Chapter Five: Cheap Sunglasses
-X- Current Balance: -15,004,000
Cana woke up in her room to the sunlight streaming through the windows in her room. With a groan she rolled over, taking her pillow with her and horseshoeing it around her head as she lay face down in her mattress, trying her hardest to become one with the springs and cloth, to no avail. The 360 protection from sight, sound, or smell however did not stop the throbbing in her head.
Gingerly she picked her head up, strands of wild brown hair obscuring the magic card user's view which she blew out of her face with a huff. She turned her head to protect her from the hideous beams of light, Cana slapped her free one onto the night stand, groping blindly until she found her card deck. Having a very specific order and knowing it by heart allowed her quicker casting in battle, but today it served another reason.
Two cards fluttered to the bed with a flick of her thumb, one caught the air just right and glided ever so gently past the landing of her bed, and then zipped back under as it fell in a zig zag like pattern.
Of course.
Ignoring that problem for the time being, the magic card user finally drew her 'sexy lady' card, which had been receiving a lot of action recently, on two separate occasions at Mt. Hakobe and now this morning.
The card lit up in a flash of golden light, and morphed before her doe-like eyes, stretching and growing until a tall, long legged blonde with an emerald green bikini emerged, standing over her on her own goddamn bed. Seeing the lack of enemies to woo in the magic card user's room, the entity looked down at her expectantly, waiting for her wielder's orders.
"Go close the shades."
The sexy lady looked across the room at the windows, and then back at her, her cheeks puffed up as she fixed the magic card user with a serious pout, as if she was insulted by the task.
Cana's eyebrow twitched, this was not the time for fucking sass.
"Go!" She commanded, wincing at the volume behind her own voice, and off the lady went, hopping off her bed with intentional force as the mattress squeaked and creaked violently for a couple of passes before returning to status quo.
Using the back of her hand as a visor to barely shadow her face the magic card user followed the sexy lady's movement across the room. The wall of five windows was at just the perfect angle that it illuminated her quarters from sunrise to well past noon. She had been trying to trade to the other side of the hallway since forever, and while she ranked fairly high on the seniority ladder considering she had been here ever since she was a little kid, she still had a whole bunch of adults in front of her in that line.
The blond bombshell walked diagonally across the room. Starting with the window furthest from her, no doubt laced with petty intent, she closed the shades one at a time, taking a second in between each window to stop and fix her wielder with an off-color look.
After a tortuously long fifteen seconds, the room was bathed in a twilight like darkness. The sexy lady took a seat on her wielder's couch, which sat against the same wall in her room as her bed, perpendicular to the wall of windows. She had kicked her feet up and picked up a stray issue of Sorcerer's Weekly which lay on the small coffee table.
Cana recalled her card, which retracted with the same golden light as before. Now that the lights had been extinguished, she flopped back over onto her back, taking deep breaths as she stared at the ceiling. After what seemed like an eternity of nothingness, the brown eyed girl finally decided enough was enough and made to get up, letting the covers fall off her in a crumpled mess.
Cana's bare feet made contact with the solid oak flooring in her room as she sat on the edge of her bed, her palms pressed down against the mattress, hoisting herself up. The magic card user followed the path that the sexy lady took across the room. Moving on memory of routine alone she made her way to the bathroom to wash up for the morning. On her way there the brown eyed girl stumbled, tripping over her own two feet, luckily she caught herself on the support pillar that rose from the main hall on the ground floor and perfectly dissected her room into fourths.
She muttered a slew of obscenities as she continued her trek to the bathroom. The door was partially ajar, so the magic card user nudged it open with her shoulder. The white tile room was half the length of her actual bedroom, as two stacked together separated her room with the next.
The sound of metal on metal was heard as the rings of the shower curtain scraped against the bar that kept it suspended. With an outstretched hand she turned the shower on to scalding hot, and dropped her pajamas as the water warmed up.
A beat passed, and then another as Cana caught herself staring into the mirror, her pupils were the size of pinpricks as they tried to minimize the light, the bags under her eyes pulled on her skin like a bag of bricks. With a scowl the brown eyed girl peeled herself from the mirror and hopped into the shower. She stepped underneath the many little jets which comprised her shower head. The water snaked down in her body in rivulets as she massaged her scalp under the burning liquid.
