The woman looked me up and down a few times and made a quiet humph sound before looking around at the other people in the diner. Did I just get a negative look over? I was starting to get irritated at her attitude, Queen of Hearts my ass, more like the Queen of Clubs. I rolled my eyes at the woman and then started talking to Deuce again, “So is the Playing Cards a player ran mercenary group?” When I said this Deuce and the Queen Bitch tensed up a bit.

Deuce looked around a couple of times before speaking in a low voice, “What the fuck are you trying to do get our characters reset?”

I furrowed my brows in confusion, “What are you talking about?”

Deuce facepalmed and Queen B just shook her head. Deuce looked at me seriously for a minute before speaking, “Do you really not know? Jeez what is your A.I. companion doing?”

He shook his head while continuing to speak, “There is a rule that no one except for the strongest players can break; that rule is that no one can talk about the game or players except to other players or your A.I. companion. If this rule is broken, even by accident, then that player’s character will get reset and they will have a leveling penalty for years!.” 

I widened my eyes in shock, seriously Karen why didn’t you tell me this important bit of information.

Deuce continued to speak, “Now that you know try not to do it again. You were lucky that the Queen of Hearts and I are players so the system didn’t trigger its punishment. That and the other people around us aren’t really paying attention. In the Playing Cards there are a mixture of players and regular people. The only exception is the Spade squad; the Spade squad is full of nothing but players and good ones too.”

Deuce looked me up and down quickly before speaking again, “Based on how you look you should be pretty new to this game right?”

I nodded my head, “Yeah I just made my character last night.”

Deuce widened his eyes a little, “Wow, I was expecting a newbie, but not this new. You are literally level one, damn. What class are you running?”

I quickly responded, “It’s called Ace of Spades.”

Deuce and the bitch both widened their eyes in shock while she finally spoke, “You got the Ace of Spades class!?”

I was shocked at how nice her voice sounded, but I responded quickly, “Yeah it was the last choice on my list.”

They both looked at each other and then back at me before Deuce spoke again, “The last spot on the class selection is a random one that is chosen by the system, all of the other classes are things that are or where available on your planet at one point in time.”

I was stunned at that tidbit of information, so there were people who could use magic on earth and demons too?

Deuce was still talking when I came back to my senses, “The Ace of Spades is an extremely rare class that is one of the few classes that only allows one at a time. Most classes allow an unlimited amount of people to use them at the same time, but the Ace of Spades is special. There can only be one Ace of Spades at any time and the abilities of the class are also different each time the class is chosen. What are the abilities of the class for you?”

I thought about it for a second and then asked a question, “Is there a way for me just to show you the class?”

Deuce nodded his head and told me how to do it, I quickly did what he said and a window was shown for the three of us.

They both looked over the information in the window and they both looked at me like I was a monster for a second before quickly regaining their calm. I closed the window and spoke, “So I know that this class is a little overpowered, but I am only at level one. I am not much of a threat to anybody as it stands right now.”

Deuce rolled his eyes before speaking, “A little overpowered? This class can basically use the skills from any class in the game, even those not available to your planet. From what I can see, it’s also only at the first level of the class which means that it can rank up to an even more overpowered class. Do you mind showing us the second level to the class?”

I shook my head, “I don’t want to reveal all of my secrets to you guys; maybe after I join the Playing Cards and we have gotten a little closer I could show you, but right now all I will say is I have to be at least level fifty to rank up.”

Deuce looked a little disappointed but he didn’t get angry or anything while speaking, “That’s understandable everybody has their secrets even me. Based on your class alone you have the qualifications to join the Playing Cards, hell I think that the Queen over here might even want you in our squad.”

After he said that he looked over at her seeing if she had anything to say on the matter. The Queen of Hearts looked me over again a few times before speaking, “You do qualify to join the Playing Cards and I will talk to the King and Ace of Hearts about giving you a chance as our One of Hearts, it just so happens that the spot is vacant since Deuce moved up.”

I couldn’t help but ask her a question, “What happened to the previous Two of Hearts?”

