A few hours later, Whampire, Blitzwolfer, Wildmutt, and Alien X stood with Sage and Macy in the living room.
"Lea's getting more and more upset," Sage said, sensing his bond with the distressed teen from another world.
"Then there's no time to lose. Whatever you plan on doing, let's do it now," Macy suggested.
"All take hands and I'll transport us," Alien X said.
Macy grabbed Sage's hand with her left hand used the other to hold on to Blitzwolfer's. The Loboan placed his other hand on Wildmutt's fur with Alien X doing the same while grabbing Whampire's hand as he held on his son's hand.
"Hold on tight." Alien X said, as they all began to levitate in the air. Then, in a blink, they were in the middle of a large bookstore.
"Uh, Alien X? I thought you said that you would take us to this Lea person," Macy replied, looking around in what appeared to be a closed bookstore while letting go with the others doing the same. "I don't see her anywhere."
Sage shifted into his wolf form and sniffed around. "No, but she was here. And is here pretty frequent, too."
"So, the distress bond you felt from Lea was here but something bad happened to her?" Macy guessed, checking out the painted walls of the silhouetted Guardians. "Also, why would she come to a bookstore more than once? What's so special about this place?"
"She said that she learned about the Guardians here. Also, that there are books about them here, just like the Grant Mansion," Sage replied, still sniffing around for anything that could help.
Macy continued looking around to find a midnight blue book titled 'From Curiosity To Adventure' by M.G. Joyce on the shelf and picked it up to read what it was about.
And what Macy found was absolutely shocking.
"Uh, Sage? Didn't you once mentioned before about books that talk about the Grant Mansion and all that?" Macy asked, not keeping her eyes off the pages in utter disbelief.
Sage nodded. "Yeah, Lea said she was reading a book about the Grant Mansion when she got transported there. Why?"
"I think I found another book about it. One that happens to be around a very familiar event," Macy answered, turning the page. "You got to see this to make sure I'm not going crazy."
Sage shifted back to human form before peering over her shoulder. Reading a few paragraphs silently, Sage's eyes grew wide.
"That's the day we first met," Sage stated in shock.
"Yep. I'm not going crazy," Macy confirmed, closing the book before putting it back. "How in the name of Anur Transyl is any of this possible?! How could someone know and write about us?"
Sage shook his head, looking at his uncles whom were equally confused. "I...I don't know."
Whampire looked on the shelves. "It's just...mindblowing! It looks like all of our past adventures and experiences are all written into stories!"
"Ooh, la, la!"
Whampire turned around and saw Alien X reading one of the books. On the title it read, 'For The Love Of Love'. Quickly reading the first paragraphs to himself from behind Alien X, Whampire's eyes were very wide when realizing that it was about the day he was exhausted and his wife helped cheer him up. To shorten it, the experience involved him being strapped to Frankenstrike's examining table and showered with massages, cuddles, and tickles.
"Gimme that!" Whampire snatched the book away from the Celestialsapien.
"I didn't know Sasha could be so playful with you," Alien X said teasingly.
Whampire frowned, his cheeks red with embarrassment. "If you tell anyone about this..."
"My lips are sealed," Alien X winked. "If I had any."
"Will you guys focus on the task instead of goofing around? We can worry about that later. Right now, we need to find Lea and see what's wrong," Macy replied, trying to stay on topic of the mission. "Any ideas on where to start?"
"Well, Lea is friends with the Guardians. So, more than likely, it has something to do with that," Sage said.
"You mean something bad had happened to these Guardian guys and Lea is worrying because of it? Could be. How do we even find her in this city to know more? Because, as I recalled from you, she lives in Brooklyn, New York. And if this is another dimension, then I don't think I can help knowing the city because the whole thing is possibly different than the city I know back home."
Sage and the Grant Mansion aliens looked at each other, really not sure how to find Lea nor sure what to do.
Outside the Bookstore where the dimensional heroes were, Lea had on her winter clothes, backpack with her hockey stick attached to it and Nightlight inside. Desperate to talk to someone on this stressful situation, the blonde teen decided to go back to Central Park to look for the Guardian of Fun: Jack Frost.
Jack has to be here. Because if he isn't, I'm not sure what else to do nor who to go to help me, Lea thought to herself, rubbing her jacket arms anxiously.
