As soon as the crew of workers had rushed down the corridor, Natsu slipped out of the shadows, followed by Virgo and Gemini, who once again took the form of Russell, the traffickers' accountant. Using his keen senses, Natsu has been able to avoid detection as his team moved along the dark corridors. Soon they came upon another cavern, this one teaming with more workers. They were all rushing about, many confused by the sudden attack outside, but given no guidance in how to respond.
Judging from the machinery and all the supplies they could see, along with the number of portals along the walls which opened to more corridors, miners once used this cavern as a base camp. Those portals definitely led to other caverns. The question was, which one would take them to the prisoners?
"Alright, Gemini. It's your show," said Natsu.
Giving no response, Gemini walked into the cavern with the same lack of confidence they knew the real Russell often displayed when he wandered about the mines. They knew he didn't often come down here, but from the harried looks everyone held, no one would give his presence any second thought. The lights were very dim down here, a few lacrimas staked into the walls offering just enough illumination to not trip over oneself in the dark. This would serve them perfectly.
The first one was the last in line of a group of three who were swiftly walking past, all carrying weapons of various sorts. With barely a brush against his shoulder and a shy, "Excuse me," they'd taken his form, rifle pointed down as they continued in the opposite direction.
It was an older model they carried, weighing over three kilos, with a heavy wooden stock, a non-removable magazine, and holding five rounds in a staggered row. His grandfather taught him how to hunt with this rifle. It was more accurate than the modern weapons the rest of the mercenaries carried, though he hadn't shot at anything more threatening than a few rodents since he'd arrived here. He was walking a sentry with his team when the alert sounded. He was a low ranker. He didn't know where the prisoners were.
They came upon a lone trafficker, fiddling with his radio, trying to get a situation report from the surface. He didn't notice the tap on his shoulder as the hired mercenary walked by.
'The boss is gonna flip if he finds out the radio got fried because I spilled coffee over the circuits.'
Again, this one had nothing useful to give.
Natsu watched as Gemini seemed to glide across the cavern floor, losing sight of them whenever they walked into the shadows, but keeping track of their scent as they moved seamlessly through the sparse crowd, taking one form after another, doubling back and taking the form of any and every random person who walked by. They walked back and forth, and circled along the walls and pillars, never taking the same form twice. Men and a few women, young and old, traffickers, mercenaries, laborers, and various thugs; all of them were proving to be too out of the loop to know where the prisoners were being held.
All of them, until they finally came upon the one.
Natsu knew instantly when they'd found their guy, when the low level baddie bumped against an unassuming looking fellow, giving a grunt in apology, and ignoring the scathing look he received in return. The man walked away, shaking his head, too much in a hurry to get to the surface to see what was going on, to notice his twin now standing behind him, watching him walk away. Instead of moving on to the next person, they remained there, eyes aglow with excitement, and body straightening, turning swiftly to face the portal the man had come from.
Natsu grinned, meeting Virgo's eyes to indicate it was time to go, and trusted her to follow as he slinked along the shadows cast along the very middle of the cavern, where very little light reached. Most seemed to not notice the oddly dressed man and out-of-place woman wearing a maid outfit as they walked past. The few who did were dispatched before they could raise any alarm, a shift punch in the face more than enough to guarantee their silence. Virgo was scarily efficient in hiding the fallen from view.
"This guy knows where to go?" Natsu asked when he reached Gemini.
"He serves directly under Brent, the ringleader. It's good we waited. All of these portals lead to corridors which branch off in several places. It's a maze down here. We would have gotten lost right away. Follow me."
After walking along a meandering path through several different corridors, they came to the end of one, finding a deep shaft, and a rickety old hoist.
"I vote we jump down," Natsu eagerly suggested.
"We only need to go down four levels, but the shaft itself goes down almost three kilometers. The hoist is the safest way down," reasoned Gemini.
"The hoist is a freakin vehicle!"
"I can dig a new tunnel for you, Master Natsu," offered Virgo.
