Author's Note:
It's Sunday! And time for a new chapter. ;D
As always, huge sparkly, happy, thanks on clouds of cotton candy for all my lovely wonderful reviewers out there! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: loopymama, TheJSmooth, SunnieDayys, lucinda, ravenqueen162, WisdomDragon27, valerioux, Lady La-sara, Firefly9917, Wolves silver wind, and stranger1999. Equally big hugs and kisses to my newest reviewer: NPGamer11.
Sorry about the cliffhanger last chappie, hopefully this chapter will make up for it. :D So on with the show! And be sure to stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek of next chapter.
A blank-faced guard appeared at their door and started unlocking it.
Instantly, Natsu, Lucy, and Wendy all tensed and coiled up, ready for…well anything really. Natsu had crouched in front of the two girls, and Lucy could see some subtle squirming in his pants that said his tail was gearing up to pop out, likely in an escape attempt. For the past couple of hours, they had all been twisting and yanking at their shackles, but only Natsu had made any headway. Blood dripped from the metal edges that had dug into his skin, but the chains were definitely weakened from where he had been putting an enormous amount of pressure. He might be stuck in human form and unable to use any of his fire magic, but he still had the strength of a dragon curled up in that tiny body, even if it wasn't all accessible.
His powerful legs coiled up under him, ready to spring. As soon as the guard opened the door, Natsu was launching forwards, ramming shoulder first into the door, which then slammed open and knocked the guard back on his ass. A long slinky red appendage snaked out of Natsu's pants and latched around the door to keep him upright as he swung around. More guards followed the first of course, and he started taking them out one by one to the best of his ability. His chained hands latched onto the door as well, and he lifted himself to kick his bound feet into the next guard, who was thrown back and knocked over the guards behind him. Another handful of guards were taken out with his tail, some crushed and others beaten or whipped.
However, having his ankles cobbled and his wrists behind his back was a serious handicap, and for the few that he managed to incapacitate, many more were just injured and pissed off, and he was soon overrun and shoved to the ground.
While five men worked on taming him, three came into the cell after Lucy and Wendy. This time it was Lucy's turn to try and protect Wendy, and she hobbled her way in front of the smaller girl, testing her balance and how much she could move with the cuffs around her ankles. She could take small steps, but nothing bigger, which was going to be tough. Having her hands behind her back was also going to make things difficult…impossible really. But as she watched Natsu still doing his best to take out the guards on top of him, she could hardly do any less.
Spreading her legs as wide as the chains would allow, she tried to get a relatively well-balanced stance, and when one of the guards reached for her she managed to dodge. Jerking back sharply, she was somehow able to headbutt him in the chin and heard his teeth click together. He yelped and staggered back, not expecting it, and she used that to her advantage by ducking low and throwing herself sideways into him. He landed on the ground under her elbow – which was driven into his solar plexus with her body weight.
After that, she rolled off – leaving him wheezing on the ground and clutching probably broken ribs. Somehow she managed to scramble back to her feet.
Before she could fully stand though, Natsu bellowed, "Watch out Luce!" right before someone behind her – another one of the guards undoubtedly – grabbed her hair and yanked her back.
She was knocked off balance and would have landed butt-first on the ground if her attacker hadn't hauled her up by the hair and then wrapped one forearm tightly around her throat, putting her in a pretty deadly headlock. Her supply of air was instantly cut off and she choked painfully.
Grasping at straws and panicking, she did the first thing she could think of … which was to reach down with her tied hands and grab onto the guy's junk. That turned out to be pretty easy to do actually, since he was quite a bit taller than her and his groin was right at grabbing level. She clenched hard and did her very best to wring him like a particularly disgusting wet rag, and he let out a distinctly unmanly squeal … almost like a pig really.
He instantly let her go and went to his knees.
His abrupt withdraw left her teetering for balance. She lost that particular battle, but somehow she managed to aim her fall so that she sat down – hard – on the kneeling guard behind her … specifically on his head. All of her weight and momentum shoved him face-first into the ground hard enough to probably break his nose.
That was two down, one more to go, and the last guard was standing back staring at her with something akin to horror and fear on his young inexperienced face. He was ready to bolt, and she was only too happy to give him a reason to. So, she scooted her butt off the downed guard's head and then inch-wormed her way across the dirt towards the last one standing … using her butt, feet, and tied hands. She likely looked hilarious – which was only compounded by the fierce war-cry she let out while doing it – and personally, she probably would have laughed if she was in his shoes.
He was frozen – possibly from the shock of seeing a girl scoot on her butt at a snail's pace towards him while letting out an unholy shriek of bloodlust…. But whatever the case, he stayed in place long enough for her to get within range. As soon as she could, she planted her tush, dug her fingers into the ground for stability, and then reared back and kicked both heels into his knee as hard as she possibly could – letting out another war-cry for good measure as she did so.
Something crunched, and he shrieked, going down and instantly grabbing his knee up to his chest. A second later, he scrambled to his feet and hopped on one foot out the door as fast as he possibly could. The battle outside the door paused momentarily to watch the spectacle as he hopped past and completely ignored his superior's yells to, "Get back here, you pathetic newbie!"
He kept going, falling more than once, and the whole way out he was screaming at the top of his lungs. "My Knee! My knee! She broke my knee! I didn't sign up for this! I didn't sign any paper that said I would be dealing with psycho bitches! She's crazy, man! She'll kill me! I'm outta here! I quit! I'm just a nightwatch! I don't do anything! I'm just supposed to get paid to walk around and watch empty halls at night so I can go to culinary school! This is just a part-time job! You suckers aren't paying me enough for this!"
They heard his caterwauls long after he had disappeared down the hall, and everyone seemed to just stand there and stare after him in stunned silence. Even Lucy was shocked. She had never once in her entire career as a mage gotten a reaction quite like that.
"Damn…you guys really hired a winner there." Natsu finally scoffed, filling the awkward silence. "Where'd you find such a hero?"
"You shut up!" the guard sitting on his back spat and whacked him again in the back of the head.
The three guards who were sitting on his tail suddenly went flying as he slapped them all away. Apparently their grips had loosened with the distraction. They quickly pounced back onto him though and wrestled his tail back into submission like a rowdy crocodile. The guard on his back had one hand on the chain between his hands and the other he used to grab a fistful of pink hair.
It was almost a comical sight…seeing four guys sitting on Natsu trying to keep him pinned down. Or it would have been, if it wasn't so violent.
The fifth guard that had helped wrestle him to the ground made his way inside the cell with the girls and cracked his knuckles.
"Get up you shit heads, pull yourselves together." he barked at the other guards, obviously being the senior officer here. The two who were still moaning – and grabbing either their gut or their groin – whimpered but followed orders.
Lucy was in the process of scrambling back to her feet as best she could when he came over and grabbed her hair. Once again with the hair…maybe she should consider cutting it or something.
"You jokers get over here. One of you grab her here…"
He snagged the chain between her wrists and thrust it into the hands of the man she had elbowed in the stomach. He was still wheezing, but his grip was strong when she tested it.
