The first few moments Mikoto fell, she screamed to her hearts's content, the ever darkening blackness that surrounded her, and the wind that blowed at her face, gave her the impression that a huge thing known as 'splat' was about to welcome her arrival at the bottom of whatever this was.
Then after a few more moments, Mikoto stopped screaming and just stared into the abyss. After what felt like 2 hours, Mikoto actually started looking at her wrist with the impression of looking at the time, only to remember that she'd given up on watches due to her personal electromagnetic field having a tendency to short them out.
"Hey!" said Mikoto. "Has anybody noticed that we've been falling a very very long time?"
"Kind of yeah!" said Natsu.
"And why haven't Elli, Charle and Happy tried to fly in and save us yet?"
"We're trying!" said Happy who had his wings activated. "But we're falling so fast, it seems like the wind is pushing our flying magic to the limit!"
"Strange!" called Erza over the howling air. "No way gravity should have accelerated us that quickly before the Exceeds could activate their wings!"
"Wait...wind...pushing." Mikoto muttered thinking. Mikoto stretched her hand out as far as possible until her finger tips seemed to push past some invisible wind barrier. The tips of her fingers felt nothing but calm nothingness. Then Mikoto understood, they weren't falling, they were hovering.
"I think there's some sort of wind tunnel under us!" Mikoto called to the others. "It's keeping us hovering in mid air and giving the illusion that we're falling! We just didn't know that cause it's pitch black!"
"So we just need to move ourselves out of the wind tunnel range?" called Gray. "But then what? We don't even know if it's still a far drop from here!"
"Well we have to find out one way or another!" Mikoto called back. "Or we're gonna be stuck here for a while!"
"Actually, I think I have an idea!" Mikoto heard Lucy call. "Hey Mikoto, can you feel any iron or metal in the area?"
"Tons!" said Mikoto. "This must be some place really far underground, because it's all in particles!"
"That's impossible though!" said Wendy. "This is supposed to be a flying city according to Meribeth!"
"We can figure things out later!" said Lucy. "But I was thinking that maybe Mikoto could magnetize us some iron sand and carry us down!"
"Why didn't I think of that sooner!?" said Mikoto smacking her forehead. "Alright everyone, I'm gonna need to see you all so I don't accidentally suffocate you in in a metal cloud or something!"
There was a burst of orange light. Natsu was revealed hovering next to Mikoto, his fists engulfed in flames. "This good!?"
Mikoto looked around to see her friends falling with her in the pitch black darkness, lit by the orange pulsating light from Natsu.
"That's perfect!" said Mikoto. "Alright everyone, don't move!"
Mikoto closed her eyes and concentrated, and after a moment, metalic black sand flew into the light and formed into individual cusions of black puffs under each person including Mikoto.
The sand grabbed everyone by the arms and pulled them out of the wind tunnel where it morphed quickly in a cushion like platform.
"Okay..." said Mikoto. "Just let me concentrate here..."
The iron sand began to lower itself through the darkness. After what seemed like about 15 minutes, the sand hit what seemed to be solid ground. Natsu raised his hand up in the dark gloom to reveal plants and trees, all densely close together.
"It looks like we're in some sort of jungle." said Natsu. "Weird."
Mikoto and the others stepped off the sand as it became a pile on the ground.
"Odd.." said Charle. "It feels like real dirt...yet I can feel the ground vibrating..."
Mikoto closed her eyes and let her electromagnetic senses travel throughout the area. "We're still on the city...there's radio signals coming from all around us, including below. This must be a hidden underground reserve of some sort, I can't really tell.
"Suddenly there was a blazing flash of light, and the sounds of generators coming to life one by one. Mikot blinked and saw above them was a massive white metal dome that could have been at least 3000 feet high... lined with what to be intense electric lights. All around her Mikoto was able to see densely packed jungle, and rocks, dirt and the other specifics of a jungle besides an actual sky.
In the distance, Mikoto could make out a large metal pipe sticking out of the ground and shooting up a constant blast of air up.
"WHAAAA!" said Natsu as he staggered back from the sudden change in lighting. "MY EYES!!!"
"Wow!" said Happy. "At least we'll know where we're going now!"
"I'm not sure about that." said Erza. "We have no idea how to get back to the surface area, and this jungle probably stretches under the entire city."
"Well then!" said Natsu. "We're just going to have to look around every inch of this forest until we find the way out...Oh hey! Look! Berries!"
Natsu and Happy rushed over to a bush that was full of red succulant looking berries.
"Natsu! Happy! Stay away, we don't know what kind of fruit that is!" said Lucy. But she was too late, Natsu and Happy were already stuffing their faces full of berries.
"Oh, sorry Lucy, did ya want some?" said Natsu handing a handful of the fruit out to Lucy.
