Nexus HWR 10.5 Trap:
Lower Residential Area, Pyraxas
"Sir, wake up."
Admiral Komei of the Sun Marines opened his eyes. The tall Marine stood up from the chair he was sitting in and grabbed his officer jacket off the table at his side. Komei draped the coat over his shoulders and stepped towards the edge of the roof. He picked up his fan and waved it at his face a few times, blowing wind at himself made him wake up faster, even if it was already chilly in this early morning. He stepped up to the edge of the roof next to a man in a Marine uniform with a symbol of a sun behind a seagull on his back. The figure standing there had a pair of binoculars in his hands, goggles pulled up over his big brown curly hair, and a green scarf wrapped around his neck.
Kansho held the binoculars to his side and Komei grabbed them from the best sniper in his forces. He looked through them and several blocks away through the windows of a hotel room that their roof had a perfect angle to spy through. Kansho says he thinks one of them spotted him yesterday from a distance, but they won't be able to see us this far without binoculars. Komei looked through the window and smirked at the placement of a mirror on the wall opposite it, giving him a view of the entire room from the distant roof. They're waking up, he thought, though he did not need to see them getting out of bed to know it, as his men were ordered to wake him only once the enemies awoke.
Komei handed back the binoculars then turned and walked back towards the center of the roof. Behind the chair he slept in, Marines working all night were sitting in a line of three with nine computer screens in front of them. There were camera angles inside the hotel bathroom, inside the walls, all of them impossible to find with the naked eye for those inside the hotel room. Komei was not taking any chances that the group inside the hotel did not somehow hack the cameras overnight and put them on a loop however, and he checked to see if they matched up with what he saw in the binoculars.
"Hmph, they do not seem to suspect a thing," Komei said in a smug voice. "Commence Operation Separate and Destroy." He posed with his fan pointed at the monitors, and his men saluted back at him. Komei put down his fan that doubled as his weapon, then said in a commanding tone, "Go get some rest." As he said it, the door to the roof behind the monitors opened up and three men came out of it, replacements for the tired ones who worked through the night. His soldiers did not argue and got up from their seats with the replacements taking them right away and putting on the headphones the first team took off. Before the man in the middle put his set on, Komei held his free hand out in front of him and the soldier handed the headset to him instead.
Komei put on the headset and stared at the screen straight in front of him that had a wide angle of the three beds in the room on it. The pull-out couch on the side of the room was also partially visible, but the pink-haired man who slept on it was out of bed already. The one who can eat fire. "Come on, get up guys," Natsu grabbed the blanket on the bed closest to him and pulled it off with one tug. The transformer and speedster. Ben moaned and rubbed his eyes, but sat up on his bed so it looked like he was about to get up. Dash turned the other way though and curled up more, grumbling, 'five more minutes,' in a slurred, tired voice.
The Admiral's gaze shifted to another camera angle, this one of the bathroom. One of the couples who slept in the same bed were in the bathroom, still wearing what they wore to sleep, though that meant a long-sleeved black shirt and matching comfortable pants for the teenage boy, and a pink night-shirt and long pink pants for the teenage girl. They have not acted much like a couple. Is that a ruse? Or is it because they are in a group that they rarely have time to themselves? At the moment though, they are the only ones in the bathroom. Whether or not the two were actually in a close relationship mattered a lot to the Marine. In one case, if they weren't but continued to act like it while alone in the bathroom, they likely suspected they were being watched. If they were together however, that meant he could use one of them against the other in a future maneuver.
The boy standing in front of the mirror covered his cheeks, upper lip, chin, and neck in shaving cream, then picked up a razor and started shaving. He went from his neck up, so he removed the stubble from his cheeks last. Komei's eyes focused in on the horizontal lines on his cheeks a different shade than the rest of his skin. As he looked at the scars though, he shifted his gaze to the auburn-haired girl next to him who turned and rose a hand up to the boy's face. She brushed a hand gently over one of the scars on his cheek, then when the boy turned to her in light surprise, she gave him a soft smile. "You never talk about these," she whispered.
Kairi and Kirito, Komei thought, having gotten their names from the I.D.'s they used to get into the city. They're a couple. Just like the other two. Komei smirked and turned to a different camera angle that showed one of the muscular men in the room leaning off the bed he was sitting on and rummaging around in his bag. "Let's walk around for a little and try to find some breakfast, then maybe we'll check out the theater Murano mentioned. Just to see how much the tickets cost," Gray added, turning to the boy behind him on the farthest bed from his own since the middle one was empty.
Ben closed his mouth as he was about to complain about not wanting to go to the theater. "You say that now," he mumbled under his breath. "But later you're totally gonna want to buy the tickets too. Then I'll be stuck at a stupid show all night." The boy sighed, then looked next to him and nudged the boy under his blanket with his foot. "Get up Dash, we're all gonna be waiting on you if you fall back asleep."
"Ugghh," Dash groaned and curled up more in his bed. "Why are we getting up so early? The first sun isn't even all the way up yet." Ben sighed and looked down at his watch, then started messing around with it with a mischievous look on his face.
"Early bird gets the worm Dash-kun," Juvia said. She turned around from where she stood in front of the main room's wall mirror, doing her hair there since the bathroom was filled up.
"What's the boy doing?" Komei questioned, and the men in front of him focused on the screen that zoomed in more specifically on the bed Dash and Ben were on. Behind him, Kansho darted his eyes to the boys in the hotel room in the distance, but they were doing the same thing in the binoculars as they were on screen. Komei leaned forward and stared at the strange green device on the older of the two boys' left wrist. The camera zoomed in farther on the top of the device where strange black silhouettes were appearing. One appeared that the boy looked at with wide eyes, then he rose up his right hand high, making the three getting ready in the room with him look over.
Ben slammed down on his watch and a green light flashed in the room. When the light faded, the Marines on a roof over a mile away dropped their jaws. "Whooaaa," the creepy alien monster floating over Ben and Dash's bed said in a stretched-out voice.
Dash finally poked his head out from beneath his blanket, and he had a similar reaction to the alien above him. "Cooool! What's that alien called?!" The little boy asked, jumping up as it seemed like he was no longer tired. Ben floated there as a creature with eight long yellow legs wriggling around below his head where they all connected. His head looked even stranger, like a glass case with a big green brain inside it that had a few brain strands sticking down below it to connect to the lower body, and a few strands connecting to the outer glass shell of his head. On the outside of the glass shell on the front of his body, there was a dark green face that had lighter green portions like its circles for eyes and the lines for eyebrows and its mouth.
"I don't know, it's my first time using it," Ben said, his green mouth line wiggling around as he did. "I think I'll call it, Octopus Man!"
A Marine sitting on the chair to Komei's right cracked a smile, before dropping his lip back to a flat line as he could feel the Admiral giving him a glare. This is good information, Komei thought, refocusing on the screen before him. The device on his wrist, he does not seem to understand it fully. I do not know how long he has had it, but if he is trying new "aliens" when he fights, he does not know all of their powers and abilities. There are probably ones he is more trained with, but he is not utilizing his possible arsenal to its full potential. Stupid boy.
"Ben, stop messing around and get ready," Gray scolded the kid behind him who kept floating around the air like he was swimming in the ocean.
"Haha, in a minute," Ben said out loud. Everyone continued to get ready, in the main room, in the bathroom, while Ben's strange alien voice continued in their heads, "Just kidding about that Octopus Man thing. This guy's name is Synaptak!"
"Great job Ben," Gray thought, trying hard not to crack a grin as he started tying his shoes, which took him a while with only one hand. "Now we can talk about the plan. Good job everyone on staying quiet, I didn't know if you all understood the signals I gave last night."
"Almost didn't see that," Natsu admitted, while pulling his arms up and taking his shirt off. He reached into his own bag and grabbed a different shirt, this one a black tank top that held together in the middle by a thin yellow line he could pull apart to make it open down the middle. "What's going on? I don't see any cameras."
"No, we're definitely being watched," Kirito's voice echoed in their minds, even though he was in a different room than most of them. "This is the only way we can talk for now. At least until we're out of this room. The guy who gave us the room here didn't just do it out of kindness, and that cart didn't just happen to roll past us."
Natsu finished sliding his shirt down and his face looked a little more serious than when he put the bottom over his head. Gray started tying his other shoe, and Kirito and Kairi came out of the bathroom. Kirito walked over to his bed where he sat before taking out his swords and starting to sharpen them. He frowned at the blue one that was thinner than it used to be thanks to Ra's, and he focused his sharpening on that one to make sure it was still deadly in battle. Dash was finally getting up, while Ben kept floating around the room, before using his many arms to pick out a bunch of different shirts at the same time to see which one he wanted to wear today, and going with one of his normal white ones with a thick black vertical stripe in the center of it.
This is strange. They appear to be just, a normal family. Komei became very on guard and his hand clenched around the grip of his fan, Why are they here? We expected them to attack, but they talk about visiting tourist locations. Does this mean they know they are being watched? If so, then they are not speaking their real intentions out loud. Hah, Komei smirked again. If they know they are being watched, it would have been smarter for them to make a fake plan aloud. Rather than pretending to be a normal family. Who do they think they are trying to fool?
"…The plan relies on you. We have an arsenal of 10,000-"
"Sorry Gray, more like 1,100. Still haven't gotten through all of them. But I'm really good with all the ones I do know."
"I know you can do it Ben," Kairi thought, while humming to herself as she got ready like her friends.
"Where are we heading after we leave here?" Natsu telepathically asked, while standing up and saying something pretty similar out loud.
"We do what we say we're doing out loud," Gray replied. "Do everything a normal family would. Lure those watching us into a false sense of security. Even if they know everything about our activities in the south, just the sight of Ben and Dash acting like normal kids is going to trick normal Marines. Once we get somewhere we know for sure no one can see us, that's when Ben makes his move. Got it?"
"Got it." Six voices repeated in the ice mage's head.
A green light flashed around the alien in the room. Ben reappeared and he took the white shirt he was already holding and replaced the one he went to sleep in with it. He slid into a pair of green pants, and started putting on his white sneakers. On the other side of the bed as him, Dash stared inside his bag nervously, though he tried hiding it from appearing on his face. I want to put on my super suit now, but it would totally give away what we're doing. Wait a second, I've got this.
Dash moved so fast no one in the room saw what he did, though a small gust of wind hit Kirito on the bed right in front of Dash. He lifted his gaze and saw the boy's clothes looked a little ruffled, and he could see some blue underneath the left cuff of his long-sleeved red shirt. The windows are closed. There should not be wind in here, unless Dash just put on his super suit. Kirito looked at the bag at Dash's feet, then back up at the kid who looked him in the eyes with large ones of his own as he did not think anyone would catch him.
Whoops, Dash thought, but Kirito did not mention anything about it, nor did he keep staring for more than a second.
All of them finished getting ready around the same time, even Dash who woke up late but moved extra fast to use the bathroom and brush his teeth. They all put their shoes on and headed for the door, leaving behind their bags in the room. None of them wanted to lose their belongings, but they mattered little at the moment, and some still hoped they would be able to come back to the hotel later on. Anything valuable they owned they kept on their person, or in the bags that Gray and Juvia were carrying around on their backs. "Water bottles, snacks, money, sunscreen, I think we're good," Juvia said, smiling at the man next to her as they walked towards the door in the front of their group.
Gray froze. All morning things had been going smoothly. What Juvia just said made his mind blank though. It distracted him from everything else and he turned his attention to her. There is is again. "I think we're good," "I," Juvia never uses the first person. She didn't even notice. Gray was not the only one who noticed this time though, and every person behind Juvia stared at her confusedly, even Ben and Dash who glanced at each other once, then back at Juvia wondering why she would say it like that, thinking that it might have been part of the ruse they were pulling on the Fire Nation. Juvia kept looking at Gray though, not at Kirito or Natsu who looked at her nervously, or Kairi who saw Natsu's reaction and turned to him, or the confused boys. The blue-haired Rain Woman looked at her boyfriend and questioned, "What's wrong, Gray-sama?"
Instantly, Gray's worry about Juvia vanished, because she just said something very, very wrong. His eyes opened wide, and hers did too a second later as she seemed to realize what she said. The others behind them opened their eyes wide or lowered their bottom lips, and Kirito said quickly, "Let's get going." He moved forward and since Gray and Juvia were blocking the doorway, the two of them had to start moving. Oh crap! Ben thought, trying not to look panicked as he walked towards the door after all the others. Dash looked over his shoulder and Ben nudged him in the side, before wondering whether it was smarter to just let him turn around and look back on his own.
Their anxiety made sense, as on a surveillance roof over a mile away, three figures in front of Admiral Komei were typing away at the keyboards in front of them as fast as their fingers allowed. "Another mistake," Komei said, though he looked more serious now as he stared at the screens that stopped showing room surveillance, not that it mattered anymore with the room being empty as it was. The screens were showing Fire Nation databases, and the word 'Gray' was written across the top search bar. "Gray. We thought his name was John Smith. Find out if they are all using fakes. Find out everything you can about this Gray-"
"Found him, Gray Fullbuster," one of the soldiers in front of Komei began, while leaning back in his seat with growing eyes. "Whoa, five million dollar bounty in the Ren Empire, seven point five here in the Fire Nation, and…" the guard stopped reading off the page and lowered his bottom lip far. The other men around him looked at the screen and their jaws dropped, while Komei's face gained some sweat drops on the sides of it and he leaned in to get a better look at what he just read.
"Thirty million dollar bounty, recently placed by the Emperor himself," Komei muttered. He leaned back and started stroking his long gray beard.
"I'm heading out to join the tracking team," Kansho called back, and Komei just gave the sniper a nod. The man slid his goggles down over his eyes and put his binoculars away, making his hands free to grab his rifle with.
