Right. Here's the drill that you must adhere to before each chapter from now until the end of this season:
1. Go to Youtube or some other music/OST hosting website.
2. Find yourself either Towa no Kizuna by DaisyXDaisy or even better I Wish by Milky Bunny and play the full version of either of those theme songs before the start of each chapter.
3. Set up your Fairy Tail OST playlist to include at least some of the following: Erza no Theme; Against Magic; Anger Guren; Dragonslayer; Armor-Titania; Magic Challenger; Gunyuu Aiutsu; Mystogan no Theme; Super Dimensional Magic Anima; Disappearing Magic; Tenshi no Kunou; Pantherlily; Seirei Battle; Power of Justice; Erza vs. Erza; Dragon Force and just about any other epic, emotional and awesome OST music you can muster and go nuts enjoying the killer soundtrack to each episode from now on.
Hope you will keep this in mind as we venture down the second half of Season 2 and essentially the second half of the Trials and Tribulations of Tenrou Island Arc (that's what that little tTnToTi code I had attached to each chapter recently was meant to stand for in case anyone forgot). On with the show!
~The once peaceful and fair(l)y easy-going town of Magnolia suddenly finds itself embroiled in chaos and despair at the hands of a mysterious new enemy. Only one guild remains in the path of this enemy force - a guild of misfit Mages and illegal aliens from another universe. They are united by one young man with the power to grow his fingernails at his own will (most of the time...). Though appearances might give these folk no hope, they are the only chance this town currently has for survival. Can Benny-boy and the remaining half of his Fairy Tail guild who didn't go to Tenrou Island and the Edolas counterparts filling in for the missing cast take on their biggest challenge yet and save Magnolia? Find out as we venture into the Thirty-eighth (technically thirty-seventh since the last one was an intermission but what the heck) chapter!...
~My Fairy~
tTnToTi Arc Part XII: Get the GYST: Part I
Mr. Fawkins...He's lying right at my feet – dead...Dead – he's freaking not moving! That means he's dead for friggin real man...
He had so much character potential...
"Hehehe, looks like this is the city's strongest guild..." They emerge from the flames, chuckling and speaking in a vented voice through their odd masks. I can't even be sure if they're human, these...things walking towards us out of the flames...They just torched a whole chunk of my town...They're not human at all...
THEY'RE F$*&KING MONSTERS!
And they're going to kill us too!
Damn it why didn't anyone warn me of the company risks! Where was their S.W.O.T analysis to plan ahead for this sort of emergency.
"Benny."
...I mean this is it. After all I've gone through in these last six or so months here in Magnolia and I have absolutely no way of escaping this final calamity...
"Uh Benny." I feel someone shaking my shoulders but I'm too entranced at these harbingers striding our way. I count about thirty, maybe forty or more of them, all identical in their garbs of white. Their irregular and asymmetrical masked, almost plastered onto their very flesh, giving off nothing but nihilistic terror and doom. I can't even see into their eyes with nothing but black darkness occupying the holes on their plaster veils. It's like I'm staring into the void of my own death...What the hell are these things and where the hell did they come from...More importantly I should ask-
"BENNY!"
"What?" I turn out of my paralysed fear and face an equally distressed Lucy.
"What are we going to do?" She asks me as if demanding an answer. "You're the master of this Guild so tell us?"
I quiver as I try to think of something but all I can picture is those flames and those masks and the dark eye-sockets. "I don't know...I DON'T BLOODY KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD DO!"
"Hahaha! Let's reap away these pathetic Fairy Tail Mages and make our Lord proud." I hear them discuss their plan of slaughter amongst themselves. They all possess an array of swords, pikes, and other various pieces of twisted, coiled or barbed steel – each progressively more painful and torturous looking than the buddy next to them.
"GHH! Move out the way!" In my complete frozen state, the Edolas Erza pushes me aside as she readies herself to take on the masked mobsters. "MELFORCE!"
