Location - Oshibana, Gateway Guild Building

A man was strolling through the streets of Oshibana with a bag in hand glancing at the crowds chatting away about their own affairs, he seemed to eaves drop on some of the conversations, he enjoyed what they were saying until he heard what people were saying about what was happening at Gateway. A large ruckus could be heard from the building, he sneered at the thought. The guild was rampant and lively as lots of the guild members were rushing around trying to gather what they need for their departure. People were taking beers kegs and mugs and placing them back at the bar.

"Don't put them at the edge, pass them to me!" Lurria yelled as beer glasses were being flung across the bar counter, some falling from the force of them being pushed along. A few people tripped over themselves and others were trying to place security lacrimas where they needed to be. It didn't take long until there was a pile of people huddled into the corner, moaning and groaning could be heard from them. Some members were even clumsily dropping and smashing glasses and bottles due to them rushing around. Fights were being picked amongst the members for a variety of reasons, Douray could be seen attempting to stop the fighting.

"Okay, okay break it up you idiots!" he demanded as he held one of them back, Lireo struck the other one square in the face with a colourful fist with a bold brown aura.

"Yeah, we could use some assistance right now!" Lireo exclaimed as he kicked a another member minding his own business and punched another at the same time.

"You're not helping y'know!" Douray pointed out.

"What did you just say to me?" Lireo angrily responded.

"Y'know I'm getting pretty sick of your shit right now!" Douray snapped back as they both held each other by the neck.

"Douray, Lireo grow up would you? Seriously, if you guys aren't going to help then take your aggression outside!" Lurria commanded as she placed yet another mug onto the shelf. She turned to further scold them but they now had their anger set on her.

"You wanna throw down Lurria? I can make time to beat both of your asses right now." Douray furiously remarked, Lireo immediately threatened.

"Run along little girl, before you get caught in a world of pain." Lurria gritted her teeth and held out a large war hammer from the back of the bar counter. They were all ready to destroy each other when suddenly the front door flew open. The slamming of the door bursting open was loud compared to the ruckus being caused by the rest of the guild. A man entered through, his sharp eyes piercing right through the others as he stared directly at them. Members were either staring back intimidated or trying to avoid eye contact completely silenced by his arrival, Lurria, Douray and Lireo also watched him make his way through the hall of flipped over tables, displaced stools and beaten people. He continuously swayed his head from side to side examining the helpless looking crowds separated by a path for him specifically. At the end of the path, the ladder to the ceiling hatch, he gripped the bar and placed himself upon the ladder climbing slowly and looking back at the others. As he looked away the noise of a glass smashing rose amplified by the silence, immediately he turned back dropping off of the ladder clearly annoyed. The sound of the thud as he collided with the wooden floorboards sent chills through the guild members' spines, he looked to the nearest table and grabbed it in a way so that his thumb was on one side of the top surface and the rest of his fingers were on the other and he completely snapped it in half. Some of the members flinched in intimidation to the sudden smashing noise that rung right through everybody's heads. The man climbed back up the ladder leaving the whole hall in silent awe. As soon as the hatch shut the guild members sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness." Lireo gasped.

"I thought Raliax was really gonna hurt us, like last time." Lurria remarked, voices of the guild filled the hall once again.

"Come on guys, you know what he means! Be more careful next time!" a voice cried out of a speaker and camera lacrima hidden deep in a ceiling corner. The voice was barely audible for those who broke the glass over the disorderly guildies, though for those who did hear gave a belated salute. Razi could be seen climbing the ladder to the ceiling hatch in the distance.

"Yes ma'am!" yelled the unprepared guild members. The voices reached back to a woman within the Runna's office, she looked to Runna who sighed in stress and frustration resting her head on the keys of her piano. Runna hesitantly shut the top of her piano and tucked the stool away. Exhausted, she lazily stumbled over to her desk and slumped her body upon the desk, face flat on the hard surface. Quiet muffled moans could barely be heard from her as she lay completely motionless, the woman stepped out from the dense shadows and placed a damp rag onto the space next to Runna's head.

"Mistress, please use this. We need you for this operation!" this emerald haired lady suggested as she further pushed the rag towards her. Runna placed her chin onto the surface, grabbed the rag and lightly wiped her face with it absorbing all of the sweat from her forehead. "You must at least rest mistress, overusing your magic will make you tired!" she concluded.

"Thank you Lora, I don't know what I would do without you here." Runna smirked slightly and so did Lora. The clanging of the metallic doors was noticeable in the dark quiet room in which Raliax lazily shut slightly with his foot.

"You should oil those doors up or something!" Raliax suggested.

"Yes Raliax, I'm aware." Runna announced as she reclined back onto her chair, short on breath. "Anyway I see you're back from your job, and just in time too." she wiped her head again with the rags.

"Yeah, I did the job I was asked. Also I got your message about the Magic Council and that request" Raliax explained, he noticed Runna's fatigue. "You haven't overused you're magic again have you?" Runna was silent as she laid on her large comfortable seat "Seriously!? Oh my god! You do know how tiring that is right? You'll be charging your magic for at least a day!" Raliax monotonously continued, Runna didn't seem to be that interested in what he was saying. "If I wanted I could probably kill you right now!" He mentioned, Lora dashed to the front of Runna's desk prepared for a fight.

"Don't you dare try to lay a hand on mistress!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself Lora, I wasn't gonna do it anyway. Hell, that's where the 'probably' came from!"

"Even think of it and I'll eliminate you!"

"Don't get all high and mighty with me!"

