They started by going through the dead deckbearer's deck. Dania hadn't paused to get the guy's ID like she'd promised, so they still didn't know his name. But his deck build was a fascinating window into his mind.

"Gods above and below, this dude had a lot of cards," Jake muttered as he fanned them out on the table. Dania reached over and began stacking some of the empty plates and utensils in order to clear more space. "He's got almost twenty cards in this deck!"

"Well, we saw at least four Hellcats, and he had them working together. I guess it makes sense if he went for what amounts to an Infernal/Beast tribal build," Dania said. Jake glanced up at her, one eyebrow raised.

"I thought this stuff gave you a headache," he said, a teasing note in his voice. Dania rolled her eyes and cuffed him lightly on the back of the head.

"It does, but I'm learning," she said. "Is that what he did?"

"Kinda?" Jake said, spreading the cards out more. "He had a total of four Hellcats, this enhancer that makes them function as a unit—that's pretty cool—and an Infernal feline mantle that's not nearly as good as yours." Jake took these six cards and laid them to the side in their own stack before continuing.

"He's also got these two Bat Out Of Hell cards. They look badass… and it looks like they've got a tracking ability similar to your Dire Wolves."

"I guess that makes sense, if he's working for the same people Berto mentioned." Dania leaned forward to peer closer at the cards. "I bet these guys were his backup plan, in case we evaded his Hellcats."

"If that's the case, it was a piss-poor backup plan," Jake said, steel threading through his voice.

"Not really." Dania shrugged. "If we would have just focused on running, instead of turning to fight, he would have been ready to take us down. I just don't think he expected us to fight back."

Jake frowned. "That doesn't make sense, though. He knew we had cards. Why wouldn't he expect us to fight back?"

Dania had been considering the same thing. She reached out a finger to the fan of cards and idly began spreading them apart.

"I think…" she said slowly, as her thoughts coalesced. "I think, maybe, he didn't expect it because he's not used to seeing it. Berto said these guys target vulnerable deckbearers. Maybe… maybe they don't usually fight back, or they don't have the means."

"But they're deckbearers!"

"Yeah, but not every deck is optimized for combat," Dania reminded him. "Some focus on buildings, or healing, or minions. Also, decks aside, not every person is combat-optimized either. It takes a certain quality to be able to act violently against another person. Even in self-defense. I—I never wanted you to have to develop it, but I'm glad you have. Especially now." Kaylie's face drifted behind her eyes, but Dania shoved it away.

You'd want him to live, Kaylie, she told her memory of her sister. No matter what, I know that to be true. I'm doing my best, sis. I really am.

"I'm glad too," Jake said softly. Dania shook herself out of her reverie and narrowed her eyes at him, but he just shrugged. "You're right. We need to be able to defend ourselves…and those who can't defend themselves."

A tendril of unease stirred within Dania. She opened her mouth to ask further questions, but Jake shook his head and tapped the table.

"Anyway, I think if we're sorting this monster of a deck, we put the bats with the cats and—wait—"

Jake shot a hand out and spread the deck further before pulling out two cards. One of them came from the section he'd set aside. It had tawny brown edges, although Dania could have sworn that all of the cards in that pile had been red.

The other card Jake grabbed came from the unsorted cards. This one had icy green and glittering iridescent edges that shifted color in the steady light from the table's candelabra.

"What are those?" Dania asked.

"Not what they used to be," Jake said. "I think you changed them when you touched the deck."

"Just now?" Dania's eyebrows went up. "But I wasn't picking them up or anything!"

"I know," Jake said. "But they're definitely different than they were. Take a look."

Dania's pulse accelerated as she took the two cards and turned them over.

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"Animating Spirit," she read. "And Cryptid Ambush."

"What do they do?" Jake asked.

"Cryptid Ambush hides deck pull warnings for its deckbearer," Dania said, her eyes skimming over the words. "And the first [Extinct] or [Hidden] creature played gains Speedy, which means it doesn't count against the cards per round limit."

"Ohhh," Jake said. "That's nice. You're definitely keeping that one. What else?"

Dania didn't answer right away. She read the Animating Spirit card again, and then again.

"Um," she said. "This is… here. You look." Suddenly uncomfortable, though she couldn't have said why, she handed the card back to Jake. His eyes went wide as he read the description aloud.

#

Animating Spirit

Rare Nature/Meta Enhancer Card

All Nature, Beast, and Plant Creature cards that are unique gain personalities as if they were companion cards (but no other mechanical benefits of being a companion card) and the first unique card played to the field gains a -1 power cost (any one).

#

"Whoa," Jake said. "That's… I've never heard of anything like that."

"Me neither," Dania said. "I—do you think it was like this before I changed it?"

