Chapter 21: A Unison Raid
On the strike of noon, the bar was closing early sending a few angry customers home. But none were angrier than the people gathered inside. Gajeel, Juvia, and Levy stood along with Fairy Tail's Strongest Team. Wendy was sitting next to Mirajane and Elfman as they all stared at Makarov holding the note that Natsu found on Lucy's bed earlier in the morning. Gajeel and Juvia stood in front of Makarov looking at the note.
"Juvia thinks this is definitely Jose's hand writing." Juvia said
"That's also Phantom Lord's symbol that bastard drew next to his name." Gajeel added, "How come pretty boy didn't warn us about this shit sooner?"
"Laxus was kept in the dark about this." Makarov explained, "I suspect that he is now under suspicion. In order for Ivan to gain his trust again Laxus will not be joining any of Fairy Tail's affairs."
"But why kidnap Lucy? How did they find her?" Levy asked.
"Think about it, shrimp" Gajeel said, "I'm going to assume that Ivan now has a general idea where you are hiding, but he doesn't know exactly where and he also doesn't know where I am either. However, Jose is good at gathering information he can hack right through the system and all he would need is a name and then he will deduct things from there. Think you can figure out the rest from here?"
Levy pondered for a while, "Hmm, then the closest person next to you would be Lucy. And not to mention, that, since she was never part of my father's plan, she was never given an alias nor did she had her name removed from the system. So all he had to do was eliminate every other name in Magnolia besides Lucy's, find her last name, track any recent bills or activities that required her identification and use the process of elimination from there. Which led him straight to her apartment."
"You make me proud of ya, bookworm" he grinned.
"Levy's deductive skills is manly!" Elfman yelled while Mira giggled at him.
"But there's something I don't understand?" she asked, "Ivan was never there at the party. How did he know her first name? Let alone, what she looked like?"
Makarov cleared his throat, "That would be my fault as well…Laxus mentioned her name other than Gajeel's"
"Are you fucking kidding me old man?" Gajeel glared, "you are just now telling us this?"
Before he could answer back, Natsu grabbed the note from his hands and clenched his fist around it. "I don't care how they found out" he growled, "The important thing now is to get her back!"
"Be rational about this Natsu!" Erza commanded as she took the note from his hand, "We can't just rush to her rescue, this is an obvious trap!"
"She's right flame brain" Gray added, "who kidnaps a person and leaves a note on who took her and where to find her?"
Juvia cleared her throat, "If Juvia may add something, but…How long has Jose and Ivan been planning this? Juvia thinks we are outnumbered if Jose has rebuilt Phantom Lord with Raventail."
"Don't rain our little parade just yet Juvia" Gajeel smirked, "I have Lily coming in to bring us allies."
Levy gasped as she heard a familiar voice in her communicator. Gajeel noticed her reaction and only smirked wider when she looked at him in the eyes. He went to the doorway to unlock the entrance.
"You heard Capricorn's voice too right?" Levy asked him.
"And you heard right, Levy." Capricorn answered as he opened the door and walked inside the bar. The rest of Grimoire Heart walked inside one by one with Lily who now stood next to Gajeel. They all looked angry and determined as they stood side by side.
"I know our the agreement was not to fully meddle with Fairy Tail's affairs" Capricorn explained as he faced Makarov, "But this is something we absolutely refuse to ignore."
"What is the meaning of this?" Erza asked.
"Lucy is our friend too" Virgo answered, "we are here to help rescue her."
"Master, can you trust them?"
Makarov didn't complain against it, "Our organization is too small to take down two organizations at once and we don' t know how many of them there are, I'm afraid we have no choice. I suppose you would like to know how much we have discussed?"
"No need for that," Capricorn answered as he took off the communicator he borrowed from Lily, "Gajeel had me listen in to this meeting and I already figured out a weakness to Jose's plan."
"I like where this is going." Gajeel grinned.
