Kaleb flexed his fingers on the steering wheel of his car. He and Shaggy had been driving for a long while now and his nerves were getting to him. He was sure that the drones of Austin weren’t following him. But they still spotted a few of the metal spheres zooming around. Each time one passed too close, Kaleb would tense up. Farrah had found them a decent college to raid. It was a wizard school and one Daivor said had the magical analyzes equipment they needed. It was also a decent way out of the city.

  He tried to ignore the random heroes speeding or flying around the countryside. They were usually paired with a small fleet of drones that made Kaleb almost swerve the car. He was well outside his designated beat as far as the city was concerned. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t travel, he just couldn’t do any super hero work. Which was perfect because this was definitely not super hero work. He and Shaggy were about to break into a magical wizarding school. But it was also a private school, so Kaleb took a fuck-the-elitist stance on the people they were about to intrude on.

  Kaleb heard his passenger sigh loudly again as he took a sip of his coffee. Shaggy had been in a damn mood since they left the hangar. It probably had something to do with Claire and the others using him as a training dummy. But now they were out on a grand adventure.

  “What are you always sighing for? We are on our way to do a job that may get us some Super Serum. How can that be boring or sigh-worthy?” Kaleb asked.

  Shaggy turned his head to look out the window before he answered. “I just don’t get how a School of Magic is going to help us with chemistry. I mean, shouldn’t we find a technical school or something? Isn’t there a school for Mad Scientists?”

  “K-Tech University. It’s a stone’s throw north of Downtown Austin and we do NOT want to go there. They probably have to report everything that goes through their systems right to K-Tech. Nobody wants that.”

  “Not to mention I don’t trust that company as far as I can throw this car.” Kaleb added mentally.

  He heard Shaggy grunt low in his chest before the werewolf asked. “Okay. But how does a magic school help us then?”

  “A magic school is going to have the same facilities to help us analyze whatever is in that vial. Also, hitting one so far away from home will insulate us from any blowback we might get. The HLO is still out this way, but their grip is a little looser.”

  “You mean any blowback YOU might get? I’m a villain, remember?”

  Shaggy sounded smug as he continued to watch the countryside zip by. Kaleb practically snorted.

  “Hey, you don’t want anymore shit either, right? I mean, you’re still listed as a bounty with the HLO. So if anyone spots or scans you, we’d be in deep shit.”

  “I’d be in more trouble than you. But you don’t need to know that.”

  Shaggy finally looked away from the window and toward Kaleb. The two locked eyes before Kaleb returned his to the road.

  “Fine. Point taken. But a magic school means magic defenses. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really a pick a magic lock kind of person. In fact, I don’t normally pick regular locks. Mostly I charge my way through, grab what I want and then run away.”

  Kaleb laughed. “Let’s call that plan M and we can circle around to it when all else fails.”

  “Then what is Plan A?”

  “Plan A is we check the school’s security and we see what we can do. For all we know, we can just walk our way in and use the Magical Analyzes Lab and be done with it.”

  “So… we wing it?”

  “No. We study and confirm which actions can get us in quietly and quickly. Daivor said that the analysis should go quickly. We just have to know how we get the information. It can be transplanted into our minds, written out on runes, or even just printed out. Depends on how deep this school is into its magical theming.”

  “Wait. So I could have some weird Super formula jammed into my head?”

  Kaleb tried to remember what Daivor had told him about memory-invasive magic. Supposedly, the magic could imprint the formula or whatever right onto their minds. But they could only hold on to that information for so long. The more mentally gifted could hold the information longer. Otherwise, people would feel the information drain from their mind. But Daivor had assured him they’d at least be able to write things down. Kaleb covered the time he spent thinking with a long sip from his travel mug.

  “Yeah. Honestly, that would be the quickest way. Although retention could be tricky.”

  “Tricky how?”

  Kaleb winced. “Well, you might not be able to keep it for very long.”

  “So it’s fucking useless for me?”

