Chapter 8
"Let's get moving! We gotta blow this thing outta the water!" Natsu hollered at the top of his voice.
"No, wait!" Erza stopped them.
"What's the problem?"
"The rules state that all five members must reach the goal, so we can't leave without Wendy." She clarified.
"You're right!" Lucy gasped.
"WENDY!" Screamed Natsu, as if she might be within earshot.
"Ah, crap! We gotta get going and we need someone!" Gray exclaimed.
The most logical and obvious solution then struck the four of them simultaneously, and as one, they all looked to Logan. They found him with one leg propped on the terrace railing in a preparatory position for jumping off.
"Sorry, guys, you'll have to get someone else. I'm worried about Wendy and I'm gonna go look for her."
Before Logan could launch himself into empty space, Natsu was on him, colliding into his chest and knocking them both to the floor.
"Uh uh! Sorry man, but you're coming with us and that's it!" Natsu told him as they sat up.
"No, I'm not! I'm going to find Wendy! I have to make sure she's alright!" Logan declared with an agile springing back to his feet.
He motioned to leap from the terrace again, but Gray blocked his path with a wall of ice to cover the opening.
"We're all worried about her too, man, but the fact of the matter is, if we don't get in this elimination contest, than Fairy Tail's out of the games before we even started! We need you with us in there!"
Seemingly ignoring Gray, the silver haired pugilist raised his arm to punch through the ice, but he hesitated. Gray was right, after all. Lacking a fifth member to cross the finish line with them, the guild couldn't even compete in the contest, and if that happened, all the hard work, time, and hope everyone on his own team and beyond had invested over the last three months would be for nothing.
"Don't you worry about a thing, guys! Lishanna and I will go find Wendy! A real man's on the job!" Elfman trumpeted and stormed out of the room.
Erza said, "We have to get-"
She didn't get to finish her sentence, for they all heard the shattering of Gray's ice, and when they looked, Logan was leaping gracefully from the terrace. He sailed through open air for fifteen feet before landing on the path up to the labyrinth.
"What are you guys waiting for?! Seconds count!" He called back to them.
He started running the path up to the imperfect sphere without waiting for them.
"Ah yeah, now I'm fired up!" Natsu roared.
He, Lucy, Erza and Gray all climbed up to the path as well and began charging full force up its sloping ascent. It was only a matter of seconds before they'd caught up to their friend.
"Hey, Logan! What changed your mind?" Lucy asked.
Without breaking stride, he said, "I wanted to look for Wendy, but Gray was right about the urgency here. Just made me realize that if I'm going to be part of this guild, I'll have to try and trust the others in it. I said I wouldn't let you guys down, and I don't intend to break my word."
"Well said!" Erza declared. "With you on our side, I know our victory is all but assured!"
"Look! We're getting close to the entrance!" Gray said.
"Our first step to being number one in Fiore! We're taking that title! Right, Team Fairy Tail?!"
"Oh yeah!" Erza, Lucy, and Gray all agreed.
As they entered the labyrinth, the five of them found themselves standing upon a platform in the middle of what could have been an abstract, cubist painting. Platforms hung in midair, some of them appearing to be upside-down, leaning, or horizontal. Staircases branched off, zigzagged at odd angles, and appearing to lead off into infinity. While standing on the platform they'd landed on upon entering the game arena, the group heard the voice of the mascot resonate as it made another broadcast.
It said, "Remember, the Grand Magic Games planning committee is not responsible for any loss of life which may occur within the sky labyrinth. Good luck, everyone!"
"It's some kind of crazy, three-dimensional maze." Observed Gray.
"Ugh!" Natsu groaned. "I really suck at stuff like this."
"Don't give up already! We have to finish in the top eight. Otherwise we can kiss the title of number one in Fiore goodbye." Lucy told him.
"Yeah, you're right! We got to get through this if we want to get the chance to kick Sabertooth's butt!"
"Besides, what's the big deal here, anyway?" Logan asked. "This is so simple."
"Huh? What do you mean, simple?" Gray asked.
"It's nothing but a matter of geometry and direction."
"Logan has a point. When we were on the ground, the coliseum was to the east. I think we should head in that direction." Erza said.
"Naturally. It's easy enough when you think about it. Domus Flau was to the east of our inn, and running up the stairs took us in a gentle, northerly direction, putting us slightly northeast of the coliseum, and if you look over there-" Logan pointed to the night sky through one of the gaps in the labyrinth. "You can see the edge of the Virgo constellation, which is in the west, giving us our direction. Lucy, I'm kind of surprised you didn't spot that right off, being a celestial wizard."
Lucy suddenly blushed with an embarrassed hue.
"Uh, well, I, uh..." She stammered. To herself, she thought, "And I was just going to call out Pyxus to show us which way was east."
"So, then the most easterly direction we can take right now is that staircase." Gray stated.
"Let's go!" Erza declared and set off at speed.
Everyone followed after her, climbing the steeply ascending stairs.
"Alright, east, here we come!" Natsu shouted.
"Let's pick up the pace, guys. We've already lost time." Logan told them.
Lucy chimed in, "Not to be a downer, but with the way this place is laid out, I don't think we're gonna be able to go straight east."
"We're gonna have a hard enough time just trying to figure out which way is up." Gray commented.
OOO
Ten minutes later, the group had stopped briefly in order to retake their bearings.
"Natsu, you're not feeling sick?" Erza asked.
"Nuh-uh. You'd think I'd be puking my guts out, but I feel just fine."
"I'd say it makes plenty of sense." Gray said.
"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?" Natsu asked.
"Really, man? Just think about it. We've already been literally upside-down at least once, right? We were standing there just as cool as can be. More than that, you're not the only dragon slayer in Fiore, and there's people with things like fear of heights or inner ear problems with poor balance. I'm just saying, if they went to the trouble of casting a magic to change the gravity when needed, it just makes sense they'd fix the rest."
"Wow, Gray. I'm impressed. I didn't know you could be so analytical." Lucy said.
"I may seem like I'm just as much a brawler as the flamebrain sometimes, but that's just cause he brings it out of me."
