Fuck Summer…. This season literally kills me inside… I am being serious here.

Also, if you want an explanation about my absence from this site then read the notice at the bottom of this chapter… I am sorry about that…

This is where I am going to try and break away from the canon dialogue, it is really hard for me to build a description around the actions and words in canon. I will try and keep the canon story on track though.

:::-((x))-:::

"I'm warning you..." Gray continued to stare the man down, ignoring the others behind him. "Put man down, now."

He expected the group to look at him with arrogance, back away or just attack him.

Or… React to his words in any way shape or form…

Instead, the group just turned their attention back to the air-suspended Endebar and brought him closer with a flick of the wrist.

"Torch-san." One of the men began, confusing Gray with the nickname. "You are a council member are you not?" Another one of the group took over, going on uninterrupted. "And you are also the warden of the mage prison 'Black vox'."

Gray didn't know what Black vox was. But apparently the old man did as he completely ceased up, his already pale features becoming almost snow white as the man mentioned it.

"Drum Bee… You can't!" Endebar began to struggle, trying to free himself from the man's powerful hold on him. He had no such luck though. "Drum Bee has been charged with multiple murders and spitting on our entire guild system!" He looked at his captor with a glare. "We don't on letting him see the light of day ever again!"

"Please don't misunderstand me Torch-san. You are to become nothing more than our 'hostage'." The man in front then stepped forward, getting right up in the old man's face and grabbing him by the chin, releasing his magic to allow gravity to do it's thing. "With you as our hostage I am sure we can come to a mutual understanding..."

He lifted his hand up and despite wearing rag's around their head's, the rest of the group started to come closer. But before they could even get close to the two they were instantly tackled by a huge icy bat of Gray's making, smashing them away from the old man and his captor.

"Get your hands off of Gramps already asshole!" The boy exclaimed, sending his ice coated fist into the man's face, making him stumble for a second, but he didn't react to the pain it must have caused. Instead he lifted Gray up and threw him into the train door on the other side.

Gray had luckily managed to land on his feet, the door under them developing spiderweb-like cracks under them as he forced himself to his feet. 'This guy uses some sort of telekinesis!'

"Oh so that's how you want to play huh?" No reaction again. "Fine! Ice-Make: Geyser!"

This got a reaction, a yelp from Endebar as he saw the man in front of him become frozen solid, his expression still vacant. He looked behind him and saw the others lifting there hands up and with panic, looked at the boy.

He didn't get much of a chance to though as he went flying into the walls and the floor for the next ten seconds. The man at the front then thrusted his arm forward and Gray was sent flying through the weakened door this time.

The Devil Slayer crashed into the railing of the train and almost fell off due to the force. However, he stuck his hand out just in time to grab hold of bar just in time, saving him from going splat.

"Okay… That hurt." He grit his teeth when the train gave a sudden lurch, almost causing him to lose his grip. Confused, he looked down, and almost immediately regretted doing so. His head dropped, allowing him to feast his eye's (or eye) upon the ground as it got further away from him.

That gave him the inspiration to pull himself back up and onto the train again…

With a low grunt, Gray managed to crawl back onto the safe and sound train floor. Thanking is luck for being so gracious to him. If it were not for that he would have been a human pancake as of now and not the nice kind either.

"Okay, definitely not going near the edge for a while..." He shook his head slightly as flashbacks of his little 'incident' with Lyon flooded the forefront of his mind. Gray could feel his breathing quicken and become erratic but he knew that he had to keep it under control. "C'mon now, The old man needs me. And I am not letting him down!"

He remembered that he was in dangerous territory at that moment, as he clapped his hands over his mouth and looked around for a few moments before decided it was safe enough to move closer to the carriage. He wasn't going to tackle them all head on in such tight spaces. It was warm and enclosed, he wouldn't be able to keep them at arms reach for long.

He needed space and temperature's that were not the equivalent to that of his father's pizza oven…

'I guess waiting is the best strategy for me right now…'

So with that, Gray jumped up onto the roof of the carriage and set himself down in-between two wide ridges, deep enough to keep him out of sight. The wind didn't blow as hard in the ridge. Probably for the best, he could actually breathe now.

