Project Freelancer: Agents of Fiore
Disclaimer: I do not own anything
Chapter Two: A Proposal
The group walked for several hours, not stopping once out of fear that they would be ambushed if they did.
Their muscles ached and tiredness loomed over them, waiting to claim them. The group wouldn't let that stop them though, they had to find another clearing first.
They carried on walking for another half an hour, each step making their legs feel heavier and heavier, a lot like how despair was starting to weigh them down emotionally.
However, like all clouds have silver linings, the forest opened up to a paradise in an otherwise Hellish place.
They had found a clearing with lush green grass that was as soft as a feather stuffed cushion. Running along past the clearing, was a cerulean blue river, something which looked refreshing to the worn out group. This was a place untouched by Nirvana's pollution.
Lucy, Wendy and Happy collapsed to the ground, each letting out sighs of relief at the thought of being able to rest.
"I would not relax yet; we've still got to get a fire going before the sun fully sets." Carla stated, receiving groans of displeasure from the trio.
"Carla is right." Erza said in agreement, "If we don't get a fire started then monsters may try to approach us and attack us."
The group let out groans of frustration, but knew the two were right and rose to their aching feet once again.
The group began to collect sticks and dry grass from the tree line, getting enough to fill up their arms before heading back to the middle of the clearing where the each returned to. They then piled some of the sticks into a pyre, leaving the rest to the side to be used as fuel later. The centre of the pyre was stuffed with dry grass to use as the fire starter, a chunk of dry grass was placed on some bark to set alight and then thrown on the rest of the dry grass in the fire.
Some flint was found and given to Erza, who would strike it against her left gauntlet in attempt to start the fire.
Sparks flew with strike she made, but didn't seem to have any effect as the grass remained unlit.
Frustration began to flow through the red head's body as each strike became more and more aggressive, anger fuelling each one. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to rest, but knew she couldn't do that until there was a fire, and thus the reason why she was frustrated was clear.
"Motherfucker! Just light already!" Erza screeched, losing her temper with the attempt fire that was the current bain of her existence.
"Erza, you need to calm down." Lucy stated, walking up to the red head and taking the flint from her hand, "We're all tired and frustrated, but erratically striking your gauntlet the way you are is only lessening your chance of lighting it and increasing your chance of setting the entire clearing ablaze."
Erza just sighed and nodded her head in response, understanding what the blonde girl meant.
"Pass us your arm, let me try and light it." Lucy ordered in a gentle voice.
Erza followed Lucy's instruction and held her left arm out, allowing the girl to grip and direct it towards the dry grass on the bark.
Lucy struck the gauntlet with the pieces of flint with enough force to cause sparks, but did it in a controlled manner that meant the sparks flew into the dry grass. It took three strikes before smoke began to rise from the dry grass, causing joy to fill the two as they noticed this, and then they were almost ecstatic when the dry grass was surrounded by flames.
Wasting no time, Lucy picked up the bark on placed it in the centre of the pyre with the other dry grass, where it quickly set it ablaze and the fire began to burn the wood, spreading light across the clearing.
The sudden light had alerted the other three who had been sat near the river waiting for the fire to be lit. They too were filled with joy when they saw the fire burning and went over to where Lucy and Erza sat around it.
"Thank God, that was more stressful than I thought it would be." Erza stated to the others.
"Your just tired. If you had more energy you would've been able to do it faster." Lucy said to the older girl, reminding her of their earlier discussion.
"Yeah your right, had we not been forced into such a situation, none of us would've been so exhausted." Erza responded, bringing forth their friends' betrayal to the front of their minds.
"What are we going to do now?" Wendy asked the two girls she viewed as her older sisters.
"What do you mean?" Lucy asked
"I mean, what are we going to do now that we can't return to Fairy Tail?" Wendy explained.
This caused the others to begin to think, not sure themselves what they should do now that they were no longer welcome at the place they called home.
