Sorry for this shamefully late chapter. I have just been writing my new and improved Fairy Tail story about my OC guild, Phoenix Crest. I just feel like this story was a bit of a practice run, like Mashima and Rave Master. Phoenix Crest is alot like this story, just without the things I don't like about it and with alot more of the stuff I like. That doesn't mean I'm leaving this story for dead, it was my first ever real fanfiction and I have alot of love for it.
PS If you like this, it would be worth your while to check out Phoenix Crest. It contains many of Big Bang's OC's, but portrays them in a different light that you haven't seen before. IN addition, it includes plenty of lovable new ones.
Without further shameless advertising adieu, here is the long-awaited chapter.
"The first two items are..." Maryanna squinted at the paper the Amador's had given her. "Both in Clover Town!"
"It looks like they want to test our skill before sending us after the bigger, more dangerous objectives." Dante guessed.
"I wonder what the extent of that Corvo guy's intelligence is..." Mason wondered aloud.
"Don't underestimate him." Synnova snapped at Mason. He shied away from her outburst, taking a couple more steps away from her and towards Maryanna. She continued, acting like she didn't notice his reaction. "Chances are that he knows the power level of every Baradin, and at least has a good idea of which ones are sent after which artifacts. No doubt he had a direct hand in choosing our first mission."
"We have to get as many as possible as quickly as possible." Maryanna ended the awkward silence. "For the sake of the Amador's and our landlords."
"In that case, what are the ones we need to retrieve?" Dante reached for the paper, but Maryanna diligently kept it out of his reach.
"The First Edition of Idol's Breaking by Dylan Richard, and the intact writing set of the same person." Maryanna read. "Both to be found in the possession of... Baron Baradin."
"Wait, he already has them!?" Mason whirled around.
"It seems so..." Maryanna muttered.
"They were probably preparing for this long before Arthur and Baron decided the contest." Dante suggested
"Well, what the hell are we doing here?!" Synnova erupted. "They're probably on the way to cash in their early lead!"
"Did Arthur tell us where Logan's grave is?" Mason asked.
"That would be in the Clover Town cemetery, which hardly seems fair." A strange accent piped in. When Mason made a motion to get into a fighting pose, it spoke up again.
"Hey there little kiddies, how 'bout ya stop right there." A man stepped in their path.
"Now what mental institution did you crawl out of?" Synnova wondered out loud. The man wore a long overcoat that splayed around his legs, but stayed tight to his midsection. Over his head he wore a wide-brimmed hat, bent over his face so it was unseen, His chin stuck out though, and thick, salt-and-pepper stubble could be seen. He wore thick leather gloves, as well as leather cowboy boots. Of course, rusted spurs were present behind them. On his legs he wore uncomfortable-looking chaps.
"Name's Brooks, and beating me is above your bend. But buck up, come with me and I'll take ya to the master. I vum that it'll be 'ccording to Hoyle. But if not..." The man's gloved wrists pulled back his coat, revealing two shining, silver revolvers. "Muh barking irons are itching for a tussle."
"Are you even speaking English?" Synnova raised an eyebrow. "He has to be insane." She decided with a nod. Synnova stood casually, arms at her sides, for she didn't see the man in a threatening way. Of course, this angered the Western otaku.
"Burrow Milk!" The cowboy wannabe spat.
Brooks flicked both of his guns out of their holsters, using his pinkies to spin them before catching them.
"Bullet Shower!" He cried, raising both of them to shoulder height. His trigger fingers begin to blur with speed and bright white, oval-shaped bullets of energy fanned out from the two barrels.
From behind Synnova, a thistle of vines came to her aid. As usual, they were black as night and moved on their own according, twirling and curling with impatience.
At once, they and lashed out straight. Each one slowly moved to its own path, the thin tendrils raced to meet the bullets that ran towards her. They wrapped around its middle, gripping it tightly and throwing it off course.
"I can beer blast longer than you can hook 'em!" The cowboy grinned madly, stiffening his arms and continuing with the pace.
Not one to back down to a challenge, Synnova growled and pushed her shadows to work faster and harder to keep up with the increasing pace of the bullets. The air in front of Synnova became a blur as she moved her multitude of tendrils independently, all at once.
The tendrils retreated suddenly, like shadows when a room is lit, and wrapped around Synnova in a ball. They bullet continued to pound against its size, gradually created a permanent dent with the force of impact. As the hail continued, it slowly dipped deeper and deeper into Synnova's defense.
Like a popped balloon, the defense burst. Shadows splayed wantonly outward for a moment before shimmering into nonexistence. With nothing left to defend herself, Synnova held up her arms helplessly as bullets began to pierce her.
