Hello, everyone. After a long while without any posts, I'm back to the platform. I've been working on other things than stories, like my RPG game, Blue Storm.

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More info will be added as the days go by.

It was a normal summer day in the Apex eSports gaming house. Rachel, Alice and Chloe were relaxing in the training room, playing a game not related to their job.

The three girls were dressing the team's uniform, because it was their training period. The uniform was composed by a black shirt with the team logo and black striped shorts.

The girl's training room was nicely decorated. Had many computers. The five used by the girls and two more for the coach and the assistant-coach. Also, there was a monitor above the computer Alice used. On it, whoever was watching, could see the game by the team leader's view, which helped understand what was going on.

The floor was made in wooden tacos on a concrete surface. Nicolle, the organization owner and CEO, had chosen wooden tacos for the room's floor.

Drawings were on the wall, and a art featuring Nicolle as a game character decorated one of the room's walls. The same art was in the main team's training room.

The desks were all made in wood, with their legs and frames in pure iron. And, on them, were the computers used by the girls and other organization workers.

Cables went through cable-routers to prevent cable mess, like video, audio, headphones and power cables.

While they played, Rachel's phone rang, signaling the arrival of an email. The female team's email was used whenever Nicolle wanted to give any official message to the girls, and was linked to all the girl's mobile devices.

"Is that an email, Rachel?", asked Chloe, a girl with dark, long hair. She was in the ideal weight for her stature, even though she was skinny. Chloe was considered attractive by the guys who worked at the organization's gaming house.

Rachel had really short hair, which was what she liked. Also had a fit body and medium-sized breasts. "Yeah, let's pause for a bit so I can give it a read!", she said.

"Okay!", replied Alice, a young woman with glasses. Her hair was long and curly, but brown. Alice was the team leader, she was the one who called every shot in a match, be it a training or a tournament.

Then, Rachel opened the email that she got and gave it a read, before making an angry face.

"Uh, Rachel? What's the problem?", asked Chloe, curious.

"Nicolle is going to suspend our salaries! We will not have any payment until the end of the year!", replied the short-haired girl.

"Wait, what???", yelled Alice, hearing what her teammate said.

"It's here...", started Rachel. "Dear workers. Due to the high gaming house spendings, I've unilaterally decided to suspend the payment of all teams who are inactive. This order is effective immediately!", she finished, reading the email she received.

"That's a joke! No way!", yelled Chloe, knowing what that meant for them.

"Completely unfair! Why would she do this?", questioned Rachel.

"I never saw this happen before! Not even in our previous team! This cannot be done!", commented the in-game leader.

Meanwhile, at the Blake manor, Beatriz was in the manor's reading room. She tried turning the heater on, and despite hearing the machine's noise, she didn't feel the house warming up.

Knowing that, the young mother knew she would need help, and called a electrical heater specialist. As she called, a price of two-hundred bucks was mentioned to her.

"Two hundred bucks?", she asked, receiving a positive reply from the specialist.

"What's costing two hundred bucks, sweetheart?", questioned the patriarch, approaching and hearing his wife on the phone.

Rafael, the patriarch, was wearing a white polo shirt with a discreet logo and a common pair of sweatpants.

Beatriz, on the other hand, dressed her casual shirt and white silk shorts, which left her more relaxed during the day.

"Just a minute, I'll return the call and tell you my decision!", she said, politely hanging up the call.

"So, what's going to cost two hundred bucks?", asked the patriarch, again.

"Oh, it's the cost to fix our heater! Tried turning it on, but it seems to be broken!", replied the patriarch's young wife.

"Oh, I can fix that! That way, I'll keep that money!", he said, before going to get his tools.

"Rafael! Isn't it better to ask for a professional?", questioned the wife.

"Leave it to me, honey! I'll deal with it! That way I can teach my son how to fix things if he ever needs!", replied the young Blake patriarch.

"Okay, you won! Felipe, please come here for a second!", said the wife, calling the son, who then approached.

"What's up, mom?", asked the young man.

"Your father needs your help to fix the house's heater!", she replied.

"Leave it to me, I can help!", he said, proposing to help his father.

The duo, father and son, then went to the manor's rear external area.

With the Apex eSports girls...

"Hey, I have an idea! Let's try talking to her, persuade Nicolle to not do this!", suggested the short-haired young woman.

"I agree, Rachel! That way we may get to negotiate with her! Since, we are the ones who bring the money in!", replied the in-game leader.

