A/N: Welcome readers, to another of my hijackings! This time I'm playing in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom, but a very specific corner of it. Specifically, Cyber Commander's Shadowchasers series (thanks for letting me play in you sandbox, CC!). If you're unfamiliar with the series, please look them up, although I have tried my hardest to make this story accessible for first timers too.

I also need to thank 7th Librarian and Scarlet Weather for holding both my hands while I wrote, and making sure that I didn't break anything fragile in this sandbox.

This story takes place not long after Soulscape.

Don't think there's much else to say, except read on and enjoy!

Shadowchasers: Sweet Sixteen
by Mei1105

Chapter 1: Doesn't Ring A Bell

If you stared at a page for long enough, the words turned fuzzy, as though they had grown mould to match the decay in your mind.

In a small dormitory in a private boarding school on the outskirts of London, Judy LaBaron was about to find out if the fuzzy words could move on their own.

She had been trying to fathom the equation for the past thirty five minutes, but try as she might, her brain just did not want to engage with it in the same way that it had with the rest of the questions. Taking a break was becoming more appealing by the second, but she hated leaving a task unfinished, especially when she was so close...

The first bracket of the equation was starting to wriggle when the sound of pounding techno filled the room. All of her nerves sprang to life, and she whacked her knee hard on the underside of the desk, drawing a thick line down the page with her fountain pen.

"Ienai kikenai mienai maboroshi dake, toki no mukougawa e…"

Cursing her clumsiness, she scrabbled for the source. Her phone was buried under several textbooks and a stack of answer sheets. If she could just find it before it stopped ringing...

"Hello?"

The voice that answered was purposefully low and sing-song.

"Juuudy Juuudy, give me your answer dooo…"

A forehead to the desk would have been a logical response to such a greeting – but Judy's desk was covered in homework, and ink marks were not attractive on one's face. She settled for sighing down the phone instead, and hunting through her pencil case for the ink eraser.

"One day Emily, you'll be able to say 'hello' in a manner that doesn't frighten small children."

A peal of malicious giggles erupted on the other end. Someone had been giving the Librarian's apprentice sugar.

"Lucky for me then, you are neither small, nor a child, Scales. And you love my evil greetings – they spice up your day."

The accidental line of ink vanished. With a resigned note, Judy pushed the answer sheet away and leaned back in her seat. She was terribly glad that the dorm room was otherwise unoccupied. "As much as I love your brand of spice, I am up to my neck in equations right now."

"You are aware that it's Friday, right?" Emily interrupted. "You have two whole days to be up to your neck in equations. On the other hand, it's only going to be my sixteenth birthday for another…seven and a half hours."

Blinking, Judy felt something very heavy and cold sink into her stomach – guilt. And it had nothing to do with homework.

"So, we – that's the Royal We – are going out to have some fun! And if I have to prise you away from your desk with a crowbar, then I will!"

Guilt at having forgotten her friend's birthday warred with the knowledge that she had a lot to do this weekend. Now that the first round of GCSE papers were out of the way, the teachers were keen to keep the momentum going until the bulk of the exams in June. And that was not counting any Shadowchasers related training that cropped up during the weekend…

"I really really really shouldn't Em..."

There was a knock at the door. Judy's frown was instantly replaced by an exasperated huff. Even if she hadn't sensed the unique aura in the corridor, nobody knocked on the door of a shared dorm room.

Leaving her phone on her desk, she got up, and strode to the door in three brisk strides. Unperturbed by the way she yanked it open, Emily Foxblade grinned, her phone still plastered to her ear. She wasn't exactly intimidating at five feet, with a pixie cut, and a novelty oversized sixteenth birthday badge pinned to her waistcoat. But there was something about her smile that made you not want to leave her alone with small children...they might get ideas.

"You're assuming I'm giving you a choice in the matter," she greeted, pointedly hanging up the connection. "Consider this a kidnapping, Scales!"

"How the hell did you get up here?" Judy spluttered. The school wasn't exactly built to the same security standards that the House of Parliament were, but teachers were always vigilant against people sneaking into the dorms, and every entrance and fire exit had CCTV.

"I have magical powers," Emily wriggled her fingers like she was trying to untangle them from a ball of string, before pointing to the figure on her left. "And Anna's very good at picking locks."

The aforementioned friend stood just a step behind Emily, sliding a slightly twisted hairpin back into her fringe. Miki, the third musketeer, was holding the handbags, and gave Judy a sheepish smile that only one who has an eccentric best friend can manage.

"Nice to meet you Judy. We're sorry for barging in."

"Speak for yourself!" Emily said, breezing past the half dragon, despite the fact that no invitation had been given. "Ladies, find our kidnap victim some clothes! It's the fastidiously tidy wardrobe over there!"

"Okay, who uses the word 'fastidious' outside of Mr Dalton's classroom?" Anna demanded, following her friend's lead, and marching straight for the wardrobe. Miki loitered uncertainly in the doorway. "Just say 'tidy' like a normal person."

Emily beamed. "We can't all be as erudite and acculturated as me. Now chop chop! Judy needs clothes that aren't school uniform! We're meeting the others in an hour, and you know what a bitch the Underground is during rush hour."

Sure enough, Anna was looking the aforementioned school uniform up and down, and she quickly pulled a face. "Jesus! And I thought ours was bad! Don't worry dear, I'll find some jeans and make the nasty tartan go away!"

She dove into the wardrobe like a fabric-seeking magpie, and a flurry of garments began to sail through the air. Amused as Emily was almost concussed by a flying boot, Judy began to pack away her books with only the tiniest twinge of guilt. Her friend was right – she wasn't getting equations done any faster by waiting for the letters and numbers to begin making sense. She had a whole weekend, and unlike her classmates, she did not require seven hours of sleep to function normally.

"That is a lot of homework," Miki pointed out, kindly. "Don't feel obligated because Emily likes to get her way."

"Shut up, it's my birthday!" Emily retorted, but she peered anxiously over at Judy anyway, a silent question hanging in the air. She was being rather rude, barging in after all.

Judy let her squirm for a few seconds before shrugging and tossing Emily her pencil case.

"Eh. It's not going anywhere. By all means, kidnap me." She eyed the birthday girl with a smirk. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"It's not a kidnapping anymore if you consent to it," Emily reminded her. "And it certainly wasn't my idea to break into Jalal's office last time…or the time before that."

"Hmm…" wisely Judy did not reply, because it had been her idea. Instead she grabbed the jeans that Anna had tossed at her head (thankfully not the pair with the Orc blood stain). "And I suppose you'll be wanting a birthday present too, as well as a kidnapping?"

"Well now that you mention it, yes that would be lovely!"

OOO

As they walked from the Underground stop to the restaurant, Judy reflected that she really didn't take advantage of living in London.

At six pm on a Friday, the city was positively heaving with life and excitement, a strange mix of harassed commuters hitting the trains, while tourists and young people flooded in to start their weekends in the best possible way. The black taxis were gridlocked down the street, and Emily came very close to being knocked over by one as she forgot to look left and right before crossing.

"You can't run me over!" she bellowed at the furious driver, jabbing a finger at the dinner-plate sized badge on her chest. "It's my birthday!"

She was getting far too fond of that excuse.

