Guardian Fairy

by Alpha Dragonis

In order to save the universe, Arceus had to transfer his powers to a human. Facing the challenge of a lifetime, Rex Vermend sets off in the distant land of Fiore alongside his Pokémon to witness extraordinary sights, and experence hardships along the way. The journey will be long and the adventure will not only uncover the Plates but also his true feelings.

10. Guild War

Recap: After completing a mission with the other members of the Team Natsu had formed they came home to find the Guild Hall had been trashed with iron pillars and that Phantom Lord were responsible for it. Later on that night after learning about Phantom Lord at Lucy's apartment he ran into Gajeel and rescued Team Shadow Gear, getting into a fight alongside Starmie and after a drawn out brawl won but the core of Starmie was damaged, prompting Makarov to declare war on Phantom.

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Chapter 10 – Guild War

Back at the broken guild hall everyone had left to go and attack Phantom Lord, leaving the group of Lucy, Rex, Mirajane and Starmie. Before they had left the hospital Rex retunred Starmie into their Great Ball despite the protests of the healer Porlyusica, in fact Rex had chosen to completely ignore her as he did so. Once they were at the hall, Rex laid out Starmie on one of the tables and sat down on the table next to them.

"Well this place got abandoned quickly, they didn't even ask for me to join them." Lucy observed, grumbling that last part to herself.

An eerie silence had fallen upon the guild with nobody in there and Mirajane was sitting down next to Rex and saw that he was deep in thought. The events of what Gajeel had done to Starmie kept replaying in his mind from the sound that the impact of the club had made to the expression of crazed delight on the face of Gajeel. Magmortar was right, I should have used him instead of Starmie for the fight against Gajeel. Their injury is on me. Rex though, subconsciously running a finger over the injured Starmie.

"So how did Starmie get those injuries?" Mirajane asked and Lucy was also curious about the worried look on his face.

After describing their injuries in detail there was an understandably horrified look on their faces as Rex looked at Starmie. "It's not the fact that Starmie's core was injured that bothers me. What bothers me was that Gajeel intended to hit that spot on purpose. If Starmie and their pre evolved form have their limbs cut off they can regenerate easily, the core on the other hand…"

"What's so bad about damaging the core?" Lucy asked, not liking the answer.

Sure enough it was something that neither of them liked. "It's because the core is also the brain and the mouth of the pokémon, minor damage is fine but what Gajeel did is potentially life threatening." Rex explained and they both sharply drew breath and looked at the heavily injured pokémon again, this time with the full weight of the cracks sinking in.

"So what do we do now?" Lucy asked, shaken slightly.

"Well we do nothing for now and wait for the others to come back, so go out and get some fresh air or something." Rex suggested, neither of the female wizards contending the fact that he wanted to stay with Starmie and turned to look back at Lucy.

"You should probably have a pokémon to accompany you in case Phantom try anything." Rex suggested and then went over the Poké Balls that were on his belt. "Hmm, Zangoose needs to get physical which might not necessarily work, and this one is just overkill, leaving… Crobat, standby for battle!"

Throwing his other plain Poke Ball, a short purple bat like creature appeared in the air and whilst it only looked about a head tall, width wise it was probably wider than everyone except for Makarov when enlarged and Elfman. This next pokémon had two pairs of wings with one smaller than the other and two short claws on the top of the larger wings – the feet were just about visible and it's yellow eyes and mouth stood out.

Crobat then immediately smacked into Rex's shoulder and made him wince. "Take it easy Crobat, I'm heavily injured." Rex pointed out, wincing as he felt the slight stinging sensation.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to harm you!" Crobat apologised and attempted to bow but it looked kind of awkward as his legs were too short.

"A bat?" Lucy cried out in shock and jumped up in the air.

"Aw come on! I'm not scary!" Crobat complained, pouting.

Once Lucy had gotten over the initial shock of seeing such a wide pokémon it took her a while to see that Crobat as he was called wasn't as threatening as he first appeared and was rather subdued and affectionate, at least in how it initially acted. In contrast to how what she heard about Zangoose, he seemed tame and friendly.

"What happened to Starmie?" Crobat asked, suddenly taking note of the damaged core and looking horrified.

"A rival guild by the name of Phantom Lord attacked and everyone else has gone off to one of their strongholds, so have Magmortar and Sceptile. I need you to watch Lucy's back, okay?" Rex summarised.

"I think I got it. Will you be safe without me?" Crobat asked, frowning.

Rex chuckled and leaned back slightly. "Don't worry about me. I still have two pokémon left on hand should I need some more protection." At the mention of the other two pokémon Crobat remained silent and stared at the

Despite this Crobat nodded as he began circling the air and following Lucy behind as they both excited the Guild Hall. The blonde wizard was still a little creeped out by the behaviour of Crobat, she had been expecting it to be creepy and the way that he was acting so friendly certainly wasn't helping his case. "I don't get it… how do you act so friendly like that?"

"By quite literally evolving though high friendship with trainer." Crobat proudly proclaimed and Lucy was stupefied about the answer. That was the last thing she was expecting given the initial appearance of the purple bat. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Uh… n-no! I was just taken off guard that's all." Lucy stuttered for words as she decided to get some groceries done. Not being able to go along to the Phantom Lord guild and pay them back for what they did to Fairy Tail, it was frustrating, but someone had to look after Levy and the others. Looking back on it now it she didn't regret coming to the Fairy Tail guild at all.

---

Oak Town

Up northeast in Oak Town lay a branch of the Phantom Lord guild and seeing as it was the nearest one that would be where the members of Fairy Tail were heading. The design of the build made it look like a fortress with stone walls that were topped with railings all around it and was made out of a cold beige stone and the roofing was tiled a turquoise/green colour. In the centre was a large round tower surrounded by several square towers at the side and a banner on the front that spelled out PHANTOM LORD with a purple ribbon that had the guild emblem printed on it.

Their Guild emblem was a single spirit with a circle surrounded by a line with two spikes that made it look like some sort of spirit – appropriate consider one of their names was the ruler of the spirits. Inside was a large open area with multiple benches and above them were multiple wooden beams that were used to help support the wide central tower. A couple of guys were busy walking to the door and were discussing the events of the past couple days.

"I heard that Gajeel plucked the wings off a couple of fairies." One of them stated.

"Yeah we can't let him have all the fun. Let's beat up a few fairies of our own." Another one stated.

When they got to the door however it was blown off of its hinges and everyone turned to face the explosion and got up from their seats. The smoked cleared to reveal the charge of the fairies lead by a pissed off Natsu. "FAIRY TAIL HAS COME CALLING!" Makarov shouted.

Three columns of Phantom Lord members charged at the members of Fairy Tail head on though because of the fact that they don't have any named members and were all useless mooks most of them were sent flying in the initial clash and a myriad of spells and attacks were flung in the first few minutes from fairy, phantom and pokémon alike.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" "Ice Make: Lance!" Natsu and Gray shouted as waves of fire and weapons made of ice spread out over the area they were in. Despite the injuries he sustained on Galuna Island, Gray was still capable of fighting and didn't have his clothes off. Yet.

"Not too shabby matchstick." Gray complimented as they moved up back to back.

"I could say the same about you popsicle." Natsu returned it before dashing forwards and attacking more of the other Phantom Lord members with a Fire Dragon's Roar.

Magmortar was completely surrounded by members of the opposing guild and had an almost bored look on his face as they were all staring in awe at this gigantic fiery beast in front of them. "Are you babies done gawking or will you let me kick your faces into the ground?" He asked in a cocky tone and that enraged the members and they all leaped at him. Not the least bit concerned, his body then let out a wave of fire in every direction from his position that lit him up like a beacon and when the move faded a pile of bodies surrounded him.

"Piece of cake." Magmortar snorted and casually fired off a Thunderbolt to another mook who tried to attack him with a weapon and the electric attack redirected itself to the metal tip and watched as his body lit up before falling to the ground sizzling.

Sceptile was weaving in and out of various members and striking them precisely with Leaf Blade and her sheer speed when not slacking around was a sight to behold and to some of the members of Phantom Lord it looked like this green lizard was moving too fast for them to see. Weapons and wizards alike were not spared and in the space of several seconds had managed to hit several dozen Phantom Lord members.

"You can't even keep up with Sceptile, so don't bother trying it!" Sceptile remarked as she landed next to Magmortar before forming a Focus Blast and firing it off into the other brawlers and a loud blast was heard from the point of impact.

Macao and Wakaba had teamed up face some of the Phantom Lord rabble and then held out hand before using his magic. "Purple Net!" he chanted and then a deep purple blue seal appeared as he fired purple fire that took the form of multiple that ensnared multiple opponents. "Now Wakaba!"

