Xani watched all three armored trucks as she typed away on her tablet. The screens nearby showed the vehicles as all three traveled to separate locations.

  One, drove around a looping highway ascending a mountain toward a spa. The second, headed toward a casino positioned nearby to an exit just off the same highway’s middle. While the last waited underground at a facility that served as the headquarters for RaidCorp Coliseum’s administration.

  “Anyone else feel like he’s lost his sparking mind,” asked Xani through the coms.

  “Absolutely,” said Troy.

  “Yup,” said Rob.

  “I know we’ve never been on vacation, guys, but if we pull this off, I vote we go more often,” said Khalif with a laugh.

  “You would say that, you lunatic, you are probably having the time of your life right now, aren’t you,” asked Troy.

  “You know it,” said Khalif.

  “If you all pull this off without messing up, remind me to tell you all about the time Arson had to blow up a dam as a distraction,” said Micro, murmuring softly, making sure she wasn’t heard in her current hiding place.

  “What,” yelled everyone in the coms, causing her to wince, shushing them all.

  “Later, I promise, just stay focused,” said Micro in a whisper. Xani rolled her eyes, feeling as if Micro was trying to mentally torture Troy on purpose, knowing that her friend was consistently agitated by how much time Arson and Micro had obviously spent together.

  “What are the odds that this is actually going to work Xani?” asked Troy groaning through her frustration.

  “You’re all going to die, or be maimed, maybe captured and tortured, I don’t know. My bet is on finding you all slathered across the side of a building, just body parts turned to paste, painting a wall like abstract are, or maybe—“

  “We get it, Xani, no chance of success,” said Troy as Micro giggled seemingly unlike herself.

  “Oh, was that funny, our deaths amuse you,” asked Troy, unable to disguise the growing rage in her voice.

  “Oh for sure, I just remember feeling like you all did season cycles ago, just wonder how long ago I realized…”

  “Realized what exactly,” asked Troy, her voice lightening in a moment of purest curiosity.

  “The boss doesn’t fail, unless the odds are completely stacked against him, and even then, he survives, and so do his people,” said Micro simply. The coms went silent and everyone listening was left feeling forced to once again think of the changes that occurred in the little boy who was taken from them all, only to return to them as a powerful young man.

  “It’s go time, people,” said Xani as the three armored trucks began to move.

  The first left the spa, now hovering slightly lower with a full load. The other two vehicles all fully loaded as well, venturing off to locations only disclosed to the drivers and the security team members that were locked with their goods in the caboose of each vehicle.

  “Roll call,” said Xani, signaling that everyone needed to be ready to perform their individual tasks in a moments notice.

  “Ready,” said Troy, standing at the side of the highway with her thumb out, wearing a hoodie with its hood up, acting like a hitchhiker. Many who ran out of money at the resort were forced to use this mode of travel on occasion, and Troy was glad that nearly none that drove by, even tried to stop.

  When they had, she simply gave a location they weren’t headed toward when they told her where they were going, and hadn’t ran into any trouble thus far.

  “Ready,” said Rob, sitting on the overhang of a bridge, kicking his feet as cars slowed beneath him, a toll road just beyond the underpass he sat above.

  “By the embers of the SkyFather I was born ready,” said Khalif, sitting atop a mountainside next to a section of railing that slightly wobbled when the wind blew up and down the mountain.

  “Ready,” said Micro, preparing herself as she exited onto the roof of the sky scraper she’d just snuck through. Her new vantage point giving her a direct line of sight to the area of highway Troy walked down, the bridge that Rob sat on, and even the mountainside.

  “Don’t forget to breathe everyone, trust me it helps, and we only have one chance to pull this off, the next few moments of our lives are going to move incredibly quickly, trust me,” said Micro, her words like that of Arson’s own comforting way of speaking, allowing everyone on the coms to momentarily relax.

  The armored vans all came into view, and a collective smile crossed the faces of all of Arson’s friends, knowing what was to come. Though they didn’t grow up with Micro, and had an unbreakable bond like that of blood born siblings, it was their actions in the next situation that bonded them forever to Arson’s knife in the dark.

  “Go!”

  At Xani’s words everyone sped into action all at once. Each armored vehicle targeted in a different way.

  Micro pulled free a sniper rifle loaded with a mana based bullet that dispersed lightning in an explosive charge the moment that it made contact with a living source. Xani was shocked when Arson had helped her develop the bullet using a series of intricate runes, making the design look simple and refined in its construction.

