“What are you talking about?” asked Troy as they pulled to a stop inside a large garage with two guards standing beside a nearby entrance.

  “My mom developed the runic system inside this building, we’re probably inside a bloody spatial pocket right now,” whispered Arson. Troy glanced at the guards, subtly gesturing for him to continue.

  “The system that Xani hacked wasn’t developed by my mom, which is why she was more than likely able to do so, but the system inside this building, more than likely was,…”

  “Which means…?” asked Troy, lowering her voice as Arson looked toward the approaching guards, rolling down his window with the press of a button, as he formed two miniature conductive water orbs in his free hand.

  “Special delivery,” said Arson with a nod before he slammed his door into one guard as he tried to walk past the van, raising his other hand, firing the twin orbs in two directions at once.

  Troy winced as one orb sped toward the second guard, colliding with a punch that knocked the man both unconscious and off his feet. While the other guard cursed as he tried to jump to his feet, only to be struck with the second orb just as hard in full view, Troy watched the spell landed through the rear view mirror.

  Sparks, he has good aim, thought Troy, exiting the van and rounding the vehicle to see bruises forming on the nose of the first guard, and the temple of the second.

  “It means that unless Xani can shut down the security systems inside this spatial pocket, we won’t be able to touch a bloody thing inside without setting off every possible alarm inside this place,” finished Arson as he stepped out of the van with a sigh.

  “Come on out, everyone,” said Arson and the back doors opened wide. Khalif and Rob jumped out the portal held inside the enclosed space in the back of the van. Both put on runically inscribed gloves; Rob pulling his water breathing mask from his pocket and putting it back on before helping Khalif move the portal from its fixed position.

  The special gloves allowed the pair to touch the volatile rim of the portal without having their hands shredded to bits. The portal lifted as easily as a couch by professional movers; Rob and Khalif setting the spatial doorway down as Micro and Xani jumped free from their hiding spot within the van.

  “So…” started Xani in question with an awkward smile.

  “Should I even try, or should we just get the bloody embers out of this place as fast as we can?”

  “We are already here, do you think you can at least shut off access to that portal while we work,” asked Arson, pointing at the portal they entered in. His nerves were at an all time high, knowing that anyone could enter through the spatial doorway serving as the building’s garage door as they all stood there.

  “I better not close it, I can probably redirect the entrance portal if we’re lucky, pretty sure our exit would be completely sparked if the portal disappeared, and reopened when we left.”

  “You’re right, work on that ASAP, we need to get in and out of here as fast as cultivation allows,” said Arson glancing toward the door.

  “Try and loop the cameras with the footage from the last diamond delivery as well, if you can. That may give us some more time.”

  “Yes sir, I’m on it,” said Xani retrieving her tablet from within the van’s interior, quickly headed toward the wall tablet next to the door that led inside.

  “You ready, love, you’re going to be doing a lot of hard work here,” asked Arson looking toward Troy. However before she could answer, Micro spoke up at the worst possible time.

  “Of course I am, boss, you know you can depend on me…”

  Arson’s eyes widened as he watched Troy’s face shift between what Arson felt to be every stage of grief on top of every other emotion possible.

  “You’re bloody funny, street rat, keep playing and I’ll show you why he picked me and not you,” said Troy, glaring toward micro as she smiled back at Troy.

  “Yeah, yeah, heard it all before,” said Micro, helping Rob drag the bodies of the two unconscious guards toward the back of the van.

  Troy tried to step around Arson, but he placed a hand in front of her, lightly pushing Troy to stand in front of him, shaking his head at her.

  “Not now, we don’t have time for this, you’re better than that, don’t let her get under your skin, she’s just jealous, please just give her time to get over me, she’s my friend, and one day I want her to be yours too,” said Arson softly, kissing Troy on the forehead, making Troy blush as he stepped past her to check on Xani.

  “Better be lucky I love him, street rat,” mumbled Troy as she started to conjure as many clones as possible. Her hard light doppelg?ngers slowly filling the garage; all standing arms crossed, facing the smiling Micro as she worked beside Khalif and Rob.

  “By the Maiden, thank creation you’re a genius,” said Arson once Xani managed to both loop the footage of the last delivery, and shift the destination of their entry portal to another hidden building vault within the walls of the resort.

  “You know it, but I also looked at the security system and I’m going to be honest, buddy,” said Xani trailing off as she looked over to Arson with a frown.

  “It’s bloody ridiculous, isn’t it?”

  Xani nodded.

  “Bloody ridiculous is putting it lightly. Haven’t seen a system this advanced in my life, which makes me wonder how impossible it must be to break into the Villa without Jade’s permission. I mean, she made this centuries ago when the resort opened, Maiden only knows what she is capable of now,” said Xani confirming Arson’s worst fears.