Deuce stiffened up, while the Queen B just looked at me seriously while she spoke, “Well in order to move up in the Playing Cards you have to challenge those above you to a duel of some sorts. Deuce challenged the previous Two of Hearts to a duel and won, the previous Two of Hearts happened to die later from the injuries he sustained in the fight, so he wasn’t able to take the One of Hearts spot. We try to not let our men and women die in these challenges, but shit happens sometimes.”

I looked over at Deuce and he looked kind of down about the death of his comrade which made me feel better about my choice in entering the Playing Cards. I looked at Miss Bitchy and spoke again, “So is there anything else you need from me or are we good to go?”

She shook her head and actually showed a small smile, “Nope we are good to go, come with us and we can talk with the Ace and King of Heart Squad.” She actually looks kind of cute when she smiles, unlike her coldness that she had earlier.

We all stood up and proceeded to leave the diner, I followed the two of them to a sleek looking sports car parked in the parking lot. Deuce held open the passenger door for me to climb in the back before he got in the passenger seat and Not as Bitchy got in the driver’s seat. She waited for us to buckle before putting the car in drive and peeling out of the parking lot. We were zooming down the highway at amazing speeds talking about random things as we drove. I found out that Deuce’s real name is actually Dom and that Bitchy’s name is Sally. They told me that since I was going to be a part of Playing Card I could call them by their real name, but when we are on a mission we have to stick to code names.

I told them my character's name and they both thought that it was kind of a weird name. When they said that I just shrugged my shoulders, I have a thing for Latin so I usually use it when naming characters in games and stuff.

They asked me what type of fighting style I was going to use first sense my class allows me to use any of them. I thought about it for a minute before answering, “Well I think I want to go with different types of guns, mainly a sniper for long range and dual pistols for up close and personal.”

They both liked my choice and told me that Playing Card had an excellent virtual training course for almost any fighting style. We were making our way down the highways still and I noticed that there was an army style base off in the distance.

Dom seemed to notice me looking and spoke up, “That is The Deck. It is our home base.”

Hearing him speak I was impressed, I mean the base was huge. I don’t know the size of army bases back on earth, but this one stretched forever in either direction. Dom said it was about seven square miles in size. It made sense that it was so big though when you saw that there were four massive spaceships sitting in the middle.

Dom saw me staring at the spaceships and spoke up again, “Those are our spaceships called The Suits. They represent the four squads, Spades, Diamonds, Clubs, and Hearts. We had a fifth smaller space ship that had our fifth squad in it, but they got wiped out somehow on a mission. The Spades and the Dealer have been trying to figure out what happened to them; oh the Dealer is our boss by the way. They are the one who assigns us missions and whatnot.”

I was interested in all he was saying, but I had a question, “What was your fifth squad called?”

He thought about something for a second before speaking, “It was actually a small squad that consisted of two of our elite members and their chosen subordinates; the squad was simply called Joker, but when people heard that Joker Squad was making a move then knew that shit was about to hit the fan.”

Well it makes sense that it would be called that, the Jokers are the most valuable cards in a playing card deck, if people use them.

I looked towards The Deck as we were traveling towards it at a high rate of speed. After a few more minutes we slowed down in order to check in at the gate. The guard scanned their identifications into the computer and then gave me a visitor's pass. We proceeded through the gate traveling at a slower speed across the base, but it was still pretty quick.

We made our way to one of the spaceships and parked the car in the parking lot underneath it. We walked over to the ramp leading up towards the spaceship and stood at the bottom. After a few minutes of waiting two people came walking down the ramp, one was a man in his late thirties probably, he had a buzz cut and a full on lumberjack beard. He was ripped to the point of almost busting out of his smedium express shirt. He wore camouflage cargo pants and combat boots.

The other person was actually a woman. She was pretty tall; I would say that she stood at about five foot ten, which is tall for a woman. She had silver colored hair and a pair of black dog ears on her head. She was actually the first non-human I have ever met. She had a black tail that came down across her very plump butt and her bust was probably a DD cup from my estimation. Her eyes were a very pretty white color that drew you in if you stared too long.

When she noticed me staring at her she actually smiled and quickly winked at me. I could feel my face turn red and I started to look around at other things. This brought a quiet giggle from the woman before she quickly regained her calm demeanor. They both finally made it to us and stopped right at the end of the ramp.