"Got it." Wakaba replied and then let out a puff of smoke from his pipe before casting his spell, "Smoke Crush!" and then multiple fists made out of smoke began assaulting all of the Phantom members that were caught up by the Purple Flare and then let out another ring of smoke. "It's all in the follow through."

"Guns Magic: Spark Shot!" Alzack cried out as he then fired multiple bullets towards various mages with a different kind of seal and once they finished appearing were all simultaneously shocked greatly.

Bisca was standing above Alzack and holding a sniper rifle up close, targeting other members as a reticule marked each of them member before she called out, "Guns Magic: Homing Shot!" and then they were all hit by a single bullet that struck each and every one of the targeted wizards and she cocked her weapon in triumph. "Getting a little rusty there Al?" She asked.

"Ring Magic: Twister!" Loke called out as a tornado appeared in front of him and then sent Phantom members flying across the large open area.

"Wood-Make: The Distance between the Two is Forever!" Laki Olietta called out and then slammed her hands into the concrete ground. Using Magic she made a number of wooden hands and feet come out of the ground to send them upwards in the air and they fell down all knocked out.

"What the heck does that even mean?" One of the nearby Phantom members asked in confusion.

Cana was also up front and then drew out three cards with different designs on them. "Lightning, Reverse Tower, Lovers! Thunderbolt's Fate!" She called out and then unleashed multiple bolts of lightning on Phantom Lord and they lit up much like Magmortar's Thunderbolt. The large fiery pokémon smirked in appreciation, not worried about accidentally getting hit by it at all and continued using Fire Blast on all who approached him.

Happy was also one of the members who were surrounded. "We can take on the small cat!" one of them called out.

There was a rather dark look on his face as he then said, "Is that what you think?" Before laying a hilariously one sided beatdown using a fish that he held in each of his hands and within several minutes they were all knocked out or damaged heavily with him on top of the pile. "Looks like we know who's on top. Don't you agree?"

"Yessir!" One of them muffled through a fish.

A powerful shockwave rippled through the area along with a pillar of golden light that made everyone turn to see what was going on as a large pressure filled where Makarov was as he suddenly made himself 50 times taller and bulkier and instantly flattening everyone around. "You have hurt this man's children! Do not think the laws of nature can protect you!" His loud, booming voice echoed throughout the area.

"That guy is the Master right?" "He's a monster!" "So are all of his members!"

Laki turned to see a fire spell coming towards her and wasn't in any room to dodge but she didn't need to as Natsu jumped in and then ate all the spell before retaliating with his own Fire Dragon's Roar that was more concentrated at the person who attempted the spell and he was cooked to a crisp.

"If you were a real man you would take me one on one!" Elfman shouted as his right arm transformed from an ordinary arm into a red and green scale arm, fearlessly taking on his group of Phantom members and his strength was enough to blow them away.

"Take over magic? Why would he let someone take over his arm?" The nearest member asked in confusion.

"Guys that's Beast Arm Elfman! He defeats monsters and then takes over their bodies!" His pal cried out in recognition.

More spells fired back and forth amongst the two sides with Bisca using her Wide Shot to hit several hundred regular wizards and Alzack sticking some others to the floor with his Mud Shot spell. A large ice structure rose form the ground and had a lot of spikes on it as Gray slammed his hands into the ground. There was another loud rumble as Master Makarov was making his way to the stairs and began walking up them, any resistance was quickly thrown to the side through the yellow aura that was emanating from the Master.

"Erza!" He called out and then the redhead who was in her Black Wing Armour stopped briefly to turn around and face him "I'm going after Jose! I'll leave the rest of the rabble to you!" he explained and Erza nodded before backhanding someone who tried to sneak up on her.

Swiping her sword in a wide arc she blocked several magical weapons before taking the fight to the offending parties and defeating them with a cross made out of energy. "Tell me, where can I find Gajeel and the Element Four?" Erza shouted above the noise.

Up in the stands of the base Gajeel was quietly observing the fighting from below, having waited since they broke down the doorway and was carefully moving from side to side and getting a good look at what was going on. Seeing the two strange beasts that also belonged to that pathetic Multitype wizard here surprised him though grinned upon seeing that he wasn't in the fray. Good. With him out our odds of winning got even better.

Looking over towards the stairs his face lit up even more upon seeing that Makarov was making his way up to confront Jose – at least that was what he thought was going to happen. Gajeel didn't want to ruin the surprise and then stated in a low voice, "With the Master out of the way I guess that means it's my turn to join the fray." And with that he jumped down.

---

Magnolia Town

Having gotten the groceries she needed, Lucy Heartfilia exited the shop where Crobat was waiting outside and steadily flapping his wings and saw no urgency to do anything. She didn't say anything but let out a sigh she began walking to her house, having decided to return to the Guild Hall once the groceries were in their proper place. It had been a sunny day but the weather then took a drastic turn and it spontaneously started raining, catching both of their attention and looked at each other in confusion.

"Uh… I didn't see any clouds coming in." Crobat stated and was looking around in confusion.

"Drip, drip, drop." A soft female voice intoned, and they saw a pale looking woman with blue haired that was curled into bobs at the end and was wearing a blue hat but covering it up with a pink parasol. Around her neck was a white doll that reminded Crobat of the Banette that were seen in Hoenn as she was walking in a slow, deliberate

"Where did you come from?" A startled Lucy asked.

"Juvia is the rain woman, the rain is always with me. What sort of woman are you?" Juvia asked and it reminded Crobat of the way Starmie talked, making his body shake slightly.

"I'm just a normal woman." Lucy replied nervously, wisely not wanting to give the fact that she was a wizard away.

"I'm a male Crobat." The four-winged pokémon pointed out.

"Could you at least take the rain with you?!" Lucy

They turned and almost a step later the sound of a French/Kalosian accent made them both stop as quite literally a man rose up from the Earth repeating "Non, non, non!" The man was revealed to have green hair that spiked upwards and a thin green pencil moustache, wearing a monocle and dressed in an orange outfit. "Juvia, you must not shy away from ze task at hand!"

"Of course not Monsieur Sol." Juvia replied.

"How many creepy looking people must there be today?" Lucy cried out in fright.

Sol began swaying from side to side and Crobat was hypnotised into following these movements before correcting himself. "My monocle whispers many things to me ma compagne. Eet tells me that zis woman standing before us iz our cible." Monsieur Sol.

Cible? That's the word for target if I remember correctly. Crobat thought and moved in front of Lucy, adopting a scowl on his face. "What do you want with her?"

"Excusez-moi for the poor manners. Allow me to introduce ourselves formally s'il vous plait. I am Monsieur Sol, also known as Sol of ze Earth. Zis woman is Juvia of the Great Sea. We are both members of the Element Four." Sol introduced himself as he swayed from side to side.

"Element Four… you're from Phantom Lord!" Lucy realised and got angry at the mention of their names.

"Oui! Now who is zis? I could not detect you, so I had to get up close and personal. C'est magnifique!" Sol peered closely at this strange purple bat in silence, moving through the earth to get a closer look before moving back and laying down on the right side of his body. "Ah! I see zis iz one of the creatures that Gajeel mentioned, but not ze one he faced." Sol observed.

"Is that so? For something to keep up with Gajeel must mean it has some degree of strength." Juvia observed, keeping an eye on the Crobat.

"Why is Lucy the target?" Crobat asked, the mention of Gajeel getting him excited at the prospect of beating down a member or two of this Element Four and he definitely wanted revenge for the damage done to Starmie.

"Excusez-moi but that would be revealing too much." Monsieur Sol replied with a smirk on his face.

"Run." Crobat ordered before charging straight at Juvia with all of his wings glowing purple as he used Cross Poison, moving at such a speed he was like a purple streak, only to go right through the woman and get splashed for his trouble. Quickly putting on the brakes he whipped around and just stared at the blue haired woman in confusion "What?"

There was an impact where the move had struck but it was just a watery mess instead. "My body is made entirely of water. You cannot harm me." Juvia stated.

"Allow me to clean up zis rodent and complete ze job we were hired to do." Monsieur Sol suggested with a devilish smile on his face.

Crobat bared his fangs and got himself worked up for the incoming fight as he said, "You think it's going to be easy. Cross Poison!" he called out and dashed forwards with the same speed as before.

Imagine his surprise then when Sol moved out of the way and was just as fast as he was and sunk right back into the ground before reappearing behind Crobat. "Sable Dance!" Sol chanted and a whirlwind of sand whipped up around Crobat who weathered it like it was nothing and then moved forwards with Cross Poison. "C'est impossible! How did that do nothing to you?"

