All over Magnolia, a sudden crash rips through an otherwise peaceful afternoon. Although the source of the sound is difficult to discern, all eyes in the city turns towards the same spot - a site that's famous for housing the most over-the-top, outrageous and potentially dangerous guild in Fiore - Fairy Tail. Shrugging off the loud noise (which in other places would have put the populace on full-scale etherionic war alert) off as nothing more than the continued noisiness of the city's pride and greatest nuisance, the citizens resume their daily activities, only disturbed by a few spooked travellers and tourists.

Meanwhile in Fairy Tail, Laxus Dreyar, Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, and Lucy Heartfilia lets out a collective sigh after seeing Natsu Dragneel blown out through the ceiling by Gildarts Clive, for the third time that day alone. Gajeel Redfox and Cana (Clive) Alberona sits at a nearby table, both laughing hard, while Mirajane Strauss and Happy both look through the ceiling, wondering where Natsu might have gotten blown this time.

"My, my, guess I should have held back a bit more..." laughs a merry (and tipsy) Gildarts sitting casually next to the seventh (and fourth) master of Fairy Tail, Makarov Dreyar. "You know you're the one who'll have to pay for roof repairs, right?" says the tiny, old, wrinkled and ridiculously powerful wizard. Gildarts nearly chokes on his beer, then turns to the master. "What? But those repairs will be -" "No excuses!" the master replies. "You're the one who..."

They argue a bit back and forth, not noticed by a now solemn Lucy, who's looking up at the ceiling and wondering, for a split second, if her best friend is okay. She shakes it off, knowing Natsu is too tough and Gildarts too kind for any real harm to have been done. She's then overcome by a sudden spurt of anger. After all, if Natsu gets himself beaten up, who's going to help her with jobs to pay her rent? Powerful enough in her own right, Lucy's taken to working with Natsu in such a way that she's reluctant to working alone. She decides it's about time to take a job, so she stands up.

"I'm going to find him. I think it's best someone dragged him away from Gildarts before all of Magnolia is demolished, hehe..." Lucy says, awkward. She then quickly heads for the guild's front door, Happy in tow. "I'll fly up and look for him, Lucy!" says the little blue Exceed. Lucy nods, a bit distant, and mumbles something about her place in an hour. She sets off for the Magnolia Hills, thinking Natsu might be in that direction.

"Gate of the lion, I open - " she's aborted trying to summon her loyal bodyguard, the celestial spirit Leo, known as Loke to the rest of Fairy Tail. He seems to have passed through the gate on his own whim, again, to help. "Get Virgo out instead, Lucy." She smiles, about to say something, but Loke interrupts; "Or perhaps... You'd want it to be just the two of us, up in the hills..?" he says with a smirk. Getting a foot to the face as reward for his comment, he soon finds Virgo looking at him, before looking at a protesting Lucy who's now in her arms. "I'll do the walking for us, Princess. Leo can check the woods." Before either master or fellow spirit could utter a word of protest, the Maiden sets off for the hills at an amazing pace, frequently doing elaborate and unessecary dance moves.

"Put me down, Virgo!" Lucy screams, but the spirit seems not to have heard her. She just keeps running up the hills, holding Lucy. The spirit doesn't even flinch as she kicks three highwaymen out of the way halfway up the hill, and doesn't even look tired as they reach the top. "I'll be taking my leave, Princess," she says abruptly before disappearing, before Lucy could say she needed help looking. "Wait, Vir -" and she's gone. "... Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't be better off as an ability-type wizard... Seriously!" Swinging the key of the Archer, she mutters the incantation: "Gate of the Archer, I open thee! Sagittarius!" and finds herself in the company of the horse-costume-clad bowman.

"Delighted to be of service, as it were, moshimoshi!" He says, saluting a nonexistent person some feet above him. Used to the peculiar behaviour of this spirit, she looks at him and says: "Sagittarius, you've got good eyes, right? See if you can't spot Natsu anywhere in the hills." The horse-man eagerly jumps up to a nearby boulder and has a look around. "No Natsu in these hills that I can see, as it were, moshimoshi!" He says.

