"All I'm saying," Amanda huffed, "is that it makes perfect sense."

"No," Hannah huffed, "it makes no sense whatsoever."

"Why doesn't it make sense?!"

"Because it's crazy!"

"It's not crazy!" Amanda sighed. "Look, just think about it for a second: Verde is totally a robot."

"How is that not crazy?!"

"Look at her eyes!" Amanda banged her arm against the padding of the chair she was sitting it. "Normal people do not have literal stars in their eyes!"

"Then how can she ride a broom?!" Hannah challenged. "How can she cast magic if she's a robot?!"

"I dunno, uh, how about, magitronics? Everything professor Croix did? Everything Constanze does?"

"Well, we clearly have an expert here," Hannah smirked, "let's ask them! Constanze!"

The girl in question snapped up with a panicked look on her face.

"In your professional, magitronics expert opinion," Hannah said a tinge too smugly, "is Verde Shidariza a robot?"

The arguing pair leaned in, much to the noticeable discomfort of the smaller girl. Constanze's eyes darted between one redhead and the other, before she shyly buried her face in the machine she had been working on.

"Ugh, see?" Amanda snorted. "You scared her. Nice job, Scotland."

"England!" Hannah gave a final harrumph. "And you still haven't proven Verde is a robot!"

"Sucy, help me out here?"

"Oh, I legitimately do not care." Sucy said, sitting very politely and very neutrally in her chair.

"Well, what about you, Parker?"

"Whuh?" Barbara looked up from her tea.

"Nevermind, forget I said anything."

"…huh." Barbara looked down at her tea.

"You have no evidence, O'Neill, and you know it!" Hannah snapped.

"Fine, then I guess this conversation is over!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

The pair sat angrily in silence for a while.

"Alice is totally a space alien too." Amanda muttered under her breath.

"Oh, now I know you're making things up!"

"Girls," Diana sighed, "do you have to be so loud?"

"I wouldn't be so loud if Amanda wasn't such an idiot!"

Amanda stuck out her tongue.

"Hannah, even if these rumors about our classmates are…ridiculous, at best…"

Amanda grumbled a few choice words under her breath.

"…it's still not a reason to fight over it so passionately." Diana put a calming hand on the girl's shoulder. "Save your energy for an actual emergency."

Immediately after tempting fate like that, a series of thumps sounded from the hallway, followed by a loud slam as the door burst open and Lotte came careening towards the group, skidding to a halt, a panicked look on her face.

"Lotte?" Diana raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"Why are you…wet?" Amanda leaned back nervously.

"Come—! Quick—! Hot—! Stehm—!" Lotte panted. "Stee—! Ack—! Awk—! Stehm—!"

"Try to be specific!" Hannah snipped.

"Stee—! Stah—! Stoo—! Ack—!" Lotte gulped down a few lungs full of air. "AKKO IS STEAMING!"

"What." Barbara frowned uncertainly. "Like…her fever's gotten worse?"

Lotte darted over and grabbed the girl by the collar.

"NO!" Lotte yelled as she shook poor Barbara back and forth the way one might shake an instant-drink mix into a water bottle. "I MEAN AKKO IS LITERALLY STEAMING! SHE IS LITERALLY EMITTING HOT WATER VAPOR FROM HER BODY AND I DON'T KNOW WHYYYYYYY-HYYYYY-HYYYYY!"

"Ah-Oh-kay!" Barabara managed. "Please-stop-shay-king-me-please!"

Lotte thankfully let go, causing the other girl to drop to the floor in an exasperated heap.

"Lotte, calm down." Diana ventured. "What happened, exactly?"

"I DON—" Lotte gulped. "I don't knoooooow! One minute Akko was lying in the infirmary bed, I turned around, and when I looked back there was all this…STEAM everywhere and I couldn't see her and I don't know what's going on and I'M FREAKING OUT!"

"I'm sure there's a logical, rational explanation for—"

"THEN WHAT IS IIIIIIT?!"

"…erm, l-let's go see if we can find out what's going on." Diana managed. "I'm sure we can solve it if we all put our heads together."

Amanda waved away a small puff of hot water vapor.

"You, uh…" She hesitated to find the right words. "You weren't kidding about the steam."

