The Tourbus for the students was gone. Mikoto could tell that much. Why they left when they were obviously missing 4 students, 2 of them having made a big deal on the bus about motion sickness, was beyond her.
However, it probably wouldn't have been a good thing to get the supervisors for that bus wondering why one of their supposed students looked like she just fought off several T-Rexs with her bare hands.
For now, Lucy used the first aid kit they bought before they took the plane here to bandage up Mikoto's back.
"We don't have much money left." said Nicole as the group trecked alongside the road. "We're going to have to figure out some other way to get to Taipei and get Mikoto a new set of clothes."
"Yeah." said Mikoto looking at her torn clothing. "I look like zombie appocalypse victim right now.."
"I still can't believe you got to fight Erza again!" exclaimed Natsu. "I wanted to fight her!"
"Natsu, that wasn't the real Erza." said Lucy. "It was some kind of phantom."
"Yeah, but it had all of Erza's moves and skills!" said Natsu. "So beating her would've been like beating the real deal!"
"Not exactly." said Mikoto. "This Erza was more ruthless then the real one, more willing to kill. And I have a feeling the other two phantoms are gonna be the same way."
"Well if one of them turns into Gray." said Happy. "You know what to do!"
"Yeah." said Natsu with a snigger. "Pretend to go all lovey dovey on him and he'll keel over!"
"What?" said Mikoto. "That doesn't make any sense!"
"Eh?" said Natsu. "I thought you knew!"
"Knew what?"
"Gray has a slight crush on you." said Happy.
"Don't be ridiculous." said Nicole. "He just thinks she's kinda cute that's all, he told me, and since my spirits can read emotions, I confirmed that was true. In fact, most of the guild think she's cute."
"They...what?" said Mikoto as her face began to blush.
"The whole bold and brash act combined with loving all the cutsie stuff when she thinks nobody is looking has made her very popular."
"I-I don't l-love that much cutsie stuff!" said Mikoto as her face grew redder.
"Of course you do!" said Lucy. "There's Gekota, that Hello Kitty lunchbox you have under your pillow."1
"Aye!" said Happy. "And that pink dress with the ribbon you bought last year when you thought nobody was looking."1
"That's right." said Natsu. "And Kuroko says you like to look at cute kitten videos, and that you have a giant teddy bear from when you were little hidden under your bed."
"Plus there's the way you act around Touma." said Nicole. "Trying and failing to pretend you don't like him that much, you always look so cute when you do that. And there was also that time Mira and Master got you that Pikachu costume and you wore it on Halloween hoping that nobody would recognize you.."1
Mikoto could feel her face practically steaming now on her red blushing skin. "H-how do you all know all this stuff!?"
"We just knew you well enough to find out by accident." said Natsu shruggiing.
"And Kuroko told us!" said Happy.
"Grrr..." Mikoto bangs began to spark. "Kuroko..."1
"Hey everyone!" said Elli pointing a paw out. "What's that?"
Mikoto looked up and saw what looked like an old rusty looking tow SUV just sitting on the side of the road.
The group walked over to it and Mikoto looked over the thing. "Looks abandoned...really abandoned. I could start it with my powers, but there's no telling if it still has any gas."
Natsu and Nicole piled into the back with Happy and Elli while Mikoto took the driver's seat and Lucy took shotgun.
"Are you sure about this Mikoto?" said Lucy. "None of us even have licenses."
"Well we're gonna have to get back to the airport somehow." said Mikoto. "I'm thinking maybe we can stowaway on the cargo hold of a plane to Taiwan or something. Or I can get on a computer and hack us up some tickets. I don't know, either way, it's gonna take way too long on foot."
Mikoto took a deep breath and touched a finger to the ignition keyhole in the SUV, letting a spark travel in and instantly start the car.
"Got it." said Mikoto. "Okay, just gotta remember what Dad taught me...eh..in the U.S. it's always in the right lane..okay.."
Mikoto turned the wheel and eased her foot on the gas. Soon the SUV was speeding down the road at a moderate pace as Mikoto nervously drove the thing.
