"BANDITS IN TOWN! Where are the Fairy Tail Wizards!?"
Lucy bolted out of the kitchen and rushed for the door, grabbing her cloak from the coat rack near the door.
Natsu and Cana rushed out the door while She put it on, then followed her friends.
People were moving everywhere, some were running, some were fighting, houses were burning, jeering and screams were heard in the air.
"Natsu! Eat those housefires and take out anyone who gets in your way!" Cana directed. "Lucy, we'll start taking out the trash! Let's Go!"
"Right!" Natsu shot off the mark, tearing through bandits, rushing to the first house.
Lucy nodded and followed Cana through the town.
Time for a fight then.
She concentrated as she ran, generating star after star. She stopped when she had nine. She may have to conserve power for later.
As they saw the group of bandits ahead, they attacked.
"Scholar! Tower! Reverse Warrior! World! Trixter! CHAIN LIGHTING!" Cana's card glowed, and thunderbolts raced out of them, crashing into one bandit, then bouncing around all the others.
My turn! FOUR STAR FIELD! TWO STAR IMPACT!
As two stars settled in her hand, another four formed a glowing square at her feet, the stars in each corner.
Ok, It won't last long once I'm outside the field, so then- FOUR STAR FIELD: SPEED!
Lucy Lunged forwards, rushing at the bandits at breakneck speed.
She focused on the Bandits not touched by Cana's lightning, her impact fists smashing into them and sending them flying in all directions.
A gorilla of a man tried to wallop her, but she met the punch with her own punch, and his fist flew backwards, half spinning him. She punched him in the stomach while he was vulnerable and sent him flying too.
There was a booming crack. And something rushed by her cheek.
"That's gun magic! Lucy! Sniper!"
SINGLE STAR SHIELD!
One of her spare stars flew up to her chest.
Another boom.
A bullet pinged off her shield.
And another.
She felt her shield flicker and die, the star on her chest fading and disappearing.
Not good. SINGLE STAR SHIELD!
Another star shielded her in starlight as she dived behind a building, bullets pinging off her.
Just as she got behind the building the star died.
It can get through my shield. New approach then.
She drew her dagger and used the reflection to peer around the corner.
Four bandits with magic guns, two were sending bolts into the building she was behind, and the other two were taking shots at Cana.
She was ducking behind cover as she evaded a huge musclebound guy, struggling to stay in cover as she stayed out of reach of the brute.
I can't aim my arrows and i may hit Cana, my shield won't work, so…
Lucy frowned in concentration. SIX STAR STREAM!
Six stars appeared all in a line and sped towards the bandits, curving around the corner.
They flowed around obstacles like a river of starlight and one by one they split off to strike Bandits.
The four snipers fell and the brute was struck and dazed.
The last star chased down a skinny and agile bandit, following him as he jumped around.
"What the hell is this magic?" He yelled as he danced frantically.
Cana started laughing watching the bandit jumping around as she sat on a block of ice that held the brute she was fighting a second ago.
Lucy smiled too.
"It's not funny! Waah!" He barely got out as he had another near miss with her star.
This caused Cana to laugh harder. "Can ya make him do the rambah next?" She managed to gasp through her cackling.
Lucy started to giggle, but then had a thought.
This guy may know more about the bandits we are going to take out tomorow, if this isn't them already.
She forced her star to stop right in front of him.
She snapped her fingers to get his attention before scribing -Who is your leader?-
"Huh? What? You not gonna talk?"
The star feinted at him at the same time as her eye twitched.
He put his arms up in front of his face. "Ah, I'm sorry, our leader is Hot Dog Hammel, and we are the Heat Brigade bandits."
-Nice to know. Now, where are your camps, and where is Hot Dog?-
"We got three camps in the forest…"
A Gout of flame shot up into the sky
A few moments later a Roar reverberated through town.
Natsu
-Take care of him?- Lucy scrawled. -I want to check on Natsu.-
"Sure, come here handsome, we got things to talk about." Cana grinned as Lucy took off towards the flame.
Bandits were running towards her, weaponless and terrified.
"It's a Demon!"
"Monster!"
"He ate my fire Magic!"
She swerved around the scrambling Bandits, starting to run harder.
Is he in trouble? Has he pushed himself too far?
As she rounded the corner…
Nope.
Natsu was having a ball.
He Laughed maniacally as he tore through Bandit after Bandit, slurping up housefires as he went.
"Come get some." He yelled at them grinning.
"Get him!"
"UUUUAAHHHHHH!" They yelled as they charged at him, spells or magical weapons glowing in their hands.
"Hahahaha! FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"
He sent bandits flying in all directions, but they kept coming.
"Flame Burst!" One of the bandits threw fire at Natsu which he gobbled up hungrily.
