Chapter 4 Hidden!
"Leave this one to me!" A white haired man from Quatro Cerberus said feeling rather determined.
"The first participant is Yeager from Quatro Cerberus!' The announcer said.
"I think I try this one!" A small, red-headed Mermaid Heel member said. "You have my permission." Kagura said with no emotion.
"From Mermaid Heel, Beth Vanderwood!"
"From Raven Tail, Nalpudding!"
"From Blue Pegasus, Eve Tilm!"
"I'll do it." Rufus said to Sting. "The singing of the birds are pleasant today."
"All eyes are on Sabertooth, and they go with the Minstrel Who Sings to the Red Moon! Rufus is here!" Loud female screams were heard all throughout the stadium. Corona didn't find her attractive at all.
"Why the heck would they make such a BIG deal over him?!" Natsu shook his head.
"We don't know the rules of the game yet. But it's called Hidden so it has to involve hiding." Erza said quietly to Lucy.
"I'll go first! I'm a man!" Elfman said with his fist in the air. "Exactly what part of you is 'hidden' you meatball?" Gray sighed at Elfman who was, of course, 4 times bigger than he was.
"Guys? Can I try this one out?" Corona asked. "Okay! Good luck out there Shorty!" Gajeel said smirking and ruffling her hair. Corona smiled.
"From Fairy Tail B team it's Corona Starlight!" Corona walked out waving to everyone. "Good Luck Corona!" Sting shouted. Corona looked over to Sting. She smiled and waved.
Lyon's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "If my Corona is in this game, then I'll do it!"
From Lamia Scale, "Lyon Vastia!" Cheria grumbled in jealousy. "OH?" Gray raised his eyebrow. "Okay. I'll participate in this one." Gray said.
"From Fairy Tail A team, Gray Fullbuster! Alright! All of the participating players are set. Now, the rules of Hidden!"
"Alright. It's time." Gray said.
"Good luck!" Lucy said.
"You better not lose Gray!" Natsu yelled at Gray as he walked to the arena. "Sabertooth's Rufus is probably a crowd's favorite. But I'll be observing at Gray and Corona. Let's see how the two mages hold up!" Yajima said into the microphone.
"Of course I'll be watching Eve!" Jenny said, one of the special guests who's from Blue Pegasus. "He's really strong!"
All of the contestants for Hidden were gathered in the center of the arena as the schedule board disappeared. Corona stood all alone until Rufus came walking towards her. "Are you Corona?" Rufus asked. Corona turned around and smiled.
"Why yes! Nice to meet you Rufus!" Corona said cheerfully. Rufus smiled and kissed the back of Corona's hand. Corona blushed. "Sting always talked about you. Nothing else. It would always bother us at night." Rufus said chuckling.
"Oh! I'm very sorry!" Corona said bowing a million times. "It's okay. Good luck." Rufus said smirking. "You too!" Corona said smiling. She walked over to Gray and Lyon.
"Sorry Lyon. I have no intention of losing." Gray said smirking. "Psh. Like I care, Give me you best shot." Lyon said smirking back.
"Guys? Let's just give everything we got okay?" Corona said. Lyon looked at Corona, "I will of course. And I will win for you." Lyon said and winking at Corona, She backed away.
"Of course Lyon." Corona said. Gray soon noticed the pumpkin man. He was about to give instructions. "Excuse me, but, WHAT ARE YOU?!" Gray asked with his arms crossed.
"Eh? W-well, as you can see, I'm a pumpkin, kabo!" Ha! Ha! Ha. Ha." The strange pumpkin thing said shaking.
"Should I not have asked that?" Gray asked.
"This happened every year." Eve said. "I've never really thought of it though."
"I thinks he's a staff member wearing a pumpkin costume" Beth said.
"Hold on. Hidden is going to start any minute now, and non of us know what the details… Though these fairies clearly have an advantage." Nalpudding said glancing at Corona and Gray. Corona didn't really think that she had an advantage. She was a little weak.
"It can't be helped, kabo!" The pumpkin man said. "It's amazing how two teams from the same guild made it this far. This never really happens."
"Well. It's fine by me." Rufus said speaking up. "It's not necessarily true that the two of them have an advantage." Corona agreed in her head.
"I am impressed." Gray narrowed his eyes at Rufus. "Is that what they call the confidence of the king?"
"It's possible for your fellow guild members to become your weakness." Rufus said. "For example, Corona be held hostage. She was too weak to defend herself and was threatened and was forced to leak INFOMATION. Many more unfavorable circumstances could be created. Keep that in mind…."