"Indeed." Capricorn grinned back, "Jose's trap is only focused on Fairy Tail's members but not on us. He relies on information from the system but we don't exist in it and thus have an advantage over it. Therefore, Ivan and Jose are blind to us."
"An element of surprise, huh?" Gray commented.
"Yes." He affirmed, "But I will assume that he will prepare a back-up plan. However, he's not the only one who has access to information." He took the folder that was pinned beneath his arms under his jacket and threw it on a table.
Gajeel opened and studied the contents in it containing information about Phantom Lord from the past, "Where the fuck did you get this?" he asked.
"Old documents I kept during my younger days at the old Grimoire Heart." Capricorn answered, "It's only for references."
Gajeel handed the folder to Makarov as he studied its contents and any information that seemed valuable. "Perfect" he nodded, "this will indeed help us formulate a plan."
"Will you guys be able to handle it?" Gray asked.
"Of course we can." Capricorn answered, "I've had them all trained to know enough."
"Well I'm just making sure," he added, "I mean I heard from Levy that you guys were her servants and maids before. So I find it hard to believe that a bunch butlers and maids can take down another mercenary clan."
"Are you questioning my methods?!" Capricorn growled, "Do not take Grimoire Heart so lightly!"
Gray shuddered from the scary butler as Juvia was now shaking her hands apologetically in front of him. "Gray-sama did not mean to offend you" she said, "Punish Juvia instead."
"Is it time for punishment?" Virgo asked.
"Gihi" Gajeel laughed, "Hey ice princess! I'll have you know that this butler used to be in one of the three strongest and darkest mercenary clan that followed the disciples of 'The Black Mercenary'."
"The Black Mercenary?" Levy asked.
"Aye, Zeref." he answered.
"Enough babbling, you brats!" Makarov commanded, "come gather closer, we don't have much time and we need a plan!"
They all gathered tightly in a circle, debating on a plan to execute and adding back-up plans. Natsu didn't care much for planning and was getting more impatient as time goes by. He wished he could march in and save Lucy right away but sadly he won't be able to do this alone without the help of his teammates. Two hours later they have come up with a plan.
"Fairy Tail attacks from the front!" Makarav explained, "keep their eyes on us, and give Grimoire the chance to attack from behind. Remember the back-up plan! This is an all-out raid with two organization working together as one! A Unison Raid!"
They nodded and grunted in agreement.
"You have one hour to prepare! I will join this raid and take full responsibility for what may have happened to Lucy, but we will bring her back here safe and alive! Now move it brats!"
Both teams parted ways to prepare to attack Phantom Lord. Gajeel, Lily, and Levy stopped by their apartment to quickly get geared up. Levy went ahead to the bedroom gathering her quiver and bow. Gajeel stopped her when she went to reach for her bag, grabbing her arm in gentle grip.
"Gajeel?" she called.
"You're not going, shrimp." He commanded.
"What?!" she gasped, "Why not?! Lucy is my best friend! I'm not going to sit here and do nothing!"
"I said you're not going!" he yelled back, his possessive side taking over. "That is exactly what Ivan wants you to do! If he sees you there, you'll be nothing but a big fucking target stamped to your forehead and he'll probably hurt or even kill Lucy because all she is bait for you to take! Is that what you want to fucking happen?!"
Lily grabbed Gajeel on the shoulder and pulled him away from Levy, "Hey man!" he scolded, "That's going too far now!"
"No." he growled, "I'm telling her what she needs to know!"
Levy stood stiff trying to figure what she should do. In her conscience, one is saying Gajeel is right but the other is saying to help save her friend. Her train of thought was interrupted when Gajeel hugged her tightly against his chest.
"I'm asking you to trust me…" he said, "There was a reason I was called Black Steel Gajeel."
"Why?" she replied.
"I'll tell you about it one day, but…" he sighed, "Look, I'm not stopping you to hurt your feelings. I'm doing this because I want you safe. And believe it or not I want your friend to be safe and alive as well. I'm doing this for you, Levy."