"Calm down Mikoto." said Lucy gently. "Your hands are clenching the wheel like crazy."
"Th-this is actually only the 3rd time I've driven a vehicle." said Mikoto as a bit of sweat went down her brow. "Last time I totalled the thing and nearly killed me and my dad.."1
"Well I'm sure you were young.."
"It happened only a month after I met you guys." said Mikoto.
"Oh.." said Lucy. "Er...well, just be careful then."
"Uh..huh.." Mikoto said as she began to sweat a little more. "Sure..r-real careful."
"Just hurry up and crash." moaned the motion sick Natsu. "End my suffering.."
"HOLY CRAP!" Mikoto screamed as out of nowhere, a figure appeared in the middle of the road.
The SUV crashed straight into the boy who just stood there unmoving and unharmed as the SUV smacked into him as if he were a titanium pole.
Mikoto felt the air bag smack into her, nearly knocking her breath away. She then felt a a large clawed hand pull her out of the SUV and throw her into the road. The hand curled itself into a giant fist and made to smack itself into Mikoto's body.
Mikoto let a few lightning bolts fly from her bangs and ripped through the hand, causing it to suddenly disintegrate into nothing.
The boy, Teitoku Kakiene, walked out of the wreckage looking slightly irritated, but extremely smug. "Now now Railgun, you were supposed to die weren't you? And yet you have the audacity to land an entire plane so easily."
Teitoku raised a hand, and a monstrous golem made of stone formed out of mid air and rumbled towards Mikoto, it's fists raised. Suddenly there was a flaming slash and the giant golem broke to pieces with Natsu standing over it, looking at Teitoku with an angry expression. His flaming Gauntlet Sword was emitting such an intense heat, that the ground around Natsu began to turn molten.
"Hey you." said Natsu. "I don't know who the heck you are. But try and hurt one of my friends again and I'll cook ya into an omlette..the extra burned kind."
"Natsu Dragneel." said Teitoku. "Yes, I've heard about you. Awaki had a little run in with you at during that Tree Diagram incident. (A Certain Magical Fire Dragon.) I heard you're a dangerous fellow. But I assure you, you are nowhere near prepared to make an enemy out of me."
"The question isn't about whether I'm ready to make an enemy out of you!" growled Natsu. "The question is, are ya ready to make an enemy out of Fairy Tail!?"
"As One Who Has Touched The Territory Of God." said Teitoku. "I think I'm more then ready to deal with one injured level 5 Dragon Slayer, 3 other nitwits, and two cats."
"SHUT THE HELL UP!!" Natsu yelled. "VOLCANO FLASH OF THE FIRE DRAGON!!"
Natsu swiped his flaming blade, letting a huge explosion of fire crash into Teitoku. In the process, Teitoku was blasted to smithereens along with the SUV.
"Not bad Salamander." said Teitoku's voice. Immediately, strange white particles began to converge behind Natsu until Teitoku's body had reformed, only this time his skin hair and clothes were white, and his eyes were black with yellow glowing irises. "But I've moved beyond the level of an ordinary mortal."
"How the hell!?" said Natsu.
"My powers stem from an unknown matter that only I can control." said Teitoku. "Nonexistant matter if you like to think about it in another way. Not only can I create any object I wish, but I can also control various kinds of energy..around 25,000 in fact..here's a little fire in your pants dragon boy.."
As soon as Teitoku said these words, a massive explosion erupted beneath Natsu.1
As soon as the giant fireball engulfed Natsu, Mikoto began to chuckle.
"What's so funny girl?" said Teitoku. "I can't imagine me blowing up your friend amuses you."
"Well let's think." said Mikoto standing up, her massive electric wings igniting at her back. "We're not on a plane anymore..so I can attack you full force. Lucy, and Nicole are here to back me up this time...oh yeah, and you're such an ignorant idiot that you gave Natsu the one thing that is gaurunteed to make him stronger. A good meal."
Behind Teitoku, the massive flames shrank and converged as Natsu sucked it all into his mouth. Natsu let out a satisfied sigh. "Ha!! Now that I've eaten..I'M ALL FIRED UP!!"