He ordered that guard to also grab her arm with his free hand and stand to the side of her – yanking up her bound wrists higher and wrenching her shoulders in the process. The guard whose bits she'd crushed grabbed her other arm and took a handful of hair for good measure. She wasn't sure if she had accidentally worn a, "grab me here!" neon sign in her hair this morning, but it wasn't fun by any means.
The senior officer then chased Wendy around for a good while as she scooted on chest and knees across the floor at frankly shocking speeds, managing to roll out of the way whenever he lunged. She even somehow wiggled out of the cell and was making her way down the hall when he caught her. Lucy was left gaping after them in shock, wondering how she'd learned that trick.
By now Natsu had been mostly wrestled into submission as well. Two guard flanked him in the same manner as they were with Lucy, and two remained grappling his tail. They had managed to twist it into sort of a pretzel-like ball, which seemed to have made it much harder for him to do anything with it. Frankly Lucy was shocked by just how deadly it was … she'd had no idea he could do so much damage with it.
The senior officer just picked up Wendy when he finally caught her, and carried her by the chain between her wrists in what looked like a very uncomfortable manner.
…
And so, they were escorted like this down the hall.
The guards ignored any questions they fired at them, like: "where were they taking them?" – "what did they want?" – "what were they going to do with them?" etc. They found out soon enough anyways when they were dragged into what could only be described as a mad scientist's lab. Tubes, bottles bubbling with an assortment of colored liquids and gasses, vials of things Lucy would rather not look at, and machines of every imaginable shape and size lined the walls, tables, and shelves of the enormous space. It was not a space meant for happy fluffy feelings, and none of them felt anything remotely of the kind.
In fact, mostly Lucy just stared in abject horror as they were pulled closer and closer to a small bent-over old man with age spots on his forehead and tufty eyebrows that were so advanced they almost looked like two pointy horns. There was no doubt in her mind that he was the mad scientist … none at all.
"Dr. Byro, we brought the prisoners."
"Ah yes! Excellent. Though … you took your time getting here." he croaked as he put down whatever he was working on and turned around to give them all the hairy eyeball.
He strode down their lineup and looked them all up and down critically, as if judging specimens. "Hmm…very fascinating. Well, well…"
As he approached Natsu, he had to lean back a little when the angry dragon lunged, and his eyebrows rose in mild surprise. "Perhaps we should restrain them before I conduct any preliminary tests. Come." He motioned and the guards followed.
In short order, they were tied down securely to upright metal slabs that looked like surgical tables on their ends…. and judging by all the cogs and gears, Lucy had no doubt that they could probably turn into just that if he so wished.
For Lucy and Wendy, they were both restrained relatively normally, with leather cuffs that attached to either end of the table securely. The ones for their wrists were adjusted so that their arms ended up stretched above their heads…leaving them very little wiggle room. Matching cuffs secured their ankles to the bottom of the table.
Natsu on the other hand was given special treatment…. Which, in all fairness, he really deserved. He had ripped the leather cuffs off within a few seconds of being placed in them, and they were quickly replaced with metal shackles that were securely bolted to the table. He not only got them on his wrists and ankles, but also one around his neck, chest, lower stomach, thighs, and biceps. His tail also received its own line of shackles.
Since he got his own special set of shackles, his arms were down by his sides instead of up like Lucy and Wendy's. They watched the whole procedure from the sidelines with wide eyes as he fought the guards and mad scientist with tooth and nail…literally. More than one guard came away from the battle with really vicious bitemarks, and one of them was even missing a finger.
Once they were tied down, all they could do was watch as the scientist putted around them doing who-knows-what … obviously preparing for whatever 'tests' he was planning to run on them.
Natsu of course was not silent by any means, he was practically howling questions and insults… along with a good amount of spitting, cussing, and snarling for good measure.
"Who the fuck are you, ya creepy old fart?! Damn it! What are you gonna do with that, and what is that stuff?! What the hell are you gonna do with us?! Oi! Pay attention, ya crusty old coot! Hey! What are you doing?! Why are we here?! Bastard! You gonna answer any of my questions?! HEY! I'm talkin' here, ya damn wackjob! What are you gonna do to us?!"
Eventually it seemed that this Dr. Byro person had had enough. "I plan to test your magical powers – which I'm told are innate. I have my doubts, but if you truly are from Earthland, then perhaps it's possible. If so, then you have the pleasure of being my first test subjects for this." He patted an enormous machine standing directly in front of them.
He seemed exceptionally pleased and was humming as he brought over a mass of wires and pasties. He began with Wendy, who was on the far left, and started attaching the little white sticky rounds to her wrists, chest, stomach, thighs, and ankles. He plugged all the wires into a small machine which he then watched, and his eyebrows shot up.
"My, my! This is amazing. You have as much magic as an Exceed … even more! Fantastic!"
Even more eagerly he went down the line and reached Lucy, sticking her up with pasties and wires too. She cringed at the sensation of the cold sticky pads clinging to her skin in a distinctly unpleasant manner and instantly wanted to peel them off as she began to itch. He did the same thing with her and made a pleased sound as he plugged her in. A little current seemed to zip through her body and she shivered, not happy with the feeling.
Then he repeated the whole process with Natsu, who squirmed to the best of his ability, making the process a little more tedious for the guy. By the time he had plugged the wires in he was already scowling. Then that frown only deepened, and he shook the little machine lightly.
"Tsk…it seems I was unable to apply the pads properly…or perhaps the device is malfunctioning. Never mind, I have enough evidence to proceed whatever the case."
Unplugging the smaller machine with a disgusted sounding sigh, he walked over to the larger intimidating monster currently staring them down with its many tubes, wires, and doodads. He fetched a thick cord from the midsection and brought it forwards to present the end, which looked almost like a tree with all the cords branching off it. He approached Wendy with the thing, and both Lucy and Natsu started to protest.
"Hey! Leave her alone! Do me first!" Natsu bellowed, and Lucy followed up with, "Yeah! Or me!"
Natsu of course took offense at her addition. "No! Don't do Luce either! Just come over here and wire me up! You're gonna take our magic right? I've got enough to fill you up all by myself!"
The old guy ignored their cries and just proceeded to wire up Wendy instead.
Taking the first set of smaller wires, he clipped them onto the pads already attached to her, before sticking even larger pads to her that held even more wires. The whole time, Wendy squirmed and fought, whimpering and trembling with fear, which only made Lucy and Natsu feel worse. They continued begging for him to work on them first, and he continued to ignore them.
Once all the wires were attached, he took up a set of tubes that had blended in with the wires and deftly fitted them with needles, before finding veins to stick them in. Wendy flinched lightly at each IV stuck in her and stared at them with increasing anxiety.
Once she looked like Frankenstein's monster, the mad scientist happily stood back and took in his handwork. His pleased smile didn't make any of them feel better about the situation at all.