In spite of Emily's grandiose gestures and statements, Judy quickly realised that they were doing what any self respecting British teenagers did when they had something to celebrate - they headed for the nearest Nandos, and promptly snagged a table for six. The cheerful restaurant was busy, but at this time of the evening, it was not late enough for it to be heaving yet.

"I…" Emily declared grandly, parking herself in one of the chairs with a thump. "Have never been to Disneyland!"

Anna gave an astonished and horrified gasp that would have been better suited to finding out that someone was dead. Even Miki looked surprised. "Never?"

Emily shrugged, pleased that her revelation was causing some drama in their little game (the non-alcoholic version of I Never had been successful at breaking the ice while on the Underground). "Never. But, if I do well in my GCSEs, Harriet has agreed to take me this summer."

"I had no idea," Judy was surprised - even she had done Disneyland. "If I'd known I'd have taken you with me! We could have done the rollercoasters together…" she paused with a mischievous expression. "You're over a hundred and forty centimetres tall, right?"

"Don't make me stab you with my fork, dear," Emily warned, squeaking as Anna bent awkwardly over the chair, wrapped her arms around the birthday girl's neck and began to pet her.

"You poor deprived little soul. Your childhood has been robbed..."

Judy exchanged a look with Miki and the two of them started to laugh as Anna accidentally stroked Emily's glasses off with a flick of her fingers, sending them clattering off the table edge and into her lap. The birthday girl shoved her into the booth before retrieving them. "Okay Judy, your turn!"

Sliding into the booth, Judy thought for a moment. "I have never dyed my hair."

"You what?!" Anna exclaimed in disbelief. Judy was quickly learning that Anna rarely did things in half measures - that included expressing herself. Several people in the restaurant had turned to look, and one waiter had almost dropped a bowl of salad in fright at the sudden noise.

"You're totally not messing with me?" Anna demanded, squinting at Judy's hastily thrown together ponytail as though it contained the secret to life, the universe and everything. The half dragon shrugged.

"No messing. It's totally natural. I haven't gone near dye ever."

Something had clearly stalled in Anna's brain, for she made no attempts to pick up the menu. Leaning over, Miki began to prod at the base of her skull.

"Reboot failing," she quipped. "Now switching to dial up."

"Seriously, how do you even get that sort of silvery blondeness?" Anna spluttered, as her brain came back online. "I didn't even know there were genes for that!"

"How much attention do you actually pay in biology?" Emily swiftly deflected the question, pointing at her with her phone. "I mean attention that you don't spend staring at Steve Harper's butt?"

"Hey!" the distraction worked, and Anna immediately stuck her tongue out at the birthday girl. "I totally pay attention in biology! I need that class!" she threw up her hands. "Man! How do all my friends get the really cool hair? Judy's silver, you're all red Em-"

"It's auburn," Emily corrected, not looking up from her text message.

"I don't have really cool hair," Miki reminded her. "Mine is just black."

"Oh puh-lease!" Anna objected. "In the right light, you go midnight blue - I've seen it in the cinema. And I'm stuck with dead rat."

She huffed at her fringe, which was already coming loose from the twisted hairpin.

It took Judy a moment to notice that she was smiling. She had friends - other Shadowchasers, and a few people at school that she was on good terms with - but it was rare for her to be in a group of peers, and not be discussing schoolwork, dangerous Shadowkind, or the end of the world. Emily was her closest friend, but usually when they hung out, they ended up causing trouble in the Library or Jalal's office. To do something chilled, was a nice change from their usual brand of mayhem.

Emily railroaded the game by giving a squeak and waving a hand frantically across the restaurant. Two newcomers - one male and one female - were approaching, the former with a huge cake box under his arm.

"No present darling, but I brought dessert!"

"Oh Mike, you rock so hard!" Emily restrained herself from hugging him until after he had put the precious box down on the table. Judy took a moment to peek inquisitively under the lid, with Anna and Miki also peering over like curious parrots. From what she could see, there was a lot of chocolate buttercream, and some very detailed piping around the edge.

"Mmm bugger the chicken, I'll just sit in a corner with this on my lap," she muttered. "And...y'know...guard it…"

"Only if I get to come with you and lick the icing," Anna put in.

"Hmm...that didn't sound like a euphemism at all," Miki muttered. "You two should present Bake Off." All three of them snorted.

"Okay, Judy," Emily somehow managed to pull Judy's attention away from the cake, as she waved at the newcomers. "This is Mike, the maker of amazing cakes."

Being British, both of them shook hands, but because he'd already endeared himself to her with said amazing cake, Judy gave him a grin. He beamed back with extremely white teeth, before squeezing into the booth next to Anna.

"And this is Becky," Emily continued. "She's the one who orchestrated that giant chalk drawing in the playground last year."

Judy remembered the photos of said chalk drawing in all its swirling, psychedelic magnificence, however all thoughts of it evaporated as she took in the final member of their party. On the surface, Becky looked like any sixteen year old. But it was the way she paused for just a fraction too long as her gaze met Judy's, her eyes widening slightly, before giving a tiny shake of her head, that made the half dragon sit up and take notice.

"Sorry," Becky blinked hard, before rubbing the back of her neck as if to ward off a cold draft. "I zoned there for a moment. Nice to meet you."

She shook her hand with a smile as Mike had, but there was no mistaking what Judy had noticed. As Becky took one of the stools on the other side of the table, Judy locked eyes with Emily, knowing that both of them were thinking the same thing.

Aware.

Anna was praising Mike for his cake, and Miki and Becky appeared to be swapping chemistry notes from earlier that day. The timing could not have been better. Knowing that she might not get this chance again, Judy yanked Emily closer to her and hid their faces behind one of the large menus.

"Did you know?" she hissed.

"I had no clue!" Emily sounded like someone had just yanked a carpet out from underneath her. "Where would I have noticed? There's no Shadows in our school...definitely not in our year group at least."

They both spared quick glances over the top of the cardboard, like a pair of incompetent henchmen in a bad spy movie. On the surface, Becky seemed to be behaving normally, but you could never be certain...she might just be very good at pretending that everything was fine.

"I should really talk to her about this," Judy said. Aware humans were rare, and the Shadowchasers needed all the help they could get. If there was even the slightest possibility that Becky could be involved, it had to be investigated.

"Yeah...can you do it after my party though?" dropping the menu, Emily pouted with the air of someone who practiced the motion often. "I want my chicken before we get into magical drama."

Judy rolled her eyes, but Emily was probably right. She certainly couldn't explain it with everyone else around. "Whatever you say, Bookworm."

"Oi, that's Birthday Bookworm to you, Scales," Emily retorted, both of them breaking into grins.

"Okay, I have to ask," Anna interrupted, her finger paused on the menu somewhere over the salads. "Why Bookworm and Scales? I've been wondering that ever since I added you both on Facebook."

Because I'm half dragon, and she's heir to a magical Library, Judy thought dryly. Oh yes - that would go over so well with a group of humans.

"Because she's obsessed with dragons," Emily lied smoothly. "And I mean obsessed in the same way that Mike is obsessed with Jack Atlas."

A dazed grin slid onto Mike's face. "He's dreamy…"

"...okay maybe not quite the same way…" Emily conceded.

