Rising Shards

Those of us who had permission to join in on the emergency void trip were split into various search parties.

For those of us that went into the void, each group had to have at least one teacher guiding directly. We obviously had Dr. Diast. In the frantic scrambling to get searching, we didn’t have much time to plot out a perfect team student-wise. Oka and I clung together, and ended up with Iris, Maia, and Marmalade.

I found myself entranced by the enormous rides as we approached an amusement park. The massive screens looming over the park were big enough that we could see and hear Kitty’s message from fairly far back as we walked through the front gates.

“’Kitty World,’ barf,” Dr. Diast said as she led us forward. The amusement park was intensely Kitty Kilander themed, who had apparently used her time prepping for the imminent Recreant Protocol game between Rising Shards and Wildfire Hearts to build a massive, gaudy, ugly amusement park for herself in the void, with giant statues of herself and signage reading ‘KITTYWORLD’ propped up all around.

“Is this where the recreant thing is going to be?” Oka asked.

“Well, that apparently was the plan,” Diast said. “So get a good look now and start strategizing, I guess.”

“Maybe Kalei just wanted to see the rides,” I said, knowing as the words left my mouth that they were just desperate, hopeful thinking. “Maybe with Nikki?”

“Remember what Lillia found out?” Oka said softly.

“Right, yeah…” I croaked.

“Well, for whatever reason she ended up in the void,” Diast said. “Her wristband signal stopped here.”

“So we’re here to…get clues?” I asked.

“Getting clues in the form of following this signal,” Diast said. “Which hopefully means getting Kalei back home on the off chance this’ll be super easy and she’s just here.”

Somehow between splitting into pods and those of us that were able to go on the emergency void mission, we ended up with a slightly different group. Lillia and Ko ended up with Caya (Mahina was in that group as well), and we were with Iris, Maia, and Marmalade. Caya’s group went in first.

“There are a lot of drones here,” Caya said, calling Diast via their wristbands. “Same models as the ones from Fang Moon Web, the Taramin built ones. I don’t think they were brought in by Kitty for the recreant game, but I’m waiting for her to answer me still about this whole mess to make sure she’s not behind it.”

During the Fang Moon Web trip, we all ended up fighting an absurd amount of drones from Wildfire Hearts. I wasn’t sure on how they had so many, but they weren’t too tough to fight despite some of them looking pretty scary.

“Are they active?” Diast asked. “As in, ‘immediately trying to fight us’ active?”

“One second,” Caya said. The sound of metal and robotics getting sliced up and shredded came through Diast’s wristband call loudly. “They are indeed active.”

“Right, so bloodsabers ready, everyone.” Diast said. “Well, one second.”

Right as we were at the entryway of the amusement park, Diast stopped me and smushed my face. “Now remember what we agreed on here. I am under strict orders to keep you safe. I will give everything I have to do that, but part of that is also making sure you don’t do anything stupid and reckless. That goes for the rest of you, too.”

“Aye aye, cap’n!” Iris said, saluting.

“Are you gonna smush up our faces, too?” Maia asked.

“Don’t smush Maia’s face or she’ll purr!” Iris said, prompting a gentle smack from her bestie.

“Zeta just gets face smush treatment because she has a bit of recent history sneaking into the void, doesn’t she?” Diast asked.

“Yeah…” I muttered.

“I, um,” Marmalade said, meekly raising her hand. “Are you sure you need me on this?”

“Well, you’re here now,” Diast said. “If this gets too much for anyone, I can whip up a wayback gate, just let me know.”

“I’m not going back without Kalei,” I said.

“Same here!” Oka said. “We got this, Marmalade.”

“Yeah, even I took out some of those drones last time we fought em.” Iris said. “Baby mode stuff here.”

“Don’t say that, dumbass,” Maia said. “Now they’re gonna be like super kill guys for like. Irony. I think that’s the right word.”

“Oka’s right,” I said, trying to reassure Marmalade, who looked as panicked as I felt.

The park felt eerie and still as we searched. We could hear sounds around us, but I didn’t see any of the drone soldiers, nor any sign of anyone not from our rescue parties.

“There are a few spots we have Kalei’s signal at.” Diast explained. “So obviously the group with Kalei’s mom goes to where the signal was the strongest.”

“Can you like slow down explaining stuff?” Iris asked. “My head’s starting to hurt.”

“I can just stop explaining in general if that’s easier.” Diast said.

“A liiiittle explanation would be good.” Iris said.

“We go to thing Kalei maybe at. Other teacher group also do that for other spots.” Diast said.

“Much better.” Iris said.

The signal we were tracking led us to a big fountain at the front of the water park area of the theme park, which featured (what else) a bunch of Kittys spraying water.

“Kalei?” Diast called out. “I don’t see you, but just in case you’re under some kind of invisible spell...”

No answer.

“I don’t think she’s here, Diast,” Iris said. She gasped. “Unless! She was turned into one of the Kitty statues in this fountain! Oh my god, what if she was Kitty the whole time? Their names both start with ‘k’!”

“You’re…joking, right?” Marmalade asked. “That’s not a serious theory, is it?”

“Hey, anything can happen.” Iris said.

A chill ran down my spine, poofing up my tail slightly. It took my brain a few split seconds longer than my body did to process that I heard something. Growling. Then stomps. Past the fountain was a group of the familiar drone soldiers from Wildfire Hearts approaching, with a giant Exa Cani form Laenie beside them. She didn’t seem too thrilled by their presence, as one brushed her arm and she smashed it to bits. The others carried on, marching in our direction. Laenie leapt to the top of the fountain, hanging onto the arm of one of the Kittys on the fountain. She howled at the night sky.

“Alright…so this is…yeah. I can do this.” Marmalade said, shakily drawing her bloodsaber. “For Kalei, yeah.”

“Right, let’s all stay chill…” Diast said.

“Dr. Diast, idea!” Oka said. “Zeta and I have dealt with Laenie like this before, we can lead her away from you guys!”

“We can?” I asked.

“Uh huh!” Oka said. “Check it!” She conjured a vine that swung like a whip, snapping it at Laenie. She growled in response, swatting at nothing before sniffing, seemingly tracking us from that. “See?”

“Now what?” I said.

“Now we run!” Oka said, taking my hand and starting to sprint just as Laenie leapt for us.