Lisanna gritted her teeth as another sliver of glass was pulled from her heel, Heckler dabbed at the wound with his folded cloth, he'd poured some whiskey from his flask on it was the alcohol burned her wounds making tears stream down her face, Heckler bandaged her foot and wrapped it with gauze. "I'll never take my shoes off again," she said looking at the bloody shards of glass Heckler had set aside.

They had taken shelter in an alley away from the streets, Heckler wanted to avoid the doctors, if Ricky's gang would look anywhere I'd be someplace for them to receive medical attention, Lisanna wished they had brought Wendy with them. Natsu and Lucy had gone inside a twenty four hour store to find some clothes for them, they couldn't very well travel dressed in their pajamas, Lucy had grabbed her shoes when she heard the first gunshots, Lisanna envied her. Browning lay curled against her side head on her lap, the dog having escaped from the fight at the hotel was sleeping next to her like nothing in the world had happened snoring loudly as he had in the room. Lisanna envied the dog as well, she resisted the urge to fall asleep in this dark alley as Heckler was giving her medical attention.

Heckler put her wrapped foot down and sat beside her, "Well this only happened because you saved me from getting shot… again."

"You still think I'm a good luck charm?" she asked looking at him, the sky was still dark and only a couple hours remained until sunrise, their time in Onibus was almost over Lisanna couldn't wait to be aboard that that train and rest.

"That's three time now," he said taking a swig off his flask, "am I wrong?"

Lisanna smiled cheeks reddening, "I don't know, maybe I am good luck for you."

Heckler reached out and whipped a few of her tears away, "I hope so I'll be needing some of that luck in the future."

"Back at the hotel," she said, "that man Rick called you Heavy Arms, what was that about?"

"Nickname," he said pulling his hand away, "some people call me Heavy Arms Heckler, the name sort of stuck with me after I joined Phoenix Talon, it used to be a play on only having only one arm and collection of firearms, getting a metal one just seemed to make it stick that much better."

"It does seem like a fitting name," she said.

Heckler leaned his head back against the wall and sighed, "Well if my good luck charm likes it then who am I to complain?"

Lisanna smiled as her blush deepened.

Natsu leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, Lucy was in the woman's changing room getting dressed in her newly bought clothes. Heckler had given her a hefty wad of bills and told her to buy several new pairs of clothes and bags to carry it all reminding her she would need to prepare for cold weather, and giving her extra for shoes for Lisanna.

"You ok in there?" he asked noting she was being extra quiet as she changed out of her pajamas and into her freshly bought jeans and tube top, she tried to avoid anything too flashy that would stand out in a crowd they'd need to blend in as best they could.

"I'm fine," she said, "don't come in."

"I won't" he said, "You're just being really quiet."

"I'm just thinking," she said from behind the curtain pulling on the jeans she had purchased, "how long do you think I'm going to have to hide?" she asked solemnly.

"I don't know," Natsu said catching the touch of sorrow in her tone, "It's not like Phantom where we know where the enemy is, this time we'll need to do some hunting of our own."

"I don't want to hide forever," she murmured, "I've only been away for a day and I'm exhausted already, I want to go home and sleep in my bed without expecting gunmen to barge in from outside," Lucy stopped herself feeling her voice becoming exacerbated and more tears welling in her eyes, she felt like such a crybaby, she quieted a sob with her hand fruitlessly trying to keep it from the sharp ears of a Dragon Slayer, she wiped the tears from her eyes when she felt warm arms embrace her from behind. She felt Natsu's face press lightly against the back of her head nose buried in her hair.

"You'll be home soon Lucy," he said, "We'll go on a job together and pay your rent, we'll party at the guild hall and everything will be back to normal and we'll all be laughing about the time we destroyed a hotel running from some bounty hunters, just another adventure to talk about in good company."

Lucy smiled and sniffled slowly regaining her composure, she felt Natsu's breath on the back of her neck and shivered, she could get used to being held like this his face in her hair chest pressed against her back. His muscular arms tightened around her torso, her naked torso.