The magic card user had washed up in all of two minutes, but stayed in there until the heated water began to dissipate. Once it did she turned the handle which regulated the temperature from hot to cold, and was instantly engulfed in freezing cold water in an attempt to shock her senses awake. She stayed under it as long as she could endure, goosebumps lining her body, before shutting the water off.
The curtain screeched open again as the brown eyed girl nabbed a towel off the rack, she wrapped it tight around her body as she tried to banish the cold. Cana hopped out of the shower and stepped right over the ball of clothes left on her floor, saving that problem for tomorrow.
Exiting the bathroom, Cana made her way over to the dresser in her room, she grabbed the blue plastic hairbrush that lay on the wooden surface and began running it through her hair, tugging her way through the knots was not a pleasant experience, but a familiar one to say the least. After what seemed like a million strokes she decided enough was enough and let the hairbrush clatter back onto the finished wood.
The towel dropped as drawers slid open, and pretty soon she was donned in her trademark brown capris and light blue bikini top. She turned and made her way over to the night stand, when arrived she grabbed a couple items off of it. First were the blue metal bicep bracelets which she wore on each arm as they were placed on her person, next the magic card user picked up her magic cards and deposited them in her back pocket, then she dropped to her knees and fell onto her forearms as she pressed her ear against the floor, looking for her lost card under the bed.
After a moment she found it, and returned to her feet. Finally the brown eyed girl picked up the last object left on her nightstand, other than the small bedside lamp that is, a pair of large black shades were pushed on until they rested comfortably on the bridge of her nose.
Cana slid on her sandals which sat by the threshold of her door, she stole a glance in the mirror that hung on the backside of her bedroom door.
For magic's sake, she looked like a bug eyed alien with these things on.
With a sigh she opened the door, and began to make her way down the red carpeted hallway of the women's quarters with small steps, there seemed to be quite a ruckus above her on the fourth floor as the thumping shook the lanterns hanging along the walls of the hallway, but that was typical of the men's dormitories.
At the end of the hall was the staircase which connected the levels of the Fairy Tail guild. The brown eyed girl wound her way down the flights of stairs.
The second floor was a lounge area, off limits to anyone other than S-class mages, but it never stopped Cana from stealing a glance or taking a couple steps in when no one was around.
One day.
Not today however, as her stomach growled for it was on a one man mission for some goddamn breakfast, and as such she continued to descend.
Finally she hit the ground floor. The main hall wasn't exactly full, but that was typical this early in the morning. Most of the regulars were there, but the majority would still be sleeping or off on missions for the day, because if there two things every Fairy Tail mage had in common, it was the desire to sleep in and a slight case of psychosis.
The magic card user shambled her way over to the bar and plopped herself down on her stool, almost immediately a heaping plate of bacon, eggs and buttered toast was placed in front of her. A fork and tankard clinked into place, flanking the dish.
"Morning sleepy head." Mirajane smiled radiantly.
The brown eyed girl peered hopefully over the lip of the cup, and then slumped dejectedly when she saw it was just water. One hand propped her head in an upright position as the other shoveled food into her mouth.
"Morning." She grumbled through mouthfuls of scrambled eggs.
"How are you feeling?" The barmaid asked.
"Like shit… You know what would make me feel better though?"
"No." The take-over mage shot down her hopes before they could even take off. "You know you're cut off."
"But you're not." Cana put on her best puppy dog eyes as she nibbled on a piece of bacon like a rabbit. "Do me a solid?"
Mirajane seemed unimpressed, as she pursed her lips and fixed her with a flat stare. Her arms crossed underneath her breasts, pushing them up.
"Makarov says that'll just enable you. Besides, you have more important things to worry about, like the bail they posted and that he had to pay."
If the magic card user was completely honest, she had no recollection of the night before, the brown eyed girl downed half her water in one go before deciding to face the music.
"The usual?" She asked. Meaning drunk and disorderly, destruction of public property, and a couple other minor charges.
