Jay Janeson was a relatively normal 13-year-old. Well, in the world he lived in, people would think of him as different. From Monday to Thursday, he went to his local school, which was near the summit of Mount Madora. Only 110 people went to the school that could hold 500. Since funding was low for education in his area, that was the only school he had ever gone to, and would always go to until he became 18, where he could be independent. The majority of his school were under 10 years old, so he didn't have too much choice to make friends without being seen as a creep. Nobody at the school was over 15 years old, and since there were only 2 students in the class above him and only 2 others in his class, the classes were merged. Surprisingly, the only people who hadn't gone off to become Lumine masters were the ones who worked hard and achieved good grades. He was good friends with everyone in his class since they all shared the same interests as him, and school was usually quite enjoyable. Mr Mayako, their teacher, was a nice teacher, who never underestimated their intellect and would teach them all of the top grade subjects. However, he was also the Gym Leader of their town, Brimstone Peak, so on Friday through Sunday, he would challenge the aspiring Lumine trainers for his medal. He was in his 70s, but his wits and knowledge made it almost impossible for new trainers to beat him and since he didn't like people wasting his time, he only allowed people with a minimum of 4 medals to face him. Instead of just sitting around for the full weekend, Mr Mayako insisted that everyone would get part-time jobs for the weekend, which they did. Jay worked at Mike's Bakery on Fridays and on Saturdays and Sundays, he would lead tourists on the town's attractions and tours. His dad, James Jameson, was the head of tourism for Brimstone Peak, so he was given a chance to work there when he turned 11. His favourite attraction of the town was the water sports, as he was allowed to drive the speedboat and the ship that he would take tourists on for a day of island-hopping. On some occasions, Jay's mom, Jane Janeson, would pull Jay out of the bakery to help her out at the lab, where he would help with experiments and researching new Lumines. Most kids would complain, but he and his friends loved working. So that was his weekly schedule, until one fateful day that would change the Lumine world forever.
It was Sunday, 8 pm. After Mike had to go to his suppliers and work out a new deal that afternoon, James interrupted Jay's island-hopping boat trip and told Jay to run the bakery, much to the tourists' dismay, but they were given free pizza from the pizzeria, after Antonio, the owner, owed Jay a favour for finding his Dogogo. For some reason, Antonio's Dogogo would run away and would always be found jumping through the tyre swing in Jay's backyard. Jay thought that running the bakery would be easy, he had done it a few times. It was easy until a boatload of customers came rushing in for something sweet to eat. All the cakes were gone in 15 minutes and there were still hundreds waiting. Eventually, Jay baked and served them all their desserts and was finally able to close the bakery. All his friends were waiting at the huge fountain in the square for him since their shifts had ended a while ago.
"Hey JJ! What took you so long?" asked Bella. She was originally in Jay's class and they were always sat next to each other, which helped their friendship evolve. She also had a tiring day at the pizzeria with her dad when they had to make all of the pizzas for the hungry tourists. "Bella! Did you seriously not notice the huge line of people waiting at the bakery! I think the only person serving all of them was Jay!" exclaimed Marco. Marco was also in Jay's class, he was very outgoing and fun to be around, which also got him the job at the tourism company. He and Jay would work together whenever they could, and Jay's dad admired them. "Hmm? Oh, hey Jay, took you a while to get here, Marco was super scared that the customers were going to eat you, haha," said Gray. Gray was a sorta-goth, he didn't think the world was perfect but he still liked having some fun. Since he was the quieter one, he was hired at Brimstone Peak's historic library.
"I was not!"
"I'm not gonna lie, but you were. You should have seen it, Jay! Funniest thing I've ever seen." giggled Harley. Harley always aced everyone in sports, occasionally tests, but never made too much of a deal about it. She was hired as a lifeguard at the beach and has kept it safe for years. "Thanks for waiting for me guys, after all that, I need to chill for a while."
"You're welcome! Hey, you guys want to come over to my place for a while? My mom is making her special chicken and noodles!" asked Marco.
"Chicken and noodles? Well, I was going to go home and study for the test next Friday, but chicken and noodles always come first," replied Gray.
"If it's your mom cooking, then count me in baby!" exclaimed Bella!
"I already had my dinner-"
"Stop talking about chicken and noodles! It's making me want them more!" interrupted Harley.
"Great! Then let's get moving, the sun is coming down and I do not want to get robbed!" The group quickly walked out of the town square, along the pier and finally reached the suburbs of the town, where most of the town lived. "Oh look, it's Homeless Joe, anybody got any spare Maesa?" asked Harley.
"Nope, sorry." replied the others.
"Sorry Homeless Joe! I'll bring you a pizza on the house tomorrow!"
"It's fine kids! Now get home before it gets dark!" The group trekked up the steep street to the top, where steam whistled out of Marco's chimney. Gray pressed the doorbell, everyone exhausted as even though they had climbed that street many times, it would always tire them out. "Oh, hello Marco, darling! Oh, and you brought your friends too, come in! I'm making noodles!"
