“You think we won’t remember this!”

Khalif punched Remy for the last time, finally knocking his last opponent out. He’d fought every last one of the Movers, down to the last woman and man. He’d also fought a one-sided battle where he’d be slowly brought down, and before the fight had begun in earnest he felt that to be his only fate.

Yet with each target he took down during the altercation, the more unbalanced the odds became. Khalif was cut, kicked, and battered to the point that he limped out of the alleyway he’d entered. A bloody hand print quickly dried on the edge of the alleyway’s entrance left behind as Khalif balanced himself slightly; the young man looking back only once before he strolled off, pushing through the pain in his leg. Khalif unaware of an identical handprint left on the front of his once pristine collared white shirt. In his drowsy state, Khalif roamed back to where he’d last felt comfortable, finding himself stumbling into the warehouse just beyond the edges of the City Dump and Junkyard.

“Hey man, how dare you ruin my gifts. Take that shirt off so I can clean it. Anyone know first aid or something?” Jasmine spoke to Khalif, but his eyes closed and he flopped over. Not a moment after he fell did the rest of his bodyguards-in-training run into the front door of the warehouse, frantic until they all froze at the sight of Khalif’s snoring form.

“I know a little bit of first aid. You got a kit? Let me look at him,” said Troy stepping in behind the frozen ex-gang members. Everyone stared at Troy as one of the Bookish ran a first aid kit over to her, while she pushed through the crowd between her and Khalif.

“Sparks Khalif, what were you doing?”

“Taking on a dozen Movers in the southern edges of the bronze… by the time we got there, he left already. They were all pretty banged up, but it looks like Khalif paid a price too,” said one of the guards.

Jasmine shared a look with Troy before both young woman shook their heads slowly. Troy did her best to bandage up Khalif, but ended up lifting the young man over her shoulder after Jasmine got him clothed.

“I’m going to go see if Jade will let us use another one of those hibernation pods, and check on Arson. We can talk about this makeover idea or whatever you wanted to speak about another time ,yeah?” Jasmine nodded at Troy as she jogged off with Khalif in hand. The young woman was left with the bodyguards actively looking for direction from her. Jasmine did her best to remain calm and positive in a situation she felt to be entirely outside what should be expected of her. Yet feeling slightly rewarded by the chance to help others as they helped her.

“Look, we have a full team going right now, and we can knock this out, but how about a full uniform for you all, and whoever takes the deal looks for guards and laundry crew members tonight? Sound like a deal?”

…

Khalif woke up in a hibernation pod, when looking around he could see that he was laid next to Arson, surrounded by people they both knew.

Xani was there, Rob was there, and so was Jasmine. The three had a conversation nearby, but it wasn’t until Khalif woke up and opened the door to the pod he was in that they even realized he was awake.

“Yo buddy, don’t move so fast. You were pretty banged up not that long ago, and Jade said to make sure that you make a full recovery before we let you go anywhere,” Rob said moving quickly across the room to stop Khalif from jumping out of bed.

Khalif gave a slow nod, feeling his head spin as he tried to sit up straight; quickly giving up before laying back down, the sensation of vertigo overwhelming to the point that Rob ended up being the one to close the pod door, Khalif’s eyes already closed by the time Rob latched the hibernation pod shut.

Before Rob could say another word, however, Khalif’s eyes shot open and toward the sound of Arson’s voice. Everyone else also turned toward the young master’s hibernation pod.

Shocked features shifted from excitement to confusion once the group all realized it wasn’t Arson waking up and speaking that they heard, but instead a hologram was being projected across the surface of the pod.

“What’s happening—“ Xani shushed Jasmine, and rushed toward the pod to hear what was being shown. A new recording being presented.

“So you said Rob was one of the most instrumental parts of your plan alongside Khalif. What is the move with both of them?” came Troy’s voice loud and clear through the recording. Once more Arson and Troy could be seen amidst a horde of robots and ghostly phantoms sprinkled throughout the mass of enemies trying to overwhelm them both.

“Well Rob is most likely going to be one of the greatest chefs to ever live, quote me on that. One of my first memories as a child is him feeding me homemade baby food, and if I’m being honest with myself, those meals stand out as more delicious than anything I’ve had prepared elsewhere excluding Jade’s own bloody delicacies.”

“So what are your plans? Just have a master chef cook for you all day everyday?”