"I'm guessing that was some form of Earth magic, which is all the wonders for me!" Crobat grinned and then turned to fire off a couple of Air Slashes. If he couldn't get Juvia he could at least get one of the Element Four, though having Sol able to sink into the ground and reappear out of anywhere was a problem for him.

"I'm not going to be left out of this fight!" Lucy declared and took out a key, only for her to be surrounded in a bubble of water and found.

"What are you doing to her?" Crobat demanded.

"This is my Water Lock, do not worry for our orders were to bring her to Master Jose alive." Juvia calmly explained without turning to face Crobat.

Crobat puffed up indignantly at the way she was acting and went to charge at her again but was stopped by Sol who jumped out of the earth and delivered a pair of fast kicks to him and then blocked him off with his Sable Dance spell. "Roche Concerto!" Sol called out and then rocks began crashing out of the ground and barrelled into Crobat.

"Not rocks!" he cried out and frantically attempted to dodge them. One of them clipped his wing and he spiralled off to the right and into a wall. "Oww…"

Spotting his opportunity, Sol quickly used the same Spell as before and then an array of rock buried Crobat from above as he was left with little time to react to it. At the same time Lucy had completely fallen unconscious as her keys slipped out of her hands and sank to the floor alongside her. "Complete success, oui!" Sol declared cheerfully and didn't bother to look back at the Crobat.

By the time he managed to get out of the pile of rocks, Crobat felt his head aching and tried to look around and understand just what had happened. Then it hit him, and he clutched his head again in realisation. "Lucy!" He called out, noticing the rain had cleared up and rested on the rocks, looking around and not seeing her.

Understanding that they got her, Crobat felt tears well up in his eyes as he felt bad for letting Luc being abducted and began lowering his head and tried to suppress the tears in his eyes. I can't get upset… not when I have to inform Rex of this. But I don't want to make him angry at me either… He thought and then started flying towards the Guild Hall, not going as fast owing to the injuries sustained in his brief struggle.

---

Oak Town

Back at Oak Town Gajeel landed on the big sign that had the name of the Guild and the sound of it made everyone stop and turn to see that it had been splintered into two parts. "That's Gajeel!" The member who wore a pair of purple glasses noted.

Nab jumped up and roared "This is for attacking Levy and the others!"

"Don't do it Nab!" Loke cried out but it was too late as Gajeel hit him with his Iron Dragon's Club and dragged him across the floor, ploughing through his other Guild members.

Elfman of all people jumped in with a large purple seal appearing over his transformed arm as he said, "Beast Arm: Stone Bull!" A pattern of squares appeared over his arm as it changed completely and was now made out of stone.

Gajeel used another one of his clubs to block the incoming attack and noticed that Elfman was strong enough to avoid being pushed back and was mildly impressed by this. "So you're the famous Elfman? Gotta say I didn't expect you to block my attack." He noted.

"It's because I'm a real man! Want me to prove it to you?" Elfman challenged, unfazed by this remark.

"Can a real man dodge this?" Gajeel smirked.

Several smaller iron clubs shot out from the transformed leg and spread outwards and continued to hit the other members of Phantom Lord and that made Elfman turn to looked at the injured wizards. "Why would you attack them? They're your comrades!"

"Because it would distract you dummy!" Gajeel sneered and then used this moment to ram Elfman with another Iron Dragon's Club from his free arm. The momentary slack of the Take Over wizards arm was enough for him to be sent flying backwards where Natsu then jumped in and then struck a flaming fist on Gajeel who was sent backwards and regained his balance quickly.

"I've never seen anyone land a hit like that on Gajeel!" Glasses noted in surprise.

"I'm taking over from here!" Natsu declared.

Magmortar stepped in close to the fight as well, aiming a cannon at Gajeel. "Wait a second Natsu. I want to pay Gajeel back after what he did to Rex." He declared.

Instead of backing down Natsu's fists were lit up in anger. "No way man! He's a dragon slayer too and I wanna pay him back for wrecking the Guild Hall!" he declared.

"It doesn't matter who fights me, cuz I'm gonna beat the both of you into the ground!" Gajeel declared in a cocky tone.

Elfman was upset at the fact that both of them had gotten in the way of his man to man fight with Gajeel and complained, "You can't just interrupt this manly fight!" his Stone Bull arm still active and ready to get back into the fight.

They both looked in each other's eyes for a second and ignored Elfman until Magmortar eventually budged and grumbled about it. "Alright, but don't lose this fight!" Magmortar spat as the air around him began heating up until it was noticeable to the surrounding wizards and they began moving away from him.

As the two dragon slayers stared down each other the place became quiet and the focus was mostly turned to Natsu and Gajeel, though they kept on their guard in case the fighting started up between the two guilds again. The tension between the two of them was palpable and Gajeel smirked, moving his legs apart slightly. "Iron Dragon's Club!" He shouted.

Natsu caught the iron pillar and then surrounded himself with fire and picked up Gajeel, tossing him into the rafters, though Gajeel created a small footblade to stop himself from crashing through any more of the rafters before juming back down at Natsu with increased speed. The salmon haired wizard timed his next flaming punch with perfection and Gajeel was sent flying into the wall, breaking a bench in the process.

"That was an excellent punch Natsu." Erza complimented with a genuine smile.

Gajeel got back up and snorted. "Is that all you got? That tickled."

"It didn't look that way to me." Natsu retorted.

Gajeel replied in the form of kick that floored Natsu and there was a small crater from the impact. "Get up and tell me that it didn't hurt." The Phantom wizard mocked.

Complying, Natsu shot back up completely surrounded by fire "Gladly!" he shouted.

Morphing his arms into clubs Gajeel shifted his legs and then charged forwards and Natsu met it head on, exchanging a few solid blows with each other but neither of them gained the upper hand. The blows were solid and powerful, strong enough to create wind from the two attacks meeting each other as Gajeel then spoke, "Looks like you've got some decent power Salamander. Don't burn out on me!" before plunging a single rod at Natsu.

Like before Natsu caught it though had trouble equalling the force and bean giving up ground as a result though the intense heat was beginning to crumple and melt the iron club, forcing Gajeel to withdraw it and he injured the steaming hand. "Don't tell me that this is all you've got."

"That's just a friendly greeting from a fellow before the warm up." Natsu retorted and they got ready to brawl again.

Charging at each other again Gajeel swung high and got a burning fist in the stomach, though acted like it hadn't hit him and then retaliated with a punch across the face. Flames burst around Natsu's foot and he brought it up shouting, "Fire Dragon's Talon!" which managed to lift Gajeel with enough force to send him crashing through several rafters and he propelled himself upwards using his fire and they collided once more in the air.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" "Iron Dragon's Club!" They cast the spells at the same time and a shockwave tore through the air around them and broke several more of the rafters in the process and they began falling down around everyone else.

"All of this caused by the two of them fighting? At this rate they're going to bring the whole place down." Sceptile asked, slightly in awe of this.

"This is what happens when two Dragon Slayers clash." Erza stated.

More shockwaves came from them as they continued fighting in the air before they landed down on the floor where a loud rumble could be heard from further up as Makarov continued his ascent to the top, unleashing his energy and began cracking the walls with his magic. "Now what's going on?" Sceptile asked.

"It's the Giant's Wrath, one of Makarov's spells. Nothing can stop him when he uses it." Nab explained, still nursing his injuries.

"Jose!" Makarov cried out as he found himself at the gates of the entrance into the Master's quarters and then destroyed the doors with a single wave of magic and found that it was empty save for a single chair in which Jose sat.

Jose Porla was wearing a strange looking outfit that made him look like a traditional wizard - a silly hat, bat wings that spread out and a white bobble at the tip of the hat and shoes. He was sitting with his arm folded and acting nonchalantly about the chaos that was taking place in the Guild Hall. "Well hello Makarov, to what do I owe this pleasure? It's been six years since the last time we met and I remember it like it was yesterday."

"Why have you attacked this man's children?" Makarov angrily demanded and with another wave of energy cracked everything in the room, but had Jose actually been there then it would have at the very least done massive damage but he was looking unaffected by the result and his image flickered. "A thought projection? How cowardly."

"Now now, I simply wish to avoid a conflict between two Wizard Saints." Jose explained patiently as an image of Lucy Heartfilia, hand tied behind her back and unconscious appeared in front of him.

Seeing Lucy like this made Makarov stop his current rampage enough to avoid destroying the place. "What? Why Lucy?" He asked.

This made Jose raise an eyebrow in genuine surprise. "She was in your Guild all this time and you didn't know?" he asked and then both images vanished.

