Wendy and Carla are flying to a remote island in the middle of semi-large inland sea. Ever since her power had grown, boats had begun to make Wendy sick, and flying was faster anyway. Their job was to investigate a team of missing employees of the Heart Kreuz fashion company, who had been on the island looking into certain plants for an interesting new form of dye that reacted to magic. The employees had been out of contact for a week and the company was beginning to get concerned, thus posting a request. This job was originally picked by Lucy, since the reward, in addition to a good chunk of Jewel, included some designer products. However, Lucy had fallen sick and Erza, who was also interested, had been called away by Jellal with an urgent message. So Wendy set out alone with the promise she'd share the spoils with her friends. Wendy liked clothes well enough, but not to the extent of those two.
"Looks like that's it!" Wendy says, pointing down at the island below. Carla flies them down to the beach and the two land gracefully. Carla then assumes her more human form at the two survey the coastline.
"No sign of anyone so far..." Carla says, worried. She hasn't had a specific premonition about this job, but can't shake the feeling something is wrong.
"Yeah, and..." Wendy sniffs the air. "Something doesn't smell right. I can't put my finger on what, though..."
The two head into the jungle for about half a mile before coming across a clearing with tents and a few per-fabricated buildings.
"This must be the camp..." Wendy says.
The camp seems to be in disarray. Various items have been knocked to the ground and it's apparent whoever was here left quickly. Near an overturned chair Wendy spots what looks like part of a shirt, seemingly burned at the edges. She leans down to pick it up.
"WENDY, LOOK OUT!" Carla screams. Wendy turns and ducks just in time for a phosphorescent blue slime to lunge at her chest. Wendy dodges at the last second.
"Ah! What is that-" But before she can finish her sentence, she feels a pull from behind. Something warm and wet on her back. Turning her head she can see one of the slimes has attached itself to her back and seems to be spreading. Without thinking, she shrugs out of her jacket and jumps away. She looks back to see her jacket fully enveloped by the slime. It dissolves quickly. Carla runs toward Wendy only to unknowingly step on one of the creatures. Her feet stick, but after a few furious tugs she frees herself, her stockinged feet emerging from the shoes, which are quickly absorbed by the creature.
"RUN!" Wendy yells. The two make a mad dash out of the camp in a random direction, sickly squelching and rustling sounds following them close behind. Breaking in from the bush beside them, Wendy sees another slime, this one clearly in the form of a naked woman, grinning madly.
"Come baaaaaack!" She jeers, her voice oily and strange. Wendy speeds up even more. Eventually they break through the jungle and find themselves on the beach, near a dock. Out in the water is a boat. There is a woman waving frantically, she pushes a gangway on to the dock and beckons furiously at the two wizards. Wasting no time Wendy and Carla sprint onto the dock and up the gangway, the slimes hot on their heels. The woman quickly withdraws the gangway and the slimes halt, some pulsing angrily on the dock, a few near the water, retreating as the waves inch toward them.
"T-thank you..." Wendy manages to choke out while catching her breath. She looks at her rescuer. She seems to be a woman in her 30s. On her upper body, she's wearing nothing but a bikini top and on her waist it looks like the remains of a lab coat fashioned into a crude kind of skirt. The woman looks at the emblem on Wendy's arm, clearly visible now her jacket is gone and she's just wearing a sleeveless blouse.
"So you're wizards, huh? The company must have sent you to find us," The woman says.
"Yeah..." Wendy answers.
"C'mon inside, you've probably got a lot of questions." Wendy and Carla follow the woman inside the boat. There are about six other women in there, all in various states of undress. One is in nothing but her underwear. Another is topless and has fashioned a head-rag into a makeshift tubetop. There is a young girl of about ten as well. Her pants have been reduced to mere short-shorts, and her t-shirt has been melted to well above her midriff, exposing her tummy fully. Clearly those monsters don't discriminate based on age. Which should be obvious, Wendy muses, as they went after her and it's not like she's started to develop yet either...