"Yeah, and when I first met her," Judy jabbed a finger at the girl in question. "She was reading a book on second wave feminism that was about six inches thick."

"Oh it wasn't that bad-"

"Are you kidding? It made JK Rowling look concise!"

"You can't call it excessive until it's heavier than War and Peace! Those are the rules...that I just made up…"

The others at the table stared at them. "What's...War and Peace and is there a movie?" Anna asked innocently.

Miki headdesked. "It hurts me. It physically hurts me," she groaned, causing everyone to chuckle.

"You can physically hurt someone with War and Peace actually," Emily put in thoughtfully. Judy could not help it - she burst out laughing.

"That was hysterical! I didn't know that a demon could actually vomit...or it had so many teeth to lose." Judy smiled at the memory and then blinked as everyone else at the table was staring at her.

"Oh. Dungeons and Dragons game we played once with my teacher. Was a lot of fun!" Emily said quickly, before adding. "Wasn't that the one where Harriet showed up midway through and started hitting things with her cricket bat?"

"That wasn't fun!" Judy protested, remembering the real life incident in question. "She almost took my head off!"

"She'd never met you before - she thought you might have been a cultist."

"...what's Dungeons and Dragons? Is that a video game?" Anna asked with a blank look and then cracked up as Miki gave another groan and Emily banged her head into the table. "Ooh, this is fun! Do I get double points if I make brain cells come out of your nose?"

"New rule - no damaging birthday girl's brain cells!" Emily protested, before scooping up a menu and rising. "I don't have many to lose!"

"But you have enough to remember the events of your D&D games, perfectly?" Miki pointed out.

"Those are important!" Emily stated, sliding her way out of the booth. "As is food. I'm going to order. I require chicken, cake and presents...not necessarily in that order."

"You have presence - we're all sitting here, enthralled by your majestic presence," Becky smiled, and ducked onto the floor as a menu was thrown at her head. "Ow! My dignity!"

Curious, as everyone filed out of the booth, Judy offered Becky a hand and a friendly smile. The girl eyed her warily for just a moment before accepting.

Well that settles it the half dragon thought to herself. Definitely Aware. She was going to have to let Jalal know, but there was no huge rush. Whatever Becky was seeing, she seemed to have mastered being discreet about it - the British disdain for making a scene was probably responsible for that.

She was so focused on Becky that she almost missed it. There was nobody waiting at the bar, but as the party approached from the left hand side of the restaurant, another group of four were approaching from the right, heading directly on a collision course.

Judy cursed her lack of observation. She should have registered them the second she had entered the restaurant. She could be forgiven for dismissing their tall, slender frames, and skin that was just a shade or two darker than Becky's, but how the hell had she missed the pointy ears? Some future Shadowchaser she was turning out to be!

Her mind raced - what on Earth were a group of drow doing on the surface? It wasn't daylight any longer, but they were almost permanently subterranean. Her eyes immediately gravitated to the lone female at the head of the group - she was almost certainly the boss of them. There was no telling how many years old she was, but if Judy had to guess, she did not think she could be more than a teenager by elf standards. That would certainly explain her need for three bodyguards.

"No Mike." Emily was throwing her hands into the air, as she swung herself up to the till, just ahead of the group of dark elves - the leader's jaw dropped open, and her hands were thrown up in disgust as Emily continued talking without stopping. "We're not getting a wing roulette. It only ends in tears when Anna gets the extra hot."

"I told you, I wasn't crying!" Anna was protesting. "A bug flew in my eye!"

"You stuck your mouth under the frozen yoghurt machine."

A sharp clearing of the throat interrupted the argument. Emily turned, finally registering the dark elves, and Judy watched as her eyes widened in recognition, before narrowing quickly in response to what was bound to be a challenge.

"I don't know if you missed this, being so short and all," the female leader had a piercing voice, which had no trouble getting the attention of all the party members. Her three lackeys flanked her like pretty statues (Judy had yet to meet an ugly elf and she was not entirely certain that such a thing even existed). "But we were here first!"

Predictably, Emily had started swelling as soon as the dreaded S word had been mentioned. Judy casually placed both hands on her friend's shoulders before she could explode. Other reactions were mixed. Miki and Mike looked as though they were about to apologise, while Anna rolled her eyes and huffed loudly. But Becky was the one Judy found most interesting. She was outright staring at the group - particularly the female leader, whose ears were perfectly visible in front of her shoulder length hair.

Knowing that she only had seconds before Emily flipped her lid, Judy quickly steered the shorter teen out of the way by the shoulders, and adopted her most sickly sweet smile.

"Oh please, heaven forefend that we stand in the way of your grandiose sense of entitlement," she waved an arm in a manner that was just a little shy of full on sarcasm. "Go right ahead."

She gave a half mocking bow, and Emily's irritation seemed to drain as she filled with amusement at Judy's eloquently worded passive aggressiveness. Nose in the air, the female leader stalked past, her three lackeys pushing after her. The party group drew back behind them, Judy dusting off her hands as they went. They were not fast enough however, to miss the muttered insult.

"Bloody half grown Clueless humans," the leader hissed in her native language.

There went the neighbourhood. Judy mentally cursed, as Emily whirled towards them, her eyes blazing.

"Watch your fucking language, lady!" she snarled back in the same tongue. The reactions were predictable - all four members swung round in surprise, thoughts of food clearly forgotten, to the confusion of the poor servers behind the till.

"What the hell did you just say to me?!" the female elf pushed past her lackeys to get a good look at the ones insulting her. Her eyes flicked over the group, trying to discern just how many of them were actually a threat. They lingered on Emily and Becky, and remained longest on Judy, trying to distinguish just exactly what she was.

"You heard her," Judy snapped, feeling that she had better come to the defence of her friend. "Queue barging is bad enough, but you do not use language like that! Have you no sense of respect?"

She could see Anna and Miki out of the corner of her eye, exchanging curious glances. The latter shrugged - they were both lost. The leading lady meanwhile pushed her way right up to Judy, towering over her with her arms folded.

"Offer respect to the likes of you?" the disgust was practically dripping off the taller woman's voice. "Puh-lease! I am Mora Ravenswood."

There was a pause. Mike's mobile gave a series of cricket chirrups, and he hastily switched it to vibrate.

"Doesn't ring a bell. Sorry," Judy shrugged. Emily meanwhile, tossed her hair.

"Yeah? Well I am Emily Foxblade. I am also birthday girl tonight. And right now, I am also taking our place in the queue back. Shove over, bitch."

She made to barge past her, but Mora's lackeys were apparently not just for show – the tallest one of them shoved her right back into Becky's waiting arms. A new tension flooded Judy's limbs – the kind that spoiled for a fight.

"Maybe you are the ones who should learn respect for your betters," Mora suggested, her face smug at Emily's growing fury. "I am matron of the London drow-"

"Bollocks you are!" Judy started laughing, and Emily was not far behind. She did not know every important Shadowkind member in the UK yet (indeed, she hadn't even been aware that there was a community of drow living in London), but Mora was far too young to be leading anyone. Behind her, the rest of their Mundane party just looked confused – Miki had pulled out her phone and was apparently trying to google a rational answer.

