Guys! I almost forgot to upload today! *Sobs* I am so, so, so sorry. I've just been really busy reading through my English text book trying to catch up that I forgot. Thankfully though, I was able to remember and get it done before I head off to class.

But anyway the new chapter of Crews is here so I'll let you be to go read it and I'll see you soon.


Chapter 11

Natsu P.O.V.

The next day when I get up Luce is still asleep, so I ease her out of my arms, getting up to take a shower and get ready for a day at the Mermaid Heel base.

When I walk downstairs, I find Wendy and Mira cooking breakfast while the girls are sitting in their high chairs, playing with their food, and Plue, Happy, and Carla clean up any mess that hits the floor.

As Mira turns around to place some bacon in a bowl she sees me and smiles "Good morning,"

I nod and sit down to make my plate as Romeo walks in and sits next to me with a yawn.

I raise an eyebrow at him and he says, "Don't ask."

I shake my head at him and turn to Mira "She-Devil, are you okay with staying up here and watching the girls while we get to business down at Mermaid Heel?"

She looks at me in surprise. "I kind of thought that's what I was already doing."

I chuckle. "Thank you, She-Devil."

She smiles and nods before turning back to the stove to finish cooking the eggs.

After I finish my plate I make a plate for Luce and set it on a tray with cup of orange juice to take it upstairs for her.

Walking in, I see she's still asleep so I set the tray on the side table and wake her up. "Luce, it's time to get up, we have go to work."

She rolls over and looks at me so I give her a smile. "I brought breakfast up for you." When she sits up I hand her the tray "After you finish getting ready we have to head back to the Heel base for any updates."

She nods as she eats a piece of bacon so I stand up. "I'll be downstairs helping Mira keep the devourers from eating the girl's food," and when I see her nod I walk back downstairs to see Happy trying to climb the high chair.

I frown and speak a command in German before turning to Mira and gesturing towards the animals. "I thought they were trained."

She giggles and nods. "They are, but in attack and defense, not household manners, other than being house trained and where they're supposed to sleep, but don't worry I can get to taking care of that when the girls go down for their naps."

When Happy and Plue jump up to run towards the stairs I turn to see Luce in a pair of black skinny jeans and a black long sleeve shirt, ready for action.

Walking over I kiss her and she says, "Good morning to you, too." then she turns to Mira. "Thanks for watching the girls while we're working."

At the sound of a car horn outside I yell out, "Wendy, Romeo, let's go! Our ride's here."

They appear down the steps and head for the door while Luce follows.

Turning back to Mira I go to open my mouth, but she cuts me off, "Don't worry, the girls are safe. Now go before Heart gets mad at you."

Grinning, I run out the door and slide in next to Luce, and twenty minutes later we're in the base lobby waiting for Kagura.

"Sorry I kept you waiting, we just received news on one of the trimen, Codename Everest."

We turn towards the sword wielder as she approaches and Wendy asks, "Why is his codename Everest?"

A shiver travels down my spine and I say, "Everest has a way of playing with liquid nitrogen, I saw the effect of when it's ingested and let's just say it's not pretty."

They look at me in surprise and I shrug, "I have a bone or three to pick with the trimen, okay? Before we merged they liked to steal ground and customers so I've been wanting payback on them for awhile."

They nod, and we follow Kagura to her office where both holoscreens display different images, some camera feeds, and others still images of the trimen.

"Millianna, give us the rundown."

Said woman taps some buttons on her holoscreen and says, "We've tracked Everest to a gang that goes by the name of Lamia Scale, apparently he's spying for Blue Pegasus. We've tracked Hibiki A.K.A. The Archiver to The Grand Library of Fiore, where he works when he's not needed by their crew."

I frown, "No sign of their leader, Ren?"

Millianna frowns and pulls up photos of wind turbines saying, "Recent sightings place Ren at the wind turbine fields to the east of Shirotsume, but no confirmed sightings for the last week or so."

I nod and Wendy steps forward, "Sir, I'm sorry for interrupting, but what if we send a small team to infiltrate the turbine engineers and look for him?"

We look at her and Luce waves her on, "Go on, Wendy, continue."

Wendy takes a deep breath and says, "Well, I know for a fact that only turbine engineers are allowed on the fields so..."

"So, it would make sense if he is an engineer. Wendy, you are a genius." I cut in.

Luce picks up the train of thought and sits down in one of the chairs, pulling up the video com.

"Heart, who are you gonna send?"

Luce looks back at me. "How well do Metal, Ice, and Elfman work together?"

I frown. "Do you really want to send someone like Elfman with those two?"

She's quiet for a second. "We need a three man team, so who would you suggest?"

Staying quiet as I think it over Romeo says, "I know Ice put Leo and Aries as a team, but can't you rearrange the teams so that she works with Virgo and Aquarius while Leo works with Ice and Metal?"

Luce frowns, but I think it over and reply, "That could work, I mean those three don't fight all that often and they're incredibly smart when they want to be."

Turning to Luce I say, "Call home base and get Ice on the screen." She scowls at me and realizing my mistake I add, "Please?"

She turns back to the screen and I turn around when I hear snickering to see Romeo trying to hide his laugh. While the call goes through I whisper to Romeo, "Keep it up and you have sentry duty all night."

He straightens up and I turn back and lean over Lucy's shoulder to see Gray sitting in our office. When he sees us, his eyes open to the size of plates . "Shit, Boss, Heart, is that you?"

I scowl. "Who else would it be, ice dick?"

His shocked expression melts into a grin. "Well, I'll be damned, but what's got you calling here? Tartaros hasn't been completely wiped yet."

Patting Lucy's shoulder she takes over, "Ice, we need you to temporarily rearrange two teams."

