Chapter 13.16: Day 6 Part 1: Accelerated Production

Troy called for everyone to meet in the recovery room. She had just seen a hologram that changed her perspective on what their entire team was doing each day. A video of Arson speaking with Jade about his dreams. Dreams that she truly wanted to see come true, Dreams that she wanted to be a part of.

By the time everyone arrived, she’d managed to collect her thoughts, ready to present what she’d been shown to the best of her ability. She didn’t have the same confidence as Arson, but she felt she at least needed to talk to all involved in a way that would keep them all together, focused on the same goal in the end, if not the same direct tasks in their own day to day operations.

“So… you just going to keep us waiting in suspense or what? I have a lot to work on right now,” said Xani, seriously excited to get back to her current project. As was everyone else in the room.

“Yeah, sorry, just don’t want to sound stupid, but I think I need to share what happened in here earlier to me. Just feel like it would help us all stay focused, and maybe even give some of us more faith in the path we are on,” said Troy with an unintentional glance toward Jasmine. The young woman seemingly preoccupied as she flipped through her flatscreen. Jasmine looked up at Troy’s words and realized many in the room were looking at her, the young woman sighing as she put up her device.

“So what happened, did you get hit with more silly gas and stumble into a brilliant idea,” said Khalif with a uncustomary chuckle. Only for Troy to roll her eyes and shake her head.

“No…, but Arson’s watch did play a recording of a conversation he had with Jade that blew my mind,” said Troy. Many in the room shared glances and Xani was the next to jump in.

“What happened... in the hologram, I mean?”

“Going to ignore how you knew it was a hologram, and dive right in,” started Troy with a raised brow in Xani’s direction.

“Arson wants to create a shopping paradise. He wants to clean the entire dump of trash and change it into a place where anyone rich or poor can come and find valuable products at prices that all can afford. Yeah, crazy right? But with the dump and his literal idea to buy trash in mass quantity for exceedingly low costs, I really think he or we, I should say, can actually do it…”

Troy thought her friends would laugh. She thought she would be called crazy for believing in Arson’s plan, but she received slow nods of agreement instead. Jasmine being the only exception, but Troy had come to believe that Jasmine didn’t acknowledge anything was a reality without proof or longstanding name to support a foundation of authority.

“So what are we supposed to do to make that happen? Our operations are all small and only just starting,” said Rob in question, interest and wonder plastered across his face.

“I think we should start to not just inventory clothes like Jasmine is with Fresh Cartel, from what I saw in the hologram, Arson wants to sell absolutely everything, clothes, toys, tools, books, transportation vehicles, everything, and between the dump and junkyard, I think he could actually do it. Only problem is manpower, and funding, the manpower thing I’m at a loss with, but the funding, I think we already have in spades,” explained Troy.

“What do you mean, I know we are making good money, but its not enough to start some massive assembly line of high quality goods for sale,” asked Khalif. Troy smiled and shook her head.

“I disagree, I think we do make a decent amount, all while having next to no operating costs, Jasmine doesn’t buy clothing, or pay mana bills for running laundry machines all day, Rob doesn’t pay for ingredients, and when we asked to pay Jade back, she refuses, claiming she has more food than she will ever be able to use, but Arson even has a plan for if she ever does accept payment. Khalif is now making money by literally guarding places that make credits easily, and pay exceedingly well. As of right now, I make the least amount of money, and I plan on changing that by fighting each and every night I can to reinvest what I’m making back into our team,” Troy stated with a growing confidence. The feeling of success brewing a new Troy in the last few days, the only thing left giving her any doubt, the fact that Arson hadn’t woken up yet.

“Is that really enough though? I feel like there are so many aspects to business that we are missing,” asked Jasmine still doubtful, mostly for the same reason Troy sometimes worried they may fail, even if she wouldn’t admit that Arson’s vision for the future had also given her a new level of confidence to draw upon.

“No, but our nightly training in the dump just might be,” said Troy, pulling mana stone shards from her pocket, the handful worth a few million credits easily.

“Okay, now that carries some weight... where did you get those?” Xani asked approaching to pick at the small pile of raw stones with exceedingly high values., hoping that she may be able to use a few in her own creations. Creations that she now believed she might one day be able to sell alongside her friends at the rate things were growing all around her.

“They are everywhere, the dump is full of them, and I think that Arson was selling them to Jade to get money and her assistance for most things we needed, and now I think I will do the same, until our boss wakes up and pushes all of the things we’ve been working on into overdrive!”