They spent several moments thinking, trying to come up with a way that they could use resolve the situation they found themselves in, only to be interrupted by Happy's head shooting up.
His ears pointed straight up and his nose was in the air sniffing as if he was trying to find something. Suddenly he looked in the direction they had come from and began to growl, his fur standing on end.
Before anyone could question him about his sudden behaviour, he charged into the forest, disappearing into the bushes.
"Happy!" Lucy shouted out of shock, confused about the Exceed's actions, turning to Carla for an explanation.
"I don't know what has gotten into the tomcat, but I think it has something to do with the sudden smell blood and metal that was getting close to us." Carla responded, understanding why the blonde girl looked her way.
The sudden sound of gunfire and roaring drew their attention back to the forest, worrying them as they were unable to tell if Happy was alright or not.
Movement to their right caught their attention as they heard the sound of bushes being moved and twigs snapping under the weight of something stepping on them. The sound was heading towards the river and seemed as though they were about to make it, before they were blindsides by a blue blur that forced them into the clearing, revealing to the group a person in black armour, with a golden visor and a panting Happy, who was staring into the visor of the person who was trapped beneath him as he growled at them in a threatening way. The gun they had been using had fallen from their grip and now laid just out of their reach with them in this position.
However, without warning, the person beneath him used their strength to flip their positions so that they were now on top and Happy was on the bottom. To make matters worse, they had gotten a hold of their gun again and was now holding it to Happy's head.
The group suddenly became aware of the predicament their friend found himself in, reacting in the way mages are expected are to react. Erza went to summon a pair of sword, Lucy went to grab a key from her belt, Wendy began to draw in breath and Carla extended her wings.
"HOLD IT!" a voice bellowed from the armour, sounding feminine, but had an unknown accent behind it, "I only want to talk."
The group didn't believe her, something about her was causing their instincts to scream at them to attack, but they knew that the woman had Happy at gun point and that one wrong move would only spell bad news for him.
"If you only want to talk, then why do you have a gun at our friend's head?" Lucy questioned.
The armoured woman looked at her, the visor glaring at her sent a shiver down the blonde's spine as she felt fear course through her body at being unable to tell what kind of look the woman was giving her.
"He attacked me, I'm just making sure he doesn't try anything stupid whilst I talk to you. Wouldn't want to have to splatter what little brains his has all over the ground, would I now?" The woman asked rhetorically, "That being said, should you also try something stupid, I'll shoot him in the skull and then yourselves."
This added to the fear they felt when looking at the woman, knowing that woman wasn't bluffing and that if they wanted to live, it was probably in their best interest to comply with her for the time being.
"Who are you?" Erza demanded.
"I'm Agent Texas or just Texas, whichever one is fine with me."
"What is it you want to talk about?" Erza asked.
"I have been tailing you guys since before your little scuffle with your "friends" and I couldn't help but notice the predicament you find yourselves in." Texas said to the group.
"What's it to you?" Erza asked in a defensive tone.
"I may be able to help you." Tex stated.
"How so? I doubt someone who reeks of death could have anyway of helping us!" Happy growled out from underneath her.
"You'd be surprised kitty-cat." Texas said in a condescending way.
This caused Happy to growl and start to struggle beneath her, only to be reminded of the fact she currently held his life in her hands when she pushed the gun against his skull a little harder.
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I have a way to help you, but it means you'd have to agree to a few terms first." Texas stated to the group.
She received nods from the group, telling her to continue.
"Firstly, you must be prepared to go on missions they may cost you your lives." Texas started, the group nodding at this one, "Secondly, you must be prepared to undergo training that may seem brutal, but the end results will be… an improvement." again the group nodded at to this statement, but did wonder why she paused before finishing, "Finally, the most important of the three, you must be prepared to kill your opponents."
The last term left the group shocked, as well as concerned over the fact that, as mages, killing another person was to be used as a last resort, but the way this woman said it, suggested that killing another person was a common practice for her.