"Hey, Marco's mom." replied everyone.
"Idiots! She's called Lindsay!" angrily whispered Marco.
"Oh, I don't mind Marco! Noodles should be done in 10 minutes." cheerfully answered Lindsay. They went upstairs to Marco's room and laughed it off, Marco still not impressed. "Oh my god! Next episode of Lumine Discovery is on!" screamed Harley, excitedly.
"Oh crap! Mr Mayako wants us to do a report on this episode tonight!" exclaimed Gray.
"Oh, yeah, I just wanted to watch it..." Everyone laughed at Harley as they quickly turned on Marco's TV and wrote down some notes. "The wild MyaMota can be found in the Sillico region, if not tamed properly then it can be one of the most hostile creatures-"
"Who wants noodles?" asked
...+Lindsay as she barged into Marco's room, a tray of noodle bowls in one hand and ice cold water in the other.
"Jesus mom! You frightened me! But we are so hungry, right guys?"
"Yeah!" replied everyone. Noodle bowls were passed around and they went back to watching their show. It was dark, and vibrant lights from the nightclubs and bars could be seen from Marco's bedroom window. Gray paused the show and everyone looked out of the window in awe of the beautiful town they lived in.
"Man, these lights make me think that we really underappreciate this town." sighed Gray.
"Right? It's got so much to see and do, and the people make it so much better," replied Bella cheerfully.
"The best thing about this town for me is that it brought me 4 of the best friends in the world! Nothing can beat that!" exclaimed Jay.
"Awww, that's cute. Group hug?" asked Harley.
"Definitely." The friends all embraced each other, forgetting that Lindsay had been yelling at them, saying that they had to go home.
"Sorry, mom! The show has 5 minutes left!"
"Alright, but be quick!" They finished up their reports and left for their homes. "Oh, that was great! I'll see you in school tomorrow Bella!"
"Bye JJ!" Bella and JJ were neighbours, so they were always the last of the group to get to their homes. "Hey, son! Your mom is working late at the lab, how was your bakery shift?" asked James.
"Do not want to talk about those hours of hell. I'm just going to go to sleep early, goodnight Dad!"
"Okay, uh, goodnight!" Jay trooped up to his room and looked outside his window. "What a day, Jay thought. At least now I can relax- what's that?" A star-shaped meteor came hurtling through the sky and plopped into Mount Madora. "Phew! Glad it didn't hurt the town!" thought Jay. He closed his curtains and went to sleep. But something was coming out of the volcano that did not look like it wanted to play tag. Couldn't do harm, right?
"Jay! Wake up, you have to go to school!" yelled James, rushing out of the house to deal with the even angrier group of tourists who were on the island-hopping trip. Jay took some casual clothes out of his wardrobe and opened his curtains- "WHAT THE?" The sky was a blackish-purplish colour! Jay rubbed his eyes, but it was still there! Jay rushed downstairs to his mom, who was making pancakes. "MOM! WHY IS THE SKY BLACKISH-PURPLISH?" Jane looked out the window. "You sure? All I see is another shining day for our lovely town!"
"What..." Jay quickly ate his pancakes, took a chocolate bar and rushed out the door. Bella was also horrified. "WHY IS THE SKY BLACKISH-PURPLISH?" yelled the duo in unison. Marco rushed down his hill on his bike to reach the others. "WHY IS THE SKY BLACKISH-PURPLISH?" yelled the trio again. Gray skated down 2 streets to reach the others. "WHY IS THE SKY BLACKISH-PURPLISH?" the 4 yelled to each other again. Harley leapt over her fence and ran to the others screaming at each other. "Good morning everyone-"
"WHY IS THE SKY BLACKISH-PURPLISH!?" they screamed at Harley.
"It is? OH CRAP, IT IS!"
"KEEP IT DOWN, SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!" yelled Mr Hartley, who lived across the street from Jay.
"Mr Hartley, what colour is the sky?"
"Clear blue, why?"
"ARGH!"
"QUIET!" Mr Hartley slammed his window shut.
"Ok, we have to calm down, let's just go to school," Marco said, trying to not scream. They walked to school and reached the playground, where Gray's twin sisters skipped over to him.
"Hello, ugly!"
"Shut up, annoying brats!"
"I'm telling mom! Also, why were you screaming like Homeless Joe?"
"Homeless Joe is not crazy, he's really nice! Also, not telling you, go away!" They took 3 more steps before their next obstacle arrived, Harley's brothers. "Hi, big sis!"
"Heyyy little bros!" She scooped them up and looked at the others, who were in awe. "What? Just because I like my siblings, doesn't mean you can look at me creepily?"
"Hahaha, your friends are funny!"
