"Hey, Erza! Jellal! Do you guys want to join our team? We could really use you and we're not half bad ourselves." Lucy Heartfilia said, walking over with the rest of her team.
"Oh yeah, you guys should totally join!" Natsu Dragneel added. "With the two of you on our team we'll be unstoppable!"
Erza smiled. "We would love to join your team, Lucy. From what I've heard, we stand the best chance at completing this challenge if we work together."
"Sounds good to me." Gray Fullbuster said casually. "Seems we've got this one in the bag already. But what's this challenge about anyways?"
"We're not sure yet." Jellal answered. "But we're supposed to be briefed before hand on this one. We'll have to wait and see."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll do well." Lisanna cut in. "This challenge is physical in nature. And Erza and Jellal are some of the best athletes ever to be on this show."
Natsu looked confused. "How do you know about the challenge? And what about me? I'm a good athlete, too!"
"Of course you are, Natsu. But do you want to go against Erza in a fight?" Lisanna chided. "You know you'd lose, even though you would try anyways."
"As flattering as this conversation is," Erza interrupted. "How do you know that next challenge will be physical?"
Everyone turned to Lisanna.
She shrugged. "The last one was mental and the one before it was emotion and then the one before that was physical. I figured they go in cycles. It's time for a physical trial again."
"That's pretty clever, Lisanna." Lucy commented.
"Oh it's nothing. I just happen to notice patterns a lot." Lisanna smiled mischievously. What she hadn't said was that she had noticed patterns in people, too, and that she had a pretty good idea of everyone's social lives outside of the show.
"Hey, here comes Gramps now." Gray pointed out. "We'll get to see if you're right pretty soon then."
"Attention! Now is when we announce the next challenge's rules! If any of you disobey them, you'll be immediately disqualified. So listen closely." Makarov started.
The group fell silence for once and listened carefully. Makarov explained that this challenge would test each team's ability to function as a group and to be patient. For this challenge having more people on your team is both a strength and a weakness. More people on your team would test your patience more, but if you and your team held it together long enough you'd be at an advantage during the final test.
"Now we need each team to go and wait in separate rooms while the host does the opening." Makerow told them. "A film crew will occasionally stop in on your team, but for the most part you'll be monitored only by a camera in the room. Off you go."
There was a mass rumbling as the whole group of teenagers fought their ways to the rooms along the far wall of the backstage. Erza and Jellal, being the tallest of the team, lead them to the third room through the crowd.
"Quickly now, everyone in." Erza instructed.
Everyone trooped in, headed by Natsu. Jellal hesitated before walking in, as if he wanted to let Erza go before him. Erza didn't notice and Jellal went inside and sat down on a bench attached to the far wall.
"So what do you all think they'll have us do once they let us out?" Lucy asked.
"Probably have us fight some wicked boss!" Natsu said excitedly. "Aw man, it's gonna be awesome!"
Lucy rolled her eyes and Lisanna smiled in amusement at Natsu's antics.
"Natsu, the government wouldn't let them force us to fight someone. Besides, the test is about patience, not combat skills." Lisanna reminded him.
"Oh yeah! But that would have been so awesome!" Natsu grumbled.
"Too bad for you a boss would have kicked your butt, flame for brains." Gray commented.
"Oh yeah?" Natsu started. "As if some random guy could beat me! Watch who you're talking to, Ice-Boy!"
"Natsu. Gray. Knock it off. We could have a long wait ahead of us." Erza told them sharply.
"Yes, ma'am!" they said nervously. Jellal looked thoughtful.
"Maybe that's the whole idea." Jellal spoke up.
The group turned to look at him.
He suddenly turned nervous. "Maybe that's the point here. The test is to test our patience and teamwork. Maybe they're keeping us in here to test our friendship as well as our patience. If you two had continued fighting then by the time we got to the final test you could be unwilling to work together and we could fail."
"Jellal raises a good point." Erza said sternly. "To complete this challenge, we can't afford to argue. We'll just have to wait this out."
The girls nodded, but the boys seemed confused.
"What could possibly happen to make it so we fail the challenge?" Natsu asked skeptically. "I fight with Gray all the time and it hasn't made a difference in any of the past challenges."
Lucy shook her head. "You're hopeless. So what are we going to do as we wait?"
"I know!" Lisanna said with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "We can play some party games. Like Truth Or Dare. But mostly truth as we are stuck in a room."
"Aww, but Truth or Dare's boring without the dare!" Natsu complained.
"We can still throw in a few dares." Lisanna assured him. "Who wants to go first? I know! Erza can go!"