Mirajane nodded.
"How much?"
"498,000."
Half chewed toast fell from her mouth. "What?!"
The take-over mage shrugged. "The officer in the Rune Knights said it was for repeat offenses, but the guildmaster suspects that it's in part because they just want us out of Magnolia Town, so he's offered to pay half."
Well, that had lessened the blow a little bit, but Cana's shoulders drooped. That was still way more than she had expected, that was, that was…
"249,000." Mirajane supplied.
'249,000' The magic user sighed, a hazy snapshot of her at the request board floated through her mind, she dug into both of her pockets, pulling out the crumpled flyer she had taken from yesterday from her left one. She laid it out the table, and held on to one corner while she smoothed it out with the back of her hand.
It was a simple retrieval mission in the western region of Fiore, by the coast. Some lost artifact Cana had no interest in, but whoever was looking for it had posted a reward of a whopping 800,000 jewels, meaning even if they took the job more than a quarter of it would be used just to get back to where she was two days ago when this whole hellish debt adventure started.
You know what they say, two steps back…
Well, that was it, that was all Team Cana had done so far.
Fearless team leader Cana wanted to bash her head in against her half eaten breakfast, but refrained for the time being.
"Alright then. Have you seen Percy around yet, we're probably gonna have to take a mission today."
The barmaid tilted her head, staring at her quizzically with those large cobalt blue eyes of hers. "You don't know?"
The brown eyed girl looked at her through polarized lenses, her arms spread open. "Know what?"
"Percy left with Erza and a couple others yesterday. Something about a dark guild releasing a hideous monster, I wasn't really paying attention to be honest. Hey, what type of magic does he use, because I tricked him into washin-"
Cana tuned out the take over mage mid-sentence, her mind racing.
Maybe she'd laid it on too thick, maybe she had read him wrong, maybe, just maybe, he thought she was beneath him and not worth his time. She was sure Erza, a wizard of status, had no trouble convincing the new kid to go with her. Natsu had seen something in Percy and that blonde haired chick, and there were only two things the flame brain had an eye for.
Power and ambition. If the redhead dangled an S-class mission in front of his face, Cana would bet that's exactly what Percy jumped at.
The magic card user rose from her seat, she hadn't had much of an appetite before, but understood the benefit of greasy food on a hangover, now however she felt like she could go the next week without taking a bite.
This, this was another one of the many reasons why Cana needed to become an S-class mage as soon as she could, maybe her fucking teammates wouldn't get poached then.
-X- Current Balance: -15,253,000
The magical four wheeler roared down the dirt path as Erza forced more of her magical reserves into it, picking up speed.
Lucy sat in the covered compartment, holding tightly to Plue, one of the Nikoras of the Canis Major constellation. The little snowman shook in the celestial mage's arms, mirroring the nervousness she was trying and somewhat failing to keep underneath the surface.
"Look!" Gray shouted, as he laid prone on top of the roof of the four wheeler, which didn't make sense to Lucy considering there were at least three more seats surrounding her.
'Men.' The celestial mage allowed herself the quip despite the tense situation, poking her head out the window, the wind whipping her blonde hair violently, brown eyes honed in on what the ice-make user was talking about.
A body.
A male lying unconscious on his back. Short black hair in a disheveled mess, tattered jeans and a red t-shirt with a large hole right in the middle of the stomach, the fringes charred and black.
The redhead didn't even do as much as slow down.
"You see the scorch marks?" Gray asked as they zipped past the downed man.
"Yeah." Erza replied, and despite being at the equip mage's back, Lucy could feel the violent smile radiating off of her. "It's more than that though, that was the mage I was talking about too, the one who mentioned Lullaby at Onibas, it seems that Natsu and the new kid ended up finding a lead after all."
The celestial mage's heart crept into her throat at that nugget of information as she slunk back into the plush seat of the four wheeler, over the course of the ride she had grown to accept that fighting was inevitable if she truly wanted to stay in the Fairy Tail guild, but she thought she'd have at least an extra couple hours to steel her nerves before the showdown.
Apparently however, the battle had already begun, and now Lucy's bed had been made and now she had to lie in it.