Makarov was left stunned for a moment and the area around him suddenly changed into a dead misty gray like setting and then a magic presence suddenly made itself known as a large person wrapped in green clothes and wearing a bandage around his eyes. Where did he come from? I never sensed him coming! Makarov thought in shock.

"So… sad!" The large person said and then two magic circles appeared next to Makarov and cast a spell.

Things were heating up between Natsu and Gajeel, literally, as Natsu unleashed several more fire spells that Gajeel was more than capable of keeping up with him and none of them found their mark as they glared at each other with a snarl on their faces. A loud explosion from above made everyone look up as they sensed something heading their way.

"What's going on?" Loke asked.

Someone fell down from the above and once the dust settled everyone saw that the person was none other than the master of Fairy Tail and his body was a sickly green colour. "Master!" erza called out and was the first one to reach him, followed by Gray and Elfman.

"What's wrong with you Gramps?" Gray asked.

"Didn't… see… him…" Makarov whispered out pathetically.

"Didn't see who?" Erza questioned.

"My… power… all of it…" Makarov wheezed and was twitching slightly.

It took a moment for what had happened to sink in but one of the Phantom mooks finally spoke up and when he did it was at that moment when the tide of the battle turned. "Their master is down… which means that we can win this!" One of them said out loud, prompting the others to agree with them as they got right back to the fighting.

Magmortar and Sceptile were amongst the first ones to react to this as the former opened his cannons and shot out a Fire Blast from each of them in a sweeping motion to get as many as possible and the latter firing consecutive Focus Blasts. "Don't get too confident!" The larger of the two pointed out though felt a bit dampened from what had happened.

"Gi hi, looks like things are going south. Too bad." Gajeel snorted and jumped back up into the rafters, leaving Fairy Tail at the mercy of everyone else.

With the revitalised Phantom Lord, the attacking guild began gaining some more ground and getting more hits in to the various members of the Fairy Tail Guild who were starting to demoralise. Three wizards charged up a separate orb that combined into one and then fired a blast of energy at Cana but was shielded by Macao who took the brunt of the attack. Slowly the members of Fairy Tail were being pushed back as they also had to cover for the injured as well whereas any injured Phantom Lord members would be able to rest easy in their Guild.

Seeing the Master in such a horrible state, the attack on Phantom going sour and all of the injuries that were piling up Erza stood still for a minute before returning to her normal armour and wiping from her eye, now was not the time to cry. "Retreat!" She commanded.

All of the Fairy Tail members nearby stopped to look at her in disbelief. "Did Erza just tell us to retreat?" Loke breathed, dumbfounded.

"We can't win without the Master! We have to retreat!" Erza shouted.

"No way! We can take on these Phantom creeps right here!" Natsu shouted and then swatted one of the Phantom members away.

"Right on Natsu!" Magmortar agreed and fired a Heat Wave in front of him and inflicting the burn status upon a couple of the members as well who then flinched back from the additional damage done by it.

"I can still fight Erza!" Gray protested but stopped when Erza gently took his hands and he was surprised to see that she was shaking slightly. Seeing her act this way made him freak out and realise that it was serious enough to follow her orders and call out to the others, "We need to get out right now!"

More and more of them began falling back, though Natsu and Magmortar were providing cover fire for the rest of them and waves of intense fire blocked off most of the Phantom Lord members from continuing their attack.

"Just like I thought those fairy scum are worthless without their master." Gajeel observed with derision.

"It is because their hearts are filled with sorrow when they retreat. It's… truly tragic as the world has just lost a great wizard!" A voice come out of thin air and the large green clad man who ambushed Makarov appeared right next him in a strange light and tears flowed from the bandage around his eyes.

"Aria! Creepy as ever I see." Gajeel responded, tensing up from is sudden appearance. "Was the mission a success?"

"Yes, the poor Lucy Heartfilia is now captured and held like a poor unfortunate hostage." Aria reported, tears streaming down but not as much as previously.

This caught the attention of both Natsu and Sceptile whose better hearing made them stop and turn up to face Gajeel with a look of disgust on his face "GAJEEL!" Natsu roared out loud and made Happy jump up.

"What's the matter?" Happy asked.

"They somehow captured Lucy." Sceptile added in a calm tone, not looking away from Gajeel and the strange wizard next to him. Happy reacted with a cry of surprise.

Staring Natsu down Gajeel grinned as he said, "We'll settle this one day, Salamander!" before both he and Aria phased away and disappeared into thin air, a multicolour haze where their bodies once were.

Amidst the retreating Fairy Tail members and fire coming from Magmortar Natsu managed to grab one of the members who was unfortunate enough to get close and dragged him out of the hall with Sceptile and Happy following him. Hearing about the tales of Salamander made him shake in fear and beg all the time. "Please don't harm me Salamander!" He begged.

"Don't worry, I won't unless you give me the answers we need. Now where did they take Lucy?" Natsu asked, not looking at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" He protested and was on the receiving end of fire.

"Don't gimme that crap otherwise I'll burn you to a crisp." Natsu retorted angrily.

"What does a chargrilled spirit taste like anyway? Sceptile has had this meal before." Sceptile wondered out loud and the image of the meal made her casually smack her lips together. Obviously, this was acting but it was convincing enough for the Phantom Lord member to start panicking despite this.

"Okay! OKAY! I'm not certain but she could be in our headquarters to the north and then slightly to the west! Please don't-!" Whatever he was going to say was cut off when Natsu knocked him out on the head.

As they began running in the direction of the building where Lucy could be Happy turned to Sceptile with a nervous look on his face. "You weren't seriously thinking about that were you?" He asked.

"You're joking right? Sceptile wouldn't dream of it!" Sceptile shot back with an angry look on her face and Happy promptly shut up as they sped up and focused on getting to Lucy as quickly as possible.

---

Phantom Lord Headquarters

Lucy Heartfilia jerked up suddenly as she remembered what had happened to her and let out a harsh cry. It was a strange dream where various people she had encountered since joining Fairy Tail had somehow invaded her room including Rex, some of the residents of Galuna Island, Loke, a couple of her spirits, Gray and the one who kidnapped her Juvia. "Where am I?" she asked and then tried to move her hands only to find out that she was tied up and couldn't reach for anyone and all around her was a stone cell with a single archway.

"You're in the Phantom Lord Headquarters my dear." A smooth voice answered, and she looked up to see a silly looking man in a burgundy outfit.

Lucy shuffled backwards slightly upon finally noticing the new person. "Who are you?"

Jose chuckled before answering, "You really don't recognise me?"

Now that she had gotten a bearing of her surroundings she recognised the person before her and backed away slightly from it. "You're Phantom Lord's Master! Why did you kidnap me?" She demanded.

Jose made no effort to deny it and simply dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Indeed, I am the Master of the Phantom Lord guild, Jose Porla. Let's get this misunderstanding out of the way first, this isn't a kidnapping my dear it's a rescue mission." He turned away with a smile on his face. "Depending on your cooperation I'll be willing to treat you like Phantom's esteemed guest instead of a prisoner."

Still not believing this Lucy shot back, "Like I'd ever cooperate with you!" and at that moment a bug crawled on her body making her scream and shake it off of her.

This amused Jose Porla who turned back to face her. "See? You don't want to be locked up in this dingy cell." He reasoned in a calm, patient tone.

"Why are you doing this? Why attack Fairy Tail?"

Jose raised a single eyebrow at this and gave a not so pleasant grin, at least to Lucy. "Why you ask? The destruction of the Guild Hall and the provoking of the Guild was a means to an end." Lucy frowned, still not realising where this was going, and Jose was stuck between amusement and genuine surprise. "You really don't know? Our true goal was the acquisition of a certain someone – that someone being you Miss Lucy."

Now she was starting to feel a bit nervous at this, still not understanding where this was going. "What? But why me?"

Jose's eyes widened slightly with his next answer. "Our target is a wealthy princess such as yourself Lucy – after all what father wouldn't be so concerned about their daughter?" He asked.

If Lucy wasn't scared before then she definitely was now and lowered her head to the floor. There was no way that it could have been him who hired a whole Guild to take her up. "That's not possible… there's no way he'd be this concerned about me now. I'm surprised he remembered me." She admitted in a calm but easily frightened tone. "I'm not ever going back to him. Ever!"

Jose sighed in disappointment. "I suspect that we'd have a problem like this."

Lucy felt her cheeks going red in embarrassment. "I… I need to use the bathroom." She admitted sheepishly.

There was a snort as Jose began laughing out loud. "Really? Do you expect one of the oldest tricks in the book will work?" He asked and set a bucket on the floor.

"I'm supposed to take a dump in a bucket?" Lucy shouted indignantly.