The man looked down at me and gave me a quick look over before speaking, “I am the King of Hearts, but you can just call me Daniel and the woman beside me is the Ace of Hearts.”

He pointed to the woman beside him who smiled and started to speak, “Hello like he said I am the Ace of Hearts, but you can call me Sylvie. Sally here tells me that she thinks you should be a part of our Heart Squad and actually take our One of Hearts opening.”

I shrugged my shoulders before speaking, “That’s what she said, but I just came along for the ride right now. I don’t know what you plan on doing with me, but I would like to join the Playing Cards either way.”

The woman just smiled while Daniel spoke up, “I hear you have a pretty rare class; Dom wouldn’t tell me what it was when he contacted me.”

I nodded my head, “That’s what they say at least, I have the Ace of Spades class.” Yet again when I said this both Sylvie and Daniel stiffened up a bit and widened their eyes some.

They both looked at each other and then back towards me before Sylvie spoke, “Are you being serious right now? Do you really have the Ace of Spades class?”

I nodded my head and showed them my class window. They both looked at the window and then got extremely happy.

Sylvie looked at me and spoke again, “With this class you definitely have the right to join the Playing Cards and I would love to have you in my squad. Let’s go and get the paperwork done and register you as a member of the Playing Cards while Daniel goes and lets the Dealer know that we have a new Number.”

Daniel jumped into a warthog looking vehicle and took off towards a giant building off in the distance while I followed behind Sylvie. When we got into the spaceship Dom and Sally said that they had some stuff to take care of and took off in different directions.

I continued to follow Sylvie through the corridors enjoying the view of her butt swaying side to side along with the swish of her tail. We finally made it to what I assume is her office, because she sat down in the big chair behind the desk. She motioned for me to sit down; I sat down in one of the chairs on the other side of her desk. She picked up a hologram tablet and started to type on it.

After a few minutes she slid the tablet over to me and spoke, “Fill out all of the information required on the page and then hand the tablet back.”

I looked at the form on the tablet and it was pretty straight forward. I asked things like my name, age, gender, and etc. I filled out the information and handed the tablet back to her. She made a quick swipe on the tablet and the information that I typed in was sent to her computer sitting on the desk.

She looked at me and then smiled before speaking, “Congratulations Jōkā, you are now a part of the Playing Cards. Allow me to personally welcome you to the Heart Squad as our One of Hearts.”

She stood up and held her hand out towards me; I stood up and grabbed her hand and shook it. She smiled and spoke again, “Now let me show you to your living quarters among other things.” She walked around the desk and headed out the door with me close behind her. I was shown my room, which was marked with a red playing card on the door which was a One of Hearts obviously.

After that I was shown where the mess hall is along with the training room, the armory, and some other areas on the ship. I was also told that only the Numbers and Face Cards live on the squad ship. Regular members all stay in the barracks on the ground or in the other battleships spread out through the universe. It is very rare that all four of The Suits are docked at The Deck at the same time. Normally there is only one at a time, mainly for protecting The Deck and The Dealer, and the rest of the Suits are out on missions or on their respective Aces home planet.

Each Suit rotates on guard duty for The Dealer. The Dealer rarely comes out of their home on the base. When they do come out they are usually guarded by the Face Cards and the Ace of the Suit that is on guard duty at the time. Before the Joker Squad disappeared, the red Joker used to guard them alone. The two Jokers were the Black Joker and the Red Joker. The black Joker is the best male member of the company while the Red Joker is the best female.

We had left the ship and was walking down the ramp, I was learning quite a bit while following Sylvie around. I got sidetracked by the sound of gun fire. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw that there was a firing range in the distance. There were a few men and women standing at the range shooting into a few targets that were in the distance. Sylvie noticed me looking and started to walk towards the range. Someone noticed us coming and yelled out Ten Hut causing everyone to stop and salute Sylvie. She waved for everyone to go back to what they were doing.

They all started shooting at the targets again and a couple of people even came up and started to talk to Sylvie. I was watching a person use a pistol to shoot targets as they popped up in the distance. He was literally using one shot and hitting them in the head every time and the time between targets popping up was probably around half a second. His accuracy and speed were inconceivable to me.

