Chapter 30 - Getaway Plan

Fairy Tail: Paths of the Soul

Huddled outside a glass double door, Amber patiently picked away at the lock using Armeria's shapeshifting capabilities to slowly craft a skeleton key. Seconds ticked by as the tumblers slowly clicked out of place, but tension was beginning to grow in the air. Zeke hovered next to her, with Shelly anxiously hopping from foot to foot on his back. "C'mon Amber, hurry." She urged.

"Gimme a sec." She said quickly, trying not to break her concentration.

Axel and Geno waited behind them, and the latter impatiently looked up at the building again. They realised it was much larger now that they were up close, being almost four stories tall, easily twice as big as the Blazing Soul building back home. A thick layer of foliage blocked their view through the glass walls, so they had all assumed it to be a massive greenhouse. "You know, we could just break one of the windows." Geno suggested. "Just a thought."

"No you can't!" Shelly cried in annoyance. "Why is you're first answer always breaking things?"

Geno shrugged. "Simpler, easier, faster..."

"I got it." Amber interrupted, swinging the doors opened for them. Armeria transformed into her belt form again, and they all cautiously stepped inside.

Despite the overgrown nature of the compound, it still had a strange sense of order about it. A winding brick path lead off into the trees and thick, if well kept, wall of plants grew just about everywhere else. It appeared as if someone had lifted part of the forest out of Treetop Town and build a glass case around it.

"Wow..." Geno mumbled. "Deja-vu, anyone?"

"I really don't want to fight another alligator..." Axel announced. "Or... Crocodile. Whatever the hell it was."

Zeke landed on his shoulder, nervously gripping the end of his tail as he recalled their hectic battle back in Telmer Swamp. "We can barely see anything... What if someone ambushes us?"

Shelly huffed. "It's just a greenhouse guys." Despite her tone, memories of the giant spiders they had encountered throughout that trip send shivers down her spine. "C'mon, we need to find Lir."

She ushered Zeke to fly ahead, and the others soon followed. Amber quickly realised the guy's had a point; save for the white stone path, this felt eerily similar to their trek through the swamp. The biggest difference though, was that this place had air conditioning.

A sudden ruffle in the trees caught all their attention. A dark brown blur shot from the bushes, crashing straight into Zeke and knocking him out of the air. Amber leapt forward to catch Shelly just before she hit the ground, but Zeke wasn't so lucky. "Armeria; Syren!" Her belt instantly transformed into a sword and shot after whatever was attacking them, and they both disappeared into the bushes.

Axel sniffed again, then clenched his fists. "Someone's here."

"You think?!" Zeke screamed, running to cling to Axel's pant leg.

Amber knelt down to check on Shelly, still curled up in the palm of her hands. She was so small that Amber couldn't tell if anything was wrong at a glance. "Are you ok?" She asked earnestly.

Slowly, she rolled up into a sitting position pressing her furry cheeks with her paws. "I bit my tongue..."

Amber smirked; Shelly was fine. She heard the crackle of electricity behind her though, and Axel yelled. "Amber!" Not having to hear the rest, Amber clutched Shelly against her chest and instinctively rolled out of the way. Something hit the ground behind her, but the metallic flash of her sword erupted through the bush, skewering whatever it was to the ground.

Amber jumped back up to her feet, but there was no follow up. They slowly crept closer to try and figure out what had attacked them, but that just seemed to raise more questions than answers. Stuck on the end of Amber's sword was a small wooden manikin, maybe a food and a half tall, with inch long claws at the end of each limb. "Is that... A doll?" Asked a perplexed Shelly.

"Creepy as hell, is what it is." Geno yanked the thing off the ground, braking the lower half off as it he pulled it free of Amber's sword. "This some sort of game or something?"

"Lir wouldn't do that." Shelly squeaked. "She's immature, but she wouldn't do anything to hurt anybody."

"So someone left them here then." Axel shrugged, lifting Zeke up to his shoulder and following the path again. "C'mon, I smell someone this way." The others nodded and followed after him, heading deeper into the greenhouse that seemingly had no end.

After a few minutes of walking, the group arrived at what appeared to be a courtyard of sorts. A large stone circle outlined the clearing, and a water fountain sat as a centerpiece. A few sets of tables and chairs littered the area, making it resemble a park in a way.

There was nobody present, causing the others to slowly turn to Axel for an explanation. "Axel?" Shelly groaned. "Are you sure-?"

"Thain?" A voice cut through the trees, silencing them all. "I handled the kid. She won't be talking to anybody any time soon."

Another voice followed, this one overlaid with static. "I told you not to call me." This time it was a man, and he sounded agitated. "I'm almost done here."

"But I'm bored, and all these plants are making my nose itch. After this, I'm seriously going to-." A woman came around another path, holding a Lacrima phone to her ear, but froze in place when she realised she wasn't alone. "Uh... Who are you?"

"What?" The voice echoed from her phone.

"What've you done with Lir?" Shelly barked, jumping to Amber's shoulder.

The woman took a second, apparently failing to notice Shelly's rodent form at first, but then placed a hand on her hip looking insulted. "Thain, there's some guy's here."