"Heh heh, I'm ready for anything that you may try." Jose replied firmly.

Sighing Lucy got up and move over to the bucket and spread out her legs as she prepared to seemingly actually use it much to Jose's shock. "You're actually serious? I've never met such a disgusting girl!" He growled and turned away before stating, "At least I'll act like a gentleman and avert my eyes."

Turning back proved to be his mistake as Lucy grinned and then kicked Jose right between the legs and in the groin and the reaction was instant as he gasped and then fell over several seconds later clutching both off his hands on the sensitive area. "The reason this is an old trick is because they are work!" Lucy called out and ran towards the window but stopped dead in her tracks.

Looking down she saw that she was maybe at least a minimum of 25-30 stories tall and she felt the wind in her face. A long groan was heard from the Master as he began slowly crawling towards her. "I forgot to mention… this cell is many stories up… and although you got me good… you're not going to get away with that…" Jose growled.

As her eyes moved between the crawling Master and the fast way down her fist clenched up and decided that she wouldn't stick around this place anymore and would not go back to her father and had vowed that much when she set out to join Fairy Tail. Turning around and closing her eyes Lucy took a deep breath and then fell backwards off of the ledge, making Jose turn white and intensify the pain in his groin… somehow.

I heard his voice, I know that he's here and coming for me. Lucy thought before yelling at the top of her lungs, "NAAAAATSUUUUUUU!"

A green blur suddenly caught Lucy from out of the air and she felt her world spiralling around and then crash into something. Once everything came to a halt she opened her eyes to see that Sceptile was digging into her body and hit the wall body first with no signs of injury as she got up and brushed off the injuries like they were nothing, and Natsu and Happy followed shortly behind.

"You came for me…" Lucy whispered, unsure.

"Why wouldn't we?" Sceptile asked and took a look at the Phantom Lord headquarters, a shivering going up her spine.

"How are you?" Happy asked, none of them really reading her mood.

"I'm fine, thank you." Lucy replied in a slightly subdued tone.

"We can get two birds with one stone! Let's storm the headquarters!" Natsu declared.

Both Sceptile and Happy were shocked at such a suggestion. "Are you crazy Natsu? Why are we gonna do that?" Happy asked.

"Isn't it obvious? We gotta get back at them for all of this!" He retorted.

"That's absurd! If we do, then it's us against all of Phantom including the Element Four, Gajeel, and Jose! Sceptile doesn't mind the odds being against her but this reckless! We also don't have the Master remember?" Sceptile argued and Happy reluctantly nodded his head in agreement.

During their argument Lucy began tearing up and they only stopped to look at her once she began crying, all of their expressions turning to confusion. "I'm sorry… all of this my fault." Lucy stated.

"Whaddaya mean by that?" Natsu asked, clearly not getting it and Lucy was in too much of a state to reply.

Sceptile coughed awkwardly. "We can deal with this back at the Guild, carry her if you have to but be gentle." She stated.

"Like this?" Natsu asked as he carried Lucy on his back, one arm holding each leg and wrapped her arms around his body and despite this she continued crying out loud and he protested, "What did I do?"

Up in the cell where Lucy had been, Jose was silent for several moments before getting up with a nightmarish purple aura surrounding him and he snarled to reveal his teeth, hat fallen off and hair flowing. "SHE'S MADE ME ANGRY! I WILL SHOW LUCY HEARTFILIA JUST HOW SCARY THE PHANTOM LORD GUILD CAN BE!" Jose roared.

---

Later - Magnolia

Back at the Guild Hall, the mood was just like when they had first saw Gajeel's iron pillars sticking out of it only this was much worse as Rex found out from when Crobat finally returned. The news of Lucy's kidnapping sent a shockwave of confusion throughout the guild, but the injured had to come first as they began patching up those who were injured in the raid on Phantom Lord. Rex was sitting on a table with Magmortar looking down at him as he was trying to heal up the wings that were injured, not an easy task considering the wings were twitching.

"If you're going to keep moving like that they'll never heal." Rex scowled and held his hand firmly on Crobat's head.

"Sorry, but those rocks hurt…" Crobat complained.

"Why would they kidnap Lucy though?" Mirajane asked, still not getting this.

"Well there's no sign of Natsu, Happy, or Sceptile so I'm guessing that they found out." Gray noted, seeing none of the aforementioned three and didn't feel any compulsion to take off his clothes at the moment.

Stopping suddenly, Rex turned to the staircase upon hearing something along with Crobat and then everyone saw that Natsu, who was carrying Lucy, come down with the other two and although the tears had dried up, one look at her and anyone could tell that she was crying. Natsu sat her down on a barrel and the silence coming from her was a tip off that something was seriously wrong with her.

"You said that all this was your fault, why?" Sceptile asked.

Lucy looked to see other members of the sharing confused and some curious expressions and felt nervous about telling others about her past and saw that Rex had come over with a calm look on his face. "You can tell us Lucy, there is no reason to be afraid."

Looking up at all of them, it took a moment for her to calm down but one deep breath later she started to open up the other members about her past, slowly at first but the more she talked about it the more confident she became. "My full name is Lucy Heartfilia. The Heartfilia family is one of the richest in Fiore and it owns multiple businesses, but I'm also a runaway. When I was a young girl my mother passed away from an illness and I was just left with my father, but he became cold and distant. I tried to get him to notice me but… he kept on ignoring me and the only friends that I really had were my servants and teachers and raised his voice to tell me that the conversation was over. My mother was also a Celestial Spirit Wizard and I inherited her gold keys – Taurus, Aquarius and Cancer. I left a year ago, but I didn't expect him to notice me this soon."

There was a long pause after she had finished as whispers spread throughout the basement. "You're some rich guys kid and you didn't tell us?" Gray asked and was slightly subdued.

"I couldn't just go around and advertise that fact that I'm the heir now, could I?" Lucy protested, her voice jumping up in volume suddenly.

There was an indecipherable look on Rex and he closed his eyes and thought about for a moment, realising that all of this was because of the fact that her father had decided to go on the path of hiring Phantom instead of coming to Fairy Tail. Clenching he fists tightly he felt all of the anger at Gajeel go away and instead felt it being replaced with a greater anger that as directed towards Lucy's father – the only reason that he didn't was because they were already in conflict with Phantom and wanted to beat them before having a nice chat with her father.

"Lucy… I'm not going to blame you for this because I don't you see as responsible for this." Rex finally spoke up in a calm and collected voice. Despite this reassurance there was one person who knew the real meaning behind his tone and Magmortar took a good long look at him and silent let off a few embers into the air.

"Yeah, it's your father's fault for all of this." Elfman added.

Gray scowled at him, "You idiot! Don't say that!" he berated.

"Uh… I mean it's Phantom's fault." Elfman quickly corrected himself and shook his hands hastily.

"But Lucy's father hired them and that makes him partially responsible." Rex pointed out with a slight edge in his tone that everybody picked up on.

Despite their reassurances Lucy still wasn't totally convinced at this and looked right at the ground. "Maybe I should go back to him and leave the Guild…"

"Why?" This question came from Rex again and she sharply looked upwards at him in shock. "Why would you go back to that place? You're happy to be a part of Fairy Tail, the guild and the apartment you rent is your home – so chin up and don't deny yourself what you clearly enjoy. I'm sure everyone else would agree, right?"

"Yeah!" Natsu agreed suddenly and she turned to face him. "I don't see you as Lucy Heartfilia the heir, you're Lucy of Fairy Tail!" He declared and there was a chorus of agreement from the rest of the Guild.

Most of them agreed to be more accurate, some of the members were busy preparing for Phantom and Wakaba was busy with a crate of round Lacrima and was talking with Macao who had an eyepatch over the left eye that was injured during their raid at Oak Town. "Next time I'm bringing all my Explosive Lacrima!" He called over the noise.

Cana was sitting down within a ring of cards and felt her frustrating rising before she threw the card in her hands up in the air. "I can't get a read on Mystogan!" She cried out loudly.

Mirajane pulled out a Communication Lacrima, a round device with a golden frame that it, and then an image of Laxus' head appeared in it and he didn't seem impressed by the explanation for what was going on in the guild. "We can't contact Mystogan and Master Makarov is out of the picture, please Laxus we need your help."

Instead of understanding what had happened Laxus chose this moment to laugh callously and proclaim, "Man Makarov is freaking pathetic!" and then there was a sneer on his face. "I don't see how this is remotely my problem, you can take care of yourselves!"

"Please Laxus, we really need your help right now!" Mirajane begged and Rex caught wind of the conversation, turning his head in her direction.

"Considering that this is blondie's fault, I'm not interested. Buuuut… if you make her my personal servant I'll think about it." Laxus replied with a smirk on his face.

