The Vault

"I'm sorry, wait a minute, did you say you don't know who the boss is?" I asked, "We have some kind of, what, anonymous sponsor?"

"Pretty weird, right?" Allen said with a grin on his face. "But hey, free money is free money, the team is good, we've got access to contacts no one else has even heard of before all tied up in a bow with no real drawbacks. Pretty perfect, really."

It didn't sound too perfect to me, it sounded incredibly risky, and all of a sudden I was back to almost regretting joining up with the rest of the team.

"So what, this mystery guy just gathers you guys up into a group, gives you a salary, and then doesn't ask for anything in return?" I asked, none of it made any sense.

"Not quite," Lauren shouted out, I wasn't sure when she moved over to the computer but it was where she was now. "He asks us to do jobs from time to time."

"Well yeah, but most of the time we would have done them anyway, and if we ever say no he lets it go pretty easily," Greave cut in, trying to make it sound a little bit more palatable.

Considering Hypogean were well known for keeping themselves pretty low key, it didn't sound too bad. There had to be another angle somewhere deeper down, but I wouldn't find that out until I managed to speak to or meet the guy.

"Most of the time, sure," Lauren said, "But while you two were wailing on one another, the boss reached out. We've got our next job."

Greave turned sharp on the spot, and even Allen rose up slightly from where he was lying on the sofa.

"This time he wants us to rob one of the Vaults," She said dramatically.

There was silence in the room. It was like a bomb had been dropped and we were all waiting for the fallout.

The Vaults were the Community's equivalent of a bank, only instead of storing raw cash like banks in the old world would have done, these places basically stored the Community's supply of rare materials and minerals.

For a crafter like me getting access to a vault would be like a kid getting an unlimited access to the biggest sweet shop in the world.

"You've got to be kidding, right?" I asked, absolutely baffled by the statement. "I join the team and then all of a sudden your boss is pointing us directly at a Vault."

"Oh yeah, this is like definitely entirely for you," Lauren said, that classic smug smirk back on her face. "But by extension, that means it's for all of us because everything you build with that fancy tech is going to be helping us in the future. Shakes out, right?"

It shook out all too well.

I'd manage to piece together a functioning energy blaster that had the strength to knock one of the most powerful crafters down onto their butts out of what was essentially a bunch of trash, tied together with duct tape, a shoestring and a whole lot of hope.

With proper gear? There was no limit to what I'd be able to build.

"It's a pretty risky play," Greave said, "Like almost too risky. There are three big teams of heroes in the community. Who knows how many solo heroes and rogues. If we do this, we're going to get into a fight."

"Then we'll fight," Becca grunted from the entryway.

My head snapped around in an instant, my hands balled into fists against my side. Just the sound of her voice was enough to put me on edge after what she had done to me.

"We won before we had him," She said, nodding in my direction with a nasty look in her eyes.

"Well, we won because we picked the battles we took," Lauren said, she was playing devil's advocate, being partisan for partisan's sake. "If we get trapped in a vault we'll need to fight our way out. We won't have any other options."

Greave took a step toward Lauren, "Yeah, we're not going to be able to slip away if we take this fight, no matter what Allen can pull out of his hat or what Tristan can bring to the table."

He shook his head, it was obvious he didn't like this idea in the slightest. "A vault is going to have multiple layers of protection, it's probably going to be lined with Crafter tech. Even with you being able to see the past, Lauren, there's going to be a limit to how fast we can get through it all."

"I… kinda want to do it anyway?" Allen cut in, "If we take a Vault it doesn't matter what we pull from it, all of a sudden we're all that anyone's going to be talking about."

"He gets it," Becca grunted.

"What do you think, Tristan?" Lauren asked, throwing the ball into my court.

If I was honest, I'd forgotten that I had any say in what the team was going to do next. But I remember it being one of the conditions that Lauren set to my entry, I'd have an equal say just like anyone else.

If I was being even more honest, while the idea of the contents of a vault was definitely tempting, I didn't really want to do it.

If we had to take hostages, they could get hurt.

If we succeeded we'd be on the front page of the papers and considering that this whole supervillain thing was meant to be a temporary transition, I didn't want to become known for breaking into one of only three vaults in the community.

"I dunno… it seems incredibly risky and way outside of Hypogean's usual scope," I said, "I think I'm with Greave on this one."

With the groan of disdain from Becca and the roll of Allen's eyes, I knew that my decision hadn't endeared me toward either of them.

The fact remained, I was okay with the decision I'd made.