Speaking of lying, the equip mage hit the brakes, and Lucy without her seatbelt was sent flying to the floor flat on her face. Plue plopping down on top of the part of her back exposed by the design of her clothing sending literal chills down her spine.
The celestial mage peeled her nose from the gray carpeted floor, from the ring of keys on her belt she retrieved the silver canis minor key, and recalled the miniature snowman.
"That's enough of you." The blonde grumbled as she crawled back into her seat, she called out their driver. "Why'd we stop?"
A gauntleted hand was all she got in response, an outstretched finger pointing dead ahead.
The equip mage exited the vehicle, out of the corner of her eye she watched a bare ass fall from the roof, not one to be outdone, Lucy followed suit.
The celestial mage surveyed the scene, a handful of train cars sat immobile on the tracks, looking slightly worse for wear like it had seen some action, windows were blown out, there were blast holes in the wall and near the front of the carts was another unconscious body, this one laying face down with a familiar head of pink hair.
"Natsu!" Lucy called out, taking a step towards the fire dragon slayer. When she reached the body she flipped the boy over so he was on his back, Happy, who had been following the trio overhead with those white wings of his had plopped himself on the shoulder of the celestial mage.
"Are you okay?" She asked nervously, the blonde girl recalled the events on the boat off the coast of Hargeon Town, the poor boy had a horrible motion sickness, something about being a dragon slayer that the girl didn't really understand.
The other two wizards she was with began to fan out, surveying the wreckage and not giving their fellow mage a second glance.
"Foooood." The fire dragon slayer grumbled as Lucy rolled him over.
"Yeah, he's fine." The blue exceed tried to soothe the girl's nerves.
"Where's Percy?" The celestial mage asked.
Fwoom
A loud sound garnered the blonde wizard's attention, turning towards the edge of the cliffside. There stood the man in question, on the top of a geyser, looking about 110 times better than his counterpart.
"Percy!" She shouted from her position on one knee, brown eyes watched as sea green ones roamed the sight, just as she had not a moment ago, landing on something in particular that wasn't her. She followed his gaze.
It was Erza.
"You." Her first friend since hitting the road scowled, as that special sword of his sprung into existence without the use of a magical seal. He stepped off the geyser back onto solid land, perfectly dry, his empty hand outstretched.
The equip mage, who was studying the train intensely didn't even do so much as turn around, but that didn't seem to concern Percy in the least, the vertical stream of water rose higher, dwarfing the the water mage as it began to dance like a snake under a charmer's spell.
Realization began to dawn on the celestial mage's face. "No." She whispered breathlessly.
With a force that made a fire hose look like a lawn sprinkler the torrent of water rocketed towards Fairy Tail's Titania at blistering speeds. It collided with the metal armored back of the s-class mage, its power not waning in the slightest as instead it carried the redhead forward, catching her off her feet and sending her into the mountain, creating a nice Erza shaped hole.
Gray, who was still in his birthday suit whirled around, the crystal blue color of the ice make magic glowing with life. It died just as instantly when he recognized the attacker was one of their own.
"Oh, what's up new kid?"
Lucy felt her eyebrow twitch, that's all he was going to do to diffuse the situation?
A satisfied smirk wormed its way onto Percy's face as he ignored the subconscious stripper, speaking in the direction of the hole in the mountain.
"Not so fun on the receiving end is it?" He taunted.
The earth rumbled in response, scaring the celestial mage and sending her sprawling to the ground with a yelp.
And then the mountain collapsed.
Just as fast as she had been sent away, the equip mage returned in a streak of silver light, and now her sword was brandished. Lucy could only watch in horror as she climbed back to one knee, the two met in a clash of steel and bronze that echoed throughout the clearing. The force of Erza's charge sent Percy sliding back, his feet digging through the dirt trying desperately to find purchase, which they did just in the nick of time as his back was now against the cliffside once more.
That didn't seem to deter him in the slightest however as the next exchange was just as fast as the swords blurred in and out of her vision.
A hand dropped into her peripherals, and Lucy swiveled her head from the battle. The ice make user stood over her shoulder with an outstretched arm.
