Kalei awoke to the smell of cinder and ashes. She sat up, groaning, before getting a look of her surroundings. She couldn’t gather much; whatever had been there was mostly destroyed, burned into just charred remains of trees with possible frames mixed within them. Some spots still had embers burning, which meant the fire had to have been pretty recent. Or not, if this is some weird void thing.

She looked around for any of her stuff. Her backpack was missing, which was immediately unpleasant, as was her bloodsaber. “Alright, well this sucks.”

She had no choice but to walk around a bit.

“Is anyone out there?” Kalei yelled. “Zates? Oka?”

Her footsteps kicked up soot and flakes. Every few steps, she could see bursts of sparks that floated up before fading into the air. If she scraped her foot deep enough into it, she kicked up white sand. That got her shoes pretty nasty, so she only did it a few more times.

She heard a small sound, almost like a squeak, above her.

“Huh?”

“Kalei…?” A soft voice said.

Kalei looked up to see Laenie sitting on a branch above her, shivering. She looked more like a cat stuck in a tree than a Cani girl capable of turning into a big monster.

“Can you…help?” Laenie asked. “I think this branch is gonna break…and I don’t want to climb because if I climb…I think this tree will break. And I don’t want to move, because—”

“I got it, it’s alright,” Kalei said. “You wanna just…fall? Maybe?”

She held her arms out.

“I…I don’t know if…” Laenie said. She vanished, then appeared again on the ground in front of Kalei, cradled in Aira’s arms.

“There ya go,” Aira said, setting Laenie down.

“Thank you.” Laenie said.

“I could’ve helped too.” Kalei said.

“Thank you for offering, at least,” Laenie said. “If I just sort of curl up into a ball on the ground from how scary that was…I…er…”

“I’ll pick you up then!” Aira said. “Then I’ll carry a little…Laenie ball around?”

“Was that supposed to be a pun or something?” Kalei asked. Aira looked immensely embarrassed that Kalei even said anything about that, so she backed off, imagining she was about to be hit with Lillia’s sniper squirt gun again. “So what do we do now?”

“We should leave as soon as possible,” Laenie said.

“Then we win the mission?” Aira asked.

“The assignment,” Laenie said.

“Is this even still the assignment mission?” Kalei asked. She thought about how weird it was that 09 was beaming in a voice that sounded like Zeta’s ex. She didn’t have an ex to compare to, but she imagined the experience would be pretty messed up to hear. Then that blood wave.

“Hey, wait,” Kalei said. She checked her pockets. “Aw, man.”

“What is it?” Laenie asked. “Is it bad? Is it really bad and dangerous and—"

“No, calm down a bit,” Kalei said. Laenie looked devastated by being told to calm down, so Kalei backed off on that too. She sighed, wishing she ran into Zeta and Oka first. “Sorry. I was thinking we could try those save point disk things, but I didn’t have mine on me.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea!” Aira said. “Still haven’t gotten to taste that yet.”

Kalei squinted. “I know you document tastes or whatever—”

“In my taste journal, yes.” Aira said.

“But didn’t Diast say they have that nasty solvent…you know what, whatever. Now's not the time. If you guys don’t have any, maybe we need to just keep moving and find—”

Kalei froze, hearing a howling in the distance that made her react like her dog did when it heard a specific, high-pitched tone.

“What? What is it?” Laenie asked.

“Did you hear that?” Kalei said.

“No…?” Aira said.

The howling grew louder as Laenie started to get more frantic, and Aira became more and more unable to console her.

“I don’t like this,” Kalei whispered. She reached for her bloodsaber. “Wait, where’s my…?”

“Uh oh.” Laenie said.

“What do you mean, ‘uh oh’?!” Kalei asked.

“I think we left them on that minivan in a can….?” Laenie said. “That I…put back in can form.”

“Does that mean they’re completely crushed now that it’s back in can form?” Aira asked. “I’ve always wondered how that works.”

“I’m not sure.” Laenie said.

The howling sound morphed into something else. Something that sounded almost familiar. Kalei’s eyes widened as she realized what it was.

“Ah…crap," Kalei said. "I think it’s another—”

A geyser of Elka erupted in front of them, far enough away that they weren’t blown back, but close enough that they could see trees fly up above them. Kalei quickly grabbed Aira and Laenie’s wrists and took off in the opposite direction of the wave, not stopping to see where the trees and whatever else was being thrown into the air.

“I…forgot!” Laenie said. “About that wave of…!”

Laenie’s words descended into screaming. Kalei gripped them both harder and ran faster. Dodging through the burnt trees and branches was tough enough on its own, but even tougher holding onto two people and with a wave of Elka closing in on them. If the first wave brought them here, Kalei didn’t want to know what this one would do.

“Kalei, maybe let go so I can teleport us farther!” Aira said.

“No way, too dangerous!” Kaley yelled. “Just run!”

“OK, then let go so we can run faster!” Aira said.

“Don’t let go of me!” Laenie squealed.

Kalei saw a glint of light up ahead. She thought it was just sparks or embers at first but as her feet pounded on the ground, bringing her closer, she saw it looked like an open door to an underground bunker. There wasn’t time to debate if that was safe or not, it was the only way out.

“There! Go there!” Kalei said, pointing to the hatch.

“Got it!” Aira said and teleported ahead.

“Oh my god,” Kalei said as Aira teleported out of her grasp, landing past the hatch. Aira gave a thumbs up. Then another wave of the Elka appeared behind her. “Oh, my GOD!”

“Aira!” Laenie screamed.

“Stop screaming!” Kalei said.

Kalei put all her energy into sprinting to reach Aira, not entirely sure of what she was going to do when she got close. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the wave of Elka descended on them from all sides. Without thinking, Kalei let go of Laenie, leapt and planted her feet with her hands spread. She wished she had a cool line or something as she felt the energy coursing through her, but just let out a somewhat awkward sounding scream as beams of ice shot from her hands, creating a circular ice wall around them, blocking the Elka waves.

“Holy crap…” Kalei said. She saw cracks start to form as the wave of Elka pushed against the ice. “It won’t hold long, go right now!”

Kalei directed Aira and Laenie inside, then dove in herself, shutting the hatch behind her. She could hear the ice shatter, followed by a torrent raging above her, but the hatch seemed to block any of it from reaching them.

Kalei took a few minutes to catch her breath. She couldn’t see anything in the bunker yet, but they were safe, that was more important. “That was…pretty good practice, I think?” Kalei said. “Not gonna lie, that was pretty sick, right? My freaking Cani powers! Holy hell, I made that hugeass ice wall!”

Aira and Laenie were still catching their breath.

“Oh, yeah,” Kalei said. “Everyone good?”

“I think…I’m OK,” Aira said. Kalei heard Aira pat herself over to check for sure. “Laenie?”

Laenie whimpered quietly. only whimpered in response though.

“Huh?” Aira asked. “Speak up, Laenie.”

“There’s…someone else…” Laenie whispered.

The three looked ahead as at least six or seven pairs of yellow glowing eyes looked back at them, lighting up the darkness of the bunker.