"Mira-nee, are you okay…?" Lisanna whimpered as she looked towards the injured Mirajane, who was placed against the wall within the Cathedral.
"I'm fine…" Mirajane replied while holding her burnt midsection, wincing somewhat. She didn't have much magic in her body to do anything. "How are the others doing…?" She asked weakly, gesturing around to the other people within the building.
"They're as calm as they could be…" Kinana replied. "Though, to be honest, that isn't saying too much…"
"I see…" Mirajane sat up, groaning. "We have to…do something…"
"You're not doing anything…!" Lisanna protested to her sister's movement, urging her to sit back down.
"But…" Mirajane began, making an effort to protest against the situation.
Suddenly, the doors opened. Jack waltzed in, pleased to see the terrified faces of the innocent people. "Glad you're all safe and sound in this nice little building," Jack said with a wide grin. "I hope you'll all enjoy your stay." The people began to murmur in fear, wondering what Jack was going to do to them. "Oh, don't worry, I won't hurt you all…unless something I don't like happens…"
"Jack!" Lisanna shouted, capturing the young male's attention.
"What…?" Jack turned, eyes widening at the sight of Lisanna. "W-Wha…" A look of disbelief appeared on his face. "Y-You're alive…? T-That's not…Joker…"
"I'm alive, Jack," Lisanna replied, standing up slowly. She tried a gentle approach to the male. "You don't have to do this…
"You…" Jack grunted, holding his hand up. This caused a ball of wicked flames to appear in his hand, the people around beginning to panic. "You shut up! You don't know anything!"
"G-Gah…!" Lisanna jumped back. To persist or not? "I know you're not a bad person…" Lisanna continued in a gentle voice. "I saw you at my funeral awhile back…you and…"
"SHUT UP!" Jack ordered, causing Lisanna to hush. He hesitated to attack her, but in his state any action was unpredictable. "You don't know ANYTHING at all! It's your fault Sis is in this situation to begin with!"
"Lisanna…" Kinana warned Lisanna to stand down; it wasn't worth it.
"Mm…" Lisanna nodded and backed off. "If Mira-nee wasn't injured, maybe she could hold Jack off long enough…" She thought to herself. All she could really do now was hope that someone within Fairy Tail could stop Jack before the hour was over. 57 minutes and counting.
.
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"Was that Jack!?" Cynthia asked, looking towards Wendy immediately.
"I-I think so…" Wendy replied, giving a slow nod and a gulp after.
"What's his deal!? We didn't do anything…!" Cynthia protested with a pout. She then felt a suddenly chill go down her spine, causing her to turn around slowly. What did she see? A winged creature staring directly at her and Wendy. "W-Wendy…"
"Eh…?" Wendy felt the same chill Cynthia did, but she didn't turn around in fear of what it could possibly be. She turned slowly, only to let out a yelp of surprise and fear. Both girls held onto the boxes of supplies they held and began to run off in a comical fashion. "WHAT IS THAT THING!?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Cynthia replied while running for dear life, a trail of dust following behind the two girls.
"Man, this is kinda sad…" Mason said while jumping in front of the two girls with a confident grin. "Never fear, Mason is here!"
"Eh?" The two girls said in unison as they skidded to a halt, turning to see Mason. "Oh, this kid again…" Cynthia sighed. "What are you gonna do against THAT thing!?"
The monster skidded to a halt, staring down Mason with a growl. "Heh…Just watch and learn!" Mason replied with a sly grin. His eyes flashed from their normal color to a red color. This caused the monster to cower in fear after a few seconds. "See!"
"N-no way…" Wendy stared in amazement. "What kind of magic is that?"
"Ocular magic, of course!" Mason said with a proud grin, taking a step forward to intensify the fear the monster felt. "See how it cowers in fear?"
Yeah, the winged monster cowered in fear for a good 30 seconds before returning with a loud, ear piercing roar, causing the faces of the three young mages to pale. They then fled shortly after as the monster's next charge was more aggressive than the last. "I THOUGHT YOU SAID IT WAS AFRAID!?" Cynthia yelled towards Mason.