"This location is surrounded by ore deposits. It'd be too much noise compared to soil, and the vibrations may cause a cave-in," said Gemini.
Natsu knew better than to doubt their acquired knowledge, instead resigning himself to a nauseating ride down the shaft. As Gemini operated the hoist, Natsu asked for more intel to distract himself from the stomach churning drop.
"Does he know how many are down here?"
"Yes, nine in total. All female, all mages. They're being kept deep below because of the abundance of sealing stone. That's why they're building those cages closer to the entrance, for the sake of convenience in access and movement."
"Yeah. I'm sure it's a real pain in the ass having to haul food and water down there for them," Natsu groused bitterly as he took a knee in his queasiness.
"That's pretty much their attitude, yes. It's not uncommon for the prisoners to go without food for several days because of their location."
"Why just girls?"
Gemini paused, sifting through memories, before answering, "They were set aside for their desirable physical features, and marked for transport to war-torn Bellum to be sold off as comfort women."
At Natsu's confused look, both Celestial Spirits knew he was unfamiliar with the term. Virgo kneeled down to his level and whispered into his ear, just as Leo-ni had done when he'd once explained it to her.
Natsu's eyes widened as his cheeks turned red, but his bashfulness very quickly turned to anger as he considered the horrors those women were in for, and the bastards who were eagerly sending them to such fates.
Gemini brought the hoist to a stop, and blocked Natsu's attempts to burst out in righteous fury as soon as his nausea abated.
"We should quiet down now. We're almost there. Several guards are posted beyond the next bend, but they'll let us pass when they see you two are with us."
True to their word, they were all ushered past with barely a nod. Before they reached the end of the dark corridor, Natsu picked up the sour stench of unwashed bodies and human waste. He could imagine the jailers were about as efficient in cleaning the cages as they were in feeding the prisoners.
He slowed his pace, signaling the others to stop as he listened to what sounded like angered shouts. He led them forward, careful in his movements, keeping quiet, not for any need to hide their approach, but to hear what the angry man was saying. Soon, all of them could hear what had him so outraged.
"How the Hell can we not find four wizards in a village this small?! I could spit from one end to the other! Has the team from Fallen Blossom reached the safe house yet?"
As good as his hearing was, Natsu couldn't hear the other side of that conversation. The person speaking must have been using a com lacrima. Who or what was Fallen Blossom? It had to be some kind of guild, perhaps a mage or mercenary one?
"That's Brent's voice," supplied Gemini, "He came down here personally to supervise the transfer of the mage prisoners to the cargo ships."
"What's he talking about a safe house?" Natsu asked.
Brow knitted, Gemini sifted through their current memories, until they came upon the relevant information.
"That's where they're keeping the Headman's family… and they'd received intel that Erza and Gray are headed there. They've sent a team to intercept them—"
They paused, eyes wide upon recalling something of great concern.
"What's wrong?"
"Fallen Blossom. It's an assassin's guild."
Instead of the worry they were expecting, all they received was a sly grin.
"Assassins, huh? I've dealt with their kind before. Almost feel sorry for them. They're gonna regret going up against my team. Come on. I got a need to burn something."
Having pinpointed the positions of the prisoners due to their scents, it was no challenge to use his hearing to find the four traffickers located in various spots away from the huddled group. Taking a peek around the corner, he quickly found what to him seemed the biggest, most menacing of them all, and made him his target. Trusting Virgo to have his back, he ran forth, arm raised ready to strike, voice in a roar as he yelled out, "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
He stopped short, stumbling in his confusion as no flame arose.
All the mercenaries, along with Brent and all the prisoners, looked on as the perplexed dragon slayer stood in the middle of the room, gazing at his naked fist, paying no heed to the four weapons currently drawn and pointed at him.
Brent was the first to recover from his surprise, and let out a loud guffaw as he walked smuggly towards the intruder.
"You must be from Fairy Tail. I see ya got some friends with you. Why don't y'all come on out here and stop embarrassing yerselves. I give y'all props for making it all the way down here, but ya done messed up, didn't ya? Your powers don't work down here. I appreciate ya coming, though. You and your friends here, and the one's we're about to capture at the safe house, are gonna be some nice additions to my collection. It's not often the inventory just walks through my front door!"