"Dammit Lyra! Just deal with them." The man yelled through the phone. "I've got the Rainbow Stone already, so I'm going ahead without you." There was a soft beep, and the call was ended.

Lyra stared disappointedly at her phone. "That's harsh..." She pouted.

The others watched her, not exactly sure what to think. "Rainbow Stone?" Electricity sparked across Axel's arms, and he took a challenging step forward. "You guys are thieves."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Lyra announced, sounding somewhat bratty. "I'm just here for a break, minding my own business. So why can't you guys all just do the same, huh? Is that too much to ask?"

"You called that guy Thain." Amber interrupted. "That's what that guy in the cap called himself, the one who was with Lir. So you must be working with him."

Lyra opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. An annoyed grin cut across her face, and her eyebrow began to twitch. "Dammit, I hate you perceptive types." With lightning fast moment, she grabbed a knife off her belt and pitched it straight at them.

Amber was unlucky enough to be the first target, but she had more than enough time to duck out of the way. "Look out!" Amber felt Axel roughly shove her forward, and a trio of knives rained down on where she'd just been standing.

They all looked up to see Lyra perched in the trees above them. Geno unwrapped the chain around his waist and whipped it into the brush, but she disappeared before it made contact. Electricity sparked from Axel's hands as he scanned the trees, but Lyra suddenly leapt over the fountain and used both feet at once to kick him into a nearby hedge.

Amber stood straight up again, reaching for her belt to counterattack, when she heard someone chuckling behind her. She looked over her shoulder to find Lyra in a fit of hysterical laughter, in the exact place she'd been in when the assault started. "Figure it out, Ms. Know-it-all?"

Another Lyra dropped out of the trees beside the first, and the one who had kicked Axel ran around the fountain to join them. All three of them grabbed fistfuls of knives and launched another assault, mostly targeting Amber again. "Armeria; King's Shield!" Amber crouched down to hide behind her shield, still clutching Shelly to her chest.

Axel leapt over them the instant the last knife hit the ground, a fistful of electricity gathering in his hand. "Lightning Dragon's Bolt!" A blast of lightning shot from his hand, and the three Lyra clones had just enough time to back step before it exploded at their feet. A tinge of regret hit him the instant he heard Amber groan, spinning around to find her with one hand over her ear and the other trying to hold onto Shelly. "Shit. Sorry I-."

"Surprise!" Another copy of Lyra dropped down from the trees and onto Axel's shoulders, yanking his toque down over his eyes. He blindly grabbed at her, only for her to hop away with a front flip and begin laughing again. "Wow, you guy's suck."

Not a moment after the words left her lips, a patio chair flew out of nowhere and crashed into her. The copy disappeared in a flash, and everyone spun to see Geno in the process of lobbing a matching patio table at the three remaining enemies. The first was flattened after jumped forward to intercept. The second likewise after helping the third jump to a low hanging branch out of harm's way.

Both vanished again, with the last dangling from the tree in a nervous sweat. "Holy crap..." Lyra mumbled, pulling herself up to kneel on the branch. "Are you trying to kill me or something?!" She yelled angrily.

Geno, meanwhile, appeared amused. "Lass, today I've found myself redefining my definition of boredom." As he spoke, he slowly coiled his chain back around his waist and threw off his security jacket. "I've had nothing to do but watch a bunch of old people do stuff I don't care about. So when this whole thing started, I felt a fire in my stomach." He picked up one of Lyra's wayward throwing knives and made a small cut on the outside of his arm, wiping up the blood between his fingers. He held out his right arm and drew a line along his bicep, then another two crossing over it. "Agrus!" The broken broadsword erupted from his arm, and one of his eyes took on a fogged green hue as a massive grin spread across his face. "So c'mon. Give me something to do today."

Through his speech, Shelly was the only one who figured out what he was trying to say. "Are you sure?" She asked slowly.

"Go on." He nodded. "I'll take care of her. And keep an eye out for the little lass too." He spin his weapon between his fingers, catching it backhand with the jagged end pointed at Lyra. "You guys go catch our thief."

"I don't think so." Lyra glowed with magic, and another pair of duplicates appeared by her side to rush at them.

Amber hopped backwards, prioritizing keeping Shelly safe while she was vulnerable, while Axel jumped forward to intercept. "Lightning Dragon's Claw!" He tore through the first copy with an electrified hand swipe, then spun to dispatch the other in virtually the same way. "C'mon, the scent's coming from down here." He darted back towards Amber, heading for a staircase that led underground.

"Dammit, quit doing that!" Lyra screamed, sending more copies on the attack. They only made it a few feet however, when Geno dispatched the first with an elbow tackle to the head. The remaining two likewise tackled him, and together they all fell into the fountain.

Amber had just reached the top of the staircase when a pair of wooden dolls leapt from the bushes. "Armeria!" With a wave of her hand, her familiar transformed into a sword cleaved them both in half with a single swing. "C'mon guys." She called, after Axel and Zeke had taken one look back after hearing the splashing water of the fountain.

