Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 15: Trust Has To Be Earned
After two weeks had passed since Sting had announced who would be the team that would represent the Sabertooth guild in the Grand Magic Games or Grand Magic League, Sting was sitting down at a white patio table outside of a cafe in Rustboro Town with Lucy sitting across from him. They were both starting off their morning with breakfast, respectively eating a plate of chocolate chip pancakes and a plate of waffles covered in maple syrup, and Sting had spent his time smiling kindly at Lucy while he ate his pancakes.
She had saved him from Natsu's flames two weeks ago when the fire dragon slayer and his former crew had come looking for the spell book, and Lucy was really angry with Natsu for trying to hurt her new boyfriend. She had showed that jerk how he wasn't going to be a major part on the good end of her love life, and Natsu was the ex that the blonde mage really found to be intolerable. He had also continued to underestimate her, really irritating Lucy on that day, and Natsu really had no right to look down when she had nearly destroyed him once before.
While Lucy cut up her waffles, taking a big piece into her mouth, she frowned a bit while thinking about her old friends. It was bad enough that they had betrayed her by keeping Natsu's affair from her for thirteen months, making her be misled by the fire dragon slayer, but did they have to come to the Sabertooth guild while Sting had just been throwing a peaceful party? Even if Happy had given away the fact that his trio had encountered Lucy, did her former friends really have to cross paths with her? She wanted nothing to do with them, you know.
As Lucy ate that piece of the golden waffle, tasting its crunchiness and sweetness, she also gave some thought to the fact that Cana had shown up with Natsu and the others. She had assumed that Erza persuaded Cana into joining the search team, maybe because of the saying that there was strength in numbers, but the card mage was one of the people that Lucy really detested right now. When so much is done to help a best friend try and achieve their goal, shouldn't they help the person who helped them? It would've been great if Cana had just told Lucy what had been going on, but she did not. Lucy felt like scowling right now, tightly clutching the spell book in her left hand, and the blonde mage's anger could easily strengthen her spells.
She had opened up the orange spell book a few days ago to see that the other four spells of Earth Magic had been written, since her defenses and fierceness had become powerful and tough like the hardest rocks to break, and Lucy had also been gaining physical strength from using the Earth Magic. It didn't just involve manipulating the earth for attacks and defenses, but it made her punches and kicks become tough like the Earth Magic that Jura could create. She could even break through boulders with one punch now, greatly impressing Sting with the fact that their levels of strength were now at the same level.
Speaking of impressing him, the white dragon slayer had also taken a liking to Lucy's outfit today. She wore a simple blue T-shirt with a white miniskirt, and her flat shoes were forest green. She had a blue ribbon in her blonde hair as well, tying it in a ponytail on the right side, and Sting definitely thought that his girlfriend looked pretty fashionable. Lucy had been buying many outfits in Rustboro's fashion district with some of the money from all the jobs that she did with Sting, and her fashion sense definitely made Sting love her even more.
He loved her fashion just as much as her passion for wanting to become a much stronger mage, and Sting had smirked a bit with confidence in his charming blue eyes while there was a brown flyer on the table. It was between him and Lucy, and Sting had found something a bit odd about this job. It was not all that weird in a bad way, but it just stunned him a bit before he shook off the shock by eating another one of his pancakes. Lucy curiously looked down at the flyer, seeing the reward for 700,000 jewels, but the client's name made her gasp and seem surprised.
Cana Alberona, Lucy's partner during the S-Class Promotion Trial that was held on Tenrou Island back in the year X784, had put up an interesting job request. She had wanted someone in Fiore to help her out with a job that she could not complete alone in the town of Mintochoko, and the brown-haired mage had said in the flyer how she was dealing with a tough member from Aqua Kyogre. The flyer had unexpectedly been delivered to the Sabertooth guild, much to the dismay of Lucy, but Sting thought that this job had to have a tough enemy if Cana was having trouble taking them down.
While the white dragon slayer was pretty thrilled about taking this job, his girlfriend was certainly not thrilled about having to help someone that she could no longer trust. Cana had totally betrayed Lucy by not telling her about the affair that had greatly impacted her previous relationship, simply letting the brown-eyed girl's heart get broken into pieces, but Lucy did not even know that her former friend had felt bad about what she had done. Cana had wanted to apologize, but Lucy's icy speech had simply driven the violet-eyed girl to tears.
