Erza, Lucy, and Gray continued to run for their lives. After discovering that they were dealing with real monsters, none of them really knew what to think. They kept running until they couldn't run anymore, but it looked like they lost the monsters.
"I think we're safe." Erza said as they tried catching their breaths.
"This is unbelievable! Those are real monsters!" Lucy said. "Somehow the costumes have turned into real monsters! How is something like that even possible?!"
"Tell that to what I saw inside the Fiend Hatter when I actually ripped its head off!" Gray said as they were all pretty scared of what they saw. "I can't believe this. Someone was able to turn normal costumes into real monsters. Our specialty is dealing with crazy people in Halloween costumes, not whatever the heck this is. I can't believe that book was for real."
"The book!" Lucy said as she realized something important. "That book we found was like an instruction manual on creating monsters! It spoke of equations and formulas to cause restoration and use organic substitution."
"English, woman! English!" Gray said as he was still a little freaked about the whole thing.
"One, I'm saying the book might have a way to stop them!" Lucy said.
"And what's the second thing?" Gray questioned.
"Don't ever talk to me like that again." Lucy said.
"Where's the book?" Erza said.
"I left it back at Natsu's house." Lucy said. "We need to get that book if we want to know how to stop this thing."
"Good idea. We got get our hands on that book." Erza said. "That means we'll have to make it back to the Myster-V." That does seem like a bad idea since they just spotted the monsters there, but the Myster-V is the only way they can get back to town fast enough.
"What about Natsu and Happy? We can't just leave them out here." Lucy said.
"That's right! Weren't they with you?" Erza said as they realized their friends were missing.
"They were, but we ended up separated. We can't leave them out here with those things hunting us down." Lucy said as she was scared for their safety.
"It will be okay. One thing I know about those two is that they're hard to catch. I'm sure they'll be fine." Gray said. Choosing to have faith in their friends, the three of them hurried back to the van in hopes of getting the answer to stop this madness.
...
Natsu and Happy
Natsu and Happy ended up in a cave when they were running for their lives from the monsters. When they ended up in there, they found a shrine to Natsu's family. Natsu also found something that could be pretty important. After they found it, the two of them tried to find some way through the cave in case there was anything else important.
"This cave has got to lead somewhere." Natsu said as he tried his best to navigate through the dark. The odd thing was that there was still some light shining. That meant there had to be light coming from somewhere. The two of them kept moving until they could see light shining through. "Bingo." Natsu pushed up against what felt like wood and was able to lift it off to have them back outside with Happy climbing out.. "Where are we?"
"Meow." Happy showed Natsu where they were. They were standing by an old church near some cliffs. This had to be the one they were looking for.
"Lucky us. This must be the church." Natsu said as he was glad they found it. "Come on, Happy. Let's check it out." The two of them made their way to the front and tried to get the door open. Luckily, it was never locked and they were able to get inside. When they did, they were a little freaked by what they saw. There were machines and other contraptions inside. "Whoa... Someone turned this place into a mad scientist lab." It was freaky, but they still had a look around. While they were searching, they heard the sound of someone coming and hid. They looked and saw it was the Fiend.
"They can run all they want, but they can't hide." The Fiend said as he knew he was talking about the gang. Happy wanted to run out of there. He grabbed Natsu's hand and tried to pull him out of there, but Natsu wasn't moving this time. Something was telling Natsu to stay and see how this all plays out. Something is different inside of Natsu this time. As the Fiend checked his machines to make sure everything was working okay, he went back outside. Happy thought this was the chance to run, but Natsu had something else in mind.
"Sorry, Happy. We're not leaving." Natsu said as he took the chance he had and hurried to the machines with Happy having no idea what he's doing.
...
The Dragneel House
Gray and the girls were able to get back the Myster-V and could still drive it. Once they got the van back, they drove all the way back to Magnolia and hurried to Natsu's house to get that book. Once they pulled over, they all hurried out and hurried to his house.
"I really hope it's still there." Lucy said as they ran to the door and were able to get it open. Once they saw the house was unlocked, they ran straight to Zeref's room for there was no time to loose. Once they got up to his room, they spotted the book was right where they left it.
"Yes! It's still here!" Gray said. Lucy grabbed the book and flipped through the pages.
"Can you figure it out? Do you really think there's a way to get rid of those monsters?" Erza questioned.
"I think so." Lucy said as she skimmed through it. "In fact, I think I just did."
"Seriously? Dang, you're a fast reader." Gray said.
"It looks like one of the key parts to turning the costumes into monsters is a machine that causes an electrical charge, the same charge that doctors use to defibrillator's to send a shock to a person's heart to get it going. Another example is how Dr. Frankenstein uses lightning to create his monster." Lucy said.
"You know how we can use that to beat these things?" Erza questioned.
