Khalif held a student upright in a rear naked choke. He peered over the shoulder of the young man fearing for his life, looking between the fight that happened all around them, a knife held to his captive's throat.

 

“Don’t worry, I promise I’m not going to kill you,” whispered Khalif, with a deft sweep of his foot so quick the young man’s scramble to stand continued.

 

“I believe that less and less with every breath I take, man.” Khalif only nodded. Far more focused on the fight happening around them.

 

“What did me and my friends walk into?” The soft spoken words a threat to the young man, anything unanswered with the knife at his throat. Khalif’s voice and breathing the only things the young man could hear even through the violence, the silver haired boy’s whisper felt like a shout.

 

“You are not a student here, are you?” said the man rhetorically, before he continued. Khalif still shaking his head in answer regardless.

 

“Every student has a badge, take a badge and turn it in, get points, for your team, guild, whatever entities you are connected to within the school,” said the young man, a blurted half explanation only inspiring more questions.

 

“What happens to those who lose their badge?” Khalif forced the young man he held to duck. A series of knives piercing the area they’d just been, and Khalif couldn’t help but snicker at the young man’s screams of alarm and panic.

 

“Ahh, they are suspended from school activities for a day, the number of days increasing for every day your badge is taken up to a maximum of seven before your admission is rescinded,” yelled the student while Khalif yanked him around.

 

“Doesn’t matter to us, we’re only attendants not students,” stated Khalif, a breath away from tossing the student off the roof into a large pond below, until he spoke again, still afraid for his life.

 

“Seven badges is considered an admission fee, you only have to mark them with the blood of the original student you took it from for them to be valid,” screamed the young man in the moment that gravity took over and Khalif dangled him by a single hand over the roof.

 

“You catch all that, Xan?” said Khalif, his free hand swiped at the young man’s chest, deep enough to draw blood, and quick enough to cut the chain of the medallion around the student’s neck. Khalif’s dominant hand then slid from around the student’s neck to smoothly clap around the chain.

 

“Roger,” offered Xani, the young woman dove past Khalif in the next moment, Khalif freed of the first medallion he’d taken, the exact moment after he touched his blade to the school’s mountain faced medallion. The Crest of the school only bloody momentarily as it started to glow with an inner light in Xani’s hand.

 

“Told you about shortening my sparking name, it's only four letters!” Arson’s laughter could be heard through the system linked comms after Xani’s comment. Khalif cursed and scanned the cloud that battled around him.

 

They’d made it on to a rooftop, where a brawl had already broken out, but Khalif was beginning to wonder if if they’d stumbled into a designated combat area, but didn’t have time to ponder.

 

I have badges to collect…

 

…

 

Arson crouched perched on the elevated corner of an adjacent roof. His eyes took in the brawl, dissected the fighters below, and from what he could tell there were three groups involved, not including his own people.

 

Where’s Troy…?

 

From what Arson could see Xani controlled the sky above the fight, propeller palm drones blocked and redirected a storm of knives being effected by multiple parties.

 

The first being a girl at the center of it all who Arson assumed could either control an alarming number of knives, or manipulate metals or alloys. Arson counted at least 36 blades under her control at a time, while the other person that caused havoc with the very same knives was Khalif.

 

His right hand man used the shadows of any and everything to redirect the girl’s knives toward her own people. The girl was good, but not good enough to counter attacks that shifted position constantly and in the mere blink of an eye.

 

Khalif’s training with Micro and Seneschal was obviously paying off, the silver haired young man’s movements completely different from what they once had been. He found himself wanting to join his friends, but sighed knowing they were fine.

 

Even though Xani had been frantic at first, Arson realized that may have been more her recent trauma over their vacation’s end. He was numbed during the trials to being affected by a compilation of dangerous situations all occurring at once.

 

A convergence of chaos… He had to force himself to push his mind away from a thirst for battle he’d felt building in his body since he left Endless. The timer still ticking away in the corner of his vision.

 

Just breathe, it's not that drastic, just a few thousand more trials and I’ll be permitted to travel as I want in Endless, so why… Arson’s scythe Sky was in his hands Arson not readily aware of when he’d summoned the weapon, his grip tightening in a way that filled him with comfort.

 

He hadn’t realized how often he was forced to fight while in Endless, but now…

 

“You just gonna sit there?” Arson glanced over his shoulder to see Oscar rushing up to him, heaving for every breath he took.

 

“Yeah, wouldn’t be right to intrude I think, and my people are involved already, don’t think they’ve gotten to let loose without having some sort of responsibility attached lately.” Oscar stopped beside him and looked at the scene below.

 

“Your people, which people are yours,” asked Oscar. Arson smiled.

 

“Take a guess,” said Arson. The urge to jump into the altercation only diminished slightly, but Arson was thankful, as the feeling made his heart race.

 

“I’m gonna guess the chick in the center with the knives, and the guy at her back in the middle of the mix.” Arson shook his head and Oscar guessed again.

