Welcome To The Palace Museum
"Holy cow.." Mikoto muttered. She and the rest of her friends were standing right outside the front entrance of Taipei 101. While most of the 101 stories was a towering spire into the sky, the bottom three floors was a tremendous mall with multiple entrances. Upon entering Mikoto could already see a ginormous food court all the way near the back, one bigger then even the food courts back in Academy City. On the right, lines were already bunched up to buy tickets to Taipei 101.
The only one not present at the moment was Natsu who had gone off somewhere to find workers uniforms for those who worked in the building. The idea would be to use that disguise to get to the top floor, as nobody really had any money at the moment. This worried Mikoto greatly because of the undeniable fact that none of them had eaten in a while, not since Dennys which was forever ago. And unlike how it used to be before the war started, you actually had to buy the food on the planes now since the prices were going up everywhere. A major fuel crises was going on in the middle east now thanks to Etherial Wyrms nesting around oil rigs.
"I could steal some food from the food court." suggested Nicole. "I'll just phase right through a wall, grab something, and they won't even notice me."
"I'm tired of doing so much stealing just to get around." moaned Mikoto. "I mean if we ever survive this, imagine how many years they'll put us in prison for identity fraud and hacking into government systems alone.."
"Hey." said Lucy. "If we do survive this, they'll be thanking us on their knees."
"And every year, they'll make a holiday known as Raigun day!" said Happy. "And everyone will recieve free fish!"
"And Gekotas!" said Elli.
"And they'll all remember how Dravis said ' What the heck!? Foiled again!' " Said Lucy.
Mikoto laughed. "And then Twilight Prankster will probably do graphite all over his dead body or something that says 'all powerful dragon, killed by teenage misfit'.1
"You know, I won't be surprised if he actually does something like that." said Nicole. "That is one weird clown."2
"So.." said Mikoto. "Since us dying seems likely, what would you guys want them to put on your headstone? Just curious.."
"Hmm.." Lucy thought about it a bit. "Not exactly sure."
Nicole smiled. "Bye."
"Huh? Where are you going?"
"No." said Nicole. "I mean that's what I want them to put on my headstone..no name..nothing...just..bye."
Mikoto, Lucy, Happy, and Elli just stared.
"You're joking right?" Mikoto asked. "Are you?"
"Death is never the end." said Nicole. "As a Ghost Dragon Slayer..I've always had means to appreciate that. You're merely moving on to a new beginning. So I won't bother much with having people left behind remember me, when they'll move on soon enough and join me. So just, bye...so what about you?"
"I would want a large memoriom of how I single handidly slew the Jabberwocky!" said Happy.
"Happy that never happened." said Mikoto.
"Nobody else has to know that."
"I'd just want my grave to say a blessing to all living things." said Elli with a cute sparkle in her eyes.
Everyone now looked at Mikoto.
"So what about you Mikoto?" Lucy asked. "What would you want your grave to say?"
Mikoto thought a little. "Hmmm...how about...Touma Stop Staring, I Know I'm Dead."2
"...."
"Oh don't look at me like that, you know I was joking." Mikoto said with a wink. "To be very honest, I can't really think of anything...but at least we all know what Natsu would put on his grave."
Everyone looked at each other at the same time and laughed saying. "Shut Up Gray!"
At that moment Natsu came back looking very sour. "Eh..looks like all the employees are on break..and guess what, they all went to the same place.."
"Where?" Mikoto asked.
"I dunno..some place called the Palace Museum."
"Hold on." said Mikoto digging into Nicole's backpack and taking out a subway map of Taiwan she had found earlier. "It's hours away from here if we walk..but if we take the train..hmm but we don't have money, should we just wait till they get back?"
"They're on a 2 day break." said Natsu. "They said that the top is closed up today for a private party of rich people. Supposedly their some sort of experts in crafting stuff out of coral."
"Makes sense." said Nicole. "I heard that there are a lot of shops selling coral and fine crafts related to it on the second floor."
"Now what?" asked Elli.
"Well, we won't walk all the way to the Palace Museum of course." said Mikoto. "It's not like those workers have their uniforms with them."
