Story Seven - The Battle of Fairy Tail (Part I)
Laxus crossed his arms as he eyed up a dark figure who peeked around the corner, a hood drawn up to obscure their face. Snapping his head to the side to give them a sneer, he blinked as the figure ducked behind a pole. His hiding abilities were almost on par with Gray's ability to hide his boxers. Freed and Laxus exchanged glances, the script mage giving a slight nod of acknowledgement.
"Let's go," Laxus commanded, walking in the direction of a narrow alleyway.
The group followed, Freed in the back. The hooded figure did the same, finding himself smacking his face against some sort of invisible wall. The wall contained an instruction; 'the person within this enchantment can not escape unless they reveal their true intentions'.
"So what's it going to be?" Laxus questioned, appearing from the darkness. "Do you want to tell us now, or later when you're dying of thirst?"
"I won't tell you, traitor!"
"Want to try that again?"
"Alissa! It's me, your bestest friend!"
The three Thunder Legion looked towards the girl that had pressed herself out of sight against the Lightning Dragon's back, finding him the best way to conceal herself in public. She just pulled a face and shrugged.
"Don't you remember! You asked me, all those years ago who the best Guild was. You asked me and I said 'it used to be Fairy Tail before…' and that was when you disappeared!" the voice of what was obviously a man breathed, almost as if he was enthralled with the tale. "I always think of that moment."
One of Bickslow's totems nudged her, causing her to frown at him.
"G-good seeing you!" she called, holding out her hand for whoever-it-was to see and giving a slight wave before pulling back her hand.
"Oh, this is ridiculous. It's obviously some sort of fanboy," Evergreen huffed. "Look we'll sign whatever you want, just get it over with."
"I wouldn't want anything from you! My best friend doesn't know! She doesn't realise how you betrayed the Guild, but I can't let this continue any longer!" the man shouted, drawing out a particular edition of 'Sorcerer Weekly'. "She can't date you!"
'Who?' Alissa mouthed at the Thunder Legion, finding that she was no longer in anyone's shadow. She let out an 'eep' finding herself in the presence of a man with silver hair and thin wire glasses, probably about their age.
"L-look," she murmured. "I'm not dating anyone, but I don't appreciate you yelling at my friends so…"
"They're not your friends. They will stab you in the back, and that's my purpose here, I'm going to show you what they're capable of!"
The group's eyes widened as the man broke free of the enchantments, his body breaking down into dust before they found themselves in a completely different environment altogether.
Alissa rubbed two balled fists over her eyes, blinking at the sight of…
"KYAH!"
Crowds! Thousands of people surrounding her from all sides, most of them standing head and shoulders above her. Alissa dashed through them, desperate to escape the nightmare she had found herself in before crashing into someone. She hit the floor with an 'oof', cowering as the tall man leaned down to smile at her, her eyes widening at the sight of him.
"M-master Macao?" she questioned in disbelief.
For there was no doubt that the person in front of her was Master Macao, but she couldn't help but think that a moustache added years to the man. Or perhaps he was using a magical anti-aging cream? Whatever it was, it was working wonders.
"Heh, you hear that Wakuba? This girl thinks I'm the Master," Macao chuckled, nudging his friend (who must have been on a similar beauty regime).
"Only when pigs fly," Wakuba retorted before setting his sights on the girl that was staring at them open-mouthed. "What's wrong, girly? Did you lose your parents?"
"What are you talking about?" she frowned, picking herself up from the floor before blinking successively.
Alissa was never the tallest of people, but she was pretty sure she was taller than being eye-level with Master's chest.
"She's probably just here to see the Miss Fairy Tail Contest," Macao announced, placing his palm on her head to ruffle her loose raven locks with a bright smile. "Isn't that right, kid? Do you want to be a Fairy Tail Mage when you grow up?"
Alissa's eye twitched, opening her mouth as she pointed a finger at them before realising her hands were far more dainty and child-like than she remembered. Her gaze shifted downward, eyes threatening to bulge out of their sockets as she grabbed the noticeably flattened area at the top of her chest. She really was a kid. Looking up, she realised she had descended into silence, the two Fairy Tail Mages exchanging looks with each other from the corner of their eyes.
"Um- yeah- something like that," she muttered, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly before looking back up at them. "You said this was the Miss Fairy Tail Contest?"
"Of course! Is this your first Harvest Festival?"
Alissa nodded. She was well aware of such a tradition, mainly due to the fact that the guild members left behind would always be too depressed to celebrate without their missing comrades. It had always been a sad day in the Fairy Tail Guild on the day the Harvest Festival had once commenced.
"Well then! We'll give you the best seat in the house since you're a future comrade!"
Master Macao motioned for Alissa to follow, directing her towards a seat in the front row, just next to the judges.
"Oh, who's this?" Master Makarov inquired, giving Alissa a beaming smile.
In response, Alissa fidgeted, poking her two pointing fingers together as her eyes raked the ground.
"I'm A-Alissa, nice to meet you," she murmured, descending into a whisper.
"No need to be so shy, my child! Here at Fairy Tail everyone is welcome, especially during festivities."
