Hehe, I think you're really gonna like this chapter. There are some new characters coming in, and a few sparring matches for your viewing pleasures. Now I have some reading of my own for school to get done so I'll see y'all at the end.

Chapter 12

Natsu P.O.V.

The ladies finish eating and we walk out of the lunch room and down the hall until we find the sparring room. Walking in I say, "Romeo, when was the last time you were up against Heart?"

Romeo grins. "I look forward to a skilled fight."

I turn to Wendy. "We'll spar after they do, is that okay?"

She nods and we watch as they take positions on opposite sides of the mat.

Romeo makes the first move with a high kick that Luce dodges, and reacts with a left hook to his gut before retreating a step.

I frown. "Romeo, cover your center. How many times do I have to tell you?"

He nods in acknowledgment and his elbows turn in to cover his center.

Luce moves with a sweep that trips Romeo, but he jumps back up and moves with a right hook before dodging another gut punch.

After another five minutes, Luce has Romeo pinned to the mat and I say, "Alright, Romeo, did you figure out where you went wrong?"

Luce stands up and pulls Romeo up with her. "Yeah, don't challenge Heart to a sparring match."

Wendy giggles and I can't shake the grin off my face as I acknowledge the truth of his statement, "Good point, but that wasn't what I meant."

Romeo stretches his arm across his front and I explain, "You still don't protect your center, you may start out protecting it, but as the fight goes on you let your guard drop. You need to keep your focus and your guard up throughout the entire match."

He nods and Luce says, "Alright, Salamander, your turn."

I grin, and Wendy and I trade places with Luce and Romeo.

Taking our positions I say cockily, "Try to keep up, Wendy."

She grins. "Banter will get you nowhere, brother."

I scowl and jump forward with a right hook, but she counters with a left and a knee. Jumping back I kick and she catches it, throwing me off balance.

When I fall, she moves forward to pin, but I jump up and manage to wrap her in a headlock. "Admit defeat, Wendy, and I'll let you go."

In response she flips over my shoulder, breaking my hold on her, while sending me to the mat. Getting into a crouching pose, I do a low sweep, which causes her to lose her balance.

Standing up, I pick her up by the collar of her shirt, "Had enough?"

She grins and brings her feet up, kicking me in the chest and catching my chin.

Growling, I step back to plan my attack and when she starts circling I do too. As we circle I think, 'Can't trip her again, her legs are too solid, can't aim for the head, her guard is up, but maybe..'

Jumping forward I swing with a right hook, and when she goes to block, I swing with my left and catch her by surprise, knocking her off the mat.

When she doesn't immediately get up, I walk over to her, "You okay?"

She nods, and I offer her a hand up, which she gladly takes.

Hearing clapping we turn to see Luce, Romeo, Kagura, and Millianna clapping.

Wendy looks at me in confusion. "What's the clapping for?"

I grin. "It's for you, there are only a couple of people in the crew that can even get that close to pinning me. You did very well, Wendy."

She cheers and takes me by surprise when she gives me a hug. After she pulls away she remembers where we are and says, "Thank you, sir, for the compliment."

I wave at her. "Go join Romeo, I think it's about time we head back down to the office anyway."

She nods and walks over to Romeo as I walk over to Luce and the ladies.

When I get close enough I say, "Have any news?"

Millianna nods and we head back to their office. Once we're back in the office Millianna activates the holoscreens and pulls up new photos of the Crocus library, and a small lodge at the base of a mountain.

Kagura steps up. "As you can see from the time stamps on the photos, the teams are at the appointed locations. Now, The Archiver does not arrive for work for another three hours, but Everest is holed up in his cabin because of the snow."

Then Millianna adds, "There are two ways we can do this: the first is to take out Everest while he's holed up and risk alerting The Archiver, or wait for said trimen to appear before grabbing both at once."

I look over at Luce and she hands out the orders. "Time it to grab both so that there is no chance of escape, and tell the team that is after The Archiver to retrieve his computers as well. They may have some useful information on them we can use."

Millianna taps at the screen again. "Orders have been received, Heart."

After the orders are sent out, Kagura goes back up top to deal with some business while Luce plays around on the holoscreen.

While Luce is looking around on the holoscreen, a picture pops up of a dragon surrounding a heart, the new crew logo, Draco Cor.

When Luce sees the logo she taps on it and the video com comes up with Loke looking at us. Frowning, I look over his shoulder but can't see much past his ginger hair. "Leo, is something wrong?"

Loke shakes his head, "No, but you'll never believe who we picked up as soon as we entered the fields."

I raise an eyebrow and Loke stands and moves out of the way to reveal Ice and Metal tying up an unconscious Ren.

"Well done, you three. How soon can you move out to meet at the rendezvous?" Luce asks as she takes in the scene.

Loke steps back in the picture and says, "We should be able to move out in an hour, so then we should be at the pick up site in an hour and a half, two hours tops."

"Why so long to move out?"

Loke looks sheepish and Gray hollers from the background. "Leo may have broken a turbine so we have to wait for the engineers to clear out before we can move."

Luce scowls, "I'll inform Titania of the situation and have her mete out your consequence when you return, until then good luck and safe travels."

Gray nods and Loke gulps as Luce cuts the connection. Looking around the holoscreen I go to open my mouth, but Millianna beats me to the punch. "Kagura is sending out the pick up team as we speak, Salamander."

I nod and sit in the chair next to Luce, watching as she looks over the company statistics before switching to a screen with more numbers.

To kill the silence I ask, "How's the company?"

She looks at me and gives a small smile saying, "She-Devil and Titania have run it pretty well while we've been away, though there are a few things I need to talk to her about."

