Arson sat in his room. His first room. He’d been so wrapped up with all the changes in his life, he hadn’t even thought of anything as grand as his own room.
He filled it with all the treasures he found in the dump and had restored by recyclers. Troy helped him move in, and hadn’t stopped the endless jokes about his situation since they’d started.
“I just don’t see it, how could every member of the BHC and even most of our employees have a room on sight, either here or at the BHC satellite locations, excluding you!” The young lady was in tears and Arson rolled his eyes after she repeated herself for about the third time.
“I don’t sleep unless injured and any time that happened I woke up in a strange bed, beds I assumed belonged to other people,” said Arson. Troy stopped her destruction of his tidy triple king sized bed. She’d jumped on it almost to the point of injury when she nearly smashed into the ceilings far above, but continued to whoop in celebration before she shrugged mid air and responded.
“Jade gave me a room connected to my soul after like a week of being here, buddy. Are you sure you weren’t just scared to ask, I know how you get sometimes when you feel like you are in the way?”
Arson sighed and thought for a moment. He knew Troy was right, he probably didn’t want to get sent home by asking too much of Jade, and even though she’d already given him use of land, gifts of knowledge and more, somehow a room still felt much more personal of a request than he was accustomed to asking for.
“You’re right. Whatever! I have a room now, and it’s better than yours, so ha!” The two stuck their tongues out at each other and Arson continued to unpack.
He’d apparently acquired a lot of items. His unfinished Living Hands helped, as the two he managed to form pulled items endlessly out of the open pocket apartment building he’d converted into storage after he’d managed to fill his watch’s inventory space.
Since his mana pool hadn’t grown yet, neither had the small storage space which Arson only called small because of the apartment building he walked around with in his pocket to compare the space too. He tried not to feel like his sense of normalcy wasn’t distorted by his new life, but knew it had been greatly.
“Man, those things are so sparking cool,” said Troy. She’d stopped her aerial acrobatics and stared at the two hands. Both struggled temporarily to pull a massive great sword from the portal mouth, until the weapon popped free and the two continued to work as Arson organized the items they set down in his room.
“Yeah, but I have a lot of upgrades planned before I start to give them out to you all for use,” said Arson. Troy’s eyes lit up at his comment and she even stopped what she was doing long enough to respond.
“Not going to lie, I’m super excited for that, the combat applications alone…” She shrieked in excitement and the two moved on to the planned vacation details that they’d put off for as long as they could. It didn’t take the two long to figure things out, and even confirmed with the rest of the BHC’s head members that they were all going.
Arson wasn’t truly all that excited for the trip. He’d never left Maelstrom’s Old Town sectors, and had barely spent time in the city while he trained in the dump.
As he looked outside of his window, he couldn’t help but smile at the changed view around him. All of the work he and the orphans had done, became more and more apparent as time passed.
Normally, the area that had surrounded the empty warehouse Jade used as a base of operation was enclosed by heaps of trash and debris. Now, the area had a decently sized garden, and trails that led to the warehouse from all directions. With fields of crops that formed a ring around the perimeter of the now perfectly landscaped area.
He knew he had a lot more work to do, but couldn’t help but be slightly proud of himself. He slowly made his way to the dump as the sun set with plans to both unlock a new skill, as well as test his Living Hands in combat for the first time.
“Okay, Arson, it’s time to kick some sparking rust buckets in the face,” said Arson to himself as he clenched and unclenched his fist.
He made his way toward where he knew the most living Olympian Armors could be found. He was honestly shocked to find a group of 13 of the armors all in one place. He stood atop a trash heap and counted the amount of total enemies in the area.
Even though there were more than enough of the Olympian Armors to test his might against, he worried over the excess of extra foes that patrolled around the group. He didn’t believe he could take on a group that large, and wondered if he should clear out all the enemies that separated him from the group first.
How close can I get before they run me down though…?
Arson glanced at one of his two Living Hands that floated just above and behind his shoulder and got an idea. He didn’t know how much his untested skill could lift, and felt an experiment should be done.
He gave an entire fold of his mind to the chosen hand, and gave it the task to bring a single opponent back to him. There were robots, other armors, and even a few ghosts between Arson and the Olympians that made for perfect test subjects.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
When the Living Hand pulled a robot off its feet and yanked its body through the air at high speeds toward Arson he wondered if he should have been more specific with his given command.
“By the sparks of the maiden, can I truly never catch a break?” said Arson as ten more robots scrambled after their brethren bot, while its arms and legs flailed frantically through the air.
Arson now knew factually that his skill could lift and move his current opponent. He also knew that his attempted separation of single opponents from groups would need work.
Arson crouched and prepared for the group that charged up the trash heap he’d stationed himself on. He timed his strike perfectly, and smashed a conductive water orb through the back of the robot being air lifted toward him. With a roar he flung the robot aside and prepared for the rest of the bots that were nearly to him, when he realized his Living Hand flew passed the group in front of him and toward another group of enemies.
“Oh for spark’s sake,” grumbled Arson.
In the next instant he set his second Living Hand toward his own defense and was shocked by what occurred. Arson punched a robot aside, and before the bot hit the ground, his Living Hand wrapped around its ankle and smashed it into the next enemy like a robot sized great hammer.
The next bot exploded into parts and sparks, as Arson yelled in victory and the real combat began in earnest.
