Counteraction Part I

Mhmm… almost there… and, got it! Yeah, Koneko-chan, look! I beat the boss!" Gasper excitedly showed Koneko- who couldn't care less and continued to bite into her Pocky- his high score. They were sitting on the velvet couch while Gasper was still in his box. After realizing that she didn't care, Gasper went back to playing his game.

Suddenly, Koneko ruffled her nose and swung her head towards the door as her attention spiked, "Gasper-kun… I need you to hide, now." She said, sticking an arm out in front of him.

"But wh-" Then there was an explosion that blasted the door to bits and shards as Gasper yelped in fear.

"Who are you?" Koneko asked stoically, squinting her eyes in wariness, "Humans…?" As the dust cleared, multiple silhouettes formed until they burst out of the darkness and blocked the exits. They all appeared to be female but were covered with one piece of clothing from head to toe. The most noticeable features were their feet, which were levitating off the ground and three eyes stitched onto the hood, which covered their faces from the nose up.

te"Yes, we are Humans. But a special breed, if you will. We have a special gift to make bonds with Devils and share their power with us. We're called Magicians." The women in the middle said menacingly.

"Witches, huh." Koneko looked around to see if there were any available exits but only found one. 'It's a good thing I threw Gasper under the table, plus he's small enough to fit entirely in the box.'

"We've heard that you Devils are pretty good with Magic, but we're better. Now hand over the boy, or get destroyed." The same woman said again while reaching her hand out as if expecting to get Gasper easily.

"Give us the Vampire, we know he's here!" Another woman yelled angrily. Koneko stayed silent as the woman in the middle, who seemed likely to be the leader of this group, spoke again.

"Fine, if that's how you want it." And just like that, they all fired blasts of magic towards Koneko just as she planned. Swiftly, she dove under the table and punched a hole in the floor while grabbing Gasper and fell to the lower level. Under the smoke of the blasts, she knew she had time to run before they realized that she was still alive and used that time to find help.

Carrying Gasper on her shoulder, Koneko ran throughout the building, sneakily avoiding the Witches that wandered around. But to her dismay, all the exits were sealed, even the secret emergency ones.

"Why do they want me?" Gasper asked worriedly, putting the brown bag over his head. Koneko didn't bother to answer as she stopped near the stairway looking out the window. All she saw was hordes of those Witches flying around.

"This is insane." She said to herself. Then, to her surprise, three Witches snuck up on her causing Koneko to put up her guard.

"Resistance is futile, you cannot escape." Soon after those words, blasts of orange light came out from their hands while Koneko used her quick thinking and threw Gasper in the air while flipping out of the way of the blasts and landing down the stairs and caught Gasper immediately. Running as fast as she could, Koneko went to the place that had the strongest sealed barrier closest to her.

"My room?" Gasper questioned curiously, seeing his room up ahead. When Koneko got there, she hastily locked the door, activating the seals that were placed.

Setting him down, Koneko began to talk quietly, "It's okay, I'll protect you."

"Thanks, Koneko-ch-" That's when suddenly, the orange blasts flashed before Gasper's eye, hitting Koneko who protected him until she passed out on the ground, "Kyaa! Koneko-chan! Noo!" When he looked up, he saw that one of the witches phased through the ceiling with a Magic Circle around her, smiling creepily.

"Now, come little one. We have big plans for you," She said going through the wood completely. Amidst that, Koneko tried to get up, but her back was stomped on by the woman, "Nuh uh uh, we can't have you ruining our plans, Devil." And so, she picked up the two and carried them through the door and back to the room where the Leader of the Witches was.

Seeing the two Devils captured brought a smile to her face as the Head Witch cast a spell causing two orange Magic Seals to appear.

"Place them here. It will stop any movement and motive to escape," She said while the other Witches put Koneko and Gasper on the Seals, "Now, little vampire, give us your power."

"No, I would never- AAAAHHH!" Gasper screamed in pain as the Seal he was on started sucking his Magic Power, "Koneko-chan!"

"Gasper-kun… I'm sorry." Koneko said, closing her eyes with regret as that is the only thing she can do.

Location in the Summit Room:

"What was that?" Rias asked, walking towards Issei. At that moment, another explosion happened that caused Rias to bump into Issei and fall down.

"Are you okay, President?" Issei asked worriedly, holding her shoulders.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you." She got up with Issei's help, but not a second after, something weird happened to their surroundings.

