Hidden Scars: A Fairy Tail Fic

Chapter 17: Explosive Rescue

Natsu's POV

"Hurry up, Happy!" I said as Wendy and Shararu zoomed through the sky in front of us.

"Aye, sir!" Happy cried out, speeding up so that we were now flying side-by-side with Wendy and Shararu. Just when we had caught up though, Shararu dipped down towards the streets below. I angled myself to help Happy as he followed after her and after a few more tense, silent moments, Happy set me on my feet.

The floral smell mixed with ink and parchment paper that had been my near-constant companion for the past three years hit my nostrils and I ran forward, expecting to find Lucy hiding behind a barrel trying to surprise me. I could feel my mouth turn down as my jaw clenched tightly. The desire to punch the nearest wall to oblivion almost won over me, but I knew that that would only delay my search for Lucy and Phaedra. Taking a deep breath, my frown deepened even more as I realized that Lucy's smell didn't go past the spot that Wendy and Shararu had brought us to. It seemed to just vanish from existence.

"Anything, Natsu-san?" Sting's voice called out as he and Rogue touched down as well. I turned to look at him and as he sniffed I knew that he would come to the same conclusion as I had.

"They're gone..." Wendy said, slowly falling to her knees where the smell of leather and a strange citrusy scent that I couldn't place marked where Phaedra had been last.

"What happened to them exactly, Wendy?" Rogue asked just as Laxus, Erza, and Gray all ran up through the alleyway to gather around with us. Wendy explained how Phaedra and Lucy had gotten trapped in what she called "magic bubblegum" that had kept them from moving. She hadn't gotten a good look at the kidnapper, but she knew that the person was wearing a large black cloak. Other than that, the only thing we knew was that Phaedra and Lucy had been here and had disappeared seemingly into thin air.

"So how are we going to find Lucy?" I asked, glancing around at the group of mages I was standing among.

"Didn't you say that you were able to track Yukino's scent but it seemed to be coming from under the ground?" Rogue asked, turning to look at Sting and then me. Sting nodded in agreement and I turned my focus on the Shadow Dragon Slayer.

"Do you have an idea?" I asked, my voice harsher than I meant for it to be. My blood seemed to be made of liquid lava as I thought of what the kidnappers might be doing to Lucy. I was getting fired up and all I could say was that whoever tried to stand in my way of finding Lucy was going to wish they had never seen me coming.

"In my studies of old maps of Hyacinth I have found several references to escape tunnels that run through the rock underneath the city," Rogue said quietly, his eyes were half-lidded as if he were trying to recall the maps as he spoke. "I can't remember ever seeing a description of how to enter the tunnels, though. And I don't see anywhere that they could be accessed from here." I looked down at the ground and began stomping around, hoping to find some kind of hidden catch or a disguised hole. Usually, it was Lucy who figured out these kinds of puzzles and I growled in frustration that the kidnappers would dare take her away.

"Even if there was an entrance to the tunnels from here, their scent would lead us to it. But all I can smell is that they were here and nothing else," Laxus said in a gruff tone as he came to stand next to Wendy. "What could make them disappear like that?" he asked. A fizzing sound came from behind me and I looked over in surprise to see a decidedly green Mest stumble to his knees after appearing from thin air. The answer suddenly clicked and I let out a low growl.

"They have a teleportation mage," I said angrily as Wendy rushed over to Mest, placing one hand against his head and sending a small amount of healing magic into him. Mest smiled at her gratefully and then stood up to look at us.