Mikoto slept badly again that night. Nightmares constantly ran around in her head like rabbid badgers on a rampage. Some of her more frightening dreams involved reliving that brief spite in which she had gone level 6. The weirder ones involved a 200 ft Happy attacking Tokyo with eyebeams. (That one really made Mikoto uneasy about what she ate last night.)
When she finally woke up in the morning, the only thing that actually kept her sain, was Elli who always hugged her whenever she woke up.
"Morning Mikoto! Are you okay?" said Elli as she gugged Mikoto.
"Been better...but otherwise I'm alive." said Mikoto. "These dreams have been totally eating at me..."
"Did you have the 200 ft Happy dream again?"
"Maybe I shouldn't watch those old Godzilla movies anymore.." muttered Mikoto. "It's like everything's messing with my head."
There was a knock on the door. Knowing that it was still around 6:00 in the morning and the maids couldn't possibly be coming yet, Mikoto sat up, stretched a little and walked towards the door. "Yeah, yeah.....I'm coming...."
Mikoto opened the door to find Hope Ellendiel standing there wearing ordinary striped pink pajamas. "Hope? What are you doing here so early?"
"I-I decided that..." Hope closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Well....I'm not going to any of the appointments that Constantine has set up for us...not today at least."
"Huh?" said Mikoto. "But wouldn't you get into huge trouble!?"
"I don't care!" said Hope. "I'm tired of being cooped up in here all the time....I want to be able to walk among the ones I'm destined to govern as any normal person would.....I-I....."
Hope took another deep breath. "I wanna see what it's like to be you.... to be free..."1
"Well I'm not so free right now...." said Mikoto. "But I don't mind breaking the rules in the slightest."
Hope held Mikoto's hands in her own. "Th-then please!! Just for today! Can we...?"
"Sneak out and go see what it's like to be a normal tourist in your own home town?" Mikoto finished with a grin. "To be honest, I was thinking of asking you if we could do that today."
"R-really!?"
"Yep." said Mikoto. "But we're going to have find some way to sneak past the gaurds..."
Mikoto suddenly had a mischievious glint in her eyes as she came up with the perfect plan. "Now this one is going to be a doozy....."
Captain Rufus was always one who was devoted to his duty. In his opinion, one who would run from a fight, even if it was someone who severely outmatched himself, was the highest dishonor. Recognizing this, the late king had enlisted him, and entrusted him to the most sacred duty imaginable, gaurding the princess.
However his duties had expanded a bit in the last few days. Thanks to orders from Constantine, he was now keeping an eye on both the newly discovered heir and Hope. Two princesses meant that he would have to keep a sharper eye then ever. So in order to make sure the two of them never left without the permission of the steward, Rufus was standing in front of the door that led to the 3 halls that seperated to the 3 royal bedrooms....two of which, the princesses were staying in.
"I will not leave this spot." muttered Rufus. "I must not fail the king...."
"Then again..." Rufus muttered to himself. "Constantine has grown rather hard of heart lately....ever since he took stewardship of the throne.....is it really right for me to devote myself to his orders?"1
Suddenly there was a laughing sound and Natsu came running down the hall way and sidestepped Rufus holding up Mikoto and Hope's crowns. "Hahahaha!!!! Hey! Gaurd guy!! Look what I have!!"
"WHAT!?" said Rufus, his eyes wide with shock. "The royal majesties's crowns!? Give me those!!"
"No way!!" said Natsu with a mischievious grin. "You're going to have to catch me first!!"2
Rufus pounced at Natsu, who easily jumped out of the way as Rufus crashed to the ground with a grunt. "Hey, hey! Watch this!!"
Natsu put Mikoto's silver crown to his face in another Bane impression." 'You think the Internet is your ally....But you merely adopted the internet....I was born of it...molded by it...I didn't go outside until I was a man..' Hahahahah!! Movie joke!!"1
"Why you little scoundrel!!" shouted Rufus. "GET OVER HERE!!!"1
Rufus ran after Natsu as he continued to run down the hall laughing.
Mikoto and Hope peeked out from behind a corner.
"And the bird has left the nest." said Mikoto. "Thank goodness Lucy managed to find my spare clothes."
