Tidius, Nolan, and Ariel - Crocus Underground
Ariel's Charm magic had more of an effect than just there in the lab. It spurred from actions of a month ago. Yet no one, not even those involved, were aware of it. Like a beacon her magic rang out faintly to one person, Nolan.
Tidius frowned at the change in personality. He imagined that it was sort of like a whiplash effect, changing so often it was like being thrown about, or so he thought. Perhaps he should let Ariel rest for a longer time, if this personality was more appealing, as he gave a slight nod.
"that's okay, for now we shall just slow things down and let you get some balance" he said, returning to his notes, he wrote a few things down.
"do you need anything else?" he asked, moving towards providing some comfort to Ariel. He couldn't let her go just yet, but could show that he wasn't a monster at least. Not that he knew what he was anymore.
His eyes went to the fruit again, wistful and wanting to try more, but also not wanting to waste it, until he could figure out a way of keeping the magic within him. However this was differently progress, after years of failures. He knew that sooner or later, Phoenix Wing would realize Ariel was missing and come after her, but until then he would try and find out all he could. Looking up from his notes, he looked back to Ariel, frowning slightly as something didn't seem right.
A...cave? After following the beacon of magic that Ariel emmited Nolan and his side kick exceed Dalton found themselves at the entrance of a cave from the outskirts of the city. If Nolan was suspicious that something happened to Ariel before, now he was postive. There was no reason for her to be anywhere near Crocus unless she had taken a job request, but what were the odds that she would be by Crocus for work when she was trying to avoid it in the first place?
Tch, looks like she really did get herself into trouble. Why didn't anyone else sense her though?" Nolan muttered to himself as his flying feline friend stared at him strangely.
"Um, ya know you've been acting really weird today. First with running away from Marlene, then ya bad mood, and now this! Ya sure ya aren't sick or something? Who are we chasing after anyway?" Dalton stated nervously, hoping that Nolan wasn't slipping into madness.
I'm fine. Just having a rough day. We're looking for a guild mate named Ariel. I don't know why, but I felt a surge of her magic hit me. She isn't supposed to be anywhere near Crocus due to her powers. He held his hand up to the exceed to tell him to shut up and not ask any questions. He motioned him to follow him into the cave. Nolan was on high alert. There could've been traps laid around anywhere.
Whilst Tidius was making his notes Ariel was simply drinking a cup of water. Seemed she was quite content with the situation for now. There was a clear difference with this magic. Even way back in the Fairy Tails days Charm magic was banned from use. It had been abused and since its discovery. But nowadays there wasn't the same rules. Magic was coming back into use and the fact that Ariel could just pick it up meant at some point things were going to have to change. Humming to herself the Charm mage paused briefly. She sensed something, what exactly she couldn't tell. But it seemed to be getting closer.
Tidius watched Ariel, eyes narrowed either in thought or suspicion it was unsure. Tidius was good at watching people, good at determining body language and right now, something didn't seem right. He frowned, glancing about. Had someone tracked Ariel here? How could that be possible? He had safe guards in place!
He seemed to hesitate, going over to a concealed door, he opened a compartment, and seemed to do something, unseen what, but he clearly wasn't happy with what was happening. He stepped back from the door, muttering to himself and approaching hos table, pushing things aside as he searched go a lacrima, grabbing it and moving over to Ariel, keeping it away from her, it glowed a light green and tidius seemed pleased at that.
try and get through this, you won't like the Results!.
A sound like Wind seemed to be faint through the door, but there. Clearly it was some sort of protection charm.
For awhile they had walked through the cave up until they halted at multiple paths heading in different directions.
"God dammit Nolan, just how are we going to find our way through this?" Dalton said in despair. It would take forever to search to search the cave and that's if they didn't get lost. This was it. They were done. Game over. Finished! Never to see the light of day ever again! What a world!
Nolan on the other hand wasn't melodramatic about it. He unsheathed Kaso and with swift slashes he cut an x on a wall to mark their location for future reference.
"You're right. It would be impossible to search the entire cavern on our own. He sighed and clapped his hands together.
"Summon: Ten Lesser Souls." Ten small spheres of white light appeared before them.
"Search the caves and report back when you encounter anything out of the ordinary." Wordlessly the spirits followed his command and went ahead to go search the cave. Meanwhile Nolan sat down and waited for the souls to return at some point.
The exceed joined him and sat down next to him, wondering what he had gotten himself into.
Tidius glanced at Ariel to make sure she was okay, before retreating to his table, and grabbing another lacrima, this one curiously flat, and sat down, studying it. On it was several different images, clearly connected to some lacrimas that were acting like cameras. He grimaced, and then gave a sigh, twisting to open up another compartment in the wall, he seemed to do something. Seconds later a slight rumbling could be felt and something, very faint, like stone on stone, as walls seems to appear in the labyrinth that hadn't been there before.
All Tidius hoped for was to delay for some time to prepare himself for what was, chances were, going to be a battle with magic. Tidius had long ago learnt to fight magic users, hunting up nullification lacrimas and other things, as well as using the environment to his advantage, not to mention physical skills. It didn't matter what you had, magic or not, once you were on your back, you were typically finished.
Satsified he he had done enough for a delay, Tidius began packing the lacrima fruit away into travel bags, perhaps ready to flee, as well as gathering his great stores of lacrimas, occasionally looking back to the flat lacrima, watching the screens to see how close the intruders were getting.
Ariel watched as her captor began to run around preparing for something. Had someone found where they were? That could potentially mean that they were coming for her. But judging by Tidius' reaction he was prepared and had things in place already. "
What's going on? What are you doing?" Who would even be able to find her in the first place? She was in Crocus, the one place she wasn't supposed to be. A detective Ariel was not. So try as she might she wasn't able to figure it out. And still the strange feeling was getting stronger.