"I know that you're on bad terms with Cana, Lucy, but I also know that a part of you does not want her to get severely hurt. Dealing with anyone from Aqua Kyogre is pretty serious business, even if they're just grunts, and she could have had the bad luck of running into Shelly. Look, Lucy. You may not exactly be cool with Cana, but I also know that you're not cool with Shelly and her crew causing trouble all over Fiore. If we don't do anything to help, then Cana will be toast. You don't have to trust her on this job, but please trust me." Sting told his girlfriend in a calm manner, giving her a pep talk to help Lucy see that she could make this situation better by prioritizing one conflict over the other.
Lucy responded in an accepting manner, slowly turning her scowl into a soft smile of confidence while she looked at her kind boyfriend, "All right, Sting. I'll go on this job with you, and your words have really made me remember why I have to get stronger. The conflict with Natsu and the others does push me to do better, that's something I'll admit, but my new conflict with Shelly pushes me to do even better than before! Last time, our match ended in a draw. That doesn't satisfy me, since I still did not officially defeat her, but she'll go down this time!"
Sting was glad to see that Lucy had now decided to stop Shelly, rather than thinking about not trusting Cana, and the blond male smirked a bit while knowing that his girlfriend could win this time. If wind and lightning could not stop Shelly, then how powerful was Lucy's rival? Her defenses could not be torn through easily, that was true, but Lucy' new Earth Magic had given her such high amounts of strength. Sting had the feeling that his sweet girlfriend could break down Shelly's watery walls, but would Lucy's new toughness truly help her win?
Lucy giggled a bit from seeing Sting eat so fast, and she decided to eat her waffles on the way to Mintochoko Town where Cana would be waiting. As Lucy stuffed the waffles into her mouth, before chewing her food, she didn't even see that the orange spell book that she held tightly in her left hand had begun to faintly pulsate with an orange glow once again. As the two mages got up from their seats, Lucy knew that taking down Shelly was something that only she would be able to do. Their rivalry was a very tense one, especially due to Shelly telling Wendy that she would kiss Sting. Girls could definitely fight over a guy, and the fact that they were complete opposites didn't make things better.
Meanwhile, at a cafe in another town...
The town of Mintochoko was known for its many chocolate desserts, making it a very sweet place for anyone to visit, and Cana sat down at a black patio table while she was seemingly reading a newspaper as well. She wore some sunglasses with blue frames and a cute blue hat as well, most likely being in disguise for some strange reason, and the card mage narrowed her purple eyes while they kept shifting back and forth between her left and right sides. If she was supposed to be on a job, why did she have to do it in such a weird way?
Cana wasn't actually trying to be weird to the people who were passing by the cafe, but she was actually on the lookout for two certain people. One of them was the person who would be coming to her aid on this job, helping her with a task that would be difficult, and the other person she watched out for was the danger itself. She had not told the Fairy Tail guild about this, not wanting to get any of her friends involved in a war against another dark guild in Fiore, and Cana had just hoped that the enemy would be someone that wouldn't be putting another huge target on the guild of Fairy Tail.
She had been on the lookout for the infamous thief named Shelly Izumi, having a description of how this villain had looked, and Cana had simply planned to stall Shelly until her backup would arrive on the scene. Of course, the brown-haired mage had clearly not heard the rumors of Shelly's power. She could pretty much shape her Water Magic into very destructive and creative spells for both offense and defense, making her a really big threat to anyone who opposed her. Shelly was not to be messed with, and the only person that she had tolerated from Fairy Tail was Wendy.
There had been a flyer in the guild that stated Shelly was in this town right now, possibly here to steal some kind of item that was very vital to Aqua Kyogre, but could a card mage like Cana possibly be the one to stop her? She did have different cards that let her wield various types of magic, that was surely true, but was the brown-haired girl really a good match for Shelly? Even the strongest cards that Cana owned might not be enough to break through Shelly's defensive water sphere that possibly negated all attacks, so just using power alone would be a really bad strategic move.
As Cana took her eyes off of the newspaper, she looked a bit sad while thinking about how Lucy had been suffering so much. The purple-eyed girl could not get Lucy's speech out of her head, sad to know that they were no longer friends at all, and Cana had to admit that she was at fault for going along with Natsu's plan. Lucy had felt broken while knowing that her first boyfriend had been playing her like a sap, and Cana felt really guilty as she knew that Lucy's must've felt hurt and alone. She had wanted to help someone who had felt really heartbroken by being cheated on, but Cana knew that her refusal to do anything had just made things become much worse.