"Flamebrain?! You want to go right now, iceberg?!" Natsu growled. "Eh, I'll get you for that one later. Whatever it is, I'm glad for any kind of Troia type magic they have on the place."
Lucy raised her hand to her face and said, "I seriously doubt the other wizards get motion sickness as easily as Natsu,"
"I know what you mean, he's kind of a baby." Gray replied.
"I can still hear you, ya know!"
"We should keep heading eastward." Erza announced. "Logan-"
She cut herself off when she saw that he was standing close to the edge, and with his eyes closed. As she watched, Logan started to make a kind of clacking sound, and she realized he was clicking his tongue for some reason, over and over again.
"Logan, what are you doing?" Erza asked him.
He turned his head in her direction, but with his eyes still closed. Then, before any of them knew what was happening, Logan suddenly rocked back on his heels, spinning around and lifting his leg in a roundhouse-kick aimed squarely at Erza's head. On reflexive instinct, Erza began to draw out her sword, but before she could raise it to defend herself after unsheathing, Logan's foot connected with something two feet in front of her face. A man suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and was just as quickly plummeting through open air of the sky labyrinth towards the ground below.
"What the?!" Lucy shouted.
"Sorry, guys. If I'd given you any warning, he would have just dropped that straight away and gotten all of us." Logan said, pointing to the ground.
The other four looked down to the floor at the single, spherical device laying at Erza's feet.
"That's a paralysis lacryma. That would have had us stunned for at least an hour. He must have been using stealth magic to get so close to us." She explained.
"Whoa! I can't believe how close we came to losing already! Logan, how'd you know where he was? I couldn't even smell him." Natsu asked.
"Uh... well.. I, uh, I was scouting the stars to make sure we were still going the right way when I noticed a small cloud of dust kick up on the stairs in front of us, and the rest was just a matter of deductive logic." Logan said.
While his story was coherent enough, given their experience with Logan thus far, the others couldn't help but think that he might be partially or entirely concealing the real explanation.
"Anyway, east is this way, guys. Come on!" He said and set off running.
OOO
A few minutes later on, Erza opened a door to reveal a tunnel with the appearance of twisting upon itself, of corkscrewing as it proceeded so that the trail was never in the same place.
"What the?" Gray asked.
"That's a little unsettling." Natsu said.
"Yeah. I feel like I'm gonna fall right in." Lucy said.
"We're wasting time. Let's move!" Commanded the redhead.
"How long is this creepy tunnel?" Lucy asked. "It looked like it never ends!"
"Does it really matter? It gets us closer to our goal!"
"After we come out of this tunnel, we should be about a third of the way there." Logan informed the group.
They ran on for a couple of minutes until eventually spotting a door at the end of the corridor. Natsu charged straight through it, finding himself at the edge of a platform to nowhere. Off balance from his momentum, Natsu flailed and sputtered excitedly as he struggled not to fall. He would have lost his battle with gravity if not for Gray and Logan each grabbing hold of his belt and pulling him back to stability.
"Aye, whoa! Thanks, guys! That was a close one."
"You're lucky that we caught you in time." Logan said.
"We could have lost you. When that pumpkin was talking about possible loss of life, he wasn't bluffing." Warned Lucy.
"Everybody watch your step. I don't think anyone could survive falling head first into the city from this thing." Gray said.
"Guys, we're never gonna get anywhere if we keep looking down. Come on! We got to keep heading eastward." Natsu puffed out.
Erza then announced, "I think it would prudent for us to take notes as we move along."
"On what?" Lucy asked.
"We should write down the path we've taken from our starting point, and the locations we've passed. We need to know precisely where we are in order to make progress. Logan, you know this city better than any of us do, do you agree?"
Eight feet to the left of everyone else, Logan was squatting down at the edge of the platform, staring at the city below.
"It might help. I can't say I know every inch of Croqus by even a long shot, but if my memory is correct, than we're currently directly above Grevillea Avenue, which means we've gone slightly southeast of east, but not too much. We'll just have to make a small adjustment to our trajectory." He answered.
"That sure would help us stop running around in circles." Lucy said.
"No joke. Guess we better start mapping stuff out." Gray replied.
"Get real, guys, that's not gonna work here. How are we supposed to make a map of this topsy-turvy place?" Natsu complained.
"Quit whining and help. Can't you sniff out the goal or something?" Gray shot back.
"Don't you think I would have done that by now?"
"The magic they cast on the labyrinth must have dulled your sense of smell." Lucy stated.
"The conditions on the same for every team. Let's keep moving." Erza said.
Before they could move out, the four of them all heard something. It was Logan clicking his tongue again. He was doing it over and over, always in repetitions of three clicks each with an interval of only half a second between each set. He did that for a good twenty seconds before standing up from his squat and turning to the others. Logan found all of his friends distinctly projecting a question at him.
"Well... you see... it's..." Logan rubbed the back of his head, clearly searching for an answer. He finally gave a resigned sigh and straightened up. "Alright, I guess I'll tell you this one. It's not my actual magic, you understand, it's just a skill I have."
"So, what is it?" Gray asked.
"It's echolocation. By clicking my tongue, I can send out sound waves and build a mental image of my surroundings based off the readings I get."
"What?!" Natsu gasped.
"You can seriously do something like that?" Lucy asked.
"I've been doing it since we got in here, mostly when you guys weren't paying attention. It's how I've been able to keep us going in the right direction for the most part, by creating an image in my head of this convoluted mise en scène and plotting which of these paths would go as directly east as possible."
"That must also be how you identified our attacker before." Erza said.
"The part about the small amount of dust was actually true, but yes. I used my echolocation to determine exactly where he was before making my move."
"Ha ha!" Natsu bellowed. "You know what this means?! With those ears of yours, there's no way we won't find that finish line!"
"But wait, how come Logan can do something like that when lava-lips can't use his hound's nose?" Gray asked.
"My guess would be that the planning committee probably didn't think of that one. Echolocation is usually only something animals can do, but not most people. I think it's usually only the blind who develop a skill like that. It probably never occurred to them." Lucy suggested.
