I tried to not think about how much it'd hurt getting impaled on some spiky ruin of the Sharai empire as darkness surrounded me. I almost screamed, but found my voice wouldn't let out. I think I fell out of the little office tank thing, but in that desperate and confusing moment, I can't honestly say for sure.

Just as I resigned myself to spending the next however many months in a Cani rescue facility, I felt a strong grip around my waist. Kalei, still in her Downside form, had an arm wrapped around me.

A bluish light shone beneath us, like rays of hope cutting through thunderstorm clouds, as Kalei used her ice powers. First, a giant disc of ice formed beneath us. My stomach lurched, as it was very far beneath us, and even with Kalei's grip on me I wasn't sure we could handle this. As soon as Aira and Syval, the two floating in front of me, realized they could see again, they rushed for Roux. Aira tried to grab them first, but they slipped through her hands. Syval flew by, completely missing them. Kalei grunted, using her free hand to grab Roux.

We still had a long way to fall, though. Kalei squeezed me, as if she was saying to hold tight. I couldn't exactly do much else, and I hoped she had a better plan than just trying to land on her feet. I clamped my eyes shut as I felt some kind of impact, then a rush of momentum. I peeked to see that Kalei had conjured ice under us, making a slide. The ice forming was just a bit ahead, but Kalei's Downside power boost meant she could add more each second without issue, curving us around in a spiral.

"Add a loop! Loop!" Roux said, punching Kalei's leg.

Kalei grunted, not granting that wish. Even though I was still terrified, riding down an ice slide of the girl I had a huge crush on was incredibly fun. Each time we made a turn around a bend, I was worried we'd fall off, but Kalei just held on tighter. Her skill skating around in beam chasers came in handy here. The ground got closer and closer, and I started to hear the thuds of the Sharai retention sprites landing around as well. It didn't sound like the fall put them back into Elka goop form. Kalei stood up just as she slide reached the ice disk, skidding forward a bit. She set me down gently, and Roux squirmed until Kalei dropped them too, with them landing on their butt.

"Ow! Damn it that hurts!" Roux said, grabbing their ass and stomping their feet.

Kalei growled.

"Yeah, you only fell like a foot," I said.

Roux stood up quickly, pointing at me.

"First off, I fell a foot off from Koridia's grasp, after we fell like a bajillion feet," Roux said. "Second, you can understand her now when she's in Roux Jr. mode?"

"I guess so?" I said. I hadn't really understood her before, but I was just going by the tone of her grunts and growls. "I guess I'm just more in tune with it today."

"I see." Roux said. "I understood as well, I'm just surprised you too understood her beastly language without taking an expert level course in Cani/Exa Cani/Kanibari growl speak like I did over the summer at a prestigious college."

"Yeah...weird..." I said.

Aira and Syval returned back to us. There was no energy cord coming from Aira, so that fall must have sent Jeans back to wherever she was.

"Sorry we missed you," Aira said, teleporting our way.

Syval flew down and almost tripped on his face slipping on the ice. "You couldn't conjure up like non-slip ice?"

The mobile office computer thing had landed nearby, thankfully not breaking the ice disk Kalei made for us to stand on. I penguin-walked over to it, looking below and seeing a blob of a building beneath us, which was very spiky as Jeans said. The cart was on its side, though, and too heavy for me to lift up. Kalei picked it up with one hand. Not knowing what else to do and wanting to see if it still worked, I did another enemy scan. A majority of the Sharai sprites had fallen into the depths, but were still active. The remaining ones were ahead of us, getting back to their feet.

"Are they seriously still going?" I asked.

Without giving us any warning, Kalei slammed a fist down on the ice. Bolts of energy rushed ahead like electric waves, until the section of ice disk the Sharai stood on broke off into a big chunk. Then those too fell into the abyss, joining their brethren.

"So...we won, then, right?" Aira said.

"Who even cares anymore?" I said. "I gotta say, if we're doing this team thing, we can't just pick up random requests from shady people like Jeans."

Kalei sighed, like a sleeping dog letting out a contented huff, shifting back to her regular self.

"Wait, wait!" I said, turning around instinctively. Kalei just laughed and patted my back. "Are you good?"

"I wore my adaptive gear this time, I'm more than good," Kalei said. I could hear the snarky glee in her voice. "You don't have to get so...like that about it, you know."

"Well...I'm just trying to be polite," I said.

"I wouldn't shift back with everyone around if I didn't have my gear on," Kalei said.

"Right, right," I said, blushing as I felt like everyone was staring at me.

I was almost relieved when Jeans projected herself out again.

"Technically you didn't really win," Jeans said. "My sprites are still down there, and if we played the flute again they'd find a way up here. But, still, I'm impressed. I didn't think there was a way to beat them when they got this strong."

"Can't you just wave em away and turn them to goop again?" Aira asked. "Or is there a different song to play on the flute to do that?"

"Nope," Jeans said. "The ones I've seen stick around are probably impossible to kill. But still, you put up a good fight. I'm definitely interested in working with you more."

"I don't care about working with you," Kalei said. "But you did promise to tell us the deal, so at least give us that. We'll figure out what next later."

I didn't even really care to hear that, but with Jeans connected to Aira for the moment, she was harder to tell to just go away in general.

"Can we go back home first?" I asked. "The longer we stand here, the more I'm picturing this just falling out under us."

"Yeah, seriously," Kalei said. "I trust my powers and all, but..."

"I think this would be a great spot to tell the story, actually," Jeans said.

"Yeah, well, you're like a ghost in my body or something so it wouldn't matter if you fell," Aira said. "So my vote is home."

The rest of us voted the same. I looked upward, the spiral slide Kalei made still standing. It was curious how dark it was above us, in spite of the pits that should have allowed sunlight in it was like there was just nothing. It fit how I felt about this whole operation that day, looking for some glimmer of hope that we were on a decent path, and only finding positives in something Kalei made or contributed. I looked over to her, wondering again if she was doing any of this to impress me. Unlike when she was in her Downside form, I couldn't read her expression as well now. She looked content after ending the fight, sure, but also carried herself a bit like she did when she finished taking a test she knew she got a C- on at best, slouching a bit, gaze not meeting anyone else's. Maybe the strategy of just barreling forward on this Downside thing and hoping it would work out was wearing on her.