Layla laid sprawled out on her mattress. One leg hanging off the edge like she had crawled to bed but had only managed three limbs before giving up.

A familiar voice came from outside her door. "Ohhh LAYLA!"

"Noouhhh," came Layla's reply as she moved her head under her pillow in an attempt to shut out the voice.

"OHHH LAYLA! Wake up Layla dearest!"

"Ooo to ellll," said the pillow.

"I'm making sausages," said the voice in a melodic offer.

The pillow lowered from her head, she considered the voice's offer. She did love herself some sausages.

"What kind of sausages?"

"Spicy"

A mix of sage and spicy peppers hit Layla's olfactory senses causing her mouth to water. Rolling off her mattress and standing, Layla realized she was still in her clothes from the night before. She had been completely wiped out when they returned. Falling asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Shrugging out of the dark cloak, she followed the seductive smells of breakfast. She found Jogen standing over the stove. He moved a metal spatula back and forth in a pan full of tiny circular browning links of goodness.

He turned around and smiled at the sounds of her shuffling zombie gait. Layla was not a morning person. Never mind that the time on her wrist unit had told her it was almost evening.

Layla plopped down into a chair at their makeshift dining room table. The two had constructed it out of crate slats they had found tossed out by a local store owner. The table and the visible ventilation gave the apartment an industrial vibe. If she was honest, though, it was more that the place was unfinished than purposefully designed. She didn't mind. It was their home.

Looking over at the counter, Jogen was gazing at the holo display transfixed. His fists clenched around the spatula-like he was going to use the cooking utensil as a weapon. Ready to swing the thing in what she could only assume was mock combat.

Focusing on what he was watching, she could make out two figures standing on a field of raised octagonal pillars of all different shapes and sizes. She recognized the scene immediately as a circuit battlefield.

It must be a pre-season exhibition match for the Ascendant Academy Circuit.

The AAC is where different academies throughout the planes send their promising students to hone their skill in combat, at least that was what they officially claim. From what Layla could tell, it wasn't just for practice, prestige, or even bragging rights. No, it was all about the credits.

The recruitment of promising students for AAC teams was a savage and corrupt affair. No regulations prevent rival academic institutions from poaching rising stars away from each other. Combatants are often lured away by the highest bidder. Assassinations are not unheard of either. When you live on an ascendant plane, might makes right. The Mantles, gods, guardians of the planes, or whatever you want to call them, only intervene when specific rules are broken. Assassinations of AAC fighters didn't seem to make their list Layla assumed. Despite the dangers of the AAC, just making the cut to be on a team could set you up for life. So needless to say, it was the most-watched sport of all the planes.

The two fighters blurred away, shattering the pillars they started on. Dust and debris flying to the right of the area. The fighters paralleled each other through the stone octagonal forest. Brief clashes of extreme violence happening in the middle as the two came together and separated like a river stone being skipped across a pond. The impacts giving off visible shockwaves.

The sound of a plate of sausage and eggs clattering in front of her dispelling Layla's singular focus of the battle taking place on the holo display. Jogen made a movement at his wrist, and the holo paused. He had funny rules about not watching the holo tube when they were eating at the table together.

"Sleep well Breezy?" Said Jogen as he grabbed some forks from the bin and made his way back to the table.

"Like the dead. You?" She said with a mouth full of spicy goodness.

"Not really. I got to thinking last night."

"Planes save us." Layla groaned.

"I'm serious Breezy. Hear me out."

Layla looked at him suspiciously, "Okay, and what pray tell could you possibly be thinking about that would keep you awake all night?"

"I think we should leave. Like, leave Golar."

Layla stuck another bite of sausage in her mouth and replied in an exasperated manner, "Twitch, that's always been the plan." A plan that the two had continuously fantasized about for years but never followed through. It was always 'after this job' or 'we need to do this first. Then as time went on, they became more entrenched. An apartment then bills etc.

"We should leave today. Immediately, in fact." Jogen's voice was as serious as she had ever heard it.

That gave her pause. Leave immediately. Why would they leave immediately? Did something happen? This feels sketchy. Layla felt like he was up to something.

"Before you start hitting me with a hundred questions, I have many reasons for wanting to leave now. First and foremost being that we should be able to with the money that was offered for the necklace. I scanned an image of it and sent it to our fence."

The fence was the person that sold their ill gotten goods. They took a cut off the sale but they also found buyers. It was a good trade off. The duo had learned early on that selling stolen items yourself only put you at risk of being tracked down. Having a fence gave the two enough security to live in one place.

Layla continued to stuff her face but gave Jogen a twirl of her finger to signal him to get on with it.

"That necklace is very valuable. Too valuable in fact. We need to get rid of it. I regret even sending feelers out about it now." Jogen's face gave off a clear picture of worry.

Layla didn't like anything that he was saying. She cursed herself for looking for something in that damn room. She knew it was trouble. The holo slate was bad enough, but they never planned to tell anyone about that.

