The void monster that looked like a very large man with armor made of bookshelves cleared his throat. Kalei said we could all join in the fight, but she still took the lead.

"I am Shelv," He said as Kalei and I groaned at that name. "I am a servant of Reed. I have faced off with others of your clan before, and they proved to be incredibly weak. For them, I held back and showed mercy, allowing them to be healed between their feeble attempts to beat me. But, like a sentence read over and over in hopes of understanding, their weak attacks were useless. I will show you no mercy, and offer no healing, as this is a game much like reading a book a few grade levels above your own, difficult and hard to parse the meaning of the words on the page—"

Chumbler activated her rolling ball form and slammed into Shelv, bouncing off and landing with a splat in front of us. She quickly composed herself and pretended she had a good landing.

"Shut up already! One note gimmick people are so freaking annoying!" Chumbler said.

"I think it's time I finally show off my moves," Z.O.K. chuckled as she cracked her knuckles. "My power is so crazy, and I haven't gotten the chance to show it to anyone at this school outside of Chumbler."

Chumbler grinned as she patted her friend's back, looking fully supportive before she said, "Nah, you shouldn't, actually."

"What? Why not? Maybe I could one shot this guy," Z.O.K. said.

"What if you kill him so much that your powers go nutso and kill the rest of us? It's too dangerous!" Chumbler said.

"Oh come on, I'm not that strong," Z.O.K. said.

"Well, then your powers are too useless and you shouldn't bother," Chumbler said.

"You just never want me to show my powers because they'll way outshine yours!" Z.O.K. said.

The two started grappling, rolling away from the fight.

I didn't expect Chumbler or Z.O.K. to be any good at this just based on how they'd acted so far today, and similarly was not surprised to see Elisa already distracted by a pop star gossip magazine that had a bunch of pretty boy types on the cover. Roux had vanished, which meant they either bailed entirely or were going to do something cool at the end of the fight so they could get the most glory for the least work. As long as I didn't expect anything of those four, they couldn't let me down, at least. Kalei, Aira, and I could handle it.

Still, this bookshelf monster dude was stronger than anyone I'd ever faced off with before based on how easily. I think Kalei could tell I was anxious as she bumped her shoulder into mine as we got ready to really begin.

"Don't worry, we got this," Kalei said. "Aira, can you distract him for like five seconds? I have an idea."

"Sure!" Aira said, speeding forward via a series of teleports that were kind of dizzying to look at. She struck at Shelv as she did laps around him, not doing any immediate damage but getting his attention.

"Thanks!" Kalei ran to the side, hopping up onto a row of computer tables against the wall. Above it were the bloodsabers mounted on the wall that she was staring at a bit ago. She ripped four down in an impressive single climb up the wall, the boards they were tied to thunking against the ground.

She's so cool, was all I could think as she hopped down, grinning as she pulled the swords off their mounts.

"Two for you two, two for me!" Kalei grinned, holding a sword out for me. I took it carefully, not wanting to cut myself on it. Aira zapped by us, taking a sword, then wincing at it.

"What?" Kalei said as she took the other bloodsabers for herself, twirling them in her hands.

Kalei charged ahead, activating the bloodsabers, readying an icy blast from each that...fizzled out as she swung the swords, landing with plops more pathetic than Chumbler's landing. Shelv stared blankly ahead at the attempt. The room got immediately dusty around her, and I realized the dust was coming from the bloodsabers themselves.

"Old bloodsabers that haven't been used in forever barely work," Aira said. "You want me to go grab mine?"

"Just, whatever, we'll use these!" Kalei said.

"You still looked awesome grabbing them," I said. "That attack would have been sick with working swords."

"Heh, thanks," Kalei said. "You always know just what to say to me."

I was almost stopped in my tracks by the intense butterflies in my gut that gave me, but we had a fight to win. We put the old bloodsabers aside and tried with just our powers. I couldn't do much inside other than rumble the ground, but Kalei made up for that with a barrage of ice blasts. Shelv stumbled back, but they still didn't have much effect.

"We're either gonna have to strategize really well, or just go all out," Kalei said.

"I'm with you whatever you pick," I said.

"Just...pick something better than antique bloodsabers, maybe?" Aira said.

Before Kalei could have a trademark snarky response to that, something sped out from the ceiling. It was a boy in a blue costume, dropping his elbow on Shelv's head. He floated triumphantly over to us.

"Need any help, citizens?" Syval asked.

"Don't call us citizens if we're teammates," Aira said. "I'm fine being in the background of all this, but I don't like being called citizen."

"I guess the team's all here then," Kalei said. She looked around around before whispering, "Is it just people who know now or should we be careful?"

"I don't know where Roux went, so be careful," I said. "And the others are—"

"Ohhh my god, it's Tokickaman!" Elisa said, squealing as she chucked her magazine down, hopping over to us and pointing. "Someone call Achilles in here! Right now!"

"Why Achilles?" Syval asked. "That guy sucks."

Elisa giggled. "Tokickaman, you're so funny! And your feud with Achilles is amazing." 

"What feud?" Syval asked. "I don't think I've even talked to him in..." He coughed. "While doing my heroic...superhero...work."

Elisa gasped, getting her phone out to take a bunch of pictures of Syval. "The only way this would be better is if Osiris could be here and if he could stab Tokickaman in his guts before declaring his love."

"What...?" Kalei said, her face scrunching up like Elisa just sprayed lemon juice in her eyes. She elbowed me. "Marms, who the hell is Osiris again?"

"Some pop singer dude," I said.

"I don't know why I'm even a little surprised." Kalei said.

"I am glad to see this new warrior join the fray," Shelv said. "I prefer doing combat with men instead of little girls, you just talk so much."

"Pfft, what is that?" Kalei said.

"Shelv is sexist, I guess," I said.

Elisa gasped. "Shelv is sexist! Even Achilles respects women and he's a fiery hothead who has many difficulties in life, making him constantly angry!"

"Come on dude, don't be sexist," Kalei said. "Syv—er, Tokickaman. Want to help us deal with this sexist bookshelf?"

"Gladly!" Syval said.