"No!" said Lucy. "Aren't you guys at least slightly worried about what could happen?"
"Awe come on!" said Happy. "What's the worst that could....Aye?...."
"Happy?" said Mikoto.."Are you okay? And you too Natsu...you both look weird..."
Suddenly Natsu pointed out randomly. "Hey look Happy! It's a tree! And it sounds like Mikoto!"
"Aye sir!" said Happy twirling around in a dizzy drunk manner. "A Railgun tree!"
Natsu and Happy went over and started hugging a very disturbed looking Mikoto.
"Haha..haha.." said Natsu dizzily as drool came out of his mouth. "Look, we're tree huggers!"
"Aye!" said Happy hugging Mikoto's leg. "Tree huggers!"
"You...have got..to be kidding me.." said Mikoto.
"Hmmm.." said Erza examining the berry bush. "This fruit must bear a hullucinigenic of some sort...how long it will take to wear off though, only time will tell."
"Well time better tell it to me pretty quick!" said Mikoto. "Because these guys are freaking me out!"
"LUCY!" Natsu suddenly let go of Mikoto and ran over to Gray. Natsu began stroking Gray's hair all dizzy like.1
"I never told you this Lucy, but you have the most beautiful hair in the whole wide world! Nothing could be compared to that beautiful golden hair!"
"Natsu! Get off of me!" shouted Gray. "I'm not Lucy!"
"I knew you would agree with me Lucy!" said Natsu putting an arm around Gray's shoulder, his eyes unfocused. Natsu put his face into Gray's head and began sniffing his hair deeply. "Oh Lucy, the conditioner you use is amazing!"
The others just stared with looks of utter shock on their faces.
"Er...uhh....er...I have no idea what to say." Mikoto muttered.
"Wow..." said Happy dancing around all dizzy. "Charle, you have always been my number 1!"
Happy took a surprised Elli by the paw and looked her deep in the eyes with his unfocused pupils. "I've always loved you Charle! Please marry me!"
"Eh!?" said Elli
Happy suddenly began chewing on Elli's ear. "Oh...thank you for bringing me so many fish Charle! They taste wonderful!"
"EEEEEK!!" Elli screamed trying to pull her ear away from Happy. "Happy! That's not a fish!!"
"Okay that's it!" said Mikoto pulling Happy off of Elli. "Nobody goes eating my cat like that!"
"M-Mikoto...could you take a look and make sure I'm not bleeding..?" said Elli as she felt her ear tearfully.
"Well one thing's for sure," said Gray as he pushed Natsu off of himself. "None of us should ever touch any of the food in this forest."
Natsu and Happy lay on the ground looking at the domed cieling with goofy looks on their faces.
"Hey..Happy, how did we get to the middle of the ocean?" asked Natsu.
"Ocean? I thought we were in that legendary place they call Canada.." said Happy. "Where all the bacon is just ham...and the guards wear bears on their heads...yay Canada..."2
"But I like bacon when it's not just ham..." said Natsu.
Everybody else looked at each other and shrugged. Erza picked up Natsu while Mikoto tucked Happy under her arm.
"Well, when they sober up, I'm sure the memory of sniffing Gray's hair is gonna be enough to teach Natsu a lesson." Mikoto muttered.1
And so the group wandered through the forest with two of their number hallucinating in tow. As Mikoto walked through the lush undergrowth, she began to notice how strange and exotic all the plants were, and how extremely dangerous.
At one point, how dangerous this place might be, became apparent when Wendy noticed a extremely large looking flower nearby. It was a rainbow of colors, and it seemed to switch and shift colors like a hologram.
"Wow!" said Wendy walking close to flower as she carried Charle in her arms. "It's so pretty!"
Suddenly the flower gave a tremendous lurch, and in an instant, it's middle split into a large drooling fanged mouth which opened up wide in preparation to swallow Charle and Lucy whole.
In a flash of electric power and slicing blades, Erza and Mikoto both stabbed into the monstrous plant, Erza with two swords she just requipped and Mikoto with her Secret Art: Great Flashing Lotus Blade.
The flower monster hissed and melted into a gooey puddle of acid which hissed and sizzeled into the ground.
"I think we should probably not touch anything that looks beautiful either." said Erza.
Mikoto nodded. "I can definitely agree on that."
Happy, who was currently being carried by Lucy as Elli fluttered overhead, giggled. "Hehehe...again again...make the clown do the squirty flower again..."
Mikoto tried to count the hours they had been walking after that, but the place was so humid, and the area was just so weird and strange, she began to lose track of everything, which was unusual for espers who had such calculative minds.
Eventually she felt like she might be losing it after Natsu dizzily sang Surfing Bird for the 80th time in a row.