…

Jasmine stood in the back of the warehouse. Her mind was a mess. Between the loss of a major contract, growing doubt that Arson would ever wake up, and a mixture of emotions at wanting to give her all to what she was now involved with, she didn’t know whether she should run back to work with Mr. Kim before everything blew up in her face, or hunker down and learn to live within the chaos of the storm that was now her life.

Jasmine tried not to dwell on the fears she had, and focus on everything she’d managed to do in mere days working for Arson. Working with a team full of her fellow orphans, orphans that now showed a belief. A belief in a boy that she was on the verge of sharing with them all.

She was completely lost in thought, over the dilemma that was being dropped by the Keeper Mr. Kim when a knock came at her door. She had to push her thoughts aside, realizing that the lack of confidence she once had in Arson she no longer held, but had maybe been redirected as a lack of confidence in her own capabilities.

Jasmine was shocked to find Rob standing in the doorway to what she felt to be the Fresh Cartel inventory room. The restored shelves she’d pulled from the dump were now filled with the continually growing catalog of vintage clothes, and Jasmine honestly hoped that she was about to be graced with another makeover request; her face crumpling at the question she was asked.

“What now?”

“I need more people to help me cook and deliver for my chefs, I was hoping you either knew people that may be interested or could help me find some?”

“I mean I guess I could. Did you ask Troy? She may be a little bit more equipped for this, I mean she helped Khalif find people in like a day?”

“I would, but she is preparing for the fight that got postponed yesterday, and I’m pretty sure she just lucked out with the fighters at her gym being interested in the body guard profession, and I guess we pay pretty well for a starting pay across the board,” Rob answered.

Jasmine nodded, looking around as she thought of where she could find people, and immediately thought of the orphanage, only to realize that Rob had already taken many of the underpaid cooks from there already. Then an idea came to her, and she ran it by the young man.

“I could run it by the laundry teams, but I’d need a favor?”

“Anything, just ask, I really need the help.”

“Print my digital catalog tag on the back of your food bags, with a small advertisement, so that our delivery teams can start to sell clothes from Fresh Cartel, and maybe even get the word out about our leader's plan to branch out and be a seller of anything he can get his hands on, I want to be able to maybe surprise Arson when he wakes up with a solid foundation for the plans he’s already laid out for us, if he wakes up that is…”

“Is that even an ask, of course I will, but I think you should have more faith in the little man, he’s tougher than you give him credit, tougher than we all give him credit,” said Rob.

“Have I really been that bad toward him up until now?” Rob shrugged.

“I haven’t been around long, but you don’t often talk very well about him when Jade isn’t around, and something tells me if he wasn’t hurt right now, you’d probably be even more aggressive in those opinions, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Many people find it hard to work for people younger than themselves, it's not just you,” said Rob with a chuckle, knowing that he himself may have been less likely to push on if the young man hadn’t worked out cooking lessons with his mother for Rob even before his accident.

“You know it wasn’t until all this that I even realized how much bull comes out of my mouth,” said Jasmine suddenly feeling ashamed of herself. She was so used to how things had been at the orphanage, that she’d lost sight of the boy she now worked for. He may once have been the butt of every joke, but now had shifted the dynamic of those around him to show him respect. An honor he’d worked for by fighting monsters in the dark, while Jasmine slept and worried over trivial matters brought on by a mundane life she never wanted to return to.

“Well, that doesn’t mean things will always be that way, just take things day by day. You're made for this, but you should recognize that Arson believed in you, and that alone is worth you showing him a little respect and maybe having some faith in him too.”

The two finished working out the phrasing for the small blurb they would use to advertise and before Jasmine knew it, she was packing clothing into spacial containers for the delivery teams to potentially make sales with. She didn’t believe the idea would work, but banished the thought, and smiled to herself.

“Just have a little faith Jazz, you got this!”

…

Xani found herself scanning books. So many books. The database she was building was filled with blueprints and would eventually be used to fix anything the young woman could potentially think of. She hoped.

“How long are we going to be scanning these blueprint books,” asked one of Xani’s assistants, and the young woman rolled her eyes, not even looking back to respond.

“Until there aren’t any books left.” She didn’t see her assistants share a look at the massive pile of books Jade had let them borrow to scan, but did hear the heavy sighs that came along with her peers' sorrow at the scanning that would be done without end. As every time they finished and Xani let Jade know, the Keeper came into their little corner of the warehouse and deposited another pile.

“Take this as the chance of a lifetime, we have never had access to this many new books, and I don’t know if you are seeing some of these designs, but many are more advanced than anything we can find or see commonly in the realm,” said Xani, looking at the designs for a robotic hand made to assist engineers when constructing projects that needed fine motor functions, and dextrous capabilities when working.

