A forest. Normally, this still standing world of nature is silent. The only thing that can be heard are the chirping of birds, and the rustling of animals. A peaceful place full of life...but today it was loud and full of death.
An explosion rent the air as a sandy haired girl wearing a black t-shirt and blue shorts ran out of the woods. She held her shoulder while gritting her teeth in pain as more explosions blasted the ground near her.
"Dang it!" growled Mikoto. "This isn't how I visualized spending my summer.."
Flying after Mikoto, were several large massive black dragons, their mouths were smoking with malice as they continued to fire explosive blasts from their mouths.
Before there had been at least 25 dragons. Mikoto had managed to 21 of those dragons until she had recieved a very serious wound in the shoulder.
The Etherial Wyrms..as Dravis's minions were called, were unlike any other dragon. They could devour any substance...any element...whether fire, flesh, or iron, and use it to replenish themselves. They weren't immune to those elements, but this still made them very dangerous. Their breaths may seemed fire-like in origin, but in reality it was a highly explosive poison. Natsu, the resident Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail, had once tried to eat the explosions, only to find himself paralyzed and weak for 3 days before the medics could drain the poison out of him.
If it wounded you, it drained your physical and magical energy slowly, but quickly enough that in a battle environment you would become quickly overwhelmed. It had been 3 hours since Mikoto had been wounded..already she was feeling extremely feverish and weak...it was a wonder she could still run.
"Get off my back!!" Mikoto growled as a lightning bolt shot from her bangs and blasted one of the Wyrms in the wing.
The dragon faltered from the powerful blast and crashed into the trees as the other three dragons continued to follow her.
Mikoto attempted to fire off another lightning bolt but her feverish mind faltered slightly in calculations and instead a small spark jumped off her bangs.
Normaly, as someone who could use both magic and esper powers, Mikoto had a bigger advantage then most. Her magic powered up her esper powers, making her stronger combatively then the average level 5. And since her esper abilities didn't run on a reserve of energy like magic did, she could still fight even if her magic energy was low. Plus she could devour her esper electricity to fuel her Dragon Slayer nature.
But the poison from the Etherial Wyrms was clouding her brain, making it nearly impossible to perform the calculations she needed to control her powers. This made it hard to fight and create some sparks for her to eat. Right now, the thick tree line was the only reason the remaining dragons hadn't killed her yet.
The rest of her friends had become seperated earlier in the battle, having been attacked by more of the Etherial Wyrms. Mikoto was sure they would be fine...the Etherial Wyrms had split off into groups of 5 to attack them, not like the 25 which had come after Mikoto. She was sure that Natsu and Nicole were probably making Wyrm chops out of those monsters right now.
Mikoto's eyes suddenly widened as she noticed the trees were starting to thin out. According to what she knew, there was a clearing near the forest about 20 miles wide. Nothing but grassy fields for miles...and a perfect hunting ground for airborne predators. Either Mikoto took advantage of the tree cover and took down her enemies now...or she was dead meat.
Mikoto held her fingers out in front of her and concentrated. "Come on...come one...work!!"
Several small sparks jumped out of her finger tips. Mikoto opened her mouth quickly and sucked in the sparks. Mikoto whirled around as Massive electrical wings burst out of her back. She puffed up her cheeks.
"ROAR OF THE THUNDER DRAGON!!" A massive beam of lightning blasted out of Mikoto's mouth and tore apart the tree tops above her. Mikoto heard the dragons roar out in pain as their very bodies were bathed with incredibly dangerous electrical power.
Mikoto fell to her knees panting as she watched what looked like two masses fall through the smoke with a crash. Wait a second...two? Weren't there three Wyrms left?
Suddenly a massive black dragon burst through the trees and pinned Mikoto to the ground with a massive black talon. Mikoto's wings dissapeared as the last of her energy dissapeared.
"Crap.." Mikoto muttered. She prepared to concentrate her esper power in defense.
As the dragon opened it's mouth in preperation to bite her head off, a sudden series of images flashed through her head....a white room...a chair...a device attached to her head as she was forced to feel the pain of torturous horrid memories.
Mikoto suddenly froze up...her eyes wide...the electrical charge that had been building up in her body suddenly vanished. She felt exposed..vulnerable..defenseless.
The Wyrm's intelligent dark eyes recognized Mikoto's sudden moment of weakness, and shot it's head down, determined to tear out it's enemy's neck.