  “Naw, at worst you can quickly write down the formula while it’s in your mind. I could do it too, if you’re not fast enough.”

  “Joy.”

  He heard Shaggy go dead quiet again, and Kaleb subtly sped up. The sooner they got to the school, the less awkward questions he would have to answer. The shaggy-haired man went back to looking out the window, and Kaleb kept his eyes on the road ahead of him. He was pretty sure their destination was close. He just needed to find the side road that lead to the main campus. Apparently, the dorms were also within the school’s walls, but if everything went well, they wouldn’t have to deal with them.

  “What do you think that’s about?” Shaggy’s voice Dragged Kaleb’s eyes away from the street.

  Shaggy was pointing out his window at a crazy situation. A green speedster was trying to put out an on fire train while several other supers fought off some villains. Apparently, the villains had attacked the train mid-transit and were trying to get onboard to steal something. Kaleb shrugged his shoulders and returned his gaze to his driving.

  “No idea. Train heist probably. Could be K-Tech, the HLO, or any number of other companies out here. I’d bet the Supes are players, though.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Any other Supe team would’ve sent out for more help by now. Players are a little more cagey about someone taking their credit.”

  “Is that why you haven’t helped?”

  Kaleb snorted. “Please. I’m Persona non grata with the HLO right now. They wouldn’t want my help, even if they were on fire. Especially now that I’ve set up my own Super-Group in their backyard.”

  “Not big on sharing?” Shaggy chuckled.

  “Assholes would be a better way to put it. But what the hell, I bucked the system and I’m still having fun.”

  “All that matters.” Shaggy nodded and went silent again.

  Kaleb nodded to himself as the streets grew dark. The sun was setting and there were very few streetlights on this road. Eventually, he had to get by with his night vision and the car’s headlights. It wasn’t horrible, but the flashes of light from the flying traffic made it hard to see the mile markers. He knew the one he needed was coming up, though.

  He and Shaggy rode in silence for a few more miles before Kaleb finally spotted their exit. Unfortunately, some jackass in a flying car had tried for a manual landing up the road from them. Which meant that the police were already waiting for the guy. The skylanes were heavily monitored and any deviation would send an immediate signal to the closest police department. Kaleb could already hear the drones in the sky. He informed Shaggy that their turn was coming up before quickly taking them onto the dirt road.

  Kaleb felt Shaggy tense next to him and glanced at the Player. For some reason, Shaggy seemed highly suspicious of him. Probably had something to do with the dark back roads and the creepy ambiance overall. He laughed at his passenger.

  “Calm down, dude. Why the hell would I plan something all the way out here?”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Shaggy seemed to think about his words before the tension left his shoulders. Kaleb suppressed another laugh as he slowly wound his car toward their destination. The grass was almost as tall as his car now, and Kaleb couldn’t see the school yet. But according to Farrah’s data, it was supposedly out here. It was another minute before the massive school made itself known. Farrah had told him that this place was funded by some of the wealthiest in Texas, but he didn’t fully appreciate that until he saw the massive buildings.

  Kaleb could fill Shaggy’s eyes on him as the werewolf asked. “How the hell did you find this place?”

  “Daivor and I were looking up places and we found this one. It’s a private school, so it’s bound to have the stuff we want. Its seclusion also makes it better for us if we have to go loud.” Kaleb answered, keeping Farrah’s name out of his mouth.

  Shaggy had been kept away from the SG’s command center, and there was no way Kaleb was going to point out his guild’s secret weapon. Farrah was a force unto herself. Not to mention an actual player that Shaggy could probably sniff out if they weren’t careful. In fact, Kaleb was surprised no one in his SG had worked it out yet.

  “I thought the plan was to not go loud.” Shaggy asked, pulling Kaleb from his thoughts.

  “Always plan for the plan to go wrong, Shaggy.”

  “Fair point. So what do we do?”

  Kaleb grinned. “Well, I’m going to go say hello.”