Mora's fury was travelling up her face like a wave rolling in to the shore. The restaurant staff had clearly become alarmed by the quickly escalating volley of insults, and a single middle aged man hustled out from behind the bar. The only thing that distinguished him from the rest of his colleagues, was that he wore a collared shirt instead of a t-shirt, and the word 'manager' was printed above his name.

"Ladies, I don't know what's going on here," he interrupted, positioning himself between the two feuding women. "But either you order some food, or I'm going to have to ask you to take your fight outside."

Judy suspected, with the temperature hovering somewhere around freezing, that nobody was prepared to take this outside. The entire restaurant seemed to be hanging on every insult traded. Judy mentally groaned - so much for the British disdain for making a scene...

"Oh no we don't!" Mora was glaring at the manager, even though her statement was clearly intended for the girls. "I'm not going anywhere until I get an apology." She gave Emily an especially nasty look. "And I want that one giving it on her knees for calling me a bitch!"

"Yes, and I want a bathtub made out of chocolate and filled with raspberries," Judy shrugged. "We all have dreams we're never going to be able to obtain."

"Listen you half-breed-"

"No, you listen!" Judy cut her off, her eyes flashing. By her side, Emily growled. "We were here first, but we kindly let you go ahead, even though you were rude enough to call my friend short. You then insult us in another language, and have the audacity to believe that we wouldn't notice. If anyone should be saying sorry, it's you - because I can tell you now, you're not getting anything remotely resembling an apology from us!"

"Can't we just drop it, and go get our food?" Miki whined, hopefully.

"Hell no, it's like watching two stags banging their antlers together," Anna muttered, observing the whole scene like she would a football match.

"Besides," Becky put in. "We're British. Queue barging is more abominable than murder here!"

"Then I suppose I'll have to extract it another way," Mora growled, apparently unimpressed by how unintimidated the group appeared to be. The restaurant manager jumped in again.

"I won't have any fighting-"

"I didn't say anything about fighting," Mora sneered at him with such disdain that he backed off. "Though watching the Clueless cower would be entertaining-"

"Just try it," Judy responded in the same language, a dangerous snarl on her lips. "We'll see how long it takes the Shadowchasers to arrest you. I wager they wouldn't even break a sweat!"

Mora snorted, and reverted back to English.

"We'll settle this insult here and now," she snapped her fingers, and one of the silent lackeys produced a duel disk (apparently out of his arse, as Judy could see no visible pockets or bags).

"Of course," Emily rolled her eyes. "Because duelling solves all our problems…"

Ignoring her friend's snark, Judy folded her arms. "So we win, and you apologise to us?"

"Oh come on Scales, you're aiming too low," Emily's exasperation had shifted abruptly into one of calculated mischief. "I say they apologise, and pay for dinner for all six of us! And dessert!"

"But I brought ca-" Mike began, but as five sets of eyes landed on him with pointed looks, his eyes widened and he nodded. "Oh right. Gotcha."

"Fine by me!" Mora smirked. "And if we win, the same stakes will apply. An apology and dinner for my table." She leaned forwards. "And you can be certain that I'll make it a big one."

"We're six growing teenagers," Becky deadpanned. "You cannot possibly eat more than us." She paused, as she pretended to eye up Mora's waistline. "Although…"

"Okay!" Judy swiftly put in, seeing that Mora was about to slap somebody (probably Becky) around the face. "Let's just duel before this turns into a chicken eating contest. Now how do we decide who's playing?"

They ended up in a four way round of Rock Paper Scissors, with Judy as the victor (and Emily sulking that Water Balloon was totally a legit choice). Miki and Becky pocketed their own decks with shrugs, before returning to the table. The restaurant had enough floor space to serve as a duelling field, even though it meant that Judy and Mora had to stand on tables. The other patrons abandoned their own meals, leaning forward in anticipation as both participants switched on their disks.

"Ready to lose, girl?" Mora's anger had been drained away, replaced by supreme confidence. That more than anything, made Judy more determined than ever to knock her off her table.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing."

"Duel!"

Life Points

Judy: 8000

Mora: 8000

"Come on Judy!" Anna hollered. It made Judy inexplicably pleased that she had only known Emily's friends for an hour, and they were already rooting for her.

"Yeah, gelato for everyone when you win!" Emily reminded her. "And it'll all be on her!"

Mora spared the group a glare before drawing her sixth card.

"Since I am clearly in the right, I will go first." She eyed up her hand and smirked, pulling two cards free.

"I set two cards facedown."

The holograms appeared on cue, each about the size of a small table.

"And I summon my Phantom Gryphon in attack mode!"

The beast appeared with a screech and a flap of wings that sent menus flying across the tables. It gave a low growl in its throat as it observed Judy (2000/0).

The half-dragon lifted an eyebrow. "Interesting." she thought. "Possibly a really tough beatdown deck."

Mora waved her on with a dismissive shrug, and Judy drew with a grin.

"But nothing I can't handle."

"How about a proper opening move?" Judy said, plugging in a spell card. "I activate Trade-In. I'll ditch one of my level eight monsters to draw two cards."

She did so, and beamed.

"Well this won't last long," she stated. "I activate Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen!"

The restaurant's decor changed in a flash, the pillars turning into white marble, with vines creeping down them. Royal curtains fluttered in a non existent breeze, and a white stone throne rose up next to the restaurant bar.

"Oooo shiny!" Becky cooed.

"I wondered which deck she was using," Emily folded her arms and smirked. "Ooh Mora is so going to get it."

"Oh the little girl uses fairies," Mora drawled. "What a surprise. Do you still believe in Santa Claus too?"

Over in a corner table, a pair of six year old boys went pale at the statement. Judy glared at her.

"Well why don't we see how far believing in fairies gets me? I use Valhalla's effect to summon Athena to the field!"

Light pierced its way into the field, dying down to reveal the warrior angel. Her long white dress rippled out behind her, and her shield caught the dim restaurant lights with a sparkle (2600/800).

"Still waiting to be impressed," Mora casually examined her nails.

"I didn't say I was finished, thank you," Judy pointed out. "I activate Celestial Transformation. So now Darklord Superbia joins the field, with only half his stats."

By Athena's side, the oddly shaped fairy appeared, it's wings sweeping wide before drawing back in as it shrunk down with its power loss (2900/2400 - 1450/1200).

"That's not a fairy," Mora deadpanned. "It's a vase with wings."

Said vase with wings glared at her. Across the field, Phantom Gryphon swept its own, considerably more impressive wings wide. Athena also seemed to take offence, her shield glowing like a small sun and energy blasting across the field to slam into the dark elf.

"Oh yeah," Judy added, almost carelessly. "Since I special summoned a fairy, Athena docks you six hundred life points."

Life Points

Judy: 8000

Mora: 7400

"You thought that hurt me?" Mora challenged. "I've felt worse from the five year olds in my clan!"

"Well that doesn't speak highly of your skills if you're getting beaten by five year olds," Becky pointed out from the side lines.

"Silence!" Mora raged. "Or I'll see to it that you're next!"

"There won't be a next," Judy interrupted. "I didn't say I was done. I use Athena's effect to send my Darklord to the graveyard."

The oddly shaped fairy vanished.

"So what?" Mora shrugged.

"So now, Athena's effect states that when I send a fairy to the graveyard with her effect, I can bring one back to the field to replace it. So Superbia is coming straight back at full strength!"