"No way!"
"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!"
Flames boomed out of his mouth and swept all around him, scorching anyone close by and sending everyone else flying.
He heard a scream from one of the houses.
"No, please don't…" He herd faintly.
Natsu ran to the house and Kicked down the door.
There stood a clean and suave bandit with a sword in his hand and his pants down. He was holding on to a woman with the other, her clothes ripped and showing her skin.
Her eyes were frightened and Panicked as they darted to Natsu.
He stared into those eyes.
The same ones Lucy had last night.
Exactly the same.
He felt something burning, seething inside him.
Is this the kind of thing that happened to Lucy?
He couldn't….it was just…..
"Who the…" He didn't have time to finish as Natsu moved in front of him and twisted his arm that was holding the girl.
"Aggghhhhh!" Natsu heard something snap as the man let the girl go.
He set his fist on fire and swung it with all his strength at the Man's face.
The man went flying out the door at breakneck speed and smashed into the fountain outside.
"Hey, you all right?" He asked the shivering girl.
She looked at him fearfully and almost disbelieving.
He tilted his head. "You look ok." He observed, then got up to walk to the exit. "Oh well, going to beat that guy up. See ya!" He was halfway out the door when he stuck his head back in. "Next time, scream louder. I barely heard you."
Natsu walked out, his anger seeping back to him as he walked towards his target.
"Uhhhh, ohwo wait, it uh misunderstanding!" He stammered as he splashed pathetically in the fountain, trying to get away from him.
Natsu Just Roared as he punched him in the face.
The man flopped, out cold.
"WHO WANTS SOME?!" Natsu bellowed as flames danced around him.
The Bandits who were standing or the ones that still could, ran.
No big fires around, bandits running for their lives.
Ok. No distractions.
He set one of his fingers on fire and started drawing on the forehead of the man in the fountain.
As she rounded the corner….
Natsu was standing over a bandit in the fountain, his arms crossed and hand on his chin, a large grin on his face.
A thinking pose. Should I be worried?
There were Bandits littered all around the square, unconscious or too injured to move. All their cloths had burn marks, and some were still smoking.
Natsu turned to see Lucy standing there.
"Oh hey. We done? Normaly I'd love to keep fighting, but right now I could really get some sleep."
-You are ok?- She wrote as she padded over to him
"I'm fine!" He said with his signature grin. "Just got a bit angry."
Lucy noticed his eyes. They were slitted and cat like.
Dragon Eyes.
As she watched, his pupils started to shrink back, slowly becoming round.
"I was just admiring my art. I think I've improved. I've had a lot of practice on Grey from when he was asleep."
Lucy saw on the bandit in the fountain, there was a burn on his forehead, one shaped like….
A penis.
-Real Mature.- Lucy wrote with a deadpan expression.
"You saved me." Lucy turned towards the voice.
There stood a woman, not much older than lucy, a beautiful girl. But her clothing was ripped and torn, her eyes puffy and red from crying.
"Thank you." She told Natsu with such deep sincerity.
"Hey, no problem." He replied proudly. "It's what Fairy Tail Wizards do. We always save the day!"
"If you hadn't come when you did, I would have…." She clutched her ragged clothing closer to herself as she trailed off.
Penis burned on bandit's face, Natsu angry, beautiful woman with torn cloths and a bruise on her wrist.
Rape. The bandit tried to rape her.
Lucy took the girl into a hug, wrapping her arms around her comfortingly.
She stiffened, but relaxed and hugged her back.
"Thank you, Thank you. Thank you." The woman repeated as she cried into Lucy's shoulder.
Lucy just held her.
The dull stone Cell. The Naked Mummy headquarters prison. A place that would give any children nightmares.
It was where Lucy had opened her eyes, and started struggling as soon as she felt the bindings on her chest and feet.
"Well would ya look at that. Naked Mummy captured the Blond Heiress."
"Yeah bro, It's incredible that Naked mummy captured the blond Heiress,
"Yeah, but the girl did beat up a lot of our guys, maybe we teach her a lesson."
"Yeah bro, I was thinking we teach her a lesson for beating up our guys."
Lucy just tried to summon a star.
Just one, Please!
A fist crunched into her face, leaving her seeing stars
Another smashed into her guts, crunching her muscles and knocking the wind out of her.
Coughing and dazed, she tried to raise her hands to defend herself.
One of her hands was grabbed and slammed against a knee.
Lucy screamed as she felt and heard her bone snap.
A foot caught her chest and kicked her to the floor, a hand pinned her arm and her pinky had a boot smash down on it.
Lucy screamed again as her captor droned "This little piggy went to market."
His foot came down again on her ring finger.
"This little piggy went to town." his drawl was drowned out by screaming.
"Wait brother I think you got that one wrong."
