Chapter 6
'Dear Status report.' Mason narrated as he jotted down on a piece of paper. 'I'm not actually gonna send this to the Magic Council, but this week has been so crazy I felt like I had to write it down. Let's see. I guess the first big thing that happened was that I met Makarov's Grandson Laxus, he seems nice. Then Mirajane invited me to go see a play with her. She's very nice, and a supermodel, so it was cool spending time with her, but the play kinda sucked. Worst portrayal of a Dragon I've ever seen. Then I went on a mission's with Erza and her team where we beat up a cult. One of the FairyTail Members, Loke went missing and we spent hours looking for him. It turns out he's a space cat or something, and now Natsu's girlfriend has a contract with him. So yeah a weird week so far.'
Mason admired his poorly put together writing, when suddenly there was a ring at his door bell.
DING! DONG!
"I'm coming!" Mason put down the paper and walked over to the door. "Hello." He said opening the large wooden door. Behind it was a rather nervous looking Erza. "Oh, Erza. What's up?"
"HERE!" She stuck what looked to be a ticket straight out in front of her, not making eye contact.
"Huh? What's this?" Mason asked, as he took the small piece of paper from her hands and examined it.
"Well.. Loke got us to tickets to the Akane Resort to thank us for helping him out, and there was an extra one. So since you helped out, we figured you should have it." Erza explained. "So do you wanna go?"
"The beach?... Sure, sounds fun." Mason smiled as he pocketed the ticket.
"Great! We leave tomorrow!" It seemed as though Erza had regained her confidence. "Meet us at the train station at Noon. Don't be late." With that the Redhead slammed the door closed and walked away.
Once she left, the color drained from Mason face and he lowered his. "The Akane Resort is on the ocean south of Magnolia. That means…. THAT IT'S OVER THREE HOURS AWAY BY TRAIN! NOOOOOO!"
(Later at the Beach)
Akane Beach, the most popular tourist destination in Fiore. Among its many attractions is the first class amusement park, five-star hotel and the huge sandy beach adjacent to the sea. Also famous for the five-star restaurants and casino housed in hotel.
"Wow the beach!" A bikini clad Lucy, marveled at the waves crashing onto the shore. "The water is so blue."
"Aye sir!" A smiling blue cat replied as he used his palm to shield his eyes from the sun light as he looked on at the horizon.
"Alright! Lets party!" Natsu roared, before running for the waves.
"That Idiot. Impatient as ever." Gray, who had stayed back with Erza and Mason muttered to himself, before taking off after Natsu. "Wait up Dumbass! We haven't even set up yet?"
"Set up? What exactly are we supposed to set up?" Erza asked. "I didn't bring an umbrella, did you?"
"Of course I did." Mason smirked. "I always come prepared." Mason ripped off his black cloak, revealing his swimsuit. Black, baggy swim trunks with the magic council insignia in blue on the front, near the opening for the right leg. "Umbrella." Mason channeled his magic into the fabric, stinfining it and changing its shape to that of large beach umbrella with an alternating black and white pattern. "Well there we go. Now come on let's have some fun." Mason shot the Redhead a bright smile.
"O-okay…"
Splashing in the sea, playing in the sand, it was a much needed stent of relaxation for the young wizards, especially considering what was to come.
"Aaaahhhh…." Mason let out a content sigh as he laid down in the sand beneath the shade of the umbrella. "I don't remember the last time I had a day off like this. As much fun as busting Dark Guilds and cults are. It's a lot of work. Constant training, Months of surveillance day and night and so much paperwork. I Need a day off like this." Mason closed his eyes. "There's just something familiar about this place that I can't shake." Mason muttered as he dozed off.
(Flashback)
A Young Mason, drowsy, was struggling to push himself off of a sandy beach. "Uh… Dad?" Mason looked around at the new area and immediately knew something was wrong. "Dad! Dad! Where did you go?!"
Mason began to pace back and forth across the beach shouting for his dad, but received no response. "Dad! DAAADDDDD! BURUUT! DAD! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
As Mason continued to pace back and forth he didn't notice a stone buried in the sand and tripped over it, falling face first. Mason pushed himself up so that he was on his knees, but as he did this tears began to form in his eyes and he started to cry. "DAAADDDD! I'M NOT READY YET! I'M NOT READY FOR YOU TO LEAVE ME YET!"