"Rachel! You speak to her! Nicolle always listens to you in regards to matters related to the team!", requested Chloe.

"Okay! Leave it to me! I'll talk to her! I just ask that you two be quiet and let me talk to her, okay?", spoke Rachel.

"Yup, no problem!", replied Alice and Chloe in unison.

Then, Rachel called their boss on the phone.

"Nicolle speaking, good afternoon?", spoke the young CEO, answering the call.

"Good afternoon, Nicolle! It's Rachel!", replied the player to her boss' greeting.

"Oh, good afternoon, Rachel! Everything all right?", asked the young boss.

"In reality, we have a issue to solve with you, Nicolle!", said the young, short-haired woman.

"Okay, what seems to be the problem?", questioned Nicolle.

"The reason I called is that we want to negotiate the salary cut that will be applied!", said Rachel, explaining the issue.

"Wait! Salary cut? What do you mean?", asked the boss, not knowing what her player was talking about.

"Yes, exactly! We got an email about a salary cut that will be applied to all inactive teams, including ours, who play only every two months!", replied the short-haired girl.

"Hm, Rachel? I didn't send any email today! Besides, I wouldn't cut salaries without thinking a lot about...", the boss was saying, before seeing her private message being blasted with people asking what was going on. "Uh oh! People are complaining here!", she finished.

"Of course they are! Didn't you think this would cause problems, Nicolle?", replied Rachel.

"Rachel!!!", yelled Nicolle.

"Oh, boy!", whispered Chloe to Alice, as she heard Nicolle's scream on the phone.

"The boss is mad!", replied Alice, silently laughing about the scold Rachel got from the boss.

"Look, Rachel! I'll check out what happened and call you back!", said Nicolle, asking the player to calm down.

"Nicolle, will that really be done?", questioned the girl.

"Calm down! I'll check that out, please wait for my call!", replied the young CEO.

After Rafael and Felipe left the living room, Beatriz saw that the day went by and Bianca didn't show up in the living room like she routinely did. "Hm, what may be wrong with her?", asked Bia to herself, going to the daughter's bedroom.

In the room, Beatriz learned that Bianca seemed to be crying. "What's wrong, Bianca?", asked the mother.

Not having a reply, Bia approached and affectionately touched the girl's cheek. "What's wrong, sweetie?", asked the mother, again.

"Hi, mom! What's going on is that I fell for a boy at school, but I don't know if he feels the same for me!", replied the youngest Blake sibling.

"Did you think about talking to him?", asked Beatriz.

"Yeah, but what if I get a no? I'd be ashamed due to that!", replied the girl.

"Oh, sweetie! Try to talk to him at a calmer location, you won't have problems that way! This love part is kind of complicated!", commented the mother, giving a suggestion.

In the external area with his son, Rafael then opened all the screws on the heater's compartment cover, removed it and pulled the heater out, disconnecting it from the electrical wires before doing so.

"Hm, we are going to need some tools!", commented the son, who was beside his father.

"Oh, yeah! There are some screws on the cover that will be a hassle!", replied the ffather, looking at the screws on the heater's own cover.

The Blake manor had some pipework where both cold and hot air would cycle through, depending on what they needed. And, to have cold or hot air, the manor also had a electric heater and a air conditioner system, which cycled hot or cold air, depending on which one was on at the time. But, Rafael, when he renewed the electrical wiring related to the heat and cooling system, he installed a protection relay, which prevented both heating and cooling from being turned on at the same time.

"I'll go get the tools, Felipe! Wait here!", said the father, rising up and going to the workshop in the backyard. But, he ended up tripping on a lounger that was close to the manor's pool.

"Yeouch!!!", screamed the patriarch as he tripped.

With him stumbling on the lounger, Rafael ended up falling in the pool, causing a huge amount of water to splash out..

"Dad, why are you swimming?", asked the son, approaching the pool.

"I'm not swimming, Felipe! I stumbled on these loungers! Get them out of the way!", yelled the patriarch, before the son retrieved each one and removed them from the way they would walk close to the pool.

"Oh, no!", spoke Beatriz, as she heard her husband's scream and the noise of him falling in the pool.

"What's going on, mom?", asked the daughter, hearing the commotion outside.

"Your father decided to fix the heating system! I imagined something would happen! He decided to try and fix it instead of paying a specialist for such a thing!", replied the mother.

