-July 11, Monday, Evening. The Hub, Training Room-

The Training Room had transformed into the Grand Canyon. In the depths, fire erupted on a fake monster bat. The warrior responsible for setting it on fire stood with his arms stretched out and hands together, open-palmed. He nodded while dropping his arms, then turned to the girl in orange, who practiced her side kicks.

"Well?"

She dropped her leg, then turned to him with a smile. "You completed it?"

"It's completed." He looked at his hand. "This is my second adroit."

"That's great!" she chirped happily. She stomped her foot; it flashed orange for a moment. "I need to make sure mine is maintained."

"Yeah, learning new skills is hard, especially if you are creating a skill from nothing." He looked into the sky. "Much like training for a soccer match... only the other team is trying to kill me."

"Hmm... maybe I should think of this like a volleyball match." She pondered. "Spike it, and then its bye bye monster."

He smirked. "That's how I see it."

She nodded, then gave him a knowing look. "Were you a captain when you played soccer?"

"Kind of, I was the third captain." He sighed. "When the other two weren't around, I was the next person. What made you ask?"

"I asked because you took charge of our group and gave orders."

He shrugged. "It just happened?"

"I heard that in certain situations, people rise to the occasion. You rose to it."

"I guess I fit the bill of being the leader." He said with a chuckle.

"You also helped me during my first battle." She placed her hands behind her. "I was not feeling confident about fighting, but hearing you made me feel better."

He felt a little awkward as a light blush developed on his face. "I... wanted to encourage you and let you know that you were not the only person feeling afraid."

"It helped." She stared at him with a sincere look while Jake nodded to her.

"No problem." He said with a smile.

"You two look lovely."

The duo jumped at the voice. They turned when they saw Frost sitting on a boulder, crossed-legged, looking like she came across something interesting with how she was smiling.

"Tanya!" whined Amy while Jake snorted.

"I was enjoying your moment." She giggled as she stood up. "Listen, I told the others. Tomorrow, come by my house after training. I have a swimming pool."

The group's eyes widened. "We're coming to your house."

She nodded. "Yes, this is my way of allowing you all to enter my comfort zone. I trust you all, bye." She finished as she jumped away.

The duo turned to each other and smiled.

"Pool party?" Amy spoke up.

"Pool party!" Jake cheered

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-July 12, Tuesday, The Hub-

Pilot stepped out of the Meeting Room, looking slightly irritated. He gazed up at Javo walking up to him. "Was it the boss?"

"My former pupil." answered the redhead.

"Oh." The muscle man gave a frown at who he thought it was. "How is he?"

"Fine, he was telling me about a mission he went on and his training. He sends his regards to you all."

"Nothing else?" The muscular man was apprehensive.

"He has no interest in the kids... not until they arrive in Galvania."

"Hm." He narrowed his eyes. "Of course, he wants to challenge them. Maybe we should give them the weapons now."

"Not yet." He gazed at the large man. "Besides, that was not the reason he called me."

"Then what else?"

"You know the Gemstone Squad?"

"What about them? They were in hiding for months after losing two members."

"Now they have two new members... one of them looks young, and the other is... Jarlon."

The brown-skinned canokian's eyes widened. "Jarlon? I know he became a bounty hunter... but joining the Gemstone Squad?"

"I know. For now, they ventured across the sea, but Jarlon left a message."

"What?"

"'I'll see you soon'." He sighed.

"Is that a threat?"

"Who knows? All I know is he still blames me for what happened to our team years ago."

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-Winfield House-

"Cannonball!" shouted Ryu as he jumped into the pool and splashed the others.

It was in the middle of the day when the group gathered at Tanya's four-bedroom house to relax and have fun at the pool. Music played from the speakers as they entertained themselves. Ryu emerged from the water with a huge grin, doing the backstroke while sporting yellow and orange trunks. "True to your word, Tan."

The girl lay on one of the beach chairs, dressed in a white and black floral printed swim dress and sunglasses. "I did not lie, Ryu." she smiled. "Or are you just excited about pools?"

Amy sat beside her, wearing a red one-piece swimsuit and an orange swim cap. "It's summer. It means pooool party." The girl cheered energetically.

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"True." chuckled the braided girl.

"A better idea than going to the public pool." Christina walked up with a drink while wearing a purple swim tank top and a blue swim skirt. "Won't have to worry about any familiar faces."

