Chapter 15: Who Doesn't Love Blowing Things Up?

"When do we leave?" Cana asked.

"Now." A new voice said, which caused everyone to scream. They were in big trouble.

It was Makarov.

"Master!" Erza cried.

"Oh hey, Gramps." Natsu greeted.

"Makarov," Gildarts respectfully acknowledged.

The rest were in too much shock to speak.

Great. We're busted. Lucy wailed in her mind.

"What are you brats staring at? Move it!" He said. "You too, Gildarts. Don't think you're not a brat either because you have always been one. Especially when you wen to high school."

Gildarts sent him a glare as they were herded out of the room.

"But, Master," Erza protested. "How did you know what we were planning?"

"Natsu called me down. But did you really think I don't know what's going on in my own base?"

Erza shook her head and let out a laugh. "Leave it to Natsu to be of the most help."

"I have people ready to lend you their cars and Max has already prepared the weapons. Now hurry. I want my grandson back alive."

The group wasted no time in collecting weapons and supplies for their outrageously risky plan.

Natsu took Lucy's car for the very long drive to Sector 1.

"I still can't believe we're going to Sector 1!" Natsu said excitedly, forcing Lucy and Wendy to hear his rant once again.

"I mean, only the TOP runners go here, so I guess that means I'm one of the best."

Wendy sighed, but it was Lucy who reminded Natsu of why they were there.

"This is a rescue mission, Natsu. The top runners who come here are here to hunt and clear, not rescue. Besides, that would also mean that Elfman and Gray are on the same level as you…"

"Yeah, well… there are different levels of best runners." Natsu tried to defend his argument.

"Then I guess Gray is on a higher level." Wendy snickered.

"Not true! I am sooo better than him." Little did Natsu know that Lucy had pressed the on button on her walky-talky.

"Better than who, Natsu?" A very pissed off voice said.

Natsu squeaked in surprise and sent Lucy a death glare once he caught on to what she had done.

"The Ice Princess stripper of course. I had a greater kill count on our last mission." He bragged.

"Oh yeah? And what was it?"

"99."

A new voice joined in.

"Liar! You said 97!"

"Yeah, but I killed two more on the ride home, remember?"

The first voice scoffed. "97 is child's play. Tell me, how many did the lovely ladies in your group kill?"

"120." Lucy said proudly.

"162." Erza said.

"See what I mean? On my last mission, I killed maybe around 200 alone. Maybe more. It was too many to keep count."

"Wait… Is that you Gildarts?" Natsu cried. The voice chuckled.

"Spot on! So Lucy, wanna hear some pretty embarrassing stories about Natsu?"

"Oh yeah!" She giggled. Natsu was getting punished for having such a big ego.

"So there was this one time when Natsu practically begged me to go on a mission him and…"

"Alright, that's enough. Lucy, give me the thing."

"The thing? What thing?" She said, innocently.

"The thing in your hand!" He said, forgetting what the cursed object was called.

"Oh! You mean the walky talky?"

"YES," Natsu hissed and held out his hand.

"Hmmm. I don't know… I kinda wanna hear what Gildarts has to say…"

"Lucy," Natsu growled. "Just give me the walky talky."

"Don't give it to him Lucy! I wanna witness more of the infamous flirting between you two!" Gildarts teased and Lucy squeaked.

"Here you go Natsu," She said, practically shoving the thing in his hand. He flipped the power button off and tossed it into the back seat.

"Not a word," he warned Wendy, who was barely containing her giggles. He grudgingly focused on driving. They were almost there, but it seemed to take forever as the gravity of the situation sunk in. There was an awkward atmosphere between Lucy and Natsu, who were trying to ignore the whole flirting comment, but failed.

Lucy blamed the stupid kiss because it had caused her to realize her feelings, which were occurring at the wrong place and time. Natsu had looked a little flustered by Gildart's comment, though. Could it be? No. Lucy would not fool herself into thinking that he liked her back. She'd read about his in the books and the only thing it lead to was heartbreak. Still… If he did like her back…

"We're here," Natsu's deep voice intercepted Lucy's thoughts.

Wendy gasped at the view of Sector 1. It was the literal definition of a ghost town. She half expected to hear the squeaking of swings moving, pushed by the wind. Of course, there was also the fact that it was literally packed with zombies.

