Author's Note: Hey, Gang! Here's Chapter 10! Hope you enjoy!
Also, I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter Ten - Entering the Underworld
As the landing crew of the Oasis airport began to lock in the Fiore team's airship, they quickly filled the vicinity with guards, and one military official waited outside the airship with a clipboard in hand.
"Okay, gentleman! Please allow our visitors to exit first. We don't want to scare any of them off just yet!" He said while laughing as he read this visitor was a newly assigned resident.
At that moment, the entrance ramp into the airship opened, and from it emerged a tall, slender man with short brown hair who appeared to be none other than Nigel. He was wearing a dark grey suite with a white shirt, and a black tie. With him, was a rather young brown haired beauty who was none other than Cana. She wore a black form fitting dress that revealed a large amount of her neckline, black high heels, a golden necklace to finish it off. She also carried a white leather hand bag, and in her hands was a small blue cat she held as a pet, who for our purposes again appeared to be a silently sleeping Happy.
Behind them followed a beautiful blonde haired girl with her hair tied back in a small ponytail, wearing a grey blazer with a matching skirt, a white button up shirt underneath, black shoes and black rimmed glasses. She was also carrying a black hand-bag and note pad. This was none other than Lucy, who was posing as Nigel's business secretary for the act.
They were all quickly confronted by the military official as they exited the blimp, which left them alert and slightly unhinged.
"I am terribly sorry, sir but if you are unaware this is a very private facility. Therefore I will need to see some identification." The military man addressed his statement to Nigel, and held out his hand. "We will also need to examine anyone and everyone who plans on entering the facility. Do you have any other members in your party?
Nigel smiled as he handed the officer his ID. "I hope this will suffice? It's just a company ID card. I'm Cameron Wattson, nephew to the late Cecil Wattson. As for my party I have a few body guards waiting on board." Then he gestured to some people in the airship to come out.
Out of the hull, appeared Natsu dressed in a black combat suit with his scarf wrapped around his forehead and he carried a large magic rifle in his hands. Behind him was Gray, who wore the same combat suit and no head gear, and he held two magic pistols holstered on his belt.
Finally a third body guard appeared wearing the same outfit as the other two, except this one had a full helmet with black viewing glass over the eyes. This third guard was none other than Erza, who did a phenomenal job at hiding her natural gender from the soldiers and also carried one of her katanas holstered on her back.
Nigel smiled at the officer in return. "I was told they could bring their arms into the grounds as long as I paid my fees. "He then handed the officer a specific amount of Jewel, and the officer gratiously accepted the payment.
"…This will suffice, but we'll still need to perform a small routine check." He then signaled to his guard to look over the six visitors as quickly as possible.
As they circled the Fairy Tail team, Cana let out a small laugh to diffuse the tension. "Oh, honey I really hope these gentlemen will finish up soon. I've heard so many wonderful things about the city, and I'm dying to see our new penthouse mansion!"
Nigel laughed in honest agreement. "Don't worry, this should only take a minute, dear." He felt weird talking like a complete stiff, but tried to hold it up as long as he could.
Lucy rolled her eyes and stood anxiously among the guards. One of them circled her, and as he did he leaned right up to her ear and grinned. "Ya know, this place is awfully dangerous for newbies. I hope you'll find it easy fitting in with the crowd..." He laughed and lingered behind the timid blonde wizard while the other guards chuckled off to the side.
Lucy didn't answer, and she instead decided on turning her head down in pure discomfort. Her keys started to glow from under her blazer, but nothing spawned. Apparently Oasis was filled with random Magic Jamming devices to monitor the facility's use of spells in certain places.
At that moment, however, Natsu glared in the direction of the guard who harassed Lucy and stepped forward to confront him, but as he did Gray and Erza grabbed his shoulders and shook their heads.
At the same time Nigel turned and grabbed the guard's arm and brought him in close. "Funny, it would be a shame to see you lose that uniform for such a stupid mistake. Would you like to see that happen?" He then grinned and looked to his three angry body guards. "Or would you like to take it up with my men? I think my leader there would love a warm up."
The guard looked amused, and kept a hardy smile. "No, sir."