They all cringed as he approached his machine and started pouring various things in bags that hung off one side. He fiddled with them until different chemicals started pouring down the IVs and into Wendy. She winced and shifted slightly, looking uncomfortable.
"Are you okay? Is he hurting you?" Lucy asked urgently, straining in her own restraints to look over at Wendy.
"N-not really. It burns a little…and I'm starting to feel really weird…kind of buzzed and queasy…and really anxious…"
She didn't look too good either. She had started to shiver and sweat and looked like she might puke.
"What are you doing to her?!"
"Don't worry, most of these are just stimulants to help get the magic flowing."
Wendy punctuated the ironic statement of, 'don't worry,' with a sharp groan and seemed to heave, her stomach contracting so strongly that she lunged against her restraints. "I think I'm gonna be sick…"
Doctor Byro didn't have anything to say about that, he was too busy humming to himself as he started messing with the rest of the machine. Suddenly it sputtered to a roaring start that had them all jerking in surprise at the loud aggressive mechanical sound. After a moment, it settled to a slightly lower volume rumble as lights came to life all over it.
Doctor Byro visibly perked up and had some pep in his step as he waltzed over to some sort of control panel at the front. "All right! Let's begin the experiment shall we?!"
"No!" Lucy and Natsu exclaimed in unison, and Wendy just whined.
None of them were listened to though. Instead, he just pressed a button on the control panel that seemed to turn on whatever was connecting it to Wendy.
She gasped and stiffened, twisting a little with a slightly pained expression. A huge glass jar on top of the machine suddenly started filling with something clear and glowing, but so slowly that it was barely noticeable. In fact, Lucy only noticed it after Doctor Byro had started messing with the controls some more and apparently sped it up. Slowly Wendy's whimpers turned into groans, then sharp cries, and finally screams of pain. She thrashed in her restraints as the wires attached to her lit up from the amount of magic they were pumping from her.
The higher he cranked it, the sharper her screams, and the faster the glowing substance filled the jar.
Natsu and Lucy added to her screams with yells and shouts of their own – begging him more and more frantically to stop in Lucy's case, and roaring for him to stop with much more demanding language in Natsu's case.
It was beyond horrible. It was pure torture for all parties involved – aside from Doctor Byro, who was having the time of his life.
Finally, after filling the collection jar, he twisted some nobs and pushed the button to turn off the wires, leaving Wendy to slump down, nearly unconscious and only held up by her restraints.
"That's enough for now. I'd rather not kill you just yet…you make an excellent test subject." he hummed happily, taking the jar off the top and sealing it properly before placing it on a nearby shelf.
Nobody really had a response to that, aside from Natsu who spat a few choice cuss words at him.
He proceeded to take all the wires and IVs off and out of Wendy, before shifting his attention to Lucy. She stiffened but didn't protest as he came to stand in front of her now. Natsu, though, protested greatly and loudly, possibly even more-so than when the evil scientist had been messing with Wendy.
When he started clipping all the wires to her and attaching the bigger sticky pads to her skin, Natsu practically had a fit, verbally assaulting the room until even Lucy's ears were ringing.
"Hey! Don't you dare mess with Lucy! I'm warning you now, if you touch her I'm gonna…Hey! I said don't touch her, ya fucker! Are ya deaf?! Oi! Damnitall! I SAID GET YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF! Don't you dare fuck with me pal! When I'm outta these goddam chains I'm gonna rip your fucking head off! I'll burn ya to a crisp! What part of DON'T TOUCH LUCY, didn't you understand?! Goddamnit! Fuck! HEY! LEAVE HER ALONE!"
He didn't quiet down through the IV portion either, which was less than pleasant for Lucy given that the guy was obviously not a medical doctor and had to poke around a bit.
When he turned on the IV drip, Lucy quickly discovered what had made Wendy so green around the gills. Whatever he was pumping into her truly did make her feel like crap. It was a mixture of the anxious jitters that she got after too much coffee and staying up all night, plus motion sickness, and possibly combined with getting punched in the stomach and having a fever. She quickly felt herself begin to shiver and could feel cold sweat pop up over her whole body as roiling waves of nausea passed through her, shaking her from head to toe with each one. It was sickness unlike she'd ever felt before, and she wondered absentmindedly if this was what it felt like to have alcohol or food poisoning. Or just poisoning of any kind really.
She didn't even hear Natsu quiet down and start to urgently ask her if she was okay … at least not until he started to practically shout again.
"LUCE! Are you okay!?"
"Yeah…" she managed weakly. "Just sick…but you know that's gonna change real quick. Don't worry too much about me Natsu, I'll be fine."
Famous last words perhaps, because the current that suddenly shot through her as the guy turned on the machine again was painful. It felt like each little pad electrocuted her, burning the skin directly under the stickies and also sending lightning through her whole body from toes to fingertips. The sensation didn't exactly go away either, it remained as sharp unpleasant background noise while other things started to kick in.
Getting her magic sucked out didn't exactly feel like suction, oddly enough. It felt more like a painful pull or tug on something inside her that wasn't supposed to be grabbed. It was a sharp pain too, and the only thing it could possibly be compared to would be if somehow every nerve in her body had been hotwired together and then grabbed at the places where those sticky pads were and slowly pulled out of her body. It probably felt that way because her magic zipped along her nerves and seared them, drawn unnaturally fast and basically giving her friction burns as it protested being pulled on like this. It was like every bit of her – magic included – was protesting the process and had put on the breaks, leaving long painful skid-marks that never really ended.
The long and the short of it was that it hurt. Lucy didn't like it, wanted nothing more to do with it, and let Dr. Byro know in no uncertain terms – very loudly.
What started as loud protests though quickly morphed into screams just like Wendy's whimpers had as he cranked the machine up and her body suddenly felt like it was self-imploding from the inside out. Every vein, every tendon, every muscle, every nerve ending, and every cell in her body screamed in protest as something fundamental to her very self was cruelly and violently yanked from her. The pain of having every hair on her head yanked out at once would likely be much less than this, and certainly much less wrong. It was that same nails on a chalkboard, drill against her teeth sort of bloodcurdling feeling that told her it was not supposed to happen.
Natsu wasn't any happier about the whole thing either. He was fighting against his restraints so hard that he could feel the metal biting deep into his skin wherever a band tethered him to the table.
This was absolute agony, beyond torture really. He would take any pain, no matter how horrific, if he could just stop Lucy's – because watching her body twist and arch in agony and hearing her screams was worse than anything anybody could do to him. He simply couldn't stand it. Her sharp cries of pain were matched with his roars, but he didn't even hear himself or feel the vibrations in his chest or throat.
His mind raced, trying to think of something, anything, he could do to help her. Through their connection, he could feel her magic being ripped from her… could feel a reverberation of the pain echoing through his own body… and his heart twisted so hard he felt like it might stop beating or simply explode.
In the end, it was his instincts that saved them both, as they automatically kicked in when he felt her magic dip below a certain level. It was then that his magic responded, flowing to boost her waning reserves the way it always did these days, and an idea sparked bright and hot and filled him with hope. Gasping and shutting up with a click of his teeth, he focused on that link between them, kicking himself for his own stupidity and missing such an obvious solution.
