Chapter 7: The First Job

Unknown Location

In a dark, ominous room, there could be nothing heard except the whirring of machinery and the groans of an unfortunate victim. The room was illuminated by a few lights, which managed to show a young man strapped to the wall at the end of the room. He had brown hair and green eyes that have been drained of life, which sadly complimented his sickly pale skin. The young man had several tubes inserted into his arms and his chest. These tubes carried his blood from his body into two separate containers: one contained the red liquid of life, and the other one was glowing with a bright liquid substance. The young man was breathing slowly and shakily as the heart monitor lacrima beeped just as slowly.

Then all of the sudden,his head whipped down to his chest, the heart monitor flatlining. Aside from the poor victim, there were two other people wearing lab coats. One had greying, balding hair and was wearing glasses, around middle age. The other was much younger and had short blonde hair. The latter person went over to the victim while the older one went over to the glowing vial, staring into it with malicious intent.

"The Ethernano extraction was a success," he proudly stated. "With this amount, we'll be able to craft at least a dozen white magic lacrimas. We'll be rich in no time." He smiled with an evil smirk, one that had no remorse whatsoever.

"Uh, if I may Doctor Veil," the younger doctor interjected after closing the victims eyes out of respect. "Shouldn't we find a a way to extract a wizard's magic power without killing them?" he asked, not knowing if he was in the right business anymore. He's not even sure how he got there in the first place.

Dr. Veil clenched his teeth. This was something that he didn't want to hear at this time. "Let me give it some thought, Adam," he said, before grabbing a scalpel off the table in front of him. He walked behind the young intern and before he could turn around, he stabbed him right in the spine.

The young man barely had time to yell in pain from the injury before falling to the floor, the scalpel sticking out of his back. The elder doctor stared at the body for a moment with lifeless eyes. "Thought considered," he said dryly. He then turned to a dark corner of the room, where another figure was just standing there, watching. "Get some of the others to clean this mess up and you get me some more test subjects," he commanded.

"Just to be clear," the figure said in the tone of a woman. She stepped out of the shadows and revealed herself. She was a woman with long, black hair, pale skin and glowing green eyes. She was wearing a tight bodysuit that left her massive bust exposed. On her left breast lay a mark similar to a guild mark, which was similar in appearance to the number seven. "I'm only working for you for the money, and the occasional thrill I get from seeing these young wizards squirm. But that does not mean you can order me around like a dog." She then channeled some of her magic power around her body, looking to intimidate the sadistic man.

It worked as he put his hand up. "Of course, my dear. I meant nothing by it," he quickly said before anything rash could happen. The woman smiled and turned her back to him, leaving the room insearch of new victims to have their life drained from their bodies…

Fiore Countryside

Travelling the empty roads of the kingdom's countryside was the newly formed Team Rising Star of Fairy Tail. The virgin team of Lucy, Cana, Flare and AJ set out from the guild not too long ago to complete their first job as a group. But for AJ and Flare, this was their first job as licensed wizards. All of them were excited for this job, but none of them could have imagined what would be in store for them.

"Why can't we just take a train or something?" Lucy complained. ""My feet are killing me!"

"I am not getting on one of those deathtraps again!" AJ argued, having not forgotten what happened the last time he was on a mode of transportation since he got his magic.

Lucy looked at him with sympathy. "Oh yeah. I almost forgot that you're a Dragon Slayer too. It's weird, really. Every Dragon Slayer that I know of has the same weakness of motion sickness, even Wendy has gotten it recently since the guild's been absent. Must be a trade-off for having such a special and powerful magic."

AJ listened to everything that the blonde said. "Great, so I can't ride any transportation for the rest of my life," he deduces with a sigh.

"Why not lay your head on my lap like last time?" Flare asked with a smile.

AJ blushed at that memory. "Well, I don't think you would want to do that everytime I ride a train or something," he responded.

"I wouldn't mind," Flare responded with a smirk and a wink.

"Oooh!" Cana teased. "Looks like Red here goes both ways! You're in trouble, boy!" She laughed and the other three blushed.

