September 23, 493 U.C.

A grim tension hung in the air. It blanketed our little home. I refused to yield. Instead, I embraced the tension, letting it drape over my shoulders.

“Casey,” Dad said sternly. “We need this.”

“I am not stealing their supplies!” I said, meeting his gaze.

Dad’s eyes filled with anger. Mine did the same.

“Casey, we need to make a point. We’re so close. We need to push it before we lose ground. Do not make me ground you.”

I stomped my foot. “No. I’m not stealing them.”

“No school for a week and a half,” Dad replied with fury building in his eyes.

My will faltered as dismay smashed into me. “You promised!” I shouted at him.

Dad glowered back. “And you promised too. Don’t make me end it forever. The fae are searching for us. We need them gone now. That means we need to push.”

Fine. I’ll give this a chance. “How will this help?”

Dad huffed angrily. “We need them to turn to us.”

“Why won’t they just turn to the fae?”

“Because the fae don’t provide those services. We will.”

I paused and wasn’t sure. “Who’s getting the supplies?”

“Casey, you don’t get to audit the entire operation,” Dad said sternly. “Now. I need you to get ready and do this.”

I took a moment to think it over. On the one hand, it could help. On the other, I wasn’t going to let Starb collapse. “Fine, but if any civilians get hurt, I’m ending all of this until we have a better plan.”

Dad sighed. “They won’t. We’ll reinforce things to prevent that, but we need to take Starb. That means they need the fear. If civilians are at risk, you have my blessing in aiding.”

I nodded. That works. “I’m holding you to it.” I turned back to the stack of maps sitting on the table. The goal was to strike hard and fast. It was also very risky. I didn’t have the armor of a creature that could withstand modern weapons.

“What if they have more security?” I asked with a growing frown.

“Get in and get out with everything you can. But don’t die. If it’s that bad, find a different way. Teleport molten steel into the safe or something.”

I nodded as the guilt began gnawing at my bones, chomping down with every moment. It felt like the villain title was becoming more real with every act. I didn’t feel like Robin Hood. I felt like a villain.

“You have the list? And the mana?” Dad asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know about the latter. That’s a lot of stuff. I’ll get what I can.”

“Prioritize,” Dad said. “And stop worrying. I can see it all over your face. The people will be fine.”

I nodded and didn’t believe it. “Are you certain there isn’t another way?”

“No. We need humanity to unify. That means we need the people in power out of it. You know this. The fae are actively hunting for us. We have to push back.”

I began studying the maps once more. They were the location of caches and safes that were scattered on the planet. I didn’t have the time or patience to vet all of them. That just made it worse. I didn’t trust the group anymore. It was complicating my life greatly. I got lost thinking about that. Dad ripped me out of it.

“Be very careful,” Dad said. “I should pull you from school. It would be for the best. You’re too trusting and too distractible.”

I turned and shook my head. “No. You aren’t pulling me from school!”

Dad frowned. “We’ll see. I’m worried. I heard you talking to that Ryan girl last night. That’s against the rules.”

I turned to the map and waved my hand at him. “She just had a homework question.”

Dad did not believe me. “This is why I need to pull you. You are a terrible liar. Your cover won’t survive the year.”

“Dad, no!” I barked out while memorizing things.

“We’ll see. You get an extra week of probation. No more late-night calls. You are supposed to be working on mana compatibility.”

“I was doing that at the same time!” I lied, spinning toward him.

“Nice try. I need to see progress, Casey. We have three months to get a solution for it. Now would be better. Unless I see real progress soon, you are going to be pulled from school.”

“Dad, no!” I hissed. “I can’t. I don’t know how.”

“That just means you need more time. That’s why I should -”

“No!” I interjected. “I’ll get it.” What the hell am I going to do about that? Maybe Daniele’s parents will take me? God, they’d turn me in. I slumped.

“We’ll see. Now, do you have everything mapped out? Do you have your routes planned?”

“Yes. I’ll focus on the cameras first. That’s safest.”

“Good. That’s perfect.”

I began looking through my stashed weaponry. I needed to keep Time Stop secret. That was my only edge. So, I debated and planned ways to obscure exactly what I was doing. Dad smiled as I did it. That didn’t improve my mood.

“Are you sending smoke cannisters?” Dad asked.

“Yes. I need to kill the cameras and ensure they don’t have other defenses. I will need to disable them if they have them.”

Dad grunted. “Good.” He studied it.