As for Lucy, she was oblivious to the little touch of flames that bolstered her reserves as she dipped low. All she knew was pain.
She didn't notice anything until the pain faded a little, and then she felt a tickle of warmth. That was all the warning she got before a gate slammed opened and magic started to flood into the empty space left behind by her own stolen magic. At first it hurt, almost as badly as when her magic was taken – like the sharp pain of dipping numb cold feet into hot water – and she arched hard and screamed again, wondering what was happening now.
"Sorry Luce, hang in there it'll get better!" Somehow she heard Natsu over her own shrieks, but the words didn't make sense to her at first.
It wasn't until the pain began to slowly ease that she started to understand what was going on, and she finally recognized the familiar sensation of Natsu's fire filling her up. It was his magic now that was being ripped from her, and he was filling her faster than the machine was draining, so the pain soon grew tolerable. She was left hanging limp in her restraints, panting and doing her best to recover as she shook. Cracking her eyes open, she managed to turn her head enough to look blearily at Natsu, who was staring at her with an intensity that made his black eyes look like they were burning.
"…thanks…" she gasped and managed a wobbly smile, and his tense expression eased.
A resurge of the pain made her wince and clench her eyes closed as she cringed against the metal table and her cuffs, twisting again as a sharp groan was pulled from her. She caught a glimpse of Natsu's wide eyes, and his head whipped around to see Dr. Byro twisting nobs again, apparently cranking it up.
The mad scientist was muttering to himself and looking downright confused, much to Natsu's dark amusement. With his dragon ears, Natsu could hear the words Dr. Byro was muttering to himself even from this distance.
"…have no idea what's going on here…I was sure I had the correct power level…why is the magic output suddenly increasing?"
As for the mad doctor, he was indeed mystified about what could possibly be going on.
He consulted a panel that was measuring the subject's internal magic – like a thermometer. The female's had been decreasing at a steady rate – until it suddenly spiked through the roof, and he had to turn up the power to accommodate her increased output. A sharp cry and his instruments told him that he had started draining her at an appropriate level again …. that is, until she sighed and the magic spiked again.
He scowled and tapped his instruments, wondering what the hell was going on.
Then, when he glanced up at the collection jar, he instantly noted yet another anomaly he couldn't explain. The golden magic it had been collecting had stopped, and now a completely different sort of magic was layered on top, bright red and yellow like flames. It was filling the collection jar alarmingly quickly, and he had to scramble to set up an overflow unit so he could switch out the current vial. It just continued to fill though, much to his initial delight, but that quickly turned to alarm as he scrambled to switch it out yet again. When a high-pitched whine started up, he realized that the magic output was once again too high, and he had to crank up the machine again, almost to maximum.
Risking a frantic glance over his shoulder, he stared wildly at the blond girl, wondering what was going on. She was slumped in her restraints, but her eyes were open, and she was smiling and staring at him. Then she glanced at the young man next to her. Dr Byro's eyes followed hers, and suddenly he was caught in the stare of the male humanoid creature.
Abruptly he knew that somehow this was the pink-haired male's doing … that he was channeling his magic into the blond's body somehow. Everything told him so – from the dark feral amusement glinting in pitch black eyes, to the sharp grin and the way he flexed tauntingly against his shackles. He wasn't even trying to free himself anymore, he was just testing his restraints' strength in a display of caged potency that was intended to intimidate.
Everything about the specimen's body language dared him to continue.
Dr. Byro gritted his teeth and unintentionally took the bait, letting himself grow angry at the taunting from one of his subjects. He turned back to the machine and cranked it up to the highest setting it would go, before frantically rushing around and attaching backup power sources to it with thick wires so he could access the emergency overload switches.
As for Lucy, the pain was almost completely gone now as Natsu filled her to overflowing with his magic. Now, the drain was almost a relief as heat flooded her body and made her feverish in a familiar sweaty way. She welcomed it though, embraced the fire cooking her from the inside out with open arms, and sunk into the heat as if it was Natsu's embrace – which in a weird way it was.
Before meeting Natsu, she never would have thought the sensation of being baked alive would be soothing or pleasant, but that's precisely what it was. She watched with heavy-lidded eyes in amusement as the scientist rushed around, scrambling to keep up with Natsu's magic and failing miserably. He nearly let the jar on top burst at one point when he was too busy fiddling with controls and wires to notice, but he caught it at the last second.
He cranked up the machine again and Lucy winced slightly at the little zing that went through her, but flames quickly licked over her nerves and soothed the sting.
It was only a matter of time, and even when Dr Byro removed the collection jar entirely and wired the machine into some sort of power grid instead, Natsu just kept pumping it full of magic. There was only so much abuse the machine could take, and soon it started up a high-pitched whine and began to smoke, prompting cusses from the frantic scientist who bustled around it like a freaked-out mother hen. Eventually he seemed to realize that he was going to have to shut it off, but he was a hair too slow. Something burst with a crackling pop, which prompted a fireworks display of sparks, short-circuiting, and smoke as it performed an unscheduled rapid disassembly.
At that point, it shut itself off.
Dr Byro was in the process of trying to save it when loud sounds started filtering into the room from outside. Soon those noises were discernable as some sort of fight that was quickly approaching their location. The good doctor was just gearing up to go angrily ask a guard what in the hell was going on when the doors blasted in off their hinges.
Relief hit them all hard as Gray and Erza stomped through the door at top speed, both obviously steaming mad and frantic.
"Lucy! Natsu! Wendy! Are you in here!?" Erza shouted, looking around.
"Here!" Lucy croaked, but was barely heard over Natsu's bellowed, "It's about time!"
Two heads swung in their direction, took in the state of them, and two pairs of eyes went hard and cold with rage. Dr Byro made a speedy getaway at that point as the two enraged Fairy Tail wizards rushed over to their comrades.
"What happened?!" Gray asked, teeth gritted as he took in the sight of Wendy – who was still passed out – and Lucy as she hung limp in her restraints, still wired up like an ugly Christmas tree. Even Natsu was shaking from the amount of magic he had pumped into Lucy and the horror of the whole thing, though anger was still the predominant emotion in his eyes.
Gray quickly used an ice blade to slice through the leather restraints while Erza used a sword on Natsu's metal shackles. Neither Lucy or Natsu missed the fact that they had access to their magic.
"What the…how come you can use your magic?" Natsu asked hotly.
In answer, Gray stomped over and shoved a red pill in his mouth, nearly causing him to aspirate it. As he choked and coughed, Gray cuffed him over the head.
"And that's for being a dumbass. Seriously? You couldn't wait just a few more minutes for Mystogan to give you this?"
"What is it?!" Natsu croaked, still working on swallowing the pill.
"It'll give you access to your magic, Ash-for-Brains."
"I guess you two ran into the others."
Erza nodded at Lucy's statement. She and Gray had traded places, and she was now assisting Lucy with removing all the wires and IVs from her person. "Yes. They set us free from the crystal in the courtyard."
