Mickey watched as the paramilitaries skulked into the dungeon.

Now let’s see if you’re as dumb as I think you are.

As soon as they entered, the Brigade spotted the glowing orb that made the entry pillar. Without hesitation, the sleeveless meta pulled a pry bar from the webbing of another mercenary and approached the pillar. He slammed the point into the area where the orb met the stone and the whole thing exploded violently, tearing the top half of the man to shreds. As the half dozen paramilitaries by the entry flinched away from the explosion, the torso and head of the ringleader reformed out of fire.

Damn. That’s one hell of a power. Top tier fire transformation. He would have kicked my arse if he started a fight outside. Good thing i have the advantage in here.

While the paramilitaries were still reeling from the explosion, Mickey warped himself into a slightly darker corner. After twisting space around him to divert any attacks, he stepped into the light, pretending he had been hidden there all along.

‘Oh boy, that went well. What did you think was going to happen?’ Mickey asked.

The pyrokinetic smiled before unleashing a wave of flame at Mickey. Unconcerned Mickey watched the fire slide off to the right side before the pyro attempted to correct shifting the flames to the left. Due to Mickey’s meddling in the fabric of local space-time this failed to have the desired effect of reducing the dimensional meta to as.

After observing the pyrokinetics attempts calmly, Mickey said in a monotone over the roar of flame,

‘Hey now no need to get all fired up. Don’t be so hot headed.’

The fire manipulator paused with a disgusted look on his face.

As Mickey gradually turned the gravity of the room sideways he continued,

‘You gotta cool off before you burn out and become washed up.’

The Black Wolf Brigade raiders noticed the room seeming to tilt and one of the more skittish members broke ranks to flee through the portal. This quickly ceased to be an option for most of the mercenaries as the dungeon master warped and shifted the metaregion to direct the small river into the room, sweeping the rank and file mercs as well as the pyro into the wall.

‘Man you guys are really out of your depth here. Up the creek without a paddle.’ Mickey thought for a moment before adding,

‘Another water pun. I mean, even after I forbid you from entering, here you are. Was it everything you hoped for?’

The pyrokinetic paramilitary glared at Mickey from what was effectively a sheer faced pit filled with chest high water.

‘You aren’t supposed to be this powerful. You’re only a level one.’ He said, angrily.

‘Aahh well, you know those things are a bit unreliable. Now the question is, what the hell do I do with you lot?’

Mickey paused for dramatic effect.

‘Now as I see it I have two big options. I can let you leave or i can keep you here until you die. However long that takes.’

‘You can’t keep us here! That’s false imprisonment!’ One of the mercs shouted.

‘Au contraire, This is a metaregion. An extralegal territory. There is no law here except for the law of the jungle. Might makes right. And in this place the mightiest things are me and the metaregion itself. And you darling children managed to piss us both off. And you know what? The only way you can leave is if you agree to my conditions. And my conditions are as cruel as they ae unusual. If you do agree I’ll let one of you leave with a phone so you can call the cops to come arrest your silly arses. And if the police don’t show up I’ll keep you here until they do.’

As the corporate soldiers argue amongst themselves, Mickey observed the single meta scowl as they tried and failed to burn their way out of the trap. As they heated up the water mickey cycled in fresh cold water keeping the pyrokinetics powers suppressed. It helped to keep Mickey distracted from the unnerving discomfort of the broken anchor.

While they were still arguing Mickey felt a shock run through the dungeon as Captain Amazing, leader of the Brisbane Bastions stalked through the portal.

She took in the arguing mercs in a glance before turning to Mickey.

‘Goddamn it, Cargo. You don’t make anything simple do you?’ Said Captain Amazing.

‘Aahh, come on Cap’ I wouldn’t want to bore you.’

Said Mickey while concealing how much pressure Captain Amazing put on the metaregion.

Note to self: Powerful meta’s strain the dungeon.

With a casual wave of her hand, the paramilitaries started floating towards the portal one by one.

‘Aww I put minimal effort into catching those idiots, Cap’n. ’ Mickey said.

‘You know that if I don’t wreck their bottom line enough they’ll try this again.’

‘And what, exactly, were you intending on doing with them, Cargo?’

‘Well I figured if I stripped ‘em nude and sent them to the cops they’d have to fight indecency charges as well as the trespassing charges. Plus the company would be down the cost of their equipment. Equipment which I could the keep. Can always use more guns.’ Mickey shrugged.

Amazing placed her finger and thumb on her cheekbones and sighed.

‘And somehow, you don’t think that could cause problems.’

Mickey shrugged again.

‘Probably not. It’s an extralegal terri-‘

‘That won’t stop the lawyers from half a dozen groups from ripping you to pieces! It just means they’ll have to jump through more hoops to get to you. That’s ignoring the shit the True Humanity League would throw. Look, Just let me deal with this in a way that involves the least amount of lawyers. You go home an make up with your girlfriend. She’s making everyone at base miserable with her constant moping.’

Captain Amazing telekinetically floated the last of the PMC’s through the portal, carefully keeping the pyrokinetic in a bubble of water. With final nod at Mickey she left the region.

Mickey considered what he needed to get done before going home and dealing with the living storm that was Eleanor. Only two tasks stood out. First he pushed all the accumulated energy into the third level to nourish the plants. Next with a terrible wrench Mickey replaced the Entry Pillar anchor. While it was the smallest of anchors it was also the first and replacing it was like playing inverted pyramid jenga with his soul.

Thirdly he had some paperwork that would hopefully take all...

Mickey realised that he was procrastinating. He also realised that somebody had to take the first steps to mending the strained relationship, because clearly trying to out stubborn Elly wasn’t working.

That meant the real third thing was to figure out how to gracefully backtrack and apologise on weeklong argument without making it worse.

Goddammit, those Mercs could of kept me busy all night.