Ch. 18: Outbreak

The eight heroes rush to retrieve the fourth Sun Relic piece after witnessing somethng

Brenden, Tara, Seth, Anna, Scarlett, Drew, Frank, and JT didn't do anything out of the ordinary for three days after the incident with the CIA. They went to school like normal teenagers, until of course the last day of school, which was a half day. Once the school let the students out, the eight friends first walked to JT's house to get Lucy, then to Tanaka's hut to see if it was there. Since it wasn't, they all decided to sit and wait for it in the area that it normally is.
"Do you think that he's figured out where the Sun Relic piece is?" Brenden asked.
"Who knows," Frank shrugged. "Let's just hope it'll be easier to get than the last one."
After a little while longer of waiting, Tanaka's hut appeared. Everyone funneled into it.
"Hey Tanaka, did you find any more clues to where the next Sun Relic piece is?" Drew asked.
"I have a clue to where it MIGHT be, but first I need to show you all something important," Tanaka said.
Tanaka teleported the hut, along with everyone inside, to his dimension.
"Follow me." Tanaka walked out of the hut. The rest followed behind him.
Tanaka walked to the room labeled "DUMMIES" above the door. Everyone walked inside. In the room, John's swords were placed in the center of the room. Tanaka walked up and grabbed them.
"You recognize these, yes?" Tanaka asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Then you'd notice something different about them," Tanaka said. "Look at the blades."
Everyone took a closer look at the blades.
"They're not curved anymore," Tara pointed out.
"Yeah, and they're both the same length now," Drew added.
"Correct," Tanaka nodded. "This change happened because John unlocked his Alternate Weapon."
"Alternate Weapon?" JT asked. "What's that?"
Tanaka picked up the swords, then somehow combined them to form a sword that was much longer, thicker, and wider than the other two swords combined. It also had a longer handle, meant for two hands.
"Woah!" Seth jumped. "That's cool!"
"This is John's Alternate Weapon: a greatsword. To unlock your Alternate Weapon, you must be in a situation of danger in where the Alternate Weapon can assist you where your normal weapon can't," Tanaka explained. "Once you unlock it, you may switch back and forth between weapons as you please, though I doubt John had much time to test it out."
"Wait, so you're saying that my cudgel can turn into a totally different weapon?" Seth asked.
"Not TOTALLY different," Tanaka clarified. "As you can see, John's Alternate Weapon is the same type of weapon, a sword, as his others. Meaning that yours will be similar to your cudgel, but not the same."
"Oh, I get it," Seth said.
"Enough talk! Where's this next Sun Relic piece at?" Scarlett asked. "I'm ready for some action!"
"It's in an antarctic cave somewhere," Tanaka explained. "Near the bottom of Australia and New Zealand."
"Alright, sounds good!" Anna nodded. "Let's not forget our armor this time, everybody."
"Wait, before we go, could we get some food?" Frank asked. "I don't want to be starving like I was last time."
Everyone nodded. They left the training area they were in, funneled into the hut, teleported back to the original dimension, then left Tanaka's hut. They all waved to Tanaka, then left and walked to Burger Bucket.
"Do you think they let dogs in?" JT asked.
"Well, this place isn't exactly the fanciest," Brenden responded. "I wouldn't see why not."
Drew sneezed.
"Did you guys forget that I'm allergic?" Drew griped.
"You can sit at a different booth," Seth laughed. "Besides, I doubt they have 8-person-1-dog tables in there, so we'd have to get multiple tables anyway."
Drew sighed, and everyone walked in and sat at two tables in the center of the restaurant. A little later and everyone ordered food. They all sat and waited.
"I have to use the bathroom real quick," Anna got up from the table, letting go of Seth's hand as she did.
After she was done, Anna walked out of the bathroom. When she did, she looked to her left, out a window, to see a car stuck in a crack in the parking lot of the restaurant.
"Oh, poor them," Anna said, worried. Anna walked back to the table and put her hands on Seth's shoulders.
"Hey Seth, wanna help me help someone?" Anna asked.