"Booya!" Sam, with green and gray striped trunks, emerged from the water and slapped Ryu with a pool noodle. "Caught you off guard, living taser."

"Ah." chuckled the redhead. "So the fan is about to get schooled." He grabbed a nearby pool noodle. "On the art of pool fights."

"No!" Jake, wearing black swim trunks with a yellow flame design, ran forward with a noodle. "This is a pool war!" He jumped and smacked both boys. The trio started attacking furiously while laughing at each other.

The warrior of light giggled. "This is nice. When we meet the others, we should get them to join... if it's okay with you, Tanya."

"It's fine." The warrior of ice nodded. "When we meet them, they are welcomed."

"Speaking of others." The short-haired raven looked at them. "Jake, where is Tina? I thought she would be with you?"

Jake frowned. "Salem, Massachusetts."

"Oh... WAIT WHAT?" Christina stood up. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and stared at the fire warrior in surprise. "By herself? Why?"

"Reinstar is with her, and she is investigating Mistress M's origins."

"Wait." The electric warrior looked perplexed and annoyed. "Is this a case? Shouldn't we be on the case? Why aren't we on the case? Wait? Shouldn't we wait to confront Mistress M to reveal her backstory?"

"She is mad at the world." The wind warrior waved it off. "She says rage this and rage that. A broken vinyl."

"How long has she been researching?" asked the light warrior.

"Uh... she's been researching the Salem Witch Trials since three days ago. She thought she found something and asked Pilot to take one of them to Salem."

Christina clasped her face. "Damn, some reporter I turned out to be. What did she find?"

"That there were too many people named Mary during that time."

"Mary is an old name." spoke the ice warrior. "Specifically among those in religious circles, it's not unheard of to prefer a name like Mary."

"It could not be Mary." Amy looked around them. "It could be Bertha or Edith."

"But why M if she is called Bertha or Edith." The redhead's eyes widened comically in shock. "She threw us off. That dastardly fiend! Saying her name will make her weaker."

"Doubt that." chucked the wind warrior. "A reverse of saying their name a certain amount of times, and they just go away."

"First of all, Tina thinks she has a lead and is one step ahead of us because we were too busy... doing stuff." Jake reminded. "Let's wait for them to return with some news."

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-Town of Salem, Salem, Massachusetts-

"Hmm..." Reinstar eyed her surroundings critically as she and Tina walked through town. "Interesting."

"What?" questioned Tina.

"Here is where people were accused of being witches and sentenced to death." The canokian crossed her arms, looking alert. "This town is unusual."

The black-haired girl raised her eyes. "Unusual, it looks fine."

"Not its appearance, but it feels like there is residue of anger and something else."

"You can sense it?"

"It's more like there is an itch in the back of my neck." She frowned. "A battle was fought here between Mistress M and the Radiant of Fire, Light and Space. Whatever happened overtook the town. Perhaps people getting random bouts of anger led to people accusing others of witchcraft? Did the battle happen during or after the trials?"

"I read this town is cursed."

"Due to something chaotic." She shivered. "Ah."

"What?" squeaked the worried young girl as the ninja's hand radiated with a lavender aura.

Reinstar raised her glowing hand and reached out to grab something. She pulled back and opened her palm to reveal a tiny red spark."

"Wha?" Tina was awed at it.

The shinobi narrowed her eyes. "A rage residue. Seems like the three Radiant weren't very thorough with cleanup. Who knows what happened back then? The archives talked about engaging a tricky sorceress and sealing her away. They did not mention rage or what she was doing... they must've not known and tried to subdue her efficiently and quickly." She tossed it away. "Yep, is this what you wanted?"

"I want to know where she was sealed."

"Then we will find out, let's ask around."

"Beep beep."

Reinstar raised her wrist and spoke. "Yes?"

The voice of Javo was heard. "Letting you know another monster emerged just now, and we sent the children."

"Oh, I got something to share with you all at the end of my investigation.

"Huh? You found something related to the woman in pink?"

"Yes. I'll tell you later. Bye."

"Bye."

She turned her gaze to the young girl. "Alright, let's go."

"Wonder what they are fighting this time."

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-Parkerville-

The lightning user was pissed. "Now I'm mad! Mimi has gone too far this time!"