"Wow, Cana. Some friend you truly are. I could've been there to help Lucy when she needed me, but I just stood by and did nothing. Every single day, I kept on watching her be unaware of the fact that Natsu had just been using her as a tool while his real feelings of love were towards Lisanna. It's frustrating how I know that Lucy was being my friend, always being so nice, and her anger towards me is very reasonable. It stems from the fact that I did not even open up the door of honesty for her, and all that I truly managed to do was help Natsu and Lisanna slam it right in her face."
A feminine voice replied in a condescending tone, giggling a bit at the fact that the brown-haired mage had to express her guilt aloud for everyone to hear, "That truly does sound like a bad thing for a good friend to do, and it pretty much sounds like you're nothing more than a backstabber. If you were partly the reason that Lucy Heartfilia left Fairy Tail, as my inside spy has told me that you were, then you would only agree with the plans of deceiving her because you don't really see her as a friend. Deep down, you hurt her so badly because you felt utterly threatened by her."
Cana slowly turned around with a shocked look on her face to see Shelly, the criminal that she had to bring down in this town, and the purple-eyed girl stood up while shaking a bit from how Shelly smirked evilly at her. She also found it weird how Shelly got inside her mind like that, making Cana begin to really question why she had joined Natsu's plan from the very start, but Cana never had any feelings of envy towards Lucy. Still, having a spy from Aqua Kyogre in the guild of Fairy Tail was not okay. Also, the fact that Shelly knew some of Lucy's emotional history was enough to make Cana wonder how those two were tied together.
She took a few steps back, not wanting to get too close with the woman who wore only a dark blue lacy bra and dark blue lacy panties while she was also barefoot, and Cana had to think about her strategy for this fight. Not knowing any of Shelly's abilities wasn't really good, and it also was not good that the card mage was dealing with one of the top commanders in the guild of Aqua Kyogre. This was a pretty bad match-up, probably a meeting that even Mavis would not want to see in the Grand Magic Games, and it was getting more tense for Cana while she noticed Shelly creating a sphere of water around herself to purposely get wet.
Seeing no other option right now, Cana glared at her opponent while pulling out her deck of 52 cards from the left pocket of her brown pants. She decided to use the Wooden Log Card first, holding it up in the air with her right hand while it glowed to produce three wooden logs in midair. They all flew towards Shelly, about to strike her with the power from their possibly harsh impact with her, but Shelly didn't even dodge. She just stood there while maintaining the smirk on her face, and the water on the ground around her had simply turned into a large wall of icicles. They had been tough like glacial ice, not easy to break, and the wooden logs had exploded from their harsh impact with the stalagmites of ice.
20 minutes later, in another part of Mintochoko Town...
Sting and Lucy had arrived in the town of Cioccolato, a place that was located in the northern part of Fiore, and they both took notice of the shops selling many desserts in the flavor of chocolate. There were even warm plates of chocolate chip cookies on sale at the merchant shops, and hot chocolate was also being sold at a high price. This place had been thriving off of its desserts to keep on getting tons of money, but it wasn't in a distant land. Lucy shivered a bit from the cold air that came from a nearby bakery that was obviously hardening the chocolate, and Sting smiled while they walked down the paved street.
He loved to hold hands with Lucy, and the white dragon slayer knew that they could have some fun while being on this job. Sting noticed that his girlfriend was smiling confidently, ready to stop Shelly from trying to steal anything in this town, and he had a calm look in his blue eyes while knowing that Lucy would give Shelly a good fight once again. Those two had pretty much been great rivals, possibly going to end up being two sides of the same coin in the Grand Magic Games, and Sting had definitely noticed that the girls were total opposites of each other.
Even though Lucy was glad to be doing a job like this in such a sweet town, the blonde girl had been hoping that Cana would not be trying to get in her way of stopping Shelly. Lucy knew that her rival was very powerful, never having battled her to a true conclusion yet, and she knew that even Natsu would get beaten to a pulp by Shelly. That woman was a true expert with Water Magic, shaping its properties to make it be scalding or hardening at times, and Lucy knew that it would take some true ingenuity to psych out someone who could make her abilities have so much versatility.