"Sure!" Seth got up from the table. "I like helping people."
Anna grabbed Seth's hand and took him outside. She walked him over to the car stuck in the crack.
"No problem," Seth cracked his knuckles and squatted down. "This one's all in the thighs!"
Seth grabbed the car's front bumper and stood up, lifting up the front of the car. He then pushed it back and set it down away from the crack. The people in the car were amazed.
"Now to freeze over this crack," Anna squatted down and placed her hand over the crack and was about to start freezing it, when...
"Hey, doesn't this crack look kinda familiar?" Seth asked.
"I was about to say the same thing," Anna nodded. "It looks like the cracks that the Akuma come out of, right?"
Seth nodded.
Just then, the crack started to grow, and maroon hands with claws came out of it! Out of reflex, Seth stomped on one the hands. Rather than poofing into smoke, the hand started to bleed a dark blue!
"UH OH!" Anna squealed. "I don't think this one is fake like the last one's were!"
Anna froze the hands, and Seth grabbed a nearby traffic cone and placed it over the hands.
"Uh, we probably should tell the others about this!" Seth started running back inside the restaurant. Anna followed.
Seth and Anna bursted through the restaurant door.
"Guys, get out here!" Seth panicked.
Frank took a giant bite out of his burger.
"But we just got our food!" Frank's voice was muffled by a mouthful of food.
"It's an emergency!" Anna shouted.
Sighing, Frank got up. The rest did the same. They followed Seth and Anna to the side of the parking lot. Seth lifted the traffic cone to reveal a crack in the ground with demonic hands sticking out of it. The whole thing was frozen.
"W-what the..." Brenden was shocked. "What is this doing here!?"
"I don't know!" Anna shouted. "A car was stuck in this crack, and so Seth lifted it out, and then this Akuma stuck its hands out of the crack!"
"Yeah, and I stepped on one of the hands, and it started to bleed blue blood!" Seth added.
"Blue blood...?" Drew thought out loud. "Like Kobun?"
Seth nodded.
"So these must be actual Akuma!" Scarlett shouted.
"But wait..." JT thought aloud. "I thought you'd need the Sun Relic to get to and from the Underworld."
"No, that's only to get TO the Underworld," Tara corrected. "There could be a giant portal to this dimension for all we kn-"
Tara was interrupted by a loud ripping noise. The ground started to shake. Just then, another crack formed behind them! Before they had time to react, an Akuma clawed its way out of it!
"What the..." Drew said. Everyone backed up from it. "More!?"
Anna walked up and touched the Akuma, freezing it before it could attack anyone.
"Guys, look!" Brenden pointed at a TV inside the Burger Bucket.
They couldn't hear the TV, but they could see a Breaking News header. The caption under it read "Demons Escape from Hell by Cracks in the Earth! Sudden Worldwide Crisis!"
"Worldwide!?" JT shook his head. "That's really bad!"
"We need to finish the Sun Relic FAST!" Scarlett panicked. "This could get a lot worse!"
Everyone ran back to Tanaka's hut and funneled inside.
"Tanaka!" Brenden shouted. "We're ready, let's go!"
"What's the rush?" Tanaka asked.
"Akuma!" Anna shouted. "They're coming out of the ground!"
Tanaka's eyes widened.
"Already?" Tanaka shook his head, grabbing his cane. "You all should get your gear ready. Don't forget your armor this time."
Everyone nodded, slipped on their armor, grabbed their weapons, and grouped back up to Tanaka. Tanaka handed Brenden the Interdimensional Gate Keys.
"Are you all ready?" Tanaka asked.
"Well, I was hoping for us to get more of a break between our last mission and this one, but we don't have much of a choice," Tara sighed. "Alright, let's go!"
Tanaka shot a portal out of his cane. Everyone waved to Tanaka, stepped into the portal, and were teleported.