He would find the right moment to strike, and when he did…

They wouldn't know what hit them…

:::-((x))-:::

(2 hours later)

'I spy with my little eye, something beginning with B'

Gray absentmindedly wondered about the small chance of someone clambering onto the roof, only to see him playing I spy on his own. The humour about such a concept was that they wouldn't kill him If they found him but instead laugh and throw him into the nearest mental asylum in Fiore.

He knew what would happen if they found him, the telepath's would be hard to fight just because of their magic alone and merging that fact along with the lack of space to stand would end up with him becoming brown bread.

But god-dammit he was BORED…

'heh… How astute Gray, how did you eeevvveeerrr find out?…' Suddenly, he along with the rest of the train were enveloped in a huge shadow. Raising an eyebrow, the Devil Slayer looked up and almost choked on his own saliva as his vision was met with a gargantuan black block. It was so huge in scale that the sun was blocked and part of the ground beneath it looked as if it had never seen the light of day since 70x.

"W-What?" He gaped, his eye drinking up the sight of the intimidating floating cube. "What is this? How the bloody hell is it floating!?" He struggled to keep his voice quiet as his shock began to settle in and make him forget about the little situation down below.

And he was thinking about the inside of the carriage.

"Somehow, my confidence has vanished..." Gray felt the flying train grind to a halt. He hadn't realised it but the train had made it's way through black vox and into the main control area. He didn't know why but he had heard something about a dumb bee or something like that.

Who goes to a highly controlled and maintained prison block IN THE SKY for a 'dumb bee'?

With a deep breath, Gray poked his head out from the top of the ridge, looking at his surroundings. It was nice and spacey, yet he looked up and gazed upon the armada of greenish, translucent boxes that floated in mid-air much like the prison itself. He could only just about see It but at the very top of the room he could see a bigger and thicker box. It had chains and what seemed to be extra plating around it.

Whoever was in there was obviously very dangerous. But after fighting and in a way killing Nez, Gray didn't really feel all that powerless. If anyone tried to hurt him he could defend himself just fine.

"Well then-" Gray looked back down, the gruff and gravelly voice almost startled him. Almost. "If we hand over Bee you will promise to hand over warden Torch to us?" He got a good look at the man who spoke. He looked very similar to the old man but not as old. He was wearing the standard prison guard outfit which consisted of a white one-piece suit with a bandanna covering his mouth and nose. The square patterns on the one-piece were a dark-ish maroon which travelled all the way down to the legs which looked old and completely ridiculous. No one could wear those leggings and not be open to mockery.

The entirety of the suit was a crime against fashion…

After sneering at the terrible suit for a few seconds Gray realised what the man had said. Bee. What was so special about a bloody dumb bee!?

"Don't do it Grog!" He heard the old man shout, piercing the room only to be slammed against the wall for his trouble.

"Just you wait..." Gray whispered, cold and deadly. "As soon as I get the all clear."

He saw 'Grog' (terrible name as well) close his eyes, and pinch the bridge of his nose. Inhaling and exhaling hard for a moment before looking over to the old man.

"Forgive me, but warden Torch you are the equivalent of a father to me. So please..." he made a hand gesture to the guard near one of the few terminal's scattered across the room and the guard in question hesitantly made her way over the panel. She raised her hand over the panel and Gray could see the sweat form and bead down the guard's forehead as she pressed down on one of the glowing green buttons.

A resounding beep echoed throughout the huge room and everyone looked up to the top. Gray could see the big prison block at the top shift. The thick and sturdy chains began to release themselves from the main body and the extra plating around the block had sunk into it's walls, disappearing almost instantly as it seemed to fade into nothingness.

Then the block finally started to make it's way down from the roof. It didn't float down like the rest of them however, this one just… Fell.

It fell at such a speed that Gray was concerned that it would end up drilling through the floor…

But then it just began unfolding. The visible wall had slid up, but just like the plating it didn't seem to make it past the edge of the plummeting cube. The next wall, followed suit, sinking and vanishing just as fast as the first.

This continued for a few more seconds, Gray watched with morbid fascination as the figure of a huge man stood up from his seated position and promptly leaped away from his confines Landing just next to the group of what Gray guessed to be his associates.

The man who jumped out was MASSIVE. He was much more bigger than Gray and his suit seemed to be covered in thick and tough armour plating. He was wearing a big helmet which bared a resemblance to the Camelot knight armour. Looking down, he noticed that one of the man's eye's was covered over by some sort of monocle.