While he narrowed his blue eyes at the situation involving a villain like Shelly, Sting's eyes were met with what appeared to be chocolate and peanut butter brownies. Lucy had bought a plate of them from a nearby bakery stand that had just started its business hours, and she smiled happily while putting one into her mouth. There was hot steam coming from the brownies as well, allowing their sweet smell to reach Sting's nostrils, and he arrogantly grinned while taking one of the eleven remaining warm brownies from the plate. With Lucy's sweet treats at his side, this mission would probably not be as tense as Sting imagined it to be.
Sting even noticed that the town had an entire museum dedicated to all of the types of chocolate in the country of Fiore, and he could tell that this job would have its good points. Even if Cana would be no match for Shelly at all, that would just give Sting and Lucy the chance to take care of the job for her. They would be showing off their superior skills, making Sabertooth get the great amount of recognition from the people of this large town, and it would simply be another loss for Fairy Tail. Whether Cana would badly lose or get trampled on by the crazy fans of Sabertooth, it would be her karma for not helping Lucy when she felt so broken because of Natsu's betrayal.
As Sting and Lucy both took brownies from the plate, eating them before they were going to share a great kiss that would taste like chocolate and peanut butter, both mages looked shocked to hear an explosion of some kind transpiring somewhere in the town. There wasn't anything to celebrate today, and fireworks could not really be good to be used in the daytime. The sounds of a building being destroyed could be heard, and Sting's enhanced hearing also managed to pick up the sounds of someone groaning in pain. If that was Cana, then Lucy was definitely right. Shelly's tendency to not show mercy had never been dealt with by Fairy Tail, and one of their current members was getting a firsthand look at the toughness of Aqua Kyogre's most beautiful and most powerful female.
"It sounds like somebody is in trouble, Lucy, and we can't let any innocent people get hurt here. Someone is using magic to do something, and they're doing it only in one area of the town. Let's go there, and see what exactly is going on. It could be a fight going on between Cana and Shelly, but things don't sound too well for your former friend. Anyway, let's go show Shelly that the sabers do what the fairies fail to do." Sting explained to his girlfriend in a calm manner while he began to look stern at the sight of a third explosion taking place.
Lucy responded with a confident facial expression, speaking in an ambitious tone of voice, "You're right, Sting! Let's go check this out, and see if Shelly is making Cana take a beating! There's a saying that says the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but I will really have to see which one of them will be more of an enemy to me today!"
It was interesting to note that Lucy had mentioned Cana because the card mage was actually the one clashing with the rival of the Celestial Wizard. Her attack spells had made a lot of smoke appear, but it all cleared up quickly to reveal that her opponent had taken no damage from her attacks. Cana groaned in frustration from the sight of Shelly using her Water Magic to make her stalagmites turn into large spikes of hot water, but the tanned woman surprisingly made the numerous amount of watery spikes go towards herself. Cana could see the steam from the stalagmites, smirking while she thought that Shelly would end this by hurting herself, but fate would say otherwise.
The scalding hot stalagmites of water slammed themselves down on Shelly, giving her a hot bath that didn't even leave any burns of her tanned skin, and she had a confident look in her blue eyes while a thick cloud of steam formed around the entire battlefield. Walking through the steam in quiet steps, Shelly knew that Cana could not attack or defend with her cards if she did not have enough distance to throw them. She was planning to stop messing around, really ready to show the brown-haired girl how someone from Aqua Kyogre handled a pest who was in the way, and Shelly would also get back at her for being so rude to start a fight for no real reason.
As Cana could see Shelly coming towards her through the smoke, she was suddenly caught off guard by a harsh kick to the stomach! Shelly's kick had sent the card mage sliding backwards, but that was nothing compared to Shelly's powerful punches. She struck Cana hard in the face, before punching her hard in the chest, and the purple-eyed woman screamed in pain when her opponent jumped high into the air to come down on her with a powerful body slam. Cana was unable to get Shelly off of her, feeling her legs become frozen ice while Shelly pulled an icicle out of her mouth. It made her now have cold breath, exhaling the coldness on to Cana's legs, and that was causing her to sneeze from how the cold air affected her iced legs.
However, this was only a little taste of Shelly's revenge. She placed her left hand on Cana's frozen left leg, and scalding hot water emerged from the palm of her left hand. It had quickly defrosted her left leg while the black-haired woman melted the ice around Cana's right leg as well, but the card mage screamed in agony from the fact that her opponent was using far too much hot water. It was burning right through her brown pants, making redness occur on her skin, and Shelly could even make the water travel up Cana's body to burn her arms and her stomach area. Shelly was quite a sadist to anyone who ruined her day, wouldn't you agree?
