Hello again! Whew, just made the Tuesday deadline. In my defense, the latest Dresden Files book just came out! If you haven't read the Dresden Files...well, let's just say it's a gritty adult Harry Potter.
The alarm was blaring as the building shook from a magical blast. Lucy ducked down a side hallway, trying to wipe the blood from her eyes as she sprinted, mindful of the precious cargo on her back. How the hell had she gotten herself into this mess?
Early That Morning
Thud!
"Ow!"
Rai laughed, reaching out a hand to help Lucy off the deck for what felt like the fiftieth time that morning.
"You're doing better, really. Most people don't expect to master martial arts in a week, you know."
Lucy grinned ruefully, swiping her sweaty hair out of her face. "I guess not. I'm just nervous. We're docking in a few hours and I want to be ready to hit these guys tonight."
Rai nodded, eyes serious. "Me too. We can't do that by being exhausted, though. Let's go through the stretching exercises and then cool down with a little meditation."
Lucy nodded, dropping to the floor next to her teacher for the moment and reaching for her toes. The week she'd spent on the ship had been exhausting. All she'd done was eat, sleep, and train. Meals were spent talking mission strategy and she stumbled back to the cabin she shared with Lona too exhausted to do more than brush her teeth and fall into bed.
It was a punishing pace, but Lucy had been the one to set it. The busier she was, the less homesick she felt. And she was proud to say that she was already beginning to see some results.
She started each day stretching and learning hand to hand combat with all of her teammates. They took turns training her while the other two called out suggestions or sparred with each other. Lucy was a long way from a black belt, but she'd learned the proper form for a punch and a basic hip throw. Her kicks, it had been unanimously decided, needed no further instruction.
After sparring, she and Rai would meditate. The first few days were terrible; as a writer and general overthinker, Lucy was not accustomed to emptying her mind. But she'd started to get the hang of it and Rai had been pleased. The next step, expanding her awareness of her surroundings and using it to boost her power, would probably come next week.
Provided, of course, she made it through tonight.
Lucy gulped, ended her stretching and shifted into a lotus pose. The sea breeze caressed her hair and dried the last of the sweat from her brow.
She was putting everything she had into this meditation training, because the discipline that came with it would accelerate her learning with Torin and Lona.
Torin had begun teaching her the foundation of requip magic with a pebble.
"You've been to another world, so you know that this reality isn't all there is," he'd told her, "and to requip something is in essence to refold your reality."
He'd held up a spoon. "See this? Now," he twitched his hand and it vanished, "now there is no spoon!" He gestured again and it returned. "But where does it go, right? This is the weird part for people; it goes into my own little reality."
Lucy held her pebble, fascinated. So Erza had her own reality walk-in closet? She'd asked Torin about it and he'd laughed with her at the image.
"Erza's on a level way, way above anyone else. She can mold reality around her entire body. Most of us can only do it with our hands. And this is what you need to do. Picture a pocket that hovers around your hands. You, and only you, can reach into that pocket."
He gestured again, and she saw that the motion was indeed that of him plucking something out of the air.
"As you start reaching your awareness out with Rai, you'll have an easier time finding your pocket. It'll become like a second awareness, hovering on the edges of your consciousness. Like how you feel your magic inside of you. Always there, but you don't really think about it until you focus on it. And as you focus in, you'll be able to sense what's in there. Like Erza flipping through a rack of clothes to pick armor."
Lucy already had her eyes closed and was practicing the meditative breathing she'd worked on that morning, trying to reach out. She thought she felt something ー a tingle on the edges of her senses ー but she could tell this would be more of struggle.
Torin grinned as she pouted. "It's not that bad. Since you already reach for other worlds, it'll come more easily than you think. And the better you get at meditation, the better you'll be able to reach your magic out for this. And the better you get at reaching out with your magic, the more active your Celestial ability will become. It's all connected really, just gotta get the basics down."
As the broader picture came into view, excitement coursed through Lucy. Painful though leaving home was, she'd been right to choose this journey.
By the end of the week on the ship, she was able to feel her 'pocket,' although still hadn't moved the pebble into it. She, Lona, and Capricorn had worked out the best training strategy to increase her Celestial combat ability (she was completely ready to market the term 'Celestial combat'). Hopefully within a month she'd be able to concentrate starlight in a focused version of Urano Metria, and be able to begin mastering a couple Stardresses.