"IRON FIST OF THE FIRE DRAGON!!"
Like a miracle. a flaming fist rammed into the side of the Wyrm's neck before it could reach it's goal, and the dragon choked as his neck broke and he experienced an instantaneous death. The pink haired Natsu Dragneel kicked the dragon off of Mikoto with a flaming foot.
"Mikoto!!" Natsu ran over to his friend and kneeled next to her. "Are you okay!?"
Mikoto unfroze, shaking herself slightly. "N-Natsu. Sorry..."
"Natsu! Mikoto!" Two cats, one blue and the other pink with a blue dress flew in on feathered wings and landed next to Mikoto.
"That wound looks serious.." said Natsu looking at Mikoto's shoulder which was slowly turning a nauxious looking purple under the burned fabric of the shirt sleeve. "We better get ya back to Wendy or we're in a pickle."
Natsu picked up Mikoto in his arms. "Come on..Nicole and Lucy are getting worried."
Mikoto remained silent. This was all her fault...she might not have needed Natsu's help if it hadn't been for her own weakness.
The past month, she had been experiencing other freeze ups like the one she just had. She would suddenly remember that time she had suffered in what was known as the Mental Intrusion device. Edolas had not been entirely kind to her. According to Lucy, Mikoto's Edolas counterpart Mikaris had said that the scars from such a device never truly faded...well Mikoto never before wished so much that somone was wrong about something.
"Hey Mikoto..." said Natsu as he continued to walk through the woods with Mikoto in his arms. "It happened again, didn't it.."
Mikoto nodded slowly, feeling more guilty every second she thought about it.
"It ain't your fault...got that?" said Natsu. "What they did to you back on Edolas isn't your fault..."
"...."
There was a time which Mikoto would have been greatly cheered up by Natsu's words...but after several close calls...she was beginning to feel that she was more of a danger to her friends then her enemies.
Mikoto was about to voice this outloud...when something caught her attention...not a sight, nor a sound...but more like a scent...a scent she knew.
"Natsu.."
"I smell it too!" said Natsu whirling around. But it was too late. A massive explosion of black fire erupted in the area, causing, Natsu, Mikoto, Happy, and Elli to fly off in different directions.
Mikoto crawled out of the burned crater coughing, her vision becoming dimmer every second from the Wyrm poison.
Suddenly a foot stepped on her hand, and Mikoto looked up at a kill happy face with wild yellow hair.
"Zancrow.." Mikoto said.
"Howdy Railgun." said the God Slayer with a crazed smile. "Been a while since we last tussled...bit unfortunate we can't do it again with you being like a rag doll right now and all..HAHAHAHA!"
"...urgh..." Mikoto attempted to generate a few sparks from her free hand but Zancrow suddenly kicked her in the side, and she flew into a tree as Zancrow laughed again.
"Man!! Torturing the helpless never get's old!" said Zancrow. "How Diablo ever lost to schmuck like you, I'll never know...maybe that ol' alien is losing it in his old age! HAHAHAHAHA!!"
Zancrow swiped his hand at Mikoto. "Cloud of The Fire God!"
Mikoto screamed in pain as a massive blast of black fire exploded and hurled her into the air before she landed on her back. Mikoto scowled at Zancrow from where she lay. "I'm not about to be killed looking at your smug ugly face.."
"Oh?" said Zancrow, his grin widening evilly. "Well then, how about you look at his face then....?"
Zancrow picked up the unconscious Natsu by the head and brought a knife to his throat.
"No!!" Mikoto shouted.
"Oh YES!!" cackled Zancrow as he began to press the blade against Natsu's throat.
I have to make it....I have to...That's all Mikoto thought as she shakily brought the silver coin out of her pocket and rested it against her thumb, aiming it at Zancrow.
"Now I think I'll make this cut slow! HAHAHAHAHA!!" Zancrow said with absolute glee.
Have to make it..
"Here it comes!!"
Must...make it..
"SAY BYE BYE SALAMANDER!!!"
"NOOOOOO!!!!!" Mikoto screamed as a tremendous spark erupted from the coin on her thumb and she flicked the small round disk.
There was a sonic boom and an orange streak. and the sound of multiple trees crashing. Zancrow stared at Mikoto in shock for a minute....then looked back down at his own chest where there was a molten 2 ft wide round hole. Behind the hole, Mikoto could see the rest of the forest, where trees had been blown off their trunks.