"Whatever the reason, we should use this to our full advantage, but while we're moving. There's no telling if any guilds have already made it to the end or not." Erza said.
OOO
"What do you mean Wendy's gone?" Romeo asked.
After leaving the Honeybone Inn, Elfman, Lishanna and Happy had rendezvoused with Romeo and Nab out in the town.
"Hang on. Are you saying she's missing?" Nab asked.
"We can't find her or Carla!" Happy exclaimed.
"Don't the rules say each team's gotta have five members? Don't tell me they've been disqualified."
"Nah, Logan was there, so he stepped up like a real man and went in as a last minute replacement." Elfman said.
"That's not fair!" Romeo suddenly blurted. "If I'd been there, they would have chosen me to join the team! Not that big dummy!"
"Uh, yeah, sure." Happy mollified.
"Big bro Elf, Happy and I are gonna start looking for them. We need you two to go tell everyone else. We'll have a better chance of finding them if we split into teams and use Warren's telepathy." Lishanna explained.
"This city is huge, so we've got a lot of ground to cover." Happy said.
"Got it." Romeo said. "But, I'm worried. I hope they haven't run into any sort of trouble."
Nab replied, "Yeah, me too, but try not to dwell on it. It'll be better if we hurry and get back to the others so we can fill them in."
"Right."
OOO
Back in the maze, Team Fairy Tail were hard at work trying to sketch out a quick map of where they'd already been.
"East is that way, Lucy." Logan told her.
"This maze is harder to map out than I thought it'd be." She said.
"Well, what do you expect when everything around you looks the same?" Gray asked.
"Hey, Erza..." Natsu prodded.
"Yes, I heard it too."
"You're the one who told us to go this way, you little runt!" An approaching voice shouted.
"Don't try to blame this on me!" Another responded.
"I don't care whose fault it is, all I know is that we've been here before!" Chimed a third.
"That's what I'm saying, we're going around in circles!"
"Just shut up and keep moving!"
"We're running out of time!"
"Heh. I almost forgot." Natsu commented.
"Been so relatively quiet, it's easy to forget there's other guilds in here." Gray said.
At that moment, the five of them laid eyes on the opposing team who had been so loud.
"Man, you got to be kidding me." Said a man with extremely poofy hair.
"You again?" Asked a little guy.
"The Fairy Tail guild? This some kind of joke?"
"Ah, not those clowns." Natsu grumbled.
"Since you guys obviously know them, exactly who are these ridiculous looking people?" Logan asked.
"What'd you call us?!" One of them sniped.
"They're from another guild in Magnolia called 'Twilight Ogre.'" Erza said. "While some of us were stuck on Tenro Island, their guild made a loan to ours, and then proceeded to harass our guild mates so they wouldn't notice when they started paying past the point they no longer had to."
"Yeah, and it wasn't until we all got back that Master went over there and gave them what for." Lucy said, clearly resentful over the slight against her friends.
Logan looked at his four friends, then over to team from Twilight Ogre, then at his own teammates again.
"How did a pack of Cro-Magnons like that bully Fairy Tail? They don't look like they could take Happy." Logan said.
"Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing, but you can't really blame everybody else. They'd been through a lot after we disappeared and had lost all their fight." Natsu said.
"Hey, punk! Where do you get off talking crap right to our faces?! And who are you anyway?! You're not with Fairy Tail!" The poofy haired guy snarked.
"Actually, I am a member of Fairy Tail as of four months ago." Logan answered.
"Ha ha ha!" The short little Ogre cackled. "A bunch of losers like you actually managed to recruit a new member? What'd you do? Kidnap and brainwash him? You're so lame!"
"I'm surprised to see you losers in the tournament!" Gray snapped.
"You got no right to call us losers. You're the guild that always comes in last place."
"Fairy Tail's taking first place this year, just you watch!" Natsu informed the guy.
"Yeah? Well, we'll see about that." Poofy Hair replied.
"Whoa! Hold on a sec!" Lucy declared. "You want to fight us right here?!"
"Why not? We can use magic without restriction in here. I don't blame you for being scared!"
"You Fairy Tail punks are going down!"
"These guys will never learn." Gray said.
"I'm fired up now." Natsu said eagerly.
Logan clenched his fists, cracking all his knuckles at once.
"Are we really going through with this?" Lucy asked.
"The fewer the rivals, the better the chances." Erza answered.
"Yeah, you've got a good point, Erza."
"You know, we had the exact same thought." One of the Ogres said loudly. "And come to think of it, so did all these friends of ours."
Just then, previously unseen groups of people all started emerging from cover all around the Fairy Tail wizards. Before a score of seconds had elapsed, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Logan and Erza found themselves completely surrounded by the teams from five additional guilds.
"After what your master did to ours, and to our guild hall, we got together with these pals of ours and decided it'd be great to make sure Fairy Tail lost as early as possible. With these new rules, we probably can't all make it into the tournament this year, but it'll still be fun to make sure you don't either." The leader from Twilight Ogre said sneeringly.
"Guys, there's six of them to each of us." Lucy squeaked out.
"Oh, please. So, what? These are cream-puffs." Logan said sternly.
"Hey, hey! It's fightin' Logan! Haven't seen this guy since our brawl." Natsu cheered happily.
"Just goes to show how seriously our buddy's takin' this." Gray said approvingly.
"This should be quite the pleasant warm-up for everything else." Erza said with a smile while grasping her sword.
All thirty of their enemies than suddenly jumped from their perches, descending upon the waiting Fairies at speed.
"You're gonna pay for making us look bad in front of our master!" One of the Ogres shouted.
"You're gonna be crying for mercy when we get done with ya!"
"We don't have time to waste on you guys!" Natsu declared, igniting his fire.
"Cause we gotta take down Sabertooth!" Continued Gray with a icy aura wreathing his hands.
"So we can be number one in Fiore." Erza finished the thought.
"Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu yelled, shooting the flames down at the platform to launch himself into the air.
While airborne, Natsu bent upon himself, gripping his legs and curling himself into a ball while still pouring out his flame breath attack, turning himself into a spinning, flaming buzzsaw. He slammed into his still falling enemies, instantly taking three of them out of the fight and incinerating their clothes to nothing.
