Chapter 19

Evacuation


Lisanna


Upon arriving at the city, we found it in almost complete disarray. Ur, Mira-Nee, and Zalty headed west outside of the city to intercept Deliora before he got too close. The rest of us stayed together and rushed to find someone in a position of authority. I guess we must have looked very lost because a police officer stopped us and told us we should be headed North like everyone else.

"No, we're with Ur, we were sent to help with the evacuation." explained Yuka, the guy with insane eyebrows.

"You're the mages from Fiore?" inquired the police officer.

Sherry and I gave sigh of relief. She must have been thinking along the same lines as me. If this guy didn't recognize us, we would be in a lot of trouble. We responded with a yes.

"Good," the officer pulled out a lacrima and called someone. It took a few seconds, but he was finally able to connect, "Excuse me captain, I have the Fiorean Mages here!"

"Send them down south. I'm receiving reports that people are trying to evacuate down that way." instructed the captain, "Is there anything else?"

The officer looked to us, inquiring if we had any questions. Nobody said anything so the officer took that as a no.

"That's all."

Without even saying goodbye, the captain ended the call.

"Thank you very much,"

I smiled at the officer as he ran off to help with the evacuation effort. We traveled south as requested. Dodging the masses of people, and getting stopped a few times by officers, we finally made it to the southern border of the city. There, the police had set up a tent and seemed to be working in it. We entered the tent to see the police captain talking on his lacrima. He took immediate notice of us.

"I'll call you back, continue searching!" ordered the captain as he ended the call, "Thank you for coming. For the most part, besides the inevitable chaos, we have the evacuation under control.

"If I may," interrupted Yuka, "How long have you known about Deliora's attack?"

"About a month now, but he is running ahead of schedule. We weren't expecting him for another week, hence the chaos." informed the Captain.

"Ahead of schedule?" repeated Cana.

"Didn't Ur tell you, Deliora was approaching at a much faster pace than we anticipated."

"It did occur to me that we seemed to be on a tight time frame…" Yuka confessed.

The captain nodded his head, "Anymore questions?"

"What do we need to do?" asked Elfman, pumping his fist in the air.

The captain smiled, "I like a man who gets right to business! We have reports that three families have gone missing headed south. We would like you guys to head that way and recover them. There are dangerous animals and beasts down that way, are you okay with handling this?"

Elfman punched the palm of his hand, "Of course we can handle it!"

"Thank you, please find the families. They are most likely in the forest." added the captain.

"We'll find them, don't worry!" I reassured him.

We then left the tent and headed for the forest.

"Animal Soul: Bloodhound!" I yelled as I fully transformed into a Bloodhound. I sniffed around as the whole group followed me, until I picked up a scent, "I found something!"

With the others in tow, I ran off into the forest. It wasn't long before the scent split off into three paths. I relayed this information to the other mages present.

"We should probably split up into teams of two then." suggested Cana.

"I guess I'll go with Sherry then." I responded.

"Wait, you aren't gonna go with your brother?" inquired Cana.

"Well...I wanna work with someone new," I responded, "No offense Elfman-Nii."

"I guess I'll take Yuka then!" announced Elfman.

"Then that leaves me and you!" Toby howled at Cana.

"Very well then." agreed Yuka, "I have no objections."

"Yeah, I get the dog." said Sherry, unenthusiastically.

I promptly transformed back to normal and gave her an offended look.

"Don't mind her." piped up Yuka, "She's only happy when she's working with her boyfriend."

"I am not!" retorted Sherry, "I just prefer working with Lyon."

"Well I think we can get along!" I said as I embraced the pinkette.

"Can we just go." said Sherry as she fought off my grasp.

I got off Sherry and pointed in three different directions, "Those are the directions the trail splits off at." One path led further south, another took an eastern path, and the last took a south eastern path.

It was decided that Elfman and Yuka would take the eastern path. Cana and Toby would take the Southeastern path, and Sherry and I would take the Southern Path. We all separated and headed down our respective paths.

"So, what's Lamia Scale like?" I inquired as we traveled down our path, as fast as possible.

