Lucy, Natsu, and Happy stood at the base of a snowy mountain, the blizzard nearly blinding the trio. Lucy squinted as the snow sharply reduced her visibly. "I can hardly see…"
Natsu's body coated itself in flames, extending a few inches towards Lucy and Happy to keep their bodies warm and fight off against the blinding blizzard to an extent. "How's that?"
"Better…" Lucy nodded.
"Aye…" Happy replied, looking up towards the tall mountain.
"So…a Yeti, eh…?" Natsu asked as the trio began to walk up the mountain.
"That's what the job said…it's been terrorizing the people who live near the mountain for a while now…" Lucy replied, looking around for any sign of the creature.
"Shouldn't be a problem!" Natsu grinned, pounding a fist into an open palm. "It's been a while since I've had a good fight, so I hope it doesn't disappoint!"
The trio continued to make their way up the mountain, but little did they know that Heartless was tailing them from afar, seemingly unaffected by the cold, though her cheeks were red from the low temperature. "Those two…I need to test them to see if they're strong enough…"
After about 20 minutes of scaling the snowy mountain, the quiet trip was interrupted by a loud roar, the mountain itself shaking, nearly causing Lucy to fall over. "W-What is that noise!?" Lucy asked as she frantically looked around.
"Up there!" Happy exclaimed as he pointed up, a large beast-like silhouette was on a slightly higher elevation on the mountain. This silhouette wasted no time in jumping down in front of the trio, pounding its fist onto its chest; it was indeed the Yeti they were looking for, a creature with blue skin, and was quite hairy with its purple fur protruding from pretty much everywhere on its body.
"It's the Yeti!" Lucy yelled, preparing to grab two of her golden keys.
"It's almost as fat and hairy as Lucy!" Happy couldn't help but exclaim.
Upon hearing the Exceed's comment, Lucy's fist would immediately meet the cat's head, slamming the poor thing into the snow. "Shut up!"
Natsu focused his fire into his hands, giving an ear to ear grin at the Yeit before them. "I'm fired up!"
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"Grah!" Jack groaned as he stomped around the Dealer guild in a childish way. "This is so boring! I hate being stuck in here!"
"Jack…" Queen Tia sighed, placing a hand on Jack's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. Jack was…easily excitable, easily irritable…he was not a stable child, so he basically needed Tia to calm him down. "Calm down…"
"Hmph…" Jack merely grunted as Queen Tia told him to calm down. "This is boring, I hate this. Why do Spade and Strong get to do recon?"
"Because it's on Joker's orders…" Diamond replied as she walked forward, albeit with a slight limp from the punishment she received from Joker not too long ago.
"Which means it probably came from Master King himself…" Tia replied before patting Jack comforting on the shoulder. "You know, the recon is only the beginning. After Spade and Strong return, then we will be able to begin the real mission."
"Peh! Well, they sure are taking their sweet time!" Jack replied with another grumble.
"He's even more hot headed than I am…" Diamond's palm met with her forehead and she shook her head slightly. "Tia, I don't understand how you keep your little brother under control."
"Hmph…!" Jack turned away after Diamond spoke, now beginning to walk off. "I don't need anyone to keep my under control, I'm perfectly fine."
"Jack…" Tia started. "Where are you going?"
"I'm bored. I'm gonna go mess around with the monsters we got and see what happens," Jack replied as he waved a dismissive hand, now disappearing from the sight of the two female's.
"My, my…" Diamond gave a slight chuckle before turning away as well, beginning to walk away from Tia. "You know…you two are always so connected by the hip, one day you're not gonna be there and Jack's gonna go crazy…That day will be interesting…" Tia merely remained silent as Diamond walked off; knowing full well that what she was saying was 100% correct.
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Jaxon opened the doors to White Eclipse, turning his head back to speak clearly to those inside. "I'm going out to the market, anyone want anything?"
"Wheat thins," Kairi immediately replied with a nod, holding up the empty box of goodness with a comically sad expression. "I just ran out…"
"Noted…" Jaxon nodded, giving a slight smile. "Anyone else?" The members present just shook their heads, so Jaxon shrugged. "Alright, I'll be back soon, then." Jaxon then nodded and walked outside and down the first few steps. The meteorology mage had failed to notice the ice on the stairs, so he slipped, and fell on the stair behind him right on his head, a resounding "thud" echoing throughout the guild. Blood started to ooze from Jaxon's head as he just laid there, unconscious.
"J-Jaxon!?" Nami immediately ran out the doors once hearing the thud, her eyes widening with surprise at Jaxon's condition. "Ja-!" Before she continued, she caught sight of the blood, her face immediately going green. She ran into the guild, quickly motioning her guild mates to check outside before heading to the nearest bathroom, vomiting profusely into the toilet.