While the brown-haired woman was struggling to even move her body, Shelly slammed her right foot down on Cana's stomach. She could hear some of her opponent's bones crack, causing Cana to scream loudly while letting her pain be known, and Shelly smirked evilly at the sight of her opponent coughing up blood. Despite the fact that Cana was not a good opponent for her, the tanned female top commander of Aqua Kyogre found pleasure in destroying anyone who would try to ruin her day. Also, starting a fight with Shelly had definitely made it seem like Cana's guilt made her have a death wish.
Shelly had lifted Cana up into the air, now having her left hand tightly gripped around the younger girl's neck, and the black-haired woman simply threw her away like a piece of trash. Shelly had thrown Cana with tremendous force, sending her crashing through the wall of a bakery, but that wasn't the end of it. Shelly had also fired a large scalding hot beam of water from her mouth, and it struck Cana directly while creating a large blue blast of Water Magic that turned the bakery into a pile of rubble. Shelly had even thought about annihilating the rubble to end her opponent's life, but what fun would that be?
Under the large pile of rubble, Cana could only let tears run down her face while she was laying down in the dirt that was now wet from Shelly's attack. She just wasn't even strong enough to really even land a hit against Shelly, not even able to make a single bruise be on her skin, and Cana had truly seen this as karma for not trying to apologize to Lucy when she had seen her at the Sabertooth guild. Even if her best friend had been really angry about the fact that an affair had been kept from her for almost seven months, the least that Cana could do is try to make up for not doing anything to help Lucy's situation.
She knew that defeating the antagonist from Aqua Kyogre might be impossible right now, even knowing that she could lose her life in a tough fight like this, but Cana clenched her fists and bit down on her lower lip while knowing that she had to make things right with Lucy. The brown-haired girl managed to get hold of the Teleportation Card, a nifty card that would let her be warped to anywhere in the world, but Cana refused to run away. She simply teleported out from under the rubble, deciding to now be standing across from Shelly at a far distance, and Cana panted heavily while knowing that her body would end giving out at any moment because of all the damage that she had taken.
As Cana had given up hope of her helpers even reaching this place to step in on this fight, she and Shelly heard a familiar female voice shout in a confident tone, "I call upon thee, the fifth spell! Rocky Detonation!"
This spell caused the rubble of the first destroyed building near Shelly to be surrounded by an orange aura, and every piece of the damaged building began to float upward from the ground. Shelly looked a bit confused from seeing not only large pieces of rubble in the air, but small pieces as well. When one of them was sent flying towards her, she simply laughed it off. However, even the smallest piece of rubble made a powerful explosion of Earth Magic. She was sent sliding backwards, only to met with all the other chunks of earth causing bigger explosions in a chain sequence with more power involved.
Cana turned around slowly to see that Lucy and Sting had arrived, the two people who had definitely known what Shelly could be capable of, and the violet-eyed girl took a few steps while she could easily assume that they had taken the job request that she sent out. Even though it had ended up reaching the guild of Sabertooth, Cana was very thankful to now have some backup here to assist her. She could see the angry look in Lucy's cocoa brown eyes, knowing full well that the anger was partly directed at her, but the rest of it was all meant for Shelly to take.
The smoke cleared up to reveal that Shelly had definitely taken damage from those attacks, now being bruised up from those powerful strikes, and the black-haired woman gave Lucy a stern glare while she noticed that her blonde rival had crossed paths with her once again. While Shelly wiped some blood off of her left arm, noticing that one of the rocky explosions had torn through her skin, she narrowed her blue eyes from seeing that Lucy was against her once again. Would she really be soft enough to now side with Cana, or was Lucy just attacking Shelly to show her how much stronger she had become?
The tanned woman had decided to distract Lucy by unleashing some bubbles from her mouth, and they headed straight for the blonde mage. However, Lucy called upon the power of the sixth spell to counter Shelly's projectiles with a move known as Stone Slam. This spell caused a nearby large chunk of rubble to break apart into smaller pieces, and the ground also began to crack for the spell to work. More chunks of earth rose up from underground, circling around Lucy in a fast manner like a means of defense, and Lucy continued to have that fierceness in her cocoa brown eyes while they now became narrowed at Shelly. She could command the stones with simple thoughts, telling some of them to strike the villain directly, and Cana was amazed at Lucy's level of strategy.
