HI MY LOVIES! Sorry for the wait! I just HAD to make sure it was JUUUUST the way I liked it! My oldest baby's almost complete, and I'm being picky! *hands out popcorn and candy* Don't hate me! Just remember that Lick likes to spoil you! Have as much candy as you want! It's HALLOWEEN! ((In the story neway! XD))
Rated M.
M is for MATURE people.
If I can pretend to be, then you can too.
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING! *sob* However sometimes I wonder if Mashima-sama used to follow me around and take character ideas from my friends and I.
At least let a girl dream!
Chapter 31
The Hunt and the Hunted
The night held promise, the promise of pay back. This guy, girl, thing—whatever has had this coming for probably 30 years. The promise of a beat down for holding souls against their will and, more importantly, going after Lucy while she was already down.
Sure, the captive souls had possessed the girls, but Gramps had been fighting with something before they passed out. He hadn't said anything about it, but it would have been hard not to notice.
She was alive, for a while there Natsu had thought he might have to figure out how to sneak past the River Stix. Gajeel and Laxus were out there somewhere, still running around town. Natsu had returned to the square to sniff around. If Gramps had fought something here, maybe he could pick up a smell, a magic trail—something!
Stupid souls had been captive for that long and all they could give them was a room full of old dark magic? That's just great. Magnolia isn't a small village, there's magic everywhere! Was he supposed to break into every suspicious magic shop?
Cuz I will if I have to...
Feeling his hunter instincts, calmness filled him as he opened his senses. Anything weird would do, just gimmie a bone to follow. A crow squawked as he stared up at the crystal ball and flared up his irritation again, causing him to think the bird was goading him on.
Calm down, it's just a dumb bird. The orb still swam with stardust, almost like a big swirling snow globe. Natsu was out of his element, there was no trail, no smell, and as far as he could tell, no residual magic to follow. This wasn't something that he could just could just run at blindly...
There was too much at stake.
^.^
"We have wizards positioned all throughout town, Master. They are waiting for the traditional flashes and bangs!" Mirajane smiled, everything was going to work out, she just knew it.
Makarov nodded, "That's good. I wonder though." He opened an eye to peer at Cana, "if you would release our mage, she could use her magic to pin point your captive's hide out."
Cana's eyes widened, "Are you kidding?" She huffed, struggled and fought her bindings, "you take all my stuff and you stick me in this chair, and now you want me to leave the only treasure I have left?" She scoffed at him, "not on your life old man."
"At least you'd finally make yourself useful," Lucy said with her nose in the air. "Heh, by leaving!"
"Oh HOOOOO!" Levy cried out, "you think you're sooooo damn clever! You just make sure you stay right there so I can kick your stupid ass just as soon as I get," she struggled, "loose!"
"You fellers just cut it out!" Erza's cheeks had a hint of red to them as she slammed another mug down on the table. "they tied you up because you were acting like damn fools." She turned to look at Cana, opened her mouth to speak, but a loud belch came out instead.
"Oh my," Mirajane jumped.
Guildarts laughed.
Erza shook her head and looked back to Makarov. "I'm pretty sure if any of us left your friends, we'd just get sucked right back up into that freak's prison—and that's not something I'd wish even on the kleptomaniac over there."
Guildarts raised a brow at that, "You're telling me that you'd just slingshot right back over there? Boom, just like that?"
Erza rose her brow at the odd statement, "Was I talkin to you, son? Ease droppin ain't something young people oughta be doin. Don't interrupt! I was speakin with this feller over here."
With a nod, Makarov nodded. "An interesting thing to happen, indeed."
Attempting to ignore Erza's rebuttal, Guildarts put an inquisitive finger to his lips. "Wasn't one of Laxus' lackeys practiced in soul magic?"
Mirajane's eyes widened, "Bickslow! If he were here, he might be able to follow the spirit right back to where they were being held! What a wonderful idea, Master!"
Both Makarov and Guildarts smiled and said, "Thank you!" This made them stare at each other.
"I'll try and call him up." Mirajane scuttled off.
Happy perked up, "I'll go get him!"
"Now hold yer horses!" Erza almost yelled, "no one ever said nothing about leaving before you fellers took care of that guy!"
"That's what you're gonna be crying when we have you pinned to a table with an exorcism forcing you back..." Guildarts said with narrowed eyes.
^.^
A crow with red eyes took to the air from its perch on the structure that fell from underneath it. It squealed out its rage at the creature down on the ground, but it was never heard over the dragon's infuriated roar.
