„Drip, drip, drop."
The words sent shivers down Lucy's spine. Of course, Lucy had grown to accept Juvia as a friend, even if she was a bit weird, but it still reminded her of their first encounter. Lucy had met plenty of scary brutes, including the others at Phantom Lord, but Juvia's behavior was always something special.
De Monza was too surprised to notice this. He pressed a button on a remote control to let a second net fall right down on Juvia. She did not even seem to notice as the strands fell right through her body in its liquid form.
To his credit, he didn't seem too surprised at this outcome. What did surprise him was the jet of water that Juvia sent from her hands. De Monza jumped behind Gray's bed to evade it.
Professor von Harzburg used that moment to run to Juvia and inexplicably push his thermometer right into her forehead. He was only barely surprised to find that it offered no resistance whatsoever. Juvia rolled her eyes at this.
„Lucy, Erza, Juvia would like to know where you find these idiots." A quick jet of water knocked the professor of his feet. He did not even seem to care, but was instead transfixed by his thermometer.
„Those are interesting readings. Can I do that again!" he shouted. Meanwhile, the other two scientists tried to leave nonchalantly, but a wave closed the doors at either end of the room.
„Juvia will see you brought to justice. You should be grateful; bringing you to justice was not her first idea." she solemnly announced. From the looks on their faces, the scientists believed every word of it.
Suddenly, De Monza appeared again, shouting „Stop!" In his hands was an electric cable, which had probably powered some of the machines here before. It wasn't sparking, as they should in the movies to show that it was live, but Lucy knew that every electric cable was live unless proven otherwise.
„One false move, miss, and your friend here will fry. He's why you came here, isn't he? And don't try anything with water, either, because if you miss, well…"
That was unexpected. Lucy had almost gotten her key out, but could she really dare act now? It seemed that Erza was making similar considerations. Oddly enough, however, Juvia was not. She just looked at Da Monza as if she was annoyed with a naughty school child. Suddenly, and to his apparent surprise, he moved his hand away. Juvia spoke, very slowly and carefully.
„Half of your blood is water. Your muscles are water. Your eyes are full of water. Your brain is full of water. Drip, Drip, Drop."
As she spoke, the cable moved closer to De Monza. His legs twitched, as if he wanted to run but couldn't. Lucy decided that this was the time to act and quickly opened a gate. It was the first time she had tried to do it silently, but it worked without a problem. Neither Juvia nor De Monza noticed.
„It occurs to Juvia that she has not introduced herself. You are speaking to Juvia of the Great Sea. Her body is water. Her mind is one with the water. She controls all water around her. Drip, drip, drop."
She paused, while bringing the cable closer to De Monza's chin. Meanwhile, Cancer was making short work of the net. Normally, Lucy would have been enormously proud that she could get out of a situation where Erza couldn't, but right now, all her thoughts focused on what Juvia might do.
„Juvia is in love with this mean. You have abducted him, strapped him down and filled him with drugs until he couldn't speak anymore. And now you are threatening his life. You will die."
„Juvia, don't!" shouted Erza as Lucy threw out her whip. She was lucky: She managed to catch the cable easily. It was a good thing she had just her normal whip. Right now, she did not want to know whether Juvia had power over the Fleuve d'étoiles.
The water lady sent a look full of hatred at Lucy as she noticed the interruption. It stopped the stellar mage in her tracks, and for a second she wondered if she would be the next target, but then Juvia relaxed.
„Juvia's friends are right, of course. Lucy, Juvia would be very grateful if you could disconnect the cable. Erza, would you mind tying this… person… up?"
Lucy just yanked at her whip, which made the cable come out of the plug. Erza ripped a restraint from an unoccupied bed and bound De Monza's hands behind his back. Meanwhile, Juvia went to work on the restraints that kept Gray tied down.
Erza and Lucy quickly went to work on the other beds, and the whimpering male assistant scientist (who was apparently too scared to give his name) confirmed that yes, there was no harm in just disconnecting them from the machines they were attached to. To Juvia's dismay, however, none of the people woke up quickly. Apparently, that would take another hour or so.
They were almost done when Natsu appeared, apparently sick. Happy was running behind him. Even though Natsu seemed to be in a hurry, he made sure to close the door properly behind him.
„What is so wrong with stairs!" shouted the dragon slayer. „I hate elevators. I'm never getting into one again!"
„Aye!" said Happy. „After the first basement floor, I had to carry him down. He is heavy!"
Erza looked confused. „Wait, so you flew in the elevator? When it goes down, do you have to fly down, too, or does it just happen because the air moves?"
Happy thought intensely for a while. „I don't remember."
„How can you not remember? It was ten minutes ago!"
Lucy shouted: „Forget that! Why are you here so late? Juvia did give the signal, didn't she?"
„Yes", said Natsu. „But we ran into a problem on the way here. One was the elevator and b)"
„Monsters!" screamed Happy. „People who turned to Monsters! Out to eat our brains! And steal our fish!"
„Wait, what?" asked Lucy. „Monsters? What kind of monsters?"
Suddenly, they heard a loud pounding on the door.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The door buckled with every Bang and finally burst open. Natsu pointed at the grotesque shapes moving towards them.
„That kind of monster."
Author's note: The last chapter was too long for my purposes. I simply don't have the time to finish so many chapters that are this long, and I'd prefer to have a bit more frequent updates. So this is the first part of what was originally planned to become a very long chapter 6. I hope you don't mind!
By the way: The answer to Erza's question should be fairly obvious, assuming an elevator that has only negligible access to outside air when the door is closed. Notice that it is not static over one elevator ride.