  “Tell me everything, maybe we can think of a way around the system?”

  “Umm, yeah, let me see,” said Xani flicking through various screens on her tablet.

  “Pressure plates, laser grids, motion sensors, heat scanners, by the Maiden’s dark side this place has sparking traps from bottom to top, gravity wells, oxygen vacuums, disintegration pulses. What isn’t deadly inside this place? I mean for embers sake it looks like the only safe places to move inside are around the edges of each room,” said Xani looking back at the door.

  Xani continued to name more and more traps to the point that Arson wondered if they should even truly open the door to the building, until something she’d said earlier struck him, causing him to stop pacing and smile.

  “Wait Xani, did you say that we could walk around the edges of each room?”

  “Yeah, that’s the only way that deliveries could be made without endangering the security teams, why?”

  Arson’s smile widened and Khalif cursed as he pointed at Arson.

  “Anyone else hate that smile yet?”

  Xani nodded. Rob smirked. Micro shook her head, and Troy smiled. All knowing what Arson was going to say even before he spoke up.

  “Don’t you say it, bro, don’t even think about saying—“

  “I got a plan!” said Arson, causing Khalif to curse as he was cut off, the young Cultivator throwing both his arms up in the air.

  “I bloody knew it, you just had to say it, didn’t you!”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  …

  Sprinter sat in her office and immediately knew something was wrong. She rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was hallucinating, as she hadn’t been getting very much sleep recently, and felt that her lack of self care must have caught up to her.

  She stared at a security van that had just literally driven through the portal that lead into her office. Both the driver and passenger staring back at her, also wearing equal amounts of confusion across their faces.

  Two more security guards jumped free of the rear of the enclosed space at the back of the van. At first unaffected, until a sudden realization that they were in the wrong place struck them. Faces of outright confusion also settling firmly on their faces as they stared toward Sprinter, completely frozen.

  “Umm, may I help you,” asked Sprinter, but the security guards remained unmoving, outright shock keeping them in place. All of the guards knew whose office they were now in, and Sprinter assumed that the thought of their potentially lost jobs had probably stolen all sense from the men and women before her.

  Sprinter cleared her throat and tried again, only for silence to prevail. She sighed, pressing a button on her desk to call for her assistant.

  “Yes, ma’am?” said Sprinter’s assistant, the woman’s voice coming through her station table.

  “Will you send someone from IT up here, I think we may have a glitch in the portal grid?”

  “Really, that’s unusual. What’s going on with it? Should I tell them it’s an emergency?”

  “Probably, I’m staring at a bloody security van in my office…”

  “What the…? I’m on it, ma’am, hold on a moment!”

  “Thank you, Susan.”

  “Of course, anytime, ma’am.”

  Sprinter looked up to see the guards slowly get back into the van. The driver’s senses finally returning to him; the man turning back on the hover vehicle and turning around to exit the portal.

  “Oh my maiden, what are you idiots doing?” screamed Susan through the intercom; Sprinter’s eyes widening at the sound of what she assumed was furniture being knocked over by a hovering transport vehicle, driving through an office space in an attempt to get as far away from Sprinter’s office as possible.

  She sighed as she turned off the intercom, shaking her head as she returned to her work, hoping for her assistant that IT would fix the issue with the portal as soon as possible.

  Do I even get paid enough for all of this foolishness, thought Sprinter with a chuckle to herself.

  “Who am I kidding? Of course I do, I wouldn’t leave this job for anything,” said Sprinter to herself with a smile.

  Not even if the maiden herself asked me to….

  …

  Troy: I got a bad feeling about this, I think we should leave while we are ahead.

  Arson glanced at Troy, nudging her bodily as he smiled down at her before he sent her a private message.

  Arson: We’re fine, the plan is going to work out, just trust the plan, beautiful, and everything will be okay.

  Troy took a deep breath and smiled back up at him, giving him a nod.

  Troy: I’m trusting you, don’t let me down.

  Arson: Of course not, love, I’ll make sure you all get out of here safely if its the last thing I do.

  Troy: No, promise me that we are all going to get out of here together, or I’m leaving now!

  Arson gave her another reassuring smile.

  Arson: I promise, love, just trust the plan.

  Troy rolled her eyes and Arson chuckled. The simple interaction though completed by Arson majority in part to comfort Troy, resulted in Arson feeling as if the tension he carried in his chest and shoulders drained away.

  The builders rode the elevator to each and every floor of the building. With every stop Troy formed a dozen clones, sending her duplicates throughout every floor.

  If Arson’s plan was going to work, they were going to need to work fast, everyone preparing themselves for the penthouse that they knew would be filled with guards on the top floor.

