The Elemental Jewels: Psychic Energy

Prologue: "Emoco"

The Elemental Jewels were a group of tweens with powers beyond scientific knowledge. They had jumped out of comics, movies, TV shows, and books. They had formed in 1926 and had been around for nearly 30 years. One day, they were tricked into losing their magic stones by a robber at a concert. They turned into normal stones on normal rings, and the magic was lost. Everyone thought it was gone forever, and they had every reason to.

Until now. 70 years later.

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Shelly Crusan turned the bright red “Open” sign around and prepared to lock up. She breathed in the smell of fresh, uneaten pretzels and nachos, soda that someone had spilled on the bright white tile floors, and the fresh coat of brown paint that was added last week. Her co-worker, Florence Innes, and she were put in charge of closing up shop for the day, which was good, because now they could discuss their project in secret.

“Shell, come on,” Florence said. “We have to clean the Emoco Dining Center.” That was where people ate at the Emoco Children's Center & Museum, where Shelly worked. Florence was mopping, so Shelly grabbed a dustpan.

“Hey, Florence,” Shelly started as she tried not to get her jet black hair caught in the gum under the table, “have you found anything about the Jewel family?”

“It’s kind of weird that you call them that,” Florence responded. “They're all different, connected families.”

“Technically, everyone's related.” Shelly poked her head out from under the table. “Anyway, have you found anything?”

“Yeah,” Florence confirmed as he finished wiping the right side of the floor. “One of them dropped their backpack by their school.”

“You stole someone’s bag?” Shelly shouted as she scrubbed the top of the table.

“No, no!” Florence defended. “Just their pencil.”

“Florence!”

“Look, at some point, I’ll give it back.”

“How do you even know it's one of theirs?” Shelly was now facing Florence, eye to eye.

"Your brother found an old photo of Justin." Shelly’s brother, Brent Crusan, also worked at Emoco, and was also involved in their Elemental Jewels reformation. "He was a dead ringer for the kid with the backpack." Florence put the mop away. “Don't you think this is a good place to start?”

“No, Florence, that’s creepy!”

“It is not!” Shelly was about to get under another table, but Florence grabbed the dustpan. “I'm not gonna hold onto it! I'm gonna find another kid with a Jewel-like face and leave it for them. Then, we'll have two down! It's good to have these faces memorized when we're handing out raffle tickets, don't you think?"

The plan was that all six Jewels would win a rigged raffle that would give them jobs and a secret role as superheroes.

“Flor, I know I'm never gonna change your mind, so you play your unusual games all you want,” Shelly finally replied. “As for me, I'm gonna focus on getting the word out about this raffle. I'm gonna worry more about bringing together The Elemental Jewels!"