Towers of Ink and Ordinary Mornings

Canvas Metropolis never slept — not really. Even at sunrise, the streets hummed with delivery drones, holographic billboards swapping ads every three seconds, and humanoid deer tapping their hooves on the sidewalks on their way to work, antlers occasionally catching the morning light like little chandeliers.

Art Zone stood at the tallest window of his fortress, watching the city wake up. The fortress itself was impossible to miss — towers shaped like a giant marker, a fat tube of paint, and a pencil with a rubber eraser tip that glowed pink when it rained. He loved this place completely.

"ARIA, what's on my schedule?" he asked.

The fortress AI chimed from a speaker shaped like a spray-paint can. "Zero villain activity. Light winds. One unread notification from the Canvas City Art Museum — something about a missing artifact."

Art Zone pushed his goggles up and smirked.

"Missing artifact. Sure. Probably a lost stapler."

The Notification Nobody Ignored

Art Zone finally pulled up the museum notification on his wrist display — a thin screen that wrapped around his forearm like a glowing bracelet.

The message read: *THE BRUSH OF BOREAL HAS BEEN STOLEN. LAST SEEN: ART ZONE FORTRESS.*

He blinked at it.

"ARIA," he said slowly, "did anything come *into* the fortress last night?"

"One drone delivery," ARIA said. "Paintbrush-shaped parcel. Signature required — oh. It was signed for automatically. By me."

"By *you*."

"...I may have made a small error in judgment."

Before Art Zone could say another word, the fortress floor cracked open with a sound like a giant ice cube splitting, and a blast of freezing air shot up from below. Through the gap rose a platform — and on it stood three very tall humanoid deer, their antlers wrapped in frost, their coats a steely silver-blue.

The largest one pointed a gloved hoof directly at Art Zone.

"You." Her voice was deep and sharp as a chisel. "Thief."