  “Everyone ready?” asked Arson as he put on a mask with a stylized Sword on the face of the pure white mask. He received nods from everyone around him, as they two adorned masks with a collection of blades across their surfaces.

  “Good,” said Arson as the door to the penthouse opened and the builder’s all strode free of the elevator. Dozens of guards turning in their direction as shock rose on the visages of the surrounding guards, none truly believing what they were seeing.

  “Ring the alarms we have…” started to yell one of the guards across the room, cut off as a perfectly aimed potion bottle smashed into his face. The powerful liquid instantly knocked the woman out, and Rob chuckled as Arson spoke to everyone in the room.

  “Don’t mind us, we are just here to clean up,” said Arson pulling a sword from his spatial inventory.

  “Get them,” yelled a guard and before the builder’s knew what was happening, they were amidst an all out brawl.

  Micro drew her blades, and darted into a crowd of more than seven guards. Rob continued to throw potions at anything that moved. Khalif vanished, only to reappear across the room, sucker punching a guard, before he was gone in a flash.

  Troy cracked her knuckles and neck, bobbing on her toes trying to loosen up as she was rushed by a dozen guards, before she tried something that she never had before.

  “Bring it on!” yelled Troy, and before the group of guards knew what was happening to them, they were all struck by unseen foes.

  Kicks sent some flying in one direction. Punches smashed into others. All while the remainder were yanked or tackled off their feet as Troy charged toward them.

  Arson closed his eyes not knowing what was happening to the group, only to see copies of Troy, fighting any one who approached her from any direction.

  Sparks… is she using hardened ultraviolet light?

  Arson opened his eyes, seeing nothing around Troy as she spun through her foes, kicking out with powerful blows as the guards around her struggled to collect themselves.

  Wow, I didn’t know she could even do that, thought Arson, dodging a guard that tried to tackle him. His eyes never left Troy; Arson noticing that she was suddenly breathing heavy.

  I wonder if the ultraviolet clones are harder for her to use, or if she is just overtaxing herself with how many clones she’s already summoned, wondered Arson, moving in to help Troy.

  Xani simply dodged anyone who attempted to rush her, continuing to work on her tablet as everyone around her took out the many guards in the penthouse with ease. Her gravity defying movements mostly resulted in guards stumbling past her, only to be taken out by traps as they tripped or fell into areas sprawling with valuables.

  After what felt like only a handful of breaths to Arson, they all stood standing over dozen’s of unconscious guards. Arson slowly spun, only taking in the vast wealth for the first time now that they were no longer surrounded.

  “Xani?” asked Arson.

  “Traps on this floor were all triggered by the fight, we should be okay to look around,” answered Xani. Arson nodded, looking at a few of the guards that had stepped into the more severe traps with sympathy.

  Geez, thought Arson feeling sorry for the woman hanging by her ankle from a rope from the ceiling, with dozens of darts lining her body. The woman shaking as if she was being electrified, Arson pulling out one of the many darts to see that it was filled with a strange liquid.

  Is this a poison made with nanobots? Wow, that’s impressive…

  “Boss, we got a problem, they fixed the entry portal and I don’t think that shifting it a second time is going to work,” yelled Xani as she sat at a station table on the far side of the room.

  “I’m on it,” yelled Micro, jogging toward the elevator, blowing Arson a kiss as she ran by, sending a wink toward Troy as the elevator doors closed.

  “I’m going to step on her neck one day,” said Troy, continuing to curse as she began to pace. Arson and everyone else shared looks, all mentally hoping that what they knew to be a promise from Troy, wouldn’t be occurring in the near future.

  Khalif: 100k credits that those two fight before we leave this penthouse.

  Arson glanced at the private message, rolling his eyes as Khalif took a spatial backpack off his shoulders and began stuffing it full of gold.

  Arson: You’re on, they’re both professionals, I doubt they’ll get into it before we leave.

  Both he and Khalif shook hands, and Arson strode over to Xani, chuckling to himself as he watched Rob stepping into an indoor swimming pool full of gems.

  “Bloody embers, I think they know we are here, no, spark that, they definitely know we are here,” yelled Xani as Arson approached.

  “What happened?” yelled Troy, her growing frustration obvious by her disgruntled tone.

  “They figured out that we looped the footage, and are trying to open a portal in. I’m pretty sure we are locked in here!”

  “You have got to be sparking kidding me,” cursed Troy, glaring at Arson.

  “I told you we should leave, and now look!”

  Arson opened his mouth, but before he could, Troy lifted a finger in his direction, and Arson felt as if he was momentarily staring down Almarine or Jade.

