Chaos & Salamander

Chapter 26 - Miss Fairy Tail Contest

Natsu's POV

It's been a week since Lucy and I have officially become friends and today is the Harvest Festival. Magnolia has this festival every year and at night Fairy Tail hosts the Fantasia Parade to signal the end of the festival. Happy and I were walking through the streets buying festival food. "Natsu! Happy!" we heard Lucy call out behind us and turned around to see her running up to us. In her hand, I noticed a piece of paper that she was waving around.

"What's that Lucy?" Happy asked, referring to the paper. "I'm entering in the Miss Fairy Tail contest. The prize money is 500,000 jewels. This could pay my rent for months" she replied excitedly as she showed us the paper. "I'm heading over to the guildhall now, so I won't be late. I hope you two will cheer me on?" she said, and I nodded. She smiled brightly and then started running towards the guild. "Good luck Lucy!" Happy shouted after her. "Thanks Happy. See you guys later!" she replied waving as she ran.

Happy turned to me as she disappeared in the crowd. "Are we going to watch the contest?" he asked and I nodded. He smiled, happy that we were going to support Lucy. I want to support her even in this silly contest, and besides, there isn't anything else interesting going on anyway. Suddenly I smelt something delicious and the scent led to a Takoyaki stand. "First, food" I said and then we walked towards the stand.

After eating our Takoyaki, we headed towards the guild. The guildhall was half-filled with townspeople and guild members who came to watch the contest, mainly men. Perverts. Happy and I stayed at the back near the doors to hide our presence. We can silently cheer her on from back here.

We waited and waited for about half an hour but the contest still hasn't started.  'Something isn't right' I thought and then the announcer Max, who I call Sand Man, walked out onto the stage with a worried expression. "I'm sorry about the delay everyone but unfortunately the Miss Fairy Tail contestants have gone missing" he explained. My mind instantly became worried about Lucy. What happened to her?

"Happy" I called and was about to go search for her when a male voice boomed across the guildhall. "Looking for these girls?" the voice said and everyone turned their attention to the second floor above the bar. There stood Laxus and the Thunder Legion with a row of the contestants frozen in stone standing between them. Erza, Juvia, Levy, Cana, Mirajane, Bisca and one specific stone statue next to Laxus caught my attention the most, Lucy. He had his arm over her stone shoulders which made me growl and glare at him.

"Everyone run!" Max shouted and everyone except for the Fairy Tail members ran out the guild doors. "What is the meaning of this Laxus?!" the old man demanded as he walked his way to the front of the crowd and then Laxus smirked. "It's simple Old Man, I want you to hand over the title of Fairy Tail's Master over to me" he said loudly, making sure everyone heard him. "Don't be stupid! I won't hand it over to you like this" the old man replied angrily. "I knew you would say that, so I suggest we play a game" Laxus suggested and his smirk grew.

"The rules of the game are, I will take these girls as my hostages and hide them somewhere within the city. The Thunder Legion and I will be hiding somewhere around the city as well. Your job is to try to find the hostages and defeat us. You have three hours and if anyone cheats, then..." he paused and glanced at me just before a bolt of yellow lightning shot down from the ceiling towards stone Lucy. Fear shot through my body as the lightning bolt was about to shatter her into a million pieces. "Don't!" the old man exclaimed and then the lightning bolt missed, striking the wooden floor beside her. Relief ran through my body.

"I will destroy these hostages one by one and if you don't defeat us before time runs out then every hostage you don't find will be destroyed" Laxus continued with a disgusting laugh. "Laxus, stop this right now!" the old man demanded as he grew into a giant but Laxus ignored him. "Let the battle of Fairy Tail begin!" he shouted before using his lightning to blind us and disappear along with the Thunder Legion and the hostages including Lucy.

'Damn that Laxus' I thought as I growled deeply and angrily. He's going to pay for taking Lucy and for almost shattering her. Everyone near me except for Happy took a few steps back to avoid my rage. "He disappeared!" Alzack stated. "So, it's a twisted version of hide and go seek huh?" Gray commented. "Let's go! We've got to man up and save our girls!" Elfman shouted and all the Fairy Tail men started running out the guild doors. I was about to go after them when the old man stopped me. "Natsu!" he called and I stopped to look at him.

"If you find Laxus, take him down!" the old man ordered, and I nodded at him with a growl. 'I won't let Laxus get away with touching Lucy!' I thought as I ran out into the streets with Happy flying by my side.