She continued walking through to the snow with the sun setting down on the completely covered sky that made the scene orange and pink until it grew dull again.
Once reaching at a bench, Lea sat down and patiently waited for Jack Frost. She looked at the dark sky above to see no stars. Lea sighed, having her breath shown through the cold temperature in the atmosphere.
"Oh, Jack, where are you?" Lea placed her gloved hands on her cheeks in deep concern.
"Somebody call my name?" a familiar voice called out in a smooth way.
Lea looked up to see a familiar white-haired teen wearing a blue frost jacket carrying a staff from a distance.
"Jack! I'm so glad you're here!" Lea happily replied, standing up and hurrying to the Guardian of Fun.
"What's going on, girlfriend?" Jack asked with a smirk, leaning his weight on his staff.
"No time for joking, Jack. This is serious!" Lea exclaimed, not in the mood to be blushing nor distracted by Jack's witticism and charm. "Something is going on with children's beliefs. This morning, all the kids have been miserable and tormented by nightmares. And they haven't received anything from Tooth. Did something bad happened to her and Sandy?"
"Ah, no big deal. It's just a few less gifts and a couple of nightmares. Kids need to toughen up," Jack shrugged, as he leapt up onto a tree branch before laying down.
Lea blinked in confusement, not sure if she heard Jack correctly. "No big-? ...Jack, did you not listen to a word I said? Every child is losing their beliefs in the Guardians! And it's not just here. I got a letter from my cousin saying that it's happening at his hometown again, too! What about North? Does he know what's going on, as well?"
"Don't know. Want to come with and check it out?" Jack asked, offering his hand after jumping down.
"Good idea! If he does know, I want to help as much as I–" Lea was about to take his hand until she noticed something else off about the Guardian of Fun. "Um, Jack? Where's the gift I gave you?"
"Huh? What gift?" Jack asked nonchalantly. "Only beautiful gift I have is looking right at me and going on a fantastic flight with the Guardian of Fun."
Now Lea was getting a bad feeling about all of this. He doesn't have nor know about the handmade staff holster strap she made when they first met? This sounded way too fishy.
"You know what? I'll just hang back here to check on the kids in New York while you go to North and ask what's going on," Lea gently suggested, slowly taking a few steps back and have her right hand on the handle of her hockey stick but made it look like she's casually rubbing her neck. "You're probably right. I'm just overreacting."
"Oh, come on. You haven't been with us in so long. I insist," Jack said, his eyes hard as he reached for Lea's hand.
Reacting fast, Lea took out her hockey stick and swung his hand back. "Sorry, but I'm not allowed to go with strangers. Especially a fake, like you!" she exclaimed, already in a defensing stance with her weapon up while glaring.
"Oh, Lea. You're being silly. Put the stick down before you hurt yourself," Jack sneered.
Lea, from a safe distance, looked closer to see Jack's skinned hand she smacked with her hockey stick open cuts of black sand coating inside him instead of actual wounds. Nightmare sand!
"You're not Jack Frost! I know you aren't! If you were, you would have known about the anniversary gift I gave you on our first meet! And the real Jack would never not care about the children in danger!" Lea pointed out, keeping her distance. "Who are you, really?"
The being claiming to be 'Jack Frost' chuckled darkly, turning his damaged hand back to its original disguise within seconds while making his staff more sand-like and menacing with a combination of hard ice all over.
"Heh, heh...name's Jackmare, and you're coming with me!" Jackmare snarled, lunging for Lea.
Gasping, Lea jumped out of the way and ran through the park. While moving, she used the crystal bracelet to activate Nightlight, causing him to get out of her backpack halfway to act as a flashlight with his glow-in-the-dark paint coated all over him so Lea can see better.
"Not good. Absolutely not good!" Lea muttered in response, still not stopping.
"GET BACK HERE!" Jackmare yelled.
Lea turned back to see Jackmare flying on her tail. She also noticed that, with Nightlight's glow, she could see some revealing details he never showed before. Jackmare looked more like an actual Nightmare Figure with his body plus weapon covered in black sand and thin layers coming out of it. His eyes, instead of gold colored sand like the other Nightmares, they were light blue.
Just then, Lea tripped on a root and tumbled down the snowy hill to hit a big rock near the lake. She yelped in pain and tried to get up but only halfway while leaning on the rock she crashed into.
