The newest member

Chapter 6

It was huge. A massive scaly beast that towered above the control room. I don't think that Natsu had really predicted it but it had horns, wings, breathed fire but it was most definitely a demon. It actually looked more like a dragon but obviously wasn't. It had red scales all over, a yellow belly, red horns on top of it's head and tiny little wings on each foot. The claw we'd seen on the control room window had been one of it's... hands? and the wings had been just outside of our vision, drowning in the lava. It's beady black eyes looked upwards towards the ash grey sky and then it peered in our direction.

"Holy crap it's huge" Natsu yelled, taking a careful step away.

Lucy gave a quiet gasp of horror and ran back to Wendy and I. "What is it? Wait no... that's what we're fighting?"

I nod solemnly. "That's the demon we've got to get rid of, the demon we have to kill."

"But it's huge" Wendy cried. "How are we meant to fight that thing when it's so... so... big."

"I don't know" Grey said, coming towards us. "But it doesn't seem to friendly. I think if we're to ask it to leave politely we should get Dragon Breath over there to help us out."

"I heard that Ice Brain" Natsu yelled.

"So what?" Grey yelled back. "I don't..."

"It's seen us" Erza yelled, leaning forwards. The demon was looking straight towards the window. It raised one of it's hands which opened up revealing a huge gap. Lots of tiny little versions of it's claw shot out. "Everybody get down" Erza threw herself on the floor and covered her head with her arms.

Wendy, Carla, Lucy and I rolled under one of the tables, Happy and Natsu ducked under the main control desk and Grey dived behind another table. The glass in the window shattered and the claws hit the ground, stood up and ran at us.

There was a brief moment where nothing but the skittish noise of the tiny claws as they ran before Natsu showered them with fire and all hell broke loose.

Erza requipped into her Japanese Cloth armour with her two long swords and charged. Lucy snatched a key from the loop on her skirt and called forth one of her spirits, a huge bull with an axe who was also an absolute creep. Natsu's fist went up in flames, Grey threw forwards a huge storm of ice arrows and Wendy spat out a whirlwind. I stood still for a moment, terrified, doing nothing. Then I was brought back to reality when Wendy's whirlwind hit the moving claws. I put my hands a few inches apart and willed the particles to help. They did, and came swarming towards my hand, creating an ever growing ball of dark purple energy. I took a deep breath and thrust it forwards into a cluster of the claws who went flying everywhere. Lucy whipped round and stared at me for a second before grinning and giving me a thumbs up.

There are only half as many claws now as there were at the beginning and the demon had vanishes from the window.

I put my hand to my side and again the particles swarmed, this time creating a long sword which, after a moment, turned grey and metal. The numbers of the claws started to dwindle until there were none left. My sword vaporised and I swung myself up onto one of the tables.

"Well" Erza said. "At least we know why there isn't anyone here any more."

"Yeah" Grey panted heavily and glanced towards the window. "If you didn't know how to fight you'd be pretty much doomed with those things."

"Did you see their teeth? " Lucy asked, tapping the key on the bull's head and watching as he vanished. "They were huge."

Natsu nodded and walked to the back of the cantine. "I'd love to say that we should eat some of this food but I don't really feel like it now"

"Oh my gosh, Dragon Breath refused food" Grey smirked.

"Shut up Ice Brain" Natsu yelled

"Huh? What're you gonna do about it?" Grey said, moving closer and soon they were fighting.

Erza stepped between them, grabbed their hair and shoved it away from each other. "I'd like to remind you that we came to fight a demon not each other." She banged their heads together and then strode away purposefully. I blinked and then followed her out of the canteen, Lucy and Wendy following with Carla and Happy and Natsu and Grey trudging along, not hiding the hated glares they threw at each other. There was a sharp bang from behind and I turned to find Happy slowly sinking to the ground, Carla shaking her head and throwing looks at the metal bar across the ceiling.

"I think my brain cells are all jumbled up" Happy moaned, massaging his forehead.

"Serves you right TomCat" Carla turned away, arms crossed and carried on walking.

"You shouldn't be so mean to him Carla" Wendy said as Happy grudgingly got up, spread his wings and took off again. "I'm sure he didn't mean to."

"No, it's not that" Carla glanced sideways at Wendy. "I don't like this place. I feel like every move we make could be our last and if we make too much noise, we'll die before our time has come. It made to much noise, him banging his head and it made me think about where those people went. There isn't a way out of the volcano without going over the top so how did they get people in here, how did they make all this, these corridors, that dining room back there, and most importantly, how did they escape?"

"Yeah, you have a point" Lucy muttered. "How did they get out?"

"It's simple" Erza slopped walking and turned to face us. "They didn't. I thought I sensed a strange energy about that demon when it first appeared. The same with the tiny claws. Those claw, they're people, they have the same... how should I put this... features as humans. I know that doesn't make sense but did you look at them closely?"

"We were all busy fighting them" Natsu yelled. "Good warm up."

"They were all different, all with slightly different marks and all with human eyes. Those things we killed back there, they were the people who built this place. They arose a demon from deep under ground whilst they were working and that demon started making the volcano erupt so much. The demon then clearly possessed and captured them somehow and now they are his minions."

We all stared at her.

"It couldn't be could it?" Lucy whimpered.

Erza nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so. We'll have to be a lot more careful around here then we were before. A lot more careful."

*****

I'm sorry that this is so weird and random with the claw things but this is one of my first fanfics and so it'll probably be kind of bad.