"Actually, I think I have another reason for us to go.." said Nicole holding up a pamphlett. "Answers..look at this."
Mikoto took the pamphet and read an article next to the picture of a large key made of green stone that was in Japanese and English translation. "This relic only recently discovered one year ago, is now officially a proud exhibit of the Palace Museum. Called the key of the Phantom Dragon, it is said if this key is brought to an extremely high point in the city at sunset, then the gateway to a trial to end a coming apocalypse would be revealed."
"Look at the dragon engraved on the key." said Nicole. "It's not a Chinese Dragon. It's got wings, and I swear the snout and horns resembles my mother greatly."
"So we need to bring this up to a high point by sunset." said Mikoto. "And Taipei 101 is the perfect high point."
Natsu grinned. "That means we'll still need a career change if we wanna take that key without people going wacko.."
Mikoto sighed. "Okay Natsu. Whose uniform do you wanna steal now?"
4 hours later everyone walked out of the bathroom of the Palace Museum wearing security gaurd uniforms and black shades over their eyes.
"We are sooo not selling it." Mikoto muttered as she looked at the much older guards who were eyeing them suspiciously.
Suddenly Mikoto saw two other gaurds who looked about her age walking by. "Okay..maybe we actually can sell it..heh, the world really is lowering their standards for working ages.."
"I think it's because of the magic guilds." said Nicole. "Their influence is changing the views on work. Look at Wendy, she's quite young, yet she works for her food and shelter."
"Well let's just find whatever we're looking for and get out." Mikoto muttered as the group passed by a massive Buddha statue that was behind a giant glass case. "These things are..looking at me."
"Hold on." said Nicole. "Look, I think I found where they're keeping their jade collections."
The group entered the dark room with cases lit by lights near their front. The assortments of jade pottery and sculpture was entrancing. That's when Mikoto saw it, in a case near the center of the room..the key to the Gate of Phasmaticana.
Elli, who was hiding under Mikoto's gaurd uniform peaked her head out of Mikoto's uniform collar. "So..how are we gonna take it?"
"Simple." said Natsu. "We're not going to take it. Happy is! He'll pretend to be a burglar, come in, and steal the key..then we'll chase him into the bathrooms pretending to stop him. We'll arrest Happy and say we need to make sure key is okay..and boom! Problem solved."
As if on cue, Happy flew in wearing a black ski mask. he flew right up to the glass and began pounding on it with his little tiny paws. "RRRRRGGHHH!! Come on! Break! Break!"
After about 5 minutes with no results, Natsu sighed. "Hold on Happy, I'll help you."
"Natsu NO!" Mikoto screamed.
Natsu punched a flaming fist through the bullet proof glass..breaking it like..well..glass "There you go Happy!"
"Darn it Natsu!" Mikoto yelled. "Now they know we're involved, these disguises are useless now!"
"Oh.." said Natsu. "hehehe...my bad."
Other gaurds began running at the group, shouting in Chinese.
"GO!" Nicole yelled as she took the key and put it in her bag. "Now!"
As soon as Nicole took the key though, something strange happened. The entire room rumbled and all the glass shattered. The pots, statues and every other exhibit hopped out of their displays and started aggressively flying at every living, including the gaurds, who got knocked out by several jade tea sets
"Oh no.." said Nicole. "This key..it still had my mother's aura..every object in this museum is now possesed by a spirit!! And aggressive angry ones at that. We need to get out before they single us out as the source of Phasmaticana's aura!"
The group ran through the crowds of panicked citizens who were all hurriedly trying to escape all the statues and pottery.
Suddenly the group stopped. The ginormous buddha walked out from behind a support beam. The earth seemed to shake with it's every step as the ground cracked at it's feet.
The Buddha slammed it's fist against it's open palm as if saying. "I 'm gonna beat ya all into blueberry pancakes."
"Oh..crap." said Nicole. "We're gonna have to beat up a priceless artifact now aren't we?"
"Whaaaat!?" Said Elli looking scandalized. Elli had been a treasure hunter before she joined the Fairy Tail Guild. So destroying priceless artifacts was almost as bad as telling her Mikoto didn't exist.
