Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works; all other characters and worlds belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing with them.
Betad by Priapus, Malcolm Tent, Beans
Guild of Gamers: The Card Master
Chapter 01: It's time to d-d-d-d-duel!
— Charles (Charlie) —
"No."
Not even bothering to look up, I look through my hand with a small frown before I smirk and play my card.
"Come on. All I'm saying-"
"I'm not giving you my sister's number, Greg," I cut him off. "Now, draw your last pathetic card so we can end this farce."
Sitting opposite the now pouting Greg Veder, I watch him go over his own hand carefully. Sometimes, I wonder why I even hang out with him, but finding someone to game with in Winslow is not as easy as it sounds. His pout fades to what he probably thinks is a devious look as he starts his turn. Really, going for a big summon when I have three cards face down?
I'd be happy if I hadn't already beaten him this way twice today.
"I use Call of Heroism to replace my Lung with… Alexandria!" Greg declares proudly, going to place down his strongest card.
"Countered. I activate my face-down Mouse Protector and negate the summon, dealing Alexandria's damage to your base. That's four thousand attack to your… one thousand, two hundred base. I win again," I say easily, flipping over Mousey and using one of her special effects.
"I got rid of your Mouse at the start, you can't have two legendarys!" Greg shouts, uncaring of the attention.
"Yeah, and I used Heroism Never Rests to pull all my heroes from my graveyard and shuffled them back into my deck the turn after. Your card tracking fucking sucks, my dude," I shrug. "So, unless you have an instant in your hand to counter Mousey, I win."
Watching him slowly go over all two cards in his hand (he always overplays and fails to keep things in reserve), I wait with a knowing smirk. He has like three instants in his villain-heavy deck and no way to restore them, and unlike him, I did keep track of his cards and know he's wasted them all.
"Ugh. Fucking pay-to-win deck," Greg finally scoffs. It's his usual defence since my lawyer dad gives me a better allowance than he does. He knows it's bullshit, since we checked the card prices, and my deck is worth like half of his, since he stacks it with his rarest cards, while my deck is just the cards with the most synergy. My most expensive card is Myrddin, and I just use that for the synergy with Mousey since he can play cards from the deck and lets me lay my traps.
It's not even a good deck because it relies on my opponent running headfirst into them. If I used it online, I'd get my ass beat, but if there's one thing I can count on, it's Greg being suicidally overconfident and playing his strongest cards into half a dozen face down cards, against someone who plays a trap-heavy deck.
"Sore loser," I snort, resetting my deck as I check my watch. Don't have time for another match.
"Whatever. Seriously though, I just-"
"Not giving you Emma's number, and no, I don't have Sophia or Madison's either," I cut him off again. Honestly, I'm doing him a favour here because I don't think he realises how little my sister thinks of him. Somehow, he's got it in his head that being friends with her brother means he has a chance when half my conversations with Emma start and end with her insulting my friends.
Even if she listened to me and I got Greg a date with her, it would end in tears. Greg's, not Emma's.
"Dick. Whatever. You coming around today? Leet is streaming and-"
"Nah, got a family thing I have to go to," I say, looking the right amount of bored. Family thing usually means some fancy dinner or event that my dad wants to go to, so he gives me a sympathetic look as the bell rings.
"Wait, New Wave are usually at those, right? Can you-"
"Not getting you Glory Girl's number either. Shit, if I had that, I'd be the one making my shot. I'm cuter than you," I taunt, flicking a fry at him as we get ready for class. I've been reliably informed that I am good-looking but 'wasting my looks with all that nerd shit'. My twin sister is a model, good looks run in my family.
"I was going to ask for Laserdream's number, not Glory Girl. She's having an affair with Gallant, and I don't want a cheater for a girlfriend," Greg confidently says, but I'm used to his conspiracy theory bullshit.
"Yeah, because you have a chance with a college student," I snort.
