The whole place dark, smoke covered the area, clouding all vision of the place. I didn't know what happened, all I know was we were having a nice conversation, when a large explosion from the next building came off. The strong explosion impacted this building as well, and as unprepared as I was, I was sent flying a bit from the strong force. Now I'm still in the middle of this place or somewhere close by, I can tell by that because of the smoke, but with every passing second, the smoke seems to get thicker. Clouding my vision further, my senses seem to dull since all I could whiff was the burning smell of the smoke which affected my breathing badly. My eyes seem to burn as well, and all I could hear was the screams and yell of other people around, close by. I need to regroup and find Lucy; she must have gotten hurt with that explosion. I need to find her, so I tried yelling for her name.

"LUCY!" I yelled, trying to call out to her.

"LUCY!" I yelled again, trying to do as much but my lungs were already hurting from the smoke.

"LUCY! WHERE ARE YOU?!" I tried again. Coughing a bit, my vision seemed to be hazy. My body feels weak; and I stumbled, falling to the floor coughing from the smoke. "Lucy….." the last words I muttered before I fell unconscious.

*Lucy's POV*

There was a huge explosion then the next thing I knew I was already outside of the place, Mest must have reacted quickly and had me ported out, Taliyah, got herself out of the building before the explosion's force impacted our location. I looked around people were panicking running among the street due to the explosion. I looked further, trying to find a certain person.

"Where's Trevor?" I asked the other two who were trying to calm the town's people. They both looked at me before, looking around to find the hulking man, but he wasn't anywhere close to be found. Then I heard someone yell my name. I tried to find where the voice is coming. Another shout caught my attention and had my head whipped to the building we were just in. I wasn't sure that I heard it right and if it was coming from that place. Another shout came and confirmed my doubts, he must still be inside. I rushed to the building. He's an idiot for staying there, what makes him think that I'm still inside? I doubled my speed since I didn't hear another shout coming from him.

Once I gotten in the whole building was covered in thick smoke, and it would be quite hard looking for him in this situation, with my senses, I closed my eyes quickly and tried to focus on his magic. I searched through the area looking for the familiar feel of his magic. And I could sense him somewhere in the middle of the room near the counter. I rushed forward where I could sense him with his magic. And saw him lying in the ground unconscious. I moved besides him kneeling down. He was still breathing, but it seems like he's not doing any better as the seconds pass by.

"Taurus!" I shouted and the bull spirit arrives ready and in alert, I looked up to him and he seemed to understand as he positioned himself to pick up the man. With a grunt, he threw him on his shoulder and we exited out of the burning place.

"Taurus set him down here" I asked Taurus when we were a good few meters out and away from the burning building. He placed on the ground, and I rushed in to check him properly. He was still unconscious and breathing hard, sweat formed at his forehead and seemed to be slightly in pain.

"Thanks for your help Taurus, you can go back now." I told my spirit, and he does his pervy farewell before fading in golden light.

"Gemini!" I called for my other spirit and they appeared clinging on my back, each on each side of my shoulder and they stare at the man before them. "I need emergency mimic, turn into Wendy." Giving them the instruction they floated and joined hands together before a cloud of smoke covers them as they turned into Wendy. I felt the sudden draw back on my magic, this is another spell that they master, though Gemini could only hold onto 2 transformation and that changing to another loses one of the two transformation they hold onto and keep the current form they have and they can only transform to another person if they touch that person. But with the training we've gone through, they master another trick that allows them to turn into any person in my memory but the magic it takes a lot like summoning another spirit. That's why we called it emergency mimic for that sole reason.

Gemini quickly rushed to treat Trevor. Using the same magic that Wendy uses, her hands glow as the spell works it magic to heal Trevor. I looked at him worriedly, it was the first time he collapse like that, he never shown any weakness before. He showed so much resistance with a lot of magic, he usually kept his body fit, so why now? Gemini let out a sigh, and let her hand fall besides her.

"How is he?" I asked. They look at me in Wendy's eyes before explaining the condition.

"It's nothing fatal, this is just something that affects and weakens his magic. Or more like his trait as an earth dragon." they said.

"What do you mean?" I asked further.

