Author's Note: A good friend of mine, Juviafullbuster1, and I have a little inside joke- and let's just say it's a rather cheesy one. So, naturally, when I found out that June 4th was National Cheese Day (I found out really late at night), I had to make a story. Adan is my OC, Rita is Juviafullbuster1's OC, and Just Cheese (yes, that's the name of the enemy for this story) belongs to both of us. I hope you enjoy reading this story, it was rather fun to write. If you like this story, or even if you don't, please leave a review! I'd love to hear your opinion about my work! Also, feel free to check out my profile for more stories! I don't have much at the moment, but more will be coming soon, such as A NaLu oneshot and possibly a Luvia (No, not Lyvia) oneshot in honor of pride month!
Rita: Disclaimer, Juvia belongs to me! And Gray. But mainly me! *hugging Juvia body pillow*
Adan: *sweatdrops* I think what she means to say is that Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.
Rita: *hissing while hugging the body pillow tighter* Mine.
It was a fine summer morning at the beginning of June in the city of Magnolia, the sun shining down brightly on the town. Some people were just waking up, while others had already been on their feet for a while, opening up their shops or heading to run errands. The same goes for the members of Fairy Tail, as a few mages had started to stream into the slightly populated guildhall.
One of those mages was Rita, a young and talented take over mage who possessed a spirit as bright as the shining sun. Her golden eyes scanned the guild hall in pursuit of none other than her beloved senpai, Juvia Lockser. Rita was, to say the least, head over heels for the senior water mage ever since their first encounter- in fact, the blue-haired mage was one of the reasons that Rita decided to join Fairy Tail in the first place.
Her shoulders slumped slightly when she realized that for the third time in a row, Juvia was nowhere to be seen. "You good? You look disappointed." A feminine voice that came from out of nowhere caused Rita to yelp in surprise and jump, extending her hand and giving the person a backhand slap.
"Hey! Watch the lacrima!" The person exclaimed, raising her hand to guard the red lens above her left eye.
Rita blinked, taking a second to register the person who was in front of her. "Sorry!" She exclaimed, bringing her hands up to her mouth. "I didn't break it, did I?"
The person who had surprised Rita was none other than her friend, Adan. "You're fine, and so is the lacrima," Adan waved her off, flashing her a grin. "Care to answer my question?" She asked.
"Your question?" Rita tilted her head slightly to the side in confusion. "Um, what was it?" She asked, laughing nervously.
"You seem disappointed. What's up?" Adan asked.
"Oh," Rita sighed, frowning slightly. "Juvia's still not here." She answered. "It's been three days- I'm starting to get worried."
Adan rested her hand on Rita's shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile. "Don't be. You of all people should know that Juvia is more than capable of defending herself. And plus, she's on a mission with Gray, so she's not alone."
Rita sighed again. "I guess you are right, but still. I can't help but worry about her. I really hope she's alright..."
Adan pursed her lips. Normally, Rita would fangirl if Juvia was within a five foot radius of Gray. To not even acknowledge the fact that the two of them were on a quest together really said something about how bummed Rita was. Adan's brown eye scanned the guild hall. "How about we..." She trailed off, her eye searching the hall until it landed on the job quest wall. "Take a job?" She asked. "It'll be fun, and it'll help get your mind off of your worries."
Rita shrugged. "I've nothing better to do anyway. Just, promise that it won't take too long. I wouldn't want to miss Juvia's return for the world."
Adan nodded, giving Rita a thumbs up. "I'm sure that we'll be back in time for Juvia's return." The two of them headed to the job board, looking for a simple quest that would only take a day or two to complete. "You see anything interesting?" Adan asked her friend, reading over the quests that she saw. Most of them had nice rewards, but would probably take longer than what she and Rita were looking for. There were some other ones that wouldn't take long, but they were S-class quests.
"Yeah," Rita answered, reaching her hand out and lightly grabbing a quest from the wall. There was a puzzled expression on her face as she looked at the paper.
"What is it?" Adan asked, peering over her friend's shoulder.
"I'm not entirely sure..." Rita answered. On the paper was nothing but various sizes of blocks of different kinds of cheese. "I don't see any text on it, do you?" She asked Adan.
"No," Adan answered. "Even with the lacrima, I see the same thing you see." The lacrima allowed Adan to see far more than the human eye could see. She could see farther than the average person, she could see in the dark, she could read an object's thermal radiation, and she could even see through things if she wanted to, though she decided to keep that feature off for obvious reasons. "What you're looking at is all there is to it."
"So I'm not the only one who saw that..." Rita and Adan looked up to see Mira, holding her hand up to her chin in a puzzled manner.
