Chapter 33

Bird of Paradise?

Lisanna

We were running up the stairs towards the top of the tower. I was keeping a close eye on Natsu and the determination that once dominated his expressions was gone. He was squinting his eyes in what seemed like pain.

I whispered to him, "Are you alright? You don't look too well."

"I'm fine, just a little headache."

He gave me a smile and a thumbs up. Any trace of pain was wiped from his face, but I knew better. He was only putting on a show to keep me from worrying about him. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to work. I had a feeling his headache was the result of having his skull bashed in by Gajeel, and I could only imagine how dangerous it might be down the line.

"So, who are the other two members of this dark guild?" Lucy asked.

"Fukuro and Ikaruga." Simon answered, "Fukuro is a bird-man with a jet-pack, and Ikaruga is a swordswoman."

"Did you just say a bird-man with a jet-pack?" Loke asked.

"There is no other way to describe this man. He is just plain weird."

"Now that isn't very nice of you, Simon!" Came a booming voice from one of the windows.

We only had a moment's notice before a bird-man with jet-pack exploded through the wall and rammed into Lucy. Fortunately for Lucy, Loke reacted fast enough to get behind her and shield her, because the next thing he did was ram her through yet another wall into another large and spacious room.

"For invading this Tower, I sentence you to death! FOR JUSTICE!" the bird-man shouted, "Missile Ho Ho Hou!"

The birdman leaned forward, and his jet-pack flew forward at Lucy and Loke. Loke pushed Lucy out of the way and was struck by the jet pack. The jetpack arched up towards the very high ceiling, and a mechanical hand shot out of the jet-pack and grabbed onto Lucy, pulling her up with it. Rather than stand around and wait for that thing to explode with them on it, I used my Bird Takeover and flew up to grab them. Loke was able to slide off the rocket with ease and fall towards Lucy. He grabbed onto her and punched the mechanical hand with so much force that it shattered, freeing her from the contraption. By then, I was close enough to grab them with my talons and bring them to the ground safely.

"So, you resist the judgement of the Hero of Justice, Fukuro!" the bird-man exclaimed as the others joined us in this otherwise empty room.

"Fukuro, let them go!" Simon yelled.

"No can-do Simon. I don't take orders from traitors!" Fukuro exclaimed as he brought his hands to his waist in a mock-heroic fashion, "Jellal had already alerted us to your deception, and for that, you will face my Justice!"

Fukuro began running towards Simon with his fist cocked. The jet-pack that we had evaded flew back and reattached itself to his back, propelling him forward even faster. Just as he was about to reach Simon though, Natsu and Gajeel stepped in front of him and launched him back at me, Lucy, and Loke with their own magic. Fukuro managed to stop himself mid-flight with the aid of his jet-pack.

"Out of our way bird-man!" Natsu yelled.

"Such villains." Fukuro mused to himself, "As it is now, I am outnumbered. I need to even the playing field."

Fukuro turned around to face me before he lunged forward. He opened his mouth so wide it looked like he was going to try and swallow me whole. It took only another moment to realize that was exactly what he was planning!

"Kya!"

Simon

I watched in genuine disgust as Fukuro began to eat Lisanna, literally.

"Let go of my girlfriend, you creep!" Natsu yelled frantically as he blasted forward.

"Regulus!" Loke shouted as he swung at Fukuro.

Unfortunately, despite being preoccupied with trying to swallow a struggling Lisanna, Fukuro was able to easily make it out of the way of Loke and Natsu's attacks. Fukuro flew up further out of reach as he tried to physically shove Lisanna down his throat. The whole time, all Lisanna could do was thrash about and scream in horror.

"CRACK!" Came Lucy's whip, which managed to reach Fukuro's ankle. Fukuro gagged a bit and it looked like he might loosen his hold on Lisanna, but instead, he swallowed her whole!

"CAPTURE!" Fukuro shouted in triumph.

Natsu stared at Fukuro in shock, "What did you do to her!"

Fukuro gave hearty laugh before replying, "I've eaten her and taken her power! In just ten short minutes she'll be fully digested, and her power will be mine forever!"