"What's going on…?" Asked Taya as she walked outside, only to see Jaxon unconscious and bleeding on the ground. "Jaxon?!" She wasted no time, immediately using a vector to lift Jaxon up. She then rushed the unconscious mage into the infirmary, wrapping bandages around his head. "Idiot…watch where you step…!"
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"Welcome to Fiore, Knightwalker," Aiden said with a respectful bow to the Fairy Hunter.
"It's a pleasure…" Knightwalker replied with a smirk, looking around the laboratory Aiden had constructed entirely by himself. "And thank you for bringing your assistant to retrieve me, without him; I would've been stuck in Edolas as a "reformed" knight.
"Oh, it was no issue at all, my dear," Hyde replied while tilting his top hat as a sigh of respect.
"So, when to we start the fun?" Knightwalker asked, already eager to begin causing some destruction, to kill people. The blood lust was already growing inside her.
"Soon, my dear," Aiden replied as he walked over to another machine, beginning to activate this once as he shut off the Anima machine. "There is but one more person I believe would be a decent asset to our little team.
"And who would that be?" Knightwalker asked, raising a brow curiously.
"Someone from…the future…" Aiden chuckled before pressing a button on this new one, a time machine. He placed a certain date, 6 years in the future, and the machine began to work, letting out a low humming sound. "Of course, this machine is still a little buggy. I just have to adjust the magic pressure I'm aiming for…and…" With the pull of a lever, a magic seal appeared in the center of the room. Within seconds of this, a figure stepped out (moreso thrown) of the magic circle, stumbling to his feet after, completely confused.
"Ah, and here is out second actor, now…" Hyde smirked slightly.
Future Rogue looked around, completely confused. The last thing he knew he was in a ruined city. "What is this…!?"
"Rogue Cheney from the future…welcome back to the present," Aiden said with a nod.
"What do you want?" Future Rogue asked, keeping his guard up as he felt more surrounded than welcomed by the three people.
"Relax, pretty boy," Knightwalker said while twirling her spear around, mainly doing it for her own entertainment, but there was the subconscious intimidation factor from such an action, but Future Rogue remained unfazed.
"We brought you here to ask for your assistance." Aiden said while extending a hand to Future Rogue. "We're on a mission, see…"
"No thanks," Future Rogue replied almost immediately, slapping Aiden's hand away. "I don't have any interest in working with anyone…" An idea then clicked into his head, which caused the white shadow dragon slayer to smirk. "But thanks for bringing me back to the past, because now I can do what I meant to before…" With his smirk growing wider, Rogue immediately placed his hand down, creating a large black magic seal on the floor. "Shadow Dragon's Eruption!" A large eruption of shadows separated the three while Rogue used this opportunity to activate his Shadow Drive, dipping into the shadows before escaping elsewhere.
Knightwalker used her spear to protect herself from the sudden eruption. She placed her spear down, gritting her teeth in anger at Future Rogue's actions. "That little…!"
Dusting himself off, Aiden turned to Knightwalker with a slight smirk. "Relax…this is all a part of the plan…"
"What…?" Knightwalker turned to Aiden, then Hyde, clearly confused.
"For the script I've written, it is imperative that there be a sort of…lone wolf, if you will…he will join us eventually, it's all in my masterfully written plot, after all…" Hyde explained.
"For now, we will just continue with the three of us," Aiden nodded sternly and walked off with Hyde and Knightwalker, but little did he know, the time machine had been damaged a bit. Of course, the damage wasn't noticeable or too great, but it would most likely cause problems later if not fixed soon.
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Natsu swung a flaming hook towards the Yeti's face, but the large beast of surprisingly agile, lifting its arm to block Natsu's hook, much to the Salamander's surprise. "Wha?" Before Natsu could react in time, the Yeti used its immense strength to force Natsu away onto the snow on his back. The Yeti then jumped into the air, aiming to stomp down on Natsu. "Gah…!"
"Sand Buster!" Scorpio called out as a funnel of sand slammed into the Yeti's chest, sending it flying back into the side of the mountain. "We are! A direct hit!"
"Natsu, are you okay!?" Lucy asked as she looked over to the Salamander.
"Just fine! Thanks!" Natsu nodded and sprang back up, igniting his body in fire once more.
"Natsu, Lucy, look out!" Happy cried, pointing to the abominable snowman. When the two looked, the Yeti had gathered a large amount of snow in such a short time, compacting it all into a large snowball, about ten times the size of a basketball. With a roar, the Yeti hurled the large snowball towards the pair.