Nigel grinned and looked him in the eye as he patted him sarcastically on the shoulder. "Glad to hear here it. Now I'd quit harassing my assistant and get out of my site."
The guard responded again "Yes, Sir." and turned toward Natsu. As they exchanged glares he left with his other guards. Then the first officer cleared the group for entry and they followed a guide through the airport and down to their transportation.
They were all in shock at the beautiful display of chrome and glass that made up the inner facility, and even more in shock when they found their limo, because other than Magic Mobiles they had never seen actual automobiles before.
As they entered the riding cabin, they all sighed with relieve, because the driver's seat was sealed off from the luxury seats that they occupied.
Suddenly, as the car drove off the entire group sighed as a massive amount of tension left the air.
Cana was the first to talk. "Okay, this is already a lot to handle. I'm gonna need a drink when we get to the apartment."
Nigel sighed. "Yea I'm with you on that one." He then looked to Lucy. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, but thanks for keeping you cool."
Although it bothered her, she let out a small smile. "Its okay, Nigel. I'm over it now."
Natsu on the other hand was still bothered by the scene. "This place already pisses me off. I can't wait to take these monsters down."
Gray turned towards Erza. "How you doin' in there? You look legit! I can't even tell you're a girl."
She turned toward him and replied. "It's not so bad…Though, I am a little uneasy with the gender split in this place."
Like Natsu, Erza was still held up on the way the guards treated Lucy at the airport. She tried to handle it a little better than he did, but either way began a discussion concerning the matter at hand.
"Nigel you mentioned a group of people run this place as a governing body, but I imagine you left the specifics out of he details." Erza raised an eyebrow and waited for his response.
Nigel had no choice and turned to respond. "Yea it's pretty atrocious actually. That's why I went through careful considerations with the three of your costumes." He pointed at Cana, Lucy and Erza. "There are tons of whack jobs that prey on women in this place. It's all because those psychos on the board let them run amok."
Lucy looked confused. "Guys on the Board?"
"It's just like Erza mentioned." Nigel explained. "The men who are in charge of the facility. They're a group of several insane businessmen who came here to establish high-tech magical weaponry. The worst part is they're all very powerful wizards as well, which is why we needed a powerful team to combat them."
Natsu responded in anger. "Pssh! I bet they're nothing. I'm gonna smear them all over this place when we tear it down."
The group remained quiet for the remainder of the ride. As their limo traveled along the western glass corridor, it finally arrived to a small city located in the southwest corner of the lake. As they arrived to a certain section of the floor, there was no more sunlight visible through any glass. Therefore the lights in the city were all artificial, and each building had brightly lit windows on all sides. As the limo traveled through the town it finally arrived and the back end of the town, where it stopped at a large door that shined black with golden handles and was located in the wall of the Oasis facility, rather than a stand-alone building.
"Here we are, sir. Welcome to your former uncle's home." The driver yelled as he rolled down the divider between the car chambers.
"Thanks." Nigel handed him a tip and led his group through the doors. When they arrived inside the building they were greeted by the staff, who told them it was now okay to remove their disguises.
"Nigel, can we trust these guys?" Gray asked in confusion, but tried to keep it quiet.
"Don't worry." He responded. "'Mr. Wattson' was actually one of our informants before he died. I just found out that he was a former member of the Magic Council who helped power on Oasis's electricity with his engineering as a ruse to gain access into the grounds." He waited to continue after the servants left.
"Besides, these guys are all servants who live in a giant crime nest. They were probably all slaves or hard laborers at some point, so I imagine they have some grudge on the system as well."
The group then entered the elevator that would take them from the lobby to the penthouse mansion. When they ascended over the city and into the ceiling above the cavern they all began to look confused, but that confusion turned to awe as their elevator was lifted above the water line and into a glass elevator shaft, which proved to give them a beautiful view of the lake.
"You know this guy was rich if he had such a large property along the upper rim." Nigel told the others as they looked out to the water. "This wall we're on runs straight up to the upper wall of Oasis. Only the elite members of the facility can afford real-estate above the water's surface, and this guy has had a huge mansion up here."