Happy flew at Fukuro at full speed, intent on headbutting the man, yelling for him to give back Lisanna. Just as Happy reached him though, Fukuro's arm transformed into that of a polar bear, and he punched the flying cat out of the sky!

"Bear Ho Ho Hou!"

"Happy!" Natsu yelled as he chased after his falling friend. Natsu stumbled a bit as he ran forward. Seeing Natsu was open, Fukuro flew down to strike him.

Loke and I acted quickly as I covered the room in darkness to blind our opponent and Loke charged forward to successfully strike Fukuro away from Natsu. Fortunately, my spell only affected Fukuro, the others could see just fine, and Natsu successfully reached Happy before he hit the ground and cushioned his fall.

"So, you want to blind me with your tricks foul villain?" Fukuro called out to me, "It's too bad, I have night vision!"

Fukuro came flying at me with his bear-fist cocked. He never reached me though as a gun shot through the darkness and knocked him back across the room towards Lucy. I turned around to find a beat-up Wally, Millianna, and Shô had joined us.

"Care to explain what's going on here?" Wally asked.

"Why is Fukuro attacking you?" Millianna asked.

Fukuro stood up as I dispelled the darkness around us. Given that it wasn't affecting anyone, I deemed it a waste of magic to keep up.

"Simon has betrayed Jellal and sided with these villainous intruders!" Fukuro cried out.

"You know, you keep calling us villains, but you're the one apart of an assassins guild." Gajeel pointed out as he rushed in to engage Fukuro.

"Is this true, Simon?" Shô asked, referring to Fukuro's statement.

"I can't accept what Jellal is trying to do." I explained to my friends.

"But why side with him!" Shô shouted, pointing accusingly at Natsu, "He lied to Erza."

"Because, if he is telling the truth, if he truly is Erza's brother…then that means my sister is still alive." I explained. I didn't expect anything from them, but I needed to explain myself.

"So, you think Jellal lied to us?" Millianna asked.

Wally looked at me with surprise and said, "You're really going to trust a stranger over Jellal?"

"He is literally trying to revive the most evil person to ever exist. I don't think Jellal has much of an argument here." I repeated to my friends.

"I hate to admit it, but he has a point. For all the stuff Jellal is doing, I wouldn't put it past him to lie to us like that." Shô conceded, much to my surprise.

"So…what do we do?" Millianna asked.

I looked back to Fukuro and found Loke, Natsu, and Gajeel fighting against him. They weren't making too much progress. I had the feeling they were holding back, afraid they might hurt Lisanna.

"If you guys are willing, we would appreciate your aid against Fukuro."

"As if you even had to ask, Simon." Wally replied, stepping up, "We're friends, right? We'll stand with you any day!"

Shô and Millianna stepped forward as well, wearing confident grins.

"So, all we gotta do is take down that bird?" Millianna asked, licking her lips, "That's what cats do, right?"

"We also need to rescue Lisanna, the white-haired girl. Fukuro ate her."

"What?" They all asked.

"I don't know. It sounds like when he eats people, he steals they're magic, but it takes time for him to digest them."

"So, you think we can just pull her out of his stomach?" Shô asked, genuinely disgusted that this may be an option.

Equally disgusted, I nodded my head, eliciting an "ew, gross" from Millianna.

"That poor, dandy girl." Wally mused as he aimed his pixelated gun-arm at Fukuro, "Let's get her out of there!"

I casted my magic on the general area around Fukuro and caused a small explosion of darkness around the group. Doing so managed to knock Fukuro away from the other combatants. Next, Wally fired his pixel gun at him as Millianna and Shô ran forward. The resulting hit caused Fukuro to scream out in pain. With his mouth wide open, Millianna shot her binding tube at Fukuro. The tube snaked its way into his mouth, and caused Fukuro to gag.

"I think I got her!" Millianna yelled.

"Alright, pull!" Wally shouted as he fired another round at Fukuro to keep his mouth open.

With Shô's help, the two of them pulled on the tube. Natsu, Gajeel, Lucy, and Loke all jumped in and grabbed a hold of the tube as well and began pulling. With their help, we were able to successfully pull Lisanna out of Fukuro.