"Oh no, it's as I feared." Sirzechs exclaimed, still seeming as composed as the rest despite the tremors that happened.

"Sona-sama? Asia-san? Akeno-senpai? What happened to them; why aren't they responding?" Kiba questioned, frightened for his friends.

"It seems someone has stopped time," Azazel said smirking, "Oh, how this peaceful summit was ruined."

"Then why aren't we stopped as well?" Xenovia asked curiously.

"You Holy Sword wielders were protected by the aura that surrounds you. While the rest of us weren't affected because of our immense power." Azazel explained, happily giving out information.

"And Issei and I were protected because of our Dragons." Vali said smiling in amusement.

"So… that means I'm okay because of you, Issei. I have to thank you again." Rias said gratefully.

"Ah, it was nothing really. I didn't even know I was doing anything." Issei backed off from the praise, feeling as though he didn't deserve it.

"Good job Issei. Let's see if your luck hasn't run out." Natsu jokingly said, expressing his gratitude by patting Issei on the back.

BOOM!

Looking out the window, Xenovia pointed out the anomaly outside of the building, "Who are those people!?"

"They are Magicians. Commonly known as Witches or Wizards." Grayfia answered stoically.

Angrily, Serafall whined, "I should be the only Magical Girl though."

"Does anyone know what's going on?" Michael asked, also looking out the window in shock.

"I believe someone kidnapped Gasper-kun and forcefully released his Balance Breaker. Very few people have the ability to stop time. And it's even worse since he's a Mutation Piece." Sirzechs elaborated the situation carefully, making sure everyone understood the problem at hand.

"President! We can't let this be! We have to save Gasper-kun!" Kiba yelled angrily, summoning his sword and gripping it tightly. Xenovia did the same, walking beside Kiba with a serious expression.

"You don't think I'm angry too? The fact that these terrorists even think that they can try and control one of my precious servants irritates me to no end." Rias put a frown on her graceful face while the Leaders continued to assess the situation.

Watching their guards being shot and turned to dust, Azazel noticed something unusual about the magic, "I… think they're using Teleportation Magic. I'm sensing the type of magic they're using and it doesn't seem to be the type to destroy your opponents. I'm pretty sure they linked the gate they are coming through with their attacks to send our guards to some place on the other side."

"And conversely, they disabled our usual form of transportation as well." Michael briefly stated.

"But why would they want to teleport the troops instead of killing them?" Issei asked inquired.

"Don't know. Probably to scared or weak to do so." Azazel grinned smugly, crossing his arms with amusement.

"Though, they got us good. Not only with the of rendering all our forces useless- but with using one of own against us. If we don't stop this soon, even we will succumb to this power." Sirzechs said sighing loudly.

"Indeed. But, I believe it's time to get them back, no?" Michael asked rhetorically, turning to the people beside him.

"Hell's yeah!" Natsu punched the inside of his palm, generating a burst of fire.

"But one thing still concerns me," Sirzechs said, getting the attention of the others, "The only way that this kind of organized attack would happen is if we had a traitor in our midst." With this, everyone looked around in worry until he broke it up, setting the play into action, "We can start off the counter attack by getting back their leverage in this exploit: Gasper."

"I have a Rook stationed where Gasper should be." Rias informed, hoping her brother would catch on.

"Ah, perfect. If you're going to Castle you should bring someone with you." Sirzechs said, giving his own input.

"With Sirzechs-sama's power, that should be possible." Grayfia added practically.

"Natsu, I think you should go." Issei said suddenly, shocking Natsu.

"B-but, I was gonna choose you." Natsu shakily said, pointing a finger towards Issei.

"Really? Well, I think you should go because there's a more likely chance that the President will be safe. Along with the others," Issei said proving a valid point, "I'll stay here and fight with Kiba and Xenovia."

"Well, if you say so. I guess I'll go." Natsu shrugged deciding not to argue back anymore.

"Now that it's decided. Let us start." Sirzechs announced as a Red Magic Circle encompassed both Rias and Natsu.

"You better not die pervert. If anyone's gonna knock that skull over, it's me." Natsu playful said, sticking out his fist.

"Same to you astray. Don't be a dumbass and screw things up like you usually do." Issei stuck out his fist and did a fist pump with Natsu, smiling as well.