Erza looked surprised. "Am I asking someone then?"
Lisanna nodded mischievously.
"Hmm... Jellal, truth or dare?" Erza asked after a moment. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Lisanna grin.
Jellal, who had seemed confused by this whole idea anyways, now looked startled. "Truth." slipped out of his mouth before he'd really given it any thought.
"I already know most things about you." Erza commented wryly. "I guess I'll give the duty of asking you a question over to Lisanna."
Lisanna looked delighted by this turn of events and asked bluntly, "If you had to kiss one of the girls in this room, would you have picked Erza?"
Both Jellal and Erza looked extremely startled and Jellal was trying to slink inside of his hoodie.
Lucy grinned and said, "Come on now, you have to answer the question."
Jellal cleared his throat. "Um. Yes."
"Hmm?" Lisanna questioned him, grinning.
"Yes, I would have." Jellal said nervously before ducking his head. "Natsu, truth or dare?"
"I'm gonna have to go for dare." Natsu said expansively.
Jellal said the first thing that came to him off the top of his head. "Grab everyone's attention and hold it for thirty seconds. If they look away you have to try again."
Natsu promptly took off his shoes and stood up.
"Hey, everybody! Watch this! And I'm going to need another shoe." he declared cheerfully. Lisanna handed him a shoe.
"Here we go!"
Natsu began to juggle and entertain the rest of the group while Jellal slouched into his hoodie and his seat and tried to control his embarrassment.
"And that's thirty seconds!" Natsu exclaimed triumphantly. "Lisanna, truth or dare?"
Jellal sat back up to watch.
"Truth." she smiled.
Natsu thought for a second. "Alright then, what's going to happen next Friday?"
"How is she supposed to know that?" Lucy exclaimed indignantly.
Natsu looked over at her. "Using her cool psychic pattern powers, of course!"
Lucy gave up.
"Well." Lisanna started. "Friday's when Lucy mets up with her friend, Loke and that's also when Gray mets up with his girlfriend, Juvia. I think they're going to the beach this week. This friday, Jellal will probably fail again to ask Erza out and instead will stay at home playing video games. And you and me, of course, Natsu, will be going to the arcade and getting pizza."
There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to figure out exactly what she said and how she knew all that. Then an uproar as everyone asked how she'd figured that all out. Strangely, it didn't occur to any of them, not even Jellal, to lie and say she was wrong.
"How did you know I was going to the beach with Juvia this friday?" Gray asked. "It's going to be a surprise for her. I haven't told anyone."
"I've only mentioned Loke to you twice. I never said I visit him on Fridays." Lucy said puzzlement. "How did you know that stuff?"
Natsu nodded. "Yeah, I mean, I knew we were going to the arcade, but how did you know the rest of that?"
Jellal and Erza had been quiet through all of this. Both of them were greatly startled about what Lisanna had said, but it was Jellal who finally whispered. "How did you know I try and then fail to ask Erza on a date every friday?"
Everyone froze.
Lisanna shrugged sheepishly. "It's sort of hard to explain, but all of you guys always do something similar to something else you have done before. It's like you keep repeating patterns in your lives. I just catch on to your patterns. So I know what it is you guys do outside of the show."
Erza stared at Jellal uncertainly. "Jellal… I never knew that…"
Jellal looked up.
Erza's gaze steadied and she looked at him in the eyes. "If you had asked, any one of those times, I would have said yes."
Jellal's eyes widened. "Really?"
Erza smiled. "Of course."
Silently, Lisanna, who was sitting behind Erza, punched the air in celebration and gave Lucy a fist bump.
"You know, as great as I'm sure this all is for you guys," Gray started. "I think I hear the camera crew coming, so I'd stop talking if I were you."
Sure enough, there was a knock on the door and a camera man with an interviewer came in.
"This is the third team, comprised of Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Lucy Heartfilia, Lisanna Strauss, Erza Scarlet and Jellal Fernandes. As the team with the most people, they have a massive advantage and disadvantage." the camera man and interviewer turned to look at the team. "Would you care to tell us what you've been doing to pass the time? We have it all recorded, but we'd like to hear it in your own words."
The group exchanged looks and Lisanna spoke up.
"We've been playing some party games!" Lisanna informed them cheerfully. "Basically just Truth or Dare, as we don't have a lot of options since we're stuck in here."
The interviewer looked back into the camera. "This is a daring choice. The classic game, Truth or Dare, could either bring these contestants closer together or farther apart. We'll have to see once they reach the final challenge."
"Anything interesting happen during your game?" the interviewer asked Gray.
