SECOND DEAL

First Round - Practice Round
Second Deal - The Ace of Spades

In the middle of a white room surrounded by doors, there was a flash of light as a sixteen-year-old blonde haired girl and a sinister grinning cat appeared.

“-bloody ar-“ Brogan stopped as she realised she wasn’t in the Grampians any more. Which was another thing in the day, no, the dream, she hadn’t been expecting. “Uh, where the hell are we?”

The room they found themselves in was absolutely devoid of colour. It was in the shape of a pentagon and on each of the sides was a door, each with screens across them except one which had a small keypad that would keep the door locked without the correct combination of numbers typed in. She noticed that the door they were closest to was displaying the numbers “2081988” in large red figures on its screen. As she looked at them with some disbelief, they slowly faded away.

The icy cold bite of the floor stung on her hands and Brogan had to think very hard about Roll so she could believe the whole place and everything that was happening was just in a dream. It was becoming difficult.

“We, Ace, happen to be within the waiting room of C.A.R.D. I would say Headquarters, but there are no other C.A.R.D. establishments anywhere, so the title is rather redundant. Being merely a lower Agent, I am not permitted to impart on you any other information. I will leave you now and a higher-ranking Agent shall be coming shortly.” Roll began to walk towards the code-locked door, to where Brogan noticed there was a cat door that she was almost certain wasn’t there before. “What the… You can’t just walk out on me! Why are you calling me Ace? What are these precinct things? Why am I here? What in the fucking hell is going on?” Her yelling came to no avail, as all she was left with was the sound of the swinging cat door.

Giving a frustrated growl, Brogan stood up and looked around the room. It was completely and utterly empty. Against the white she couldn’t even see the cat door anymore. From where she was standing it didn’t even look like there was one at all. Looking up at the blank screen of the door she stood next to, she wondered why there were so many doors in the room anyway. What was behind them? The doorknobs shone with a white porcelain gleam, and slowly, Brogan reached out to turn it, just to take the smallest peek at what lay on the other side…

“The Ace, I presume?” Her fingers brushed lightly on the doorknob as she turned around to face a man closing the door Roll had exited moments ago. He was an interesting sight with his choppy shoulder length hair, a pinstripe suit and his eyes covered by reflective silvery-grey sunglasses. Brogan immediately decided that her displeasure with Roll could be very easily transferred to this guy.
“Er, yeah, whatever. Not that I know why. So far a fucking talking cat, or Cheshire Cat or whatever it is, has dragged me here and I still know nothing about what the hell is going on. I swear, if I don’t get some answers soon…”
The man laughed and mumbled something that sounded something like “I know you swear, you’ve made that clear…” before closing a manila folder he had in his hands and moved it to his left hand so he could extend his right to shake hands. “I thought you might be. I’m the Trump and I’ll be telling you as much as all the red tape and time allows me to.” Taking her hand, The Trump shook Brogan’s hand three times with a precise and firm manner. A handshake practiced to perfection.
“Red tape? My god, this dream is so stupid. I get dragged to this place and some guy with some fucking stupid name tells me that he still can’t tell me what the hell is going on. What is with the names anyway? The Trump? The Ace? What the hell is this crap, some kind of Batman group?” The Joker burst out laughing, which only further infuriated her. “What’s your real name anyway? You can’t honestly tell me it’s ‘the Trump’, that’s just a load of bullshit,” the sixteen year old of course being all wise. Joker came out of his life with a sigh, simply grinning at her.
“Sit down will you?” He put out his arm to motion behind Brogan, as if there were a chair for her to sit down on.
“What? Sit down on the fl-“ She turned to see a white chair behind her, as if it had been there the whole time and she had simply failed to notice it. She shot the Trump a suspicious look and sat down in the chair slowly. “Right…”
The Trump sat down in an identical white chair opposite her, just as spontaneously appearing as Brogan’s chair. “Shall we begin then?”

