Chapter 29: Confrontations
The guards began closing in on the prisoners, who all huddled together tightly preparing to fight. Lucy's grip on the blacked out Natsu tightened as panic began setting in, she shook him slightly.
"Natsu? Natsu? Come on please get up." She tried to get him to his senses but he remained unresponsive, the poison had seemed to finally make it's course he was barely breathing and laid completely still in Lucy's arms. She glanced up in time to see Brain walking in her direction, she held Natsu closer to her protectively.
"Take this filth to the lab, he can join his Eisenwald friends in having his ethernano drained from him…" Brain spoke as he stepped over Erigor's body, a few guards moved forward and picked up the unconscious bald man dragging him away. Brain continued slowly walking towards Lucy and Natsu, he stopped in front of them and smirked.
"Hello little lady…." He looked directly into Lucy's eyes, and she tightened her hold on Natsu.
"I'm not letting you lay a hand on him!" She snapped, Brain crouched down and grinned a wicked grin, never breaking his eye contact with her.
"Don't worry…I don't intend to lay a hand on him...It's you I'm interested in…" He reached out to touch her cheek and Lucy scooted backwards. Someone's hand caught Brain's before it could reach her. She looked up at who was responsible and saw Jellal glaring down at Brain.
"You won't touch either of them." Was all he spoke while crushing Brain's hand who smirked back at him.
"I'm afraid you don't have much of a say in what I do or don't do, prisoner three." Brain stood back up towering over Jellal.
"Get Natsu out of here." Jellal commanded Lucy who sat there stunned as Jellal stared Brain down.
"They're not going anywhere. Neither are you...GUARDS!" Brain shouted and at once the large gaggle of guards rushed at the prisoners, while Brain turned and walked away.
"This should be fun…." Kagura muttered unsheathing her sword.
"Without our powers we won't be much help." Yukino noted as she raised her fists. Kinnana hid behind Cobra who growled and transformed his arms, flexing his claws.
"Stay behind me...I won't let them get to you." He hissed. Bacchus laughed and charged at the attacking guards.
"Powers or not! I can fight, and I have been waiting to let loose and get WILD!" He drunkenly cackled as he began fighting the guards with open palm strikes.
"Now that is a sentiment I agree with OH YEAH! I may not have my powers anymore but I can still punch! OH YEAH!" Richard joined Bacchus in attacking the guards who were charging at them. Kagura agreed with them and joined them slashing away with her sword.
"Get him to safety!" Jellal instructed Lucy who nodded and dragged Natsu away as the other two members of Crime Sorcière joined their leader.
"It's good to be fighting side by side again!" Meredy grinned as she held up her hand and yellow beams in the form of blades sending them flying through the air. Ultear smirked slightly from besides her.
"I conquer." She placed a close fist onto her palm just like Gray, Lyon and her mother and slapped the ground. At once large pink thorn bushes with roses sprung from the ground taking out several guards.
"Indeed, Crime Sorcière has returned!" Jellal held up his hand and nine swords made out of lightning formed above him and he shot them at the guards. Lucy dragged Natsu toward the van while the fighting continued.
"Please hang on a little longer Natsu…" She begged, she quickly stopped in her tracks as a guard flew past her flying through the air courtesy of a combined attack from the Sky Sisters.
"Where do you think you're going?" A soft voice whispered behind her before she could start moving again. She turned her head to look at the source of the voice, but there was nobody there. Suddenly though a throbbing pain came from the back her head causing her to collapse on the ground knocked out. Midnight smirked as he looked down at the two unconscious teens having become visible once again. He reached down grabbing the two and started dragging them away.
"Hold it right there." Lyon stepped in front of them getting in a stance ready to use his ice powers.
"Are you challenging me?" Midnight asked tucking a lock of hair behind his ear disinterested. Lyon didn't bother to answer and instead he thrusted his hands forward and hundreds of birds made from ice shot at him/
"So be it…" Midnight sighed and held up a hand, an invisible shield formed causing the oncoming attack to have no effect, turning himself invisible he sidestepped the rest of the birds that weren't blocked by his shield.
"What the? Where did he go?!" Lyon backed away looking around the large garage for where Midnight had vanished to.