  He slowed the car down even more as it approached the front gate of the school. Kaleb’s teeth nearly rattled out of his head at all the magic in the air. He knew something was up about the school. But first he needed information, and who better to get it from than a late night guard? He tried to remember the geography of the game as well as Texas in real life. The name of a famous campsite hit just as he rolled down his window and stuck his head out.

  “Excuse me! Anyone!? We’re lost! Can someone come out and explain how we get to Canyon Lake from here?”

  A rough voice called back out from the guard shack. “Canyon Lake?! You mean Canyon Crater?!”

  The voice’s owner stuck his head out of the shack and looked at Kaleb’s car. He was a wizard in brown robes and Kaleb could almost feel the magic pouring off of the guy. The wizard was juiced up somehow, but Kaleb kept his cool as he got ready to act like a lost driver.

  “You’re a little too far south for the crater, boys. But it’s no trouble. You just have to back out and continue down the road going west, then turn north.”

  Kaleb tried to laugh convincingly. “Hahaha! I thought I’d done that. What is this place, anyway? Looks like a mansion.”

  The brown-robed wizard guard humphed. “It is the Pertree Shortop Private school of Wizardry. Where the rich and elite send their little ragamuffins.”

  “A private school? All the way out here? What the hell? I thought all the Wizards went to the big colleges in Houston and Austin.”

  “Oh sure, they send their first borne and the special cases. But the dregs get farmed out to these ELITE schools, y’know. Somewhere to hide the odd bastard or the daughter with only low talent. Don’t let that fool you, though. They are all a bunch of snobs.”

  “HA!” Kaleb slapped the wheel of his car as he maneuvered it to turn around. The guard’s words echoed what Farrah had told him about the place. “Well, we’ll let you get on with your night. We wanted to get to a campsite around the crater.”

  “Understandable. All these new Supes have been rushing toward the place. Looking to mine some random bit of ore from the crater.”

  Kaleb slowed the car at those words. “So you’ve had more visitors out this way?”

  “Not so much visitors. But we had a few dumbasses run straight into the school’s barrier. Even had a damn flying car careen right into the thing. Dumb asshole, shut off his guiding computer.”

  Kaleb nodded slowly and filed that info away for later. “You have a good night, sir. Bye.”

  “Drive safely!” The guard said as he headed back into his little shack.

  “So that was useful.” Shaggy grumbled from his seat.

  Looking over, Kaleb saw that the villain player was pretending to be asleep in the passenger seat. He had cracked an eyeball to glare at Kaleb.

  “Just that last bit about the school’s barrier. But that shouldn’t be an issue.”

  “So we doing this?”

  “Oh yeah, hang on to your seat.”

  Kaleb double-checked that they were a suitable distance from the front gate before he turned his car into the tall grass. The metal body of his vehicle cut through the tall reed easily and Kaleb went in for a short distance before stopping. There was no sense in getting stuck in the dark. He put the car in park and shut it off before checking his weapons and gadgets. He didn’t bring anything too dangerous. But he wanted thought he was well prepared. Once Shaggy was done doing the same, they both exited the car and duck-walked through the tall grass.

  For some reason, Kaleb took the lead and stumbled his way through the dark. Again, he had left home without a damn flashlight. The thought of leaving one in his car for times like this struck him, and he wanted to scream in rage. But instead he just fumbled forward with his hand leading the way. Just in case he hit something. No sooner did he put his hand out that he quickly pulled it back in. Something sticky had hit his hands and fingers. He was in the middle of pulling it off when Shaggy asked.

  “Is it a trap?”

  “What? No. It’s a spider-web. I just stuck my hand in it. There shouldn’t be any traps until we reach the fence.”

  “Then what the hell do you have your hand out for?”

  “So I don’t bump into anything! It’s dark as fuck out here.”

  Kaleb heard the werewolf sigh, and he suppressed his own noise of annoyance. The damn player could probably see in the dark. But instead, he was having Kaleb move out in front. Probably in case shit went wrong. All sorts of negative thoughts hit Kaleb’s mind as he stumbled forward. All he could do was hope that the fence around the school was nearby. He stumbled into another spider web when he thought about using his magic vision. But by that point, the top of the wrought-iron fence was already visible.