Already irritated by the lack of news from Mystogan, this made Cana snap "You are such a pig!"

"Careful, you really don't want to antagonise the guy who could save your butt, do you? Show some respect!" Laxus snarled in retaliation.

The round Lacrima was suddenly whisked off of the table and Rex held it in his hands and looked at Laxus with a glare on his face. "In case you forgot bolt brain, respect is a two-way street. If you want it then show respect to the rest of the guild. If your thick skull can't get that then LEAVE!" He shouted that last part suddenly before throwing it at the wall in a fit of anger, shattering the lacrima into many pieces against the stone wall. The people near him stopped for a moment and glanced nervously at him.

Mirajane was caught off guard but this action and felt herself smiling in spite of what Laxus had just said and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for defending us like that." She said quietly and felt tears welling up her eyes. "I don't understand how someone can be so cruel in Fairy Tail. I've got to help the guild!"

Rex turned to look at her and felt himself calming down a lot at this, the reason for his calm anger at Lucy's father was obvious to him but with Laxus it was more of something that happened on the spur of the moment and he felt himself frown from embarrassment, face going red slightly. "I'm sorry about breaking the Lacrima, Mira." He apologised, unconsciously moving the hand off his shoulder and holding it, unable to respond to the comment about helping the Guild.

What is this feeling? Why does being around Mirajane make me more at peace? Rex thought in shock, not knowing that Elfman was watching the two of them.

"Don't worry about it… I probably would have done the same thing." Mirajane admitted sheepishly drying up her eyes with one of her hands.

"They're in looooooove." Happy interrupted. This irritated Rex who smacked the cat out of the air and fell to the ground comically.

Erza was frustrated at the situation. The Master was affected by whatever had attacked him in Oak Town, Phantom was after Lucy and she was the only active S-Class Wizard who was capable of putting up a fight against Jose. I should have been there with the Master, I could have stopped the attack that made him the way he was. She thought to herself.

At that moment the room then shook suddenly, and everyone was alert and looking around in a mixture of confusion a fear, the room shaking once more during the silence. Bisca and Alzack came running from above and Bisca stated, "Everyone outside now!"

They all scrambled upwards and spread out to see something that none of them were expecting as the Phantom Lord Headquarters was slowly walking towards them with wooden legs to support them.

"Are you seeing this Wakaba?" Macao asked in amazement.

"It's not the alcohol this time." Wakaba agreed.

"How are we supposed to fight against a translocating Guild?" Laki Olietta asked.

Wakaba turned to face her with a raised eyebrow. "Trans- what now?"

Macao had likewise turned to face her with a baffled look on his face. "I think you meant moving."

Laki pouted and shook her arms in annoyance. "That's what I said!"

Phantom's moving Guild stopped and a large section of the main tower began lowering itself to reveal a long cannon barrel that slowly extended itself out until it was pointing a few feet past their Guild Hall. From a command centre Jose was watching along with four robed members of the guild that were all by a Magic Circle that was connected to the main barrel of the cannon. "The Magical Convergent Cannon: Jupiter… engage." Jose commanded without hesitation.

A strange whine filled the air as large black and purple orb formed in front of the Guild, slightly distorting the space around the edge with the gathering of so much magical energy in one place. Erza was stunned, she nor anybody else was expecting Phantom Lord to go to such drastic actions and quickly snapped out of it and ran forwards. "Get back all of you!" She commanded and dashed forwards towards the water's edge.

"What are you doing?" Natsu shouted, trying to go forwards but was being held back by Gray and Elfman.

"She's not going to stop that, is she?" Macao realised, eyes or eye widening.

They watched Erza requip into a bulky armour with a singular blue chest with several spikes on the shoulder and waist with diamond shaped indents on then and the tops of the foot armour being a dark blue trident end and wings on the side. The only part of Erza that was visible was her face and hair, and her arms had gauntlets that had half an oval shield attached to each one and the shield had spikes sticking out in intervals.

"What are you doing!" Loke shouted.

"Protecting the Guild, so stay back!" Erza replied and she steeled herself.

"What is that?" Rex asked.

"Adamantine Armour. It maximises her defense." Happy replied.

"She's not gonna seriously block the shot is she?!" Wakaba cried out in shock

At that exact moment the cannon fired, parting the water underneath it completely as Erza brought the two halves of the shield together and a large cyan shield that was wider than the blast of the cannon. The area behind her cracked immediately as the beam first made contact and Erza felt her body straining from the immense force of the blow and Rex was the only one to sense a metallic aura about the beam and felt the world spinning, he certainly was not expecting another Plate so soon.

It felt like time had come to a standstill as Erza continued to defend Fairy Tail and her armor began cracking in more and more places with pieces of the armour and the shield began flying off. When the blast finally stop, the force made a crater from where it met Erza's shield head on she was thrown back, almost all of her armour was gone with only piece from the head, shoulder and wrists remaining as she rolled on the ground. A golden flash made her Adamantine Armour vanish.

"ERZA!" Natsu shouted and broke free from the grip of Gray and Elfman and began running towards her alongside them. They gently managed to lift her off of the ground and used Elfman to help support her.

"I can't believe that she managed to stop the Jupiter Cannon." Macao whispered.

"Yeah, but it destroyed her armour." Cana pointed out.

"Makarov has fallen and now Erza can no longer stand." Jose called out to them through the use of magic, causing everyone to look up at the Guild Hall, some of the members were scowling. "Any hope of victory you had has slipped through your fingers. Give up Lucy Heartfilia immediately, you have no choice."

"THERE IS NO WAY THAT IS GONNA HAPPEN JOSE! NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD HAND ONE OF OUR OWN TO SOMEONE AS HORRIBLE AS YOU!" Rex shouted and silenced everyone in the Guild. "LUCY IS A MEMBER OF FAIRY TAIL AND THAT'S WHERE SHE'LL STAY!" At this everyone began cheering and shouting alongside him, and this began making Lucy tear up.

Erza found the strength to yell out, "We would never betray her like that! You'd have to kill us first!" and there was another round of cheers.

"YOU CAN STOP ASKING US CUZ OUR ANSWER WON'T CHANGE! WE'LL TAKE EVERY ONE OF YOU JERKS DOWN!" Natsu roared over the commotion.

Seeing all of the members of Fairy Tail defy him like that angered Jose who stood up from the Guild before declaring, "If that is what you want then you will die along with your pathetic Guild! Have a second helping of Jupiter! You have 15 minutes to ponder the folly of your actions!"

"Another firing of the Jupiter Cannon? That's not good!" Rex called out, not wanting to think about what would happen if this blast hit the guild.

"No way!" Elfman gasped.

"What are we going to do?" A despondent Cana asked.

It was at that moment that Erza fainted and Elfman then handed her to Mirajane who move her away from the front of the area and into the Guild Hall. As downstairs was not an option the unconscious Erza was laid carefully on the nearest table she could find and right next to it was a mostly boarded up hole.

At that moment numerous things began to fly out from the various windows of the moving Phantom Lord Guild, upon closer inspection they looked vaguely human with dark purple Phantom robes, red eyes and black arms with claws on them. "You're in the quite the quandary, Fairy Tail. There is only two ways that this can go down – either you get blown away by Jupiter in 15 minutes or my soldiers will tear the life force from you." Jose explained.

"But if he fires on us then he'll take out his own men too!" Macao pointed out in.

"Surely he's bluffing, would he really do that?" Wakaba laughed in a fake tone.

Cana knew the answer though and looked right at the Jupiter cannon. "No, he's going to fire on them." She answered and they both stared at her in disbelief as she continued to explain, "Those phantom soldiers are made out of Shade Magic and are Jose's personal army."

"You mean they're ghosts?" Alzack asked.

Turning to Cana, Natsu asked, "So I've just got to stop Jupiter from firing?" He asked, and she nodded in confirmation. Natsu's face lit up with a grin as he began to run towards the Guild Hall and called out, "Let's go Happy!"

"Aye!"

"Go along with Natsu, your speed is going to be helpful here. Magmortar, defend the Guild." Rex told Crobat who looked reluctant for a moment but nodded and then began flying in their direction, catching up with them in a matter of seconds.

"How fast is that pokémon?" Elfman asked, blinking in surprise.

"Crobat? He's the fastest normal pokémon on the team. When he decides to go all out with his speed there are few who can match him." Rex grinned and then looked at the incoming Phantom members.

"What are you standing around for? You can go and infiltrate the moving guild hall." Magmortar pointed out to Rex as a Thunderbolt fired from his left cannon.