"Behind you." Midnight whispered in Lyon's ear reappearing and delivering a chop to the back of his neck. Lyon coughed out some blood and fell to the ground, completely unconscious after only one strike. Midnight returned to what he was doing, he grabbed Lucy and Natsu once more and dragged them into the direction of his father's office. Unfortunately nobody saw this as they were quickly being overwhelmed by the sheer number advantage the guards had on them.
Cobra, and Sorano did the best they could to protect their loved ones. Sorano's large angel holding a hammer was quickly defeated though leading her and Yukino being surrounded. One guard took advantage of Cobra's super sensitive hearing by using an air horn next to him, throwing him off balance allowing another guard to tackle him to the ground.
"Erik!" Kinana shouted, rushing toward him, but some guards prevented her from reaching them as well. Sawyer was running as fast as he could pushing down as many guards as possible. Until he got tripped up by one of them and seconds later was in cuffs. Kagura, Bacchus, and Richard put up a valiant fight, but without their powers the numbers got to them, and they were also taken down. Wendy and Sherria were combining their powers forming large gusts of winds that were taking out guards that were coming near them.
"Wendy behind you!" Sherria yelled out to her younger friend who turned around in time to see a guard swing a bat at her. She flipped into the air evading it while Sherria sent a black twister at the guard in question. Wendy landed on the ground and beamed at her friend.
"Thanks for that!"
"Hey what are friends for?" Sherria smiled back brightly.
"Unhand me, this instant!" They heard Ichiya yell, they turned in time to see a large explosion send guards flying, while a pink smoke filled the room. It quickly revealed Ichiya standing there holding two glass beakers with a strange green liquid in them. He uncapped them and flung them into the crowd, more explosions followed. During his first night at the prison he had revealed that he did in fact not possess powers, and was just a great chemist. The only reason he had been arrested was due to a misunderstanding that resulted in his lab exploding. While Sherria and Wendy were watching him a few guards had snuck up on them and tackled them to the ground. Ichiya didn't fare much better, as soon as he had run out of vials of chemicals the guards had closed in on him. Leaving Crime Sorcière as the last ones standing, Meredy shot out a blast of pink lightning from her hands, while Ultear used her ice powers to freeze the floor from under the guard's feet. Jellal looked around the garage after throwing a guard that had jumped on his back off him, he cursed upon noticing everyone else laying on the ground defeated.
"I have no other option...I need to use it." He muttered, Meredy and Ultear glanced at him horrified.
"Jellal, you can't! It will destroy the entire building!" Ultear tried to reason with him.
"Ultear's right Jellal too many people could get seriously hurt!" Meredy added, Jellal closed his eyes.
"I have no other choice, unless I use it there is no possible way for us to get out of here…" He sighed and held up both his arms.
"JELLAL! STOP IT!" Ultear shouted as he placed one of his hands onto the other's palm holding up his index, and middle fingers.
"I'm sorry Ultear, but I'm afraid I must!" A gold aura swarmed around him. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath as the large group of guards grew closer to him.
"JELLAL!" PLEASE!" Meredy tried once more, but Jellal tuned her out as seven golden circles formed in the air connected by a line forming what appeared to be a constellation. The guards all stopped to look up at the glowing golden circles pondering what they could be. Jellal took a deep breath, his eyes snapping open.
"May the seven stars bring judgement upon you…" He muttered and immediately all seven circles shot a large beam down onto the ground exploding on contact. The ground began to shake, as guards were sent flying through the air. Smoke filled the room, and cleared a second later revealing Jellal standing side by side with the other members of Crime Sorcière surrounded by unconscious guards. Even though Jellal's attack wiped up a large number of the guards, there were still hundreds left standing. Bits from the ceiling fell to the ground, while the metal floor now had seven large circular holes burnt into it.
"Damn….it wasn't enough…." Jellal muttered, lowering his hands.
"There's just too many of them." Meredy confirmed. The guards circled them and closed in on them holding up tasers pointed at them.
"To think, we were so close to escaping this Hellhole…"Ultear frowned as she held her arms up in the air, while falling to her knees. Jellal, and Meredy mirrored her actions and surrendered, knowing that they had lost. It wasn't long until the three of them had collars around their necks, and were being pulled onto their feet, their allies facing a similar fate.
Gajeel perched on the corner of a rooftop near the Mayor's office, the cold air sent a welcome chill throughout his body. A pair of binoculars in hand as he stuffed his mouth with some chicken wings he had got before he started his stakeout.