"You may have gotten them, but too bad you can't dodge us in midair!" One of the attackers shouted.
"Fire Dragon Roasting Bath!"
Natsu then suddenly let go of himself, extending all of his limbs until he was spread eagle. The new flames created from his Roasting Bath spell along with the fire of his roar attack combined to create a massive, concussive detonation of flames in every direction. The force of the blast caused another four of their enemies to be blown black, slamming violently into the platforms they'd leaped from moments before. Those who weren't forcefully wedged stuck were heading down for a meeting with the streets of Croqus.
"My turn now." Gray said with a smile. "Ice-Make Blowgun!"
In his hand materialized an eight-inch long blowgun that he instantly raised to his mouth and fired off two quick shots. The darts of ice which ejected from the gun, measuring only half an inch in diameter didn't look like much, but upon impact, they released a torrent of ice that totally encased their targets in seconds.
"Ice-Make Boomerang!"
Gray then created a gigantic boomerang, as tall and wide as himself, and hurled it with all his strength. The freezing weapon swung through the air in a perfectly looping curve, slamming into one enemy wizard after another and carrying on its arc until it had three of them collected and collectively frozen to a platform.
"Requip!" Erza called out.
Her normal Heart Kreuz armor disappeared in a flash and was replaced with an entirely new outfit. In its place was a two-piece outfit consisting of a metal breastplate that molded itself to her contours, bound behind her shoulders with tough, sturdy leather, and revealing her toned abdomen. Beneath that was a similarly designed skirt, with hanging plates of metal dangling from the front, and on the side hung a sheath of red cloth that circled halfway around her body and trailed all the way to her feet. Metal braces protecting her legs completed the outfit.
"Weapon Empress Armor, bow and arrow!"
A bow and quiver of arrows appeared on her body, and Erza deftly nocked one into place, pulling back on the bowstring.
"Hunting Arrow!"
Erza fired her arrow. It flew straight and true, its blunt edge striking into the esophagus of her would-be attacker with enough force to knock the wind out of him, but not to kill him. Following its designated purpose, the arrow then turned in midair and proceeded to repeat the process on another four wizards before they could hit the ground. Two then actually landed on the platform near to Erza, and wasted no time in beginning to cast their own spells.
"Weapon Empress Armor, long staff!" Erza cried.
Her bow and arrows vanished, and in its place in her right hand stood an ornately carved metal pole taller than Erza herself. She immediately slammed the tip of the pole into the floor, propelling herself vertically along its length until she was six feet into the air. Her sudden absence combined with the enemy on her left's inability to cancel his spell in time caused its paralyzing power to strike the combatant on her opposite side. Erza then used her powerful abdominal muscles to lever herself into a spin, twirling her staff through a fully clockwise rotation before it slammed with all her might into the cheek of her remaining opponent. The man flew off the platform, with half his teeth following closely behind.
At that point, several of the enemy wizards landed on the platform, and one of them quickly became intimately acquainted with Logan's left-cross. Logan than followed it up with a very unsportsmanlike stomp into the guy's foot to take him off balance, and a swift headbutt that turned the guy's nose into a geyser.
From Logan's six o'clock, he heard an electrical crackle and acted on reflex, putting some power into his legs and launching into a reverse flip, dodging over a bolt of lightning. Logan sailed right over the wizard, landing a good twenty feet away, slightly on the man's nine o'clock. He dashed in before the guy could readjust sufficiently to defend himself, and Logan planted a chopping kick into the man's ankle that broke the bones, a short uppercut into his kidney, and a sharp elbow into the side of the man's jaw that caused his brain to rattle in his skull.
From across the way, two of his enemies fired off blasts of magic, one a water dragon that looked like it's teeth could really tear something, and the other was an incredibly long spiked chain that was twisting and snaking itself like a living being.
Logan grabbed onto the clothes of the wizard he'd just roughed up, and used him as a human shield against the water dragon. If the guy had still been conscious after the blows Logan had dolled out, he was out like a light once the water dragon tore into his back. Logan next spun his victim through a three-hundred sixty degree turn and sent him careening into his far off, ersatz comrade. The two of them fell off the platform together.
As the seemingly living chain closed in on him for the kill, Logan pulled his right leg, turning his body horizontally to the approaching chain to evade the strike, and then slammed his foot down on the coils to keep it in place. Without missing a beat, he grabbed the links and gave it a sound pulling, yanking the controller on the other end off his feet. When the man was in range, Logan used a punch that combined a hook with an uppercut, stepping into it with his hip for the power, shooting his elbow downward in the usual motion for an uppercut, but then snapping forward into the guy's face with enough rotation in the punch to send him veering off at a right angle, out cold before he touched down.
The last two were simple by comparison. They were momentarily distracted by seeing what Logan had just done to their friend, and standing too close together. That was all the opportunity Logan needed, and he took full advantage. He dashed forward, employing all the speed he'd built up during his training at the beach.
To their credit, his enemies recovered enough to try and fire off a little magic, but it was no use. Logan's footwork allowed him to evade their attacks as if he were gliding effortlessly across a frozen lake. At a range of three feet, Logan jumped into the air. He planted his right foot into the first guy's stomach to propel him further upward, and then dug the sole of his right full on into the guy's face, then used his momentum to push off from the guy, and twisted his hips to send a midair, spinning roundhouse-kick into the jaw of his final enemy. Both would be down for a very long count.
"Guess all that's left is for me to do my thing!" Lucy said.
Opening the special leather pouch on her belt, Lucy came out with not just one, but four of her Celestial keys all at once, holding them outward between her fingers as if they were claws.
"Dance of the Celestial Maiden!"
With an elegant swipe of her hand, as if she were unfurling a fan, Lucy swiped her right hand through the air, and in its wake was left a glowing strip of light hanging in the air. From the strip emerged a glowing lion's head of energy that collided with one of the few remaining combatants.
Lucy twirled on the tips of her toes, turning towards a man on her left and using another elegant sweep of her arm to open a second streak of light. From this one emerged a plethora of arrows at the assailant, piercing his clothing and pinning him to the underside of a distant staircase.
