Episode 14: Changes

The next few days following Arson’s recovery were incredibly difficult. One, because Arson had bitten off more than he could chew with his business. As well as the second reason—Jade.

His mother was ruthless. She didn’t let him idle for a moment longer than it took to eat a meal or wash his body. She’d also begun to personally train him in different forms of martial combat, which Arson had to admit to himself that he loved, regardless of the difficulty.

He found himself in a state of meditation he’d never experienced before, as Jade paced a small circle around him.

She’d forced him into some sort of stance with his legs spread wide, with his rear in a non-existent seat that left him in an awkward crouch, and his palms straight out in front of him.

To make things worse, she balanced weighted mana cores on his head, shoulders, knees, the center of each of his extended arms, and in each of his hands.

Yes, every second felt like a torturous slow burn he’d never be able to escape, but it somehow curbed the sting of his poisons’ pain drastically. So much that he didn’t want the exercise to end. Then a day passed and Arson began to wonder if it would end.

“You have done well, but your mind is adrift. What’s the problem?” said Jade. Arson opened his eyes and gave a troubled look when he almost moved his head and dropped the cores spread across his body.

In the next instant the cores levitated enough to allow for Arson to move and he sighed with relief as he crumpled to the ground.

“Mr Kim. I guess he was only helping us when he believed that Jasmine would one day become his own scion. Now that she’s taken a few contracts in a more solidified and professional way, I believe that has left the man either threatened, which I doubt, or so incredibly annoyed that he’s trying to shut us down entirely. If it weren’t for Rob, Khalif, and my mana core hunts for you, I’d be broke already.” Jade nodded and smiled as she stretched her arms out wide.

“When anything is possible, the realm opens up to those who see no boundaries or hurdles, no excuse worth empowering, no problem as such, only the readiness to overcome. Everything guides them forward. It seems to me that you have all the pieces you need to reach a new peak, my son. Just open your eyes.”

Arson thought for a moment and tried to change his perspective. Jade often gave him philosophical answers at every opportunity. She wanted him to think, and he wanted to learn how to remain open.

Arson hadn’t been able to use his ability to slow time since his fall, and he didn’t know why. Jade felt it to be a block in his perception of what he feels is possible and safe in his mind.

“You used a new ability in a life-or-death situation, and even though it may have been grand, powerful even, it let you down. You may have created a mental blockade against an ability you feel has failed you,” Jade explained. He didn’t know why his subconscious would do that, could do that, or should ever do that again. It made him feel as if he’d lost a piece of himself.

Jade instructed him to realign his mind, and he’d been trying to ever since. He’d reached a state of openness as he fell, and wanted to be able to access the state as he pleased, but for now he was forced to put it in the background

He needed to fix his businesses, as the efforts had become disjointed, and he knew he’d only succeed if all of his people were a unified front.

“I need to have a meeting of the minds. Can I invite the whole group over for dinner?”

Later that same day, Arson found himself at the opposing end of Jade at a very large table. Rob and his seven helpers used the kitchen that Jade taught them in. A punishment Rob still both thanked him for and hoped he wouldn’t one day regret.

Rob now knew that Jade was an unrivaled talent in the world when it came to food, and he learned to perfect his skills quickly underneath her hawk-like gaze. Jade wouldn’t allow culinary mistakes to flourish within the walls of her kitchen.

Xani sat to Arson’s right, followed by two yet-to-be-introduced helpers. Then Jasmine and the twins.

To his left sat, Troy, Khalif, two of his ScapeGrace members, and the rest of the seats were for Rob and his seven to fill after they were done with the preparations.

“So,” said Arson to start the meeting when Rob sat down and left the rest to his kitchen staff. He looked around and all wore different expressions as they waited for him to continue.

“Let me start with this; I appreciate all your efforts while I was asleep and in recovery, and that none of you did anything excessive without conferring with either Troy or Jade. But we still have a long way to go. I need a status report from all of you,” said Arson. Troy smiled, but everyone else looked apprehensive. Arson didn’t like the grimace on Khalif’s face, and knew there would be a story behind it.

“Ok, I’ll go first,” started Troy when no one else spoke up.