Lily kept on watching as Levy nodded her head slightly. Gajeel broke the hug and packed a few things in his rucksack. He walked up to Lily and patted him on the shoulder.
"Stay here and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." He said and left the apartment.
Lily went up to comfort Levy saying that Gajeel means well and was only protecting her. He offered her to make something to eat to calm her nerves and she only nodded while she sat in the bed having a battle with her own thoughts. After a while, she finally made her decision and decided to disobey Gajeel's order, not because she felt useless but because of the constant worrying for both him and Lucy. Should anything happen, she wants to be there to do something about it but she needs to get Lily out of her way first. She needed a plan. I can't overpower him…I'm too small. She thought, If he notices I'm missing he'll contact Gajeel. I have to knock him out…Sorry,Lily.
Lily came back in the bedroom with a folded diner table and placed down a warm soup for Levy.
"Thank you, Lily" she smiled.
"You're welcome," he smiled back, "need something to drink?"
This could be my chance, she thought. "Water please."
"All right, I'll be right back." He turned around and walked to the kitchen.
Levy frantically searched for something to hit him with. She unplugged the table lamp made of stainless metal and hid behind the door. When Lily came back with a glass of water, he saw the bed empty and quickly turned around when the door squeaked shut to have his face whacked by a lamp. He fell backwards and hit his head on the railings on the end of the bed and lost consciousness. Levy felt bad and stuffed a pillow under his head so he doesn't wake up against the hard floor and wrote an apology letter next to him. She grabbed the spare scarf in Gajeel's closet and snuck into Lily's room and grabbed the hooded rain coat he let her borrow on that first day outside. She readied her quiver, replacing any missing slots with new ones, put on her leather paddings, took her bow and left. She wasn't hoping to this alone and headed to Fairy Tail base to ask the last two people she knew that will hopefully help her.
"Jet! Droy!" she yelled as she quickly opened the infirmary doors.
They looked at Levy who now pulled her hood down. They both have recovered from their injuries yesterday and made a temporary residency in the infirmary.
"Levy?" they both called, "What are you doing here?"
"I need your guy's help." She explained, "I need you to accompany me in taking down Phantom Lord with the other teams."
"Are you crazy?" Jet gasped, "It's not safe to be there!"
"Jet's right." Droy said after, "Did Gajeel put you up to this?"
"Yes he did!" she lied, "Look, I have no one else to help me and you two are the only people left that I know. If you don't want to help me, then fine! I'll go by myself! And when Gajeel finds out then you two can share the blame with me! Or worse, if something happens to me."
"Hey now…" Jet shuddered, "That's taking it a little too far, you can't be serious?"
"I'm dead serious!" she glared and slowly left the infirmary.
"Wait!" they both shouted, "We'll go with you, you can't be out there alone!"
"Thank's guys." She smiled.
"So who are we meeting up with?" Jet asked.
"Fairy Tail's Strongest Team and Grimoire Heart." She answered.
"Hey, why do they get team names!" Droy complained, "We should have one too!"
"Yeah!" Jet agreed, "Something cool and badass!"
"Okay." She smiled, "What about Team Shadow Gear? Or do you guys have something else in mind?"
"Hmmm" Jet hummed, "I'm not really good at naming things."
"I got nothing either." Dray said after.
"Okay it's settled then" she smiled, "we are now officially called Team Shadow Gear! So come on lets go!"
At around late afternoon in a makeshift camp made near Phantom Lord's territory, Fairy Tail's Strongest Team parked a few little wagon cart filled with crates of different assortments of weaponry. They geared up and prepared for a battle against Phantom Lord. In one cart, Erza stood by sharpening her collection of swords and lances with a flint. She has a special casing, she invent herself, that lets her carry up to ten weapons on her back. She made a complaint of how she can always carry more but it will cause her to use too much energy. And so, she strategically chose something that would fit every scenario she can come up with. Natsu was loading bombs and other types of explosive onto his body. While it is true the he has deep pockets to carry at most ten mini grenades, Lisanna bought him a few strap casings for him a few couple years ago when he was just starting his first few missions. He polished his favorite flamethrower, adding a few fuel canisters to his bag to take with. And for good measure, he took small flamethrower gun that he had a pair holsters for. He smashed his fists together and letting everyone know that he was all fired up.