"Like any other guild." answered Sherry, giving me the cold shoulder.

"Well I mean...I don't think any other guild is quite like Fairy Tail." I explained.

"What's that supposed to mean?" inquired Sherry with a hint of anger in her voice.

"I mean like…. Fairy Tail gets in trouble with the magic counsel a lot, and people say we're really loud and obnoxious!" I relayed this information at lightning fast speed. I couldn't believe that small talk was causing Sherry to become angry. Did I insult her?

"Look I'm not into small talk." confessed Sherry, "Let's just finish this fast so I can get back to Lyon-Sama!"

"So, she just wants to be with her boyfriend...seems a little clingy for me." I thought, "Jeez, if I was like that with Natsu…"

We continued the journey in relative silence before we heard the screams of a woman. We found a family of three cowering before a Polar Bear.

"Animal Soul: Wolf!" I called as my body became surrounded by a silver fur "coat". My nails grew and hardened, and my teeth sharpened.

I knelt down on all fours and growled at the Polar Bear. Unfortunately, my whole body was shaking. None of my takeovers were quite that well suited for fighting in freeing weather. I could only imagine how bad my Cat Takeover would fare in this situation.

The bear lunged at me; however I was able to just barely avoid the swipe of its claw.

"These things really are fast!" I thought.

I rebounded back and took a swipe at the Polar Bear. Although I was able to cut into the bear, it was little more than a paper cut. My lack of resistance to the cold was greatly hindering my abilities. I had no desire to hurt the bear, just enough to scare it away.

"At this rate I'll need to do a full-body takeover…" I mused to myself.

The bear raised its hand at me and swiped downward. I braced myself, but the bear stopped mid-swipe. I looked up at the animal and saw its eyes were glowing a pink color.

"Doll Attack: Puppeteer!" said Sherry smugly, "Now then, it's time you be on your way."

"Hold on!" I called.

"What?" asked Sherry.

"Let me take it over."

"What?"

I walked up to the Polar Bear and placed my hand upon it.

"What are you doing?"

I activated my magic and my body began to morph into an exact replica of the Polar Bear. Once it was complete, I turned back to my normal, human form, and Sherry ordered the Bear to return to its home.

"Now, let's get you guys to safety." I said to the family.


Elfman


I stared down the Beast before me. It had snow white fur and a bulky body to match. Behind me was Yuka with the family we were sent to retrieve. I was happy to have chosen this route. I knew this Beast was in the same class as my main Beast Soul transformation, the King. This one however, was well built for the snow. It also lacked the horns of the Beast and the spikes that jutted out of its shoulders.

"Beast Soul!" I exclaimed as I transformed into a gigantic beast, like the Snow Beast, but having the aforementioned traits.

I was instantly bombarded by the cold, frigid air. This takeover was not meant to be used in this kind of environment. I reeled back my fist and swung at the Snow Beast's face. The beast reeled back from the impact and prepared a strike of its own. Taking it like a man, the beast's fist hit me square in the face. I stumbled back before repaying him with another blow to the face. The beast gave a roar before landing a hard blow on my chest. I lifted my hands in the air, cupped them together, and brought them down on the snow beast, knocking him to the ground! The beast lunged up and attempted to tackle me. I was ready to throw him off me, when a ethereal blue bullets struck the beast, knocking it away.

"Would you finish that thing off Elfman!" Yuka yelled.

I smiled at Yuka and rushed at the beast as it was just getting up. I punched it square in the face, knocking it back down. Standing over the beast, I placed my hand on its head. "Take-Over!" I cried as my magic enveloped him. My body began to morph into the form of the snow beast. The cold air on my skin disappeared as a thick coat of fur covered my body. A complete copy of the snow beast, I gave one last strike to the beast and knocked him out.

"Like a man!" I cried triumphantly.

"In case you were wondering, the people we were supposed to protect are headed back to the police."

"Good!" I replied, "We make a good team, Eyebrows!"

Yuka seemed to mutter something to himself.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We should make sure they get back to safety."

I gave Yuka a thumbs up and charged back towards the city!