Aira suddenly teleported to us with Chellsi still tied up with her.

  “Aira!” I said. “Get out of here!”

  “Hey, I was going to ask is it OK if I teleport Chellsi back, and like if that’s in character with being a detective? Is that allowed in the rules of the game?” Aira asked, then noticed Laenie. “Oh.”

  “…’oh’?!” I said.

  “Yeah, did I mention Laenie’s an Exa i?” Aira said.

  “No!” I said.

  Exa i, the shapeshifter type. The dumb i tutorial video I had to watch mentiohem briefly. But even with the agonizing ru didn’t mention anything like the beast snarling and growling at me. In that moment of terror and guilt for what I had caused, I also had a moment ret for not reading You Are Also Not a Werewolf: While as a i You Teically You Share Beast Like Qualities Simir to Werewolves, but There are Also Numerous Differences Which are Detailed Within.

  The giant and monstrous form Laeook swung at us. Chellsi and Mikei-Kei were screaming, Chellsi more so since she was the tied up one. Aira wasn’t at all shaken, while I cowered near Oka, trembling as I held the bloodsaber up, as if the toothpick I held would be able to stop the like ten-foot giant shaking with rage.

  “We messed this up really bad!” I said.

  “You really did.” Ovie said.

  “You’re part of this too!” Oka said. “More than us, you stole her stuff and wouldn’t stop messing with Zeta!”

  Laenie s Oka then, like a crocodile jaw barely missing its prey as Oka fell backwards.

  “How do we fix this, Aira?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure, actually,” Aira said. “Laeold me she was an Exa i, but I’ve never seeransform.”

  “Why isn’t she attag you?!” Ovie asked, in full sword fighting stance. I realized in that moment I would have been wrecked by her if we dueled, she was clearly better trained.

  “I’m not the one who made her mad,” Aira said.

  Aira grabbed Chellsi and Mikei-Kei, who were now just babbling nonsense, and teleported away. She blinked back a few seds ter.

  “Sorry, they were being really annoying.” Aira said. “Now, where were we?”

  “Right here!” Ovie said as she lu Laeh her bloodsaber.

  Ovie’s ssh didn’t get anywhere close as Laenie punched her, ung her across the field far out of sight.

  “I’ll get her,” Aira said, and teleported again.

  It was just me and Oka, and Laenie looked ready to kill.

  “Do you know anything we do to make her go back to normal?” I asked.

  “I heard ohod at my old school!” Oka said. “It involved a lot of beets. Like, an obse amount of them. Otherwise, I got nothing.”

  “ you make beets with your pnt powers?” I asked.

  “No,” Oka said. “juring stuff like beets is actually a lot more plicated than flowers and vines.”

  “Terrific!” I said.

  Laenie ag bad forth, giving me a fshback to a trip to the zoo where I saw a rare indigo tiger, and in my infinite wisdom made it really mad by jumping around in front of it. It had the same look Laenie did and the same ready to kill pace, but there wasn’t a gss wall separating us like the tiger.

  “Did Diast or Caya say anything on how to stop an Exa i?” I asked, w if I had enough time befetting sughtered to ask Diast for help.

  My wristband binged.

  “Request submitted. Searg database for EXA I.” The wristband said.

  “Ah!” I said. “This thing’s actually good for something!”

  “Exa i database located.”

  “Yes!” I said. “Open! How to stop! What to do! Search that!”

  “Exa i database loaded. Loaded. Loaded. Loaded-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dddddddddd—”

  My wristband s turned blue and the OS crashed.

  “Oh, e on!” I said. “AH!”

  I just barely dodged Laenie who jumped at me. She nded with a heavy thud behind me. I scrambled to Oka’s side. Laenie had nded headfirst and was snarling as she pulled herself back up.

  “Wait, mine’s w!” Oka said. “Search Exa i!”

  “Exa i database located.” Oka’s wristband said.

  “Stuff’s happening!” Oka said as her proje ged to a loading s. A video popped up.

