Nexus HWR 13.3 Sabatoge:
"How much farther south is this place?" Natsu groaned as he was too bored to find anything productive to do. He slouched inside the cockpit of their vehicle and moaned even louder as Gray told him it would be a few more days.
"This is ridiculous," Natsu muttered. He turned and walked out of the cockpit, It has to be this big to keep us safe he says. If we went any faster we would draw too much attention he says. Doesn't he get that we're too badass to need to be worried?
Natsu walked down a hall of the huge vehicle and two boys running the other direction as him moved to the sides to go around the mage. The twelve and fourteen year olds were in the middle of a conversation and barely paid Natsu any mind as they ran by. Natsu turned and watched as Ben and Stan ran towards the cockpit but turned into a room right before it instead. As he looked back at them, the truck hit a bump and Natsu felt his stomach turn. Ugh, the new pills are wearing off already. He shook off the nausea and thought about something else to distract from it.
Natsu looked ahead again and kept walking through the tank. He turned left and looked through an open door to see Franky kneeling down with his face behind a mask and a blowtorch in his hands. Usopp was behind the cyborg, sitting at a table with a pen, paper, and a protractor looking like he was drawing out designs.
He passed them and kept going towards the end of the hall where there was a staircase down to the floor below. He could not feel the rumbling of the vehicle treading across the Southern Wastes of Aebrith. To him, it felt more like he was in a building than anything, and only the windows he passed on occasion made it clear that they were still moving, as slow as it was.
Natsu reached the end of the hall and walked down the steps to the floor below. He smelled great scents coming from the end of this floor, but he knew Sanji would not want to be disturbed at the moment, and he did not want to risk pissing off the man making his food. Natsu kept descending and he went to the lowest floor of the giant truck, which was still over fifty feet off the ground thanks to its giant wheels.
He exited the stairwell and walked down the hall where he could feel the shaking a little more being so close to the wheels, making him grimace as his stomach rumbled again. Ignoring his growing motion sickness, Natsu looked into each open room and saw other members of their group sitting around or trying to pass the time in various ways. There was one door he saw that was closed and he wanted to take a peak into it. When he got close to it though, he stopped and his eyes went wide.
Natsu backed away from the door and he turned away fast. He sped-walked away from the door and pretended like he had no idea what was going on inside. Act like you didn't hear a thing.
Inside the room, Nami sat on her bed leaning back with huge eyes. Robin stood near the door leaning back against the wall, and the third girl in the room was spinning back and forth between the two of them as she yelled. "Robin-san left Juvia too!" Juvia yelled at the woman next to the door. "Robin and Nami said we would travel together longer, but then you left me!" She used the pronoun 'me' that had both of the older women glancing at each other questioningly.
"Juvia, are you alright?" Robin asked the girl.
"NO!" Juvia screamed, and she took a step towards Robin angrily and made the woman with darker hair ease back against the wall. Robin tried to stay calm and understanding, but she did feel a bit nervous from what Nami told her happened in Pyraxas. "Juvia is- I am not alright!" She corrected herself. She was angry, angrier than the other two ever remembered seeing her. Normally Juvia would get sad; in the hardest of times she would get depressed, or angry in a way that did not seem so hateful because it was mainly from jealousy over Gray.
"We're here for you," Nami began to the girl.
Juvia spun towards Nami though and she yelled, "No you aren't! You weren't," Juvia added, and she clenched her eyes closed as her eyes started to water up. Nami got out of her seat and Juvia yelled, "Go away!" Nami did not listen though, and she walked closer while Robin moved away from the wall. Robin gazed at her best friend carefully as Juvia was acting sporadically.
"Juvia," Nami whispered, and she put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I'm," Nami gulped and Juvia opened her eyes to see Nami's eyes wetter than her own, and tears started to seep out of the orange haired woman's eyes. "I'm so, so, so sorry," Nami whispered. She clenched Juvia's shoulder tight, and when Juvia's eyes opened wide, Nami caught the younger girl off guard by reaching her other hand forward and pulling Juvia into a tight hug.
When the two saw each other back at the Resistance base, it was awkward between them as Juvia tried avoiding her. They were in the same room again though, and what Nami did when they were in the Fire Lord's palace came to her mind. Nami sobbed and said, "I didn't mean- you aren't a monster Juvia. I'm sorry for the way I looked at… I just," Nami shook her head and she hugged Juvia tighter. "I'm sorry."
Robin walked closer as well and she bowed her own head a little. "I also apologize," Robin started softly. "We should not have split up."
"Yeah," Juvia said, looking away and rubbing her eyes with her right arm. She pushed Nami back with her other and then glared into Robin's eyes, "You shouldn't have left. Juvia needed you. Juvia needed her friends."
Nami clenched her teeth tighter in regret and looked away, but Robin kept looking the younger woman in the eyes. Juvia stepped towards her and asked, "Do you know what happened to me?" She was switching back and forth between the first and third person but her friends understood her anyway. Robin nodded her head after a few seconds and Juvia's eyes watered up more. "Juvia, died," she said, though it was hard to say the words as she got choked up.
"You're okay now though," Nami said. She spun the blue haired girl around and looked her in the eyes. "And we aren't leaving again. I promise you. Whatever happens, we'll convince Luffy and Gray to stay together. They'll-"
"I don't care anymore," Juvia said, but her tears did not stop coming down. "Nami-san and Robin-san can do what they want. I do not, I don't," Juvia shook her head and her heart was hurting so much. "I don't care anymore," Juvia said, and she stumbled back and fell so she was sitting on the edge of the bed Nami was on a minute ago. She lifted her hands to her face and put them in front of her eyes. "Juvia, has not been with Gray since, since I came back," she whispered.
Nami scratched the back of her neck as that was a little personal, but the way Juvia said it also made her confused and she walked towards her friend. She sat down next to Juvia as Robin walked in front of her, and Nami questioned, "Why?"
Juvia shook her head with her face still in her hands. "I can't," she began, her voice sounding so pained, so agonized, so tortured.
"It is okay Juvia," Robin began. The younger girl lifted her head a little and Robin gave her a soft, reassuring smile. "Whatever you tell us, is solely between us girls. Please, tell us what is troubling you."
"We just want to help," Nami assured.