"Gajeel, do you copy?" A voice spoke into the earpiece he had in, he pressed a button on the earpiece allowing him to speak back to the voice.
"You betcha shorty." He quipped back.
"Okay, I am putting my foot down on this whole short joke thing! It's starting to get old!" Levy snapped back, causing Gajeel to grin at the girl's spunk.
"It ain't my fault you are the size of my pinky finger."
"MOVING ON!...Are you in position?" Levy asked not bothering to disguise her annoyment.
"Mhm, and there has been a whole lot of nothing coming from the Mayor's office…." Gajeel looked into the binoculars once more looking in the direction of the building where he spotted Mard Geer sitting at a desk flipping through the pages of some kind of book.
"Dang…" Levy mumbled under her breath as she clicked away on her keyboard, writing down notes. After they had met up the other day to discuss the information Gajeel had uncovered the team had decided that their best course of action was to stalk for lack of a better word Mard Geer to try and catch him in the act of anything sketchy.
"What about you Erza?" She asked into her headset to the redhead on the other end. Erza much like Gajeel was perched on a nearby rooftop studying the scene, her red locks blowing the wind as she stared through the scope of a camera with a really zoomed in lense.
"I've got nothing….Unless eating calamari for dinner counts as a crime." Erza groaned as she lowered her camera.
"It should be, that stuffs nasty." Gray's voice chimed in through the earpiece, him and Juvia were sitting outside the building on opposite sides watching the doors and making note of anyone suspicious they saw walking into it.
"Gray darling is that you?!" Juvia excitedly asked into her own headphones looking around for where her beloved could be. She heard him exhale through the other end.
"Yep it's me." He sounded exasperated it was almost like he had explained to Juvia ten minutes ago that just because she could hear him doesn't mean he was standing next to her, much to her dismay.
"Wait everyone shut up! I think I got something." Gajeel silenced all the chatter as he peeked through his binoculars looking into Mard Geer's office as he was talking to someone who had just walked in. They had a lanky build and were definitely on the older side judging by the long white hair and beard. He looked like every cliché wizard from fantasy movies.
"I got a picture of the man, Levy I'm sending it over to you to see if you can figure out who he is." Erza stated and quickly downloaded the picture to her laptop that was set up to a hotspot and emailed it over to Levy.
"On it." The blunette agreed immediately. Gajeel meanwhile was staring at the two men inside the office closely, it looked like they were having an argument of some kind based on their body language, it looked like they were shouting at each other.
"Okay luckily that guy has been in the news recently...his name is Precht Gaebolg, a convicted member of the Balam Alliance...the article states that he was the leader of the branch known as Grimoire Heart, I guess there was a falling out between them and the other two branches of the Balam though, because they were all turned in by an anonymous source who presented a whole slew of evidence dating back at least a decade."
"I think I heard about that….Earlier last year didn't they specialize in restoring old run down buildings and turning them into various fronts for the Alliance?" Juvia asked.
"I believe so, but what would the former leader of a gang associated with the Balam Alliance want with our dear old Mayor?" Gray asked standing up from the bench he was sitting in and stretching.
"If I had to guess...I'd say Mayor Mard Geer was the anonymous source that turned them in." Erza had begun recording the interaction the two men were having with her camera.
"I say that should be some pretty convincing evidence that ties Mard Geer with the Balam Alliance. This was easier than I thought it was gonna be gihee."
"Not quite….We still don't have anything incriminating, all we have is a receipt with his name on it and a video of him meeting some strange old man." Levy quickly shot down Gajeel who huffed and sat down cross legged.
"What we need is a confession of some kind….We've done all we could while trying to avoid confronting him…" Erza hummed.
"What are you saying?" Gray asked the woman. Before Erza could reply the men in the office seemed to have noticed their prying eyes, because Mard Geer walked over to the blinds and closed them.
"I'm saying it's time we get an exclusive interview with the Mayor." Erza walked away from her camera, a blinding light surrounding her as she soon stood in her trademark armor instead of the all black stealth outfit she had on prior.
"Now you're speaking my language gihee." Gajeel stood up and cracked his neck and knuckles. His entire body became encased with metal.
"Bout time we get to do something, I was starting to get bored." Gray smirked and threw off his shirt, he placed his hand over a tattoo on his wrist and at once half of his body became covered by black markings.