Gray didn't know what else to call the man's clothing other than a weird costume. The chest-piece had two impossibly huge struts that seemed to stretch down to the gold and black belt that hugged around his waist. Other than the thick armour, the entire costume was a black-ish, purple-ish hue with a tinge of dark blue in various places.

All in all, this guy looked like a complete clown. A deranged one, but a clown nonetheless…

"You have done good my children." The hulking man stood up, looking down upon his 'children'. He made a hand gesture at them and the man at the front threw the old man towards grog and his squad. "But we still have one last thing to do."

As soon as his words passed through his lips the man Gray assumed to be 'dumb bee' made a huge leap towards the control panel. The guard had not moved from her position in fear of being attacked. It didn't do her much good as she ended up being slammed into the wall behind her, she slumped to the ground quicker than she was flung into the wall.

"Let's see if these people can handle all their previous triumphs thrown at them at once." He looked over at the group with a wide eye, his lensed eye flashing menacingly as he gazed upon them. He laughed, which sounded more like a growl before grabbing one of the levers next to him and forcing it all the way up. Taking off the handle when it reached the top.

'Is he insane!?' Was all Gray thought as he watched every single cube open in the air. Criminal's from all around Fiore began to drop to the ground. Some of them Gray recognized, one of them had a Mohawk, and had a weird leather costume on. Gray recognized him as the Tripdon Tremor. A rogue mage who had been bothering the population for protection money and attacking random tourists…

Another was a powerful mage from Isvan, Gray knew this guy specifically due to the reason that his father had been the one to beat him and send him to prison. The guy had no hair whatsoever and wore a thick, yellow bodysuit with black stripes on the sides. It seemed to be heavily padded and well protected.

He felt anger build up within him, the dumbass was trying to take over the fucking prison!

From the looks of it, the prisoners looked to be rather unhinged, years of isolation and tight, enclosed imprisonment has definitely taken it's toll on these people. The guards would not stand a chance!

He should probably do something. Luckily, their wasn't any fire so he couldn't burn more of his still numb hand. He looked down at the appendage in question and sighed, that fucking demon egg.

He was drawn back to the large man when he spoke again. He almost growled at what he heard.

"Even if by some miracle you manage to take them all down, I will simply deal with you myself." Even if his mouth was covered Gray could practically see the smirk forming under his helmet. "Enjoy your last moments alive… Good riddance."

The crooks and criminal's began to close in on the guards. Grog told everyone to defend the perimeter, but Torch and the squad could see and hear the fear and anxiousness consume his being.

"Heheheh, let's get some revenge boys." Chuckled the Tremor mage, raking his hand through his Mohawk as he drew nearer.

"Leave some for me then..." The bodysuit mage drawled sinisterly. Pulling at his sleeves every few seconds.

The two mage's words had begun a wave of taunts and chuckles as they continued to enclose Grog and his squad.

'We're doomed.' Grog knew what was going to happen. But he wouldn't let his people go down without a fight. "Prepare to fight men!"

"Sir!?"

"On my word!..."

"We can't possibly-"

"JUST DO IT!"

He couldn't control their fears, but he could motivate them to go down fighting.

Luckily he didn't have to…

"Freeze!" He heard a young voice call out and suddenly, the criminal's except the Tremor and bodysuit mage were frozen in a thick sheet of ice, Grog watched in surprise as the figure of a child leaped off of the train and landed outside of the circle of crooks. A second later after landing the ice shattered and the felon's fell to the ground unconscious.

"What?"

"Gray?" Endebar whispered, his voice laced with amazement. Grog couldn't blame him, the boy had defeated the army of criminal's, over 80 in fact and he hadn't even lifted a finger!

Even Drum Bee looked surprised…

"I think your little plan has come to a slight speed bump asshole..." Gray looked up at Drum. Grinning smugly.

"What? How did you even get here?!" Drum took two steps out and looked at the boy with a dangerous scowl. "I will give you a warning, I will let you live if you leave right now."

"Not happening Dumb." Gray suddenly leaped, pushing his feet into Drum's chest before pushing once more, Drum didn't expect the kid too have such immense physical strength and paid the price for it. He was sent to the ground next to his group as Gray back-flipped gracefully and landed a few feet in front of him.

