Ch. 20: Proof of Might

Anna, Scarlett, Frank, and JT split up again. JT proves himself to Scarlett.

Anna, Scarlett, Frank, JT, and Lucy were just separated from Brenden, Tara, Seth, and Drew by Daku's second assistant, Joshu, the Four-Eyed Henchman. The two groups were forcefully thrown into two caves.
Anna, Scarlett, Frank, JT, and Lucy were still in pain from when Joshu slammed them into the ground, so they waited for a bit. After a while, they all got up. 
"Hey!" Scarlett was banging on the wall that separated the two parties. "Can you guys hear us!?" 
"I doubt it," JT sighed. "The doors are pretty far apart." 
"Well, let's just get going," Anna said. "Maybe we can regroup with them further along." 
"Right," Frank nodded. "I'll lead us." 
"No, I think I'LL lead us," Scarlett laughed. "Let's go, everyone." 
Scarlett, JT, and Lucy began walking forward. 
"No way! I need to prove to you all that I'm not useless!" Frank ran forward passed them. 
"W-wait Frank!" Anna turned on her Ice Lamp and ran after Frank. "It's too dark! You can't even see!" 
Scarlett, JT, and Lucy ran with her, until they all got to Frank, who was cornered by three Standard Akuma. He charged up his whip and Nature Slashed them, knocking them back. 
"Hey, these guys aren't as easy as the last ones!" Frank said, wrapping them together in a vine. "Can one of you guys finish them off?" 
JT nodded and charged up with light energy. He then retracted his claws and pointed his right hand forward like a finger gun, then "shot" it, firing a large blast of light forward, burning large holes through the three Akuma and causing them to fall. 
"WOAH!" Scarlett jumped up out of the way. "Watch where you're shooting that thing!" 
"I didn't even know you could do that!" Anna said, impressed. 
"Neither did I," JT laughed tiredly. "It used up a lot of e-energy though. I think I ch-charged up too long." 
"Sorry, guys," Frank scratched the back of his head. "I got a bit carried away, heh." 
"You're fine, just be more careful next time," Scarlett laughed. "Take a light source with you." 
"Did anyone get hurt?" Anna asked. "No? Then let's get moving again." 
Everyone nodded and continued forward. 
"I wonder how everyone else is doing," Frank said. "We haven't heard any screaming from their side at all, so hopefully nothing bad has happened." 
"I hope so," Anna said, stopping. "I wonder if they're okay without me to heal them..." 
JT stopped, too, and Lucy followed. 
"Yeah," he agreed, "we wouldn't want anything happening to anyone like... John... wait a second." 
"Hm? What?" Scarlett stopped. "What's wrong?" 
"If John is down in the 'Underworld' or something, and that's where we need to be at, how come we can't just... you know..." 
"JT..." Frank stopped. "Are you saying we should... kill ourselves to get to where John is?" 
"Well, wouldn't it be easier than going through this whole ord-" 
"JT, stop," Scarlett interrupted. "We don't even know if John is down there." 
"What do you mean?" Anna asked. "Tanaka basically said he was when we met up with him after defeating Kobun." 
"Yeah, but what about his swords?" Scarlett said. "Why are they not with him?" 
"Maybe he... turned into a monster," Frank said. "Y'know, like an Akuma or something?" 
"W-what?" JT froze. "Why would he be?" 
"Well, Akuma come from the Underworld, right? And the normal ones kinda look like humans, right?" Frank said. "So maybe when a human dies... they become an Ak-" 
Frank was interrupted by an Akuma, a Shredder, tackling him and slashing his chest and face with its massive, sharp claws. Lucy ran up to the Shredder and sunk her teeth into its leg, while Frank was kicking it off of him, trying to protect his face with his arms. Scarlett threw a wind blade at its head, decapitating it and causing it to fall off of Frank. Lucy let go of the Shredder's leg, and Frank slowly got up, out of breath and covered in blood and scratches. 
"W-what I was s-saying..." Frank continued, shaking, "m-maybe they t-turn into... A-Akuma." 
Frank fell back to the ground, unconscious. 
"Frank!" Anna ran up to him and created Healing Snow. "Scarlett! JT! Go make sure there aren't any more coming over here!" 
Scarlett and JT nodded and ran forward with their weapons out. Lucy barked and followed. 
"Frank... you're quite the persistent one, aren't you?" Anna rubbed the Healing Snow on Frank. 
Frank opened his eyes. 
"Anna... where are the others?" Frank said quietly. 
"They ran forward," Anna explained. "They're making sure there's no more of them." 
