With my portion of the challenge completed, Kalei turned her attention to the others.

“Alright, who’s next?” Kalei said. “Lillia? You up for—"

“Now hold on, gang.”

A large, imposing man in a muscle shirt approached the table. It was the guy Penteldtam introduced as “Mantorvel” at his part of the assembly when we returned to school. He had tattoos across both arms, a neatly trimmed beard, and fingerless gloves. He looked more like a Haven fighter than someone who belonged at our school.

“Who the hell are you?” Kalei asked.

“Name’s Mantorvel,” He said. “Me and the Bring It Real Team are here at Rising Shards at Principal Penteldtam’s request for a few reasons.”

“Bring It Real Team?” Oka asked as I silently hoped he wasn’t here to beat us up.

“That’s trademarked.” Mantorvel said, sternly pointing at Oka. “You can’t say that without saying trademark after it if you’re not part of the Bring It Real Team.”

“Alright…” Oka said.

“Copyright law is something that I will cover later in my curriculum, but for now I’d like to talk to you guys about internet challenges.” Mantorvel grabbed a chair, spun it around and sat down. “Taking on challenges can be fun, but internet challenges can be dangerous.”

For some reason, all of our wristbands suddenly lit up, projecting stock video of kids and high schoolers on computers or phones, looking up internet challenges.

“What the hell is this?” Kalei asked. “Is everyone seeing this?”

“Internet challenges seem like a good way to socialize and connect with your peers, but be careful when you join in on one."

Our wristbands showed video of Cani blowing up windows with their powers (filmed in a cheesy stock video-y style) and drinking from what looked like laundry detergent bottles.

“Are they telling you to eat something poisonous, or use your Cani gifts for nefarious purposes? No matter the case, ask a parent or guardian before attempting any kind of internet challenge, especially anything that seems scary or dangerous.”

The video feed wrapped up with some kids cheering.

“And always remember,” Mantorvel said. “Bring it real!”

Mantorvel left without saying another word, leaving us all incredibly confused. So confused none of us said much for the rest of lunch, except for Kalei saying “What the hell was that?” every few minutes, despite none of us having an answer.

After lunch, our afternoon classes continued normally until it was time for our void practice class. I wasn’t looking forward to going back to the void so soon, but we had been assured up and down this would be something to ease us back into normal void things after how badly the trip went.

As we sat in the waiting room in the void entry building, Iris finally rejoined us, sitting down by Maia. I was wondering where she had been all day, and her arrival chugging from a gigantic water bottle only gave me more questions.

“That’s a big water bottle.” I said.

“Zeta’s really good at subtle, astute observations most people don’t see.” Kalei said.

Oka conjured a long blade of grass and quickly snapped it at Kalei’s wrist.

“Hey, ow! What the hell!” Kalei said.

“New thing, if you’re mean to Zeta, I smack you with grass.” Oka said, pointing the blade of grass at Kalei before it dissipated. “Aw, usually they last a while. Our powers really are drained…”

“I wasn’t being that mean.” Kalei said.

“Alternatively, Lillia could get her squirt gun out again.” Oka said.

“Fine, whatever,” Kalei said. “Iris, what’s the deal with the big water bottle?”

“So I tried to get Feral Flu again, but I accidentally gave myself another bite transmitted Cani thing.” Iris said.

“Is it a Shearing Infection?” Oka asked.

I squinted. “Is…that why Maia’s…?”

“So I have to take a test tomorrow and I wanna make sure it’s all flushed out of my system, you know?” Iris said, taking another big gulp from the water bottle.

While Iris did dodge my question, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pry for more info of the how she got whatever she had. Maia was staring at her phone, not reacting at all, which strangely made me more curious about her potential involvement.

“What, like you have an after-school job that would care about that?” I asked.

“Or is the school cracking down on all the Feral Flu-ing you do?” Oka asked.

“She doesn’t have a job, and it’s not for school,” Maia explained, still not looking up from her phone. “But her mom’s kind of like weird strict so she when she gets concerned, wants to make sure Iris is ‘clean’ or whatever.”

