Rising Shards

My parents somehow had zapped themselves away with their void travel device, apparently along with Ovie, 09, Aira, and Laenie. Despite bringing their possessions with them, they left their chair, which I was still stuck to. The princess chair that Stella and I supposedly loved so much wasn’t worth bringing to them. I wasn’t worth bringing to them either, or worth anything more than a forced experiment that they quickly gave up on.

I strained against the energy bolts holding me down. I tried to use my powers on them, but just brought rain on me and zapped myself with a lightning bolt. As I sat in a puddle that mixed Elka, rainwater and blood, I hated that this felt familiar. When Jeans attacked us with her Starlight Despair, I woke up in a lake of Elka.

“Stella…” I said. I couldn’t reach for my phone to call her for help this time. And last time, I got motivation from Arctus Kathron, who was now half of the root of my confinement. I screamed for help until my voice was hoarse. I tried getting my power blocker wristband to do anything, but it was broken. Probably when my body shifted into something that made me shudder to think about. The beast tendency version of me.

Something thunked in the room. It wasn’t a knock; it was a definite thunk. I looked around, trying to find its source. It was followed with another thunk, a louder one. The thunking was coming from a large vent in the living room. I flinched as the hinges on the vent’s grate flung open with one more thunk, and a large spinning ball of energy rolled in, followed by a Kanibari girl. The ball rolled to a stop just before me and unfurled, revealing a familiar face.

“Fear not! It is I, the mighty and multitalented Chumbler!” The gremlin-like girl said, flexing her arms. “We were watching safely from the shadows…”

“Not really watching,” Chumbler’s Kanibari friend Z.O.K. said. “We were trying to run away, really.”

“We hid in a closet out in the hallway,” Chumbler said. “But then the closet had a vent, and we started crawling around in the vent, and then we were watching that whole thing. Looking for any and every opportunity to leave before those guys pummeled and then super-murdered us.”

“We were pretty sure if we made a move while that was going down, they’d hear and then you know. Super-murder us.” Z.O.K. said.

“But then they left, and we figured, hey, why not rescue Zeta, right?” Chumbler said, shrugging. “When in Void Station Spero, you know?”

I was pretty drained of all thoughts, so the sight of Chumbler and Z.O.K. just gave me a dull sense of ‘OK, this is happening now, I guess.’

“Am I…really me again?” I asked. My voice still sounded as pathetic as it did when I begged my parents not to leave me behind.

Chumbler looked me up and down. “You look like you normally do. I heard some weird sounds coming from ya, but I couldn’t see from my closet/vent vantage point what exactly was happening.”

“I could see it,” Z.O.K. said. “You looked…er, yeah. Preeeetty monstrous.”

“Wow Z.O.K., don’t ever become a doctor, absolutely hideous bedside manner,” Chumbler said, rolling her eyes. “Can you believe this broad?”

“What? It’s not inaccurate to say she was a monster, you dolt.” Z.O.K. said. “The thing was called beast tenderly or something.”

“Whatever.” Chumbler noticed the energy binding on my wrists. She punched Z.O.K. in her side. “Z.O.K., free her from this or whatever.”

“Why me?” Z.O.K. asked.

“Isn’t your Cani power specifically for this situation?” Chumbler asked.

“No…” Z.O.K. said.

“Hmmmm OK, alright, OK, uh huh,” Chumbler said. “Hang on, sit tight, friend Zeta. We’ll go get help.”

Chumbler just stood there until she punched Z.O.K. again. “Go, Z.O.K. Hurry up.”

“Fine, only so you’ll quit punching me.” Z.O.K. said. “If you hear three knocks, that’s me.”

“Don’t get captured or die along the way please,” Chumbler said. “I know we’re breaking the buddy system here, but as my minion you should know how…and she left already.”

Z.O.K. left through the hotel room’s front door. Chumbler sat down at the table and strummed her fingertips on it. “So what have you been up to? I mean, outside of this.”

“I don’t really want to talk right now.” I said. Not wanting to make Chumbler feel bad, I continued. “Can you just keep talking? That kind of helps.”

“Wow, that’s the first time I think I’ve ever been told to continue speaking,” Chumbler said. “Fear not, friend Zeta, I will emit all the noise you need.”

Chumbler rambled about a lot of nothing for a while. Her voice was annoying, but in a soothing way. I don’t know if that made any sense, but nothing in the last few hours did. Finally, there were three knocks at the door. Z.O.K. entered first, followed by a girl wearing what appeared to be a space suit helmet on her head. Behind her was someone I very much did not want to see at that moment. Or most moments, really.

