Wishfull-star: (✧ω✧)

Ace outputted his fire above him, focusing on maintaining form as he created his very own sun. of course it wasn't as bright or hot as the sun, but it was a huge ball of fire. He was sweating before he finally let go, the fire dissipating into nothing but hot air that drifted away with the wind. He was panting, and fell on his butt, putting his head between his knees.

That kind of fire was hard to make. Not making that amount, but maintaining it in one form. His goal was to be able to shape his fire into things, like figures or words. It would be awesome! Probably wouldn't work well in battle, but outside of it, it would be cool. His other goal was to be able to control the temperature, but he knew that would take forever.

Ace looked up when that reporter guy came over to him, sweaty and shirtless. Ace wasn't in the mood for talking, he needed some rest and food. Sabo would think he was overdoing it. Thatch, too. It was just them together again, Marco left while Ace was in recovery. There were no lingering affects from that, so that was a huge relief.

"You're one of the new members, right? Cool! I heard you were a model in a failed magazine! Cool!"

"Please go away. I'm tired from working on my magic."

"So honest! Cool!" Ace saw Lucy from behind, looking sad. He said someone else was very cool. "Who? I've already talked to everyone cool!" He said cool way too much for Ace's liking. What an annoying guy.

The teen replied, "Lucy's pretty cool. Her celestial spirit magic is the only kind in the guild. She's new like me. Also, she's pretty and smart." He was trying to get the guy away, and Lucy clearly wanted attention. Why not try to help his friend? Sabo was away on a job of his own, and most of Ace's other team were gone. Natsu was sick from what happened to him on their mission while Ace was off with Sabo.

"Cool! Celestial magic!" He got up and ran inside. Ace gave Lucy a thumbs up, and she gave him one in response. He flopped down on his back, and looked up to see Gajeel there. He asked if Ace was really that weak.

Ace closed his eyes. "Yup. Go away."

"Where's Salamander." Ace replied that he didn't know. He repeated for him to go away. When he was walking away, Ace called his name, and didn't look at him as he threatened his safety.

"Just so you know, once I'm better at my fire magic, you won't be invincible to me again. You hurt one of my friends, you'll regret it."

"Whatever," Gajeel said, though he had a hint of sadness in his voice. Ace didn't care much. He fell asleep for a bit, and woke up when Lucy went over to him, clearly done with her interview. She looked exhausted and sat next to him. He asked how her interview went.

"I'll never say 'cool' again," she replied. "Thanks for getting me the attention." Ace smiled, and said he saw she wanted it and also wanted that annoying guy away from him. Lucy smiled back. "What were you doing out here? You look so tired."

Ace said he was training to control the shapes of his fire. He was starting at the hardest and working his way down because he was impatient and irrational. She agreed that it did sound that way. "Where's Sabo? Did he go on a job without you?" Ace nodded. "Did you get in a fight or something?" she asked in worry. He waved this off. He just wanted to do it alone this time. It was nothing bad between them. "I see. I wish I had a sibling."

"You kind of do now. Got a lot of brothers and sisters. I was never a brother to a girl, though. Only Sabo." He never mentioned Luffy or anything about his past to anybody but for the Master. Nobody knew but Sabo and Makarov. It would stay that way. Lucy pointed out he might just not remember them. "No, Sabo didn't ever say we had a sister."

"Do you miss the rest of your family?" Ace shook his head. "Oh… why not?" She asked hesitantly. Not knowing if it would offend him. He said they had been orphans. Ace was one literally and Sabo in name. He hated his original family with a passion, and that was why he left. Ace still felt hurt he left him alone, but it was all in the past, and Sabo clearly regret it and did everything he could to return to him.

-x-

"No fucking way," Gray growled.

"Master called for it. There are plenty of women in Magnolia, too. Proven by how sold out the magazine with Ace in it! So, along with Miss Fairy Tail, we're doing Mr. Wizard. And you, Natsu, Ace, Gajeel, Sabo and Elfman will be participating! It'll be fun!" Mira cheered with a smile. "Plus, the winner gets 500,000 jewel!" Gajeel told her to go fuck herself, and left. None of the men were good with this. Ace was happy to get more money. He said he'd do it willingly. Then this made Gray and Natsu volunteer as well. Soon Elfman was in on it, too, not wanting to lose to them, and display his manliness.