Juvia shook her head some more and she clenched her eyes shut. "I don't, want to talk about it," she said, though as she said it the others knew it was all that was on her mind. The fact that she brought it up in the first place said differently, and Nami and Robin pressed the question. Juvia gulped, for the first time seeming nervous since the other two saw her. Angry, upset Juvia, that was the new norm, but nervous?
"Juvia has a secret," she whispered, and a tear came out of her left eye and rolled down her face. "When Juvia died," she started, and she turned her head to her left and stared Nami right in the eyes. "I was… I knew I was…" She got choked up and stopped again to sniffle. "For weeks, Juvia had known, but, she wanted to be absolutely, one hundred percent, sure, and she was afraid of how to tell Gray-sama." Juvia clenched her teeth and her face scrunched up. Her eyes blinked hard and tears were pushed out as her friends stared at her with widening eyes. "I," she continued, gasping for breath and hardly able to say it out loud, as she never had before. "I was, I- Juvia was, I," she shook her head and finally whispered in a hoarse voice under her breath, "I was pregnant."
Nami gasped and leaned away from the girl who could not stop the tears from flowing freely now. Robin thought she would have something to say to the girl, but that was something she did not expect to hear. Juvia cried softly and the girl continued whispering quickly, "I didn't want to tell Gray-sama because I knew he would want me to go somewhere safe, but, but that would have been better. When Juvia, came back," she shook her head and whispered, "Gray-sama's baby was no longer…" her lips started quivering and she couldn't stop more tears from coming out of her eyes.
The girl sitting next to her on the bed did not know what to say. She had nothing she could think of, so she did what felt natural and wrapped both arms around Juvia's side. She pulled the girl's head into her shoulder and Juvia cried there for over a minute uninterrupted. Finally, Nami thought she knew what to say and she started, "It's alright. It's going to be okay-"
"No it's not!" Juvia snapped, pushing away from the hug hard and jumping up to her feet. Nami's eyes widened as that was apparently not the right thing to say as Juvia was glaring daggers into her now.
"It will be okay," Robin said, making Juvia turn angrily to her now. Robin did not back off though, standing only a foot in front of the younger girl. She continued, "Even if Gray-san was to know, he would not blame you."
"You don't know that!" Juvia exclaimed, not using Robin's name which she realized was maybe the first time that happened in the years they knew each other. Juvia seemed to notice it too though and the blue haired girl stumbled backwards. She bumped into the bed and did a three-sixty to make sure she did not touch Nami or anything. She backed towards the wall and Nami got up to look at her nervously. "Juvia, Juvia," the girl kept saying her name because she knew it was what she was supposed to do, but she was going through the motions, nothing more. "I don't know, what happened to me," she said, her voice sounding horrified as she backed into the wall. She held out her arms to make sure the older women kept their distance and she said sternly, "You two should stay away from me though."
"Juvia, stop," Nami started.
She stepped towards the girl but Juvia swung an arm at her and yelled, "I said stay back!" Water slashed across the air and Nami jumped back to dodge to whip of water. The water kept going and hit the wall on Juvia's left, and the Rain Woman herself looked over to see it cut through the steel an inch or two. Juvia's mouth opened and she shook her head in self-loathing. "Get away," she whispered.
Robin walked towards Juvia while Nami held back for a moment. "Juvia," Robin started. She got close to the girl who closed her eyes tight. "Whatever you believe is wrong with you, you're wrong." Juvia's eyes snapped open wide and Robin's face was only inches away from her own. "You are a sweet, beautiful girl, and my friend," Robin said. "Nami's too. We aren't going to just leave you alone, so you can stop trying to make us."
Juvia's eyes welled up and Robin smiled at the girl's face that turned red in the cheeks. "Now," Robin continued, "tell us, what else is bothering you?"
Nami looked confused, but Robin could see there was more Juvia had not told them yet. The way Juvia was acting, it was not the way someone without secrets acts. She would know. Juvia nodded her head at Robin, and her back slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. Robin sat right down in front of her, cross-legged, and Nami walked over as well to sit next to Robin. Juvia sat in front and between them, and the girl with blue hair started, "I do not want to be with Gray anymore," she said, a sentence that shocked her friends as he was all she talked about their entire times together early on in Nexus, and then after they met up too.
"Why not?" Nami asked. "Is it, because of the, um…"
"Bloodlust," Juvia whispered. She nodded her head but continued while looking down, "I did not mean it in that way though. I mean, I don't want to lay with Gray anymore." Nami recalled what Juvia said about not being with him since she came back and she and Robin both nodded at Juvia to continue. Juvia lifted back up her head and she whispered, "If, if I have a child, I feel like- I know, it's not going to be okay."
"How?" Nami wondered.
"I just know," Juvia said, not able to explain it herself. "Juvia's unborn child died, before she went into the Lazarus Pit. I think, I think now, now that I'm the way that I am," she said it in such a self-hating voice that her friends felt pain themselves. "My child will be, evil."
"That's silly," Nami assured her. "No child is born evil."
"I agree," Robin said. "Children can grow up however you raise them to be."
"But, but Juvia needs to kill people," Juvia whispered. Her friends said nothing to that and Juvia looked them each in the eyes, "You don't think, that maybe, Juvia's offspring may also have that problem?" Nami wanted to tell the girl no, but Robin was not saying a word and when Nami looked at her, Robin only frowned as she mulled it over. "It is in my body after all," Juvia whispered. "The Pit brought me back to life, but, I'm not the same anymore."
"You are to us," Nami said, and she gave the girl a smile to try and show it.
"I know Nami-san," Juvia replied to her. "But listen to me, look at me," Juvia looked into Nami's eyes and the older woman stared straight back. She looked deep into Juvia's eyes and Nami's face started to sweat. She stared into the dark eyes, deep into them and she saw… nothing. "I feel empty," the blue-haired girl said. "Juvia knows- I know, that if I have a child, something will be wrong with it."
Juvia lifted up her right arm and put it in front of her eyes to stop the next round of tears that were coming. "All Juvia wanted," she started in a choked-up voice. "All she ever wanted, was to have a family with Gray-sama. She wanted him to be happy," as Juvia talked about herself, her friends realized she was not talking in the third person because it felt natural, but more like she was talking about Juvia as an entirely different person, as if this was in the past tense. "I can't give him, a family anymore," Juvia gasped out. "I can't, be with him anymore. I don't know what to do anymore. If I can't be with Gray-sama, if I can't be with the man I love," she bowed her head and whispered, "I might as well be-"
"No!" Nami yelled.