"Take this!" He Formed a fist before throwing it in the air. "Ice-Make: Tremor!" He screamed, before he slammed his fist into the ground with a grunt. The effect was almost immediate, Thick miniature mountain-like chunks of ice popped up from the ground and quickly made it's way towards Drum Bee and his cronies.

Drum however just managed to get out of the way, jumping to the side just before the ice could impale him. Unfortunately; some of his 'children' were not so lucky. Some were instantly trapped within the ice and were unable to shatter it or remove themselves from it.

Well, until Mohawk and Bodysuit gave them a helping hand...

:::-((x))-:::

"Don't fret me old muckers, we'll have ya out of there in a jiffy." Mohawk leaned forward, transferring the weight into his leading foot. "Hold still now, this may hurt a tad." The men only gave him a curt nod in response and Mohawk took that as his cue.

"Here we go then!" He grinned and, with a grunt he raised his foot and stomped it into the ground just quickly as he had lifted it. Suddenly, the men who trapped found themselves popping out of their frozen prisons. They all landed gracefully and continued to watch their boss fight the child though.

"Really mate?!" Yelled Mohawk, the least they could've done was say bloody thank you… AT LEAST! "Fine, see if I help you next time you get trapped in ice..."

"Hey, help me now!?" Bodysuit called out from the right. He was busy taking on Grog and his squad. He ducked down to avoid Grog's swipe before placing his right hand on the ground to balance himself before using his left leg to sweep his feet out from under him.

"Resilience: X100" He grunted before holding his arm out to block the sharp sword being brought down on him.

Only it didn't cut his arm off as Mohawk was expecting it to do…

"What?… Impossible!" The guard stuttered, but he was only met with a devastating punch to his jaw for the effort, his armour dented and now painfully poking into his cheek as he felt unconsciousness take him.

"Not bad me old mucker." Mohawk grinned. "We could make a good team." The quake mage smashed his fist into the ground, which made a ring of dented steel launch some of the guards into the air.

"Might be fine to try, no promises though." He turned to whack the downed guard on the head. "Strength: X50" He brought his fist down on the guards head and he could tell that the floor was going to have a face shaped dent in it now.

"Right, we'll settle that later then, for now, let's help out ol' Drummie over there!" Mohawk began to run, followed quickly by Bodysuit, jumping over the unconscious men and women as they did so.

"I'm not done with you two!" A voice boomed out, reaching their ears just seconds before a huge staff followed after. The two dark mages, gasped as they were flung back ten feet onto their backs. Looking up, they saw the figure of Grog Foto land in the on the same spot they were blasted back from. "You will not bring harm to that child nor will you bring harm to Torch-san, not on my watch."

"I will help to boy." Grog's eyes almost bulged out when he heard the claim. He turned back to see Endebar calmly walk up next to him.

"Wh-What? T-Torch-san, you can't fight in your condition! You'll injure yourself more than you already have been!" Grog couldn't understand his father figure's reasoning for this foolish decision. But just as he was about to say more Endebar held his hand up to stop him.

"I am old, but you forget, I am the one who taught you what you know today, and it is going to take more than a few tight bear hugs to bring this old man down." He flashed a quick reassuring smirk at his apprentice. Making himself look more like a young man rather than the old man he was.

"Besides…" He looked down. "It is the least I can, knowing that the boy over there is fighting because of me." He pointed over to where Drum Bee was and as Grog followed, his eye's almost bugged out again as he watched the young boy swing around the huge man using with an icy hook before using the momentum to launch himself to one of the steel bars supporting the prison, ceiling.

The boy didn't land on it however, instead he impressed the prison guard leader yet again by somehow making Drum's lance fly up to the bars itself, followed by Drum himself. Half-way up, the boy suddenly used his momentum again and slammed his feet straight into Drum's stomach, sending him crashing into the high up wall.

The boy then dispersed his ice chain and managed to determine the perfect arc to send an icy fist into Drum's head.

Only for it to be blocked and for Drum to smash his own fist into Gray, sending him flying just as he made drum do seconds earlier.

'The boy can sure fight, that's for certain…'

"He'll be fine Torch-san." He tried to reassure him.

Endebar only sighed, looking forward at the two dark mages as he spoke. "I hope you're right."

"I am." Grog just shook his head, focusing on the Mohawk and Bodysuit as Endebar was. "Fine, but be careful alright?"