I tried to shake off the growing guilt. It rippled up into my guts, clenching them in a vice. It was for the greater good. Once we controlled Starb, things would be better for them. My inner pep talk didn’t help. The guilt continued wreaking havoc, causing me to sweat.

I tried to ignore it and began teleporting canisters, sending them into rooms on a different planet.

As that finished, I froze time and began moving forward.

“You aren’t doing anything stupid, are you?” Death asked with a look of concern.

I jerked up in surprise. “Damn it, Death.”

Death laughed. “Hand in the cookie jar?”

“Not that one. Moving forward is fine, right?” I asked.

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“Yes. But don’t you dare go backward. We’ve had that discussion.”

“Got it.” I slumped as the guilt continued unabated. “I didn’t bring anything. Sorry.”

“Damn. Pick up some pizza for me?”

“Sure.” I appeared in a pizza place and liberated a couple. Then I left some credits on the counter.

Death took a slice. “You seem depressed.”

I shrugged. “It's going to hurt people. I know it will. They’ll be desperate in days, and it’ll be my fault. I’m not even sure if we’re in the right anymore.”

“Gotcha.” Death yawned and took a seat while I worked. I didn’t bother pushing further. He’d made it very clear that he wasn’t a mentor.

I began sabotaging and emptying vaults while he ate. I wasn’t about to appear in one of those death traps even if I had sabotaged them. The guilt continued to grow, making my insides churn.

Death frowned and watched. “This is depressing, Casey. I miss our chats.”

“Sorry. I’m just caught in an inner debate. I didn’t want the ‘I’m not your friend’ lecture.”

“If you aren’t sure of the options, hedge,” Death replied. “You can remove the problems.”

I took a moment and then nodded. I’ll do and keep the supplies so that I can give them back. That helped with the guilt. I didn’t want it to end up in some corrupt lord’s pocket. I perked up a little.

Death grinned. “That’s better. Now I need to go kill a fucking mage before she gives me an absurd amount of work. Later!” Death pulled out a sword.

“See you.” I continued my looting of various gems, metals, artifacts, magical supplies, and anything else that seemed highly valuable. Honestly, they didn’t have much. That was a real surprise and didn’t help my mood.

Finishing my crimes, I teleported next to a shop and resumed time.

The little shop was small, only a story high. Several ads for printed pictures were displayed in the windows. I walked into a shop and looked at the frames and pictures on the wall. They were quite old school.

The portly woman behind the counter smiled at me. “They’re ready. I’m sure your father will love them.” She pulled out some pictures. “A hundred credits.”

“Thanks.” I put the credits on the counter. Then I took the wrapped pictures of Dad and me. I walked out of the shop and then darted into the alley. Stashing the pictures in my pocket dimension, I teleported back home.

Walking forward, I frowned. “Dad, I don’t think this will work. They didn’t have much.”

“That’s fine. Please unload it. You know the site.”

“Sure thing.”

I teleported into some warehouse. It was empty. The air smelled stale. I spent an hour unloading a tenth of it in a warehouse. The rest was my hedge. I wasn’t losing it to some random masked person.

I stowed a random bit of gold onto a shelf and teleported back. Appearing in the house, I headed to the fridge and grabbed carrots. I ate them on my way back to my room.

Plopping into my chair, I brought up the news. It was devoid of my act. That wasn’t great. Then I glanced up as Dad walked in.

“That’s it?” Dad asked with a frown.

“Yes,” I lied.

“You did get it all?” Dad asked, walking closer.

“In your listed safes. I didn’t go scouting. I don’t have the mana for that much. You know that.”

“Fair enough. We’ll research. Potions?”

I thought about hitting him. Instead, I spun back to my desk. “I’m out of mana. I had to hit five territories.”

“Alright, do your homework. We’ll handle it from there.”

Dad walked out. I pulled up the guardians’ site to catch up on things.

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Guardian Command committed to neutrality in political squabbles.

Fae’s message to the Platinum Princess.

I glanced through the first one. I was curious. The procedure was to bunker. It was also apparent that the penalty for magical crime was high. That terrified me. I had broken a lot of laws; the last batch was by far my worst even if they couldn’t link me to it. Why is that scary? You know that they’re hunting you. I winced at the thought. Maybe I’d become too accustomed to it. That threat always loomed, but it felt more hollow every day. The fae had my blood.

I opened the last one to see their message to me.

