Author's note: Hey, Chapter thirteen is here! This one's pretty exciting. Hope you enjoy!

Also, I do not own Fairy Tail

Chapter Thirteen - Cards and Games and All Sorts of Fun!

As the sun began to set over the oval lake of Oasis, a small orange glow beamed in from the bay window into the large living room of the Wattson Penthouse.

Here, Nigel, Cana and Eve began to discuss the mission currently being carried out by their friends. Nigel passed around three glasses and grabbed an old bottle of wine that had been sitting in the kitchen cabinet.

Cana looked to Nigel as she played with her empty glass. "So what exactly did you give Natsu anyway?"

Nigel laughed. "Oh I found these little jelly tablets in the bathroom medicine cabinet that help with stomach sicknesses. I noticed a lot of other magical drugs scattered in there too…I hope that was the right one."

Eve looked up and asked a question. "Why is that? Does he suffer from an illness?"

Cana raised an eyebrow. "Other than stupidity? Just a little bit of motion sickness." She then took a sip of her now full glass.

Eve responded, but tried her hardest not to seem out of place. "Oh…it's funny. You say that, yet I can easily see you all share a strong bond of friendship. Every one of you are just so...helpful."

Cana went to respond, but Nigel interrupted. "You know, I noticed the same thing. While we were in Hargeon I had them doing jobs of all kinds, and they were so happy just to be helping out complete strangers. It's really is a gift."

Cana chuckled. "Ahehe, well...the master did expect that you'd pay us well for helping out."

He paused and had no choice but to laugh at that statement. Soon after he then continued. "To be completely honest, I'd be lying if I said I was all for action on moving into Oasis. I may have 'talked a big game' with the magic council, but my blood never started to boil until my ships were stolen. Fairy Tail though, they just jumped up ready to help as soon as I asked."

He looked up at Eve and smiled. "I can tell you have some trust issues with other people. May I ask why?"

Eve shrunk down in embarrassment. "Well…it's just hard for me to open up. After all, I've grown up in this dark underground city all my life, and I've met very few people who showed me they were truly good."

Nigel leaned back and nodded. "Ya know, I had a similar problem. Growing up in the west I was surrounded by mean adults in my home Empire. They tried to control everything me and my family did. Eventually, I earned some money and founded some companies, and still found mean people to harass me and force me to do their work for them. I couldn't escape it!"

He set his drink down and scratched his head. "I began to resent my money as a negative label, and never tried to flaunt it." He then smiled and looked down at his glass. "Then I begin to work alongside the Magic Council thinking they would change my views, and they too acted like lunatics! It was so hard for me to find anyone who was truly good…and that's why I don't understand why these guys find it so easy to just help anyone in need, no matter the cause? They make it so easy to find friends..."

Then, Cana smiled and got up from her chair and walked over to grab the wine bottle off the counter. However, before she made it there, she made sure to stop behind Nigel and gave him a quick pat on the head.

"It's cause we're Fairy Tail Wizards." She held a small grin of pride on her face before turning around for the bar.

Nigel stopped and froze as she walked away. He then formed a tiny smile of his own, and looked back up towards Eve.

"See what they do to people?" He said with his grin as he too went to get another refill. "There's one more open bedroom in the back hall. It's yours if you'd like."

Eve felt uncomfortable from all the gestures made so far, and as a result froze in the middle of her answer. Nigel never noticed as he made for the kitchen bar, but as he and Cana carried on drinking, the young guest shortly thought to herself for a brief moment.

"Maybe they're right? Maybe I..."

Just then she grabbed her things and made way for the elevator door, quickly ducking out before her hosts noticed her escape.

Meanwhile Natsu and the others had just parked their limo, and were headed up the stairs into the large building at the south end of Oasis labeled "Emerald Towers Casino and Resort."

Natsu walked through the door in a full black suit with a black tie. He held his left arm locked with Lucy's right, while she had on a medium length powder blue cocktail dress, with silver heels to match.

Gray followed them in wearing a similar outfit to Natsu's, and he had Erza'a right arm intertwined with his left. She was wearing a similar dress to Lucy, except it was royal blue and made it down to her ankles. Both ladies wore their hair up in ponytails, with Lucy's being slightly shorter than Erza's.

When they made it to the elevator to try their luck at the high roller's room upstairs, they looked out the elevator window in awe at the beautiful sunset. They all smiled, and Gray began to talk.

"Nice view" He said while laughing. "Shame we have to spend it here in this place."

"Lighten up! It's not so bad!" Natsu responded. "I can't wait to try my hand at some Blackjack. I'm gonna try and double Nigel's money!"

"Yea, I bet you are." Lucy said while smiling and holding Natsu's arm rather tightly. She then remembered the reason they came there in the first place. "So what's the plan when we get in here?"

Erza never hesitated in her response. "Try your hardest to find Greenmonte. If the four of us can bring him in to our vicinity, we may be able to intrigue him enough for a private audience."