"So it was them…" Lucy murmured, and took the pill Erza gave her.
"Well yeah, I told ya didn't I?"
Lucy shot Natsu a look. "You were right."
A bright flash interrupted them as Amy suddenly popped into being of her own accord, which she could only do now thanks to Lucy regaining her magic. As soon as she appeared though, she began to flicker, since she had used her own magic to come. Lucy hurriedly grabbed a pill from Erza and popped it in the wolf's mouth. She grimaced but swallowed.
"What was that? And where are we?! All of your spirits have been going nuts because your magic signature suddenly dropped off the map again!"
Lucy winced. "Sorry Amy…right now we're in Edolas. It's another world, and one where we can't use magic unless we take those little red pills."
"Huh…. Another world. Interesting."
Her attitude completely changed though a moment later. When golden eyes landed on the contents of this particular room, the hair along her spine rose up and she stalked around stiff-legged to sniff various objects…such as the jar containing Lucy and Natsu's magic and the table that Lucy had been strapped to.
While the wolf was so thoroughly occupied, Lucy glanced back at Erza as she gently handed a pill to Wendy, who was just coming to. "So how did they release you?"
"Dragon magic. Apparently it's immune to Anima, so using it to break the lacrima crystals will reverse the affects. Laxus and Gajeel have already gone to the giant lacrima to try and break it."
"Wait, you found it?!"
"Yes. Well actually, Happy and Carla did. It's on a floating island next to Extalia – the home of the Exceeds – which is where they were taken after you were separated. They managed to escape though, and after they found us and brought us all up to speed, we came to rescue you three while they all flew up to the lacrima."
"Speaking of, what exactly were you rescued from?" Amy interjected, as her attention landed squarely back on Lucy. She trotted forward to sniff her from head to toe, and gingerly pulled off some leftover wires that Erza and she had missed. "And more importantly, are you okay?"
The celestial mage grinned and relaxed into the wolf's attentions, feeling her heart squeeze with happiness that she had such wonderful friends. "Yeah, I'm fine…just worn out from having a lot of my magic drained. I'm just running on Natsu's now."
"Happy mentioned that you might be getting used for some kinda experiment. Is that what all this shit is for? Draining your magic?" Gray asked as he squatted down next to the wad of tangled wires they'd detached from Lucy.
"Yeah, they hooked us up to that machine over there, and it sucked out all our magic…" Wendy said tremulously, still a little shaky but now very much awake.
"Well it doesn't look very operable now…what in the world did you do to it?" Erza inquired as she inspected the still-smoking machine, which was missing quite a few parts that had blown off.
"When I was hooked up to it, Natsu channeled his magic through me and blew it up." Lucy answered with a small tired smirk.
Amy huffed in amusement and displeasure, pausing to lick her bloody cheek, and continued to single-mindedly inspect her. "Well you seem mostly unharmed…although I can tell you've undergone some sort of magical trauma."
Undoubtedly the wolf could feel how shaky her magic still was through their bond.
An explosion from another part of the building shook some dust down from the ceiling and everyone glanced up.
"What was that?" Wendy whimpered.
"That's probably the war going on outside right now." Gray said with a scowl.
"Come again?" Lucy asked weakly.
"It appears that there were some tensions previous to our arrival. When Happy and Carla found us, they explained some things about the Exceeds and…"
Erza's voice held the tone of a long-winded explanation, and for whatever reason, Gray apparently decided that there wasn't time for that right now.
"Long story short, the king is a power-hungry douchebag who's constructed a ginormous machine to harness Anima and is using it to suck power out of our world. He's also been planning to go after the Exceeds and steal their magic."
Erza sent Gray a disgruntled glare for interrupting her, but surprisingly didn't respond with violence. "Yes, Gray's account is accurate. And the situation exploded when an armed guard of Exceeds came down to try and retrieve Happy and Carla. King Faust took the opportunity to declare war on them."
"Essentially, there's a civil war going on out there between the guards and the Exceeds." Gray summarized.
Natsu, Lucy, and Wendy were all wide-eyed by the end of the explanation. And then Lucy cringed, "So it's our fault that the tension broke, and now there's a war. Great. We sure made a wonderful impression didn't we?"
"Indeed." Erza responded solemnly, looking equally upset. "I, for one, intend to try and help this country somehow…but only after we save our guild of course."
"Well, we'd better get out there then." Lucy surmised, and Natsu followed up with, "Let's do it! I've got a fire in my belly!"
Abruptly they were interrupted by a deep rumble, and suddenly it felt like an earthquake had just been kickstarted underneath the castle. They all rushed out into the hall and located a window where they could see what was going on. Sure enough, a battle zone seemed to have taken over both the sky and the ground, but what really caught their attention was some sort of panel sliding back in the floor of the courtyard.
"What the hell is that?!" Gray spat, leaning out and squinting at it.
Natsu tried to squeeze into the same window but got elbowed and shoved back – which prompted a pushing, elbowing, hair-pulling, head-knocking fight that only stopped when another deep rumble shook the entire castle. Natsu seemed to forget Gray and just darted to the next window over, where he hung halfway out to get a look down below. Lucy shared the window with him, while Erza and Wendy took the window after theirs. They all stared as the courtyard split apart to expose a deep hole of some sort, scattering guards and cats alike.
From out of the hole came something nearly unimaginable in this particular world. A dragon at first glance, but a second look showed that it was obviously a machine of some sort. The thing was true to life though, taking the form of a massive metal lizard, and everyone tore out of the courtyard at top speed, screaming holy terror.
Its huge muzzle swung around and then pointed up at a floating island that was high in the air above them. It was so high up in fact, that they could only see the underside of it.
"No…it can't be…yes it is! It's aiming at the island with our lacrima on it!" Erza suddenly yelled.
"What? You're sure?!"
"Absolutely."
Huge jaws opened, and a ball of magic formed in the mouth. With a metallic screech and boom, it roared and shot a magic cannon ball that soared through the sky to hit the underbelly of the island, which sent it lurching to the side. It kept going too, only building momentum.
"What are they trying to do?! Why are they moving the island with the lacrima on it?" Lucy yelped, looking around wildly for a reason that would make sense.
"Never mind that! It's probably bad whatever it is! We've gotta get out there and stop them!"
…
Meanwhile, a few minutes prior, Gajeel had been in the middle of an unexpected fight.
He was grinning and laughing loudly as he fought a large black cat warrior who wielded an enormous sword. The large Exceed called Panther Lily had shown up shortly after they had and was apparently under orders to protect the lacrima. Weirdly enough, he seemed to be working for the human king and not the Exceed queen, but Gajeel hadn't exactly asked a lot of detailed questions before engaging in battle.
"Now you're what I call a kitty!" he hooted, trading blows and getting as good as he gave. His eyes glittered. "I'm gonna make you mine!"
Laxus glanced over from where he was shooting lightning through the crystal. "What the hell are you talking about metalhead?"
