I walk out of the shop and into my bedroom with a skip in my step.

I don’t have to go to school tomorrow!

Well, technically I do. But I’m skipping. After all, I have an egyptian exhibit to defend from super-villains. Which is mildly more important than school.

Just don’t tell my parents I said that.

I walk to my sisters room, and knock on her door.

Elizabeth opens the door just a fraction to look out, when she sees that it is me she opens her door the rest of the way. “What is it Elly?”

“I forgot to mention it to you earlier, but I got you a present.” I take the necklace with the figurine of a phoenix out of my inventory in a way that she won’t notice. “This cost me a lot of money,” I say undoing the clasp and kneeling down in front of her. “So I want you to wear it everywhere you go, and don’t you dare break it.” I put the necklace around her neck, reclasping it.

She holds the phoenix up so that she can see it. “It… It’s beautiful Elly.” she gulps, ducking her head so that I can’t see her expression. “Why all of a sudden?” She asks quietly tracing the figurine with her other hand.

I pause, not expecting the emotional response from my sister. “It’s a charm. In case you ever get into any kind of trouble.”

She wipes her eye quickly with one hand, brushing away a tear that had been forming. “Mom’s growing on you Elly. You’re usually not the superstitious one.”

“Yeah, well, times are changing.” I say, pulling my sister into a hug. I should’ve known that something was wrong from the way she was acting earlier.

After a moment, she pushes me away forcing me to end the hug. She smiles brightly at me, trying to hide the tears that had been in her eyes a second ago.

I kiss her forehead. “See you wednesday Sunshine.”

She laughs, “I’ll see you before that. We do live in the same house after all.”

After giving Elizabeth the defensive necklace, I return to my room.

I call Sheyla’s book from my inventory. I’m tired of getting stabbed or kicked to death, it’s about time I come up with something a little more deadly.

The Root Chakra, my connection with the earth, survival, life and death.

“Sheyla’s book, tell me a spell for leaching the life out of someone through touch.” I flip the book open to random page.

Lifesteal: Spell, Upon activation, drains the life of someone at a rate of 100HP/Sec. Requires Touch. Restores 100Hp/Sec to user. Can be channeled through clothing or compatible weapons.

Cost: 20Psi/Sec

I glance at my own HP, which currently stands at 280. Three seconds, that would be all it would take to end someone’s life.

I sigh as I sit down on my bed.

I might have to kill someone tomorrow.

Jesus.

Shaking my head, I focus back on the spell. Time to learn something new I guess.

At least I get to be a superhero.

Hah.

***

I meet everyone downtown a street away from the exhibit early the next morning. It’s raining again. Oh joy.

Rose has hers and the boys’ masks stored in her inventory. She also tells the boys that she can give them their guns when we are in the building.

The security guard checks us at the gate, but we have nothing incriminating on us so we pass through easily, giving our tickets to them as we pass through.

“So what now?” Blake whispers as we walk through the exhibit. I notice him looking askance at every person we pass by.

I shrug “These are ancient egyptian artifacts. You might want to actually take the chance to study them.” I motion towards the chariot we happen to be looking at.

“You know what I mean.” Blake mutters.

“Why are there so few people?” Damien asks, glancing around us. Only ten or so people are in the large building with us.

I look at Rose questioningly, not knowing the answer myself.

“Well, the public viewing of the exhibit doesn’t happen till tomorrow.” Rose answers. “But that would be too late considering that we know they are going to attack today. So I got us tickets to the more private viewing.” She motions with her hand to the people around us. “Everyone in here right now, is incredibly rich. I had to call in a few favors from my dad to get these tickets.”

“Um. So, I hate to be that guy, but how are masks going to protect our identity?” Damien asks quietly, “There are tons of cameras in here, they had to see us enter and it won’t be too hard to figure out who the four teenagers wearing masks are, when there aren’t any other teenagers in the room.”

I frown as I respond. “I wasn’t expecting this to be a private event. When I looked it up online, it talked about how people came flocking to the egyptian exhibit in droves. I assumed we would just blend in….” I pause in thought, then nod as an idea comes to me. “You three should leave.”

“What-?”, “Huh-?” “Wait-” They all start speaking at the same time, but I interrupt them.

“I have a mask that guarantees my identity stays a secret, so I can put it on and even the cameras won’t recognize me.” probably. “So I’ll wait in here for the bad guys to show up, then when they do, I’ll message you by phone to come in with your masks on.”

None of them look happy at my suggestion, but after some convincing, they all agree. It is the only option we have if we don’t want to give up altogether.

Once they leave, I walk to the bathroom. When I’m in there, I change out of my skirt and into some shorts and a hoodie. Then I put my mask on.

When I walk out, no one pays me any mind.