"How much money are we talking about here?"

"Three hundred thousand credits"

Layla started choking on the bite of eggs she had just put in her mouth. A mixture of joy and fear shooting through her like a bolt of electricity. He was right. That was way too much money for an ordinary piece of jewelry. They needed to get rid of the thing immediately because there is no way something that valuable would be safe to keep.

"Can those feelers be traced back to us?"

"I took all the precautions but there are ways to find us given enough effort. That's all the more reason that we should take the money and go. Look Breezy, that's enough money to get us to the Origin plane and get you into an Ascendent Academy," said Jogen with excitement.

"Jogen, we have talked about this. I'm not going to an Academy without you."

"Breezy, I have almost zero academic skill. If you hadn't known how to read and forced me to learn, I doubt I would have. You on the other hand are intelligent, innately curious, and enjoy learning. Your mind is wasted here on the streets. Scamming and stealing for next month's rent. It's just not what you are meant to do. But I'm not going to fight with you about it right now. Just think on it. Our main priority is getting that necklace to the drop point in an hour. Then booking passage out of this city or this plane."

Layla was nervous at the prospect of leaving. They had never left this city before, much less a different plane. She didn’t think she was from this planet. Her skin color was way too pale and her eyes light a blue with golden sunbursts around her pupils giving them the appearance of a blue sky during a solar eclipse. Jogen by contrast was dark skinned with honey brown eyes. Much taller than her with a natural athletic build. That wasn’t to say Layla was short. She wasn’t. The natives of Golar were all very tall dark skinned light brown eye people with white hair. Layla’s natural hair color was blue with shocks of red highlights. She hadn’t seen it in a long time. One of the first things they had stolen and traded for when Jogen first found her was a device that bleached her hair white like the locals. It was supposed to be permanent but her hair seemed resistant to the device after a few months.

"I can agree with the last part at least. Let me grab my pack and throw some things in it. I suppose you are already ready?" said Layla as she pushed away from her now empty plate.

"Of course, males don't take forever. But you know what they say about women." Jogen said with an exaggerated sigh.

Flicking him off, Layla rushed back to her bedroom. Aside from her tinkerings, the two lived very spartan. The chance of the very predicament they were currently in being a constant threat. You couldn't steal things and not expect to eventually run into the kind of trouble that required you to leave quickly.

Moving through the doorway, Layla scanned her room taking mental account of what could stay and what had to come with her. She spied a white charging cord peeking out of her cloak. Remembering the old tablet from the night before, Layla decided she had time to see if the thing worked. If it didn't come on, then she was leaving the damn thing. She still wasn't sure how the thing had gotten inside her cloak to begin with.

Laying down on her bed, Layla connected the charger cord to the tablet's bottom and stuck it into the port on the wall. Hitting the power button, she waited for the item to boot up. A flash of light infused her eyes, and the tablet transformed into a top of the line Holo-Argonaut Computational Kraken wrist unit, or HACK unit for short.

The thing could literally do anything, access anything, and lay waste to anything digital. It cost trillions of credits, supposedly, but Layla had thought the damn thing was a myth. A god key, some called it. She had dreamed of this thing for years. Ever since she had found a thread on it in the forums. Someone had claimed to have had one, but she thought they had lied. She could physically feel her credit account soaring as she stared down at her wrist in awe.

"Ho-oh oh, we hit it big this time, baby. Ya gurl about to be rich!"

Layla slapped the thing on her wrist, and it sealed shut automatically. The holo function of the HACK lit up, and the area around her bedroom changed to a solid white room. A data terminal sat neatly in the center. Used to the immersive holo tech, she reached out with a hand and made a pulling motion towards the terminal. The terrain shifted, and the terminal sat in front of her.

There was only one file on the desktop of the terminal, so she opened it up. A single tome lay inside the folder. She tapped it then made another pulling motion to pull the book out of the folder and into her waiting hands. The white room disappeared, and a black and red book lay heavy in her hands.

"What the fu… what just happened. Is this thing real? How…" Layla trailed off as she read the cover. In golden and red metallic outlined letters, the book's title read, "Get Rich Quick: A Complete Guide by Atom."

Who the heck is Atom?

She panicked for a second and looked at her wrist where the HACK had attached itself. Sighing in relief that the thing didn't disappear after that little magic trick. Layla considered the book as she opened it to the first page. It started glowing and then warmed to the touch.

Like any normal person, Layla panicked and chunked that bitch across the room. The book hit her bedroom wall and fell flat. The light didn't go away. If anything, it increased in intensity, but she stopped being afraid of the light for some unknown reason. Its glow suffusing her. She felt its warm and loving embrace surround her. Thoughts of a full belly and all her troubles pushed away to future her to worry about. She got up and retrieved the glowing thing.

When she laid her hand on the tome, she just knew. Floods of knowledge rushed into her mind. All the scams in all the planes, even future scams planned she could capitalize on and how. Blackmail 101, high-value theft for dummies, and on and on. Every dastardly deed that involved short-cuts, hacking, to insurance fraud. A tremendous amount of knowledge on how to procrastinate and get by.