"Sceptile is coming along too, she would be much more useful against the Phantom wizards in there." The starter noted and looked at Rex, tapping her neck subtly to avoid being picked up by anyone else and he nodded in response

The two of them began to run towards the guild hall accompanied by Elfman with Gray leading despite the swarm of shades overhead they made it down into the carved-out hole and once at the edge Gray got into his usual stance and placed both of his hands on the floor as he said, "Ice-Make: Stairs!" and a trail of steps leading into the bottom of the Phantom Lord guild appeared in front of them.

Opening the barrels of both of his cannons Magmortar fired a Heat Wave over a large area in front that hit a lot of the shades, and the light from the fire destroyed them only to see that they had reformed several seconds later like nothing had happened. "This is gonna be hard." He remarked and then shot a Thunderbolt at one who was close to him and it blew up after being shocked, once again reforming a few second later.

Fighting began to push them back to the One of them passed through Wakaba who felt his whole body go colder and shook slightly. "Why do I feel so weak?" he asked

"Just don't let them touch you!" Loke shouted as he one of his rings to defeat several shades at once.

At the back of the group, Lucy had stopped crying over the fact that everyone still wanted her and Mirajane suddenly took her hand, Reedus standing beside her. "What are you doing?" Lucy asked.

"Taking you to someplace safe." Mirajane replied.

"What? But I want to fight! Besides, this is happening because of me I won't just abandon my friends." Lucy countered.

"Lucy… I don't see you as responsible for this and neither does anyone else, but we're doing this tor protect you." Mirajane explained, her steadfast expression not changing.

They jumped as a Thunderbolt ripped through the air and Magmortar huddled over, having heard the conversation before turning to Lucy. "Considering that Phantom Lord are after you, it's best if you should go with Mirajane. Besides, do you even have your keys on hand?"

Struggling for a moment when she checked her waist the realisation came about that they must have dropped when Lucy was kidnapped by the strange rain women and she let out a small groan. "No… they must have slipped out when I was kidnapped." Lucy spoke up quietly and decided to go along with it.

Reedus was already painting something on his massive body and puff of smoke revealed a boar like creature drawing a carriage appeared and Lucy climbed into the back of the carriage as Reedus got onto the front, ready to start.

"Take her to the safehouse." Mirajane stated, and then the carriage began moving as Magmortar started to push back at the numerous shades in the air. Turning back to face the battle in front of them her fists were balled, seeing everyone fight and not being able to help her comrades out wasn't right. Walking forwards she began to transform and her face then looked like that of Lucy, and several nearby wizards turned to stare at her.

Over at the cannon, Natsu was already there and Happy let go of him with a fireball above his head he launched it at the surface of the cannon where it did absolutely nothing to it. "Come on! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He shouted and began punching at it several times with similar results.

"Cross Poison!" Crobat called out and formed a purple X in front of him and fired at the cannon but it was too tough even for him.

"Not even a scratch…" Happy said out loud.

Crobat settled down on the cannon and scratched his head with a claw. "If we can't get it from the outside then I guess we should destroy it from the inside." He suggested and then began flying back and turning to go into the barrel of the cannon which was huge and that was making Crobat feel nervous. Since Jose was more than willing to fire the Jupiter Cannon, the damage done by a barrel of this size was something that he was trying not to think about.

"Why such a large barrel?" Crobat asked, confused.

"The Jupiter Cannon fires large magical blasts of energy, so it takes a long time to charge up." Happy explained.

11 Minutes until the Jupiter Cannon fires. They got at the end and were greeted with this message. Looking around a gigantic grey lacrima was in the middle and around the edge were four smaller lacrima of different colours hooked up by some sort of machinery though they were exposed and all five of the lacrima were glowing.

"This should be an easy job, destroying the Lacrima will be a piece of cake." Natsu grinned.

"That's awfully confident, don't you think?" A voice asked from below.

Looking down they saw a young man with two toned black and white hair done up in ponytail with knot at the top. There were three black markings across his face, one of them on his nose and other two on his cheeks and his clothing was very much like a ninja with red gi that sported reddish fur around the collar and fishnets on his arms accompanied by black pants that were tucked in boots. On his back was a katana.

"You're one of the whatchamacallit five!" Natsu declared.

Happy was far from impressed as he cried out, "Element Four! Geez, how do you fail to get the number correct!"

"Yes, I am Totomaru of the Element Four and all fire bends to my will." Totomaru officially introduced himself, crossing his arms.

"So I guess that means I gotta beat you!" Natsu challenged as his fists were on fire.

Crobat moved in front of Natsu and he spread out his wings to block him and said, "Wait up. Look at the cannon area – we can do this through two ways. Either we destroy the gigantic lacrima in the centre or destroy the smaller Lacrima." He explained and Totomaru looked at him with some concern.

Gajeel and other members of the Element Four told me about some strange looking monsters, but now seeing one of them up close… they don't look threatening. Totomaru decided and let out a soft snort of derision.

"We came here to stop the cannon and this guy is in the way!" Natsu shouted and charged past Crobat with a flaming fist, getting closer and closer to Totomaru until he seemed to just do nothing as his own fist smacked into himself.

"This is why I said to think it through you idiot!" Crobat shouted as he got up.

10 Minutes until the Jupiter Cannon fires.

"I didn't do that it just moved by itself!" Natsu shot back and then charged forwards once more only for Totomaru to just blink once and the fist once again smacked himself into the nearby wall.

"It would appear that you're getting in your own way." Totomaru observed.

Crobat had had enough of this and then decided to charge at Totomaru as well with Cross Poison and was surprised to see that he reacted in time to jump up to a wall and off of it. His larger wings then shone a bright white colour as Crobat fired an Air Slash and blades made of wind curved towards Totomaru who then jumped into the air and dodged all of them too.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu shouted and unleashed a blast of flames at them.

Reaching out hands, Totomaru smirked as an orange seal appeared in the air and the fire was diverted towards Crobat who turned and then began flying away from the fire, diving down underneath the large lacrima and not looking back as he could feel the flames behind him. Crobat wasn't too worried as he pulled up and performed a barrel roll around one of the smaller lacrima and watched as the fire smashed into it and began making Totomaru panic.

It was revealed to have damaged the support enough for it to spark and then crash down to the floor, cracking the red orb and it broke apart completely. There was a moment of silence as a voice rang out across the room. Alert! One of the lacrimal orbs has stopped working, recalculation of charge up time now an estimated 12 minutes 34 seconds.

From the command centre, Jose was surprised by this turn of events and then opened his eyes in surprise. "How was that possible?"

"Intense heat was applied to the support for the Charge Lacrima, though the intended target was one of the intruders." Came the reply from the assistant who replayed the footage, slowing things down slightly so that Jose could comprehend what had happened.

That thing, another beast belonging to the Multitype wizard. Jose mused with some concern, this person was surprising him in more ways than one.

"Since he can control fire, that would make your Dragon Slaying magic ineffective. I could take him on whilst you focus on the smaller Charge Lacrima." Crobat suggested.

Natsu turned towards him with a look of irritation on his face before shouting, "What's that supposed to mean? Are you calling me weak?"

Crobat shook his head urgently and tried to explain himself, "Our goal was to destroy the cannon, so that's what we need to do! Think about what would happen to the guild if that thing fires!"

Natsu stopped for a moment to look at Totomaru who had a smug look on his face in spite of the fact that one of the lacrima powering the cannon was out of commission and then growled, eventually accepting the fact. "Fine, but once I've finished with the lacrimal I'm joining the fight!" He demanded.

"Done." Crobat replied tensely before dashing towards Totomaru to engage him in combat and then watched as a blast of red fire at the purple pokémon who avoided it as he continued getting closer to Totomaru who switched to melee and jumped in the air to avoid the purple blur appearing in the air to strike Natsu but was then struck by a purple cross and then knocked off course and turned, drawing his katana.

Blades of air began arcing towards Totomaru as he unsheathed his katana and began slicing at the air, managing to break the Air Slash and jumped forwards to attack, intercept another Cross Poison and being held back by it. Behind them, Natsu was picked up by Happy and flew to the blue lacrima orb with the dragon slayer grumbling at the fact that he wasn't able to fight the Element Four member.

"Stupid pokémon making sense…" he muttered quietly before drawing in his breath and then using his Fire Dragon Roar on the supporting structure. It was the wrong choice as Totomaru stopped to try and use his fire magic to control the flames and attack Crobat from behind, creating an explosion.

"Try something different!" A dazed Crobat shouted and a katana slashed at his wing and was sent down into the ground. Unlike Sol there wasn't anything for Crobat to worry about aside from the time limit running out.