"Oh for the last time Natsu!" said Mikoto. "We already know that the Bird is the Word!!"
Natsu stopped singing and gave Mikoto a dizzy irritated look. "Well, well, well...you're a mean Railgun tree."
"I'm not a tree!!!"
"I think we had better sit and take a rest." said Erza. "I'm starting to think the only way for us to get out is up..."
Everybody except the hallucinating Natsu and Happy looked up at the domed cieling. It would probably make more sense to just fly up their with Happy, Elli, and Charle and break a hole in the cieling and come back for the rest...but it seemed that plan might not be the best right now with Natsu and Happy's current conditions.
"Well, they'res plenty of stuff in here for a floating city." said Mikoto. "If this stuff is here, then it has to have gotten here somehow, plus their's all these lights in here, there has to be an entrance and an exit for maintenance in case the lights break or something."
"Maybe." said Gray. "But at the moment we're kinda lost on how to find wherever the maintenance area is."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" A voice ran out in the jungle, laughing psychotically. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
"Eh?" said Wendy. "what's so funny?"
"Wasn't any of us." said Lucy. "None of us laugh like that."
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!" the laugh continued to echo through the jungle.
"Why does that laugh sound so familiar?" said Elli as she jumped flew into Mikoto's arms fearfully.
"That laugh.." said Mikoto. "It's that same psycho laugh he always gets when he's in a mega fight...don't tell me it's..."
"BAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAM!!!" The ground shook as a large monstrous lizard with spikes all over it's body crashed through the trees moving quickly like a viper, it's every footstep being reminiscient of a automatic gun due to how quickly the creature stomped through the forest.
But it was the boy sitting on the creature's back that caught everyone's attention. It was a scrawny looking boy with white hair, red eyes, and a psychotic looking smile. People who knew of Fairy Tail and Academy City would have guessed this to be Accelerator from Earthland...but this wasn't it, this was General Domus Accelerator of the 7 Divine Generals.
Unlike his Earthland counterpart, and much like the other Edo generals, Domus wore an A.E.A. The suit part of the armor was pitch black with white stripe designs near the chest area. His bottom half was replaced with two large robotic legs...apparently Domus had lost his real legs some time ago. His hands were covered with gloves that had white line designs going down each finger.
"Good boy Reptilanus." said Domus with a psychotic smile that was not too far off from Accelerator's when he got into a fight. "You were able to sniff them out quite easily I see."
"Hey, it's Santa and his sled!" said Natsu waving. "Hi Santa!"4
"NATSU GET BACK!!" Shouted Mikoto activating her Thunder Dragon wings and stepping in front of Natsu as Domus jumped off the lizard and reached his hand out.
Mikoto closed her wings around herself protectively, but when Domus's hand reached close, instead of touching and being blocked by the lightning, Domus's vector control came into affect, and a hole split in the wings around Domus's hand which touched Mikoto's stomach.
Mikoto immediately felt a strong lurching sensation, and she shot off like a bullet straight into Natsu, and the two of them smashed and crashed through the trees and a tremendous speed before they landed in a large crater in an explosion of dust and plants.
Mikoto got up rubbing her head tiredly as Erza requipped instantly into her Black Wing armor and came at Domus with her two swords flashing.
Domus stopped in his tracks and grinned as Erza's blades glanced harmlessly off of him as if he had an invisable bubble around him.
"Oh my..it's been a long time since I've eaten human flesh.." said Domus licking his lips. "What a delicious time we live in."
"Wow.." said Lucy. "Eat us? You make Accelerator look sain!"
"Oh?" said Domus. "I have an Earthland counterpart? Do tell.."
"Everybody fall back!" shouted Erza. "We can't defeat his vector deflection without some sort of special enchantment! We need to go now!"
"Man!" said Gray. "Makes me wish Touma was with us..he's the only guy who could ever actually hit Accelerator.." As he said this, Gray thrust a hand out and caused a massive sheet of ice to erupt around Accelerator, so as to obscure his vision as the group scattered into the trees.
Mikoto took this oppertunity to tuck Elli under her arm and Natsu under the other as she ran into the jungle as well. "Dang it...who knows how long it'll take to rejoin everyone...but at least it'll be harder for him to hunt us seperately.."1
Suddenly Natsu gave a ginormous cry and stumbled out of Mikoto's grasp.
"Natsu what are you doing!? We need to get out of here!" exclaimed Mikoto.
Natsu suddenly hugged Mikoto as he spoke dizzly. "Oh...Lucy...it looks like we might be done for here."
"I'm not Lucy!" shouted Mikoto. "It's that stupid fruit you ate, it's making it like you're on anesthetics or something!"
