Notes : It's been a while lol. Sorry about that, life has been a pain and the covid situation is pretty bad in my country. I might have had a tiny break down over it because it was getting overwhelming but meh. All's good. (Not really but I try not to think about it) Hope you all stay safe!
Tony Stark had been in the game for a long time even before he had jumped into the superhero business. He knows how to use words as weapons or to weave words of flattery at galas as he sweet-talks people into supporting him. And he also knows to pick up lazily woven threats and that ability had aged like fine wine the longer he had lived.
And Lucy Heartfilia was not bad either in that department. She had grown up as a heiress, had been to galas and parties and had to smile politely and pretend she never noticed the various sly innuendos that had only ever increased in amount as she grew up.
But it's the first time that she has picked up on a hidden threat and as she stares at the ship in front of her, she has half a mind to turn back but curiosity stops her from it.
She glances at the horde of ladies that board the ship alongside her and absentmindedly wonders if she is making a big deal out of nothing. She hopes that it's nothing but her instincts has never failed her.
Hence, the keys strapped to her thigh holster beneath her evening gown.
.
From the second the celebrity of the ship had honed in on her, she had a hunch that it was all about to go down soon.
And it does when he tries tempting her with wine laced with sedatives.
Lucy is a bit disappointed with her aim as he dodges the shard of glass.
Salamander looks calmly enraged as he signals something and two burly men pop up from behind her, grabbing hold of her.
"Welcome aboard my slave ship!" The greeting is jubilant unlike the words.
Son of a bitch.
The goons continue with how Salamander lures women with the charm magic and sells them in Bosco and then pauses to leer at her. "You would fetch a good share of money."
"True that."
The mage walks over, and a finger creeps down to her thigh, pushing the dress cut aside, revealing her keys. Smirking, he swipes it into his hands and pulls back.
"What's that?"
"Spirit keys."
"She's a mage?"
"She was", and then he throws the key set over deck into the black waters. "She's nothing without the keys."
Lucy knows this game, has played this for years even before her birth. She has memories of a brown haired male staring death in the face and says not now and wins. And while she may not be him, she's still him in the way that matters.
Enough to figure out the intimidation tactics. And they do mean business by the glint in their eyes as one of them pushes her forward a bit.
"Because she didn't come here under the charm, we'll have to break her in."
One slips a brand into the fire wizard's hand.
"The first thing we do with slaves is brand them."
She backs up from the stamp he's bringing forward towards her.
"It may hurt a bit but be a princess and bear wit-"
While the bastard had been distracted from her attempt to back away from him, relishing in what he assumed to her fear, she had brought down one sharp heel and smashed it into the foot of the guy that was holding her right arm a bit too tight. As he loosened his grip on her, reacting instinctively to the pain, she wretched her arm from his and turned around swiftly towards her other captor. In one fluid movement, she knees him in the groin and watches him fall down to the ground in agony.
"You bitc-!", the other guy lunges at her and she tightens her muscles in anticipation and drives the heel of her palm into his jaw.
He falls back, clutching at his bloody nose and she turns back to look at the head of the goons.
"You w-!"
A crash as the ceiling collapses as a figure bursts through it.
"Natsu?"
The man in question glances towards her and takes a double take before curling up, face green. "Oh man, I can't take this."
A second passes in silence as everyone tries to gather their senses from his sudden appearance before Salamander sneers.
"This is your backup?!"
"He's here for emotional support." She makes sure to keep her tone light.
He looks more angered at the blasé reply, "I will kill you!"
Even as he takes on a fighting stance, hands glowing red, Lucy replies, "You can try, "
Then another voice cuts in, "Happy, get her out of here."
Wait, what?
The cat in question comes and grabs a hold of her before wings spout of his back and taking flight.
Again. What?!
"What about him?"
"I can't carry two people at once! He should be fine.. probably."
She twists in his grip, "He threw my keys into the water, drop me!"
"What?!"
"Just do it!"
And then Lucy is falling into the water.
It's cold and she sinks down before she forces her arms to ignore the sudden sting of the water and swims up.
Breaking the surface, she pants for air even as she throws one hand forward and her keys come zooming into her hands.
The bastard probably didn't take into account that it's her keys. Her magic is tied into the golden metal.
Like how, a long time ago, his power was a suit of red and gold armour at beck and call.