"You're going to call her every name associated with the letter now?" the water warrior spoke dryly.

"Yes! Midge needs to be stopped!"

"On the other hand." spoke the wind user. "What other way to gather up rage is nerd rage!"

The transformed teens found themselves on the roof of a comic book store while observing everything down below. Every single person was arguing among themselves while simultaneously praising Mistress M in a roundabout way.

"NO! The mistress loves me!"

"Nah uh! I can be the best manservant to her!"

"I can do one better! I'll kiss her feet!"

The Radiant stood there looking with varying degrees of why. Bolt was pissed at the idea of using his favorite hobby for evil. Blaze was not surprised by their behavior. Lumina looked embarrassed. Aqua was deeply annoyed while facepalming. Aero found it hilarious. Frost was... appalled.

"Oh my... what is this?"

"You haven't been to a comic book store?"

"My brother took when I was younger, that was tamed compared to this. These people are behaving like savages for that woman!"

"This is on par with having an unrealistic fantasy about an actress or fictional character." spoke the warrior in yellow while sighing.

"We all had that." spoke the warrior in gray.

"But not like this." said the warrior in blue

"GENTLEMEN!" The group spotted a guy in sweatpants raising his arms as he shouted. "We are disloyal to our lady if we argue among ourselves. We must unite for her." His eyes flashed red. "EVERYONE, RAISE YOUR HANDS TO THE FAIR MISTRESS!" He raised his hands in the air.

"ALL HAIL THE MISTRESS!"

The hypnotic group faced a collection of graphic novels, comics, and manga in a neat pile. Bolt merely grimaced.

"We're going to destroy that..." He groaned sadly.

"Can't be helped." said the wind teen.

"I... understand." The ice teen eyed the glowing pile. "If my favorite book series became a monster, it would be devastating."

"Bow Bow Buddi-."

"No." the water maiden interrupted the orange maiden.

"Radiant!" The burning teen shouted. "Get ready!"

The group readied themselves as the book pile hovered in the air and then underwent a transformation into an eight-foot tall bipedal ogre with a turtle shell, a wolf snout, an 'o' emblem on its chest, spiky hair, and a cannon on its right arm. The monster growled as it observed its surroundings, then turned to the warriors on the roof. It narrowed its eyes and aimed its cannon at them. The group readied themselves as it charged up.

Surprisingly, it stopped charging and dropped its arm. This led to confusion among the gang about the monster's actions. It shook its head and turned around. It looked over its shoulder at the gang, nodding to them before leaping away 15 feet in the air.

"Wait a minute," Lumina muttered. "Why did it not attack us?"

"Perhaps it sensed defeat and ran." Aero crossed his arms with a smirk. "But." He sighed. "We let it get away."

"And we're standing here like idiots." Aqua glanced at Blaze. "Should we chase it?"

"It could lead us into a trap."

"We are debating while that creature gets away." Frost spoke up. "We stay or go."

Bolt crossed his arms. "You saw the way it looked back at us. It wants us to follow. It's a challenge."

"And how do you know that?" inquired the light warrior.

Bolt did not say a thing. He took off in a dash to the edge of the building. Once he moved to the edge, he leaped to the next building. The group was surprised. They looked at each other before chasing after him. They ran, jumped, performed acrobatic maneuvers, and some parkour across the district. The fire warrior caught up to his lightning friend.

"Bolt!" The fire warrior reached his side. "What do you mean?

"Listen, hear me out. That monster came from a collection of comic books and other stuff."

"And?"

"This may sound crazy, but I think that monster gave us a look that may have meant, 'Let's fight without distractions.'"

"You think that is what it wants and not something else?"

"Dude, ever since I became a Radiant, I keep thinking of a lot of things: my opponents using 'that' technique and me using 'this' skill." He chuckled. "I know it's childish, and this is real life, but it is surreal this is happening to us. We are the coolest people on the planet, and no one else knows except your sister, the detective. We literally use magic dolls to fool everyone."

"It does sound rude."

"But we can't let them worry. Back to this monster, it absorbed all that comics and manga. I'm willing to bet it does want to kill people, but it wants to challenge us to a duel first."

"Huh..." The warrior in red sounded impressed. "That sounds different from all the others. It's born from rage."

"Think of the characters from all the shows and comics we read. Justice can lead to rage."

"Yeah, some characters come to mind."