He set his second Living Hand toward offensive measures, but not before the skill managed to pull another robot off the ground. The moment he gave the new command, the hand smashed the bot it held by the neck into the back of the first crowd that charged Arson.
He spun through his enemies. His hands full of conductive water orbs, as two semi Living Hands, both fought and defended him.
When he struck opponents, some were frozen as others were electrified. He fired a few orbs, and marveled at how his creations plucked foes from the air after the explosions occurred.
Bodies of robots exploded everywhere, and Arson covered his face from the storm of dirt that was blown about. An unseen opponent came from behind Arson, and kicked him hard enough to send him sprawling. By the time he’d gotten to his feet, he was already being charged by the same robot, but his offensive construct moved more quickly.
Arson watched as his Living Hand shot forth and clapped palm first into the face of the robot, he slowed his perception slightly to see what occurred and was again shocked by what he saw.
The hand surged into any hole it touched. Its hand like form broke down temporarily and moved like the water it was created from and completely entered the head of the robot.
An explosion of lightning and frost bursted out and the robots head was blown apart. Arson thought he’d lost the created hand, only to find it where the robots head had been a breath later.
Did it reconstitute itself, rather than feed me the mana?
Arson’s mana fluctuated so rapidly he could never tell where the mana came from during combat. As he used a lot of mana, had an incredibly high regeneration even at night, and his skills even stole some from his opponents on contact.
Arson had never received mana from the robots before, and realized the hand must have used his mana to pull off its last trick. It continued to fight, and Arson watched as it pulled off the same stunt a handful more times.
Wait, are the hands getting smarter the more I use them?
Arson watched the hand he’d assigned mentally as his defensive hand, use a palm strike to launch a robot into the path of the offensive hand.
The offensive hand then, grabbed the same robot by the neck, before it caused it to explode the moment it neared Arson’s last three opponents.
It was now Arson who charged. He tried to make sure he was as far away from his much more dangerous opposition nearby, when his mind began to drift.
He wondered why so many Olympian Armors were actually idle in one place. He hadn’t entered any of the zones, or dominions that could be found throughout the dump and junkyard at night. He often trained in those zones, and knew where they were.
Or assumed he did, he wanted to pull out his map and check but still had two robots left to deal with. Alongside his two Living Hands, it only took a moment.
“Are you still not talking to me,” said Anastasia as Arson pulled up his map of the area.
“No Anastasia, not until I tell on myself and my Mom says it’s okay,” said Arson.
“But why tell on yourself, she probably already knows anyway,” said his AI. The intellect’s face drifted around the rim of the map’s border as she spoke to Arson.
“Why because you told her already, didn’t know I had a snitch around my wrist,” said Arson.
“Wow, how offensive, true, but still offensive….”
“What?” Arson looked away from the map and toward Anastasia’s face. The woman froze as if caught doing something inappropriate. Only for Arson’s glare to deepen and her to wince further.
“Well, I’m the main datapoint for your mother’s network sooo…” said Anastasia.
“So… what? What exactly are you telling me?” Arson hoped he was wrong but his gut told him he wasn’t.
“I don’t know, you’re not the only one I’m spying on for your mother, I guess that is the best way of me putting it,” stated Anastasia with a huge grin.
“So how many people is my mom spying on?”
“Guess, guess how big a number it is, wait no you’re good with numbers, guess how many, but you only get to use one word,” responded Anastasia.
“Everyone?”
“Sparks, you’re good with words too I guess, but at least you are talking to me now,” said Anastasia.
“I’m not talking to you, Anna,” said Arson as a shadow loomed over him from behind.
“So you don’t want me to tell you that you are in an unmarked red zone, got it, also your skill doesn’t work when you’re not concentrating on it, won’t tell ya that either, bucko!”
Arson didn’t turn fast enough to stop the first heel drop and was smashed into the ground by an Olympian Armor. Luckily for Arson he was far enough away from the rest of the armors that he only drew one close. Unluckily for Arson, he was in a red zone.
The zones that his mother and the keepers strong enough to survive trained in. This zone hadn’t quite matured to the point of truly being a red zone, thus why his mother hadn’t marked it.
Since his mother’s last scan of the area though, an entrance to the structures below the dump and junkyard had opened after one of the more chaotic battles in that section of the dump which drew in far more deadly entities.
His Living Hand of defense tried to stop the next attack and was obliterated by the single downward punch the Armor threw at Arson. He barely managed to roll out of the way, and turned to take flight. Only for the Olympian Armor to blur and wrap him up by his mid-section.
Arson punched and kicked, but it was futile. Even his fully empowered conductive water orbs splashed uselessly down the armor as it carried Arson toward its fellows. The other Armors that surrounded a portal that Arson hadn’t seen before he’d been carried closer.
Arson feared the worse as they closed in on the portal. Originally he’d thought the Armors were going to rip him limb from limb, or fold him like a pretzel, but none of the other armors came closer as they approached the center. Which meant his worst fear was most likely true.
“You know,” said Anastasia with a slight pause.
“Not now, Anna!”
“I’m just saying kid, if we were talking I would let you know that I could send your location to your mom or a friend and maybe get you out of this obviously terrible situation, but no…!”
“If you weren’t an evil sparking machine, you would have done that already!”