Cardin Winchester

The name’s Cardin. Cardin Winchester?

Don’t know me? Don’t know Vale’s finest bachelor and up and coming warrior?!

Never heard of the team leader of CRDL? The hardest motherfuckers in their batch?

You don’t? Well what would a bozo like you know about the top dogs of Beacon anyway… whatcha mean we got our asses kicked in sparring matches all the time?

The hell you insinuating? I’m no fraud! Sometimes I get draws but that’s only ‘cause we aren’t discussing raw power. I’ll have you know I only kick ass. See these? That’s all muscle.

Aura doesn’t give a crap about that? Well maybe but the chicks dig it.

I got my ass kicked by a chick? Xiao Long’s no ordinary chick. That bitch’s a monster— you mean the Ice princess? The hell? That was a technicality! The only reason Schnee ‘won’ that was ‘cause she used those dumb glyph of hers to launch me out the arena. It was a TKO! I still had that fight in me!

A loss is a loss? Oh, somebody’s pulling my leg right now.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Who the hell is knocking at my door at this hour? My alarm clock hasn’t even gone off and somebody decide to use a door like a percussion.

I stood up. Walking was a pain with my bruises and pulled muscles. As of now my place was slower than a glacier. The nurse said so and there’s only two people I’d listen to: medical professionals and my own mirror.

So I took things slow. After a grueling minute of incessant knocks and the door fidgeting, I arrived.

This better not be a prank… oh come on!

It was… a delivery dude. He had a Vale Mail Express on him. Was that a thing?

“Special delivery for a Cardin Winchester.”

Ah who cares, what’s more important is that box he was holding. I snagged it and ripped it open. It was probably my grav-dust I ordered. Russell said it would make for a good weights if I tuned it for extra mass—

“This ain’t the dust I ordered.”

“Uh, yeah, I didn’t say it was now did I?” Dudes got a blabber mouth. He’s lucky I couldn’t smack his ass with my bruised arm.

I pulled out whatever was sent to me and let’s just say words weren’t enough to describe my disappointment.

“I didn’t order no dumb remote.” Weird enough it was missing the usual buttons. Like where the heck is the volume buttons? Or the power? What the hell am I supposed to do with a ‘body swap?’

Just as I was about to shove this dumb piece of plastic at the mailman’s mouth, the dude disappeared! I leaned out, peeked left and right and found nothing.

Nada.

Zilch.

Like a ghost… but ghosts aren’t real. I wasn’t the superstitious type like Arc. The dude was probably hiding down the hallway.

And someone did come out the hallway. It was…