(End of Flashback)
"AAHHH!" Woke up sweating, and immediately sat up. "HA… HA… HA… I just remembered. I hate the beach…" Mason mumbled, wiping the sweat from his brow before his attention was drawn to the hotel. "But… I don't hate a bit of gambling." The Dragon Slayer smirked.
(Later at the Akane Resort Casino)
"Seven! We have another winner!" The game manager at the craps table announced to part of the Casino. "That's five wins in a row! This man is on fire!"
Mason stood at the end of the table wearing a tuxedo with a black bow tie as he juggled another pair of dice in his hands. "What can I say? I got the magic touch." Mason turned to a Black haired girl to his right who was watching with her friends. "Wanna give me a little luck." The group began to giggle and the girl in question blew lightly on the dice and mason's hand.
Mason threw the dice down onto the craps table hard enough so that the bounced against the wall at the other end. The first dice landed on six and the second one that was still bouncing began to faintly glow purple, not bright enough for anyone to see before landing on five.
"Eleven! That's another winner!" The announcer exclaimed for the crowd. "This man can't be stopped!"
"You said it. Not me." Mason said with a grin as he picked the dice back up off the table. "Last round, but I think I need a bit more luck, does anyone wanna give me a hand?
"Ooo! Me! Me!" An upbeat voice called out from the crowd.
"Alright, just…" Mason dropped the dice as a frighteningly familiar smell invaded his nose. "You!" He turned to see a very cat like girl, complete with kitty ears and painted on whiskers. "Millianna! What the h-mmmmm!" an orange rope wrapped itself around Mason's body and his mouth, keeping him from speaking or moving.
"Awh! It's been so many years, but you still remember me Ma-Kun!" The Catgirl taunted before pushing Mason over, causing him to fall to the ground. "Sorry Ma-kun, but we need to go find sister. Jellal wants to see her ASAP! We'd take you back too, but he doesn't want you. So bye!"
"MMMMM!" Mason said, his voice muffled by rope. 'Millianna! She's after Erza!' Mason thought to himself. 'She said "We" does that mean that the others are here too, and how the heck did she learn to use magic. Its binding magic, but it doesn't look like it has any special properties. So I should be able to phase through it, like regular rope.' Mason clenched his fist and began to use his Intangibility, just like he hypothesized the rope fell right off of his body. "Ha! Alright! Now time to go get some answers."
Mason ran through the Casino scanning for Millianna, when he heard a the cry of a familiar voice. "SOMEBODY! HELP!"
"Lucy!" Mason exclaimed. He turned his head to where the scream came from, before disappearing from sight. When he arrived he found a wide cast of characters huddled around a tied up Lucy.
"We got what we came for. Let's go home." A titan of a man, who held an unconscious Erza, said to his associates.
"You sure she's alright?" A younger looking man with brown skin and spiky yellow hair and a high pitched voice asked, sounding almost concerned.
"Yeah she's fine." A man made of blocks, who spoke with a bad old New York accent, answered as he held up his arm which had been converted into a gun. "She's just takin a little nap."
"Wow…" Mason became visible once again, standing against a nearby pillar with his arms crossed and a cocky smirk on his face. "I recognized Sho immediately, and I pieced together that the big guy is Simon after awhile. But jeez Wally, I hate to say it but you got bit buy the ugly bug growing up."
"What the hell!" Wally shouted, stammering backwards in confusion and a bit of fear.
"Millianna!" Sho yelled with a whine. "You said you took care of him."
"I did!" She cried back. "I swear! He was tied up just a few seconds ago!" Millianna squirmed.
"Quit arguing you's two!" Wally silenced the other two. "I'm about to put this fool, six feet under!" Wally cried out pointing his rifle arm at Mason and firing a magic bullet at him. Rather than blasting him, the magic bullet passed through masson, dispersing his body like it was smoke. "What the!?"
"Wow Wally." Mason reformed behind Wally, startling the block man. "That's some interesting Magic, but it's nothing compared to mine." Mason planted his foot, glowing with purple magic, into Wally's back and sent him flying. Then he waved his hand over in Lucy's direction and used his telekinesis to free her from the bindings. "Go find, Natsu or Gray. Get help."
"Right!" The blonde ran out of harm's way as fast as she could.
Millianna looked down at the unconscious block man and began to growl. "Wally! Grrrr! I don't care if you are Ma-kun! Don't hurt wally!" Millianna cried as she tried pouncing on the Dragon Slayer. Her attack simply passed through Mason, causing the girl to fall face first on the ground behind him. "Ouch! That hurt!" Millianna shook off the fall, but when she looked back up at her opponent her eyes grew large. "Ma-kun?"