Lucy knew her magical and physical growth would be a long road, but the success of her first week had boosted her confidence already.
And then they came into port.
They'd gotten two rooms at an inn, with the guise of being tourists. Lucy and Lona shared one room while Rai and Torin got the other. Lucy had found out they were dating on the second night, when some, uh, interesting sounds had come through the wall of her cabin. Lona had just laughed and tossed her some earplugs before going back to her book.
Lucy couldn't help but think of Natsu as she watched them work together. They did it seamlessly, supporting each other's ideas and strategies while still avoiding the lovey-doveyness that might've made her or Lona feel excluded. The PDA, apparently, was kept behind closed doors or to times the team weren't on an active mission.
Her traitorous heart showed her a vision of herself and Natsu operating much the same way. Sitting on the bed in her room at the inn, she shook her head fiercely to rid herself of it. Sure, she liked him. Sure, he was attractive. And her best friend, a supportive one at that, and he had saved her life a million and one times. But she'd been nearly as surprised by that kiss as he had. And then she'd run away!
Who knew what the future held for them now?
Putting it out of her mind, she focused on the map of the harbor and port town once more.
After reserving the rooms, they'd gone for a seemingly casual tour of the town. Lucy and Lona had split into a team, while Rai and Torin 'acted' the part of a loving couple out on a date. So much for the PDA only off mission thing, she'd giggled to Lona as they watched them splitting a milkshake as they wandered off.
She and Lona had scoped out the market square, looking like any two friends out for a day of shopping. And hey, maybe Lucy couldn't quite resist that pair of blue wedges. The shopping bag helped with their cover, ok?
And when the timing was right, they "accidentally" wandered into the warehouse district.
The town was a hub of activity and the port was enormous, but most items were moved in and out of the town very quickly. That meant that there were a large number of warehouses that held cargo for a few days only before standing empty again, waiting for their next delivery.
That made it difficult to find the captives, but luckily the efficiency of the town had placed all the buildings together, narrowing their search radius. And luckily, the slavers would have very specific requirements.
"Ok," Lona muttered, opening a detailed map with a befuddled expression, like she was hopelessly lost, "they'll need somewhere out of the way but close to the water. Most of the people here are honest and they can't afford to get found out."
Lucy pushed her oversized sunglasses up her nose and twirled her shopping bag as she leaned over Lona's shoulder. They'd chosen a few buildings that fit their qualifications before they'd left and she oriented on the closest one.
"Let's go."
Three hours later they met Rai and Torin back at the inn. They ate dinner in Lucy and Lona's room, hunched over maps and notes on the room service tray.
"So we're pretty sure it's gonna be this building here," Lona pointed to one of six buildings they'd scouted out that day. "It's right on the water and a bit away from everything else. Windows are boarded, there's a big garage they can keep wagons in, and there were these thugs going in and out. Preparing, probably."
Rai nodded and requipped an old notebook into her hand. Lucy looked on, a little jealous. Torin had taught both the other women the basics of requip, and they could now carry a few small things related to their magic with them.
Rai opened the book and touched a finger to it, allowing her ink to run down into the page, where it formed into letters. Seeing Lucy's impressed look, she grinned.
"Book mage crafted it for me. It can only be read when I touch it with my magic. Add that to the requip and it's perfect for keeping our notes."
She ran a finger down the page. "The harbormaster was a creep, so I acted like a bubblehead and Torin snuck into the back. Twelve ships have put into port today, but only one that docked right by that warehouse. It's called Siren's Squall. About the size we're looking for."
Torin jumped in. "We coordinated with the local branch of the wizard's council. They'll have a couple people watching the other buildings we originally picked out, just in case, and will have backup for us to get the captives out. We'll have to sneak in and get as much information as we can and hopefully snag the leader of the op. If the Knights storm the place too soon whoever's in charge might slip out through the back."
"We don't have a blueprint of the building, do we?" Lucy asked.
Rai shook her head. "Just gonna have to wing it, I think."
"Damn."
Everyone nodded glum agreement. Lona perked up. "You guys sure we can't just storm the ship? I like storming things!"
Rai laughed. "I'm sure we'll get to storm something eventually, but these scumbags seem like the type to put a hole in the side of the boat and leave the hostages before letting us get any info. They know we'd save their victims before going after the gang members."