"I will boy..." The old man nodded, squinting and getting ready to strike. "I will."

With that said, the two prison warden's set their eyes upon the two dark mages. And with a determined yell, they both took off towards them.

:::-((x))-:::

"Ice-Make: Cyclone!" Gray thrusted his hands out in front of him, ducking out of the oncoming lance's way just in time. After rolling to the side (due to another lance) he was rewarded for the spectacular dodge when he looked up at Drum Bee.

"Stop mov- Woahhhh ahhh!" If he had any sense off humour at all he probably would have laughed at watching Drum Bee get hoisted into the air by the huge magical cyclone, he was span around and viciously slashed by the chunks of ice and the strangely sharp shards of snow, yelling angrily before being flung out of the animated spell.

'Let's see how painful this is…' The boy grinned, turning his arms into ice and landing an uppercut to Drum Bee's face. "You think you are so powerful don't you?!" Gray yelled at him, jumping into the air after him and creating icy platform's to land on as he continued punching Drum's lights out. Silently, he begrudgingly thanked Ur for teaching him Ice-Augmentation, it was much more effective for hand-to-hand combat.

"Watch your tongue boy!" Drum quickly attempted to slice Gray in two with a downward slash of his lance, but the icy arms of his opponent halted the lance's progress without even suffering a crack. "W-What are you!?" Again, even as he was once again knocked further into the air he tried to attack Gray.

"Your worst nightmare..." Gray growled, sending one last punch to Drum's stomach and watching with satisfaction as he slammed into the ceiling, causing a resounding clang to ring out across the whole prison.

'I really hope this works.' He had never tried this out before, he hadn't even kept up with his training for the ice-augmentation so chances were this wouldn't even work.

But he needed to try it sometime…

So Gray concentrated hard, and continued to watch Drum's falling figure. Suddenly, he took a giant leap off of his new ice platform and swung his arms down, but as they did, they both began to shift and change shape, quickly growing to three times there normal size and the his hands were replaced by two huge cylindrical blocks.

He grinned, watching on as he brought his two newly formed sledgehammers down onto Drums back. Gray could have sworn that he heard a slight crack when he whacked Drums back.

But he didn't give a shit…

Meanwhile, as Gray stood on top of his ice platform, Drum was currently screaming from the fall and from the pain in his back. But the pain in his back was suddenly forgotten about when he collided with the ground. That was when he screamed. Even with his high tolerance of pain he couldn't help but groan as he tried to move.

With a loud grunt, he did manage to get back up, but looking down he could see and most certainly feel his leg bone poking through his suits leg. He clenched his eyes shut as the crippling pain shot through his body, moaning as he signalled for his team to aid him.

That was when he looked up to see a big icy anvil quickly getting bigger and bigger. Quickly realising what was going on, he jumped out of the way and made sure to fall to the ground, as not to bother his already buggered leg.

But looking up, he almost sighed in relief when he saw Gray's form suddenly get flung away from him.

"That's it, protect me while I heal children..."

:::-((x))-:::

Grog knew what was at stake here…

He knew that Black vox held some of the toughest felons to stain Fiore, some smart, some strong, some were both smart and strong. If he and the others failed to contain the situation brought to them by Drum Bee's gang…

He didn't want to think of that…

But he had never seen most of these criminal's in action, even with all of the research he had done on each one. Endebar had taught him well, but he had never been on a proper military operation before. Sure he had fought many criminal's he wouldn't have been given the prison warden position if he hadn't. But these people were said to be much more than just the common rabble, they were cunning, strong and had a tendency to get results on their escapades.

This guy in the bodysuit was no exception…

He ducked under the man's right hook and sent the end of his staff into his attackers ribcage, causing him to cringe. Grog quickly followed up by turning around and swiping his feet out from under him, sending the bodysuit man to the floor.

But before he could cast the restraining cast around him, Grog was suddenly kicked in the stomach by his opponent. He hadn't even seen him move from his spot and yet when he looked up he could see him standing up straight and glaring at him.

"Resilience: X40." The monotone voice drawled. Grog looked at the man's feet to see a magic circle and just as quick as it came it had gone. This guy was obviously skilled with his magic, that was obvious enough, he wouldn't be in Black Vox if not.