As Virgo and Gemini walked forward, it finally dawned on Natsu that the high abundance of sealing stone down here was negating his powers.
As the biggest one approached, Brent continued, "If ya come quietly, no one needs to get hurt."
The mercenary shouldered his weapon, reached out to take Natsu into custody—and flew back in a bloody heap on the ground, his nose and several teeth shattered. Natsu, fist still outstretched after delivering that powerful blow, straightened as he cracked his knuckles and limbered up, ready for a fight.
"Fairy Tail doesn't DO quiet!"
Brent, intimidated but also outraged, shouted, "I don't care how ya hurt 'em! Just capture them alive!"
Natsu took a determined step forward, looking forward to pounding some heads in, when Virgo leaped into the fray, spinning her chains around in a whirlwind, slamming them into the faces of two more unfortunate mercenaries.
The last one raised his weapon, about to put a bullet into Natsu's leg, when two gunshots rang out. The mercenary fell like a stone, shrieking as he gaped at the twin holes now pouring blood from both of his own feet.
All eyes fell upon the shooter, who looked vaguely familiar to Natsu.
"Soldier! What the hell are you doing?!" cried Brent.
Said soldier, really a low-level henchman, but also a master marksman, pointed his pistol towards his boss, motioning for him to raise his hands.
Hands raised, Brent seethed in anger, imagining the worst, most painful punishments he couldn't wait to deliver to this lowlife, raged, "It doesn't matter how far ya go, or for how long ya run; I will find ya, and make ya pay in blood for this here treachery!"
As Natsu and Virgo looked on, the soldier, Ford, now standing right in front of Brent, raised his pistol, causing Brent's eyes to cross as he eyed the barrel, before he fixed his gaze on the soldier's face. His former employee smiled, almost gleefully, before he opened his mouth to respond.
"Piri-Piri!"
To Brent's befuddlement, the soldier disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced by a curious pair of floating… things. His jaw dropped, and he was too stunned to lower his hands now that the weapon no longer existed. Natsu was now the one laughing madly at the turn of events. It took him a moment for his brain to catch up, but Brent beat him to the question which topped both of their minds.
"Hey! How can you use your powers?!"
Because the seal stone still denied Natsu his magic, he'd learned as he tried to manifest a flame in his palm. He looked to the others, the same question in his own eyes.
Virgo answered, "It is because we are here under our master's power, and Princess is far from the effects of the seal stone."
That made sense. If the Celestial Spirits were affected by the seal stone, they would have vanished as soon as they'd reached this room. Natsu was very pleased at the reminder that their continued presence here with him meant Lucy wasn't in any mortal danger at the moment. He'd always known she could hold her own.
"Great! That means Virgo can dig a tunnel into those cages so we can get the prisoners out. Hey, you girls alright?" Natsu yelled towards the captured wizards.
One stepped forward to act as their spokesman.
"You're that dragon slayer from Fairy Tail."
Natsu tilted his head, recognizing the woman who spoke, but unsure from where.
"Hey! You're… um… that one girl from that… guild?"
"Mermaid Heel. I'm Araña. Our guilds competed together during the Grand Magic Games."
"Right! The spider lady! What are you doing here?"
Araña shuddered at the mention of spiders before she continued, "I came on a solo mission to clean up the leftovers of what was supposed to be a smuggling ring. Turns out, these guys are a completely different group."
"Yeah, we figured. You're pretty tough, though. How'd you get captured?"
"They had a mage who steals powers."
"You mean even when you leave here, you'll still be powerless?"
"No. My powers should return as soon as we're far from here. I guess I should say he copies them, but it's more than that. I thought I'd still be able to take him down, since I've mastered my powers while he would have been a novice. Turns out, he's somehow able to augment them—make them more efficient. He's able to take the basic fundamentals of whatever magic he copies, and improves upon them. He did things with my powers I'd never even dreamed possible."