Juvia's head stayed bowed but Nami reached forward and grabbed her friend's chin, lifting her head up forcefully. Looking up at Nami she saw more determined looks on Nami and Robin's faces than she had ever seen before. "Don't talk like that," Nami said, and Juvia's eyes widened at the water in Nami's eyes that spilled over as well, and even more shocking was the tear dripping out of Robin's left eye and rolling down her face.
"You should never think like that," Robin said, in a loving, but scolding tone. "Don't ever say something like that again," Robin said. The woman with long black hair reached forward as well but she used her hand to wipe a tear from Juvia's right cheek. "We will help you."
"You can't," Juvia started in a whisper.
"How do you know that?" Nami snapped. Juvia spun to her in surprise and Nami held her hands up at her sides, "Are you an expert on coming back from the dead?" Juvia shook her head and Nami continued, "How about the Lazarus Pit?" Juvia shook again and Nami sighed, "Then don't say that you can't be with Gray anymore, because you don't know that for sure."
Juvia shook her head a few more times and she wiped her face. She knew Nami and Robin were only trying to make her feel better, and she whispered, "Thank you, but-"
"Nami is serious," Robin said, and Juvia looked back forward to see both of her friends looking at her determinedly. They were not lying or just saying things to make her feel better. They were speaking from their hearts. The archaeologist continued, "There are survivors of this League of Assassins. I am sure some of them must know about the Pit and its side effects."
"And even if we can't find them," Nami continued, "there's Sora, and Goku, and Timmy, we haven't talked to any of them about this yet. Don't you think we should ask some of the strongest people we know if they can help you before we jump to any conclusions?"
Juvia's eyes widened the more her friends spoke. Every time they said something her heart sped up a little bit more. Robin added that Sora's Esuna magic was meant to heal status effects, and it had healed insanity before which could be related to what Juvia felt she was going through. Nami added that if it was inside her body, then medicine could also work and there are doctors all over the world who could help her.
"You really think," Juvia began, "there could be a way, to fix Juvia?"
"Not that we think there's anything wrong with you," Nami reminded, "but yes. If you want to get rid of this bloodlust, we'll do everything we can to help you."
"And we will succeed," Robin assured. "That's all there is to it. We don't need to tell the boys if you don't want to, but I know every one of them would say the same thing. And that is including Gray-san."
The Fairy Tail mage with the ability to control water started tearing up again but it was for a different reason than before. Juvia rubbed her eyes but she could not hold in her sobs any longer. They had been building up for weeks, ever since she came back and felt that a piece of her was missing. She hid it well when she was with her friends, but it made her so angry that no one knew what she was going through. And now that she let it all out, she was given the one thing she never expected to find again. She was given hope.
"Nami-sannn! Robin-sannn!" Juvia yelled. She leaned forward and dove on the women in front of her. They each wrapped their arms around the girl in between them and Juvia sobbed loudly on them. "I'm so happy," she said, because Juvia truly believed in her friends enough to trust what they were telling her. "Juvia can be saved. Juvia, Juvia loves you!"
"We love you too Juvia," Nami said. She held the girl tighter while staring at the wall behind her. Now we just need to find a way to save you.
Ca-CHUNK! BRRrrrr… A loud thud shook the entire vehicle and the three girls wrapped in a hug fell on the floor. They listened to the sounds of the wheels slowing down and the engines getting quieter to a dull roar and then cut off completely.
"What was that?" Nami asked, pulling herself back up to her feet. She reached down and Juvia looked at her hand, before smiling and wiping her eyes with one arm and grabbing Nami's hand with the other. The three women got up and headed for the door, stepping out and seeing a lot of others gathering in the hall as well. Natsu looked down the hall at the women for a second but looked away when Robin glanced in his direction. He turned away and Robin realized something, wiping the left side of her face and disposing of the tear still on it. Nami and Juvia's faces were more obvious, and as Luffy came out of a room he looked over in surprise and opened his mouth to ask something.
Before Luffy could ask a question that would make everything very awkward, a voice sounded over the loudspeakers of the vehicle. "Something's wrong," Gray said, his voice filling up the entire vehicle. "One of the tires popped. We have extras, but we'll have to go down to replace it…" He hesitated for a moment and the other could hear the reluctance in his voice to continue. Gray finally kept going, "Those tires are meant to be able to drive over steel spikes, be careful out there." He did not say anything else and the speakers cut off, but everyone felt a little more on guard after hearing that last part.
"What do you think happened?" Natsu muttered as he walked forwards. There was a steel door at the end of the hall with a red wheel on it and the word 'EXIT' above on the wall. The staircase was next to it and the other boys of the Straw Hat crew came down it with nervous and anxious expressions. Sanji was already smoking a cigarette, and when Usopp came out of the stairwell, two boys came down behind him followed by Gray.
Robin hummed at Natsu's question and she scratched her chin. The south beyond the Great Wall is supposedly full of monsters. We were told this vehicle would not be stopped by them though. Are there people out there? If so, to have stopped our vehicle they are likely our enemies. Hopefully, it was only a mechanical failure that caused the break down.
Gray walked between his friends to the steel door and twisted the wheel on it. They heard loud clanks with every turn of the wheel and the group prepared themselves. None of them lifted weapons or powered up, but they all had expressions that showed they would not be surprised if they had to get battle-ready in an instant. Ben glanced fearfully around at all his comrades and the boy calmed down a bit. Even Luffy looks prepared for the worst. This is good. Back when Nox attacked, no one looked this ready. They've finally accepted that Aebrith is not a place we can just casually stroll through. The kid got a small grin on his face as a strong feeling of relief washed over him.
That relief was quashed when the door opened and Ben's intense look returned. Gray tossed down a rope ladder that was rolled up under a small platform at the edge of the door, but then the ice mage just jumped down a hundred feet to the ground anyway. Nami got on the ladder and started climbing down, but the rest of the group followed Gray's example and leapt off, even Usopp. The sniper bent his legs upon landing to try and lessen the blow, only to wince and clench his teeth hard as to not let out any noise of embarrassing pain around all the stronger guys, including boys several years younger than him.