The group inhaled sharply.
"Not unless you count Natsu's juggling as interesting." Gray replied.
Everyone exhaled.
"Yes, well," the interviewer chuckled in a staged sort of way. "You should see what some of the other groups got up to."
"We'll be sure to ask them once we're out." Erza assure him politely. It seemed to Jellal that she wanted this interview over quickly for once.
"Speaking of which," the interviewer started and the whole team looked at him. "The first team should be going now. You'll get out soon enough."
"Yeah, any chance you can tell us what we'll be facing?" Natsu asked hopefully.
The whole team looked at the interviewer hopefully.
"Now, now, contestants, that wouldn't be fair to the other teams." the interview chided them.
"Aw, man, we could have used any help we can get." Lucy complained.
"I'm sorry, contestants, but those are the rules of the game." The interviewer looked back at the camera. "And now, viewers, we have time for one more question. A bit of insight into one of these fine contestants. Now earlier, we had you vote on which member of each team would be asked a personal question and this episode's contestant from Team Three is- can you guess?"
Jellal had a pretty good idea. Going on his luck alone, there was no doubt.
"Jellal Fernandes!" the interviewer announced. "If you answer this question you can earn your team a life line!"
"This game has life lines?" Lisanna and Lucy asked in unison.
"Well now it does!" the interviewer grinned. "So Jellal, keeping in the spirit of your team's game, Truth or Dare, we're giving you the option to opt out for a dare, but your team won't get the life line this way."
Jellal took a deep breath. "Fine. For the sake of my friends, I'll accept a Truth."
"Splendid!" the interviewer exclaimed, looking positively gleeful at Jellal's decision. "And the question is: What's one thing that makes you worried about your, ah, friends?"
Jellal thought about it, On the surface it seemed a straight-forward, easy question. But something in the phrasing has him hesitating. The interviewer had said about, not for. And about had a different meaning depending on the context.
Jellal opened his mouth to speak and closed it again. That phrasing was really flexible, it was really no reason for concern. He just had to answer the question honestly. His friends were waiting for him.
"Do you mean worry for my friend's safety or do you mean something mental?" Jellal asked hesitantly.
"You're over thinking it." the interviewer said smoothly. "You should just say the first thing to come to your mind."
"I don't trust you." Jellal said, almost amused at his own distrust. "How would we know that this isn't a test of our team's friendship?"
"Oh come on, Jellal. Why would we do something like that?" the interviewer said lazily as he twirled his microphone.
"Because this test has been too easy." Jellal answered. "It wouldn't entertain the viewers to watch us sit here for hours, but this challenge is supposed to test patience and teamwork. You need something to speed things along."
"Even if you are right, you still have to answer the question." the interviewer reminded him.
"Fine I'll answer." Jellal replied curtly. "One thing that makes me worry about my friends is this show. Everything about this show could be cause for worry, but I trust my friends and their judgement."
"Fine," the interviewer said in annoyance. "There you have it, folks! That was Team Three! It seems they have some pretty insightful people on their team. How boring."
The interviewer gestured at the camera man and they turned and left the room, locking it behind them.
"Who was that guy, anyways? We've never seen him before." Lisanna asked curiously.
"I don't know, but it was pretty sneaky of him to try and trip us up like that." Natsu said angrily. "Who did that guy think he is?"
"Discord. A spirit of chaos and disharmony." Jellal said, darkly.
Everyone looked at him.
"Um, not to burst your bubble, but I'm pretty sure spirits don't exist." Gray told him.
Jellal smiled. "Technically, you're right. But that was someone acting on his behalf. There is a cult of people who believe in him and attempt to follow his will and while doing so, they believe they become an incarnation of him."
"How do you know all this?" Erza asked him in confusion.
"It's a gamer cult. I've run into these guys before." Jellal replied.
"Well, that makes sense." Lucy said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, nice job out there." Lisanna added, smiling.
"That was great and everything, but he didn't give us our life line!" Natsu cut in.
"It's alright, Natsu." Erza said sternly. "We still have the best shot at winning, assuming nothing else happens before the final test."
"Yeah, about that." Lucy said hopefully. "You and Jellal never finished your conversation."
Lisanna looked up. "Yeah you guys should never leave a conversation like that unresolved."
She smiled at them. "Well? Go on, you guys!"
Jellal straighten and glanced over at Erza.
"Um, next Friday, I'm going to come over to your house." Jellal started cautiously.
When Erza nodded at him he continued. "Once I'm there, I would like take you to a local coffee shop that serves strawberry cake. If that's okay with you."
