Rising Shards

The chain link fence let out a jingling sort of noise each time Ovie stomped on me. Far away, I heard kids laughing. Their laughter sounded strangely familiar, it was only later that I realized it was a stock kids laughing sound effect I'd probably heard in hundreds of shows and movies before.

In the moment, I was more focused on the kicks to my ribs.

"You stupid! Dumb! Idiot!" Ovie was flanked by her cronies, who were all snickering as she attacked me.

Why wasn't I fighting back? How'd I even get here? Surely I could beat Ovie in a fight. But I just stayed there, not doing anything, like my body wouldn't let me.

"Bring It Real kids, what's wrong with this picture?" A deep voice that I'd heard before.

"Huh?" Ovie said.

We all looked over to see a muscular guy with a bunch of kids at his side. My brain was in a daze and I couldn't really focus, but I remembered him, that guy that Penteldtam was hanging around with a while ago, who'd show up and do PSAs with those weird kids with him. Mantorvel.

"Bullying is something that is bad," Mantorvel said, offering the terrific advice you could only get from the most high quality of public service announcements or educational videos that my school district loved. "If you bully, that is also bad. So don't bully. And if you're getting bullied, don't."

"Wow," I grunted. "Great help."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Ovie said.

Ovie sucked, but she didn't sound like herself. Normally her insults at least attempted to be more biting. This was as if she was cast as a bratty bully 12-year-old in some after school special.

My eyes got wide when I thought about after school specials. That's exactly what this felt like.

"Hey...wake up," A soft voice said near me.

"Huh?" As Mantorvel scolded Ovie with the worst anti-bullying tips ever, I rolled over, where a cloaked girl crouched on the other side of the fence. I couldn't see her face, it was like she had some magic hood on that completely hid her features.

"Er...well, don't wake up wake up, you're awake, but like, wake up from this dream world character they put you in," she said.

"Do...I know you?" I blinked, feeling like I was gonna throw up as my mind tried to reconcile where I was with my actual reality.

Marms and I had just gotten off the bus. We went into the building and...walked right into another one of these stupid things, didn't we?

When the barfy feeling passed, I scooted closer to the fence, not quite ready to stand yet. Even if this was some kind of void made place, Ovie's kicks still hurt. The girl didn't answer me.

"Do I know you?" I repeated to the cloaked girl, a bit more forcefully.

"That's a secret," The cloaked girl said as she held a single finger in front of her face. "Well, we only kind of know each other, we haven't talked too much at school. I played volleyball with you once, though."

"Uh...kay..." I tried to remember who I played volleyball with in the past.

The girl hung her head low. "But right now we're on opposite teams, so things might get dicey..."

"Opposite teams? What do you mean?" I asked.

"All this imp stuff that's been happening, it's...," she said. "Let's call it some painful stuff working toward a greater good. They, or we, I guess...we needed five imps, because they generate a specific kind of power, so we found Reed, a Thadley, and now Mantorvel, Mr. Sleebo, and Glump."

"They sure know how to name these guys, huh..." I could barely follow this, it was like being told a math lesson while on a roller coaster. "Why are you getting them?"

"That's a secret too," the girl said, doing that 'shhh' thing again. "We already just about got what we wanted out of the last three imps, and I don't think we need to put you all through this scenario too long, so I thought I'd give you a hand."

"But we're on 'opposite teams,' aren't we?" I said.

The girl nodded. "Things are gonna get worse there, I'm sorry to say. You'll probably hate me the next time we meet. But for now, think of this as me trying to apologize in advance."

"You could just like..." I groaned, my ribs throbbing from Ovie's kicks. "Not do this?"

The cloaked girl shook her head. "What we're doing needs to be done. You'll see very soon."

"Great..." I said. If this girl really was my enemy, maybe I should've done something to stop her there. But I just sat there, listening to her talk.

"Two more things before I go," the girl said. "You have to beat all three to go back. You all beat the others, so I'm sure you'll handle them just fine. Just do what you did to Reed, I think they're all weak to your ice powers."

"What I did...?" I asked. "How do you...?"

How'd she know that, seriously? It was just a few of us in the room when I attempted to beat up the stick figure imp and froze him in a big block.

"And the second thing," The girl stood up, dusting off her cloak around her thighs and knees. "Pick something nice when you get back to the shopping spree."

"Uh..." I said. "Sure, yeah."

With that, the girl practically vanished, either leaving in a flash or, I dunno, teleporting out of the void or something. I got back to my feet.

"A bully is a bully now, but a bully doesn't always have to be a bully," Mantorvel said.

Extremely tired of all this imp business, I channeled my power and promptly formed a block of ice around Mantorvel. I left space for his head so he wouldn't suffocate or anything, then wondered if void imps even breathe. The weird little Run It Straight kids hissed at me like little demons, so I growled at them, a deep guttural one that sounded like my Downside form took over my vocal chords for a second. That scared the little bastards away, and I punted Mantorvel's ice block after them.

"I knew something was up with that guy," I said. "Didn't think void imp, though. Penteldtam just start dating a bunch of imps? Well, two so far I guess. Watch him date the other two they're talking about..."

Ovie, 09, Risa, Chellsi, and Mikeila-Keila just stared blankly at me.

"Oh, right, you're all still...whatever," I said.

I didn't care if they snapped out of it or not...well, Risa I would probably care a bit with our history, but in that moment I just wanted to get this over with. I walked away, not caring if they followed me or not. I needed to kick whatever the hell Mr. Sleebo and Glump were, and also make sure Marms was safe wherever they tossed her in this mess.

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