"His magic as an earth dragon doesn't just revolve around the earth that you are standing on right now. It goes to everything that is on earth to the trees and nature around us. And anything that pollutes the nature is likely a poison for him, since he was standing back there in the middle of the room, covered in black smoke. As a normal person that t greatly affects his immune system then added to that how his magic weakens per passing second."

"I see, what do I need to do now?" I asked looking at the man, concerned at his wellbeing.

"You could give him a CPR" They both said; now back in their original form. Holding into a transformed state doubles the magic they take while holding their gate open.

"A.. A. C- CPR?!" I screamed, realizing what they meant. My face heated at the thought of giving mouth to mouth to Trevor. I unconsciously looked at his lips and gulped. His lips looks appealing, it was slightly apart and moist. I lick my own lips and blushed. What the hell am I thinking, no he doesn't specifically needed that treatment no right? I looked back at the two spirits, and they were giggling to themselves. Those two….

"Come over here you two!" I yelled at them, still flustered about the exchange. I chase after the two who floated around, running away whilst giggling. These two have been quite the troublemaker these past months, but I felt relieved at that, that the spirits are becoming more open and showing more of them. I didn't realize the smile forming on my lips as I chased the two down.

"If ya have the time and energy to play around, why not use that to help the people out!" Taliyah suddenly yelled, making me and both Gemi and Mini to stop in our tracks. She was glaring at us and a dark aura surrounded her.

"Y-Yes ma'am!" I saluted at her and rush off to the side to help.

"Besides, we still got company.." She said then turned towards the building in fire. A black shadow rose from the burning building and let out an ear piercing screech.

"Wh- what is that?" I asked.

"It's an enhanced and modified human. The reason we are on this town." Taliyah said briefly before moving forward, crackling her knuckles as she takes her pose. I looked at Mest who was just besides me, a questioningly look on my face.

He let out a sigh before continuing the explanation. "Modified humans, former humans that were experimented on they've been infusing the attributes of a demon to turn the perfect warrior. This was also the cause of a lot of missing people regardless of ages. We just determined that one of the top dark guilds has been conducting these experiments." He looked at me before continuing. "We call them Homunculi." I gulped, this is scary. Then my attention as drifted back to the monster, he jumped out of the flames and landed at the front of the building in. It was huge and its skin was black. His face was morphed and it has no eyes and ears. It was larger than Elfman, its muscles bulges every now and then, is this really a human before?

It noticed Taliyah, and quickly rushes over to her; I was quite surprised at its speed despite it being large, in mere seconds it was already in front of her, its fist was raised and ready to land a blow. In that moment, all I noticed was how she smirks and dust cloud covers the place she was standing.

"Taliyah!" I screamed and almost ran to her position but Mest raised his hand stopping me in my tracks. "If you knew her you wouldn't get in her way" I blink at that and looked back to where she was standing. "There was a shining light, almost blinding. And she was standing, impassive and her body was turned into diamond, her left hand raised and caught the monsters hand." I was about to praise her in that moment, but one look at her face, made me shut my mouth up. She looked scarier than Erza and Mira combined. Mest seemed to have noticed my sudden change in emotion as I held back my excitement and awe. He just nodded at me in understanding and I nodded back as well and we seemed to have formed a bond at that.

Then back at Taliyah, the monster regardless of its strength can't seem to get away from her grasped, and I noticed how her hand tightened even further, almost crackling the bones of the enemy, but said enemy didn't exactly felt any kind of pain. They seemed to be enhanced physically and magically, and due to the experiment, they lose their own humanity, thus they never felt any kind of emotion and pain. A perfect monster to send out in the field, and if these dark guild has the ability to control these monsters, what would happen to Fiore. I shake all thought about that and focus back at the battle, I knew that Taliyah was strong, ever since I came to their house and they took me in, I never won any sparring matches that I have with her and now, it seems like she seems to have gotten even more stronger.

"The queen of diamonds" Mest suddenly blurted out. "That's what most people call her because that's her signature magic, Metamorphosis. She has the ability to absorbed any element and turn her body into it. Much like Gajeel's Iron Skin, she can however turn into anything that she touches. And the most indestructible form that she has is diamond."

