Long time no update. Sorry about that, but it was for a good reason. My boyfriend proposed to me! So I've been kinda busy and excited.
As ever, Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima. Eagle eyed readers may spot a few quotes from the amazing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, property of Hirohiko Araki which I highly recommend.
Any and all thoughts are welcome and appreciated
Lucy's apartment was gorgeous, no two ways about it. Having seen it in the flesh, so to speak, Marci could completely understand why Lucy had such a problem with stray wizards (particularly those of the fire dragon slaying persuasion) breaking in all the time. After a brief tour and an introduction to the couch where she'd be spending the night Lucy decided to show off her bathroom. She loved her bathroom, in fact she loved her bathroom so much that she needed to take a bath as soon as possible, sorry to be rude, I know we just got here but a girl has needs. The glyph mage told her that she didn't mind as Lucy was shoving her out of the bathroom door, and offered to make dinner while her host went off to make herself feel normal and relaxed again.
In truth Marci just wanted a few moments to herself.
When they'd first appeared her two companions had been far too preoccupied to notice the long red coat she'd been wearing. She'd quickly snatched it off and hid it in her pack. Not giving too much attention to her character's appearance had meant that she'd ended up with a look that was based far too much on her influences for her liking. The coat was a dead giveaway. Just about every hero she liked wore one. She pulled it out of the pack.
The coat was a darker red than she'd first thought, not as bulky as she'd worried and it had a simple hood that would cover her head effectively. She decided to put it in her Requip space, with all the excitement everyone seemed to have forgotten she could do that. Speaking of Requip there were more things she needed to check. First off the sword, a flash of light and it was in her hand. It was a beautiful silver blade, slender and slightly curved, with a fencer's style hand guard. It was everything she was afraid it would be.
Now for the part she was truly scared of. With a quick glance to the bathroom door to make sure Lucy was still busy she began.
Info dump time. This is how it works. A completed glyph matrix is bound to the caster's skin, allowing for the spell it contains to be cast quickly by passing magic energy though the matrix. As a result the caster's eyes will change color to show that the chosen spell is active. Stronger spells take larger matrixes, so Glyph mages tend to run out of space on their bodies very quickly.
Marci's story had been about finding a way to store and requip completed glyphs
The requip spell was far too easy to cast. The marks flowed over the exposed skin on her arms like spilled ink before settling into a series of spiral patterns reaching from her shoulders down to her hands, spreading down her back and onto her legs all the way down to her feet. Her once green eyes turned a glowing and bloody red color. It was far too easy.
Marci looked at the spell on her arms and cursed lightly. She'd tried to place her guild mark in such a way that it would disrupt the lines and break the glyph, but the guild mark had just switched out the same way that Erza's armor would have done. It would still work, despite her efforts to sabotage it.
This was not good
"Wow! Something smells amazing!" a certain pink haired Dragon Slayer announced as he climbed in through an open window.
"It can't be Lucy cooking, she can't even boil water" said a certain blue cat that followed him in.
"Oh, hi guys. Lucy's not done in the bath yet. I'm making dinner to thank her for letting me stay the night." Marci said from the stove, stirring a large pot of stew. Her eyes were green again and the marks on her arms were gone.
"If you can cook like that you can stay with me and Natsu next. Do you know any good fish recipes?" Happy was drooling and Natsu was nodding in agreement so hard that his head was in danger of falling off. Nobody even bothered to point out to Happy that he was usually the one saying that fish was better raw. That was when Lucy opened the bathroom door, wearing pink pajamas and towel drying her hair.
"Oh wow! Something smells deli… WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE?!" She yelled, launching a LUCY KICK at the two intruders that caught Natsu squarely in the chest.
"Pffft! Hey Natsu! Lucy nearly said the same thing you did!" Happy was smirking as he dodged. It earned him a pillow thrown with deadly accuracy to the head.
"Hey, calm down Luce. We smelled the food and it was too good to pass up" Natsu tried to explain. Lucy just rolled her eyes and grumbled about how that wouldn't have made any difference.
"Guys, it's fine, really. I made plenty for everyone" Marci tried to console them before a fight broke out. Thankfully delicious smells and empty bellies won out.
Outside, a solitary hooded figure was watching them from the distance.
"Ahh. That was awesome. That couldn't have been better even if it was on fire!" A contented Natsu sighed as he rubbed his belly. The stew had been a hit and everyone was lying around in a food-induced coma.
"And there's still so much left. We'll never eat it all!" sighed Happy.
"Wanna bet? I can eat anything!" Natsu boasted, before utterly failing to get out of his chair, "Can't…move…too…full…"
"I've got a better idea. We should take some to Erza and Lumia up at Fairy Hills! I'm sure they won't mind that we ate ours first" Lucy beamed
"Hehe, Natsu can't go since he's a boy. But I can because I'm a cat! I'll take it!" Happy Saluted. Lucy resisted the urge to tease since it was pretty obvious that the blue Exceed only wanted to go see if Wendy and Carla were back home yet.