The group gathered at the bottom of the tank and they continued to stay on guard in this unknown, supposedly dangerous terrain. "I knew it," Gray muttered with sweat on his face as he checked out the front right tire of their tank. As he muttered it, Luffy's head lifted up and he spun around with a serious expression on his face. Gray stood up fully and whispered with widening eyes, "The ship was sabotaged."
"Nami get down," Luffy shouted. Nami had just hopped off the bottom of the ladder and she turned to her captain in surprise, but he was already sprinting towards her. Luffy was at Nami's side in an instant and tackled her down next to the back right wheel of their vehicle. She was going to shout at him when a loud gunshot went off and something whizzed through the air above Luffy and Nami's heads. It slammed into the flat wheel behind them and ripped a huge hole straight through it.
Luffy jumped back up and glared the direction the red beam bullet just came from. "I know you're there!" Luffy yelled out, feeling multiple presences close to him yet he was unable to see anything.
"What the Hell was that?!" Nami shouted and cupped the top of her head in fear that another shot was coming.
"Who shot at my dear Nami-san?!" Sanji yelled.
The group spun the direction Luffy was looking, and out on the dark landscape a hundred feet away three forms shimmered out of nowhere. Their bodies were invisible up until a second ago but their cloaking devices were not the only impressive gadgetry on them. They had gross tentacle hair and wide mouths of sharp teeth that were hidden well on the two in the back that had on metal masks over their faces matching the armor on the rest of their bodies. The scariest and most muscular monster that appeared at the front of the three had a cannon sticking out of its right shoulder with three glowing red lights on it in a triangle formation. Its mouth flaps opened up to the sides revealing two sharp fangs on its top jaw and a row of sharpened teeth beneath it, while the mouth flaps that moved to the sides themselves had sharp spikes on the tops and bottoms. The creature's facial skin was a mix of light green and dark brown color, and when it opened up its mouth flaps it let out a loud growl that made the other two roar as well.
"Predators," Gray snarled loudly. He stepped towards them and said in a deep voice, "Monstrous hunters that usually move in packs."
"You think they're the ones who sabotaged our ship?" Natsu asked.
"Can't be," Gray said and shook his head. "We were moving too fast." His friends looked at him skeptically and he shook his head, "I don't mean we were going too fast for them to hit us, they could have done that, but Predators are professional hunters. They follow their prey before hitting them… which means," Gray looked back at the front wheel of the ship he originally saw was sabotaged. "Whatever they're hunting is around here."
"Well, what do these things hunt?" Usopp asked as he held up his slingshot and pointed it at them.
"They hunt the strong," Gray responded. "I would suggest not pointing a weapon at them."
"Usopp move!" Luffy shouted.
The sniper was confused why Luffy shouted at him, and then Usopp's own eyes opened wide and he could see a beam of red light flying across the dark field. He watched it go right through his chest and out the back of his body, and then his eyes snapped open wider as he realized where he was. Usopp dove to the left as Luffy was about to push him out of the way, and both Luffy and Sanji noticed how Usopp saw it coming before the beam was even fired.
What was that? Usopp thought as he hit the ground. He looked up and saw a red beam going through the spot he was just standing in. Whatever it was, it saved me.
"If they weren't hunting us, then it just turned out that we got stuck in the middle of their hunting grounds," Kirito said, keeping his head on a swivel. "What were they hunting?" he whispered, and kept looking around to see if he could locate them.
"Up there," Sanji said to the teen on his left. The teen followed Sanji's gaze up the metal leg of the deflated wheel to the truck's body where there was a hole in the bottom.
"They're in our tank?" Juvia questioned in surprise.
"But what are they?" Rin asked.
As the black haired teen in a white button down asked the question, he saw something move behind the back left tire. They were pretty far away from it considering the truck's long width, but Rin was sure he saw movement back there. He was not the only one to notice it, but as soon as the creature found out that its presence had been noticed, it sprung from behind the tire. The thing was fast, sprinting on its muscular legs and using its thin sharp claws to dig into the ground and push itself farther faster. It had a long tail sticking out of its back with a sharp point on it and two arms with razor-like fingers on its hands. The creature was as black as the ground but shinier, and it had a round head with grooves on the sides and top but a smooth surface on the front of its face where it should have had eyes. The fact that it did not have eyes did not stop it from charging straight towards its target though, a muscular man on his butt who was still staring over at the Predators.
"What the Hell is that thing?!" Rin shouted, taking a step back at the sight of the monster sprinting their way. After he took his step back, he saw where the monster was going and changed which direction he was going. Luffy saw which way the monster was going too and he punched a fist forward, but before his rubber hand hit the monster it sidestepped and kept running straight ahead. Luffy's eyes widened at the sight of its speed, and then the creature dodged as a red beam shot right towards it from the lead Predator's cannon.
Gray turned as he saw the beam go past him and he dropped his jaw at the sight of the monster diving towards Usopp. "Xenomorphs!" The fact that he used plural was because he spotted two more of them, one dropping from the hole on the bottom of the tank and the other climbing down the metal leg of the flattened wheel.
"Ahh!" Usopp shouted at the creature dove at him. It slashed its arms down, but Usopp pushed his slingshot up and they both pressed the shaft back and forth between them. The alien creature pushed its face down and Usopp pushed up as hard as he could to keep a good distance between them. It was amazing how much strength he was pulling out of nowhere in this adrenaline-filled situation, but his fear intensified as the Xenomorph opened up its mouth of sharp teeth and a tongue shot out that looked like a smaller head inside of the alien's mouth. The smaller head shot out with a long neck that really looked like a tongue, but at the end of the tongue was an open mouth that bit down on Usopp's long nose. The sniper screamed, and then a black rubber fist covered in steam slammed into the alien's head and knocked it right off of Usopp.
Both the Aliens and Predators all turned to Luffy now. One of the Xenomorphs had flames coming out of its head and it tumbled across the ground for a few seconds from Luffy's Red Hawk, then out of nowhere it sprung back up to its feet and snapped its head back in Luffy's direction. The group of fourteen suddenly felt very nervous. Most of them could not come close to Luffy's Red Hawk in power, and there were three of these powerful aliens around them. What made it worse, was the idea that the Predators could take them down, which meant that those hunters were as strong, if not stronger than the Xenomorphs. "Only six of them," Gray started, sweat rolling down both sides of his face but a hint of optimism in his voice. "Guys," he said loudly. "Fight together and call for help if you-" Gray dove to his right, just in time as a red beam shot his way. He did a forward-roll and then leapt to the left, and left again as the Xenomorph that charged him stabbed its tail at the spot he dodged to.