But he seriously doubted he would get the chance to ask him how his magic was so quick, being as he was forced to roll away from his kick. He recovered quickly, only to be knocked back again by his enemy's other foot which hit him straight in the chest.

Once again, for the third time, he was on the defensive. Forced to block the quick and heavy combo of punches and kicks for another minute until he found an opening in the bodysuit mage's defence, one thing that Grog excelled in doing.

It was rather convenient for him as he was training under Endebar's instructions. When he was sparring with others, he had quickly found out that he was severely lacking in strength. Of course, that was because he was skinny as a devoured chicken drumstick. However, if there was ever a use for it's lack of weight it would be it it's speed.

So, like the chicken bone he was (and still is) he waited, dodging and blocking everything he could before delivering a debilitating punch to his opponents unguarded body part, whether it be the jaw, the ribcage, the stomach.

Or god forbid, the knackers… Oh god the knackers were the worst…

Grog almost let out a little wince at the thought. But when he saw the incoming kick aimed at his face, he quickly decided to spend his valuable energy batting the opposing leg with his staff before jabbing Bodysuit in the gut with it, when he did however, he noticed a slight change in his attack pattern.

Usually, Bodysuit always fought him head on, favouring his heavy hitting strikes and evasion. But as soon as he hit him, Bodysuit started trying to create distance between hie and himself. He started trying to evade and block instead of take him down. Almost starting to bridge a gap between them as soon as he had an opening.

This intrigued Grog to no end. Maybe he had just found a flaw in his opponents magic, perhaps it could only use the enhancement once before the caster has to re-cast it.

Maybe, but he'd have to hit him to find out…

He looked over briefly to see both the kid and his father figure fighting their respective opponents and quickly rolled away from a shard of ice that had been blasted away by Drum Bee. Which worked to his favour as it closed the gap between him and Bodysuit quick enough for him to swing his staff at his enemy again.

"You are not leaving Black Vox." He taunted his enemy, he would have assumed that it had some effect on him, as Bodysuit seemed to cringe for a second at the notion. But it wasn't enough to prevent him from back-flipping over Grog's staff.

"You seem confident in that belief." Bodysuit sneered back, jumping back from another swing of the staff. "Maybe when that boy is dead you will think otherwise."

Grog glared angrily, he was just a kid! "You know, the death penalty hasn't been abolished in these parts of Fiore just yet." He grinned at the sudden reaction he got. Bodysuit stumbled back, avoiding his staff due to sheer luck, looking at him with shocked and wary eyes. "perhaps we can fit you in for an appointment with the executioners workspace just before it is taken away."

Grog didn't want to use his staffs power just yet, it needed to recharge rather desperately after. But seeing as Bodysuit was not giving up his running away tactic, he may just have to. "Just give up now, maybe we can get you away from such a fate."

His response was quite unpleasant to say the least…

And what that really means is that Grog was suddenly kicked in the face, he hadn't been fast enough to react when Bodysuit suddenly lashed out, taking him by surprise and causing him to land on his back.

"Boy! Look out!" Came Endebar's voice, Grog looked at his mentor and suddenly realised that he couldn't see the Mohawk guy anywhere.

Then it hit him… Literally…

What he didn't know was that other mage was behind him and he had obviously noticed. So taking advantage of his situation, he decided to stamp his foot and cause the floor below Grog to jut out quickly and violently. The force alone sent Grog into the air and the pain didn't help matters.

But Grog being Grog quickly recovered and landed next to his mentor, who looked rather tired in him self, but looking at his opponent showed him that Endebar had easily dealt more damage. Mohawk was breathing heavily, he had a few chain-like burns dotted around his being and a large bruise was beginning to form just above his left eye.

Grog sweat-dropped, for an old man Endebar was still one of the strongest people had ever known. This guy had found out the hard way.

But the two dark mages quickly rushed at them, throwing any sort of attack they could with reckless abandon, the prison warden's were easily able to deal with this type of fighting. Blocking and countering each attack with little to no effort.

The two dark mages obviously ran out of patience, or they were actually getting desperate…

"Mjolnir strike!" Grog quickly exclaimed, swinging his staff at the two dark mages. But as he swung down, the staff began to glow a sharp and strong green. Luckily for the two dark mages they avoided the initial downward swing. But when the staff hit the ground it somehow had the strength to send a shock-wave rippling through the ground.