Mirajane pulled over next to Lucy's side door and Lucy rolled down her window.

"When Freed woke up right before we left, he said that they went down Lighting and Knight road. We should check there before splitting up." She pleaded.

"We'll go. You guys head to your designated areas." Lucy commanded everyone. "Please remember that Natsu and I are leading here. You follow our orders."

"Autobots, roll out!" Natsu cried, cackling in gleeful laughter as the cars drove away.

"Dork," Lucy muttered.

"Meanie," Natsu said back.

Note to self, Natsu has really good hearing. Keep mean and embarrassing stuff to yourself. Lucy thought to herself as she stuck out her tongue at the pink-haired boy.

"Less flirting and more moving," Wendy hissed, getting a little fed up at the two.

"Oi! We aren't flirting little sis," Natsu hissed right back.

"Well, if that isn't flirting then I don't know what is."

"Less fighting and more moving," Lucy snickered, successfully getting Natsu to drive again. They cruised through the road Mirajane had pointed out earlier, looking for any signs of Laxus.

They were about to give up when Wendy pointed something out.

"Wait, Lucy? What's that?" She said, pointing to a dark alley.

"What? I can't see anything."

"There's a trash can, but it looks like something is sticking out of it," Wendy said.

"How can you see that? All I see is darkness," Lucy grumbled. "Natsu. Pull over so we can check it out."

Natsu did what he was asked and parked the car. He and Wendy handled this as Lucy radioed in to talk to her fellow teammates.

They slowly crept up to the trash can, guns ready and loaded. Suddenly, they heard a noise.

"Who's there?" Natsu called, his body tensing and his finger twitching. He motioned for Wendy to get behind him, who reluctantly complied.

Of course, the sudden roar caught him off guard. All he saw was a blur of rotting flesh before he pulled his trigger.

He missed.

The figure kept rushing towards him and he shot again, but two shots were heard that night.

The creature jolted as a bullet hits its chest, and one hit its head.

Wendy silently cheered because it was her bullet that hit the head.

"I think I'm gonna have Luce teach me to aim better when we get back," Natsu grumbled, kicking the dead body aside. He stalked over to the trash can and lifted the lid.

Inside, was a torn black coat with white trim.

He brought it to Lucy, who was talking to Mirajane.

"Mira, can you please describe his jacket?" She asked.

"Um, yeah. It was a black coat, I think it was wool or something and it had a white trim of fur."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am! I gave it to him after all." She said, a little offended.

"Sorry, just checking. I think we found it."

"Laxus?"

"His coat."

"Great. Now what?" Mirajane sighed.

"Well, we have a direction to search." She said. Natsu was sending her some hand signals that she had trouble interpreting.

"What?" She hissed.

"Have Gildart and Cana head over to where we were supposed to blow things up. We need to look for Laxus." Natsu hissed back. Oh yeah. Sasstsu was back.

Lucy nodded and shooed him away.

"Mirajane, have Gildarts and Cana-"

"I heard and they're already on their way. Please hurry!" She said.

"Will do. Don't lose hope." Lucy said before turning the radio off.

"Well, Natsu? You're supposed to be the best tracker here, so what do you think happened?" Lucy asked.

"Well, for starters, there's blood on the jacket. From its circular shape, I'd say bullet wound. It definitely wasn't a bite."

Wendy took note of her brother's deductions, committing them to memory for future use.

"What about a stab?" Wendy asked. Natsu cocked his head.

"What makes you say that?"

Wendy carefully felt the jacket where the blood had stained it.

"See, there's a slit instead of a bullet hole." She said, showing where the hole in the jacket opened. "But I don't know the measurements of the cut."

Natsu studied it for a few seconds.

"1 and a quarter inches." he finally said. "It's a standard pocket knife width."

"Any idea who did it?" Lucy asked. If Natsu could tell who, they could find a why and then, hopefully, a where.

"It was self-inflicted," Natsu concluded.

"What?! How can you tell?" Lucy demanded. Who was stupid enough to stab themself in the middle of the ground zero of an apocalypse? They were bound to get infected from just the amount of infected blood in the area.

"Well, you know how zombies are attracted to blood?"

Lucy nodded.