“I won my last two fights, so it was easy to spread the word about our services as we spoke about. I’m still working on getting you the paperwork to become a sponsor for the tournament coming up, but we will still need a name,” said Troy. Arson smiled back at her and nodded before she looked at Khalif and nudged him to speak.

Khalif cleared his thought and began slowly. “Me and Rob, keep getting robbed.” Arson’s brow furrowed and he looked between the two young men, with the assumption that more would come, but they were silent.

“Robbed by who?” Arson finally asked after a brief silence.

“Other gangs that don’t like how Khalif and his crew work for a Keeper’s kid. They literally formed some sort of super-gang union, and now they just kinda rob all of the runners we send out,” said Rob. Jade chuckled and Arson couldn’t help but frown.

“What? It’s cute,” said Jade. She shrugged and waved for Khalif to continue when Arson looked at her.

“Your little advertisement scheme works. I hate it, but it does. I still don’t see why you’re just giving away free food, but we have more repeat orders than first-time buyers by a large margin, so one free meal up front is small compared to the near five or six orders a day some people put in,” said Rob.

“Yeah, I have to agree. We are moving around with so many credits at a time that it makes it worthwhile for these guys to come at our two or three-person groups with upwards of ten. Not many orphans are going to die over keeping someone else’s credits no matter how well you pay them,” said Khalif. Arson noted that Xani and Jade nodded at Khalif’s words and he took extra time to digest that portion of what he was being told.

He then looked to the twins and Jasmine. The twins looked at him with expectations, while Jasmine looked truly excited for the first time—at least as far as Arson was aware.

“Do you know what I say when I walk in to a new client’s office for the first time?” asked Jasmine. Arson looked around the room for an answer before he guessed, but no one seemed to have the answer.

“Umm, Hello, I’m Jasmine and I have a beautiful service I’d like to offer you?” he guessed.

Jasmine shook her head slowly with a large smile that seemed to grow as the moment went on.

“I don’t have to say a thing. Most times, I’m escorted to some management office. I place down a contract, then I’m told that person isn’t equipped to handle deals that large, so they move me up the chain anywhere from two or four—maybe even seven more times—and then it's signed.”

“That’s it?”

“I work for a mini Carter Omni in the making from what I can tell. I also think most people are afraid to make your mom mad, which is a plus, and you have three of the fastest growing businesses in Maelstrom under your control for the most part,”

“Three businesses,” said Arson quickly to push the conversation forward. He’d seen Jade wince at Jasmine’s comment about Carter Omni but didn’t want to press the situation at the time.

“Yes, your idea worked. I’ve been able to mimic a restoration field in a handful of desks now. Thousands of pounds of trash go into the giant container at a time at the center of the warehouse, and we literally just wait for items to pop up in the inventory section of the modules at each station, pluck them, and sort the items one by one, something I plan on streamlining over time,” said Xani.

“So we are building an inventory for the store I planned on opening, but I don’t see how that counts as a third business quite yet?”

“Oh, that’s because I’ve sold out of most of the clothing we have recovered so far. I apologize, but I did take the liberty of naming your clothing brand “Fresh Cartel” or FC for short. It’s made you a little over 31 million credits so far, and I’m positive that the inflow of credits is only limited by the amount of available work stations. Xani is working on that, but I’m not going to push her. She has stated you want her focused on the restoration systems and understanding them more,” said Jasmine to Arson’s utter shock.

He admitted to himself that he didn’t like that she’d taken liberties he wasn’t aware of, but he didn’t regret his earlier compliment to his group. Jasmine did a lot without asking his permission, but it resulted in success, and he should be proud of that aspect.

“I’ve only mimicked a basic restoration system for now, which is why not only don’t we have control over how many desks we can turn into stations, but any more than the two I have planned for now would be a waste. Regardless, the rarest items are still being restored and housed,” said Xani.

Arson couldn’t help but smile, especially as everyone began to send him the invoices for all the money he made while he slept and later trained. He had to forcibly keep his mouth closed as he glanced at the 71 million credits he now owned.

“Well, I have a few questions and suggestions,” said Arson. Everyone at the table took a break from their meal and looked his way. The entire group had sat now and Arson felt odd with so many eyes on him at once.