Said shock-wave had sent them into the air…

"Torch-san, Catapualt technique!" Grog quickly shouted over to his mentor, who nodded and jumped onto Grog's staff, Grog then swung the staff into the air to which Endebar leaped off of the staff and summoned to white hot chains around his wrists. As he flipped so did the chains, which just happened to extend down to where the two dark mages were just starting to fall back down to the ground.

Effectively buzz-sawing into Bodysuit and Mohawk Endebar landed with a grace many men his age would kill to pull of and thrusted his right hand out at Grog, which sent the chain at his old student and wrapping itself around him. He pulled as Grog jumped at him, readying his staff as he passed by the dark mages. Just as he was going straight under them he swung his staff straight into Bodysuit stomach, Bodysuit coughed up a tiny bit of blood and shouted, but was cut off as he grunted when he felt his back smash into Mohawk.

The two were flung the same direction Grog was going and were flying just as fast as Grog was pulled. So when Endebar released Grog and caught him with one hand he shot his free hand forward.

"Ball and chain!" He shouted, as he watched the grey magic circle appear around his hand he looked over to the other prisoners and wondered how long they would stay down. The boy's impressive feat had him stunned but surely they would wake up sooner or later.

But then he was drawn to his magic iron ball shooting out from the magic circle as a sturdy looking chain followed behind. He could almost hear Mohawks back snap as the ball slammed straight into his spine.

That was how the battle ended, with a huge cry of agony from Mohawk and the unconscious form of Bodysuit laying on the floor. One unable to fight back and the other in too much pain and with a potential disability.

"This will keep them from fighting back." Grog walked forward and flung his left arm out to the left. "Restrain: Iron jacket!"

The two defeated mages were no longer a threat, just like the others…

Then again, the two still had to wait for Gray to deal with Drum Bee…

But before they could, Drum's gang quickly blocked them, leaving the battered Drum to fend for himself again the merciless Devil Slayer.

"I am afraid that you are unable to interfere with our masters affairs." Spoke one of them. "Turn back now, our master will deal with you shortly."

The two got ready to fight, although telekinesis was hard to deal with when you only had close quarter combat magic. They wouldn't possibly-

"Not before I get my turn..."

With the speed of lighting, the two prison wardens looked on in shock and slight fear when the form of a tall, muscular man dropped in-between the two parties. Facing away from Grog and Endebar.

"You shall not harm our master, prepare to- ACK!"

The poor man didn't stand a chance… None of them did…

Before they could react all thirteen of them were on the floor and unconscious. Standing in the centre of the short lived chaos was the man. Grog and Endebar could see the mop of dark orange hair the man was sporting, as well as the brown cape.

"The kid seems to be done cleaning up, I guess I should start-"

He was interrupted when he heard the screaming of Drum Bee grow louder and louder with each passing second. Looking to his right he saw the poor guy flying straight for him, the kid not far behind him.

The man simply Caught the huge man by the neck, holding him there with no sign of struggle, even as the tired and defeated Drum Bee desperately flailed in hopes of being free from the vice-like grip he found himself in.

"W-W-Who… Are you!? Release me!" He stammered, his jaw caused him pain every time he tried to talk, the kid had completely destroyed this man.

"Well, since you asked politely, I'm Gildarts, and you must be Drum Bee..."

If Drum was not completely and utterly tired and was in tip top condition, he would have tried to beat the fabled ace of fairy tail, the recognition and fear/respect he would get would've been immensely valuable to him and his campaign against the council.

But, knowing that he had just been beaten senseless by a boy, who must have been around 8 or 9 years old no less. He decided to just allow himself to be thrown THROUGH THE FLOOR.

Into the dirt below.

But hey, at least he got out of Black Vox for a few seconds…

:::-((x))-:::

"We cannot thank you enough for what you have done here today young man." Grog took a hold of the boy smaller hand and shook it. He noticed with glee that he received a firm grip and a shake just as dominating as his own.

"Yeah, sure..."

"Gray, this is very big, for someone of your age to be able to take on our most powerful prisoner and beat him with little effort shows that-"

"He has balls, and a lot of potential too." Endebar looked over to see who interrupted him, it was the legendary Fairy tail mage Gildarts Clive. He walked up to the three and shook the hands of Grog and Endebar before turning to Gray and kneeling down to face him.