The pair on the recording went silent, forced to fight for their lives rather than continue their conversation. Both mentally giving their all to the combat, coming back to their brief exchanges between explosive scenes filled with overwhelming odds.

The group watching completely captivated, the scenes being displayed by the AI within Arson’s watch, real, but dramatized in a way through camera editing to consume all who watched.

“No, I’d never waste his talent like that, I’m going to trick him into starting the best food delivery service company in the Bronze, offering free food to get people addicted to his high level of cuisine and food production, and once he gets popular have him challenge the best chefs we can find any and everywhere,” Arson said with a casual confidence that moved Rob. The words between friends felt private, all who listened feeling privilege to hear the opinions of their shared new leader’s intentions.

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“Oh yah, and what if he loses,” asked Troy truly asking with the expectation that something like appearance in the face of loss, and a societal view on weakness would slow Arson’s response.

Yet, the young man had loss many fights, only to feel that he’d won many more after he’d gained a core and access to an Overlay. Power was granted to him that he felt would be wrong to use against people with the meager understanding of what internal power meant, knowing no more in the end than he himself did.

“Losing means nothing for Rob. If he loses once, he’ll learn enough from that one incident to win 10 more times, if he loses 10, that will make him win 100 face-offs. He’s not like me, he’ll fight stronger opponents rather than weaker ones,” said Arson, spartan kicking a robot in the chest, before firing a conductive water orb in its mid section. The mechanical warrior was sent flying, only to have its head crushed by one of Troy’s summoned clones dropping from the sky and smashing the robot into the ground below with a powerful stomp.

You would never fight someone weaker than yourself little buddy, without being agitated beyond reason first.

Khalif laughed internally as he watched Arson’s continued struggle with the foes around him.

“So you’re going to start with a delivery service? That idea has honestly failed so many times in the Bronze already from what I’ve seen, what makes yours any different?”

“That’s where Khalif comes in, if he and his team manage to prove to be sufficient guards then we’ll be able to overcome the one thing that my research has shown kills all delivery services in the Bronze,” started Arson.

“Not being protected between deliveries,” said Troy excitedly as if she just had a brilliant idea of her own, finishing Arson’s explanation before he could himself.

“Exactly…”

“Between that and your laundry business with Jasmine you can do pretty well for yourself at a rather young age. Man, you should be proud of yourself,” said Troy, managing to perform a full body suplex on one of the many robots around them, smashing the unit into many of its fellow mechanical brethren as they charged her.

“Ha, you’re funny. Jasmine can’t wait to get offered a full time job by Kim. I love her to death, but she’s not using her brain if she thinks she’s going to do better working for Kim than being a head of one of my startups. I’m… not going to force anyone to be a part of greatness, nor do I have the time to try, it’s her loss if she doesn’t see what is at her fingertips!”

“Be nice, kiddo. It won’t always be easy for older individuals to find it easy to respect your authority. Jasmine does seem to have a lot to prove, but so do I and everyone else on the team you’re building. Jasmine will come around. Have you gotten to talk to her about starting a clothing company? I’m sure that if she sees more of a future with you that she will eventually come around.”

“Naw, I’d rather not get too tied to someone who is either going to leave at the first sign of greener lands, or build something with me to either snake it out from underneath me, or again, leave after all the hard work and experience gained to just try and make an even better version of what we’ve already made. No, with Jasmine and maybe Xani, I have to wait to see where their hearts lie,” said Arson. Xani and Jasmine shared a look of sorrow, felt even more deeply due to Arson’s currently afflicted state, but then Arson continued.

“Again, love them both, but Xani is a genius and I don’t know what I really have to offer her other than resources and friendship. And with Jasmine, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong for her to not respect or maybe believe in my want to do better than I have in the past, other than give her time and remain patient. I believe she could run her own fashion agency and more, just hope it doesn’t backfire. I can put on a good front all I want, but that would crush my drive if either one of them left before we could do something truly amazing as a group, we just need to work together.”

The hologram shut off and all in the room looked at one another. Each considered that they had received tremendous compliments from Arson, but even larger was the pressure of responsibility. It was easy for them all to latch onto the doubt that Arson had stated he felt. However, if they ignored what he believed was possible if they all united, even after the minor achievements they had completed in only a few days, they all knew they would be the ones to lose out in the end. All while Arson pushed relentlessly forward and maybe even left them all behind.

