I barely had time to get my bloodsaber out as Laenie rocketed ahead. The others did the same as Laenie smashed into a wave of the drone robots before the first group could react and start firing on us. The minivan in a can surprisingly mowed them down as Laenie kept driving like she was on a casual trip to the mall, which was greatly unnerving even if the drones were just robots. As they got smashed and fell apart around us, Elka poured out of their joints. The ones that weren’t hit by the front of the minivan in a can were left to the rest of us to tackle, which in my case meant flailing wildly at any that got close with a freshly ignited bloodsaber. Some were already downed, which I could only assume was Kiki’s doing as she was going much faster than us.

“OK, these guys all can shoot lava out of their gun things so—” I said before having to hastily poke and slash at a drone reaching for me. “I know this gonna sound very unsafe, but do we have to be sitting and buckled up for this? I sat on the wrong side, I’m right-handed, so it’s really awkward to reach across, you know?”

Laenie made it through the first wave and continued on, drifting a bit on a gradual turn.

“Maybe we can just focus on using our powers rather than bloodsabering here?” Oka suggested.

“Yeah!” Kalei said. “Did I tell you guys I got my ice to work for more than just like ice cubes?”

“That’s great!” I said.

“Dunno how helpful it’ll be here though, what with all the snow,” Kalei said.

“Actually, I have an idea!” Laenie said. “Or a suggestion. Or a plea. I’m kind of skidding so can you maybe possibly reduce or entirely get rid of the ice beneath us so we don’t swerve into the sides of the canyon and violently crash and die?”

“Maybe!” Kalei said triumphantly.

As soon as Laenie said she was skidding, I could feel the horrible lurch of the minivan cart not being in as much control. When we were driving on the field of flowers, it at least felt like stable ground.

“You won’t be able to do it on your own,” Lillia said.

“Gee, thanks for the suppo—” Kalei started.

“We’ll have to do this together!” Lillia said. “When I give the signal, spread the melted water to the sides and give us a path!”

“I…er, sure?” Kalei said. "I know we just said we're not gonna use our bloodsabers, but I think I have to to be precise here!"

Lillia immediately breathed a fireball that she directed to her bloodsaber, which held the fire like a torch. Then, waving her sword like a wand, she shot flames beneath us that launched ahead of us like streaks of shooting stars. The ice beneath us melted, but we were now skidding over melted water rather than ice.

“Now!” Lillia yelled.

Kalei aimed her bloodsaber out of the minivan, and I felt rattling beneath us. A few seconds later, all the water shifted to the left and right of us, forming small ice walls. The minivan clunked on the ground and began driving normally again.

“Thank you!” Laenie yelled.

“That was awesome!” I said.

“I can top this,” Kalei said. “That wasn’t cooler than cutting a giant warlord guy’s leg off.”

“My thing really wasn’t that cool,” I said. “But I could’ve maybe helped here? With my thunderstorm powers…and maybe since my gift’s weather I could’ve done something?”

“Potentially,” Lillia said. “But it’s less risky to rely on a proven power than a speculative one. And easier to just give orders to one other person.”

With our position in the canyon, and Laenie’s surprising speed with the cart, Lophor’s drones above us didn’t have a clear shot, so we didn’t have to worry about them for now. What we did have to worry about was another group of the drones already on the ground of the canyon that appeared ahead of us past another wide turn. These were the spider-like drones, which had big, glowing cannons on their backs.

“Zeta, I have an idea,” Oka said. “Can I trust you to trust me to help me do something?”

“Uh…sure?” I said.

The group of spider drones looked to be readying to fire the cannons on their backs.

“I got this group!” Oka said. “Or, me and Zeta have this group!”

Oka turned and winked at me as she unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up, holding her left hand out to me.

“Wait, you’re not going to jump out or something are you?”

“Trust me, just hold my hand tight!” Oka said.

I gripped her hand as tightly as I could, even putting down my bloodsaber to grasp her with both hands. Oka leaned out the other way of the cart (at least as far as she could with me screaming and clamping onto her hands as soon as she started) and aimed her bloodsaber. Just as the cannons were about to fire, a burst of flowers and vines erupted in the center of the group, tying up the spider drones. Some of the vines wrapped around the cannons and turned them downward just as they fired, quickly turning the batch into a pile of metal parts and Elka.

Oka did a brief curtsy to no one in particular (and she also clearly wished she had a dress to do so rather than our adaptive gear pants) then sat back down.

“Alright, now buckle up right away.” I said. “That was super amazing though.”

“Thank you.” Oka said, giving me the adorable smug smile I liked to think she showed only to me.

“Alright, next group’s mine!” Aira said, unbuckling her seatbelt and standing up just as I was settling down after Oka did that. “I’ll come up with something!”

“Maybe just leave it to them…” Laenie said. “You make a good copilot.”

“Aw!” Aira said. “But I haven’t done anything yet. I want to impress—”

Aira was cut off as she vanished out of the minivan in a can. For a second, I thought she had teleported, until I saw her thrashing about above us, held up by flying drones with jets on their backs.