Natsu wasted no time, sprinting forward with two orbs of fire in his hands. "Dazzling Blaze…" Natsu leaped into the air, merging the two spheres of fire over his head to create an enlarge sphere, not quite as large as the incoming snowball. "Of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu hurled his own flaming sphere forward, clashing with the snowball. The two elements entered a stalemate, much to the annoyance of both Natsu and the Yeti, but neither had any way of increasing the potency of their attacks without risking something.
Lucy pointed her finger forward, at Natsu's blaze. "Scorpio, one more time!"
"We are!" Scorpio shouted, bending down as he placed his stinger forward. "Sand Buster!" Scorpio shout out yet another funnel sand, slamming into Natsu's blaze form behind, giving it an extra boost of power to power through the snowball and slam into the Yeti, resulting in decent sized explosion. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, the Yeti was seen unconscious for a few seconds, but when it woke up; it quickly ran off, obviously afraid.
"We did it!" Lucy grinned as she gave Natsu a high five. "Nice job, Scorptio!"
"We are! Just in time for my date with Aquarius." Scorpio grinned before returning to the Spirit World.
"Nice job, you guys!" Happy said with a grin. "Now we can spend all that reward money on fissssh…"
"It's for my rent not fish!" Lucy sighed, rubbing her temples, Happy already annoying her with his fish talk.
"Fish is more important than rent!" Happy argued, flailing his arms around.
"Ugh…There's no reasoning with you…" Lucy sighed before turning around, nearly jumping back once she saw Heartless standing there a few feet away from her. "W-What!?"
"Who are you?" Natsu immediately asked, his nose picking up an odd scent from the pinkette.
"My name doesn't matter…at least, yet…" Heartless replied, eying both Lucy and Natsu.
"Yet? Who the hell do you think you are!?" Natsu said with his voice rising somewhat.
"That will become apparent soon enough…" Heartless said in a sort of monotonous tone. "But…I'm here to test you…"
"Test…?" Lucy blinked thrice, tilting her head.
"She wants to fight!" Natsu shouted, allowing his flames to cover his body once again. "That's what she means!"
"Not quite…" Heartless said while discreetly drawing two cards from the back of her dress pocket.
"Don't worry, whatever it is she plans on throwing at us…" Lucy drew two golden keys, immediately summoning the two spirits. "Gate of the Golden Bull, Gate of the Twins, I open thee! Taurus! Gemini!" A chime went off as the large axe wielding cow and the twins, Gem and Ini appeared before Lucy.
"You called-" Taurus began, but when he noticed Heartless, hearts appeared in his eyes, for obvious reasons. "O-Oh my…! What a nice body!"
"Eh…" Heartless took a step back, obviously feeling a bit uncomfortable with Taurus' heart filled eyes staring into her. She then shook her head, revealing the two cards in her hands. One card that the symbol of a flame on it, while the other had the symbol of a lightning bolt. "Regardless."
"Those cards…?" Lucy kept a watchful eye on the cards Heartless had, unsure what she was planning with them. Heartless threw her arm forward, sending the cards flying forward with blinding speed. The flame card landed on Taurus' head, while the lightning card stuck to Gemini's head. The cards then began to unleash a powerful magic force, letting loose a small shockwave that shook the mountain. The two spirits then began to let out a loud, pained scream as the cards began to take them over. 'T-TAURUS! GEMINI!" Lucy began to panic, and she attempted to force a gate closure on the two, but it failed, they weren't in her control anymore.
"They aren't yours anymore…" Heartless said in a monotonous tone. She pointed to Taurus, his transformation nearly complete. "I dub thee…Taurus Fire…" She then turned to the Gemini twins, pointing at them. "And I dub thee, Gemini Spark…" A flame covered Taurus' body as he let out a loud moo, now entering a completely different appearance. His body was now red instead of black and white, and his axe was no longer in his possession. Flames surrounded his body as he kept his Minotaur look. As for Gemini, a thunderbolt struck down, seemingly splitting the two twins apart. When the light from the sudden flash died down, the two twins stood side by side, but they had a more humanoid appearance, their skin tones blue and red, sparks dancing wildly around their body.
"W-WHAT…" Lucy's jaw dropped as she looked at her changed spirits, completely befuddled as to what happened.
"If you can defeat these two, they will return to your side, but if you can't, they'll be joining me…this is your test…can you save something close to you that's been corrupted…?" Heartless asked before turning and walking back down the mountain.
"Hey, get back here!" Natsu roared, immediately chasing after Heartless, but he was stopped by Gemini Spark B, who swung an electric claw at Natsu's torso, paralyzing the Salamander on the spot. "Gah…!"
"Natsu!" Lucy ran forward, pulling out yet another key, "Gate of the Archer, I open thee! Sagittarius!"
In a puff of smoke, the cosplaying horse spirit appeared with a salute. "How can I assist you, moshi-moshi?"