"How long has it been up there?" Adan asked.
"It wasn't there last night when I left," Mira answered. "But I was the first to come here this morning, and there it was."
"What is it?" A new voice asked. The three girls turned to see Levy, accompanied by her teammates, Jet and Droy. "Maybe it has a secret message that I could derive from it."
Rita held out the paper to Levy. "It's a picture." She answered. "It's weird, though, because it's just cheese."
Suddenly, before Levy could grab the paper, one of the holes on a block of swiss cheese turned into an actual hole, rapidly growing in size. The hole flew to the top of the guild, creating a powerful suction. The pitch black vortex seemed to only be interested in items with magic in it, as a bunch of various magic items flew up, but other items such as glasses and beer bottles stayed put. A giant glowing number was in the middle of the vortex, and it was counting down from 10.
The mages in the guild quickly held onto nearby items, from the tables to various pillars. "What is that?!" Mirajane asked, the suction creating a loud wind which forced her to raise her voice so she could be heard.
"I don't know!" Rita shouted back. She reached her hand out for a nearby table, but just barely missed it. A shriek escaped her lips as her body defied the laws of gravity. She reached her hands out in a last-ditch attempt to catch hold of something.
"Rita!" Adan shouted, reaching out her staff for Rita to hold onto. Rita's fingers brushed the orb on top of the staff- it was just out of her reach. Adan watched as Rita flew into the vortex, the take over mage's horrified expression being the last thing that Adan caught a glimpse of before Rita disappeared into the black abyss that loomed above their heads.
The number was at 6, but the vortex was already much smaller than it was when it was at 10. Without a moment's hesitation, Adan threw her staff up into the air. The force of her throw made the staff spin like wild. By the time it got to the portal, the ends of it were the same length as the portal itself, which caused it to stop the portal from shrinking. The countdown changed to a message, with another countdown. "Error: Unable to shut the portal. Self-destructing in 3..."
Adan let go of the pillar she was holding onto, her body flying towards the portal. 2... Reaching her hands out, Adan faced the portal head on. She grabbed hold of the staff and, using the force of her body weight, managed to shove the staff into the portal. 1... Adan got sucked into the portal right as it closed behind her. She quickly double tapped the piece of technology on the left side of her head, and her lacrima disappeared. In the split-second after she turned off her lacrima, she closed her eyes and braced herself. Surely enough, there was a loud boom, and even through closed eyes, she could see the bright light that the explosion created. Adan felt the blow of the explosion push her forward with a force that was hard enough to make her black out.
Adan blinked open her eye, groaning as she used her staff to help slowly lift herself off of the floor. Everywhere around her was pitch black. Cursing under her breath, she double tapped the small piece of technology on the side of her head. "Don't tell me I've gone blind in the other eye too," Adan mumbled to herself, the lacrima popping back out. Considering she had landed on her face, it was a good thing that she turned off the lacrima. It would've easily got crushed.
Adan was in what appeared to be an old-fashioned factory room, but with no windows and no doors in sight. There was tons of machinery lining the walls, maybe there was a door hidden from her line of sight somewhere beyond those machines. On the floor were some of the magic items that had got sucked into the portal alongside her and Rita. Looking up, she saw that there were no lights, either.
"Okay, so I'm not fully blind," Adan convinced herself, looking around the room. Not too far from her was a rune wall that split the room in half, and behind the rune wall was a lump. It was hard to tell what was behind the wall, but Adan had a pretty good guess as to what, or who, it could be. "Rita!" The long-haired mage called out, running over to her friend and stopping just before the rune wall.
"Adan?" Rita asked, lifting her head up from the ground. "Where are you?" She asked, moving her head around in an attempt to see. "Why can't I see?" She asked, her movements becoming more frantic as she raised her hand to her face to try and feel around for an object that might be obscuring her vision.
"I'm right in front of you," Adan answered. "But we've been separated by a rune. I checked and I don't see any possible light source in this room, it's pitch black."
"Do you see any exits?" Rita asked, sitting up.
"I couldn't find any," Adan told her. "But don't worry, I'll get us out of here." She assured her friend, her lacrima scanning over the room once more. Surely there had to be some type of hole- after all, they were breathing. Oxygen had to be coming into the room in some way.
"Maybe the rune isn't that strong?" Rita asked.
"I don't think I've ever seen a rune like this before." Adan informed Rita, scanning the rune with her lacrima. It didn't seem dangerous in any way. "It doesn't seem harmful, though, Maybe you could try taking it down?"
"Got it!" Rita nodded, getting up. "Erm, which way is it?" She asked, unable to see where the rune was.
"One o'clock." Adan answered, stepping aside just in case Rita managed to bust through.