"You should go on PHO more. Everyone knows Laserdream is easy, I've got pictures from her sorority hazing-"
"Ugh, those are fake, dumbass. They're not even good fakes, you can see where 'her' skin suddenly changes colour and becomes paler since they didn't bother trying to merge it properly and just slapped her face on someone else's body," I say with a roll of my eyes.
"You have seen them!" Greg snorts accusingly.
"Yeah, because you shoved them in my face when you found them. After getting banned from PHO for trying to post them to the New Wave thread," I point out.
"Tin Mother is still a bitch for that, I wasn't breaking any rules!" Greg whines as we enter our World Issues class. Mr Gladly barely acknowledges us, but the 'cool' teacher doesn't waste time with us nerds. Works for me, frankly, as we take our seats and continue shittalking each other. I still think Gladly is a creep, personally. He spends way too much time trying to hang out with high school girls.
"Charles!" a shrill, annoying voice says, interrupting my attempt to convince Greg that his taste in waifus is shit and that he should be ashamed and hang himself for it. Just regular nerd stuff.
"Emmaline," I reply, taking pleasure in her moment of frustration. It's not her name, but I called her by it so much that half the school are convinced it's her birth name.
"Hey, Emma," Greg says suavely, getting a venomous look from her before she looks back at me.
"Dad says to be ready straight away after school. He's picking us up, and I don't want to be late because you were fucking around with your… ugh, friends," Emma scoffs. She's not usually this bad with me, but recent events have seriously pissed her off.
"Yeah, I know, dumbass. I'm in the same family group chat, remember?" I snort back. "I don't know why you're even coming."
She goes to respond before she lets out a dramatic huff and storms off, back to her groupies. Madison gives me a smile and a wave, but I don't buy that cutesy shit. My bedroom is right next to Emma's, and I've heard those three shittalking everyone, and Madison goes from cutesy to fucking vicious the moment she thinks nobody can hear her.
Ugh, Sophia keeps shooting looks at me. Emma told her friends, didn't she? If she could just keep her fucking mouth shut, I wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.
"Man. She might be a bitch, but goddamn does she have a nice ass," Greg comments, interrupted by my eraser hitting his eye. I have good aim. This is why no girl will spend time with him, because he never bothers to check if people can hear him before saying shit like that. Julie heard him, which means his comment will be on Emma's group chat and all her groupies will have heard in five minutes' time. Which means I'm gonna hear Emma bitching about it later. "Oh, dude! Did you hear that there's gonna be a new Ward?"
"Eh," I shrug, not reacting as he rambles about the hints the PRT have apparently laid out. "The Wards don't even do anything anyway. Just a new kid to do PR patrols, shake hands and kiss babies or whatever."
"No, you don't get it. The rumours online are that the Ward is the one who made that tower appear in the Bay last week," Greg continues excitedly.
In my defence, I didn't think it would just… plonk a whole ass wizard's tower down in the middle of the bay. It's not like it came with instructions. Stupid vague ass power.
"I thought people decided that Labyrinth was the one who did that?" I ask innocently.
"No, dude. Faultline and her crew weren't even in the city and Labyrinth's stuff doesn't last this long. You need to pay more attention, Leet was talking about-"
"Yeah, but Leet's an idiot. And you're a bigger idiot for donating your allowance to his stream to try and get him to say your name," I reply easily, amused at how frustrated he seems. Before he can respond, the class begins with 'Mr G' promising a fun class.
It isn't a fun class.
– Sophia Hess (Shadow Stalker) –
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
After another annoying ass class with Gladly, she felt her heart pound as she glanced at Charlie. Emma had fucked her without even realising it, fucked them all frankly.
"I mean, what's the problem? It's not like you have to unmask for the other Wards, right?" Emma asked quietly as they stood in an empty classroom.
"It's not that simple, Ems," Sophia replied with a half-glare before sighing. "They know I'm close to your family because your dad is both my lawyer and his character reference did a lot to keep me out of jail. Sure, Charlie won't know it's me right away, but the PRT assholes are going to have questions about why I don't want to unmask to my best friend's brother. Fuck, Miss Militia already spoke to me about potentially being his Ward babysitter since I'd be a 'friendly face'."