"Sorry Elli." said Mikoto. "It's either that, or we die from being pounded by a religious guy."
Natsu activated his flaming blade, a fiery light in his eyes. "Well, at least this museum isn't as boring as every other one I've ever been to."
"Natsu, you burned down every other museum you've been to." said Lucy.
"Yeah, well the point is." said Natsu. "I've got something I'm allowed to hit this time!!"1
Natsu jumped at the Buddha statue, swinging his flaming gauntlett blade down at the thing. "Volcano Flash Of The Fire Dragon!!"
The Buddha move it's massive stone arm and blocked the flaming blade with relative ease before back handing Natsu straight into a jade vase that was hopping towards the group. The vase shattered and Natsu created a crater in the floor.
"Wh-what!?" said Lucy. "How does an artifact that's hundreds of years old block Natsu!?"
"The spirit inside is very powerful!" said Nicole. "It's reitsu is increasing it's durability by a ton! We'll have to delay him and run, if we get far enough, the artifacts should become unpossessed!"
"Delay him huh? Well I think I can do that!" Lucy took out a golden key. "Open Gate of The Maiden! Virgo!"
Their was a flash of golden light and a pink haired girl in a maid's out fit with chains on her wrists appeared. "Hello Princess, am I to recieve punishment?"
"Virgo!" said Lucy. "We need you to delay that giant...erm..what is that?"
"Buddha." said Mikoto who was now wondering if Buddhism existed in Fiore considering that the Buddha was born in this dimension.
"Yeah that!" said Mikoto.
"Yes Princess." said Virgo. Virgo drilled into the ground, digging far under the floor, immediately a hole appeared below the Buddha and the statue fell into the ground. However, it wasn't long before a large hand began to climb it's way out of the hole.
"And now we keep running." Mikoto muttered. "Lets go!"
The group continued to run through the Palace Museum as more jade and coral creations began launching themselves at everyone.
"This is like Night At The Museum!" Said Happy. "Only without the friendly T-Rex that just wants to play fetch!"1
"Oh, they wanna play fetch alright." said Mikoto. "Fetch the Fairy Tail mages and squash em to bug juice.."1
"There's the exit!" Shouted Lucy.
Just as they were nearing the front of the building, there was a sudden burst of silver liquid that swept the entire group back. As if out of nowhere, a tall man in a silverish samurai robe with long silver hair appeared. Argentumias the Silver Dragon Slayer stood up and eyed the group with an expressionless calm face.
"Who are you?" Mikoto asked cautiously. "Why won't you let us through?"
"That should be obvious." Said Argentumias. "I am Argentumias of Hydra Head. I am one of the three Dragon Slayers of Hydra Head. My partner Aurumnus is the Golden Dragon Slayer..I am the Silver Dragon Slayer.."
"You're from Hydra Head!!" Natsu growled as he activated his Fire Sword once more. "In that case, ya won't hold any grudges if we beat ya out of the way will you?"
Natsu charged Argentumias, his sword suddenly morphed into a spiked flaming glove as he punched at Argentumias. "Rageful Fist Of The Fire Dragon!!"
There was a tremendous shockwave as Argentumias stopped the flaming fist with a punch of his own glowing with a bright silver aura. "Silver is a fluid element...it is hard as stone..yet it is also liquid..such is the nature of this unique metal. Wing Slash of The Silver Dragon!"
Argentumisas slashed his hands forward, causing two massive whips of silver liquid to blast Natsu back into the ground, cracking the earth beneath him.
Natsu groaned as his flame gauntlet dissapeared. "What the hell!?"
"My silver can drain magic and increase the power of my attacks." said Aurumnus. "Like a pure mirror which reflects power..and takes it away. You are still a novice in the use of Dragon Born magic, therefore you have not properly learned to use your power without draining yourself."
"Well I have." said Mikoto as she activated her wings. "Demolition Fist of The Thunder Dragon!!"
Mikoto launched herself at Argentumias and thrust her fist outwards. A massive fist made of lightning blasted it's way towards Argentumias.