It would be embarrassing, but Ace had already done something pretty embarrassing. He wasn't interested in any romance, so women liking what he looked like didn't affect him at all. He was unbothered.

The girls were excited about it, and Ace felt a bit indifferent. He'd do his best, but wasn't excited for it. He was more excited for Fantasia and the Harvest Festival in general. The Harvest Festival was an annual celebration for the whole city. Sabo was fine with it, not going to even try at it. This group went around the town to help out setting things up, Ace and Sabo working together while Ace did the heavy work and Sabo used his magic to do so.

Once they were both tired, Ace feeling pumped after the work out, they went and got something to eat before continuing again. The contest and actual parade celebration was the next day. After things were mostly prepared, the stage in the main room of the building all set up for the crowd to ogle at the woman - and now men as well - he went home.

He was tired. Thatch made him dinner, and laughed loudly when Ace told him about the poorly named male contest. "Don't you dare come," Ace threatened.

"Noo, I have to get photos for Marco," Thatch said. Ace blinked, and asked what he meant. "He thought you were adorable." Ace turned red in the face and put his hands over it. "I think it's sweet," Thatch said happily. "But he returned to Blue Pegasus, saying he wanted to try to have things work out there, too. Wants to get along with the others as best as he could."

Ace hoped that he was happy there, too. He couldn't help his freckles, and had been told by many that they were cute. He was personally sick of hearing about them, even if he liked them, too. It made him feel unique in a small way. At least appearance wise.

The next day, he had a tank top on, had a plan to win. Thatch bet that he would take third place after Gray and Natsu, since they were the most well known. Well, Ace wouldn't take that laying down, and vowed to be number one. If anyone actually paid attention to the men's contest. Ace wasn't sure there would be a lot of people there for them. They could just be showing off for no reason, really, and that would be extra embarrassing. He had his shorts and boots on, already planning on what to do with the shirt.

When he got there, the girls were all dressed up fancy, and Ace saw Gajeel wasn't there, not participating. The girls asked if they were nervous. Ace shook his head, though it wasn't true. Sabo looked bored with it, uninterested. Natsu and Gray were fighting, even if both were especially clean today.

They were just using it as a competition between one another, not including Ace, which was good. He didn't want any negative attention. They were all backstage and ready to go out, with the men actually scheduled to go first. If people were there waiting for the women, they had to sit through the mens' part.

Elfman went out first, and he shouted about being manly. Ace peeked between the curtains and saw the room was literally chock full of women of all ages. "Holy crap," Ace said quietly. Mira looked out, and said the crowd was bigger for the mae than it had ever been for the women. She looked extremely amused.

When Ace was called, it was after Sabo, who was wearing his usual fancy attire and showed off his power by turning his hands into rainbows and painting the air with them. Aesthetically pleasing but not overwhelming. Ace was called out and walked on stage. When he got to his spot, he grinned and lit his body on fire to destroy his shirt and show his muscled chest.

He was introduced as a former male model, which Ace detested being called. It wasn't true. But he also added that Ace was a powerful wizard going on S-Class jobs, which also irked him. Those were only for Sabo and he took him along with him. Since he was in last place, he wasn't stared at the longest.

Natsu destroyed part of the stage with his show off, and Gray froze the wall, nearly hitting Elfman with it. They got in an argument on stage before they were cleared out. Ace left so he wouldn't be a part of it. The winner would be voted for at the end of the festival. When he got back stage, Sabo laughed at his tactic, finding it hilarious but also pretty smart.

"Well, you are a former male model after all," he teased. Ace's eye twitched, and muttered that he should never have done that job.

"It's your fault for not telling me, Mira," Ace accused. She just smiled pleasantly. The men returned to the dwindling crowd as the male citizens came to to watch the traditional Miss Fairy Tail contest. Ace was near the back with the other guys in the guild, those who participated or not. All the women were dressed quite differently.

He thought Levy was the cutest, and Cana was the prettiest. Though he still thought she was an idiot for drinking herself to an early grave. He drank, too, but never a large amount, as he was unable to get drunk in the first place. "Wanna go get some candy after this?" Sabo asked. Ace nodded. He had enough money to get candy.