"I'm alright with the first two, but that last one just isn't even a possibility for us." Lucy answered this time, her voice shaking at the thought that someone would even suggest such a thing.
"Before you jump to conclusions and decide that killing is completely bad, let me explain what little I can about the group I work for" Texas said to the group.
"I hope you can convince us, otherwise you won't be leaving here with us." Carla state, malice behind the words.
"Right, I work with a group of people who have decided that the organisation we used to work for was not one with a justifiable cause." Texas began, pausing to let the group take in the organisation, "However when we split from the organisation, there were only five of us, making the escape tricky and taking down said organisation impossible at the time."
"So you're saying you betrayed your organisation?" Erza inquired.
"Yes and no." Texas answered, "The organisation was a sub-organisation of a much bigger one. We betrayed the sub-organisation as it was doing things that would've gotten everyone involved with it, in a serious amount of trouble should the main organisation find out."
"Then why didn't you report it to the main one?" Carla asked.
"Our transmitters aren't stronger enough to reach them and any attempt at reaching a communication station would result in our demise." Texas responded.
"How so?" Erza asked, despite not knowing what a communication station was.
"The main organisation has never made it this far out and thus the only communication stations around here are run by the sub-organization, meaning all those who guard them are loyal to its cause." Texas responded.
The girls ceased asking the woman any questions, looking at each other and nodding as if coming to an unspoken agreement.
"If we agree to your terms, will we be forced to kill or do we chose if the person we are fighting lives or dies?" Lucy asked.
"Depends on your orders, sometimes it is better leave no one alive on the opposing side, sometimes it left to the individual to decided their opponent's fate. Usually best if we just kill them all though, makes life easier when they can't call for reinforcements." Texas replied.
"I think we don't have a choice here. We either wonder around without a purpose and probably perish before we find one, or we join these guys and have a better chance of surviving outside of Fairy Tail." Carla stated.
"I agree, as much as killing is wrong, I would rather kill those who would break the laws of their people, than die in a wasteland." Erza agreed with Carla, the other two nodding, whilst Happy just grunted his confirmation.
"If you're going to join us, then I'll call the others to come and pick us up." Texas stated, getting off of Happy and walking a few metres away from the group to make the call.
The group stood in silence as they waited for Texas to re-join them once she had finished with talking to who she works for.
Texas returned, but she seemed to be much stiffer in the way she walked, also like she was anticipating something.
"The others I work with have informed me that this area is going to be too hot for them to land in thirty seconds from now, meaning that they want us to move down river to another clearing that is similar to this one. There, they'll be waiting for us." Texas said to the group.
"What do you mean? Are there monsters nearby?" Erza questioned, drawing a sword and preparing to combat whoever it was that was making it impossible for their transport to get to them.
"Not monsters, something much more worrying." Texas stated, "Well much more worrying for you, they shouldn't be too much trouble for me to handle."
"You know who it is?" Lucy questioned.
"As they were flying overhead, they picked up figure on the crafts recon camera five minutes ago heading in our direction. They described the figure as a teenage boy, in white shorts, a black armless jacket, sandals, a white scaled scarf and salmon pink hair. Ring a bell?" Texas explained to the group.
"Natsu is coming, but how? Why didn't he go with Gray and Lisanna?" Lucy asked, a twinge of fear in her voice.
"Your guess is as good as mine kid." Texas said to the blonde, "But for now, let's get to the meet up point…"
Texas was unable to finish as her instincts suddenly began to scream at her to duck. She did just that, a fireball passing narrowly over her head, forcing the group to jump out of its way.
Jumping to her feet, Texas unclipped her M-Six Magnum and began to fire into the dark forest in the general direction from which the fireball came from, hoping that one would hit the attacker. She only stopped shooting once the ammo clip in her gun had run, which she the dispensed and replaced with a full one.
"You five need to follow the river down to the next clearing. There you'll find our pick-up with two other agents in armour similar to mine." Texas ordered.
"What about you?" Wendy asked.
