Rebecca starfished herself on her bed. Closing her eyes as the first rays of sunshine crept through her window, she felt the light beams slowly warm her fully dressed form. With the bed made, her breakfast eaten, and a computer tablet with a number of school books to read by her side, her Sunday was already well underway.

“This is so booooring!” She groaned, arm rolling from her forehead to her haphazard strands of hair splayed out across the bed. “Sunday’s the only day where I can’t go to work, or do school! And without anything to do for Miranda, I’m just so bored!”

A yellow sprite hovered up to her face, examining it with a single white spot she assumed was his eye. “You were commanded to rest, wielder. Respite is just as essential as battles in this war.”

“I know, I know! Geez!!” Since he actually manifested outside of her body, he had somehow gotten even more annoying, despite not only existing within her mind. “I just like to stay busy.”

She picked up her phone and read her morning love letter from Prince Salman, “Habibti, ya nour el ein 😘! We may be a world apart, but my love for you is easily twice the size of the distance between us. Today may not be tomorrow, but if that means I get to see you again, I will live a thousand todays to reach that blessed ‘tomorrow’. I long to see you once more as I have much to show and give to you. May Allah bless you as much as he has blessed me by meeting you. Bahalm feeki, rohi.”

Swiping past the now one thousandth message of similar capacity, she answered messages from her study group before setting it back down. “I might go catch something to eat with Katherine…”

Having got up and worked her way down to the first floor of the house, a strange droning buzz echoed through the kitchen door leading to the backyard. Poking her head outside, the familiar sight of an older man focusing intently on his newest passion came into view. This week he appeared to be working with wood.

“Hey dad!” She shouted over the whining table saw, launching sawdust into the open air from a yellowed 2x4. “Hey! Dad!”

After slicing through the fibers of the wood, he finally looked up to see his daughter. Pulling his long white hair while taking off the elastic band of his safety goggles that looked like they belonged to a now abandoned chemistry project, he turned off the saw and smiled, “Yo Becky! Was I too loud?”

“Nah, just bored. What are you up to?” She bounded over, waving the air to dissipate some of the residual particulates.

Timothy Weatherford was a tall, lanky man. With a hint of muscle presumably left from the week he was into bodybuilding years ago, he wore a tank top and full pair of blue jeans, his ‘lazy Sunday’ attire. “Oh, y’know. I saw a video on shed building and thought I’d give it a spin! Got the tools and wood in this morning and I’m starting up the frame!”

“You should’ve seen him when he tried to get it started! Nearly got his hair caught in the saw!” Off to the side, behind the exotic plants surprisingly still alive from that week’s project, Rebecca’s mom sat lounging on a pool chair with a thick novel in hand. The normally stoic woman allowed herself to let loose and smile a bit only over the weekends.

Today must be exceptionally boring if both mom and dad are here…

Picking up the cut pieces, Tim set them in a row, surprisingly cut perfectly. “Your mom was hootin’ and hollerin’ as soon as I got about a foot away from that beast! One of those moments we wished we recorded!”

“And we could’ve sent it to ‘America’s Hilarious Home Videos’!”

“I see where you get your lack of self-preservation from…” Spirit echoed in her mind.

“Anywho, whatcha up to, dear?” Tim placed another piece of wood on the saw, but held off until they finished chatting. “Ya come to help out your old man slap together something that’d bump up our property value?”

Rebecca kicked the ground, “Nah, I’m probably gonna go hang out with Katherine or something…”

“Ah, well like a lazy tailor says, ‘Suit yourself’!” Both of the older folks laughed heartily at the joke.

While the rare chance to spend time with both of her parents simultaneously was tantalizing, the idea of spending it outside lifting heavy wood was not. With a quick hug from each parent, she grabbed her purse and jumped in the back seat of the car, the coordinates already set for Katherine’s.

Double checking to see if her cards were in her satchel bag, the electric vehicle set off on it’s own towards the destination.

“I am proud you are taking the initiative and opting to slow down today.” Spirit reappeared and hovered around the back seat, examining the clean black interior.

“Wow. Who would’ve thought you of all people actually gave out compliments.”