They all waited as the women filed out before someone Ace didn't recognize appeared. "Who's that?" Ace asked. The men were shocked to see this women, who did have a guild mark on her chest, so she was a Fairy Tail member. Maybe she'd been gone away a long time. "Evergreen?!" they shouted in shock,

"Don't interfere with my time!" Lucy said in annoyance, since Evergreen had attracted everyone's attention, suddenly walking out when it was Lucy's turn to shine. Gray shouted at her to not make eye contact before Lucy was turned to stone. Sabo warned Ace to never look in her eyes, or he'd be turned to stone. She opened the curtains to display all of the contestants had been turned to stone. Even Erza.

Max screamed at everyone to flee the building. How was Evergreen a Fairy Tail member if she hurt them, and everyone feared her? Was she a terrible person? Makarov was raging and shouting at her to change them back that moment. "Turn them back right now, Evergreen!" he roared. She just looked smug.

Then there was a huge flash that slammed onto the stage through the open roof of the area the contests were being held. Had been being held, they were clearly over by now. Ace didn't recognize the people who landed there. One with long green hair covering one eye, another with a metal mask on his face, and then Laxus. The guy he'd seen a grand total of one time. And that time, he'd proven to be a prick.

Everyone around him had their eyes narrow. "Who's that? Who are these people?" Ace asked. Sabo said it was the Thunder God Tribe. "Bickslow, Evergreen, Freedand Laxus." Ace said he'd seen Laxus before, but not all of them. He asked about Laxus being the only one in the group to be S-Class. "Yes. Now the only S-Class we have left here is me," Sabo explained. "I have no doubt he'll target me first." It did seem that way when he announced that the real festival was going to begin.

Ace glared at him. Fairy Tail members were supposed to care for one another deeply. Why would these people want to hurt them, then? He'd seen Laxus be a jerk, but he didn't really expect him to attack everyone. Though Ace had never gotten to truly know him, so he really couldn't have formed a real opinion on him.

Well, he sure had, now. "Now, let's play, Grandpa! The games begin now!" Laxus shouted, looked a bit crazed. Or just overly excited.

"Stop being a fool! We still have preparations to do for Fantasia! Turn them back right now!" Ace didn't think that was the biggest problem, but the Master did. Laxus grinned back, and said that happened at night. Many people would die before then. When a lightning bolt came down from above, Ace shot fire and controlled its direction to land right on Laxus, who looked shocked, and screamed Natsu's name, not knowing it was Ace.

It didn't do much damaged to the enemy as his lightning forced the fire to fizzle out. "Oh, it's the newby, huh?" Laxus taunted. "You have no right to be worried over these people, you barely know them." Ace scowled. "Next time you do that, I'll shatter on of these sluts." Ace balled his fists.

"If you think this is a game, you're seriously mistaken, Laxus!" Master shouted. The man was livid, Ace had never seen him angrier. Even when they attacked Phantom Lord not long ago. Laxus grinned. Well, he was grinning the whole time like a mad man. What happened to him to turn him into this?

"Oh, we're very serious about this," Laxus taunted.

Freed claimed it was their way to see just who the strongest in the guild was. Bickslow agreed. Ace wondered what their their magic was. Even Evergreen might have some other power besides turning people to stone once making eye contact. Sabo muttered under his breath that it would be better to have Gildarts or Mystogan there. The other S-Class wizards.

Both Mira and Erza were out of the game, frozen in stone, and who knows how delicate they were now. They could shatter.

"The rules are simple. The last one standing is the winner! It's the battle of Fairy Tail!"

Natsu surprised them by grinning and punched a table into the air. "I like it! It's easy to understand! I'm fired up!" He recalled Mira once telling him that Laxus had beaten Natsu at every chance of a fight they had. He went straight to attack Laxus, but was knocked out immediately by a bolt of lighting. Laxus grinned at his weakness.

They had three hours to beat the four of them, or else the petrified girls would be destroyed. Ace was sweating nervously. Did his attack make them even angrier? Well, they didn't seem angry, they seemed annoyed. Ace disliked all of them deeply. They could even accidentally kill one of the girls.