So I play the waiting game.

At one point, a female attendant walks over to me. “Excuse me miss? We don’t like people to wear masks in here.”

I pull a hundred dollar bill from my inventory, -thank you Doss- and place it in the attendant's front pocket. “Can you please ignore it this once? I don’t like showing my face in public. Adoring fans and all that.”

I think I play the part of a famous rich person quite well. I have the crazy and eccentric bit down already.

The attendant nods at me, “Of course we understand. We wouldn’t want to offend a… big donor to the museum.”

“Exactly.” I say smiling.

I hope the museum doesn’t blame the poor woman. One hundred dollars is quite a tip, and I appear to be a harmless teenage girl with lots of money.

I wait around for another hour or so, before two other Beta Testers Walk in. They aren’t exactly subtle, as the security guard from earlier is flung into the room. One of them hovers in the air with a shotgun resting on his shoulder, while the second walks confidently into the room, black smoke pools off of a sheathed dagger at his waist. Both of them have ski masks covering their faces.

They’re here. Join the party . I text in the group chat, before putting the phone away into my inventory.

The guy floating in the air shoots his shotgun into the ceiling, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room, if they hadn’t already noticed the flying security guard. “All right everyone, we’re going to make this quick. Get into the center of the room and we’ll be done in a few minutes.”

Everyone hurries to the center of the room, right in front of the Egyptian Chariot we had been looking at earlier.

I consider things for a moment.

I really should have thought through this situation more. I have to guard the hostages and deal with two Beta Testers.

Oh well. This is going to be fun.

“[Defence Of The Earth]” I cast, causing the earth to rise up around the hostages in a protective dome.

“Eep.” I hear to my left, I look out of the corner of my eye to see the same attendant I had tipped earlier laying behind a pedestal, outside of my protective dome.

Well shit. Please don’t show yourself and get yourself killed.

The other two Beta Testers turn towards me in surprise.

“Well hey there fellas. Fancy meeting you guys here.” I say, smiling at the both of them.

“What the hell are you doing here?” The man with the shotgun says, his gun dropping slightly as he takes me in.

“Would you believe me if I told you it was a coincidence? I’m a believable person right?” I ask sincerely.

“What the fuck are you trying to pull?” The Shotgun dude asks.

“She’s stalling, shoot her.” The one with the dagger says in a feminine voice.

“I wasn’t stalling. But that’s a pretty good idea.” I respond, my voice still friendly.

The Dude brings his shotgun up to shoot me.

“[Unmatchable Speed]” I cast, dodging to the side as he shoots.

A hole the size of a small car blasts out from the wall behind where I was.

A gasp of surprise escapes the attendant, the two Beta Testers look towards the sound.

“[Enhance Speed]” I cast my only mana spell. Hurriedly, I get up and close the distance between the Beta Testers and me, not giving them a chance to focus on the attendant. The woman with the dagger meets me.

I crouch under her dagger as she swings at me, punching out into her stomach. I twist my psi into the right spell formation to cast Force Of Many Blades, as I punch. She stumbles back as a large slash cuts through her skin where I hit her.

When she stumbles back, I find myself staring into the barrel of a shotgun. Shit I think to myself as I bring my gloves up in front of me.

The force of the blast throws me into the wall a few inches away from the hole he had made with his previous blast.

I groan in pain as my gloves work to heal the damage done to me.

Before they can finish, the woman throws her dagger at me. It moves almost too fast for me to dodge, so I brace for impact with my gloves.

Right before it hits me, another blade zooms in front of the dark dagger, expanding into a stone shield.

I watch as the dark dagger punctures half way through the shield, then two gunshots ring out. I walk out from behind the shield, looking at the two Beta Testers now dead on the floor.

“It took you guys long enough.” I say to the three people walking into the room.

“Sorry... we got held up by their friend outside.” Rose says, breathing heavily and looking a little bedraggled.

I look towards the attendant and the giant earth dome in the center of the room. With a wave of my hand, the dome returns to the earth, showing twenty panicking individuals.

“Are you alright?” I ask the attendant, who just stares at me in shock. “I’ll take that as a yes. Just so you know, when the police ask who the heroes were that protected you and the museum, tell them it was The Paladin.” I pat my own chest, “The Dagger,” I point to Rose, “And sidekicks one and two.” I point to the boys who are wearing their crow masks.

Everyone just stares at me mutely.

“Toodaloo.” I say, waving goodbye to everyone and walking out of the building. My friends follow me.

Once we are out of vision of any cameras or people, we take off our masks and change into different clothes.

Quest: Protect The Treasures of Tut.

Quest Giver: Isis Status: Completed Experience and God Statue (Artifact) granted to all Beta Testers involved