NOVEL NEXT The Card
'Thoughts'
"Speech"
A young man in a trench coat sat on a bench, back arched up to look up towards the blue sky. "-Sigh- why does the boss care so much about this group? It's not like they're causing too much trouble for him, and he isn't the kind of person to care for the average person." Standing up they stretched as they cracked their neck. "I wish Bella could join me sometimes. It's getting dull beating these average thugs. If it wasn't for the fact they keep targeting DM Stores I would have refused even to do these missions." Grabbing a suitcase lying on the bench, he left the park.
After an hour of walking, they found themselves in front of a warehouse. Walking to a side door of the warehouse, they took out a blue box with a hexagon pattern on it; they attached it to the side of the electric lock. As the screen of the lock scrolled past lines of text, they prepared their deck and Duel Disk.
-ERROR: PASSWORD ONE-
-ERROR: PASSWORD TWO-
-ERROR: PASSWORD THREE-
-PASSWORD RECEIVED-
The door clicked open, and after grabbing the blue box they quietly entered the warehouse. Making sure to stay out of sight, they walked through the warehouse, looking for any signs of their target. 'Weird, it's quiet, too quiet. They should be here, and I should have at least heard someone by n-.' They were brought out of their thoughts by the sounds of groaning, carefully they walked towards the sound. As they turned the corner, they were greeted by the sight of a dozen people knocked out on the floor. Each person wearing a mash with a different emotion on them. After checking of it was an ambush, they walked towards them. His eye narrowed as he saw all of them twitching, some still having sparks being released from their Duel Disks. 'Assualt mode with maxed punishment.' He mused.
Looking for any clues on what could have happened, he noticed one of the victims wearing a neutral expression mask. Dante smiled as they searched them, eventually finding his objective. A keycard with a dark blue border, covered in circuits. After taking the card, using their Duel Watch, made a call. However, the sound of sirens caused them to rush out of the crime scene. As they ran the call picked up with a soft beep. "Boss I'm at the site."
"Did you find them, Dante?" Answered a deep voice.
"I found them alright, but someone already took care of them before I can get to them. I think that whoever did it called the cops. It was silent when I was sneaking in, and from what I saw they were defeated shortly before I entered the warehouse. So unless something else happened nearby, their target is also this warehouse."
"Can you get out without getting caught?" Dante smirked.
"Who do you think you're talking to? Of course, I can get out of here without being sighted."
"Good, it would look bad for the company if you were caught." Dante rolled his eyes. After making it out of the warehouse they ran to the nearest street and blended into the crowd. Once he was far enough from the crime scene and alone, Dante continued giving his report.
"Whoever it was had access to assault mode."
"Are you sure it wasn't a cop?"
"I doubt a cop would take down the criminals and then leave them unattended too." Taking out the keycard he looked at it. "Whoever it was either in a rush to get out of there or had a different objective than us."
"Why do you think that?"
"They left the keycard."
"Hmm, well it matters little what they could have wanted. Come back with the keycard, and make sure you are not seen."
"Got it, boss." The call ended with a beep, sighing Dante started to walk back to the company building. Looking at the keycard he smirked. 'We're almost done with this bothersome mission, with this we can track their movements.' Stashing the card away into their coat pocket, he stretched his arms. 'God are these people annoying to deal with, they also take these duels so seriously. But I do wonder what they could possibly want, their actions these past few years make no sense. What do they accomplish targeting random DM Stores?' Dante stopped as he arrived at the company building, fixing up his coat before entering. 'Well it doesn't matter, soon they'll be out of our hair. We'll be able to continue finding the cards without any interference.' Seeing a familiar young woman with blond hair, he smiled and waved at her. "Hello Bella, nice evening we're having."
The woman looked up and gave him a soft smile. Before frowning at being called by her childhood nickname once more. "It's Isabella Dante, and hello to you too. I would ask how the mission went, but from the fact you are here I'm guessing it went well?" Dante grin as he flashes the keycard to Isabella.
"Yup! With this bad boy." He flicks the card. "We'll finally be able to track down the base of this masked annoyance and take them out once and for all." Isabella smiled.
"That's great to hear, you can go up ahead, I'll notify my brother you are coming."
"Thanks, Bella!"
"Isabella." Dante waved her goodbye as he walked toward his boss's office. Knocking on the door once he arrived.
"Come in." Opening the door he was greeted by the sight of the same old room that has been his boss's office for years. The only difference is new rare cards hanging on the walls and in glass cases. Taking the keycard out of his pocket with a flourish, he handed it to his boss.
"Here you go, boss." The boss nodded.
"Good work Dante." Dante bowed.
"Of course boss, I always deliver." The boss nodded.
"Did anything of note occur during your mission?" Dante frowned as he thought back on what happened.
"Not really, the only thing would be that whoever got there before me had access to assault mode. But nowadays that isn't much of a clue." The boss nodded.
"True, however, that does tell us that the culprit is quite skilled. Only people skilled enough in duelling can make use of the Duel Disk's assault mode. It also tells us that the culprit knows someone who can unlock the mode as well." Dante nodded.
"Hmm, true. But that doesn't narrow down the list of who it can be that much." The boss shook his head.
"In the end, it doesn't matter. As long as they stay out of our way, we'll ignore them. Got it, Dante? Do not bring us any unnecessary trouble." His voice steel like without a once of warmth. Dante rolled his eyes at the obvious attempt at intimidation.
"Got it, boss." The boss nodded.
"You can go now, I'll notify you when you have another mission." Dante nodded before turning around to leave the room, waving his boss goodbye. Once Dante left the room and was far enough, the boss placed the card on the desk and slammed his fist against it. As he lifted his fist, pieces of the card that stuck to his fist started to fall. Grabbing a chip from the remains, he smiled as he looked at it. Opening a desk drawer, he took out a wooden box covered in carvings. After placing the box on the desk, he opened it to reveal a golden bordered Gold Sarcophagus card. Placing the chip on the card, it as well as the card started to glow in a golden light. Once the light died down it revealed that the chip was gone, while the card started softly pulling his hand eastward. His grin grew larger as he witnessed the whole event. "Let see them get in my way now."