"I'll betcha it was a diversion."

Lucy thought it over for a second. "Actually, that makes sense… So he was being chased and stabbed himself. But… how does that help us?"

"Look at the ground... a few feet from the trash can." Natsu smugly said.

Lucy squinted her eyes, but couldn't see. It was almost pitch black.

Natsu sighed in his lack of patience. "There's drips of blood. Which means, there's probably a trail."

"A trail? But then wouldn't the zombies be able to follow it?" Lucy was shocked.

"Yup, so let's hurry up. Start the car." He said, herding Wendy into the back seat. Natsu decided to jog, following the blood. There were times where he would lose the scent, but pick it up again as he continued. He eventually led his team to a rather tall apartment building.

"Is he in here?" Wendy asked when Lucy parked the car.

"Let's hope so." Lucy said. They had passed maybe 20 or so zombies while driving and Natsu had killed 6. It was creeping her out that they were just there, walking. Well, sooner or later, they would hopefully blow them all up.

Natsu and Lucy weaved through the maze of zombies, shooting, and protecting each other as Wendy did her best to keep up. They worked their way up the floors, this time sticking together. It was a lesson learnt from their last mission.

They were on the third floor when Erza had picked the worst moment to radio in.

"Lucy? Wendy? Natsu! We need the go ahead to commence with the first bomb." She sort of shouted, not realizing that the three were in the midst of a zombie swamp.

Lucy and Natsu didn't even look at each other before shoving the radio in Wendy's hands and nodding to her.

"We'll hold them off." Lucy grunted, dodging an incoming fist from a zombie. Wendy immediately turned down the volume to direct Erza through the process of blowing up their first house.

"Alright, they said yes, but this is a really bad time," Wendy said.

"Is something happening?" Erza asked, concerned. "Have you found Laxus yet?"

"Not yet, but we're kinda in the middle of a fight… Can we do this later?" Wendy insisted.

"I suppose so," Erza said grudgingly. "Please be safe."

"Of course." Wendy hung up and put the volume at zero to avoid any further disturbances.

Natsu and Lucy were back to back, slashing and shooting. Lucy had pulled out her ax and Natsu had his favorite gun.

Wendy decided to start helping out, now that Erza was satisfied. She let out a battle cry as she she ran straight into the hoard of zombies, knife in front of her. She was now slashing with Lucy, both in sync with each Lucy swung down to her right, Wendy covered her left side, twirling to avoid Lucy's blade.

Natsu couldn't help but steal looks at the two in action as he fought his own battle. He had brought out his knife as he danced through the enemies. One tried to punch him, but he caught the fist in his hand. He squeezed his fist, crunching the weak bones that were trapped. It was not that surprising when the zombie couldn't feel the pain, but Natsu didn't care.

He skillfully yanked the creature towards him, driving his knife deeping into the chest while he shot its head. He then used the now dead monster as a shield against the two other zombies running towards him, immediately shooting one in the head as the other bit his dead comrade. Of course, nothing happened except for Natsu swinging his his knife to get the offender in the head. He shoved the bodies off him and swung his knife up. Another zombie was down.

Wendy and Lucy were still gracefully dancing around each zombie, slashing and shooting left and right. Well, graceful until Wendy tripped on her own feet, going down. The zombies wasted no time diving down.

"WENDY!" Lucy cried and Natsu turned to see what was happening. A zombie tackled him to the ground, snarling in his face. He had dropped his weapons and the only things blocking the zombie from biting him was his hands wrapped around its neck. He grimaced as the horrible stench of zombie wafted through his nostrils, drool threatening to fall on his face.

He had to get to Wendy.

As Wendy tripped, Lucy felt her heart plummet. She could feel it as it broke through the Earth's crust and visited Satan in hell.

"WENDY!" She cried, watching the zombies jump to belly flop on top of the tiny girl. Finally, her legs started moving. She couldn't lose her. She couldn't lose the person who had shown her what family was.

Lucy was ready to lay her life down for someone she considered as a sister.

Clenching her eyes shut, she threw herself on top of the girl, right underneath the snarling zombies as she swung her ax.