"Anyway," AJ said, desperately trying to change the subject. "What were the details of the job again?"

Lucy pulled the job flier and cleared her throat. "'To any wizards who recieve this request, listen to our plea. On behalf of the township of Shamrock Tone, Fiore, we ask for your help. Recent attempts at starting our in wizard guild in our town have been tampered with as the disappearance of several of our town's wizards have turned up missing, including the elders. We urge you to meet us in person to discuss further details. Signed, Ulric Whistler, the Mayor of Shamrock.'"

"Sounds urgent," AJ said in concern. "Let's pick up the pace, ladies!" he said before taking off in a sprint toward their destination. Cana and Flare looked at each other and shook their heads, following their teammate. Lucy was left behind in last place.

"Wait for me!" she yelled, taking off after them.

Later, they made it to Shamrock, southwest of Magnolia and further inland of Fiore. AJ got there first and saw that the ten was similar to Magnolia in some ways in terms of architecture, though it appears to have a much smaller population fewer wizards.

He heard the sound of heavy breathing behind him and saw that Cana and Flare had kept up with him. He noticed that Lucy was not with them. "Where's Lucy?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

Both the present girls looked back toward the road out of town and saw a figure in the distance. A few minutes later, they saw that it was Lucy, staggering and limping toward them. When she finally made it, she collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. "Never...do that...again!" she said in between deep breaths. The others just laughed at the blonde and got her up to her feet.

Now that they were in town, they headed to the capitol building. They found it in the center of town, a large building adorned with flags that had three-leaf clovers on them. They showed their job flyer to the guards and they were let in immediately.

Very soon, they were given an audience with the mayor of Shamrock. He was a distinguished gentleman wearing a nice black suit. He turned to the four wizards and revealed himself to have black hair with white lined in it and blue eyes. "Ah, good," he said, glad to see them. "I take it you're the wizards from Fairy Tail?" They all nod in confirmation. "Good. I am Ulric Whistler, the mayor that sent you the request for help."

"What seems to be the problem sir?" AJ asked. "You said other wizards have turned up missing?"

Ulric nods. "Indeed. We've recently come up with the idea of having our own wizard guild in Shamrock, seeing as we've never had one before. We've made advertisements attracting non-affiliated wizards to our town. Unfortunately, most, if not all of them have turned up missing almost as soon as they appear in town. No one seems to know how it is happening, where they go or even if anyone is responsible for it."

"And you want us to find them and whoever's behind this?" AJ asked the obvious.

"Yes," Ulric said. "Do this and I'll pay you handsomely. Do you accept?"

AJ smirked. "Consider it done," he said, turning to the others. "Let's get going, girls." They nodded and followed him out the door.

They began their search in town, asking questions to citizens for any information they found useful. Unfortunately, no one could tell them anything that was of any use. They began searching for hours inside of the city and out. They eventually found themselves outside of the city limits, in the forests surrounding the town.

"I don't get it," Flare said. "How can no one know anything about these disappearances?" she asked aloud.

"I don't know," AJ answered. "I could tell that none of them were lying either. They've been kept in the dark."

"But by who?" Lucy asked. "That's what I want to know."

Very soon, they came across a river in the middle of the forest. It was very peaceful...almost too peaceful.

"I have a feeling that the mayor didn't give us all the details," Cana boldly said. "I think we should go back and-"

"Shh," AJ shushes, putting his right hand up to silence the conversation. He heard something occupy the area besides them, a being. He also detected a scent that did not belong to an animal or beast.

"What is it?" Lucy whispered, slightly nervous at the sudden silence.

Then AJ's instincts lit on fire. "Look out!" he warned and suddenly the space between him and the girls spontaneously exploded in a fiery fashion. The explosion rocked the trees back and forth and made the animals in the area scatter. When the smoke cleared, AJ and the other members of the team coughed and saw the perpetrator of it.

In the epicenter of the explosion stood an attractive young woman with black hair and prominent green eyes and wearing a tight body suit. She smiled at the wizards who were lying on the ground, recovering from the explosion.