  I better keep my mouth closed this time, she seems serious…

  “Don’t you dare say it, Arson. I swear to the Maiden, no, I swear on the very love I have for your mother, I will beat you silly if you sparking say it one more bloody time!”

  Arson looked between all of his team and back to Troy; the threatening finger of his best friend still pointed directly at him.

  Everyone had frozen at both the building tension in the penthouse they were all locked inside and the exclaimed threat. Khalif stopped packing the spacial bag he held with gold bricks. Rob stopped trying to unsuccessfully swim through the pool full of diamonds and jewels that left him floundering about waist deep with his lower half unmoving stuck beneath the weight of his surroundings. While the normally uncaring Xani even looked around wide-eyed with her fingers hovering above the virtual keyboard she used to hack into the penthouses security systems.

  “But…”

  "No, no buts, just shut up, and prove it, we are all locked in here because of your sparking plans, spark your bloody plans, just get us out of here!”

  Khalif couldn’t help but snicker as Micro walked into the room and looked between the smiling Arson and the glaring Troy, saying the one thing that Troy didn’t want to hear in that moment.

  “What happened, she sparked up because the plan seems a little off?”

  Arson nodded slowly, wondering how much of his best friend’s threat was frustrated yelling, or the promise of actual violence.

  “Hmm, well I’ve been there, more than a few hundred times so I get it, but you just gotta trust the—“

  “Cro don’t say,” Arson tried to stop his friend, but it was too late. Troy roared, turning toward Micro as her veins lit with dazzling colors and charged the young woman.

  “I’ve had it up to here with you!”

  Micro smirked and Arson knew as Troy rushed her, nothing good was to come, as Troy summoned hard light clones of herself and Micro drew her blades. Khalif walked up to Arson still holding a bag full of gold and diamond bricks with his hand out toward Arson.

  “Pay up, I told you this was gonna happen,” said Khalif. Arson nodded as he put a flash drive full of credits in his hand, thinking about the incidents that led up to this moment.

  I wouldn’t have it any other way, thought Arson, lifting his watch to call his mother for the first time in nearly a fortnight, doing his best to push aside the frustration he felt at being forced to reach out. He took a deep breath and sighed as the holo-call rang on his watch; Anastasia giggling to herself as Troy and Micro destroyed the condo around him.

  “Here goes nothing I guess..”

  …

  Jade answered her son’s call with a smile, happy to hear from Arson. Until she saw not only his current position, but also the full on battle being had between Troy and Micro in the background.

  “What did you do, boy?”

  Jade’s frown was immediate, and she felt that she knew what he would say even before he started speaking.

  “Could we not do this right now? I need your help,” said Arson, ducking as a hard light clone was kicked toward him. Troy’s clone launched through the air above where Arson had just been.

  “Yeah… I’m busy, son, fixing the last mess you made,” said Jade, looking over her shoulder at a warehouse full of water tanks filled with Cultivators; Jade standing in front of a stasis pod as she adjusted the life support settings for a beautiful green eyed girl.

  “Mom, seriously, I don’t ask you for a lot, I just need you to open a portal from where I am to the hotel we are staying at in the Coliseum,” said Arson, and Jade rolled her eyes, sighing as she waved her hand through the air; a portal opening up in the room behind him. Arson hung up the call and Jade had half a mind to close the portal she opened for him, cursing to herself as she went back to work.

  “Sparking brat, when you have kids, you’ll get all that bloody attitude back tenfold…!”

  …

  “We’re leaving,” yelled Arson, grabbing Troy and Micro by their necks, lifting them into the air as he separated the pair.

  “Street rat!”

  “Bimbo!”

  The pair continued to swing at one another, Arson struck with multiple punches, kicks and even a few blade thrusts as he walked across the room.

  Khalif, Rob and Xani managed to rush through the portal before Arson, and Xani smashed her hand down on her tablet the moment Arson was through, watching the conclusion to their work through the open portal.

  A brilliant white flash bloomed through the portal covering everything with light, as the interior of the entire building was mass-teleported into the spatial pocket that held the BHC’s inventory at the dump back home.

  “Can’t believe that sparking worked,” said Xani as the portal closed. Arson walked past her, dropping Micro into a chair as he through Troy over his shoulder, the young Cultivators still yelling obscenities at one another.

  Arson simply glancing back at his team as he left the room as if Troy wasn’t still violently flailing on his shoulder. Troy still summoning hard light limbs in an attempt to attack Micro as she sliced through her conjurations with her twin blades. Everyone left in the room laughing at Arson’s final words.

  “What happened here, stays here. We are never bringing up , the job, ever again, you hear me!”

  “Yes sir!” yelled everyone, with the exception of the screaming Troy.

  “Good!”