Gray frowns and I say, "You, Metal, and Leo have an infiltration and retrieval mission, so we need you to partner Aries with Virgo and Aquarius, am I understood?"

"Yeah, I read you loud and clear, what's the mission?"

Luce scowls. "You'll get the details when you get your partners, now move it." Gray nods, turning on his mic, and five minutes later Gajeel and Loke appear behind his chair.

"Now that you all are here, the mission is a simple infiltration and retrieval in the wind turbine fields east of Shirotsume." I say, after Metal and Loke say their hellos.

They nod and Loke asks, "Who's the target?"

I look over our screen at Millianna who replies, "Photos are being sent now."

After they load Metal says, "Salamander, are you shitting me? You want us to catch a Blue Pegasus?"

I glare at him. "Do you have a problem with that?"

He goes to say something else, but a hand clamps over his mouth and Loke asks, "How soon do you need him? And where do you want him?"

"As soon as you can track him down. A team from Mermaid Heel will meet you on the edge of Clover Town to bring him back here," Luce responds. "but I warn you we need him alive, and so help me if you fuck up this mission you'll regret being born a male."

All three salute with an added, "Aye, Sir."

Luce nods and Metal says, "Oi, Salamander, how's the trainee?"

I grin. "He's a lot smarter than you,"

Metal growls. "It's been awhile since we last sparred I look forward to running your face into the mat."

I laugh. "Dream on, Metalhead, we're signing off."

And Luce cuts the connection.

I stand up straight and run a hand through my hair. "Millianna, what are the plans for the other two?"

Millianna taps on her screen, and the one in front of us lights up with pictures of Everest and The Archiver along with their locations.

Then Kagura speaks up. "We've dispatched two teams of three for each target."

"But what if they manage to get word out? It could spook the others." Wendy asks.

Millianna leans around her screen and says, "We've thought of that which is why both teams are moving at the same time, as we speak they are already on their way to the locations."

Wendy nods and I look at my watch before saying, "Kagura, is there any chance we could get some lunch down here?"

She shakes her head and says, "The lunchroom is the next floor up, along with the sparring/training room."

I nod and Luce says, "Well then let's go up for lunch, and while we wait for reports we can try out the sparring room."

Kagura nods and Millianna shuts off the lacrimas before joining us in the elevator.

As we step out on the next floor Millianna says, "Oh, Heart, Salamander, we have good news."

We turn to her as Kagura steps up and says, "Over a period of three years we'll be expanding the base both above and below."

Luce smiles. "Well done, you two, you've really done an amazing job with this crew."

Millianna smiles and Kagura's eyes shine with the praise.

When we walk through the lunch room doors we walk into utter chaos, and while Kagura and Millianna try to handle the mess, I look around to find Romeo and Wendy leaning against a wall, talking while dodging anything that's thrown their way.

Turning back around in enough time to dodge a chair, I share a look with Luce and three seconds later I climb on a table and putting my thumb and index finger in the corners of my mouth, let loose a wolf whistle.

Everyone freezes and turns toward me, but someone has the nerve to throw a chair my way so I catch it and say, "Listen here, you asshats, there is no fighting in the lunchroom and when I find the one who threw this at me, you will regret it."

An audible gulp is heard and as everyone sits down I jump down next to Luce.

"Sir, did you really mean that threat?"

I turn around to see Romeo and Wendy walking up and nod, "Until the rules get through their heads, then yes, it'll be true."

They nod and we walk over to a table in the corner to sit and eat. While we're eating, Kagura and Millianna walk up and Kagura says, "Thank you, Heart, Salamander, we've had serious problems stemming the fighting that occurs around here. At least now we'll be able to eat in a calmer environment."

Luce waves her hand, "It's no big deal, Kagura, it just takes time for them to understand."

After they walk away Romeo says, "Sir, did you really mean what you said about me being smarter than Metal?"

I wait to answer until after I finish eating and look pointedly at him. "Romeo, you have a lot of potential about you, and you could very well take leadership of the crew with enough training."

Romeo beams and finishes up his food before asking, "Can we go spar for a bit?"

I chuckle and point at Luce and Wendy, "Wait for the ladies, Romeo, the ladies take their time but they are fierce in a fight."


Alright so that was a lot to take in this chapter.

Mira's hanging around to take care of the girls while Natsu and Lucy are handing out orders left and right to try and figure out what's going on. Then we have Gray, Gajeel, and Loke going after Ren of the trimen, and lets not forget the two teams going after Eve and Hibiki. I wonder what's gonna happen there.

Speaking of which.

Anyone notice how I've been incorporating everyone's magic into the story?

SleepinBeautyK got it right off the bat about Lucy's spirits but has anyone else noticed anything?

If you have make sure you leave a review.

Now onto something else.

I think I'm gonna change up the way I do my A/N's. Nothing really big. You'll still have the opening and the closing as well as my usual sign off but today I'm gonna add something else.

Review corner:

katiekat2001: Thank you for leaving the review, as always I love to know that you're there and that you like the story.

RainbowSlush: Thank you for the review. I do hope you'll stay on for the long haul because there's more in store.

Bluedog197: Where the hell do I even begin with you? You leave amazing reviews for all of my stories and I just love your expressions. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF YUKON JACK WAS THAT!" Lmao it's stuff like that that has me cracking up as I read them. So I do hope that you keep it up and I will see you for the review. Also have fun with work. I'm still trying to find a job so I'm jelly, but not by much. School's kicking my ass with the early wake up calls.

SleepinBeautyK: I'm glad to see that you're on for the ride, so buckle up and let's see what happens!

With that being done I have to go, I have class in five.

Grizzly out for the night.

P.S. Next week I will be dropping a one shot for my brithday which just happens to land on the same day as I update this, so make sure you're not only following the story but me as well so that you'll know when it does come out.