Erza smiled at him. "That sounds good to me, Jellal."
Jellal looked amazed at her response. In all of his imaginings, it had never gone this smoothly.
In the background, Lisanna was gesturing excitedly and Lucy was smiling. Even the boys looked suitably impressed that someone had asked Erza out with out suffering harm.
Before Jellal could say anything else or express his happiness at Erza's response, the door was opened and this time it was Makarov.
Natsu and Gray jumped up.
"Are we finally going get to face the final test for this challenge?" Natsu said in excitement.
"We'd had better be or else you messed something up." Gray said cooly.
"Hey! Watch it, Ice-Boy!" Natsu growled aggressively.
Lucy stood up and stepped between them. "Let's not start this again, boys."
Makarov stepped into the room and started to speak.
"This is it, team. You guys are about to be led into the arena, this time done up as the final test of this challenge. It will be obvious what you have to do once you're there."
The group was silent as Makarov herded them into the biggest room in the building, the arena.
Only it didn't look like the arena. The whole floor was covered in a light dusty colored mat and in the center of the room was a raised dais, made to look like a mesa. In the center of the mesa was a statue of a creature, surrounded by what appeared to be floating platforms. As they watched the platforms moved and circled the statue in a seemly random pattern. On its head was a golden crown, the only thing in the room that wasn't brown besides the team.
"Alright!" Natsu said, his eyes lit with gleeful competition. "This seems simple enough! Maybe we already did all the patience and teamwork stuff and we just have to reach the crown!"
"It's never that simple." Gray reminded him. "Look, enemies."
In a row along the walls were smaller creatures, holding bows.
"If we step in front of them they'll probably fired blunt darts." Erza guessed. "Which wouldn't be too bad if not for the knock back."
"If one of them shoots us while we're jumping, we'll inevitably miss the platform." Jellal stated softly. "That will take us right back to the start and we'll have gotten no where."
"Is there anyway to deflect the darts?" Lucy asked.
Erza shook her head. "Not while doing parkour anyways."
"What if that's it?" Jellal said, suddenly. "This test is patience and teamwork. What if we have to wait for the right moment and then most of us distract the motion detectors while one of us gets the crown?"
"That's a good idea, but while you were all talking I was checking out our challenge more." Lisanna interrupted. "Surrounding the statute is a pit of water. It's too deep for you to get out along the side and the only way out is a tunnel in the back where we can't see. If someone falls off the platforms they're out of the challenge. No wonder more people is an advantage. Whoever goes should bear that in mind is my point."
The rest of the group thought this over.
"We need to get this right on the first go, then." Gray said matter-of-factly. "If we want get the full score I bet we need to keep everyone in the challenge."
"Alright then, who's going?" Natsu asked, cracking his knuckles. "I'm ready to go now if you need me too."
"Hold on a second, Natsu." Lucy said diplomatically. "We need to make sure we send our best parkour person. You always get back up again in games, but we really need someone who doesn't fall down in the first place."
"Aww man! Come on, you guys! I wanna help!" Natsu complained.
"Now, now, Natsu, you know Lucy's right." Lisanna told him. "You'll be tons of help with distracting the motion detectors, anyways."
"Who is going then?" Gray said in something that almost passed for anger. "Let's get to work here!"
"Either you, Erza, or Jellal are our best candidates for the parkour." Lucy explained. "You're all athletic, but not reckless, like Natsu over here."
"Hey!"
"Sorry, Natsu, but you get lots of glory anyways." Lucy continued. "So which one of you guys should go?"
Gray, Erza and Jellal looked at each other.
"Eh, screw logic, let's flip a coin." Gray said, pulling out a quarter.
"Great, let's leave our fate up to a coin." Lucy grumbled, but she watched as Gray flipped the quarter.
"Whoever wins twice is going." he told them.
"Alright then, heads." Erza said as the quarter dropped.
"Tails then." Jellal said, shrugging.
Gray checked the coin. "Tails. One point to Jellal."
He handed the coin to him. "I call tails."
The coin flipped. "Heads. A point to Erza."
Erza reached out for the coin and Jellal handed it to her. "I pick tails again."
The coin spun through the air and landed in Erza's palm.
She looked up at the group. "It's tails, looks like Jellal is going."
Lucy and Lisanna seemed satisfied with this.
"Alright then, team. Everyone except Jellal, get ready to distract the motion sensors. Jellal, get ready to run." Erza instructed the group.
"Fine." Natsu agreed grouchily. "Jellal, you better do well out there."
Jellal maintained his calm expression. "I will, Natsu."