Juvia stood next to Gray admiring him in his work. Gajeel walked up to him and noticed that he was fidgeting around with gadgets and mechanical devices. He took note of Gray wearing a mechanical pair of gauntlets that had a few wire tubings that came out of it.
"Yo Gray!" Gajeel called, "What's with the fancy gloves?"
"This" he emphasized as he held his arms up, "is my own invention. It lets me attach a canister of liquid nitrogen and with a press of a button, I can release it into my hand so that anything I touch freezes."
"Is that it?" he grunted, "you'll have to take a lot more than that to beat Phantom."
"There's more to it Gajeel, watch." Gray pressed a latch on the forearm of his gauntlets and a pair of blades came out from the sides of his forearms. "I can also make the nitrogen travel through these making anything I cut to also freeze."
"Hmm," Gajeel hummed, "I've never seen a gadget like that."
"My weapons are only as strong as my imagination." Gray stated, "as a weapon master, it's not about mastering the techniques of how a weapon works but rather on being creative to extend the use of a weapon. That is what I focus on."
"Gajeel-sama is so clever!" Juvia fawned.
"Tch" Gajeel huffed, "so what else you got?"
Gray pulled out a small cannon that was slighty bigger than a rocket launcher. Its ammo was also his invention that causes it to splatter shards of ice due to high pressure of both liquid nitrogen and water molecules in them. He took a compact bow and a quiver full of specialized engineered arrows that cause liquid nitrogen to pumped into the air on impact. Gajeel was instantly reminded of Levy. He wanted to make a short call to Lily to know how she was doing but was interrupted when Makarov came to the camp telling to move out as the members of Grimoire was now set and ready to attack on their signal. The call would have to wait.
In a cold damp cell, Lucy was shackled against the wall. Her arms were dislocated from the weight of her body with her feet barely touching the floor. She woke up from her unconscious state and immediately groaned in pain from the slight movement of her body stretching her shoulders. She slowly lifted her head up to see where she was.
"You're awake." said Jose who approached the cell in front of the bars. He showed a wicked grin to Lucy as three other men came to join behind him.
"Why are you doing this?!" Lucy cried, "Let me go, you creep!"
Jose laughed roughly, "No. You're going to give me something I need."
"I have nothing for you to take!" She huffed, "You're wasting your time keeping me here!"
"Are you not the daughter of Jude and Layla Heartfilia?" he asked.
"How do you know that?!" she gasped.
"You see…" he smiled, "I have ways of digging through information, and your response was all I need to confirm that you are, indeed, a descendant of the Heartfilia family." The other men behind him complimented Jose of his brilliant deduction skill. He turned around and ordered to keep quiet while he ask Lucy further question.
"Let's get to the point." Jose added, "I want the all the fortune the Heartfilia family has inherited, and you're going to be my ticket through there."
Lucy took a moment to take in his request and laughed, "You're information is outdated. The Heartfilia's fortune ended with my father, not a penny left to our name!"
Jose's eyes widened, "You're lying!"
"No." she retaliated, "you're efforts were for nothing! Now let me go!"
Jose didn't seem convinced, but he has ways of getting back what should be his. He snapped his fingers and the three men behind walked closer. "Aria, Sol, Totomaru!" he called, "Ready the Convergent Cannon and aim it at Magnolia!"
The three saluted their master and left to their own stations at their headquarters.
"Cannon?!" Lucy asked, "how's destroying the city going to help you?!"
Jose only smirked at her, "A message for your Fairy Tail friends that if they don't come here soon, I will keep firing the cannon until everything in the city is nothing but a pile of ash!"