While it seemed mediocre, the stones had enough power to create large orange blasts of Earth Magic that were on par with the power of Shelly's bubbles to be canceled out because of the density of Shelly's attacks. The black-haired woman smirked a bit while she could see that Lucy had gotten stronger, having made two spells in a row be really great, and Lucy's remaining stones struck her directly with intense amounts of power. They sent Shelly falling to the ground, feeling tons of pain from the stones that had now turned into sand, and the antagonist began to growl in anger at the sight of her rival beginning to smile like she was now close to winning.
Lucy put her palms together while the light brown dust swirled around her in a circle, and the large pieces of rubble began to turn brown like the sand. They soon broke apart, letting loose large amounts of sand to create a huge tidal wave that would slam down on to Shelly, but Lucy's eyes widen in shock to see that her opponent ran straight for the attack! It was known as Sand Burial because of the waves enormous pressure that would hit the opponent directly, and Lucy gasped in amazement at the sight of Shelly jumping into a puddle that she had created in her fight with Cana. This was a continuation of that battle, however, since Lucy was just helping out her enemy.
The massive tidal wave of sand had slammed down hard on the street, covering the ground in dense sand that would crush anything under it with an enormous amount of pressure, but many people in the town had managed to evade it by running inside stores and going to nearby streets. Lucy narrowed her brown eyes while knowing that Shelly had evaded that massive move, wanting to really score a win against her villainous rival, and the blonde mage had figured that her final spell would definitely bring this battle to an end.
As the orange spell book began to glow with Lucy's fierceness building up inside her, she looked in the book and smiled at what the final spell of Earth Magic could do. It was simply known as Roaring Earth, possibly a variation of the Earth Dragon's Roar that Suna could probably use, and the spell caused the orange aura to once again surround Lucy's body. She felt more power than before, almost like she was absorbing the hardness of the ground through the soles of her feet, and Lucy sprang up high into the sky. Whatever she had used to create this spell, would it be a really great move?
She came back down with tremendous force, causing an earthquake to occur in Mintochoko Town for seven minutes, and the earthquake was powerful enough to have its seismic waves head mostly towards the end of the street. The ground on Vanilluxe Street began to break apart, rumbling around several stores, and the sandy earth exploded in a massive orange blast after a few moments. Several rocks were sent flying high into the sky, soaring to the heavens before they fell down to faraway places with their impacts making more blasts of Earth Magic transpire, but Shelly was nowhere to be found. Where had the black-haired woman gone to?
Suddenly, Lucy and Sting heard the soft footsteps of someone walking up to them from behind. Shelly had emerged from some water that had spilled from a pot when a chef had dropped it while Lucy's earthquake had been going on, the black-haired woman glaring at Lucy for not even asking about what had been going on, and Shelly really found it pathetic of Lucy to handle a job request from someone that she had hated now. Had the blonde mage now been biased to always see Shelly as an enemy, when she was actually the one who was nearly struck first by Cana's wooden logs?
"Let me explain something to you, Lucy, if you know how to understand what I say. Your stupid enemy named Cana had tried to attack me when I was on my way to the hot springs of Mintochoko, and I was also going to buy some cute clothes as well. It isn't exactly wrong for me to input a comment into someone who says their thoughts aloud, but Cana was saying how all that she had done was cause you an immense amount of pain because of what happened with Natsu. A real best friend would not help the person who had not even offered forgiveness for being part of a backstabber's deceitful plan, so think with your head and not with your heart. Actually, let me give you a bit of punishment for bruising me up today. Your punishment, though, is someone else's reward for being nice enough to not ruin my day." Shelly told Lucy in a stern tone, frowning at her rival for going into a battle with only assumptions while not having known which side had instigated the battle.
Lucy looked curious about what Shelly meant by giving her a little punishment that would be someone else's reward, and the brown-eyed girl widened her eyes in shock from seeing Shelly walk towards Sting in a way that was meant to seduce him. She took a few peanut butter cookies off of the plate to quickly eat them, despite the fact that sweets would make her get hyper from the effects of the sugar, and the blue-eyed woman gently put her hands on Sting's warm cheeks. He was looking scared from feeling the wetness of her hands, feeling the heat from the scalding hot water that she drenched herself in, and Shelly gave a soft kiss to his lips.