"So, what's the issue?" Mads asked, pouting slightly. She'd only learnt that Sophia was Shadow Stalker because of this mess, and was still upset to have been left out. At least she knew how to keep her mouth shut.
"The issue is that every Ward has their own PRT Handler, and that means a second Handler paying attention to Winslow. Miss Piggy already freaked out about your brother summoning monsters and that tower shit, so whoever he gets isn't going to be as much of a slacker as mine. If half the shit I did to fucking Hebert gets out, both me and my handler are going to get hung out to dry. Shit, I'll probably be sent to juvie or reassigned to some containment detail in the ass end of nowhere," Sophia pointed out. "Hebert doesn't talk to your brother, right?"
"Eh, not really? He was as interested in spending time with my friends back when I was friends with the loser as he is now. He's always been a big fucking nerd, more interested in his games and shit than socialising. I mean, he's friends with Greg," Emma replied. "I'm pretty sure she used to have a thing for him, but she was too shy to actually talk to him, and he's as oblivious as you'd expect a nerd to be. Still, Blackwell isn't gonna say shit, and it's not like the handler actually comes to the school, right?"
"True. Mine only comes whenever I have a disciplinary meeting, and both Blackwell and my handler don't want me getting into real trouble, so it's never been a problem. Fuck, Blackwell won't let us get away with as much with two Wards here," Sophia realised.
"Yeah, but the cow won't want to admit she's been hiding shit to begin with," Emma pointed out. "So… we'll be fine if Charlie keeps his mouth shut, right? Half the school thinks Taylor's a lying attention seeker anyway."
"Yeah, but it means we're one mistake from being fucked. Shit, Kid Lose said Armsmaster was working on a lie detector, and he'd use it without hesitation if he felt he had to. He's technically in charge of the Wards, even if he never fucking does anything since he's so busy polishing his spear, and anything that makes the Wards look bad would make him look bad," Sophia pointed out.
A more serious handler wouldn't have to look hard to find out just how much bullshit Sophia and her lazy bitch of a handler had been selling Piggy. Sophia was pretty sure that her handler only took the role for a paycheck and didn't want to deal with the duties that came with it, which worked great for Sophia as long as it stayed that way. Having the new Ward be in the same school was just asking for shit to explode in her face.
Who cared if she pushed around Hebert to work off some stress of being a black girl in fucking Winslow, surrounded by Empire wannabes when she couldn't just shoot them like she wanted to? Hebert was nobody, a bottom feeder, but- the PRT wouldn't see it that way. They wouldn't get rid of her; she was too useful, but that didn't mean the leash they forced around her neck wouldn't get much tighter. At the very best, she'd live on console duty for the rest of her life until they had a use for her. Worst case? They found out about her unscheduled patrols, and she was fucked. Armsmaster was a cunt, but he was an efficient one, and he had all kinds of Tinkertech bullshit scanners and stuff that could blow the whole thing wide open. He just needed any reason to glance her way, which Charlie was now perfectly positioned to give them.
She was not going to go down because of someone who was friends with Greg Veder.
"Why don't one of us just fuck him?" Mads asked, making them both blink in confusion.
"What?" Emma asked, her tone entirely flat.
"I didn't mean you, Ems," Mads said with a roll of her eyes. "...even if it'd be kinda hot. He's never dated, right? Total virgin? Probably hasn't even had his first kiss? He won't tattle if he's dating one of us. I've seen him checking out Sophia's ass, and I don't think he's an Empire fanboy. Plus, he's kinda cute."
Sophia went to respond before she trailed off and considered Madison's suggestion.
"You aren't actually considering that, right, Sophia?" Emma asked in disbelief. I mean, it wasn't the worst idea. A nerdy guy like that would definitely get attached to the first girl to show him some attention. Emma made all the girls in their little groupie squad stay away from him, and frankly, the fact that he hung out with Greg and Sparky did the rest.