As Kansho leapt off the roof to head closer to their targets where he would follow behind them, Komei heard the door to the roof opening and turned to see a burly man turning sideways so he could make it through the thin doorway. "Dojaku? Why are you here? You are supposed to be preparing for Operation Separate-"
"Komei Taishou, this is important," the six hundred pound man said, interrupting the Admiral which showed Komei how important this was considering the respect his men usually had for him. The tan-skinned figure had heavy black facial hair that made a big bushy beard and a mustache that pointed out to the sides. He had two green hilts sticking up over his shoulders and large saw blades extending off of them strapped to his back. He had small eyes in comparison to his giant teeth in his smile that took up most of the bottom half of his face, wore a blue-and-yellow-striped hat on his head, and had big white loop earrings sticking through his earlobes. Dojaku ran around the computers and he panted a few times to show he had sprinted all the way here. "We just received new information from a source in the south, about other members of that group besides the three who routed Princess Azula's army."
Dojaku turned his head a little and saw a picture of a man on the screen with a few large bounties beneath his face. "Him," Dojaku began, and Komei frowned as he believed he already knew what Dojaku was going to say, and it did not deserve the disrespect his soldier just showed him. "He killed, Darth Bane of the Sith," Dojaku said, and Komei frowned even deeper as that was a name he had heard before, and he looked back at the picture of the man on the screens to his right. "And another one of them, the boy Kirito," Komei refaced his subordinate, and Dojaku looked very nervous, even gulping before he continued speaking, "He took out Ra's al Ghul."
"What? Impossible!" Komei did not believe his ears. Ra's al Ghul, defeated by that boy?! I don't want to believe it... but I have to. To plan the defense of this city I must act in such a way as if that teenager is able to defeat the Demon's Head. Discovering the truth comes later.
"They are said to have taken out a large portion of the League of-"
"Dojaku," Komei interrupted, narrowing his eyes at the soldier before him. The larger man nodded back, wondering what plan the Admiral would come up with to counter this new information. "Return to your post, but for Operation Separate and Destroy, make sure to get the two of them away from each other. If together they can defeat the League, I want them far away from each other's assistance. Remember though, the priority one target remains Natsu Dragneel. Get him alone, and I will take care of it from there." He finished and swung his fan out to his side, while at the same time coating it in a dark black coating of Haki that gleamed in the light of the first yellow sun rising in the east. Everything will go exactly as I plan it.
"…Well that isn't too expensive, let's come back here later," Kairi turned and flashed the others behind her a smile.
The rest of the group nodded to her, then Gray stepped up to the counter inside the lobby of the theater. "Excuse me, but do you know how much it is to visit the Hanging Gardens?" He asked the young woman with long red hair standing behind the counter.
"In the Upper Residential Area?" the ticket-seller questioned, before scratching her chin thoughtfully. "I only sell tickets for shows in the lower sections of the city, but I do know it costs five thousand for just a day pass to the Upper Residential Area. The Hanging Gardens are one of the key attractions of the city, I've heard in peak season they can go for over fifty thousand dollars, a person."
"Fifty thousand?" Gray repeated in a surprised, unenthusiastic voice. Hiei made sure we had a lot, but fifty times seven is, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Damn, spending that on a whim will make us stand out too much. "Maybe, we'll check it out and see if it's a little cheaper today. It is getting chilly," he added, suggesting the season could be changing to one where the prices were cheaper.
The girl behind the counter looked surprised that even after she told them the price, they could still be considering it. Gray sighed and reached into his bag, before pulling out fifty dollars and putting it down on the counter, "Thanks for your help." If he was going to make it sound like they were rich, then he had to play the part and tip people for their assistance. "What do you guys think? Want to head to the upper sections of the city?"
Komei frowned from a roof across the street from the theater. Having heard the group mention where they were going first while still in the hotel room, he managed to have the lobby bugged with microphones before the group arrived. It was too late to try and set up hidden cameras while making sure they were out of sight, but the mic under the counter was letting him listen in to everything the group said. They are heading to the Upper Residential Area already? Then now is the time to spring the trap. We cannot allow them to make it that close to the Palace.
"Sounds good," Natsu said, not sounding too interested.
"Juvia would very much like to see the Hanging Gardens," the Rain Woman added, using her name which relieved a few of the others with her who were still unsettled by earlier.
"Hold on," Ben said. On the roof across the street, Komei frowned and put his hand over the headset on his left ear, listening closely and drowning out the sounds of the city around him. "I have to use the bathroom, sorry." Komei leaned back and lowered his hand from his ear, humphing as he thought the kid was about to mention something important.
"I told you to go before we left the hotel," Gray scolded the boy.
"Um, I actually have to go too," Dash mentioned, and Komei could hear Gray's loud sigh over the microphones.
"Kairi and Kirito were hogging the bathroom all morning," Ben complained.
"There was a lot of time, you could have gone whenever you wanted," Kirito countered without hesitation.
"Whatever," Gray said, ending the argument before it really got heated. "Just go. Excuse me, where are the bathrooms?"
"Oh, around that corner and down the hall, then turn right and you'll see them. Ladies' room on the left, and the little boys' room on the right."
Ben opened his mouth to say something about that 'little boys' comment, considering Natsu started snickering next to him, but instead he just grumbled in annoyance and started walking towards the bathroom with Dash.
Outside the theater, Komei stood by and waited, and waited, but no one was speaking anymore over the hidden microphones. Finally, a young woman's voice came over the line, "Komei Taishou," she whispered. The voice was of the Marine he stationed at the counter incognito, and she continued in a whisper, "The rest of their group went down the hall following the boys."
"There are no exits that way," Komei said, a growing grin on his face. He fanned himself and spoke confidently so all the men listening in on their headsets from various locations around the theater could hear his reassuring voice. "If the fools are trying to make their escape now, all troops converge on them. Push them northeast towards Captain Dojaku's position."
"Understood," several dozen voices responded. Komei looked down at the street below where not a single civilian was walking. We have a perimeter set up. They cannot escape my clutches. Even if they were to make it to the Upper Residential Area, the guards up there are ready for them. Azula will keep them out of the Palace, but in the unlikely chance they make it past her, Thymilph's squad will eliminate them for sure in the courtyard… This bathroom break is taking too long.
"Private Jenkins," Komei began, walking to the edge of the roof he was on. "What is the status of our targets?"
"You want me to go down the hall and check on them?" The young Marine questioned in response.
"Yes, right now," Komei said, a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. What am I worried about? There are no exits in those hallways. They would have to go all the way to the back door, where my men are already laying in wait.
"Understood," Jenkins replied, and she leapt over the counter before running around the corner to her left. She sprinted down the hall then slowed down at the right turn she had to make. The redhead brushed her hair down once with her hand, then turned around the corner, "Is everything-" she stopped talking as the hallway in front of the bathroom doors was empty. She sprinted forward and threw open the ladies' room's door, "Anyone in here?" No response. She ran inside and pushed open the stalls one by one, all of them were empty. The Marine shot across the hall and looked in the men's room, but no one was in there either.
Komei waited impatiently across the street, so much so that he was already leaping off the roof when he heard in his ears, "They're gone!" He shot across the paved road and through the rice-paper doors of the theater instead of sliding them to the sides. He ignored the woman leaning over the counter who shouted towards the hidden microphone, and instead did a thorough search of the lobby and surrounding hallways as fast as he could. Marines were sprinting inside from the back and front doors, all of them yelling and pointing their guns around in panic.
Where did they go? How could they vanish like that? They found a moment when they were out of sight completely, then vanished. They must have known we were watching this whole time. "Find them! Split up into your platoons and search the surrounding area. Send word to all guard posts that Gray Fullbuster, Natsu Dragneel, Juvia Lockser, Kairi, Dashiell Parr, Ben Tennyson, and Kirito are missing in the Lower Residential Area. Tell all guards to the gates into the Upper Residential Area that they will be heading straight towards them. Get Dojaku-"
"Sir!" a voice shouted, and Komei spun around to see a Marine sprinting towards him with sweat all over his face.
"What is it?!" Komei yelled at the thin young man.
"The south gate of the city!" He yelled in response, before panting over and over to catch his breath. "Monkey D. Luffy is requesting entry!" Komei's jaw dropped and the Marine kept going, "He's shouting at the gate guards demanding they let him in!"
Komei turned and started jogging through the building, while reaching up and pressing a button on his headset again. "All men listen up. Locate Gray Fullbuster and his team and continue with Operation Separate and Destroy. Captain Dojaku will head the Operation from here on forward. I am heading to the southern gate to receive the Straw Hat Pirates. Kansho, with me!"
"Roger that," Kansho said, and he packed up his sniper rifle quickly. The sniper on top of a tower two miles out from the theater they lost Gray's group in put his scope and the tripod he set it up on to lower kickback and improve accuracy back into a bag that he slung on his back. Then he put his sniper strap on as well and his sniper over the bag on his back, before grabbing the railing in front of him with both hands and throwing his legs between his arms. He leapt off the bell tower of a church and landed on its roof three stories below with his knees bent and teeth clenched. It hurt, but there was no time to waste and he started sprinting across the building's shingles before leaping across a busy road and to the next roof down.
Komei was already running across rooftops, hopping from one to the next as it was faster than trying to maneuver his way between civilians on the streets. Mugiwara. What is he thinking going straight up to the gates with a bounty on his head? Is he that confident in his own abilities? If so, I may have to call Thymilph down here. I will try to handle him on my own first though. Let me see your power, Straw Hat Luffy.
The Admiral of the Sun Marines leapt up high, giving himself a good view of the gateway in the distance. It was not far from the part of the wall that the tracks from the south led over, just a little to the west of that area. He spotted Kansho leaping over roofs a little behind him, and spoke into his headset, "Kansho, find a location to snipe from, and load your rifle with Kairoseki bullets. I am going in to coordinate the guards." Komei leapt over the final building before the south gate, then dropped his jaw and stumbled upon landing near the guard buildings on either side of him. He stared straight ahead at the fifteen meter tall, wide open gates to the city, and the eighty guards on his sides, in front of him, and on top of the wall, all of whom lay unconscious with their eyes rolled back. The gate was open because the large steel doors that normally stood in the opening were laid out on the ground before him, the steel they were made out of bent and warped out of shape.
Kansho stopped looking for a place to snipe as he caught a glance at the gates, and the curly haired sniper sprinted over as fast as he could. He looked down and saw Komei looking around with wide eyes, and the Admiral turned back and looked in his eyes after a few seconds. Komei's face gnarled up and his mouth twisted in anger, before he opened it and roared, "FIND THEM!"
Lower Residential Area, Pyraxas.
"Luffy wait!" Nami shouted and reached a hand out for her Captain. Luffy had his head stuck up in the air though, his nostrils wide and loudly sniffing in the scent of something delicious closeby.
Nami fumed as he ran down the street ahead of her. "Don't worry Nami-san," Sanji told the orange haired woman he walked up next to. "Let's just follow after our idiot for now."
"If those guards at the gate are all we have to worry about, then we should be fine," Killua remarked confidently. He started jogging after Luffy to make sure he kept sight of the rubberman who knocked out all the guards without moving a muscle. Though I said that, we're in a High Lord's city. This is beyond our normal level of danger. This is as dangerous as it gets on this continent. Worst comes to worst, this may be where I end up leaving you. He thought it without hesitation, but it left a bad taste in his head and his mouth lost the calm smile he had a second before.
The crew jogged down the road and turned left to see their Captain frozen in place right around the corner. He stood there staring forward with giant eyes. Fifty feet in front of him stood a two story tall fast-food-looking joint with a huge sign on the front of the second story. Like all other buildings in the area it had a fancy roof with shingles on it and points on the sides. The sign had a mouthwatering burger on it, and in front of the glowing burger were letters spelling out the name of the restaurant. "Big Belly Burger," Usopp said with a sweatdrop on the side of his head.
"Not a bad name for a burger joint," Franky said, smacking his metal lips together.
"Let's go!" Luffy shouted and spun to his crew. The pirate wore a red tank top open down the middle to reveal the X-shaped scar over his chest, and a pair of blue pants that were not rolled up today. Most of the group were wearing long pants actually, as they had been noticing that the temperature was dropping steadily over the past weeks.
The crew saw the ear-to-ear smile Luffy had on his face and none of them could deny him. He snickered and spun before running to the doors of the restaurant. Luffy was going to throw them open in a grand entrance kind of way, but before he could, both doors opened to the sides, sliding straight into the walls. "Oooh," Luffy said and looked back and forth as he entered the building. The doors quickly became the last thing on his mind though, as he caught a glimpse of one of the booths on the side of the room next to some windows, and his eyes turned into pieces of meat at the sight of the juicy burgers on the table.
Luffy took a step towards that table, but Nami reached out and grabbed him by an ear. "Get your food from the counter like a normal person," she snapped at him. A few people whose food Luffy was ravenously staring at leaned backwards nervously, but Nami waved them off saying it was fine.
The man standing behind the counter up ahead of the front doors stared at this group of people oddly. He had on a red uniform and hat, and had a name-tag on the front right pocket of his shirt. Nami dragged Luffy towards the counter and the other six walked behind her, talking to each other and looking up at the electronic menu above the counter that showed what was on the menu.
"Guess I'll get a Big Belly Burger," Usopp said, assuming it was the best thing on the menu if it shared the name with the restaurant.
"I'll be fine with a salad. I do not wish for this burger or its special sauce to mess with my stomach later today," Robin mentioned and explained. Killua was thinking about getting the same as Usopp, but hearing what Robin said, he started thinking about how well he would fight with a gross delicious fatty burger in his stomach.
"Welcome to Big Belly Burger," the man behind the counter said as the group finally stepped up like they had their orders ready. It was still pretty early, only a little after they opened, so the restaurant was still very empty and these were the only people currently on line. The man behind the register had a bright smile on his face, light orange-colored eyes, jet black hair, and a lean stature that matched his five foot six body. "Where the ingredients are always fresh, and the food is equally cheap! Are you ready to order?" He finished greeting them and questioned.
Robin looked at the name-tag on the man's chest, Sadao Maou. She began, "Yes Maou-san, could we please get three house salads, and forty eight Big Belly Burgers." The man typed in the salads as she asked, then his finger hesitated over the register as he heard the second part. He looked around at them all again, focused on Luffy for a second, then chuckled and finished typing it in.
"Very well," he said, still looking amused. "Your total will be one hundred and thirty eight dollars including tax."