Lucy squeaked in embarrassment and elbowed Natsu in the stomach sending him back out of the dressing room, "I said keep out!" she yelled spinning around her arm crossed over her chest covering her breasts and she violently closed the curtain. She sighed in frustration grabbing for her top and pulling it on, she was more frustrated at herself, a perfect moment and she had to go ruin it just because she was a little embarrassed about her state of undress, it wasn't like he was groping her or acting lewd or lustful, he was just trying to comfort her. She pulled on her new jacket and stepped out of the dressing room grabbing her bags of newly purchased clothes and walking out to embarrassed to look at Natsu.

Heckler pulled his silver pocket watch from his vest and opened the timepiece to check the hour, "Ten minutes," he said watching as the sky above began to lighten as night turned to day, "if our trains on time."

"Let's hope it is," Lisanna said walking upright in her new shoes and clothes Lucy had bought for the two of them with Heckler's money, "I think we're all ready to leave Onibus behind us."

Natsu groaned not looking forward to boarding the machine that caused him so much pain and trouble, and unlike yesterday it wouldn't be for just a few hours, they'd be on the train all day and well into the night, it wasn't going to be a pleasant day for the Dragon Slayer.

They entered Onibus station and made their way to the platform, they walked fast moving briskly towards the train, Heckler had timed things well, he was afraid Ricky's men would try to ambush them at the station so everyone waiting on the platform was immediately a suspect in Heckler's eyes.

"All aboard," the conductor cried, everyone began stepping onto the train, as soon as Heckler stepped aboard the train his prediction came true, a hammer clicked back beneath a coat pocket. Natsu turned on the man decking him in the face knocking him down, he'd smelled the gun-oil the moment we entered the station, other men and even a few women drew their weapons on the Dragon Slayer, Natsu lashed out sending a wave of fire at them forcing them back away from the train, people screamed in shock as the pryomancer lashed out against the mysterious gunmen throwing fire around at anyone that pulled iron from their holster. "Get going," he told them as the train whistle sounded, "I'll hold these guys off."

"Come on Natsu!" Lucy called as the train started to move.

Natsu smirked fists burning with dragon's fire, "I'm no use to you on that thing," he said striking down another gunman, "Go on, I'll be right behind you!"

Heckler drew his revolver and fired at the posse as the train rolled away, "stay safe Salamander," he cried pushing Lucy into the safety of the car, the passengers had ducked seeing the behemoth of a man with a drawn pistol, he moved up through the cars with Lucy and Lisanna close behind with Browning at the rear. He opened the door to the next car when a man popped up from the seats with a sawed off shotgun in hand, Heckler thought some of Ricky's gang would board the train, he fired his revolver through the window catching the thug in the chest, another man rose from his seat and aimed a pistol at him Heckler caught him in the chest, he wondered just how many men Ricky hand in his gang, they were coming out of the wood work, a shot fired off striking the doorframe, Heckler turned around to the car behind him were three men had risen from their seats and drawn their weapons, Heckler cursed.

"Up top," he said grabbing Lucy and lifting her up to the top of the car followed by Lisanna, lastly Heckler picked up his dog in one arm and jumped up firing at the incoming hunters, he reached the top and put his dog down drawing his second revolver, he steadies himself on the moving train balancing himself. "Browning," he called to his loyal dog, "watch the girls," he ordered, "tear them apart if you have to."

The bulldog growled in obedience moving towards both girls as his size grew becoming the massive beast Lisanna had seen only once before when she first met Heckler.

The gunslinger hopped over to the next car and aimed down firing at the thugs, Browning charged to the end of the car where one of the thugs was climbing over onto the roof of the car, the bulldog bit the man his massive jaws engulfing the man up to his shoulder, Browning shook his head with the man in his teeth becoming a ferocious animal different from the kind pet Lisanna had become somewhat attached too, opening its mouth Browning tossed the attacker over the edge of the train slamming him against one the buildings that passed them by.

Lisanna transformed into her cat form and Lucy grabbed for her gate keys, the fight was on and there was no stopping it.