As the final standing enemy wizards bent on Fairy Tail's destruction tried to rush her, Lucy performed an expert pirouette, her spin causing the two of them to miss her completely. She then slashed through the air once more with both hands, and from the dual streaks of light emerged a cloud of pink, fluffy wool that encased the men in a makeshift prison, and a stream of sand that rocketed them right out of sight.
Coming to a stop, one ankle delicately crossed over the other, Lucy gave a little bow, as if her recital had just reached its coda.
"Whoa! Hey, Lucy, what was that? I've never seen that before." Gray asked.
"That was just my Dance of the Celestial Maiden." Lucy said as if it were obvious.
Walking over, she playfully half leaned on Logan like she needed the physical support.
"I actually got the idea from this big lug here. When you were talking about being precise in your moves that one night at dinner, it gave me the idea that I could do more if I could be more precise with my summonings, so, I came up with this. By opening up just a small, partial gate, my spirits can fire off a single attack before it closes again, and it allows me to have more of them pitch in at once without the hefty cost to my magic reserves. It also lets me actually use some of that high culture, artsy stuff my dad forced me to learn when I was still an heiress." Lucy explained.
"Wow, Lucy! I didn't think you could come up with something that smart!" Natsu said, almost laughing.
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"
Just as things seemed to be quieting down, some type of huge notification sound began to buzz over and over again, so loud it seemed to be coming from all directions. Accompanying it was a spontaneous shaking of the entire complex, a deafening screech of gears grinding, and the floor beneath their feet began to tilt.
"What now?!" Erza demanded.
"Ah, man! I don't like this!" Natsu shouted.
"What the heck's going on?!" Lucy yelled.
"Come on, guys, it's obvious! The floor's movin'!" Gray declared.
"It's the whole damn labyrinth that's moving, rotating on an axis! Obviously a trap to whittle down the teams more!" Logan yelled.
"Nobody warned us about thissssssss!" Natsu's voice trailed as he and Lucy together lost their perch and began to fall.
OOO
Down at surface level, the phenomenon of the gigantic ball hovering in the sky rotating itself was hard for anyone to miss. In addition to the obvious spectacle, it was also easy to see the hundreds and hundreds of wizards literally falling out of the running.
"Uh oh! Lishanna, look!" Happy said.
He, Lishanna, and Elfman were all running along one of Croqus' tourist paths along an elevated pathway in their search for Wendy and Carla.
"They're dropping like flies!" The youngest Strauss sibling observed. "Oh, no! If our team falls, they'll be disqualified!"
"They'd better not! That'd be just way too un-manly!" Added her brother.
"I hope they'll be alright up there." Happy said.
OOO
As floors quickly became perpendicular walls, Erza, Gray and Logan all managed to just barely grab hold of one of the platforms before they would have followed their competitors down.
"It's turning on its z-axis!" Erza shouted.
"Hear that?! We got to move to the sides, you guys!" Gray told them all.
"Uh, we would, but we're already falling!" Lucy yelled back.
"Ah! If only Happy were here!" Natsu screamed.
His mind working on overdrive, Logan set to work. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled free one of a few different objects he kept there for emergencies, bound by leather loops with snap buttons. The object in question was a magic tool, specifically, a magic grappling iron. By drawing magic power from whomever was holding it, the item would magically bind itself to whatever surface the holder deemed with near unbreakable adhesion. It would then project an ever extending line of rope that would only stop when the holder gave the signal by wrapping it around his hand three times.
Within half a second, Logan had yanked the hook free from his jacket, bound it to his platform, pulled himself back against the surface, coiling his leg muscles as tightly as they would, and launched himself into space. He plunged into the abyss, sailing through the open air much faster than the terminal velocity of his falling friends. He needed to get both Natsu and Lucy back onto solid ground, but the problem was that they were a good fourteen feet apart from each other, and as soon as he grabbed one of them, he'd have to stop the rope in his hand to be able to swing to safety.
The distance between the three of them shrinking at a speed of three-hundred and fifty feet-per-second, Logan realized there was only one action to take.
"I'll have to remember to apologize for this later." He thought.
Closing to within six feet of the dragon-slayer, Natsu reached out his hand for Logan to grab him. Instead of taking it, Logan soared down even further and used Natsu as a springboard, kicking into his stomach with both feet so that Logan changed his angle and Natsu was sent careening backward into the walls changing to become a floor.
"Lucy, grab on!"
Making it the final few feet to Lucy, Logan circled his free hand around her waist while she clamped her hands onto his neck and shoulders. He twisted the rope around his right hand, and with it instantly snapping tight, the two of them swung through a three to seven o'clock arc before sliding to a stop at the very edge of a platform.
Lucy was panting lightly from her adrenaline. "Whoa! Thanks, Logan, that was quick thinking. You're the best."
"It really wasn't anything." He said humbly.
The two then noticed how close they still were, their chests pressing tightly into one another, and nearly jumped away from each other with an awkward exclamation.
"Uh, sorry!" He said with blushing agitation.
"It's, uh, it's okay! Just, don't let it happen again!"
"HEY!"
Lucy and Logan looked up and across the void to see where Natsu had landed.
"That really hurt, you know!" He screamed, glowering at Logan.
"You guys okay over there?" Gray called out.
"Yeah, we're good!" Lucy replied.
"It's finally stopped moving." Stated Erza.
"I don't know who came up with this contraption, but they're pretty messed up in the head."
"I'm not surprised with the intricacy of the labyrinth. It's designed to whittle over a hundred teams down to eight." Erza told him.
"It looks like that last move was enough to get rid of a lot of them." Gray said.
It took a couple of minutes for the five to weave their way around to reconvene.
"Well, since that's over now, we should probably get movin' again." Natsu said.
"Yeah, we should, but there's just one problem with that." Logan said.
"What problem?" Erza asked.
He pointed up towards the sky.
"With how the labyrinth moved, I can't see Virgo anymore, and even though I can picture it in my head, it means I can't correct us when these winding pathways start to take us away from heading directly east."
"So? Couldn't you do your whole tongue clicking thing?" Natsu asked.