She had made the water on her lips change to being sticky, letting her kiss Lucy's boyfriend for at least 75 seconds, and Shelly would not let Sting pull away from her. When he tried moving backwards, she had just kept pressing her body against his. The deriding look in Shelly's blue eyes was telling Lucy that they were in two different leagues of fighting experience, as well as romantic experience, and Lucy could not believe what was happening. She was not about to lose another boyfriend, especially not wanting to lose him to someone so villainous like Shelly, and Lucy ran behind her to pull her body away from Sting's.
Knowing that Lucy had gone through a lot, as well as not wanting to see her get hurt anymore, Cana narrowed her violet eyes while throwing a Magnet Card between Shelly and Sting. This card was weird, since it could make people be stuck to metal objects like they were powerful magnets, and and its effect made Sting's body become surrounded by a white light. It was not White Drive, since he had not activated Dragon Force, and the blond male smirked arrogantly while feeling himself be pulled away from the lips of Shelly. Their kiss was now broken, as Shelly's 75-second act of revenge had reached its end, and many people saw Sting be sent flying all the way into the museum. He landed on an exhibit known as Earthland's Largest Chocolate Bar, and it smelled great while still being wrapped in golden tin foil.
While Lucy had now been trying to strangle Shelly from the front, as Cana had now planned to try and punch the top female commander of Team Aqua from behind, both girls were shocked to hear Shelly giggle while her stomach rumbled loudly. This tended to happen, only when she ate too many sweets in one day, and Cana could not back away fast enough from the flatulence of the antagonist. Shelly had let out a large amount of gas, before using the blue smoke clouds to turn into pure water while flowing down into a crevice of the damaged street, leaving Cana coughing while she could not believe how karma was still being against her.
"Lucy, look, I'm so very sorry for not doing anything when you were being fooled by Natsu and Lisanna. I know that you may not even consider me as a friend for not even helping you, and I will gladly take all the anger that you have for me. After all, I was a totally bad friend to you and earning back your trust is something that has to be done! I'll earn it back in any way possible, Lucy, even if you want me to sabotage Natsu's dates with Lisanna. Having you as a friend is something more valuable than any affair, and I don't want to lose my best partner. You've always been good to me, and I got Sting away from that woman to show you that I'm on your side." Cana told the blonde mage in an apologetic manner, looking full of regret while feeling utterly horrible about her past actions.
Lucy replied in a reproving manner, narrowing her cocoa brown eyes while she heard Cana's pleas, "You were a pretty bad friend to me, Cana, and it's pathetic how you just assumed that my rival was going to do something bad in this town. You know, not all members of a dark guild act constantly act evil. Shelly has a life, just like everyone else, and you ruined her day. If you didn't get suspicious enough to make that flyer, Sting and I never would've had to come here. She kissed my boyfriend, as payback for me really being the idiot to help someone who betrayed me. You'll definitely have to earn my trust back, Cana, and I'm not immature enough to mess with Natsu's relationship. It's better to be above the level of idiocy, rather than stoop down to being low, and you also really reek of Shelly's sweets. If you'll excuse me, I have a boyfriend to find."
Even though Lucy had used the other four spells of Earth Magic, it wasn't exactly heroic to stop Shelly from simply shopping in town. After all, the best villains knew how to act normal in public. Lucy and Sting had really came to this town for the purpose of Cana not being able to finish what she had started, and the card mage felt utterly awful about what she had done. Earning Lucy's trust back would be a tough thing to do, since friendships could not be easily fixed, and the brown-haired girl knew that her opportunity to make things right would be waiting for her in the Grand Magic Games or the Grand Fiore League. While Lucy had walked off to find Sting, Cana knew that she would have to wash off the sense of failure to clear her mind and focus on restoring her friendship with the Celestial Spirit Wizard.
Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...
Natsu had been bandaged up once again, mainly because of the fact that he had received harsh injuries from his second battle against Lucy, and the fire dragon slayer's mouth had been covered up because it hurt for him to try and move his jaw. Lucy gave him some powerful punches to the face for trying to hurt her new boyfriend, and she had every right to bring pain down upon the jerk who had cheated on her while had also tried to keep it a secret. (I know that this one reason is emphasized so much in this story, but it is a romance. However, don't fret. Natsu will have a new conflict coming up.)
He still had a miffed look in his eyes while managing to burn away the bandages on his mouth with some flames, but Lucy beating him down was not really the whole reason for him being mad. Natsu was actually angry about the fact that his ex had now found comfort with his biggest rival, Sting Eucliffe, and he could not erase the image of them kissing from his memory. Natsu had never thought that Lucy would go over to Sabertooth, interestingly dating the guy who had let out a laugh at her getting tortured by Minerva in the Naval Battle last year, but the pink-haired male had never taken into account that he was the cause of her shifting over to the rival guild.