Mason looked back over his shoulder at Millianna, then raised his hand and pointed it at her. "PHANTOM DRAGON SHOT!" Mason fired an energy blast at the girl, blowing her away.
"GGHHH! TAKE THIS!" Sho threw a stack of magic cards at mason.
"PHANTOM DRAGON!" Mason began to inhale large quantities of air. "ROAR!" Mason spit out a spiral of glowing purple phantoms that disintegrated Sho's cards and collided with the blonde mage, knocking him away. "You idiots. Magic ability and magic power are two very different things. You guys just throw out full power spells without any skill are strategy. You guys may know how to use magic but you have no idea how to fight, but I guess that coward Jellal wouldn't teach you that. Would he."
Mason turned around and stared Simon dead in the eyes. "Let her go… I'm disappointed in all of you. You're all weak and pathetic. Crawl back to your stupid tower, and tell Jellal that if we wants Erza, he's gonna have to come get her himself. And when he does I'm gonna beat the crap out of him!"
Simon set Erza down gently and stepped away from her. His single eye then shot a narrow glare back at the boy. "You talk to much." Simon then fired a dark energy blast from his eye.
Mason summoned a barrier and easily blocked the attack, resulting in a cloud of smoke. "Is that it? I thought at least you'd put up some sort of fight. Huh?" Through the cloud smoke, a massive fist fired forward, smashing Mason's stomach. "ACK!" The Dragon Slayer spit up a bit of saliva as he stumbled backwards. "Not bad. HHAAAAHHH!" Mason charged forward, his fist cloaked in magic energy.
"Gggrrrrr! Listen!" Simon yelled, as he grabbed Mason's arm, halting his attack.
"NO WAY! PHANTOM DRAGON SHOT!" Mason, with his other hand, fired a powerful energy blast directly into Simon's stomach and while the giant was stunned Mason capitalized. "PHANTOM DRAGON STRIKE!" Mason spun around and slammed his foot into Simons head.
Now free from his grasp Mason jumped backwards and took another deep breath. "PHANTOM DRAGON ROAR!" Mason blasted away Simon, but the flurry of attacks had heavily depleted his magic. Evident by his heavy panting and sweat. "Had enough yet?"
'LISTEN TO ME!' Mason's head began to ring with Simon's voice.
"Ugh! What the hell!" Mason looked around the room, searching for the origin of the voice.
'Calm down, I'm using telepathy.' Simon informed him as he climbed back to his feet. 'Now listen, the R-System has been completed.' Mason's eyes widened in terror. 'And Jellal has selected Erza to be the sacrifice, but even if we fail in taking her Jellal will just select another sacrifice and activate the tower anyway. Trust me I've thought everything through, the only way we defeat him is by bringing him Erza.'
Mason paused a second and tried to comprehend the information he just recieved. "Ok.." He eventually said. "You can take her, but you'll have to take me too. And I get the first crack at Jellal." Mason set his conditions and Simon was hesitant for a moment but eventually agreed.
'Fine.' He answered telepathically. 'But your going to have to do everything I say.'
"Auuhhh… My aching head.." Wally groaned as he slowly climbed back to his feet.
"Ugh… Wally? What happened?" Millianna asked, as she slowly climbed back to her feet.
"Take this!" Simon called out as a magic circle formed in front of his eye. "DARK BURST!"
A yellow light began to form around Mason, growing more and more intense. "AAAAHHHHHH!" The Dragon Slayer screamed in pain before the eventual.
KAABBBOOOOOOMMMMM! Mason exploded, without leaving a trace behind. No body, not a scrap of clothing, just ash.
"Holy.." Wally couldn't believe his eyes.
"You completely destroyed him…. I know he was fighting against us, but he was our friend." Sho starred on in disbelief.
"WAH! NO! MA-KUN!" Millianna began to sob.
"Jellal ordered us to eliminate anyone who got in our way." Simon said as he picked Erza back up off the ground. "I won't let anyone keep me from heaven. Even if he was our friend once. Now let's get back to the ship."
(On the ship)
Simon stood alone on the bow, staring off into the night's horizon. "Are you there?" He said softly.
"Uhhhh.." Mason made himself slightly more visible, his face green with motion sickness. "How much longer…" He tried his best to whisper, but his body wasn't exactly cooperating at this point.
"Not much longer. Try to keep yourself together. If you puke on the boat, it'll blow your cover." Simon said, half joking.