"I. Will Not. Forget it." Gray smirked.
"Field… OPEN!" The pumpkin man shouted and Corona watched in shock as the entire arena was turned into a decent town. The buildings were made out of nothing, stone pavements and alleyways appeared in between buildings and stores.
"How much magic is used in this?" Corona whispered to herself.
Once the town was created, Corona snapped out of her thinking to found herself all alone in town plaza with passage ways leading in multiple directions.
"Everyone?! Gray?!" Corona called out. No answer. Corona bit her lip. She hated to be alone. She especially hated when is was empty and quiet. She wished that Nova was here. "Where did everyone go?"
Corona walked endlessly into the town. "Are we playing hide and seek? Am I the finder? AND the seeker?" Huge Lacrima screens appear in front of the audience so they could see the battle. Corona kept walking until the announcer spoke up.
"You are correct Corona!"
"EEEK!" The sudden outburst in the quiet area scared Corona. Everyone laughed at Corona. She got red and hid behind a couple of buildings.
"Stupid Girl!"
"She's SO weak."
"Why is she even participating?"
Those words sank in her mind. "SHUT UP!" Corona snapped out of her miserable state. "Gajeel…"
"EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP AND WATCH!" Gajeel growled at the crowd. That shut them up.
"Oh kay. Anyways, The rules of Hidden are plenty simple. You can use magic to attack another player. The person that attacked gets one point and the attacked person get ones point subtracted from their total!"
Then there were shimmering golden lights all round Corona that slowling began to take shape. They turned into hundreds upon hundreds of copies of players! In a split second, Corona was engulfed with Grays, Rufus's, Lyon's, not to mention copies of Corona, which was really creepy.
"There are copies of everyone. If you attack a copy you lose one point! If you are attacked or you attack a copy you will materialize ten seconds later in a different location. As long as it is within the time limit, every player can restart infinitely. The limit is 30 minutes. The team with the most points wins. Let Hidden begin!"
A was a gong that sounded across the arena, signaling the game has started. Instantly Corona regretted her choice. She huffed and blended in with the copies. Then all of a sudden Corona heard a huge crash.
It was pretty far away from where Corona was standing but she could see that it was Gray's magic. She heard a buzzer sound and the crashed stopped.
He must of attacked one of the copies...Be careful Gray. Corona thought. I'm going to have to be careful too…
Corona slid into an alleyway and knelt down on the cold cobblestone. She pressed her hand on the ground. Corona closed her eyes and focused on the magic energy. Corona learned that from her REAL mother. She was a magic user.
She found 2 enemies lurking around. There were two magic users from where the crash was heard. They were heading towards each other and one on the … church steeple? Corona got up and saw Rufus on top of the church balancing on the highest point.
"Huh? What is he doing?"
Corona shook her head and went back to her spot. She then sensed someone behind her. She whipped her body around. She tripped some and stepped on the persons foot. He grunted. Once Corona collected herself and saw that it was Beth.
"I'm sorry Beth!" Corona said. She ran further into the alleyway. Too close. WAY too close. Corona looked up at the score board. Gray had -2 points?! Who attacked him? Corona was interrupted when she heard a loud cry of "Carrot Missile!"
Corona climbed up on the nearest building and saw that Beth was already attacking Gray! He nearly dodged the attack as Beth was attacked by Yeager.
"Ha! I saw you use your magic! OOF!"
"And I saw you too." Lyon said as he appeared and took out Yeager. He faced Gray. Corona thought this was the right opportunity. She jumped off the roof preparing to kick Lyon with her attack. Lyon looked at Corona. She put her foot in his face gaining her team another point.
"Ehhhhhhhh. Sorry Lyon…" Corona said landing.
"I DO NOT need you help!" Gray said.
"I'm sorry Gray! I didn't mean to steal your point." Corona said. "I needed a point for my team too." Gray felt kinda guilty but ignored it.
"I kinda wanted to beat you anyways because I want our team to order your team…" Corona muttered.
"WHAT?!"
"Master said that whoever wins will get to order the other team around, for a day."
"WHY DIDN'T I HEAR ABOUT THIS, GRAMPS?!"
Corona stood still as she heard Nalpudding's voice. "OH! I can get two fairies at once!" Nalpudding attacked Gray and Corona.
"AHHHHHH!" Gray crashed into the wall with Corona after him. She felt herself being transported somewhere else.
