Hey guys! Sorry for the slightly-late chapter! Hope you enjoy it!
Notice: I own nothing, for I am not Hiro Mashima. Amen.
Chapter 12: The Servants of The Boss
If it weren't for Kagura's quick thinking and reflexes, she, Sting, and Yukino would have been dead on the spot.
As it was, Kagura felt the familiar tingling on the back of her neck that somehow confirmed the day's paranoia. Without thinking, Kagura knew that unless she did something now, she and her companions would be wiped out.
"Get down!" She tackled Sting and Yukino together, sending the three of them flying five feet, and used her Gravity Magic to pull them as deep under the water as she could.
Even through the sluggishness of the ocean water, Kagura could still easily hear the magnanimous explosion that erupted from back where they had been standing only moments before. Knowing they would all need air soon, she lightened their weight in order to rocket back to the surface about twenty yards down shore. She, Yukino, and Sting stumbled out of the waves, soaking wet and gasping for breath.
"Wow," Yukino breathed. "You saved us, Kagura. But what was that?"
Kagura pursed her lips and scanned the beach for enemies. She could not find any.
Then Sting's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Lector," he called on the brink of panic. "LECTOR! Where are you, Lector?" He was growing increasingly more desperate.
"Sting! Thank goodness you're alive!" Lector flew out of the smoke surrounding the blast vicinity. "I was looking for you! I thought you'd all been…" Their tearful embrace was cut short by Kagura's cutting inquiry.
"Lector, what's the situation look like over there? We need to get a better grip on what attacked us."
Lector straightened up. "It's not too good, Kagura. Look, the smoke's starting to clear.
Lector was right. The entire area of water they had been swimming in was dyed an ugly, dark shade of green. The water was intermixed with gobs of broken glass and orange slime. Even worse, the thick green soup seemed to be spreading throughout the water at an alarming rate.
"I think…" Yukino gulped. "We might want to get out of the water."
Nobody argued with that.
No sooner had they done so than arguing voices began to emerge from the bushes on the edge of the beach:
"No, I'm telling you, there's no way they survived! That bomb was filled with sixty-three different toxins, forty-seven radioactive chemicals, and fifty-one radioactive toxins! Plus, I octuple-checked my calculations, there's definitely no way I was off-target! There's no way they could have possibly survived!"
"Screw your calculations, you dolt, I can hear voices. Some of them survived, so I'm going to check."
"No! That area's been exposed to high radiation, Fang! If you go out there, I'm eighty-three point two percent sure it could kill you!"
"Oh, blast it!" said a third voice. "I can't take you two bickering all the time. I swear on my Honor that I'll bring back their dead bodies so you two will shut up."
A man emerged from the bushes and began squinting, scanning the beach. He was dressed in dark red samurai armor, a black cloak billowing around his shoulders in the midday wind. A large, horned helmet of the same dark red color covered his face and gave him a commanding, imperial presence. He stood tall and straight, his arms folded over his chest, surveying the landscape as if challenging it to an arm wrestle. When his gaze caught the three wizards, his jaw dropped in a rather uncharacteristically comical manner.
"Holy crap, guys! They all survived! Come see!"
Two more figures emerged from the brush, one so big it was hard to imagine him being able to hide in there and one so eccentric-looking it was hard to imagine overlooking him.
The former was a large humanoid creature with the body of a man and the head and arms of a lion. An extremely bulky figure, he stood at an imposing seven feet tall. His incredibly well-muscled chest and stomach were complemented by strong arms ending in sharp, curving claws and a ferocious lion's head, complete with a mane and everything. The most striking of his features, though: the entire mane and hairs on his arms were stark, albino white.
The second figure was far more striking in appearance, despite him standing at a mere four-and-a-half feet tall. His stark blonde hair, frazzled and disheveled, stuck up at odd ends and was matted down in others. The whole rat's nest looked like it was roiling with static electricity. His mottled old lab coat was peppered all over with multicolored stains, and smelled like a mixture of raw sulfur and vegetable oil. To top it off, over his eyes he wore a pair of grimy aviator's goggles.
"Fang! Nezbitt!" yelled the samurai. "And I, the Honorific Zao, shall not let you leave this place!"
"Hehe… Vanessa said she already took care of the dark-haired one," cackled the one presumably known as Nezbitt. "Good thing she left the rich pickings for us!"
Kagura and Sting leapt forward at the same time. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ROGUE?"
To Yukino, who was carefully observing, it all happened far too fast. Nezbitt quickly reached in and pulled a glass vial out of the folds of his coat. Yukino tried to yell a warning, but it was too late. Nezbitt shattered the vial on the sand beneath the three enemies' feet, and they vanished in a cloud of smoke. Kagura's and Sting's attacks fell on empty air, causing them to stumble and struggle to retain their balance.
"Oh, dear," came Nezbitt's high-pitched voice from behind them. The three wizards wheeled around to find their opponents standing unharmed about ten feet behind them. "I doubt you three will be able to go toe-to-toe with us if that's the best you can do!"
"Enough insults, Nezbitt," growled Fang. "What say you we divide and conquer?"
It appeared Zao had just noticed Archenemy. "Ooh! Ooh! I want the swordswoman!" he was energetically raising his hand as if in a classroom.
"I'll take the other lady then," said Nezbitt, eyeing Yukino and cackling creepily. Yukino shivered and backed up.
"Very well. I shall take the blonde runt, I suppose," rumbled Fang. "Just remember not to kill them. The Boss wants them alive."
"Hey! Who're you calling a runt, kitty? I swear I'll-" Kagura put out an arm to stop the would-be rampaging Sting.
"You say you have a boss? Just who are you people anyway, and what do you want?"
Nezbitt grinned. "Ha! There's no way we would tell-"
"Oh, what does it matter, Nezbitt, it's not like it matters whether they know who we are or not. We are mercenaries in the employ of The Boss. As to why The Boss wants the four of you… I have no idea."
Kagura rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's helpful."
"I thought it would be," agreed Zao. Kagura sweatdropped.
"Enough playtime!" shouted Fang. "Capture them!"
Far down the beach, near the end of the crowded touristy area, a man sat in a beach chair. Now, this man was not usually happy, but today he was. For today, in fact this very second, something very important was happening, and soon he would get everything he desired. Oh, how they'd rue the day they crossed paths with him! Oh, how they'd grovel! How they'd beg! How they'd beg him to join their secret club they wouldn't let him join before! Oh, it would be glorious!
The man's thoughts were interrupted by a tug on his ankle. Annoyed, the man looked down to see a pink frog staring back up at him.
"Excuse me, Mister," said the Frog. "Fro is lost. Can you help Fro find Rogue?"
Thanks for reading! Who do you think The Boss is? Let me know what you guys think by reviewing! (And also favoriting and following. You know, all that good stuff.) Sorry if this chapter was kinda short.
Alright guys, have a kewl day!