It's Raining Lucys

Instantly concerned for his friend, Natsu turns to look up at the Iron Dragon Slayer and a large figure in green to focus on their conversation.

"It is a sad story. The girl named Lucy is being held in our headquarters." the large figure informs Gajeel calmly. From his sitting position Gajeel looks up at the figure standing next to him.

"So we gave her a 'warm welcome', then?" he asks with a smirk.

"What?" Natsu whispers to himself as he stands frozen in shock. Happy, who didn't want to leave his best friend behind, stands behind Natsu and watches his strange actions.

"What's the matter, Natsu?" the blue cat asks in concern. Anger flares up in Natsu along with fear for the safety of his friend.

"Gajeel!" Natsu shouts upwards toward the other dragon slayer, the fear evident in his voice.

A smug smirk on his face as he stands up, Gajeel only says, "We'll finish this one day, Salamander!" The large figure next to him extends an arm over Gajeel and they both become translucent like a soap bubble before fading from view.

"They caught Lucy…" Natsu trails off, unsure whether or not to believe his ears. During this shocking turn of events, Erza also has stayed behind, making sure not a single member of her family is left behind as she continues to order the retreat.

Gray is of like mind with Natsu and only wants to fight to avenge his friends, no matter the odds. Erza stops his attack and in an uncharacteristic move, lowers her head to lay it down against Gray's chest and leans against his strudy frame as she begs him to leave the guild with the rest of their friends.

With immense regret, he pulls away from her as he runs to follow the rest of the guild in their retreat. Erza turns to go as well, certain that Natsu will follow after he pummels a few more mages to vent out the worst of his anger. As Phantom Lord wizards chase away their enemies, one of the grunts gets caught in the vice-like grip of Natsu.

"Ah! It's Salamander…. And a cat!" the nameless grunts shouts out as the fire mage gives him an unholy glare.

"Hey you…" Natsu starts out, glaring so hard at the unfortunate mage that veins are popping out. Flames coat Natsu's body as he menacingly growls out between clenched teeth, "You and me are gonna talk!" Seeing this, the target of the glare suddenly wishes for a fresh change of pants. Natsu starts dragging the mage out the guild and through town in complete silence. This greatly unnerves the man being dragged, but he dares not utter a word for fear of his life.

Some of the braver townsfolk peep through curtains or cracks in the door, but none would help the poor man after seeing murderous rage flashing in the pink-haired man's eyes. Happy flies alongside Natsu, worried about what is going on with his best friend.

He almost never sees Natsu get like this and he wonders what could of caused such a strong reaction in the normally happy male. As they travel up a stone hill that overlooks the town, the cat finally decides to break the silence.

"Natsu, what are you going to do?" Happy asks curiously.

"I'm going to save Lucy, obviously." he says, biting back an impatient tone. Without turning to look at the mage that he is dragging behind he directs his next words.

"Tell me. Where is Lucy?" He ignore the man's attempts to keep from being choked as he is being dragged up the hill.

"H-H-How would I know? Who is that?" the man stutters out, starting to get mad at his mistreatment despite his fear. Before he finishes speaking, his entire body is coated with burning flames. Howling in pain, the man renews his struggles to try to escape the grasp of the irate Fire Dragon Slayer.

"It's hot! It's hot! I'm burning!" he screams out.

"Say it." Natsu replies, his voice uncaring of the man's suffering.

"I don't know nothing', seriously! It's hot!" he cries out in fear and pain.

"If any more of my friends are hurt…" Natsu says his voice unchanging. He glances back at his captive, the glare on his face intensifying in mounting fury.

"You'll be nothing but a pile of ashes…" he leaves the threat as it is and increases the temperature of his flames to prove his threat isn't idle. The man screams in terror, certain that he is about to die in a most agonizing way. He starts talking rapidly, hoping that he can say something to stall his upcoming death.

"I never heard of the wench! I mean, I don't know about the young lady!" he blurts out, hoping that his lack of knowledge about the woman will be enough to save him.