Lucy felt a little ill at the thought. How could people do something like that?
"Wouldn't they at least not want to lose the boat, though?" she whispered.
Lona sighed, all levity gone. "This has been our only lead on getting close to this organization. They're tight-knit, secretive, and their operations are well-oiled. Overpowering them will have to happen fast, because if they have room to maneuver, they've proven they'll take the bloody option without hesitation."
"I hope we can prevent it, but people might die if we're not good enough," Torin's grave baritone rounded out the conversation. There was a somber silence as the quartet weighed the lives of the innocents depending on them.
Rai clapped her hands once, startling the others. "Well if we're gonna be on top of our game, let's get some rest. These asswipes won't unload until midnight, so we'll be ready to go save some lives in three hours, yes?"
"Aye, sir!" Lucy chorused with the other three. Determination rolled through her; they were not going to let these people hurt anyone else!
Two hours after nightfall found the quartet skulking on a rooftop of a warehouse parallel to their target. They were all dressed in black from head to toe, with lightweight backpacks in case they found any evidence worth taking.
Lucy listened as Rai quietly sounded off via communication lacrima with the town's police force. They'd borrowed night-vision binoculars from the Knights (Lucy had at first wanted some, then realized that if Mira ever learned of their existence no one would be safe. She'd go without.) and Lucy focused hers on the doorway closest to the water.
The warehouse was set back from the harbor edge about fifty feet. The slave boat, so they hoped, was anchored at the closest jetty. It was a good choice. The area was deserted and there were almost no streetlights. Any time now…
A creak, amplified by the water, sounded from the ship. Lucy's head snapped up and she frantically refocused her goggles. For a moment everything was still.
There.
A man emerged from a hatch on the deck, and although he was too far away for her to make out much more than his burly outline, even with the goggles, she could read his threatening stance and see the gun in his arms. He was followed by two more thugs.
And then, one by one, the people of the burnt out village she'd been in a week ago filed out of the hatch and off the ship, herded by the men.
As they came closer she could make out more details. They had men, women, kids but no young children or any elderly people. Beneath her rage she remembered that those were the people that made it out to warn the council. It seemed that either the dark guild didn't care enough to see them as the threat or, thank the gods, didn't have the stomach to harm the most defenseless of their prey.
As she watched one of the men shove a young girl roughly, she thought it might be the former. When the doors had closed behind the last person stumbling into the warehouse, the team rose around her.
"How many?" whispered Rai.
"Maybe eighty to one hundred," muttered Torin. "Hard to keep count when they bunch them together and herd them like that."
Lona was issuing rapid fire instructions through the communication lacrimas. "Ok, guys. Team Delta is going to shut down the ship. Team Alpha has the exit points covered, and Team Echo is set up to stop any caravans of prisoners they might try to take out. Let's get in there and get what we can."
She stepped up to the edge of the roof and pulled a ski mask over her face before holding out her hands. Rai and Torin each latched onto an arm and Lucy, swallowing harshly, followed suit.
Rai lifted her arm, pointing toward a metal pipe sticking out of the top of the building. A thick rope of ink shot out of her skin, winding itself around the pipe before the ends seamlessly blended into each other. A second rope twisted around her other forearm and a thread wrapped around each companion's chest.
Rai nodded to Lona, who winked at Lucy before leaning back, pulling them off the roof and sending them plummeting to the street four stories below.
Lucy's scream lodged in her throat as she fought her fear. Her feet kicked out wildly without her permission, desperately seeking purchase on nothing as she hurtled through the air.
A soft amethyst glow caught her eye, and then her stomach lurched as their flight slowed dramatically. She gasped for air as she stared at Lona, whose gravity magic combined with Rai's rope had changed their rapid freefall to a smooth glide.
Now she remembered why Lona had to wear a ski mask. It was muted, but she was definitely glowing a little bit. What a pain in the ass.
They touched down softly, and Lucy took a moment to compose herself while Rai released her magic, and Lona's eyes disappeared into darkness.
"Ok guys, remember that we don't have a lot of time. They could be throwing the prisoners in wagons right now, so let's go!" Rai hissed.
They split into predetermined teams and headed for the two entrances Lona and Lucy had identified on their morning shopping trip. Now that she was faced with the reality of the mission, it seemed very long ago.