Mikoto was wearing a lime green shirt with a Gekota design on it along with some blue shorts and white sneakers. She had a baseball cap low over her face. Hope wore some of Mikoto's spare clothing as well, wearing similar shorts, a black shirt with a large yellow heart on it and a baseball cap low over her face as well. Both of them had backpacks on.1
"A-are you sure it's okay for me to wear this stuff?" said Hope uneasily looking at herself.
"You look fine!" said Elli fluttering out to join them. "It's cool that they fit you just right."1
"Okay....so Natsu should be distracting a lot of the gaurds by now..." said Mikoto. "Come on, let's go."
As Mikoto, Elli and Hope snuck through the palace grounds, they could see Natsu running past with multiple gaurds in hot pursuit as he continued to make more Bane impressions with Mikoto's crown.
"I'm Bane, yes that's my name!! I'm stronger, smarter, clinically insane!!"
"I have got to get him to stop watching those American movies." Mikoto muttered.
"Movies?" said Hope with a little confusion. "What's a movie?"
"I'll tell you later...Let's just get out of here first."
When they finally made it to front gate, Hope stopped in her tracks and looked at the town before her... a tear welling up slightly in her right eye. "This.....this is the first time I've ever been outside, without being surrounded by gaurds. I can actually see everything now. It all looks so beautiful."
Mikoto smiled. "Time for you to actually have some fun for once."
It was like a wonderful dream. Mikoto, Hope, and Elli travelled through town, pretending to be tourists, (technically, Mikoto would probably count as a tourist.) They explored almost everywhere in town. Buying cotton candy from a vender, visiting a historical statue of Thundaarix. (Which wasn't as accurately made as the one all the way back in the Villiage of Dragons back in Fiore in Mikoto's opinion....for one thing...the eyes were way off.)
They even went to what appeared to be a traditional festival celebrating the day that Thundaarix blessed the first king in the line of Ellendiel. In an ironic turn of events, the men on stage volunteered Hope to play herself in the play celebrating the event, not actually knowing she was the real deal. Mikoto was volunteered to play as a bard with a violin. And though she was only supposed to pretend to play, she actually started playing it....causing the audience to clap tearfully with joy and the men in the play to exclaim that she could keep the violin if only she could play just one more song.
After a little more sight seeing... Mikoto and Hope went to find lunch as Elli flew along side them, happilly exclaiming over the icecream that Mikoto had just bought her.
"I havn't seen my town in this way since my father took me to eat at the new restraunt that opened 4 years ago." said Hope happily. "He snuck me out in a similar way to what you did, my friend Arthur distracted the gaurds with a pie from the royal cooks and he snuck me out with us dressed in normal clothing like this."
"Your dad sounds like he was a pretty cool guy." said Mikoto.
"Yeah...I just wish he was still alive." said Hope. "Then I wouldn't have had to drag you into this mess."
"......"
"Mikoto?" said Hope. "What's wrong?"
Mikoto was shivering slightly. She pointed a shaking finger out in front of her. "It's....an....icky....gross.....BUG!!!!"
Mikoto screamed and fell on her bottom as she pointed at the little silk worm that was hanging from a string of silk in front of her. "Get that away from me!!"
"This little thing?" said Hope pointing at the silk worm. "But it's so cute."
"N-no!" said Mikoto. "It's gross, slimy, and needs to be as far away as possible from me! Yeeek!!"3
"Mikoto is afraid of bugs." said Elli. "One time she freaked out because a ladybug was in her soup."
"I-I didn't freak out..." said Mikoto in embarrassment. "Th-that thing just surprised me...that's all!!"
"Oh it's not so bad." said Hope letting the worm crawl onto her finger. She brought the worm down to show Mikoto. "See, it's friendly."
"Yeeek yeek yeek!!!" Mikoto scrambled away backwards and huddled against the wall. "It's going to bite!"
"No it isn't..." said Hope coming closer and holding out her finger next to Mikoto. "See...it just makes silk...it doesn't do much else."1
Hope took Mikoto's hand and held it out, letting the worm crawl onto her palm. Mikoto stared at the worm apprehensively for a moment. "It's....not so bad actually."