Tidius looked over at Ariel as she asked her questions, pondering the for a moment. Should he tell her what was happening? He hesitated, before saying
"I am just moving some things around. I've used these tunnels a lot, and have had them made to fit....security in" He said calmly, truthfully. Even if it wasn't the whole truth, it was all he said though, deciding to leave the rest out. He didn't need to be fending off Ariel as well.
All he could do now was simply wait for a spirit to come back to him. He couldn't have possibly guessed how many different paths there were in the cave or how long it would take to simply to find Ariel. There was also the chance that if she was kidnapped and that her kidnapper had taken her to another location. If that was the case then he was wasting time and should be trying to find other leads. He should've told someone in his guild what was going on, but what if he was wrong? Sending his guild on a wild goose chase wouldn't exactly be the best idea especially with the games needing to be the main focus.
Before he could question his actions further one of the glowing white spheres floated towards him, hopping in the air a few times as if to signal them to follow it. Nolan stood up and followed it with Dalton right behind him. He unsheathed Kaso in case some traps sprung up on him. He would have to expect anything to come from the darkness. What he didn't expect were there to be no traps for almost the entire path. Just what kind of kidnapper doesn't lay traps around for unsuspecting intruders? No self-respecting scum of the earth would not set up traps when they don't want to be found in their lair.
"This is too easy! There was to be a catch!" Said in a hush yell. Nolan didn't say anything though he silently agreed with him. It really was too easy. Was the spirit leading them to Ariel or was it leading them purposly in the wrong direction? The high whistling of wind could be heard in the distance.
"Huh? What's that?" A surge of wind blasted against them. The duo crossed their arms over their faces to protect it from the brunt of the wind. This was not a natural occurrence. This had to be induced by magic so he had to assume that he was getting closer to the base. The wind was nothing compared to other trials that he had gone through, but damn it was still annoying nonetheless. They pushed through the wild wind with the exceed holding onto Nolan's hood for dear life waving like a flag.
Nolan sheathed Kaso and ashes erupted around him, forming into large wings and then wrapping as he charged through the winds at high speed. The ashes propelled him forward as he pierced through the wind. Rather than a fish swimming against the currents, he was like an unstoppable force plowing through whatever got in his way.
"I think I'm going to be sick!" The exceed cried out, covering his mouth when he felt like his breakfast was going to erupt any moment.
Closer and closer came the sound of footsteps at an alarming rate. Whatever was heading towards Ariel and Tidius was coming fast. Then bang! In only a few moments the door to the base exploded into tiny splinters and black ashes begun to fill the room.
"I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you. Nolan said as he stepped in with an exceed sprinting inside and began to vomit his fish into a flask laying around at arms reach.
At first Ariel was a bit worried about what was coming. It seemed to be charging and the door suddenly burst open. Before she could get a good look the room filled with ash. This actually gave Ariel some idea of who entered and hearing the voice confirmed it. "
Nolan! Be careful he has a lot of magic lacrama." The ash didn't quite bother her as much as maybe it should. Perhaps she should get out of the way. Tidius was likely occupied so she got up and moved as best she could with low visibility. Her captor was lucky that Ariel didn't like fighting right now.
Tidius gave a sigh as Nolan and companions got through his barriers, shifting, he had a lacrima in hand, and it shattered as Tidius activated it, lightening flashing in one spot, from wall to wall between him, and the others, with Ariel behind him.
"Please, just leave" He said softly,
"I don't want any trouble. I'm just helping Ariel, and she is helping me" He didn't expect that to work, but he had to try.
"I have no magic, so I'd prefer to do this civil if you will"Nolan looked down at Ariel with relief though that relief turned into a quiet rage that was ready to erupt. His attention was turned towards Tidius and had the icy glare down pat.
"You've got an odd way of helping then." He said pointing casually towards the handcuffs around Ariel's wrists.
"I won't be leaving here empty handed. Hand Ariel over to me and I'll forget that this ever happened. Refuse, then I'll have no choice, but to use force. This wasn't a hollow threat. He was ready to strike if things were going to go down.
Tidius gave a weary sigh, and said in a calm voice
"The hand cuffs are magic negation, preventing the magic's around us, those of the games particularly, affecting Ariel too much. If I took them off, she'd probably be so overwhelmed with magic that something potentially bad could happen" He said, explaining in a tone many used with children, shifting, not worried that Nolan had magic, holding the lacrima in his hand, watching Nolan. Ready.
It was pretty clear to Ariel that things were going to turn worse before getting better. Despite Tidius' intentions right now she didn't want to see anyone hurt. Stepping around him she tried to get in between the two. "
N-now hold on. Let's not get carried away. Tidius is trying to help. Well, kind of. He did kidnap me." There was a short pause as she seemed to think about it. Really she probably should be mad, but couldn't quite bring herself to it. "
I still don't want to see anyone hurt though."
This bastard was talking down to him as if he was some simple minded child! He would've struck him down where stood, but Ariel was trying to play peacemaker even though she should be angry at Tidius for kidnapping her. He could only assume that she was under the effects of one of her personalities. He heaved a heavy sigh and his killing intent simmered away.
If that is what you wish then I'll abide by it. However as I said before, I will not leave here without you. His gaze turned back to Tiduis.
"I will not mention this if you let her come with me. Phoenix Wing will not become your enemy and you'll live another day of your meager existence, but keep this in mind. I'll let this slide only once. If you dare to even entertain the idea of kidnapping Ariel again then I can guarantee your demise." This wasn't a warning. No with that bitter tone it was a threat.
