A/N: Sorry about being so late with the updates. School keeps you busy. I know this is short but I promise the next chapter will be long and enjoyable. I hope you enjoy what I have so far and a big big special thanks goes out to my Beta Reader Emcronia. She's absolutely lovely at what she does; a true and wondrous editor. Love her!

While Natsu was trying to figure out how to escape from Lucy and Loke, an important meeting was about to take place in order to 'discuss' the situation that had happened earlier concerning the Flame mage and an Eisenwald mage.

Adjacent to Central Park was the sector belonging to the Guardian, Gray Fullbuster. This rather large area mainly contained warehouses that lined the harbor as well as a couple of neighborhoods up to the north. One warehouse in particular was a meeting place of sorts. It was the smallest and most inconspicuous of the ones nearest the harbor. Broken bottles littered outside, and crude graffiti was scrawled along the brick walls. Inside the warehouse were cargo crates of all sizes stacked one atop the other.

In the middle of the warehouse, a single square of light shone from the skylight on the empty stone floor. Suddenly, a bloodied man with disheveled black hair half covering the Eisenwald tattoo on his forehead was thrown into the light. He was garbed in a simple yellowed tunic. Outside the square of light was a semi circle of mages from all sorts of dark guilds. The only sounds heard were the drip, drip, drip of water leaking through a pipe and the whimpers of the man in the middle.

The meeting was in session.

"I-I followed orders. Gorbavich said not to kill any Counters and I d-didn't." The voice was tremulous and small. A figure, taller than the rest stepped forward out of the semi circle, small glints of sunlight reflecting off the piercings on his face. He didn't step into the light, but the bloody man knew it was the leader of this faction.

"I know what Gorbavitch said Baldor, but I also know he said not to make any form of contact with any Fairy Tail mages. You know how those Fairy morons are and if you draw attention, which you did, they'll be on our trail, which they probably are." The bass voice was dominating. It resonated through the warehouse with a frightening calm, interrupted only by the drip, drip, drip of the water from the pipe, which had started to trickle, unnoticed by the others, behind some crates on the far side of the warehouse. The anger was becoming clearer in the leader's voice: the men in the semi-circle flinched at his tone.

"This plan can't be carried out properly if we don't do as instructed."

"H-have mercy, I was only in the area and my thoughts left me. I don't know-"

"Mercy? Hmm…nope. Dunno what it means. Take him to Gorbavitch." The man's whimpers turned to silence as he lapsed into shock and was drug away from the warehouse by an Eisenwald mage with green hair, and a Naked Mummy mage with a blue trench coat.

The other mages looked on grimly, slightly fearful. This was a lesson for them all. They dispersed the semi circle and left the opposite direction the mages had taken Baldor. No one wanted to witness the carnage to come. In the shadows the leader pinched the bridge of his nose in consternation. He focused on the soft drip, drip, drip of the leak, letting the gravity of the situation sink in.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you enjoyed seeing one of your own getting sent to the 'punishment'."

"I've always been one for the battle. I would have taken care of it myself if I hadn't had orders from above."

"Since when did you follow orders to the letter?"

"Is it your duty to analyze me, or will you say your piece and cease questioning my allegiance? I warn you any form of 'teasing' will result in hell for you, this I promise," the leader snarled, fist balled up.

Wisely, the cloaked mage changed the subject."Do you think our cover is blown? This is a delicate operation; if they catch us interacting with the Counters like this, they'll have the council after us."

"It's a possibility," the leader spoke curtly. "I think they already may be aware of us, but unsure of a move to make. As long as we can continue to operate underground and profit from the Lacrima cartel we've established here, there isn't much they can do. We've grown to be too big," the leader paused and ran a hand through his wild dark hair and grunted, "but he ran into that Salamander. It won't go quietly for sure. Thoughts, Grandair?"

The Naked Mummy mage, Grandair, also took time to pause then reiterated, "This is a delicate operation and our success depends on keeping Fairy Tail as ignorant as possible. Someone should take care of the Dragon mage."

The leader knew what Grandair was getting at and weighed the situation in his mind. Finally, he spoke,
"Yes...send back for Baldor and give him a second chance...," Grandair bowed his cloaked head and left for the door. After a pause, the leader called in a loud voice just before the mage had made his exit, "Just make sure he doesn't cross Gray Fullbuster. This is his territory after all and he'd freeze up any of Baldor's moves. We'll meet up later at Fifth and Straight."

"As you wish," was all the mage said and then he was gone. The leader sighed, jaw set, sunlight glinting off his face. He had a very big burden to carry. Sticking to the shadows he made his exit.

The drip, drip, drip of the leak stopped. There was a soft swoosh, like silk sliding over water. Behind the crates a lovely blue haired woman with calculating dark blue eyes grew up from the puddle of water. She let the information swirl around inside her mind as the building became silent once more.
She spoke softly to herself, "Gray will have something to say about this."