"My my," she began. "Another selection of wizards to play with, and from the Fairy Tail guild, no less!"

AJ stood up. "And who the hell are you?" he asked, getting ready for a fight.

The woman placed her hand on her breast. "You can call me Franziska, and I'm a member of the mercenary guild known as the Seven Deadly Sins," she says proudly, pointing to the emblem on her chest.

(I know using the concept of the seven deadly sins is a little redundant since there's already been a couple of manga/anime made about, but it seemed like a good idea to add it into the Fairy Tail universe. I hope you like what I make of it.)

This shocked the team of Fairy Tail wizards. A mercenary guild? "So you must be behind the disappearances of Shamrock's wizards!" Lucy proclaimed with a point.

Franziska giggled. "Maybe…" she trailed with a smile.

AJ growled. "I've never even heard of your little group of mercs," he said in spite.

"Few have and lived to tell stories about us," she mercenary replied.

"Uh huh," Cana said, unamused. "And what sin are you supposed to be?" she subtly started to reach for her magic cards.

"Lust," Franziska replied, licking her lips. "But enough talk. Let's have some fun, shall we?" She then put on a serious face.

She wasn't the only one. AJ put on his serious face and lit his fists with his blue fire.

Franziska raised an eyebrow and then smiled. "A fire wizard, huh? How fortunate for me." She conjured her magic into her right hand a plume of green smoke appeared in her hand. She then tossed the smoke ball at AJ, which didn't seem to fear him at first.

"A ball of smoke, What's that gonna do?" he thought, He then sniffed the air in front of him and wrinkled his nose. "Oh god! What smells like a pig's asshole?" He saw that the ball of smoke was right in front of him and then realized something very important. "Wait a minute, that's not smoke! It's natural gas! Oh crap!"

BOOM!

AJ's immediate area suddenly exploded, sending him back a couple of feet, dirtied and slightly disoriented. He groaned as he attempted to get up.

"What did you do to him?" Flare demanded as she unfurled her hair into several tendrils, which caught on fire. She sent them towards Franziska, who was smiling still.

"Allow me to show you, my dear," she said in a tease as she launched another gas ball at Flare. The gas reacted with the redhead's flaming hair and caused a decent-sized explosion, sending her back flying into a tree. She grunted as her back connected to the trunk, and then slid to the ground.

"That's it!" Cana said outraged, as seeing two of her friends get hurt from this foe. She reached into her bag and whipped several of her magic cards at her opponent. The brunette was confident this would do some damage to her as this was not fire magic and the fact that she never misses. That was until the cards went right through Franziska's form, which she didn't flinch from at all.

The mercenary looked back and saw that the cards were sunk into the trunk of the tree right behind her. She looked back at Cana and asked, "Is that the best you've got?" Cana grit her teeth at the woman.

This confrontation gave AJ the time to recover and leap at Franziska, drawing his fist back for a good punch, without using his fire magic this time. He swung right at her head...only for it to go right through it, as if her were hitting only air. The disturbing part was that Franziska's face was distorted from the punch. It slowly formed back together as if there was nothing wrong with it. "Was that supposed to hurt?" she teased, before summoning another ball of gas and then snapping her fingers. The immediate effect was another explosion that sent AJ backwards.

The smoke cleared and Franziska had disappeared. Lucy and Cana looked around to find the rogue wizard until Cana finally spotted her. "Lucy, behind you!" she yelled to her friend.

Lucy whipped her head around and suddenly had a hand on her throat. She was tas then lifted up off of the ground, she kicked her legs around while struggling to breathe. "Well aren't you cute?" Franziska teased, licking her lips at the struggling Celestial wizard.

"Get your hands off of her!" Flare screamed at the merc, her hair acting as several sharp spears and being launched toward the woman who was holding Lucy hostage. The hair spears impaled the woman, going right through her body, narrowly missing Lucy. To her surprise, Franziska was unhurt from it as she just stared at the redhead as the opened holes in her body had the look of swirling smoke.