"Yeah brother I think that I got that one wrong."
Concentrate, I need my star! COME ON LUCY DO IT!
She concentrated, her eyes closed and shaking from the effort, gathering all her power. She didn't hear what the two buffoons were saying.
SINGLE STAR SHIELD!
A faint glow surrounded her and a point of light shone on her chest.
YES! She opened her eyes and they widened when she saw they had their penises out and ready for her.
As soon as the tool touched the glow surrounding her, there was an evil crackle.
"Ow, she has a shield bro."
"Yeah she looks like she has a shield bro."
The two idiot's voices echoed through the stone cell.
"It stung me good."
"Yeah, it stung me bro."
Lucy was terrified out of her mind, but she had her shield.
Those bastards can do their worst.
A crashing boom thundered down the corridor.
"WHERE'S MAH GIRL?" A familiar voice roared in rage.
Salt Lucy thought, hope rising in her chest.
Another boom sounded.
"Do you know what that was brother?"
"Hey what was that brother?"
BOOM!
The grizzled white haired man burst in through the wall, his fists out and slamming into both brothers, sending them into the wall.
"Owch." They both droned in a monotone before collapsing to the floor, out cold.
"I got ya Lucy girl, I got ya." Salt whispered as he drew the meat cleaver from his belt and slashed it through the ropes.
He picked her up, turned, and started walking out the door.
She looked up into his eyes.
He smiled as he said. "We need to get out of here. Not a good Idea keepin' my crew around people they wana kill. Kay is bad enough, but Hector has gotten rather fond of you. And Mary…."
He shivered and whispered in her ear.
"Leme tell ya, it's always the Redheads that are fuckin' terrifying."
Lucy's bottom lip quivered. She was shaking with relief.
It felt so surreal, he was just bantering like everything was normal.
Thank you. She wanted to express it.
No, he deserved to hear it.
She wanted to tell him.
She opened up her mouth and tried to form the words.
Nothing.
Come on Lucy, do it! Tell him!
Only a short squeak got past her lips.
He stopped and looked down at her as she struggled to speak.
"Hey now lass, I know you can't. Here."
He handed her light pen over.
"Girl, I know you can't speak easy, if at all. But that you tried...that you wanted to….It means the world to me."
Lucy could only choke back tears, and she gripped her pen tighter as he started walking again.
She just wrote in the air
-Thank you-
And again.
-Thank you-
And again, even through blurry eyes.
-Thank you-
And again, even through shaking fingers.
-Thank you-
"Enough girl." He said gently as he lowered her writing hand. "Yer family. All for one and all that shit."
As he kissed her forehead, she buried her face in his scratchy white beard and let her tears flow.
She realized that today was her thirteenth birthday.
Lucy chuckled dryly.
"What is it girl?"
She just hummed the first few bars of happy birthday.
"Today is your birthday?" Salt asked surprised. "Fuck, if ida known I'd take ya to a more fancy place than this." He joked as he swept a hand around him at the bleak stone courtyard they emerged into.
"Well it was still a party here." Hector grunted, his eyes softening in relief as he saw them.
"Yep, I was in charge of confetti. Except it was red and wet and it doesn't come out of clothing very well. Naked Mummy had a rather large supply of it." Kay snickered at her own joke.
"We promise to get you something nicer when we get back." Mary lilted soothingly.
"Yeah, first thing's a shower for this sorry lot." Salt joked.
All three were covered in blood in some way.
Kay held a dripping sword with wicked serrated spikes along the blade, blood flecking her face.
Hector's face was smeared with blood, cloths stained, but somehow his axe was impeccably clean.
And Mary. Only her hands and two knives were bloody.
"We did all the work getting in here, you just ran straight through them all." Kay reprimanded.
"Ah well. Fuck you guys. I had more important shit to do" Salt squeezed Lucy lightly in his arms as the others fell in step behind him.
"Can you please watch your mouth." Mary drawled. "We don't want Lucy picking up your bad behavior."
"Speakin of bad behavior, we haven't sung happy birthday yet!" Salt exclaimed childishly.
"Really? You want to do that now?"
"Yeah, sure!"
Salt launched into it at the top of his lungs.
The other three reluctantly joined in.
Lucy was mortified and very embarrassed.
Like any thirteen year old would be if their family sang happy birthday to her at the top of their lungs.
This is ridiculous! Three people covered in blood, one grown man with white hair all bellowing happy birthday at the top of their lungs, after she had just been kidnapped, beaten up, almost raped, then rescued.
She laughed.
After all that, they still made her feel…..human.
"Come on, you know the song, hum it with us." Salt Boomed.
As Lucy Hummed Final Bars of Happy birthday, with her new Family singing it along with her, she wrote.
-I love you guys. Thank you.-