"Ah it's Knightwalker!" The masked mooks call out as they are blown back by her Ten Commandments attack. "Those others must be the escaped prisoners! SIEZE THEM!"
I feel another figure step past me as she charges up her own type of Metal against their blades. "REPENTENCE RIFF: BATTLE OF JUSTICE – HAMMER MEDLEY!"
Yoshi's quick thinking and fast notes manage to knock back the left flank of their army, but even the combined efforts of Edo-Erza and Yoshi cannot hold back such a large force.
"TRI-GUN (NO AFFILIATION) COMBO BULLET ATTACK! BAZOOKA TORNADO CARAMELLO DELUXE BULLET BONANZA!" Thankfully despite my complete uselessness, three more of my Mages have managed to fight off the right flank with their combined gun's magic.
"PURPLE RAIN!"
"SMOKE CRUSH!"
"SAND WAVE!"
"What? Don't let these petty magicians hold us back!" Despite the smoke fists, hard fireballs and sandy whips, the soldier's press through the magic storm, narrowing the distance between them and our guild doorstep.
"Can anyone else here fight?" Knightwalker turned back, grunting as she parried away a masked mook before slashing across his torso.
"Well if some of them get close enough I can use my dance to weaken them a little." Vjeeter answered as he hopped on one leg somewhere between fear and fea-reakin' weird.
"I think we might be screwed here." Warren foretells everyone with his very useful combat ability of telepathy.
"Levy-chan save us!" Droy and Jet are still huddling behind their beloved teammate despite her not really being their real version.
"Geez what d'ya think I'm supposed to do? Use magic or something?" She yells back at them in annoyance.
"Benny, what do we do?" And thanks to Edo-Lucy I'm back in the fray. "We can't hold them back any longer."
And just as the first few of them are about to press their muddy feet onto the guild's entry step, I finally kick some sense into myself and shout out at the Mages who've suddenly decided to let me be boss again. "RETREAT BACK INTO THE GUILD! RETREAT!-!-!-!-!"
As the flames spread across the street, following the enemy as though to guard their rear, the other mages accept the futility of this battle and withdraw inside the safe doors of the guild (safe for only a little longer though it seems). Erza reaches the stairs and takes one last turn back towards the rushing enemy before she leaves them a departing present. "GRAVITY CORE!"
"Gagh!" The giant black sphere engulfs a large portion of the group carving through their ranks as she finally steps inside. As soon as Edo-Erza is in, Edo-Mirajane and Edo-Cana slam the two wooden doors shut and place the plank in place to lock the door – our last gate of defence from this unknown force.
"The door won't hold them back for long." Lucy regards as the mobs incessant bashing keeps us on our toes. "So anyone else want to throw in a plan?"
"Natsu is sacred, will you protect me Lucy?" Although I wish I could laugh at Parallel Natsu as he coils around Lucy's shin sobbing, I feel very much the same way. This shit-storm has suddenly been thrown upon me and the half-baked guild as soon as I made what I hoped was only a modest return.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Poo and Shit rolled together in takoyaki stew!-!-!" I find myself scratching the table in hopelessness now. "Who the hell put me in charge anyway? I can't even write a bloody tax form let alone run a guild...This is messed up! I don't want to be a Mage anymore! I just want to go back home and forget about this charade! I can't do it! I can't bloody cope with this shit anymore! I'm packin' it in before it's-"
SLAP.
I was suddenly brought back to my senses with a stinging slap to my cheek. As I rubbed my cheek I sighed. "Lucy?"
Her shoulders are shaking and her fists balled tight, I follow the splashing water dampening the back of her palms as the tears drip down her bowed head. "I don't know much about you, or your relationship with your guild – BUT WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE YOU RIGHT NOW!"
"Lucy?"
"We've got enough problems back home without you messing it up for us." Erza put it much more bluntly as she tapped over. "You wouldn't have been Master of the guild just from a fluke."
