Kalei was face to face with some meathead from Falling Shards. Apparently another from this mythical boys' mat ball team I'd never paid any attention to before. I wasn't sure if I should step in before Kalei and this dude named Achilles started fighting. I had no doubts that Kalei could kick his ass, but my concern was that it might trigger her devil state.

After a few intense moments of staring, Achilles swung his fist. I gasped, but I didn't really need to, as Kalei caught his fist, blocking it. Achilles trembled as Kalei held him easily. She was pissed, but she wasn't letting her temper overwhelm her.

"You seriously need to relax," Kalei said. 

Achilles growled as he tried a left hand punch this time. Kalei blocked that one too, this time pushing his fists backward, sending the guy from angry noises to pained ones as his wrists started to bend more than one would want them to.

"A-ah! Fine! I'll back off! Just let go!" Achilles wailed as Kalei let go, trying not to laugh. The big guy grimaced as he massaged his wrists, stepping away. "This isn't over." 

He left us alone, but he promptly went to five other people nearby, saying just about the exact same things he said to Kalei in short order. The others reacted less like Kalei did and more in a cowering and hiding sort of way.

"That was...so, so cool," I said, my eyes sparkling as I found myself staring at Kalei's arms.

She just shrugged. "It was nothing, that guy's just an idiot. Terrible punching form. Glad he backed off right away, at least." 

"The hell was that about, though?" I asked.

Elisa crossed her arms and pouted. "How foolish are you to try and fight him? You're lucky he pretended you were strong and let you off so easily!"

"Yeah, sorry, I guess," Kalei said.

"We got a problem?" Achilles said, his voice growing distant now as he stared at a very old teacher before walking away. "I need to get to Seth Kerres so I can kick his ass once and for all!"

"So he just does an angry bit with everyone?" I asked.

"Gods, do you know nothing?" Elisa said. "Achilles is angry with everyone! His whole life he's been raised with a rich family, but they didn't hold him to the standard he wanted them to, and because of that he's never had an easy life. And then he met Seth Kerres, who bested him in a mat ball game, and Achilles was never the same. He's held onto a grudge for so long and honestly, I think him and Seth Kerres should kiss. I think Achilles is trying to get to Seth Kerres so they can kiss."

"Uh...sure..." I said.

"I really...don't care," Kalei said. "I just know that guy does not go to Falling Shards, I've never seen him before."

"I just know that's an excruciatingly cliche backstory, is he from Generic Soccer Boys XIV?" Roux asked.

"Oh dang, that's a very obscure reference," I said.

"Oh my god!" Elisa said.

"You've heard of that old anime Roux's talking about?" I asked.

"No, shut up!" Elisa said. "And oh my gods! This is the worst and greatest day of my life. The boys are leaving, but I just saw Achilles, and he was talking about Seth Kerres."

We stared, bewildered at this dude as he stormed around just snapping at everyone. He moved on to knocking brochures off of tables and kicking trash cans.

"What the hell? He's just knocking garbage cans over and being a total jackass," Kalei said.

"He's so dreamy," Elisa said.

"That's our opening," Chumbler said, taking about a hundred pictures of Achilles. She opened up her texting app and sent them all to someone (she held her phone at a really weird angle so I could see all of this). "Sent em to my guy. Those'll be on shirts in the hour, too."

"OK, better opening, why don't we slip past this big jackass with everyone swarming around him?" I asked.

It felt like everyone around us was completely transfixed by this big bully skulking around and yelling at people.

"Marms' idea wins," Kalei said. "Aira, c'mon. Just zap us into the library already."

"Oh, sure," Aira said.

Kalei and I held our wrists out, Aira needed physical touch to use her teleporting power with someone else. Or at least I thought that was the case, but a second later all of the group was in the boys' library, with me, Kalei, Aira, Roux, Elisa, Chumbler, and Z.O.K.

Elisa wailed when she realized Achilles was out of eye sight now.

"Why'd you bring her?" Kalei asked, afterwards muttering, "I was trying to say with my face to just bring us."

"I thought it'd be fun to have more, I guess?" Aira said.

"Whatever," Kalei said.

The library was empty, at least people wise, the shelves were still full. Kalei had her attention taken for a moment by some bloodsabers mounted on the wall. "No fair, how come we don't have any weapons on the walls at our library?"

They were out of reach though, so we continued on, trying to find a way to the back rooms where Reed's game was being held. But we only made it a row or two in before another screen dropped down.

"I see we have some guests in the vicinity," Reed said. He was really close to whatever camera he was using, so we could see gross, way too detailed features on his poster shaped face. Because the screen dropped between shelves, we could only see the middle of Reed, but even that was not pleasant.

"Hey jackass, you're blocking most of your own face, why'd you put a projector screen there?" Kalei said.

"I am? Gee whiz, that's a bummer," Reed stepped back. "Penteldtam, look at the camera feed."

Penteldtam scurried around in the background. "Kay, yeah, you're way cut off if you're on the library projector." He guided Reed to stand so we could see his whole stick figure self even with the bookshelves blocking the sides.

Kalei marched ahead, just going under the poster. "Not wasting another second of my life watching that—"

"Hold on, I didn't say you could leave," Reed said. "I just wanna say, if you wanted to play so badly, why didn't you just say so? I've decided to add your team to the game. Your first room is a combat room. Enjoy!"

The lights flickered for a second. Then Kalei crab walked backwards under the projector screen, waving us all backward. We fled the shelves just as a very tall void monster stomped towards us, a weird looking guy seemingly made of bookshelves, which I guess fit the room.

Kalei made sure we were all backed up enough. "I can handle him,"

"No, we should help," I said. "If it's just you, you might..."

Kalei sighed. "Yeah, true. Kay, anyone who wants to help me kick this guy's ass, go for it."

Surprisingly, everyone in our little party readied themselves to fight, even Elisa. It made me feel a bizarre calmness as we were thrust into a sudden battle. I told myself that as long as Kalei kept her devil side away, we could do this without things getting out of hand.