"Oh, and take this, Natsu," Azazel called out, throwing him a silver ring, "Put this around that Vampire boy's wrist and it should control his power."

"What?" Natsu didn't get to finish his question because he was already glowing bright and then disappeared in a flash of light.

"Okay, now what? I'm getting bored of sitting here." Vali said crossing his arms.

"Well, you could always screw around with those goons out there." Azazel points out while Vali smirk with glee.

"Ah, you're right. Guess I'll see ya." He said enthusiastically, jumping out the window as he summoned his wings. Issei watched in awe at how easily he controlled his powers until Vali suddenly activated his Balance Breaker.

"Are you serious? He did that so naturally. I had to sacrifice my left arm for it, and it didn't last very long either." Issei said to himself, staring at his arm. At that moment, they all looked at Vali destroying the Magicians that were present, but more just kept coming.

"Oh yeah, and Issei, here's one for you too. It's a sacrifice to get into your own Balance Breaker. But only use as a last resort." Azazel explained, handing it to Issei as well while he continued talking, "You are your Sacred Gear's own weakness."

Issei nodded understanding what Azazel meant, "You don't have to tell me twice."

"Sirzechs-sama. There's someone coming… and it's a familiar presence." Grayfia warned, acknowledging the powerful presence that she felt.

"We must be prepared before that person arrives-" Michael was cut off by a Magic Circle that suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. By the looks of it, a woman was materializing from it with a long staff in hand.

The Satans all had their eyes wide in surprise when they saw who it was, "Greetings, current Satans." The woman bowed a little, smiling menacingly.

"Katerea Leviathan!" Serafall yelled in distress.

"She's the descendant of the original Leviathan before the war. If her mother hadn't died then she would have been one of the Satans." Sirzechs explained tensely.

The rest of the people there stared at her in a state of distress, not sure if they should be amazed or terrified. She wore something a few would call an exposing robe, with multiple parts of her body being shown from the sides, front and back. The main color scheme was white, dark purple as well as a lighter shade, and gold jewelry being the accompaniment. She has tanned skin and wore glasses with her hair-do being in a bun. But one of her most noticeable traits were her breasts, which happened to be the size of water melons(Issei thinks this).

"Why are you here, Katerea." Serafall asked apprehensively, squinting her eyes.

"Why, don't you speak to your superiors correctly, you fake. And as to why I am here, only to bring chaos and ruin to the world!" Katerea yelled enthusiastically, throwing her arms into the air, "Oh, and also to kill you disgraceful imposters called Satans nowadays." After saying that, Katerea slammed her staff down, causing an explosion to rock the whole area and destroying to school premises in the process.

Waiting for the dust to clear, Katerea laughed gleefully at what she saw, "Ohahahaha, what a cute thing! All the faction leaders putting a barrier together, how sweet." She said sarcastically.

"What the hell's your problem, you bitch! Are you trying to cause another war!?" Issei yelled infuriated.

"Of course I am. That's the whole reason why I came here: to do the opposite of why you all came here," she said sassily, "If all the big guys are gone, then this world going to go through a revolution, and I shall to the one to control which direction it goes."

"Stop this Katerea, there is no reason for you to do this." Sirzechs pleaded, wanting to stop the raid peacefully, already knowing it was futile.

"Hahaha, you ignorant bastards! This world is slowly rotting away for trying to make up for its shortcomings. Take the bull by the horns and take the opportunity to make the world yours while it's at its weakest," Katerea stated with overconfidence. While basking in what seemed like a perfect reason for destroying the world, she heard Azazel laugh quietly to himself which in turn, pissed her off, "And what do you find so funny, Azazel?"

While subsiding his laughter and gaining his composure, Azazel spoke with mirth in his tone, "Ah, well, people like you who speak of "revolutions" and "taking the bull by the horns" always seem to die first before that actually happens. Now I just wonder who's gonna kill you… and how."

"Why you…" Katerea grimaced at the sight of Azazel's smug face and raised her staff in the air, "If you want to play it that way, why don't you come face me, you scum."

Accepting her challenge, Azazel stepped forward, "Sirzechs, Michael, if I may."

"Of course. Just be careful." Michael warned, opening a part of the barrier for him as he went through.

"Now, I always wanted to see how strong the decedents were; if their blood made any difference in their strength." Azazel accumulated his wings and flew up to level Katerea who was already in the air with her Devil Wings.