Actually it kinda was- "...So lift your head up and take charge. You're town's in trouble, so what are you gonna do about it: scratch the table and cry like a stupid brat, or stand up and fight?"
Nobody speaks, they all stare hushed at me, our only noise of comfort coming from the splintering of the wooden doors. They'll be in here soon at this rate. Not even Edo-Erza seems to have the leadership to take on this threat. But she's got something I don't have – heck all off these guys in front of me have something I am yet to possess: strength...Strength and true Magic ability.
"Even if you say all those things." I look down at the scratch marks on the table. "I'm just not strong enough to fight those things out there...I can grow my nails and that's about it. You may as well try and make a break for it while you still can."
"Master Makaren." I hear one of my newer teammates call me by the formal title despite me not deserving it. "We all want you to lead us because you 'do' possess a strength."
"Yoshi?" I am slightly surprised by the rocker girl's words.
"Yoshi's right." Cruz adds. "I've noticed it a bit recently but there's definitely something about you which is quite noteworthy indeed."
"Oh boy – yes I'm afraid I'll have to admit it too," Charles hovers to my side with shrugged shoulders. "How else would you have gotten this far if you were just a complete idiot, there's definitely something in that skull of yours Benny."
"I already know what it is..." the Lucy from the other world walks over and presses a soft hand to my chest. "It's resilience...I knew you had that strength in you from the moment I saw you collapsed in your own bodily fluids in the alley that day."
A perfectly synchronised "EWWW!" came from the rest of the guild.
"Thanks Lucy." I say with a slight smile. "Though perhaps you could have left that last bit out."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinkin' of too." Wakaba added with the flick of his hand. "That little bugger managed to come back from all those cruddy jobs we gave him still mostly intact in there."
"Yeah that bastard just won't give in no matter how much Vulcan poo is thrown at him." Macao chuffs as well.
"He's surely been given the faecal end of the stick here in Fairy Tail, but time and time again he came back every day ready for his next job." Laki adds to the growing number of brown references.
"Okay I appreciate the sentiment I'm feeling a lot better now but-"
"Heck even when we literally tied him up to that cross one day and burned all that horse manure around the ring and left him for twelve hours, he still didn't falter that much." Max and a few other minors add.
"Okay guys really I get the point-"
"This guy's crap-full of courage isn't he?" Alzack throws a thumb my way.
"Yes he sure is Zack-kun." Bisca doesn't seems turned off by the topic though.
"I'm gathering from this conversation." Now Edo-Dick is getting in on it too. "I'd say you're a walking pile of sh-"
"SHUT UP PLEASE NO MORE CRAP REFERENCES!" I howl back at the others lifting their hair a little in the process. "Now, if we're gonna stop these guys we have to fight as one team got it?"
"Yep."
"Phew well that's the plan go nuts everyone-YACK!" Before I could bail out I'm clung back in by a humourless Erza. "No sorry I can help you guys out the best I can."
CRACK. The doors had just about broken through, as the splinters scattered onto the floor I quickly analysed my entire unit. "Right, Laki have you got wood?"
The purple-head meganekko stood to attention and gave me a salute. "Yes I do sir, and I can use Wood Magic too!"
"Um, yeah...Quickly reinforce that door with your Wood Magic."
"Righteo! WOOD-MAKE: WOOD WALL." Sprouting from her wood-finish colour magic circle forms the basis of a huge wooden barrier which quickly sprouts up and fortifies the doorway just before the enemy can break through.
"Now Jet, quickly take some Iron nails off of Gajeel over there and nail that wall in place."
"Um I can't make Iron, or do any magic for that matter." The dapper Gajeel raises his hand to point something crucial out.
"What?" I say with wide eyes just as the bashing resumes. "So can't any of you Edo-folk apart from Erza use magic?"
"Nope." Natsu sighs sucking his thumb.
"Nope." Gray adds whilst slipping on another jumper.
"Nada." Levy shakes her head.
"Not one bit." Juvia pulls away her gaze just before Gray can take in her eyes.
