Fire-Forged Friends

**Fire-Forged Friends** is the second episode of *Gaia Guardians*.

## Summary

Goldenstreak holds a competition to see which of his students has the most promise as the Gaia Guardian leader; the Guardians get to know each other.

## Plot

One week after the first episode, Goldenstreak allows the Gaia Guardians to enter his tower in their dreams to train. After a training session, Sam tries to make small-talk with the other Guardians but Goldenstreak calls them away. He tells them that one week from now, he will hold a competition to see which of the Guardians has the most promise as the leader of the Gaia Guardians. This gets Guardian's attention. He gives them a week to train and dismisses them. Kent, Audrey and Brooklyn all take one look at one another and suddenly all start yelling at each other. Sam just looks uncomfortable and backs off slowly to a table where four Gaian Balls are shown. He takes the Fire Gaian Ball and smashes it onto the floor. Back in his bed, Sam wakes up and groans, rubbing his eyes.

The team spends the rest of the week training hard for their assessment and playing pranks on each other, worrying their friends and parents. Sam is the only one who does not let the thought of being leader go to his head and tries to be civil with the other Guardians.

When the week finally arrives, Goldenstreak takes the Guardians to an enormous room in his Tower that he expands into a large obstacle course made of trees, lava flows, rivers, large gusts of wind, etc., with a large floating screen that is recording them. He explains the first Guardian to make it back to the start of the course and is caught by the recording becomes the leader of the Gaia Guardians. He then goes into his trance. The Guardians start the race but Mistwing, Stonestrike and Icestorm start to sabotage each other. When Mistwing uses wind to push Stonestrike down, she grabs Mistwing when she is falling, crashes into Icestorm and Cinderscorch and all four fall into a tunnel, but not before Icestorm grabs a random branch, which gives away, causing rocks to block the exit. The impact from the fall causes them all to become human again. The three start yelling at each other but Sam finally explodes and shouts at them, yelling that fighting is what got them there in the first place. The Guardians begin to feel guilty and give in. He says that they can all kill each other after they get out of the tunnels. Kent suggests maybe Goldenstreak will just find them, as he must no longer be in his trance, as they are not in their Gaia Guardian forms anymore. They wait for two hours but Goldenstreak does not come. Eventually decide to get out by themselves.

During the competition, the group comes across four obstacles. Brooklyn, Audrey and Kent argue but Sam brings them down to Earth. In the four obstacles, each of the Guardians use their elements to get the others across them but Sam leads them.

When they reach back to the beginning of the course, with Audrey coming first, later Brooklyn, Kent and lastly Sam, they find Goldenstreak waiting for them. He decides that Sam will be the new leader. Kent questions why he didn’t come to look for them, how he knew about how they acted during the course and why he chose Sam as he came last. Goldenstreak explains they need to learn to do things on their own as he will not be there with them in battle and that he kept smaller cameras in the tunnel, asking if they actually expected him to decide who the leader was over who won a silly race. The course was meant to show who had the most humility, trust and authority, even without his/her powers. This causes the other Guardians to feel stupid. When they head upstairs to get the Gaian Balls, the others apologize for their behavior and Brooklyn assures him she’s not usually like this but sometimes lets her jealousy get the best of her. Sam accepts and asks the Guardians to come see a movie with him over the weekend and the others agree.

## Trivia

* The Gaia Guardian’s schools have gyms.
* This is the first time Brooklyn says her catchphrase, “*Psych!*”
* This is the first appearance of Kent’s house and parents.
* Brooklyn can boil water and Kent can condense the water vapor in the air.

* As of this episode, Sam is the Gaia Guardians’ leader.