Rising Shards

I ran to Kalei and Nikki as Oka and Lillia fought off some blaster drones.

“Coolest thing all day?” Kalei asked.

“By a lot.” Nikki said.

"Alright I'm here!" I said. I noticed they weren't in peril, or even fighting anyone. It looked like Kalei just got done laughing. "Wait, did you guys get him already?"

"Uh huh," Nikki said.

"Thanks for the strategy," Kalei said. "And for uh, cutting his leg off the first time."

"Oh, no problem?" I said. "So now what?" 

Oka and Lillia had finished off their fight. And with Lophor taken care of, the battlefield grew quieter. I scanned around and didn’t see any active drones marching towards us. The only sounds I heard were the others talking or putting their bloodsabers away.

“I think…we won?” I said.

A loud slam answered me. Laenie was nearby, still in her beastly form, slamming drones together on a giant pile of the drones she destroyed.

“We won, Laenie,” Aira said as Laenie continued to smash drones together as Rain laughed at the sight. “We won! You can stop!”

Aira finally caught Laenie’s attention, and Laenie dropped the drone remains she was holding. She let out a big yawn, and began to transform back as she curled up on the ground, fast asleep by the time she was fully her regular self again.

Aira scooped her up and held her over her shoulder just like she held her cat. “She might need a few to nap this off.”

“I always wondered how the clothes thing works for Exa Cani,” Kalei said. “Like when Zates and Okes fought Laenie, I wondered when they got her back to normal if she was just like, naked out there in that field in Iho Vinai.”

“Since when do you call me ‘Okes’?” Oka asked.

“Well, if Zeta is Zates it’d be weirder if I didn’t have a nickname for you.”

“Why were you thinking about Laenie naked?” I asked.

“I was curious about the Exa Cani thing! And now my question is answered; stretchy clothes!”

Once we regrouped with our class, we all relayed different places where we landed, but we all had ended up on the same island. Despite the blood wave, the overall trip seemed to go as we had been told. Oka asked if anyone had seen 09, but no one else had.

“We’ll find her,” I said. Oka nodded.

“So outside of getting Rex Steel, what else is left?” Kalei asked.

"I feel like there's another thing I'm forgetting..." Iris said, scratching her head.

“We still have to smash the thing.” Oka said.

“Right, the mask,” I said.

"That's probably what I'm thinking of." Iris said.

“The entrance to the wastelands is just around the corner,” Kiki said.

“Oh, everyone, this is Kiki by the way!” I said. I felt bad that I clearly embarrassed her, as she muttered something about never seeing this many Atrians before as she lowered her head.

The others packed up their minivans in their can form. Before Lillia rolled ours up, I picked up the Kathron sword, remembering that Mawiril told me to bring it when we went for the mask.

“Duel wielding, eh?” Kalei said. “Told you.”

Kiki led the way as we carried on. We rounded the bend of the canyon together, finding a massive cave waiting for us, greeting with a howling wind.

“You know, we could’ve just ran to this thing and gone home,” Latte said.

“Yeah, but then we’d have to fight all those guys in the wastelands,” Kalei said. “Way cooler to say I defeated the warlord of the ice thunder canyon.”

I didn’t want to show it to the others, especially Oka, but she at least could probably tell. I was terrified. Full on anxiousness levels that made me feel like stepping through this cave would result in something terrible. Whether that was me fainting, throwing up dying, I wasn’t entirely sure. I knew what a big part of the fear was: who was waiting for me in the cave. I heard Jeans’ voice coming from 09, but could she really be here?

“Well, maybe with all that stuff we just went through,” Oka said, and gripped my hand tightly. “Maybe we already won.”

Oka’s warm smile didn’t make my deep-down terror go away, but it helped a great deal.

“Oh my god, can you all hurry up already?” A woman’s voice called out just as I got ready to step forward into the cave.  We all looked at each other to make sure we heard that.

“Who the hell is that?” Kalei asked.

“Helllooooo! Can you hear me?” Her voice was definitely an adult’s, but with the tone of a bratty teenager. “You set up shop near a dank, festering cave and they all take so long to get to you. Is it the cave? Was the cave where I goofed up? Or was it you?”

None of us moved.

“Careful, Atrians,” Kiki said. “This is surely a trick of the Order.”

“Right,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to do with that information, though. We all froze in place, waiting for the stranger to speak again.

Kiki pressed forward and was met with a wall of pinkish energy.

“I can’t get through…” Kiki said.

“Just standing out there?” She asked. “If you’re not going to make those last steps, then…”

Before any of us could react, pink, sparkling tendrils reached out from the energy wall, like glitter glue infested with malice, and pulled us forward. It didn’t feel like I was being grabbed and flung into the darkness. It felt more like the world was moving beneath my feet. It was over as soon as it felt like it was really rushing, but I still screamed the same. My voice was getting hoarse from all the screaming.

When we landed, I immediately understood why the place was called the wastelands. Piles upon piles of metal wreckage surrounded us, like a garbage dump if the dump was filled with robot parts and what looked like decayed remains of futuristic looking cities. The red blood moon hung above, casting its crimson light on anything reflective.

The typically lazy Iris and Maia looked entirely out of place in such a dire situation. Amara, KJ, and Rain were practically huddled together. The Matora sisters looked like they were ready to rough someone up, but then Ko looked in our direction and winked at us again, or just at Lillia which was again pretty weird. Roux’s catlike ears twitched in nervous anticipation. Latte somehow had immediately found a working coffee machine amongst the wreckage. The rest of the class all looked how I felt; dully scared and exhausted and uncertain about what was going to come next.

“Where’s Kiki…?” I asked. The energy wall blocked had blocked her before. Had whatever pulled us in specifically kept her out?

“And 09,” Oka said. “She’s not here…”

“Yes, come one, come all, Rising Shards class B or whatever!” The woman’s voice echoed around us, but we couldn’t see her. “I hope you had fun exploring the island, but you’ve all taken so much time that I got tired of waiting!”

A bubbly pop tune I swore I had stuck in my head before came to me, and it took me a few seconds to realize it was actually being played near us from some unseen speakers.

“Everyone else hears that, right?” I asked. Oka and Kalei nodded.

A spotlight appeared in front of the class as I got closer to Oka. She grabbed my hand again, which made this feel a lot less terrifying than it maybe should have.

“Enough of the buildup, right?” The woman’s voice said. “It’s time you finally met me!”

With her arms spread out, the woman rose from the top of one of the taller piles of refuse and began to float down. She had twin pigtails and fiendish looking fangs. She landed with a bow and waited for us to applaud. There were some nervous claps from the corners of our class, but generally it was a tepid reception. She looked incredibly familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

“Wait. That’s not…” Oka said.

“That’s right!” The woman yelled. “It’s your faaaaaavorite teacher from your faaaavorite school, Wildfire Hearts!”

The woman did a pose where she leaned forward, stuck her tongue out, and bugged her eyes out, which made me remember where I’d seen her before. On posters and video screens all over LE, as well as a major reality show.

“And of course, your faaaaaavorite Kilander! KITTY!!!”