"Geez! Only dad to be like that! Dad is very clumsy with those kinds of things!", commented Bianca.

"Put clumsy in it, sweetie! Whenever your dad decided to fix something, something out of the ordinary always happens! Always to save money, as he says!", replied Bia.

"Always trying to save, even though saving is useful, as we spend a lot with heat and cooling at home, don't we?", commented the younger Blake sibling, asking her mother about expenditures.

"Yes, even though the power here in Buckinstone is not expensive, we have to be careful! Last month, we had an overload alert from our main power plant! I remember we had to race against time to save as much as we could! Now we are better, since we have more power plants ready in case there are problems!", replied the mother.

"Hm, you're right in that case!", said the girl.

Nicolle had her own server in SparkVoice, beside the organization's own server. So, everyone took the opportunity to blast the girl with messages asking what was going on.

"Did you go crazy, Nicolle?", asked one player, reading the email

"Are you nuts? Why this now?", asked another in the chat.

And the chat continued to pop with messages asking what whas going on. No one knew if it was true or not, but when something like that happened, people usually kept asking about it.

"ENOUGH!!!", said Nicolle in the chat, asking the moderators to block everything.

"I'm going to investigate what is going on! I haven't sent anything like that to the organization!", she replied to their messages.

The SparkVoice, or Kiyomi SparkVoice, was a voice and text chat application, which had voice and text channels to chat with friends. Apex used SparkVoice professionally, being an professional eSports oganization, it was in the committee rules that it should be used.

But, instead of using a server provided by Kiyomi, Apex used their own server. It was done in a virtualized solution, in which one server hosted up to four system server instances.

The young CEO, seeing the crisis on her hands, decided to call the IT department.

"Apex eSports IT department, good afternoon?", said the IT employee, Thiago.

The IT at Apex eSports was responsible for keeping everything going on as they should. Computers, servers and sometimes help the organization bosses regarding digital security on their computers and company devices.

"Good afternoon, Thiago! What's wrong with my email? People are saying I sent an email about salaries being cut! But, I didn't send anything today!", asked the boss.

"Good afternoon, Nicolle! Yes, there was some email being sent, but it didn't came from any computer you normally use!", replied the IT officer.

"So, it means that someone invaded my email and sent that one?", asked the young CEO.

"Probably, there was an invasion into your email! I recommend that you change the password to a stronger one, in order to solve this!", said the worker, making a recommendation to his boss.

"Change the password? Been using that one for some time now!", replied the company boss.

"I know, Nicolle! But it was compromised! It's not good to keep comprosmised passwords around! Look up on your browser if it points other compromised passwords and change those it points out!", explained the IT officer.

"Compromised password means what, in reality?", asked the young Croft girl.

"Compromised passwords are passwords that were spread around during data leaks! There is always a password and data leak happening! Probably yours must have leaked! Since we use a external service, whoever knows the password has access to your email service! Investigate your email to see if nothing was deleted after switching the password!", he explained.

"Oh, yeah! I'll look into that, Thiago! Thank you for the explanation and advice!", replied the boss, being grateful for the whole explanation the worker did to her.

"No problem, Nicolle! If you need, just call the IT! I'm here for that!", said the worker.

Back to the heating system, Rafael went back with the tools and opened it.

Out of nowhere, a strong burn smell came up from the heater.

"Geez, seems to be burnt! I'm smelling it from here!", spoke the son. "Dad, how does this heater work? I always wanted to know!", he asked.

"The way it works is that it has a fan inside! The fan generates air and wind, and this air goes up to the heating element, which stays at the top of the heater! The heating element warms up the air generated by the fan when it passes by the element! Then, there is the exhaust tube, which is connected to all the rooms in the manor, including the bathrooms!", spoke the patriarch.

"That smell must be something in the thing!", he then replied to his son, placing his hand in a sensitive area of the heater, which was the heating element. "Yeouch!!!", he screamed, as he felt a very hot area in the device.

"I told you so!", said the son, surprised by what happened.

"The heating element must have burnt out!", commented Rafael, while having a deeper look in the device. "Felipe, remove the burnt one, I'll go to the electric materials store to buy a new one!", he requested to his son.

"Leave it to me, I think it will be easy to dismantle!", commented the firstborn.

"It's not hard, but get a pair of gloves in my toolbox to not burn your hand! This thing is scorching hot!", replied the father, speaking about how hard it was to dismantle the heating element, before going out to the electric materials store.