"Oh, that so? Too bad. Time to make charcoal, I guess." Natsu says almost cheerfully, which terrifies the man even more.

"Aye!" agrees Happy almost as cheerfully as Natsu. The captive man is reduced to tears as he sees his life start flashing before his eyes with death imminent. In a last ditch effort, he tries to divert the stronger mage's attention to another target.

"But our headquarters is up ahead. She may be there…" he blurts out, almost resigned to the fact that he is going to die.

"Say that in the first place, sheesh." Natsu scoffs lightheartedly, almost as if his anger has disappeared. The man sighs in relief as the flames disappear from his body, crying in joy that he gets to live. Without warning, the flames renew to an inferno and the man shrieks in pain. Natsu and Happy continue working their way up to the headquarters where they hope to find Lucy, ignoring the smoking husk of the still breathing man.

____________________

During this time that Natsu was on his way to rescue Lucy, the kidnapped blonde slowly wakes up. Her body feels cold, sore, and very uncomfortable. Opening her eyes, she is greeted by unfamiliar stone walls. Shocked, she bolts upright to a sitting position and notices how her hands are tied up behind her back.

As she questions herself as to where she is at, José appears in front of the steel door of her prison. Only part of his face is seen through the small window covered in metal bars.

"So you're awake, Lucy Heartfilia-sama." he says smugly and she twists to look at him, still feeling shock and confusion.

"Who are you?" she demands in a strong yet slightly fearful tone. José opens the door and stands inside the prison cell, blocking the doorway.

"I am the guild master of Phantom Lord, José." He introduces himself in a gentlemanly fashion.

Lucy lets out a surprised gasp as she says, "Phantom?" Her confusion eases as she remembers that she was captured by the Element 4. Her eyes then widen in realization when she remembers that she wasn't alone.

"What did you do to Krysti?! Where is she?!" she yells out in anger.

"Oh? You mean that pathetic fairy that was with you as you were captured? She was dealt with in proper fashion." José waves away the question in a tone of dismissal.

"Dealt with? What did you do!?" Lucy screams. Ignoring her questions, he walks towards the blonde girl on the floor.

"I know that this filthy cell and shackles are quite rude of me, but you are currently a prisoner, so I hope you understand the circumstances." he says still acting like a polite gentleman despite his smug appearance.

Lucy angrily bites back, "Remove these at once! Prisoner? How dare you do that to Levy-chan's team and tell me what did you do with my friend!" She violently swings herself around to face him better as she gives him a hateful glare.

He decides to humor her by answering, "Nothing more than she deserved. Just left her on the streets like the piece of weak, pathetic trash that she is." his smug smirk widens in sadistic pleasure. Lucy feels her blood run cold at that remark and her glare deepens.

"You're horrible!" she hisses out, her anger clearly evident. He turns partly away from her, knowing what she can't do anything in her situation, and raises a hand to his face to rub at his chin.

Eyes closed, he continues from before, "For someone of your status, I have prepared accommodations for a welcomed guest instead of a prisoner."

"What's that suppose to mean?" she says through gritted teeth before letting out a high-pitched shriek. A centipede crawled up her leg, and the bug gave her a mini heart-attack from the suddenness of its movements.

"Ew, ew, ew!" she screeches out as she tries to shake it off.

José looks back at her with the same smile that doesn't leave his face as he replies, "See? You don't want to stay in this cell, yes? If you cooperate, I'll transfer you to the suite." he look down at her haughtily, as in his eyes she seems to be cowering from his sheer strength and power.

"Why did you attack us?" she asks instead of answering José.

"Us?" he repeats, sounding a bit confused. He gives a slight laugh as he realizes, "Oh, are you referring to Fairy Tail?" He leans his head back to look down his nose at her with a creepy smile forming on his face. "Just in passing… a side effect." Lucy lets out a surprised noise at this.

José extends his hands to the side at hip level as he clarifies, "Our true objective was to obtain a certain someone. And that someone just happened to be in Fairy Tail, so we crushed it on our way… That's all." He says this like it is something normal, an everyday activity for him.

"Someone?" Lucy questions, not daring to see the truth in front of her.