"It's echolocation. It won't tell him what direction something's in, only what it is." Lucy corrected him.
"Huh? Hey, what's this?" Gray said.
The others turned to look at him, and following the line of his eye, they saw a stack of papers with hand written notes and drawings lying on the floor. Gray bent over and picked it up.
"One of those guys we kicked out of here must have dropped 'em. Looks like some kind of map to me." He said.
"Let me see that." Logan said.
He allowed Gray to hand over the papers, but his friends couldn't help but notice that Logan reached for them a bit more forcefully than they would have thought.
"Erza, look at this." He said.
They stood closely side by side, leaning in to focus on the papers.
"Is it my imagination, or do these drawings match that almost hexagonal outcropping of platforms out that way?"
Erza peered closely at the map for a few seconds before looking up to gaze where Logan was pointing.
"You're right, they are, but those platforms are definitely mostly east of where we are now, which means-"
"Which means that some of those guys we took out came in this way from the east, making this map as they went along." Logan finished her sentence. "If they didn't know they were going the wrong way or just focused on getting us doesn't even matter. With this map, and where I know Virgo was, we can get through this maze again, for a while at least."
"Awesome! Alright team, let's get back to business!" Natsu yelled.
OOO
Down on the street, the members of Fairy Tail not taking place in the games were hard at work in their search for Wendy and Carla. Warren, Alzack, and Max all convened together at the corner of Redwood Route and Orchard Way.
"What's up, Max? You have any luck?" Alzack asked.
"Afraid not. You'd think a little girl and her talking cat would be conspicuous, but no one's seen them."
"Yeah, it's weird. It's not like Wendy and Carla to just wander off like that." Warren said.
"We need to hurry and find them, cause I'm sure the team's concerned. It's got to be hard for them to focus on the race." Max said.
"Hey, did you find anything, Warren?" Lishanna asked over Warren's telepathy.
"Nope, not even a single lead. We've scoured every inch of Croqus, but haven't seen hide nor hair of them. I supposed we could check Domus Flau, but I doubt we'll find them there. The only other place left is the royal palace." Warren replied telepathically.
OOO
"I just remembered something!" Happy broke in from beside Lishanna.
"What is it?"
"Earlier today, Carla mentioned something about going on a site seeing tour of the city with Wendy." Happy said.
"Well in that case, maybe they are at the palace."
"There's only one way to find out. Let's go."
"While you do that, I'm gonna go check out the restaurant district. Maybe they got hungry or something." Elfman said.
OOO
Back up in the Sky Labyrinth, Team Fairy Tail had been plodding forward as best and as swiftly as they could for the past twenty minutes.
"Hey, Logan, you're trying to take us through the interior of this thing, aren't you?" Lucy asked, breaking the silence of the past few minutes.
"Why do you say that?" Logan asked back conversationally.
"I feel like it's clear there's no point in trying to head east from the surface of the labyrinth since we'll just keep running around in circles because the stupid thing keeps rotating." She replied.
Logan looked at her, and the expression on his face almost looked like he wanted to smile. The glean in his eyes spoke plainly to the respect he was feeling towards Lucy's intellect.
"Who would have thought we'd find such a peaceful landscape in the center of this monstrosity?" Erza asked, thinking aloud.
The five of them had wandered into an area that was built to resemble a pastoral scene of a lushly green, rolling countryside with hills, declivities, and even a waterfall and winding river. In addition to idyllic imagery, it also included buildings, crumbling walls and various other structures to create the illusion of decaying ruins of some medieval town.
"It'd be more peaceful if it wasn't upside-down." Gray commented.
"Guys, come on. We got to ke-" Logan never finished his sentence. Setting his foot down in the course of taking his next step, the platform under Logan vanished without warning, sending him instantly falling into open air.
With precision timing and immeasurable swiftness, Erza requiped back into her Weapon Empress armor, set it to the chain-sickle, and threw the chain after him. At the exact same time, Natsu, who was the closest, dove down onto his stomach and shot his hand out. Logan was caught around his left arm by Erza's chain and his right ankle by Natsu. Together, they easily pulled him back onto solid ground.
"Whoa! Thanks, guys." Logan said, taking a deep breath to steady himself.
"Careful there, man. We lose you, we're out of the games." Gray said half playfully.
"Well, I'm not going to be much help anymore. I lost the map in the fall. I won't be able to guide us through the place anymore."
"What?!" Natsu whined. "Ah, come on! Seriously?! Now we can't even tell which way we're supposed to go?!"
"We can't afford to stop moving, either." Erza said.
"Hm! Hm! Hm!" Lucy chuckled to herself. "Yes! I've been waiting for this moment!"
"What's with you?" Natsu asked.
"Maybe this crazy place has fried her brain." Gray said.
"Nope, my brain's just fine! Open, gate of the compass! Pyxus!" She cried.
Lucy's celestial gate opened, and out from it popped a four foot tall, bipedal cardinal, but with a white face, a duck bill, and a large compass protruding from the top of its head. Upon its arrival, the spirit gave a once over look of the entire group, and then quickly ducked behind Lucy, holding onto her legs like a frightened child.
"Why's it look so scared?" Natsu asked.
"Uh..." Lucy looked at Pyxus and then turned her head to follow his gaze. "Erza must be scaring him."
"But I'm not doing anything." The redhead countered.
"That's really never stopped you from scaring anyone before." Gray said.
Lucy squatted down to be almost level with her spirit.
"Okay, pal, don't be scared. This is your time to shine. We really need your help to find our way and there's no one else who can do it."
"I apologize if I upset you. Would you please assist us?" Erza asked kindly.
"Piko!" Pyxus cried in a merry tone.
"That's one simple minded spirit." Commented Gray.
"Yeah, but I bet he's still smarter tha- Ugh!"
Natsu's statement was cut short by Logan's elbow slamming back into his gut, which Logan companioned with an identical one for Gray.
"Hey! What was that for?!" Natsu screamed into his ear.
"Yeah, seriously man!"
Logan replied matter-of-factly, "I know the two of you pretty well by this point, so I thought I'd just streamline things a bit by keeping you two from saying something else stupid about Erza."