  Micro sighted the driver of the armored truck, and took a deep breath, firing the moment she exhaled completely.

  The bullet soared like a streak of light, piercing through the glass of the truck silently, causing the driver to seize with the flood of sparks that filled his body.

  In that same moment, Troy sprinted onto the highway, summoning a spiraling ramp in front of the truck made out of pure black light. The hard light construct was practically invisible in the dark of night, and caused the hovering vehicle to be redirected completely.

  The safety measures designed into the truck caused the auto pilot functions to engage once the driver’s hands left the steering column. The lasers used to guide the truck forcing the vehicle to stay in the lane, finding nothing in its path, the vehicle sped forward.

  Troy’s eyes went wide as the truck turned upside down, forced into oncoming traffic by her summoned ramp. The head to head collision that occurred next was violent, causing the car that smashed into the truck to explode with a safety foam as it was knocked completely out of the truck’s way.

  Troy raced toward the back of the truck as the doors of the caboose fell open; a guard shaking his head as he fell free of the rear of the vehicle.

  The man looked around dazed, only for Troy to hurdle over a speeding car, landing a kick to the side of the man’s head as she came down.

  The second guard tried to step free of the truck, but quickly was struck with the open door as Troy kicked it as hard as she could.

  She pulled the man out, closing both rear doors, before rushing toward the front of the armored truck, removing the driver and pushing the vehicle into reverse, nearly being struck by multiple cars as she turned the vehicle around, speeding off down the highway at max speed.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Micro turned her focus toward the mountainside immediately after firing her first bullet, and took aim at the second driver, taking another shot without hesitation. The second armored vehicle was driving straight toward Khalif in that moment, and Khalif emerged from the darkness at the driver’s side, taking ahold of the steering wheel, pushing the driver smoothly out of the driver’s side door to the sound of screaming coming from the rear of the truck.

  “Hold on, my boys, this is gonna get bumpy!”

  Khalif ripped free a portion of the steering column free and poured an open bottle of acid made by Rob all over the safety array. The intricate disks of runes beginning to melt as Khalif turned the vehicle toward the tottering railing that he’d weakened as he pressed down on the gas pedal.

  “Woohoo!”

  The vehicle shot off the side of the mountain and into open air, beginning to plummet toward the rocks below.

  Micro’s third shot was taken as the third vehicle slowed to drive beneath the overpass. Rob dropped down on top of the slowly moving vehicle, dropping a series of smoke bombs as he stepped across the roof, filling the immediate area with various colored smoke. The underpass filled with a rainbow colored fog, making it impossible to see.

  Rob danced as he dropped from the roof, quickly removing the driver from the front, replacing the unconscious woman with a chuckle.

  “Janet, you okay up there,” came a voice from the back of the truck.

  “Yeah, just idiot drivers making me laugh, you know how it is,” said Rob in his best impersonation of a woman’s voice, laughing to himself as the guards cursed and tried to open the rear doors, only to find out they’d been locked in by a active security function that stopped assailants from gaining access to the valued items held within the armored truck..

  Then the robbery began in full. Khalif started by appearing in the back of the truck he drove, even as it fell through the air to find two wide eyed guards screaming for their lives beside a well secured pallet of diamond bricks.

  He opened a portal beneath the pallet, causing the goods to fall before jumping toward the pair of guards, grabbing them by the ankles, and pulling them into the portal.

  Another portal opened directly into the vehicle that Rob had locked down, dropping one pallet directly on top of the second pallet of diamond bricks.

  A second portal was summoned by Khalif, underneath the second pallet, causing both loads to begin to drop as Khalif pulled his two screaming victims into the second caboose, letting them go as the two guards already within the second truck tried to jump at him.

  Troy was speeding in the third truck down the highway toward the underpass where Rob sat whistling a merry tune as Khalif fought nearly four men at once; she pressed a button on the dash to view what was happening in the rear of the truck she drove, and unable to stop herself from laughing at the sight.

  An open portal showed half a pallet had managed to drop through the ceiling of the caboose behind her, and she could now hear the screams of the men and women Khalif was forced to defend himself against.

  “You need some help back there, bud, you’re running out of time,” yelled Troy, still laughing. The sound of music suddenly filling the rear as Rob began to play music, drowning out the sound of Khalif cursing as he fought off the frantic guards.

  “All of you aren’t bloody worth the clothes on your backs,” yelled Khalif, as the guards did their best to jump him, attacking him from all sides.

  “This is what I get for not leaving you dirty bastards in that truck, really?” screamed Khalif as he was punched by one of the still screaming guards.