Leaning forward I ask, "Speak of the devil, why don't we see how she's doing with the girls?"

Luce nods and pulls up the video com, this time connecting to the house. After five minutes of waiting, the screen brightens and Mira is sitting in the chair just like last night.

"Hello, Heart, Salamander, let me guess, calling to check on the girls?"

Luce smiles and I say, "You know it, She-Devil, so how are they?"

She smiles. "I just laid them down for a nap not ten minutes ago and I have Plue on guard in there, I was just about to do some training with Happy and Carla when you called."

Luce relaxes at the news and I nod, "Alright, we'll let you get back to training."

She nods and the screen goes dark.

"Salamander, the pick up team has arrived at the rendezvous and are now awaiting your infiltration team."

"Thank you, Millianna."

Said woman nods and returns to her screen.

I look at the clock on the holoscreen and turn to Luce. "Heart, what do you say we go out for a coffee?"

Millianna looks up from her screen and says, "There's a coffee shop a few streets over that the crew owns. It's called Sweet Treats."

Luce looks thoughtful for a second then shrugs. "Sure, we can go check it out."

Millianna nods and says, "I'll let the managers know you're coming, their names are Ultear and Meredy."

As the elevator doors open Wendy asks suddenly, "Sir, what will happen with this next interrogation?"

I turn to her and explain, "It'll be similar to the one yesterday, though, hopefully this one won't be as dumb and piss off Lucy."

Luce shrugs. "He deserved it, my only regret is that it didn't last longer."

I rub a hand over my face. "Last longer? There was nothing left but the blood on the walls when the cleaning crew went down."

Out of the corner of my eye I see Wendy and Romeo grow pale and as we step out of the elevator I arch an eyebrow. "Regretting your decisions?"

They shake their heads. Romeo speaks up. "I keep forgetting that Heart is the most dangerous woman in the crew for a reason."

Luce waves a hand as we walk down the sidewalk. "Nonsense, there are a few other women that are of equal strength to me, mainly Titania and She-Devil."

"That's why I chose them to watch the girls, though, now only She-Devil is left to watch the girls since Titania is out tying up loose ends." I explain as we turn on to the street of the coffee shop.

Romeo frowns. "Wait, is She-Devil really that dangerous?"

I look him in the eye. "Trust me, you never want to get on her bad side."

Luce giggles. "Gale listen to Gemi, he's had experience with it."

I shudder and change the topic. "Come on, we're here."

Sure enough, we're standing outside the shop by the time they turn their attention to it. They walk over to a table as I continue to the counter to order our drinks.

Receiving our drinks, I move over and pass them out before sitting next to Luce and tuning in to the conversations going on in the small shop.

"Excuse me, are you by any chance Gemi and Mini?"

I turn my head to look at the woman who is tall with black hair and has short shorts with a black t shirt that has the shop's logo on it, along with a woman that looks to be a few years younger with pink hair and a matching outfit.

I lean forward against the table. "And what if we are?"

The woman with black hair smiles. "Millianna said to be expecting you, I'm Ultear and the lady beside me is Meredy."

Luce stands and holds out her hand in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you both, might I say you've done an excellent job with this shop."

The ladies smile and Meredy nods politely. "Thank you for the compliment, but if I may ask, what brings you to town?"

I raise an eyebrow at her question, and while Ultear gives the younger woman a death glare, Luce explains. "Called off of vacation to take care of some business."

Meredy nods while rubbing her right side where Ultear elbowed her, and the latter says, "Forgive her, she's a little too curious for her own good sometimes."

Realizing that they are still standing I gesture at the table. "Please, ladies, have a seat. it would be nice to have a chat."

They nod and pull chairs up from another table as Luce retakes her seat, wrapping her slim hands over her cup of coffee.

Meredy gasps and when we look her way she points at Lucy's engagement ring. Luce smiles. "He proposed yesterday."

A smile spreads across Ultear's face and Meredy squeals before asking,"When is the wedding?"

I frown and murmur, "Don't know yet, nothing is being planned until we can go home."

They look at us in shock and Meredy grabs Lucy's hands. "Well, when the date is set, you can expect the entire family to show up to celebrate."

Luce smiles. "Wouldn't have it any other way! Though, we would have to find a venue to fit the entire family because that's quite a few people now."

Wendy giggles. "I'm sure She-Devil will find the perfect venue. For now, though, how did the coffee shop come about?"

Ultear and Meredy look at the trainees in surprise and the former says, "Well, the local family was running low on money so we took a gamble and opened this place to help bring in funds."

I look around, taking in the homey feeling. "I would have to say that gamble paid off big time."

They nod and Ultear says, "Since we opened the place the leaders put us in charge as managers and put us on back up."

Luce nods. "I have to admit you've done really well for yourselves since the family splintered."

The ladies shine with pride for their leader's words. "Come on, we have to get back, our visitor should be in by now."

Does anybody else just love how Natsu and Lucy work in complete sync? I have to say that aspect of this story turned out really well. As for the structure of the story, I know it's not as good as the more current chapters as say DKQ but that's because I'm writing DKQ chapters every week while I'm working off of back logged chapters for this story. Meaning these chapters have long since been written. But have no fear I'll try and find time to go back and do some rearranging on the next chapter and try to improve it some.

In the mean time...

TODAY'S MY BIRTHDAY!

As of today I am officially 19. :D That also means that I have a special oneshot coming out today so make sure you go check that out as well.

I think I've done enough advertising for that, so now I have to let you go so I can work on school work. Yay. *Grimaces*

Grizzly out for the night.