Alissa smiled at the ground, eyes lifting to the stage as the announcer began the proceedings.
"IS THAT MAX?" she shrieked, jaw hitting the floor at the sight of the younger sand-mage with two hideous curtains for hair.
"You know Max?" Warren inquired, lifting his eyebrow at her.
"Uh-I-um," she stammered, a pink blush filling her cheeks as she tried to cover her ass, "from Sorcerer Weekly, big fan."
As in: a big fan of how he fixed his hair because that is hideous, she thought with a shake of her head as she slouched back down in her seat.
"That's a first," Warren chuckled.
As the Competition began, Alissa frowned as she watched each participant get introduced, various displays of magic accompanying them. It was a great show, but what concerned her more was why she was here. Evidently, given her age and the presence of Team Tenrou, she was at least seven years in the past. Powerful magic like that was unheard of, but she couldn't dismiss it. Messing with time, especially when she was never in Magnolia before, is not something to dismiss. The other explanation was an illusion, but they could be recognised based on the lack of detail and realism, yet everything here was so real. Deep in her thoughts, the now-young mage almost missed the introduction of contestant number eight.
"Ever!" Alissa shouted, standing on top of her seat, frowning as the mage looked at her before brandishing her fan.
"Look, let's just get this over with," she huffed, her eyes flicking to the side. "If you want a true winner to this beauty contest, then it should be me!"
"Woo! Go Ever!" Alissa cheered, pumping her fist in the air.
She couldn't be sure, but she suspected that Evergreen was smirking behind that fan considering the gleam in her eye. However, such an expression was short-lived as Lucy started yelling at her, making the mage sigh as she removed her glasses and turned the blonde to stone.
"What are you doing, Evergreen? Are you trying to ruin the festival?" Master Makarov demanded of her, his expression stern.
Alissa blinked, taking in the similarly tense expressions of the other guild members, the audience going so far as to evacuate (run for their lives) from the building.
"What's going on? What's wrong?" she frowned, earning herself the attention of Warren.
"You need to leave with everyone else. Things are getting dangerous," he told her, attempting to shoo her away.
"No way," she huffed, stubbornly folding her arms across her chest. "You're being silly! Ever's just playing around."
Lord knows she had been turned into a stone statue enough to know that Ever would never do anything to endanger her in such a state. Traumatise and embarrass her, perhaps, but never endanger.
"It doesn't look that way, kid," Warren muttered, just as the curtain caught fire to reveal backstage, that which now contained the stone statues of all the participants.
The guild members began to voice their protests, only to find them cut off by a bolt of lightning hitting centre stage. Alissa rolled her eyes at such a display of dramatics, beaming at the sight of Laxus and the rest of the Thunder Legion.
"Laxus! Bicks! Freed!" Alissa shouted, lifting up her hand to wave at them. "What's happen-"
Alissa cut off, Warren's hand clamping over her mouth.
"This is serious, kid. These aren't the type of people you should be idolising," Warren scolded her.
Alissa scowled, eyes gleaming evilly as she licked the palm of Warren's hand. The mage yelped, eyes bulging as the raven-haired kid kicked him in the shin before disappearing up on stage, struggling to lift herself up. Curse her shortness!
"Guys!"
"Look at you, little Sunshine! You're adorable!" Bickslow cooed, earning himself a punch to his shoulder as Evergreen joined the group.
"Enough. You know what we're here to do," Laxus cut in, voice hollow as he stepped forward, ignoring Alissa to fix his eyes on Makarov. "Here's the deal, old man, these girls here are our hostages. Break the rules-"
A bolt of lightning came from the sky, its path curving at the last minute to narrowly miss Lucy's stone form.
"-and we'll destroy one of them."
"These sorts of things can not be classified as a joke, Laxus!" Makarov warned his grandson, the vein on his head prominent.
"No jokes. I'm deadly serious."
"What do you mean you're serious!" Alissa yelled at him, hands on her hips. "Quit playing around, Laxus! This is obviously some stupid trick."
Laxus seemed to study her, stone faced, before walking up to her. He grabbed the front of her shirt, hauling her up to dangle like a fish out of water in front of him.
"Put me down, you oversized whale!"
Alissa smirked as Laxus's lip twitched, a break in his seemingly stern expression.
"Put the child down, Laxus," Makarov actually growled, his body radiating with magical power as his hands balled at his side in anger. "This has nothing to do with her. This is our quarrel."
"You're right. You better make sure she stays out of the way," Laxus grumbled before throwing her (yes, THROWING HER) off the stage.
Macao leapt forward to catch her, muttering 'it's alright, I've got you' into her ear to reassure what he thought was sure to be a scared child. He soon thought otherwise as he found himself having to wrap his arms around her torso, trying to hold her back from charging at the lightning mage.
"Let me at him, I'm going to kick his ass!" she growled, limbs flailing as Macao began to suspect this girl belonged in their crazy-ass guild.
"This is merely a simple competition," Freed began, his face void of emotion.
