-Aug 5th, 9 am, Friday, The Hub, Training Room-
The Training Room transformed into farmland. Pilot, Reinstar, and Javo stood before the transformed teens who were ready to start training. The sword-wielding warrior nodded to them. "You are well rested. Now, it is time to return to learning. I am aware your academics are coming up soon, but that does not mean you can slack off. There is a reason why we gave you the Dummy Dolls, not just to be in two places at once but to make sure you are not in trouble with those who are unaware of who you are, right?"
"Right!" They shouted in unison.
"I am allowing three or four training days during your time at academia. You don't want to be too tired to learn or train." He crossed his arms. "Activate Training Gear."
Appearing before them were dark gray constructs of their current weapons.
"These are practice weapons." He watched as the group took them. "So you won't hurt yourselves too badly." He nonchalantly stared at the spiky redhead. "Ryu."
The yellow warrior chuckled. "Uh, I won't?"
"You get too excited over dangerous things. Remember, curiosity is a double-edged sword."
"Yes, sir." He nodded calmly.
"Now then, Jake, Tanya, you two have swords, but your fighting styles may differ. Though I have a sword, I know very little fencing techniques. If the others don't know, then the Training Room is the tool you will need to improve your weapon skills."
The shinobi nodded. "We looked at the best trainers of both worlds and added them to the memory unit."
Materializing between them was a gray mannequin armed with tonfas. It twirled them around before moving into a defensive stance.
"Instead of beasts, you will get artificial weapon dummies," Javo spoke. "The parameters are adjusted to ensure you aren't beaten too badly."
"Neat." Lumina readied herself against the mana construct.
"Hold on." The leader said. "Not yet." A practice sword materialized in his hand. "Jake, try and slice me."
The fire warrior chuckled weakly. "I'm going to end up on my back."
"But think about the experience points!" the lightning warrior smirked. "Then you can transfer those points to increase your sword stats. 0 to 100!"
"You will be alright." reassured the light warrior. "Try and get one good hit."
Blaze snorted as he ran up with the practice sword in hand and swung it. However, the canokian blocked the weapon with his own. The teen twirled around for a horizontal cut, only to be blocked by the man.
"Remember this: your weapon is an extension of yourself." The leader of Sword raced forward and swiped the sword at the opponent's incoming blade. The decisive strike knocked the blade out of the boy's. Blaze watched the blade fall to the ground before turning to his training partner. He froze when the artificial blade met his throat. Even though it would not cause harm, it still felt uncomfortable.
"Don't take your eyes off your opponent if you are disarmed; be ready for a situation where you will be without a weapon." He shifted to the rest. "Don't hold your weapon too hard nor too loose. We will teach you how. Ready?"
"Ready!"
"Then training starts."
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-Living Quarters, second floor, 3 hours later-
"I do wonder," Ryu said as he gazed at the door with a picture of a red bar. "What is in here?"
"It's locked." said Christina as she walked up. "Don't think about it."
"I know, but this is like a mystery of mysteries." He rubbed his chin as the gears in his brain turned. "What is in the hidden door, and will it be revealed?"
"Keep thinking because it's going to stay closed."
"You don't have permission." spoke the bird woman while walking up to them.
"Yeah, it's not like Pilot would allow it." said the redhead.
"Not quite." The bird woman stared at the bar. "But it is for medical purposes."
"Ah, so that's where you keep your maddening super experiments."
"Sure." the woman humored him with a smile before walking away. "Your friends are planning something."
The water girl gazed up at the door. "I am curious."
"Yeah." he shrugged. "We'll leave that mystery up in the air like that feather and the identities of the other Radiant."
"You know we are allowed access to their profiles, right?"
"We are?"
"Yes." She jabbed a finger on his head. "Ever since we stopped that woman. Let me guess, you zoned out during the discussion. They also wrote our profiles to send to the head of Guardian."
"Oh... are the others cool?"
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Go look them up." She walked away. "It's really important to know who they are in case we meet them."
"Alright, time for some research!"
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-Aug 6, 12 pm, Saturday. Orlando House-
Tina stood before the home of the electric jokester. While the boy was not home, she was told his little brother had arrived home last night from camp. With nothing else to do, she decided to visit the brother and maybe form a friendship. It was fun being with the others, but when they were out fighting threats, it did get lonely. The canokian were cool, but... when the time came for venturing to Galvania, she may not be allowed to go. All she will do is go to school and live a boring life.
"Maybe I can convince them to take me to the kingdom. That's safe, right?"
She shrugged off the idea for later, then knocked on the door. After a few moments, a boy opened the door. He scratched his flat, redhead hair while staring at her. He placed his hands in his pockets and started slouching.
"Hello?"
"You're Kite, Ryu's brother."
"Yeah?" Then he raised his eyes slightly. "Ah, Ryu said you would show up. I'm having some friends over later to LARP. You want to join?"
"What is LARP?"
He smiled slightly. "Live Action Role Play. We act like we are fighting in ancient times. Knights and Dragons."
"Hm... okay, it won't hurt to join."
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-Hotspot-
"Ah, I miss this so much! Cabin food is okay, but food in civilization is better!" said a teenage boy with a small brown mohawk who chewed down on a burger
"Yep! Nothing beats this!" A biracial boy with curly hair said as he munched on a burger.
"..." A boy with shaggy blonde hair and a fedora took a bite of his burger while looking at his phone.
After they returned from camp, Ryu invited his two friends over to meet Jake and Sam. Unknown to him, the duo brought another kid he had seen sparingly at school.
"Well then... Jake, Sam, that's Lance." He pointed to the guy with the mohawk. "Jamie." He pointed at the curly-haired boy. "And Kyle, we never hung out before, though." He pointed to the fedora-wearing boy.