She swallowed her trepidation and followed Torin closely as he made his way around the building. They reached their destination: a boarded up basement window. The blonde eyed it, then turned her skeptical gaze on Torin. There was no way he'd be fitting in there. With a swish of a key, she called Virgo.
"Princess, you called?" the spirit stood before her, head bowed. Torin waved enthusiastically, if silently. Virgo had brought him a cooking pot from the spirit world when he'd been giving Lucy some cooking tips and he had been thoroughly delighted with the gift.
"Virgo, I need you to widen this window for us to fit through, and quietly!"
"Of course, Princess." Efficient as ever, the window was cleared and an extra foot drilled away from the perimeter in under a minute.
"Thanks, Virgo," Lucy smiled. "And no punishment, ok?"
To her surprise the maid responded gravely, "This one cannot ask for punishment now, not when so many souls are suffering from a punishment they did not ask for." She vanished into the spirit world with barely a flicker.
Lucy wished she had a moment to ponder on the conversation, but Torin was already inside and motioning to her through the hole in the wall. Shaking it away, she slipped into the building behind him.
They'd landed in a musty, narrow corridor. It was dark, but a faint light directed them toward the end of the hall. A door there led them up a rickety staircase to another set of halls on the main floor. These were lit by dusty light lacrimas that flickered strangely as they went by. They passed a few doors that might've been offices, and Lucy wanted to stop and look, but as they ventured on a muted noise slowly grew in volume, until they snuck through a last door into the main floor of the warehouse and it became a cacophony of misery.
Stepping through the door, Lucy was assaulted by smell and sound. She froze for a second, before Torin's large hand closed around her forearm and yanked her behind a large curtain hanging from the wall, probably to muffle the noise. Together they peaked through a rip in the faded fabric.
It hadn't been a large building, and the main room was stuffed to the brim. The captives were all there, and the thugs from the boat. New men barked orders and shuffled captives in a seemingly random manner. Slaves cried out as they were pulled brutally away from loved ones. The stench of unwashed bodies pressed into Lucy's nose, suffocating her.
She pulled back from the curtain and closed her eyes. She had to do this. She would be of no use to these people by hiding behind a moldy drape. She looked again.
This time, she was able to make out a pattern amongst the chaos. There were several large cages set up over different areas of the room. The traffickers appeared to be sorting people by physical fitness. Anyone that looked strong was sent to one cage, while a more feeble group was sent to another. A third cage sat apart from the others, with only a few people in it. They were shackled with an odd metal, an almost bluish shine to it.
"Mages," Torin muttered in her ear. "The cuffs are special. Magic nullifying. We have to be very, very careful."
She nodded. Knowing that the enemy could neutralize magic was bad news indeed.
"C'mon, ya lazy bastards! All this cargo has to be outta here in two hours! Finish the sorting and get 'em moved to the wagons already!" a small, rat-faced man standing on a block of wood was shouting from the middle of the room. "Jorge! I wanted those damn tallies ten minutes ago! C'mon!"
Behind the curtain, Lucy and Torin shared a look and nodded. He tapped their communication lacrima lightly three times. A second later, it crackled to life and Rai's voice whispered out.
"We're here. In the cargo bay. They're setting up wagons."
"We're in the main room. They're sorting people. Some ugly rat guy is giving orders, says they gotta move em all to where you are," Torin muttered into the lacrima while Lucy kept an eye on the room.
"Thanks. We'll alert the guards outside to be ready for the wagons to come out. It looks like they keep their destination info here, too. We'll get all of that."
"Ok. We'll slip back to some offices. Let us know when they bring people in on your end and we'll double back to grab this leader asshole. If we go in now we'll be overwhelmed and people might get hurt."
"Roger that. Good luck."
"You too."
Torin shoved the lacrima back in his pockets, turning to see Lucy already sliding back into the hallway. He followed, and they ghosted back the way they'd come. There were five doors along the hall. Carefully, Torin tried the first handle. They peered around the doorjamb with bated breath… only to be confronted with a closet.
The second door was a dingy bathroom, and the third held an assortment of pallets and straps for securing loads. Lucy assumed that more legitimate businesses made use of these. Clearly, she thought sourly, pallets would be useless when the 'cargo' moved on its own.
They hit jackpot on the fourth door. A desk sat in the middle of the room piled high with papers. An old wooden chair sat behind it, and a table was pushed against one wall, with more papers spread across it. There were no filing cabinets in the room, but several large suitcases on wheels stood open, revealing accordian folders. Clearly this was but a temporary stop for a mobile operation. It made sense; they couldn't leave these papers laying around for the next group to use the space.
Lucy and Torin moved quickly. Closing the door behind them, she took the table while he focused on the desk. Wary of time, Lucy didn't try to read anything, shoving everything into her backpack. She'd nearly cleared the table when the lacrima crackled. Torin tapped it to reveal Rai.
"They're coming in now. Knights are standing by to stop the wagons and arrest everyone as soon as they open the outer doors. Less issues if everyone is out of the way in wagons, I think."
"Got it, we'll circle around and join you in a minute," Torin replied, sweeping the rest of the papers off the desk and into his pack. Lucy cringed at the crinkling of paper, the author in her twitching to straighten the pages.
He grinned at her as they both closed their packs. "Looks like this Op might go off nice and smooth."
Which, of course, was the moment everything went to hell.
The door behind them burst open, two meaty thugs stepping into the room. They both sported close cropped crew cuts and what looked like cattle prods strapped to their sides, the tips buzzing ominously with an ugly magic promising pain.
There was a frozen moment where the four of them eyed each other. Then everyone went for their weapons.
Thug number one got his taser out its holster, only for Lucy to snap her whip out to slash at his wrist. He dropped it, cursing, and hurled himself bodily at her. Side-stepping, Lucy twisted a knee up and into his stomach. As he wheezed, she used a new trick she'd learned that week and slid in front of him, grabbing his arm and twisting her hips and trunk to flip him to the ground.
She turned to see the second man rushing Torin, who grabbed the chair sitting behind the desk and did his best impression of a crack baseball player hitting a homerun. The man slammed into the wall near the door, slumping to the floor.
Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Torin came over and helped her drag her opponent upright, handing her a coil of rope for his wrists. "Nice moves, Lucy. You're picking this up quick. We shouldーHEY!"
Lucy whipped around. The second man was no longer on the floor, but halfway across the room and reaching up for a lever on the wall. She and Torin both lunged for him, but too late, he had pulled the handle down.
An alarm blared out over the warehouse. The thug smirked at them before Torin punched him in the face, successfully knocking him out cold this time. Lucy followed him to the door.
"We gotta get to Lona and Rai. If everyone isn't in the wagons and the Knights aren't all in position there are going to be casualties." Torin's mouth was set in a grim slash.
They burst out of the office, packs safely secured to their backs, only to be confronted by seven men, all holding those crackling cattle prods. Lucy and Torin barely slowed down.
Lucy slashed out at the first two men with her whip, other hand dropping to her keys. She pulled out the one she wanted and in a flash Aries was by her side, wrapping her two opponents in layers and layers of wool. Lucy chanced a look over at Torin.
Her jaw dropped.
She hadn't seen any of the three of them in active combat yet, and frankly if you'd asked her this morning she wouldn't have guessed that a cook mage would be all that much use. She was rapidly reconsidering.
With a flick of his wrist, her partner had requipped three large knives. He threw the first man bodily into the wall and set a knife to his throat, where it remained. Any attempts the man made to pull it away from his throat were useless. She'd seen Erza hold nearly a hundred swords in the air at once, but had never seen this tactic used against multiple opponents.
Torin flipped another man to the ground, a knife following him as well, before kicking a third thug into the wall, leaving his third knife to his throat. Two men were left, and Lucy yanked the feet out from under one with her whip as Torin met the other head on. He had requipped a meat cleaver and a ladle into his hands. The last thug shoved his taser at the chef, who dodged it narrowly and brought down the cleaver, breaking it in two. He then swung the heavy metal ladle upwards, smashing the man in the chin and knocking him out cold.
Lucy and Aries bound their men in woolen cords while Torin requipped a small spray bottle into his hand. He moved over to the three men still held immobile with his blades at their throats and, carefully out of range, spritzed each of them once in the face before exquipping his knife.
Each man dropped like a stone, snoring on the hallway floor. Torin caught Lucy's look as Aries vanished. "Sleeping potion," he grunted, continuing on down the hall now that they'd cleared it of enemies, "should be good for an hour or so."
They ran through the cramped halls, following the sounds of battle. Reaching the final double doors to the loading room, Torin didn't hesitate to kick them in and throw himself into the brawl. Lucy was a tad more sedate, taking a few seconds to get her bearings in the insanity.
It was a large room, bigger than the main room where the captives had been sorted. The UnderLords had nearly fifty members fighting, she hastily estimated, and they only had twenty Knights. There were teams outside still, but they had to remain where they were to stop any escapees. Half the captives were in wagons against the walls, and the other half was doing everything they could to get the hell out of the way. They only succeeded in confusing the battle even more. With this many innocents and gang members, it was only a matter of time before the mages were overwhelmed.
At least, that's what should have happened.
Lucy stood stock still, jaw agape as she watched her new team deal out the pain. Torin had his cleaver and ladle out, and she watched as a cast iron pan materialized in over an enemy, clanging down on top of his head before reappearing over someone else.
Lona was easy to spot in the crowd, since she was a luminescent purple. She shot what looked like tiny asteroids of violet light at opponents, slamming them backward and into the ground.
Across the room, Rai stood in front of the door to the streets. From the inkspot on her elbow cables wrapped around and down her forearms, lifting out of her skin at the wrist in one thick chain. One arose from each arm, both ending in a wickedly curved sickle. She held onto them as they twisted through the air, swerving around innocents and fellow fighters to slam into her opponents. As Lucy watched, she manipulated the sickle to slice the sharp end through their weapons before the dull side curved back up to hit them in the face.
Needless to say, no one was getting out the door.
Lucy pulled herself together as a woman ran by her, screaming. One of the UnderLords chased her, and Lucy tripped him before kicking him in the face to keep him down. She called Sagittarius to her.
"Moshi Moshi!" the spirit whinnied his usual greeting. "May I help you with these scoundrels, Lady Lucy?"
"Hell yeah, let's do it!"
Sagittarius knocked several arrows to his bow at once and fired into the crowd. The UnderLords were dropping like flies, and the tide of battle was turning. Lucy felt a surge of victory.
A sharp, sudden sting blossomed across her cheek, and she clapped a hand to her face, vaguely noting that her fingers came away red. She felt too hot, and had that ringing sound always been there?
She felt Sagittarius' gate collapse as she wavered. An abrupt shove sent her to one knee and she heard the door behind her slam. What was happening? A pink blur on the ground caught her eye and she focused with difficulty. Was that… a dart?
Fuck. It totally was. Blearily she looked up to see Torin waving frantically at her while fending off three thugs. He threw something at her.
She lifted a hand and his aim was true, but in her confused state she fumbled the catch. The bottle fell, smashing onto the ground. Which, apparently, was the point as fumes from the pale blue concoction wafted up into her face.
After a few breaths her head felt clearer, and she was able to orient on the battle again. She saw Rai's face, eyes wide and mouth open, yelling something. Another breath of the fumes, and she was able to focus and make out the words.
"The leader, Lucy! We have to catch him!"
It clicked. The long range attack. The people who had shoved by her to reach the door. It must be the rat faced man in charge of the sorting she'd seen earlier. And it was doubtful he'd run alone.
She stumbled upright, forcing herself to move. Whatever Torin had in his bottle had worked wonders, but she was still fuzzy. No matter. This had to get done. She snagged the dart that had sliced across her face and brought it along with her.
She shambled as quickly as possible down the hall, breathing deep to help clear her head. She checked doors as she went, and she found them in the office she and Torin had ransacked earlier. The leader had two men with him. They didn't carry tasers, and didn't have the standard issue crew cuts and turtlenecks, either. All three of them whirled around as she slammed open the door.
Lucy couldn't afford to hesitate, and before any of them could do more than blink she'd thrown the dart in her hand. She did it nearly on instinct, still under the influence but hoping against hope that there was still magic left in its tip.
She nailed the rat faced leader directly between the eyes, in a shot she knew she couldn't duplicate. It didn't lessen the smug victory she felt as he collapsed, offended shock clear on his face.
Unfortunately, that still left two men to deal with, and there was only so much luck she could rely on. Especially as one man conjured sparks between his fingers and the other visibly grew a few inches.
Time for Plan B. Lucy turned on her heel and took off running, the two mages at her heels.
The alarm was still blaring as the building shook from a magical blast. Lucy ducked down a side hallway, trying to wipe the blood from her eyes as she sprinted, mindful of the precious cargo on her back. How the hell had she gotten herself into this mess?