"We're going to find out who's the strongest in Fairy Tail," Bickslow added, Alissa's eyes narrowing as the soul-user seemed to wince, his mask not as perfect as his companions.
"The last person standing wins. The Battle of Fairy Tail begins now." Laxus finished, arms folded across his chest.
"Alright! Now we're talking! I'm fired up now!" Natsu yelled, a table hitting the ceiling from his gutsy enthusiasm.
Alissa snorted before narrowing her eyes at her friends. It was clear they were in a similar position to her, their older minds stuck in their younger bodies. What she didn't understand was why they were acting this way. The people she knew wouldn't do this. Laxus had all but told her to stay out of it, but from the looks of where this was going, she suspected that was going to be a hard thing to accomplish. Whatever it was, the Battle of Fairy Tail was about to commence.
From what Alissa could gather, the rules of the battle meant they had three hours to defeat the members of the Thunder Legion who were hiding throughout Magnolia. The city would be their battleground, Freed's enchantments acting as a way to force the members of Fairy Tail to fight each other, all towards the goal of finding the strongest mage amongst them.
"This is- the stupidest thing- I have ever seen!" she raged, a dark aura cast over her form as she hunted her friends down.
Master Makarov had begged her to stay within the safe boundaries of the Guild, but when he couldn't leave the building himself it wasn't hard to escape. She had left promising to 'beat Laxus to a pulp' (more for THROWING HER than anything else) something which Natsu had been keen to join in on… until he found out he couldn't leave either. Despite the Sixth (Third?) Master's concerns she could get hurt, she was probably the only member of Fairy Tail that was free to travel across Magnolia with ease. She didn't even need to cross dimensions to avoid the barriers. Since she wasn't technically a member of Fairy Tail at this time, she was free to go wherever she wanted.
"Would you stop following me?"
At the moment, she was following Gray. He wasn't too pleased about the prospect, but she suspected he was the most likely to encounter a member of the Thunder Legion.
"Nope," she snickered, yelping as he gave her a glare before sighing in resignation.
"Kids are such a pain," he declared, running a hand down his face. "I can't focus on a fight if I have to protect you too."
"You won't have to. Now move it. We need to find them."
Gray muttered something under his breath, placing his hands into his pockets in a sullen manner. Together (Gray in front, Alissa trailing behind thanks to her little legs), they walked the streets of Magnolia. Gray's eyes narrowed on a clothing store.
"Seems like the right type of haunt for Bicks," she nodded, charging towards the rotating door, Gray running after her with an annoyed 'hey!'.
"You shouldn't be here, little sunshine," Bickslow scowled as she walked in.
"Tell me what's going on, Bickslow! I refuse to believe this is real," she demanded as Gray ran in the store behind her.
"Bickslow," he growled, setting his sights of the soul-mage.
"Leave, little sunshine. I don't want you to see this," Bickslow warned her.
"Then don't do it! I know you don't want to!"
"What's she talking about, Bickslow? Is someone forcing you guys to do this?" Gray questioned, his body readying itself in a fighting stance.
"You might not believe it, but this was us way back when. It isn't a lie," Bickslow declared, his totems oddly quiet as they floated upward at his command before looking her in the eye. "Looks like you're going to have to see it to believe it though. So let's fight, shall we?"
Alissa rolled Gray over, taking in his extensive injuries which occurred at Bickslow's hand. It was common for spars to break out in the Guild, but this has seemed so much colder. So much more ruthless. However, what truly brought tears to her eyes was the fact Bickslow couldn't even look her in the eye any more.
"Bicks-"
"Don't tell me it's okay, little Sunshine. We both know it's not."
"Please stop," she begged him, clutching a tightening fist to her chest. "It's not just hurting your friends, but yourselves as well."
"Sorry, little Sunshine. Bosses orders, but it's for the best," Bickslow declared, his palm resting on her head for a moment before he walked away.
"Fine, then if you won't stop hurting yourselves," she muttered, her magical power building, as a small version of her staff to match her size appeared in the palm of her hand, "I'll have to make you!"
Bickslow lifted an eyebrow, momentarily wondering how powerful Alissa had been seven years ago. He soon found out as she resorted to smacking him with her staff like an over-glorified baseball bat.
"Ow!"
"Stop!"
"That hurts, dammit!" he shrieked, using his limbs to shield his form.
Alissa stilled, her body freezing up as a bolt of lightning landed behind her. Slowly she turned, her eyes meeting the scowling face of Laxus who, one again, lifted her up by the material of her shirt.
"I told you to stay out of this," he growled, teeth clenched.
"You told me nothing! I trust you, Laxus, but if you're going to hurt yourselves like this at least tell me why."
Laxus's orbs flicked to the side, an audible breath leaving his nose.
"Alright," he agreed, "but we can't do this here."
With a nod towards Bickslow, Laxus readjusted Alissa to press her against his chest. The raven-haired girl blushed, the two of them disappearing in a flash of bright yellow lightning.
A/N: To be continued...
I think this is my favourite so far. Or maybe it's because this is the story idea that started it all. Any favourites so far? Or requests? I feel like writing more of this at the moment XD