Off in the distance, Scarlett was shouting and Lucy was barking. 
"I guess there's more," Anna said. "Does anywhere else hurt besides your chest, face, and arms?" 
Frank felt around. 
"My neck's got a big scratch on it," he stated. "My stomach, too." 
Once Anna was finished healing Frank, he got back up, grabbed his whip, and ran to where the others were. But by the time he got to them, they had finished killing the Akuma in that area. Anna caught up to them. They all looked forward, and saw that the path they were on split into two paths, both equal in size. They were both just as dark as before. 
"I guess we'll have to split up," Scarlett sighed. "Again." 
"But who's going which way?" JT asked. 
"Probably the best way would be to have someone with a light source on each side," Frank stated. "JT, are you able to make any kind of light with your claws or rings or anything? Your element is LIGHT, after all." 
"I could try." JT said. 
JT focused his light energy and tried to make some kind of light. Just then, his entire body started glowing bright yellow! 
"That works!" Scarlett laughed. "I'm going with you." 
"I guess I'll be going with Frank then." Anna said. "We'll take the right path." 
Scarlett and JT walked up to the left path, while Anna and Frank walked up to the right path. 
"Good luck, you two!" JT waved. "Don't do anything too dumb, Frank!" 
"Same to you, bright boy!" Frank laughed. 
"Wait, before we go..." Anna created an ice shard and shattered it, creating Healing Snow. She then put it in a little bag and threw it to Scarlett. "Use it well." 
"Thanks," Scarlett nodded. "Alright, see ya!" 
Anna, Scarlett, Frank, JT, and Lucy all went their respective ways, and we're now split up. 

On the left side was Scarlett, JT, and Lucy. 
"I can't believe we got split up even more." Scarlett sighed. "I know I don't act like it, but I like it best when it's all of us fighting together as a team." 
"Yeah, I feel the same," JT agreed. "Although I probably wouldn't do that bad by myself since I'll always have Lucy by my side." 
"You think so?" Scarlett asked. 
JT nodded, and Lucy barked. 
"Then prove it!" 
Scarlett Wind Vanished, causing JT to look around, confused. 
"Wha... Where'd you go?" JT shouted. "Scarlett!?" 
"Ugh," Scarlett reappeared. "See, I'm trying to let you do this on your own, so I Wind Vanished so I'd be out of sight for you and the Akuma so it'd be like you're here by yourself." 
"Oh, okay," JT nodded. "I got it this time, so you can disappear again." 
Scarlett laughed and Wind Vanished once again. 
"Alright, I can do this," JT protracted his claws. "Everyone else did the same a few days ago." 
JT started carefully running forward. Since he was his own light source, he couldn't see a certain distance away from him. 
"It'd be cool if I was in an area that matched my element," he thought to himself. "Not this lame ice cave." 
After a bit of running, JT came across an Akuma, a Shredder. The light coming from JT alerted it instantly, and it ran at him. In light speed, he did a Stop Illusion, creating a copy of himself and turning him invisible. Unfortunately, since he was still producing light, it revealed him right away. Luckily, since the Akuma are pretty dumb, it was attacking the copy of JT instead of JT himself. JT took advantage of this, and shot the Shredder with a blast of light, killing it. 
"That's a pretty cool ability," JT thought to himself. "I think I'll name it 'Light Blast'!" 
JT continued forward for a while until he discovered an obstacle. It was just a stone wall with a large symbol of the Sun on it. 
"The Sun?" JT thought aloud. "Maybe I can do something about this then." 
JT put his hand out, which in turn made a large ray of light emit from his palm. He aimed it at the center of the symbol, causing the Sun symbol to disappear and the stone wall to split in half and open like a door. 
"Cool," JT smiled. "I sure have been getting a lot of abilities." 
Through the Sun door was much different than the ice cave beforehand. It looked like the big room they all fought Kobun in(to JT anyway), except that it was still cave-like. 
"Weird," JT thought aloud. "Something must be coming up soo-" 
JT's thought was interrupted by a Titan hitting him with its ball and chain. Lucy responded by tearing at the Titan's leg with her razor sharp fangs, causing it to fall. JT got back up, dizzy from the huge impact. He ran over to the downed Titan, shoved his claws into its abdomen, and ripped it in half. JT collapsed from the pain and exhaustion. 
"G-gross," JT covered his mouth and nose with his shirt. "H-how did this thing c-catch me off g-guard? It's h-huge!" 
Lucy trotted over to JT and lay on his lap. 