Dammit! Lost a point!
Corona regained conciseness. Then it started snowing. It HAD to be Eve. in fact it was. The blue Pegasus members smirked.
"When it's cold people shiver and their breathes turn visible." Ichiya said.
"Copies don't" Ren said finishing up Ichiya's statement.
Corona looked up at the Lacrima screen.
"I see you!" Eve shouted. "White Fang!" Three blades of snow attacked Beth, Nalpuddng, Yeager, giving Eve three points. At that exact moment ice eagles flew and attacked him.
It was definitely Lyon, who saw Eve use his magic.
Corona grabbed her star pendant and lightly touched it. It turned her body temperature lower so her breath couldn't be seen. Corona was used to the cold cause Cosmic taught her that the galaxy is like winter. Cold and heartless.
Nalpudding was continuously attacking Gray while Beth was attacking Lyon with her carrot missiles. Corona was able to do her Roar on Nalpudding while he was distracted at his victory.
"Sabertooth's Rufus hasn't moved at all yet!" The announcer said. "He hasn't attacked or been attacked yet!" Corona looked at the church again and there he was, standing with no motion. He has that stupid cocky smirk that Corona most hated in people.
"This 'game' is too simple." Rufus said.
Corona was thinking. Too simple? TOO SIMPLE? Huh? … … Memory Make Magic! She read about it in her real mother's magic library.
She knew what was coming. But, she didn't know what to do.
"Everyone's heartbeat, their footsteps, the quality of their magic. I remember it…" Rufus' magic symbol appeared behind him along with the twisting pattern of his Memory Make Magic. A golden aura surrounded him as the sky darkened.
"Memory Make…"
Corona had to be ready to dodge it no matter what was coming.
"Night of Falling Stars!"
So that was what it was! Corona saw that his aura brightened as he was covered in solid lightning. Corona tried to grab her star pendant. Where was it?! What?! Corona started searching for it all over her body. She was panicking.
Suddenly she was struck with lightning. Corona screamed in pain.
Stupid, I'm so weak… Panicking over some stupid pendant that Cosmic gave to me. Corona thought as she regained consciousness. She fought back her tears.
She looked up to see that Nalpudding was trying to hit Rufus, but the Memory Make Wizard has left a memory of himself behind, so Nalpudding hit nothing but air. Rufus hit Nalpudding with lightning and he fell backwards.
"OH MY! And just like that Rufus had sky rocketed to first place with SEVEN POINTS! That is the power of SABERTOOTH!" the announcer shouted through the microphone.
"This competition wasn't as interesting as I thought." Rufus said calmly. "After all, I needn't to hide. Whey my enemies find me, they miss when they attack. That is because they targeted the memory of me that I left behind."
"And with that time is up!"
The city started disappearing. Corona sighed. The scoreboard appeared right after.
Sabertooth was in first following up with Raven tail in second, After them came Lamia Scale and then Blue Pegasus. After it was Mermaid Heel. Quatro Cerberus was next with Fairy Tail B team after and Fairy Tail A team in last place.
"Boo! Fairy Tail suck! BOO!"
"None of the fairy Tail members even got 6th place. The girl sucks!"
"The female Fairy tail member sucked. I can't believe she got seventh place. That Gray dude is even better!"
"SHUT UP PEOPLE!" Natsu shouted.
"Looks like someone is mad! Oh I'm fairy tail! I SUCK!"
"Your days are over now. Quit howling."
"Sabertooth is strongest."
Corona hid back her tears. She lost 'Hidden', she lost her star pendant, and she was getting laughed at. Corona walked passed her team muttering a small "sorry."
"No worries! We're just getting started!" Mirajane said happily. Corona didn't stop walking. Finally her tears fell out of her eyes. She was sobbing as she was running.
She ran past Gray who looked up to see Corona run sobbing like crazy.
"We'll get them back…" Gray said through gritted teeth.
Rufus smirked. "You were really boring Rufus." Sting said his head in in he right hand.
"Well? At least I won." Sting looked up to see the blue sky. Then he saw a shine. He squinted. It seemed as though it was falling from the sky.
It was. Sting reached out and soon enough he caught a star pendant. "Look what I got!" Sting said showing his teammates.
"What is that?" Rogue asked. "I don't know! A star pendant. It fell from the sky." Sting said. "Isn't this Coronas?"
"My my Sting. Can you please stop thinking everything you find is Corona's?" Rufus said. Sting sighed. It might be hers...