Dear Platinum Princess,

Please report to Guardian Command. We’re uncertain of your story or beliefs, but we request that you reach out so we can understand how you awakened your magic. We vow that you will not be charged with any crimes. You will be protected. We look forward to meeting you.

~The Fae Council

It was short and simple. It was also confusing. Is this a ploy so I let down my guard? I stewed on that while I browsed elsewhere. Guardians were streaming all sorts of things. Some were chatting. Some were shopping. Some were playing games. The streams had absurd view counts.

I glanced through the list. A small smile spread across my face as I found the page for Platinum. It was nearly empty except for a few clips from my actions. There was a message at the top.

Placeholder: If you are the Platinum Princess, please contact Guardian Command.

I scrolled down and started laughing as I read the comments. They were all over the place. It was amusing.

With a smile on my face, I killed the page and started doing my homework, opening my math book. My phone buzzed, and a message popped up.

Raptor: That’s all? Where’s the rest?

I sighed and started replying.

Me: Doesn’t exist or in other vaults.

Raptor: If you are lying, you’ll be punished.

Me: I’m not.

Raptor: Progress on the mana absorption rate?

Me: I’ve failed on that one.

Raptor: Progress on the fae side effect dampening?

Me: Also failed.

I was tempted to take another vacation. Instead, I went back to my homework and began working on some limit or other. It was tedious work. Math had gotten more complicated and calculus seemed to be the stepping stone into the mayhem.

“Casey, where’s the rest of it?” Dad asked.

“That was it!” I yelled.

“You’re grounded for another month. If you lie again, I’m pulling you from school!”

I stewed, glowering at him while seriously considering the offer I’d just read; the fae propaganda was working. I seriously debated going over to them. Of course that was probably a fast ticket to an early grave. I mused on it, wondering if I could get in contact without running into one of their speedsters.

Dad walked into my room, pulling me from my thoughts. He was livid. His face was red, and he had a training sword.

“Hit me again, and I’ll teleport you out into the forest!” I screamed at him.

That made him stop; he set the sword down and let out a long breath. “Casey. You do know that they are lying to you, right? We need this if we hope to have a shot at getting rid of them.”

I scowled at him. “I’m not giving you the rest until I know where it is going.”

Dad frowned and studied me. He shook his head. “Casey, I need you to trust me.”

“Earn it!” I shouted back.

“No school for this week or next,” Dad said sternly. “Have you forgotten?” Then he stormed out of the room.

I don’t care. I’m not hurting them. Turning back, I looked at my homework and then heard him stomping back toward me.

Dad stomped in and held out pictures. I blanched and looked at the ground.

“Look and remember, Casey. This is what happened to our home. This is what happened to your mother. I know that this isn’t fair. I know that it’s hard, but we have to do it.” He held out the pictures of a home on fire. He held out the picture of a burned, unrecognizable woman.

I didn’t want to look at it. Water began spilling from my eyes as I stared at the floor.

“You need to remember that. If you back talk again, I’m pulling out and moving back to Earth.”

I continued to stare at the floor, tears dripped off my nose. He walked away while I slumped into my chair and sobbed.

Current Level 11 Current XP 39.90% Current Max Mana 11452.63 Regen per minute 17.35 Reputation 12600

Tier Skill Cost Tier 11 User Time Dilation (Haste)

- User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second.

- Force transference limited to 25%. 1 mana per earth second. Tier 7 Pocket Dimension

- 128 cubic meters of pocket space.

- Rapid stash and rapid draw.

- You may tether objects to your pocket space.

- Your pocket space cleans, preserves, and organizes items inside based on your will. 32 mana Tier 7 Time Stop

- Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime.

- You may control the flow of time in the demiplane.

- You may summon in willing living creatures.

- This automatically triggers if you take significant damage.

- Recast to gain vision. 200 mana to cast.

Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 7 Teleport.

- Teleports the caster or a willing creature.

- You may cast this on a willing or unwilling creature if they are within fifty meters.

- You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward.

200 mana for the caster.

400 mana for a willing creature.

1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance.

- Short range casts cost less mana.

Tier 3 Attire Swap

- Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform.

- Attire cleaned on swap.

- Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body

- Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting.

- Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions.

- Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast Tier 2 Free casting

- Cast any spell you can replicate.

- Slotted Spell. Use half the normal cost of the spell to store a single spell for future use. Cast the spell for the remaining cost. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana.