"Uggh" Natsu moaned as he approached the festival.
"I'm gonna eat delicious food until I'm full..." He claimed.
"Mhmmm me too." Alcina chimed in with her nose in the air when Lucy exclaimed "My rent! The competition is about to start!"
Alcina looked after her then back at the food stales, the smell of fresh grilled fish filled her nose, her and Happy both drooling "Fish."
But Alcina supposed that the competition was more important then fish at the moment even though her stomach growled fiercely but made her way to the stage behind the curtains while the announcer shouted "Let the contest begin!"
A mountain of cheers and shouts filled the air. First Cana went out first and performed her card magic, changing into a swim suit. "Second contestant! Miss Juvia."
Another swimsuit, dead panned Alcina realized she didn't have a swimsuit. On went Mirajane and then Erza. Panicked Alcina grabbed Lucy and questioned her "Lucy what am I supposed to do? I don't know any cool magic like that or a swimsuit!"
Puzzled Lucy stared at her " You can do anything you want, it doesn't have to be a swimsuit."
With new vigor when the announcer called her name Alcina marched out onto the stage in front of hundreds of eyes. With a flurry of red sparks and crackles Alcina poses with a smile and wave to the crowd when she walked behind the curtain a voice spoke behind them and the last thing Alcina remember were dark brown eyes before everything stopped in her mind.
In a crackling of light Alcina's vision returned. Looking around she saw that only a few people remained in the square and all of the contestants save for Erza were still on stage. "You're all back!" Natsu cheered while Happy hugged Lucy.
Makarov began explaining what was happening while they were turned to stone. " The 'Battle of Fairy Tail'!" Lucy inquired.
"Luxus pulled a thing like that?" Cana asked.
Addressing the women Makarov continued "... But either way, its all over now. Now that all of you are de-petrified, Luxus cant possibly keep up this ridiculous game any longer."
"Still... what about everyone who was caught in Fried's traps and got seriously hurt...?" Mirajane wondered.
Visca was fuming mad when she proclaimed " That's right! Luxus had better see some punishment for this; we can't simply tolerate it!"
"Oh, you can be sure I'll give him a proper seeing to later!" Makarov shouted then continued "Damn you, Luxus... You've gone too far this time..."
Natsu interrupted everyone " Hold up a second. Even though it is a bit screwed-up of Luxus to force everyone to fight against each other... I don't think there's anything wrong with his basic idea of finding out who's the strongest in Fairy Tail. All I'm saying... Don't be too harsh on the guy, yeah? Old man."
Makarov looked surprised at Natsu till he shouted "Let's start the battle of Fairy Tail, Round 2! Who wants to try me, huh?"
"Stop please... From you it's hard to tell if you're joking or not.." Lucy remarked.
"Hell I'll give you a round!" Cana stated while jumping off the bar stool.
"Natsu... I don't think you should be picking fights with girls..." Happy warned.
"Girls or guys has nothing to do with it!" Natsu claimed before trying to instigate a fight with Lucy.
With a crackling and suddenly the front gate of the guild became flooded in black with a skull and cross bone, a lighting bolt dashed a crossed the right eye. "Huh, whats going on?" Alcina gulped.
Suddenly smaller flags with the same logo began filling the guild when a voice thundered "Can ya hear me, Old man? And everyone from the guild, too.. It looks like we've lost one of our rules... So i'm going to instate a new one to keep this Battle of Fairy Tail moving... I've activated The Hall of Thunder."
"The Hall of Thunder!?" Makarov almost choked.
"Only one hour and ten minutes remain. Do you think you can defeat us? Or will you play nice a retire? 'Master'."
"What on earth are you thinking Luxus?! Are you trying to drag innocent civilians into this?! Nghhh. Unghhh!" Makarov shouted before collapsing.
"This is mad! He needs his medicine!" Mirajane cried.
"Quick look outside! Its terrible." Mirajane quaked.
Rushing out side and looking above there were ball orbs floating all around the city. Sparks of electricity darting over them. "What are those?" Natsu asked.
"Thunder lachryma..?" Levy pondered.
"Everyone one of those individual lachryma crystals is charged with an enormous amount of magical lighting... If those things discharged.. The town would be engulfed in a storm of lighting strikes..." Cana reported.
"Well, I'm not going to let that happen! Sniper Rifle: Ex-quip!" Visca shouted while taking aim at the lachryma.
"Nice going!" Lucy cheered.
'Ill take down every last one of th- Aaaaaagggggg!" Visca cried out as lightening struck her before collapsing to the ground.
"Living link magic!? Those lachryma are chanted with a form of magic that links any damage done to it back to the attacker. In other words, if we attack those things, we just end just attacking ourselves!" Visca fumed.
"At this rate everybody in the town... There's nothing for it but to take out Luxus himself! Lets go!" Cana demanded.
Natsu jumped over the railing of the building only to be meet with another wall. "Dammit there's even a wall all the way up here!?"
"Come on back up here. It's an enchantment, right? That's a form of written magic... I may be able to do something about it." Levy smirked.
" We can try to evacuate the towns people!" Lucy ordered.
"Ill try to find Luxus!" Alcina called as she began ascending to the roof tops for a better vantage point.
Moving along the roof top Alcina failed to notice 5 small dolls trailing behind her. Stopping above the street Alcina spotted Lucy, quickly jumping down she caught up to her and Happy. "Hey, have you two spotted anything yet?" She asked.
"No not yet, we're trying to figure out how to get the towns people away from the Hall of Thunder." Lucy replied.
"Yeah, about that... I've been thinking maybe we shouldn't after all... Thanks to the Festival, there are tons of people visiting from outside town... and this place is really, really busy. We don't want to cause a panic. It would just end up causing unnecessary casualties." Happy explained.
"True. But then.. What should we do?" Lucy pondered.
"Yeah." "What should we do...?" "Yeah." Three voiced called behind them.
Whipping around there were three small wooden dolls that had tribal marking on them. "Lucy, watch out!" Happy knocked Lucy away.
Trying to leap away from the dolls Alcina took a blast to her back, singeing her clothes. Stumbling in her landing she stopped and looked back at a man standing on another roof. His upper body is covered in a dark, mildly fitting cloth covered in vertical white stripes, which extend up to his head to cover it in a tight hood, exposing only his hands and face. He was wearing large armbands, and he had large shoulder pads each with skulls on its center. His waist is circled by a simple dark band, which holds up a massive waist guard made of cloth, under the waist guard, was a pair of extremely baggy, loose dark pants, with each leg being adorned by a pair of lighter-colored belts crossing in an "X" formation and are tucked inside a pair of light, armored greaves.
"It's Bickslow!" Happy exclaimed.
"Her there... Are you the newbies I've heard so much about? The cosplay maniac queen and the dumb island girl, right?" He inquired.
"That's taking exaggeration too far!" Lucy shouted.
"What are you supposed to be hmm? A cheerleader?" A chorus of the dolls voice repeated "Cheerleader!"
"Hey, babies. Take them out!" Bickslow commanded.
An explosion sent the three of them scrambling away. "Hey I'm sorry- I should probably be a little nicer to ya since you're new 'round these parts. But since we're in the middle of this game right now, y'know..." Bickslow stated.
Lucy was crouched on the ground away from Alcina and shouted "Do you think the Master is going to forgive you people for this?"
" I don't need forgiveness from that guy. When this game's finished, Luxus will be the new Master." Bickslow claimed.
"Lucy we need to take that guy out!" Alcina demanded.
"Right! Open, Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!" A man in a horse costume appeared in a flash, he held a bow and had a quiver full of arrows on his back.
"Hello, hello? You called?" Sagittarius answered.
"Ohhhh! Stellar spirit magic?! And your spirits are cosplay freaks as well!" Bickslow exclaimed.
"Oh, shut up! Take down those flying things, all right?" Lucy requested of Sagittarius.
With expert marksmanship Sagittarius takes four of the dolls out in wild explosions. "Ahh, baby!" Bickslow cried out.
"First you get frozen, and now smashed?! Noooooo! Babies... Just kidding." Bickslow sang out.
Suddenly an explosion crashed into Sagittarius "Hello, hello? It looks like I may need to take my leave for the...moment..." he said before disappearing in a poof of smoke.
"You can destroy my dolls all you like, but it won't stop the souls within them that I control!" Bickslow taunted.
'Souls?!" Lucy gasped.
"Bickslow's magic allows him to implant souls into dolls and control them!" Happy exclaimed.
Wooden dolls began flying around, one of them snagging Lucy's keys from her. "Ahh! My keys!" She shouted.
Dodging a doll Alcina dived out of the way. She pulled at her magic, hot red sparks lit her skin and heat consumed her as a doll knocked Lucy down and away from her.
"I'm afraid there's no escape for you now. Sorry 'bout this, little cosplay girlie." Bickslow smirked
'Your soul will be serving Luxus purposes from now on! Baryon Formation!" He yelled as the dolls began spinning rapidly together.
Alcina leaped towards her but was too far away. Happy cried "Stooooop!"
A massive barrel of energy came crashing towards Lucy. Alcina couldn't reach her in time as the explosion engulfed her from her view. Awe struck Alcina could only stand there, rage flooding her body. The red magic beginning to flow around her. As the smoke cleared she could see Loke was holding Lucy as he said something to her though all Alcina could see was red and could only hear boiling blood flooding her ears and streaking down her neck.
Bickslow began talking "So you were a steller spirit after all, huh? Ahh I always had a feeling you might be. And what, now you're gonna bare your fangs at me even though I kept it quiet for you?"
"He knew?" Lucy questioned.
"He has the ability to see souls..." Happy explained.
All eyes were on Bickslow as he asked "So... You joining the Battle of Fairy Tail now, hm?"
Straitening his jacket Loke spoke "Can't say I really care much what's going on around here, to be honest. But I'm afraid.. Hurting my nakame, is the one thing I cannot forgive."
"Can't forgive? Hahaha! Don't forget you've never once beat me in a fight! Hell, I'm always playing the nice guy, going easy on you! Now its just you, a cosplay girlie and a... What the... what the hell are you?!" Bickslow accused Alcina.
The roots of Alcina's blonde hair was red, blood was seeping through the pores and pooling in her eyes which were now a crimson red. "We are Alcina." The voice the rolled out was deeper then her regular voice, and almost had an echo effect with it.
Shocked everyone kept their eyes on Alcina though she wouldn't break her gaze from Bickslow. "Is she OK?" Lucy voiced her concern for their friend.
"We can worry about whats going on with her later. Just stay back and I'll handle Bickslow." Loke answered her.
"Don't be silly! A stellar spirit isn't a shield." Lucy proclaimed pulling her whip out.
Bickslow began attacking with his dolls but Alcina continued to stand there and Loke and Lucy dodged out of their way though the dolls wouldn't come close to Alcina as the energy around her grew and rolled on its own. Alcina's hair stood up on end as the blood spread through it.
"I'll deal with those dolls one way or another! Once I've made an opening, you go for Bickslow!" Loke commanded.
"OK! Let's go, Happy!" Lucy insisted.
Loke continued to destroy doll as they came towards him shouting " O Regulus... Grant me your strength!"
"Give it up, you can't attack souls, you can only destroy the dolls but I'll just move them to new dolls. Get' em babies!" Bickslow commanded.
A new wave of dolls attacked them again but avoided Alcina once again. "Get her too babies! Get her! " Bickslow roared at the dolls.
As they approached her they dodged around and left Alcina untouched. Her gaze intensified at Bickslow, brows furrowed and a snarl carving out her mouth.
With the opening Lucy was swiftly carried by Happy towards Bickslow shouting "Time for you to learn your place!"
Cracking her whip down she barely missed Bickslow as he taunted her "Ooooh, Spare me, Mighty Queen!"
Both Lucy and Loke rushed at him "Bickslow himself doesn't have all that much power! Keep at it!"
Lucy's whips snapped Bickslow in the face. "Dammit all. I guess there's nothing else for it..." He said pulling his mask off before shouting "Figure eyes!"
Happy shouted "Don't look in his eyes! If you look into Bickslow's eyes, he can turn you into a doll and control your soul!"
"Closing your eyes, huh?" Bickslow taunted.
Dolls began crashing into Lucy, Loke and Happy. "Both of you, keep those eyes closed!" Happy shouted.
"Hyahahaha! There isn't anyone in the world who can beat my ultimate combo of figure eyes and human possession!" Bickslow howled with laughter as they were beaten by the dolls.
All of them crying out with each hit. Heat rolled over them as right light seeped into the building. "Huh?! What is that!" Bickslow shouted.