"Hey kid, I saw what you did in there, and I must say that was some really entertaining show you put on." he grinned at the boy, who grunted irritatedly. He chose to ignore that little response. "Slamming Fiore's 'deadliest' felon around like he was some slab of meat is already quite impressive, but the fact that you are what? 7? 8?"

"8 and a month away from being 9." The boy was curt with his answer, not elaborating any further than what was necessary. It was rather unnerving, even for Gildarts and he was bloody SS-class!

"Oooookay…." He thought carefully about what to say next. "Your names Gray right, I thought I heard the old man there shout it out earlier."

Gray nodded.

Gildarts only then realised that Gray was sporting a black eyepatch, he didn't show I but he wanted to wince at just seeing it now. He felt a magical pool on the boy, more foreign than what he felt during the whole fight with Drum Bee. Looking down he saw a silver ring, it seemed to be the source but Gildarts knew better than to question Gray on his choice of fashion, as much as he found the ring to clash with the mostly black clothing and brown longcoat.

Gray quickly noticed the stare Gildarts was giving the ring and hid it behind his back, making the older man look up.

"Who said you could stare? I certainly didn't." Was all the crash mage got from him. He was really starting to get annoyed by the boy's attitude towards him.

"Where are you heading?" Quizzically, he looked at the boy's face for some sort of answer, of course only getting a verbal response because Gray was so god damn stoic, the only expression he seemed capable of forming was 'irritated'.

"Why do you want to know?" Gray responded defensively. Like he would just tell some random stranger where he was headed.

"Because people don't come out this way unless they have a direction or a plan in mind young man." Grog cut in, providing Gray with a good enough reason. He couldn't argue after-all, Grog had hit the nail on the head their.

He looked over to where Gildarts was leaning, seemingly tired of kneeling down. "I am headed west."

that got Gildarts attention…

"West? To where?"

"To Magnolia."

Gildarts suddenly knew where this was going…

"Why?"

"I want to find and join Fairy Tail."

'Fair enough I suppose…' Gildarts could see why he would be heading west now. It was Fairy Tail. But he wanted to know 'why'. Obviously Gray managed to catch his expression, the one he used when asking 'why' specifically.

It was like everyone knew when he was asking 'why'…

"Because I want to become strong, protect those weaker than me. I don't think you need to know much more than that, everything else is personal." Gray suddenly began walking away, but he was suddenly stopped by Gildarts.

"Well, lucky for you, I happen to be going back that way too."

"Well why would I go with you?!" Gray wrenched his arm free, he looked at Gildarts with the same expression he had when questioning him, as if mocking him.

'why'…

Cheeky runt…

But the SS-class mage kept his cool, simply moving his cape away from his left pectoral, showing Gray the thick armour beneath the cape, but also the insignia of the famous guild.

He almost fell backwards, if it wasn't for his pride to look cool…

"So..." Gildarts said once again with an arrogant smirk. "Do you wanna tag along with an old man?"

:::-((x))-:::

So after a month I have finally go this bastard done…

Sorry for the long wait, but thing have been getting hectic. Also recently some personal family matters have come to my attention and that has been weighing on my mind… By recently I mean two days ago…

But I still remember what I said back when I was still writing the first season of The Ripple effect. I hated seeing stories given up or abandoned. I will not do that, never I will see these things through, but college and family come first.

But that aside I have a surprise for you all next chapter, It stays cononical but I decided to add a new big feature to the TOI world.

But anyway…

Here is my new thing I have. I call it…

VIPER'S VIEWS!

So I am sure you are wondering, "Viperhat, this seems awfully weird, do explain." Well, it is rather astute of you for saying that (also quite convenient). Here's the gist of it.

At the end of each chapter, I will ask for some sort of topic from you guys, I will then speak my views on the topic you have asked for my views on and put the name of the reviewer above the chosen topic, thus the title Viper's views.

Example: I end a chapter and say "Submit a topic you want me to give my views on."

You then do that and I will pick the topic to talk about at the end of every few chapters. If I get to much I will simply say stop for a bit and when I need some more I will say submit topics…. I am sure you get the idea.

I know it sounds quite… dull. But it is rather hard for me to make up little things to interact with you guys when all I can do is types words down on a document… :s

but for now, thank you for reading and stay cool,

-Viperhat