"Gah," Fukuro cried out, "No, no, no!"

Fukuro attempted to fly towards Lisanna, but was swiftly intercepted by the two Dragon Slayers, who punched him in the gut, launching him back into the wall. While this was happening, Shô threw one of his cards at Lisanna and sealed her in it. The card then flew back to him.

"Now that's some Dandy teamwork if I do say-so myself." Wally remarked.

Against the wall, Fukuro slid to the ground as Natsu and Gajeel stood over him. With one last punch, Natsu knocked him out.

"That's for eating my girlfriend."

Gajeel chuckled to himself, prompting Natsu to yell at him, "It's not funny!"

"It kinda is."

"No, it isn't!"

"Now isn't the time to be messing around." I called to the two of them, "We need to reach Jellal, fast."

Natsu dashed back over to us, or to Shô more specifically, "Give her back!"

Shô threw the card at him without a second thought. In fact, he looked a little scared in giving it back.

Natsu examined the card. He wore a grim expression, "…She doesn't look too good."

Lucy walked over and confirmed what Natsu had said, "She needs medical attention, and there's no way she can keep climbing with us."

Silence fell upon our group. It was obvious that Lisanna needed to be taken back down, but someone would have to take her.

"We can take her down to the infirmary." Millianna suggested.

"It would be safer to get her out of the Tower all together." I told them, "It's only a matter of time before Jellal moves on to phase three."

"What's phase three?" Lucy asked.

I looked at the group of invaders with a grim expression, "The magic council fires Etherion on the Tower."

Lucy was quick to volunteer to take Lisanna back to the boat, "I can take Lisanna back to the boat. Gray and Juvia should be waiting there anyways."

"Why would he want the Magic Council to fire that thing onto this place?" Gajeel asked.

"This isn't just a Tower," Shô explained, "It's a lacrima, an uncharged one."

"Jellal's going to charge it with Etherion and move on to phase four," Wally continued, "The revival of Zeref."

"There's always the chance the magic council won't shoot it right?" Lucy asked.

"There is, but Jellal is impersonating Siegrain. I'm sure you're aware that he has considerable influence in the magic council." Wally explained.

I could see it on Lucy's face, she knew what Wally said was true. Siegrain had considerable influence in the magic council, maybe second only to the Chairman. Being a Wizard Saint certainly helped him gain power in that organization. If "Siegrain" supported the firing of Etherion, it would most likely incentivize the other members to vote in favor of firing it.

Natsu faced Lucy and said, "Lucy, I'd appreciate it if you got Lisanna to safety. I can't turn back now. I have to see Erza."

"And what makes you think she wants to see you?" Shô questioned aggressively.

"Because I'm her brother." Natsu told him, equally as aggressive.

Before the two could get into another argument, I stepped in, "Now isn't the time for this. We need to get going."

Natsu handed Lucy the card containing Lisanna. She took it without an argument and turned to Millianna who looked ready to start going down the Tower.

"I'm still hurting from our earlier fight, so I think I'll make my exit too." Wally confessed.

"I think that would be for the best," I remarked, "Shô, you should go with them."

"But," he began.

"Just go, we'll get Erza and meet up with you guys."

Shô folded his muttered to himself, "But the liar is allowed to go on."

Whether Natsu heard him or not, he made no comment to Shô, instead telling Lucy, "Take care of her."

"I will."

With that, Shô, Wally, Millianna, Lucy, and Loke bid their farewell and descended the Tower. Natsu, Happy, Gajeel, and I meanwhile turned our sights towards the top of the Tower.

Thank you for reading!

I have good news! Part of why I am able to update this on a weekly basis is that I have every chapter for the current arc written. Since I have the current arc's chapters written, I have the time to write the chapters for the next arc. I recently finished the chapters for that arc, so I decided to increase the amount of chapters I will update per week. For the remainder of this arc, I will be updating this story twice weekly: once on Sunday and once on Friday. This change in update schedule will only effect this arc though, and will return to once per week when I reach the next arc.

Finally, please leave a review! I really do appreciate the feedback.