"Yeah. Think of it like this." Lucy said. "The opposite of a positive charge is a negative charge and vice versa. If we can find out what kind of electrical charge was used to create the monsters, and create one that's an opposite charge, it should convert the monsters back into costumes and whatever else they're made out of!"
"That's it! Sounds great!" Erza said as she was happy that's all they needed to do.
"Hold on. It might sound that simple, but I doubt it is." Gray said.
"Well, we still need to find out what kind of charge was used and..." Lucy didn't finish explaining as she noticed an envelope fall out of the book. "Didn't notice that last time." Erza grabbed the envelope and opened it up to see what was inside.
"What's in there?" Gray said.
"Photos of us, a list of the monsters we've beaten, and what looks like a plan to break into the police station." Erza said.
"That has to prove it. Zeref has to be the one behind all of this." Gray said.
"But why would Zeref do this to us? To his own brother?" Erza said.
"I don't know, but we've got to..." Gray didn't finish as something smashed through the window and grabbed a hold of him and pulled him outside. The girls looked and saw it was Panther Guardian that took him and the other monsters found them.
"Come on!" Lucy said as the girls hurried out of there. They were able to make it to the front door, but the Fiend Hatter appeared behind them and grabbed Erza.
"Run, Lucy! Don't let them get that book!" Erza shouted. Lucy hated to leave her friends behind, but she just kept on running as fast as she could. She ran through the streets and tried to escape from them. Lucy kept running and running, didn't look back. She went as far as she could before she bumped into someone.
"Lucy?" She got scared when she saw it was Zeref. "What's going on? What are you running from?"
"You..." Lucy said as she was terrified and thought he was the Fiend.
"What are you talking about?" Zeref asked as he reached out to her, but Lucy just went around him and kept running. "Lucy, wait!" He called as he went after her. "Lucy, wait a minute!" He said as he reached out to her and grabbed her, but she got free from his hold.
"Stay away from me." Lucy said as she backed away to the streets. "I know who you are."
"Lucy, I don't know what you're talking about." Zeref said as he did seem rather confused. Lucy just kept moving away from him. "Lucy, listen to me. Get off the road." Lucy refused to listen to him, but there was no time to do anything. Zeref came at her and she thought he was going to attack her, but Zeref pushed out of the way of a speeding car. "Are you okay?"
"You saved me?" Lucy said as she found that puzzling. "Why?"
"Why wouldn't I? I know how important you are to Natsu." Zeref said as he helped her stand up. Lucy didn't understand what was going on, but there was no time to act. The Man-Bat came at them and grabbed Lucy with his feet and carried her away. "Lucy!" Zeref shouted as all he could do was watch the Man-Bat carry Lucy away.
...
Natsu
Natsu never left the church. He just looked around the machines and tried to figure out how they worked. He figured he could try to sabotage the equipment and try to set the Fiend's plans back. As for Happy, he was just hoping they would get out of there.
"Sorry, Happy. I know you want to leave, but we're not going anywhere." Natsu said. Something has come over Natsu that's he acting differently than how he usually does. All Happy could do was stand guard, and it's a good thing he did. Happy hurried over to Natsu and tried to tell him someone was coming. Knowing what Happy was trying to say, the two of them hurried off somewhere they could hide.
"Let go! Get your hands off us!" Natsu knew whose voice that was. He and Happy took a look and saw their friends were captured by the monsters.
"Oh no." Natsu said as he didn't like the looks of this. They took Gray and the girls and chained them down with the Horned Man taking the book back from Lucy.
"Oh man. Are they going to eat us now?" Erza said.
"I think if they wanted to eat us, they would have done it by now." Lucy said.
"Correct, my dear. I have something else in mind." They all looked to the entrance and saw The Fiend coming in. "Looks like I got three of you, and thank you for bringing my book." The Fiend said as he took the book from the Horned Man.
"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Gray said.
"We'll get to that soon." The Fiend said. "That's assuming the three of you will even be around to witness such things." None of them liked the looks of this for them at all. "I still need to get my hands on the others. I want the whole group here for their demise."
"What are you going to do?" Lucy questioned.
"Everything up until now was not just to get your little group." The Fiend said as he looked through his book and made sure he had everything needed. "It was all a test to see how my monsters would act, and it looks like it was a success. With my own monsters under my control, no one will get in my way." All of them feared he might bring more monsters to life and there doesn't appear to be anything they can do to stop him.
"Looks like Natsu and Happy are our only hope, wherever they are." Erza said.
"I heard that." The Fiend said. "Don't think I forgot about them. Once I have all of you together, you all shall meet your doom like I said." Natsu and Happy are already at the church, but now it looks like it's all up to the two of them. If they don't do something to stop the Fiend, Magnolia could be overrun by monsters and their friends could be goners.