"I GET TO SEE GRAY AGAIN!" Juvia hopped up and down happily. Levy chuckled and looked up the blueprints of the Mayor office.
"It looks like your quickest route to him would be the fire exit on the roof, from there it will just be down a few flights of stairs, and down a hallway his office will be the largest one on the top floor." She explained to them, Erza nodded.
"You all catch that?" She asked, after hearing confirmations from the other three members of her team she smiled.
"Then let's go!" She ran forward and leapt off the building she had been standing on transforming into her cheetah print flight armor allowing her to agilely maneuver from one building to the next.
"Race ya there!" Gray grinned as he placed a fist onto his open palm, he slapped the ground and a large ice made pillar shot him up into the air, he formed a kite made out of ice allowing him to elegantly glide onto the top of the building.
"I'm coming Gray my love!" Juvia beamed as she turned her entire body into water sliding up the side of the building at an alarming speed. Gajeel let out another gihee as he leapt off the ledge of the building he was stationed at his arms turned into helicopter blades, and he began spinning himself in the air allowing him to catch a breeze and fly up to the top of the large building.
"Show-offs…." Levy mumbled while the others met up at the very top of the Mayoral building. Gray walked up to the locked door that led into the building and froze it solid allowing Gajeel to break it open after he turned his hand into a hammer.
"Ladies first?" Gray asked, and Erza went down the stairs first followed by Juvia, and then Gajeel leaving Gray in the back.
"You said top floor right Levy?" Erza whispered into her earpiece.
"Correct, floor eleven I believe it is." Levy replied looking at her computer screen.
"Well here goes nothing…" Erza sighed as they reached a door that led to the eleventh floor. She opened it and walked into the hallway. The second they stepped into the hallway they came face to face with the man they now knew was named Precht. He glowered at them, Erza returned his cold look.
"Get out of my way you damn runts." He shoved his way past them.
"Geez, and I thought I had a cold shoulder…" Gray quipped, Erza ignored him and kept walking down the hall towards the main office at the end of the hall. Just as they were about to reach it Mard Geer walked out, a gentle smile on his face.
"Ah, I wondered when you lot would come in and stop hanging around outside…I would've hated for you all to have caught colds." he spoke with a polite and soft voice, much different from the voice he used while he was on TV.
"Please step into my office, I imagine we have much to talk about young ones." He opened his door wider allowing the four inside, they all snuck each other glances. Levy meanwhile listened on intently through the headsets, she began recording the audio.
"Mayor Mard Geer?" Erza started once they were in the office. He waved his hand, cutting her off however.
"No need for formalities, Miss Scarlet. Please, just Mard Geer is perfectly fine." Mard Geer smiled while taking a seat behind his desk.
"You know who I am?" Erza asked, stunned. Mard nodded his head.
"It is my job as Mayor of this great city to know the names of the people who keep it safe…Such as you Titana, as well as you Ice Demon, and the lovely Rain Woman...now I am a bit surprised to see the terrifying Black Steel here...Now to what do I owe this honor?" The four sent each other looks, sure they weren't as careful with their identities as Natsu was who wore a hood and a mask, but here was the Mayor of the city knowing exactly who they were.
"That man who was just in here….What was his deal?" Erza asked the Mayor who let out a sigh and rubbed his temple with one of his hands.
"In truth he was an old business colleague of mine, from years ago. He was quite cross with me, because of something that happened a while ago."
"You mean when you ratted him out for being a member of the Balam Alliance?" Gray deadpanned, and Mard Geer's shoulders slumped.
"...Indeed…..You see, I had no idea who he was until he purchased some old restaurant using my name and card." all of the teenager's eyes widened in horror, Levy immediately stopped the recording, he had just debunked their evidence, it was no useless. Levy raised her hand to her mouth to hold in a gasp, could it be possible that Mard Geer knew they were looking into him.
"But you already knew that didn't you? After all Gajeel…Your connection made sure you got that lead…"
"What are you talking about?" Gajeel growled lowly, Mard Geer grinned.
"Don't you see, it's really obvious….I knew that you were looking into my past, so I simply gave you what you needed to help clear my name….Gajeel I had your connection, one of my employees give you the lead to the restaurant that Precht had bought in my name, and knew that would lead to you eventually confronting me with a recorder to try and get me to confess to something I had no part in...So really I must thank you! Without your help I would've had to have stepped down from Mayor and would have been arrested for being a part of the Balam Alliance. Could you imagine that? Me in a notorious crime family? It's preposterous. So thank you very much with your help."