"I told you!" Lotte chewed at her nails. "What is even happening?"

The group cautiously eyeballed the entrance to the infirmary. Or rather, they eyeballed the place where the entrance should have been, since occupying the space was a wall of solid, white steam.

"And you're sure this is coming from Akko?" Diana asked.

"There's no one else in there!" Lotte wiggled in such a way that the untrained observer might interpret it as a potty dance. "Ohh this is bad…"

Jasminka, who had been silent among the group for quite some time now, offered Lotte a potato chip. Lotte snatched the whole bag and began nervously shoveling the food into her mouth. Jasminka frowned.

Hesitantly, Diana flicked out her wand and gave it a small wave in the direction of the cloud wall. A solid gust of wind blew through the hallway and into the doorframe, making a small dent in the mist but otherwise not doing much else.

"Doesn't look like it'll be dispelled easily…" Diana bit her lip.

"Alright." Amanda cracked her knuckles and pulled her wand from her belt, flicking it open. "Let's go in."

"Go in?" Hannah blanched.

"Uh, yeah." Amanda stretched her arms some. "To save our friend, obviously."

"I agree." Diana said.

"Diana!" Hannah protested.

"Akko would have already charged in head-first, we owe it to her to at least try helping her." Diana thumbed her wand. "And besides, dispelling it from out here clearly isn't working."

"Y-yeah, but—!"

"You're not seriously chickening out, are you?" Sucy huffed, flicking open her wand. "I know you don't really like Akko as much as the rest of us, but that's pretty low."

Constanze flicked a switch on her Stanbot, causing his eyes to light up like flashlights.

"I-if it's to save Akko," Lotte gulped and flicked out her wand, "I-I'll do whatever it takes!"

"They're right, you know." Barbara said.

"Barbs?!"

"We can't just sit here! We gotta do something!" Barbara clenched her fists in determination. "The only difference between a hero and a coward is that a hero takes action! That's why, when the time comes, you have to charge ahead and do what's right!"

"Night Fall, volume 127, chapter 42." Lotte said.

"Ah, Edgar…" Both Lotte and Barbara sighed dreamily.

"But…but…" Hannah stuttered.

She struggled with her words, biting her lip and looking away.

"My hair will frizz up!"

The group gave her a collective look. Hannah sighed.

"Ugh, fine, it was worth a shot." She flicked out her own wand. "Let's just get this over with…"

"Right." Diana nodded. "Ladies? Onward!"

"CHAAAARGE!" Amanda shouted as the group filed quickly into the clouds, making a noise that could technically qualify as a "battle cry", if one were to stretch the definition a bit.

As riled up as they had been, they quickly stopped, trying to get their bearings.

"I can't see anything!" Amanda let out a frustrated groan.

"I know we 'owed it to Akko' and all," Sucy huffed, "but are we sure this plan was thought through?"

"I-it's fine..." Diana said, though she noticeably omitted the part where she made a mistake. "Just…everyone join hands so we don't lose each other."

There was a pause.

"…is that my hand?" Diana asked.

"Sorry!" Lotte squeaked.

"Perhaps you should let go."

"Sorry!"

"Hey Constanze," Amanda said, "do you need to ride on my shoulders so no one trips over you?"

"Ow!" Barbara whined. "Who just kicked me?!"

"Sorry," Stanbot chirped, "was aiming for Amanda."

There was a small swirl of green light, followed by a blast of wind as Jasminka cleared away a small space in the steam around the group with her magic.

"Thanks, Jaz." Amanda said. The girl in question smiled warmly back at her.

"Akko?" Lotte called into the empty space around them. "Akko? Can you hear me?"

There was silence for a moment.

"Hullo?" Came a rather high-pitched voice. "Who's there?"

"Akko?" Diana responded. "Where are you? Follow the sound of my voice!"

A set of footsteps tromped quite quickly, if not sprightly over the floorboards, and a shadow formed to the left of the group.

It was a rather…small shadow. And they were rather small footsteps. As their vision cleared, the group suffered only more confusion as a person finally emerged.

A rather…small person.

"Hullo…" A nervous, shy, and very much six-years-old child said to the strange group of teenage girls. "My name is Atsuko. Where…where am I?"