Knowing what transpired, and having changed her email password as she was told by the IT guy, Nicolle decided to write an email explained what really happened.

"What's wrong, sis?", asked Camilla, approaching and seeing her sister hanging up the phone.

"What happened was...", said the young CEO, explaining to her sister everything that transpired with her email and mentioning the way she planned to fix the issue.

"Oh, I understand! I hope you can fix it this way, I imagine the trouble that invasion caused!", commented the Croft firstborn.

"I'll be able to! Just need to see the way I'll write! How about this...", she said, reading the email she was writing to her sister.

"Dear Apex E-Sports players and staff,

Regards, Nicolle, Apex E-Sports CEO".

"I believe it's good, I know it will solve this...", Camilla was saying, before the apartment's lights went out.

"Oh, no! Now we have no power!", said Nicolle.

"Took long for something to happen!", replied the firstborn, noticing the situation they were in. "It must be in the building, the lights are on for the rest of Bridgeport!", she commented, looking at the big city's lights through the window.

Unbelievably, there seemed to be something conspiring against them. Cellphones without batteries, landline not working without power, and also, the boss didn't have a plan B to send the email.

Soon, Rafael came back with the needed part, he had found one for less than the price to fix the heater.

"Where did you go to? I thought you were fixing the heater!", asked the wife, who was in the living room.

"Oh, I went to buy a new heating element, the other one burnt out! Paid twenty bucks on it! Wasn't hard to find! Probably would pay more than two hundred bucks to fix!", he replied.

"Oh, I understand! I imagine Felipe is dismantling the original then?", asked the wife.

"Well, up to now, he may already have dismantled it!", explained the patriarch, going to the manor's backyard.

In the area close to the heater, Felipe had it dismantled by the time Rafael arrived.

Na área próxima ao aquecedor, Felipe já estava com o mesmo desmontado.

"Nice job, my boy! Was it easy to dismantle?", commented the father to his son, complimenting him on the job well done.

"Easy as heck, four screws that stick it to the device!", replied Felipe.

"Now, we just need to install the new element and test! Want to do the install?", asked the patriarch.

"Sure, leave it to me!", replied Felipe, getting the new element and placing it on the device.

He then started to screw it on the device and did it with all four screws, pulling it to see if it was well placed.

"Good way to ensure its placement! Time to test!", said Rafael. "Go to the reading room! When I say TURN ON, you turn it on!", finished the patriarch.

Felipe did as told and then heard his father's command. Having heard, he switched the heater's breaker, which was stuck to the manor's fireplace.

Two hours went by, and no calls from Nicolle to the team's players.

"It's taking way too long! Did something happen?", asked Alice.

"I don't know, I'm also finding it strange that she is taking this long to call back!", replied Chloe.

"I'm trying to call Nicolle, but nothing from the landline or the cellphone! And apparently, Camilla's phone is out of comission!", commented Rachel, trying to call their boss.

"Geez, nothing?", questioned Alice, seeing her teammate and friend hang up the phone.

"Nothing, Alice! Lots of times and no response from her!", finished the short-haired girl.

"Geez! She first tells us to wait, and now she doesn't answer the phone!", commented Chloe.

"Yeah! It's very strange! Even though she asked us to wait! Let's wait a bit more!", replied Rachel.

In Bianca's room, the lights and all electronics turned off at the same time.

"RAFAEL!!!", screamed Beatriz, when her daughter's bedroom light went out.

Bianca, in response, covered her ears, because her mother's scream was really loud.

"Geez, mom!", exclaimed the girl.

"Sorry, sweetie! I don't know why, but I imagined something would happen!", said the mother.

Seconds later after turning the heater on, the power went out in the living room. "Oh, boy! Power is out, dad!", said the boy, going to the backyard.

And then, Rafael heard his wife's scream. "CALM DOWN! IT SEEMS TO BE SHORTED!", yelled the patriarch in response to his wife. "I can see that, Felipe!", replied the father to his son. "Cut the heater's power!", he requested.

Felipe did as requested, to prevent more problems.

"Now, go to the main breaker and switch it on so your mother won't complain anymore!", requested Rafael.

"Leave it to me!", replied Felipe, going to the front yard and switching the main breaker on.

With that done, Rafael started to investigate the short. Having the heater's circuit breaker off, there would be no shocking issues at investigation time.