She burst through the door to the sorting room and threw herself behind some crates, yanking out her whip and picking through her keys for the right one. She'd be doubling down on that requip training after this.
The dark mages ran into the room a moment later, skidding to a halt. Good. She'd been worried that one would follow her while the other got their leader to safety. On the downside, now she had to fight them both while she was low on power.
She flicked her key, hissing, "Leo!" as quietly as she dared. He appeared, eyes narrowed, and nodded to her. That was a great thing about Loke; he instinctively understood what was needed. She went right and he rolled left, appearing from behind the crates and slamming into their opponents with matched flying kicks.
Loke took the lightning guy, which left Lucy with the mage who by now had grown to almost seven feet tall. His shoulders had broadened and he was layered with slabs of muscle. Her prized kick had barely moved him back three steps. He roared, leaning forward to punch the ground in an intimidating show of strength. The concrete cracked.
Great.
He lunged at her, and Lucy dodged to the side. He ran an extra few steps before bringing his massive body to a halt, turning with a growl.
A light lacrima flicked on above Lucy's head. She took three steps to the left and cracked her whip. "C'mon, ugly! Don't tell me you're afraid of a little girl!"
The man snarled and charged her again. Lucy snapped her whip out, letting it curl around the base of a metal pole before throwing herself to the side at the last moment, pulling the line taut.
The mage once more hurtled past her, his size and weight working against him. His foot caught on her whip, and Lucy had to use all her strength not to get dragged along with him as he tripped and tumbled face first into the cage she'd strategically stood in front of.
Jumping up, she slammed the door and hastily locked it. She'd chosen the one with the odd blue-hued metal, and as the mage grabbed a bar and was thrown back with a howl, she allowed herself the satisfaction of having correctly identified it as an magic-nullifying cage.
Turning around, she watched Loke slam the lightning mage into the ground before straightening his tie.
"Lucy, you're hurt." He reached up to brush the bloody cut on her cheek but she waved him away.
"I'm ok, Loke. C'mon, we gotta get back to the office!"
They hurried down the corridors back to the office. The leader was just where she'd left him. Lucy shut off the alarm while Loke bound her prisoner. He graciously offered to drag the man for her, and she accepted. (Yeah, yeah, she knew he'd just use it as an excuse to ask her out for dinner, and she was on this journey to be self sufficient and strong, but she'd thrown herself off a building and been hit with a dart in the face today. She wasn't about to turn him down.)
They reentered the loading room to find it swarming with Knights. In a happy reversal, the UnderLords were in chains while their prisoners were set free. Men and women alike were holding each other and sobbing with the joy of their sudden freedom. Lucy spotted her team sitting against a wall and exhaustedly made her way over to them, stopping only briefly to hand off her captive to a Knight and report the other men left in the sorting room.
Loke left in a shower of gold, but not before attempting to kiss her hand and offering a private foot massage. Lucy sent him on his way and slumped down next to Rai, who ruffled her hair.
"Nice job! Way to use that asshole's own weapon against him," the other mage looked satisfied with the outcome of their raid. She stood, stretched, then held out a hand to Lucy.
"Let's get back to the hotel. The Knights have everyone secured and are bringing in reinforcements and their own prisoner transport. We can interview everyone tomorrow. It's time for some sleep now, I think."
That sounded good to Lucy. She took Rai's hand and let the woman pull her to her feet. Together the team started back to the hotel, laughing and joking now that they'd succeeded in the first step of their mission.
Lucy hung back for a moment as Lona unlocked their room. Her mind wandered to Magnolia. Instead of the heartache she'd felt throughout the week, right now she felt a sense of peace and extraordinary pride.
She rather thought Natsu would be proud of her.
Hope everyone enjoyed! Shoot me a review, I love to chat. Another huge thanks to my beta, Lady Lutka! FYI, although this is heavily Lucy-centric, we won't stay in Lucy view the entire story. I would never deprive you guys of Natsu and the FT crew. We'll peek in on them next chapter.
This week's shoutout goes to LoadedEel! Awesome, action packed writing. Go read her work and drop her a line regarding her ongoing story, Stolen!
If anyone has an author that they absolutely adore, please please tell me about them so that I can a) go read their stuff if I haven't already and b)shoutout to them.
Have a great week and I'll see you all next time!