"Ok, but if you break my pot you'll regret it cat"
"Aye Sir!"
The three wizards watched as the Exceed took off, carrying a pot full of food. Lucy suddenly groaned.
"Oh I hope he doesn't eat it all on the way there"
The hooded figure watched as the cat took off carrying something. For a moment he considered following, then movement in the window caught his attention. One of the wizards was holding something
"Well, we can't put this off forever. I've got some scented candles in the drawer by my desk, will you grab them?" Lucy asked, pulling a filthy yellow thing out of her back. The book had ruined the magic sheet she'd bought for it.
"Lucy, do we have to? We just ate!" Natsu complained
"I already said, we couldn't keep putting it off. There are innocent people trapped in this book." Lucy said, opening the window and lighting the candles. Next came the part she was dreading. With a grimace Lucy peeled back the cover.
The figure moved closer. There was no mistaking that smell.
"Woah! That is some powerful corruption!" Marci gasped as Lucy ran around exaggeratedly waving her hands in front of her face. Oddly enough Natsu, despite having the most sensitive nose of them all, seemed unaffected. Maybe he was just more used to tolerating smells than the girls were.
"Corruption? What do you mean?" The pink haired mage asked.
"Well, whatever was in there originally was something pure and honest. It's being forced into something completely unnatural to it, something it was never meant for. The smell is a reaction to that" The words came out of Marci's mouth but she had no idea where they were coming from. This wasn't her doing
"The people in there shouldn't be in there. That makes sense. So how do we get them out?" Natsu nodded.
"That part I'm not sure about"
The Dragon Slayer sat thoughtfully for a moment with his arms crossed, before jumping up and marching over to Lucy's desk where he grabbed a pencil. Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed the book and scribbled in scruffy but readable letters ARE YOU OK IN THERE?
"NATSU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Lucy shrieked in horror.
That was when the pencil marks Natsu had made began to move and reform.
HELP US! LET US OUT! It read.
Outside the figure moved closer. His hard black eyes flashed and turned a brilliant orange color. It was time. The Fairy Tail wizards were distracted and separated from the rest of the guild. Now that the cat had left there was only the infamous Salamander to contend with. The busty blonde that was keeping the book looked to be little threat. Then there was the spiky headed idiot. He'd deal with that problem personally, but now was not the time. It was enough for now that she'd finally come out of hiding.
Lucy had snatched the book away from Natsu and was sat trying to think of a question she could ask the people trapped inside when the Dragon Slayer suddenly snapped to attention.
"Lucy. I smell fire," he said simply. The next moment a giant fireball burst through the open window. Even as Lucy screamed Natsu was already inhaling it.
"Whoever's throwing fire around is pretty dumb. All you've done is put a fire in my belly!" The Salamander yelled out the window to the attacker
"I got you're attention didn't I?" the man stood brazenly in the street and spoke with a smirk. He was tall and broad, his bare chest and face covered in tattoos. His orange eyes glinted maliciously "Hand over the book your pretty blonde friend took and the demonstration will be over"
"Demonstration? You threw a fireball right into my friend's home! WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF I HADN'T BEEN HERE!" Natsu yelled as he leapt out of the window, throwing himself at the intruder
"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!" His fists exploded into brilliant flames flying towards the tattooed man like meteors.
The intruder caught them.
"What's wrong? Not used to not being the only fire mage?" He taunted as he twisted Natsu's arm, throwing him through the air. The Dragon Slayer crashed through a nearby wall. The man smirked arrogantly.
"I'll take that as a yes. Ladies, I'll be taking that book now"
"Oh no you won't! FIRE DRAGON'S WING ATTACK!" an inferno engulfed the attacker as Natsu rushed in for another round. The man dodged Natsu's attack and laughed as the pink haired man flew into another building, crashing straight though another wall.
Up in Lucy's apartment the two girls were watching the exchange. Lucy desperately grabbed her keys; clearly Natsu's fire wasn't hurting his opponent one bit, and it wouldn't take much longer before houses started falling down. Marci was watching the fight quietly, her eyes going from the book, to the intruder, to the pencil in her hand.
"Marci, what are you doing? We have to help Natsu," The Celestial mage shouted. The spiky headed girl adjusted her glasses, and then she picked up the book. Taking care to wrap it in the stink proof cloth as she did so.
"I've got a plan. It's a secret, special technique that I've been working on that's very effective in situations like this"
"You do? That's great! What is it"?
"See how all of his attention is focused on Natsu? He's not paying attention to anything else. That's crucial to my plan"
"I see. What do we do next?" Lucy asked, readying a key.
"Out the window. We need to be on street level or this will never work"
They jumped, landing easily on the street
"Now the most important part. While he's distracted, WE RUN LIKE HELL!" And with that Marci turned around, book in arms, and ran for the hills.
"WHAT! What the Hell do you think you're doing?" Lucy yelled at the escaping mage. Their shouting drew the tattooed man's attention.