"Y-you...." Zancrow coughed as Mikoto stared into his eyes. The cold psychotic light in Zancrow's eyes then vanished. He fell to the ground with a thud as Natsu came to with a jolt.
"WHOAH!!" Said Natsu jumping back and looking at the dead Zancrow with amazement. "What just happened!?"
"I-I just..." Mikoto muttered in shock. "I just killed..."
Natsu ran over. "Mikoto calm down! You're shaking like crazy! What happened!?"
"Natsu...I think I just killed somebody..." said Mikoto quivering even harder. "I just...killed someone."
3 miles away. Around an hour later.
"They haven't been seen for ages...where are they?"
The blonde girl called Lucy Heartfillia sat outside the cluster of green tents as she tried to spot her missing friends through the clusters of trees. Next to her sat a muscular man with wild black hair who was busy chomping on a piece of iron in his mouth like a candy bar.
"Jeez.." Muttered Gajeel. "How long does it take for Natsu to find somebody after an attack? Mikoto couldn't have gone that far."
"For your information, she was attacked by more of those things then we were.." said Lucy.
"Yeah..but still..she's stronger then either of us anyways." said Gajeel. "Those Wyrms shoulda been toast."
Lucy didn't respond to this. Instead she continued to look worriedly into the forest.
"Hold on.." said Gajeel standing up. "I think...I think I smell someone coming...it's them!"
Natsu burst out of the trees. holding Mikoto and the unconscious Happy and Elli in his arms.
"Man.." said Gajeel. "Did they run into a psychotic freight train or something?"1
Lucy ran over to them, feeling relieved one minute...then worried the moment she saw Mikoto's shell shocked face.
"Guys! What happened!? Are you okay!?"
"Zancrow's dead.." said Natsu solemnly. "Mikoto....killed him."
Lucy didn't know how to respond to this. "Oh...well that's good...I suppose.."
Natsu shook his head and nudged his chin at Mikoto who still looked out of it.
"I think she was looking right at his face when she did it.." said Natsu quietly. "That can't have been easy."
"They call soldiers heroes..." Mikoto murmured. "But after this...I don't know what they are..."
Lucy put a comforting hand on Mikoto's head. "Come on..why don't we get you something to eat.."
"First I spaz out again..now this.." Mikoto murmured. "What's happening to me...?"
Lucy and Natsu looked at each other, but neither could come up with an answer to justifly the cause of all this bloodshed...
Because while many held an excuse for it as always...in the end the horrid monster known as 'war' was just that...a monster.
Current Guilds and squads in SEAMS.
Fairy Tail squads. 3 total
Squad 1 leaders: Laxus, Mirajane.
350 men total
Squad 2 leaders: Gildarts, Markarov.
450 men total
Squad 3 leaders: Erza.
Blue Pegasus squads. 2 total
Squad 1 leaders: Ichiya, Bob.
300 men total
Squad 2 leaders: Hibiki, Nichiya.
340 men total
Lamia Scale Squads. 3 total
Squad 1 leaders: Jura.
400 men total
Squad 2 leaders: Lyon, Chelia.
96 men total
Squad 3 leaders: Yuka, Sherry.
130 men total
Sabertooth Squads. 1 total
Squad leader: Sting
1000 men total.
Crime Sorciere. Independent group, no SEAMS military personel.
Members: Jellal, Meredy, Cobra, Racer, Hoteye, Angel, Nightmare, Twilight Prankster.4
Former affiliations: Magic Council, Grimoire Heart, Oracion Seis, Edolas Hydra Head.
Notable members in Squad 3 of the Fairy Tail division:
Mikoto Misaka (Railgun)
Natsu Dragneel
Lucy Heartfilia
Happy
Elli Pauleen
Gajeel Redfox
Pantherlilly
Wendy Marvell
Charle
Gray Fullbuster
Juvia Lockser
Nicole Mavros
Maverick (Nicole's Exceed partner)
Levy Mcgarden
Gravix Terras
Erza Scarlet
Accelerator
Gunha Sogiita (Attack Crash)
Guild members who are at command center and not participating in direct battle:
Fairy Tail: Misaki Shokuhou (Mental Out)3
Sabertooth: Yukino, Rogue.
Other Independent group participating in the war.
ITEM
Members: Shizuri Mugino (Meltdowner), Shiage Hamazura, Saiai Kinuhata, Rikuo Takitsubo,
(Let it be known that Saiai is currently in contact with Bickslow of Fairy Tail.)1