"Credit where credit is due flame brain." Gray said with a wry smile as he helped his rival to his feet. "You sure know how to pick 'em, the new kid is a perfect fit."
Natsu, finally upright, retched once more. "Dude, put some clothes on."
The celestial mage's face went red, she refused to turn around.
The subconscious stripper looked down at his body, as if finally noticing. "Ah shit." His blue eyes looked back from where he came. "They must've flown off on the ride over."
"Ya think?" The fire dragon slayer choked out between dry heaves as the ice make user departed.
Lucy rose to her feet, standing next to Natsu and watching as chaos further ensued.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" She asked in a strange feeling of deja vu as she watched Percy and Erza continue their deadly dance.
"Yeah." The pink haired mage said half-heartedly, completely fixated on the fight. "I gotta fight Percy next."
"That's not the point I was trying to- oh nevermind."
Thoughts ran through Lucy's head at a million miles per minute. How could they bicker like children at a time like this, how could they completely ignore the fact that there was a dark guild with an ancient evil relic of mass destruction and they were the only ones informed about the current threat?
And then the lightbulb hit.
The blonde mage was starting to put the pieces together, was this why Mirajane wanted her on this mission, to herd these nuclear level cats?
Was she even capable of doing so?
Time to find out.
Lucy took a deep breath, prayed to every god she had ever heard of twice that her new guildmates wouldn't kill her, and then bellowed.
"ENOUGH!"
Percy's blade stopped inches from Erza's neck. Erza's blade half a second away from gutting Percy. They both turned to her with murder on their faces.
"What!" The pair shouted in unison.
"Yeah Lucy, it was just getting good."
Not helping Natsu.
She had to resist the urge not to melt like Plue right then and there, best keep it short and sweet to hide the shakiness of her voice.
"Dark Guild? Lullaby?" The celestial mage tried to jog the two's memory.
Erza immediately sheathed her sword as her head dipped in shame, the re-equip mage forgoing the battle and making her way back towards the magic four-wheeler.
"She's right." The redhead said, letting Lucy release a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "We've gotten carried away sparring, there is a job to complete."
The blonde mage wished she had a camera for the gobsmacked look on Percy's face as Erza turned her back on him. "Hey, don't you walk away from me! What's a what-a-bye anyways!"
Oh yeah, Percy had been unconscious for the entire explanation, she stole a glance at the fire dragon slayer next to her, the utter confusion on his face mirroring the water mage's, so had Natsu.
Lucy spun on the balls of her feet. "Come on boys." She beckoned with a wave of the arm as she followed Erza's retreating figure. "I'll explain on the way, but right now we need to get going."
"I don't have to get on that thing do I?" Thing 1 groaned.
"Sparring. She called that sparring." Thing 2 muttered.
-X- Current Balance: -15,253,000
Kageyama woke up with a groan, his eyes fluttered open.
He watched a cloud roll by. Huh, that one looked like a dolphin. Sweet.
The memories of earlier today came flooding back to him.
"Lullaby!" The shadow magic user sat upright with a jolt, his voice raspy. The sudden movement caused a sudden pain in his sternum, a hand reached up and grazed his chest, wincing in pain as he identified the broken ribs.
"Stupid flies." He grumbled as he rose to his feet with extra effort, this was not his first set of broken ribs, a hazard of a life of combat. If those guild brats thought that a single magically induced flaming punch would be enough to end him, they were sorely mistaken.
Erigor, on the other hand, would definitely kill him if he found out the crux to the whole plan had left his possession.
How long had he been out anyways?
He walked up to the rails, and cast his beady black eyes in both directions, studying his surroundings.
"Let's see." Kageyama spoke out loud to himself, pointing to the left, recognizing the unique rock formation as one of the last things he had seen before slipping into darkness. "I came from that way, which means-" He his finger panned to the right, his vision following. "I gotta go that way."
The shadow magic user took a deep breath. "Welp, this is gonna hurt."
And then he started jogging, the force of his footfalls shocking his body.
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."