Jake shook his head. "No, it was the enhancer I mentioned. It let the Hellcats work together as a coordinated team, but it wasn't anything like this! This was all you."

"Why, though?" Dania whispered, the unease growing in her mind. "I understand that Fossil Bloom lets me change cards to fit the Lost World theme…but why this?"

Jake stared at her with wide, worried eyes and shook his head. "I don't know," he said…and then something shifted in his expression, and he grinned. "But I'm excited to find out."

Dania snorted, then shook her head and laughed. "Of course you are," she said, cuffing his head gently again. "You're turning into a first-class adrenaline junkie."

"Well, yeah. Being a deckbearer is fun. At least, it should be. Otherwise, what the hell is the point?"

What the hell, indeed? Dania shook her head again. But as always, Jake had a knack for lightening her mood and making her smile. She took a deep breath and pushed the unease to the back of her brain. "Okay," she said. "I guess I'll keep both of these cards, since I apparently customized them. What else have we got?"

There was another feline enhancer card that buffed the cats' non-Health stats, a card that let the deckbearer pull any Infernal card from his deck at +1 Infernal Power, two enhancers that prolonged the deckbearer's lifespan, and a bunch of weak Infernal Rat creatures.

"I don't get it," Jake said. "Why keep all these Tier-1 Infernal Rats? Why not combine them to make stronger cards?"

Dania eyed the cards, and then shrugged. "Body disposal," she said. "Look, their special is that they can consume three times their body weight in organic material in a thirty-second timespan. Their attack is pretty weak, but five of them could eat a corpse pretty quickly."

"Gross," Jake wrinkled his nose. Dania shrugged.

"It's less messy than some other methods."

"Speaking of which, is that what we're going to do to our guy? Set his own rats on him?"

"I don't have five Infernal power to spare, do you?" Dania asked, raising an eyebrow at Jake. He looked embarrassed for a second and shook his head.

"Besides, we have a better option," Dania went on. "We can dump the body in the Dream dungeon. Didn't you tell me that bodies dissolve in dungeons?"

"Oh, yeah, they do." Jake perked up, his smile flashing back with lightning quickness. "That's a good idea."

"Thanks," Dania said, returning his smile before letting it fall away and looking back down at the cards on the table. "Listen, kiddo," she said softly. "I know some of these cards are really cool—" She trailed her fingernail against the edge of one of the Hellcats. "But having a Shadow and Death deck is dark enough, okay? Let's not rush to add Infernal to the mix."

"But—"

"I know," Dania said. "We do whatever it takes, I get that. But we're doing all right with what we've got so far, and how many levels would it take to be able to maximize the use of all these cards?"

Jake looked mulishly at her for a long moment, and then let out a long sigh. "Too many," he conceded.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Plus, we're both at our max deck size right now anyway. Let's take these and sell—"

"Dani, I don't think we should sell them."

Dania blinked. "What? Why not?"

"Well…they're Infernal cards. Someone could do a lot of damage with them. Someone could do a lot of cool shit with them, too… but it would have to be the right person. If Berto was still alive, he would be perfect to take the Cats and Bats deck, but…" he trailed off and shrugged.

"So…what are you saying, we find someone else and give it to them?"

"Maybe," Jake said. "I don't know. I've just kinda been thinking, ever since you said Hush was a member of the team. You said that there are assholes out there hunting…what did Berto say? Vulnerable deckbearers? Like I was. Kids, maybe. So, what if we find the vulnerable deckbearers before the assholes do? Some of them have got to have protectors. Family, friends? People like you. Maybe we can give one of them the Cats and Bats deck, and they can use it to keep their kid or whoever safe."

Dania stared at Jake for a long moment while fear and pride tangled in her chest.

"You know that's going to be dangerous, right?" she said lowly.

"It's already dangerous."

Dania let out a sigh. "Fuck. That's true. All right, kiddo. We won't sell the cards right now. Let's just… let's not jump into giving them away, either. We'll just hang onto them for now. You can leave them here, right? We can come back and get them?"

Jake nodded. "We can enter this place anytime at night through my shadow, no matter where we are. We'll just come out back in the same place."

"Huh. That could come in handy. At the very least, it saves us from having to get a hotel room if we get stuck spending the night in the city."

"I thought we were planning to come back here?" Jake reached for the last piece of bacon on the platter, and shoved it in his mouth. "But like you said," he muttered around the mouthful. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." A small piece of bacon fell out of his mouth onto his lap. Jake frowned and looked down at it before picking it up and popping it back into his mouth.

"So classy," Dania said, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, slob. We've got a body to stash and a four-hour drive. Finish stuffing your face and let's get moving…but maybe wash up first. Oh, and grab the guy’s wallet. I want to know who this asshole was."