“I am unsure as to what you mean. I offer many praises and adulations when you actually follow orders.”

Why couldn’t I’ve gotten a cool ACE instead of this stick-in-the-mud? She sent a message to Katherine to confirm she was on her way. I mean, I’m the top of my class, I work for an international organization, and I’m top brass in Miranda’s group fighting to end an interdimensional war! Why do I need this babysitter?

“It’s not that you are incompetent by any means, it is just imperitive you maintain the expectations set upon us by our commanders.” Spirit continued to wander around the cockpit of the vehicle, seemingly unperturbed by the correction, “Also, please remember that I can also hear your thoughts.”

“Geez! You need to quit doing that!” She swatted the air, slicing the floating yellow globule as it reformed after each assault. “And besides, I know what we need to do! You couldn’t have gotten this far with your old host!”

“And you would not be who you are without me.”

Rebecca scowled.

“Yes, I did not need to assume direct control to give you ‘rebirth’, but even a treasure found inches beneath the earth belongs to the one who found it.”

“Yeah, yeah…” She stared out the window. On one hand, I’m glad I get to save the world with Miranda, but I don’t know if I like the idea of dying while tied to this stickler…

As she blankly stared at the buildings zooming by in the morning light, a chirp rang from her phone.

“Oh, it’s Miranda!”

Spirit quickly dropped his exploration and flew over to read the message as well.

“Hey. Mind double checking on Ripper? Report just said he’s acting up. -M”

“And here we finally are, folks!” Mikey stood in front of the 64-man bracket with the tiny microphone in his hand. “The final round of the first official World Game locals held in the world! And what a tournament it was!

We’ve seen all sorts of wacky techs and strats, but now we finally get to see the best square off! On one side, piloting a BHN control deck, we’ve got the ‘Strong arm Shortstack’, the ‘Walloping Weatherford’, the ‘Sir- Strong, Independent Woman of St. Louis’ herself, Sarah Weatherford!”

Sarah rolled her eyes as she finished setting up her shields. I’m going to fucking murder him as soon as there’s no witnesses. The small crowd from before gathered around. Now with only one duel going on, it drew in everyone in the room.

“And on the other side, taking the driver’s seat behind a NA rush deck, we’ve got the ‘Cowboy kid’, the ‘terrible twelve-year-old’, the ‘madlad of the midwest’, Logan!”

The kid finally ripped his eyes off of his opponent to wave to the camera quickly, grinning all the while.

“Yer li’l friend’s havin’ the time of his life, ain’t he?”

“‘Li’l friend’? That’s fucking funny coming from a grade school twerp like yourself.”

The itch was stronger than ever. Somehow, this kid knew about the existence of ACE creatures, usually something reserved for those participating in the World Game themselves. But without seeing the ACE, nor neither ‘Buncle and Ortelanus inform her of any in the room, she could not just fly off the handle and challenge him. Not yet at least.

“Big talk, comin’ from someone as tall as one!”

“Holy fuck, do you ever stop talking? I’m about to go to jail for how hard I’m gonna knock you the fuck out.”

After a quick handshake to the challengers from Mr. Montgomery, Mikey stepped to the edge of the table once more, “You can feel the energy here, folks! We’ve got a big one on our hands!”

With a thumbs up from Tim on his stool between the two competitors, Mikey nodded in confirmation, “Alright, without further ado, let’s start the final round of the Card Cache Locals!”

“Age before beauty, grandma. I’m going first!” Ripping the top card of his deck, he held his fanned cards before his face before setting them back down, “Go ahead.”

Sarah picked up her card as well, “Big talk from a little shit.” With not much as well, she passed it back to Logan.

Now on his second turn, Logan repeated the exact same motions as the first.

“He must be planning something, folks! Last game, he exploded off each round, never allowing his opponent to breathe!”

Well, I’m fucking getting bored of him over here… Placing down her second fish rock, she flipped them both to play a spell, “Let’s go with a Rapid Growth, gaining me another play point!”

Logan shuffled his hand a few times before looking at the camera and shrugging, “Guess I better get on the board too, huh?”