This one I may keep…

The book she looked through seemed like the schematic notebook of a mechanical genius, Xani finding herself lost in the book's every page, feeling that the devices within were made to support her every need. From utility to weaponry.

She’d seen wings that could fold inward and become an armored mantle and shoulder guard. Entire mechanized armor suits built from simple gears and advanced electrical systems that suited her air mana, and so much more. Yet she decided to focus on the simple robotic hand first as a starting point.

With a few changes I could make this a vital tool of our day to day operations.

“Now get back to work we have a lot to do, and we don’t know how many more books Jade has…!”

“Yes ma’am!”

…

Khalif had to admit to himself that he wasn’t suited for the life of a street-man. He’d tried to keep his gang out of trouble as often as possible, and even before he’d left the Scapegraces, he’d tried many avenues to make his peers see the potential of going straight.

Now, however, he knew. He couldn’t close his eyes without seeing fire and mayhem. He had to force himself to focus on the task at hand.

He and his training group were at the convenient store owned by Ms. Lisa. The convenient store named Rough n Tough Cornerstone, was currently amidst an all-out brawl that Khalif tried not to enjoy, but being in a less serious altercation than he’d experienced the day prior was a relief.

None of his people were at risk, and if they were, the danger was minimal so his semi professional team could more than handle themselves.

“Would you all like lunch? I made sandwiches...”

Ms. Lisa walked from the back of her store, as Khalif and a clone of Cole threw a young woman screaming out of the store by her hoody and britches. The young woman sailed through the air momentarily, cursing as she landed face first, also scraping her hands and knees as she landed roughly on the pavement in front of the shop.

“No thank you, Ms. Lisa,” came a chorus of voices. Khalif turned back to see more of the newly recruited guards in training from Troy’s gym both defending themselves and handing out a beat down on the gang that had stormed the shop.

Khalif saw that one of the gang members tried to lift a spray can and a lighter toward one of his trainees, and vanished. Reappearing behind the young man, sweeping his legs out from underneath him, Khalif punched the young man in the throat a blink after the young man’s head hit the ground.

“That’s enough of that,” said Khalif, slapping the makeshift flamethrower from the gangster’s hand.

“Are you sure, youngsters? They’re free, and quite delicious,” asked Ms. Lisa a second time.

“Yes, Ms. Lisa, we’re sure,” came the same chorus of voices. Khalif tied up the young man at his feet, and seeing this the rest of his trainees grabbed any and everything they could find to achieve the same on whomever they fought and eventually detained. Once done Khalif finished, he walked up to the frowning Ms. Lisa who extended the tray of sandwiches in a third attempt.

“It’s rude to decline hospitality, child. Are you sure you don’t want one?”

“I’m sorry Ms. Lisa, I’m absolutely stuffed, we are cooked for by a master chef and her apprentice three times a day,” said Khalif with a slight shake of his head.

“Believe me, I’d normally take you up on that,” added Khalif, doing his best to spare the woman’s feelings. The woman nodded and set the tray down beside herself, watching his trainees work.

After a few moments, Khalif’s attention was pulled away by a hand reaching through an adjacent aisle, quickly snatching a couple of the sandwiches before it disappeared back through the open shelving units housing various toiletries.

Khalif and Ms. Lisa both shared a look, raised eyebrows mirrored on both their faces. Ms. Lisa shrugged, but Khalif walked over to investigate.

He walked over to see two gangsters, sitting on the floor, eating the sandwiches, and frowned. Both the young man and woman looked familiar, and it didn’t take long for Khalif to recognize them from the orphanage he was raised.

“Explain?” The two both jumped, not having had seen Khalif approach, completely consumed in their meals. The young man nearly dropping his food in alarm. Khalif staring them both down.

“Umm, we just needed some extra food, man, no big deal. We just heard her say they were free,” said the young man.

“Yeah, but you both live at the orphanage don’t you, I Know momma Almarine isn’t skimping on the portions,” said Khalif, not believing the pair needed food for an instant.

“We ran away, love Momma Almarine, but she can’t save us from the adoptees that want orphans for the underground fighting arenas,” said the young woman with a mouth full of food. Khalif frowned and nodded, his mind drifting momentarily, knowing that Arson had once been adopted and used the same way.

Still I can’t let them rob my client. Maybe I can give them another option…?

“Are most of the others here in the same predicament?”

The pair nodded; the young man reaching for more sandwiches and handing another to his counterpart.

“What would you say if I told you I have a better option than running the streets, would you and the rest here be interested?”

The pair shared a look before they both nodded rapidly, looking back up at Khalif, not stopping their voracious consumption for an instant.

“What do you have in mind?” asked the young man. Khalif looked between the pair, and smiled.

“That just depends, what are you good at?”