Rob fired up a portable grill and began. He and everyone, with the exception of Xani who was in her guest room at the dump working on a project, were all hosting a mini clothing fare. Not seeing a better opportunity to experience what it may be like to cook for events, Rob decided to join, and bring Brianna, thinking that the pair would be enough to handle anything that arose.

Rob couldn’t have been any more incorrect. The event started small, and Jasmine had felt that she may have gotten far too excited and brought way more clothes to sell than she needed.

However, that too was shown to be incorrect after someone in the crowd made a simple social media posting, which detailed how they’d bought an amazing outfit, and an incredible meal for less than the cheap burner flatscreen they’d used to make the post.

Then what had once been small and trivial became the equivalent to all-out warfare for Rob and Brianna. More meals than even clothes being bought as the visitors swelled.

Rob thought the gym owner would be agitated by so many people outside his gym spending their money on other services and products, only to hear the gym owner ask Troy if they could host similar events once every fortnight.

Apparently, the post had the picture of the gym in the background, and many of the gym’s former members had been shown the post due to satellite systems that displayed events held at previously visited locations to their flatscreen feeds. So not only was the street around the gym packed full of people, so was the gym itself.

Many there had bought workout gear, and felt showing off was a requirement after purchasing. Those same individuals ended up working up appetites, caught up in the same optimistic drive that pushed many gym goers to push themselves far too hard in their first sessions, only to never work out there again. Soreness and aches enough to make them regret ever going to the gym at all.

However with the training Rob was receiving from Jade, much of his foods worked against things such as soreness or bodily aches. Foods infused with mana and unrivaled nutrients made for an extremely fast recovery time, comparative to the regular junk foods most commonly found in the Bronze.

So the people who’d normally show off and bail out, instead signed up for gym memberships they normally wouldn’t have. Rob and Brianna slaved over mobile mana grills, and time flew.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we don’t have anymore food, Rob. What else could that mean?” Brianna. Though she was stating the words, she too was in disbelief. They’d brought enough food to feed the orphanage for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and had sold absolutely everything. A line still stretching down the street filled with excited customers.

The pair of cooks shared a look, peeked at the waiting couple at the front, and cursed.

“We’re sparked, aren’t we?”

“I love ya, Rob, but if this goes bad, I’m running,” responded Brianna.

“Well that helps... just give me a moment to breathe and figure something out…”

…

Xani continued to work on various kinds of containers. From what she could tell, the more the business grew, the more the containers would be needed. Not just the large sized ones that Jasmine and her teams used, but smaller ones for other items, such as merchandise and even the meals that Rob and his crew would need.

So far, the delivery service had received only a few complaints about the food being cold. Or the few times the food had been stolen they’d also received complaints, but that was a matter for Khalif to figure out as far as Xani was concerned.

It was everything else that she wanted to make easier. She felt she knew how, and was excited to see if her newest ideas would bear her and those around her fruit or not.

What now… a flashing in her Overlay pulled Xani away from her rune craft. The young woman placed a stylus with a diamond shaped mana stone at its edge down on the desk in the guest room as she opened up her messages. Seeing a handful from Rob.

Rob: Hey, you available?

Rob: I’m really sorry to bother you but I kinda need your help!

Rob: Seriously I’ll feed you anything you want, I just don’t want to miss out on this opportunity, this event is going way better than any of us thought!

Rob: Xani…?

Rob: Please Xani, for the love of the Maiden, please!

Wow, never seen Rob beg for anything since I’ve known him…

Xani: What’s up?

Rob: Oh my Maiden. Thank you for answering, I completely understand if you can’t but if you could, I need you to figure out how to get me a ridiculous amount of food to old man Scorpion’s gym ASAP!

Xani: How much food are we talking here?

Rob: Have you ever seen a food delivery for the Orphanage?

Xani: of course I have, why?

Rob: About that much should do it…

Xani: you're kidding me, right? That is like a Fortnight’s worth of food for like ten thousand orphans, my guy. How do you expect me to find all that food? Do you even have the money for all that, and even if I do get it somewhere, how do you expect me to get it to you?

Rob: I already asked if I could raid Jade’s fridges, she said yes, and you have those containers you are working on for Jasmine, can we not use one of those?

Xani looked down toward the metal box she worked on that was no bigger than her own torso and sighed. She only had a single rune left to finish on the project she planned to introduce to Rob later that same day, and had planned to finish later, but felt a pressure to help that she’d never felt before. Rob had been cooking practically every meal she's had for days by that point, and if it were up to Xani she would never go back to quickly made orphanage food, no matter who the cook was. Food made for the masses, was not made with the same love that Rob’s meals offered to be enjoyed.

Xani: you owe me, give me some time to speak with Jade and get the food!

A short while later Xani had finished the last rune on the container she worked on, and rose to her feet, proud of her accomplishment. The other containers she’d worked on were far larger and had all been started by Jade. While this smaller device had been created and finished entirely by her.

Doesn’t matter if your design was taught to you, you still managed to make one of your own and it's bloody beautiful… Xani kissed her creation and strode to the door, and opened it only to find Jade standing there, a seeming fleet of hovering tables behind her, filled from top to bottom with high quality foods and ingredients.

“Heard you needed… all of this,” Jade said waving a hand to either side of herself. Xani slowly nodding as she took in the sight.

“How long have you been out here?”

Jade shrugged.

“A few moments maybe. I left you a message but got no response and didn’t want to leave all this food here if you weren’t going to emerge soon, but know what it is like to need uninterrupted time when consumed by a project,” Jade said with a smile before she winked, and vanished with a flash of vibrant light that left stars in Xani’s vision.

