The Cards of Royals Chapter One: Jack of Hearts

"Oooooo, this is going to be fun!" Trick laughed in that childish, yet ominous way of his; tossing a pair of black and white dice into the air. Chuckles still escaping his mouth as he caught them again in a leather gloved hand. He continued to snicker and play with the dice, the others still continuing their debate. 1

Jack took one long look at Trick, the young Card may have been ignorant and rambunctious in his ways but he was a needed asset to their team. Dressed in only black and white as the others, Trick had taken a more street punk look then the rest of them. He looked more fit to be at a rave with his revealing, tight fitting clothing then at this type of meeting. His shirt was more of a simple black vest a size too small for his thin body if anything, with no shirt underneath, it was fastened on to him by only one button. He wore his dirty blonde hair short, a spade shape shaved out on the left side of his head above his ear, which was adorned with many steel hoops and bars. He had cruel mismatched eyes, one shocking blue the other a misty grey; they were always searching for some new twisted game he could use as a form of entertainment.Just looking for some means of distraction for his clearly nonexistent attention span. He grinned happily, continuing to toss the dice before him watching the cubes rise and fall with his eyes, the hand gloved only to the wrist in black leather cradling them for a brief moment each time, never missing. On his young face a dark tattoo of another spade stood out against his pale skin, a tiny thing smaller then a dime in size placed under his eye like a misshapen black tear.2

"Are you still with us Jack?" The lead royal, King spoke up seeing his disciple staring intently at the unruly Trick, annoyance clear in his expression. Jack was the mature link of the group. Wearing a more sophisticated outfit consisting of frayed black slacks, and a jacket, although the sleeves of both the jacket and the ruffled white dress shirt beneath it had been ripped off in favor of a rougher style. Jack also had hair long enough to fall stray into his face, reaching his nose in the front ant the bottom of his ears in the back. A worn top-hat was perched askew on his head, and white gloves covered the pale flesh of his hands. He too had a tattoo, a small black heart, on the side of his neck.3

"Always King." Was Jack's automatic answer as he turned to face his Lord and Mistress. 4

"Ah, that's our Jackie." Hera, the queen Card, spoke in the slightly amused tone she always used. "Trick's fine, now pay attention." 5

"Of course, sorry." Jack nodded his head out of respect. The lady royal, the only female member of this elite group, was dressed seductively showing off her small, but muscled form in black and red. He top was strapless and clung tightly to her body to hold her chest up and in, on her head long coppery red hair pulled back into a pony tail to keep it out of the way. Her black silken gloves covered her entire forearm to the elbow and she wore a small skirt with torn leggings only reaching her knees. Her eyes were the same merciless grey of her partner's, King, and a black diamond was inked into the skin on the upper left side of her chest.6

The King of Clubs was dressed for comfort in his loose fitting clothing. Black cargo pants and a black T-shirt, a black and white checkered belt peeking out from under it. He had a strong built but a delicate face that was decorated with a single piercing in his eyebrow. Although still shorter than Jack's his rich brown hair was longer than Trick's and gelled into ruffled spikes. The tattoo of the club was permanently on the inside of his right wrist, a black mark the size of a quarter.7

"So are there anymore questions?" King asked, looking knowingly at Jack. 8

The dark haired boy sighed and stood up, he leaned against the dirty wall of the abandoned factory they were holding court in. With a sigh he pulled out a deck of playing cards and started to shuffle them absentmindedly. Like Trick with his dice it was an anxious habit. The place was far from glamorous and not the place beings of such power should be expected to meet, but it suited them well. It was old, abandoned, dark, and creepy from years of being like that, they were meeting in the dead of night. Only the scarce moonbeams that pooled in from the dirt stained windows and failing roof gave them light. Then again they didn't need much light to see by. "Tell me again why were doing this?" Jack requested, the playing cards passing through one another in a steady rhythm. 9

"We're doing this, Jack, to gain control of the Light Court." King was cross with him, Jack knew it. 10

"So wiping out the Light Court will put us in power?" He was itching for a sensible answer, something he wasn't likely to find from any of the other Cards. 11

"No, we're not wiping out the Light Court." Hera corrected, faster then King could get to it. "We're taking them over, we're even playing by the rules." Trick chuckled lightly having been listening to the conversation for once. Jack scoffed but kept his mouth shut. The rules, now that was a joke. The rule they were referring to was the one that said whoever killed the Queen of the Light court was its new ruler. 12

"There needs to be a balance," Jack said for the millionth time it seemed. Balance, it was a concept they didn't seem to get. They were a renegade court, the Royal Cards, most of them hailed from the Dark Court itself. Jack tried to make them realize that even the Dark Court understood the need for balance. Although you wouldn't believe it with their constant tension with the Light Court. Jack himself was the only Royal to come from the light court. Trick and King were both from the dark court, and Hera was one of the solitary fae. 13

"There you go, preaching all that crap about 'balance'!" Trick scowled securing his dice in one hand and glaring at the dark haired boy wearing a top-hat. "It's time we tipped the scales." His serious expression evaporated in a fit of giggles as he tossed the dice high into the air once more. 14

"Trick is right Jack, we're going to tip the balance in our favor. You told us you wanted power did you not?" King looked at him sternly, daring him to disagree. 15

"That I did." Jack agreed softly. 16

Trick's dice landed on the concrete floor with an echoing clatter, a six and three showing. The noise in the sudden silence gave Jack a jolt and a single card slipped from his deck. The jack of hearts landed face up at his feet, staring blankly back at him.