"Y-you…..planned all of this?" Erza stammered slightly impressed, but still upset that their plan had backfired so horribly.
"Oh, no no. Not all of it, how could I possibly have predicted you would camp outside my building all day, and Precht would show up out of the blue? It's impossible, but it did work out in my favor to say the least."
"So if you are as good as you say you are, then what's up with you working with Crime Sorcière, or should I say the Oración Seis to imprison people with powers? They are an entire branch of the Balam Alliance." Gray confronted him, Mard Geer looked puzzled.
"I can assure you I am not working with the Oración Seis, I specifically reached out to Crime Sorcière. The reason for that is, because I don't want the people of this city to suffer anymore than they have….Here take a look outside with me." He stood from his desk and opened the blinds. The group walked over to the window to look at what he was talking about.
"My parents got married inside that cathedral…" He pointed to the large open area where Kardia Cathedral once stood.
"Contrary to belief I don't hate Salamander, in fact I respect what he does...but there is no question he is a danger to not only the city, but the people inside of it...When he was arrested he was taken to Nirvana, an institute that was going to help him with his powers…"
"So what you are saying is you are trying to help Salamander control his powers better?" Juvia asked looking at Mard Geer who frowned.
"Not exactly….It's true that is what I wish, but unfortunately it seems that his flames are untameable. We have been forced to drain the ethernano from his body, thus preventing him from using his powers…."
"You can do that?" Erza asked, stunned, and horrified. Mard Geer smirked.
"Indeed….Now if you excuse me I must be getting back to work. Thank you very much for helping me clear my name...you really are….heroes." He stretched out the word heroes which made the group slightly uneasy. In fact this whole situation was messed up, they had thought they were going to be able to take down Mard Geer, but they failed, they played right into his hand, and did the opposite of what they set out to do. The mood was somber as they returned to Gray's house a feeling of defeat filled the air.
Mard Geer grinned as he stared out his window, down at the city below. He saw a figure walking up behind him from the reflection.
"Lovely night isn't it?" The black haired man with soft expressions asked as he walked up besides Mard Geer.
"Yes, it is." Mard Geer noted looking at the man who walked up to him.
"We just received several more samples of ethernano from Nirvana, and yet we still aren't close to our goal." The man explained causing Mard Geer to sigh.
"It's a start, but Nirvana was never going to get us the amount of ethernano we needed, after all the first time around you needed to use samples from those Igneel, and Acnologia fellows, and even that wasn't enough to bring life to him." The man next to him frowned.
"It wouldn't be this difficult if his body had remained intact all those years ago, but I'm afraid that after the battle at Rosemary there was no trace of him left." Mard Geer walked over to his desk and pulled out one of the drawers he grabbed from the red leather journal that was inside it.
"Maybe we could bring your one idea into reality?" He flipped open the book with the black letters E.N.D imprinted on it, and stopped at the page he was looking for.
"Are you talking about F.A.C.E?"
"Yes, Lord Zeref I am...think about it, a machine that was able to remotely remove ethernano from all living things and move into the vessel for E.N.D…" Zeref sent him a cold look.
"He is not a simple vessel...but yes, I see what you are saying, maybe we could, but it would require much research and resources...I'll use the ethernano we have received from Nirvana to bring back Franmalth, he will be much help…."
"And I can use my position of power to borrow funds and the necessary resources...Your dream can still come true…"
"Yes...Yes it can….Humanity's time has passed, they are a failed species….A species that only brings pain, suffering, and death….With the reawakening of E.N.D. The age of humanity ends….and in its ashes the age of the Etherious shall rise….A world we can create in our own image….where there will be no more pain, no more suffering….and no more death." Zeref whispered as he grabbed the journal from Mard Geer looking at the plans for F.A.C.E.
"I will get to work right away my Lord." Zeref smiled at him softly.
"Thank you Mard Geer….Tartaros." Magnolia's mayor bowed his head as Zeref walked out of the room holding the red journal tightly.
Chapter 30: Salamander's Scales
Once more thank you all for being the absolute best! For this chapter my question is…
Who has been your favorite character in this story so far? Mine is a toss-up between Jose, Natsu or Asuka. As I write more with Brain though the more I love to hate him, he is definitely my favorite antagonist I have written so far!