"GrrrrrrrrrRRRAAAAAAUGH!" Gajeel had just renovated an abandoned building. Things had just been getting good between him and Levy when some damn punk had to take her over. That guy was bruisin her up! She was sure to have a shiner on her eye thanks to him. What was he thinkin, fights would solve everything? A man needed to be gentle with a woman. He frowned at the rubble and moved on.
No stink here, just a dragon letting off some steam. I wonder if I can stuff that punk into sumthin else so I can beat the shit outta him before I lettem cross over. "Heh."
^.^
Laxus stood on top of the bell tower of an old church, scanning the town. He knew a thing or two about dark magic, he just needed to get a feel of Magnolia's different energies. A crow flew in circles around the walls of the tower he was mounted on.
Over to the north stood the clinic. Lacrima's suffused with potions and the like. Nothing there.
To the west, taverns and hotels. Could be something, he wasn't getting much of an aura of anything though.
East. East was the magical branch. Shops of all kinds, auras were mixed and mingled there to keep anything from being separated out. Maybe that's where he should head, but the west was tempting too.
Or perhaps right here, on the south end of town. Old holy aura's were mussing up scents everywhere. Damn, how did Cana stay up this late nearly every night? He was feeling exhaustion from the late/early morning hour and no rest since the Rite. Had it even been completed? Or did those dicks who took Cana and the others cut it short?
A growl escaped through clenched teeth as he thought about all those pointless fights he'd had with her. If she was around now, he'd tell her to go have a blast with Bacchus—so long as she was free to be herself. Right now she was a captive in her own body, and that was way worse than enjoying a few... dozen drinks with a friend. He didn't like this feeling, he was a lightning dragonslayer! He should be able to zap that thing right out of Cana and be done with this.
Laxus wasn't going to admit it, but he already missed her terribly.
^.^
Lisanna and Bickslow raced down the main street leading to the guild after Happy. The youngest take over mage had not been able to rest after Porlyusica arrived and demanded everyone to leave. She was so relieved when her dear friend came to ask for Bickslow personally. Of course she came too, that's what girlfriends do right? Have their man's back? It's not that she was worried or anything!
Oh, who was she kidding! She wanted to know how her friends were doing!
Something that she needed to know an hour ago. So when she felt something slam a claw onto her shoulder, Lisanna did not scream from fear, she screamed from frustration. Whatever the reason, it stopped Bickslow and Happy in their tracks so they could see the reason for such distress.
Bickslow didn't miss a beat, he immediately pointed a palm toward a dark shadow looming over Lisanna, his Lisanna. "Hold it down Babies!"
"Get it! Get it!" His souls responded eagerly, heeding his call.
Morphing into a songbird forced the presence to release Lisanna but at the same time allowed it to slink back into the shadow so there was nothing for Bickslow's souls to capture. Something far too easy in the full darkness of night. His dolls ran right into a brick wall instead of the substantial something that had grabbed Lisanna.
She was fluttering over to land on his shoulder when a low cry that sounded eerily like a woman's scream came from a crow that swooped in and grabbed Lisanna, slamming her into the cobblestones with its talons piercing into her wings.
"LISANNA!" Happy cried out.
The sound of the sweet songbird's painful cry ripped Bickslow's heart in two. Before he even commanded one of his souls, one to them blasted the crow off of her. He ran to Lisanna's tiny form and lifted her up carefully with both hands. If she transformed back, her wounds would stretch with her, possibly spreading to something vital.
"Lisanna! Can you hear me?" He choked out. The wizard turned up at Happy, "Go find Wendy! Please! Tell her to meet us at the guild!"
"Aye!" Happy sped away using every bit of his Aera magic.
The gurgled chirp he got in return was not reassuring. He tucked her into the crook of his arm and ran as fast as he could toward the guild. Soon his destination came into view, but he skidded to a stop when he noticed the building's shadow was stretching out to meet him. Bickslow had a feeling that darkness was not something he wanted touching him.
He took a step closer to the guild, the shadow crept closer.
He took a step back, the shadow backed as well.
"Something doesn't want me to get to the guild, Baby."
Lisanna weakly chirped in response, it must be too difficult to talk with her wounds. Looking down at her, he noticed she had a gash down the side of her neck—he hadn't noticed that, he'd thought her wounds were just on her wings. "Damnit, we need to get you to Wendy."
"We're right here!" Called out Carla who was flying Wendy down the lane with Happy trailing behind.
"Thank Mavis!" Bicklow's tongue hung out happily, "Lisanna's hurt!" he motioned to the tiny bird he held.
"Okay, I can handle this!" Wendy laid shining hands on her guild mate.