"Oh Mr. Manager," Nami began, making the cashier look up from behind the register. She leaned forward so her cleavage was pushed up and she continued, "That's so expensive, can't you please do something about it?" She bat her eyelashes at him while the men behind her just gawked at her completely un-subtle way of going about trying to get them a discount.
"Sorry ma'am, the prices are standardized by corporate. Even as the manager I cannot control how much I charge." He saw her opening her mouth again but he shook his head before she could continue. "Do you have the necessary funds?" He questioned.
Nami froze with her mouth open, then humphed and reached into her bag to take out some money. Luffy and Usopp snickered behind her and she darted them an angry glare.
"That didn't work out as planned," Kuro whispered into Rin's ear from where he had his head popped out of Rin's pack. Rin was grinning but trying hard to keep in his laughs at the scary woman in front of him.
"It's your money too," Nami grumbled as she turned and started leading the group to a table.
Most everyone followed after her, but two stayed back for another few seconds. Nico Robin found herself staring at that cashier who just like Nami she noticed the picture of him behind the counter and around the side wall next to the stoves in the back. There were frames all over with 'Employee of the Month' written on the top, and most of them had that man's face in the frame with his name below and the word 'Manager' next to it. Robin chuckled as she looked back a little farther on the wall and saw that he had not been the manager for long, but had been working here for quite a while. The man was in the back barking out orders to other workers who had been having a calm morning and now had to rush around making a ton of food.
Robin noticed someone else staring into the back, but unlike her the boy was not smiling. Him and the black cat sticking its head out of his bag were staring at the manager closely and with discerning eyes. "Rin-kun?" Robin questioned the seventeen year old.
Rin seemed to snap out of a trance and he spun to Robin fast. "Huh?" He questioned, then shook around his own head like he was confused at what he was just doing. "Let's go sit," he suggested to the older woman who nodded back at him.
The crew gathered in one of the largest booths in the restaurant. It was in a corner so it had two booth sides and some chairs around the outside. The eight of them and the cat that Rin let sit on his lap leaned in over the table and spoke in whispers. Nami snapped at the guys whenever they got too loud and occasionally slammed a fist on Luffy's head to shut him up.
"Alright then," Killua whispered. "I have no doubt they already know where in the city we are. The fact that no guards are attacking us right now can only mean one thing."
"They don't think they can beat us?" Usopp asked hopefully.
"They decided to let us stay?" Nami added as another optimistic possibility.
"Most likely-" Kil continued. "They will try to kill us in some other way than a frontal assault. Let me try a burger first, I'll tell you if I taste any poison in it."
"You would do that, for us?" Nami questioned the kid in surprise.
"My training involved more than just tolerance to pain. I do not know of a poison I cannot handle." After he said it, his cocky smirk lowered down a little. I have trained myself with some new poisons since coming to this world, but what am I doing? Sure I'm least likely to get poisoned here, but this is still risky...
"Thanks Kil," Luffy began. "But I'm eating first," he pointed a thumb at himself confidently. The rest of the crew gawked at the Captain, but Luffy laughed, "Shishishi, I've been poisoned a bunch before too. I can take it."
"I agree. You guys eat first," Usopp said with a lot of sweat on his face.
Sanji suddenly wanted to light up a smoke, but when he looked towards the counter for a second he grimaced at the sight of a 'No Smoking' sign. He grumbled to himself then focused back on his crewmates in front of him. "Listen," he began and the others looked towards the chef. "I don't like this. Luffy, I'm sure you feel those hostile presences all around the building." The pirate Captain looked a little serious as he nodded back at the blond chef. Sanji continued in a quiet voice, "We are still in the Lower City. There are walls, gates, and probably a ton of soldiers in between us and our destination. I have no doubt that this High Lord has some very powerful subordinates around here too, not to mention that demon Astaroth we know is here."
Okumura Rin frowned deeply and his teeth bared. That reaction made Usopp jump a little on the other side of the table. The sniper gulped at the sudden enraged look that took itself upon Rin's face. Demons, Usopp thought, sheer terror filling his mind at the idea of them. "Are," he began, and Rin looked up into his eyes making the muscular pirate even more nervous. Rin softened his look at that anxious gaze Usopp was giving him, and Usopp continued quickly to try and pretend like he wasn't afraid so as not to make Rin self-conscious. "Are all demons, as scary as that one that possessed Ben?"
Everyone thought about Abraxas, the lying demon that attacked them on the Great Ocean not far from the coast of Awul. "That was a high-level one for sure," Rin admitted. Usopp let out a deep sigh of relief, then Rin continued, "But Astaroth is easily a hundred times more powerful than Abraxas." Usopp's jaw dropped and the sniper started shaking again. Nami's face turned blue as she already did not like the sound of this guy from what Killua told them he discovered, but this was some really bad news.
Rin looked around and saw that more than just the usual nervous members of their group looked more than slightly afraid. "It's alright," he said, a confident tone that made everyone look up at him in surprise at the sudden switch from how dark he was just being. "I'll take care of him myself."
"Are you sure you can do it?" Killua asked. Rin turned to the kid sitting next to him and Kil continued, "These Demon Kings are as powerful as demons get. Can you really beat one?"
Rin hesitated, then nodded his head slowly. "I don't think I could beat Mephisto," he admitted. "But I can kick Amaimon's ass," he added, and the others who knew those two demons grinned. Sanji and Luffy both remembered the more annoying of the two demons they met in the Dread Fort and they were glad to hear Rin could do it, and chuckled even as it sounded like he had done it before. "Astaroth will be stronger than Amaimon," Rin continued, bowing his head a bit. He clenched his fists over the table, Yukio. "But I will defeat him, and find out where my brother is."
The rest of the crew nodded at him. Franky was going to say something encouraging, but out the corners of his eyes he saw two people walking around the counter. They both carried round silver trays covered in burgers wrapped up in thin wrappings, as well as a few salads. Each of the crew members had their own water bottles they pulled out and were drinking from, as Robin suggested before they entered the city that they make sure they were especially careful with their drinks.
The two who walked over put down the trays and the man from behind the counter, Maou, flashed them a bright smile. "I hope you enjoy your meal!"
Killua and Luffy each grabbed burgers while the others were being more hesitant. Robin took a salad and did not look suspicious at all, but the others who were hesitating received a strange look from the manager. "Don't worry," Maou began. "If there were people who may have been trying to get us to poison your food, they obviously have never heard of the pledge all Big Belly Burger employees must take before starting a job here. Customer comes first!" This did not sound like a very hypothetical situation to the crew. The people sitting in front of the manager gawked at him, then Nami waved him off laughing lightly and asking what he was talking about in a non-convincing way.
Killua and Luffy started chowing down, and from the looks on their faces the food was delicious. Usopp was going to grab his so it wouldn't look like he was afraid of poison, but before he did he looked closer at the other person next to the manager.
There was a short boy with dark black hair standing there behind his tray. He had small black pupils in the center of his wide white eyes, and he wore a black version of the uniform and no hat to cover his messy hair. Usopp read the kid's name-tag and tried ignoring the strange vibe he received from the boy, saying, "Hey there, Damien." The kid turned and looked into Usopp's eyes without losing the frown on his face. "Um," Usopp gulped, "thanks for the food."
"Enjoy your final meal mortal before the Fire Lord's men send you down the River Styx," Damien said.
Every person at the table except for Luffy froze. The pirate Captain kept chewing while the rest of them looked at this kid like he was crazy. The manager next to him had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face and scratched the side of his head nervously. The kid was seriously giving the customers the creeps, and Sanji muttered under his breath, "What are you, the devil or something?"
Maou's eyes opened wide but since most of them were looking at Damien, no one saw his panicked reaction except for an-increasingly interested Robin. The kid opened his mouth, "I am Damien, son of-"
"Frank," Maou interrupted and threw a hand around the kid's face to cover his mouth. "Frank Smith, he was a waiter here but he passed a while back. This kid's been trouble ever since, haha." The boy mumbled into Maou's hand while the man spoke, then froze and his face filled with fear for a second. The kid no longer made any noise, while the manager holding a hand over his mouth chuckled nervously, "Haha, ha, will you excuse me? Please, enjoy your meal folks." He backed away pulling Damien with him.
Sanji stared at the kid being pulled away for a few seconds, then heard Luffy mumble through mouthfuls of burger how good it was and he looked down to taste for himself. Everyone got to eating and Usopp mumbled as he eyed his burger carefully, "Weird kid."
"At least the manager was truthful about the food," Killua mentioned as he took another bite of his burger. "Surprised me that he would bring up those guys who snuck in the back and made that request though. Guess he saw your hesitant faces."
"You knew they asked him to do that already?" Franky questioned the young teen. Killua just nodded while continuing to chow down, though his mind was rushing in panic considering what just happened.
Robin ignored the conversation about poison and their enemies that was going on around her. She was interested and wanted to take part of course, but her mind was on something else and she needed to check for herself. Robin lifted her right hand without taking her eyes off her food, and she put it over her ear in a subtle movement that no one around her noticed.
An ear appeared across the restaurant inside an air vent so that it was out of sight of the two next to the wall where the vent was. "I've told you before, no Hell-speak during business hours."
"But Maou-san, I was right in saying that they will all be killed by troops-"
"The customers don't want to hear stuff like that while they're eating. Now listen, I took you in as a favor to your father after the War of the Satans, but if you don't get serious about working hard here..." Robin's entire body tensed up as the tone changed from scolding guardian, to something much, much darker. "I am going to throw you in the Pit to be with your father."
Robin removed the hand from next to her ear and stared at her food with eyes as wide as saucers. A few of her friends saw the look on Robin's face that immediately freaked them out. Nami leaned back in her seat and whispered, "Robin, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Robin replied. She answered way too quickly and with way too much nervousness in her voice. The others all gawked at the nervous pirate woman who was desperately trying to calm herself down. What the Hell is this? Am I hearing things? Those two... What are they?
Killua continued to eat his food without saying a word, but he was not looking at Robin, he was not making any sudden movements at all. For just a second there, I felt something evil in the back of this restaurant. It was the same reason Luffy and Sanji, after looking carefully at Robin, shifted their gazes towards the counter where Maou glanced their direction and flashed a smile. This time though, they did not smile back.
Huh. I can see why the guards want them taken care of. These guys look pretty scary, Maou thought, a bead of sweat dripping down his face.
"Let's finish our meals quickly and continue on," Robin suggested to the others around her. Usopp and Nami nodded fast, but both of them were surprised that every other member at the table nodded in agreement and sped up their eating. The fact that Luffy was no longer smiling as he ate was a clear and nerve-wracking indicator to the others that something was seriously wrong.
The crew finished their meals and left the restaurant without incident. As they were heading through the automatic doors, the manager behind the counter called out, "Thank you. Please come again!"
Luffy paused on the other side of the doors. He looked back, straight into Maou's eyes. His whole crew stared at him hesitantly, and then Luffy smiled wide and called back, "Yeah, we will! It was really good!" He turned and started walking away and the doors closed behind him.
The crew let out a collective sigh of relief and they started heading north down the streets together. "What was all that back there?" Usopp whispered to Sanji as he still did not get what just happened.
Most people would have just thought that kid was weird and gotten over it, Sanji thought, ignoring the younger man next to him for the moment. But we were just talking about demons a minute before. I felt that man's Haki change for a second, his presence shifted from that of a human's... to something terrifying. "Luffy," Sanji began and the Captain up ahead of him looked over his shoulder. "Let's not go there again."
"Odds are that place won't be there come tomorrow," Killua said before Luffy could argue. Everyone looked towards Killua who stood on the right side of the pack. He thought about a conversation he had with Kurosaki Ichigo the night before the Battle of Metropolis. The boy began in a soft voice, "We came here to fight didn't we? If we win, this whole city will be in utter chaos. The government will fall without their leader, the guards will turn brigands, laws will be replaced by power of the strong. Looting, raping, enslaving each other."
"Whoa," Nami exclaimed as that went from 1-100 really fast. "What makes you think that will happen? This is a civilized city, people won't just-"
"Nami," Robin interrupted her friend. The younger woman looked left at her dark haired comrade and best friend, to see Robin sighing before saying, "Killua is correct. This is not a civilized world. After Metropolis, there was nothing left to steal, and there were enough leaders still around that rules stayed in place."
"After we beat the Fire Lord though," Luffy said, and a dozen citizens walking the other way down the road spun and gawked at him as he said that rather loudly. His friends stared at him like he was an idiot but Luffy didn't catch on and continued just as loud, "Won't his other leaders take over? Until we beat them up too?"
"Luffy," Killua began. The pirate Captain turned towards the kid whose head was bowed. Killua snapped his gaze up and then along with Nami, Sanji, and Usopp they shouted at him, "Shut up!"
Luffy's head hit the ground with a bunch of bumps in it and the rubber pirate moaned in pain. Killua sighed and rubbed the side of his head in aggravation at how hard this was. They're following us. They haven't told the public that we're enemies yet, so they must be trying to avoid a fight still. They know that if they start fighting, we'll cause a lot of damage to the city. Are they trying to protect their citizens... or are they letting these civilians stay around us to keep us from attacking?! If they have enough information on the kind of people we are, they might just be using their citizens as human shields. As long as we're in a populated area like this, they don't think we'll start attacking. They're right of course, but that's a risky plan, and a really smart one. They could be leading us right now into another trap. Damn.
Killua's mind was on the moment, but he started thinking farther into the future for a second and a deep frown emerged on his face. Five months after arriving. Awul still had a lot of monsters, but the biggest monsters, were the nomads, the Warlords, the gangs of thieves and bandits. Beaverton, a city of twelve thousand. When half the city takes up arms against the other half, who were the powerful to side with? It wasn't an enemy the Saiyans could come in and destroy. It was a civil war over ideologies, and it was bloody. But when one of the sides teamed up with a Warlord, the other did the same to even the odds. They invited their allies into the city, and the Warlords turned on them. No one came to save them. Even if people could sense the death, it had been happening for weeks. I guess it didn't raise any red flags. The Warlords sacked the city and continued to fight each other and both sides the entire time. I had never seen men act like that before. I knew it was in our nature, but, I never expected to see humanity at its absolute worst.
