Rising Shards

The ballroom where Chumblerosa once stood had changed significantly since my last visit. First up, a desk had been set up right at the entrance, where hair gel enthusiast Kyre Krista waited. Behind her, a bunch of makeshift walls seemingly made of cardboard had been put up, turning the open space into a mazelike series of hallways.

”State your business,” Kyre said.

”We’re here to meet with Laenie,” Aira said.

”Meeting with the boss, eh?” Kyre said. ”Wait, you’re Aira Orbis. Where’s the jacket Laenie gave you?”

”I kinda...forgot it.” Aira said.

”Hm.” Kyre said. She leaned to either side of Aira to look at us. ”Hmmmm.” She pressed a button on the desk. ”Well, that’s not good.”

”Here we go,” Oka muttered.

”What isn’t?” Aira asked.

”You broke the rules of the gang,” Kyre said. ”You gotta do what the boss says. The boss said no guests.”

”She didn’t tell me that,” Aira said.

”Uh, she did,” Kyre somehow managed to blink in an arrogant manner that had me scoffing. ”It would have been told to you when you received your complimentary biker gang jacket.”

”Nobody said that when I got the jacket,” Aira said. ”It was Ema Kari and Snake Riley who gave me it...and you! You were there! You never said any of that.”

”Hm. Well,” Kyre said. ”Because you brought guests, you have to go through the labyrinth. I don’t make the rules, I’m just the gang’s official receptionist. There’s gonna be challenges in there. Challenges that might kill you.”

”We can turn back if you want, everyone,” Aira said.

”No, this is about what we expected,” Lillia said.

Oka and I nodded. It wasn’t like we had anything else going on. Well, we could be playing beam chasers or cheering Kalei on. I’d probably rather cheer Kalei on than go through a labyrinth, but I also wanted to cheer Aira on too. Kalei had got plenty of our cheer time, it was time for Aira to get a turn.

Kyre let us continue on, and Aira led us through the maze of cardboard walls.

”Laenie always wanted to build a labyrinth,” Aira said. ”I’m kind of proud she actually did it.”

It was a bit of small talk and reminiscing about Laenie for the first stretch, until we ran into a familiar duo. Chumbler polished some kind of cannon looking device while her friend Z.O.K. looked on.

”Oh my gosh, I was kidding about the cannon!” Aira said.

Chumbler noticed us then. ”Well, it’s less of a cannon and more of a...deluxe laser situation?”

”How is any of this allowed on campus?” Lillia asked, stomping her foot down.

”As an expert on lasers, I will say that this is not allowed on campus,” Amara said. ”I can either confiscate it, or destroy it.”

”Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Chumbler said. ”Amara, you of all people know why we need a big laser cannon. Because Rain is scary and threatened revenge against us.”

”She did do that, but I won’t let you use a laser cannon on her,” Amara said.

”Well, we’ve come to an impasse then,” Chumbler said. She tried to climb off of the cannon and fell flat on her face.

”Is this like a challenge by the biker gang?” I asked.

”Seriously, what is this?” Oka asked.

”It is, in a sense,” Chumbler said. ”I didn’t want to give any of my hard fought room space for Chumblerosa over to those biker gang people, but Laenie offered me protection if I merely gave her most of the room, and also stood guard with this freaky looking hunk of metal that doesn’t actually do anything but look intimidating.”

”Chumbler, oh my god,” Z.O.K. said.

”What? What’d I say?” Chumbler asked.

”You gave away that it’s not a real cannon,” Z.O.K. said. ”Now it won’t scare them away.”

”Oh,” Chumbler said. ”Um, want to pretend you knocked me out so Laenie doesn’t get mad at me?”

Lillia and Amara inspected the cannon and on closer examination, it was just some kind of metal art piece. It was only half of a cannon too, the other side was completely hollow.

”Heh, good one, right?” Chumbler asked as we passed her by wordlessly. ”Guys?” Her voice grew distant as we continued on. ”Please don’t tell Laenie I screwed up!”