The Trump flipped up a sheet of paper on an easel next to his chair. Not remembering him bringing anything of it’s size in, Brogan only became more confused as to where these things were coming from… Then she remembered again she was dreaming. Though somehow knowing that as she shivered slightly in the cold air couldn’t quell her confusion enough. The Trump flicked over the piece of paper again to a picture of Brogan, one she wondered how on earth it had been obtained, and flicked out a small metal pointer to tap on the picture. She had to think for a while to whether he had been carrying the pointer the whole time as well or not. “At the moment you know yourself as Brogan O’Hart, correct?”

“Um, yeah. Only you freaks are trying to pile other names on me.”
“Well, at least Roll got the right person…” With a flourish, the Trump flicked the paper over the back of the easel, leaving a sheet of paper with the letters C.A.R.D. in large black lettering. He tapped it with the pointer again, as if there was something else important on the paper he had to point out. “Chance’s Agents in Revealing Destiny. The name might not quite do what we do here justice, but that’s what we’ve been calling ourselves since before I was a part of the organisation. Like the organisation, Agents like you or I have to maintain a level of secrecy. So while my name is Joker…” Brogan gave a snigger, though the Trump, Joker, ignored her and continued. “I go by the codename of the Trump. As the first of the four Agents we’re bringing in here at the moment, you will be known as the Ace, the second will be the King, and so on. Understood?”
Brogan raised an eyebrow as she slouched back against the back of the white chair. “So what, this is some kind of top secret organisation? And your name is Joker? I was right, this is some kind of stupid Batman thing. Man, why is this dream so fucking stupid?”
Joker again ignored her cynical attitude, but smiled at her talking about his introduction being a dream. Instead, he flicked to the next sheet of paper which had a picture of a golden locket, adorned with an engraving of a spades symbol. “The truth here is, Brogan, this is not a dream. If anything, thanks to someone who I can’t talk about due to the aforementioned red tape, your life up to seeing Roll has been closer to a dream,” Brogan took a breath, as if about to berate Joker about his apparent stupidity, but he cut her off before she could have a chance. “You know yourself now as Brogan O’Hart. I can’t explain completely, again, the red tape gets in the way, but I can assure you that you aren’t Brogan O’Hart as she exists now. I can tell you though, the closest thing to ‘you’ at the moment…”
Flicking the paper over again, Brogan stared a few seconds at the next sheet of paper. “It’s blank.”
Looking over to Joker’s seat, she jumped. It was empty; the man disappearing in the same fashion the furniture in the room had randomly come into being. Looking back to the easel, the paper with the pictures had also disappeared; there was no longer even a blank sheet to look at. Brogan gave out a small scream as she jumped again in response to the golden locket that had dropped down in front of her face. She calmed down and realised it was the one pictured on the easel, with the engraving of the Spade symbol. “Do you have to scare me like that?”
All business, Joker once again ignored Brogan’s complaints. “This is your key to becoming Agent Spades, the closest thing to ‘you’,”

She looked up to see her face reflected in Joker’s sunglasses as he stood behind her. Brogan realised how tall he was, how he was probably one of the few people who would be taller than her when she stood at full height. Undoing the latch on the chain, he draped the locket around her neck and a few seconds later it dropped down onto Brogan’s shirt, attached securely. Picking it up greedily, wanting to find out what idiotic thing had been done to her now; she tried to pry it open, much to Joker’s amusement. “You can’t open it like that, no matter how hard you try.”
Brogan looked up expecting to see his olive toned face looking back down at her, only to discover he had disappeared again. There was a tapping sound and she looked forward to find Joker back in the chair, pointer in hand that was now tapping on a picture of her with her eyes closed. “So, what is this about Agent Spades? I thought I was the Ace?”
“That’s your codename. It’s different. As I said, you’re not Brogan. Until we can rectify some of the things behind the red tape, you are in reality Agent Spades. Unfortunately, you can’t assume the form of Agent Spades without that locket.”
“Wait, this is fucking ridiculous,” Brogan interjected once again, dropping the locket out of her hands. “I was born to my parents. You can’t tell me that I’m this stupid Agent Spades…”
“You don’t have to understand. Brogan O’Hart exists. It’s simply that you are not her. It’s confusing but you’ll understand it one day,” Brogan frowned once again, being ordered around in what she was still convinced was a dream without actually being told a thing. “All your questions will be answered another time. For now I need you to listen. The locket not only contains what you need to take on the form of Agent Spades, it also has a processor to the C.A.R.D. mainframe and a defence mechanism that prevents anyone from opening it physically. To open the locket, you have to close your eyes,” He tapped the picture on the easel once more. “And imagine yourself opening it.”