Once he regained his sense of balance Crobat looked up and saw that Totomaru was closing in on Natsu and then formed a ring of smaller yellow orbs that spread out and disappeared when they touched Totomaru. The Phantom wizard stopped and blinked for a moment before freaking out at what was seemingly happening around him and then swiped out at the air and ended up hitting nothing.

"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!" Natsu shouted and then Happy launched him through the support of the second lacrimal and the orb fell down on the floor, shattering into pieces.

Another lacrimal orb has fallen. The charge time is now 15 minutes.

"What's going on?! Why is this happening?!" A confused Totomaru called out in shock and his next attempt also failed as he crashed into the wall and was hurting himself in the process.

"What did you do to him?" Happy asked.

"Used Confuse Ray to confuse him, Totomaru is seeing a different reality and may end up hurting himself or he'll attack like normal. It isn't a move that I like to use very often but it has saved my bacon on more than one occasion." Crobat admitted, looking at Totomaru with a slight look of sympathy on his face.

Natsu saw this as a free hit and rushed back into the fray with a flaming fist and then jumped up towards Totomaru. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He shouted and then punched Totomaru in the face, separating him from his katana which arced up and then came right back down, piercing the gigantic grey lacrima.

Getting up he came to his sense and saw what had happened, and snorted upon seeing that the katana had pierced the lacrimal in the centre. "You can't stop the Jupiter Cannon by using my katana." Totomaru declared before spreading out his hands and a magic seal appeared in the air. "Blue Fire!" He called and then a wave of blue flames shot out towards Natsu, the Phantom Lord member having broken out of the confusion status.

"Dontcha know that fire won't work!" Natsu called out and then began eating the flames though once he was finished there was a slight grimace on his face. "Oh man, I never expected them to taste so cold!"

"Yes, my type of Fire Magic is known as Rainbow Fire and it's much more varied than your Dragon Slaying Magic." Totomaru pointed out and smirked.

"How do you plan to combat both of us? I'm too fast for you to catch up." Crobat asked.

The smirk was replaced with a brief look of confusion on Totomaru before he let out a small chuckle of amusement at this statement before replying, "Consider that I managed to hit you before I don't see how you could outspeed me now. I'll just simply redirect"

Crobat didn't say anything else, not wanting to give away his speed to the Phantom wizard but instead turned to Natsu and said, "Take care of this clown!"

This declaration irritated Totomaru who quickly slipped back into his confident face. "You really think that you can take me on your own? Neither of us are going to held the advantage, you'll eat my fire and I'll simply redirect it at the purple bat."

"Fire Dragon's…" Natsu began, and Totomaru prepared himself for, "Spit!" Anything but that as Natsu began firing wads of saliva at the Phantom Wizard who just stood there as it splashed over him, completely taken by surprise and Natsu began laughing.

Growling, Totomaru spread out his hands and a deep red seal appeared. "If that's how you want to play it then take this! Orange Fire!" He called out and shot a ball of orange flames towards Natsu.

Grinning he began to eat the fire though within seconds regretted his decision and began coughing and then expelling the fire, soon afterwards. "NASTY! That's the second grossest fire I've ever tasted!"

This earned a laugh from Totomaru who then stated, "Horrible, isn't it? It tastes like a mouldy rag that has absorbed spoiled milk."

"That was a cheap trick!" Natsu growled and began butting heads with Totomaru.

"Spitting on me wasn't?" Totomaru retorted.

Warning! An unknown substance is currently interfering with the remaining Charge Lacrima, in approximately 5 minutes the support from the other two orbs will be cut off and no more charge will be sent into the Lacrima.

From the control room, Jose let out a growl of frustration and turned to the other wizards in his room. "What is the status of the Jupiter Cannon?" He demanded.

One of the assistants replied nervously, "W-we are currently at 63% charge. This is insufficient to wipe out Fairy Tail but will still do significant damage if it strikes the Guild Hall. Any extra charge will not make a difference."

An evil grin spread across Jose upon hearing the news, taking delight at the news of dealing a still major blow to the Guild. "Fire."

The Jupiter cannon will fire in 3 minutes at 63% power. Repeat, the Jupiter cannon will fire in 3 minutes at 63% power.

This message rang throughout the cannon room and Crobat and Natsu paused to look as the large grey lacrimal began glowing in preparation and began focusing the energy. Above the lacrima was a giant countdown timer that quickly rearrange itself so that the hand was pointed at the V numeral. "Oh come on! I destroyed it all!" Crobat complained.

"It's not at full power so it shouldn't hurt anyone right?" Natsu asked.

Happy shook his head before replying, "Even when not at full power the Jupiter Cannon can still do a lot of damage!"

Turning back to face Totomaru, Croat shot off with Cross Poison and before the Phantom wizard even had time to react was struck with such force he was flung into the wall and was unable to move for a few seconds before jumping forwards and then shot out another Orange Fire spell towards Crobat.

Jumping up towards Totomaru, Natsu unleashed a blast of fire that ripped through the orange coloured flames and found themselves redirect towards Crobat who briefly appeared for a moment before flying away again. Looking around Totomaru tried to find him and could only see the occasional purple blur in the air and tried to redirect the flames towards the strange four winged beast but missed each time.

Not forgetting Natsu, Totomaru saw him out of the corner of his eye and jumped into the air. "I don't just rely on my fire magic you know." He informed as he moved around Natsu and then kicked him away across the room.

Natsu growled in annoyance and then charged forwards with his fists outstretched and on fire, ignoring the protests of Happy who had started to panic at what would happen if the Jupiter Cannon still fired. "How many times have I told you?" Totomaru stated, and then made Natsu hit himself, only for the flame to intensify and spread out, burning Totomaru in the process.

A purple and black orb then hit him from behind and the effect activated as the Phantom wizards was surrounded by a blue area briefly. "How did you do that?" Totomaru asked, having ignored the fact that his special defence had dropped.

"I expanded my range of flames so that it would shoot out and hurt you." Natsu replied gleefully.

"That isn't possible!" Totomaru retorted and wondered if this was what Dragon Slaying Magic was capable of or if it was something that he learnt in the midst of battle and then tried to hit him again, but jumped quickly backwards to avoid being hit with a blade of air that tore through the ground.

One minute remaining until Jupiter fires. 59… 58… 57… 56… 55…

"The only one who is allowed to move my own flames is me you got that?!" Natsu shouted and continued to shoot our bursts of flames that Totomaru deflected and attempted to shoot back with his Orange Fire spell.

Once Natsu rocketed out of the way using his fire and was promptly brought back down by the Element Four. In the air, Crobat was studying the katana and trying to angle his next move correctly.

"Can't you just smack it and be done with it?" Happy asked.

"This has to be done correctly Happy otherwise I'll miss and hit the lacrimal and I think a magic lacrima would not break that easily." Crobat pointed out with a frown on his face.

"What about that move you just used on the other lacrima?" Happy asked.

"Yeah, but given the size and density of the gigantic lacrima it could take hours and we don't have that time." Crobat replied and upon looking deeper he saw something that was obscured by light that the lacrima was emitting.

Natsu held his hands up above his head and then a wave of fire began forming in them, to which Totomaru scoffed and got ready to redirect it with a smirk on his face and watched as the rains of the fire got bigger and bigger, eventually the ring of fire was larger than the two of them combined. This was making Totomaru sweat as he realised that the fire was unable to be controlled despite him trying and focusing more than he previously had to and took a step backwards in realisation.

One minute until the Jupiter Cannon fires. 34… 33… 32… 31… 30… The voice droned overhead though it was overridden by the roar of Natsu.

Firing it forwards, Totomaru dodged out of the way. "Even if you can overcome my fire control you still can't hit me!" He pointed out.

15… 14… 13… 12… 11… 10…

The fire flew up into the air and shaped itself into a fist before arcing back down seemingly towards Crobat and Happy who flew from it out of fear and then both of them noticed that it was coming down upon the katana that was lodged within the lacrima and another genuine look of fear crossed Totomaru.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Firing Jupiter Cannon.

At the same time the timer reached zero the glow of the cannon lacrimal intensified and the cracks spread out across the lacrimal surface before it shattered in the nick of the time and then crashed apart onto the floor, breaking into large chunks and making the room shake from the impact. Something else fell onto the floor and the odd light coming from the barrel of the cannon dissipated as quickly as it came. They had saved Fairy Tail and by extension Magnolia form being devastated by the Jupiter Cannon and put one of Phantom Lords weapons out of commission much to the anger of Jose.

---

Next Time - Elemental Brawl

So I want know what some of you think about the chapters. It's great that you're all following me but I really would like to know if this is an improvement over the original version of this story. It doesn't have to be monolithic but some feedback would be nice.