About five minutes later did he come across the same scene the owners of the magical four wheeler had seen. A pair of dilapidated train cars sat alone on the tracks, not an engine in sight. It had definitely seen some action, more than half of the windows had been blown out, and a starburst shaped hole sat at the front.
Wonder how that got there?
Kageyama surmounted the two step ladder in a great personal feat, hoisting himself onto the outer landing thanks to a hand up using the railing. The door was open and he stepped into the familiar lounge car, this time however it had been reduced to rubble, mostly by his own body.
With a frantic pace he kicked around the plush red velvet cushions and broken pieces of wood, the shadow magic user was searching for something.
Panic began to well up in his chest, the shadow magic user was convinced that two members of the Fairy Tail were there by pure coincidence alone, no self respecting mage on a mission would fall asleep right next to the bear's den. But that didn't mean they couldn't catch on quick, or that they weren't well versed enough to know a cursed artifact when they saw one.
Oh, nevermind.
"Thank Magic for idiots." Kageyama breathed a sigh of relief as he clutched Lullaby close to his injured chest.
As the son of Poseidon picked his way through the debris the heel of his sneaker caught something and the mystery object rolled causing him to stumble. He didn't even bother looking down.
Now he just had to walk all the way to Oshibana, however far away that was.
"Fuck my life."
-X- Current Balance: -15,253,000
Lucy glared across the carriage of the magic four wheeler. "Were you even listening?"
"Yeah, yeah." Percy waved her off as the green machine continued to rumble down the road towards Oshibana. "Bad guy, bad super weapon, lots of cronies, I get the gist."
Two sets of eyes panned down to the namesake of Team Natsu lying on the floor, where the celestial mage had been in the same position not fifteen minutes ago.
"I don't think he got any of it though." The black haired demigod said with a dry chuckle.
Lucy wanted to cry at such a flippant response to impending doom for like the fourth time today, but managed to stifle the waterfalls. The pained expression however she could not banish from her face fast enough as Percy picked up on it.
"Hey Lucy, are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Mnhmnhmnh." The blonde mage muttered something intelligible.
"Say again?"
Lucy looked up from the prone body of the pink haired dragon slayer, betrayal clear in those chocolate brown eyes. "I thought you were different."
"Huh?" The son of Poseidon tilted his head inquisitively with a look of shock and worry etched into his features.
"You're a monster." The celestial mage continued. "No worse than him," She pointed to Natsu on the floor. "Or her," Then to Erza who was manning the vehicle at the head. "Or him." Finally she pointed to the ceiling above them where Gray was holding on for dear life.
"What?" The broken record repeated.
"How can you crack jokes at a time like this? When we are all probably going to die by the end of tonight! There's something missing in your brain, you are not normal people."
And what Percy did next made the blonde mage want to stab him, he threw his head back and laughed, a gut wrenching cackle which had him slapping the seats and drawing the attention of their driver, Lucy watching over his shoulder as Erza stole a glance while operating the vehicle at breakneck speeds.
"Oh wow." The son of Poseidon wiped a tear from his eye as the hysteria began to subside.
"It's not funny." Lucy protested with puffed cheeks.
"Sorry, sorry." Percy said with arms raised in a placating gesture, although he didn't seem too sorry at all. "I-" but whatever he was going to say next was interrupted by the wheels of the magic four wheeler running over something large and metallic, followed by a bunch of tiny grooves at once.
Ka-Dunk. Ka-Dunk.
Dududududududu
"What the hell is going on now?" The black haired demigod asked as he stabilized himself with a palm pressed to the roof of the car.
"I-I-I d-d-don't-t-t k-k-knowwww." The celestial mage's voice quivered as she bounced in her seat like a ping pong ball.
In a great show of personal balance, Percy stumbled to his feet, taking care not to step on the flat body of Natsu, he stuck his head out of the divider that separated the driver and the rest of the passengers. His head popped out next to Erza's, and was immediately slapped by her scarlet hair dancing in the wind.
"Pffffft." The son of Poseidon spat a red lock out of his mouth as he studied the re-equip mage, who he still wanted to fight just a little bit, although his anger had shifted slightly upon the oh so good news Lucy had departed onto him.