"I know you can little lady," Bickslow smiled.
Wendy smiled too, healing a tiny bird was far easier than healing a full grown woman. Very soon, Lisanna was fluttering around both of them. "Thank you!"
"Well come now!" Carla harrumphed, "let's go see how our wizards are doing!" She motioned to their guild hall.
Lisanna morphed back into her form, and ran with Wendy and Carla. Happy passed Bickslow and paused when he didn't move. "What's wrong Bickslow? You're the one they need!"
"And I'm sure they need me for a damn good reason too," he crossed his arms and grinned widely, "cuz it's lookin like the bad guy doesn't want me there!" Bickslow stepped forward and back, watching the elongated guild hall shadow do the same. "Looks like I got my own personal booby trap, little guy!"
Lisanna, Wendy and Carla stopped and turned around, "What are you waiting for?"
The soul wizard looked up to Happy, "Might just be the ground, wanna gimmie a ride?"
"I'll try..." Happy hefted him up, surprised that he wasn't really that heavier than Natsu and flew him over the shadow. Arms with taloned hands started reaching out from the darkness, causing the ladies up ahead to squeal and run the rest of the way into the Hall.
This time the arms only han want for the soul manipulator. Bickslow directed his babies to shoot them down, giving him the opportunity to make it into the guild.
Truly, something had not wanted him to make it here.
^.^
The screams of an entire murder of crows stirred Natsu out of his search. He had begun pacing around the outside of the main square where the people had crowded during the Rite, curious if the culprit had been a part of the on-lookers. The sound of rage coming from above in the form of far too many birds couldn't be natural. He looked into the moonlit sky and saw them flying as one toward—
The guild—LUCY! His feet started moving before he knew what to do, but as his mind reeled, he stopped. Those birds... something stinks about those birds. Wait! It's dark magic! Those crows aren't crows at all! His feet itched even more to return to the guild, but no. Lucy was in the safest place in the entire town, and if a bunch of dumb magic imbued feather brains wanted to try and wage war on FairyTail... he'd let them try.
He was gonna follow their scent to their master. The smell was in the air, so he had to be quick, it would dissipate in an alarming rate. Natsu ran westward, as fast as his feet would carry him. "I'm comin, you ass! I'm all fired up now!"
This had to be right, it couldn't be coincidence that a big bunch of crows with the stink of dark magic would be flying off toward the guild without a good reason. By now I'm sure Mr. Bad Guy knows we got his souls—so why wouldn't he send something weird to go gettem back? Typical bad guy, too chicken shit go get his claim back personally. A bigger smirk set in on his face, time for him to learn how to get things done the RIGHT way. Up close and personal!
^.^
Bickslow was explaining to the soul within Cana exactly how things were gonna go down when a loud crash and a surprised feminine squeal of pain echoed through the entire guild. Everyone turned to look at the other two girls duct taped to chairs. Lucy was hopping, chair and all, screaming in pain from Levy. Somehow, the soul in the blunette had managed to tip her chair over and as she fell, had lodged her teeth into Lucy's arm.
Perhaps some part of FairyTail's script mage was pitbull, because that girl had her jaw locked on her arm. Every hop Lucy managed just dragged Levy with her. "LEGGO OF ME YOU NUT JOB!"
Levy just growled, happy to make the other squirm.
Everyone stared, completely taken off guard at the sight of Levy biting the holy hell out of Lucy. Guildarts couldn't help but snicker at the scene they were putting on, Lucy's bugged out eyes and huge mouth screaming as she desperately tried to get away; Levy's angry but triumphant eyes fully centered on causing Lucy pain. He was really trying not to break down into a full laughing fit. {{AN: Thinkin about you right now, Snavej XD}}
Erza was the one who straight guffawed at the sight, in a full old man knee slapping laughing riot! Makarov was the one to separate them with a surprised Levy opening her mouth to gasp when a gargantuan hand grasped her entire body—chair and all—and brought her to stare straight into the angry eyes of the guild master.
"Those are NOT your bodies to tear up! So unless you want me to start an exorcism right NOW, I suggest you start behaving yourself."
Levy shrunk and whimpered, "Yes sir, sorry sir."
Lucy had X's for eyes that were streaming tears in her now tipped over chair. Mirajane was already next to her, putting two big bandages on her arm into another X.
"Umm... you guys?" Wendy started closing the doors.
"What's up, lil dragon girl?" Bickslow answered, but as soon as he did, he saw a whole murder of crows flying down to the doorway. He raced to the other door and slammed it shut right as Wendy got the other closed and he pulled the board down over it so it would stay secure. The two of them braced for impact, but it never came. Wendy rushed upstairs to glance out the window where Happy joined her.