"Is there something going on back there?" Erza asked, having heard her name.
"No, nothing!" Gray and Natsu spouted in unison.
Seeing nothing disparaging, Erza turned her attention back with nothing more than a slight nod of her head.
"Okay, Pyxus, do your stuff!" Lucy proclaimed.
The spirit did something undetectable to initiate his magic, and the compass on his head began to spin. It whirled around for a couple of moments before stopping sharply, making Pyxus point out a direction excitedly with both wings.
"East is that way!" Lucy exclaimed, mimicking her spirit's pointing.
"One small problem: that way is up." Gray pointed out.
Pyxus and Lucy were pointing towards the upside-down landscape over their heads.
"Lucy, you sure he's right about this?" Natsu asked.
"I"m positive. Trust me, celestial spirits are way more powerful than regular compasses."
"Isn't this just peachy?" Logan thought to himself, knowing what was coming next.
"Any ideas on how we're gonna get up there?" Natsu asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Erza replied. "Give it a sec."
It took less than another minute for the labyrinth to activate its most bothersome feature and begin rotating again. The shift in gravity caused the members of Fairy Tail to succumb to the natural consequences. The five them fell through two-hundred feet of air before plunging into the river now beneath them.
Slowly and groggily, they all dragged themselves out of the water and onto the bank.
"That's just great." Logan complained aloud. "I'm gonna have to apply anti-rusting spray to these for a week."
Gray spat out a few lung-fulls of water. "Yeah, what a peaceful setting this is."
"Everyone out of the water." Erza blared out sternly. "This is no time to be relaxing. We're still in the middle of a race."
"She's right. We've worked too hard and fallen too far to get knocked out now. We've got to get back at it!" Lucy agreed.
As she climbed out of the river, Lucy looked down at her clinging clothes, and then hugged herself tightly.
"And if any of you men look at me right now, I'll poke your eyes out!"
"Come on, guys! We gotta take first place in this round!" Howled Natsu.
Dripping wet, chilled to the bone, and undeterred, they all five started off again at a full sprint.
OOO
In the exact center of Croqus, Lishanna and Happy stood in awe of the royal palace. Surrounded on all sides by a five-hundred foot tall barrier constructed of the strongest magic reinforced stone in Fiore, it was further encircled by pyramidical staircases leading up to the walking path ringing the exterior. Each staircase was bisected with three ascending tiers of flower gardens, the aim being to interrupt the image of militaristic defense.
"So, this is the king of Fiore's castle?" Lishanna asked.
"The Lumineria Palace, Mercurious." Happy said.
"This is the first time I've ever seen it."
"Yeah, me too."
The two of them approached the base of the first stairs, but were instantly halted by two uniformed guards crossing their spears in the classic barring maneuver.
"Stop right there!"
"Where do you think you're going?! The grounds are closed!"
Lishanna said, "Sorry. We're just looking for our guild members who've gone missing. One of them was supposed to participate in the Grand Magic Games' preliminary round."
"We've searched all over Croqus, so this is the only place left for us to check." Happy finished the story.
"Hmm. Well, I suppose there wouldn't be any harm in letting you in for a few minutes." The guard on the left said.
"His majesty is certainly looking forward to the games, so we don't want anything to interfere with that." Added the one on the right.
"But don't go any further than the castle courtyard."
"We won't. Thanks, guys." Happy said.
OOO
"Got it! That's good to hear! We're on our way to Mercurious right now!" Warren told Lishanna and Happy over his telepathy.
He was running at full tilt towards the castle with Max and Alzack following just a step behind.
"I really hope that those two are okay." Alzack said worriedly.
Max asked, "The games haven't even started yet and there's already trouble? We're really getting off on the wrong foot."
OOO
Lishanna passed by one of the countless, identical intersections within the topiary maze outside the main castle courtyard. She and Happy had split up to cover more ground, and it had been eight frantic minutes of running up and down every blind path she could find in search of a sign of Wendy and Carla.
As she passed, she happened to glance to her left, and she saw that Happy was in a stationary hover about fifty feet away.
"Happy, is there something wrong?" She called.
"Look, I found this." He responded.
Lishanna high-tailed it over to him. The cat was hovering just above a small, satchel purse with a yellow flap, and a red, heart shaped button snapping it shut.
"Oh, that purse! I've seen it before." Lishanna said in mild surprise at the discovery.
"Yeah, I have too." Happy said. "It's Wendy's. Now, I'm worried. What happened to them?"
"Just stay calm, they're probably not too far from here."
"You're right."
With renewed purpose, they set off running again, and it wasn't long before they found what they'd been searching for. Four-hundred feet further southward into the maze, the hedge walls opened up into a miniature plaza featuring a garden of specially grown hybrids of roses and orchids, said to have been cultivated by the queen of Fiore three generations prior. Wendy and Carla were sprawled out in the grass just before the flowerbed, completely senseless.
"They're here!" Lishanna yelled through the telepathic link with Warren.
She and Happy rushed over, and Lishanna stooped down to lift up and cradle Wendy's upper-body while Happy attended to Carla.
"Wait, you found them?! So, they were at the palace. Are they alright?" Warren asked.
"I think so. It's hard to tell, they're unconscious. Would you please send help as fast as possible?" Lishanna replied.
"Don't worry sis, I'll be there at manly speed!" Elfman replied.
"Wake up, Carla. It's me, Happy. You know, the one you call 'tomcat.'"
Looking at Wendy, Lishanna said, "She doesn't seem to be injured, so that's good. But, I barely sense any magic power from her."
"Yeah, same with Carla. Isn't there anything we can do?"
Just then, a groan escaped Wendy's throat and her eyes groggily fluttered open a crack.
"She's awake!"
"Maybe she'll be able to tell us what happened." Happy said.
As if on reflex, Wendy raised her arms up to protect her face. She was quivering in Lishanna's arms, her whole manner speaking of terror.
"No, don't hurt me!" She begged.
"It's okay, you're safe now. It's Lishanna. Do you recognize me?"
"I'm here with you, too." Happy said.