Brenden, Tara, Seth, Anna, Scarlett, Drew, Frank, JT, and Lucy were teleported about 20-30 feet above a large glacier island, covered in snow. Once they all landed, or rather crash-landed, they looked for an entrance to a cave of any kind. While looking, Frank, Scarlett, Brenden, and JT stood near Tara. Every time she would move, they would move with her. Tara noticed it and looked over at them.
"What are you all doing?" Tara asked.
"Sorry," Brenden laughed. "It's just that this light armor doesn't help much against the cold, and you put off lots of heat."
Just then, Brenden, Tara, Scarlett, Frank, and JT's armor all changed slightly. Brenden, Frank, and JT's armor became thicker and their headpieces became hoods attached to their chestpieces, while Tara and Scarlett's armor became a little thicker, fur grew at the necks of the chestpieces, and their gloves were replaced with mittens.
"Woah," Frank said. "Still gonna stand by Tara though."
Tara rolled her eyes and continued searching. Over on the other end of the island, Seth and Anna were searching one area together, while Drew was searching by himself. He saw something move in the snow.
"What is that?" Drew thought to himself. He walked closer and closer to the moving object, and before he could move some snow over to investigate, Lucy's head popped out of the snow!
"Agh!" Drew nearly fell back in the snow and sneezed. "Why you little...!"
Drew sprayed Lucy with water. Lucy responded by hitting Drew in the back of his leg with her steel-plated tail, causing him to fall back on his butt.
"O-ow! G-get away from me!" Drew sniffled and backed up from Lucy. "Y-you know I'm a-allergic!"
Drew kept on backing up while on the ground until he nearly fell down in a hole! Before he could fall, Lucy bit one of Drew's pant legs from under his armor and tried pulling him back up. Lucy let out a muffled bark, alerting everyone else. In light speed, JT ran over to Lucy and Drew and grabbed Drew's leg, pulling him up from out of the hole.
"Th-thanks," Drew sniffled. "Now get your dog away from me."
Everyone gathered around to where Drew almost fell. It was a giant hole with one side being completely made of smooth ice. Brenden crouched down and looked in the hole.
"Guys, I think this might be a way to go," Brenden said. "It's kinda dark though, so I can't see much down there."
In response, Anna turned on her Ice Lamp and pointed it down. They still couldn't see the bottom.
"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out what's down here!" Seth got up next to the hole and jumped down into it. A bit later, everyone else heard a distant thud.
"It's okay to come down here!" Seth yelled up at the rest of them. "That wall of ice is a slide that brings you down here!"
Scarlett shrugged and walked over to the side of the hole that had the ice wall, and slid down it. A bit later and they heard a much quieter thud.
"Yep, it works!" Scarlett yelled up at the rest of them. "You all can come down here!"
One at a time, everyone else braced themselves, then slid down into the hole.
In the hole was a large ice room with two doors on one of the walls.
"Which door do we go through?" JT asked.
"I don't know," Brenden shrugged. "I guess we'll have to split up, four in one, four in the other."
"How do we know what doors to go through?" Frank asked.
"Let's just split up into our team battle grou-"
Just then, all nine of them were surrounded by purple magic and were floated into the air.
"Not so fast, buckeroos!" A voice from a dark corner of the room laughed.
"W-what is this?" Drew struggled to get loose. "Who are you!?"
The figure walked, or rather, floated forward, out of the dark to reveal themselves. They were a tall maroon-ish Akuma with four eyes and wore a grey robe.
"I am Joshu," Joshu laughed. "I am one of the Dark One's henchmen."
"L-like Kobun?" Tara asked.
"Why of course! Since Kobun failed, and you all killed him, the Dark One sent me to finish you all off!" Joshu laughed. "Of course, it's only natural that Kobun died. He was the weakest one of the bunch, after all! Now, feel the power of my dark magic!"
Joshu lowered his hand, making the nine of them crash into the ground. He then extended both of his hands and halved the group into two parties. Brenden, Tara, Seth, and Drew were on the left, while Anna, Scarlett, Frank, JT, and Lucy were on the right. Joshu then opened the two doors and shoved the two corresponding groups into each door. The doors then shut behind them, and Joshu laughed and teleported away. The party was now separated.