Killua shook his head to get those thoughts out of his mind. And now I travel with humanity's best. He looked next to him and paused for a second, Well, a half-demon and a bunch of pirates may not be the best... but when Sora, Goku, Timmy, and Kairi are back then- what am I thinking? Focus! You are in the middle of a warzone! He paused as he sensed a strong force coming close to them, and the whole group stopped as Luffy stopped walking at the front.
A teenage boy dropped from the sky and landed on the road and the group was relieved to see the silver haired teen. Killua chuckled to sooth his nerves while also laughing at himself, Oh yeah, and the Lord of Darkness. The best humanity has to offer. He laughed some more then sighed and said, "Hey Riku. You missed out on some good food."
"You guys know you're completely surrounded, right?" Riku asked.
Killua shrugged, Luffy laughed, Sanji lit up the cigarette he waited through lunch for, Franky posed with his arms over his head, Rin grabbed the hilt of his sword, Kuro nodded his head sticking out of Rin's pack, Robin smiled softly, Usopp's hands steadied at his sides, and Nami reached for her waist and grabbed the three parts of her Clima Tact. "Then," Riku began and turned around, looking up the city towards the palace in the center. As he looked that way, the edges of the roofs above them became lined with soldiers. Riku chuckled at the hundreds of them appearing on the roofs, in doorways, in open windows, everywhere. The teen smirked, a Keyblade formed to life in his right hand, and he said, "Let's get started."
Under a bridge, the darkness illuminated with a flash of red, and when the red light faded there stood seven people in its place. Ben dropped to his knees and started panting so hard it felt like his lungs were squeezing. "Are you alright?" Dash asked his friend, leaning down next to him.
The thirteen year old getting the knee areas of his green pants muddy in the banks of the small river cutting through Pyraxas lifted his head. "I've never tried turning more than," he took a deep breath and continued, "more than one other person invisible, with Clear Body before, let alone six. I need, a short break."
"Well you're not getting one," Gray said, and Ben turned his head to see the ice mage near the edge of the darkness under the bridge. He poked his head around the outside of it and tried to catch a glimpse of the walls to the next section up, but he could not see the high walls from below the edges of the road. Gray looked behind him and down at the shallow water, thanking their luck that the tides were low at the moment and they were able to find this place right before Ben's watch reached its time limit. He turned to the boy who he told could not take a break and continued in a scolding voice, "We're in the middle of a battle now, and we can't be taking breaks this soon."
Natsu looked like he was going to say something to his friend, but Ben saw this and pushed down hard first, getting up to his feet and clenching his mouth shut to stop panting as much. "Got it," Ben said, continuing to calm down his breathing, but doing it without bringing attention to himself this time.
"Good," Gray said. He faced his friends and though it was dark under the bridge, enough light came in from around the sides that they could all see each other's faces. "Next step is getting into the Upper Residential Area. Once we do that, we can head for the Palace, and then-"
Natsu punched his fists together and finished for his comrade, "The Fire Lord."
Everyone nodded in agreement, then they started discussing a plan in more detail now that they had some time and were hopefully out of prying eyes. They came to the decision that moving around in the open was out of the question now that they had escaped surveillance. They were only able to come up to that decision though, thanks to the fact that there were metal bars under the other side of where the bridge connected with the riverbank, metal bars that blocked off a small tunnel where a stream of water was coming out of and pouring into the river.
No one liked the idea of going into the sewers, but no one complained about it either. Kirito leapt across the water first, then walked over to the bars while sticking out his right hand. "What's he doing?" Dash whispered, before sprinting forward so fast that he ran right over the water between the river banks and stopped at Kirito's side. Kirito's held-out hand glowed blue with chakra, and he used it to slice through the metal bars with ease. He cut lines through the tops of the bars, then the bottoms one by one, grabbing the bar with his free hand after it was dislodged and placing it down gently to prevent the sound of clanking metal as it dropped.
The whole group made it through the four foot tall hole, and as luck had it, the tunnel was bigger on the inside and led underneath the streets of the city. After Kairi made it through though, Gray called Natsu's name out in a low whisper and the Dragon Slayer turned back around. Gray lifted up the metal bars Kirito cut off, and he whispered, "Weld these back on." Natsu saw the open hole with just the ends of the bars visible on the tops and bottoms, and he realized it would look suspicious to anyone who might be searching for them.
Kirito frowned, I should have discussed it before I cut the bars off. Natsu could have just bent them to the sides and unbent them just as easily. He watched as the fire mage created flames on the tip of his right index finger and welded the bars back into place so it would look like no one ever touched them.
Gray looked towards Kirito and though in deeper darkness that under the bridge, he could tell what the younger fighter was thinking. He thought about saying something about how it did not matter, but he held his tongue as it was hard finding the right words when speaking to Kirito these days. We're still working together well, for the most part. If we weren't undercover though, he would be showing a lot more animosity towards me. I tried to kill him. No! Don't let your mind get clouded here. It's too dangerous. The others are listening to you, they're putting their lives in your hands. "Let's get moving," Gray whispered. He started walking and continued, "I do not think the sewers down here connect to the ones of the Upper Residential Area, that section of the city seems to be at a higher elevation. We can however, get as close to the walls as possible without anyone spotting us, as long as there are no cameras down here. Stay on the lookout for any while you walk."
His friends followed behind him, their eyes glancing at the walls for any sign of surveillance equipment. "Hey Ben," Dash whispered, and his best friend turned left to look at the kid walking next to him. They were ankle-deep in sewer water, they were sweating from the humid and stuffy air below the city, and they were being hunted by an army, but the youngest member of their group was grinning. "Doesn't this feel like, like one of those spy movies?"
Ben could not help but crack a grin as he thought about some movies he saw as a kid. "I think we're much cooler than any of the guys in those movies," Ben admitted, now that he thought about it.
Though the Fairy Tail wizards did not really understand what the younger boys were talking about, the corners of Kirito's lips curled up the tiniest amount. He's right. I can't think of a single action movie character who's done more than we have in the past week. Taking on armies and assassins, going undercover into the enemy capital, now it's time for the boss fight. Kirito's lips curled back to being flat and he started frowning. Those fights are always the hardest parts of the movie and usually take their tolls on the heroes. They get bullet wounds, or the side characters with them die, or even the main character himself has to make an epic sacrifice to take down the boss… But this isn't an action or spy movie. This is real life, which makes it even less likely we get through this without paying a steep toll. Movies where everyone has a happy ending are idealistic.
"AH!" Juvia screamed. The two in front of her and the four behind and snapped their attentions to the Rain Woman as she swung her arms down at the floor. The water beneath her exploded up and the whole group got splashed with sewer water.
"What is it?!" Gray shouted to her.
Natsu held up a fist and covered it in flames, illuminating the tunnel and the ground below Juvia. The water around her seeped back down to the lowest part and covered the floor at her feet again, but her gaze was near one of the walls where the water was shallower, and there was something sticking out of the inch deep sewage. Natsu moved his hand over a little, and the group let out sighs of relief at the sight of a rat on the ground.
Dash let out his sigh too fast, and he gagged a second later and turned away from the sight of the little creature. The others had less visceral reactions: Ben turned away, Kairi frowned sadly, and Natsu just stuck his tongue out at the sight of the disemboweled rat. Its head was missing, and the water around its body was turning red. Juvia was panting heavily, her chest heaving as she let out and took in deep breaths. "Sorry everyone," Juvia whispered between panting breaths. They were giving her a minute to calm down, after she blasted that rat to Hell, though a few of them also needed to calm down as well as her shout caught them all off guard thinking they were under attack. "Juvia is just, a little jumpy," she said while they were all standing there catching their breaths. "She had a nightmare last night," she admitted in a soft voice.
Gray nodded his head from in front of her as he understood that, but he was confused as Natsu nodded his head too which he could see through the flames Natsu held in front of him. "It's okay," Kairi began to her friend and Juvia turned to her. "I also had a nightmare last night. Tried going back to bed, but I had another, haha."
Kirito frowned as he realized why he noticed Kairi turning a lot during the night. Then again, I only noticed because I was awake too… because I had a nightmare. Kirito's eyes opened wide and he looked around at the others in the group to see they were all realizing the same thing. "Did everyone, have a nightmare last night?"
Gray's eyes opened huge as he saw both of the younger boys look at each other, then turn back and nod to Kirito. "That's not good," Gray said, "that's really, really not good."
"What do you mean?" Natsu asked. "So we all had nightmares, so what?"
"Don't you think that's a little odd?" Kirito questioned the Dragon Slayer. "Seven of us, all having nightmares on the same night? Nightmares which kept us awake, kept us with little sleep?" Natsu's frown started growing and Kirito finished, "It's not a coincidence."
"That explains why Gray's so uppity," Natsu muttered, trying to lighten the mood even though his mouth was still in a deep frown. He did not mention it under the bridge before since Ben stood up to make it look like he was alright, but Gray's serious attitude was getting to him a little.
"I'm being cautious," Gray snapped, "because the mission is already going wrong." He did not mention Juvia saying his name at the hotel, but they all thought about it in that moment. He continued quickly, "Someone was messing with our heads last night, we're being toyed with, that's why I'm uppity," he used Natsu's terminology but seethed it through his teeth.
"They're going to regret toying with me," Natsu snarled.
"What-" Ben began, and they turned towards him wondering what was up. He gulped and asked, "What, were your guys' nightmares about?" The rest of them gained dark expressions, even Kairi who Ben had never actually seen look like that before. He gulped again, and continued in a quiet voice, "Because mine, wasn't like, other nightmares I usually have." He continued before anyone could question him about how he apparently usually has nightmares, "There was, this monster, in my dreams. It had horns like a goat's, and red eyes, and it was in every shadow."
"It could use the shadows to wrap around your neck," Kirito continued, "and could rot the flesh right off your skin."
"Guys," Gray said, before anyone else could start talking about the monster of their dreams. "Whatever it was, its powers were exaggerated inside our dreams. If we actually run into it, I know we'll be able to handle it."
"Really?" Dash questioned.
"Really?" How should I know? Maybe there is some kind of monster in this city we're not prepared for in the least. Maybe we should turn around and get the Hell out of here right now. The only thing I can think of that would give us nightmares like that, is a demon. Is there a high-class demon in the city? Damn, and Kairi and Natsu are the only other people who can see… Oh wait, his gaze shifted to Juvia and he thought, she should be able to see them just fine now.
"Well let's keep going," Natsu said, ignoring the fact that Gray never responded to Dash's question. Gray was shaken from his thoughts and he nodded at Natsu, agreeing that they should get a move on. "I'll take point," Natsu said, and he kept his right fist enflamed so that their path would be lit on the way forward and nothing else would surprise them.
Dash gulped as his 'really?' was never responded to, but he hardened his expression after taking a glance at Ben and seeing how serious his older friend looked. Ben started after Natsu, and Dash walked close to his side. Kairi followed behind the two boys and Kirito walked next to her in water that was getting a little deeper so it was now up to his shins. Gray would have followed, but he was staring at the woman next to him with nervous eyes, and a bottom lip that was lowering.
Juvia stared at the illuminated floor at the edge of the tunnel next to her. Natsu was getting farther away, but his dim firelight was lighting up the lump of flesh that used to be a living creature, until she blew it away with her magic a minute ago. She stared at the red water around the disgusting, mangled rat, and she stared straight at its innards that were seeping out of its skin. Juvia's heart started racing, because without even noticing, her lips had curled up into a smile. Why am I smiling? Juvia thought, realizing something was wrong with the current situation.
"Come on Juvia," a voice said next to the girl, and Juvia slowly turned her head to face Gray a foot away from her. His face looked worried, no matter how much he tried to mask it. "We need to go," he said, and turned to face the backs of their friends. He took a step, but a hand grabbed him by his right arm and he froze.
"Gray-sama," a quiet voice whispered at him. Gray clenched his teeth hard while Juvia stared at his back, "Does, Gray-sama, know what's happening to me? To, to Juvia?" She corrected herself, and became even more worried as she realized something wrong with what she just said. Gray would not turn around, because he knew his expression would give it away and he wanted Natsu to be farther so that his face would be more shrouded by darkness before he turned. "Please," Juvia whispered, her voice pleading, "what is wrong with Juvia?"
"Nothing," Gray said, turning his head and staring her straight in the eyes. He did not have to mask his expression while he said it because he meant what he said. "Nothing is wrong with you. I knew, that there were going to be a few side effects, from bringing you back to life," he admitted, but he made sure to keep eye contact with her the whole time he said it. Juvia's eyes grew wider, but Gray continued, "But nothing is wrong with you, I promise. You're still perf-" he stopped himself, his cheeks going a little red as he averted his gaze a bit.
Juvia heard the first part of that before he stopped though, and the worry building up inside her was replaced as what Gray said replayed in her mind. "Gray-sama thinks, Juvia is perf-ect?" Juvia whispered, her face so red that she could not get any redder.
Gray felt a little awkward, but he turned back to her and he flashed her a smile. "Just the way you are," He finished for her, and then he put his right hand around her shoulder, grabbing her back and pulling her into his chest tightly. "I'll always love you," he whispered, and tears formed in Juvia's eyes. "So don't worry about the little things."
"Mm," Juvia hummed in agreement into him. Gray pulled back and he motioned after their friends who were getting far away from them. Kairi just called back to them and he called out that they were heading over, but Juvia whispered when they were still far from their friends, "I'll always love you too, Gray-sama." She was walking just behind him with a bright smile on her face, so she did not see the smile on Gray's fall at the wording of her proclamation.
Four men stood on top of the wall separating the Lower Residential Area from the Upper Residential Area. Two of the men were in Fire Nation uniforms with black and red armor, shoulder pads spiked out to the sides, and spears in their hands that glowed orange near the ends to show they could double as rifles. The other two men were wearing Sun Marine officer coats, though the shorter, younger man had red spiky hair in a mohawk over his head with black hair on the sides of it. The younger Marine than the Admiral standing in front of him did have something in common with his superior officer however, as they both had scars on his face, though the red-haired Marine had only one, long scar on the lower part of his left cheek.