The odd fairy appeared again, this time double the size it had been last time, it's wings stretching from one side of the field to the other. The curtains of Valhalla ruffled from a stray wingbeat (2900/2400).

"And because that was a special summon," Judy continued. "Athena's effect kicks in again, dealing you another six hundred points of damage!"

Another blast rocketed across the field. Once again, Mora brushed it off, but her eyes had narrowed into a concerned frown this time.

Life Points

Judy: 8000

Mora: 6800

"Now what's next?" Judy asked thoughtfully. "Oh yes - more fairies! Thanks to Superbia's effect, when he's special summoned from the graveyard, I get to bring out another monster! So why don't I bring Darklord Zerato to the party?"

It was hard to call the new monster a fairy with a straight face - with horns and a wicked serrated blade, he looked more like a demon. Still he gave the other two a nod of respect, before settling down next to them (2800/2300).

"And that was another special summon, so Athena - do your thing!"

This time, Mora let out a stream of curses in elvish as the strike hit her full in the chest.

Life Points

Judy: 8000

Mora: 6200

"Wow...she's really good!" Miki whistled. "I call dibs on the next game!"

"Aww!" Becky sulked.

"Are you finished yet?!" Mora snarled.

"Don't be daft," Judy snorted. "You still have life points left - I activate the spell card, Anti-Magic Arrows! Now neither of us can activate spells or traps."

The colour in Mora's face drained instantly. "For how long?!"

"Oh just from the start of the battle phase until the end phase of this turn," Judy said, her grin turning positively evil. "So I really hope you weren't counting on those facedown cards to save you, because now I move into my battle phase with Zerato first - take out that Gryphon!"

The winged beast had just enough time to shriek and cover its eyes with its wings before the fairy descended, serrated blade cleaving straight down the middle of the monster.

Life Points

Judy: 8000

Mora: 5400

"Athena, Superbia!" Judy waved a hand down the empty field. "Show her why we do believe in fairies! Attack!"

Athena was first, her sceptre glowing like a sun before releasing a wave of energy that crashed across the field. Superbia followed up with a ball of glowing dark energy that pierced through the wave and crashed into Mora painfully. The dark elf lost her footing and slipped over the back of the table, ending up sprawled over the booth.

"Okay, now I am done," Judy announced. "And so are you!"

Life Points

Judy: 8000

Mora: 0

The birthday group erupted into cheers, while the rest of the restaurant politely applauded as Judy switched off her duel disk. The holograms flickered and faded from view, as she gave her audience a bow, and jumped off the table. She was quickly swallowed up by her enthusiastic best friend.

"That was so cool!" Emily gave another squeeze, before pulling back to bounce on the spot. "Oooh I was hoping you'd use your Valhalla deck! You've souped it up since we last duelled!"

"Can't believe it was all over in two turns," Mike said, shaking his head. "That was waaay too short."

"Yeah don't expect an easy ride if you duel me," Miki put in, with a grin.

"Never," pocketing her deck, Judy grinned. It was nice to feel appreciated in a group of friends. "Now wasn't there some kind of bribery involving free gelato?"

All of them turned towards the other end of the field...only to find Mora and her three lackeys were conspicuously absent. The door to the restaurant was slowly drifting shut, allowing a small gust of icy wind to penetrate the room.

"They took off!" Emily threw her hands up in disgust. "How dare she?!"

"Well I'm not surprised," Anna scoffed. "I mean that was embarrassing."

"We had a deal!" fury was coursing through Judy. She'd had one of her best hands in a long time, and got to pull it off flawlessly, only for the sulky loser to bail. She was beyond insulted. "That's just...rude!"

"Want to go track them down?" Anna suggested. Sighing heavily, and feeling her irritation escape between her teeth, Judy shook her head.

"No, it's not worth it." She did not want to mention that a cornered and embarrassed dark elf would probably be dangerous. "Let's just order dinner and get back to celebrating. We've already wasted more than enough time on them."

"Aww but I wanted free gelato," Emily pouted, but seemed to accept the situation, as they headed back to the counter.

"What about presents?" Becky suggested. "Will that make up for the gelato?"

"But I was getting those anyway-"

"I'm pretty sure I smelt Lush products in one of them."

"You always know just what to say, Becks!"

OOO

"Damn her!" in a narrow side street some distance away, Mora kicked out at a recycling bin. Her lackeys loitered at the entrance, keeping an eye out while their boss blew off some steam. Seeing that she had not even dented the green plastic, Mora chose to take out her frustrations on something far more damageable.

"Beaten by a half-breed brat - using fairies no less!" she simmered, yanking out her deck and glaring at the cards. Phantom Gryphon was on top, and a crease appeared down the lamination as she gripped it at both ends. "I should have known better than to put faith in you!"

A pair of hands grasped hers and squeezed. Mora glared.

"Let me go, Bright!"

"Take a deep breath," the tallest of her accomplices was eyeing her with his usual steadfast gaze. He was not easily fooled or ruled by emotions - that was why Mora kept him around as a bodyguard. As always, that gaze reached deep into hers. "You are better than this."

Hissing through her teeth, Mora yanked her hands away, but she made no move to tear up her cards again. Instead she slammed both fists into the top of the wheelie bin. Once again, the plastic only bent with the force, before springing back into place. Panting with exertion, she turned and eyed up her bodyguards, lined up against the wall like a series of statues - small, medium and large.

"I am not going to stand for this," she snarled.

"I should hope not," a new voice cut curtly through the alley. "That was embarrassing, even for you."

Mora's three bodyguards immediately dropped their gaze and lowered their heads in respect. By contrast, Mora's head snapped up to stare in disbelief at the figure lounging by the fire escape.

"Mum?"

Dressed in a flattering black business suit, Maureen Ravenswood peered over narrow glasses at her daughter (Mora knew that she did not need them – she just thought that they made her look more intimidating). "I'm glad that you realise the extent of the insult that has been paid to you, even if your attempt to get even was such a disaster."

Mora's face flushed. "What are you doing up here? You never come to the surface! And how did you know about the duel? You weren't in the restaurant!"

"I don't need eyes to see, daughter of mine," ignoring the first question, the matriarch rose, her heels clicking on the frosty concrete. She did not look old enough to have an almost grown daughter. The only concession to age that she had allowed her body to display were the strands of silver that streaked through her white hair. "Nor do I need them to hear you telling rather large fibs. What was that about you being matron of the London dark elves?"

Mora's gaze finally dropped under the piercing look from her mother. "It's not technically a lie. We are the ruling house-"

"Of which I am the leader," Maureen interrupted, her voice as icy as the chill in the air. "You would do well to remember that. Whatever gifts or talents you may have acquired lately, I am still your matron. You are nowhere near close."

The last statement was dripping in disdain. Mora clenched her jaw. "I was trying to intimidate them."

"With a blatant lie," the elder cut her off again, sharply. "And an insult to your mother. You shame me, all of our family before us, and the entire clan, coming up to the surface like this, and losing to humans."

Each word seemed to stack up like a jenga tower, until finally, Mora's rage sent it toppling.

"Well maybe I should stay up here!" she spat, her eyes blazing as they lifted to face her mother. "Save you the embarrassment, and the energy. I'd hate for you to exhaust yourself on my behalf, matron!"