  Xani, Micro and even Troy all began to laugh as Rob continued to dance to the music. Khalif punching a guard repeatedly as another tried to choke him out from behind.

  “Rob, get out of there, you got Troy incoming,” yelled Micro, focusing through the scope of her sniper at the speeding vehicle.

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Rob hopped out of the truck and simply walked free of the underpass, the area for a few hundred yards still filled with colorful smoke, allowing him to walk off as many around panicked in confusion. Things like this were common in the resort, and those within the amusement park never knew when and where a surprise event may occur, a detail that the builders were capitalizing on in that moment.

  “Oh my, isn’t that pretty,” said Rob, waving at an onlooker as he gestured over his shoulder as if he’d only just seen the cloud of rainbow fog behind him. The music he’d left blaring only further creating the appearance of an unannounced pop up event.

  “I need a bloody raise,” roared Khalif, finally knocking out the last guard, as he opened a portal below the third pallet.

  Micro turned around to see a portal open in the shade of the rooftop she stood atop,, three pallets of stacked diamond bricks perfectly emerging from the gateway. A booming thud shaking the ground around her as the weight of the bricks dropped down onto the rooftop.

  “Get me out of here Khalif,” yelled Troy, and the portal on the roof Micro was on disappeared.

  “I’m coming, hold on!”

  “I don’t have time to hold on!”

  Micro watched as Khalif appeared in the passenger seat, next to Troy, and the pair vanished, only to reappear on top of the same vehicle they’d just been within.

  “Think this may be the biggest portal I’ve ever opened,” yelled Khalif into the coms, and Micro turned her sniper’s scope back toward the mountainside.

  “Woah,” said Xani in shock, watching as a dark portal opened just behind the truck that Khalif had driven off the mountainside.

  “Hold on, this is about to get messy,” yelled Khalif.

  The large portal Khalif opened, linked the space beneath the underpass, to the open air behind the plummeting armored truck, which was only a handful of moments away from smashing into the rocky base of the mountainside.

  The vehicle they’d just vacated, slammed into the rear of the truck that Rob had left unmoving underneath the overpass, and was pushed through, dropping through the air in the next instance. All three trucks now bumper to bumper as they fell through the air like three connected train cars.

  Khalif let the portal close, dropping them back into the rear of the truck that Troy had been driving through another portal as they dove alongside the three trucks.

  A literal instant before all three armored trucks Khalif opened a final portal, dropping himself, Troy and all the guards onto the rooftop beside Micro and the pallets full of newly acquired diamond bricks.

  Micro watched as all three trucks exploded on impact with the base of the mountain, smirking to herself as she turned to see Khalif and Troy sitting up on top of a small pile of unconscious guards.

  “Good job everyone, looks like I owe you a story,” said Micro, walking over to the pair on the roof as she spoke through the coms.

  Without hesitation she took out a series of Katanas, stabbing them into the roof next to the heads of all the knocked out guards.

  “That you do,” said Khalif, laying back down on the bodies below him as if it was the most comfortable mattress he’d ever had the benefit of lying on.

  “Come on, we don’t have time to lie around, my guy, we gotta get out of here, sooner rather than later,” said Troy, pulling Khalif to his feet.

  “No, mom, just give me five more minutes, swear I won’t miss the train to school,” said Khalif with a groan. He looked over toward Micro momentarily, following her gaze over to where she’d been looking and smiled.

  “You gotta give it to him, that is a beautiful way of destroying any and all evidence,” said Khalif.

  “What the right hand raises into the light,” said Micro, raising her hand toward Khalif.

  “The left hand lowers into the dark,” said Khalif, smiling as he high five’d Micro.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” started Troy.

  “Soon you will be all, “just trust in the plan”,” said Troy in a mocking imitation of Arson as she stared down Khalif, leaning on the pallets of diamond bricks, waiting for Micro and him to join her.

  “Never,” started Khalif, first glancing at the burning wreckage in the distance, and then back toward the pallets.

  “Well, maybe I shouldn’t speak too soon,” said Khalif chuckling as he shook his head in disbelief at what they’d just pulled off.

  “Maybe I should just trust,” started Khalif, until Troy pointed at him, stopping him from speaking.

  “Don’t you bloody say it, I swear by the embers of your ancestors if you finish that sentence you’ll regret it…”

  Micro and Khalif shared a glance, and Khalif shrugged as she smirked at him.

  “They’ll all get here, just give it some more time, you all ain’t seen nothing yet!”