The keys are warm in her hand even in the freezing waters, some of them glowing and she can feel the faint reproach exuding from them. Except for one that radiates anger.
She twists the key into the water and mutters, "Aquarius: Open gate".
A blinding glow and then she's faced with an scoff. "If my key falls into another dump again, I'll gut you like a fish."
"Understood, ma'am" Lucy is proud of the way her voice doesn't falter at all as she points out the ship to the water maiden. "Can you get that ship to the harbor?"
A scoff again.
"Without damage." She adds as Aquarius raises her gold vase.
A second later, she's washed away with the waves.
.
When she can focus again, she sees Natsu facing off against Salamander who looks absolutely pissed.
He doesn't give any time before a hurl of fire is racing towards Natsu and she steps forward, raising her hand before Happy pushes it down with a paw, "Don't worry. Natsu's strong."
She hums in acknowledgement as she shifts her hand to the opposite side, "He's a wizard?"
"Ay. That's Bora. He was expelled from Titan Nose. He's a fire mage too. Though he's nothing against Natsu."
True. Natsu had inhaled the fire and he seems plenty powerful with the way he's beating down Bora in his own game.
And a point to him for steering clear of the golden shield she had conjured up behind the duo. She's not sure if she would have been to keep up the shield in the face of Natsu's overpowering magic but he seems to realize the purpose of it and controls his fire with an expertise that only years of training could bring
."What type of magic do you use?" Happy asks, eyeing her.
"I'm a celestial spirit mage."
"Oh okay, I thought that they could only use keys."
"For the most part, yeah but I have a few other tricks up my sleeve as well."
It is getting a bit harder to keep it up though but the shield is the only thing that separates the fight from the sedated women in the back of the ferry.
She turns her attention back to the duo when Natsu raises his fist up in air, showing off a red mark curled into his biceps and she shoots a sharp look at Happy in question who merely looks sheepish.
"You both are from Fairytail?"
"Ay!"
A second passes, and Bora finally crashes, falling down to the rubble and she drops her shield with a sharp hiss.
Happy side eyes her in worry, "You good?"
"Yeah, don't worry."
.
Lucy is drinking water when a Runes Knight approaches her.
"Thank you for your service, ma'am. I understand that you and your partner were the ones to take Bora down."
"Not so much as my partner did."
"Nevertheless, we would like to offer a reward to you both. I'll have a word with the chief and get back to you. Can you provide your contact details here?"
She takes the form and glances at it. It's straightforward, asking name, guild and other minute details.
She quickly writes down her details as the guard stays beside her and hands it back to him.
"What about your partner?"
She winces for a second recalling the memory of how Happy had yelled in alarm at the sight of the Rune Knights and dashed away, Natsu in tow. "I will fill it up for him."
Another form and she writes down his first name, and skips a few details such as age. For magic type, she merely scrawls fire mage and ends with jotting down FairyTail next to affiliated guild, a sharp contrast to the unaffiliated in her form.
"Apologies, I only know this much about the guy."
The mage scans through the forms quickly, nodding in satisfaction. "This is enough, thank you for cooperating, ma'am."
.
Half an hour later, she's making her way back to her motel room when Natsu pops up beside her.
"You took so long talking to that guy! We got tired of waiting!"
"Aye!"
She doesn't break stride, "I wasn't aware that you waited."
"The guards and FairyTail mages don't get along much", Happy explains. "And you seemed to have it in hand, Luigi!"
Her irkness disappears in favour of exasperated amusement, "So what are you doing here, knock-off Doraemon?"
The blue cat looks confused for a second at the unfamilar name before realizing that she aimed the question at him. "Hey!"
She bites back a smirk and turns to the other human who also looks a little bemused but shakes it off as he puffs up.
"I'm here to take you to FairyTail!"
"What?"
"You heard me! I heard that bastard say that he would let you into the guild because you wanted to join."
A second of silence as she takes a second to process the words. "It's that easy?"
"Aye!"
"Let's go, Luigi!"
.
Notes : If it wasn't obvious, this chap was not beta read or proof read much. I hope there aren't any glaringly obvious errors. Let me know if there is. and if you liked the chap. I tried not to make Lucy OP, hopefully I did a good job ? And thank you for all the reviews! 3