“The First Rule of Robo-Spinners” (78.11) (Kalei)

"Don't be mad," Aira said after we heard the news.

"You can't be serious," I said.

"I said don't be mad!" Aira said.

"I'm not mad at you," I said. "I'm mad at her." I pointed to the ghostly figure next to Aira. Jeans, who'd dropped some very annoying news on us right as the Downside team met up. We couldn't meet by the train tracks, as there were too many people around with the dance, so we ended up just picking a random classroom and hoping nobody would try to come in. "You want us to go save you today?"

"That's what I told her, but she didn't listen," Aira said. "I don't think she likes me much."

"Because you keep shutting me out," Jeans said.

"Or Aira isn't playing nice with your manipulative...manipulating...whatever the hell it is that you do, which is a good thing," I said. "Can't we just wait a day? This is a big day for everyone, I don't know if you noticed."

"Nope," Jeans said. "Because General Blade will be at the dance."

"Wait, what?" Marmalade said.

"It makes slightly more sense when she explains it," Syval said.

"Why are you even here?" I asked. Did he even go to our school anymore with the Falling Shards move? It was him, Aira, Jeans, Roux, and Marms all together here.

"I don't know, aren't I part of the team?" Syval said.

"Sorry, this just has me super crabby," I said.

"Well, don't take it out on me," Syval said.

I felt a supportive hand on my shoulder. Marms smiled warmly at me. "It's all good, let's just hear this out. If Blade's at the dance, or the sprite or whatever? Maybe we can solve this without a huge thing. Think of it like a secret spy mission, or something. Then we'll have time to dance."

"If you say so," I said. "Alright, Jeans, explain, and make it quick."

"A pissed off Kalei Koridia is not someone you want against you," Roux said. "I would also cast my vote to getting this done quickly, I have a dance partner who's waiting on me."

"This hopefully won't take long," Jeans said. "To explain, and to accomplish. So to recap, Rem, that's the guy that's stuck in Syval right now, him and I went on a mission trying to take down a powerful retention sprite, General Blade. We got there, she defeated us, we ended up stuck in Atrian crystals to recover. Then the Taramin Labs folks got a hold of those, Blade got away, Aira and Syval...decided to eat the crystals, now we're here."

"Right," I said, following along but sort of in a 'if I think about it for more than three seconds the logic of it all won't track a single bit' kind of way that I'd grown somewhat used to with Cani life.

"The Blade sprite is here," Jeans said. "I have a theory as to why."

"You probably brought her here," I said. "If this turns out to be a whole scheme, I'm kicking your ass as soon as you're out of Aira and that crystal."

Jeans laughed, a giggle that was way too cute for someone as horrible as her. "I wish I could plan something like this."

"So someone...planned it?" Marmalade said. "Is it whoever's getting these imps?"

"That's what I think," Jeans said. "Maybe some students are figuring imps and retention sprites are the key to great power. But they don't know that we're against them."

"OK, so if I have this right, all this imp crap has been about powering people up," I said. "And now they have this powerful-ass retention sprite with them, or always had it."

"Uh huh," Jeans said.

"So we go find Chickadee then," I said. "We know she's in on it."

I kicked myself for all the times I'd failed to stop Chickadee Girliepop and whoever was in her band of idiots. Every time she was either a step ahead, or I sucked ass too much to do anything.

"We do?" Syval asked.

"Dude, do not ask me questions while I'm working this out," I said. "It barely makes any sense to begin with. I know Chickadee's involved with the imp thing, Caeda, and some cloaked girl. Who's probably Jeans."

The cloaked girl said they were doing this for some greater good. But what good would having some powerful retention sprite do? Or the imps?

"I keep telling you, I'm not involved with this," Jeans said.

"Whatever, I'm still not trusting you," I said. "I'm doing this to get you out of Aira so she can have a moment's peace without you butting in, and for Syval so he doesn't explode or whatever."

"I still can't even get my guy to talk," Syval said.

"And I'm pretty good at tuning Jeans out, but I appreciate you wanting to help," Aira said.

"If we find Chickadee, and she has this sprite or imp of General Blade, we'll probably zap to a stupid version of the dance in the void," I said. "We kick her ass, free you and Rem, then dance. Is that what I'm getting?"

"I'm honestly impressed you were able to piece it together and explain it," Roux said. "Granted, I had this figured out just before Jeans said a word today, but still."

"Uh huh, sure you did," I said.

"That's more or less the situation," Jeans said.

"Kay, let's get this done then," I said. "Do we need to plan this out or anything? Or should we just head over and try to find Chickadee? Or Caeda too, I guess."

"That's a good enough plan for me," Marmalade said.

I hated the idea of doing this now, but if Marmalade was OK with it, I supposed I could be too. If nothing else, I had her. And we had a dance to get to, so freeing my friends of this annoyance by defeating a retention sprite didn't sound too bad. If it wrapped up this whole imp business too, that'd be a nice bonus.