Time to Duel!

'Thoughts'

'Sign language'

"Speech"

If there is one thing that Bella drilled into Dante's head in their Academy days is knowing as much about your opponent as possible before you face them. At first Dante never really bothered due to having more fun facing an unknown challenge. Despite his insistence that he doesn't need it, Bella still spent several hours researching his opponents for him. Evutaly the guilt got too much and Dante started to look into his opponents so she didn't have to. It eventually became a habit that Dante still does before every mission. Sadly Dante wasn't able to find that much about the Duelists in the group his boss is fixated on, meaning most of the time he had to go into his fights blind. However, despite that handicap, Dante was confident that he prepared enough so that he was prepared to face any challenge and nothing would catch him off guard.

'Hello, there Dante.' Expect maybe an actual psychic. Not sure what to do, Dante quickly filled his mind with the most depraved thoughts he could think of while making sure not to reveal anything on the surface. 

"Hello there miss?" 

'You can call me Cassandra.' Seeing no outward change in Cassandra's expression Dante is pretty sure that the woman can't read his mind, or at least is good at hiding the fact she can. Either way, he still has a mission to complete.

"Well, m'lady are you willing to surrender without a fight or would you rather be part of my next performance?" Cassandra tapped her chin, pretending to be in deep thought before answering with a playful smirk.

'After seeing your duel against my college I don't see any future where I can win.' Cassandra taps her watch, transforming it into its duel disk form. 'So I'll surrender without a fight.' Despite his skepticism, Dante nonetheless issued the challenge. 

-Error challenged [Redacted] to a duel-

-Punishment: OVERRIDE-

-PUNISHMENT SET-

-SHOCK: MAX NONLETHAL OUTPUT-

Seeing the notification, Cassandra gave Dante a wink while accepting the challenge. Before the duel can start, Cassandra without hesitation surrenders resulting in her getting hit by a massive shock and passing out. Dante ran up and caught her before she could hit the ground. After gently lowering Cassandra to the ground, Dante checked the golden-bordered Gold Sarcophagus card from his coat pocket. When the card didn't move for a few minutes, he returned it and made a call. His Duel watch rang once before the call was answered. 

"What's your status, Dante?"

"Mission complete Bella, can you forward me to the boss?"

"Got it, connecting you to him now." Dante furrowed his brow at her lack of correcting him. However before he can question her, his boss answered the call.

"What is it, Dante?" Deciding to ask her later Dante replied. 

"I've taken out everyone here."

"Encountered anyone of interest?" Dante glanced down towards the only other people with him.

"Yea, two scientists who seem to be working on something."

"Anything of interest?"

"Give me a sec." Walking over to the blue-haired man, Dante grabbed the notes off the table. "Looks like data, something Romach would look at." Looking around the lab, Dante noticed several cards on a different table. Walking towards the table, he grabbed the cards. "Hmm, interesting."

"What did you find Dante?"

"A mix of Ghostrick, F.A., draw and stall cards. What do you think they're planning with these odd assortments of cards?" After a few moments of looking through the cards, Dante noticed the long period of silence from his boss. "Boss?" He tapped his Duel Watch. "Hello is this thing still on?"

"Stop fooling around Dante." Dante rolled his eyes.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Reinforcements are coming your way now, make sure the connection to your Duel Watch doesn't get disrupted. Also, make sure the scientists don't get away." The call ended with a click before Dante could say anything.

"-Sigh- He can be such a pain to work with." Dante sat down at the table while continuing to read over the cards. " Well, I guess he was like that even back during our Acadamy days." After a few minutes of reminiscing, he jumped back up and walked towards the two scientists. Crouching down he checked the bindings tying the male scientists. "He won't be getting out of this for a while." He glances toward Cassandra before looking around the lab. "Now what can I use to tie you up?" In the end, Dante used the blade from his blue box to cut the male scientist's lab coat into stripes and tying Cassandra with them. After an hour of waiting he started hearing footsteps coming toward his location. Dante activated his Duel Disk, ready to face any potential opponent. 