If she did unmask like Barracks Bunny wanted, she could play the mentor to Charlie. It'd look weird to the other wards, but if she admitted they knew each other out of costume, they shouldn't look too hard. Except fucking Gallant with his emotional reading bullshit, since he could blow the whole thing out of the water if she was pretending to be into Charlie. It wasn't like Charlie was ugly; he was basically a male Emma with the same red hair and green eyes, just less fashionable clothes. Plus, would White Knight even say anything when he tried so hard to pretend Vista wasn't eyefucking him every chance she got? He didn't get involved in other people's relationships, and that was about the only thing she liked about the spoiled rich nepo baby.
Emma being so bitter about her loser brother getting powers instead of her was making her more of a bitch, but she could also try and get closer to her twin again. Pretend to be worried about how dangerous being a hero was. Or maybe letting Mads take one (dick) for the team was the safest bet? She had that cutesy girl-next-door act down anyway.
Whatever they did, they needed to make sure Charlie didn't have a reason to believe a word out of Hebert's mouth when she got out of the hospital. This was just really bad fucking timing but nobody actually saw her push Hebert into the locker, right?
– Charles 'Charlie' Barnes – After School –
"Why is Emma coming anyway?" I ask, getting a sigh from our father. "It's a good question, she's not the one with powers. It's not like she's being forced to join the Wards-"
"You're not being forced to join anything," Dad sighs, cutting off the argument that was already brewing. "And she isn't coming in with us. She's going out with your mother while we go in to meet the Deputy Director, which I told you this morning."
"Feels kinda like I'm being forced," I mumble, looking out of the window. Of all the times for Emma to barge into my room, it had to be just after I'd accidentally summoned a dog made of water? Okay, I probably wasn't going to be able to explain all the water everywhere anyway… and sure, I accidentally turned Anne into a frog, but- well, no, I don't have an excuse for that one. Actually, fuck that, yes, I do. If Emma hadn't been trying to pull my card out of my hand, we wouldn't have gotten into that mess.
I managed to undo it, but Dad had already called the PRT with way too much confidence in how they operated. I don't buy his claims of having represented clients with them before, he's a fucking divorce lawyer.
It wasn't like I was planning to go villain or anything, but I would have liked more time to decide what to do- ugh, I knew I shouldn't have fucked around with that Land card but how was I supposed to know it would just summon a whole ass island and a magical tower in the Bay? Maybe I should have given Greg her number.
No. No girl deserves that. Except maybe like Shatterbird? Or the Siberian.
"As I said, if the Wards program seems… unsuitable for you, we will examine our options but need I remind you that Anne spent three hours as a frog because you couldn't control your powers?" Dad says, ignoring the fact that Emma was the one who was trying to pull the card out of my hand to begin with. Getting Dad to admit Emma has done wrong is about as likely as Behemoth cancelling an Endbringer attack because it got sunburnt. "We're going in for power testing, and we won't be signing anything without very good cause."
Besides, the PRT knows I dropped that tower near their Rig and that I can't undo it. Shitty card game with poorly explained rules. Even if we decide I don't want to be a Ward, they're gonna stop treating me with kid gloves and go all bad cop on us.
"Yeah, well, Emma told her friends I have powers," I accuse, watching Mom's head swivel around.
"What- no, I didn't!" Emma lies, like a lying liar.
"Emma!" Mom scolds, looking very cross. Dad pauses, frowning slightly.
"Which friends?" he asks.
"Sophia, and maybe Madison. Sophia isn't nearly as subtle as she thinks she is, and she's been constantly staring at me," I accuse, watching Emma flush.
"Perhaps you're misunderstanding?" Dad asks, his voice taking on a strange tone. "Let's be honest, you aren't the most… social teenage boy. I'm sure Emma knows not to tell anyone who could put you in any danger."
Okay, that's his lawyer 'I'm lying by omission' voice. What the fuck?