Rita turned in the direction Adan had given her. "Spirit Takeover: Liberty!" She shouted, her body quickly becoming engulfed in a teal aura. Her golden eyes glowed brilliantly and her deep purple hair started to float as her body started to levitate. Slowly, the aura fully engulfed her body, the glow covering everything except her shining eyes. Suddenly, the mass of teal plasma charged at the rune, the silhouette of two hands extending out and pressing against the barrier.
Rita pulled back one of her hands, concentrating the flow of her magic energy towards her palm. With a valiant battle cry, Rita thrust her palm forward. A magic seal appeared before her palm, and out of the magic seal came a magnificent beam, hitting the rune straight on.
Adan watched the rune carefully, but it seemed unaffected by the beam. As the beam continued to charge at the rune, the rune started to glow as if it were absorbing the magic energy. "Rita!" Adan called out to her friend. "It's no use! The rune is absorbing your magic!"
Rita lowered her hand at Adan's words, the beam dissipating out of existence. She slowly lowered herself back to the ground, the aura around her fading away along with the glow in her eyes as she transformed back. "Well, now what?" She asked, flicking a loose strand of wavy hair out of her face.
A mysterious laughing caused Rita and Adan to turn their heads to the source of the voice. Standing before them was a giant mutant creature, made out of all sorts of cheese melted together. It's face was the only identifiable cheese, swiss cheese, with the holes being his mouth and his eyes. "I'm impressed," The monster remarked. "Normally, people don't make it this far. Good job, you two."
"Who are you?" Adan asked.
"Me? Oh, you already know who I am." The beast waved off Adan's question.
"I don't recall seeing you before, though." Rita interjected.
The beast glared at Rita. "Like I said, you already know who I am. Especially you," He growled, pointing at the girl behind the rune. "In fact, you used my identity to summon me,"
"Huh?" Rita tilted her head slightly to the side in confusion.
"Don't "huh" me!" The mutant barked. "You said it! "It's just cheese," Remember?" He asked, a strong hatred in his voice. Rita gulped nervously, remembering her words. "Is that all I am to you? Just cheese?"
After a moment of silence, Adan spoke up. "What do you want with us?" She asked, raising her voice slightly.
"It's simple, really." The human-like creature assured her. "I want to prove that I am more than just cheese. I am a delicacy to be enjoyed to the fullest, and I deserve to be treated as such!" The monster barked. Adan and Rita blinked, not knowing how to respond to that. "I am a monster to be feared!" He shouted at the two mages when he didn't get a reaction out of them.
"Pardon me," Adan spoke up. "I think you mean muenster," She corrected.
The cheese monster laughed. "Haha, good one. Wait a second! You're distracting me!" He exclaimed angrily, clearing his throat. "Anyways, pass this challenge and I'll let you and your friend go." The creature told Adan.
Adan raised her eyebrows in confusion, though shrugging nonetheless. "Alright." She nodded, slightly concerned as to what the challenge would be. It's not like there was anything else she could do. A challenge from a cheese monster shouldn't be too hard anyway. The worst thing that could happen was that he challenged her to a fight. As a Solar Mage, Adan needed sunlight to perform any of her attacks. Only the more advanced solar mages had the ability to store the sunlight within them and then use it for later. Because of this, Adan was fairly good at hand-to-hand combat, though she was unsure of what the mutant before her might be capable of.
The creature snapped his fingers and a table appeared in front of Adan with three blocks of cheddar cheese on it. "Only one of these blocks of cheddar cheese is real." The monster told her. Adan tucked a loose curl behind her ear. "Find the re-" His jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes widened as he watched Adan pick up the middle block, which happened to be the correct one. To rub salt into his wound, she then ate it.
"I love cheddar cheese," Adan told him, swallowing the cheese. "Sharp cheddar is my all time favorite."
"You didn't even let me finish!" The monster fumed, shaking his fist. He snapped his fingers again, and instead of three blocks of cheddar cheese, nine blocks of gouda cheese were in front of Adan. "As I was saying," He cleared his throat. "Only one of these blocks of gouda cheese is real. Find the real one, or else your friend gets punished for it."
"Why do I have to get the punishment?!" Rita exclaimed, glaring from beyond the rune.
"Relax, Rita, you know I can do this." Adan assured Rita, throwing a thumbs up in her direction despite knowing that Rita couldn't see her in the pitch black. She turned her attention back to the cheese in front of her, smirking. She had secretly turned on her lacrima's thermal reading, so it was rather obvious to find the odd one out. Adan reached for the block in the top left corner, happily popping it into her mouth. "Mmm, Gouda. This is my mom's favorite." She informed the monster, swallowing.