The first ran through her bicep, cleaning burrowing through the flesh without sign of slowing down. It made her gasp in pain, but she was soon distracted by another flying through her upper thigh. She stifled a shriek, but could no longer stand as a third whipped through her shoulder.
Maryanna stood in awe as Synnova was taken off guard, leaving Mason and Dante to act, and you didn't have to tell those two friends twice.
Dante shot in front of Synnova, slamming a hand full of cards on the ground. His Spade Shield activated instantly, its thick membrane appearing with a black spade imprinted into the middle. The bullets slammed into the shield, lodging themselves into it before their red energy slowly lost its brilliance and faded. In moments the spell was teeming with the red bullets.
Mason shot ahead, past the other three members of his team. Both of his arms were enveloped in green energy as he raced towards Brooks. Abruptly, a wrecking ball slammed into him.
He lay sprawled out on it, spread eagle as it swung around the street and into a house, Mason hitting it first.
"What the hell?!" Dante yelled, looking for the destructive machinery's source. He found it after a moment, a teenage girl with pitch black hair that held a long chain which ended in the heavy steel ball. He watched as she flickered her wrist, returning the ball to her side as if it were made of styrofoam.
"Mason, get her." Synnova called out to the shifting pile of rubble. "Dante, take this idiot with your tail. I need to head to Logan's grave."
After taking command of everyone in a handful of instants, Synnova shot across the clearing and out of sight.
"You alright, bro?" Dante dispersed his Spade Shield, the cards filing back to his hand.
"Dapper as ever." The rubble pile commented. A section of the rocks shifted suddenly, and Mason's head popped out. He quickly freed his arms, and then the rest of his body.
"Good. Anna, let's do this." With a single hand, Dante unsheathed his spatha. As he did so, he cards filed out of his pack on their own. They created a dome around him thick with blue-colored cards, each enveloped in their own flame-shaped aura.
Mason took a moment to assess the situation. To be honest, he had zero idea how to face this girl.
Several times she tried to take advantage of his inactivity by hurling her wrecking ball at him, but it was too slow of a weapon to hit Mason. A gravity-assisted leap into the air proved quicker every time.
As the girl swung the wrecking ball around her head for another strike, Mason took advantage of the lull and shot towards her. Chains suddenly found their way around his midsection and threw him to the ground.
He blinked ins surprise, catching his breath that had been lost after the abrupt fall. When he craned his neck upwards, he found the source of his physical restriction.. The chain of the wrecking ball, currently glowing brightly, had somehow altered itself and wrapped around Mason. His guess was chain magic.
He struggled against his chains, but to no avail. They weren't using a basic knot to hold themselves together; this was magic that willed them to crush against his chest like it was a stress ball. There was no way he could break free with simply his strength. There was only magic that could help him, and that led him to the only magic he knew how to do.
Lifting himself to one knee, Mason gritted his teeth and forcibly altered the air around them. It shimmering like oily water as the spell quickly increased in intensity. The woman would suddenly find her joints and spine strain as her body became heavier, as if she was suddenly made of lead. She stood defiant to the spell, adjusting to wide stance and gripping her chain throughout the straining actions. Mason was unaffected by the effects of the g-force, but that didn't mean he could not sense it was there. He much preferred low-gravity over high gravity. High gravity always felt like the air was replaced with fluffy cotton, breathing and the very feeling of it unnerved him. His opponent was not so lucky.
The girl tasted blood. Her mouth was dripping with the substance as the gravity pushed her lower set of teeth through the bottom of her tongue like a reverse guillotine. Her eyes sank deeper and deeper into their sockets until they pained under the pressure. Her legs began to slowly bend, no matter her resistance, under her increasing weight.
"Let me go..." Mason growled, looking up at her through his eyebrows.
The girl's mouth, unable to function properly under the new g-force level, simply grunted several times sharply, an attempt at a laugh, she muttered something under her breath and her wrecking ball flew into the air above Mason before topping, which apparently was the extent of the spell. Mason's eyes widened as it was caught in the current of the spell and barreled downward towards him. The wrecking ball accelerated at five times normal speed and hit with five times its regular force, crushing him like a bug underneath him and sending him through the concrete of the street.
The high gravity prevented any dust from flying up, so Dante watched helplessly as the wrecking ball sank into the street like a capsizing ship. It sank until it was nearly completely swallowed up by the street, leaving Mason helpless under it. The spell ended, meaning that Mason was most likely either dead or out of energy and being crushed by a wrecking ball. Mason had not fallen in vain, for the girl that wielded this wrecking ball fell off of two broken legs immediately after. As he lay on the ground, blood dripped out of her mouth and gazeless eyes.