"Ugh, you're such a nerd. Sophia was glaring at Greg, not you. Julie saw him take a creepshot of her ass in her trackpants," Emma replies. Greg wouldn't- okay, maybe he would, but not to Sophia because he's scared shitless of her. "It's not my fault you hang out with such a creepy loser. I still think he stole my underwear."
"Greg isn't that bad, and I still think you're full of shit-" I start, being cut off by our mother.
"Charles, Emma. I understand you two have your… differences but can you please be a bit more mature, for today? Please?" Mom asks with a long-suffering sigh. "Emma, if I recall Anne found those missing underwear in her pile? And I'm sure you know how dangerous it could be to tell the wrong people?"
"I know! I'm not stupid," Emma replies with a clipped voice.
"And Charles, you can't deny that Greg can be a little… much at times," she says, but I know she's mostly just scolding me so Emma doesn't cry about the unfairness. I know Greg can be weird, it's why we hang out at his place when I have a nicer TV and better gaming equipment.
"I still think I should get to come in as well," Emma mumbles.
"Oh, yeah? Which power are you testing?" I ask under my breath, before a withering look from our mom silences us. Clearly, Emma is a Master Eleven with the power to master Dad into letting her do whatever she wants. Someone Birdcage her ass. We'll take Canary, they can have Emma.
The rest of the drive is quieter, and eventually we reach the meeting point. The rest of the trip is going to be in a PRT transport, so as Dad and I get out of the car, I give Emma a smug look, which she returns with a pissy glare.
The nondescript parking garage looks like the meetup for a drug deal, but maybe that's just the general Brockton Bay vibe corrupting it, as Dad says goodbye to mom who gives me a tight hug like I'm being sent off to war. Spotting the large black transport, I wave goodbye to the female half of our family (minus Anne, who is at college) and follow Dad over. I have to wonder why the fuck he gave the PRT operator his real name, but that fucked any chance I had of anonymity, so here we are.
Unfortunately, there's no cool espionage code phrase or anything as he greets the PRT trooper who gets out, confirming our identities. Why do all the PRT troops look like they should be fighting for an evil space empire?
Before long, we're in the back of the surprisingly comfy transport and on our way to the Rig. Dad pretends he isn't nervous by talking a lot, but I just zone out before I spot something out of the window.
First, the Rig, the big base of the almighty PRT and our destination… and just over to the left? A small island in the middle of the bay, with a stone tower in the middle. Heh, I guess that gave them quite the fright, huh?
As the transport takes the bridge to the Rig, I take solace in the fact that Greg would be so fucking jealous as I focus and eight cards appear in my hands, all with Blue backgrounds. Guess I have to get this over with.
Card Master system online.
Magic: The Gathering Card Collection online.
System Error. Yu-Gi-Oh! offline. System Error. Pokémon TCG, offline. System Error. Hearthstone, offline. System Error. Monster Train offline. System- System- Fate: Grand Order, online. Insufficient Saint Quartz to summon a Servant. System Error. Foreign data detected.
This is going to be a long day.
— Charlie's Deck —
Spells
[Capture Sphere]
Effect: Captures a target in a magical sphere.
[Charmed Sleep]
Effect: Places the target into a deep, magical sleep.
[Dismiss]
Effect: Counter target spell or spell-like effect.
"There is nothing you can do that I cannot simply deny."
—Ertai, wizard adept
[Frogify]
Effect: Turns the target into a frog.
That gnat was still hovering by the venison, and now both looked delicious.
[So Tiny]
Effect: Shrinks the target.
His sword sounded like a silver chime on the glass jar, and the sprite laughed with delight.
Monsters
[Floodhound]
Effects: Investigate
The thief doubled back twice, doused herself with perfume, crossed the ocean, and still woke up with her pursuer close on her heels.
[Stormbound Geist]
Effects: Undying, Flying
[Foul Watcher]
Effects: Flying
Lands
[Mystic Sanctuary]