Fairy Cannon
Chapter 2: Betrayal
Author's Note: This Story is currently my focus for Fanfiction writing. While I have been working on both Fox team and a challenge fic, this story has been taking most of my writing time. If any of you have any Feedback, make sure to review. These reviews are what motivates me to finish these chapters in the first place. Also I am working on a over hall on my profile that will go live in the near future. Till then, Have fun reading!
Last Time:
"Who?" the response shoot out of the mouth of the Fairy Tail master.
"Jinx" Vi responded evenly, despite the shiver that the powerful mage provoked.
"What did Jinx do?" Natsu said, as he came limping into the guild hall. He head was shifted to the side, he really couldn't understand why the destructive woman was a criminal. Well, at least any more that he was in any case.
Natsu had just arrive back into the guild hall, or the ruins of the guild hall at least. There was some kind of weird group there. The leader was some sort of pink haired boxer, with some sort of hat wearing sniper- well, maybe that is something all snipers do, as the Fairy Tail sniper, Bisca Connell, wore nice hats too-, and a strange man resting inside a hole in one of the neighbouring buildings. For some reason the leader said they would hunting Jinx. While they had just met, Natsu owed her a large favour for helping save the guild.
Vi looked up at the new arrival before raising a single eyebrow. After all, it was quite unusual to see someone with steel rods impaled into their shoulder. On top of that odd sight, for some reason this man could still walk after receiving such wounds. If Vi remember correctly than it had to be Gajeel who had caused those wounds, and if it was Gajeel who did this, then this was Natsu Dragneel.
"I am afraid that is classified information Natsu Dragneel. If you wish to know, maybe you should ask the magic council. After all, it was them who decided this information was to be classified." Vi explained. She was banking on Fairy Tail's bad standing with the council to prevent them from asking too many questions. If anyone outside the guild discovered that Jinx had escaped her three times before now, she would most likely lose her commander position.
"Well, I am afraid that I can not tell you where this Jinx person is, I haven't seen anyone without a guild mark in over 35 days." Makarov responded, his firm voice giving no room for discussion
"Do not fret, for I, the great and mighty Victor, have a lock on the target." a metallic man said as he appeared around the bend of the road. His left eye had a blue image superimposed over his iris. His third arm was currently charged with a great deal of magical power. Vi gave him a curt nod a waved him to show the way. Natsu was going to react, but a silent nod from Makarov stilled his hand. He had never seen the master act so solemn.
Victor lead the team to the edge of the beach, before activating his Flash spell. As the team followed his lead, they all disappeared in a shower of bright yellow light. Natsu spun around and stared hard at the guild master. "What the hell Old Man!? She helped the guild and you are just going to let her get hunted down and killed! That goes against everything Fairy Tail stands for!"
"Don't pretend like you understand boy!" Makarov yelled back, startling many of the bystanders, he never yelled like that before.
"What don't I understand!"
"The power of the Institute," Makarov responded, eyes clouding over. "They are the hunters of the council. They are giving absolute power to determine a guild or mage to be illegal and thus have justified right to execute them. They are ruthless servants of the peace, willing to sacrifice everyone in their way to bring true criminals to justice. If we get in their way, it will be the end of Fairy Tail."
"We can't leave her undefended!"
"If she is strong enough to outrun the institute for any amount of time, so much so that they refer to her by name, their is nothing we can do. They are fighting on a completely different level." Makarov explained.
"Master? What do you mean a different level?" the ice mage of Fairy Tail, Gray Fullbuster, asked.
"It is said that every mage that is or ever was apart of the institute had access to a communal pool of magical energy that they draw upon to preform their guild magics. Even without any magical power whatsoever, they can outmatch any incompetent mage in existence."
That stunned the gathered mages and even the civilians. They all knew that to a mage, their magical power was more important to them then their life blood. To say that a mage with no magical power could still use enough magic to overpower someone, let alone stand up, was akin to saying that a knight with no arms could still fight with his sword. Who was the Institute that they could do this.
"I don't care! Jinx saved our guild!" Natsu yelled, attempting to rush forwards before being pulled back by his friend Gray.
"Natsu, Jinx knew what she was getting into when she used as much magic as she did. She must have know the institute would find her. Respect her sacrifice, if you try to help the Institute would just destroy Fairy Tail. If Fairy Tail went down, what would her sacrifice be worth then?" Gray told Natsu, his voice deep with sadness.