"Aw... here," JT opened a pouch on Lucy's armor. In it was a bag of dog treats. JT opened the bag and gave Lucy a couple. "Good girl." 
JT sat there for a bit, and then remembered that he wasn't alone. 
"Oh yeah, sorry," JT laughed. "Scarlett, you mind if I rest for a bit?" 
"Mhm, no problem," Scarlett reappeared. "I think you've proven that you're okay on your own." 
JT laughed and put his head to the ground. 
"I hope so," he muttered. 
While JT was resting, Scarlett went back into the ice part of the cave to see if they missed anything. After a bit of searching she saw a robed figure in the shadows. 
"J-Joshu!?" Scarlett readied her daggers. "What are you doing here!?" 
Sure enough, the figure floated from the shadows to reveal itself, and it was Joshu. 
Joshu laughed maniacally and surrounded Scarlett in purple magic. "Hahahaha! I knew you'd come back here eventually! Looks like you've fallen right into my little trap!" 
"W-what?" Scarlett struggled. "What are you going to d-do?" 
"Let's see..." Joshu sarcastically scratched his chin. "Ooh! I know!" 
Joshu dissolved into purple magic, then half of him seeped into Scarlett, laughing as he did so. The purple magic holding up Scarlett disappeared, and her eyes turned a bright pinkish-purple. The other purple mist went into the right wall. 
"Hmm..." Scarlett said. "This body is going to take some getting used to, but I think I got this." 
Scarlett(or rather Joshu in Scarlett's body) ran forward, to JT. 
"Hey, whatever your name is, get up," Scarlett shook JT's arm. 
JT rubbed his eyes and sat up with Lucy still in his lap. 
"Did I stutter?" Scarlett scoffed. "Get up!" 
"What's this about all of a sudden?" JT got up, but not before waking up Lucy and getting her off his lap, 
"C'mon! I uh... found something!" Scarlett lied. "Follow me!" 
Lucy started growling. 
"Lucy, what's wrong?" JT turned to Scarlett. "You didn't find any cats, did you?" 
Lucy barked at Scarlett and charged at her, but JT stopped Lucy before she could attack. 
"Lucy, what's gotten into you!?" JT held Lucy in his arms. "That's Scarlett! Our friend!" 
Lucy calmed down. While JT wasn't looking, she looked at Scarlett angrily. 
"Stupid mutt," Scarlett said to herself. "I should kill you right here." 
"What was that Scarlett?" JT asked, letting go of Lucy. 
"Never mind what I said, let's continue forward, to the thing I found!" Scarlett pointed forward. 
Scarlett and JT ran forward until they got to what Scarlett was talking about. It was a large, deep, square hole, with sharp spikes on one of the walls. 
"Th-those spikes look pretty dangerous," JT shook. 
"Well, I don't know where else we're supposed to go, so let's try down there!" Scarlett said. "You should go first!" 
"But it looks kinda like a tr-AHHH!" 
Scarlett interrupted JT by shoving him into the hole. He slammed against the ground. 
"Aghh... my ankle..." JT rolled over. 
"Heeheehee!" Scarlett snickered. "How did you like that one! Only someone with as much malice as ME could ever do something like-" 
Lucy barked ferociously and sank her teeth into Scarlett leg. 
"Ow!! Hey! How dare you bite the leg of the great wizard Joshu's husk!" Scarlett kicked at Lucy but she wouldn't let go. "Fine! I'll just find another one!" 
Just then, pinkish-purple mist seeped out of Scarlett, and she collapsed, falling into the hole. 
"S-Scarlett!" JT shouted. 
Before she hit the ground, JT pulled himself under her, breaking her fall. 
"Ugh!" he groaned. 
Joshu reconstituted into his Akuma form. 
"Ha! This is perfect!" Joshu laughed. "The other side of this half is cornered by some Steelscales thanks to me, so they'll never make it in time! It'll be like a four-in-one!" 
Joshu snapped his finger, causing the spiked wall in the hole to slowly start closing in. 
"Well, it's been fun, but right now I have to kill off the rest of your friends!" Joshu laughed. "Toodle-oo!" 
Joshu laughed maniacally, then teleported away. 
"Scarlett! Scarlett!!" JT shook Scarlett's body violently. "C'mon, wake up!" 
Scarlett didn't respond, she was unconscious. 
"Joshu possessed her... that maniac!" JT slammed the ground with his hand, then pulled himself and Scarlett to the wall of the hole farthest from the wall closing in. 
"F-Frank! A-Anna!" JT screamed. "Anybody! HELP!!"