"Happy. Lishanna." Wendy muttered. "What in the world happened?"
"We were gonna ask you the same thing. You don't remember?" Happy asked.
"No."
"Don't you worry, Wendy. We'll get you taken care of and healed in no time." Lishanna cooed sweetly.
Even as she spoke the words, she became filled with dread that they were only seeing the beginning of an abominable struggle to come.
OOO
Inside the sky labyrinth, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza and Logan had moved out of the pastoral scenery and were then traversing a winding path of jagged rocks suspended over a vast body of water.
"How in the heck did they squeeze an entire ocean into this thing?!" Natsu asked.
"Who cares about that?! How long is this friggin' path?!" Lucy asked.
"Quit whinin' and look up!" Gray told them.
"He's right!" Erza said. "The sky above us isn't real, it's been painted on."
"But the last one looked like a real sky. If that's the case, it has to mean that all the magic in this room is going to the ocean, which must mean this actually leads somewhere." Lucy said.
"She's right! Look up! Half a mile in front!" Logan yelled.
Approximately twenty-six-hundred feet ahead of them, the stone path changed into an ascending slope of uneven rocks, with something twinkling at the end.
"That's got to be the goal! Let's go!" Natsu called.
All five of them picked up their speed even more. It seemed like smooth sailing to the finish line, but when they were a quarter mile away, a new threat presented itself. Three-hundred feet off to their right, another group with all five of its required members were running in midair, traveling over a path of magic energy being projected beneath their feet.
"Who the hell are those guys?!" Gray asked.
"I recognize their symbol. They're the Oni Mallet guild." Erza told them.
"I think I've read something about them. They're supposed to be pretty efficient because each of their teams is required to have someone to do allocation magic. Magic that lets the user share the effects of someone else's magic with the whole group."
The Oni Mallet guild looked over at the Fairy Tail team, sneered, and then started to pull ahead of them. The combination of their being able to take a straight line along with the effect of a speed enhancing spell being shared through allocation magic gave them a beeline right to the top.
"No way! They're gonna beat us up there!" Natsu howled.
"What can we do?! They're moving too fast for any of our spells to hit them!" Lucy said.
"Listen up!" Logan yelled with more authority than he'd ever displayed before. "Lucy, summon Sagittarius! Gray, make a chain! Erza and Natsu, when you get the sign, blast me as hard as you can!"
"Huh?!" The four others all queried in unison.
Logan didn't take the time to explain himself. With a nonchalant ease that left the others perplexed, he started picking up speed in his run, pulling away from the rest of them with ever increasing momentum. He was swiftly approaching a sharp, turning bend in their path.
"You know somethin'? I think we're rubbin' off on him." Gray said with a knowing smile.
"Indeed." Erza echoed as the plan became clear to her as well.
Logan reached the end of the path and jumped off the edge with such force it caused a chunk to crumble away.
"Requip! Morningstar Armor! Proton Slicer!"
Changing into one of her top ten armors, Erza aimed her two new swords squarely at Logan's back and fired off her laser.
"Fire Dragon ROAR!" Natsu bellowed, unleashing his trademark move.
Both attacks struck Logan in the back simultaneously, propelling him instantly to breakneck speeds.
"Open, gate of the archer, Sagittarius!"
"Ice-make Chain!"
The celestial spirit materialized, Gray looped his chain around the arrow, and it was zinging to its mark all within two seconds.
Nothing but a matter of moments passed before Logan was upon the five members of Oni Mallet, swooping into the center of them, punching down with his right fist and obliterating their magic path. Right away, Logan grabbed hold of the heads of two of the enemy wizards just as they began to fall, using them to turn himself around. He saw the arrow coming on a trajectory that would soar just over his head, reached out, and grabbed it with his left hand.
The instant he had it, Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Sagittarius all yanked back on the line together with every ounce of their combined might. Snatched from the foul clutches of gravity, Logan was slowly pulled back onto solid ground while Fairy Tail's would-be rivals sunk into their watery defeat.
"Nice job, man!" Natsu hollered happily as Logan crested the lip of the ledge.
He slapped him on the back harder than necessary to show his enthusiasm.
"That was some quick thinkin', Logan. I don't know what we would have done without that." Gray added.
"I, for one, never doubted that you'd be an asset to us." Erza said proudly.
"Just glad I could do something to help." He said demurely.
He looked shrank away from eye contact, turning his head slightly, but the four of them could all tell that he was pleased.
"Alright, guys! Let's take that finish line! Nothing's stopping us now!" Lucy shouted, charging ahead.
They all followed after her in short order. In minutes, they'd reached the top of the stone steps and were standing before a modestly simple wooden door with the word "goal" written over it in flashing, multicolored neon lights. The pumpkin headed mascot they'd seen before the start of the preliminaries was standing there in person. He began clapping as soon as all five of them were standing together on the platform.
He said, "Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, Logan Bloodborne, Lucy Heartfilia, and Natsu Dragneel. Woo hoo! Congratulations team Fairy Tail, you've cleared the preliminary round!"
"We did it!" Natsu shouted.
"Why do you sound so surprised?" Gray asked. "I knew we were gonna make it."
"I'm dying to know, did we come in first place?!" Lucy asked excitedly.
"Uuuuuuh, no." The mascot trolled. "More like eighth place. You just barely qualified."
The balloon of elation and victory deflated quickly as the meaning of the words reached the five Fairy Tail wizards. Four of them all stared aghast at the little mascot.
"EIGHTH PLACE?!" They all gasped.
While he kept a stony expression externally, Logan couldn't help but start laughing uproariously in his own head.
"With everything that happened, I knew we weren't gonna be first!" He roared internally.
OOO
A/N: Well, here it is. Been a while since I've been able to update this story, and I'm really sorry about that, but I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and my take on the preliminary round for the games. Things are going to start getting even bigger and more complicated, but I really do enjoy writing the Fairy Tail characters and recreating their world, so even if things don't go as quickly as I'd like, I'll be sticking with it.
As always, any constructive criticisms or comments you guys would like to leave would be most appreciated, and a huge thank you to everyone who's both followed and favorited this story so far. I'll see you next time!