"I have half a mind to kill you mysel-"

The clanging noise came again behind Raliax interrupting the two, a sudden chill shot through the room as the snow outside was building up. Razi had opened the door and had seemed to be hidden behind it, nervous.

"Would it be okay if I could come in?" he cautiously queried the three adults, Raliax and Lora looked at each other and then to Runna who was staring at Razi.

"Y-yeah, yes, of course you can. Have a seat!" Runna responded suddenly all spry. Raliax and Lora were still watching Runna "Oh yes, can you two please sort the guildies down stairs for me?" she suggested to the them.

"Yes mistress!"

"Yeah sure." the two left through the old metallic doors that had automatically locked itself once they left. The freezing wind had died done a bit as Runna lit another candle. Razi had placed himself onto a chair in front of the desk.

"So Razi, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well, I wanted to know... Is it true that we're going to fight Fairy Tail?" Razi suddenly exclaimed, Runna flinched slightly at the question this boy had just asked.

"Y-yes, we are. We're going to fight them sometime soon." she replied.

"Great I'll go get my stuff! What time are we leaving?" Razi was ecstatic leaping off of the chair with a large smile reaching from the other sides his face, and stretching his arms outward. Runna stared at him briefly, then she turned her chair to the window directly behind her.

"You're not going!" Razi stood there staring.

"WHAT!?" Razi yelled at the top of lungs, his black wolf ears and tail pointed on end.

"You do know who Fairy Tail are, don't you?"

"Of course I do, how can I not!? Fairy Tail are probably the world's most famous guild, they've succeeded on so many jobs, are featured in tons of magazines and became the champions in the Grand Magic Games!" Razi excitedly explained, though as he was about to continue Runna interrupted him.

"Exactly." Razi stopped "Those are the reasons why you shouldn't go." the boy gritted his teeth as Runna spun back around to face him "They're way too dangerous, remember, you're still young and if we fail it could be bad for us. I don't want to put you through that, what do you think would happen to you?" Razi head sank clenching his fist.

"But I'm really strong! If we can get some help then we can surely beat them!" Runna slammed her palm onto the desk interrupting Razi once again.

"Don't say such nonsense! They're simply too powerful for us alone so I've contacted a powerful wizard to aid us in our bout, and even then it's a coin toss on who would win. I've hired a bodyguard to protect the guild while we're away, and I want you to help them out." Runna concluded as she saw Razi exit through and slam the metallic doors, she sighed in distress and turned to the window. The outside was near completely white as the light and harmless snow fall dropped so slow from the clouded sky, Razi could be seen dashing off in the misty white streets. The mistress was drowsy and her eyelids felt heavy. She clicked her fingers, the tiny flames of the candles withered away quickly leaving the room as a black void only to be slightly illuminated by the contrasting window. Her eyelids fell slowly, sluggishly connecting her eyelashes together until she could no longer see anything and she drifted off to sleep.

Next day

Location - Front of Gateway Guild Building

The majority of the Gateway members were stood in a large crowd at the entrance of the building prepared for what was about to ensue later on that day. Weapons were polished and cleaned, equipment and armour had been applied and everybody had regained their magic to their fullest extent.

"Alright then, is everybody ready?" Lora called to the guild, an uproar was raised from the crowd of screaming wizards. Onlookers from the streets watched with curiosity some within their homes and some outside.

"Yeah, let's do this!"

"I'm ready to kick some ass!"

"Those arsonists will pay for what they did!"

"Let's break for the train station, once we board the train we'll depart for Hargeon briefly for a meeting with the clients! Then we head for Magnolia!" Raliax announced to the crowd unsheathing his sword from it's scabbard and pointing to the train station, one final call came from the guild and they headed off following Runna, Lora and Raliax in that order. Residents of Oshibana waved to the guild in which they waved back to them.

Location - Oshibana, Train Station

The Gateway guild had completely filled the train up leaving little to no space for any other passenger who was planning to travel using the train there, they were silent much unlike how they were previously. Douray was lying across the seats in angst, Lurria was busy head deep into a Wizards Monthly magazine and Lireo and another member were struggling to get Lireo's luggage into the over head shelves. The three heads of Gateway were sat together, they too were silent until Raliax raised his head to Runna.

"Hey, there was something that was bugging me." Runna looked to Raliax in interest. "Why would Fairy Tail have destroyed that mercenary guild in the first place? It just doesn't add up."

"If I were to guess, I would either say guild rivalry or that their fame has gotten to their heads but that's a bit petty, so really I don't know myself." Runna responded, Raliax pondered to himself about it, then Lora stepped up.

"By the way mistress I've done a role call for the guild and we're missing two members, shouldn't the Trivelatto brothers be with us on this?"

"They're probably getting drunk in a bar or something reckless!" Raliax jokingly suggested with a snarky little grin.

"I've contacted them too, they'll be in Magnolia tomorrow to meet us." Runna explained.

"Yeah, they're getting drunk!" Raliax remarked chuckling. A few of the guild members laughed with him. Runna smirked and gazed out of the window watching as the train sped through the land, the tracks passing by her swiftly, the world moving around her. She was watching, as Hargeon came closer.

Author's note - Well I've done my quota for the cruise, I've written two more chapters and am currently writing the next chapter now. What will happen in the later chapters? Who knows (I do)?

Anyway, I've just recently realised a problem with one of the OCs... Razi Bharx. The description on his character's magic is vague and I don't know what kind of abilities and spells 'the power of the moon' brings. Martyn, if you can specify what spells Razi has then all will be handy dandy with me. All of the other OCs are fine though as I can think of spells that their magic can bring. Annnnyyyywwaaaayyyyy... See ya next time!