 

“Nope, flying girl and the one throwing people off the roof with the silver hair over there.”

 

“Wow really, I would have thought that more people would have been yours,” said Oscar, his own eagerness to join easily discernible by the smile he wore and his clenched fists. Arson glanced at him again.

 

“Oh, the group at the table giving the play by play are mine too,” said Arson with a gesture toward Lane and Jasmine who’d turned the situation into an optimal broadcast. Their entire set up completely out of place on the roof.

 

“Embers of the maiden, I didn’t even see them over there.

 

“I only thought the people in the middle were yours cause of that guy's movements and the girl being a obvious weapon cultivator like you,” said Oscar with a look of his own toward Arson.

 

“Or whatever it is that you are,” said Oscar, his eyes heavily investigating Jack, Jill and Jane before he looked back at the fight.

 

“You noticed that too, huh. I don’t think he would have lasted this long without the use of the basic tai chi movements, and something tells me that the girl looks familiar too, think I’ve seen both of them in my shop,” said Arson.

 

“Should I get in there and help our guys out?” Arson gave a raised brow gaze up at Oscar from his crouched position and laughed.

 

“Our guys, ha, no, don’t worry about it, Khalif almost has taken every medallion available, and Xani is about to clean up if those two in the center don’t go down soon... actually I should probably step in before she truly gets mad." Arson tipped forward, and stepped into the waiting hands of Jill and Jane. The pair of hands making a new step down with each move forward Arson made. The large hands easily able to hold his foot in a single hand with each step.

 

The fight started to slow down when Arson approached. Everyone left on the roof either desperate to escape unscathed, or already unconscious.

 

“It's Shopkeep,” said one of the students fighting nearby. The words started a chain reaction, and the fight halted with the exception being the storm of knives that swarmed the roof.

 

“Watch out!” The redhead who’d controlled the knives yelled, but with a single spin of his scythe Arson slapped a trio of blades out of the air completely. The beautiful blades spun off into the distance and the same girl’s dropped-jawed sorrow made him laugh aloud.

 

“Sorry I had to step in before my people reduced my customer base,” said Arson with a smile. The redheaded girl looked around and noticed how far more people had been taken out of the brawl than she’d realized.

 

“Your people,” said the redhead with a look between the young man at her back and Arson. The young man merely nodded as if to confirm something and the two seemed to relax.

 

“Ha, no sparking wonder we got backed into a corner, we were getting sniped by Shopkeep’s people,” said the girl. Dozens of knives slowed as she returned them to a series of belts that lined her person and hidden compartments of her equipment. Many of the others on the roof began to nod their heads, and attempted to wake up their friends and fellow classmates.

 

Khalif: Arson, what’s this shopkeep rubbish about, they keep saying it, and it doesn’t get any less weird.

 

Arson: Yeah… haven’t given out my name since I arrived, not really feeling too comfortable about staying.

 

Xani: Can I at least figure out the whole moving interconnected building thing first?

 

Rob: this place has some foods I can’t get in Maelstrom, buddy, can you give me some time too.

 

His group continued to chat, while the other groups on the roof collected their members. The redhead waved and yelled as she dragged another girl onto her feet and smiled.

 

“I may stop by for a class later, Shopkeep. I’ll bring some of my guild members if I can,” said the young woman, and many on the roof began to rush off. The small audiences dispersing after seeing an oddly quick conclusion.

 

Khalif and Xani gave him an odd stare that held expectation and authority. The stare would have once gotten the young man to share, as it was one they’d all received from the Orphan Mother.

 

Not this time, my friends…

 

“Where is Troy?” asked Arson. The question unbalanced the two immediately, and answers were given, and oddly not received.

 

“Probably three-thirds the way up that sparking mountain. Now answer Khalif’s question." Arson looked up the mountain and didn’t immediately notice the young woman, when he did, he was incapable of taking his eyes off her momentarily.

 

“What happened? You guys couldn’t have been here for more than... what, like... half a day?” asked Arson. He continually changed his gaze from the girl using HardLight Clones to travel both at an incredible speed, and across distances someone incapable of flying should not be able to traverse with such ease, and Khalif.

 

“Who taught her that?” His eyes promptly on Khalif when he asked, so the boy felt prompted to answer.

 

“She most likely did, Troy has spent the most time with you since you’ve been back, she rants daily about the single sparring match you two had and we were on vacation, don’t know when you woke up, but she caught that building solo, Arson, no help, no hesitation, I think she figured something out then.” Arson gave Khalif a single nod, and smiled before he looked at Xani, who still glared at him.

 

“Can we all see her, please,” asked Arson the question still said in a way that didn’t leave any options. Xani rolled her eyes and pulled out her flatscreen, and Jasmine and Lane walked over after concluding their broadcast streams.

 

“How did it go,” asked Arson. Xani’s glare noticed as she pulled up aerial footage of Troy’s race up the side of the mountain.

