Rising Shards

A few years earlier, I was called into the principal's office. My principal at this school wasn't a complete pushover idiot like Penteldtam nor was she an attention seeking idiot like Kitty, Principal Jagged was ruthless. She had printed out pictures of a teacher's classroom, one where all the desks had been turned upside down and covered in honey, with notes all around saying how much he sucked.

"Uh, I just wanna say, I totally wasn't there," I said before the principal could say anything. I was certain I had a foolproof plan there. "Check my socials, it's totally obvious."

My mom was beside me, and she sighed. Principal Jagged typed on her computer, and turned the big monitor toward me. It had the school's Friendliest page up, where I left a comment on the most recent post. I put a picture of myself working out in the school gym with the comment, "Gonna be here all day (this here's what they call in this business 'an alibi')!"

Mom's next sigh was more a groan, and my certainty in the success of my plan began to deflate.

Principal Jagged let me sit with that one for a while, then went off on me for about an hour. I wasn't even the mastermind of this one, I was just one part of a group prank on a teacher that really did suck and had been using his authority against students for way too long unpunished, so I didn't get suspended, but I had a long detention after getting yelled at. It was worse afterwards where Ma just kept sighing.

"Next time you pull a prank like that, tell me first," Mom said when we were driving home.

"Why, so you can tell me not to?" I asked.

"No, my dear, stupid daughter, you need to learn to not post your alibi on the school's page and announce that it's an alibi," Mom said. "The prank quality needs work, too."

I don't know why that came to mind when I had a million other things I should have been thinking about. Marms was hurt, and I didn't know her status. The ones that hurt her were in my sights. I was currently a giant monster. 

I wondered how much trouble I was in now. 

The chance my mom would wish I had told her in advance so she could help right away with this was about a millionth of a percent. 

With P.D. putting a pin in our mid-fight chat, we got back to it. Aira and Syval took some of the pressure off me immediately, thankfully getting the devils to quit stomping me.

Even while I was still raging, it felt like the brawl after was the coolest thing, with Aira, Syval, and I in sync striking and blocking and countering the devils. In reality I'm sure it probably looked like all of us just awkwardly attempting to fight, but in the moment I had never felt cooler.

Aira focused on Chickadee, teleporting around her. She was already a pro at that, but maybe eating that crystal we found in the lab boosted her power, because she was going faster than I'd ever seen her and wasn't showing any sign of slowing down.

"Hold still!" Chickadee shouted as she missed another attack against Aira.

"Afraid not," Aira said as she landed on the top of Chickadee's head, balancing on her horns just long enough to infuriate Chickadee before zipping off again.

Syval flew ahead, trying to grab at P.D., dodging her attacks. P.D. was clearly well trained, her fighting form almost as elegant as Lillia's. Eventually Syval succeeded by grabbing at her helmet. P.D. tried to swat him away, but in doing so lifted her arms up long enough for Syval to pick her up. He flew her far enough to fling her into one of the nearby buildings. That devil dosage really must have boosted her, because she bounced off of that without a scratch. Still, it definitely did some damage, just nothing that'd end this fight.

I, meanwhile, was focused on Caeda. I really needed to be taking on Chickadee after what she did to Marmalade, but the lilac-tailed girl was in my way. That probably would have been angry enough with that, but Caeda had some additional points that made me willing to go all out, even in my foggy devil form, I remembered all of Caeda's annoying speeches, and her big poofy tail was bugging me when it brushed against me. So I grabbed that and slammed her into the ground.

Caeda yelped, and I could sense her power. I was ready for it, jumping back before I could get elevator'd, but Aira and Syval weren't as lucky, getting stuck in two of them. The boxes didn't lift up though, they were just imprisoned. They tried to smack through, but Caeda's power held. Aira either forgot she could teleport or it blocked her from doing that.

With them incapacitated, P.D. and Chickadee returned to me, and in spite of my best efforts, it looked like they were gonna get in stomp-on-me mode again. But instead of that, P.D. and Caeda each grabbed one of my arms and held me in place. Chickadee stood in front of me.

"Let's wrap this up," Chickadee said, summoning a blast that could have done just that. She didn't hesitate with a big speech or anything, a moment later she fired off a bolt.

I wasn't sure why it didn't land. I didn't instinctively think to through up an ice shield or anything (though I realized immediately after that I could have), so what the hell?

Someone else had blocked it. Instead of Caeda's big poofy tail brushing in my face, it was one with orange fur. To my left, the energy ball smashed into one of the buildings, leaving a crater sized hole in it and sending glass and metal clinking to the ground. None of my opponents nor my rescuer flinched at that.

"Leave this creature alone," Amara said, the laser power still crackling in her hands, glowing brightly in the now-misty rain.

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