"Dante it would have been nice if you informed us that this place is behind a waterfall." Dante relaxed when he saw that it was just Bella with the reinforcements. 

"Sorry Bella, it must have slipped my mind to mention that." 

"-Sigh- We shouldn't stay here for too long." Bella turned to the reinforcements. "We're taking everything of note here, don't leave a stone unturned." She pointed to two stronger-looking guys. "You two grab the two scientists and bring them back to the car, make sure they don't leave your sight." The two guys nodded.

"What about the thugs outside?" Asked one of the men.

"Once we gathered everything of interest here we'll set off the explosives he brought. By the time the authorities arrive, we'll be long gone, and they can deal with them for us." The two men nodded once more before continuing with their tasks. After an hour of raiding the lab, the group placed the explosives set to explode in 30 minutes before quickly leaving the area. 

Arriving at a tall building with a logo of a hand holding 5 cards, Dante went straight to Fidel's office while Bella overlook the handling of the stolen materials and the two scientists. "Give me the quick rundown of your mission." Dante nodded before explaining everything that occurred. "Mind reading? Really Dante? I thought you outgrew these childish fantasies." Dante rolled his eyes at Fidel's comment.

"How else would you explain a voice sounding like it came from your head besides telepathy?"

"I would think that person either lost their mind or is delusional." 

"Heh, you better keep that thought in mind when you go down and speak to her. Also, you still need to explain why you suddenly went quiet when I told you about the cards they were looking at earlier."

"All you need to know is that these pests are more informed than I originally thought."

"What does that mean?"

"Just forget about it Dante, just leave all the planning to me."

"Ha! Well, your plans never did any of us wrong yet, so I'll trust in you for now. Just promise me that whatever this is won't put Bella in danger." Despite Dante's cheerful voice, his eyes were chilling. Fidel just nodded before replying.

"You should know by now that I'll never hurt my sister." After a tense moment of silence, Dante nodded before turning around.

"Yea, I trust you boss. Well if you don't need me, I'm going to see what that kind of experiment that madman needs me for." Dante saluted Fidel as he left the office. With Dante gone, Fidel brought up a call. 

"Isabella are the prisoners awake?"

"Both are awake and ready to be questioned."

"Good, I'm going down now. I want you to make sure no one is there when I question them."

"You want to go there alone? Are you sure that's wise?"

"If Dante can beat them, then they pose no threat to me." 

"Ok, brother if you're sure." Fiedel first went to question the male scientist. At first, he was stubborn about giving up any information but he quickly started to sing when Fidel showed him how much of a threat he is. Once he got everything he can get from the male scientist, Fidel went to where they were keeping Cassandra.

'Ah Dante's boss, how kind of you to personally come down here to meet me.' Fidel's expression didn't change as the voice flowed into his mind. Completely unfazed by Cassandra's unique way of speech. 

"Where is she? Where is your boss hiding?" 

'Oh, you don't suspect me to just give you this information do you?' At those words, Fidel activated his Duel Disk.

"You can either tell me what you know now, or I beat it out of you as well." Cassandra giggled at his words.

'Your quite a pervasive man, very well I'll give you the information you want.' Cassandra opened her mouth and spoke. 

Walking back to his office Fidel was greeted by his sister waiting for him in front of the door. "Did you manage to get anything useful out of them?" Isabella asked as she opened the door for Fidel. 

"No, neither of them had anything of worth."

"What should we do now that we reach a dead end?" He sat down on his chair while Isabella kept standing.

"We can't do much right now, we just have to be ready when they eventually slip up. Until then your new priority is to help Romach with his project."

"Understood." She gave Fidel a bow before leaving the office. Now in his office, Fidel opened a drawer and took out a suitcase. Placing it on his desk and opening it, he frowned at the 4 cards inside. 

"Once I get the final piece, I'll finally prove her wrong."