Gray spun and slashed his swords down at the alien, but the Xenomorph slashed at his icy blades and ripped shards of ice off of them. The field of black turned to madness in seconds. Red beams shot overhead and in between the humans, blue flames flew around alongside rubber fists and flaming kicks, while speedy aliens with sharp teeth charged at them and tried ripping them to pieces. Two of the Xenomorphs started sprinting across the field towards the Predators, but while the one in front kept firing its cannons, the two Predators in the back charged forward and pulled out smaller pistols for one hand and long sabers for the other.
Gray pressed his only remaining, weakening blade into the front of the alien in front of him and held it back long enough for Sanji to finish the front flip he was doing on the other side of the beast. He just came dropping out of the sky to increase his momentum and with a flaming leg he smashed the alien's round skull down hard enough that even its armored skin pressed in and its legs collapsed from beneath it. A red beam shot towards them and the two men were not ready, but luckily the beam flew harmlessly ten yards to their right. They spun wondering why that happened and saw a bunch of green vines wrapped around the leader of the three Predators, a giant green plant head full of teeth writhing around over it. The two of them turned in surprise to see Usopp holding his slingshot triumphantly despite the blood all over his long nose.
The Xenomorphs and Predators were still fighting each other very close to them, and red beams were flying close, occasionally missing and hitting their truck behind them. "We need to stop them before they damage the ship any further!" Nami shouted.
"Don't worry little-sis!" Franky shouted. He posed with his arms over his head and the others all turned around only to drop their jaws in shock as the deflated wheel was already removed and Franky was carrying the backup towards the empty side of the axel. "I'll have it SUPER fixed in no time!" Franky boasted.
"Great, we'll keep the ship from getting more damaged while you do that," Sanji told him, then started heading towards the monsters. He took out his cigarette that only had a stub left and dropped it on the black ground beneath his feet. He was not the only one heading towards the fighting monsters, and it looked like the monsters themselves decided that fighting each other was no longer in their best interests as these humans were taking them down. One of the Predators sprinted forward, but he did not charge them, instead slashing up Usopp's Devil Midori Boshi with a katana and releasing the third Predator to even out the odds a little. Sanji walked forward with Luffy, Natsu, Ben, Stan, and Usopp (even if he was a few yards back from the rest). Rin stayed back near Franky, and the three girls were in between the two groups of boys. Riku and Kirito had not moved to follow the others yet though, as the two of them noticed something that the others did not. They saw the one man in their group who knew about Aebrith, who had information none of them had, who they usually watched to see how he reacted before reacting themselves, they saw Gray Fullbuster's face turn blue.
Gray had seen Sanji drop his cigarette and his eyes subconsciously followed the smoke down to the floor before lifting up. When they looked down though, he spotted the cigarette fall right through the ground, and his eyes moved back down to show him that he had missed a crack in the ground. It was not a very wide crack, and he did not notice it before because the ground was all pitch black and looked the same, even if some parts did dip down a little farther than others. He would have thought nothing of it too, except that smoke stopped coming from the cigarette, and Sanji never stepped on the stub. He looked at the crack and could not see the cigarette anymore, implying the butt of it fell far, like that crack was not just a dip in the ground, but a crack that led much farther down. Even if it went much farther though, the smoke would come out of there. It would have to. It would have to escape somewhere. The butt must have went out, but why? Was it from the fall? Instantly? Something down below us could have stepped on it, or… Gray's heart rate was speeding up and up and then he spotted the movement in the crack that he realized he had been praying he would not see as soon as he thought 'or.'
"No," Gray whispered, his eyes turning as wide as saucers. The sheer panic on Gray's face made both Kirito and Riku's eyes go wide and the two of them to get instantly incredibly nervous. Gray turned and looked forward towards his friends who were about to charge at the Predators and Xenomorphs, then back at the others behind him, allowing the girls and Rin who were all looking their direction to see his absolutely terrified face. The four of them gained similar panicked expressions as Riku and Kirito, expressions that only got more nervous as Gray screamed at the top of his lungs, "EVERYONE RUN AWAY!" The ice mage turned and started sprinting straight left, while those in front of him turned and saw him running, and those behind him just started running after him, Rin shouting at Franky to come too.
"What's happening?" Franky asked in confusion, though he dropped the wheel and started running after seeing that look on Rin's face.
"Where are you going?" Luffy yelled back in annoyance. He glared back forward and leaned his head to the left casually to dodge a red beam flying at him that he felt coming with his Haki. He glared at the Predator that did it and shot a blast of Conqueror's Haki out, only to be slightly impressed as none of the Xenomorphs or Predators flinched at the blast. The Predators did start backing up a second later, and then they turned towards each other, grunted a few times, turned away and vanished in thin air.
Natsu got a bead of sweat on his face and he muttered, "Did they just run away?"
"I SAID RUN!" Gray screamed, stopping and yelling back at the other guys who turned back to their enemies as they were feeling confident despite Gray's yells. The boys all looked towards Gray and the others running away from the tank towards him, and the mage whose face was covered in sheer terror yelled out two words that had pits forming in the stomachs of every person there. "THE FLOOD!"
As he said it, Usopp spotted something in his peripheral vision and darted his eyes over towards a crack in the ground where he saw a small grayish-orange bud stick out of a crack for a second. He took a step back, then spun his head left as he saw one of the Xenomorphs charging at him.
"Usopp!" Stan shouted. The kid running towards the sniper did not think he was going to make it so he rose his left hand, a frown on his face as he had to show off his powers. He used a Force Push and slammed the Xenomorph's tail, making it miss the jab it tried to impale Usopp with. "You okay?" Stan asked as he finally ran in between Usopp and the hesitant alien.
Usopp nodded his head a few times nervously, then Stan jumped forward and pushed both hands at the Xenomorph. Usopp stared in surprise as Stan pushing his arms like that made the Xenomorph lift off its feet and roll backwards.
"The Flood?" Luffy muttered, turning around and looking back towards where Gray was standing before. His eyes examined the area around him, but he did not see anything.