He was as in his element here as he was at home playing video games. He knew exactly how fast he could run and how powerfully he could jump to land on each platform. The only thing left to do was trust the team to do their jobs and protect him from the darts.
Erza studied the movements of the platforms. When the lowest one was at its peak she yelled, "NOW!" and the team sprinted off.
Jellal watched out of the corner of his eye as his friends set off and deflected the darts, keeping the motion sensors on them and protecting him from the darts. He himself was sprinting full speed towards the first platform, which would be reaching its lowest point a few seconds before he got there.
The platform reached the bottom and started ascending again. Jellal jumped on at the last second from several feet away. The sound of running and squeaking shoes filled the arena.
Steadying himself on the platform, he watched the next platform sink to met the rising platform he was standing on. Timing was essential. He wanted complete each jump right away and the first few were easy, anyways. He elegantly leapt to the next platform, which was only three feet away horizontally. Patiently waiting for the next platform to get into the optimal position he looked around to see how his friends were.
As it happened, his friends had been better. Most of them were just jumping in front of the statues that were aimed for Jellal so they could conserve their energy. Natsu had taken off his coat and was swiping at the darts, trying to deflect them in a less painful way. Lucy and Lisanna were wincing and trying to kick the statues' bows out of line so they wouldn't hit Jellal. Gray had stripped to his boxers for some reason and was trying the same technique as Natsu. But Erza was the one carrying the team. She was running in front of the statues and knocking aside darts with her bare hands.
Spurred on by his friends' actions, Jellal sped up and jumped the next three platforms in rapid succession. Half way to the crown.
Sizing up the next jump, Jellal hesitated. This platform only moved down to met his platform by a bit and it was at least a six foot jump. He had to wait again for the platform to come down and he began to see why this challenge tested patience and teamwork.
The platform came down.
Jellal leapt onto it and readied himself for the next jump. They were getting steadily harder, as he had expected.
A seven foot jump and up. Easy. It was his friends he was worried about. The noises of running and shoe squeaking had died down to heavy breathing.
Next jump. Seven feet sideways. Not hard at all if you wait for the right moment.
Only two more jumps were left. Jellal had this system down. He waited for his platform to rise.
His friends. He looked down at Erza. She and Gray were blocking the last few statues that could aim at him, but where were Natsu, Lucy and Lisanna?
Jellal took the jump early to look for his friends. There they were. Natsu was protecting Lisanna and Lucy from the darts. If Lisanna and Lucy couldn't fend of the darts anymore why hadn't they left the target area? It was because Natsu couldn't defend both them and Jellal at the same time. If he left his post to get Lisanna and Lucy out of there then the statues would start shooting Jellal.
That was it then. Jellal focused on the last jump. It was onto the statue itself, a giant marble fairy. The only place he could land was on the wings, but it would be nearly impossible not to slip on them. Unless…
The platform reached its zenith, the highest and closest position to the crown of any of the platforms. Jellal catapulted himself off the final platform towards the statue.
His arm reached out to the crown, which was tilted at just the right angle for him to grab.
His hand grasped onto the crown and his body weight pulled it down like a switch.
Silence in the room as the statues stopped firing. Then a loud cheer from Natsu.
"Yeah! We finally did it! We completed the challenge!"
The rest of the group smiled and congratulated themselves as Jellal dropped into the water below and emerged from the tunnel behind the dais, soaking wet.
As the team made merry, Erza came over to Jellal, who was taking off his wet hoodie. Underneath he wore a black and gold band t-shirt.
"You did a great job, Jellal." Erza told him. She smiled. "Your last jump was quite spectacular."
"Thank you, Erza." Jellal smiled back. "I couldn't have ever done it without you guys, my comrades."
"I suppose that's true. But don't let that take away from your accomplishment." Erza insisted. "What all of us did today was very impressive indeed."
"Yeah." Jellal agreed quietly.
"Come on then, team." Erza called. "We have to get back to the main room and we should probably get Jellal into some dry clothes."
The team chorused assent.
"Yeah, I guess we should be getting back. We finished the challenge. We're done for today." Lucy agreed.
The whole group trooped back to main room, chattering about their success.
"I think we all made a pretty good team here." Jellal commented to Erza. "I hope we can team up again."
"Well, when we reach another team challenge I'm sure they can be persuaded." Erza assured him.
"That will be fun."
"You bet it will!"
"Can we not talk about the next challenge right now?"
"She's right, let's just enjoy this victory while we can."
"That's our team alright."
AN: I totally messed up the first time I posted this, I'm really sorry.