"But.. I can't stand by and do nothing." Natsu mumbled, already knowing that he couldn't do anything.
"Then live my boy, live a long and joyful life in respect to her sacrifice. She died so we all could live, so let us live a long and happy live!" Makarov shouted, making his guild swallow down their tears and nod with a look of determination, before gasping as a figure arrived on the beach.
Vi and her team followed Victor into the large barrel of the cannon. This was an odd place for a mage to willingly stay. The large circular antechamber had several lacrima slots open, but no lacrima was currently left in the system. Giving a quick command, Vi rushed directly into the centre of the chamber and spun around to check the room. Yelling a quick 'Clear!' to her team, Vi analyzed the scene in front of her. There was the limp body of Totomaru on the edge of the room, with his katana right beside him. All around the room there were burns and bullet holes, signifying that a fight went down.
"Caitlyn, go guard the entry vehicle, we need to make sure no one capture it." Vi ordered over her comm set. A shout of recognition came through the earpiece. Vi called her team to the raised platform in the middle of the room. "Okay, so we know that Jinx most likely fought with Totomaru in this room. Victor do you have a position still?"
"Negative, her magic is spread out in a cloud in the nearby rooms. She is close by, but I cannot say exactly where."
"Good enough, Move out!" Vi shouted. As her team was going to move, the magical aura exploded with potent energy. A feminine shout was heard as the floor and ceiling of the room appeared to melt.
"Remake Magic: Gate of the Nether!" The roof and floor flowed into each other to form a large oval around the team from the Institute. Vi struck the surface as it closed around them, but instead of breaking, the material flowed over her large steel glove, trapping it in the wall. The walls finished moving shortly after, but even as Vi went to punch the dome again, millions of tiny needles shot out of the wall. They were placed in such a way that they weren't in any position to hurt the squad, but neither could they move.
"You think that these weak creations are enough to stop Victor!" Victor moved his third arm slightly, before a glare from Vi stopped him.
"You don't want to do that three arms, these spikes are pure airspace lacrima. A little prick and say bye bye to all your magical power." A musical voice said from just outside the barrier. "I will see you later Fat Hands, but I have work to do. Now no one dye screaming without me."
"For the last time they're GLOVES!" Vi shouted. With the team immobilized with the Metsu spell lingering on the airspace lacrima, there is nothing they could do to stop her. However, if Jinx had manipulated the shape of not only the residual amounts of steel and adamantine in the room to form the oval prison and had shaped this amount of air lacrima into needles, she would most likely be extremely weakened. Good thing she had left Caitlyn outside to watch the transport. With a flair of her magic power, Vi sent a simple coded message.
Jinx climbed up onto the shore of the beach after a long and exhausting swim from the large robot. It looked like she was without her natural magic power until she could find somewhere safe to rest. She looked up and saw the large crowd of Fairy Tail mages staring at her. Perhaps they thought that the Institute was the most powerful guild in Fiore. It wouldn't be too far off the truth, but anyone who was smart in their engagements could win battles, it was the war that was difficult to win.
"H-h-how did you beat them" A girl with long blond hair asked, it was Mirajane, the demon of Fairy Tail.
"I didn't have to, so why would I. It's not fun fighting when your tired." Jinx's lazy reply came out slowly and drawled out dramatically.
"So you just didn't fight them? And they let you go?" Gray asked, missing his shirt again.
"Nah, I trapped them in a sphere where if they move they die. Is that not clever." Jinx beamed.
Natsu was about to reply when he heard a small whining noise pierce his ears. Jinx reacted almost immediately as she rolled out of the way of a small blast of yellow energy. When the energy hit the ground where she once was, it exploded in a blast of energy. Everyone's eyes flew to see where the shot came from. Standing on top of a nearby building was Caitlyn, with a large sniper rifle with a ridiculous barrel length of almost six feet. Caitlyn merely sighed as she lined up another shot to hit her target.
Jinx narrowed her eyes and yelled out, "Hey Hat lady! Shoot this!" and with that she pulled out her fishbones and launched a missile from the stored lacrima reserves. She couldn't fight for too long, she had to end this quickly. Jinx waited until the missile was blocking Caitlyn's sight before she activated her Ghost spell to increase her speed threefold. Caitlyn realigned the rifle to shoot down the missile as it flew towards her. It exploded in a wave of pure energy as she began scanning the surroundings for Jinx.