"You really don't know much about Dragon Slayers don't you Kakiene?" said Mikoto. "Cause unless you can somehow poison fire, I think that was the most stupid move imaginable."
"So overconfident." said Teitoku as his irises began to glow. "And so very blind.."
Six massive feathery wings spread out from Teitoku's back. He flew into the air, his wings glowing against the light of the bright sun. "Now I'll show you the true power of a god, tremble before the light, Railgun.."
A powerful blast of light rays blasted down from Teitoku's wings, exploding into the road with enough force to blow the entire group back.
Lucy managed to recover first, taking a golden key out from her pouch. "Using light huh!? Well two can play at that game! Open! Gate of the Lion!!"
Again, Loke appeared in a burst of light. "Well Lucy, twice in one day, don't worry, I'll beat this one to quivering pulp."
Loke engulfed his fists in powerful golden light and leapt up to meet Teitoku in the air.
Loke made to punch Teitoku. "Regulus Impact!!"
A huge explosion of light exploded from the two as Teitoku blocked Loke's fist with a hand and then grabbed onto it.
"Wh-what!?" said Loke. "My magic..is useless!?"
"I'll admit, my hand kind of hurts now." said Teitoku with an evil crazed grin. "But it's nothing I can't handle!"
Teitoku threw Loke into the ground and then thrust his hand out at him. Immediately, an invisable force smashed Loke against the asphalt, creating a large crater.
"Attack when you actually decide to stop acting like an Amateur." said Teitoku.
"Ya smug jerk!!" Natsu puffed up his cheeks as Mikoto did the same.
"Roar of the Fire Dragon!!"
"Roar of the Thunder Dragon!!"
Teitoku gave a massive flap with his wings, causing tremendous twisters of wind to explode outwards, dissipating the fire and lightning easily.
"As powerful as that Dragon's blood has made you Railgun!" taunted Teitoku. "You're still only the 3rd strongest among us Level 5s, and magic isn't going to change that! My powers have expanded beyond what I used to be..I no longer even have a true body..if you destroy this one, I can merely form a new one..it's hopeless to outrun your fate!"1
Teitoku began to laugh hysterically as a tremendous light energy blasted outwards from his six wings, covering a 50 meter radius.
Mikoto yelled out and spread her wings as massively as she could, enclosing them over her friends and blocking the energy blast.
"Not bad Railgun! Not bad!" said Teitoku. "But I am the one who has touched the territory of-"
Teitoku couldn't finish his sentence, because at the moment, Nicole Mavros had just leapt up from behind and used a ginormously enlarged Ghost Talon to smash him into the ground.
At same moment, Natsu roared, engulfing his body in flames and tackling into Teitoku's right wings, pinning him to the ground.
Mikoto took out a small coin and flicked it in Teitoku's direction. "Railgun Meteor of the Thunder Dragon!!"
One sonic boom later, and the coin morphed into a huge dragon made of lightning which roared and collided with Teitoku at incredible speed.
"You're the One Who Has Touched The Territory Of The Dead." said Nicole. "And we'll kill you as many times as we need to get that point across."
"Then you'll have a lot of time to kill." said Teitoku as he reformed in the dust. "Cause I can't really die anymore, can I?"
Teitoku laughed hysterically again as swarms and swarms of white beetles spread out from his body. "But you're right! Maybe they should change the name!! Howabout, instead of that we have, The One Who Is God!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
Mikoto opened her mouth for an angry retort, but suddenly found herself collapsing in pain. The beetles..they were eating through her bandages, digging into her injuries!
Mikoto looked desperately for the others. Lucy was unconscious, the swarm of beetles had knocked her against the road. Happy and Elli were busy trying to pull Nicole's hand out from a swarm of the white beetles themselves. Natsu was the only one left standing in Dark Matter's way.
"Do you see now? Fairy Tail!" said Teitoku. "I'm not like Accelerator, Black Whisper, or any other Level 5, I've reached beyond that..I am a god in my own right, and by taking the Railgun's life, my power will become absolute, immortal, unshakable, unquestionable! Diablo Etwatia will be nothing against me..The 10 Wizard Saints will look like flies...And I'll get to kill, kill, kill, and kill as much as I like!!"