  Kaleb suffused his eyes with magic anyway and tried to study the gate and the school. Swirls of rainbow-colored magic soared around everything at the school: the buildings, the fence, the lights. Even the damn cobbled pathways had some runic script written on them. He could see arcs of magical energy traveling down the wrought-iron fence. If they got too close, the magic would snap at them like electricity.

  Kaleb whistled to himself. “Talk about ‘lit up like a Christmas tree.’ There’s a shit ton of protection around the fence.”

  “So we’re fucked?”

  “Huh? Oh no, not at all. I just mean, it’s freaking crazy how far some people will go to protect themselves. I mean, some of these are redundant spells placed to over each other. It’s ridiculous.”

  “But you can get us in, right?”

  Kaleb grinned as a thought struck him. If the fence was acting like a magical electrified fence, then all he need to do was interrupt the flow. He gave Shaggy a nod as he reached down to his robotic arm and pulled one of his rail spikes free. Shaggy made a weird hissing noise at the sight of the weapon, but Kaleb ignored him. Instead, he focused his magic onto the spike and imagined what he wanted it to do. He needed it to act like a magical lightning rod for a short amount of time.

  He felt his mana suffuse the spike, and Kaleb poured as much power as he could into the slim bit of metal. Once he was done, Kaleb gripped the spike in his hands and looked up at the iron fence.

  “Sure, hope this works.” Kaleb whispered to himself before he dashed forward.

  He needed to get into the range of the defenses before he planted the spike into the ground. He felt a wave of magic hit him and immediately dropped to his knees, plating the spike into the ground. Jumping back quickly, he turned his magic vision back on and sighed in relief. The magical energy feeding the fence was now being attracted to the spike. But his spell on the spike was quickly eroding.

  “We’re good. Go fast!” Kaleb whispered urgently.

  Shaggy bolted through the fence like a shot, and Kaleb quickly followed him. The two put their backs to the dorm building and Kaleb brought up his thermal imager. It had taken some work to get the damn thing back to working order, but Kaleb had assumed he would need it for tonight. He was quickly proven right as soon as he brought it up, a red dot formed on the imager. A guard was walking in front of the dorm building, probably on patrol. Kaleb waited until he was sure the guard was heading their way before he warned Shaggy.

  “Incoming.” He hissed.

  Kaleb reached for his pockets as Shaggy started looking around. It occurred to Kaleb that he hadn’t specified a direction. But the guard’s flashlight was already shining down the walkway. Judging by the size, the guy was getting closer. Shaggy leapt to get closer to the edge of the wall and raised his hand menacingly. Kaleb fumbled in his pocket, trying to quickly grab what he wanted. He didn’t think Shaggy was going to kill the guard, but the last thing they needed were bodies.

  Kaleb pulled a taser-egg just as the patrolling guard passed the corner of their building. With little time to aim, Kaleb threw his egg and watched as it hit the guard in the side and sprung to life. The guard immediately seized up and started to fall. Between Kaleb and Shaggy, they caught the guy and set him down safely. Kaleb quickly checked that the man was okay before collecting his used up gadget. Then he moved the big guard deeper into the shadows while Shaggy watched him appreciatively.

  “Geez, Prof. You’re weirdly good at this.”

  Kaleb dug through the guard’s pants, finding a strange keycard. It was at odds with the magical nature of the rest of the campus. But Kaleb shrugged it off as he answered his partner. “We all have skills, Shaggy. I’m sure you’ll show off your own later.”

  “Funny. You think that card will get us inside?”

  “Yes, but we also need to find the Analysis Lab.”

  Shaggy grinned. “Well, lead the way, Professor. It’s your show.”

  Kaleb couldn’t keep his own grin off his face. “Follow along, Shaggy. You might learn something.”