Stanley became alert the moment Mona clapped. He instantly understood that clapping was her way to activating her powers, and waited to see what it was.

Suddenly, Stanley saw a future where something burst out of the ground and covered him entirely in it. Having seen the future, he moved to the side and watched what happened next.

Something white appeared out of the ground, but without destroying the ground, and crushed on itself.

"Ice?" he couldn’t help but ask when he saw that. However, he felt no cold from that, so he was not sure if that was ice. It had to be something else.

His second thought was glass, and while that was a lot more possible, he wondered why glass didn’t just shatter.

He looked around at the girl to ask her what it was, but couldn’t speak when he saw her a shocked look.

"Uh... is everything alright?" he asked her.

"How did you dodge it?" she asked before turning to Gray. "My powers are supposed to not be available to the normal fighters."

"They aren’t," Gray said.

"Then why did he know to dodge?" the girl asked.

"He’s not the problem. You are," Gray said to the girl. "You don’t know what his powers are, while he knows yours now."

"Actually, I don’t really know what her powers are," Stanley said. "What is this? This is not glass, right?"

He touched the somewhat transparent white clump with somewhat sharp edges and was quite confused.

"Try and guess what it is," Gray said.

Stanley looked at the stuff closely, but couldn’t tell what exactly it was. "Is it diamond?" he asked. "I hear those are expensive."

"No, that’s not diamond," Mona answered. "That’s Quartz. Just some regular crystal, but it is quiet strong."

"If you get caught, there is usually no chance of you doing anything," Gray said. "So, continue the fight."

"Okay," Stanley said and turned back toward Mona who got ready to go as well.

She took a deep breath and clapped.

Stanley dodged another group of crystals that were trying to imprison him in them and quickly went up close to Mona for a bit of close combat.

However, before he could arrive next to her, a bunch of crystals appeared all around her like a wall, through which she could somewhat see where Stanley was.

She clapped once more and crystals appeared beneath Stanley’s feet. However, she couldn’t capture Stanley at all. Instead, she heard a distinct explosion in front of her and was confused.

Then, she heard a loud noise from behind her, which resulted in a spray of broken crystals that were flung toward her.

"Aah!" Mona shouted in surprise and raised her hands to cover herself. When the crystals stopped landing, she turned around to see what had happened.

There, she saw Stanley standing in front of the circle of crystals that she had made, with his hands still facing forward as if he had just done punching.

’That... was a punch?’ he couldn’t help but think. ’What’s... what are his powers?’

"Are you okay?" he asked the girl. "Are you hurt?"

"N-no, I’m fine," Mona said. "C-continue."

"Okay," Stanley said and disappeared immediately, leaving a sonic boom in the air once more before shattering the crystals from the front this time around.

Mona got out of her stupor and instantly created a small crystal enclosure around her to protect herself. While she did that, she could hear the sounds of the crystals shattering all around her.

She waited for it to stop and then sensed the crystals she was on get torn apart as well. She looked up to see a hole in the crystals where she was supposed to be covered and Stanley give a small smile toward her.

"How did you plan on getting out of these?" he asked. "Can you move it?"

Mona clapped and suddenly the crystals around her spread away. "I can move them with my powers," she said as she walked out of the opening she created.

"Ah!" Stanley said. "So your power is to create crystals and manipulate them?"

"Yes," Mona said. "And your power is to..." She tried her best to come up with an answer, but she couldn’t.

Nova powers were based on singular elements like Fire and Water. From what Mona could see, Stanley’s seemed to be speed and strength, but... that didn’t seem right at all.

"What are your powers?" Mona asked.

"My powers..." Stanley looked toward Gray, wondering if he could tell her or not. However, Gray shook his head.

"You’ll find out later," he told Mona. "For now, you’ve done what I brought you here to do."

"Which is?" Mona asked.

"Prove to you that you are weaker than our new Nova," Gray said. "I truly believe only Ella and Droon are stronger than him at this point and I’m not sure about Ella anymore."

"I bet I could win if I caught him off guard," she said.

Gray couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of catching Stanley off guard. "See what happens if you catch him off guard," he said, turning to Stanley. "Let her do her attack. Don’t dodge."

"I won’t get hurt right?" Stanley asked.

"Don’t worry," Gray said. "I’m here."

"I won’t hurt you," Mona said. "I hope I don’t."

Then she clapped.

Stanley saw a vision of crystals appearing from the ground once again, and had to fight of the instict inside of him that told him to run away.

The crystals came out of the ground not in a straight path, but rather slightly slanted. They crossed each other at the top, creating a spiral pattern that closed off a way to escape outside.

Around him, the crystals covered him entirely, leaving only a cramped space for him to even more around in.

He looked through the crystals and saw vague silhouette of Gray and Mona standing outside. He waited for a few seconds wondering what he was supposed to do.

"See? He’s stuck. I win if he get captured," Mona said. "Besides, I have to be considerate to not hurt him. If I could hurt him, he would’ve lose even earlier."

"I’m not sure about that," Gray said. "If he wanted, you would most likely die before you could clap."

Mona felt uncomfortable hearing that.

"Come out, we’re done," Gray shouted out loud.

The crystals broke apart as they all fell around Stanley in disarray. Mona cringed a bit realizing that she truly hadn’t managed to managed to capture Stanley like she had wanted to.

He had been free enough to break through the crystals the entire time.

"So, what now?" she asked. "Do we add him into the Top 5 and make it a Top 6?"

"Of course not," Gray said. "He’s a nova. Sooner or later, he’ll be stronger than you all, so there is no point in making any such distinctions for him."

Mona frowned. She really didn’t like being reminded that she was weaker and was going to continue being weaker.

"Fine, I’m leaving," she said. "I’ll se you all later."

Stanley didn’t even say anything before she walked away. Gray laughed out loud and turned toward Stanley.

"Good job," he said. "Even with that much of a handicap on you, you still won. That is amazing."

Stanley nodded in thanks. He had nearly 4 times his own weight in the nuggets that were wrapped around his body, including the sword, and was thus happy to just know that he could break through the sound barrier with all that.

He wondered if Mona even realized that he was handicapped at all. Would that have made any difference for her?

"Can you break off all these crystals? The cleaners will take care of the rest," Gray said and walked away as well.

Stanley nodded and looked at the crystals that still stood around him. He cracked his fingers and brought out his sword to use it. Wit so many targets in front of him to train on, he couln’t let it all go to waste.

Once he thought that, he started.

2 days later, Stanley was caleld to a gathering that was organized by the director. He was going to talk about the upcoming mission with the hunters.

"Each and every one of you will be in a different city, with a different set of people. Since the Hunters gang is quite spread out, we will need everyone we can to fight them all.

"Most of you will be working in a group, so be prepared. Only exception to that is Gray and Stanley, who will be on their own the entire time."

"I have already contacted director Nona of Barson branch, and she has agreed to handle the actual missions you will receive. There you will know which city you are to go to handle this matter."

"We will have to do this as quickly as we can, so you have to hurry up as well. You have 3 days to go to the Barson. This is an important mission, so if you are any late, you will get punished for it in more ways than one."

"Prepare what you can in the next few days and leave. Your mission awaits you," the director finished speaking.

The group nodded and left after they were dismissed.

Stanley was about to walk away when the director stopped him.

"Remember my special instructions," he said. "Do not show yourself in the cameras and don’t go roaming around the city while you are in there. We need you to remain as low as you can so we can send you on a very important mission when it is time."