"I'm going to buy you time and hold this mother fucker back. Once you reach them, tell the other agents to radio me and I'll then start to make my way to you, got it?" Texas ordered the group, receiving nods from them, "Then what are you waiting for? Move it!"
The group were spurred into action, heading towards the river and following it down stream.
"Alright Pinky! It's just you and me, let's make this easy and you just let me put a bullet between your eyes!" Texas shouted out into the forest, waiting for a response of any kind.
"Look woman, all I want is the others who were with you. So move out of my way!" Natsu demanded.
"Not a chance!" Texas responded, spotting movement in the shadows and wasted no time in firing at it.
The shadow moved quickly, being able to avoid each shot. Texas' Magnum began to make clicking noise, signalling that it was empty, something that Natsu noticed.
"FIRE DRAGON'S: ROAR!"
The jet of flames flew straight at Texas, forcing her dodge, narrowly missing it. However, despite not taking it head on, her left shoulder pad had begun to melt from the heat of the flames, causing Texas to rip it off before it melted down to the under-armour, then her skin.
Natsu sprinted out of the forest at her, sending a flaming kick at Texas' head, only for her to dodge it and retaliate with a punch to the stomach and then following up with an elbow to the head by spinning a hundred and eighty degrees anti-clockwise.
The bow to the head sent Natsu flying, leading to him landing in his stomach. He begun to rise, only to be stopped when he felt the barrel of pistol pushed up against his skull.
"Checkmate dipshit." Texas said to the boy, her finger hovering over the trigger.
"You really going to kill me?" Natsu asked confidently.
"Ya damn right I am. Say high to the Devil for me." Texas said, pulling the hammer on the gun back.
"WELL YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF!" Natsu bellowed, suddenly being covered in flames that exploded off of him, filling the entire clearing with flames.
The group of five had just reached the next clearing down when they sore flames and smoke rising from where they had once been.
"Do you think that lady is alright?" Wendy asked.
"I'm sure she's fine." Lucy lied, she herself had no idea if the woman would even be able to hold out against Natsu.
They all turned their attentions to what in habited the new clearing.
In it was a metal ship like vehicle that was unlike any airship they had seen before. For starters, it was much smaller than an airship; airships being able to hold at least a hundred crew members, whilst this new vehicle looked like it could only hold a percentage of that. Secondly, it had a cockpit that had only two seats in it, one for the pilot and one for the co-pilot, again only being a percentage of what was needed to move an airship.
They were so busy marvelling at the contraption before them, that they failed to notice the two people come from behind it.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" A man in gold armour, similar to Texas', with a silver trim demanded.
The group jumped in shock and turned to look at the two before Erza spoke for them.
"We were sent here." She answered
"By who?" The other man asked, his armour being steel grey with yellow accents, his armour being of the same make as the other two's.
"A woman who said she was called Agent Texas." Erza responded.
The two men looked at each other before looking back at the group.
"Who are you?" The grey and yellow one asked.
"We're mages." Erza stated.
"What did Agent Texas tell you?" The one in gold and silver armour asked.
"She told us that we could work in your organisation." Lucy responded this time.
"If that's what she said, then you're the lot she reported in about." The grey and yellow one spoke, "I'm Agent Washington, Wash for short."
"And I'm Agent New York, or just York." The gold and silver one stated, "Our pilot is Four-Seven-Niner, she usually only speaks when she is yelling at us to get on the Pelican."
"Pelican?" Carla asked.
"That thing behind us." Wash said, pointing at the metal contraption, "Oh and by the way, did that tiger just talk?"
"I'm an exceed actually, and yes, I did just talk." Carla answered.
"That fucking awesome!" Wash exclaimed.
"Oi fucktards!" a woman shouted, standing just behind the Pelican, "Are they the people Tex sent?!"
"Yeah they are!" York shouted back to her.
"Well move your fucking arses and get on board!" The woman replied back.