After a moments struggle, Geno finally shot up from the water. He took a moment to catch his breath, in which time the beaten Lyra clones both disappeared in the knee deep water. He flicked his hair out of his face, readjusting his headband in the process, and smiled. "Well, that was fun."

He leapt out of the water and onto the soaking brick floor, taking a quick stock of what he missed. The others had all made a successful exit, but Lyra was also nowhere to be seen. He strained to hear for anything, but other than the hiss of water running from the fountain all was quiet. "Well, you didn't follow after 'em!" He shouted at the trees, knowing Lyra would be somewhere within earshot. "Guess you and me are stuck with one another lass!"

Another knife came flying out of the trees, which he deflected with the flat of his weapon's blade. Geno spun his broken broadsword between his fingers again, then leapt into the trees. "Let the hunt begin."

After leaving the greenhouse, Amber and the others entered into a long windowless corridor. It seemed to stretch on forever, and the dull buzzing lights overhead gave it a somewhat creepy feel. "Uh... Where the hell are we?" Axel asked after a moment.

"Tunnels. The staff use them to get around, they lead all over the place. This island is also the headquarters for Omni-Corp." Shelly said, riding on Zeke's back again. "This is where we found Lir last year too."

"Why would he come down here?" Amber asked, running along beside them. "He'd be just as lost as we are, wouldn't he?"

Shelly shook her head. "It'd be the quickest way to get around without being seen. Nobody would be down here because the whole staff is busy with the party."

They all stopped at an intersecting hallway, then set off again after Axel picked out a direction. "They have their own undergrown tunnel network..." He mumbled to himself. "That's like the biggest waste of money ever."

"It's so the staff can move stuff around easier." Shelly sounded somewhat annoyed by Axel's tone. "They go from the main house, to the staff and guest houses, the kitchen, the boat-."

Shelly abruptly cut herself off, and Zeke glanced over his shoulder to see what was wrong. "What is it?" Axel and Amber slowed to a standstill, all looking at Shelly. "Why'd you stop?"

"The boathouse." She said slowly, panic building in her voice. "The Omnison property is an island, and the canal leads straight to the ocean."

Amber thought back. "Well, yeah. We drove over a bridge just before we got here." The words sunk in as she said them, and Amber suddenly came to the same conclusion as Shelly. "He's going to steal one of the boats to make his getaway with the Rainbow Stone!"

"Let's go!" Shelly shouted, urging Zeke forward. "If he gets into opened water then we'll never catch him!"

They all took off again, running harder than ever before and hoping they weren't too late. Amber didn't want to even consider the ramifications of what would happen to them should the thief succeed. That butler would never let them hear the end of it.

Axel turned down an intersecting hallway, and Amber followed right after him without a thought. "Wait guys!" Shelly called. The two of them stopped dead, looking back to find Shelly pointing her tiny paw in the other direction. "The boathouse is that way."

Axel shook his head. "Are you sure?"

"It's where Lir hid last year." Shelly shuttered, patting on her furry tummy. "The first time she did... This to me. No way I'd forget."

"'Kay, great. But the scent is coming from down here." He nodded his head in the direction they were heading. "Stinks like chlorine or something, but they're definitely down here."

Amber glanced at the hallway wall they had just turned away from, where a pair of loose hanging signs hung. One was labeled ‘POOL’ and pointed in the direction Shelly wanted to go. The other read ‘BOATHOUSE’, but had no directional arrow. "It's got to be this way." She insisted.

Axel set off again, looking somewhat proud of himself, while Shelly took a moment to study the sign for herself. "But I'm sure it was this way..."

"Don't worry about it." Zeke tried to sound encouraging. "Everyone makes mistakes."

"But I swear..." She repeated.

"We'll figure it out later." Amber insisted, trying to catch up to Axel. "Maybe he made a wrong turn or something."

Shelly nodded, but still didn't look too sure of herself. "Maybe..."

Quite a while had passed since Fiona had parted ways with the others. Or at least, it felt like it had been a while. She hadn't ventured too far from where they had last seen each other; after all, there'd be no point in waiting if they couldn't find her again later. She also hadn't had any success in finding any of her other guild mates. Either to replace her or to send as backup. And the whole ordeal had begun to where on her nerves.

One small blessing was that she'd found a few councilmen hanging around the same area she was, so as long as they didn't wonder off she'd be in luck. The raven haired Captain Hanna Andrews, and another man who's face she recognised but who's name she couldn't recall.

She sipped on a drink she'd been offered while she waited, trying to calm her nerves, but couldn't tear her eyes away from the clock the entire time. "C'mon guys..." She muttered under her breath, taking another sip from her glass. "You've only got twenty minutes left..."

She checked to make sure the councilmen hadn't gone anywhere, for maybe the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes. She was a woman of action, waiting around like this was slowly driving her mad.

She finished her drink in one more swing. Nothing alcoholic, given the situation, but it still drew a few quizzical glances from some of the nearby guests. Noticing this, and fearing she was about to lose her cool, Fiona stepped out for a moment. The moment she did though, she saw something that instantly brought a smile to her face. "Jackpot." She thought to herself. "Time to change the plan a little."

Next Chapter – Dollhouse