Disgust filled her stomach as she felt blood spray on her face and cover her eyes, but that disgust was accompanied by relief. It was relief that Wendy was safe and that the zombies were now cut in 2 pieces. She grunted as she was hauled up by an invisible person she assumed to be Natsu.

"That was fun to watch girly." The voice said. Huh?

"You're not Natsu." She said, wiping her face on her shirt. She sputtered when she saw the owner of the voice.

"No duh," The voice snickered.

"L-l-Laxus?" She cried. In front of her was the big guy himself, totally unharmed except for the arm that was hanging in a sling.

"The one and only."

"B-but! You're supposed to be too injured to move!" Wendy cried, having gotten up. She was still a little shaken by the whole ordeal of almost dying.

"Please, I'm an S-class runner. I can take care of myself." He said with a smile. Lucy smiled too, but that smile disappeared when she heard a grunt.

"Little help here?" A strained voice shouted.

"Natsu!" Lucy took off running, swinging her ax and successfully knocked the zombie away from Natsu. She grabbed his hand and helped him up.

"Are you okay?" She breathed heavily.

"I should be asking you that question. But yeah, I'm fine. Just an overload of zombie breath."

Lucy nodded and they turned to Laxus with a rather scary look in their eyes.

"So…" Lucy started.

"Wanna explain?" Natsu finished.

Wendy held her tongue. They're finishing each other's sentences! It is sooo gonna happen any day now.

Laxus scratched his head sheepishly.

"Well… it's a long story."

"Then you can tell us in the car. We need to meet up at Mirajane's location. They need backup." Wendy said, holding the radio for emphasis.

Lucy herded them all into the car and then climbed into the driver's seat. As she started to zoom down the road, Natsu turned in his seat to stare at Laxus.

"We're waiting."

Laxus sighed. "I guess it all started the moment we drove through Lightning road."

Evergreen and Bixlow were bickering in the backseat.

"Like you're one to give me advice on love," She hissed. 'You can't even get a date."

"Well, neither can you. I mean… unless it's with a real man.' Bixlow snickered, knowing fully well that Evergreen had a crush on Elfman Strauss.

"But I can, so shut up before we get ambushed." Laxus growled. Freed hummed in agreement as he was looking over some old maps.

"Turn left on Knight." He said.

As Laxus turned, the car was hit. By what, he didn't know, but the blow had caused the car to roll over a couple times before stopping. Everyone was knocked out cold.

Laxus couldn't do anything as the attackers opened his door and unbuckled his seatbelt. They dragged him out of the car and-

To be continued…

AND THE PLOT THICKENS AND ACTUALLY STARTS AND I'M OUT OF THINGS TO SAY and I admit that was jsut a dirty move right there when I was too lazy yo finish the sentence... hehe

So... The Pirate AU has won ppl! And... the good news is that I'm already on the third chapter (even though I should be studying. oops!) But, the bodyguard AU came in second place, so I may consider starting that and seeing where it takes me. Finally, I always come up with ideas when practicing piano so if I have any really good ones, I'll try them out here. Locing the feedback. Speaking -er... writing about feedback (sorry for the bad joke)... my responses:

Fluffly-Experiment: Frist of all, love the name! As I previously wrote/said, the Pirate AU is coming this summer. So far, I think I have it planned for July 18th.

Ushindeshi: Now, I think I have that figured out, but I'm working on it!

Kalessia04: SO nice to hear from you again! While most of the reviews said Pirate, I think teh bodyguard AU will work out. It'll probably take place in a modern setting and have some high school chaos somehow. As for the hiatus, yeah... I planned it, but the wind of creativity possessed me a few days ago and I am proud to admit that I have the next 4 chapters already done! (YAy me!) So, I'll focus on my torture sessions and then try to finish the story so I can focus on both those two stories and some requests I've taken up.

KJacket: Yeah, the Pirate AU really was the most interesting. But the Couples Retreat would be modeled loosly after the movie, which is really funny so I recommend it.

suzaanoelofse01 : Well, that's why I decided to try out Lucy as the pirate. While it's fun to see Natsu as a pirate and it really fits with the storyline, I got really tired of the same plot being written with different words over and over again. WHile I do plan to write some cliches, most of my works are meant to be different from the common stories. I really hope you enjoy the story when I publish it!

LAST THING: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR 30 FOLLOWERS~ 3