"Luffy, we should go," Sanji said, his voice full of urgency. "Right now," Sanji added.
Natsu turned towards Gray and the others and he started jogging, though he was not sweating as much as most of them. The Flood? Gray said if we saw them to run as fast as we could away, so it looks like that's what we're doing. But, he looked around at the empty black landscape all around, where are they?! He slowed down and came to a stop, while Usopp, Sanji, and the younger boys kept running ahead.
Luffy slowed down too and turned to the spiky haired mage next to him. Natsu gave him a quizzical look and then turned back around and looked towards where they just were. All three of the injured Xenomorphs were getting back up, even the one Sanji smashed in the head with his leg that apparently did not die from the earlier attack. "You see any Flood?" Natsu asked, keeping his eyes back on their three alien enemies.
"Nope," Luffy stated, also just staring back at those Xenomorphs.
Natsu grinned. "Wanna finish them off before we keep going?" He asked.
Luffy glanced out the corner of his eyes at the man on his right, then looked back forward and lifted his fists, cracking his knuckles in front of himself. "I'll take the two on the left."
"Screw that, I'll take the two on the right," Natsu said. There were only three enemies, so it looked like whoever got the one in the middle along with their own was going to be the winner. The two of them got ready, turning their fists black with Haki or red with flames.
Getting farther away from them were the rest of their friends, one of whom looked back then spun his head forward and yelled, "Gray!" The ice mage looked back to see Ben had come to a stop and had a very nervous look on his face. The kid pointed behind himself and Gray looked way back, almost a mile away now. He looked and an instant feeling of dread filled his entire being. The others who saw the look spun and started yelling at the top of their lungs.
"NATSU!"
"LUFFY!"
"RUNNN!"
The two stubborn powerhouses ignored their friends though, taking steps in the wrong direction instead. And then the two of them came to a stop. They stopped because out of a crack in the ground in between them and the Xenomorphs, a tiny yellow creature that looked soft and bumpy came crawling. It had half a dozen thin legs that looked similar to a spider's, and three thin appendages sticking out of the thing's two foot tall body. At the end of those thin arm-tentacles were red brushes that waved around in seemingly random patterns.
The others at varying distances away from Luffy and Natsu looked all the way back and a few of them were able to see the creature that just emerged from the ground. Riku turned his head right to check something, and by the look on Gray's face it was confirmed. That's the Flood? Doesn't look like much.
He was not the only one thinking it. Natsu burst out laughing after a few seconds and he shouted, "Yo Gray! Is this really, what you, were…" he faded off as he spotted movement in the corners of his eyes. He only now realized what Gray realized before, that the ground was covered in cracks that were hard to see because of the black dirt ground that covered everything. Natsu saw in the left and right side of his vision movement where he saw no movement before. From the crack the first Infection Form Flood came out of, four more emerged, and more were crawling out every second.
Natsu stopped yelling to Gray, but he burnt his fists brighter and kept a small grin on his face. Is this really it? This is the "scary" Flood? Luffy had a more serious look on his face and he rose up his blackened right fist, but that was because of the three large creatures that started sprinting at them and ignoring the tiny beings on the floor like they were insignificant. Luffy already knew the Xenomorphs' strength for himself though, so he would take them seriously. He stomped his right foot down on the ground, prepared his right fist, and then he and Natsu froze, as did the two Xenomorphs on the side of the one in the middle who the two men were going to fight over who got to kill it. They stopped because all of the Infection Form Flood already out of the ground, and about two dozen more that emerged at that exact moment, charged straight at that center alien.
"What the fu-" Natsu stopped himself and his eyes just got wider as he watched the center alien swing around its tail and smash some of the Flood to pieces, clawing others apart as it did, but then, one of the Flood dug its brushes into a crack in the Xenomorph's hard armor that was created when a Predator slashed it earlier. The Xenomorph stopped clawing at the Flood outside of its body, and it started clawing at the gash in its own side that the Parasite did not just widen with its arms, but it climbed inside of completely. Natsu took a step back as the alien tried ripping its own body apart, and he figured out why a second later as the black armor of the alien started getting lighter in color. Gross bumps started forming on its skin and a few of its fingers fell off as the being looked to rot within seconds. Its head covered in large bumps on top of bumps, and the rest of the tiny Infection Flood parasites around the creature stopped attacking.
The Flood stopped attacking, because the creature they were fighting was no longer a Xenomorph. It turned around and faced the Xenomorph on the left of it, one that was backing up, and then the Flood that had taken over its kin's body charged it. The bumpy orangish Xenomorph tackled the other to the ground and started viciously attacking it with its tail and claws, and while the one beneath focused on the one pinning it down, another Infection Parasite got into the crack on the top of its head that Sanji's kick opened up earlier and was already bleeding profusely. The Xenomorph underneath its transformed comrade started clawing at its own head but stopped within seconds of when its body started writhing around.
"Alright," Natsu muttered as he watched the third one start running, only for a Flood that caught a ride on its back to tear through it and make the alien trip and then start to transform as well. He looked around himself and saw more and more of these creatures appearing all over the vicinity, and fast. "Luffy," Natsu said, his voice incredibly serious for him. "Let's get out of here."
Luffy wanted to disagree, but he was just thinking about how the aliens were pretty strong and this was going to be a good fight. All three of them got slaughtered by the horde of Flood in seconds, and he found himself backing up before Natsu even said it. He was still right on the Dragon Slayer's side though, as he was not the only one backing away. He nodded his head and turned, only to see more Flood emerging from the ground ahead of him. I felt weak presences beneath the ground, but they were minuscule, like insects. The Xenomorph-guys too, their presences vanished when the Flood's took over, meaning it's the little parasite thing that's really in control of the body now. The pirate frowned and he looked all around, and then straight at the ground beneath him where he felt a lot more of these creatures.
"Oi Luffy," Natsu started, as he seemed to realize that they were surrounded. He looked into the distance where their friends had stopped running because of them being so far back. "Use your Gear Second and catch up to the others."
"Don't tell me what to do-"
"Can your punches destroy all of them at the same time?" Natsu asked, interrupting the rubberman. Luffy did not respond. Natsu nodded his head without looking at the pirate next to him. "Go quick. Gray was right, these things are going to kill us if I don't do this. Quickly, go!" Natsu saw all of the Flood start crawling across the ground fast towards them, and the Flood-Xenomorphs were charging in twice as fast.