"Nilch." Mirajane winks as her big nerdy brother hides behind her.
"Zip." Wendy shakes her three heads.
"Yes it's quite an inconvenience we Edolasians are." Cana says before she loudly slurps up the remainder of her tea, contradicting her own Parallel image (which I guess is an irony inside an irony).
"But I can use this whip if it helps at all." Lucy whips out (hehe geddit) a cylindrical object before materialising a glowing energy whip from the handle of it. "I guess now that I'm in Earthland I can make use of this baby again."
"Right, do any of you Edo-folk have a cool glowing weaponmajig like Lucy here?"
"Oh crap I left mine back home." I hear a few of them scratching their heads and cursing themselves.
"Well most of us had our weapons confiscated when we were in jail." Juvia explains. "But I've got a bit of muscle to throw around for those jerks out there anyway."
"Nuh-uh! Levy is the real boss of bruising here!"
"You wanna go now squirt?" Juvia and Levy suddenly crash heads as they stare daggers at each other.
"Please Juvia-sama don't fight, anger gives you wrinkles." Gray tries to pull the butch bluehead away.
"Yes please stay tender and peace-loving like our old Levy-chan." Droy and Jet also help break the tension before it gets worse.
Anyway perhaps more importantly, there is still a bunch of crazed masked men trying to break into our guild and murder us to death.
"Well any of you guys who has or knows how to use a weapon, we're gonna need your help too." I continue running the battle plan which I'd just scrawled up in my head. "Pantherlily, how long can you stay in your awesome mode for?"
"A few minutes at most." The little black brawler answers humbly.
"Erza and you can lead the front since you're both the strongest out of everyone here." I hear a few dejected sighs down the back. "Well come on I'm just sayin' I mean why else weren't the rest of you picked for the S-Class exam huh? See? Anyway, I liked that little gun trio you had goin' out there so Layman, Bisca and Alzack can provide some support for Erza and Pantherlily."
"I've been practising my new fragrances with those two while you were away." The Layman bows with a sly grin. "They'll wish they never had noses after I've shown my wares to them."
"Anyway, Yoshi and Lucy will stick with me whilst anyone else with combat based magic supports the rear. Everyone else huddle tight, the last thing we want is for our group to split up 'kay?"
"Yes Master." Wow, they all just called me master, no 'Benny-boys' or other stupid nicknames this time around. I think I might have really made a connection with-
"So this was the book Mest was reading back then?" My wonderful thought monologue was once again rudely interrupted as Charles flew back into the room after walking out for a brief reprise in the library. "What! Why that meddling mole!"
"What's the matter Charles lemme see." I grab the book off of the flying feline as I take a quick flick through the contents. "So this was the one he was reading just before I was kicked out? Hmm?" I flick through a few more pages until I find myself lowering my jaw in shock. "My God...I knew he was up to no good. Does this mean-"
CRASH. Now the enemy won't let me complete a loud thought as they barge through Laki's Wood Wall. With the array of porcelain faced soldiers spilling into the guild we have only one way of escape now.
"Are you guys ready?" I shout out to my followers.
"Hell yeah!" Erza grins with way too much enthusiasm for battle.
"Yooooshi! Let's claw our way through them!"
"Wait were you wanting me for something?' Yoshi points to herself in confusion.
"What? No I meant you know like in the Animes they go – oh never mind." I mash my hands around my face before starting over. "Alright! You guys ready?"
"YES!"
"Alright! Let's claw our way through them!"
"YEAH!"
~To be continued~
After some initial self-doubting and some slightly helpful comments from Edo-Lucy and the others, Benny-boy is back in the boat as captain of the Fairy Fleet. But his informal reinstallment does not allow much time for celebration with the enemy literally on their doorstep and inside the whole darn house too! Will Benny-boy's new strategy save their Tails for at least the end of the next episode? And what could that book Charles picked up have been about? Find out this and much more in the next action-packed chapter!