"Troops have engaged Straw Hat Luffy and his crew two miles south of here," one of the Fire Nation officers reported. "They discovered they were being followed and the men were forced to-"
"What happened to the plan to poison them?" Komei interrupted, pointing his fan accusingly at the officer.
The more elderly Fire Nation officer, with a white mustache pointed to the sides like Komei and a pointy beard that was just a little shorter than the Admiral's, responded for his colleague, "The men attempted to poison the invaders, but the manager of the, Big Belly Burger, would not allow them to."
Komei frowned at the old man and he said in an accusatory voice, "They should have forced him, or removed him from the situation entirely and-"
"The men reported," the old man cut in, "that the manager scared them too much to try anything."
The other two on the wall overlooking the southern section of the lower city of Pyraxas turned to the old man on their left with wide eyes. Komei's bottom lip dropped but the Fire Nation soldier said nothing to explain how absurd that sounded. Komei turned his head and looked out into the city, My soldiers, scared by a manager of a fast food place? This is Nexus, but even so I find that hard to believe. Komei growled and turned to the man in the center of the three, "Captain Grount." The young man smirked as he had been waiting for this- "Return to the Upper Residential Area and provide support for Princess Azula."
Grount's excited expression vanished in an instant and the nineteen year old Sun Marine officer frowned at his Admiral. "Hold on, I'm going after Straw Hat," Grount said, and Komei's gray eyebrows narrowed down at his subordinate.
"You are skilled, but do not overstep yourself, Captain," Komei said in a condescending tone to the younger man. "Do as I command-"
"Why are we retreating farther into the city?" Grount snapped, sounding like he was not going to obey this order. "We have them in the Lower Residential Area, we should keep them here. If I go down there, they won't make it any farther."
Komei growled and glared straight into the younger man's eyes. All-Hunt Grount. I understand now why Vice Admiral Prodi has so much disdain for this boy. However, Prodi did admit he has certain skill. "Fine," Komei said, "Get Straw Hat away from the rest of his crew if possible. Challenge him to a duel for all I care." Grount's eyes opened in surprise as did the officers at his sides, neither of whom expected Komei to fold that easily.
Grount was not one to question a good thing though, and he turned and leapt off the wall with a smirk splayed across his face. "Commanders," Komei said, and the two Fire Nation officers in front of him turned from Grount's falling form and back to the "Genius Tactician" leading their city's defense. Komei looked left and out into the Upper Residential Area which looked so serene, peaceful, unperturbed at the moment. "Head to First Battalion and help to mobilize the army." The two looked surprised, but Komei continued harshly, "I do not want any mistakes. If these invaders do make it farther into our city, they will have five thousand elite soldiers set upon them."
"Understood sir," the darker haired of the two officers replied, saluting Komei as he did.
The older man with whiter hair frowned and looked out to the south over all the buildings of Pyraxas. "What poor timing for an invasion. So much of the army gone on various offensives. I do hope we are not spread too thin. It may prove disastrous for our proud country." The old soldier turned and walked off, while Komei stared at the experienced veteran's back in a little anger at the disrespect he was shown, but he also watched him thoughtfully. He is right. We are missing Grount's powerful comrades Bonham and Zappa, Commander Zhao, and most importantly- General Bujing, who is leading the invasion force directly south. It would not be so bad if all the mutants in the city were not called away by Lady Phoenix, after Magneto's untimely death earlier this week. This just makes it more of a challenge however, Komei started to grin again as he fanned his face, these setbacks will not stop me from defending this city. Justice will prevail!
"Admiral Komei," a voice spoke into Komei's ear and he grinned as he recognized the soldier it belonged to. "We found them. The gate at Hearth Drive, to the southeast of your position."
Southeast, Komei thought, his grin growing more prominent. And finally a stroke of luck. "I'm on my way. Locate the Missing Targets Maneuver is accomplished. Resume Operation Separate and Destroy!"
Lower Residential Area, Pyraxas.
"This is never going to work," Natsu whispered to his right.
"They'll be fine," Kairi assured back to him. The two with different shades of red hair looked out the same window of a coffee shop close to a gate to the Upper Residential Area. They picked the table with the best view of the gate and the guard posts in front of it, as well as the black haired man in a suit Kairi magically whipped up for him. Gray's hair looked different than before, all of it slicked back over his head now so he looked extra fancy. He had on a red tie, a white shirt, black pants and a matching jacket, nice black shoes, and even wore a pair of glasses that had no prescription to them, they were just there for show.
"It's a good disguise," Natsu admitted, as he could barely recognize his friend. Gray looked nothing like the sewer-water-drenched, shirtless (for some reason he had stripped on their trek through the tunnels beneath the city), experienced fighter from a half an hour ago. Even without an arm, he just appeared to be a businessman who must have gotten caught up in something earlier on Nexus and lost his arm because of it. Ben's watch better hold out. If things go wrong, grab Gray and both of you get out of there. We'll come up with a better strategy.
Ben stayed silent as he stood next to Gray. He had to keep close to his older friend to avoid people walking next to them from bumping into an invisible purple blobby figure. Clear Body is getting a lot of use today, but I wish this alien had better fighting capabilities. If it comes to a fight, I'll go Heatblast and push forward. They won't be able to burn me, but I can still burn them. I won't have a lot of time after changing though, it really cuts my time limit down. I'm already starting to feel nervous about staying Clear Body for just this long.
"Is there a problem?" Gray questioned the guard behind the counter. He was standing very close to the gate he wanted to go through, a gate that had just opened up for a different couple who only had to flash cards for the guards to move aside for them. The guard he requested access to the upper city from was still typing in his computer though, looking like he was just processing Gray's request, but to the ice mage, even something like this was raising his suspicions.
"Just a second sir," the guard replied without looking away from his computer. "I have to process each ticket individually, and I am on the fourth one now."
Only the fourth? Did he choose halfway for a reason? It would be smart to make me think he has already done a lot, so that I do not decide to leave before reinforcements arrive. But he also does not want me to think he is too close to being finished, or he would soon have to make another excuse for keeping me here. Think of the worst possible outcome, and question how much sense it makes. Well this makes too much sense. Now, for a quick retreat. Gray reached down into his pocket and grabbed a communicator he had bought on his way here for this sole purpose. "Oh?" He looked down at it and made sure it was out of sight of the guard behind the counter who turned to look up at him, since the screen was black and had nothing on it. Gray acted like it did though, and he looked back up at the guard already facing him, and said while lifting up his phone pointed towards himself, "I need to take this."
Gray took a step back and the guard said, "Sir, you really should stay here. The process is almost finished-"
"It's important," Gray said, making himself sound busy while he turned around. He looked back towards the lower city while bringing the phone to his ear, then froze after a single step as he saw Hearth Drive in front of him. The road was paved straight away from the gate, and fifty guards were jogging down that road in lines of ten, all of them holding spear-rifles, all of them in Fire Nation garb. They wore armor and every other soldier had a scary white mask over his or her face with red horns on the top of it. Down either side of the mostly empty horizontal strip along the front of the wall, Gray saw men and women wearing white uniforms running towards him, with red handkerchiefs tied in front of their collars, and red rims on their white hats with the words 'Sun Marines' written across them. In his peripheral vision, Gray saw the Fire Nation guards behind him who were acting all nonchalant at their posts raising their weapons, even the man behind the counter who pulled out a pistol and pointed it at his back.
Gray vanished.
The hundred soldiers aiming and looking at Gray froze and dropped their jaws. The man in a suit they were cornering did not make a move so fast none of them could see, he did not fly away, he just disappeared from right in front of them. "Not so fast!" A voice shouted from up above, and all the Fire Nation soldiers and Sun Marines looked up to see a man in a cream-colored robe falling from the top of the thirty meter tall gateway.
Admiral Komei descended towards an open area between all his men. He rose up his arms as he fell, and a dark purple aura surrounded his entire body. His eyes narrowed as he pointed two fingers on his right hand straight up, then waved both arms to the left and swung his fan with his left hand. "Busoshoku no Haki. With this spirit of mine, I apply power to my fan." The man smirked and one of the two invisible figures staring up below him went wide-eyed as he felt what was coming with his own Haki. Komei's fan lost its shape and became pitch black, the feathers of it extending out and whipping around like crazy for a second, before all pulling together in a thin blade twenty feet long.
Gray put his hand on Clear Body's blobby shoulder and pushed the boy away, then jumped backwards as fast as he could. Ben went one way and he went the other, then a thin black blade slammed into the ground between them and split straight through the paved black street. Gray put his arm in front of his face to protect from flying debris, while Ben was hit by a few chunks and lost his invisibility before tumbling away.
"Shit," Kirito muttered under his breath. He was still holding out for hope that Ben and Gray could get out of there on their own, but now was the time for action.
"Whoa!" a soldier shouted and looked down at the floor in front of him in panic. In the middle of the fifty Fire Nation guards on Hearth Drive, the ground tore apart as a teenager stood up, looking like he was getting out of water by how simple it was to him. Kirito stood in the middle of the guards, and Komei spun around hearing their shouts, before going wide-eyed as twenty more teenagers all with the same face stood up out of the ground throughout the squadron of soldiers.
The Admiral lost his grin after landing on the uneven ground where his sword stabbed through. The one who defeated Ra's. "Take him down!" Komei shouted. Two men slashed swords down at the first Kirito to pop out of the ground's head. One of them slashed before his comrade, and Kirito turned sideways to avoid the first slash that passed straight down inches in front of his face, then sidestepped to dodge the second swipe by the same margin. He kicked up with his right leg and into the side of the first man who slashed at him, a powerful blow that cracked the man's armor before sending him flying across the street and into a coffee shop's wall. Kirito planted the foot after the kick and did a one-eighty spin while raising his other leg, but the second soldier brought up his spear to block the blow with his shaft. He should have known after the force at which his comrade was sent flying, that his spear had no chance of surviving a kick, and it split in half with Kirito's kick. The soldier lifted the two halves of his spear and stared at them with wide eyes through his mask, at least until a second later when a fist collided with his mask and shattered it while sending him flying backwards into two other men who were pointing their rifles at a nearby Kirito clone. Another Kirito ducked as three soldiers bounced off the ground, letting them flip right over his head while he himself pulled a Kunai from a pouch on his side and twisted it around in his hand so the tip was pointed behind him. He planted a foot down hard and spun on it, slamming the knife back into the side of a heavyset soldier who had his spear raised above his head.
On the side of the road, an armored guard who smashed through the wall of a coffee shop groaned in pain but pushed his hands on the floor below him. He wrapped a hand around the shaft of his weapon that he dropped only after hitting the building, then ground his teeth in pain as he got up to one knee and a foot. He looked down at the left side of his armor and saw cracks lining it and a chunk missing. The armor absorbed most of the damage, but the damn brat is strong. He tried getting off his second knee, but there was oddly a lot of force pushing down on the top of his head so he could not move an inch. The guard darted his eyes to the right and watched as a teenage girl with long auburn hair walked past him and out the hole in the wall, while raising up her right hand and creating a long pink shaft in it. She flashed the man a quick grin, before rushing out into the road and attacking his fellow guards. The pressure was not off of his head yet, and the guard continued turning his gaze to a muscular figure behind him whose tank top was open down the middle now to reveal his abs and pecs. Natsu lifted up with the hand he had on the soldier's head, and finally the man was pulled off of his second knee, and also up in the air in front of Natsu.
"You want to keep fighting?" Natsu questioned, as he could see what the man was thinking as he walked up to him. Natsu held the man by one hand while covering his other fist in flames, "Then get back out there! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He slammed his fist into the back of the guard who screamed and went flying out of the coffee shop covered in flames. He looked like a fireball as he flew into the mass of Kiritos and guards and blew them all away.
The real Kirito and a few of his Shadow Clones turned towards the coffee shop with annoyed looks on their matching faces. Natsu got a little creeped out by their gazes, but one of them got shot and vanished while they were frowning at the Dragon Slayer, so the rest stopped giving him their dirty looks and got back to fighting. Closer to the gate, Gray stood facing a tall Marine officer from only five yards away. "Who are you?" The ice mage questioned.
"I am Admiral Komei of the Sun Marines," Komei replied and slashed his Haki-hardened fan to his side. The gatehouse on his left was not touched by the weapon, but a second later, the top half of the building was sliding off of the bottom half. "You terrorists who would disturb the peace of this city, the gem of the Fire Nation, will face your dooms here at my hands." The man had a tall red Sun Marine hat on his head, a red sash at his waist, and a cream robe around his body with green highlights at the cuffs of his sleeves and in the center where the two sides of his robe crossed over each other. He had two scars on the left side of his forehead and a smaller one beneath his left eye. Komei's dark gray mustache pointed up to the sides with nothing in between the two points leaving his upper lip hairless, though he had a long pointy beard sticking down from his chin all the way to his waist. "Now Gray Fullbuster," Komei said, keeping his face serious even as the Resistance member in front of him went wide-eyed that his name was already known by the enemy. "Prepare for your demise!"
A flash of green light caught the corners of Komei's eyes and he changed the trajectory of his slash midway down. Gray was already leaping backwards when Komei started his attack, but the Admiral stopped slashing at him and instead curved his arm on its descent, swinging it across his body while twisting around himself. Ben was shooting forward as Heatblast, but the boy's glowing white eyes opened huge at the sight of the man's black weapon slashing towards him. He leaned backwards far, and the blade sliced right over his bent body, cutting through his fiery hair and making the boy let out a gasp of relief at how close it was.
Komei leapt up in the air as Ben unbent, and the Sun Marine Admiral swung his weapon above his head, changing its shape once more so that it again looked like a fan, only five times as large as before. Komei slashed down and the massive fan created a gust of wind so powerful that the ground around where he already cracked it with his blade shattered and lifted up in the air. Ben pointed his hands down and flames shot out of his palms, while the soldiers at his sides punched towards him or fired their energy spears. Bursts of yellow light and balls of fire flew around the alien that swerved through the air, but the attacks thinned out the higher he flew towards Komei. They did not thin out because the men stopped aiming as well, but because the ice mage he left down below charged at the men around him and punched and kicked them around.