"I'm not gonna be the only dragon slayer without a cat!" Gajeel bellowed back, getting a queer look in return.
"I'm a dragon slayer, and I don't have an Exceed! Get over it, dumbass, and just fight the guy!" Turning away from the metal studded idiot, Laxus refocused on his task.
Meanwhile, Mystogan merely shook his head in slight exasperation at his comrades' banter. He was standing next to Laxus and was sending everyone and everything back to Earthland with his portal magic as the lightning dragon slayer freed them.
Absentmindedly, Laxus muttered, "How the hell are ya sending them back anyways? I thought you said that portal magic only worked when the Anima thing was open?"
"It is open and set in reverse."
The lightning dragon slayer shot him an impressed glance. "So that's what you were doing when you disappeared."
He got no response, but he didn't need one.
Meanwhile, Gajeel continued to fight Panther Lily, both of them eager and enjoying the battle more than they should.
The whole time they traded blows, the iron dragon slayer continued to spout things like, "You're gonna be my cat!"
Of course Panther Lily disagreed and responded with strong negatives. "Like hell! I'm never going to be someone's pet!"
"Then how 'bout partners?" Gajeel countered with a grin.
"We just met, why would I team up with you? I'm a knight of Edolas, I'm not going to ally myself with some rogue mage from another world."
"I bet I can change your mind. You'll have a helluva better time working with me than getting bossed around by some crazy nut job."
"As far as I can tell, you're a crazy nut job."
They continued to go back and forth, occasionally getting too close to Laxus and getting zapped for it.
"You two fight all you want, but keep it over there!" he snapped as he popped them both with strong bolts of lightning.
They were both gearing up to yell at him when a new occupant suddenly hopped – literally – onto the island. "Stop! Please!"
Everyone turned to stare at her – though the two working on the lacrima quickly went back to work and left it up to the others. It was another humanoid Exceed like Panther Lily, but this one was female and smaller, sort of the stature of Levy. She had light green fur and a pretty face with blushing cheeks, but everything about her appearance was sort of overshadowed by the strangeness of her clothing. She was wearing a pink spotted onesie with a white belly and a hood that looked like the head of a frog.
Gajeel was about to laugh at her getup, but he was distracted by "his cat" cringing. "Frosch! What are you doing here?!"
"To stop you!"
"Fro, you know that I work for the king now…"
"Please…"
"You should get off the island before…" Panther Lily was cut off when a huge sound shot through the air, and then the entire island jolted like it had been hit by something. "Shit! It's already been launched!"
And they were now moving and picking up speed.
Everyone glanced in the direction they were now careening, looking for any obstacle they might crash into, and to their horror, they saw another island directly in their path … though it was still pretty far away. When Fro looked, she gasped again and covered her mouth with pink gloved paws.
"Panther Lily…you aren't…"
He stared guiltily at her, and she gasped again while big fat tears started to roll down her cheeks. "You are."
"Okay…someone wanna clue me in?" Gajeel finally interrupted dully, giving them both a flat look of unamusement.
It was the male who answered. "The king has fired the dragon canon into this island, and soon we will be hitting that other island, Extalia … Frosch's homeland. When we hit it, both islands are going to explode - thanks to this huge lacrima - and wipe us all out at once."
"Shit. Happy! Carla! You better fly over to Extalia and give them a heads up." Laxus called to the two Exceeds who had been sticking to the sidelines trying to stay out of the way.
"Aye Sir!" Happy called back, and they both set off at top speed.
Immediately, Laxus and Mystogan increased their efforts, and Gajeel turned back to Panther Lily with a scowl.
"Bad Kitty! I'm gonna have to teach you some manners!" he growled and attacked again, causing Fro to stumble back into Laxus.
The blond-haired mage turned, ready to spark someone in the butt, but when he saw the small female Exceed instead of a big asshat, he lowered his fist.
She turned eyes sparkling with tears up to him. "Please! If it crashes into Extalia…my home will be…"
"Don't worry." he grunted. "This crystal happens to be my guild. I'm not gonna let them get exploded."
Turning back to the lacrima, he missed the slight glow of idol worship spark in Fro's eyes. With a yell, he amped up the wattage on his lightning to maximum and hit the massive crystal with everything he had. Chunks started to fall off rapidly and cracks appeared deep within. Mystogan worked double time to send back the parts of Magnolia that flashed into existence. Fro watched them work with stars in her eyes.
Then she turned to Panther Lily. They were fighting again, but she barged right in between them – in a very unorthodox manner. She leapt into the air and landed on Gajeel's head, shoving him down with a yelp, and then kicked Panther Lily's massive sword to the side as it came down.
"Stop it now!" she yelped, her high-pitched voice holding a surprising amount of authority. Laxus and Mystogan glanced back, mildly impressed.
Tears streamed down her face as she marched up to the large black male cat. "Please!"
…
Meanwhile, back on the ground…
Erza, Gray, Natsu, Lucy, and Wendy all ran out of the castle and into chaos. Cats and guards were fighting everywhere – aside from the dragon occupied courtyard. Worse than that though, was the fact that the lacrima island was now making a beeline for another island, one that looked like it had a city built on it.
"That must be Extalia! The Exceed's homeland." Erza gasped. "King Faust must be planning to take it out with the crystal!"
"Why isn't it stopping?!"
"It's built up too much momentum." Lucy whispered, horrified.
"We've gotta stop it!" Gray shouted.
Almost as if in answer – all the Exceeds who had been engaged in battle started retreating back to their homeland, to join hundreds of what looked like shooting stars that flew from inside the city of Extalia to push against the huge incoming island. Each of those glowing streaks was an Exceed, desperate to save their homeland, and Lucy could only watch with watery eyes and clenched teeth, hoping that the island would stop before colliding with Extalia. Not only would all their guildmates perish, but so would all the Exceeds.
Their attention was brought back down to earth though when the huge robot dragon turned on them and made a loud exceptionally aggressive screeching sound. It looked like whoever was controlling the thing thought that the island was safely on its way to collide and didn't need any more prompting, so it was now aiming its big snoot at them.
"Ha! You must be the intruders I've heard so much about! I see you escaped…what a shame. It would have been better to keep you alive and milk you of your magic, it's such a waste for you to die here. But while I wield this enormous power, I doubt I can recapture you without killing you. We shall see I suppose. There's plenty of Exceeds to take your place anyways."
"No there won't be! They'll all die when those two islands collide!" Wendy squeaked defiantly.
"Some certainly will, but they're a cowardly race, and most will run away, leaving them homeless and easy to pick off."
"If you think they're cowards then you've never met an Exceed! They're some of the bravest, most loyal people I know!" Lucy shouted, and Natsu backed her up with, "Aye sir!"
She shot him a fond glance, amused that he had recently taken to adopting Happy's coined phrase. It seemed very appropriate in this situation.
The metal dragon just laughed, and then it roared, apparently done with talking and ready to fight. Its huge tail swung around, aiming to take all their heads off with one swing. They all hit the floor, except for Natsu. Instead, he held his ground…. and started to change.