“I won’t leave you, buddy…” Xani spoke directly to Arson, before she looked back toward the others gathered. Khalif didn’t know what to say underneath the gazes of everyone there. Yet he felt the need to repeat Xani’s words, the only thing running through his own mind.

“I won’t leave you either…” Khalif pressed a hand to the glass on his pod in Arson’s direction. Rob looked between Xani and Khalif, before he stepped forward, placing a hand on Arson’s pod as well.

“You gave me a chance to do something real with my talent before I even knew exactly what to do myself, little buddy. I’m not going anywhere…”

The group heard sniffles and all turned to take in Jasmine furiously wiping tears from her face. She didn’t immediately step up to Arson’s pod, but after her sudden surge of tears passed, she sighed and stepped forward. Slow to put her hand out, but nodding with a finality directed to her decision as she did so.

“Sometimes I wish you were still some stupid little boy that I could ignore, but with every day that passes you become more dangerous and prideful than you’ve ever been. It’s harder not to be proud of you when you manage to do surprising and spectacular things, even with all you have working against you, but maybe I’m just mad at myself for not being confident enough to believe that I’m worth everything you see in me… but know this little Arson, I’m not leaving you either…”

…

Jasmine stood alone in a room full of stockpiled clothing and couldn’t help but feel both excitement and fear. She’d heard what Arson had said in the hologram displayed from his watch and couldn’t erase the feeling that she needed to be doing more than she already was. After leaving the room where she had discussed many things with the rest of Arson’s team, Jasmine realized that the majority of the complaints she had that held any legitimacy, she already had ways to overcome.

Her thoughts drifted to Arson, then her teammates. Remembering how everyone assumed what Arson was originally starting was a gang, even though Jasmine now wondered if he was trying to start a guild of sorts.

Can we play on that somehow…?

“I mean Khalif is still practically a gang leader, Arson’s mom is a literal princess of crime, and Arson’s reputation is no better. Why shouldn’t we have that make money for us,” mumbled Jasmine.

She looked around at all the clothing she’d gathered and even managed to set up like a mini department store, and slowly smiled.

“We have fresh clothing, we have the sophistication of a revered cartel,” Jasmine said brainstorming aloud to herself.

“But what should we call ourselves? Smooth criminals…? Naw, that’s nothing but a played trend and you know it, Jazz. What about Fine Dressed Vagabonds…?” attempted Jasmine, only to roll her eyes at even speaking her last idea out loud. She yelled in frustration, feeling that the name of what she wanted to start would be the most vital aspect of Arson’s team’s entire clothing brand, only to have her thoughts cut off by Troy walking into the room with a knock on the open doorway.

“You okay… hope I’m not interrupting?”

“No, not at all, just a little frustrated trying to come up with a name for the clothing brand Arson was talking about. It’s not like we don’t have our own little fresh cartel of orphans all willing to model anything we put out, half the kids in the orphanage would stab one another for a new outfit,” said Jasmine. The room went silent for a moment, and Jasmine turned around to see Troy deep in contemplation.

“Well what are you here so late for, did you drop by for that make—“

“Why don’t you call it that,” Troy cut in to ask suddenly. Jasmine frowning in confusion at where Troy was trying to direct her.

“Call it what?”

“You said we have a fresh cartel of orphans, why not call it Fresh Cartel of Orphans,” asked Troy with a smile. Jasmine’s eyes went wide momentarily before she shook her head and smiled.

“We may always be orphans, but we don’t need others to see us that way, so how about we shorten it,” suggested Jasmine. Troy nodding, unable to keep the smile from her features, feeling more and more rewarded each time she was seen to be a help since working with the rest of Arson’s team recently.

“So am I going to be the first one dressed by the future head of one of the newest up and coming name brands in fashion or what?”

Jasmine smiled and nodded, waving for Troy to sit in a nearby comfortable chair near the center of the room.

“Of course, and since you’re a genius and helped come up with our name, your first makeover is on me,” said Jasmine as Troy sat, both young woman smiling as Jasmine rushed around, picking out clothing for Troy to try.

“Thanks, so what does this include, hair, makeup, clothes, what?”

Jasmine’s smile broadened and she glanced toward a wall screen serving as a floor to ceiling mirror, then toward her own makeup bag by the door, knowing that her hair dressing scissors may be tucked far in the depths of her oversized purse, then back toward Troy.

“Welcome to Fresh Cartel, darling. Whatever your fashion needs may be, we will steal from the heavens themselves before you leave our company without any and all issues being resolved.”