with a wire extending from it, a size seven polynut, from a pouch tied to her waist, and hammered it into a crevice in the rock. She was making full use of the potential, and looking out as a flock of cockatoos flew like white paper towards Jimmy Creek. Brogan felt the rough texture of the cliff with her right hand, and hoisted herself up higher, moving to its summit.

The movement was rhythmic; she dragged her knee across a rough patch and winced as the rock cut into her skin, grazing it. Continuing up, the pain didn’t matter. It was fuel to keep up the rhythm, keep climbing, scaling, rising. This was routine, an expedition and exploration the sixteen year old took during her camping trips with her family. Normally one of them would be supervising, but lately she’d taken to many of the climbs by herself, confident in her own skill and strength.

Fixing up her next anchor point, she kept an eye on how it was holding up in its place while she felt around for the handhold she’d spotted before. There should have been a ledge, just a little way up… Tearing her eyes away from the polynut, Brogan smiled as she reached her hand out to the ledge.

“Well, that is an interesting angle.”

If there was one thing Brogan didn’t expect, it was for a snide voice to suddenly speak out from right above her hand. There was another thing too, she didn’t expect that when she looked just above the ledge, there would be a black, furry paw. Of course, she didn’t expect that when she looked up even further, two large, yellow eyes would meet her gaze. “I do wonder what possessed you to climb this cliff…”

Her eyes widened at the sight of a grinning black cat covered in lilac stripes. It wasn’t that the cat was surprising as much as how the cat looked and the fact it could talk was. “What the fu-“

With that, Brogan let go of the wall, and fell. Only to be caught by her anchor. “Oof!” she cried out as the rope snapped and left her suspended in the air. Catching her breath, she began to panic. Not bothering to see if the cat was still up there or not, she swung back to the wall and pulled out the anchor, quickly but carefully climbing her way down to the next one. “Shit, shit shit, what the fuck is this?”

Continuing until her feet touched the ground, she unattached herself from the rope, rapid, panicked motions only making her fumble the carabineer. “Crap you stupid…” Finally freed, Brogan turned and began to run, only to be stopped within a few steps by a set of grinning, razor sharp teeth that seemed to be floating in the air. She swore again and began to run another direction, only to be stopped by a black and lilac striped tail waving in the air. Not wanting to run anymore, she stared blankly at the thing as it swayed to and fro. “Leigh… Tony… If this is one of you fucking stupid jokes, I will be shoving that thing right up-“
“I would prefer you not ‘shove’ my tail anywhere, and I can assure you that this is no prank.” Brogan blinked as the rest of the cat appeared behind the tail. It smiled at her with a mouth full of gleaming white steak knives. Brogan decided not to test her luck running away again, as she noted the cat’s claws were just as sharp. She wouldn’t want to run into it if that were the thing floating by itself next time. “We have things to do, so if you would please…”
“Wait, what the fuck are you?” Brogan interrupted bluntly, fear almost dissipated with annoyance at being suddenly ordered around taking over. The cat sighed at the inconvenience of having to explain things, and Brogan noticed that its mouth didn’t move as it talked. The voice of it seemed to come from within the cat without coming out of its mouth.
“You do have some interesting language… My name is Roll. I am a Cheshire Cat. If you do not mind, however, we have somewhere to be. Could you possibly see it in your way to bring your hand over here?” His clipped tone was almost absurd when paired with the smile, but nonetheless, Brogan cautiously extended her hand out towards Roll. At this point she had figured that if there were talking cats around, she was dreaming or her two older brothers had slipped her drugs or something. It only seemed logical. “Thank you…”

The cat raised his paw, and Brogan pulled her hand away again at the sight of Roll’s sharp claws. His eyes slid around to stare at her with an almost evil amusement, and the black daggers retracted before he put it out, ‘palm’ upwards, to where her hand was only moments ago. “Again, we have a place we are required to be in. Your hand, please.”
“Only if you keep those claws in, I mean, what the fuck is with them?” She glared at the paw before putting her hand out again, even slower this time, and she moved her glare to match Roll’s piercing stare. It might have been a dream, but there was nothing that said she was enjoying it. Maybe she was dreaming the whole camp… Would that mean when she woke up there would be a basketball game to play in? She certainly hoped so. While rock climbing was fun, nothing beat bouncing an orange ball up a court. Her thoughts were interrupted as the Roll’s paw was suddenly somehow gripping onto her hand, and for a split second she wondered if it had been possible that she had been daydreaming within her dream.
“Could you please tell me your name? I do not need your middle name, simply your given and surname,” Brogan was still glaring at the cat while trying to control her mind from daydreaming within the dream. What was an imaginary cat doing ordering her around anyway? She was tempted to give a false name, but something about the all too human like grip Roll had on her hand reduced her from lying to simple sarcasm.
“Brogan O’Hart, cap’n!” Still giving him a bit of a glare, she gave the cat a mock salute.
“I assure you I am not a captain of any sort…” A steady humming sound started up, and it was then that Brogan noticed Roll’s collar.

The collar was white, and the humming was emitting from a six-sided die, which was beginning to glow. Brogan stared at it with a look of confusion as Roll talked down into it. “Precinct number 2091988, subject Brogan O’Hart. Establishing Agent Status,” The hum became a high pitch whine for about two seconds before coming back down into the steady hum. “Agent Status Established. I now announce the subject Brogan O’Hart to be subject Spades, precinct number 11111111. Status as Agent Spades, codename, the Ace, precinct 1. Compute,” the hum died down along with the glow, and gave a small beep. Roll sighed, and smirked up at Brogan, his grip on her hand becoming almost tighter, and while her eyes were now transfixed on his slitted pupils, she could swear that he had fingers. “Let’s go then shall we, Miss Spades?”
“Miss Spades? What the fu-“
“Applying for transfer, precinct 2081988, subjects the Die and the Ace to precinct 1. Compute.” The humming in the die started up again, along with the glow, and as the humming progressively became higher pitched, the glow became brighter, enveloping both of them. Brogan desperately tried to pull away.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
“You’ll see.”
“In a minute I’ll bloody well make you see your-“

And with that, the two of them vanished.

END FIRST DEAL
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