  …

  Arson walked in to the shop that Xani had claimed to use as her own while they stayed in RaidCorp coliseum. Parts lay over every surface in sight, and a line of people stretched out the door.

  “How did it go?” asked Arson as he walked up beside her, moving to start assembling various pieces of equipment as the cashier Xani hired to take orders for her worked on the line.

  “Don’t act like you don’t know boss, every time I look around one of your wretches is seemingly appearing out of thin air and whispering something in your ear.”

  “So, that doesn’t mean I know everything that is happening while I’m working on matters elsewhere,” said Arson smirking to himself. He turned to look at Xani, as his oldest friend glared at him.

  “What?”

  “Don’t feed me that line of bull, I’ve been getting data packages filled with information about any and everything I’m working on lately, and I’m not for a second going to believe that is because you aren’t having all of us monitored,” said Xani in a whisper as many of the customers in the store began to look over at them.

  “I’m not having you monitored, well not exactly,” said Arson as Xani’s glare deepened.

  “We aren’t in the safest place in the world, Xani. If we were on a higher floor, I’d be more willing for everyone to not have extra back up, but until we move up to floors with higher levels of patrols and security, I’m not risking it, especially with how I’m making us look like the face of bounty hunting down here, who knows who will be after us soon,” said Arson softly. Xani nodded, looking over at Arson work, cursing as he completed a piece that she’d thought she was going to have to scrap and replace completely.

  “How in the sparks did you manage that,” blurted Xani, staring at the nearly finished engine used for a mana scooter.

  “The piping here is multi directional, but if you turn it this way,” said Arson gesturing toward the part he indicated.

  “You can use the latches on the base to secure the whole engine together, while if you use the same piece in the other direction, there are no grooves to fix the latches to,” finished Arson.

  “You’re irritating, you know that, it’s like you can see everything no matter how large or small, as if you have an aerial view and can see the bigger picture for anything, all while taking in every small detail all at once,” said Xani through gritted teeth.

  “Yeah, and you learn how to build things faster than literally everyone I know, it may not seem like it, but many of the things you’ve done and achieved didn’t come to me so easily, I may make it look that way, but my struggles are not yours by far Xani.”

  “Yeah right, how’s the new technique coming? Constructed the upgrade for your favored attack yet, or wait… have you completed that potion that you are helping Rob figure out, or maybe we should talk about how your solo bounty hunting mission went this morning, or—

  “What’s your point, Xani,” said Arson cutting his friend off before she really got on a roll.

  “You struggle because rather than just feeding yourself a plate of food at a time, you cook a banquet and try and feast like a pig without letting a single drop of food fall free of the table,” said Xani. Arson’s brow furrowed as he smiled at her, not truly wanting to accept her words as the truth, but feeling he had no real leg to stand on if he tried to defend himself.

  “I don’t see how that matters or is really even relevant to what we are talking about,” said Arson trying to veer the conversation in a new direction.

  “Don’t play dumb,” said Xani looking back toward her own work.

  “We both know that if you didn’t have uncontrollable ADHD, that you would probably be the most efficient person any of us have ever met, you just do too many things all at once to ever truly have a moment to breathe, and act like you’re not doing well enough the whole time, all while achieving things that people dream of doing everyday as if they’re nothing but simple day-to-day tasks.”

  Arson stayed silent a moment, continuing to work beside Xani as she tinkered.

  “Well, what do you suggest I do then,” asked Arson after period of extended silence, causing Xani to sigh and put down the parts she held to turn to him.

  “Take a sparking break, you idiot. Take your girlfriend out on a date, live life and try and enjoy a piece of your time alive doing things that matter for your happiness alone, try and love yourself as much as you love your friends and family, you got me?”

  Arson nodded, but still struggled to stop working with the broken machinery in front of him.

  “Now, you idiot, not later,” roared Xani, swatting the pieces from out of Arson’s grasp.

  “Understood, I’m leaving you to it, do you know where Troy is?”

  “Probably in the gym training, she’s a little fixated on trying to catch up to your Micro,” said Xani with a chuckle as she picked up the parts she was repairing.

  “Ha, you’re funny, I’ll be back after my date. Don’t stay up too late, we got work tomorrow, woman!”

  “Yeah whatever, old man, get out of here, you’re bothering the customers,” yelled Xani, looking up to see Arson wave his goodbye over his shoulder at her, sucking her teeth as she realized he’d finished the piece he’d been holding before she forced him to stop, groaning in annoyance at the sight.

  “I bloody hate that kid sometimes…”