The cynical expression returned to Brogan’s face and she stared at Joker. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s really lame for a secret agent or whatever you’re telling me I ‘really am’.”
Joker didn’t answer, he instead looked at her with a blank expression from behind his sunglasses. Brogan gave a snigger before realising he was serious. She rolled her eyes and realised how much she hated the fact she couldn’t see his eyes. “Fine… I’ll do the stupid locket thing.”
Closing her eyes, Brogan did as she had been told and imagined herself opening the locket, which seemed absurd to her, imagining something within a dream. It did explain to her the strange way in which the image of the locket opening played out perfectly and clearly like a movie in her head. Inspecting the locket as it opened easily in her imagined hand, she found a mirror. Her eyes flicked open and Brogan nearly fell of her chair gasping in surprise. “What the fuck? That isn’t me in the mirror!”
“You’d be surprised.” Joker replied bluntly and matter of factly, his expression not changing as he fell back into an expectant silence. Brogan scowled before taking a breath and plunging back into her imagination.

In the mirror of her mind’s eye was a woman who looked to have a good five or so years on Brogan. Her strong crimson red eyes stared through a tangled mass of black hair. The image slowly expanded until Brogan found herself standing now in front of a full-length mirror, where she could see black leggings being worn under an intricately decorated gown on the woman. The blonde tightened her ponytail nervously as even in her imagination she had to stand back from the sheer power that emanated from the mirror woman.
Suddenly the image shuddered. The woman’s fell until she was left with a small messy crop, similar to what one might see on war criminals. Her body became covered in scars. Studs appeared in her ears, and her elegant dress was replaced by a tight singlet to go with the leggings, leather gloves and combat boots strapped on with small boots and in various places emblazoned with a spades symbol, all enhancing her androgynous figure. Around her waist sat a belt with a holster to the side, a black pistol sitting snugly inside, and her eyes were covered by reflective black sunglasses. Entranced, Brogan reached out towards the mirror and like a reflection, the woman on the other side did the same. As they reached the limits of the mirror, their hands clasped together. She opened her eyes.

Looking down, it was a surprise to find the black leggings that she’d seen in front of her seconds ago on her own legs. It was more surprising to find immensely looking scars that appeared to be purely cosmetic all over her body. “So… I’m Agent Spades? Or the Ace? Seriously, is that all the name’s you’re going to give me?”
“Yes. Unless you want another one,”
“I’ll be right. This whole thing is stupid enough as it is without adding to it,” At this Joker’s lopsided grin made another appearance. “So why do I look so weird anyway? I know this is a dream, but this is… Like… Different to anything that’s gone on in my head while I’ve been asleep before. Unless there’s dreams that I don’t remember. Hey maybe I won’t remember this tomorrow, that would be awesome.”
Joker’s grin disappeared again. “As I said before, this isn’t a dream, and you don’t have to entirely understand what’s happening.”
“Well what if I bloody well want to? I don’t have to put up with this shit,”
“Too bad, and you do because if you don’t do it wilfully we can very easily stop you going back to what you’re calling home at the moment.” This only brought Spades into an even worse mood, and she very strongly thought about the gun she knew was in her holster. She didn’t get a chance to make any action on it as Joker walked briskly out of the code locked door, letting it slowly closer behind him, and she had to run to make it through before it shut and locked.

END SECOND DEAL
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