Jack of Harts

I first met Jesse James in Texas during our basic flight training course. It was a consolidated program, geared towards giving us basic ground combat and flight training, no matter what our final Military Occupational Specialty was going to be. We were all Ageless. That meant they could push us way harder than any normal training group. Which meant that we partied harder than the rest during our rare times to rest and relax. Not that we got much rest, you understand. Now Jesse’s favorite past time was cheating all the rest of us in card games. That is where I met him. The cards practically teleported into his hand and he knew where every card was when he dealt them out. I paid up after three hands, chalked it up to a learning experience, and told him I was never playing him with real money ever again. He accepted my declaration with good humor, and then saved the money to his “rebuild the farm” account. That was well played.

Jesse James had a superpower from Day One. No, it wasn’t being stronger than ten normal men. It also wasn’t being able to regrow lost limbs, though that had been rather useful to him. Farms can be dangerous places, especially during harvest time. The superpower I was thinking about, the one that made him unique in the Cowboys, was cards. Playing cards. I don’t think any of us ever saw him grab them. One instant they were in his pocket, the next they were in his hands being shuffled. And he always knew where every card was. If he dealt them, he knew. No trick like reading them first or any of that garbage. We could give him new cards, never let him examine them, just shuffle and deal, and he knew which person had which cards. Never saw anything like it before. It’s how he got his first callsign from us. Cards.