"Oh, my…" José says sounding disgruntled at how she isn't connecting the dots. "You're much denser than I figured the daughter of the Heartfilia family would be. I mean you, of course." he states. Lucy freezes at the revelation, almost in too much shock to hear José's next words.

"The Daughter of the Heartfilia Konzern, Mistress Lucy." His voice deepens as he calls her by her proper title. Snapping back to reality, she glares at José just as much as before.

"How did you know?" she demands quietly.

"It seems you hid this fact from the people in the guild. Why would the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the country take on such cheap, dangerous jobs?" José questions, unsure why she would leave all the money and power that goes with it behind.

Ignoring his question, Lucy asks one of her own, "Is this a kidnapping?"

"Oh, no… Nothing of the sort. We were requested to bring you back with us. By none other than your father himself." he informs her casually. Lucy sits up straight as she feels like all the air has been sucked out of her lungs. Confusion runs rampant through her mind as she tries to understand her father's motives.

"No… No way! Why would he?" she whimpers out.

José lifts an eyebrow over her reaction to the news as he says, "I'm sure it's because he wanted to search for his beloved daughter who ran away from home. Quite normal." Lucy's eyes are clenched tight and she grits her teeth at the, to her, completely wrong observation.

"No way… He's not the kind of person that'd care about that!" she denies in a troubled voice. She looks up at José with a determined look, "I'm never going back, you hear me? I'm never going back to that house!" she shouts that last sentence. José rocks back on his heels as he looks at her in slight amusement.

"Oh, my… What a troublesome little lady we have ourselves." he says out loud to himself.

With more confidence than she felt, Lucy demands, "Release me this instant!" to which José denies. She squirms a bit before looking down in embarrassment.

"I kinda need to go to the bathroom." she says softly while blushing at having to make the request. Unmoved, José just stands there with his arms crossed.

"Oh, what's this? That's the oldest trick in the book." he says clearly unimpressed with what he thinks is an attempt to escape. She squirms even more as her blush deepens.

"No… Seriously… Please, help." Lucy complains, starting to sound desperate. A bucket appears out of nowhere, almost as if by magic.

"Fine then." he says, complying with her request and setting the bucket down near her. She looks shocked at the sight.

"Go ahead." he says with that unconcerned tone, certain that she is just bluffing.

"No way!" she yells out, mortified that he told her to do that activity in front of him. He laughs at her discomfort.

"There are plenty of way to deal with that old trick." he states proudly. With a sigh of resignation, she stands up in front of the bucket, facing José. She arches her back so her bound hands can reach up under her skirt.

"A bucket, huh?" she says, accepting that her situation can't change. José's eyes almost pop out of his skull seeing that she in fact, DID need to use the bathroom.

He yells at her, slightly horrified about what is going to happen, "Wait, seriously!?" His face goes through several strained and unreadable expressions as she wiggles around.

"I've never seen such an improper lady! And I am a gentleman!" he says to himself, aghast at her actions before quickly turning to face away from Lucy. Seeing him turn around, she smirks in victory.

Stepping up closer to him quietly, she sends the most powerful kick she has, that she named Lucy Kick, right in his groin. The blossoming pain he feels quickly has him face plant right into the floor as he screams a high-pitched screech of agony. His butt is high in the air as he uses both hands to hold onto the vital organ to protect it from further harm.  

Lucy sends his prostate form a smug smile as she proclaims, "It's best not to underestimate the old tricks!"

Walking past him, she stops to give his twitching body a playful wink while saying, "Then, take care." She hurries to exit the room, only to find that her prison is on top of a tower. She stops for fear of falling, the outside breeze ruffling her hair and clothes. José slowly forces himself to stand up while enduring the pain of 1000 blazing suns that his crotch feels like it is in.

"Too bad for you… This is a sky cell!" he forces out, his voice a few octaves higher than it was a minute ago. He pushes himself to walk, determined to pay the blonde back for this insult upon his person. She stands there, unmoving, while listening to the wind. Still holding his crotch, he stops a few feet behind her as he gives her slight praise.