With his attention diverted Loke called out "Lucy use Horologium! I'll fall back and you can use him to harden your defenses!"
"That's easy for you to say! He took my keys remember?! And anyway... I'm trusting you here so do something about him already!" Lucy cried out but froze as a red hot hand landed on her shoulder and then Loke's.
The dolls stopped their barrage as Alcina stood with both of them and Happy just behind her. Bickslow's anger surged shouting "Get them babies! Get them now!"
But the dolls remained un-moving, Alcina looked directly in Bickslow's eyes. "Huh?! Why aren't my Figure Eyes working! What is wrong with your soul?!" He shouted confused.
"Hehehe Bhahaha Ha Ha Ha! You are a foolish mortal for thinking you can control a Gods Soul?! You think you can anger a Gods priestess. Hurt her nakame and not face this Gods wrath?! Bhahaha you are going to die by the hands of this human!" Alcina's voice echoed, fear struck them all as a cold sweat broke over Lucy's body as she trembled.
This wasn't Alcina, her friend wouldn't kill someone and speak with such hatred spewing from her towards Bickslow, trendels of the rolling energy spiked out destroying the dolls around them. Her terrible bellow of cackling filled the air. "Loke we need to stop Alcina and Bickslow before she kills him!' Lucy called out with her eyes still shut.
"I thought you trusted me, hm?' Loke replied.
"... All right." Lucy replied.
Bickslow was backing away from Alcina now and shouted "Finish them all off immediately! Baryon Formation!'
Rush towards where he thought Alcina and Bickslow were "Zenith Of Regulus... Shishikouyou!" Loke shouted out as light flashed, burning Alcina's and Bickslow's eyes.
"Now!" Loke shouted as he and Lucy opened their eyes.
Lucy going after Bickslow and Loke after Alcina. Lucy was cracking Bickslow with her whip as Loke jumped towards Alcina "Regulus Impact!"
Alcina hadn't seen it coming, an attack from an ally?! He made solid contact sending her rolling away.
Bickslow collapsing as well and Happy cheered at the seeming victory. Lucy collapsed to the ground. Alcina's body still consumed by the raging ball of magic. She shifted, pushing herself up from the ground onto her hands and knees. Bloody tear began rolling down her face as the snarl vanished, the magic bellowed in uncontrolled waves as her raw emotions took over. "Loke why would you attack this one? She has done nothing to hurt you. All this one wants is to protect its nakame?!"
Loke tried to come to her side but the heat rolling off of her was so intense his skin had already started to turn red. Alcina howled and sobbed, slamming her fist into the ground causing it to split and spider web at the pure force behind it. Trying to shield his face he called out to her "Alcina! I was trying to protect you. You would never forgive yourself if you killed someone again!"
"Alcina just wants to protect her new family! Her new family hurt her!" She yowled in agony.
Even though it hurt, Loke pushed his way closer till he could grab her. His skin felt like it was boiling and peeling as he made skin contact. "Alcina! Alcina look at me!" He demanded.
Her blood shot eyes had no trace of the greens he was used to, blood was smeared down her checks and her hair still soaked through with blood as well was whipping around in the torrents of magic swirling around them. "Loke?" Her voice cracked, the echo disappearing as it returned to her normal voice.
"Yeah its me, Alcina. You have to calm down for me OK?" Loke requested as the temperature dropped, Loke came down on his knees in front of her and held onto her shoulders.
"OK..." Was all Alcina said as the mass of magic dissipated into ash, scattering around them.
The last of the blood seeped from her eyes as the bright green began to return, a faint smile on her delicate lips while gazing at Loke. He returned it with a smile. Though beaten and bruised they all had just survived and won even. "I am sorry Loke. I am afraid I haven't been completely honest about my magic with you all and put you in the way of danger."
"Shhh it's OK Alcina, we can talk about it another time OK?" Loke acknowledged her apology.
"Yes we shall, I am tired Loke. So very tired. May I rest?" Alcina requested.
With a smile Loke said " Yeah. You did good Alcina."
With a sigh Alcina leaned into him, completely unconscious. Loke looked at her and back at Lucy. Both women were out, he looked back at Alcina. 'What was that power? Even Bickslow was scared of her, or it. She wasn't even referring to herself anymore.'