A crack rang down the alley, and a single tear was flung from Mora's eye, landing softly in the snow. Against the wall, Bright's body tensed, but he knew better than to approach, and reluctantly slid back into place against the wall. Maureen rubbed her palms together, and the redness began to vanish from the right one.

"I did not raise you to speak to your betters that way," the matriarch's voice was level, but anger rumbled just beneath the surface. "I raised you to do as I say, and all you have managed to do so far in life is disappoint me."

Mora's cheekbone was pink where she had been struck, but she made no move to soothe it.

"Challenging them was a stupid mistake in the first place," Maureen all but towered over her daughter now. "They were brats, not Shadowchasers – you had no reason to give them a fair fight. And you will not give them a reason this time."

She grabbed her daughter's chin, and forced her eyes to lock with hers.

"If you want to start being of use, then you can wipe out tonight's insult - properly this time."

"And how would do you suggest I do that?" Mora asked. Seeing her mother's eyes narrow, she added in a slightly more respectful tone. "Matron."

The pressure on her chin lifted slightly, but she was still locked into place by that look.

"Bring them down to our level. Then we will see how well they fair in the darkness of the pit."

OOO

"Am out late with Emily. Something's come up. Might need you to come down to central London tomorrow."

"Oh dear - what have you two done now? Do I need to tell Adrian? How much property damage is there?"

"Very funny. I'm splitting my sides. One of Emily's friends is Aware."

"You want me to come down and help you explain?"

"Interrupt your double date? Hell no! She will take it better from two peers than a strange man. Em and I have got this. You can come down tomorrow if she shows any further interest."

"It's not a double date - it's a business meeting. But point taken. See you tomorrow. Enjoy Captain America."

Judy had not bothered to reply to the text, knowing that it would be pointless to ask Jalal to stop tracking her phone. Instead she had resolved to put it out of her mind until the end of the movie.

Now, as she, Emily and Becky found a small round table in Starbucks, half an hour before closing time, she wondered if it wouldn't have been simpler to ask Jalal to come down after all. Anna, Miki and Mike had all headed home, so there was no chance of odd looks, but when faced with explaining something as enormous as this, Judy was at a loss where to even begin.

"Okay," Becky got comfortable, shedding her hoodie and wrapping her hands around her latte. "What's so important that I postponed my tube ride home?"

Still not certain where to start, Judy's mind remained unhelpfully blank. Luckily, Emily had no such mental block.

"People with pointy ears," she said bluntly. Becky's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"You saw that?" she demanded. Emily nodded.

"Yup. Kind of hard to miss. Oh and the way you totally froze up when you first saw Judy, like she was the most gorgeous person in the room."

Judy swore she could feel the heat coming off Becky's face. "She was not! I mean-" she blushed deeper as she realised what she had said. "I mean not that you're not good looking, but I didn't freeze up! Oh Emily!" She swatted her sniggering friend in the shoulder.

"It's okay," Judy decided to put her out of her misery. "I get that a lot from Awares. And don't tease her, Emily. We're trying to get her to believe us, not kill her with embarrassment."

The birthday girl stuck her tongue out and began spooning the cream off her frappuchino with her straw.

"Awares?" Becky leaned forward slightly in her seat. Judy took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her tea for courage.

"It's like this, Becky. Y'know all the monsters you read about in fantasy stories? Werewolves, vampires, orcs, etcetera?"

"Yeeees…" Becky was eyeing her warily now, but not, Judy noticed, with fear. Rather a cautiousness, as if she sensed that she was about to learn something life changing.

"They're all real," Emily finished.

There was a long pause at the table. Becky stared, first at Emily, then at Judy, taking in their serious expressions, perhaps waiting for a smile to give one of them away. After ten seconds of silence, she lifted her latte and took a long sip. The mug was set back down with a heavy thud, and she swallowed thickly.

"Okay."

Judy's eyebrows lifted. "That's it?" She had been expecting more resistance, but Becky just shrugged.

"After the night we've had, I'm in a believing sort of mood," she said. "If this is a prank you have nothing to gain from it. And if you're just crazy, then that means Emily and I are crazy too, since we're seeing the same pointy ears. Since I have no desire to get myself sectioned, I'm going to believe that we aren't crazy and you're telling the truth."

She took another long sip. Judy met Emily's eyes. "I like her." She declared.

"So you should do!" Emily beamed. "She's cool."

"So why does nobody else know about this?" Becky asked, swallowing and wincing as the coffee burned her throat.

Judy leaned back in her seat. "When humans are children they know about it. Or at least, they can see it. But as you grow up, your parents tell you that it's just in your head, or your teachers tell you to stop making up stories, and you just mentally start to pixelate it out. By the time you're a teenager, most people have lost the ability to see. We call this self-inflicted blindness, the veil, or sometimes the masquerade."

A surprising amount of colour drained from Becky's face.

"But sometimes people don't develop it," Emily picked up, as Judy took a sip of her own drink to ease the dryness in her throat. "Or they don't develop it completely. For whatever reason, some people can still see through the veil, even a little bit. Some people just get a funny off feeling when they come into contact with certain people. We call people like that Sensitive."

"And people who are...seeing fangs or extra eyes?" Becky asked, nervously.

"Awares," Emily bobbed her head. "Awares can see everything clear as day, and the veil has no effect on them. Since you could see Mora's ears with no problem, that's what you are. Your mind doesn't even try to blank out what you're seeing - it just accepts it."

There was another silence. Becky let out a long breath, and took another sip of coffee.

"Okay...by people who are a little bit off, I'm assuming you mean you two?"

"Yup," Judy nodded. "Emily's nickname for me is literal rather than affectionate."

"Well no," Emily corrected. "It's both. I mean you are adorable after all."

"So Scales…?" Becky gestured for an explanation.

"Dragon," Judy filled in. "Well, half. My father was a dragon, and my mother was human. All of these mythical creatures I just mentioned are known collectively as Shadows. Obviously, sometimes they crossbreed with humans. We're known as Shadow-touched."

Becky snapped her fingers. "That's why Mora was calling you half-breed. I wondered what that was about! I'm guessing you don't breathe fire or anything - though you definitely looked close when she was insulting you…"

Judy laughed. "No fire. I'm a steel dragon. Which means I'm tough as nails."

"Okay, so you're a dragon," Becky said slowly. "And, what about you, Em? I mean I've got used to it after five years of being at school with you, but I got the off feeling from you on our first day in year seven."

"Really?" Emily's eyebrows arched. "Interesting. You're right, I'm a bit different, but I'm not a Shadow. In the simplest possible terms, I'm a dimension hopper, and in this world, that just classes me as an Aware human by default. I can see Shadows, no problem."

"Okay…" Becky repeated. "So you're a dimension hopper, you're half dragon...and I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that Mora is an elf?"

"Close," Judy nodded. "Mora is a drow - also known as a dark elf. It's not racist," she assured, seeing Becky's jaw drop in indignation. "Elves and dark elves are separate species, in the same way that modern humans and neanderthals are."

"Although it must be said, they both tend to have equally enormous egos," Emily put in, sucking down more of her drink with a slurp. "As you saw in Nandos...owww! Brain freeze!"

She rubbed frantically at the bridge of her nose.