"You mean he could take my flames and make them bigger?"
"No, I don't think he makes them more powerful. It's more like… he's more creative in how he uses them."
"So he's like a creation mage," Natsu reasoned, a sense of worry trying to take hold.
"In the sense that he creates new ways to use someone else's magic, I guess that's pretty accurate. He's a mercenary from the assassin's guild, Fallen—"
"—Blossom. Yeah, I had a feeling," he finished softly, "I'll keep an eye out. What does he look like?"
"No idea. He wore a mask, and baggy clothes. He was average height, lean build I guess. I never even heard his voice, our encounter was over so quickly."
For the briefest of moments, Natsu felt that impending dread, before he stomped it down. His friends could handle themselves. So some power-stealing jackass is gunning for them. So what? He'd soon find out why all of Fiore feared and respected the Titania of Fairy Tail.
And when it came to Gray, he was the most creative person he knew. If it was a contest of innovation, that magic thief was in for a few surprises. Natsu had nothing to worry about.
"I don't want you two going at each other with full powers, only to have his suddenly cut off mid attack."
Wendy's words echoed ominously in the back of his mind.
Shaking those thoughts, he saw Virgo had finished burrowing into the cell, and was helping the women crawl through the shallow ditch beneath the bars. Araña was one of the first ones through, and while helping pull the others out, continued briefing Natsu on the situation.
"Anyway, we're uninjured for the most part, but some of us are weak from thirst and hunger, and need help walking."
"Any of you got any powers that might be useful here?"
Exchanging some looks, a few of the able-bodied ones revealed what spells they thought could help in this situation. One of them was skilled in telepathy.
"Can you contact the authorities from the bottom of the canyon?" Natsu asked. He understood from Warren's magic that not all telepaths' powers were equal.
"I can't reach the closest branch of the Rune Knights, but I can send someone from the village to contact them," she assured.
As Virgo and Gemini pulled the last woman out, Natsu responded, "Perfect. The quicker they can get here, the better. If some of you can hold a weapon, you can follow Virgo out of here, and take these losers with you," indicating Brent and the other traffickers, "We can't leave them here. She'll tie them up to keep them from being stupid, then dig a tunnel y'all can take to the surface. Gemini can help carry someone. As soon as your magic returns, all of you do what you can to help out. A couple of our friends will meet you up there who can take care of any injuries."
"Aren't you coming with us?" asked another woman.
"Got a more important job to do," he smiled, though they could all sense the bit of anger in his voice as he finished, "You better get going. I'm gonna backtrack the way I came, and as soon as I'm out of range of these stupid stones, I'm incinerating everything that'll burn, starting with those guards we passed on the way here."
"You're going to kill them?!" gasped an astonished former prisoner, unsure and conflicted over whether to be pleased or disturbed at the prospect.
"I'll give 'em a head start. Not my fault if they fall behind."
With all the traffickers now conscious and restrained, Virgo led everyone, with Gemini taking charge of the bound traffickers from the rear, as they climbed the steep slope she was digging through the earth. Natsu waited several minutes, feeling the ground tremor ever so lightly as Virgo must have come upon a particularly hard patch of stone in their path. He took out a single guard that had run down there to see what was going on.
Tossing the unconscious guard at his comrades' feet, he gave them a wickedly delighted grin as both his hands burst into flames, the sealing stone no longer potent where they were.
"Pick him up and run. Five… Four... Three…"
Needing no more urging, the remaining guards did as they were told, not looking back as the deranged arsonist fire-bombed the whole chamber they'd just fled, destroying all the supplies and weapons that had been stored in the nearby alcoves and side corridors.
As he came to the shaft which led to the upper caverns, he found the hoist had been taken, most likely by those guards from before. No matter. He preferred the alternative anyway. With steely determination, he leapt towards the thick metal cables which suspended the hoist, and started climbing. As he reached hand over hand, one thought turned in his mind.
'I wonder how Lucy and Happy are doing?'
Next Chapter: Lucy demonstrates her bad ass fashion sense!