Natsu saw steam rising up next to him, and a second later Luffy was no longer there. The Dragon Slayer had a serious expression on his face, but for a second he smiled. He lifted up the corners of his mouth and did a full spin to look at all the monsters charging straight towards him. "Alright," Natsu said, his fists bursting into flames brighter than a second ago.
Luffy appeared over in between Ben and Stan, both of whom looked pretty nervous. The two were farthest back and ready to go help Luffy, but now Usopp lowered his slingshot and the kids looked at the steaming pirate captain in surprise as well as he left Natsu alone back there to fight all the monsters on his own. "Run!" Luffy shouted, and not one of them argued with him from how intense he looked.
"Are the Flood really that bad?" Stan asked as he ran after Luffy who started getting ahead of him.
Luffy looked back and his eyes opened wider. He threw his arms out to the sides and as he was still steaming they extended really far in under a second. His arms wrapped around Ben, Stan, and Usopp, and he yelled, "The Flood?! We're getting away from Natsu!" He used his Gear Second speed to shoot off the ground and they went flying over the landscape. Sanji saw Luffy go flying by him and heard what Luffy shouted before it. He looked back and watched as Natsu shot up high in the air, while beneath the Dragon Slayer, it looked like the Flood had increased exponentially in the last few minutes and the entire black landscape near their vehicle was now covered in them. Sanji looked away from the Flood and back up to Natsu though, and his eyes widened so much that he jumped off the ground and started kicking the air behind himself to send himself forward as fast as he could.
Sanji made it up to the ladies and Gray as Luffy got there with a panting Ben, Stan, and Usopp. His captain did not waste a second after appearing and yelled, "Gray! Make a wall!"
Gray turned back again, and the dreading look on his face intensified as he spotted Natsu all the way back near the vehicle. In between them and the vehicle were hundreds of tiny Flood now, and many of them were sprinting their way instead of directly beneath Natsu's body. "A wall Gray!" Riku shouted at the man next to him who was hesitating for too long.
Gray shook his head of his stupor and he ground his teeth in frustration. "Damn it," he yelled. He ran back the way he came until he was past everyone behind him, then slammed his right hand into the ground. "Ice Make: Great Ice Wall!" The ground for a hundred feet in either direction of his hand froze and a wall shot out of that frozen ground ten meters thick and twenty meters tall.
"Everyone get close!" Luffy shouted, running towards the wall himself and putting his back against the freezing cold thing.
Nami ran up to the wall and put her back up against it right next to her captain's. She turned and looked at Luffy as he stared straight ahead, staring over the black landscape in front of them instead of turning his head sideways and looking through the translucent wall like the rest of them. Because they all had their heads to the sides to look through the wall, Luffy did not realize that Nami was actually looking at him and not back at the Flood and their other friend. Ever since the two of you fought, Nami thought, before getting distracted by a brilliant orange light on the other side of the Great Ice Wall.
The group looked back and could somewhat see what Natsu was doing up in the air. The Dragon Slayer jumped pretty high up to prepare the attack he thought he needed. He was coming down and he had his hands down at his right side with his wrists together in a stance he remembered very well. The mage smirked as his hands glowed bright orange with Cooler's energy, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, "DRAGON SLAYER SECRET ART:" An orange orb of light formed in the point in front of his palms, with a deep red core that looked like a sun and bolts of lightning rippling around it. "ARCOSIAN FIRE DRAGON'S-" the ball of light tripled in size, then tripled again so it was thrice as big as Natsu's body himself. The Dragon Slayer roared and slammed his hands in front of his body, yelling, "INCINERATION WAVE!"
The giant sphere of light shot off of Natsu's hands towards the ground, but unlike his Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame, it was not just the sphere of fire. Behind the ball of sparking orange light with a core of a red sun, was a bright orange beam half as wide as the ball of energy at the end of it. The larger Flood monsters beneath Natsu had smaller ones crawling on top of them like they were trying to make a tower up to the man dropping towards them so they could reach him faster. The beam had not even hit the ground yet, but the others behind the ice wall could see water pouring down the other side of it and felt the ground shaking beneath their feet. The beam incinerated the Flood directly beneath Natsu, but it tore through more than that, ripping straight through the blackened earth beneath them as well and then finally exploding in one of the giant tunnels beneath the landscape.
As the blast exploded, half the group with their backs against the wall lost their footing and fell to the ground. All around them cracks formed on the black surface much wider than any back where they just were, these ones actually visible to the naked eye on a first glance. Cracks also lined the ice wall, but it held long enough that when the heat wave from the explosion shot across the landscape, the only creatures on the surface it incinerated were the Flood racing towards the ice wall. There were some parasites only ten yards away from the wall when the heat hit and shredded them, and then the ten meter thick wall shrank down half its height and width in seconds.
The light from the explosion that started underground but did not stay there filled the sky beyond the wall. Orange light illuminated everything for miles in every direction. The light also filled up tunnels underneath the entire area, right before flames from the exploding core in the center of Natsu's attack shot down those tunnels and incinerated all of the Flood making their ways up to the surface. As the Flood were getting torn to shreds, the tunnels they were in were violently shaking apart as well and collapsing down on the parasitic creatures' ashes.
Gray stared through his melting wall with eyes as big as saucers. He watched the shadowed figure drop through the brightly illuminated sky past the ice and finally land down on the ground that's elevation was several meters lower than a minute ago. I knew fire was effective against the Flood, but Natsu, he really annihilated them. I- I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and yet…
"Whoa," Franky mumbled, scratching the back of his head as he looked over the shrinking wall that was lower than his eye level now. He stared out at Natsu and said, "That was, impressive."
"Impressive?" Nami asked, her fists clenching at her sides. A dark aura surrounded her and her teeth sharpened as she stared a little to the right of where Natsu landed. She threw her hands up in the air and screamed at the top of her lungs, "HE JUST DESTROYED THE TRUCK!" Everyone else who was looking her way spun back towards the area Natsu was on, and all they could see remaining from the vehicle they traveled down on was smoking rubble and steel scrap.
Natsu heard Nami's scream and the smug Fairy Tail mage's smirk wiped from his face. He turned towards where their ship had stopped, their ship that had all their clothes, money, and belongings on it. The pink haired wizard gulped and turned south towards the rest of his friends who he was expecting to praise him until a second ago, and from the scary looks on all their faces he could tell he was thinking way too optimistically.