The speared woman tossed Lucy aside and changed her form to a gaseous one. Like a ghost, she floated over to Flare at great speed, until she had her hand around her throat this time. Flare gasped for air, and also in surprise as Franziska's form returning to normal. "Since you four aren't getting the point, why don't I shed some light on your situation?" Franziska offered, not waiting for their response, and continued. "I specialize in Gas magic. Not only can I conjure hazardous gases to fight my opponents with, I can manipulate my body into a gas form. Long story short, you won't be able to hit me and fire is useless against me unless you want to die in a fiery explosion."

Now absorbing the new information that they had just received from their opponent, the remaining members of the team were thinking of what to do at this point. And they had to do it quickly as their opponent appeared to have the high ground.

Then Cana had an idea. She takes out two cards, combines them and waves her hands to conjure a spell. Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind was sent toward Franziska and the captive Flare. The wind managed to cut through the former's arm, freeing Flare from her grip.

"Agh!" Franziska howled in pain as she held her severed arm, which slowly but surely began to grow back.

Cana was proud of her achievement. "What's the matter? Don't like the wind?" She taunts. She pulls out another two cards and readied another spell. "Don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from!" She launched another wind spell at the woman. She tried to get out of the way in her gas form, amaging to barely dodge it. Unfortunately for her, the wind blew the air around her and sent her crashing into the ground. The team of four wizards all got to their feet and saw that they were getting an edge over her, gaining confidence in their struggle.

"You will regret that!" Franziska threatened her opponents, summoning a large ball of gas over her head and then snapped her fingers. The large explosion caused the four wizards to flinch and close their eyes. When they opened them, she was gone.

"Now where is she?" Lucy asked. She soon got her answer as Franziska popped right in front of her. Before Lucy could reach for her keys, the merc swung her body around and delivered a strong kick to Lucy's gut, knocking the wind out of the girl. She was sent flying backwards, and unfortunately for her, she was right beside the river. She fell in and got swept away by the current.

"Lucy!" Cana, AJ and Flare all said at the same time. Before any of them could do something to help her out, Franziska unleashed another spell. She sent a massive wave of purple-colored gas at the three remaining wizards. They braced themselves for some kind of blow, but it never came. Instead, they all started to feel drowsy and weak.

"What is this?" AJ asked, struggling to keep his eyes opened. He saw that Flare and Cana were on the ground, holding their heads in their hands.

"That's right, kiddies," Franziska taunts as the wizards lose consciousness. "Just fall into a deep sleep. Then when you wake up, the real fun can begin." Soon enough, all three of them were on the ground, out cold. The merc reached into her pocket and pulled out a communication lacrima. "Send some guys to my position. I've got a couple of presents for the doc."

A couple of miles down river

On a small beach lay Lucy Heartfilia's unconscious form. Lying on her front, she has her face planted in the sand.

She started to whimper and groan in pain as her body ached from the explosion. She took a deep breath, unfortunately catching some sand in her mouth. She sputtered and spat the sand out of her mouth, right before shuddering from the cold she was feeling.

"Why is it so cold?" she asked no one. She then looked around her immediate area, and then at the black sky and saw the moon. "It's night?!" she freaked out. "Where the hell am I? Where are the others?" It was just after she said that when she remembered what happened. The explosion, and the mercenary woman. "Flare! Cana! AJ! I gotta help them!" She got up to race to her friends until she realized that she had no idea where she was.

She then got an idea. She reached for her keys and summoned her faithful spirit: Pyxis the Compass. The eccentric spirit managed to point her in the right direction back to Shamrock. Not a second later, she closed her spirit's gate and ran toward the town. "I'm coming guys!"

And that's it for this chapter. Looks like it's up to Lucy to save the day! Can't wait to write about that, and I hope you liked the introduction of one of my OC's, one of seven. I got inspired for her appearance and character from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, another great anime.

Also as a side note, the first episode of the English dub of Fairy Tail's final season is out. Just watched it and I was very impressed. It seems that Brittney Karbowski is a great singer as well as a voice actress. Can't wait for the rest of it. Anyway, see you guys next time! Feel free to drop a review of how you feel about my story. Just try not to be a dick.