"What happened here?" Wendy asks, her voice full of concern.
"My name is Felicia Darrow. I guess you can say I was the lead on this project. All of us here are employees of the Heart Kreuz fashion company. We had been on this island studying a pretty miraculous plant. It absorbed magic energy and took on a nearly fluid like substance. The idea was to turn the plant into a dye and put it in clothing. It was supposed to be like wearing water. We were certain it was going to be a hit. Then, about a week ago, two of our workers who had been looking for samples came across a cave and in that cave was something that looked like a very old tablet with ancient writing on it none of us could read. I told them to put it back and we'd send a note into an archaeology guild or something, but then...there was a blinding light and suddenly our samples started coming alive. They attacked us. Enrico, our mechanic, tried to fend them off, but they attached to him and burned him very badly." Felicia explains.
"The man!" Wendy cuts in. "Is he hurt? Is he still here?"
"Yes," Felicia says sadly, pointing to a bed at the far corner of a room. A grizzled looking man lies there, covered in bandages. Wendy rushes over to him to begin her healing spells.
"I wish I could have tended to these sooner. It will be harder for him to recover, it having been so long," Wendy says, sadly.
"Thank you, We are fortunate that you can help him, then. The stubborn old fool still keeps trying to get up to fix the ship. We tried to steer it out of here, but only Enrico knows how to steer it and we ran aground. In any case, the monsters burned Enrico. The women, though, they only tried to burn our clothes away. We ran for the boat, two carrying Enrico, me carrying my daughter, Sally, and we just made it. We were missing two of our workers but...they were right on top of us. We pulled the gangway away. Then..." Felicia's face falls. "One of the missing workers, Angeline, came out of the jungle, some of those things still attached to her. She was almost totally naked, save for a few scraps. Once the creatures finished those off they...they..." Felecia covers her daughter's ears. "They started...um...stimulating her...erm...erogenous zones." Wendy feels her face grow hot.
'W-whaaat?" She says, disbelieving.
"Y-yes, I was quite shocked as well. In any case, after Angeline couldn't...um...endure anymore more and...finished, the creature seemed to enter her. Then she...changed. She was Angeline, but...she looked like them now. Made of blue slime. And she started watching us like they did. They seem to be afraid of water for whatever reason. So it seems they want to...turn females into them, but they have to strip us totally naked to do so, and it also seems they can't pass water." Wendy looks pensively at the ground.
"Well...what do we do now?" Carla asks.
"Sadly, our choices are pretty limited. Either you and I go back to that island and try to figure out what's going on, risking the monsters, or..."
"Or?"
"Or you fly back to the mainland to get help. I'm not sure I can handle this on my own and this could be dangerous to a whole lot of people if no one knows what's going on," Wendy answers.
"Absolutely not! If I'm flying back I'm taking you with me!"
"No, Carla. Someone needs to stay and protect these people, and since I can't fly that someone has to be me. If you go back to the mainland you could warn the guild. I bet Natsu could burn these things to nothing, or Gray could freeze them in their tracks. And since they don't seem to like water, Juvia would be perfect too. And if we can recover that tablet, maybe Levy could figure out what this all means. Also, if you could bring a boat back here to moor close to the island, we could evacuate everyone."
"I...I could fly everyone off the island one at a time..."
"No, Carla. It's too far. You aren't strong enough, and if you collapse we'll lose the only means of contact we have."
"But if I leave you'll be grounded with no way to fly! Those things might get you!"
That was true. Wendy knows her choices are limited. She can either keep Carla here to explore the island and try to figure out the problem on their own with the benefit of flight. Or she could send Carla to the mainland for help. Finally, she might not be be able to evacuate everyone, but maybe one person...maybe the youngest. She could send Sally with Carla to keep her from harm, though this would undoubtedly slow Carla down, and likely make it take longer for her to get help.
She has to make a decision.
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