Two thousand miles south of the group of comrades looking for a long-lost friend, the Wizard King rose his head. He was sitting in a great hall, a feast spread out on the table in front of him. The short wizard in a pointy blue hat covered in white stars stood up and grabbed a steak to walk away with. When he got out of his seat, he stood only four feet tall, with a body almost as wide. The wizard wrapped in a purple cloak took one last huge bite out of his steak then threw it to the side and wiped his hand on his shirt before grabbing his staff from where it leaned next to his chair.
The boy with brown hair started walking forward and waved a hand in front of his face. He continued to walk while a shimmering image appeared before him in a magical circle that moved with him so it was always three feet in front of his face. His eyes narrowed and he stopped at the huge double doors to his great hall that were wide open at the moment. "Professor, meet me at the tower at once," he ordered. He spoke without facing anyone, not that there was anyone around who he could look to. Then, he rose up the wooden staff in his left hand and tapped the bottom of it down on the floor.
The Wizard King vanished and reappeared a few hundred feet above where he previously was. He stood inside a stone tower, right in the giant open window facing north over the landscape of the Southern Wastes. As he stood there, someone approached from outside the castle. They flew up over the main section, then a half mile south to reach the tall tower that scraped the clouds, before shooting straight up and stopping outside the highest window with his arms crossed.
The man was ten feet tall, had humongous muscles all over his body, and blond hair spiked up over his head. He wore a green tunic that covered his torso but left his light-skinned muscular arms revealed, and the tunic stretched down into a black kilt that matched his boots. He had a long green cape a darker shade than his tunic, attached at the shoulder straps of his tunic by steel circular clasps, and on his head was a helmet made of steel as well. The helmet was open over his hair but wrapped completely around his forehead and the back of his head, then down the sides of his face before stopping on either side of his mouth, and in the center of the steel that wrapped around his forehead there was a glowing red circle with a yellow dot in the middle. "Professor Chaos, reporting for duty," the muscular man greeted.
The Wizard King swung his right hand in front of him and an image appeared in the air. "I keep the Flood from going past the wall, and this is how they repay me?" The Wizard King asked sarcastically. "Go. Take care of our intruders. Teach them what it means to trespass in the Wizard King's domain."
"Professor Chaos will make sure they get the message," the man punched his fists together and lightning bolts sparked around his entire body. He turned around and stared north with his back to the window the Wizard King stood in. "Can I take the army?" He questioned, a grin spreading across his face that the Wizard King could see on the side of it.
"Very well," the shorter figure replied back. "I've wanted to see what the new upgrades can do for a while now."
"Mwhahaha," Professor Chaos laughed. He rose both arms up at his sides and lightning rose off of his palms and shot up into the sky. The air grew darker and clouds started spinning around directly above the Wizard King's castle. All over the roof of the castle, holes started to appear that figures were flying out of. The figures shot up in the air all around Professor Chaos, figures that had arms, legs, and heads, but were made entirely of steel. A dozen robots gathered in the southern sky of Aebrith, and all of their eyes glowed bright red. The menacing Professor Chaos pointed his right hand forward and yelled, "With me!" He turned his body parallel to the ground and flew away like a missile into the distance.
The robots flew after him just as fast, while behind them the Wizard King smirked and turned his head, staring at the floating image on his side. He watched the people inside the moving image start marching south again and his eyebrows furrowed. I will teach you to respect, my fucking, authoritah!
A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Alien vs Predator vs Our Heroes was a possible thought for the name of the chapter, but seemed a little long to me. Natsu wrecks the Flood, and the landscape, and their ship... so now the gang's on foot. Bad news coming their way though, as the Wizard King sends Professor Chaos and an army of robots to go "take care of" the intruders. Scene with Juvia and the girls at the beginning was a little mushy, and sad, but I'm getting out of the depressing rut for the last bunch of chapters, promise! It'll be more fun for a while (for those of you mentioning how dark and sad this is that everyone's been losing). Gotta happen early on in the story though, to build up for the climaxes later on where all these baddies who keep winning can (hopefully) get their comeuppance! Anyway, thanks for reading! (The Flood are from Halo in case anyone didn't know, and Alien and Predator are from Alien and Predator movies (aliens are Xenomorphs)).
Limit-Breaking chapter 90 . 22h ago
You know i can understand why zoro hates nexus now, but at the same time it isn't that bad, they just had a really REALLY REALLY SHITTY luck. I mean seriously aebirth is a place of shit to be honest. The ant king is a horrible king to be honest, a king should be someone who helps the people that is the main reason to the idea of creating the concept of kings, They are their to give their life for the people. But nooooo they want to be dictators and make excuses. I swear i don't even care if goku doens't kill him just somebody kill the ant king at this point.
your are truly evil, but really good at it, really the characters just keep on suffereing more and more and build up to the point where you can feel their struggles. I really liked this chapter and i look forward to the next one. Also sorry for this really long review.
Also will we be seeing goku look for tien's body before he meets up with everyboy else, besides that i look forward to the next
So I cut a lot out of that review, considering it might have been the longest review of the story (or any story I've written XD ), but I get what you're saying with all the bad stuff happening lately (hence the mention in the A/N). Don't worry though, good times are coming! I mean, as good as things can get on Aebrith *smirks evilly* Glad you liked the chapter and thanks for taking so much timeout to write such a long review on it. No response for that final question, though I will say I left a hint regarding that- actually nevermind I'll just hold off. No spoilers after all ;)
joebob323 chapter 90 . 16h ago
So, there seems to be a reason for Zoro's power hungriness. I assume that we will see more involving backstories in the coming chapters then. I liked the chapter, hope to see more soon!
Thanks for the review! Zoro's one of my favorite characters, ever. When I had him vanish at the start of Nexus I kind of regretted it for a while because I couldn't write him into the story while he was on Aebrith. I had a lot of time to come up with all kind of ideas around him though since the time Kuma smacked him, Gray, and Zabuza away together. The Ashido plot of turning him into a shinigami, Kuina, and- well you'll have to wait until his next chapters to see. XD Glad you enjoyed! Thanks again everyone for reading, reviewing, faving, and following! 'Till next time!