"You're going to wish you never provoked me, Azazel." Katerea growled angrily, twirling her staff in hand and pointing it towards the Fallen Angel, blasting multiple dark rays of magic at him. Sighing and putting his hands in his pockets, Azazel easily and swiftly dodged them all, earning a deep frown from her.

"Really, are you gonna start off like this? Well, if you're not going to put any effort why should I?" Azazel asked sarcastically, getting on the nerves of Katerea. She didn't even reply, trying to ignore the taunting Azazel did and summoned a few Magic Circles above his head that also shot dark orange rays towards him while Azazel simply puts his hand up to block the blasts.

"What a shame. Stop stalling and show me what you got!" Azazel yelled excitedly, flying towards her.

"Now we can only pray that he holds her off until we can get the full force of our counter attack."

"Grayfia is analyzing the gate that they're coming through right now. It's going to take a while so we need people to stop the goons out there from destroying the barrier. We're not putting all our Magic Energy in this so we can preserve for a real fight." Sirzechs explained while Issei stepped forward.

"We'll do it. We can go out there and stall as well until you guys come up with something to stop this madness." Issei spoke determinedly.

"Thank you all. Go and do your best." Michael said encouraging them, opening the barrier so they could go through. Issei clamped the ring Azazel gave him around his arm and readied for battle alongside, Kiba, Xenovia, and Irina.

Location with Rias and Natsu in the Club Building(A few minutes earlier):

BOOOMM!

"Huh!?" Natsu and Rias suddenly turned around and stopped running when they heard the sound of another explosion- this one being larger than the rest. Looking out the window, they both saw the crumbled building that used to be their school and a small silhouette of a woman.

"What the hell is up with her smell? It's stinging my nose all the way from here." Natsu asked irritated, rubbing his burning nose.

"This energy… it's Katerea Leviathan," Rias said in awe, "You've heard the war and how the Satans all died right? Well, their children wanted to keep fighting even though the Devil population was becoming extinct. So consequently, they were banished to the outskirts of the underworld to not cause any trouble." Risa explained. But just as fast she turned away and began to jog away, startling Natsu.

"Princess, where are you going? The others-" Natsu was cut off suddenly when Rias spoke sternly.

"The others can take care of themselves. We need to get Gasper back. That was our mission and our top priority. If we stop this, then the tables will turn." Rias stood there waiting for Natsu to understand until she heard his footsteps behind her.

"Let's go." Natsu determinedly stared in Rias' eyes as the two continued their mission towards Gasper. All the while, explosions rocked the building causing Natsu to lose focus and worry about his friends who are fighting that Satan. But each time, he quickly dismissed the negative thoughts and thought about how Gasper might be fairing. That's when he also realized, both of those thoughts were bad to think about.

It didn't take long for them reach him as Rias tracked Koneko's and Gasper's Magical Signature to discover where they were being kept. Rias stopped at a certain door in the hall they were in and closed her eyes in focus.

"This is it. Koneko and Gasper are in here." Rias confirmed backing away from the door.

Natsu grinned ferally at the information and lit his fist on fire, "Then let me do the rest, Princess." Cocking his fist back, Natsu punched it towards the door, breaking it down completely and blasting a new hole in the wall.

"What was that!?" One of the witches yelled, shocked that someone came after them, "Leviathan-sama should have kept them at bay!"

"How did they even get here!? We disable their Teleportation Magic too!" Another one screamed confused, anxiously getting up from the ground that she landed on.

Rushing out of the smoke, Natsu jumped in the air and slammed his fist to one of the Witches closest to him, "Sup, bitches! I'm here to take back my friends!" Natsu's vulgar language irritated the women there as they all gathered in front of Gasper.

"We won't let you get away with this!" One of them said.

"You won't even to conscious to do so. And now that you're all in one spot," Natsu sucked in gallons of air, puffing his chest up and released it all in one go, blasting fire towards the women, "Fire Dragon's Roar!" After he cleared the way, Natsu clearly saw Gasper magically tie to the wall with sparks of magic flying around him.

"N-Natsu-senpai! Rias-sama! Y-you came!" Gasper yelled merrily, his eyes brimming with tears.

"Yes, of course we did. How can we call ourselves family if we didn't." Rias said sweetly, smiling softly towards Gasper. The other Witches that survived(including the head witch) stood in the corners frightened at the power the pink haired man, trembling and scared of what would happen if they interfered.