Gray snapped his head to the side as he heard loud creaking, and he frowned deeply at the sight of the gate behind these men about to close. Damn it. We couldn't get through, and more men are coming every second. He caught a glimpse of soldiers running along the top of the wall, though he became confused as many of them were running away from the gateway. They're heading to the east? Is something going on at the southern gate? Or even farther in the city? Whatever's drawing their attention, it's to our advantage. The mage focused back down and leaned left then right to dodge two beams fired by his enemies. The men dressed as Marines opened their eyes wide, then Gray darted towards them and before they could fire a second bullet, their guns were each pushed up by the barrels by Gray's rapidly moving right hand. They fired straight up into the air before Gray ripped their rifles from their hands one at a time, then swung both weapons around into the side of one man's face which knocked his head into his comrade's.
Two yellow beams flew up past Ben, but the boy did not need to dodge them as for some reason it seemed like the men who fired them were not even aiming at him. He rose his right hand and a fireball formed on it that he threw forward, as the man in front of him kicked the air below his feet to stay hovering at his level. Komei slashed his fan down and the flames Ben threw split apart, and then the wind from the swing hit him a second later and he went spinning through the air. He finally righted himself, but when he looked back towards where the Marine was, Komei was nowhere in sight. He snapped his gaze up at the last second as the shadow passed over him, and he rose up his arms, clapping his hands together on the long blade that Komei jabbed down at him.
Ben was being pushed out of the air and his arms were shaking as he could barely hold Komei's weapon back. His hands glowed brighter as did all the cracks between the molten rocks holding together his body, but the weapon he was grabbing was too full of Haki for him to melt. I need to be a stronger alien! He thought, but before he could come up with a plan, a flash of red illuminated on his chest where the hourglass symbol used to be green. "Not yet!" He shouted in panic.
"Your time is up!" Komei yelled down at the boy who looked even more panicked as this man seemed to know all about his Omnitrix's time limit. Ben pushed with all of his remaining strength before the last flash of red light, and he managed to knock Komei's blade back so that it did not cut through him as soon as he turned into a child. Ben's thirteen year old human body appeared falling out of the air fast, and he slammed down into a chunk of uplifted pavement that made him wince in pain. Marines and Fire Nation guards ran up to the boy lying on his back and they pointed rifles down at him.
"Ben!" a voice shouted, and one of the Marines closest to Ben got lifted off her feet. She flew over Ben's body and slammed into another two Marines who tumbled away with her. The other guards pointed their guns towards where the female Marine just was, but the tiny figure that just appeared there shot to his left and took the legs out from beneath a guard pointing a spear at him. The guard dropped, then so did the next to after him.
Dash sprinted for the next guard while Ben was slowly getting up, rubbing his back in aching pain. "Thanks Dash," Ben began, but stopped when he saw the armored soldier in front of him with a grin on his face. The man tapped the heels of his boots together, the same time as the rest of the guards around Ben and Dash. Dash was running for another guard, when tiny panels opened up on the sides of the guard's boots, and a strange white liquid poured out of his boots and all over the pavement around him. Dash kept running forward though and he slammed a fist into the guard's stomach, knocking the smirking man backwards with a wince replacing his smug look. A second later though, the smug look reappeared on the man's face who did not skid very far away.
The power of my punch, it didn't feel like the others, Dash looked down at his hand, then past it and down at the floor where he realized his fatal mistake. Dash struggled to lift his feet up, but the goo on the ground stuck to him like gum, pulling up with a foot but then snapping him back down. "I'm stuck!" He shouted in panic.
"Dash!" Ben shouted, and he took a step towards his friend, before seeing the barrel of a rifle shoved straight in his face. Ben's eyes opened wide and he lifted his gaze nervously to the Sun Marine woman pointing her gun straight at him. A look spread across her face that made Ben feel hopeful, but at the woman's side appeared ten more guards who pointed their guns at him and Dash.
Juvia spotted Dash down the street from where she and him were hiding until a moment ago. They were told to come in as a last resort to help the others escape, but seeing the boy stuck in something she started running forward. She rose her arms to create some water magic and try to wash away the material sticking him in place, but some guards saw the woman on their list and pointed their weapons at her, firing dozens of beams at the girl with no guard up. The beams passed straight through Juvia, but they did stop her from attacking the others farther down the road from them who were surrounding Ben and Dash now.
Komei dropped down behind the group of men in front of the boys, and the Admiral looked down at the children stuck in place with a look of disdain. These children are being used by the terrorists, but I cannot show them any mercy. "How do you like this, the Glue in the Boots Maneuver?!" Komei laughed and then rose his voice louder, "Dojaku!"
Ben and Dash snapped their heads up as a shadow fell over them. Something big was falling from the sky, and it dropped to the floor in between Komei and the young boys. Dust rose up thanks to all the broken pavement around them, and when it settled down, a burly figure of another Sun Marine stood before them. Dojaku had a huge smile in the center of his big bushy beard, and the man had a rope held in his right hand leading back up into the sky. The man started running towards him, but when Ben glanced down at his left wrist he saw the Omnitrix still in the red. A strong arm slammed into his chest and knocked the wind out of Ben who was not expecting the large man to move so nimbly that he would reach him in under a second. He got his breath back though as Dojaku ran towards Dash, and he yelled out, "Gray!"
The ice mage who was the closest to the boys turned his head and opened his eyes wide at the sight of Dojaku grabbing Dash with the same arm he had Ben wrapped up in. "Dash!" Gray shouted and started running his direction. Dojaku yanked up and the kid yelled in pain as his legs were getting stretched by the gooey glue. Komei saw his subordinate was struggling and he slashed his fan out once, cutting the stretching goo beneath Dash's feet and making Dojaku stumble backwards as all resistance was gone. "Ice Make: Floor!" Gray yelled, clenching his right fist in front of his chest as he was running over.
Komei turned around and he slashed towards the ice mage, but Gray dropped beneath the slash and slammed his hand into the ground. The ground from his hand all the way to Komei froze over, with the Admiral just jumping up to avoid being frozen to the floor. The rest of his men were not as lucky, being frozen stuck to where they were. Komei saw even Dojaku let his feet get stuck to the ground, and he widened his fan again with Haki, before swinging the wide weapon down and creating a force of wind so powerful that the ice and ground beneath Dojaku crumbled. "Now!" Komei yelled, and Dojaku tugged down on the rope in his right hand.
Ben was trying to pull his arms up from his sides over the burly arm around him so that he could free himself, and Dash was swinging his arms and legs fast as to vibrate himself out of his enemy's grasp. His feet were still coated in the white sticky substance, but the more he kicked his feet, the more glue he was managing to burn right off of his feet. His clothes were getting ripped up too by how fast he was moving, but beneath them he had on a tight blue costume that withstood the friction force made by his vibrations. Both boys stopped struggling though as they were suddenly yanked off the ground, being pulled into the air at sixty miles per hour.
"What's going on?!" Dash yelled in panic.
Ben lifted his gaze up, past the hairy face of the smiling Marine holding him, up the rope they were hanging off of, to the top of the rope where his eyes focused in. The rope curled up over the wall and the top of it was moving west fast, as if someone was on top of the wall running with the end of the rope in hand. Ben's gaze shifted to a little in front of them and he saw something that made his eyes grow wide, and his suspicions were confirmed as the top of the rope moved south below the wall, but did not fall as it was attached to a rolling cart on top of the railroad tracks that led over the wall. The cart looked to be rolling on its own across the elevated tracks, while the rope hanging off of it was retracting back so the three were getting closer and closer to the steel box every second.
"Ben! Dash!" Gray yelled after the boys getting carried away from them. He heard something coming for him with his Haki and flipped backwards, just in time to dodge a swipe from Komei. He landed the flip on one hand, then as he flipped again back to his feet, he punched a fist out and yelled, "Ice Make: Tiger!" A tiger ten times as large as Gray's own body formed out of thin air at the end of his fist and pounced towards Komei. The Admiral leapt up in the air high to avoid it, and he slashed down while he lifted, shattering the frozen animal into pieces. He glared down as he landed on the top of the wall high above, because there was a man sprinting up the wall below him, ice forming beneath his feet with every step so that he could run the ninety degree angle with no issue. Gray ran all the way up the wall and stopped ten yards in front of Komei, facing the Marine though his gaze kept darting behind him to the boys getting increasingly far away.
"Go on," Komei said, "do you not wish to save your friends?" He lowered his weapon from a ready stance and his fan lost the Haki from it. He put his hands behind his back and slid them into the opposite arms' sleeves. "Go," Komei said, "or I will command Dojaku to kill them now."
Gray did not have time to think about it. He turned and started sprinting away as fast as his legs would allow. He started jumping and throwing ice at the ground where he was going to land, creating little jumps of ice that his feet would slide down then slide up the other side which he made into a ramp that would send him soaring up in the air. "Gray!" Natsu shouted up as he finished off the last enemy in front of him. "I'm right behind you-"
"No!" Gray shouted, looking back and seeing his friend already sprinting towards the wall. Gray dropped and flew back up thanks to his ice jump, but he was now shooting backwards off the wall and towards the railroad tracks leading farther west away from the upper areas of the city. "Keep going and get to the Fire Lord's Palace!" I don't know why Komei does not want me to keep moving forward, but if anyone needs to keep going, it's you Natsu. "I'll get Dash and Ben, and we'll catch up when we can!" He was shouting at the top of his lungs now as he was getting too far away, and the last thing he shouted before he got too far was, "It's up to you now!"
"Gray-sama!" Juvia yelled, running right behind Natsu. They were in the wide opening between the tall walls and the first buildings closest to them. There were Marines and Fire Nation soldiers lying on the floor all around them, but none left standing to fight. Kirito and Kairi came jogging up behind the other two, and all four of them watched as Gray landed on a far away railroad track that he started running down.
Natsu growled and glanced back at the top of the wall. The Admiral who was the strongest of their enemies was fanning himself and looking down with confidence at them. "I will now take my leave. Search for me farther inside the city, if you dare." He laughed and then turned around and leapt away on the other side of the wall.
Natsu snarled at the man's words, but snapped his head back in the direction Gray ran off. "Bastard led us into a trap. We've gotta go after Gray-" Natsu took a step as he was talking, but a hand grabbed Natsu by the arm and he spun his head angrily, glaring at the teen behind him who stopped him from running off.
Kirito glared just as hard back though, and he yelled, "You are the most important part of this plan!" Natsu's angry look lowered down a little, but Kirito stayed pissed as he let go of the Dragon Slayer's arm. "You have to be the one who faces Sozin," he told the older man. "Trust in Gray-" Kirito's face scrunched up as he said it; the words tasted bad in his mouth as he himself never could do what he just said. He continued, "And Ben, and Dash, trust our friends, and they'll be right behind us like Gray said."
Natsu frowned and glanced to the west again, before turning back and nodding his head. "Then I'm going to take down the Fire Lord as fast as possible," he growled, as he really wanted to make sure his other friends were alright.
"You go on ahead," Juvia told her friends. "Juvia will go after Gray-"
Kirito shook his head at her too. "There is only one thing that might work better against the Fire Lord than Natsu," he began. "And that's you with your water powers." Juvia frowned as she really wanted to chase after her boyfriend, but Kirito continued, "The best way to help Gray, is to take down the Fire Lord as fast as possible and throw the city into chaos."
"Chaos?" Kairi questioned. Kirito turned to her and Kairi looked into his eyes, "What about all the people living here?"
Kirito ground his teeth but spoke in a detached voice, "What did you think was going to happen when we defeat the Fire Lord?" None of the other three spoke, and he continued harshly, "We're at war, and we're being the aggressors here. We came into a city that was peaceful, and we're taking out the ruling power. I accepted the reality of what we came here to do the moment we decided to go, now it's time for you guys to understand exactly where we are."
Natsu turned his head away from Kirito and looked around him. Smoke and fire rose up in the small battlefield they were just in, only it was not a battlefield, but a bustling street only a few minutes before they went wild in it. He looked towards the coffee shop that he had been laying in wait in, and he saw the young barista who gave him his coffee. He could see her through a hole in the wall, curled up next to the counter with a little girl held in her arms. The woman made eye contact with him as she was looking out the wall in his direction already, and the expression of fear that spread across her face upon being seen made Natsu's chest ache. After a moment he turned away though, and though he kept what was going on around him in mind, he said, "Let's do what we came here to do."
Natsu marched towards the giant gates leading farther into the city, and he stepped straight up to the point between the two tall steel doors. Without covering his fists in flames, without shouting out any crazy attack name, he slammed his fist forward, and the doors over a dozen times taller than him broke off their hinges. Kirito and Juvia followed behind him, with Kairi taking up the rear. The young girl let her Keyblade vanish as she walked up on top of the doors on the other side of the gate. Natsu started jogging forward at the front of their group of four, and Juvia and Kirito determinedly stared forward and sped up after him. Kairi stared at her friends backs with a sad look on her face though, What are we doing here? Is this really, a good thing we're doing? The group of four were coming to the end of the road and they turned right down another one, before coming to sudden stops one at a time. Kairi was the last one around the corner, and the girl's doubts faded from her mind at the sight of something straight down the street from them.
A hundred feet in front of the four fighters at the corner, there was a square between some elegant buildings of the Upper Residential Area. In the center of this square was a wooden stage, with a wooden bar eight feet off of the floor of the stage. There were some figures above the stage too, figures whose feet were dangling a few feet off the ground, with barrels on the stage a few feet behind their legs, and ropes around their necks that were tied to the bar over the stage and held them all there. Each of the three figures hanging by their necks had signs in front of their chests, and steel chains on their ankles that held their feet together, even the shortest one whose face looked so young. On the signs were the same words for all three of them: 'Attempted To Run.' What was worse than the three slaves hanging there though, were the citizens of Pyraxas walking around the square and the nearby streets, not a single one of them even glancing towards that center stage and the people there. The bodies looked fresh, as if they had died only recently, and the four figures who just barged through the gate southwest of them started to look very, very dangerous.