“Hewwo?” Kitty Kilander said as she peeked her head in. “I heaw we have a pwobwem hewe?”

“Yeah, Zeta’s all stuck here.” Chumbler said.

The girl in the space suit said something, but her voice was muffled by it.

“Good point, Rain.” Z.O.K. said. “A rare good point from you.”

“Rain?” I asked. Another familiar face was nice, at least. Even if her face was completely hidden by her helmet.

Rain nodded. She tapped on the helmet.

“She got a big-ass headache, so she got that helmet to keep her brains in and stuff.” Chumbler said. “Or something like that, I stopped paying attention. I think it’s stuck on her.” 

Rain nodded again. 

Chumbler gasped. ”You guys are pals in being stuck right now!”

“I’ll fix that too, I’m that talented, I’m a boss for getting stuff unstuck,” Kitty said. “But with that headache, we gotta wait til we’re out of the void.”

Kitty approached me. She wasn’t as dolled up in her pop star look as she was the last time I saw her, but she still had a bunch of sparkles and junk stuck in her hair.

“Oh dear, you got very Endoraned up,” Kitty said. “Poor little baby.”

Kitty’s attempt to sympathize with me (I think she was trying to?) landed flatly because she kept interjecting her words with a weird honking sound. She patted my head. “You know, after I let you out of this, what’s to stop me from taking you home with me? Five of my students just went missing, after all.”

“Four,” I corrected. “09 isn’t one of your students.”

“Whatever.” Kitty said. “It’s gonna be a lot of paperwork for someone. Not me, obviously.”

Kitty looked over my restraints.

“Ooof I dunno little miss Zeta,” Kitty said. “This is a toughie. It’s some real strong Endoran binding. Designed to keep the beast tendency types in, which judging by the blood all around here, it did a pwetty dang good job of it huhhh?” She honked again, then quacked. “Weww wucky for you, your paw Kitty is weawy weawy good at fixing Endowan pwobwems.”

Rain said something, but it was of course completely muffled by the helmet.

“That’s true, Rain, but I say the least she could do is stop the ‘w’ sound cutesy stuff, that’s painful.” Chumbler said. “But that’s just my opinion.”

“I appreciate the feedback, it’s good to get criticism, I need it to grow after all,” Kitty said. “Would I be a famous leader and champion of Haven, a pop star, and all that other famous junk if I couldn’t take a little criticism?”

“Are you going to let me out of this already?” I asked.

“Whoa!” Kitty said. “Sassy Zeta is super cute, NGL.”

“You’ve only talked to me like once before this, don’t pretend you know me.” I said.

“Feisty Zeta!”

My voice didn’t sound like me. I was snappy and aggressive and angry in ways I never much verbalized before. Not that I didn’t get angry or get in arguments of course, but this felt almost like someone else’s voice coming out of me. Kitty snapped her fingers and did a finger gun gesture, shooting out pinkish energy beams towards my wrists and ankles. The energy holding me finally broke, and I flopped out of the chair on wobbly legs.

“Whoa there, cowgirl,” Chumbler said as I propped myself up on the table next to me. “Maybe stay in that chair until you’re ready to get back on the ol’ horse there, partner.”

“Are you a cowboy now? What is that voice?” Z.O.K. asked.

I didn’t ever want to sit in that chair again, but I wasn’t up for standing. I sat down across from Chumbler in one of the other chairs and held my head.

“Did I grow horns? My forehead is killing me.” I said.

“Probs,” Kitty said. “That’s a big beast tendency thing. Like the fangs of beast tendency. But you still have your fangs too. I got the beast tendency a couple times, so I got horns now, see?” Kitty pointed at two horns on her head. “See? You can pull on em?” She yanked on them. They came off of her head immediately, revealing they were just part of a headband. “Oops. I was lying.”

“Do Endorans always lie?” I asked.

“I resemble that comment.” Kitty said.

“Can I just go home now? Please?” I asked.

“I guess,” Kitty said. “I hate to say it, but I know who we have to call now.”

Kitty swiped on her wristband, sending a message to someone.

“Yeah, they’ll be here in a few,” Kitty said. “So while we wait…it’s been a while since I last saw you, too. What have you been up to? I mean, outside of the obvious.”

I felt like I was in a really stupid time loop.