If Natsu had just been honest with Lucy when he first felt a connection with Lisanna, then he could've let the blonde girl know that they had to break up. Even if Lucy would be shocked, was being truthful not seen as a better option than being a deceitful liar? Cheating was not the best way to get out of a relationship, especially since Lucy had thought about taking her own life, and Natsu had been wrong to criticize his ex in their first battle. Even though he had admonished her for helping out people from the guild of Sabertooth, Natsu was not going to get a free pass to total happiness. Lucy's departing speech made sure of that, since almost everyone was now against him.
As he laid down in bed, hardly even able to move, Natsu took notice of someone slowly opening the door to his room in the guild's infirmary. Lisanna had already given him a kiss on the cheek while knowing that he'd most likely be in top shape for the Grand Magic Games and the Grand Fiore League, so who could possibly be wanting to see the fire dragon slayer? If it was Erza, then she would only be scold him for being stupid enough to make the same impulsive mistake once again. However, Natsu gasped in shock from seeing a much friendlier face.
It was Marina, wearing a cute pink nurse's hat with a pink shirt that showed off some of her ample cleavage, and she also wore a nice red miniskirt to go with it. Natsu thought that he had really died and gone to heaven right now, as he saw the teal-haired girl smile cutely at him, and all that he could do was lay in bed while she ran over to his side. Marina had planned to change his bandages, knowing that they might get dirty while time was passing, but she had a much better idea. Natsu had been sleeping earlier while Lisanna had brought a tray of hot spaghetti for him to eat, placing it on the table next to him, and she had planned to feed him when she got back from helping Mira run the bar while Marina had been absent.
"Well, it looks like you must love being in bed. I had heard all about how Lucy beat you down the first time, wiping the floor with you while she used Fire Magic, but now it looks like she gave you a real beating. I'd say that it was stupid of you to go after Lucy, which it really was, and you really should not have tried acting so macho with her. In fact, I think that your attitude towards Lucy will eventually make you look less hot. I know how you love being admired by Lisanna, but you can only keep her for so long." Marina told Natsu with a smile on her face while she spoke in a scheming manner, messing with his head once again.
He had never given it any real thought, not really considering the outcome of Lisanna scolding him soon for what he had done, and Natsu knew that their seven-month anniversary was coming up. He just had to eat some flames from things that were burning, most likely to help him recover at a fast rate, and Natsu knew that he could not miss that day. Lisanna was going to help him celebrate it, having a large cake in mind as well, and the lovely couple would even throw a great party to help everyone be prepared for the Grand Magic Games. However, could Natsu truly keep Lisanna as his girlfriend or did he need love from a bad girl like Marina?
"If I can't keep her, Marina, then I want to try and move on to someone who is her opposite in many ways. You're so sexy and cool, so very good in bed, and I want to pleasure you like how I did a few weeks ago." Natsu replied in a calm manner, still finding it hard to move his body.
For the sake of her scheme going all the way through to the end, Marina could tell that she had gained Natsu's trust. It sounded like he had truly wanted to be loyal to her, wanting to love her if things would fail with Lisanna, and Marina smiled softly at the fact that Natsu could not sniff out her major act of bringing more discord to his life. She leaned down to kiss Natsu on the lips for a moment, making herself blush pink to look beautiful for the gullible male, and her cute giggle was like soothing music to Natsu's ears.
However, as he was now having fun, little did Natsu know that Lisanna had accidentally left a Lacrima Audio Crystal under his bed in the infirmary. He really should have watched what he had said in that moment, even now telling Marina that she was so very beautiful, and let's just say that his time in bed with the teal-haired spy was bound to come when he least expected it. Natsu was definitely getting his feelings of lust to shift towards Marina, but his feelings towards her would probably be his downfall when it reached the ears of the public.
How was Chapter 15? Did you like it? I apologize for Lucy and Cana not making up yet, but they shall. The StiCy is getting quite good as well, since Lucy now has a big reason to beat down Shelly! Really, must a powerful antagonist go so low for revenge? It was cool to me, anyway. Well, the Grand Magic Games are definitely coming up! What happens in the next chapter, when Juvia sees how Aqua Kyogre isn't so nice? Standby for the update!