Eventually the elevator stopped and they all turned around to exit. They arrived to a very large living room that had a massive bay window that looked over that water. To the right the room was complete with couches, a large Television Lacrima, surround sound speakers, and several lounging chairs and tables. To the left of the elevator door there appeared to be a large kitchen with a full scale bar and a dining table with six seats. Up the small set of steps that sat past kitchen there was a hallway that led to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The only room that was not included in that hallway was the master bedroom, which could be found on the other side of the kitchen with a large window and a large private bathroom.
"Holy cow, this is a nice place!" Cana said in excitement as she tossed her bags away and settled down on a seat.
"Yeas, except for what lies below it." Nigel reminded her and the others as he referenced the city beneath them. "Alright everyone, pick out a bedroom."
"Hold on!" Natsu yelled out. "Happy, Lucy, and I will take the big one! We'll need it if we're all fitting in one bed."
"Natsu what the hell!?" Lucy yelled out in a flustered emotion, realizing she would never escape the lifestyle of her apartment. She then turned right towards Nigel. "I'll take the smallest most secluded room if we have one available."
"Right, but that master bedroom is pretty large. I guess we can decide who gets..."
He tried to make the decision fair, but just then Cana let out a laugh. "Well, why shouldn't the imaginary couple get dibs on the big room? It is closest to the bar after all." She then turned and directed the rest of her suggestion to Nigel. "Or are you afraid of what might happen?"
Nigel coughed a bit and tried to hold back a smile. "Well no, not at all...just wanting to be fair to the others. I can take the couch if anyone wants the big bedroom."
"Is that so?" Erza replied with a calm tone. "Very well, I'll take the master bedroom if no one else wants it."
"Be my guest." Gray grabbed his bags an headed back towards the back. "I doubt anyone's fighting you for it."
"Now hold on Erza, I said Happy an I get the...!"
"I wouldn't get her started, Buddy!" Natsu tried yelling out an argument, but Happy grabbed the other end of his scarf and started dragging him back to the back rooms with Gray and the others.
The other members of the group laughed and conceded, and each went back into the hallway to pick their respected room. Meanwhile Cana went to follow the others as well, but looked back to find Nigel sitting on his couch with a serious expression.
Despite her original grin, Cana changed her demeanor to look more concerned. "Everything all right, Nigel? You seem a little off."
"Yea." He thought with a heavy head. "Just thinking of our next move, I guess."
It was then, during the late afternoon that a large caravan finally made it to the western edge of the deserts surrounding Oasis, all the way from the ocean shore. It was here that Gajeel and Pantherlily could be found walking through a crowd in the large village on the southwest end of the perimeter desert. They both wore large tan desert cloaks with hoods over their normal outfits, and Lily had transformed into his combat form for the trip, and also had a hood complete with a face mask to conceal his feline mouth. He also carried his Musica sword underneath his cloak.
"Jeeze, that was ridiculous." Gajeel complained while sounding annoyed with the voyage. "Ya think they coulda come up with a better idea that didn't involve sending us on a rouge ferry and dropping us off like dogs!"
Lily tried to agree. "It seemed to be their easiest option. Now it's time to find that combat arena and see if we can sniff out Nigel's friend." They then began to head north towards the lone arena in the middle of the open desert, away from any ravines or streets, and right under the hot desert sun.
Far behind them in the massive caravan were Wendy and Max who were dressed in similar outfits. Wendy was holding Carla under her cloak, and the three of them began to head inside the large village, in the complete opposite direction from their fellow guild members.
"Well that was an unpleasant walk. I hope these guys know what they're doing." Max said to the remaining two.
"Yea, I don't even remember where we're supposed to go from here!" Wendy tried to calm her nerves, but the thought of finally beginning their mission left her uneasy.
"Calm down, child. I have our map." Carla answered in relief. "It says we're supposed to head to a housing district located near the corner edge of the lake's border."
Max responded first. "Let's get there quick, before this wind picks up. It could be a storm."
The other two agreed and they headed off toward their destination to begin their surveillance in the desert village.
So the place seems creepy already...I hope the teams can cope!