"Wow…" Becky took another sip of her coffee.

"I'm guessing that we're not the first people you've had off feelings about, in your life?" Judy probed. "Hence why you're taking this so well."

Becky shrugged. "Like you said, I'd noticed things before, but I just tried to chalk them up to a trick of the light, or people wearing cosplay. They nagged me, but I had no other explanation for them. What you've said at least makes sense of all those things. And as I said, I don't think you'd lie."

"Not that I'm complaining, but why not?" Emily pointed out, wiping tears from her eyes. "It's a logical assumption, and you've seen me lie loads of times."

Becky snorted. "You lie, Emily. But you lie about why your homework is late, and how Natalie got orange paint in her hair. You don't lie about important stuff like this."

Emily muttered something that sounded like "she had it coming" before drowning her complaints in frappuchino. She wailed weakly as pain shot through her head again. Judy snorted into her tea.

"Still…" Becky conceded. "Wow. Who'd have known?"

"The ultimate question. So when did you first start noticing it?" Emily asked, sipping cautiously at her frappuchino again. Becky stirred her latte with a shrug, but Judy could not help but notice that her other hand was twisting the fabric of her jeans into a ball.

"I don't really know," she said, pulling out the stick and sucking the foam from the end. "As I said, I just started seeing things from time to time and didn't really know what to make of them. I didn't want to say anything - people would think I'm crazy."

Emily snorted. "Who isn't these days?"

"You aren't crazy," Judy stated with certainty, folding a napkin in half. "But you are lying."

Becky's eyes snapped up to her. "Excuse me?"

Judy had a grim smile. "People 'notice' little things all the time, and they instantly dismiss them. That's how the veil works. You don't register that something's wrong unless it means something to you - something very important."

She made another fold across the napkin. "What happened, Becky? What did you see that was so important that your eyes have never closed to the out of ordinary again?"

It was like magic. The gauntlet was thrown, and Becky instantly began to shrink in on herself. Her hands came to clench together in her lap, and she seemed to retreat as far back as the hard wooden chair would allow her.

"No one has ever asked about that," she stated.

"Because they thought you were crazy?" Judy guessed.

"I'm not crazy!" Becky's eyes flashed.

"We know," Emily seemed to have realised now that this was more serious than it had originally seemed, and her voice had lost all playfulness. "But other people didn't know?"

Becky snorted. "They thought I was having nightmares. Or I was homesick - we'd just moved from South Africa."

Judy leaned back in her seat, and did her best to appear non-threatening. Aside from needing this information, she got a sense that Becky really needed to tell this story. "How old were you?"

"Three," Becky's eyes dropped to her lap, watching her fingers twist the ball of denim tighter until it was pinching her skin. Emily helpfully gave her the paper wrapper from her straw, and she began to fiddle with that instead.

"We moved to a terraced house in Hounslow, so Mum and Dad could be near work. It was a nice place. Seemed safe enough..." Her lower lip caught between her teeth before she continued. "About two days after we moved in, I woke up in the middle of the night. I could hear movement. At first I thought it was Andi - it was a two bedroom house, so I shared with her."

Judy felt an unpleasant taste in her mouth. "Let me guess - it wasn't Andi?"

Becky shook her head. "She was asleep in her cot. I got scared then. I kept hearing it – that horrible squeak like someone scratching their nails down plastic. And heavy breathing. I couldn't work out where it was coming from. Thought my heart was going to give me away - it was beating so hard...then I looked at the window."

"It looked like a man," she was staring at the table, but her gaze seemed to be going much further than the coffee rings. "But it couldn't have been. A normal man would have fallen off that window ledge. He was just crouched on it, scraping his fingers around the edge of the seal - I guess he was looking for weaknesses. Then he started pushing and pulling at it."

"He looked up and saw me - I think I must have moved. Tried to back away, or something. Anyway, he looked at me. I just froze. He was just staring...everything looked grey and dark outside, but I could see his eyes. They were red. And when he licked his lips, I could see teeth…that was when I started screaming. And then Andi woke up and she started crying."

She did not look too far away from crying herself. In her fingers, the wrapper was a line of knots. "Mum came running, but he was gone. Soon as I started making noise, he jumped off the window ledge. Mum checked outside the window, then put Andi back to bed. She let me sleep with her and Dad for the rest of the night…" she chewed her lip. "I didn't sleep. Not for a second."

"Don't blame you," Emily admitted. Judy had a sneaking suspicion though.

"Did he come back?" she asked.

Becky's eyes darted up. "Every night." She admitted in a whisper. Judy felt her throat clench in sympathy, and Emily swore softly.

"After a week, Dad finally got the curtains up," Becky continued. "But I could still hear him. Every night, he'd test the window, and then when he couldn't get in, he just sat there, staring right through the fabric." Her voice was thick. "I used to drive myself mad - kept wondering what he wanted, or whether I'd done something to make him pay attention. I started worrying that he was following me when I was out with Mum, or that he was waiting in the wardrobe, or under Andi's cot...I couldn't sleep. I thought for sure that one day he'd work out a way around the lock and come for me…"

She gave a laugh that was almost hysterical. "Mum and Dad was so anxious when we finally moved, a year later. They thought another new house would make me worse than ever. They thought I was crying because I was scared. I wasn't. I was so fucking relieved, you have no idea…" she hiccupped, and wrapped her hands around her mug. "I got my own bedroom in the new house, and it was the best sleep I'd ever had."

An odd mixture of laughter and sobs were smothered in one arm. Emily helpfully handed a tissue over.

"Red eyes and fangs…" she said thoughtfully, looking at Judy. "What do you think? Vampire?"

"Probably," the half dragon agreed with a nod. "One who stuck close to his territory, since he didn't follow the family once they left. I'll file a report with Jalal later - he'll probably want to let Dracula know at the very least."

"Dracula?!" Becky squeaked in terror, emerging from her arms with wide pink eyes.

"It's okay," Judy soothed, reaching over the table and squeezing one of her shaking hands. "Dracula's...well she's not harmless-"

Emily made a noise reminiscent of a cat with flu having its tail trod on. "She's fucking nuts! I love her! Aww I should have invited her tonight! It was dark by six! She'd have been fine!"

"- but she's no threat to you," Judy concluded, seeing that Emily's enthusiastic statement was having the opposite effect on Becky. "Vampires have a lot of restrictions under the Great Treaty, which means they aren't supposed to harm humans. They're certainly not supposed to stalk them in the middle of the night, and traumatise them! What you had was probably a rogue. Trust me, when Dracula finds out, she's going to be really pissed. She doesn't like that sort of thing happening on her watch."

She didn't seem quite brave enough to emerge just yet, so Judy pushed Becky's latte into her hands. The trembling in her fingers stopped as they wrapped around the warm ceramic.

"Okay…" that seemed to be becoming Becky's word of the day when she wanted to process big information. "So vampires...elves and dragons are all called Shadows...and people like me and Emily are Aware humans. Think I've got that. So how many Shadows are there? And how many people are Aware?"

Judy blew a sharp breath out between her teeth. "There are large groups of different Shadows scattered all around the world. There are far fewer Aware humans. It's a pretty rare trait. There are about five hundred Aware humans in the Shadowchasers worldwide, plus the handful of Awares who don't join us. Jalal probably knows. Hang on, I'll shoot him a text."