Sylvie spoke up beside me causing me to jump, “That is our Jack of Hearts, his name is Johnny and he doesn’t like to talk much, but out of all of the Suits he is one of the best shots with a pistol.

I stood there watching Johnny shoot the targets one after another while quickly reloading the pistol when he ran out of ammo. After a few minutes, and five magazines later, Johnny finally finished shooting and put his pistol in its holster. He stepped away from the range table giving me a good view of him. He stood at about five foot nine and had a toned build. He had muscles but they weren’t the bulging type like Daniels. He had a buzz cut just like Daniel and wore almost the exact same clothes as him too; he had brown hair and brown eyes as well.

Sylvie must have sensed something because she spoke up, “He is actually Daniel’s brother.”

I nodded my head, it makes complete sense now as to why they look so similar. Sylvie poked me in the shoulder, “Want to give the range a try?”

I looked at her, then at the range, and then back to her before speaking, “Yeah, but I don’t have any weapons.”

She smiled and pulled out a pistol from behind her back, “Here you can borrow mine. Have you ever shot a gun before?”

You would think that since my family owns a gun manufacturing company that I would have shot a bunch, but Jim didn’t want me anywhere near them. All I could do is shake my head drawing a laugh from her. She quickly gave me a run down on gun safety and on how the gun works. She walked me over to one of the tables and set the target difficulty on easy.

I aimed the gun down the range and lined the sights up. There was a beeping countdown and then the targets popped up. I aimed the gun at the target and pulled the trigger. I actually managed to hit the target, but I hit it in the arm instead of the heart where I had been aiming. I shot at the next few targets hitting some and missing others. The pistol ran out of ammo and the targets stopped popping up.

Sylvie clapped a little bit, “Not bad for someone that hasn’t shot a gun before, but you were squeezing the trigger wrong with your finger causing the gun to move as you pulled.”

She showed me a few more tricks and the proper way to pull the trigger and then she gave me another magazine and showed me how to reload the pistol. After I was reloaded she started the targets up again. When the first target popped up I quickly aimed at its head and pulled the trigger. There was a hole that appeared in the middle of it’s head, but before I could get excited the next target popped up. I went through the targets one after the other hitting my mark every time.

When the final target fell Sylvie clapped beside me again, “Not bad at all, not bad. You actually hit every single target in the head on your second time shooting a gun. Are you sure you have never done it?”

I nodded my head before speaking, “I couldn’t have done it without your guidance, thank you.”

 She smiled and patted me on the shoulder, “It’s my job as the Ace to make sure that all of my squad members are up to par so don’t mention it.”

I smiled at her and handed her the pistol back handle first. She grabbed the handle and reloaded it with another magazine, loaded the chamber, and then secured the pistol in its holster on her back.

She smiled at me before speaking, “Let’s head over to the armory and get you a pistol of your own.”

I nodded my head and followed her to the armory. When we walked in, there was an old man sitting in a chair taking a nap. Sylvie walked over and kicked the chair out from under the old man causing him to fall to the ground, “Shouldn’t you be working you old coot?”

The old man actually caught himself before he crashed to the ground and cursed at her, “The fuck! I am working, you heifer! Shouldn’t you be out skull fucking some new recruit or something?”

I stared in shock at the language that the old man was using. Sylvie took it in stride and cursed back, “I actually have a new recruit with me right now you senile old fuck.”

I just stood there dumbfounded listening to the foul language being thrown out by an elderly man and a beautiful woman. The old man smiled and then gave Sylvie a hug, “It’s been a while since you came and seen me lass.”

Sylvie laughed and hugged the old man back, “Sorry I have been busy pops.”

I swear my jaw was probably on the floor right now at this exchange. The old man laughed at my expression, “So who is the new recruit lass?”

Sylvie laughed as well, “This is Jōkā; he is my new One of Hearts. Jōkā this old bastard here is Fred; he is our Master Gunsmith and practically  my father.” 

f my jaw wasn’t on the floor before it was now, this old man is your dad!? What the fuck!?