Little did she know that Jinx was currently climbing up the stairs to reach the roof of the building that she was sniping from. Jinx pulled out her Pow-pow mini-gun to engage Caitlyn directly. When the door opened behind her, Caitlyn threw her long rifle like a spear while she pulled out a more manageable rifle from her pocket dimension. Jinx release the energy stored in her pow-pow to begin firing the weapon. Unfortunately (For Jinx) Caitlyn managed to roll out of the way from the attack. Behind a chimney, Caitlyn poked her rifle above the structure to begin taking potshots. The first shot managed to punch through Jinx's left shoulder, but afterwards Jinx realized where the fire was coming from and began to use cover and dodging to avoid the rest of the attacks.
Caitlyn surprised Jinx by hopping over the chimney and tackling her into the hard tile roof. In her surprise, Jinx lost her grip on the mini-gun and it clattered and slid off the roof. Caitlyn hit Jinx over the head with the butt of her rifle, hoping to end the fight. Jinx's hand flew up and griped and butt of the rifle before it could impact on the side of her head. Jinx gripped the rifle and threw it over the edge of the roof. Caitlyn grimaced, before pulling a knife from her boot and attempted to end the fight as quickly as possible. Jinx pulled out her zap pistol and used the steel grip to trap the blade between them. Caitlyn launched a quick jab into Jinx's exposed side, causing the gun to buckle from her grip and land squarely on her flat chest. As the knife flew down towards her, Jinx stuck her finger into Caitlyn's undefended left eye.
Caitlyn yelled in pain as she instinctively recoiled from the pain in her ocular organ. Jinx seized the opportunity to grab she pistol and slide out from under Caitlyn. Caitlyn slowly rose to her feet, blood pouring out of her eyes as she pulled a six chambered sniper rifle from her pocket dimension. Jinx ran forward, prompting Caitlyn to fire a shot at her mid-section. Jinx rolls slightly to the right and allows the energy to painlessly fly over her shoulder. Jinx snapped up as shoved her zap pistol into Caitlyn's chest, before pulling the trigger and blowing out part of her lungs. Caitlyn's body slowly fell off the pistol dropped to the ground at Jinx's feet. She slowly bent down and picked up the cool six chamber rifle. After returning the weapon to her pocket dimension, she went and picked up her and Caitlyn's weapons. She stored Caitlyn's weapons into her pocket dimension and replaced her own weapons to their holsters.
She heard a large crash as the front end of the Jupitor cannon exploded in a violent display. Jinx could see the prison that she made slowly falling apart. She would have to leave quickly or she would be stuck fighting an entire team of hunters. Jinx stumbled before falling down on one knee to catch her breath and ease the pain in her shoulder. It would be very painful getting out of here unnoticed, but she would have to if she wanted to live. As she stood up slowly, she felt someone place their arm under her shoulder. Jinx's head sprang up only to see the smiling face of Natsu Dragneel shining down on her.
"Need a hand?"
"I can't really say no, can I?" Jinx replied sarcastically, a small smile adorning her face. She knew that this must have been a difficult decision for him to make. Slowly the duo left Magnolia town behind. Natsu would ask about the places Jinx has been and if she had seen any dragons, while Jinx just asked about the local economy and his fellow guild mate. They would make an odd sight for anyone not already used to the antics that Fairy Tail got into all the time.
Vi let a small breath leave her mouth slowly. Victor had been using his laser magic to slowly cut them out. Eric Brooks had attempted to free himself with his sword, but for his efforts he just dulled his blade. Brutus was simply meditating and keeping track of Caitlyn's position. Suddenly his eyes flew open and he informed everyone that Caitlyn was in critical condition. In response, Vi punched the wall with all of her mechanically enhanced might.
The resulting energy blew a whole straight out of the cannon and started to break away from the prison they were in. The effect were immediate as Vi lost most of her magical power. Even with the fury enhanced might of Vi, it would be precious minutes that was wasted before the team could even manage to reach Caitlyn. By the time they arrived, she was already dead, her weapons stolen from her cold, dead hands.
"Victor, track Jinx down. We end this now."