The two men ushered the group to follow them, leading them around the back and through and opening that was extremely wide. The inside was a gun-metal grey, with red lights providing a light source. On either side of the vehicle were five seats, with safety restraints for the occupants, which looked like they had to be pulled over their heads.
"Wash, get them strapped in, I'm going to go ask Four-Seven-Niner about the sudden need to leave." York said, walking through a door in the front of the ship.
Wash got girls to sit down, pulling each of their restraints over their heads. The only thing he could do for the exceeds, was to make them sit on the seats as he pulled the restraints over their heads.
Whilst he was doing that, York was speaking to Four-Seven-Nine.
"Oi, Texas still ain't back! Why are we leaving without her?!" York demanded.
"She's the one who gave the order. Said that we had to go to the secondary L.Z and that we had to reaming hovering." Four-Seven-Niner replied.
"Why the need for the move?" York questioned aloud, "you don't think that he caught wind of us being here do ya?"
"Well it wouldn't surprise me, but something tells me that isn't the case." Four-Seven-Niner responded.
"How much do you think Tex told them?" York asked the pilot, taking a seat in the co-pilots chair.
"Enough that they know what in store for them." Four-Seven-Niner responded, pulling the craft off the ground and accelerating it forward over the trees.
"Agent Texas to Four-Seven-Niner: What's your status?!" Texas shouted as an explosion was heard in the background.
"We're about a minute away from the secondary L.Z." Four-Seven-Niner responded, "How are things on your side?"
"I've lost my armour, that got turned to molten metal!" Texas responded, "On the plus side, I think I've lost…"
"Agent Texas? I didn't catch the end of that, please repeat." Four-Seven Niner ordered.
"Can't talk right now." Texas responded, "Just don't land, remain hovering at the edge of the cliff and I'll jump in."
The line went dead, leaving the two inside the cockpit perplexed.
"What do you think has got her spooked?" Four-Seven-Niner asked York.
"Dunno?" York responded, "Hey D, can you track her?"
"Affirmative, but only because of Omega. Without her armour, I cannot track her." Delta responded, his green hologram appearing on York's shoulder, "I am also picking up three additional A.I signals."
That caused the two to become alarmed, wondering which they were.
"Delta, who are they?" York asked.
"Eta, Iota and Sigma." Delta responded.
"Mother fucker it's Maine!" York exclaimed, shock filling his voice.
"How is he even here?! He was last seen on Sidewinder wasn't he?!" Four-Seven-Niner asked, her voiced filled with just as much shock as the York's.
"Wash, I hope you're ready for a fight!" York shouted to Wash, who was still in the cargo bay of the Pelican.
"Why?!" Wash shouted back in confusion.
"Tex is bringing an old friend of ours with her, a big mute brute!" York responded.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me, you are, aren't you?!"
"Nope!" Four-Seven-Niner responded this time, "Betta put that mounted machine gun I had installed to use Wash!"
Wash responded with a groan of annoyance, walking over to machine gun that was suspended in front of the cargo bay doors by a metal pole.
"Four-Seven-Niner to Agent Texas: we've reached the secondary L.Z; how copy." Four-Seven-Niner stated over the comms.
"I'm almost there, but Pinky has caught back up and for some god forsaken reason, he and Maine have come to the mutual agreement to kill me as a team!" Tex responded, breathing heavily as she was still pushing herself to move faster.
"Better move fast, I'm almost at bingo fuel." Four-Seven-Niner stated.
Tex was running as fast as her legs could carry her, pushing herself to her limit. She knew she's be left behind if she didn't get there soon, no way Four-Seven-Niner would risk her bird crashing because of a lack of fuel.
She burst through the bushes that lead to the secondary L.Z, which just so happened to be near a cliff edge that overlooked a portion of the forest.
She could see Four-Seven-Niner hoovering near the edge of the cliff, close enough to it that Tex would be able to jump straight into it.
"Tex has just entered the clearing!" Wash shouted.