  “Hi, I’m Thadley, and I’m like, uh. Here to talk to you dudes about…Exa i, I guess.”

  “NO!” I said.

  “Skip to something that’ll actually help!” Oka said.

  The proje skipped ahead a se. Now it was a graphic of an Exa i that looked very simir to Exa Laenie.

  “To pacify an Exa i that’s gone feral,” The video started.

  “Yes, that!”

  “Hold on, before we get to that, here's a KIDS’ ZONE FUN FACT." An e WOW! effect smooshed over the s as we groaned. "A feral Exa i is incredibly simir to a basii with the feral flu, just with a transformation!!”

  “I’m going to find the studio that filmed this and burn it to the ground!” I said.

  "Wow, that was iing!" The narrator said. "And alright, time for some KIDS’ ZONE SURVIVAL TIPS. When fronted with an untrolled Exa i, there is a only accepted method to pacifying them.”

  We were half watg and half prepping to dodge as Lae ready to charge again.

  “That method? Beets. If you find enough beets and make the Exa i eat em, they’ll calm dht away. You also find trated beet jui pill form.”

  “Hey, I was right!” Oka said.

  “Any ce this is actually a beet farm?” I asked.

  “There is oher method, to be used in case you don’t have access to this medie.” He said. “You’ll least two i each with a full set of four fangs. All of those fangs, well, they gotta bite the Exa i. The trated energy tained in those pers is actually pretty simir to the energy i juice, if you believe it!”

  Oka and I looked at each other. Laenie tio snarl.

  “Do we really have to?” Oka asked. “She has fur now, it’s gonna be so gross. And also...how?”

  “Wait, remember that thing from that fighting videel made us watch?” I asked.

  “Whie?” Oka said. “He showed us like fifty already!”

  “The one where the two little guys split up and ran around the big guy?”

  “I mean, kinda?” Oka said.

  “Let’s do that! You go left and I ght!” I said. “Whoever Laenie sees first is the distra, the other oes her then!”

  “Alright, let’s just go for it!” Oka said.

  We both started running towards Laenie. If I had to be brutally murdered by one of the other students at school who’d transformed into a giant monster, at least I was going out with a friend.

  Laeuro me first, which meant it to Oka to go in for the bite. I thought that’s how it’d go at least. Laenie instead just grabbed us both and picked us up, crushing us in her hands and killing us instantly.

  Or at least, she squeezed my ribs so hard it felt like I was already dead. I swung my sword kinda in the general dire of her big ugly monster head, but she just leaned in and bit the bde, shattering it ie.

  Exa Laenie seemed to like the taste of the bde bits though, a ping. In that moment she’d fotten about us, I leaned as much as I could forward despite the shooting pains and bit dowing a mouth full of Exa i fur which was nasty. Laenie howled but still held on to me. It to Oka now. Just as things started to feel fuzzy, I was on the ground, wind knocked out of me. After a few heaving minutes I could breathe again, and it didn’t feel like I had broken anything somehow. I sat up to see Oka and a de-transf Laenie on the ground.

  “Wow…” I said. “That sucked.”

  “It looks like she’s alright,” Oka said. “I don’t know if she’s asleep or knocked out…”

  “Are you alright? My ribs feel like I got fttened.” I said.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” Oka said.

  Oka snapped her fingers and jured two short vines.

  “Eat this,” Oka said. “It’s a healing pnt.”

  I took a bite, hoping my body would actually let me swallow it.

  “That’s actually delicious,” I said. It was like a hollow stem of a pnt covered in amon, and the pain started to evaporate pretty quickly.

  “Thanks!” Oka said. “Maybe someday I’ll be able to make beets too if...all this ever happens again.”

  Laeirred.

  “Wh…?” She said as she sat up. “Oh. Did I…?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  Laenie buried her head in her hands.

  “I thought I had it under trol…” Laenie said.

  “It’s my fault,” I said. “I’m the one who set you off bad enough for you to go full feral.”

  “It was a team effort, really,” Oka said.