At the very top of the list and most highly valued was the book's namesake scheme. The knowledge she just gained told her that she should now be able to read the book. She opened it and read the text aloud.

"Get Rich Quick Chapter 1: Religion."

She poured through the pages one after another as it explained how to organize the church of Atom. The benefits and expected monetary returns that could be expected for her if she only just stood up on a podium and said words with passion out of this book.

"Twitch!" Layla screamed.

Moments later, Jogen came barreling into her room, fists raised for battle. He scanned the room, and when he didn't see anything, he kicked Layla's bed, causing her to pull her legs out of his reach.

"Mantles shit Layla. I thought you were being attacked. Don't do that!" he snarled at her. Attempting to kick her in the thigh, Layla rolled away.

"Jogen you frog my leg again and I swear I'll punch you in the sac."

"Just try it and I'll put so many bruises on your legs that you will look like the dirty hooker you are." Jogen snickered while trying to get in a shot to one of her limbs.

"Stoooop Jogen, you limp noodle. I need to show you something." She whined, putting on an act of contrition.

"Well what is it then. What has you screaming bloody murder? Why are you laying on your bed? You do realize we are leaving right? We aren't coming back so you need to get your crap together." Jogen said as he sat down beside her on the bed. He looked over at the book then at her wrist where the HACK was attached. "When did you get the new shiny? It's pretty big for a wrist unit."

"This is what I was freaking out about. You remember a few years ago when I talked about that ridiculously expensive mythical hacking tool."

"How could I forget? You pined about the thing for a year. I could barely get you to unplug from the forums. Why did you finally find a lead on it or something?"

Layla gave him a shit-eating grin and waggled her wrist in front of his face. Jogen looked at her like she was mad. Layla told him what happened when she plugged the old tablet in. Jogen then scooted away from her as though he was sure she was mad, and it might be infectious.

"Jogen Tyler William Hitch. When have I ever lied to you?" Using his full name and then poking him in the ribs for good measure. "I'm being dead serious right now. This thing is a HACK wrist unit. We are set for life."

"You are sure. A thousand percent positive? Don't mess around with me either. That piece of tech is the Trillion Credit mythical hacking tool." He emphasized the trillion credit part.

"I mean I haven't used it yet to see what it can do but I've seen digitals of one."

"Use it then. Confirm it right now." He said, forcefully standing and began pacing back and forth. A look of distress started marring his usually cheerful face.

Doing as he said, Layla tapped on the screen. The holo display came to life, and their surroundings disappeared. Not expecting the change, Jogen stumbled before righting himself. The room transitioned into a different reality as the two found themselves standing at the edge of a stone platform. A vast dark blue ocean surrounded them on all sides. The smell of salt permeated Layla's senses, leaving her temporarily confused on whether this was a holo display or they had been transported to another world.

"Damn Twitch, this thing is beyond anything I have ever seen. The realism is just staggering." Layla said as she felt the ocean spray against her face. She looked over at Jogen and found him standing rigid as a board.

"You okay?" She inquired as she reached out and touched his arm.

"We have to go." Jogen whispered as his face started turning pale like the stormy sky above.

Layla ignored her strangely acting companion and started making her way towards the center. "Not yet twitch. I want to see what that door is about first. Mantles help us, this is just amazing."

In the center of the platform stood a black onyx doorway. Layla made her way to the thing and started walking around it. It didn't seem to lead anywhere. Just a door in a frame with no handle or knob to open it. One side had a silver carving of a Kraken with a human skull wearing a helmet. The helmet looked unique, with cheek guards stabbing downward like spearheads and an extended nose guard topped off with a plumed mohawk. The helmet seemed very familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Twitch, come take a look at this. I know I've seen this before but I can't remember where." She called out in a loud voice. The crashing of the ocean's waves threatened to drown out her voice.

"No, no, god's no." came Jogen's voice over her shoulder, causing Layla to jump.

"For plane's sake man, don't sneak up on me like that." Layla said, reaching back and smacking her hand playfully against her friend's chest. "So what do you think? I know I've seen that helmet somewhere before and what's the kraken holding?"

The kraken's tentacles were embracing a device with metal concentric rings surrounding a dull sphere. She pushed one of the rings with her finger, and they all started moving in opposite but congruent motion.

"Most be some type of solar system model, maybe. Actually it kinda looks like a 3D model of an at…om." Layla's voice trailed off as she recalled the very real book that had popped into existence in her room not even five minutes ago. Atom. She looked back at the helmet. Finally connecting the dots, her stomach twisted, and she started hyperventilating. The Council.

A firm grip latched onto her arm, jerking her away from the door and face to face with Jogen. His face was deathly serious but eyes full of panic. He shook her.

"Layla, listen to me dammit. Shut it off. Shut it off right freaking now!"