Lucy could feel that he was a little low on magic after giving her so much, but he apparently still had enough to take on this bozo. He was a real dragon after all, and that became more apparent as red scales coated his form, horns sprouted from his temples, his tail snapped, and his wings spread wide. His back feet dug into the ground and his body crouched for stability as he reached out with one clawed hand and blocked the tail. The sheer force of the blow made him skid sidways, ground breaking around his feet as he did, and his sandals tore off…showing clawed and scaled feet. But he was unharmed when he came to a halt, which was more than could be said for the floor of the courtyard surrounding him.
"What the hell are you!? You took a direct blow and blocked it with only one hand?!" the person controlling the metal dragon shouted, sounding shocked and a bit horrified.
Natsu just gave him a fanged, slightly pissed grin. "Me? I'm the real deal…unlike you. Poser."
With a roar, Natsu unleashed his power. It was only the second time Lucy had seen his true form, and this time it happened right in front of her. Muscles, skin, and scales all flowed across his body as he expanded, and the ground crumpled up around his hind feet, then cracked under his front as he went to all fours. The heat that rippled off him set the stones on fire, and everyone scrambled back.
Suddenly three wolves popped into being next to Amy – three really big wolves – and the white alpha gestured to Erza, Gray, and Wendy.
"Hurry, my pack will carry you to the lacrima where you can help." The unspoken message was, not only were they in danger down here, but they were a hindrance.
They mounted up, and the wolves leaped, becoming airborne and running through the sky towards the island. Thankfully it seemed that only Amy had to take the red pill for all the celestial wolves to have power.
Lucy hung behind, torn about wanting to stay. She wanted to be able to fight by Natsu's side, even when he was in this form. It wouldn't pose her any danger, the fire coming from his body even now wasn't damaging to her. His tail lay nearby, and to get his attention she gently laid a hand on it, shocked by the sheer heat coming just from his scales. Instantly she knew a normal person would probably be burnt to a crisp just from this.
The touch was so light, and yet Natsu's huge head swung around and he fixed her with a glowing golden eye. He looked so alien right now that it was a little hard to think of him as Natsu, but she did her best. She had done it once before after all…. she could do it again, even when he wasn't injured.
"I want to fight with you!"
Jaws parted just enough to show a flash of fang that surprisingly reminded her of his normal fangy grin. A little puff of flames popped out of his mouth with his delighted laugh. "I'd love that too Luce, but we'd need to do some very special training. Until then I'd be worried about accidentally crushing you or something."
She pouted, but only for a second, because her thoughts were cut short when his whole body tensed up and his head whipped around so fast that it sent a gust of wind through the courtyard. She immediately saw what had caught his attention… the other dragon was gearing up for another canon blast. What made it even worse, was that their friends were still in midair.
One of Natsu's front paws snapped forwards and slammed down on the other dragon's muzzle, smacking it into the ground. Amy didn't wait around for Lucy to get on, she just shoved her nose under Lucy's butt and tossed the celestial wizard onto her back. With a gasp, she righted herself and lay flat, grabbing fistfuls of white mane as the wolf alpha took to the sky as well – and not a moment too soon. Seconds later, the canon went off in the ground, and the whole courtyard cracked and burst apart.
"Shit…one of these days I'm going to fight next to him and not just be a hindrance…" Lucy grumbled to herself.
"If anyone can do it, you two can."
"Thanks…" Lucy said with a soft smile, feeling touched that the wolf thought so highly of them.
She was distracted though when Amaterasu's fluffy ears perked up and she pointed her nose down at the ground again, glancing back and forth at the vicious fight now taking place beneath them. "We need to get higher. Hang on."
She was right. As Amy ran through the air upwards towards the island, the fight underneath them grew more heated as the two dragons smashed each other around and completely demolished the castle courtyard. The tip of one of their tails still nearly caught them, but Amy dashed to the side to avoid it.
By the time Lucy and Amy arrived at the runaway island, it had slowed significantly thanks to all the people already pushing against it, but it was still steadily going along on a collision course. The dragon slayers were all working overtime to finish taking apart the lacrima, and to keep up with them, Mystogan had simply created a huge magic circle over the whole thing now.
Thinking fast, Lucy jumped off onto the island, while Amy ran to join the others. Everyone who was pushing against the island to stop it was doing so from the side. They had already gotten close enough to the Exceed's island that those who couldn't fly didn't need to, they could just brace their feet against Extalia and push against the runaway island with their shoulders. It was slowly but steadily still trying to crush them, and if the lacrima was still around, even a small collision like that could be enough to set it off.
At first, she thought maybe she would be able to help the dragon slayers, since she was full of Natsu's magic, but abruptly realized that she didn't know how to channel it. She could use it to summon, but not as dragon fire. However, she did think of something that she could do to help, and quickly summoned Pikachu.
"Oi! Laxus! Could you use a meal?"
He glanced over and almost scoffed at her. "Uh, yeah, of course. Why? You got lightning hidden in your bra or somethin'?"
She grinned and gestured down at Pika, who seemed mildly offended by the lightning dragon slayer's comment. His little front legs were crossed across his chest as he stood upright, and one of his back feet was tapping on the ground in adorable irritation. His glare didn't seem to faze Laxus, the dragon slayer just cocked an eyebrow at the little yellow spirit in bemusement.
"And what are you supposed to be?"
"Open wide Laxus! Pika, do it!"
With a high-pitched squeak, the celestial rabbit stood up to his full height and made his war-cry of, "Piiiiiiiikaaaaa…!"
Lightning crackled around him, and then with a huge zap and a high-pitched roar of, "CHUUUUU!" he spat lightning into the air, where it coalesced into a wheel of high voltage energy. That small vortex glowed so hotly with electricity that every hair on Lucy's head stood up, as did everyone else's, and then with a thunderous BOOM ten or twenty high powered lightning bolts shot at Laxus.
His eyes widened with shock, and he was quick to consume all the lightning spat at him. Once it was all gone, he belched and then gave her an impressed glance. "Alright Blondie…that was pretty tasty."
Then he turned back to his task and attacked the lacrima with renewed vigor. It was easy to see that his lightning had increased substantially in power, and Lucy grinned, happy that she'd been able to help. Since there wasn't anything else she could do, she ran off to push against the island with everyone else.
She quickly sent Pikachu back so she could summon other spirits that were bigger and physically stronger.
"Open! Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" He was undoubtedly her physically strongest spirit, so he was her first choice. Then she quickly summoned Aries too.
With a very short explanation, both spirits were more than happy to help, and a bunch of golden flashes told Lucy that more wolves were being summoned as well. Amy had apparently been inspired by her idea.