"Shoot that one!" Lucy shouted, pointing towards the black Gemini Spark.
"As you wish moshi-moshi!" Sagittarius complied, skillfully taking out his bow and arrow in under a second, taking aim, but before he could, Taurus Fire ran towards the two, preparing the tackle them with no problem.
"W-Watch it!" Lucy tackled the horse spirit to the ground, merely seconds away from being trampled by the ramping cow fire. "T-Taurus! Snap out of it!"
Natsu grit his teeth as he tried to move, and when he was finally able to, he swung a quick flaming right hook at Gemini Spark B's face, only for it to dodge. Natsu followed up with a left hook, but Gemini Spark B jumped back, now revealing Gemini Spark R with his fist held out. "Electric Rocket!" Spark W called out, sending an electric fist hurtling towards Natsu.
"Agh!" Natsu grunted as the fist slammed right into his sternum, blowing him back a few feet. Natsu quickly flipped, placing his feet on the snow covered ground to regain his balance. He looked up, only to see Spark B giving him no time to rest by throwing an electric haymaker, but Happy intervened at the last second, slamming into Spark B's face, causing his haymaker to miss Natsu, and caused B to stumble back a step. Using his opening, Natsu allowed fire to erupt around his leg, and he swung it at Spark B's face in a roundhouse, landing the hit, and sent Spark B staggering back now.
"He hit me…" Spark B spat on the ground after the hit, feeling the intense burn Natsu's kick on his cheek.
"Don't worry; he won't be a problem if we take him out together!" Spark R replied with a smirk.
Natsu crouched down, allowing a trail of fire magic to flow from his arms. "Fire Dragon's Wing Slash!" Natsu shouted as he jumped forward, spreading his arms out in attempt to strike both Spark Twins, but before he could reach them, a heavy fist slammed into his back, creating a large crater once Natsu hit the ground. Taurus Fire gave out a moo, raising his fist once more to repeat the action since Natsu was slightly dazed.
"N-No so fast…!" A burnt Lucy (who had forced closed Sagittarius' gate) quickly wrapped her whip around Taurus Fire's raised arm, attempting to pull it back, but she was too weak, and Taurus swung his arm around, swinging Lucy like a lasso instead of the other way around. "WAAH!?"
"I got you, Lucy!" Happy shouted, starting to following Lucy's motion with his eyes…until he got dizzy and just fell to the ground with swirls in his eyes. "Never mind…"
Taurus slammed Lucy onto the ground, causing her and the whip to release. Lucy groaned loudly as she sat up, rubbing her injured arm, wincing slightly. "O-Ouch…"
"Hey, Blue! I got an idea!" Red started as a devious smirk appeared on his face. He and Blue jumped together, now side by side, their opposite arms together, and their other arms extended into the air. "Unison Raid!" The two shouted as electricity began to wildly surge around them. "Gemini Thunder!" After exclaiming this, a large, powerful bolt of electricity shot out towards Lucy, the bolt splitting the ground it traveled across. Lucy's eyes widened as she froze in place, unable to defend against the incoming bolt in her current state. The Gemini Thunder caused a massive explosion once it made contact….with Natsu, who was standing in front of Lucy, though he was now covered in bruises and all sorts of marks. He stood in place, panting heavily, still showing he was able to keep fighting. "N-Natsu…!"
"Aw man…he blocked it…" Spark B snapped his fingers in disproval, but the fact the two hit someone was more than enough to keep him happy overall.
"We can't continue like this…" Lucy said as she looked at Taurus Fire and Gemini Spark. "But they're my spirits; I have to keep trying…!" Lucy stepped forward once again, but the mountain began to rumble.
"Mrgh?" Taurus Fire looked around, rubbing his head cluelessly. "What's that noise…?"
"The mountain…!" Happy exclaimed as a large wave of snow started to travel down the mountain; an avalanche.
"Time to dip!" Spark B and R said in unison, vanishing in a flash of lighting.
"Mrrrgh!" Taurus exclaimed before vanishing in a flash of fire.
"N-No! WAIT! PLEASE!" Lucy cried out, tears welling her in eyes. Natsu shook of the paralyze the Gemini Thunder left on him, and grabbed Lucy's hand, quickly running back down the mountain. "We have to go…"
"B-But…" Lucy sniffed, sadness now taking over her as she worried for the wellbeing of her spirits.
At the top of the mountain, Tartaros's Celestial Mage, Ruika Celestia, watched the altercation between Natsu and Lucy vs. Taurus Fire and Gemini Spark; in fact, she was the one who caused the avalanche to begin with, though if she did it on purpose or accident cannot be determined. All that's known is that she was watching from the very top of the mountain with no problems whatsoever. "So…that woman can control spirits…that's a little troublesome…"