Every time they flapped their wings they were beating them against the other birds and many of them were pecking and clawing at the bars, trying to get out to the open air where they belonged.
...
"Well, at least we've found them," Lisanna murmured. "And we're sure as heck not keeping them all cooped up like that. We need to get them home."
"I really hate to be Miss Negative," Charla landed on the ground behind Wendy after setting the Sky Dragon Slayer on the ground. "But how exactly are we planning to do that? The island is hundreds of miles away and its not like we can transport them all there without setting them loose. And once we set them loose how are we planning to get them to go where we want them to go?"
"I don't know," Lisanna shook her head. "I haven't had the chance to work on my Take-Over nearly enough to control all of them at once. But we have to think of something… anything. We can't let anything get in our way. I'm sure if we put our minds to it, we can come up with something."
"I hope so," Wendy murmured.
Juvia was carefully watching all the people in her Water Locks and each time one of them drifted into unconsciousness she released them from her attack, allowing them to fall to the floor in a sodden heap. Eventually Charlie was the only one still conscious, so she released him too and he gasped as he fell onto his backside, lifting his arms up and watching the water droplets cascade off them.
"You know… I might have preferred a little warning," he muttered as he clambered to his feet and ran a hand through his drenched hair, flicking his hand and to send a small splash of water to the floor.
"Sorry about that, Charlie-san," Juvia replied a little sheepishly. "Juvia thought that she should probably make it look like she was attacking you too or the others might notice and wander why she left you alone."
"No, it's fine, I get it. But what are you guys doing here!? I came up to scope out the birds that you want to rescue and try and come up with a plan only to have you come charging in yourselves shortly afterwards anyway. You've blown the secret of your existence to the entire Ministry not a day after the Order decided to help keep you concealed."
"Well, I believe we did mention that we're very, very bad at doing anything incognito," Lisanna pointed out.
"So bad you go barging straight into the headquarters of the ones we were trying to get you on the good side of?"
"Yes, that bad. Evidently."
"I was rather hoping that with Natsu not here, this kind of thing would happen less often," Charla folded her arms. "Guess that was a rather stupid thing to hope in hindsight."
"Well, we're here now, so we need to figure out what to do next," said Wendy. "Charlie-san, do you think you could help us… Apparate them out or something? Maybe if Lisanna-san used Take-Over on them a couple at a time we could transport them through a series of trips."
"That would take a while, but that might be an option," Lisanna tapped her lip.
"Actually I'm afraid its not," Charlie shook his head. "Anti-apparition wards throughout the Ministry prevent people from leaving that way in any room except the Atrium."
"Oh… well… that's my plan gone," Wendy sagged a little.
"It was a good plan, Wendy," Lisanna placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "But if we can't get them out via Apparition how are we going to…"
"Actually I have just the answer," Charlie replied. "You'll take them out the same way that they were brought in. By Portkey."
"By what?" Juvia blinked. "Juvia has not heard of that one."
"It's not surprising," Charlie shook his head. "But that cage they've got the Clippers in now is designed to contain something much larger, like a dragon if ever they need to get one in here. And there's certainly no door big enough to bring a dragon through into this room is there?"
"…No… there's not. The only door is… was… a human sized one," Wendy agreed.
"Exactly. And even if they could get a dragon in through the door there's no way they'd transport one through the Ministry to load it into the cage. That would be a horrendous hazard to all the people that work here. Instead, they bring the cage to the animal and then transport it back. Portkeys, you see, are objects that can transport people to a specific place and back. Normally they're small and can be made from anything, like an old boot. But in this case that entire cage is one big Portkey, which gets sent to the place where the animal is, and then when the animal is loaded inside they can send it straight back here."
"Brilliant! That's perfect!" Lisanna clapped her hands together. "So that means we can transport all these birds at once to anywhere we like, right?"
"Well, you need to set the location properly," Charlie explained. "If you activated the Portkey now it would just take the cage back to where they were captured in the first place. But you want to take it straight to Tenroujima right?"
"If we can, yes," Wendy nodded. "How do we change the place it gets sent?"
"Leave that to me," Charlie raised his wand and grinned. "I must say, if you had to come on this avian rescue mission so early after arriving, its a bloody good thing that you chose to do it at least after I went and visited the island, or I wouldn't have a clue where to send it."
"Thank you. Thank you so much," Lisanna beamed as Charlie got to work, waving his wand at the cage and murmuring under his breath. "I'm sure I'll owe you one for this."
"No problem. But this is a big Portkey so it'll take me a few minutes."
"Guard the door. We can't let anyone get in," Charla cried.
"Right," Wendy hurried back to the smashed door, Lisanna on her heels. Juvia kept an eye on all the unconscious workers to make sure that none of them started stirring, and they all listened with bated breath to Charlie's murmuring, his eyes focused with the intensity of lasers on the cage as he looped his wand up and down quickly and efficiently.
"You look like you've done this before," Juvia noted.
"Well I do work at a dragon sanctuary that contains multiple species of dragon from many different countries," Charlie pointed out. "We use this kind of Portkey to transport them all the time. There aren't many feasible ways to transport a live adult dragon overseas in a way that's safe for both the dragon and the people doing the transporting."
"Your Dragon reserve does sound amazing," Wendy smiled. "I hope it wouldn't be too much trouble for me to ask if I could maybe visit it one day. The idea of dragons not being intelligent is still weird to me, but if there's lots of different kinds I'd quite like to see them."
"I'd be only too glad to have you come," Charlie grinned. "Though like I said once before, there are legends that speak of a time when dragons actually could talk, way back when the most powerful known wizard of our world - Merlin - still lived. And those that know those stories don't really believe them anymore. But after meeting you guys and learning what I've learned about your whole other world… who knows what else might be possible. Maybe our dragons just lost the ability to talk over time. Maybe the speaking dragons were their own separate species that died out. Maybe Merlin actually knew a couple of dragons from your own universe that ended up here by mistake just like you did. Or maybe it really is all nonsense after all… wow, you guys have really expanded my view on life…"
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Juvia asked.
"As far as I'm concerned, a very good thing," Charlie grinned.
"Someone's coming!" Charla abruptly interrupted. Lisanna instantly morphed into her cat form and readied her claws while Wendy sucked air into her cheeks.
But it was Gajeel that came crashing around the corner up ahead, and the rest of his group right behind him. The two of them instantly relaxed and Lisanna in particular beamed when she caught sight of Gildarts bringing up the rear.
"Gildarts! Oh, it's so good to see you!" she called.
"Yo, Lisanna," Gildarts gave her his usual disarming smirk and ruffled her hair once they'd all spilled into the room. "Glad to see you don't look any worse for wear after everything that's happened. How're you holding up?"