"I THOUGHT IT WAS TOO I WON'T LIE!" Mason replied.
"HAHAH!" A lacrima screen appeared above the monster, allowing Jack to see the misfortune of the three mages. "I see you ran into one of my personal favorites, the Pterobronic! This monster becomes vicious the more threatened it becomes!"
"Now you tell us!" Cynthia whined as the three mages ran in terror from the winged beast.
.
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"Oh, I got an idea!" Levy shouted before anyone ran off. "Why don't we contact Ace? He could help us here!"
"That's a great idea, Levy-chan!" Lucy exclaimed with a wide grin. "Where's that communication lacrima he left us?"
"Over here!" Juvia exclaimed, bringing the large lacrima over to the middle of the guild.
"Okay, let's contact Ace before we do anything else," Erza nodded, switching the lacrima on. All that came from the Lacrima was a bunch of static; not a call could be made. "What the?" Suddenly, the screen switched to Jack, who had a confused look on his face.
"Nani?" Jack blinked a few times, staring into the lacrima screen. "The hell do you asshats want NOW?!"
"W-Wrong number!" Lucy flailed. "Hang up, hang up, HANG UP."
"Oh, I get it!" Jack then smirked. "You were trying to make a call to someone! Nice try, but I thought ahead and made sure that all calls would be redirected to me, so I would know about it!" Jack let out a maniacal laugh. "It was a nice try, but as long as the special jamming device is within the city, you won't be getting any backup! See you in 57 minutes, losers!" After that the transmission cut off.
"Well, there goes THAT idea…" Gray scoffed. "That little troll has though thought of everything, hasn't he…?"
"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us…" Gajeel said while rolling his shoulders, stepping out of the guild. "So, break that device the runt was talking about or beat the living shit out of him. Personally, I'm for the latter, but I'll go with whatever I come across first. I won't let Salamander beat me to him, though. No way in hell."
.
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"Great…" Luke threw his hands in the air in an over exasperated fashion. "So we come to pick up some supplies and we end up getting trapped!"
"That kid has some serious issues…" Selene commented, crossing her arms over her chest. "There's a lot of odd scents around here…some are familiar while the others aren't…"
"Is this sort of thing normal?" El Rayo asked. Though his face was covered by a mask one could see the confused look on his face.
"Well, lately…" Luke admitted. "I know we informed you and the new guys about the Dealer situation but I didn't think you'd be getting involved first hand. And we only have an hour left before the little fire shit decides to burn down this place."
"That only leaves us with one option, when you think about it," Selene said, staring down the empty streets. "We go and fight Jack. We have to get there quickly, because who knows how long it would take to fight him."
"We've got to get to him before anything else." Luke stated, peeking over Selene's shoulder. "And with all these traps he's set up, I don't think that's going to be the easiest thing in the world. Staying together might be the most viable options…"
"Well, we better get started, right?" Selene asked before darting from around the corner, deciding to make the first strike against anything that may come their way.
"W-Wait, Selene…!" Luke shouted, following after Selene, but before he could take the path she did, a wall of Wicked Flames popped up, sealing off that path. "Dammit!"
"Somehow I think sticking together isn't a viable option…" El Rayo commented.
"Will you be fine on your own?" Luke asked, looking over his shoulder.
"I can hold my own, do not worry about me," El Rayo replied with a nod.
"Aye, See you at Jack, then." Luke nodded, running off on the path opposite to Selene, while El Rayo took a different path.
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"Hm…" Spade placed his hand under his chin. "Wicked Flame Walls…Monsters…Lacrima Jamming…Jack has really thought of all the works here. I can't help but be mildly impressed, this takes some brain power. He must have been thinking about this for a long time now."
"Jack has this situation under control, clearly…" Strong said while scratching the back of his head. "Why are we here again?"
"You idiot…" Diamond sighed, smacking Strong atop the head. "We're here to SAVE Jack, remember?! If we don't anything there may not BE a Jack by the end of this."