The blue exceed's tail grew fuzzy, "There's a whole SWARM of birds out there you guys! Creepy!"
Carla folded her arms, "A pack of crows is called a murder. Well I suppose now it's officially Halloween! Happy, are you honestly scared of a few measly birds?!"
Happy turned to face her, putting on a brave face. "No way! Let's go get them Carla!"
Bickslow had inched over to the window too. "Those are just like the one that attacked Lisanna. Nasty things."
"Something is trying to keep us pinned up in here!" Makarov said, "FairyTail! Go show them what happens when they mess with one of our own!"
Mirajane, Lisanna, Bickslow, Carla, Happy and Wendy all saluted with a, "Aye sir!"
They rushed outside and Makarov gave Guildarts a sidelong glance. "That's you too, boy."
"Oh! Yeah!" Guildarts smiled nervously with a scratch to the back of his head, and joined the rest of them.
^.^
Natsu's run to the west side led his nose to an old hotel. Ten years ago it may have been nice, fancy even, but now it had fallen into disrepair. Someone was not caring for the place properly. "Geez... what a dump."
Time for subtlety was over. This whole place reeked of the same stink of those birds. Natsu gave out a loud cry as he flamed up and punched right through the paint chipped double doors. Inside was dark, dusty, and desolate. No furniture or rug, only the check in counter across from a would-be lobby.
"Knock, knock!" Natsu's voice echoed. He scanned the area before adding, "your door was lookin kinda shabby, so I got rid of it for ya."
"Hey Salamander!"
Natsu froze, really not wanting to hear the iron dragon's voice behind him.
"You thought you'd have the fun all on your own huh? Geheh, fat chance!"
"What are ya, FOLLOWING ME?!" Natsu turned and yelled at him, "go find your OWN bad guy!"
"I don't think so! I'm takin this creep down!"
"NO WAY!" Natsu pressed his face up to his, "Finder's keepers! Get outta here, jerk!"
Gajeel growled back, "I ain't goin no where til that creep gets outta Levy!"
"Well I'm not goin anywhere either!"
"Then get outta my way, cuz I'm goin further in!"
"Not before I do!" Natsu growled back.
"Well, well, well." A voice came from all around the room, "it would seem that FairyTail sent us their best and brightest!"
The two dragons quieted and looked around. Natsu yelled out, "Oh yea? What's it to you? Pretty soon you're just gonna be another thing on the barbeque!"
While the voice laughed, Natsu whispered to Gajeel, "Whatever man, I'll go upstairs, and you take the basement."
"Oh, I'll take the basement, but it's cuz I want to!" Gajeel growled under his breath.
They split at the stairs and Natsu started checking every door. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
Gajeel followed the dilapidated stairs to an intensely dark corridor. He stopped for a moment to allow his eyes to adjust. This place really made his nose itch. The dragon continued the path until he turned a corner, the hall leading toward a room with a giant table, a rune circle scratched into it. In the middle sat a chest that pulsed like it was alive, illuminated by four candles placed on all four corners of the table. The flames glowed an unnatural purple.
"This is excellent! To think FairyTail would just feed us one of the last souls we need!" A man of around 25 walked into the light from the other side of the room. He wore a dark cloak that covered most of his features. "You dragonslayers really are dim-witted, aren't you?"
Gajeel smirked and popped his wrists, "Too little, too late Salamander. This one's mine." Gajeel moved in to strike, but it felt like his feet weighed a million pounds suddenly, "what the—"
"Ah hahahaha!" The man laughed, "the moment you walked through that hallway willingly, you were giving your soul to our cause! And now that your body is trapped too, there is nothing you can do! Mother with will be so proud that I caught the orphan!"
"Mother? Orphan?" Gajeel looked down at his feet to see that he was standing in a pool some sort of purple sludge. "What is this stuff!"
"It is my power of course!" The man smiled proudly, "soon it will encase your whole body until you look like a delicious gummy bear!" He started laughing, "or perhaps I should say, gummy dragon! Ah hahahahaha!"
Meanwhile, Natsu was getting impatient. Second floor and still nothing. He stood in perhaps the twentieth room when a voice behind him made him smile. Finally!
"It looks like you're a little lost, brat."
Natsu turned around and faced him with a devilish smile, "Well then don't just stand there! Come gimmie a hand!" He leaped at him and punched him right in the jaw with a flaming fist. "That was for interrupting our Rite! We work hard on that, man!" The dragon then punched him with his other hand, "that's for making me come out here to find your sorry ass... and this," Natsu stood up and quickly duplicated a Lucy kick to the second power. "THIS is for messin with MY MATE!"