How underhanded, to attack them like this. What kind fo magic was petrification? It seemed like a cop out, a cheat.

"Let the games begin," Laxus said, and disappeared with the other three before Master could attack them in his larger form. The crowd of shocked and angered Fairy Tail members ran from the building. Ace stood there for a moment, Sabo grabbing his arm. He quietly told Ace Laxus had always been this way. At least for as long as he knew him. It was made no worse from Ace's attack.

He nodded, but hurried to Natsu, who was beaten and down.

Master went running to the exit, but was stopped by an invisible wall. He was unable to get through it, even pulled by Gray from outside of the wall that only affected the Master. Ace and Sabo ran through the doorway, and there was nothing stopping them from leaving. Ace had no idea what kind of magic this was, but Sabo said it was Freedeven before the runes appeared in the doorway, above them all. It was an attack meant to keep someone or something from leaving a barrier that was intangible to those who the rules didn't mention. This rule was that those over 80 were not allowed to leave. Even Master admitted there was no way for him to get out.

He was completely out of the fight before he even began. "We'll defeat them, Master. Don't worry," Sabo said firmly. Makarov was furious, but told them they were counting on him. Natsu would be fine, he didn't need Ace's fire. And he couldn't wait around for him to wake up. "We're going, Ace!"

"Yeah!" Ace said. The two of them ran, and Sabo put a protection around them. That way no runes would take them out. And they did run over many rune traps that didn't activate with them there. "But where do we go?" Ace asked in worry. "I thought everyone in Fairy Tail cared about each other!"

Sabo shouted at him to not count those traitors. "They aren't Fairy Tail members, they're traitors!" He was enraged. Ace never saw him this way before, and didn't want to make him angrier. "Ace, we should split up and cover more ground," Sabo said, surprising Ace. "You're strong enough to not need a partner." Then he told Ace about the enemies magic. What to do to avoid them.

"But what about the runes?" Ace asked, knowing he'd get trapped immediately since they were everywhere. Sabo coated his hand in violet, and pressed it to Ace's chest. He was still shirtless. It burned, but the handmark there was able to keep him from being affected by the runes.

His brother grinned. "Someone normal couldn't handle that seal. You're strong, Ace. Good luck." Ace nodded, and jumped onto the roof to see further. He had an idea. He found a crowd of members trapped inside a rune, and he helped them all out, Sabo's handprint working to help them all out. He went around freeing those confined in the rune traps.

The friendly fire stopped, but he couldn't stay with everyone, and they all probably got relocked into traps. He was also worried the power would stop working for him. But many got free and were being careful. He helped somewhat, even if it was from Sabo's magic. He would have to use some of his own.

Looking for Laxus would be the fastest route. He held no attachments to the man, and wouldn't hesitate to harm him to get everyone back to normal. He looked for someplace big, someplace grand other than the Fairy Tail building. He thought of the cathedral. It was huge and fancy, too. Like a castle.

Laxus seemed completely self absorbed, he'd want to look like a king. Ace made it there and peeked in a window and saw Laxus was there. Ace backed away, and created a huge ball of flame in his hands above his head that he'd been practicing. He threw it to the cathedral building, and it blew up like a bomb was set inside.

He hoped he got Laxus, but then he was behind him, and tried to electrocute him. Ace was ready to be knocked out just like Natsu, but as his eyes were shut tightly, nothing happened to him. The ground beneath him was scorched, but he was fine. Not even his shorts were damaged.

The older young man looked at him in interest and suspicion. Ace shot fire at him, and used his speed again like he had when he ran from Gajeel, and managed to get a kick in to Laxus' back, which pissed him off. "Never got your name, but you seem to not be a weakling. However, look what I have here. You seemed close to him."

Sabo was then there, trapped in a ball. "That's not Sabo, I'm not stupid," Ace snapped.

"Are you sure?" Laxus asked. Ace wasn't sure. "How about this?" he showed Thatch there, dropped to the ground.

"Thatch! He's not part of the guild, why would you do this?!"

"Just getting a feeling for the kind of guy you are. You're weak just like everybody else. Since your attention is more on this guy, I guess I don't need this fake anymore." Sabo's fake disappeared, but Thatch stayed. Laxus held his lighting fist up over Thatch. He didn't know if Laxus would really do it, he had no idea. But he couldn't let him.