"Ouch…I know, I know. I was just joking, I wanna help the kid, too." Strong grumbled. "You know, I may be an idiot, but even I notice the off things. When did you start caring about people, Diamond? You've been acting hella weird lately."
"…" Diamond remained silent, looking away with a sheepish expression. "Tia, unlike you idiots, is my…friend." Diamond admitted while grumbling. "I never would have said such a thing out loud…but I owe it to those annoying mages. Anyway, that's beside the point. Tia is my friend, and I don't want to see anything bad happen to her. I couldn't do much to save her, but the least I can do is protect her little brother from harm…and squash some mages while I'm at it."
"You've certainly changed…" Spade said with a brow raised. "But, not enough to the point where I should be worried. Mage squashing is always a fun activity."
"Wait a minute!" Strong exclaimed. "If we're not your friends, what are we to you?"
"You're both idiots I can tolerate," Diamond replied with a smug grin, sauntering off in a different direction, causing a Wicked Flame wall to appear behind her.
"…I think the only thing that's changed about her is adding the word friend to her vocabulary…" Strong said while scratching his head.
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"He's got the entire town within a panic…" Joker said to himself while watching the situation from afar. "Already, I can see reason enough to destroy him…but why not let the boy have a little fun before that? I want to see just how far he's actually willing to go to get revenge for his sister. It's a shame really…he's trying so hard yet he doesn't know that he's actually causing nothing but mindless destruction." He then noticed something off to the distance, not too far away. "Hmm...what have we here?"
.
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Through the use of Ultear's orb, Jellal, Meredy, and Ultear watched as Jack began his assault on Magnolia by use of his Wicked Flames. "A full scale assault on Magnolia…" Jellal let out a heavy sigh. "This is a precarious situation for many reasons…how should we go about this…?"
"There's only an hour of time left, maybe less…" Ultear replied. "It's not like I don't have faith in Fairy Tail, but this is a serious situation, I think we should act."
"Are you sure?" Meredy asked. "Who knows what could happen if we get involved…he's got the entire town hostage and who knows what he could do with a spike of anger…"
"We'll tread lightly, then…" Jellal replied. "We can't stand by and do nothing."
"I agree..." Ultear nodded. She didn't like the idea of sitting by and watching. Even if Fairy Tail was capable, Jack was unpredictable. That was the most dangerous part about this whole situation.
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Natsu and Happy ran down an open street. Both looked around, only to see that the streets were empty. "Looks like the people are safe, somewhere." Natsu said, now focusing on his beeline straight to where he believed Jack would be.
"Natsu, where are you going?" Happy asked.
"He's at the Cathedral!" Natsu replied. "I don't know what he's thinking, but he's putting everyone in danger so he has to be put down!"
"Aye!" Happy nodded in agreement, slamming right into Natsu's back after. "Wah! Why'd you stop!?"
"W-What the…?" Natsu stared at the large white-wolf beast before him. Hos stare turned into a glare once it noticed him. "What is that thing!?"
"W-Whoa…!" Happy stared in awe at the giant creature before him and Natsu. "It's a giant wolf..!"
A lacrima screen appeared in front of the wolf, but it didn't display Jack this time, it was just an automated voice. (This is the Fenrir, an extremely territorial beast. This wolf uses the poison in its fangs to weaken the opponent before finishing them off. If you step in its territory, it will do everything in its power to display dominance).
"Fenrir, eh…?" Natsu couldn't help but grin, flames appearing on his fist. "Sorry to break it to ya, but this isn't your territory!" The wolf let out a loud howl, causing the ground to tremble around the few, and Natsu's motion sickness to come into play, but it wasn't so bad that he couldn't fight against it. "H-Heh! You think that…that'll stop me!?"
"Natsu, your face is turning blue…" Happy pointed out.
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Natsu: "These monsters are startin' to get on my nerve! I'll plow through each and every last one of them!"
Ultear: "You realize you don't have all the time in the world to do that, right?"
Lucy: "Don't forget you can count on us too, Natsu!"
Gajeel: "Screw that, I'm getting to Jack first!"
Spade: "Not if we have anything to say about it…"
Next Time: Magnolia Brawl!