"My friends will stop you!"
"I know you have a connection with the McGardens" he suddenly said, "if you're here, then the little shrew should still be in the city, or perhaps, now a Fairy Tail member. I will bet my life on it."
"She doesn't have anything she can give you!" she spat.
"But I have you, don't I?" he laughed, "As long as that brat still holds the family's legacy, I will use you as my ticket into getting it. Your family name may be worthless now but the McGarden's will do. All she has to do is marry and give her consent for her heritage to be passed on to her husband."
"She isn't going to agree to it!"
"Oh?" he smiled, "Would she let a faithful servant and friend suffer for her then?"
"Yes." She lied, "we hardly know each other. We aren't friends, it was just a job."
"Liar!" he sang and laughed, "make yourself at home in this cell, I'll be back for you."
He gave a wicked grin and left her alone in the cell as he made his way to his station to control the cannon and ready to give out orders.
Capricorn and the others stood by behind trees behind Phantom Lord's Castle. The castle was surrounded by a dirty lake that was deprive of aquatic life and a small moat that reeked of feces and urine. Virgo was sitting by him with a bored expression on her face. They were waiting for the signal to make their attack as they stood by and mentally prepared themselves. He studied the landscape and the castle, making a mental note of the members he saw that took residency in it.
Leo stood by Capircorn following his lead and studying his methods, "What's with these guys?" he asked, "with the purple hood and all, this looks more like a cult than a mercenary clan."
"Don't let their looks fool you, Leo." Capricorn lectured, "I've seen clans more bizarre in what they wear, but yet, it's not the uniform and the gear that made them dangerous. It's the pride and ambition of the holder that comes with it."
Leo understood and waited a little bit more wishing he had his patience. Aquarius however, had little patience to begin with.
"Seriously," she huffed, "She's probably dead by now! This is taking too long!"
"Don't say that!" Taurus cried, "I never had the chance to fully admire her hot body!"
"How can you admire someone annoying as her?!" she protested.
"Aquarius," Leo called, "you and Lucy, why don't you two ever get along?"
"I don't know." She shrugged, "Why do you care? You got a crush on her too or something?"
Leo blushed at her remark before Aries said something, "Actually he did, but…" she stopped, "I'm sorry…forget what I said."
Aquarius gave a confused look before realizing what could be going on between the two of them. Love rivals, she thought. She chose not to say anything about it. On any given circumstances, she would be a complete bitch about it, but since they were going on a dangerous mission it's better to hold it off for later afterwards.
"Enough talking now." Capricorn ordered as he saw Makarov giving them a signal before he made his way back to the Fairy Tail team. "It's time to move! Sagittarius, take out those three guards watching this side!"
Sagittarius gave a salute at his order and quickly shot three arrows aimed at their heads. The hit was swift and clean as their bodies dropped with a quiet thud. Capricorn gave the signal to move in by pairs at a time. Virgo and Capricorn went first as they stood behind the back gate and gestured them for two more to come join them. Virgo went ahead and picked the lock of the gate and soon all of them were crowded and together again. She managed to unlock the gate and just in time to hear fighting and explosion coming in from the other side of the castle. She smiled at Capricorn who grinned back at her as they made their way in to attack from behind.
The two teams began their attack from both sides with little knowledge that a third team is soon to come along and join them. Team Shadow Gear was not far off from Phantom Lord's Castle. Levy could see it from where they were while leading the way as Jet and Droy followed from behind her. She remembered what Gajeel told her and did well to conceal her face with pieces of cloth and her hooded jacket she borrowed from Lily to protect her identity. Her bow was drawn ready to shoot an arrow at an unexpected attacker as they stood between the tree with a full view of the castle.
A/N : Originally this was going to be a very very long chapter (8k word count) so I re-edited it so that it splits into two parts. Exam week slowed me down so I'm going to go ahead and put another chapter preview for the next part.
- Chapter preview: Chapter 22: Black Steel Gajeel.