"I'm sorry… I feel like I'm dying…." Mason began to hunch over, but nothing helped.
Simon began to stare back into the horizon, as a tall slender tower became visible in the distance. "Mason are you ready?"
The Dragon Slayer seemed to immediately shape up, and refocus on the task at hand. "Yeah, my magic power has been recovering nicely, I should be at full strength by the time we get there."
"That's not what I mean. I'm saying are you ready to go back to the tower. You were almost as close to him as Erza, are you ready to face Jellal.." Simon put a strong hand on Mason's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.
"Y-yeah. I think so." Mason stood strong and stared back at the tower, but inside he was having some doubt. 'Jellal….'
(Flashback)
A blue haired boy worked tirelessly in the mind, constantly pounding his pickaxe into stone, but even though he was giving it everything he had he was working at a rather slow pace. 'Damnit!' The boy cursed himself. ' I spent too much time last night digging the escape tunnel, I'm exhausted. I just gotta hope that the guard doesn't notice.'
"Hey you! Quit slacking off." Almost immediately a guard began to pressure the young Jellal. "C'mon Faster! I said Faster! Don't make me hurt you." The guard pulled back his whip ready to strike. "If you're gonna be lazy you're gonna get hurt!" He lashed with his whip, causing Jellal to wince prematurely, but the blow never came. "What the!?" Mason had grabbed the whip out of the air before it could strike Jellal.
"Leave him alone." Mason said, using his enhanced strength to yank the weapon from the guards hand.
"Why you! If you weren't a potential sacrifice, I'd kill you right now!" The guard yelled back at the boy.
"I'd like to see you try!" Mason glared back.
"That's it! Guards!" Soon the two boys were surrounded. "Let's teach'em both a lesson about respecting authority!"
"Right!" The other guards said in unison. They ganged up and gave the two boys a nasty beating, leaving them bruised on the ground when it was all over.
"Aaahhh! I'm sorry." Mason apologized. "I meant to help, but it seems like I made things worse."
"No… That was awesome!" Jellal sounded almost ecstatic. "I've never seen anyone stand up to them before. If we show them we can't just be pushed around they'll know they can't control us and if that happens we'll be one step closer to true freedom. You know, you don't really talk too much. You've been here almost a week, but you still seem so distant. Turns out your pretty nice."
"Did you think I was mean before?" Mason looked over to ask.
"Well I didn't. But you do come off as kinda unapproachable. I'm pretty sure Sho is afraid of you." Jellal responded with a bright friendly smile.
"Oh, sorry… My bad." Mason was about to go quiet again, but then he realized that was the problem. "I was raised by a Dragon. You guys are the first other humans I've ever met. I don't know how to make friends."
"Seriously?" Jellal sat back up and looked over at Mason. "Well you know what? From now on you and I are friends."
Mason sat up and stared back at Jellal looking utterly stunned. "For real?"
"Yup! From now on the two of us are best friends!" Jellal stuck his hand out to shake and slowly but surely Mason met it, confirming the friendship.
(End of Flashback)
"Uhhhuuhhh…" Mason shook of the chills and returned to reality. "When the time comes I'll be ready!" Mason clenched his fist. "Now excuse me, I have to do something." Mason vanished into thin air, before Simon could reply.
"I'm sorry my friend." Simon continued anyway. "But I don't think you will be."
Mason, under the cover of his invisibility, slipped down to the ships hull where Erza was tied up and being observed by Sho. "SLEEP!" Mason chanted, forcing Sho to drop to the floor and fall into a deep sleep, before he fully revealed himself.
"Mason! You're here!" Erza cried out in relief but she was swiftly shushed by th the Dragon Slayer.
"SShhhhh… You have to be quiet." Mason whispered, then using a bit more telekinesis, he freed Erza from her bindings. "If you want to leave, now's your chance to jump ship. We are approaching the tower."
"Wait, what about you." Erza whispered back, her voice flooded with concern. " Don't tell me you plan on staying."
"I have to." Mason's eyes burned with fierce passion. "I'm going to defeat Jellal before anyone else gets hurt. And I'm gonna do it alone!"
(Author's note)
Alright, another chapter done. I was on a roll this week. Now I have a question for you audience. Would you rather me do the Tower of Heaven Arc over multiple short chapters like this one, or one long chapter. Keep in mind I'm only doing the Arcs from Mason's POV. Let me know in the review section. Till next time.
