The Troop walked through the front doors to see huge crowds of people with stands everywhere.
"Alright, let's act casually," said Zeon. "Cadence, if those teenagers thought your monster form is a costume, then hopefully everyone else here will too."
"Let's just hope so," Cadence said feeling a little worried.
The Troop walked down the walkways like they were going about their days; some people were looking at Cadence but not in a panicking way.
"Hey, excuse me?" a woman with her family asked.
"We like your costume; could we get a picture of us with you?" the woman asked Cadence.
"Uh, sure," Cadence answered.
Cadence crouched down and did a scary pose while the family stood in front of them; Sam used the family's cell phone to take the picture.
"Wow cool," a teen dressed as a space robot said to Cadence. "Where did you get that costume?"
"I, uh, made it myself," Cadence said.
"And I also like your costume," the teen said to Zeon.
"My costume," Zeon said in confusion.
"Yeah, you look like Zeon, the good apprentice of an evil entity who creates monsters from Jakenator issues 46 through 73," said the teen showing Zeon an image of him in one of the Jakenator comics.
"I definitely have some questions for Jake," Zeon said to himself.
After two minutes of walking, they found the stand where Jake was; he now had long hair, glasses, and a goatee beard.
Fred went ahead to meet him first before the others.
"Excuse me, Mr. Collins?" Fred asked.
"Hi, what might your name be?" Jake asked.
"My name is Fred, I like your Jakenator comics," he said and then whispered. "They help me come up with strategies to hunt monsters."
"Do you mean…?" Jake said in amazement.
"Yes, I'm part of the Troop, and here are some friends that I think you'd like to meet," Fred said showing him the rest of the Troop.
"Cadence, Zeon," Jake said with joy.
"Hey, Jake," said the both of them.
"It's been so long," Jake said fist bumping both of them.
"Yeah, and really," said Zeon. "You made me the apprentice of an evil entity that can create monsters."
"Well, uh," Jake chuckled nervously. "It's better than making you sound like a villain since you're the one who created the monsters."
"I'll give you credit for honesty," said Zeon.
"So, anyway, what brings you guys here?" Jake asked. "And Cadence, why are you in your monster form?"
"That's actually why we're here," Cadence answered. "The king and queen of the monsters, Typhon and Echidna, are reappearing after more than a thousand years, and we've come here to pick up a gemstone that can help destroy them; that gemstone is why I'm currently stuck in my monster form."
"Wow, that's pretty big," said Jake. "I should definitely make a comic about that."
"Anyway, we're looking for a janitor named Stan," said Sam. "Have you seen him?"
"Yeah, I think I saw him go down towards the restrooms," Jake answered.
"Great, thanks," said Fred. "Oh, by the way, when will you be releasing Jakenator issue 82?"
"In about a week give or take," said Jake. "If you defeat Typhon and Echidna by then."
"Okay, see you around," said Cadence.
The Troop then left to go find Stan.
They walked to the restrooms where they found a janitor standing near the doors with a mop; he even had a name tag with Stan written on it.
"That must be him," Fred said.
They walked up to him without any trouble.
"We're here for the true colors gem," said Cadence.
Stan stood still and said nothing for a few seconds until he said, "Follow me."
He took the Troop to a janitor's storage closet and tilted what looked like a very old spray bottle, part of the wall next to it opened to reveal a slot, Stan inserted a Troop keycard into the slot, and an elevator opened.
"Well, that's classic," Fred said.
Stan and the Troop walked into the elevator where they were taken down to the storage facility.
The elevator opened into a room that looked like a mega huge warehouse.
There were items like stone tablets with repticores, large broken-off chunks of cave walls with cave paintings of monsters, there was even a big statue of two hippocampi fighting a sea serpent.
"Now this is definitely something I never thought I'd see," said Jacob.
Stan walked them through the hall of items and artifacts.
"Please, don't touch the artifacts," Stan said to Fred.
Fred pulled his hand away from a bronze shield with two borlaks circling on it; he was creeped out because Stan didn't even look at him when he said that.
In the center of the whole storage facility was the true colors gem, inside a bullet-proof glass case and surrounded by lasers that go in every direction.
Stan pulled out his keycard, inserted it into a slot on the machine operating the lasers, and turned it ninety degrees and back.
The lasers deactivated and the case opened to reveal the glowing emerald-colored gem.
Stan then handed the gem over to the Troop, and Zeon took out a small pod.
"What's that?" asked Jacob.
"A matter transport pod," answered Zeon. "It can store any kind of matter inside it by turning it into code."
He put the gemstone on top of the pod, pressed a button, and the gemstone was absorbed into the pod.
Cadence then changed back into her human form.
"What's going on?" Cadence asked.
"The matter that made up the gemstone is now turned into code which means its properties can't affect you as long as it's inside the pod," Zeon explained.
"Well, I'm just relieved that's over," said Cadence feeling glad to be out of her monster form.
The Troop left the facility and returned to the Comic-Con, but they noticed that the building was suspiciously empty.
"Where'd everyone go?" Sam asked.
They then heard thunder and saw red flashes outside.
"Could that be?" said Zeon.
They went outside to see everyone staring up at the sky.
The skies were covered in a blanket of red and dark thunderclouds with red lighting flashes.
"The second sign," said Zeon. "We have to hurry."
"So, where do we go next, Zeon?" Fred asked.
"To Japan to collect the golden antler of the Ceryneian hind," he answered.
"But this storm looks really terrible," Jacob said. "I think they would've closed the airport by now."
"Taking a plane would've been too slow anyway," said Zeon. "So, we're going to take a shortcut."
Zeon led the Troop behind the convention center, pulled out a device, and pushed the red button on top.
Dimension mites flowed out of the bottom and opened a portal.
"Are we taking a shortcut through your lab?" Cadence asked.
"No, I did a little tinkering with these dimension mites," said Zeon. "So, they'll take us straight to Japan."
They then ran through the portal to the other side.
Chapter 4 done