"You did me a good one there…" he grounds out, fighting the agony his body is in. Lucy turns to face José when she hears how close he is behind her. She looks down and behind her as if her attention is caught by something. She looks back at her captor and a pained expression crosses her face.

"Now, come to me! I'm going to punish you. I must show you how scary Phantom can be!" José proclaims harshly. Without saying a word, Lucy closes her eyes and leans backwards until she can feel herself falling. The absolute shock over Lucy's actions weakens José's will and he collapses under the pain he is enduring. He was unable until that moment to understand how strongly she didn't want to go back to her father.

As the young blonde is falling she clenches her eyes shut, praying that she did hear what she thinks she heard. Taking a large breath, she puts everything she has to scream out one single word.

"NATSU!!"

She hears an answering yell, "Lucy!" the relief at hearing his voice brings tears to her eyes. Hearing him scream her name, she knows that she is safe. Her trust in her friend is that strong. She relaxes and waits as the wind whistles by during her descent. A loud, wordless yell followed by two strong arms wrapping around her back tells her that Natsu is there and now she is safe.

The two mages fly through the air from the force of Natsu's jump and they crash into a half-built wall many yards away from the Phantom Lord headquarters. Natsu twists them around so that he takes the blow so Lucy won't be hurt as they land with her on top of him.

"Lucys are falling from the sky!" Happy cries out in a joyful shout. Dust has risen up from the impact and Happy waits for it to settle before flying closer. Still within the dust cloud, Natsu and Lucy stay in the position that they landed in as they recover from the fall. Natsu is on his back with Lucy partly on top of him.

Her breasts smashed up against his face muffles his voice as he says, "You're nuts, you know that?" His has an annoyed look on his face as he says that. Lucy looks at him with a soft look in her eyes. She feels grateful to have such a caring friend.

"Natsu… I thought you were here…" she says, the relief evident in her voice. He scoffs.

"Where else would I be?" he says grumpily. By now the blonde noticed what position she was in with the scarf wearing man. Blushing, she quickly gets off of him and looks shyly down at the ground. The dust clears out enough that Happy can see his friends and without a second thought, he flies over to them. Natsu sits upright and uses one of his hands to rub the back of his head from when he hit the brick wall.

A cry of, "Lucy!" interrupts whatever the blonde was going to say as a blue blur crashes into her chest. She gets that soft look in her eyes again as she watches the little cat hug her.

She lays her head gently on top of Happy's as she says, "There, there now. Everything is ok." Natsu watches his two friends with a large smile on his face. When the cat felt better, he floated away from the blonde while leaving her shirt somewhat damp. She didn't mind it though, it showed that despite all the insults that Happy does care.

"Hey Natsu, could you help me with this?" she asks while turning her back to show the rope around her wrists. The dragon slayer nods and moves behind her to take off the restraints. Her wrists free, she bring them up to her chest as she rubs them.

"Are you okay?" Natsu asks with a bit of concern. Lucy winces slightly at the pain in her wrists as she nods.

"Yeah… Somehow…" she trails off, troubled by the information about why all the attacks are happening.

"Thank goodness. Let's go back to the guild." says Happy as he stands besides the blonde girl. Natsu stands up as Happy is saying this, and he turns to his blue-furred friend in frustration.

"What? This is their headquarters… We should-" he exclaims while gesturing wildly before Happy cuts him off.

"But Erza said to retreat!" Happy reminds the overly excited mage. Natsu leans down to stare at Happy right in his face.

"She's scared! I ain't afraid of them at all!" the dragon slayer proclaims, his expression turning angry.

"The Master's been severely wounded!" the cat shouts back, becoming equally angry.

"I'll pay them back for that too!" Natsu states while standing back up with his arms crossed. Lucy looks on sadly before bolting upright and her eyes widening.

"We have to hurry back! Krysti's in trouble!" she shouts out effectively ending the argument. Both Natsu and Happy look at Lucy in shock as she stands up to face them. Worry is etched on her face as she tries not to think about what trouble has befallen her newest friend.