"Told you." said Hope with a grin. "It's not like it's a giant hairy spider or anything."
Mikoto's eyes suddenly widened as she saw something behind Hope. "G-giant hairy spider....."
"Oh don't worry, I won't make you hold anything like that!" said Hope hurriedly.
"N-no!!!" said Mikoto pointing behind Hope. "GIANT HAIRY SPIDER!!!!!!"
Hope whirled around to find Arachnis Widower scuttling towards them along the walls, clicking her pincer mouth and hissing. "Oooooo....I wassss jusst supossed to watch you...click click....but now that Draviss hass what he wishesss....It'ss time Railgun and Princessss took a little trip with me...."
"AIEEEEEEEE!!!!!" Screamed Mikoto, Hope and Elli at the same time.
"That is the single most hidious thing I've ever seen in my life!!" exclaimed Mikoto. "and I've met Diablo!!"
"I don't want to look, but I can't look away!!" Squealed Hope.
"Someone get me eye soap!!" Elli screamed fearfully.1
"WEB PRISON!!!" Arachnis spat out a massive glob of webbing at Mikoto and Hope. Mikoto blasted a series of lightning bolts, shredding the webs.
Mikoto stomped the ground, causing a trail of lightning to travel along the ground and up the wall, zapping Arachnis and causing the spider to squeel with pain as she fell to the ground and began twitching on her back like the bug she was.
Arachnis recovered quickly however. She jumped back up and spat a web glob on her leg. The web glob suddenly morphed into a strange metalic armor that began to cover her entire body until she looked like a mech spider within her powerful metal covering. "Web Art: Scorpion's Hide!!"
Mikoto shot a few more lighting bolts at Arachnis, but they all glanced off her armor harmlessly.
"Click click!! This magic armor is impervious to all forms of damage!! Click click!!" said Arachnis. "No magic attack is powerful enough to pierce it!! Not unless it exceeds all levels of power. This is why I was able to join Hydra Head.....even Noiress Blackout herself was unable to pierce this armor with her great blades!!"
"Oh really..." said Mikoto. "A spell that exceeds all known levels huh? Well I've got the perfect thing."
Mikoto immedietly activated her Thunder Dragon Wings and clasped her hands together, chanting. "The light which guides the energy of the sky....It trembles with the power of the Fairy King.....let it rain down with glittering light and show it's true strength!!"
Mikoto thrust her hands out at Arachnis. "Rain down and declare your light.......FAIRY THUNDER!!!!!!!!!"
The clouds overhead swirled around a massive golden magic circle with the Fairy Tail emblem on it and a ginormous lightning bolt the size of The Tower Of Heaven, coursed down and blasted into Arachnis, creating a massive shockwave that could be felt all over the island.
When the dust settled, Arachnis's armor had disintegrated into dust, and the spider was standing there, unharmed thanks to the armor's last protective act....but extremely shocked.
"Y-you fried my armor...click.....click..." said Arachnis. "Y-you....."
Mikoto fell to her knees, automatically regretting the use of the powerful magic. Sure she had just taken out Arachnis's armor, but she had just drained her magic energy as well....and to top it off, a strange side effect of Fairy Thunder was that she couldn't use her esper power for 10 minutes afterwords.
"Darn it!" growled Mikoto. "I wasn't thinking that time...."
Arachnis hissed angrilly. "You know how many timesss I can sssummon that armor in a day!? Once!! Click!! Click!!! Now I can't show off my pride as I capture you!! You will pay!!!"
Arachnis advanced on Mikoto menacingly. But Hope stepped in front of her as she began to crackle with yellow lightning. "You're going to have to get through me first!"
"I was supposssed to capture you too anywaysss, click click!" said Arachnis as her front legs began to glow with a sinister energy. "Well if that'sss how you feel.....En garde!!"1
"SPIDER REAPER!!!" Arachnis jabbed her glowing sharp clawed legs at Hope in a gattling gun like manner. But then she leapt back in pain as her legs spouted blood all over and she shocked by a tremendous amount of electric energy.
Hope's back was now covered in blade-like spines made out of electric energy. Her forearms each had one massive shark fin shaped electric blade sticking out.