“Doesn’t Iris get Feral Flu like biweekly?” Oka asked. “I’d be concerned too, honestly.”

“Ohhh,” I said. “Stella did that to me once after we watched a show that had a lot of…” I stopped to make sure no teachers or prefects were nearby. “…drug use…” I whispered. “She got worried I was going to fall in with a bad crowd and kept having me take these drug tests. I passed every single one though!”

“Shocker.” Kalei said.

I barely noticed Kalei’s snide remark, as thinking about Stella reminded me that I’d blown up at her. I knew I should apologize soon, but we were in a void challenge so barring a rare occurrence I likely couldn’t get cell service.

“Feral Flu isn’t like…you’re not addicted, are you?” Oka said. “I didn’t want to get Feral Flu again that badly after getting it, but I will admit seeing Zeta like—"

“Stop talking about Feral Flu like it’s a drug!” Iris said. “And this isn’t even about Feral Flu, it’s Shearing Infection! I didn’t drill you guys about the bags of animal food Kalei’s carrying around, can you lay off me already?”

“If you’re not going to drill Kalei about it, I may,” Oka said, poking at Kalei’s paper bags with a foot. “Are you really going to carry this nonsense around all day?”

“Yuh-huh,” Kalei said. “I figured some more pet food challenge would be a good way to kill time when they inevitably make us wait an ass-ingly long time. And lo and behold, look what they’re making us do for an ass-ingly long time! Plus, that Mantorvel guy told me not to and I have to be defiant to him. Also, 'this nonsense'? Is Lillia's talking style rubbing off on you already after one night in her room?”

"What are you even talking about?" Lillia sighed.

Usually for void practice, Caya gave us a speech and then Diast took us aside. But this time, a larger group of our teachers arrived together.

“Why are all our teachers here?” Iris asked.

“They probably want to explain the new pods to us,” Oka said.

Diast still found us like normal, She had also kind of waddled over, which was weird.

“Are you alright, Dr. Diast?” I asked.

“Who, me?” Diast said. “Oh, just in some back pain. Some…really…backful. Back pain.”

“I’m not sure backful is a word.” Oka said.

“Are you up for this today?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Diast said, leaning back in a vain attempt to crack her back. “Agh. I was trying to be all big and strong and offered to move a dresser, then I threw my back out. Makes me feel very…old, ugh.”

“That’s like the least surprising story I’ve ever heard in my life.” Kalei said.

Despite her back pain, Diast still introduced the mission mostly like she normally did; scrolling through her wristband projection screen for a few seconds to look at what was on the agenda before telling us it. Except it was to the whole class, which felt weird.

“The pods are kind of in disarray,” Diast said. “And also in disarray is the whole figuring out who’s filling in the gaps for the groups with recently…vacated students, so here’s the deal. We’re gonna do today’s assignment with the entire class as a group.”

“We do have a rough list of the new pods,” Caya said. “But keep in mind there are new students arriving shortly, so they’ll be very temporary.”

We were given printouts listing all of the new pod lineups. Barring any changes with the incoming students, our new podmates were to be Iris, Maia, and the Matora sisters. Having people replace Aira and Laenie in our pod didn’t feel right, even if they were friends like Iris and Maia.

“Our pod was six before,” Kalei said. “Dr. Diast, do you really think you can handle two more students? You barely kept up when it was just six.”

“Ha ha.” Diast said. “Anyone need any last-minute pep talks before we go in? I can absolutely guarantee now this won’t go like last time.”

“Like super absolutely guarantee?” I asked.

“Yep,” Diast said. “This will be a much lighter, much more organized void trip. This will be a test of mind and teamwork rather than powers, since your powers are all still as sapped as Ultra Taco’s supply of rib fries whenever they bring it out for a limited run.”

“Now I’m really hungry, great.” Kalei said.

“Maybe get some of that pet food out?” Oka suggested.

“Shhh,” Kalei said, then whispered, “I’m waiting til we’re in for that, I don’t want the teachers bugging us about it.” Diast probably heard all of that but ignored her, because there wasn’t much she could do to dissuade Kalei from something like that.