July 15, X784
Magnolia, Fiore
Fairy Tail Intelligence
"Natsu, I told you to take a right, not a left!"
"Yeah, you did, but my nose is telling me that lullaby is on the left."
"Well, my eyes are telling me that lullaby is on the right. You are heading straight towards one of the conference rooms!"
"No way! My nose would never lead me wrong."
"I think that your nose is leading you towards trouble that could be easily avoided if you just listen to me. Please, turn around and go right this time."
"What if you are wrong?"
"I'm going to kill you Dragneel, there is no way I am wrong. Right here on the screen I can see lullaby on the right, and I can also see the dozens of people you are about to run into if you don't turn around now."
"Fine, I'll go right, but you better not be leading me into a trap."
"Why would I.. ugh never mind. Do you see the door with the blue X?"
"Yeah I see it."
"Okay, that's the door to the room that lullaby is in. There is a big chance that the door has an alarm on it.. before you open it you need to check around it for any motion sensors.
"Got it." Lucy watched through her desktop screen as Natsu checked above and under the door, his face scrunched up in concentration.
"I don't see anything."
"Weird... why would there be no security for a bomb that is this destructive." Lucy muttered. "Natsu I'm not sure what, but something is off about this, just… be careful."
"Gotcha." Natsu whispered into his mouth piece as he slowly pushed upon the unlocked door. Lucy switched screens back to the conference room while Natsu took out a gun, preparing to enter the room. As Natsu pushed the door open, Lucy caught her breathe when her screen buzzed and revealed the once filled conference room to be empty.
"Natsu, it's a trap! There were never any people in the conference room, it was holograms!" Lucy yelled pushing her chair back as she stood up abruptly.
The door opened to reveal ten men, tattooed to the max, with arms five times the size of Natsu's, all carrying knives and guns on their belts. Natsu stood there for five seconds just looking up at them then… laughed.
"Ahaha, look who was right Lucy! My nose never leads me wrong; you owe me dinner for this." Natsu smiled smugly.
"Oh my god NATSU. YOU ARE IN A LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION AND ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS THAT YOU PROVED ME WRONG!?"
"Well yeah, and food, don't forget food."
"Hey, who the hell are you talking to!" One of the men in the room yelled pulling Lucy and Natsu back to reality as he raised his knife. "Your crazy man, but don't worry, we will put that crazy brain of yours to rest soon." The man grinned as he advanced on Natsu.
"Natsu, we can talk about this later, so please, just try and get out alive." Lucy sighed.
"Nope, I am not waiting till later, I am going to stand here until you say that I'm right and that you will buy me dinner." Natsu said as the men got even closer to him, twirling their knives in their hands, grinning manically.
"Natsu! Its not the time nor place, just get out!"
"No." The first swing struck Natsu in the face lightly, creating a small stream of blood to fall from his cheek.
"What, crazy boy, not gonna fight back? Fine by me!" The man smiled bringing his fist down on Natsu's jaw, catapulting him backwards.
"NATSU!" Lucy screamed.
"Say it." He rasped, as he wiped the blood from his face. The man strutted towards Natsu, kicking him repeatedly in the abdomen, making Natsu gasp for air.
"Natsu this is ridicules!"
"What's ridicules is your pride." Natsu painfully laughed. The other men, started coming towards Natsu, getting ready to join in on the kicking game. Natsu just laid there, ready for the incoming barrage of kicks.
"FINE! You win! You were right and I was wrong!" Lucy yelled in frustration.
"And?" Natsu grinned.
"And…. I owe you dinner."
"Not that bad, was it?" Natsu said before he swept his legs out, and knocked over the first man, who crashed down on his own knife. Natsu pushed himself up, readying himself for the remaining men as they pulled out their guns."
"Natsu, behind you!" Lucy warned. The man who had fallen on his knife had stood up and pulled the knife out of himself, rushing towards Natsu with it. Natsu quickly side stepped the bloody man and pulled him in front of himself, just in time for the first rally of bullets to hit the man instead of Natsu. Natsu pushed the man forwards, sending the men tumbling into each other.
"Use a smoke grenade!" Lucy called into Natsu's ear piece that had somehow still managed to stay in. Natsu pulled out a grenade from his pack and quickly threw it towards the ground, setting it off. A bright flash went off, temporarily blinding Lucy from her screen. She smacked her forehead. "Natsu, wrong grenade."
"It was in the wrong place!" Natsu called out weakly, fumbling around the bright room.
"No, it wasn't. I had it labeled and everything." Lucy said, shaking her head.
"Who labels grenades?"
"The kind of people who have idiots as partners." She replied coolly. "Can you find your way to the door?"