“That’s probably the only thing you’ll ever get on, kid.”

Chat alighted once more with a torrent of reactions and emoticons. The crowd groaned, reeling from the burn. Tim turned, faking a sneeze to cover up his grin.

“Ain’t you just saucy?”

Sarah shuddered as the kid licked his lips at the end of his sentence.

“I’ll summon down a Sincere Starling and end my turn.”

Judging by that card, he’s probably focusing on Knight cards like Elvira. Memories of when she first duelled Ronnie in this same room.

Starting her third turn, she flipped through her grip once again. “Well, might as well match your speed. I’ll summon Gemless Carbuncle, gaining me another play point I can use this turn.”

The kid’s eyes shifted from a smug self-satisfaction to general intrigue. “Nice card ya got there…”

“I’ll evolve him into Bhuran, Legendary Guide and [Expend] to gain yet another play point. Your turn.”

With another glance to the camera and small crowd gathered around, Logan shrugged, sliding the second card he played all game onto the field, “Since Sincere Starling drops the cost of all my Knight type creatures by two, I’ll summon Elvira, Crimson Knight for only 3 play points and pass!”

The crowd glanced around in confusion.

“‘And pass? You know that card’s got fucking [Sonic Strike], right? It can attack this turn!” Sarah sat back, crossing her arms.

Throwing up a blatantly half-hearted shrug, Logan grinned, “Whoops! Guess I forgot!”

“Uh…” Mikey’s mind raced before picking up the microphone to speak again, “Well, I guess the nerves can hit you when you’ve got 500 people watching!”

Yeah fucking right. Something’s up with this kid.

“Oh well, my turn.” With now 7 play points on just turn four, Sarah shuffled her hand once again, “I’ll summon a Sixth Storm Oracle, gaining me another play point, and a Scrap-”

“I concede!” The kid shouted, placing his hand on his deck.

“Classic bricking! A problem with any card game, even when you need your best hand possible for moments like these!” Mikey tried to pivot as the chat kicked into overdrive once more with question marks and racial slurs than usual.

Sarah looked down at the kid sitting across from her, blissfully unaware of the sneers and jeers going on around him.

“Hey Lawrence-”

“Logan.” He quickly corrected.

“What-the-fuck-ever… Are you throwing this game?”

The kid lifted his eyes from his shuffled deck and resumed his cheeky grin, “Nah! Ya had me beat, fair n’ square!”

“Uh huh…” Sarah nodded blankly.

He kind of reminds me of Freakazoid. He’s actually human, but it feels like he thinks he’s got something over me or something…

“Since you won…” Logan started, breaking Sarah out of her trance, “Ya wanna see sumthin’ cool?”

Before she could answer, Logan lifted his hand over the corner of his face. With an ever-so-subtle swipe over his cheesy grin, the face behind his hand shifted to a paler, rounder form, only visible from where she sat. The sharp chin of the boy morphed into the rounded more rotund jaw of a short man, still holding the smug facade.

“Shit!” She whispered, slamming her fist on the table.

As quickly as he lifted the portion of his illusion, he quickly slid it back on, “Whatcha think o’ that, lil’ missy?”

Holy fuck. He is an ACE wielder! But why is he here? It can’t be to win the tournament, he’s throwing it away. Could it be he’s-

“Alrighty folks, now we’re onto round two! With Sarah up by one, she just needs to win this out to be crowned champion and move on to Regionals!”

Every alarm blared in her mind. Ape brain was loose, causing havoc in her mental space. Questions upon questions, theories upon theories piled in her conscious thought. A sickening excitement crept over her. I need to get rid of him before he does something to ‘Buncle! Before he does something to Jesse! I can take him! I can take him…

“-rah! Earth to Sarah!” Mikey’s hand waved uncomfortably in front of her face. “Yo Weatherford! Logan said you can go first.”

A few rapid blinks and head shaking still had not freed her entirely from that headspace, it’s tendrils formed from questions, fears and thrills still gripping her ankle.

“R-right. My move.” Drawing the top card from her deck, she found a card with a big ‘1’ in the top left hand corner, “I’ll go with Scrapper. Go.”