"Sure are, I think Ms Minta is calling for you, have fun with all of your little friends!"
"Bye!" They finally got into school and Mr Mayako was there to greet them. "Good morning! I hope you have your reports!"
"We do!" They handed Mr Mayako their reports and sat down. "Today, we need to design our classroom to make it the best cultural day project ever!
"Yay..."
"HEADS UP!" Mr Mayako threw a box of supplies that had to weigh 200 pounds at full speed. Luckily, they dodged it. They started decorating the room, constantly looking outside to see if the sky was blue again, unfortunately not. "Mr Mayako, is the sky blue?"
"Of course it is, why would it not be?"
"Nevermind..." After 4 hours of work, they were nearly finished. They were making a huge volcano replica, and on the day of the cultural festival, they would make a chemical compound that makes the volcano explode. On the walls, there was info on the history of Mount Madora that made Jay remember something really important. "Hey guys, I gotta tell you something." Mr Mayako had left for some coffee so they quickly came over. "What is it?" asked Marco.
"I saw some kind of meteor plop into the volcano, it was really, really weird."
"No way! I saw that too! I thought it was normal!" exclaimed Bella.
"Yeah- wait, I'm getting a call from mom, Hello?"
"Hello, can you try and get to the lab? It's urgent. Bring your friends along if you want."
"Alright, I'll be there soon." Jay hanged up the phone and turned to the others. "We have to get out of school to get to the lab-"
"Hello, students! Looking pretty good!"
"Hey, Mr Mayako! Can me and the others go down to Antonio's for some pizza?" asked Harley.
"Sure, because quite frankly, the cafeteria doesn't serve good food."
"Haha, see you later Mr Mayako!" They rushed out of school before their siblings could get to them and walked to the lab. Of course, they went for some pizza first but they went straight to the lab after, which was at the end of a street with a variety of shops.
"Mom? Where are you?"
"Oh, thank god you came! Something is wrong with the sky!" They followed a frantic Jane into her lab, which was full of scientific junk.
"Okay, what colour is this substance here?"
"Blackish-purplish." replied the others.
"Well, everyone sees this as normal! You see, I got my Chainchot to remove a speck of the atmosphere as I was wondering what you were worrying about, and it's pretty bad. There's some unknown substance that is corrupting everything. The sky, Lumines, everything! Scientists in the other regions reported meteors crashing into areas and giving off some weird smoke, and it can't be a coincidence. It corrupts the Lumines, then it corrupts its owner! The Lumines here will be fine for a while since they are 100 per cent pure, but as it gets stronger, they'll get corrupted too! But wait, none of you have ever owned a Lumine before, right?"
"Yeah, I don't like them," replied Bella.
"Lumines should live in the wild, not with us!" exclaimed Gray and Harley.
"But all of our family members do, right? What will happen to them?"
"They'll be corrupted too, but that won't happen if you can do this in time! You need to defeat the powers in each meteor! We don't know where they are but you'll find them! And none of us can go with you, as for me, your parents, your everyone will get corrupted and who knows what will happen to you!
"So we need to leave everyone behind and go off on our own, like all our former classmates? No!" exclaimed Jay!
"You have to because only you 5 can save the world from this! I'll explain this to all of your parents and Mr Mayako, you don't need to worry about that."
"Guys, I guess we gotta do this."
"Agreed."
"Okay, now follow me!" The group followed Jane into the Lumine storage area. 5 LumiCapsules were laid out for them. "Alright, these are the 5 Lumines that have just been chemically created, they won't corrupt for a long time. Quickly, pick!" Jay picked the first capsule, which opened up to form a Tattleta. "Jay, you have a Tattleta. A fire-type Lumine that can soak up fire and lightning attacks! Bella, pick one!" Bella rushed over to the second capsule and it opened up to form an Eaglette. "An Eaglette, an air-type Lumine that can move very quickly and can peck their opponents away! Marco!" Marco walked to the third capsule, which formed a Slooshie. "A Slooshie, a water-type Lumine that can freeze opponents solid!" Gray knew he was next and picked the 4th capsule, which formed a Taiwano. "Taiwano, an earth-type Lumine, it can bend the earth not only in battle but anytime!" Harley also had already chosen her Lumine, and out came Robotnik. "Robotnik, a metal type Lumine, it can paralyze opponents like lightning types and has all of its original moves as well. Now that you all have your Lumines, go! I would recommend the Minito region, their scientists are really struggling!"
"Alright, but this is all so much!" exclaimed Harley.
"You guys will be fine, you are all smart, everyone here is counting on you! I may or may not have packed you all some clothes and food. And since Gray seems the most responsible, take 5000 Maesa. It'll help you a lot."
"Thanks, Mrs Jameson, we won't waste it."
"You're welcome! Now go, get going before it's too late." As the group rushed out of the town, the realisation that they are going to save the world made them more confident, but nevertheless, worried.