There was a stony look on her face, but what really drew his attention was the black arm band attached to her forearm, it reminded the black haired demigod of one of those blood pressure thingys you'd see at a doctor's office, although it seemed to be siphoning something out of her, life force maybe, magic probably, as the cord pulsed at a rapid fire pace, the rubber straining visibly from the exercise.
The redhead had put them on the tracks, the railroad ties and protruding steel girders which the train sat on explaining the bumps they had felt inside the car and currently.
It didn't take a genius to figure out why they were on the tracks, one just had to look ahead. The group was approaching the next location in their slapdash crusade to track down Lullaby. Eisenwald, whose leader Percy had ran away from, not his greatest moment but he planned on making up for it if they ever crossed paths again, had taken the train into town, and the tracks led into the heart of the of the city, meaning that soon there wouldn't be a lot of space on either side of the line.
The magic four wheeler passed by the first row of houses outlining the outskirts, as they got deeper and deeper into the settlement, leaving the wide open plains behind them, the citizens of Oshibana gave them strange looks as they passed, but the son of Poseidon figured that was because there was something other than a train was on their train tracks.
Or maybe they just looked out of place, with a fully armored driver, a detached head sticking out the window and a boy hanging onto the roof, legs flailing in the wind.
Oshibana Station was a tall tower which sat in the heart of the town, there was a green steel awning lined with a grid of glass window panes that comprised the ceiling which covered the four sets of train tracks that sprawled out across the city. Currently three of the tracks were occupied, although one of the locomotives had looked a few cars short.
"That's the one." The black haired demigod spoke up, earning a side eye and ever passive expression from Erza.
She hit the brakes, the ridge of the window driving into the black haired demigod's gut and expelling the air out of him. Overhead Gray was catapulted forward and crash landed in a heap in front of the magic four wheeler.
The squad of five exited the vehicle, limping, moaning, complaining, it wasn't a pretty sight.
There was a cement lobby to the left of them with a vaulted roof and its floor a couple feet above the dirt ground, the wall facing the tracks was non-existent, making it a open air pavilion on only one side. Like a movie shot, Team Natsu lined shoulder to shoulder clambered up onto the deck, their footsteps echoing in the eerie silence as they walked towards the center of the lobby.
"Ok, this is weird." Gray was the first to break said silence as his cobalt blues scanned the area. "There were a crap ton of people all around town but the train station is empty."
"You think it's a trap?" Natsu asked, an excited grin on his face as he pounded his fists together.
"Maybe it's a coincidence." Lucy tried to reason, more to keep herself sane than anything else. "I mean, how could they know we're coming?"
'Maybe because I killed or incapacitated a handful of them already.' Percy mused from the end of the line, refusing to voice the thought.
"Nah, I doubt it." He said at last, as he too investigated the scene, plumbing lined the upper edges of the wall which would be helpful if the pink haired mage's prediction happened to ring true, a map was on the wall and the son of Poseidon strolled over to it, he didn't understand a thing, but he figured the red dot was a universal symbol for 'You are here'
"Where's Fairy Tail?" The black haired demigod asked as the celestial mage followed him to the board.
"Here." She pointed to a dot four towns away, then her slender finger glided across the map. "And here's Onibas where we started."
Percy let out a low whistle, had they really covered that much distance in such a short amount of time? "We are not in Kansas anymore Toto."
"Helloooooo-elloooo-lloooo." The fire dragon slayer shouted through cupped hands in the center of the room, the acoustics perfect for an echo. "We're here to kick your ass!"
…
…
…
"Did you really think that that would work flame brain?" The ice make user chastised.
And then the ants came out of the woodwork, from the train cars behind them, the bathrooms and employee only doors to the sides, and the foyer which led to the entrance. In an instant the five were surrounded by fifty, outnumbered 10 to 1.
"See?" Natsu grinned triumphantly at his rival.
"You just had to say something." Lucy groaned.
"I stand corrected." Gray mumbled under his breath.
"Mhm." Erza nodded in approval with a fierce glint in her eyes. "Definitely a trap."
Riptide sprung to life as the group backed into each other, forming a defensive circle. "Let's dance, I've got a score to settle."
