A knock on Dee's bedroom door disturbed her sleeping, which jolted her awake at the sound.
"Honey! Your friends are here!" her mom shouted.
"Come in!" she whisper-yelled towards them. The doors immediately swung open.
"Hey, Dee… so… funny story. Look who found out that she is one of us." Harley gestured at Stella, who awkwardly waved at Dee.
"What did I say a few hours ago?" Dee question. "I… who knows if she's even-"
"I'm very ready for this, thank you very much." Stella replied.
"Do you know how big the consequences would have been?! I was not there to oversee the-"
"We know! We know! But we had to! She's a member of our team now!" Harley argued, gesturing everywhere wildly.
"That still does not make it any better." Ursa looked at the two girls with disappointment.
"Harley, let's just not argue with them, you won't break them." Cecilia pointed out, and put a hand onto her girlfriend's shoulder.
Harley sighed, and crossed her arms, and looked down at the floor.
"Let's just explain everything to Stella…" Dee stated, got up from her bed, and picked up a notebook. "This has all the info we have."
Stella took the notebook, and looked down at it.
"Look! I made stickers for all of us. I'll make one for you too." Harley pointed happily at the notebook's cover.
"It's… nice," Stella stated, then checked her phone. "Oh shoot! I have to get going. My sister is still at school."
"Okay, bye excavator!" Cecilia said jokingly. She waved her hand as Stella walked out.
Dee sat back down on the edge of her bed, rubbing her forehead.
"An excavator, Cecilia? Really?" Dee asked, her tone both exhausted and annoyed.
"She has that 'I'm going to dig up all your secrets' energy," Cecilia shrugged, leaning against the doorframe. "Besides, we need to lighten the mood. If we're really bringing a rookie into this, we can't all be 'Doom and Gloom', right Ursa?"
Ursa didn't bite. She was staring at the space where Stella had been standing. "It's not about gloom. It's about the frequency.
Elsewhere, at a playground, a little girl, no older than eight years old, with black hair, held in a half-up half-down pigtails, sat on a swing, looked zoned out, and hummed a song
"Hey loser, get off, it's our turn on the swings." a boy a year older than the girl ordered, and two more kids went up to him.
The girl shook her head. "Hmm… no. It's my seat… I was here first."
The kids got angry at what she said, and one of the boys decided to kick her off from the swing set, and the girl landed face first into the dirt.
"Leave her alone!" another girl, roughly the same age as Yvette, yelled at the boys.
"What did I just say about playing nicely?!" their teacher went up to the three boys, then turned to the two girls. "Yvette, are you okay?"
The little girl got up, and nodded. "Hm… yeah. I believe karma will get them back for this."
"Oh honey, don't say that," the teacher said, kneeling down in front of her. "The other teachers will think of a punishment for this."
"Yeah… maybe…" Yvette mumbled. She picked up a tree branch, and sat down onto one of the benches, still looking zoned out.
The other kids kept playing, but Yvette was just sitting at the bench, when she decided that she wanted to go back to the swings.
"I think I want to go back."
"What? No way." one of the bullies stated, looking offended.
Yvette turned around, staring at the ground blankly.
"It's okay." she whispered.
Then out of nowhere, the kids got a minor electric shock through the chains of the swings. With a small smirk, Yvette walked away, looking satisfied.
"Alright kids, come inside! Your parents are here!" a teacher shouted from afar.
"Hm…"
When Yvette walked inside, she saw all of her schoolmates getting picked up by their parents. She wished she was in their places. Any of them.
"Little sis!" a shout pulled Yvette out of her thoughts. She looked to the side, and saw one of her classmates hugging an older girl.
Stella noticed Yvette, and waved at her. "Hi, aren't you Olivia's friend?"
"No," Yvette stated with a blank stare. And shook her head.
"I tried to be her friend! But she never wants to play…" Stella's little sister explained.
"Because I don't like playing…" Yvette mumbled. And began to walk away.
"Is she always like this?" Stella asked her sister.
"Yeah," Her sister nodded her head. "But can we go home now?.."
"Sure! And let's go get ice cream too!" Stella added happily.
"Yay!"
Stella took one of her sister's hands, and they walked away together.
Back at Dee's house, Ursa suddenly stood up straight, her head tilting as if she had heard something.
"What is it?" Dee asked.
"A… a frequency," Ursa said, her voice low and urgent. "It just spiked. Hard. It's not like Stella's. This one is jagged. Violent even!"
Harley stopped fidgeting with her sticker paper. "Is it an enemy? One of the shadows from the portals?"
"No," Ursa replied, walking toward the window and looking out toward the sky. "This one feels too young. And it's coming from near the elementary school."
"Really?.." Cecilia asked.
"Yes! It's getting stronger," Ursa nodded. "The faster you find each other, the better."
"Then… let's go find the remaining three!" Harley exclaimed, and tapped her left foot against the floor. Transforming into her Guardian outfit. "Let's go!"
"I. Was. Sleeping! Why does everyone and everything have to wake me up?!" Dee whined angrily, she struggled to even get up from her bed. "Transformation start."
"Oh. Since we're a group. Let's do a fun little 'magical group' pose together! I mean, when we find all the guardians." Harley suggested cheerfully.
"That's… actually not that bad," Dee stated. "I don't hate it."
"Me neither." Cecilia added.
"I don't like excessive stuff." Ursa commented, shaking their head.
"Oh come on! Don't be such a buzzkill, sweetie!" Harley said, pulling Ursa into a tight hug.
"Let. Me. Go." Ursa pleaded, out of breath.
Harley let Ursa go, and shrugged her shoulders. "Fine. Fine. But still, my ideas are awesome. You have to admit it."
"Never." Ursa shook their head, with a bored look.
"Let's just go, before you two get too dramatic." Dee commented, and opened a window to fly out from.
Harley took the first leap out. "Woohoo!"
"I'm regretting the decisions of my life!" Cecilia shouted as she also flew outside, her voice echoing a bit.