The group who were sat in the cargo bay with him looked out of the door to see a woman with blonde hair, which was in a ponytail at the base of her skull, reaching down to between her shoulder blades. Her armour was now completely gone, only leaving her in tattered under-armour that was full of holes, but was still allowing her to keep her modesty.
Behind her came Natsu and another armoured figure.
This new armoured figure didn't wear armour like the others. For starters, his helmet was more visor than metal, making it look like he had a golden dome on his head. His armour colour was white, with his shoulder pads and knee guards being brown.
"Fucking hell! You weren't kidding about Maine being here!" Wash shouted to the occupants of the cockpit.
"You need to have more faith in us Wash, it was Delta that told us anyway!" York shouted back.
"Yeah and you know what I think about !" Wash responded.
"Just shut up and shoot them already!" Tex shouted over the radio, having heard the two over the comms they hadn't realised were active.
"Oops, my bad!" Wash exclaimed as he began to fire the machine gun at Maine and Natsu, forcing them to take cover behind a couple of rocks that were in the clearing.
Texas continued running, reaching the edge of the cliff and leaping in. Her feet touched down on the edge of the ramp barely, leading to her nearly falling back out. Luckily for her, Wash noticed this and reached out and grabbed her right arm, pulling her into the Pelican, only for her to collide with him and for them both to end up on the floor, with her on top.
"Tell anyone about this, and I will tear off your balls and feed them to those over-grown lizards!" Tex whispered to him.
"Got it!" Wash squeaked back.
"Watch out!" Erza exclaimed, causing the two to direct their attentions to the open bay door.
By doing so, they were greeted by the sight of Maine mid-flight with his brute shot held above his head, aiming for the two who were on the ramp.
"Happy!" They heard Lucy shout in shout in shock.
Just as he approached the two, he was suddenly slammed into by a blue blur, knocking him and itself out of the Pelican and back onto the cliff edge below.
Tex and Wash both looked over the edge to see Maine wrestling with Happy. It was clear to the two that Happy was no match for Maine's strength, but he was much faster, making it possible for him to dodge, as well as making it impossible for Maine to defend against his quick attacks easily.
In the end, Happy toppled Maine over, landing on top of him and pinning him. He then followed up by biting down on his neck, trying his hardest to tear it out, but was unfortunately stopped by a swift punch from Maine, punching him off just as he began to draw blood.
"Oi! Cat, we've got to go!" Tex shouted to Happy.
Happy gave a parting growl to the dazed Maine, who held a hand over his throat.
The exceed then went onto spread his wings and use them to boost him onto the ship, landing between Wash and Tex.
"Everybody is aboard, time to get out of here Four-Seven-Niner!" Tex shouted to the pilot.
"Already on it!" Four-Seven-Niner shouted back, the ship jerking forward as it began to move away from the area, the cargo bay doors beginning too close now that Wash, Tex and Happy were no longer stood on them.
"Nice save kitty-cat." Tex said in a less condescending tone, kneeling down next to him.
"Don't get the wrong idea, I only attacked him because he would've become a threat to the girls had he got on board." Happy said, quite enough that Tex heard him, but no one else did.
"I take it they mean a lot to you?" Tex inquired.
"They do, if not for them I'd still be a little talking cat." Happy responded, ending their little talk and walking over to the ones who were his family in all but blood.
"What were you thinking tom-cat?! You could've been killed!" Carla screeched at her fellow exceed.
"Carla, I think you know my reason for doing what I did." Happy said, sitting back in the seat he was once sat.
Carla said no more knowing exactly what Happy meant and she knew he had no choice but to do it.
"We'll be back at base camp in around ten minutes." Four-Seven-Niner said, using the Pelican's intercom this time, "I'll warn you once we're a minute out."
With that, everyone inside the Pelican resigned into a state of silence, waiting for when they reached their destination.
A.N – Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please follow, favourite and review to tell me how I could improve it, especially about any grammar problems, but don't do it in a condescending way please, I'll probably ignore it if it's like that.