The next morning, everyone was shocked to see the beach.

Down almost the entire length of pristine sand was what disturbingly resembled a scar. Upon getting closer, they could see that it was a long trail of sand that had been melted into black glass by some incredible heat. Yet nowhere around them could any possible source be found.

For several minutes, everyone scouted the vicinity of the beach. Cheshire even headed into the small jungle, but returned not long after with news that it was empty of any possible culprit. No longer surprised at Cheshire's occasional breaking of her own silence, everyone was truly shocked when Jinx got her to elaborate on 'empty of any possible culprit.'

The young kunoichi explained, "All of the birds have taken flight. All of the snakes and the prey of the snakes are in their dens. I was looking right at a troop of monkeys from a single tree over, and they didn't make a peep. One baby got ready to cry, but its mother put a piece of fruit in its mouth to keep it quiet. Whatever it was, the animals of this island are very disturbed." While she had been speaking, however, Kole had spotted something a ways down the beach. Past even the melted trail's far end, there was something glimmering in the rocks that caught her eye. And Kole knew this glimmer.

No one stopped her as she went to investigate. In the meantime, Starfire hugged herself for comfort. "I do not know much of Earth wildlife," she said shakily, "But on Tamaran, we have creatures that behave similarly to how Friend Cheshire has described." Shivers took hold of her body. "Creatures of my home planet only behave in such a way when there is something terrible and unnatural in their domain. I just hope that what this island's inhabitants fear is not out for us..." With a loud eep!, Starfire grabbed ahold of Raven - A loud noise had come from Kole's location.

In an instant, Jinx and Cheshire were ready to dash down the beach and aid Kole. However, the pinkhaired girl was instead rushing to the group, a delighted smile on her face. Once Kole reached the others and had caught her breath, her eyes lit up with even further excitement. "You won't believe what I found," she said breathlessly (Though now more from how thrilled her discovery had been). Hands out and open, Kole showed the others what she had found on her little jaunt.

Rested carefully in her palm was a tiny fragment of a meteor, in the rough center of which shone a silvery material. To no small amount of surprise from everyone, it became clear that a large, scintillating crystal lay buried in the piece of space debris. Kole went on to say, "There's plenty more of them beyond the coast! Way bigger ones, too! I don't know how I noticed them, though...I felt kinda drawn..." Looking into the crystal within the meteorite, Kole began trying to wiggle her finger into the semi-radial crack that exposed it.

Just about to say how dangerous it was to handle an unknown substance like that, Raven froze as Kole's finger made contact with the shining core of the meteor. A few brief moments of everyone silently holding their breath went by as Kole's expression kept stuck in pue shock. Yet immediately after, the crystal within the meteor exploded into brilliant light - At the same time, Kole wailed in pain.

Before anyone could do anything, the dark gray rock of the meteor had disentegrated and the crystal had turned into a brilliant sphere of light. In seconds, it had disappeared down Kole's index finger and spread its glowing tendrils outward from that finger's knuckle. Shaking and gasping for the pain, Kole wordlessy teetered back and forth.

Quickly moving to her aid, Starfire and Cheshire held onto the violently spasming girl and tried to get her to say what was wrong. Raven tried to move and help Kole in some way, but Jinx grabbed her shoulder and pointed towards the surf. "What is that?"

Gaze whirling out to where Jinx was pointing, Raven froze. Movement could be seen in the waves. A huge, muscular arm of dark gray skin was dragging something onto land, with its hand consisting of two fingers and two thumbs.

Soon, the immense girth of the horrible main body was dragged out. Broad and fat, with comparitively thin limbs and a plump tail resembling a tadpole, it was topped by a squashed, toadlike head. No less than a dozen odd-sized, bulging eyes spun towards the group.

Wheezes of exhaustion broke from the creature, before it pointed to Kole angrily. "It's...Mine," it rattled. "They...Shot me...And...She...Took...My...My...RRRRRGGGHHH!"

Breaking off into a roar, the beast hauled itself further up onto the shore. As its tail began to morph into a pair of legs, Jinx prepared herself and turned to Raven.

"Remember the battle plan we thought up just for fun a while back?" Raven nodded. A mirthless cackle then escaped the pinkhaired girl. "Looks like it'll come in handy."

Dark energy fields coalesced around Raven's hands. "Don't kill it. We need an explanation."

"So long as we don't bite it first, hm?"

"That works for me."