Taliyah-nee seemed too looked even cooler after he said that, she turned around and had her back to the monster, then pulled his arms with her strength, sending the monster crashing to the ground. Its body bounced a bit from the impact and she took that moment to deliver a kick that sent the monster flying to a wall. She never left any chances open as she continued with her assault, taking a stance, she quickly leaps and dashes to the monsters that was still planted at the wall and deliver a finishing kick, that brought the monster down. We let out a sigh at that, while a laugh echoed through the area sounding like a maniac. I looked back at her and she was standing on the body, laughing at herself. I remember her doing that as well whenever she defeated me, I just sigh at her antics

"You don't know who you're dealing with you piece of shit, ahahahah" She continued laughing, just putting us into more embarrassment as the other townspeople looked at her weirdly.

"Urgh.. I'm tired…" Taliyah groaned at the bed besides me. We were back at the inn after helping out and her defeating that monster. I looked at her passively, she seemed to be back to normal after all that fighting, and she gets too hyper as well like Natsu. I sigh and looked in front, Trevor was still lying unconscious at his bed, but his breathing seemed to have gotten calmer and she seemed more relaxed.

"Lucy, were out of beer" Mest called out from the hotel's kitchenette, coming inside the room.

"Lu-chan, I want some more pudding." Taliyah said besides me.

"Shut it you two! Go get it on your own! And what the hell are you doing in our room?!" I screamed at them.

"Wha.. Lu-chan's being a grumpy meanie, but she looks cute either way, ahhh" She said absently, rolling around the bed. "Lu-chan I want more pudding." She told me again, which I just let out a sigh and stood up to get her food.

A few minutes later and a satisfied Taliyah eating her pudding, we sat back at the bed while Mest took a chair and seated on it while drinking his beer. After gulping a good amount of liquid. He set the can down and looked at me seriously. "We need to discuss more about the job at hand." Taliyah just seemed to mind her own while enjoying her pudding.

"What do you mean?"

"Your first official job as an elite group under Taliyah-sama" I was a bit shocked at that, not knowing that they already have a mission at hand and ready. They must be really in a tight spot to suddenly discuss this after just being scouted, but before he could discuss that I need to set some conditions.

"Before we get into that, we have only one condition." I stated firmly, his eyes seemed to narrow. "We are currently moving only to north as of the moment looking for something important. And we want to continue to our destination." I said praising myself for not stuttering at that.

"And where would you be headed?" Taliyah asks out of curiosity, handing me the empty cup of pudding. I reach out, and threw it at the bin.

"We're not sure at the moment, wherever we get on north maybe." I said a bit unsure as to where the key would lead us.

"Fine. We'll hand you out jobs that are going north, but for now, I want both of you and Trevor to do some recon missions for me." Mest said, making me smile and almost shout but contained it.

"Recon mission?" I asked.

"Yes, recon mission, I want you both to gather intel about the group that has been kidnapping people in the city as of late. This may also be connected with the guild that is also doing illegal experiments or not. But I want you to solve this case, and gather as much intel for our knights. You will not engage in battle not unless it is necessary. The missions focus is to gather as much as you can." Mest said seriously. "This would be the allowance that you can use for this mission then after that you will be given your rewards as well through this." He reached out and handed me a small envelope containing a large amount of jewel and two small square comms lacrima. There was a small circle patch on the back.

"What is this for?" I asked, pointing towards the circle on the back.

"That's for your group if you want to put your own mark." He said nonchalantly.

"Our group?" I said more to myself.

"Yep, the other two has their own team name." I looked at Taliyah with a curious gaze.

"Then can I make it for later, we haven't thought of anything yet." I said.

"That's fine." Mest said.

"Then how about Trelu!" Taliyah suddenly blurted out.

"Trelu, what does that eve- wait what?! Why would I make that embarrassing group name?!" I screamed at her.

"Oh come on Lu-chan, it's not like you don't like it." She said while smirking.

"I don't! I would never use that! It's too embarrassing!" I screamed loudly, my face heating up and feeling a bit dizzy.

"SHUT UP! Someone's trying to sleep here!" We both and looked at Trevor who just turned in his bed and pulled the covers, getting back to sleep. Wait; was he awake all this time? Then he must have heard that weird name. I couldn't help but blush harder then looked at Taliyah. "I swear I'm going to kill you!" I screech and she jumped out of bed and run away, out of the room, I followed her, running while yelling at her.

"Damn would those two just shut up?!" I faintly heard Trevor said, but that was the least of my worries, I need to murder this embarrassing woman!