"Yeah, I'm heading out of it now."
"Okay, I'm switching cameras to the outside. There is a helicopter waiting for you, and if you hurry it won't be destroyed by the lullaby men."
"But what about lullaby." Natsu asked.
"Forget lullaby, we need to get you to safety."
"But this will be the third mission we have failed in a row!"
"You think I don't know that! My rent is due and I have nothing this month, but having a partner who is alive is better then a partner who is dead," Lucy explained.
"Fine." Natsu appeared on the outside camera, hurrying towards the helicopter, behind him, three of the tattooed men followed closely behind. Natsu ducked and swayed as he avoided the incoming bullets then quickly turned around and fired multiple shots that hit two of the men.
"Natsu, get to the heliocopter! More men are coming out!" Lucy commanded. Natsu charged towards the rising copter and jumped up and grabbed the swaying ladder. More men rushed out of the building, all carrying machine guns.
"Damn it." Natsu cursed, trying to hurry up the ladder.
"Natsu, use the smoke grenade! You need to confuse them to give you enough time to fly away. And this time, please use the right one."
"I got, I got it!" Natsu said as he pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin, throwing it towards the lullaby men.
BOOM. An explosion went off, sending fire embers and men flying in all directions. Even from her screen in the office Lucy felt as if she could feel the heat.
"Natsu…" Lucy said softly.
"Ehhaha, looks like it was another wrong grenade." Natsu laughed guiltily.
"I'm taking away your grenades."
"NOO! LUCY PLEASE! I PROMISE I WONT DO IT AGAIN! GIVE ME ANO-" Natsu pleaded before Lucy caught of their connection and removed her earpiece.
Lucy sat back down in her swivel chair and rubbed her temples, taking a drink from her once hot, now cold coffee. Fairy Tail Intelligence, it had only been two weeks of work so far, but Lucy felt as if it was a lifetime. The job took all the energy out of her, more like Natsu took it from her. Since they first partnered, him as the agent, her as the analyst/assistant, they had barely accomplished one successful mission, and that one mission was completed by mere luck. After failing, the majority of their jobs were given to Agent Fullbuster who Lucy sometimes whished was her partner instead. But, Natsu's stupid grin would always appear in her head, as wide and mischievous as the day she had met him.
"That idiot." She smiled.
2 weeks earlier
July 2, X784
Hargeon Port, Fiore
Floating Magnolia's bookshop
"Are you sure that there are no more copies of it left?"
"Yes, our last copy was sold a couple of months ago. But, we have a large variety of other books! Why don't you take a look?"
"No, it's fine." Lucy sighed as she exited the small bookshop. She had been searching for a special book for years, but the book seemed to have vanished from the world because every bookshop she had visited didn't carry it, or hadn't heard of it at all. Her search for the book had taken her to Hargeon Port, but of course, like every other shop, they didn't have it.
Lucy walked slowly through the streets of Hargeon, taking in all of the different smells and people. She had never been to a place with as much people, vendors where selling their goods, holding up jewelry and fresh fruit, men were walking up and down the docks yelling obscenities and laughing as they worked on the boats and ships that were docked there. Girls and boys were huddled in groups, giggling and whispering mischievously to each other, she found herself becoming envious of their care free attitudes as her mind wondered off back to her father and her own childhood. She shook her head and casted all her depressing thoughts aside. What she needed to worry about was what she would eat for dinner and finding a good place to sleep for the night.
She opened up her wallet and looked inside. The pit of her stomach dropped as she realized that she had used the last of her money at the inn she had stayed at the night before and all that remained was the money she was going to use to buy the book when she found it. Lucy closed her wallet and looked around, she knew that if she wanted to sleep with a roof over her head, she would have to get a small job that could get her enough money before the night settled in. She started walking through the crowded streets, asking vendors if there was anything she could do for them to earn some cash, but each one turned her away. Finally, one older women took pity on Lucy and gave her three boxes of food, telling her to deliver each one to the place that was written on the box. She graciously accepted the small task and set out to deliver the first box. Lucy worried that since Hargeon was a new place to her she wouldn't know where the places that the order indicated where, but luckily enough the first place was the docks where she had seen the men tending to the ships.
The men working on the ships intimidated Lucy. They had taken off their shirts because of the heat, and she watched the way their muscles rippled across their skin and the sweat glistened in the sun. Tattoos of all sorts decorated their arms and chests and Lucy couldn't help but giggle at a man who had a little hello kitty on his forearm. The man paused, hearing Lucy, and turned around to look at her.
"You need something missy?" His voice rasped out as Lucy's face turned a nice shade of pink.