Adan watched as the monster's thermal reading quickly turned from orange to red. The monster was literally boiling with anger. "Impossible!" The monster exclaimed. "How did you know?!"
Adan shrugged. "Lucky guess?" She replied.
The monster let out a frustrated yell. "Forget what I said earlier, you're getting the punishment!" Suddenly, the creature's thermal radiation levels changed from red to white as he started melting, and without warning the giant puddle of cheese which was formerly his body lunged at Adan, enveloping her feet.
Adan let out a horrid screech as the cheese scorched right through her shoes and harshly burned her feet. The cheese was over 150°F and was slowly getting hotter, too.
"Adan!" Rita cried out, pressing up against the barrier as she listened to her friend cry out in agony, straining her eyes to see what was going on but to no avail.
Adan stumbled away from the puddle of piping hot cheese, the sudden burning numbing her feet. The second she stepped out of the cheese she stumbled onto the floor, turning herself and crawling backward as she watched the cheese slowly roll towards her. As she was crawling away from the monster, she felt her back hit the wall. "Shoot," Adan cursed, for she knew trapped. She knew for a fact that she wasn't able to use her magic without a source, which she was currently lacking, without dire consequences. Adan usually wasn't this helpless, but how often was it that people got locked in pitch black rooms with no light whatsoever?
Trying to think of a solution to her problem, she switched off her thermal reading and then looked behind her. From the corner of her eye, she saw cobwebs against the wall. As her eyes trailed up the wall, she noticed that the place, in general, was in poor condition; dusty, filled with cobwebs, and all the machinery looked as if it were old and hadn't been used in years.
Adan's brown eye widened in realization. "Rita!" Adan called out to her companion. "The ceiling!" She quickly grabbed onto one of the pieces of equipment and pulled herself up onto it.
Despite not being able to see, Rita raised her head and looking directly above her. Adan's words suddenly clicked in her mind. "Spirit Takeover: Determination!" Rita cried out, raising her hand above her head and then swiftly lowering it in a diagonal motion. In the same instant, a blue circle glowed around Rita's feet. A brilliant blue flame arose from the circle, surrounding Rita and then enveloping her. Rita's features disappeared in the blue flame, the only thing visible was her glowing left eye.
Rita jumped up with a force that sent all of the magic items from the guild flying into the nearest wall. She burst through the ceiling effortlessly, the material falling to the floor and crumbling to a giant dust cloud. Rita looked at the scenery before her. They were only in one small section of a giant one-story square. The lands around the building were barren, and the sun was shining brightly in the sky, giving the vast and vacant land a slight glow.
Taking her best guess, Rita flew back down to the building, crashing through the ceiling once again. She had landed in the same room as before, but this time she landed on the other side of the rune wall. The sunlight filtering into the room was just enough for her to see Adan scaling up the machinery, yelping as the monster brushed against her already scorched feet.
Rita rushed to Adan in an instant, scooping her off of the machinery and flying her to the other side of the room. Rita lowered herself and Adan down to the ground, the latter using her scepter to hold herself up. Adan's hand was on top of the orb, covering it from the light and blocking the energy from entering the orb. Instead, she absorbed the magic energy for herself, which was something she didn't normally do. "He's incredibly hot," Adan informed Rita through gritted teeth, wincing at the pain searing in her feet. "Direct attacks won't work on him."
"You stay here," Rita instructed Adan, stepping in front of her. "I'll fight him off."
"No," Adan shook her head, carefully stepping forward to stand next to Rita. "We are members of Fairy Tail. We do not leave one another behind, but instead, we fight together." Adan let go of her scepter, not looking as it fell to the ground with a clacking noise.
The two were standing directly underneath the hole in the ceiling, the sunlight filtering through the hole and lighting up the space around them. Through her lacrima, Adan could see Rita's surprised expression. "Your staff," The short-haired mage mumbled. "I've never seen you fight without it."
Adan shook her head, a smile on her face despite the searing pain she felt from standing. "I don't need it."
"Are you sure?" Rita asked, concerned. "You've only been in the sun for not even three minutes, is that even enough for you to fight?"
"I'm positive." Adan assured her friend. "And depending on how the magic is used, I'd say three minutes is more than enough. I don't need much, and for this fight, I'll need something else." She told Rita, holding out her hand. "Something that goes beyond just any ordinary magic."
Rita blinked, taking a second to register Adan's words. Once it clicked in her mind, she nodded. "I thought you'd never ask." She told her friend, grabbing her hand.