Lucy lets out another sigh. Where could he be? She decides against going further and heads home instead, hoping Happy or Loke may have found - oh, for the love of Earthland! She forgot to tell Loke about the rendezvous. Knowing my luck, she thought, the two of them are in the forest having fun, kicking various monsters about and won't come around 'til dark. Deciding that it's still a good idea to head back, and hear if Happy has seen anything, she walks past the now unconscious robbers that Virgo knocked out a few minutes before. Just as she reaches the city limits of Magnolia, a piece of paper flies into her face.

She lets out a yell of anger and tears the paper off. "Seriously, all this junk, -" but she's cut off by her own surprise. It's a job poster, looking a bit weathered, even if its date stamp is relatively fresh.

"Retired weapons collector (anonymity preferred) looking for wizards to gather the following materials and reagents..." following a list of various items, many of which are rare and with magical properties. After the list of items are a few terms of payment, the normal procedure, then the issued reward.

"One point two million Jewel!?" Lucy could scarcely believe her eyes. The list of items was long and filled with rarities to be sure, but even Happy would be able to get it done in a month's time. The reward was out of this world. She clutched the poster and ran for home. Finding a grumbling Natsu, always-cheerful Happy and, Lucy was annoyed to learn, an eager Loke chatting up not one but three girls nearby. Forgetting the monetary reward for a second, she gleefully passes over to Loke.

"And just what do you think you're doing, Loke? Chatting up other girls again? Tell me, have you forgotten we have an agreement? You're mine!" In another setting Loke might've been inclined to challenge Lucy at this point, but he was so taken aback at her behaviour that he managed only to stutter a bit. "I - I mean, it's not like - I..." But the damage was done. The three girls scowled at him. "Oh, so you're that kind of guy, huh? Well, good bye." They curtly turned and left.

Now having Loke's, Natsu's and Happy's attention, she explained about the flyer she'd been hit by. Happy traced off in mid-sentence and Natsu seemed only mildly interested. Lucy forced the gate of the Lion close (as Loke's whining about the girls got annoying) and invited Natsu inside. Hardly surprised at all to find Erza in her bath tub and Gray in only his underpants sitting on her bed, she gave them the usual reprimand before finally seating herself by her desk.

"What's that you've got there," asked Gray. "Oh, just a flyer that hit me on the way back into town," she replied. "A flyer, huh? Knowing you, I bet it's an opportunity to make some ca -" Gray takes a hardbound volume of 'Light, Dark, Chaos, the Woods and the Seas - A gathering of magic' full to the nose and falls back. Erza steps out of the bathroom, bound in a towel, and quickly snatches the poster.

"Anonymous weapons collector... Rare reagents..." Lucy thought she saw Erza's eyes widen for a moment. "There's a P.S. here." Lucy looks at the post scriptum. "Yeah, I didn't get it at first. What's a sequential?" Erza looks to Lucy a moment, her expression unusually blank. "It means a second job might be available upon completion of the first... Ahem. 'P.S., Sequential available: Bring reagents to Marco Mandrake, the... Arcane Blacksmith.'" Erza's mention of the title given to the mystery smith seemed eerie.

"What is it? What's it about?" Asked Natsu, munching on some leftover mutton from the fridge. Erza looked blank. Then, with the type of fiery passion that only she can deliver, she says: "I want to see this Arcane Blacksmith. Marco Mandrake... I want to meet him." Lucy recoils. "What? Hey, this was mine and Natsu's job! We don't need -" She stops mid-sentence, looking into Erza's eyes. "This has nothing to do with the job. I just want to meet him." Natsu grins widely. "Let her come, Lucy, it'll be fun! I'm getting fired up!" He says, finishing his mutton and attacking Lucy's fireplace, devouring half of the flames before an annoyed Erza pulls him away by the ear.

Lucy never remembered how she found herself by Erza and Natsu in Fiore's interregional train line the next day, being waved goodbye by Wendy and Gray on the station. Nor could she remember how Natsu managed to expel his breakfast out the train window already before their cart had driven past the platform, smearing a nice, long trail of half-digested button and bread all over. She looked out the window, in the direction of their destination, and wondered whether she'd ever experience a dull moment while with her guildmates.