"Stop it!" Ace shouted. Laxus looked entertained by his panic. "I-I won't attack you, don't hurt him!"

"You think you're strong enough to actually cause me damage? Hah! Maybe I'll kill this guy just for your earlier attack, which did me no harm. You're weak, newby," he taunted. He stopped the lightning, and kicked Ace in the face with a lightning covered foot. It shot right through Ace's head, but he fell back. "You look hard for a normal person to fight. But you can't hurt me. You should give up and wait for the strong ones to come to actually give me a challenge."

He walked back to the cathedral, sitting in front of the burning building. Ace hurried to Thatch, who was unconscious. Ace picked the older man up and tried running, but came across a rune trap. His purple hand wasn't there anymore. And Ace was now trapped. Laxus laughed at him as he tried to find a way out.

Pressed up against the walls, and shot flame up, and found he was in a cube, there was a roof. He couldn't shoot up over the walls to break out. "Good luck, newby! There's no way you'll break out without precious Sabo's help! That snot nosed brat!"

"Don't insult my brother!" Ace shouted. Laxus's eyebrows rose. Maybe Ace shouldn't have said that.

"Is that so? Well, the only real one that could cause me damage would be that prick. I'm sure you'd make just a good a hostage as the fairy sluts." Ace tried so hard not to shout at him like an angry child. Ace thought about how Sabo had gathered power from observing others and going separate places. Master said they both got magic from the atmosphere and others around them.

Ace imagined taking in the ethernano in the atmosphere around him. He took in a deep breath, eyes closed. He was covering Thatch, who was still asleep, but looked unharmed other than that. Ace had to protect him and also not become a burden again, to Sabo as a hostage. Blue light started to gather around him, and rotted through the walls all from the runes, able to see them physically decay, even if they were invisible.

It broke through and into Ace's body. Laxus stood up, looking at Ace in shock and confusion. Ace took advantage of this and ran away as fast as he could, carrying Thatch on his back. The man was taller than he was, but was no problem to carry. Ace was away from Laxus immediately and made his way to the outskirts of Magnolia.

He set Thatch down behind a rock. "Thatch? Thatch, wake up!" He slapped him across the face, the regular man jerking awake, looking confused. "Are you okay?" he asked, and questioned if he was hurt. The man shook his head, but was confused about how he got there. Ace said he had no time to explain, but that Thatch had to stay there to be safe for awhile. "Trust me, okay?" Ace asked with a small smile, though it was forced.

The chef looked determined and said he wouldn't get caught again, coming easily to the fact he'd been kidnapped. "No apologies, go kick their butts." Ace smiled and said he would before zooming back. Ace wasn't ashamed to run away anymore when it had to do with protecting his friends, and his brother.

But he felt exhausted about absorbing the magic in the surrounding air. It made him feel sluggish and weak, even though he could feel the magic pulsing through his fire body. He was worried to get caught in another trap. He couldn't handle using all that magic energy over and over again.

But then, just at his feet where a rune was hidden, a big screen of a skull and crossbones showed up, making him stumble back to not touch it. Apparently the petrified girls had been saved! Erza and Lucy and Levy weren't hurt! It was such a relief. But then he heard that there was another deadline they had to meet.

"Thunder palace" was created. Ace had no idea what it was until he looked up and saw floating lacrimas in the sky. Those were crystals that stored magic energy for various uses. He and Sabo once watched a whole show on one in his apartment. It had been fun. But these ones seemed dangerous, and powerful.

There was an hour and ten minutes to defeat them all, or thunder palace would start. They were on standby now. Ace thought for a second. This attack was going to hurt everyone in the city limits. He could tell it wrapped around the entire town. Not only him, but his dear friends and brother, his surrogate father, everyone would be hurt. Even the citizens. Not everybody could sustain lightning damage like he could.

Though there was no way for him to get high enough to blast them. And he'd run out of energy quick as he was now. There was no way for him to defeat them easily. But he couldn't go back into town when he knew he would be unable to fight Laxus and get locked in runes again. He bit his lower lip, hard enough to break the skin and a flicker of fire to appear on the lip.