"What's a Shadowchaser?" Becky asked. Judy grinned.

"A Shadowchaser is what I am. Or, what I'm training to be," she amended. "Think of us as magical police. The Shadowchasers began in about 1000AD, and our purpose has pretty much been the same since then - to protect humans from Shadows who would seek to do them harm, and to protect Shadows from humans or other Shadows who wish to exploit them."

"And five hundred people manage this?" Becky stated in disbelief. "For the entire world?"

"Well, five hundred and change," Judy corrected. "Because not every Shadowchaser is an Aware human. We've got a decent number of Shadows and Shadow-touched on staff to. And in any case, it's not like we're tripping over vampires and werewolves and stuff in public. They tend to keep to themselves. Some avoid humans completely. So we don't need armies of Shadowchasers to keep the peace."

She frowned and began to tick off her fingers. "Discounting the HQ, which is located in Yorkshire, there's one permanent team of three Shadowchasers here in London, and five roaming Shadowchasers covering the UK – one of them is based in Manchester, one in Birmingham, one in Cardiff, one in Edinburgh and another in Belfast, but they take problems from all over the country, not just those cities."

"Eight Shadowchasers for the whole UK?" Becky asked. Judy did not blame her. It was a monumental task.

"If there's a serious issue," Emily put in helpfully. "They tend to send extras in. It depends on other factors too. Big cities where there are a lot of places for Shadows to blend in, tend to get teams. Los Angeles has a team, for instance, and so does New York, but there's only roaming Shadowchaser covering almost the entire south east of the United States."

"On the other hand," Judy waved a hand in demonstration. "You then get towns like Backwater in Nebraska that have a big team, simply because everyone in that town is Shadowkind, Shadow touched or Aware. And then there are places like Neo Domino in Japan which has a team, simply because for some inexplicable reason, trouble is drawn to that city like a magnet. It depends on a lot of different things."

Emily gave a suspicious cough that sounded like 'plot convenience' before gulping down the last of her frappuchino. Becky seemed to be turning this over in her head.

"So you're part of a group of secret magical police that keep the peace between Shadows and humans?"

"With card games," Emily interjected, grinning. Judy rolled her eyes.

"I should probably mention that as well - we tend to use Duel Monsters as our medium for arresting people. The law says it has to be a fair fight, and...well, guns and magic aren't necessarily fair."

For the first time that night, Becky looked as though she did not believe them. "You capture criminals with Duel Monsters?"

"Hey, don't knock it," Judy said. "It works. It's more complicated than that, obviously, and we do still have physical fights regularly. But I can go into detail another time if you decide to get more involved in this world."

And speaking of getting involved, she thought unlocking her phone, she had better sent that text to Jalal.

"Okay, is this the part where you tell me that I know too much now, and it's in my best interests to join your group of secret police?" Becky asked, swirling the last of her latte around in her cup.

"Ha!" Emily laughed. "No. What you do with this information is totally up to you. I mean, the Shadowchasers would probably love it if you joined, since they're always short staffed, but at the end of the day, it's your choice. You don't even need to choose now - you can't join properly until you're out of full time education. So you've still got two years of A-Levels to look forward to with me!"

"Umm...yay?" Becky asked, arching an eyebrow sceptically, though she looked relieved to hear that she had two years to think about it. "Of course even if I get into sixth form, my A-Levels are totally irrelevant to policing."

Emily snorted. "Judy's signed up for business studies, French, German and psychology - how are those relevant to being a magical policewoman?"

"Hmm…" Judy nodded in agreement staring casually at her phone, but inside her heart was thudding in her chest. "Hey ladies, it's quarter past ten."

"Is it?" Becky looked at her watch, while Emily leaned over and plucked the phone from Judy's grasp to see for herself. "Christ, my Mum is going to kill me."

"That's not my point," Judy said, dropping her voice even lower than before. "This cafe closed at ten o clock."

All three girls exchanged looks.

"So why haven't we been kicked out?" Becky voiced in a whisper.

Behind the empty counter, magic flared through the room, bristling over Judy's senses, and the lights went out with a crack, plunging the entire room into darkness. As the magic crested, Emily was the one who screamed.

"Get down!"

There was a crash of wood being torn into splinters, and then silence.

A/N: Hooray! First chapter down, seven to go! This was a short duel, but the others will be longer. Don't forget to review and tell me how I did!

Shadowchaser Files

Emily Foxblade, the Librarian's Apprentice

For the most part, the staff of the Library Arcanium can best be described as a reclusive bunch of weirdos, only showing up to assist when you are really truly stuck in your quest.

Perhaps the one exception to this rule however, is Emily Foxblade, the Librarian's Apprentice.

Emily has been living in the Library since she was ten years old, and has been attending a UK comprehensive school in the Shadowchasers world since she was eleven. Emily and Judy's friendship can be attributed solely to Adrian and Jalal. After three hours of chatting about Top Gear, Minecraft and their favourite Supernatural shipping (Dean and Castiel, duh!), the two declared themselves partners in crime and besties for life.

Little is known about Emily's life before the Library, though she is known to be an orphan, and has alluded to previously having older sisters (there are rumours that the oldest one may have murdered Adrian once upon a time, but since the Librarian seems to be in one piece, this is mostly discredited). She has a close relationship with Adrian, Mei, Phoenixia and her guardian, Harriet. For the past year, Adrian has been training her to become the Eighth Librarian upon his retirement.

When not doing schoolwork or following Adrian around in the hopes of learning something, Emily likes to draw and paint. She has claimed several walls in the Library for her artwork (sometimes on canvas, sometimes directly onto the brick). She enjoys video games, but prefers world building and god games to action ones. Emily has no natural magic, save for an inherited ability to generate portals with a snap of her fingers. She prefers to rely on magical technology, and often makes her own weapons. Her current gun is known as Waterstorm and can best be described as a steampunk supersoaker (although it's definitely not filled with anything as harmless as water).

While her surname has remained the same her whole life, Emily possessed a different first name up until she came to live in the Library. It is a closely guarded secret, and anyone who values their limbs, fertility or kidneys, should make no attempt to address her by this name. Ever.

Origins: Emily's character was first created seven years ago, as part of a plotline I wrote for the Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society. 7th Librarian was also involved in this project, and was responsible for bringing the Library Arcanium and Adrian into the storyline. Since then, Emily has been a central part of the Library and its plotlines, and migrates from story to story depending on what 7th Librarian or I feel like writing next. I enjoy writing her at this age, because it's fun to play with a character who somehow has to juggle supernatural weirdness, and the troubles of being a teenager.

Deck: Emily, unlike her mentor, is not as enthused about using duelling to solve everything. But she does so when occasion demands or she feels her opponent is particularly deserving of some humiliation. Regardless, she tends to favour Machine decks overall. Like her mentor, however, she can use cards that those in the Shadowchaser world would normally not have access to (or haven't yet.) This can include things like more monsters for the VWXYZ series, the new support for Cyber Dragons and Ancient Gear monsters or any other Machine set that could be expanded upon.

As a duelist, Emily prefers a straightforward approach – hit hard, hit often and don't let them get back up. Strategies that take turns to complete or build up to bore her and she much prefers to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the shortest time possible.