Taurus dug his feet into the island behind them and slammed his head into the oncoming bomb, spearing his horns into it and bracing his hands on it as well…massive muscles in his shoulders, arms, and back bulging. The island creaked, shuddering even slower. Then, when Aries filled any blank spaces with very thick wool balls, it slowed even more. It was still coming though, with the steady snail-like pace of inevitable death. The giant hunk of rock just didn't want to stop, and slowly pressed closer and closer, until they were all bent at uncomfortable angles. That canon ball must have packed an even greater punch than any of them had realized for the island to still be moving under the momentum of that blow. The pressure was immense, even if it was slow, and everyone grunted and huffed and groaned as they put their backs into stopping the thing.
Then, with a grinding sound, it finally shuddered to a halt, and everyone collapsed in exhaustion. Anyone who couldn't fly nearly fell, but as they dangerously slumped, either Exceeds or wolves scooped them up and flew them to safe ground. The lacrima was almost completely disassembled anyways, but now the dragon slayers had a little more time to finish it.
As soon as they landed, Happy ran over and leapt into Lucy's lap. She instantly cuddled the blue Exceed, lifting him to her face for lots of kisses and then hugging him tight until he complained that he couldn't breathe around her boobs. She laughed and let him go, and he plopped his blue furry butt onto her crossed legs, smiling back up at her. She wiped off all the dirt from his fur and gently touched a few scrapes.
This whole reunion was watched by the surrounding Exceeds – two in particular… a blue tomcat sporting a bushy mustache and his white-furred plump wife. She tearfully smiled, while the tomcat scowled and turned away with crossed arms, hiding his tears that way. As for all the others, they were shocked by the closeness between the Exceed and human.
Similarly, Wendy and Carla were reuniting nearby, and were being watched as well. Since the lacrima was so small, Laxus and Gajeel had sent her on to find Carla and verify that she was alright.
Eventually, a tall beautiful white Exceed female stepped forwards, only wearing a shirt and bloomer pants after having shed her fancy queenly mantle.
"Thank you all for helping us…and…" She turned to Carla. "I can see that you were right. Perhaps the fighting wouldn't have happened quite this soon if you hadn't rushed to save your friends, but I'm sure it would have happened very soon regardless…and I'm happy that it happened now, with you here to help us. Perhaps…we can be more like you from now on…and make friends with the people down below. If they're anything like your companions here, I can't see any problem with it."
Lucy and Wendy both smiled at the queen.
…
Meanwhile, the battle raged on beneath them.
After Natsu fully transformed, the fake dragon had responded with a flurry of desperate attacks and then fell back shortly after Lucy and the others left to help with the island situation. If Natsu could get up there, he'd be able to stop it super easy, but he had his hands full with this big metal asshat. He wasn't too worried though, not with Luce up there helping them out.
"A DRAGON? A real dragon?! How is this possible?! You're just a myth! Dragons aren't real! I'm the only real dragon in this world!"
Natsu couldn't help but snort at the amazed and panicked shouts now coming from his opponent. "Yeah…you really picked a fight with the wrong person… didn't ya?"
His amusement was short-lived though, because above all, Natsu was pissed. He had the feeling that whoever was controlling this thing was also the one behind their guild being sucked up and turned into a lacrima…. not to mention torturing Lucy and Wendy. It was probably King Faust, or whoever was really running this show, and Natsu had had it up to here with the whole fucking thing. Irritatingly though, he could smell hundreds of people, the army and plenty of civilians probably, watching from a safe distance, so he had to make sure that this fight stayed in the courtyard…. which was a bit confining.
The other really annoying thing about it all was just the machine dragon itself. Natsu found the damn thing kind of insulting and stupid really, and he was looking forward to tearing it apart. When that big armored tail made another swing at him, he decided that was as good a place to start as any. He let it hit him, and after it had bounced off his shoulder he reached out and grabbed it with a clawed hand. Channeling fire into his claws, he easily melted the metal and severed the stupid thing in the middle, tossing the bottom half over his shoulder dismissively.
At that, his opponent seemed to go into full-out panic mode as he realized that his metal body was no good against a real dragon.
"Fine then! If this is too easy for you, I'll just have to assume my final form and crush you!"
With some metallic screeches and grinding that made Natsu wince, the thing started shifting around, until it looked like a giant robot…about the size and shape of the Celestial King, but made of metal and lacking a huge mustache. He'd even sprouted a giant sword, and some sort of magic gun – like Bisca and Alzack's… but a lot bigger.
Natsu cocked his head and looked the thing up and down, trying to decide if it was an improvement. In the end, he decided that it was…because it was a lot funnier. It also kind of made him mad though that this guy's "ultimate form" was to shift out of a dragon and into a mecha-robot-thing. Dragons were way more powerful than giants.
"Ha, ha! What do you think now puny dragon?! Still think you can take me and my armor?!"
'Puny' was probably referring to the fact that this guy was now standing up on two feet, so he was twice as tall as before, if not more. There was an easy fix for that though, and – rolling his eyes – Natsu rose onto his hind feet, standing up and crossing his arms as he went nose-to-nose with the giant/dragon/armor/stupid thing once again. His hind legs may be shorter in this form to let him easily walk around on all fours, but that didn't mean he couldn't stand upright.
"You know…I'm getting sick and tired of you. I hate fighting guys who're all talk and have nothing to back it up." he grunted.
"You…! Prepare to die!" The armor drew its sword and leveled it at him.
He eyeballed the hunky metal weapon, and then casually blew some fire on it, grinning when it glowed red hot and then essentially went limp…like a dysfunctional dick.
"Great sword you got there…looks real scary…" Natsu laughed.
The armor held it up to look at, and then tossed it aside. "That's not all I have!"
When he drew his gun and started shooting, Natsu pulled his wing in front of himself like a shield, wincing a little. The shots of magic stung but didn't do any real damage. Still, it annoyed him. He filled his guarding wing with flames, and then flung it back, sending a fire ball at the guy that tossed him onto his big metal butt.
Natsu was tired off this stupid fight by now, and decided it was time to end it. So he pounced, ripping the gun out of his enemy's fake hand and then melting it into a useless lump of metal before chucking it aside. Then he proceeded to take the robot-thing apart, looking for the driver's seat. He stomped on both legs, breaking them and then pulling them off with his tail. When the armor punched him in the face, he punched back, crushing the thing's head. He twisted it off and tossed that aside too. When he nearly got punched again, he caught the metal fist in his mouth and then melted it with some fire. He ripped the other clean off with his claws.
Then all that was left was the torso, which had to be where the driver was located. He easily peeled the metal back with his claws and exposed the king. When he tried to run, Natsu flicked him with a single finger, and sent him flying into the nearby wall where he crumbled into a heap.
Natsu snorted and shook his head, halfway amused, halfway irritated. "What a bunch of shit."
Sneak Peek
Once the world had stopped spinning quite so badly, and her stomach had decided it was satisfied being in her gut instead of attempting a vacation, she gingerly raised her head and squinted at her surroundings. They had all been plopped down on a grassy knoll overlooking Magnolia, and the first thing Lucy did once her vision cleared a little was to prop herself up on elbows and peer down towards her hometown. With a wave of relief, she realized that it had been set to rights and everything that had disappeared was back where it was supposed to be.