A couple of rich people walking away from the square and down the road towards the four stopped where they were. The woman in a fancy dress and the man in a suit and a top hat stared down the paved street at the four who did not look like they belonged in the Upper Residential Area. The man opened his mouth to say something, when the boy with pink hair lowered his attention from the gallows to the people right in front of him. "'Attempted to run?' Why don't you try it?" He said, and his fists burst into flames. Juvia snarled and guttural growls came out the back of her throat, and Kirito drew both of his swords before glaring at the "people" in front of him in disgust. The two civilians started running, but a Keyblade reappeared in Kairi's hand as she spotted guards appearing on the other side of the square and pointing their direction.
"SOZIN!" Natsu roared, snapping his head back as he did. This is the world we live in?! Natsu's head dropped back down and the guards running his way slowed down at the frightening look on his face. For over two years I had no idea this was going on! I let monsters like this rule the world?! "RAAA!" Flames billowed out of Natsu's mouth and he charged forward, melting the ground beneath his feet with every stomp he took. The soldiers coming at him started to hesitate, some of them rose shaky weapons, some of them just turned and started to flee as the beast charged them.
Komei watched from a distance and he lowered the binoculars from his eyes. A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face, It is time to call in Azula. She can handle poisoning Natsu Dragneel while I focus on the pirates. He turned the other direction and took off while giving orders from his headset. After he sent out the orders, he fell silent again and kept leaping away on the shingled roofs of buildings. One look at those slaves and… No. That is the way of this world. It was the way of my old world too. What these fools are doing is not justice. They are harbingers of chaos. Chaos will always cause destruction, violence, and war. And war, is the worst thing there is.
1/4 Mile West of Pyraxas
"Ben! Isn't the watch ready yet?!" Dash yelled at his best friend, even though they were right next to each other.
"I said I'll tell you when!" Ben yelled back, though he could understand Dash's panic. He leaned back over the front of the rail-cart they were rolling along inside of. "Hey! Stop it already!" The man who dropped him inside the cart with Dash a minute ago was sprinting backwards on the railway leading away from the city. The rope he was holding before was now tied around his waist, and with both hands he was placing down planks of wood and metal tracks so fast that he looked like a blur. "Man," Ben muttered as the large Marine ignored him again, "this guy builds so fast, he could probably stand up to Franky."
Dash was sitting on his butt in the metal cart, looking at the soles of his shoes and wiping them off with his quickly vibrating hands as there was still some white gook left on them. "I can't believe I let myself get caught like that," Dash mumbled to himself in annoyance. Ben looked back and down at the kid who finally started getting up to his feet. "I'm so fast, but I wasn't paying enough attention, again!" Ben's eyes widened as he stared at his slightly younger and slightly shorter friend. He's talking about what happened with Juvia, Ben thought, and his own mouth curved down, his eyes narrowing back towards their enemy ahead of them. This track was already built leading far out of the city, he's just adding to it now. I don't remember seeing it yesterday though, so either I missed it, or this guy built this track out here as part of their plan. That's why it just ends like this out in a field somewhere. Ben looked around as he wondered why the enemy chose this area, and he nodded as it made sense considering there were none of the towns and villages surrounding Pyraxas within a five mile radius of them.
Ben spotted something as he was looking around, and a big smirk came to his face at the sight of the green on his watch. Here we go- The cart jolted to a stop and Ben flew out of it, as there was nothing holding him inside the vehicle. "Ben!" Gray shouted, cursing himself mentally for what he just did. Ben opened his eyes as he flew through the air, and he looked back towards the cart that Dash was leaning over the front of with a look of pain on his face, and that had ice all around its wheels and coating the tracks behind it.
Dojaku dropped the materials in his hands and reached up over his back, grabbing the hilt to one of the giant saw-shaped blades he had resting there. "Sorry about this young man!" The hefty Sun Marine shouted, while drawing his weapon and slashing it in front of his body right where Ben was on target to hit. Dash panicked and got over his pain to climb out of the cart he was in, but he was too slow to start running and intercept Dojaku's slash. He never needed to however, as the slash cut the air a few feet in front of Ben without ever touching the boy.
Ben had stopped moving, and he floated ten feet in front of Dojaku with a dark look in his eyes. This man just tried to kill me, the boy thought. Ben lowered himself to the floor in front of the enemy, but Dojaku was backing away from him with a very, very nervous look on his face. Dash sprinted up to Ben and stopped on his left side, then Gray came running up behind them a few seconds later. The ice mage was panting a little, but he still managed to say, "Sorry about that," to the two boys he was trying to help.
"And I am sorry as well," Dojaku said.
"I don't accept your apology," Ben growled. He froze and turned his head to his right side, "I mean, I don't accept his," he specified to Gray, in case the mage thought he meant it to both him and their enemy.
"I got what you meant," Gray said, before both turned back to Marine Captain ahead of them. "The Sun Marines," Gray growled, "I never expected that you would have anything to do with them, but your uniforms are too similar to ignore." Ben realized what Gray was saying and he focused in on the white jacket the heavyset man ahead of them was wearing. Dojaku also wondered what Gray was talking about, but before any of his enemies could continue, or he could ask, he gulped and tapped his shoes together.
Dash's eyes darted to the man's feet and he took a step back, thinking the man was about to release the same white glue that trapped him earlier. Instead however, flames shot out of Dojaku's feet and ignited the grass beneath him. The man continued to look apologetic as he lifted off the ground, and Gray had a bad feeling in his gut that the man's apology a moment ago was not for dragging them a half a mile out of the city.
"Hey! Where are you going?!" Ben shouted at the man flying high over his head. "I thought you wanted to fight!" He yelled, but Dojaku was getting too far away for him to reach with his voice anymore. Ben dropped the fist he waved after the man, and he slouched his shoulders, "Huh. That was, weird," Ben muttered, then looked left and right as if waiting for something to happen. He wouldn't just bring us all the way out here to leave, would he? No, there's a reason he picked an area where there aren't any towns. Something's wrong!
"Where does he think he's running off to?" Dash questioned in an annoyed voice.
"We should go after him," Gray said, his voice low and serious. He is running from something.
The speedster of the group of three agreed wholeheartedly. He started sprinting ahead to cut off the enemy and put Dojaku in between him and his two friends. Dash had only just started running when Gray had a very bad feeling, not just with his Haki, but with his entire being. "DASH STOP!" He was too late.
Dash snapped his head down, the other two behind him looked at the floor below Dash's feet in fear, and Dojaku flinched in the distance and he had dared a glance over his shoulder. The grass in a fifty meter radius around Dash vanished, though more precisely, the grass died, wilted, and became black within a single second. The black grass could not withstand its old shape and disintegrated, covering the field around the boy in ash as he skid forward, his eyes pointed at the floor beneath him. "What the-" the boy began, before screaming in agony as the ground opened up beneath him, and thick white strands of something that oozed darkness shot out of the floor and up his legs. MOVE! Dash vibrated his legs faster than he ever imagined he could, and he sprinted straight through whatever was wrapping up his legs. He sprinted out of the dark patch of ground and to the southern side of it, and Ben and Gray started running towards him from the west side where they had been standing.
Dash escaped the dark area and then dropped to the ground and rolled away at a hundred miles per hour. When he came to a stop, he flipped himself onto his back and sat up, looking down at his legs that were still screaming in pain. He was panting hard, and his eyes grew huge at the sight of the bare skin on his knees, shins, and ankles where his blue super suit should have been protecting. It was not just the super suit that dissolved though, and Dash hissed in pain as smoke seared off of his skin. Patches of his leg were red and bleeding, he could smell his own flesh, and he smelled disgusting. The boy watched as a piece of his skin fell right off of his knee, and he almost gagged at the sight of it, dark, and bumpy, and rotted. The rotten flesh fell to the ground below his leg and sizzled into nothing in the grass.
"Dash! What happened?" Ben bent down next to his friend and looked at the damage to Dash's legs. "Can you stand?"
"It hurts," Dash whispered, but he sniffled and pushed his hands down on the floor at his sides. "But yeah," he said, "I have to."
The little boy staggered up to his feet and winced in pain putting all his weight on his wounded legs. Ben turned from his younger friend and looked the same way that Dash and Gray were already looking. All three of them faced the black circular area where there used to be grass, and they backed away as the dark circle continued to expand out towards them. They kept backing away even when their eyes left the edge of the circle, when they heard the voice coming from the center of it. The voice started out quiet, laughter that could almost be mistaken for wind, "Eeehahahaha…" A gust of wind rushed through the field at that moment and the three boys facing the dark circle shivered, though they did so not because of the breeze.
Black smoke had started rising from the dark patch in the grass. It seeped out of the ground while the floor where Dash was tripped up before started to bubble. The ground became less black and turned white and bubbly, a disgusting mixture seeping out of the floor and rising up more every second. "What, the Hell, is this?" Gray whispered, then wished he had not as he was supposed to be the most composed one there, keeping it together for the sake of the younger boys. His sounding like he had no idea what was happening only unnerved the other two even more, but he could not help it, this was seriously freaking him out.
"Komei you bastard," a voice hissed through the thick black smoke, and a silhouette became visible inside of it. "You said you were sending me some humans to kill, but you didn't tell me they were children!" The shadow in the smoke moved forward and stepped out of the darkness onto the black ground past the smoke. The smoke continued to billow higher and grow thicker while the man stepped towards them, a middle-aged man with cropped red hair around his head, a white button down shirt on, and who wore casual black pants and shoes. Despite what he said, the figure in front of them's tone and the smile on his face when he came out of the smoke made it seem like he actually preferred it that Komei sent them children instead of adults, and the three standing in front of the man gulped.
"Who, are you?" Gray called out. He rose his fist to look menacing, and Ben reminded himself that his watch was still in the green so he should not be panicking this much.
The redhead in front of them started laughing. His laughter was a low chuckle at first, then a cackle, then it became hysteria as he snapped his mouth wide open to reveal all the teeth inside it were sharpening. The boys in front of the man had seen this happen before, specifically with a half-demon friend of theirs who they thought about for a moment at the sight of this man's face. Dash took a step back and his face flushed with fear as the smoke behind the figure cleared a little. "Oh my God," the kid whispered, his voice cracking as he did. Ben and Gray could see it too, but neither of them could speak at the sight of the giant mass of white sticking out of the ground behind the demon before them. It kept getting bigger and bigger, already fifty feet tall and still getting taller, and wider all the time.
Astaroth smirked menacingly with lips that curled so far apart no that no human could do such a thing. "The Impure King," Astaroth said while his opponents looked over his head and towards the top of the white blob behind him. It was still emerging from the portal in the ground, but its head was all the way out now, and Gray, Dash, and Ben stared at the terrifying eyes of the monster the likes of which they had never seen before. The black smoke that rose with Astaroth all vanished, but there was still a cloud of gas surrounding the Impure King, and Astaroth said while the young people before him gawked at it, "Its miasma will spread and rot you from the inside out!" The cloud of gray specks coming off of the monster started to expand, and the little particles were being taken by the wind and spread around the field like a disease.
All the grass within a mile radius started to wilt, and Gray felt the urge to start coughing into his arm. He resisted at first, then heard the coughing on his left side from both others with him and he knew what was happening. "Cover your mouths!" Gray shouted, while pulling off the suit jacket he still had on and covering his mouth and nose with it. He took a deep breath into the fabric, then tossed the jacket to his side at one of the boys, before ripping off his button-down next, and using the shirt to cover his own mouth. Ben caught the jacket and tore it in half with one hard tug, handing one half to Dash while still coughing, then waving around the piece of fabric he still had in his hand to clear the air in front of him so he could take a deep breath. The boy tied the cloth around the bottom of his face after taking the breath, then stared back towards their red haired opponent who watched them with a murderous look in his eyes, and a hungry smirk plastered across his face.
"What, are you?" Ben said, changing the wording of Gray's question from a minute ago.
"Heehahaha! EEEHAHAHA! HOW WERE YOUR NIGHTMARES?!" Astaroth screamed, before slamming his arms out to the sides and making the ground on both sides of him explode with flames. The orange fire shot in lines across the blackened earth right past Gray and past Dash on Ben's other side, before the flames curled in behind them and trapped them between fire and their enemy. What he shouted about their nightmares had them terrified, the flames made them sweat even worse, but it was the transformation the demon underwent in the following seconds that made each of the boys in front of him feel fear worse than anything they had ever felt before. "I AM ASTAROTH! THE DEMON KING OF ROT! AND YOU WILL ALL DIE HERE!"
A Demon King?! Gray thought in sheer terror. Don't panic! Hold it together! He could hear Dash's whimpers and as much as Ben tried, the kid could not help but let out a yelp as the fire around them doubled in size and the air darkened to a deep shade of black. Holy shit! We're all going to die!
"SATAN…" Gray, Dash, and Ben slowly rose their heads from the eight foot tall monstrous demon covered in red bumpy skin that had twisting goat horns coming out of its head and an enormous monster at its back. The demon itself looked up in the air above them and was just as shocked as the other three, his jaw dropping just as far, as the figure engulfed in blue flames fell towards them and screamed, "SLASH!" The man falling through the air slashed his sword down, and a slash of blue fire so huge that it filled the sky over the gap between orange flames fell upon the Demon King of Rot and his pet. The figure inside the aura of blue flames dropped down between Gray, Ben, and Dash, and the screaming demon who was hit by the blue fire.
"ASTAROTH!" Okumura Rin shouted at the blue flames in front of him and the monster inside them. "WHERE IS MY BROTHER!"
"Rin?" Ben asked, as the orange flames on either side of him died down to nothing in the dirt.
Rin turned his head to the side, then looked back forward furiously towards the demon inside his attack. He blinked a few times, then spun around again and gawked at the three people behind him the same way they did when he dropped from the sky. "Ben?! Dash?! Gray?!" The three boys who thought Rin just made some crazy heroic entrance sweatdropped, as apparently, he had no idea they were in danger in the first place. "What are you doing here?!"