The man plastered on the ground groaned miserably, Natsu was bending over to pick him up by the collar when the floor creaked underneath them. "Oh shit," said the dragon. He knew what that sound meant. Before the count of three, both man and dragon fell through the weakened floor.
The first floor barely caught them, quickly giving way as well, so their falling yelps and yips were doubled as they crashed down into the basement, and even broke the hardwood floor there, finally caught by the building's foundation. The man Natsu had splayed on the ground caught the worst of the multiple falls and was laid out unconscious with an expired grin.
"Ugh..." Natsu pulled himself out of the foundation with a wince. He stood up, dusted himself off and looked up at where they'd just been on the second floor. "Yep!" The wizard looked back down at the guy down on the concrete foundation, "you'll be out for a while!"
With a sniff of his nose, Natsu looked to his right. Gajeel was staring at him like he was the oddest thing he'd seen in his life, to which Natsu flashed him a happy grin and a wave. "Oh hey Ironeyes!" He pointed at the guy in the shallow hole with his thumb, "got the bad guy!"
Natsu's eyes widened curiously when he heard sputtering behind him, "You, you, you! What have you done to big brother!"
The fire wizard looked over his shoulder at a cloaked person on the other side of the table. He then looked back to Gajeel, and cupped his hands behind his head. "Who's that?"
"Damnit Salamander!" Gajeel barked, "just get him!"
"HAH!" Natsu laughed, "What? Was he too much for you? This little guy?" He started laughing harder.
Gajeel extended his arm into an iron battering ram and slammed Natsu over the table and into the guy behind him.
Natsu jumped to his feet and barked back, "What the hell was that for?!"
"For laughin at me ya damn Flamebrain!" Gajeel yelled back.
Natsu grabbed the man behind him and threw him at the iron dragon, "I'll laugh at whatever I want!"
Gajeel deflected the now very bruised individual to the side and discovered he could now move his legs, the purple muck was gone. He stormed over closer to the table, "Not if it's at me! You don't ever got a reason to laugh at me if you'd bother to get the whole damn story first!"
Natsu jumped onto the table to hover over the taller dragon, pushing the odd chest to the side slightly, "Oh yea? If your stories are half as bad as your songs then—"
In an ear-splitting cacophony of crows' cries, the creatures came flooding into the basement. For a moment, the dragons felt strangled by the amount of feathered bodies in the enclosed area. Not as soon as they would have liked, the birds all congregated into a small space behind the table. They formed into a woman who looked just as old as the two men, Natsu couldn't tell if she was wearing a Halloween costume, or if she dressed like a gothic witch adorned with black feathers everyday. He didn't care about that though. What he cared about, was the unconscious wizard she'd carelessly dumped on the ground at her feet. Bickslow.
"Well, well." The woman held her hat in place with one hand as she stroked though her raven black hair with the other, "looks like my boys finally did something right!" Her blood red lips curled into a smile as she eyed the dragons in front of her, "two orphans for the price of one. And such handsome boys too! Mmhmm, won't my Lord be pleased!"
Hey all! If you haven't checked it out yet, I've already dived into my new story, Zombie Earthland: A Love Story? I am very excited about this one, lol, kinda like I was with THIS one! Eeek, well at least I'm enjoying myself! I just couldn't end this fic without another project under works-it was too DEPRESSING! I LOVE TO WRITE! Eh heh... my yammering would make so much more sense if we could sit together for coffee (where I could glomp you and lick you literally! mwahahaha!). AHEM! Aaaaanywhooo-on with the licking! I LOVE YOU!
AuroraWolfe: I'm sure Guildarts is coming up with a few delicious ways for Laxus to decide if whether or not Cana is the girl for him! Should there be a bonus chapter, I'm sure there will be some giggles there. ;)
Snavej: You saw when I thought about you right? RIGHT?! XD
Moon Stone Tiger Lily: A few more tugs at your heart and maybe you won't run away when I try to lick you! Huh, huh? Yea!
tkitty23: Those two men holding down the fort for Mommy are probably hating to be the bad guy right about now too! :D
Fanficlove2014: Yes my Luv, Erza is still wearing her typical outfit... awkward indeed! Old man doesn't seem to care though! HAH! Erza would be so mortified! Spell? What spell? Ain't no spell cookin around here! Nobody here but us chickens! :x
Much love
Stay naughty
There's a typo demon dancing on my head. o.o;;
Seri aka Lick