"No way..." Dante growled, looking over his shoulder. "All it took was a single Baradin... to take out Mason?" He turned to Brooks, who was pounding away at his Spade Shield while Maryanna tried to get behind him and distract him with her ribbons.
With a scream, Dante charged forward. He completely disregarded his own spell, slicing it in half with the spatha he held with two hands. The bullets now flew towards him,, but they caused him little worry. Any that were aimed at hi core were deflected off of his angled spatha. This strategy sometimes forced him to get into strange poses, sometimes even spinning before slashing them out of the air. Any others, he ignored, pretending not the feel the stinging pain he felt as they grazed the surface of his skin.
When he neared Brooks, the cowboy stubbornly refused to take a hit, aiming his guns downward and firing tow huge rounds into the ground. This blasted him upwards, over the rooftops before gravity kicked in and he floated down onto the nearest one. With a flick of his wrist, both cylinders's played out sideways from the gun. He dumped the old shells out, grabbing a handful of new, multicolored ones from his coat pockets. All of a sudden, he threw his revolvers, cylinders still out, and the handfuls of bullets into the air. In an incredible event, which looked like extreme luck or divine intervention, all of the bullets landed perfectly tip-first in the cylinders. The cylinders closed themselves with a light click noise and fell into Brooks waiting hands, where he happily raised them with a smirk.
"Reloading?" Dante chuckled, raising his blade. "I blocked all of your old ones, what makes you think that the case is any different now?"
"Why don't yer give 'em a try?" Brooks pulled the trigger, and a blazing yellow bullet hummed as it sliced through the air. Dante raised his spatha, blocking it in the near perfect middle of his blade.
Instantly his body fell backwards in violent spasms as electricity coursed through his veins. The sensation stopped as quickly as it started, but Dante still lay on the ground as his muscles sparked with painful tingles.
Brooks fired his other gun, sending a bright red bullet through the air. A white ribbon knocked it out of place before it could reach the motionless Dante, but its user would be surprised to find the last foot of her ribbons burnt clean off.
"I won't let you hit Teddy!" Maryanna sated firmly, stepping in front of Dante with her arms wide.
"Anna, I'm fine." Dante grunted, rising to his feet slowly. "It's about time I showed this guy my club card, don't you think?"
"But, Dante-" Maryanna frowned in confusion.
"My club cards grant me an amazing ability." Dante cut her off, walking around her and close to Brooks. "As long as I move to the left, my power slowly builds until I can deliver an incredible blow."
"That's a monkey shine if I ever seen one." Brooks frowned, but didn't lower his guns. His eyebrows rose as Dante shot off to the left. He fired a flurry of ice-blue bullets in his wake. They landed behind the speedy Dante, leaving a frosty cover on the ground they hit. He continued to swivel his body more and more left to get a better aim on Dante. He did this until he had completely turned his back on the original location of Dante, and Maryanna.
His guns flew out of his hands with a flash of white silk. He whirled around to see Maryanna smirked, waving at him as her ribbons pulled his two guns towards her. He raised his voice in alarm, but couldn't get out a word as a four-card Diamond Drive slammed into him and threw him off of the building. He hit the concrete, skittering across it like a rabbit, except he was alot less graceful.
"Nice strategy Teddy, he totally fell for it." Maryanna panted through her smile.
"Thanks for the save from the fire bullet babe." Dante copied the action, jumping off of the building.
"Let's go help Maryanna, I bet she will need it." Maryanna suggested.
"Definitely." Dante agreed. Together they sprinted down the street.
"You know, I can't help but think we are forgetting something." Maryanna frowned.
"Yeah, met too." Dante took on the action also.
Behind them, the body of a certain teammate and gravity mage lay under a several ton wrecking ball that was sunk twelve feet into the ground.
000
"I can't let you pass this gate." Synnova stated firmly. She stood between a figure and a gate made of curved black steel bars.
"Is that so?" The figure returned, asking with false intrigue.
"'Tis so." Synnova snorted, crossing her arms defiantly. They stared each other down for a moment, studying the other's face. He seemed very intrigued by her red eyes, and the chin strap beard he wore made Synnova want to throw up.
Simultaneously, Synnova and the man ran at each other. They each threw forward a fist at the same moment as they closed the distance between each other. Although much smaller, Synnova's fist didn't budge as they met. They sat again, unmoving.
All at once, blasts of magic from both participants threw both people back across the ground.