"DYING!" A voice shouted behind Rin, and the half-demon spun back around in shock and stared at the blue flames as they blew away. "Rin!" Astaroth bellowed, his voice more terrifying than ever to the people behind the half-demon Astaroth was addressing. "Father will be so pleased to hear I found you! Now move out of my way and let me kill those humans behind you. Then, let us be off to Hell!" Behind Astaroth, Rin saw a creature he recognized growing larger and a bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face.
The Impure King, did Astaroth summon it here? The miasma in the air is so thick! "I'm not moving," Rin growled at the Demon King, "and you're going to tell me where Yukio is!"
Astaroth's smirk wiped off his face and the demon snarled in the most monstrous way possible. "I am going to melt the flesh off your bones! Then maybe you'll be a little more cooperative!"
Rin got some more sweat on his face as he held up his sword towards his enemy. Last time I could not even defeat the Impure King on my own. To fight it, and a Demon King, at the same time! It's imposs- A figure walked up on Rin's left side, and Rin turned his head partially to see a thirteen year old boy standing there with his left wrist raised in front of him. He had half of a suit jacket tied around the bottom half of his face, but Rin could still see Ben's eyes as the kid turned to look at him and gave him a reassuring nod. That's right, I'm not on my own, Rin realized, and turned back to Astaroth, though through the corners of his eyes he saw two more figures walk up to his sides, to the frustration of the demon before them. I don't know where you guys came from, but I'm seriously glad you're here right now. Alone, I don't know if I could beat him, but together… Rin's sword ignited brightly with blue flames and burned out the miasma surrounding him and his friends, clearing the air to give them a perfect view of their enemies. I know we can win!
First Royal Battalion Barracks, Pyraxas
On the northern side of the Upper Residential Area of Pyraxas, five thousand soldiers inside a military base were putting on armor and gathering up their weapons and ammo. Surveillance rooms were full of soldiers receiving briefing reports on the enemies who had entered the city and on their various abilities. Komei's new reports on the more unknown invaders before this morning were revealing the other fighters' capabilities, and new reports were coming in every minute.
"Did you hear? Captain Grount got taken down!"
"All-Hunt Grount defeated before we even got there? We gotta get in there fast!"
"We're just waiting on the order!"
Inside the Command room of the barracks, two officers of the Fire Nation army were standing on the opposite side of a desk as their commander, and the Princess of the Fire Nation. "What are we waiting for Princess?" One of the two asked, an older man with a thick goatee and long ponytail falling behind his head.
Azula glared at him, then the younger man closer to her age who tensed up more at her glare, especially with how disheveled she appeared to be at the moment. Her hair was a mess, for as much as she tried to fix it to look good, its varying length on different parts of her head, and how short it was at some parts to make it look like she was balding, were impossible to fix. She had considered cutting it all off several times that morning while her men were preparing themselves, and as she glared at the figures in front of her, a few strands fell in front of her face and she blew a quick breath up to push the hair away. They fell back down over her eyes and in fury she reached up and ripped the strands right out, letting out a sharp yell of pain as she did, and unnerving both officers in front of her.
The door on the other side of the Command room opened, surprising the three figures inside and making Azula growl as she wondered who would barge right in without knocking. The sight of who entered made Azula grin however, while the two men on the other side of the desk gave the green-haired man a bow. "Commander," the dark haired man with a ponytail greeted. "I had been told you were still missing after your defeat in the south."
Yonji was not intending on being reminded of that failure as soon as he arrived. He had other things on his mind, but the aching pains in his gut, and the bruises on his face, suddenly jolted him with more pain than a few seconds ago. He turned to the officer who stayed looking serious despite Yonji's angry scowl, "I-" Yonji only made out a single word, before the older officer in front of him opened his mouth to scream, but could never make a sound as his body charred to a crisp. Yonji and the other officer next to that man looked at him in shock as his skin blackened, and as he collapsed to the floor they turned to the other side of the desk and the disheveled woman standing behind it with two sparking fingers held out in front of her.
"P-Princess!" The younger officer shouted, spinning around and reaching down to his belt where he had a sidearm resting. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"He insulted my dear husband straight to his face, do you think I could let that slide?" Azula questioned, while a broad grin spread across her face.
The man wondered what she was smiling so much about, when suddenly there were two hands on the sides of his head. "No wai-" he started to scream, before Yonji snapped to the side and broke the officer's neck.
"Putting your hand on your holster, how dare you threaten your Princess?" Yonji asked, before smirking and looking up at the woman behind the desk. He lost his grin after a second and questioned, "What happened to your-"
"Don't you fucking dare," Azula snarled, and Yonji froze with his mouth open, before shrugging and closing it, deciding if she was sore on the subject of her current appearance he better not press it. She took a deep breath to calm herself, as her fingers had started sparking again in rage. Then, Azula looked into her husband's eyes and said, "Put on your Raid Suit. You don't want to be caught off guard this time," she commanded.
Yonji looked at the floor in front of him and the bodies on it. Then he looked back up at the woman behind the desk and said, "We may have acted a bit rashly. This will not look good-"
"I don't care how it looks!" Azula shouted. She looked enraged for a second, but then smirked menacingly and lightning sparked violently from her fingers. "My great-grandfather can rot in Hell for all I care," she continued, and Yonji's eyes grew wide at what she was saying. What happened to her? She's acting crazy, well, crazier than usual. Azula chuckled, then laughed louder and looked Yonji in his wide eyes, "This is the plan…"
A/N The fight for Pyraxas has begun! Thanks for reading! I originally planned for this chapter to have several more parts to it, but when I finished the second to last scene I checked how many words it was and saw I was already at over twenty three thousand, so I decided to cut it with one last scene. I hope you enjoyed Komei's mental battle against Gray's team as the two groups try to outmaneuver each other (Komei with long names for each of his maneuvers), and though Gray's team managed to evade prying eyes underground and made it to the walls to the next section of the city, they were unable to all make it through together, with Ben and Dash getting dragged out of the city on a rail-cart and Gray sent after them to split him and Kirito up as was Komei's plan. Astaroth emerges out of the ground with the Impure King at his back, but Rin shows up demanding to know where his brother is, shocking the others who have no idea where he came from. Finally the two teams who invaded the city are starting to bump into each other, but how long will it be before the others realize their two groups have the same objective? Five thousand "elite" troops are preparing to enter the battle, but the Princess supposed to be leading them has plans of her own. What is Azula planning? Or is she just insane? Lots of questions, lots of battles, a lot of enemies yet to be seen by our heroes. How will they handle them? Find out next time on Nexus!
-Hey guys, so one more thing, less about the story and more about the update speed. I know it's been going pretty fast the last couple of chapters, but I'm going to have to slow down for a little. I spent all day yesterday writing this chapter, even when alarms were going off on my phone telling me to do the work I've been putting off for a while. I am studying abroad in the spring (in Tokyo) and I'm trying to apply for a few scholarships to lessen the burden on my wallet, but I need to write essays and find out some financial stuff for those scholarships. So for the next week or so whenever I have free time, I'm going to try and focus on that and schoolwork. On a better note, I have chapters 11.1-12.3 complete, so when I do start updating again, or at least after the next half dozen chapters, I'm going to do an update a day type of thing again. Once again, hope you all enjoyed! Time for a quick list:
One Piece: Komei, Grount, Bonham, Zappa, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Franky, Usopp, Sanji, Yonji, Kansho, Dojaku
Avatar the Last Airbender: Azula, Sozin, Zhao, Bujing, Fire Nation
Blue Exorcist: Kuro, Rin, Yukio, Mephisto, Amaimon, Astaroth, Impure King, Satan
SAO: Kirito
Fairy Tail: Natsu, Gray, Juvia
DC Comics: Ra's al Ghul, Big Belly Burger
Star Wars: Darth Bane
Ben 10: Ben, Omnitrix
The Incredibles: Dash
Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi, Riku
Devil as a Part Timer: Maou Sadao
South Park: Damien
Hunter x Hunter: Killua
Darugus chapter 62 . Aug 24
These past two chapters were good not much I want to say just looking forward for the next one
Glad you liked them! Thanks for the review!
Espada-001 chapter 62 . Aug 25
Well I'm a tad late with a review for the past few episodes. Starting off the whole battle royal was pretty awesome and all the fights were pretty good however I'm still feeling bad for Kuwabara. I'm curious as to why Jiriya used his trump to kill one lord when he could have instead saved it to reverse summon the prisoners to the toad mountains (If there still in the mountains anyway). Also looks like Black Star won't be getting the payback he wanted now that Magneto is dead, and a bit disappointing to see Jiriya go so soon. Also I have a few questions about Phoenix, why was she following Magneto even though she's clearly stronger and this seems to be her in one of her more stabilized versions. Also why would Dadoria's group immediately be able to take Maka as their slave, wouldn't they still have buy her from Phoenix or does everything just become a free for all once a lord dies? Anyway I meant to ask this first but why are Robin and Nami's Nobodies actually interested in slaves when both of them would have memories of despising the idea of slavery? Along with Ussop's Nobody are the like the clone of squad 2's Lieutenant in that bleach filler season and hate their original selves? (Sorry if you don't get the reference that was a bad explanation.) Anyway moving on it was nice to be able to see some more of Nagisa even if it was only one chapter, however I won't even be able to think that he's dead till I see a body especially since he was trained by one of the three greatest assassins that I've seen in fiction. It was nice to see some of the Amazonians again and pretty messed up that Luffy never actually got to catch up with his old allies. I'm also glad to see that Zoro is finally on his way to reuniting his captain and from what you've shown of him he's defiantly gotten a lot stronger. Also something I noticed is that you never gave a color rank for the High Lords, was that intentional or did you forget? And moving on to #17 is he going to have his family because around the point that he was brought to Nexus he should have been married? And although I love Luffy and I know that Riku is powerful even if they meet up with Gray's group there's, actually no way they'd be able to take down a force that's larger than Metropolis with less than 2 dozen people. Heck both Gray and Kirito are still technically crippled since Gray is missing his arm decreasing his spell casting and Kirito lost his wings decreasing his speed considerably. I know that this review is starting to get long so I've only got one more thing to talk about, and that's seeing X Shanks's crew and discovering that they've split from the Organization. It'll be awesome to see them working together later on and their ships tag teaming is pretty much equal to an armada, (lol) so I'd love to see somebody try to cross that. Also since X Shanks was created while Shanks was weekend due to being ill does that mean that he was created weaker than the original or does that not apply when a new Nobody is created? (I genuinely don't know.) And hearing X Shanks sounding wary of a High Lord makes me curious as to just how powerful they actually are but I guess we'll be finding out soon. Well I know that this review is one of my longer ones however I also know that I'm forgetting to mention something but this is enough for now. So like always thanks for the great chapter(s) and I look forward to the next update, HAVE A GOODNIGHT!
;( Sad times for Kuwabara. This is a big review, but I'll try to get to all the points. Glad you liked the Battle Royale. As for why Jiraiya used his trump on Magneto, he said that his mission before getting captured in the first place was to take out Magneto since that toad mouth thing would work best on him. Also, I'd say he couldn't summon everyone there to a place that exists inside a different universe thanks to the barrier, or just jutsu constraints, doubt he had enough chakra for something like that. Black Star won't get his revenge on Magneto, but it does not look like Maka is safe yet just because her owner was killed. Just like in X-Men 3, Phoenix followed Magneto for some reason even though she was the strongest mutant, so I just went with that. As for Manix and Bronxi, even though they have Nami and Robin's memories, they don't have hearts (or at least that's how they describe it in Kingdom Hearts 368/2 and 2, that they have memories of feelings, but not the actual feelings themselves). Anyway, many of the characters who were turned into Nobodies were not that evil to start with (like Lea's friend Isa, or even Lea himself since Axel acted pretty evil sometimes in the Kingdom Hearts games), but after losing their hearts and becoming just husks, became a lot darker. Like that you recognized Nagisa, and who knows what happened to him? I'm sure you'll find out later ;). The High Lords not having a color ranking was not intentional, it just seemed strange to me to designate a single color for all of them since every High Lord has different powers/abilities as others, and many of them are probably leagues ahead of others, like Satan for example. I started writing this long before Dragon Ball Super came out, let alone they made Android 17 a character and a likable one at that. I may have to change a few things with his character later on, but you'll learn about him when he finally shows up. I get what you're saying with their group of less than 2 dozen not being able to take down a force bigger than Metropolis', but the force they're up against isn't actually bigger than Metropolis', especially with many of the armies being scattered throughout the Fire Nation's lands and out on invasions in the south. There are still thousands of enemies for them to face, but Luffy's taken down 50,000 enemies without moving a muscle before, and Riku could command an entire army of Heartless if he so chose. That's not to say they have it easy, because not all of their enemies are grunts who can be taken down by Conqueror's Haki or Heartless Shadows. Would not say that Kirito and Gray are considerably weaker after their last fights, as if anything the battles would have given them more experience, though you are right that they will need to change up their fighting styles a little bit, Gray more than Kirito considering his Ice Make magic usually started with him punching a fist into an open palm (though we saw a new way of how he did it this chapter). And finally, Shanks and X Shanks. Glad to hear you're excited about the new X Crew, but no comment on how strong X Shanks is. If you watch the final battle between Sora, Riku, and Xemnas at the end of a Kingdom Hearts 2 play-through on Youtube, you'll see why it is even someone like Shanks would be wary of such a monster. That sure was a long review, but I'm glad you posted it and I hope most of what you asked I answered (as well as I could without spoiling)! Thanks again for reviewing!
Joebob323 chapter 62 . Aug 25
Yeet! I loved this chapter, and how your having the 2 groups rendez vous in the city where their enemy resides!
Yeet! Haha, it's weird, but I only heard this word this summer when some of my campers at the camp I work at as a counselor started saying it. Thanks for the review, happy you liked the chapters, and the groups are already starting to meet up with Rin's dropping in on Gray, Ben, and Dash! Hope you're ready for some more reunions in the next chapters! Thanks again to everyone for reviewing, following, favoriting, or just reading this story! Well, 'till next time!