"Um..," She stammered, embarrassed at her own rudeness. "I ahh.. um I have a box of food for a Mr. Dragneel." The man squinted at her a little more and then broke out in a grin, laughing and slapping his leg. Lucy awkwardly shifted her weight and looked at the man laughing uncontrollably.
"Ohh hahaha, I'm sorry aha, you should have seen your face!" The man said wiping a tear from his eye. "The tattoo was a request from my daughter, she hates me getting tattoos so I promised her that if got another one I would let her choose." The man said grinning, looking down at the hello kitty who was holding a pink heart in between her white furry hands. Lucy then broke into a smile, relived that the man was not mad at her.
"That is a very sweet thing to do." She grinned warmly at the beaming man.
"Yeah, my friends loved it too." He said jokingly then looked down at the boxes. "You said you were looking for a Mr. Dragneel?"
"Yeah, it says he works here at the docks." Lucy replied.
"Hmm.. I know pretty much everyone here at the docks, and the name Dragneel has never pasted my ears." He said looking confused. "Sorry wish I could help you out more."
"No problem!" Lucy said as she started backing away and then gave him a one last thank you before heading back up towards the streets. She was pretty disappointed that the first delivery turned out to be a failure, Lucy hoped the old lady wouldn't be to mad about it. She looked at the next address and then headed towards where she thought the next location was. Hopefully this time she would be able to find the costumer. She turned into an alleyway, where a kind fruit vendor told her was a shortcut to the next delivery stop. Alleyways had always creeped Lucy out. As a writer, she knew that in a novel, this is where the the main character would get captured or attacked, but Lucy reminded herself that this was no story and she couldn't let her imagination run wild and stop her from her job. She fast walked through the alley, still a little scared and on edge. Shadows glazed across the walls and Lucy heard the scuttling of rats, she instinctively hugged her bag closer to her body. Light peeped through an ending and Lucy felt relief flood throughout her body.
"I made it." She smiled.
"Almost."
The boxes of food went spilling unto the floor as someone from above landed on top of
Lucy, knocking her to the ground and securing her hands behind her back.
"Get off of me!" Lucy yelled, squirming around on the ground as her heart beat faster then it had ever before.
"Not a chance." The voice said calmly.
"Please! I don't have any money, I literally have nothing, so just let me go!" Lucy pleaded desperately, struggling with the weight on top of her.
"I don't want your money!" The voice said almost outrageously. "Just tell me why you were searching for me, and how you knew my name."
"I have no clue who you are! For gods sakes, I cant even see your face!" Lucy cried.
"Stop lying! I heard you asking around for me at the docks, you can't fool me."
"I'm just doing a delivery job for an old lady's food stand! One of my deliveries was for a Mr. Dragneel who was said to work at the docks." Lucy explained quickly, stumbling over her words in fear. There was a pause and Lucy wondered if the person had believed her. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, the person loosened their grip.
"Ah, I guess I forgot about making that order." She heard the voice say sheepishly before letting go. Lucy sprang out from under the person and scooted backward, finally getting a look at the attackers face. Pink hair?
"Sorry 'bout that." The man said scratching his head. "Forgot I gave them my real name." Lucy's eyes widened and she stared open mouthed at the pink haired man.
"Pink hair?" She questioned.
"Hey! Its salmon!" He said defensively. Lucy shook her head in bewilderment.
"So… you attacked me, because you heard that I was looking for you?" She asked slowly.
"Well.. sort of. You see, I'm a secret agent, and I'm here undercover on a job. So, you see, when I heard some one using my real name, I thought it was an enemy, but.. I forgot that I had gotten hungry earlier and gave the vendor my real name… sorry." Lucy just looked at him blankly.
"What kind of agent would make a mistake like that? And even if it was a mistake, why would you tell a random person that you were undercover. Isn't that pretty stupid?" Lucy pointed out. He looked as if he had been shot in the heart.
"Ugh.. well… umm.. ya see.. umm…"
"See my point, why should I believe that you're not some crazy stalker?"
"Because I'm not! I just… I trust you with my secret." He said nodding.
"Yeah, sure, okay."
"No really, you just look like a trusting person." He grinned, showing sharp canines. Lucy slightly blushed and looked down at her hands.
"What's your name?" He asked looking at her kindly.
"Lucy," she replied before she could even stop herself from telling the strange man.
"Lucy.." He said, trying it out. "No last name?"
"No… just Lucy." She replied, her face suddenly darkening.
"Well Lucy, how about I escort you out of this alley and get you a safe hotel? Could we call it even then?" He asked, standing up and offering her a hand.
"Yes.." She said hesitantly, taking his hand. "But only if you tell me your real name."
"Natsu. Natsu Dragneel." He smiled, pulling her up.