The two mages closed their eyes as Adan started to float alongside Rita, the fiery blue aura that engulfed the takeover mage enveloping her as well. They pressed their foreheads together, holding both of their hands close to their chest and entwining their fingers together. "Unison Raid:" They shouted in sync, the blue aura around them bursting into a flame twice it's original size as the sun shone directly above the hole, filling the dull room with a blinding light. Various objects around the room started to float from the sudden burst of magic energy, the two girls' eyes shooting open as they extended one of their hands out towards their enemy. "Helios!" They cried out.
A large golden magic seal appeared in front of Rita and Adan, and out of the magic seal came four stallions made out of sunlight, carrying a chariot behind them. Atop the seat of the chariot was a man made out of sunlight holding the reins, a crown the shape of the sun resting on his head. In the chariot was a ball of energy that was orange in color, bearing resemblance to a miniature sun.
The man whipped the reins, the stallions charging forward towards the monster who had now started to retreat. He moved the reins so he was holding them in one hand, using his free hand to reach behind him and lift up the ball of energy above his head. Holding the ball for a few more seconds, he slammed it down on the beast before him, creating a brilliant explosion.
The sheer power of the explosion caused the rune wall to break. The monster let out a final cry of anguish before exploding, the cheesy remains splattering all over the walls. Helios had dissipated as well, but much more gracefully than the mutated creature had. In his place were tons of small sparkles of shimmering sunlight, slowly fading away into the air.
Rita and Adan slowly descended to the ground, their eyes once again closed. The aura around them disappearing as Rita's takeover magic wore off. Both of their eyes fluttered open as they pulled their foreheads away from each other.
A moment of silence lay between the two before Adan spoke up. "I think it's safe to say we annihilated that guy," She concluded, a grin making its way across her face.
Rita nodded, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "Yeah," She agreed, unable to find the words to say anything else.
Suddenly, the floor around them started to cave in. The two of them looked down to see that same portal from before starting to suck them in once more. The two girls looked back up at each other, before clinging to one another and closing their eyes, shrieking as they started to fall once again.
The two of them fell for what felt like minutes but was only a few seconds before they landed on something soft, bouncing lightly. Still clinging to each other, they opened their eyes. Standing above them in a circle were members of Fairy Tail, some with concerned expressions on their face while others looked confused. "What happened?" Mira was the first to speak up.
Rita and Adan sat up, letting go of one another. Adan looked down at what she and Rita were sitting on. It was one of Levy's solid scripts, cushion. "Some weird creature made out of cheese had us locked in a pitch black room and separated by a rune wall." Rita answered, causing Adan to look up.
"Yeah. He gave me a challenge, which I completed, and then he started attacking me." Adan answered.
"Are any of you hurt?" Wendy asked, joining the group that had circled the two girls.
"I am." Adan raised her hand, pointing to her charred feet. "He melted himself and managed to burn my feet."
The guild members winced at how singed her feet were. Deciding not to wait, Wendy kneeled down and started using her magic to try and heal them right away. "After we defeated him, we fell back down the same portal that took us in the first place." Rita finished.
Levy scratched her chin, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "How peculiar..." She hummed. "I've never heard of anything like that before."
After a few minutes of wondering if the strange quest had any meaning behind it, everything went back to normal fairly quickly, the people of Fairy Tail were back to doing their own thing. Wendy stopped her healing spell, standing up. "I don't think I'll be able to remove those marks, but you should be able to walk again." She told Adan.
Adan nodded, standing up. "Thank you, Wendy." She smiled at the younger blue-haired mage.
"It's no problem!" Wendy returned Adan's smile. A nearby voice called her name, causing her to head off in the direction of the voice to find out who needed her.
Adan turned around to see Rita looking around the guildhall. "What're you looking for?" She asked, moving to stand next to her friend.
"Juvia's still not back yet..." Rita pouted, looking down in defeat.
Adan sighed, sweatdropping. All of that and she was still thinking about the water mage? "There, there..." Adan patted Rita's back. "She'll be back eventually..."
"Senpai..." Rita sobbed, clearly upset that Juvia hadn't returned yet.
"Hey," Adan poked Rita's cheek, causing the purple-haired mage to look up at her friend. "I gotta buy new shoes since just cheese burned my old ones. Wanna come with?" She asked, tilting her head slightly to the side hopefully.
Rita sighed, shrugging. "I guess," She mumbled.
Adan smiled softly at her friend. "Come on then, maybe Juvia will be back after we're done." She suggested.
Rita's eyes lit up at the mention of her beloved senpai. She suddenly grabbed Adan's hand and ran out of the guild hall. "What are we waiting for, then?" She asked. Adan laughed at Rita's sudden mood swing, running alongside her friend down the streets of Magnolia.