Balling his fists, he had to assume that he would be incredibly hurt. He ran back to Thatch, who was being expertly quiet. "Thatch, I'm probably gonna get really hurt, will you take me to get medical help afterwards? At the guild, try and find someone to help me?"

"What are you gonna do?" Ace looked up at the floating lacrimas. He said he was going to absorb as much of their magic as he could. "Can you even do that?!" Ace grinned shakily, and said he had to try. Or else everyone would die or get severely injured. The whole city would be destroyed. "Okay. I'll get you help as fast as I can. Good luck."

Ace thanked him for believing in him. "Well, I don't know much about magic, all I know is you're a badass. So good luck! I'll keep hiding over there so you don't get me caught up in it, too. Just… be careful." Ace didn't say this was the opposite of careful, it was terribly reckless. But he didn't want anyone to get hurt, and all the others were probably busy fighting. He was free right now.

He took a deep breath, and felt that same power he had before, but he escalated it immediately, and then targeted the thunder palace lacrimas. The first three near them lost all power and fell to the ground, cracking as empty lacrima spheres. He felt heat rushing through his body, but it wasn't too bad. He dispelled it by releasing a ton of fire from his body. The burning went away.

Methodologically, he absorbed each lightning lacrima, and he got to about seven before it started to take damage. Going slow was making it worse, so he took in a deep, deep breath and forced his body to become a magic magnet that only focused on the lacrimas all of their power was sucked into his poor, tired body.

He screamed as he was electrocuted from the inside, not the outside. It was agonizing, and he didn't know if he ran out of the ability to do it before or after they were all taken care of, but it was all he could do. He was badly burnt in almost every part of his body. Not like the burns like Sabo had, but as if he was scorched. His skin was brown and smoking. Thatch ran over, but couldn't touch him because of the lightning still coming out of him and disturbing the surroundings.

But Thatch went anyways, and picked Ace up despite being shocked. The shocks weren't too painful, but they were uncomfortable. But he ran into town, shouting for anyone from Fairy Tail. He came across Erza, who he recognized. "Help Ace! He got hurt from all the lighting balls!" Thatch begged.

Erza was only shocked for a millisecond before they both ran to the Fairy Tail building, the fighting over. Ace was naked now from all the lighting that came out of his body, his clothes not handling it with him. Thatch had his shirt draped over Ace's private parts, even if he wasn't awake to be embarrassed.

When they got to the guild, Thatch rushed Ace to a table, and Erza screamed for Porlyusica to come and treat Ace. She was the woman that treated Makarov when he lost his magic power from the Phantom Lord wizards. Many were in there, all injured in some way. Many were also burnt, but not nearly as badly as Ace. The woman with pink hair and lines on her face looked at Ace in sadness. "He's too far gone," she declared. "He absorbed all of the magic from the thunder palace lacrimas."

Everyone around gasped, and someone came over that Ace hadn't met before. Everyone around seemed baffled he was there. It really did seem like the battle was over, and he wasn't able to enjoy that fact, not knowing how many others had died. He saved them from the thunder palace, but it was still a huge fight. Strong opponents who had seemed bothered by killing their guild members.

The man covered from head to toe in an odd outfit stood over Ace, looking down at him as he was barely breathing. He took out two of his uniquely shaped staffs he had on his back and put them on either side of Ace's body, one at his head and the other at his feet. Everyone was silent but for Sabo's crying, though he tried to keep it down. Mira was petting his hair to try and calm him down, her looking very upset as well.

Ace's body was covered in blue light, and his breathing evened out. The worst of the burns were gone, and the bits of hair that had been burnt away grew back. But he still was covered in charred skin, just not nearly as bad as before. Porlyusica immediately ordered Ace to be taken to the infirmary, where she rushed inside and got to treating him. He was covered in a magic burn cream and then bandaged in every part of his body underneath the clothes Gray took off for him, leaving himself in his underwear, which wasn't a rare occurrence.

Hehehe this is only the beginning of Ace's pain throughout the story. Mwahaha! And for those who haven't seen/read FT, I'll say the guy who healed Ace was Mystogan, a powerful S-class wizard in case anyone was confused. He's a hermit/introvert. See you next week!