"Come on Gasper, you've got to get a hold of yourself! Control your power so this can end and we can get you out of here." Natsu spoke seriously, walking towards the boy.

"I can't! You already know I can't! I tried and tried again but still fail! And my power is just causing you guys more trouble!" Gasper cried out loud, feeling sorry for himself once again.

"Well Gasper, if you keep failing, just try more. Don't you remember what I said when we first met, 'Live for me and find a life suiting for you.'. I still want you to do that, Gasper. You're part of my ever growing family." Rias encourage, soothingly talking to Gasper.

"Yeah, and even if you cause more trouble, there's nothin' I can't beat down into submission with fire!" Natsu smiled, punching his fist in his palm, "But now's the time, buddy. Drink up." He stuck out his hand towards Gasper's face as he hesitated to take a bite.

"No, stop what you're doing!" The Head Witch yelled in terror, shooting a beam of Dark Magic towards the two. But Gasper already swallowed a good amount of blood from Natsu and everything slowed down right in front of his eyes until Natsu found he was moved back by Rias.

"What… just happened?" Natsu asked dumbly, turning to Rias. All the people around them were frozen along with the Magic in the air too. Koneko was out of her binds and Gasper… was nowhere to be found.

"He somehow got partial control of his power and stopped time just in this area… except us." Rias said amazed at what her little servant could do. That's when small black bats with red beady eyes started popping out of nowhere and attacking the frozen Witches, swirling around them at fast speeds.

"Wow." Koneko said stoically, looking around at the small bats.

"What the hell are these things!?" Natsu freaked out, frailing his arms to keep the bats away.

"This is one of the things Gasper is able to do with a small portion of his power. And I guess he was able to do it because of your blood. What gave you the idea for that anyway?" Rias asked interestedly.

"Oh, it was Azazel." Natsu answered quickly, still being freaked out by Gasper's abilities, but found it somewhat cool.

"Figures," Rias said sighing, "Gasper-kun, I think now would be a good time to finish them off, don't you think!" Rias yelled mildly through all the fluttering of the bat wings. And just like that, when he unfroze time, all the Witches fell to the ground exhausted and beaten.

"He… sucked our blood… and Magic Power…" The Head Witch said wearily before passing out of exhaustion.

All the little bats that were in the air came to one spot near Rias and transformed back into Gasper shocking Natsu to no end.

"If I knew your power was this badass… I would have trained you harder," Natsu deadpanned. That's when he remembered the ring Azazel gave him, "Oh, and put this on too. It'll be like a dampener on your power." He took the silver ring out and clipped it on Gasper's arm for safety.

"Now if everyone's ready, let's go help the others." Rias said walking out of the destroyed room.

"Yes Ma'am!" Natsu said enthusiastically, suddenly carrying Rias and running with her in his arms while Koneko did the same for Gasper.

Location Near the Wrecked School Building, with Azazel and Katerea:

"Now it's time for you to die." Katerea said menacingly. Both her and Azazel were still fighting in the air with Azazel obviously holding the upper hand. He entertained her by dodging and counterattacking but never charging full on himself. He wasn't an idiot. He knew he just had to distract her long enough for Sirzechs, Serafall, and Michael to come up with something. In the meanwhile, he'll stall her here.

"Oh really?" Azazel asked Sarcastically again, which got on Katerea's last nerve. She furrowed her eyebrows in frustration as a Magic Circle appeared over her hands. At that time, a black purplish ooze-like substance crawled its way all over her body until it faded back to nothing. This display confused Azazel until she stuck her hand out and blasted another ray of magic at him.

But this one was far stronger than the others- at least three times as strong as the other before. Azazel quickly dodges the increasingly devastating attack and used his speed to get in the back of Katerea, holding on to her arm so she won't make another attempt to attack him.

"Where'd you get that extra power up, Katerea? Who's helping you with this? Even if it has been hundreds of years, there's no way you got this strong." Azazel questioned gravely, gripping onto her wrist tighter.

"I have no obligation to tell you, Azazel," Katerea spat out, "For you shall die here and now at my hands!" She roughly pulled her arm away and shot another blast towards him while Azazel flew high in the air to avoid it.

"Well if that's the case, guess I have to try hard too." Azazel fakely sighed, smiling with mirth at the end and flaring his wings out in readiness.