Argentumias held a hand out towards the destructive attack. "Shield of The Silver Dragon."
A mirror like reflective disk of silver spread out from Argentumias's hand and blocked the lightning attack easily. But no sooner had the move been blocked when Natsu Dragneel closed in on Argentumias from the side, his fists engulfed in flames. "Iron Fist of The Fire Dragon!!"
Natsu's flaming fast collided with Argentumias's glowing silverish hand. "So you can still access your normal Dragon Slayer powers even with the magic drain? Interesting."
As Argentumias threw Natsu aside, Mikoto and Nicole moved in at Argentumias from either end of the Silver Dragon Slayer's back.1
Nicole's talons burst to life as she began slashing relentlessly at Argentumias's back. Mikoto engulfed her fists and feet in lightning and began to launch an intense melee attack at Argentumias's front.
Argentumias closed his eyes as to him, the two Dragon Borns closed in on him as if in slow motion. "Silver reflects all things..therefore the moves of my opponent's become reflected as well.."
Argentumias's eyes opened with a flash and he ducked and weaved as Nicole and Mikoto dashed around him, attacking relentlessly with ethereal claws and electric kicks and punches. He easily side stepped and flipped through every attack, as if any effort would be useless against his senses.
Argentumias then whirled around, his hands spread outwards. "Brilliant Fang Of The Silver Dragon..."
A tremendous explosion of silver liquid that shone with the brightness of the sun exploded outwards Argentumias. Mikoto and Nicole tumbled back as Argentumias moved at flashing speeds, leaving behind a trail of silver gleams in his wake.
Argentumias, engulfed his entire body in silver aura and kicked Mikoto into the air, he then began doing a tremendous amount of palm thrusts into her in mid air, finishing off with an elbow into her head, causing her to explode into the floor of the museum, throwing up rubble everywhere.
"MIKOTO!" Nicole screamed angrilly and charged Aurumnus who dodged all her talon slashes with his incredible agility.
"I am not like Aurumnus Rager." said Argentumias. "Though I am ranked below him, my defense and ability to calculate my opponent's weakness in battle is unrivaled even by Diablo. Here, power is not the answer against me.."
Suddenly the ground beneat Aurumnus's feet gave way and Virgo burst out of the ground, punching a fist glowing with Celestial Spirit energy into the side of Aurumnus's face. "Punishment!"
"Looks like you can't predict everything!" Nicole said with a devilish smile as one of her talons grew extra large and she used it to back hand Argentumias into a wall.
Argentumias burst from the damaged wall, recovering quickly as he dashed forward and grabbed both Virgo and Nicole by the throats.
"NO!" Lucy shouted lashing out a whip that had turned into glowing rainbow-like water. The whip lashed itself around Argentumias's wrist. Argentumias however, pulled back and caused Lucy to fly towards him onto the ground at his feet. Argentumias threw both Virgo and Nicole aside, and raised his foot, preparing to stomp Lucy's skull to pieces.
Suddenly there was a shout. "Sword Horn Of The Fire Dragon!!!" Natsu collided with Argentumias in a massive headbutt, his body wreathed in incredible flames.
Argentumias flew back through the door of the museum and flew out down into the concrete road below the stone steps.
"I don't care if I can't go full power around you." growled Natsu as he jumped down into the street with a flaming blast to face Argentumias. "I'm not letting you lay a finger on Lucy!!" Natsu's body began to shoot out lightning bolt as more flames wreathed around his body.
Argentumias smiled. "Fire Thunder Dragon mode...what a glorious power we Dragon Slayers gain when we consume another's element. Golden Ghost...Spatial Thunder...Iron Shadow...White Shadow..Fire Thunder...so many combinations have recently been created...but my favorite..."
The ends Argentumias's silver hair suddenly turned into blackening flames as his eyes turned completely black as well and terrifying shadows began to twist and turn around him. "Silver Shadow Dragons have always been my favorite..."
Natsu's eyes widened with unbelievable revelation. "How the heck!?"