“Xani, I’d like for you to take a group and find as many of the old tandem hover bike frames at the edge of the junkyard as you can. They aren’t popular anymore, but that might benefit us. Khalif, you should send some people with her but not too many. I’m going to see if we can make our people a little more illusive before I see it fit to counterstrike this gang,” said Arson. Dani and Khalif both gave an affirmative, and Arson moved on.

“Jasmine, I’ve considered it, and if the twins can survive in a green zone as the members of ScapeGrace have, then I will allow them to back me up in certain areas within the dump at night. I noticed you mentioned nothing about Mr. Kim, is he still an issue?”

“Sparks yes, but I don’t really care. The work speaks for itself, and so does the number of buyers of our restored products. A lot of rich Cultivators are going wild over styles they haven’t seen in hundreds of cycles,” said Jasmine.

“So have we solidified ourselves as a quality laundry service, or simply evaded a powerful opponent for now?” asked Arson, truly in a need for the level of backlash he may encounter from the situation.

“Both. We don’t want to bother Mr. Kim, so we are taking absolutely every small client he turns down and making a killing while doing it,” said Jasmine. Nothing seemed to bother the girl, and Arson earnestly liked her new energy.

“Rob, I suggest you start doing research on mobile kitchens. I think the extra Bookish that Xani wanted to bring in can work on crafting both something to defend your chefs and their guards while allowing you to provide top-shelf food practically anywhere,” said Arson as he gave his mother 25 million credits electronically.

His food budget was large, but Rob and his people hadn’t put as much of a dent into the budget as he had originally thought. Apparently, when you cook beyond a grandmaster level, your time in a kitchen becomes rather expensive. So his food cost was reasonable, but the cost of his mother’s free time was not.

Arson didn’t care because he was set up to gain a lot more as Rob further enhanced his skill, which he then passed along to his sous-chef Brianna and the others on his crew.

Arson had plans to figure out how to make a space to grow his ingredients. Some company or another must have actually implemented their own processes into the same ideas Arson was toying with.

He needed to take things slow but first he had a rival gang to try and work things out with. Or he might have to commit his first raid. Arson looked up with a smile at the thought of the legalized vigilante law, and tried not to laugh when Khalif spoke up.

“Hey, is anyone else bothered by the look he gets on his face sometimes? The last time he smiled like that I caught all the sparks.”

Arson spent the rest of his day in the dump. He needed time to himself to think. His plans were large and needed room to grow. Room that Xani and the Bookish’s efforts would soon provide.

Large mountains of trash had been removed from the area around Jade’s warehouse, and grass had started to grow in once-desolate space. Arson smiled while he envisioned gardens, perfectly paved paths, and even decorative water fountains around the building.

Jade offered any land cleared by Arson and his group to be used for their needs and a nearby empty field that Arson immediately had plans for.

He believed that once he renovated the older warehouse’s architectural design, and had Jasmine decorate the interior with Xani’s help, he would have a magnificent storefront for the Black Hole Conglomerate.

After he managed to settle his thoughts, Arson rejoined the others as they gathered in front of the warehouse. More than just his businesses needed to improve, and quickly, as Jade had begun to mention more often that Arson would not only be in school soon after summer ended, and with that came the tournament of scions.

Arson feared competing with the other HonorBorn families of Maelstrom. He didn’t want to let his mother down, or his friends. So rather than being crushed by the pressure, he decided to take action.

Stay idle, even within the sun’s glory for too long, and the shade of those mightier than yourself shall consume you.

Arson looked around and received nods from his friends before he smiled and spoke. He may not want to endanger those who accompanied him, and may be about to scare his friends from ever wanting to enter the depths of the dump again, but he didn’t think that discouraging them outright would work. So he shot for the uplifting—yet still semi terrifying—familiar phrase he chose to ease tension while simultaneously raising the internal alarm bells of those gathered.

“Procrastination?” The quote made the orphans smile as they knew exactly how to respond, yet the phrase had been used only when their orphan mother expected her children to give whatever challenge she handed them their all, so they also knew the next steps would not be easy.

Their response was filled with energy and excitement.

“Procrasti—what? Not in this nation!”