"Blitz Blade Of The Thunder Dragon!!!" Hope launched herself at Arachnis and sliced and diced her blades in a blurred frenzy, quicker then lightning itself. Arachnis was then blasted back into the cobblestone road, creating a smoking crater there.
"My Dragon Born Ability acts alot like a porcupine..." said Hope as she watched Acrachnis crawl along the ground feebly. "The blade spikes on my back can extend outwards to repel physical moves...it's not as affective as Mikoto's ability when it comes to defense....but it tends to add a little more damage then your average electric counter attack. These energy blades, can slice just as good as they can zap."
"You ugly human!!" screamed Arachnis. "I'll show you what it means to fight me!! VENOM CHARGE!!"
Arachnis's fangs extended outwards and glowed with sinister purple energy as she scuttled at Hope with astounding speed.
Hope whirled around so her back was facing Arachnis and the blades extended outwards at amazing lengths. Arachnis couldn't stop in time and collided with the electric blades.
Arachnis leapt back again. Screaming and bleeding more profusely as electric energy ran down her legs.
Hope retracted her blades and launched herself at Arachnis again, baring her arm blades menacingly. "Flashing Lotus!! Smashing Blade Buster!!!"
Hope raised her elbows and sliced her blades in a humungous X motion as they trailed and sparked powerfully, creating a bloody gash and blasting Arachnis back 50 meters at the same time. A massive cloud of dust erupted where Arachnis fell. When the dust settled....the giant spider was gone.
Apparently, seeing she was outmatched, the spider had decided to skedaddle.1
Hope ran over to Mikoto who was being tended to by Elli and put a hand on her shoulder as her blade spikes dissapated. "M-Mikoto! Are you alright!?"
"I'll be fine..." said Mikoto. "I just need 5 more minutes....then I can eat my esper electricity and pick myself up a bit."
"You won't have to wait." said Hope engulfing her hand in yellow lightning. "You can eat mine."
Mikoto opened her mouth and the electricity was sucked in like a vacuum. "Thanks.."
"What was that thing?" said Hope looking back at the smoking crater. "Was it working with the assasins?"
"No." said Mikoto. "You heard it, it wanted to capture us, not kill us. She's working for someone else....and I think I know who. Did you get a good look at the marking on it's back?"
"It looked like a three headed snake." said Elli. "Wait! We know that mark!"
"Yep.." said Mikoto. "Hydra Head's here..."
On top of a tall building near the battle scene, Exisio stood watching, as Diablo stood next to him.
"So.....this is the girl whom Father wishes me to kill." said Exisio eying the area with his large red eyes. "She had quite some power to pull off a move like that....Fairy Thunder......"
"Yes..." said Diablo. "As Arachnis has proved here for your benifit....she will be a worthy opponent. But the time has not yet come for you to face her in battle...that comes a little later. First...we must borrow the full power of Thundaarix, if we are to make you whole."
"We should not have sent the she-spider." said Exisio. "She was weak even compared to the weakest of the pair, though doubtless they both possess extensive magic power."
"She was merely sent to test the strength of Hope Ellendiel." said Diablo. "Dravis and Black Whisper knew that Arachnis's armor would only be broken if the Railgun were to use her most powerful move right on the spot...that would leave it up to the princess to fight."
"And your assessment of her strength?"
"Powerful...." said Diablo. "But compared to the Railgun...she'll be child's play."
Exisio smiled his creepy fanged grin. "Excellent....she'll be the appetizer then....right after we drain both those pathetic creatures."
Mikoto, Hope and Elli peeked around the corner of the front gate of the palace. It had almost been too easy sneaking close so far. But they weren't about to take any chances. Mikoto looked right...then she looked left.
"Coast's clear, let's go."
The threesome snuck carefully through the palace grounds. Oddly enough, there were no gaurds. In fact....there was absolutely nobody around.
"Okay..." said Mikoto. "This is just too weird. Where is everyone?"
Hope also looked around, an anxious look appearing on her face. "There should always be somebody out here at this time. You don't think us leaving caused some sort of uproar do you?"
"Can't have." said Mikoto. "I told Natsu to tell all the other guilds what happened just in case. If there was an uproar, they would tell all the gaurds what happened."
"Wow, you're pretty smart with this stuff."