"Yes Vi." Victor responded. Brutus uncloaked to prepare Caitlyn's body for transport to the main base. Eric knelt down and scanned the nearby area. Victor lead the team into the forest on the west end of town in an effort to catch Jinx before she could escape.
Jinx let Natsu guide her to the west forest. This was the only safe way for her to leave the town. She had Natsu periodically light parts of the forest on fire. This would make it seem that he had been chasing her down and free Fairy Tail from any guilt. Natsu seemed to be doing this against the will of his Guild Master, if the subtle cues that he was giving off was to be believed.
"So how are we going to get out of here?" Natsu asked. Really he should have asked that as soon as they had left Magnolia town, but maybe he assumed that Jinx had a plan.
"I have an escape route plan, but I wont force you to follow me. You have payed back the small favour you owed me." Jinx explained. The ground was getting progressively more tangled and full of potholes. In fact, without Jinx here to guide him, he most likely would've fallen into one of the many traps in the area. However, Vi had brought Victor, so they would be able to spot the traps that were cleverly hidden due to their magical signal. Damn, I need to use mechanical traps next time.
"Okay, I will bring you to your safe house, and then we part. Fairy Tail should be safe and-"
"Unless they see you trying to help me, you mean." Jinx cut in. The path they were on was the most direct way to reach the tunnels, but even with that they were going to cut it close.
"I guess your right. Say, what did you ever do to make the Institute hunt you down? I mean, I destroy a bunch of stuff on my missions, but they never come after me like this." Natsu asked, his head tilting to the side slightly.
"It's a long story, and I don't really feel like giving you exposition about my past." Jinx responded, adding with some extra thought, "I'll tell you if we meet again after this all blows over."
Natsu was going to respond when the duo entered a large clearing with a huge tree in the middle of the area. Jinx stumbled a bit before she caught herself on the bark of the plant. She gathered the wisp her innate magic power that had begun to regenerate to pulse the surface of the tree. The bark appeared to melt away as the energy tore a hole into the ethereal drop pod that she had hiding there. Natsu's jaw dropped when one of his favourite childhood places was revealed to have a hidden tunnel within it.
"This is my exit location, so you kinda have to choose to either follow me to the safe house or run away. Either way it was a plea-" Jinx began before she stopped abruptly. Her head snapped back to where they came from as a magical signal got close enough for her to sense it. "Never mind, you are coming with me, they are right behind us." With that Jinx shoved Natsu into the cramped steel pod before squeezing herself into the pod. When the where both within the ethereal vehicle, she operated the lacrima controls located above the door to close the space rift.
"So what now? We just hide here?"
"No, I closed the door to have time. They could find us here in time, but I only need a couple of minutes to set the target drop site." Jinx explained, her elbow accidentally smashing into Natsu's side. "These pods aren't really designed for two people, so lets pray we don't die!"
"Wait what!" Natsu exclaimed before a sense of vertigo overcame the pair as the drop pod fell through the ethereal plane towards Jinx's home. The ride it self was quite unpleasant as they kept on colliding with the side of the pod and each other in the tight quarters. On the physical plane, Vi and her remaining team member burst into a large clearing that contained a large maple tree. Vi was bruised and pissed, but the rest of her team seemed to be fine.
"Victor where does the trail end!" Vi barked at the metallic man.
"Right here Vi, it just goes up and vanishes. Scanning all spectrum now. Infrared, nothing. Ultraviolet, nothing. Shonic, nothing. Ethereal, nothi- Wait! Heavy traces of magical energy withing the Ethereal plane!" Victor reported. "Evidence suggest that they took a form of Ethereal transport to a safe haven."
"Damn IT!" Vi shouted as she destroyed a nearby tree in her rage.
"Brutus, do you know how to pilot the bullet train?" Eric asked.
"Yes, but would that even help? I mean, we know that tracking in the Ethereal dimension is hard enough when they have no vehicle, but Jinx-" Brutus began but was cut off by Victor.
"Negative, we do not have the precision required to pilot the Train in such a small area. We took a fast vehicle, not a manoeuvrable one."
"Enough, we know that Natsu was chasing her down. Lets start with locating him, he may know where she is going." Vi ordered, her facial features smoothing out.
