Rising Shards

Our fortunes had turned from hopeless to hopeful so quickly I could barely process it. Roux stood over Kris Krag, their sword still in his back, void monster goo leaking from his wound as he was still.

“Tsk tsk tsk,” Roux said. “This carpet…is ruined.”

“Roux? How’d you get in here?” I asked. “Hey, we can talk again!”

“Booo.” Kalei said. “That’s the best one liner you can come up with?”

“I didn’t say a one liner,” I said. “Oh, you mean. I see.”

“Koridia, you have no taste, so don’t tell me what a good one liner is,” Roux said. “And teacher asked me to be a backup plan in case you lot inevitably failed, and guess what? Roux once again saves the day. And not my usual teacher, other teacher. You know what I mean.”

“We get it,” Kalei said.

Kris jolted, stirring and growling as he rose to his feet, Roux's bloodsaber falling out of his back.

"What...happened?" Kris turned, looking right past Roux before turning back to us. "My...girls..." He stumbled toward us, doing a zombie walk again.

"Alright, you're all gonna have to work together on this," Diast said. "Give him everything you got! But try not to break the walls or anything so the house doesn't collapse on you."

Kris Krag darted to Marmalade, drooling as he reached his hands forward. Still seated on the bed in Kris' room, Marmalade's hands shot up, ready to conjure her earthquake powers, but she faltered just before she could summon them. She probably didn't want to bring the entire house down around us. I didn't react in time, but fortunately Kalei's quick instincts were on point.

"Stay the hell away from her!" She bellowed, kicking Kris Krag squarely in his chest. Her kick landed with such force that her ice powers burst out from it, sending the monster through the huge window. I shrieked at the glass shattering, but most of it went into the backyard along with a tumbling Kris Krag.

"Wow." Oka said.

"Heh, didn't even know I could do that," Kalei said. The momentum from her kick had her landing seated right next to Marmalade, and her arm was wrapped around Marmalade's lower back.

"You good?" Kalei asked.

"Yeah," Marmalade said, her eyes wide and her cheeks bright red.

"Awesome," Kalei said, patting Marmalade's back as she rose. "Let's finish this guy for good."

"Watch the glass!" Diast said as Kalei got ready to leap out of the window.

Kalei groaned, rolling her eyes as she made a slide of ice that covered all the broken glass on the window frame.

"See, I think this might be potentially more dangerous," I said. "Slipping and falling could really do a number on us."

"I echo that sentiment," Lillia said.

"Then go around front and meet me there!" Kalei said, gracefully jumping to the top of her cold construction and sliding down.

"She's really fired up about this," Oka said, hearing the sounds of battle outside. "Or...maybe she's a bit...freezed up?"

"If Kalei heard that, she'd probably roast you for it." I said.

"I know, that hit me as I said it," Oka said. "Anyways, we should probably go help."

Oka and I were a bit too cautious to take the slide way out.

"I can just teleport, so..." Aira said before blipping to the backyard.

"Why didn't she bring any of us with–you know what, I'm letting it slide." Lillia said.

A still shaky Marmalade led the rest of us to the front door (the house was remarkably barren outside of the bedroom) and we found Kalei and Aira stomping on Kris, who kept getting up despite their best efforts, which included Kalei launching more ice blocks at his face and Aira smacking him with the wooden train whistle she'd gotten with her costume.

"What's it take to kill this thing?" Kalei asked.

"Let's just try everything at once!" Oka said.

"Yeah!" I said. "TeamStarlightgo!"

"Zates, don't throw in a quick 'Team Starlight go' all quietly and think I won't notice!" Kalei said.

"Too late, Team Starlight already going!" Oka said. "Hey, can we try the one we've been practicing?"

"Oh, yes!" I said.

I stood beside Oka, shoulder to shoulder with our hands clasped, raising them with each of us doing a finger gun deal. We blasted our power at Kris Krag, a beam of storms with vines spiraling within it battered monster.

"So, clumsy...ha...ha...silly Zeta..." Kris said. He was met with a burst of fire at his back from Lillia, and a further barrages of ice and powers from the rest of the group.

"I have an idea," Marmalade said. "Everyone keep doing what you're doing!"

She held her hands out, clenching them and pulling. The ground shook.

"Marmalade...?" Kris said, perhaps sensing that this was a climactic moment. "You're my favorite...you wouldn't hurt an average guy like me, would you? All of you...weren't you happy with the presents?" He continued talking like he wasn't being battered with eight different beams of Cani energy. "I wanted to play video games with you, the ones who liked video games. Aira, didn't you want to go train watching with me? Zeta, oh Zeta...I really wanted to see you in those panties I bought you."

"Can someone aim for his mouth to get him to stop talking, please?" Oka said.

"Most of all, I wanted to marry Marmalade," Kris said. "But you're all mine, so I'd marry you all too. I still can, if you'd just..."

The ground under Kris gave way from Marmalade's powers, dropping him into a shallow, cube shaped pit. A moment later, Kalei dropped a block of ice almost perfectly sized to fit into the pit like toy blocks. Kris cried out one last time before he was crushed completely, void monster ooze bubbling up on the sides of it.

"This carpet..." Roux said, eyebrows raised smugly. "Is ruined."

"Oh my god," Kalei said. "You can't just use the same one liner again. We're not even on carpet anymore."

"The absurdity of it makes it better," Roux said. "You wouldn't understand."

"Well, anyways, is it over?" Oka asked.

"I believe so," Lillia said, using her flames to melt the cube and inspect the damage. "Yes, I think that did it."