"Lucy, in case we don't get out of this..." said Natsu as a one eye stared to the side, and one eye stared to the other. "I just wanted to let you know that I've always loved you...you're my everything!"
Mikoto blushed. "Really! I don't think you should be saying something that private to somebody other then Lucy.."
"But you are Lucy!" said Natsu with a goofy grin. "And so while we're out here in the middle of the ocean, I wanted to do this!" The hallucinating Natsu planted a sloppy wet kiss right onto Mikoto's lips.
"AIIIEEEEEE!!!!" Mikoto punched Natsu straight in the jaw and he went out like a light bulb.2
Lucy, who had just come onto the scene with Happy tucked in her arms looked shocked. "WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED!?"
"I DON'T KNOW!!!" Mikoto screamed as she put her hands on her now super red face. "HE THOUGHT I WAS YOU!!!"
Suddenly, the hallucinating Happy flew out of the surprised Lucy's arms and grabbed Mikoto's cheeks with his paws. "I love you Charle!"
Happy planted a kiss straight onto Mikoto's lips and then went straight into lala land as Mikoto punched him in the face too. "WHY IS EVERYBODY KISSING ME!!!? I WANTED MY FIRST KISS TO BE THAT SPIKEY HAIRED IDIOT!!! NOT THESE TWO!!!"3
Lucy shook her head as he cheeks went red. "They are so going to be embarrassed when they come to their senses...come on, help me pick them up!"
Together, Lucy and Mikoto carried Natsu and ran through the woods as Elli flew over and picked up Happy.
As they ran they could hear Domus Accelerator's laugh getting closer.
"Darn it!" said Lucy. "All our screaming must have drawn him closer."
"C-can you really blame me?" said Mikoto, her face still really red with embarrassment.
Lucy, Mikoto, and Elli stopped for a moment.
"Come on." said Mikoto. "If we change direction suddenly, it might throw him off...wait, Lucy can you summon Gemini right now, or is he still posing as Meribeth?"
"You're thinking of using a double to lead him off?" said Lucy with a smile. "Great idea..AAAAAHHHHh!!!"
Before Lucy could finish her sentence, all of them suddenly felt the ground move from under them as they fell into what seemed to be a pitfall trap.
They fell to the bottom with a sore crunch as the cover for the trap closed up over them and made everything black.
Just as Mikoto was about to say something, a hand covered her mouth as the owner said. "Shhh...don't say.. a word..."
For a silent suspenseful moment, Mikoto heard Edo-Accelerator's laugh go by...then all went silent.
"Good." said a familiar voice. "That's one spectacular joker gone...now time for you to meet the other spectacular joker!"
There was an orange light as the owner of the voice lit a torch. Mikoto almost activated her wings and went on full assault when she saw who it was.
A masked harlequinn stood before them, one eyehole of his smiley face mask was a star shape while the other was a crescent moon. However, unlike his Earthland self, whose costume had been a combination of midnight blue and yellow, this harlequinn wore dark purple and white.
"Howdy do folks!" said the harlequinn jovially.
"Y-you're.." said Lucy.
"Night Reveler!" Mikoto finished.
"Actually, the name is Twilight Prankster!" said Edo-Night Reveler with his jovial voice. "And I welcome you! To the Forest of Mutations!! Would anybody like some mutant frog monster juice by the way?"4
A Railgun In Fairy Tail Trivia: Part 2
1. Erza actually has a secret infatuation with Gekota that almost rivals that of Mikoto.
2. Despite the initial assumptions that Angelus was the last of his kind along with Diablo. There are several of their species still left surviving in other galaxies. An estimated number of about 4 other then the now surviving Diablo. However, they are much too prideful in their own amazing power to be bothered with any Earthlings, and they ignore the war with Dravis in order to avoid bloodshed. Diablo does not know of their existance, and they prefer it that way as Diablo is the most feared of their species.1
3. It is a well known fact by Mikoto, that Elli absolutely loves it if you tickle a certain soft spot behind her left ear. Mikoto discovered this after she brought Elli a hat and came across the spot while helping Elli fit the hat on her head.
4. Before Mikoto joined Fairy Tail, during the two months she wandered Fiore, she met Lamia Scale during which Lyon had an instant obsessive crush on her. Mikoto now feels as uneasy around Lyon as he does around Kuroko. While Lyon is nowhere near as perverted as Kuroko, his normally cool and calm attitude turn into silly and love obsessed antics whenever he is around Mikoto.
5. In between the 2nd and 3rd books, Laxus Dreyar actually trained Mikoto on how to more properly use her Dragon Slayer abilities. The results of these trainings, allowed Mikoto to increase the range and power of her Roar attacks. Plus she invented several new moves, which Laxus also knows how to use.2