"You're no god." Natsu growled.
"What did you say?" Teitoku said in a soft dangerous voice.
"You're no god." Natsu repeated. "You see, there's one thing about a god that's supposed to hold true. And it's that a god has to be unbeatable.."
"Hmph.." said Teitoku. "I am unbea-"
"Yah didn't let me finish." said Natsu. "I was going to ask, what kind of pathetic excuse for a god, would get beaten by a pissed off Dragon Slayer from Fairy Tail?"
Before Teitoku could respond, Natsu dashed right up to him and bashed a powerful flaming blade cloaked in lightning straight into him.. As a blast of fire and yellow lightning burst into the sky and blasted all the clouds apart, Natsu answered his own question. "Ya wanna know who that half ass god is? Well it's gonna be you!!"
Teitoku got up, his face furious. He felt his side. "You...you..I'm not reforming..how!?"
Natsu laughed. "I admit, I may not be the brightest match in the box, but hanging around Academy City's taught me a bit about energy and matter. Number 1, it's impossible to create matter, you can break it down and build it up, but creating matter out of nothing is a whoe different can of beans. That means that the real you is a bunch of your own secret undiscovered matter that's spread out over a massive area, letting you build, create, see, and a whole lot of other stuff.. Number 2. And this is something Mikoto taught me once, if ya cut off one computer from an entire network, it's can only work with whatever it's got already downloaded in it's hardrive.."1
"Fire Thunder Dragon mode." said Teitoku as his eyes widened in revelation. "Y-you used the electric energy from your attack just now to cut me off from the rest of my matter...however that still doesn't explain everything..I'm an esper, my personal reality allows me to go beyond the normal laws of physics! I can actually create my own unknown matter."
"Yeah, normally that would be true." said Natsu. "However, throughout this entire fight, Mikoto's been sending an electromagnetic field over this place, restricting the brainwaves of everyone within a certain distance's higher ability to use the other percentage of their brains..."
"Impossible!" screamed Teitoku. "How could you have communicated such a plan when my attack came so suddenly!?"
"Easy." said Natsu. "When you have a close bond..a bond unlike any other, understanding each other in battle becomes child's play. It's one of the things that makes us most dangerous. Ya see? This is what happens when ya make an enemy of the strongest guild...ya get burned!!"1
Teitoku's eyes began to glow with utter fury. "You idiot!! I still have the matter I've already formed!!"1
The beetles all swarmed back to Teitoku and reformed his six angelic wings. "I won't be beaten by an explosive idiotic wretch!! Face the true power of gods!!"
Teitoku launched himself at Natsu, his wings glowing powerfully with even more light.
Natsu stood his ground, his body surrounded with flames and lightning. "Roar of the..."
"DIE!!" Teitoku shouted, his wings glowing brighter.
"FIRE THUNDER DRAGON!!!" Natsu exhaled a tremendous blast of lightning cloaked fire.
Teitoku screamed as the attack exploded against his body. His wings burned up and disintegrated as he fell to the ground, covered in burns and residual electric charge.
Dark Matter lay upon the ground for a moment before dissapating into the wind like dust.
There was an eirie silence.
"He's not dead.." said Mikoto. "We merely cut off a part of him from his network and sent the rest of him into dissaray. He'll be back..but not for a while hopefully."
"So that was Dark Matter eh?" said Natsu. "If he could do that much, why didn't he just crash the plane immediately instead of giving us a chance to avoid it?"
"Who knows?" said Lucy. "He could compete with Night Reveler for World's Most Sadistic Crazy Head."3
"So.." said Nicole. "Anyone know how we're getting back to the airport now?"
Everyone else looked at each other, completely lost. Then Mikoto heard a horn honk as what appeared to be an old Chevy headed up the road.
Mikoto sighed and held out her thumb to the road. "Hope whoever that is doesn't mind blood in the back seat...cause I'm a mess."1