Logan resumed his youthful cheeky grin. His cowboy hat hung low over his face, hiding his wild eyes from the crowd around him. “Well, I liked that move so much, I might do the same… I’ll summon Homunculus Lancer and pass it back!”

You gotta stay in this! He just did that so he can beat you in this round! He’s getting in your head! The self pep talk was nearly drowned out by the maelstrom still churning within her mind.

“I’ll just break a shield with Scrapper and end my turn.”

Picking up his shield and drawing his card, Logan continued his glare onto his opponent and haphazardly set a card face down on the field, “I’ll set mah trap and pass it back!”

“Oh man! There’s a- there’s a trap card! Woo-wee!” Mikey tried his best to drum up the game, but the contestants were leaving him with little to work with. The chat had moved on to discourse over Nero Caesar's reign over Rome and whether or not he was ‘based’.

“Okay, I’ll-” She stopped herself from playing the glittering green card in her hand. Shit! Now he knows what Carbuncle does from the last game while I still don’t fucking know what his does or how he can change his face like that!

“I’ll summon Sixth Storm Oracle, gaining me another play point. Next, I’ll break another shield with Scrapper.” She tried to play these out as deadpan as possible, afraid of any more information he could glean and use against her.

“What? You a robot now? What happened to all that trash talk you just had?”

The crowd around them stood around, occasionally coughing.

“I’ll go ahead and pass my turn now.”

“Wh-whoa! A pass on turn three with only three shields left! Quite the bold move from the youngest competitor in this tournament!”

“I’m… I’m not gonna waste it on you, shit stain.” With another turn started, she shuffled her hand, “I’ll summon another Sixth Storm Oracle, gaining another play point, and evolve him into Bhuran.

I’ll attack your shields with my Oracle, Scrapper, and Bhuran.”

“Nice hit there! You ain’t leavin’ me with nothin’ left!” The kid held onto his cheeky grin. “Y’know, you might be going to jail after all with how badly you’re beatin’ me!”

Drawing his card, he looked around the room and shrugged again, “Welp, since I got me 4 play points, I’ll call up my there Strike Leader, Gerhard, Council Member.” He picked up the card from behind his shields and set it on the field, “He’s gon’ let me draw a card any time either of us plays a creature! But I’ll break one o’ yer shields with my Homunculus Lancer!”

The crowd began to dissipate as he left himself wide open for any of Sarah’s three creatures to finish the game. Numbers of people hopped out of the chat as they came to the conclusion that Nero may be ‘based’, but Vespacian was, in fact, ‘redpilled’.

“I- I guess I’ll finish the game with Bhuran?”

“Good game there, friend. You’re about as good as everyone says you are.”

The young boy held out his hand, still holding onto that smug visage of his. “Which is ta say you ain’t good at all.”

He’s toying with me.

“Th-thanks! You weren’t too bad yourself!” His tiny grip almost surprised her. What was shown to be a bigger man behind this hyper-realistic illusion was nearly untraceable.

“Bullshit. You should be thanking me for giving you this win. You wouldn’t’ve made it here without my help.”

‘Bullshit’ he says… I could beat him. I can wipe him out no problem. Then we’d see who doesn’t fucking deserve it!

“Well, I guess I’m gonna get outta yer hair! I gotta go tell my boss she ain’t got nuthin’ ta be a’scared of!” Logan maintained his plastered grin, reveling with every twist of the screw.

He’s gonna go tell his boss? ‘She’? Does this fucker work for Miranda?!

“Who’s your boss?”

The kid laughed as the last person left, leaving them two alone at the table. “None ya fuckin’ business! You’re jus’ a piece o’ shit that ain’t worth two sniffs!”

I can beat him. I can beat him. I can-

“Hey, good job Sarah!” Jesse came to the side of the table.

Orty joined in, still holding Carbuncle, “Too bad she had to play against a fucking loser in the final round!”

“Hey, hey! He’s just a kid Orty, no need to get onto him like that!”

“Squeak!”

Sarah silently stood from her seat, hollow eyes still locked into the deranged cowboy in front of her, “I challenge you to an ACE duel. A real duel.”