 

“It was great, BHC’s numbers are on a rise. Just hope we get some good footage while we are here. Would have liked to have seen us resolve that fight, but your classy entrance did us justice in its own way, I guess,” said Lane with an awkward laugh, looking between the smiling Arson and the glaring Xani.

 

“Classy entrance, I think I could do better if I was trying to make a noteworthy entrance, but I hear your point, spice it up next time, everything for the cameras,” said Arson with a laugh. Lane gave him his own signature nod and Arson returned the same.

 

“The shoes did it for me, we sold out of our inventory before they even started to call you Shopkeep?” Her voice’s inflection conveying the unasked question. Arson looked down at his favorite red hightop sneakers, and back up to the group around him, when Oscar joined their group.

 

The silence, was unlike any kind of silence Arson had ever experienced.

 

It was like the area around them all contained a vigilant uproar of sound, yet within their immediate bubble nothing was heard.

 

Arson shrugged and looked down at the hologram of Troy, who could now be seen running on the backs of her clones, a bridge made from their interconnected bodies secured by nothing as they supported her.

 

The girl hadn’t actually made a bridge, but stacked a few dozen clones, positioned to sit directly on one another’s shoulders.

 

After which she’d pushed the group of clones over, and dashed across the platform made. Troy must have known that she didn’t make enough extra bodies to cross the entire distance required for the jump, so used the final clones elevated position from where she needed to land and jumped.

 

Arson could see that even still the ramp and additional leap hadn’t been enough, and for a moment he stopped breathing. An entire conversation being had around him. Only he and Oscar completely captivated by Troy.

 

“Well, embers in a shower ,that was crazy,” said Oscar. Arson agreed and nodded.

 

Troy had summoned two more clones mid air, her replicated forms received her with cupped hands, and launched her even higher before they dispersed into uncontrolled light.

 

“I knew she was holding back in the spars,” cursed Khalif underneath his breath.

 

“Don’t take it personal, I felt the same way before I left, and still did when we sparred during vacation, but I did take it way too easy on my martial forms while I was gone.” Oscar looked at Khalif and pointed at Arson as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Then recognition struck Oscar instantly.

 

“Hey you helped kidnap me,” said Oscar. And in return one of Khalif’s brows rose.

 

“I did no such thing, if anything I abducted you, and you couldn’t have been worth all that much I remember all the big fish we relocated for the completion of financial documentation,” said Khalif with air quotes.

 

“You definitely, abducted, me,” stated Oscar with air quotes of his own. Khalif frowned then, and looked at Arson in question.

 

“He was before the penthouse thing,” said Arson.

 

“Ha, so what did he do, pay for our dinners that evening,” said Xani rhetorically, already knowing the young man’s bounty though large, had indeed been a drop in a bucket when compared to others they abducted.

 

“No, me and Lane were making so much off of our show by that point that I think they’d already started to comp all of our meals, they made more money having us there, than we did while being there as a unit, Arson included. The first slip of many to come in regards to her leader’s name.

 

“Arson, who’s Arson,” asked Oscar, to which the entire group answered at once.

 

“Our boss…” The echoed words held weight and all of the stares that could be met within the small group, fell on him in that moment.

 

“Who are you again? Seriously going to need a refresher.” Khalif’s point in Oscar’s direction, answered any questions as to why the redhead he’d thought he’d been watching win earlier had decided to leave when she had the chance.

 

“I’m Oscar, I was kidnaped… I mean abducted by you guys, and apparently wasn’t even valuable enough to get you all dinner. Who are you all again, by the way?” The group's silence, and Arson’s continued watching of his girlfriend climb a mountain he didn’t know if he’d be able to traverse so easily, left Oscar nervous.

 

“Builders…” The echo from the four members of the Builders of Godhood, made Oscar take a step back, not paying attention to his positioning on the roof. Yet before he could fall off a mechanical flying hand slightly pushed him back toward the group.

 

“What do you want, Oscar?” asked Lane pleasantly.

 

“You seem nervous, did you need one of our many services?” Oscar shook his head no at Lane.

 

“Well, spit it out then. If you were at Coliseum, you know how much Mr Gestalt’s time is worth as a living weapon master,” said Jasmine, and Arson noted her attempt to fix her slip in their chat.

 

“I want a job,” said Oscar.

 

“Doing what?” Arson finally lifted his head.

 

“You keep saying that but you’ve yet to tell me what job you're looking for?”

 

“Any job,” said Oscar looking around at the others then back at Arson. No answers given by the three placid visages and the misplaced smile, that unnerved Oscar even further somehow.

 

“Purpose it is. Khalif, take three drones and the newbie with you, map out the school's interior. Wait, Xani are you done with the nano-bot cams?” asked Arson. His scattered thoughts noticeable in his sporadic statement.

 

“You finally gonna tell us what we are going to be doing here Shopkeep,” asked Xani Xani truly annoyed with the uncertainty she may have to face under Arson’s direction.

 

“Nope, but I think this is going to be a blast.”