Lance nodded. "The Camp is where we became bros, we are now... Silent Kyle, Jousting Lance, and Madman Jamie."
"And you made nicknames." said the faded-cut youth. "
Kyle leaned in to whisper to the curly-haired boy. "Huh, I see. Jake."
"Yes?"
"If you give Kyle the info, he can send all the people from that video a lifetime subscription to a cult. By the way, not cool."
"Uncool!" Lance pointed at him. "Need to avoid women like that, and false amigos are no good."
The spiky raven shook his head while a bit worried. "No, you don't have to. I'm not into revenge."
The quiet boy whispered into Jamie's ear. "Ah, he was testing you; you're alright. However, he did send him an email with a virus."
The soccer lover's eyes widened, and his face went pale. "Wh-Why? But you will get in trouble."
The silent boy held a nonchalant stare, and then gave a thumbs-up in a cool way. The mohawk teen nodded thoughtfully. "You only live once."
Sam and Ryu laughed while Jake facepalmed."
"Anyway," Lance grinned at them. "The three of us are creating a podcast, something you weren't interested in, Ryu."
"There are a lot of them, dude."
"We know, but ours will just be talking about the unknown, the supernatural, like Bigfoot, Lockness, Death Melody, Solar Flare Blackouts, mole men, Krampus."
"Solar Flare Blackouts, I know." Jake perked up. "But Death Melody?"
"Death Melody." Lance shivered. "People have been hearing it all around the world. Hearing that melody means you are moments away from dying."
"Or in a coma... or with a zombie-like look." Jamie pondered. "Hearing the melody is no good." He slammed his hand on the table. "Our podcast is called 'Unknown to Us' by J.K.L., what do you think?"
"Sounds cool." Ryu smiled.
"We'll be busy on it, but then on certain occasions, we can have a mega collab with 'Guyverman Reacts.'" He grinned toward the faded-cut teen. "If you want to."
"Hmm." Sam rubbed his chin. "It would be an interesting business venture. A contract will have to be made up, though."
"It's a deal." Lance smiled before frowning. "Ryu, we may be busy, but we can find time to hang out."
"It's cool." Ryu grinned.
The mohawk boy nodded, then snapped his fingers. "Oh, and there is one other thing."
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-Angelo Household-
"Lance and I are dating." A girl with short red hair in a messy bob hairstyle.
With exasperation, Christina slammed her head on the table. "I knew you two would become a couple. I dreaded for two years after someone dared you to kiss him."
"That's not nice, Chrissy." smiled Amy. "Lance is just another guy with an interesting outlook."
"Seeing you like this makes me think this Lance is... unique." Tanya spoke.
"Yep." spoke a girl with short purple hair with bangs covering her left.
As soon as their friends returned to town, Amy invited Rei and Naomi to her house.
"Get used to it. We argued about something I forgot about, then made out." Her face grew in a dark shade of red. "We almost went far."
"I don't want to hear it." sighed the violet-eyed girl.
The caramel-eyed girl leaned in playfully. "Tell me more."
"Tanya!"
"Other than that, nothing else except for us zoning out. Lance thinks aliens did the Solar Flares to study us. Between that and the Death Melody, I'm sure he has a lot for his podcast."
"Death Melody?" questioned the brunette, who looked worried.
"Just some bizarre conspiracy or whatever." The redhead leaned in. "Enough about that nonsense. Lily called me to sign a document. Christina, I'm sure you investigated, but why did you sign it?"
"Before I signed it, I forced her to call her grandmother to ensure it was legit. Then, I had Tanya get her father to craft a 'Terms of Agreement.'"
"Father loves the fresh smell of the law on paper." smirked the braided girl. "The look on her face when I presented it to her was priceless."
"In the terms, the antagonizing cannot be soul-crushing or cause any property damage." said the gossip girl. "The hijinks have to be tamed, and name-calling will not drift into forbidden territory."
"Not to insult our moms." The brunette spoke. "We don't have friends nor trust them. Just not be mean to us every day." she frowned. "Robert is a different story, but it seems Jake is on his radar."
"Hmm..." Rei's sapphire eyes stared ahead. "Well, as long as Robert has a different target. This Jake can probably take care of himself. I guess I will sign it."
"Me too." replied Naomi.
Rei nodded. "Now then, I'm thinking of making a band. I'm on the keyboard, and Naomi is on the guitar. We need two or three more people to make this band rise. Singer, bass, drums. I could use your help with some things."
"Sounds awesome!" said the light girl. "I can help design your logo, and Chrissy will be your manager."
"Not a manager." The water girl shook her head. "But I can launch a rumor to watch out for your band to get people interested."
"Tanny?" The brunette faced the braided-haired girl.
"Hmm." The braided girl nodded. "I might know someone. She reached out to me recently. Also, I could teach you a few dance moves."
"Awesome!" smirked the keyboard player. "At some point, I'm going to get Lance to use his podcast to advertise us... if he gets it off the ground and gets fans."
"He has something people want to talk about." said the light girl. "Adding in the mysteries of our lives could bring in all the fans." A thought came. "Oh, you can have one of your songs be a theme song for their podcast and make a song about a particular mystery. Oh an-."
"Easy, girl." The violet-eyed teen turned to the brunette. "Don't ramble off."
"I'm excited!" giggled the green-eyed girl. "New things are happening."
"Too bad Diana moved away," Naomi spoke. "Any of you spoken to her?"
"No, she deleted her social media accounts." sighed Amy. "I'm sure she will reach out."
Christina nodded. "I still need to apologize to her."
"I can still punch Kai, right?" Rei growled.
"No," The brunette shook her head. "A punch to his face won't solve anything."
"Fine, so... what else have you been up to?"
"Just normal days." replied the brunette.