They had searched for hours, but neither head or tail of Natsu could be found. According to his friends, he had disappeared with Jinx, apparently to capture her. All the fire and destruction in the nearby area seemed to support this idea. Yet for some reason he was not here. The only possible explanation was that Jinx had brought Natsu, or maybe even Natsu's corpse, with her to her safe house. He was a dragon slayer, so who knew what she could do with his magical power.
"How is this possible! The Institute is the only organization with access to Dimension Gate technology!" Vi shouted, bordering on panic.
"We should report this to the Archmages before continuing the pursuit. He must know that the bastards have stolen our techniques." Brutus said, surprisingly calm over the matter.
Natsu and Jinx's pod crashed into a soft area of sand. The edges of the door let out a massive burst of steam as it flew off the battered pod. Natsu swiftly fell out of the pod, completely and utterly unconscious. Jinx took a tentative step out of the pod until her legs gave out from under her and she collapsed on the ground.
Jinx felt her body slowly giving out on her, so she pressed a lacrima into an ordinary looking rock. The magical energies flowed from the lacrima, turning the physical stone to dust, and activating the hidden channels of lacrima that forced the energy downwards. The energy gathered at a large lacrima underground, alerting those who manned the consoles that someone was above ground. When the operators acknowledged the signal, the magical power would flow into a vision lacrima allowing them to view the area around the entrance to the base and open the entry hatch.
When the signal was eventually noticed, a team of medical professionals would be sent above ground to retrieve the duo and give them immediate medical attention. It would take hours of invasive surgery to remove all the shrapnel from Natsu's body, and several days of care to repair the intense burns that Jinx was afflicted with. However, by then end of the week both were taken of sedation once it was proved without a shadow of a doubt that they had both recovered.
It was early morning when Jinx finally came too. She was in a room that had plain white walls and light lacrima covered by steel grates. The bed she rested on was a simple steel frame that was floating with some relatively simple gravity magic. Looking to her right, she saw a snoring Natsu, who despite the ridiculous amount of stitches and bandages that covered his body, looked relatively fine.
Jinx laid down, knowing that despite all the chaos that may unfold in Magnolia, at least she and her allies were safe. When Natsu eventually woke up, they would have to get him to join the organization, but until then, might as well save the inevitable head ache that might cause. He had seen how advanced their ethereal transportation was, and even if the Institute knew that had ethereal transport, they did not know that Jinx's group had better magical techniques.
Then the door opened and a dark skinned man walked in. He was wearing some sort of armour made from crystal and gem formations, which made him look either ridiculous or fantastic, depending on how the light refracted. "Hello Jinx, your injuries were much more serious than they should be. Care to explain how that happened? And while your at it, explain why he have the Salamander of Fairy Tail here." the smooth voice of the man asked. His long and silky locks flowed behind his left ear as he entered the room.
"Well you see Taric..."
It was dark in this room. Vi shifted uncomfortably as she was regarded my her superiors. "So, you said that your mission ending in failure, but for some reason it required the whole board of commanders to be present." one of the commanders of the Institute of War stated, earning a terse "Yes" from Vi.
"Well I believe that we have wait long enough for Captain Teemo, please give us your full report." Another of the commanders said after a short pause.
Vi took a step forward and began to recount her mission, "The mission began to simply capture or kill Criminal J-103. It was complicated significantly when it was discovered that two guilds where currently participating in some sort of conflict. When we eventually found Jinx among the ruins, shown in images 3 through 15, she was able to trap us in some sort of her Remake Magic. The trap revolved around the use of lacrima with the Metsu spell enchanted into the material, full details of both the spell and the collected lacrima may be found in the mission appendix." Vi took a small breath before continuing.
"In that sort amount of time that we were preoccupied, Jinx killed Caitlyn and began her escape. According to the local guild Fairy Tail, their dragon slayer, Natsu Dragneel, chased Jinx down. Based on the evidence found, as seen in images 17 and 18, it appears as if there was a fight and Jinx seemed to have captured the dragon slayer. Upon arrival at her extraction point, we notice several tears into ethereal space, suggesting that they had some form of ethereal transportation." The commanders quickly began talking amount themselves before the head commander stood up and addressed the gathered mages:
"Well, it appears that those mages who have betrayed the sacred trust between guild and mage have once again sinned against the Institute. I want every possible team to be actively searching for these Ex-Institute mages immediately!"