Bloody embers that is cool. I will one day learn to make an exit like that.

Xani moved quickly to gather up the food. She started at the first table, opened the small container’s lid and activated the spacial compartment within.

She then rushed to stuff the container, incredible amounts of food stored in the blink of an eye. Xani was beyond proud of herself with the more food that disappeared from in front of her, and before long she carried enough food within her newest creation to feed a small army.

Without another thought, Xani rushed to the nearest window, wrapped her arms around the small box she held in one hand, grabbing the windowsill with her free hand and pressed the rune at its base, causing it to slide open smoothly. Fresh air filling her lungs as she breathed deeply in preparation to fly.

She sent another message to Rob to confirm where they were and summoned her mana as she dove. Wind rustling her hair until she forced the air to support her body and lift her into the air.

“I better get dessert whenever I want for like a season for this!”

…

Luckily for Rob and Brianna, Xani worked fast. There was not a riot, only a few disgruntled customers who had to practice patience as the cooks took an exceedingly long break. Rob and Brianna in all actuality were just waiting for the food to arrive.

More and more customers came endlessly and the event grew larger. Jasmine eventually had to ask Xani to bring her more clothes, and Troy ended up growing her fan base inside the gym by sparring with any and all who wanted a chance to fight her.

Things however didn’t stay as clean cut as the group would have liked, as members of Khalif’s old gang began to target visitors of the small street fair, and though Khalif had his small group of bodyguards in training, the gang pestering them was larger and had far more experience stealing and robbing the citizens of Maelstrom, than Khalif and his guards had intimidating, and protecting the peace.

Fights began between the guards and gang members; and Khalif and Troy found themselves forced to break up a multitude of small skirmishes that broke out when the guards caught the Movers working the crowd.

Once the fighters of Scorpion Frost Gym saw Troy amidst the chaos, it wasn’t long after that they too joined in the chaos, furthering the violence being spread through the crowd.

“The graves are going to be sent out here if we don’t turn this around and fast!” Troy looked over to see Khalif charge past her, bat in hand, and a face that was nearly enraged enough to stop most if not all from approaching Rob and the other non Cultivators on their team. She nodded knowing his words to be true, thinking of anyway she could remedy the situation, coming up with only one plan the more she fought and tried to gather herself simultaneously.

“Spark that! Jazz, collect all your goods, Rob, Brianna pack up everything, Khalif and everyone else protect them while they get ready to leave. Anyone foreign approaches us, take em down, we’re leaving!”

After a slight discussion with Mr. Frost in which Troy promised the next event would be far better secured; a member of the scapegrace gang being smashed through an old picnic table by Khalif, and and even more hectic retreat by their entire team, their group found themselves once more at the dump sharing both meals and reenactments of the dramatic situation they’d all just lived through.

“No no no, best part for me is when Troy first came outside and saw that a fight was starting. Her face before she darted toward us was pure shock and disbelief,” said one of the laundry team mimicking Troy’s face of dread, causing a rain of laughter to fall all around them.

“Ha ha ha, very funny, I guess my panicking over having to stop a street brawl completely out of nowhere is absolutely hilarious,” said Troy. Even though the situation had been rough for Troy not to panic in, she’d still been proud of herself. Not only had their first attempt at the street fair gone well, but none of her own teammates had been hurt beyond a few scrapes and bruises.

“So Ms. BossLady, when is our next street fair, please tell me you have another one planned soon, we made an undeniable killing in the credit department today!” Troy looked over at Jasmine who’d spoken, and then around at all the expecting faces. Excitement on each and every face she laid her eyes on.

“Well that depends, I don’t know how much all that food cost us, and we also need another way to get more food and clothes to wherever we host the event, we can’t keep using Xani like a pack mule no matter how good at it she is,” Troy said, causing another bout of laughter.

“Agreed, although this dessert is fantastic and worth every trip I took between the Bronze and the dump, you all are on your own once I get these containers finished,” Xani said, tapping the small spacial container she’d built with her knuckles, not even looking up from her plate as she did so.

“You see, guys, we have a lot to work on before we do something like that again, but we might be able to soon if those fighters from the gym really try and join up with Khalif and the rest of you guys,” Troy said gesturing toward the guards in training.

“Let’s not get our hopes up, I don’t need anyone on our team that is just in it for the money, and I know Arson would agree with me on that,” said Khalif. Troy and the others nodded in agreement, and the conversation was pushed toward lighter subjects.

The meal was completed and Troy found herself surrounded by Rob, Xani, Jasmine, Khalif, and Jade who seemed to be comforted by just watching them all interact. The group spoke casually about their plans, and to Troy’s surprise Arson’s mother joined in more frequently than she believed the woman would ever have need or want to. Troy not the only one surprised, as Troy watched pure panic scroll across Jasmine’s face with each and every time Jade spoke directly to her. Not a question or statement returned by Jasmine without her voice either cracking, or Jasmine being brought to a unusual stutter that none there beside Jade was accustomed to from the young woman.

“How is he,” Troy finally asked. The question heavy on her mind for most of the evening, but she hadn’t wanted to sully the mood of those gathered. Jade looked over to Troy at her question, failing to keep her subtle smile on her face.

“He’s recovering, not nearly as fast as I would have hoped, but he is alive and that is enough for now, if things stay dire after the next few days I will be forced to take more drastic measures.”

The room went silent. As none knew what Jade considered to be drastic measures, and feared knowing the answer.

“So… what do you think we should do in the meantime?”

Jade looked around and her small smile returned before she spoke up once more.

“Grow, learn, and become the best versions of yourself. My son will need that from you and so much more…!”