And, during his investigation, he soon noticed some wires touching where they shouldn’t have.

"Hm, apparently, there some loose wires here! Is that because of temperature? Thought they were isolated! Why the heck do the wires pass behind the heating element?", said the father.

"Oh, that's hard to explain! They could have routed the wires in an enclosed area, not in front of the element!", replied Felipe. "See if there isn't a way to route them through a isolated area!", he finished.

"Good, that could help!", replied the father to the idea his son proposed. "You're getting better at this, huh? You dismantled, put it back and gave a good idea! I'll try this and see if it works!", finished the patriarch.

Rafael then moved the wires to get them away from the element and isolated them, wrapping in electric tape afterwards.

"Hm, I think this is enough! Unless the hot air also melt this layer of tape! If that's the case, we would have to send it to maintenance!", comemnted Rafael, after doing the modification on the wires.

"The bad thing is that maintenance is pretty expensive!", said the Blake firstborn.

"True, much more than the two hundred bucks the professional had asked for! I remember choosing this device when you were six years old, after the other one broke during a winter!", commented Rafael. "Go there and turn it on again!", he said to his son.

The firstborn went to the reading room and turned the heater's circuit breaker.

A while later, Felipe started to feel hot air coming from the air duct close to the TV rack.

"Is it just me, or hot air started to cycle around the house?", asked Beatriz, approaching her son.

"Oh, yeah! We just finished fixing the heater!", replied Felipe.

"That's good to hear, you managed to fix the thing!", commented Bia.

The Blakes then continued the night relaxing with a movie.

Then, a little while after their talk, Rachel noticed an email coming.

"Girls, email on the way!", she said, opening it. "It's from IT, not Nicolle.

"What does it say?", asked Chloe.

"Tells us to calm down, that as soon as Nicolle can, she will call everyone to a meeting on SparkVoice! This also says this meeting is mandatory to everyone! All the lines must choose a representative, who will be in the meeting and give the message Nicolle will give to everyone!", commented the short-haired player, reading the email received from the IT department of the organization they played for.

"Damn! It's better if you show up in that one, Rachel! As it was you who called her about the previous email!", suggested Chloe.

"Yeah, it's better! Rachel has a better way to deal with Nicolle!", commented Alice.

"Thanks, I'll be in the meeting then!", said Rachel, knowing the role she had in the team.

Two more hours later, the power in Nicolle's building came back. And, as soon as the apartment's phone came online, she saw that there were several calls from Rachel.

“Geez, Rachel called here several times!”, said the young CEO.

"Yeah, what is she in the team, sis?", asked Camilla.

"She is a player from the XSquad female team, and when they need to talk to me, she is the one who speaks for the girls!", said Nicolle.

"Oh, I understand! Call her and the other lines for a meeting, that way you clear everything up!", commented the CEO's sister.

"You're right, it's better if I do that!", replied the younger Croft, calling everyone for the meeting.

A little while later, the meeting started.

"Good evening, everyone! I assume this email must have caused quite a fuss! So, I called everyone here to clear this situation up!", she started, opening the organizational meeting.

"Geez, Nicolle! I called you several times! What happened?", asked Rachel, doing her part in the meeting.

"Rachel, what happened is that the power went out here in the building! Besides, I had no power left on my phone battery!", said the CEO, responding to her player. "Beside that, the meeting folde will be sent to everyone who participated! Now, let's move to the meeting's subject!", she finished.

“What happened is that, due to a issue with passwords, my business email was invaded! And, someone with my password, sent this email that caused all this trouble! So, here, I say it again, there will be no salary cut! It’s not fair for you to have your salaries cut, since it’s you, the players, who bring the main part of the revenue to the organization! It’s you who bring the prizes! The only reason to cut salaries would be a suspension, but that only if something serious happens! I hope you understand me, I solved the issue with the password, and when I was writing the email to explain the situation, the power went out here in my building!”, said the CEO, explaining everything.

"Geez, Nicolle! I feel really bad for the way I spoke to you before!", replied Rachel, feeling sad for having bugged the boss so much.

"Don't worry, Rachel! I know you and the girls were mad due to the email! After all, you thought it was official! I'm really happy that you understand me!", replied Nicolle.

"Well, I think it's solved then! I'll tell everything that was told here to the girls!", commented the young player.

Finishing the meeting, Rachel gave the information to Chloe and Alice, who calmed down after hearing what happened and the solution to the problem on their boss' part.