"That...really sucked." I said. "But good teamwork, everyone!"

"Yeah, remind me never to make Kalei and Marmalade mad with that last move," Oka said.

"Heh," Kalei said. "I guess my powers are a lot stronger when I'm really pissed or something."

Marmalade's grin was so bright that it almost made this ordeal worth it. “Thanks for that save, too. I…really appreciated you doing it.”

"No problem," Kalei said, grinning back.

“I better hear everyone say they really appreciated me next,” Roux said. “As a secret weapon, I think I did swimmingly. And do you want to know how I did so well?”

“We’re never gonna hear the end of this.” Kalei said.

“How’d you do it, Roux?” Aira asked.

“Heh heh heh…” Roux said. “It’s all due to you, slaves to binaries that you are, being doomed to that monstrosity before you even realized it, and me being free of that being our ace in the hole, our star player, our…whatever you call the lead player on an extreme DVD commentary game.”

“I think that verbiage of that first half there might be a bit harsh.” I said. "Even if I agree with the sentiment?"

“I’m doing a speech, quiet.” Roux said.

“Sorry.”

“Anyhow, free as I am of this monstrosity’s desire filled eyes," Roux continued. "Obviously due to the monster’s dim wit and strict adherence to gender norms than anything about my appearance, was able to sneak around unnoticed. Which, in its own strange way, does fill me with some kind of good vibe or whatnot.”

“It’s nice we at least get some euphoria out of this ordeal,” Marmalade said.

“True, and thanks for the rescue, Roux,” I said. “We were pretty screwed without you.”

“As is usually the case,” Roux said. “Invite me to more things, Fuller.”

“It’s…Faleur.” I said.

“I know, I just like the face you make when someone pronounces your last name like that.” Roux said.

“And it’s Chickadee!”

“Huh?”

A girl stood peered over the fence, posing victoriously.

“That’s right! I, Chickadee Girliepop, am responsible for this, uh, that guy. I planted him all by myself, hehehe….” She giggled to herself as we processed the information. It hit me that she probably inflicted that Kris Krag on us when she followed us to Tik’s makeshift office.

“That’s…not your real name, is it?” Oka asked.

“Huh? It is, though?” Chickadee said. “Anyways, congratulations on foiling my scheme or whatever, but because I got this far, I get extra credit points for my pranking class.”

“Seriously, what are classes like at Wildfire Hearts?” I asked.

“A complete waste of time for the most part,” Aira said.

“Alright, well congrats, can you go now so I can get my students home?” Diast asked, projecting through our wristbands so Chickadee could hear.

“Whoa, who said that?” Chickadee asked. “Yeah, sure. As long as you remember this day. Whenever you think about your encounter with a Kris Krag, just remember, Chickadee Girliepop sent hi–aw crap!" She fell over the top of the fence, doing a full flip before flopping on her back.

After all that, we needed some hefty recharge time once we were back home. For Oka and I, that meant sitting in her room together. It felt especially cozy without our unwanted guest around, like breathing through both nostrils after a cold passes and one isn’t all stuffy anymore.

“I need lots of Zeta time now,” Oka said. “He didn’t stand a chance against me, but I was still getting kinda jealous when he was flirting.”

“I got super jealous whenever he asked to see you alone.” I said.

“Same here!” Oka said. “Also, please don’t ever talk like that guy.”

“I can still call you cute and junk, right?” I asked.

“Of course!” Oka said. “Call me beautiful whenever, but it’s different when you do it. I don’t want any of that empty disinterest. I want to hear everything you’re excited about, mad about, whatever. That passion makes us who we are!”

“Dang right!” I said.

“Did that help distract you from the…you know business?” Oka asked.

I shrugged. The day felt so long just from the Kris Krag situation, but I had that whole scary bit with the memories of my parents too. “I guess. But I think just getting through it helped more. And having you there. I was really gonna freak out right before you held my hand.”

“I was really worried I was holding your hand too tightly!” Oka said.

“No way, it was just the right amount of hand hold pressure.” I said. “That sounds weird.”

“Nah, I get it,” Oka said. “I’ll do my best to make it to as many of those as I can, then.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But no pressure, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Oka said softly before hugging me. “You know how Marmalade was talking about that euphoria she got?”

“Uh huh,” I said.

“I didn’t always get what y’all mean by it,” Oka said. “But I think I’m kinda feeling it. Like…” She buried her face against me. “It’s gonna sound stupid.”

“If you don’t wanna say it you don’t have to,” I said. “But I am a bit curious now.” I kissed the top of her head.

“Well, that guy, he was like. Very straight. Like nothing wrong with straight, but he was toxic about it, so. It makes me happy that I’m gay."

"Awww, like you're feeling euphoric a bit?"

"Kinda!" Oka said. "And that we beat him with queerness, if you think about it. That’s neat, I think.”

“That’s true,” I said. “Roux being nonbinary made them invisible to Kris.”

“Which ended up being that particular void monster’s downfall,” Oka said. “And us all being various sorts of gay probably helped reflect all his hypnotic power, at least I’m telling myself that. So that’s not dumb?”

“I think something that makes you happy to be who you are isn’t dumb,” I said.

“At least we got that out of it then!” Oka said before she pulled away a bit, an eager look in her eyes. “What say we express that good feeling together?” Oka asked, then laughed. “That came out so dorky!”

“No, it was good!” I said, blushing. “I liked that!”

We both flirted back and forth a bit, getting derailed by our own self-consciousness to the point where we were just giggling at each other, but giving each other attention like that was a perfect way, to steal Oka’s words, to express that good feeling together.

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