"Ha, ha! Got you now," Jackmare cackled, already flying down on the snow and walking towards her while swinging his sand-like staff casually.
Lea whimpered, placing her left hand on her stomach while trying to lift up her hockey stick at Jackmare.
"Go ahead and try," She replied, not accepting defeat just yet.
"Oh, you asked for it," Jackmare said menacingly, ready to attack.
Just when Lea was about to make her move, something unexpected happened. A dagger came flying out of nowhere and went through Jackmare's sand-like staff and then a blur of yellow rushed in with a flying spinning back kick knocking him away from Lea.
"Get away from her!" a female's voice said, throwing a small sphered object that made a big bright flash that resembled the rays of a sun for a few seconded.
Covering her eyes from getting blinded, Lea could barely make out the female figure that protected her. She seemed to have a hood attached to her winter yellow fur coat dress ruffled with white around the hood, neck, bottom sleeves, and bottom areas that was up covering her upper face and was the length of her mid calves. She even had on black combat snow boots and a brown belt held tight around her waist.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" the Evil Nightmare screamed, dodging from that light attack in getting more damaged. "Who dares interrupt Jackmare?!"
"Someone who is not going to let a Nightmare like you harm children or teens, like Lea," the figure remarked, getting her dagger out of the snow and lunging towards Jackmare to fight him.
Lea continued watching in awe, completely shocked that this yellow coat wearing person is rescuing her from an evil Nightmare version of Jack Frost.
The yellow clothed heroine dodged, flipped, and kicked her opponent, whom was not backing down either.
She now had her dagger against Jackmare's sand staff, both their glared faces inches away from each other's.
With a final attack, the female figure pushed Jackmare's sand staff away and used her dagger to slice him across his chest. This caused Jackmare to scream in pain, quickly backing away and covering his scarred body.
"Go back to the shadows where you belong, Nightmare," the female figure threatened, pointing her dagger at Jackmare. "I will not warn you twice."
"My master will hear of this, and you will rue the night you crossed the darkness!" Jackmare said, before disappearing back into the shadows.
The figure sighed in relief, now putting her dagger away on her belt and walking over to Lea.
"Are you okay?" The yellow wearing heroine asked, helping the blonde teen keep balance.
"I'm fine. A bit bruised, but fine," Lea answered, rubbing her bruised stomach and side. "Thanks for the save."
"No problem. It's what friends are for and part of my job,"
And just like that, the heroine took down her fluffy hood to reveal a familiar face that surprised Lea.
"Katherine?!" Lea exclaimed, having Nightlight look from behind his girl in the same expression.
It was Katherine all right. Lea recognized that lock of hair over the auburn-haired girl's right eye and heart shaped face anywhere. She also had her auburn hair tied back into a low loose ponytail.
Smiling, Katherine held on to her best friend securely and quickly hurried together. "You can ask questions later. Right now, we need to move before anymore Nightmares show up."
"Uh...Okay?" Lea replied, seriously confused here with Nightlight staying still.
Meanwhile, somewhere far away, Jackmare slowly tried to recover while he went to a nearby lake. The Nightmare of Fun crouched down and placed his hand on the water to create a sand-like ice mirror that revealed a black silhouette.
"About time you called. Did you get her?" the silhouette asked from the other side.
Jackmare shook his head in disappointment. "No, master. Unfortunately, before I could nab her, some yellow wearing girl came in and defended her. I believe she's another Guardian."
This surprised the dark figure. "Another Guardian?! Are you sure?"
"I am. She carried a dagger unlike anything that could cut me and tried to destroy me with a tiny magic bag that shoots sunrays,"
The Nightmare assumed that his Dark Master would become furious and destroy him right now. But, instead, the shadowy figure chuckled menacingly.
"…Interesting. Looks like the Man in the Moon was hiding a sixth Guardian from me. Well-played, old friend," the silhouetted figure replied, his yellow eyes shining a bit with keenness.
"Shall I go back and try to capture the girl again and the new Guardian?" Jackmare questioned.
"That will not be necessary. We already got our main targets and they're hidden well," the dark shadow reasoned. "By the time they try to find them, it will be too late. Besides, the new secret Guardian will soon perish when all she protects disappears in a matter of time, just like the others."