"Oh no you don't. Get back here!" he roared and gave pursuit
Now came the part Marci was scared of. She'd tried a few basic glyphs since waking up in this world, but this was the first time she'd tried a full one. Letting the requip spell activate, she focused all her energy hard on the marks that had appeared on her legs. The next instant she couldn't breathe.
Lucy was watching as the girl ran, the man gave chase, and then she seemed to stop moving all together. As her pursuer reached out his hand passed harmlessly though her head, like a ghost, and then the image faded from sight. That was when Lucy realized that wherever Marci had gone, she'd taken the book with her, safely away from their attacker.
"Alright, now it's my turn" She spun a golden key through the air, "OPEN! GATE OF THE LION! LOKE" A sudden burst of light appeared, and out of it stepped a well-dressed man with a mane of orange hair.
"Natsu can't hurt this guy, he's fireproof. Think you can handle it?"
"Leave it to me, my Lovey Lucy" Loke smirked with a flirtatious smile on his face
Across town Marci finally stopped moving. Across town? All the way across town? She had no idea. All she knew was that she had sorely misjudged how strong her third mark, The Mark of Liberation, had been. She collapsed against a wall and gasped desperately for air.
During the Grand Magic Games arc she'd been fascinated with Kagura's gravity magic and had imagined all kinds of possibilities, only to be sorely disappointed when all it was used for was a few wall runs and a running joke about Risely's size. She'd imagined that by altering the casters own personal gravity they could influence their speed. That was how Liberation was written. Sending constant magic energy through the mark would allow the user to control their own gravity, sticking to walls, making impossible jumps etc., but a short and sudden burst would result in a sudden burst of speed.
At least that was the plan. She hadn't imagined what had actually happened.
She'd just Flash Stepped so hard it had sucked all the air out of her lungs. It was kind of how she imagined stepping into an airless void like outer space would feel. It hurt.
That had blown that plan.
The one where they lured the madman away from all the homes he and Natsu were destroying with their fight.
Finally able to breathe again, Marci looked around her. She'd stopped in an alleyway by some trash bins. How nice. Around here were piles of old newspapers and sealed up bags that people had thrown out. Her eyes rested on the newspapers. Then the pencil she'd somehow managed to keep a hold of
This could work
One Flash Step later, this time prepared for the explosive decompression in her chest (she breathed out first) and Marci was stood on a bridge over the canal watching Natsu and Loke going toe to toe with the orange-eyed tattooed man while Lucy was keeping a safe distance. She paused for a second to make sure her lungs were working, then stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled as loud as she could. Four heads snapped around to the sound.
"Oh look. The coward returns" The tattooed man said dryly. Marci simply stood and scratched at her ear like she'd misheard him.
"What was that? Say that again, in a language that I understand this time. Depending on what you say I may have to kick your ass!" Ok, so quoting someone else's line wasn't the smartest move ever, but it had the desired effect. And it was a cool line.
"You dare, you little bitch" He turned to walk over to her. Flames in his eyes, Natsu and Lucy forgotten.
"Watch it! One wrong step and stinky here takes a bath!" Marci shouted, pulling the book from behind her back and holding it over the water.
"Marci! No! There are people in there!" Lucy yelled to her. The tattooed man didn't stop his advance.
"Jeeze, what do you even want this thing for anyway? It smells worse than… than…It just stinks ok, I can't think of anything worse" with that she threw the book aside, straight at the canal.
The tattooed man reacted instantly. The marks across his shoulders and upper arms shone with magic energy and his eyes turned from a burning orange to a steely grey. He reached out his arm, and a nearby manhole cover shot from the street as though propelled by a magnet, wrapping itself around the book before it hit the water.
"NATSU! HE'S DROPPED THE FIRE SPELL! HIT HIM NOW!" Marci yelled. Natsu didn't need to be told twice.
"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"
This time the man had no defense against the Dragon Slayer. The punch sent him flying. Desperately he flung out his arm, using the magnetic powers that the new spell gave him to pull the book in its metal shell towards him, before crashing through a wall.
"This isn't over, Marcella!" He hissed between his teeth before sulking off, activating the Mark of the Deceiver to cover his tracks. He'd got what he'd come here for.
While Natsu went off to try to find the attacker Lucy went up to Marci on the bridge. She was not impressed.
"How could you do that? You let him get away with the book" Lucy began yelling
"You mean this?" Marci pulled the loose pages she'd been hiding out of the pack of her shirt. "I ripped the cover off and stuffed it with old newspapers. Don't worry, I told the guys inside what I was doing. It looked pretty convincing too, didn't it?"
Lucy took the remains of the book from her.
"What? You didn't really think I'd just run and leave everyone like that?"
Marci could just stare as the blonde in front of her started laughing.
"It even smells better now!" Lucy managed to choke out between giggles. By the time Natsu came back Lucy was in the middle of a full belly laugh.