Just then their elevator stopped and opened up into a large, well lit casino with hundreds of people and games dotting the multi-colored floor. The crowd looked just as well dressed as the four Fairies did, but they all seemed to fit in like it was their home.

Eventually the faux-gamblers found their way to a large Blackjack table at the center of the hall, and sat down. The dealer began handing out cards to everyone sitting for the game, and right away Natsu took his pair and slid it over in front of Lucy.

"Blow on those for good luck, will ya?" He saw a few gamblers on the way in handing their ladies a set of dice to blow on, and in the moment tried sounding serious to fit in.

"Natsu! She shrieked while blushing. She got mad at him for trying to blow their cover, but her own reaction was just about to do the same. "I'm pretty sure that's for throwing dice, not cards!"

Despite that logic, she did it anyway, making him smile and causing Gray and Erza to roll their eyes at the other end of the table.

The dealer scratched his head, but smiled shortly after. "New to the table, I like the enthusiasm!" He then began taking calls from the round of players ready for a game of 21.

As they game went on, both boys played fairly well, and even made quite a profit. But as the night grew darker, they soon saw their actual target lurking about every once in a while at the edges of the room.

There, around the corner of the main hallway in the back of the room stepped Arthur Greenmonte in full view. He wore a dark green velvet suit and matching tie with bright black shoes. His wheat colored hair was combed back with gel, and he held a dimly lit cigar firmly in his hand.

He also appeared to be a very loud man when greeting guests and observing the tables. "My god, look at this turn out! We'll have Arno's profits up by the end of the night!" He said while grinning.

Yet as he walked around the room, he felt a strange chill of power coming form over near the blackjack tables. This is where he found the Fairy Tail wizards.

A small smirk took his face as the incredible force of magic increased with each step. He then tugged on the sleeve of his assistant. "Cancel my meeting with the bankers. I need to take care of something else for now…"

He handed her his record book and quickly cracked his knuckles. As Greenmonte went to make his move, Gray and Erza actually stood up from their seats and walked toward the bathroom. He continued following them, assuming they had to be the source of magic due to their unfamiliar appearance, until Erza veered off dramatically, making his lone target Gray.

While Gray carried on alone, Erza apparently heard some rather disturbing gossip form a gambler in the corer of the room, and tried to acquire a better vantage point.

"I'm not lying! I hear he's winning every fight in the circuit! He's got some weird magic that shoots lights down from the heavens, or something."

"No way? So the desert finally has a legitimate wizard to keep those fights alive, what's his name?"

"I dunno Mystogan? Or something stupid…doesn't matter..."

She stopped listening when it was totally confirmed. The red haired beauty then ignored all other motives and headed back to her friends and passed them to go out the door.

"Gotta go! Tell Gray I'm sorry!" She yelled as she dashed out without saying another word.

Natsu and Lucy looked really confused and went to follow her, completely forgetting about Gay or the game of black jack. When they got outside they were too late. She had already gotten a cab back to the Wattson Penthouse.

However, as they stood on the stoop of the casino, the two wizards were confronted with another troubling view. They actually noticed their new friend, Eve was walking out from a cab as well, and quickly storming into the casino through a crowd of people.

But as she made it to the front step, she was jumped by a band of black figures and thrown into a black limo. The limo turned on its lights and flew off to the right side of the street and towards the Eastern side of the lake.

Panicking, Natsu and Lucy both jumped in their original limo parked along the curb, and told the driver to follow after the mysterious vehicle fleeing the scene.

Meanwhile, Happy was skulking around the vents of the casino in disguise, as part of his own position in the operation. He tried coughing through the smoke filled vents, but kept it all as silent as a mouse.

Then, as he started to think none of them had shown up yet, he finally found Gray entering a restroom with a short, plump man in a green suit following behind. When he crossed over into the other vent to sneak a word with Gray, he found the Ice-Make wizard knocked unconscious at the hand of the casino owner.

Happy quickly panicked as he tried to barge through the vent with his shoulder, but his quick thinking failed as the metal grate was too well reinforced. He then totally forgot about finding the other three and flew out the way he came to hit Max Speed towards the Wattson Estate.

As all of this was happening, Gajeel and Lily had made it to their third and final arena for their challenge. It was located in the northeast corner of the desert, just outside the metal border of the lake. Unlike all the other arenas, however, this one was actually well sized and decorated for a proper event. It also had an even stranger spectacle around it and the neighboring village next door as several plants and signs of small vegetation sprouted all around the grounds.

As they waited their turn to fight, they finally lost patience and stormed the field. There was no referee for the current fight, because there were no rules or regulations, except that you had to be a registered fighter, which means the matches could be set up to be lopsided (2 on 1.)

As they made it on to the arena floor, which had similar holed designs in it like all the others, they were greeted by none other than Jellal Fernandes decorated in his mysterious blue robes.

"YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" They both shouted together, and right away Gajeel made the first strike of the fight, launching a swing of his Iron Dragon Sword towards the former Wizard Saint.

Uh-oh, everyone's in trouble! Damn you Erza for bailing!