"The third Dragon Slayer of Hydra Head." said Argentumias. "The Number 6 ranked member of our group gave me his shadows to eat...he is the White Shadow Dragon Slayer...Rogue Cheney.."
"Impossible!" growled Natsu.
"Is it? It's not your Rogue, I assure you." said Argentumias with a chuckle. "Haven't you ever wondered what happened to Future Rogue after you defeated him when the Eclipse Gate was opened? (Grand Magic Games Arc of Fairy Tail..happens during Fairy Tail 2014 anime..) You can't seriously believe they all returned to their own time can you!? Well let me let you in on a little secret..when Rogue came back in time, he actually travelled to an alternate version of our timeline..you see there's a little thing called Chaos Theory, that says if one could actually travel back to the past of their own timeline, just by being there, they would cause enough to change to delay themselves travelling back, and therefore deleting or delaying the existance that traveled to the past...but Rogue never realized this..he didn't know that he merely travelled to an alternate reality of our multiverse..."
"But he went back to his own time!" yelled Natsu.
"That's the thing!" said Argentumias. "Only the Eclipse gate could send him back..and even then..it would send him to an alternate future...and of course the gate was closed wasn't it? So who do you really think caused all those dragons and Future Rogue to dissapear?"
Natsu began to feel his brain explode. He knew the truth now. "Hydra Head...you guys...you've been scheming even before Mikoto got to our world..you.."
Argentumias grinned sinisterly. "That's how our guild opperated back then..in absolute secrecy..but now..we don't need to hide any longer.." Argentumias pointed a finger at Natsu. "Mirror Orb of the Silver Shadow Dragon!!"
An explosion of glowing silver light surrounded by pale black shadow energy erupted from where Natsu was standing. causing him to fly into the ground. Immediately dark shadows emerged from where Natsu lay and began swallowing him into the ground as hardened silver metal began to incase his body.
"There.." said Argentumias. "Now..why don't I show you how one of those dragons from that Eclipse incident is doing? After all..they've been in this time period all along...Zirconis..it's dinner time.."
A ginormous shadow passed overhead, and a huge dragon with jade colored scales and a large bottom jaw landed in front of Natsu with a crash.
"Wahahahahahaha!!!" Zirconis laughed. "Surprised to see me?! It's been a whole year boy! You and your little human friends deprived me of human morsels! But Hydra Head has been providing plenty since then..you're going to be delicious!!"
Zirconis opened his large mouth, preparing to chomp down on Natsu.
Suddenly, a massive lightning bolt blasted straight into Zirconis like a hurricane of sheer power and caused Zirconis to stagger back in confusion. "Eh!? Wha!? Who are you!?"
Mikoto walked out the museum, her wings bursting in rage. "I'm Mikoto Misaka..Dragon Born of Thundaarix..third strongest esper in the world...and I am PISSED!!!"
R.I.F.T. Trivia.
1. Cobra once tried to hear what Twilight Prankster was thinking using his power..but all he heard was Russian polka music. As it turns out, anybody who tries to read Twilight Prankster's mind will see and hear nothing but Russian polka. Maybe that's how he thinks, maybe he just likes to prank mind readers...why people hear that could be anybody's guess.
2. MisakaLovesYou got the idea for Diablo Etwatia after listening to the Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword boss music for Scaldera. The intimidating ominous demonic song gave her the impression of a terrible diety of unimaginable power getting closer and closer. The idea of Dravis Lord of Destruction was born after watching Smaug from the Hobbit movie and then combining it with ideas about Cthulhu.1
3. Once, after Mikoto borrowed Dead Space from Gray and played it, she was so frightened about Necromorphs coming out of her airvents that night, that she requested to come stay at Touma's dorm for a bit (amid a lot of steamy blushes) since Lucy was out on a job. Touma said yes since Index was sleeping over Levy's for a girl's get together. Due to strange and embarrassing circumstances that need not be got into, the two ended up sleeping in the same bed together, something Mikoto still remembers with an extremely red and embarrased face.
4. Twilight Prankster sometimes likes to sneak out of his book, being an unpredictable character, even for me . If you ever fall asleep with these books open on a chapter he's in..he might come out and draw on your face.