A/N: And here we are with the first chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: The Punks

May 5th, X784

Iva quietly walked along the paved roads of Jaborosa Town, the clamor of the citizens all around her, going about their busy lives as they went to and fro. Many of them even quickly moved out of her way upon seeing the dark green Phantom Lord guild mark on her exposed upper thigh. But none of this irritated her, unlike the presence that had been accompanying her since her injuries at the hand of Gajeel. Iva let out a deep sigh at the thought of the man following her, the ever-so diligent Dr. Darling, but she couldn't snap at him like she would anyone else, given how the older man had patched her up.

"Is something the matter, Ms. Dragomirov?" the good doctor asked, noticing her agitation, "Is your injury acting up?" he continued as he quickened his pace to walk next to the young woman as he looked down at the bandages that were wrapped around her stomach.

"It's fine, Doctor," Iva huffed, hurrying her own walk to move ahead as Dr. Darling struggled to keep pace with her.

"You really shouldn't be moving so quickly, Miss, you could agitate the wound with too many sudden movements. The cuts were deep and will take even more time to heal if you tear the wound open," Dr. Darling warned as he tried to quickly power walk behind Iva, his white lab coat flowing in the wind as he moved.

"I know, Doctor," Iva now growled, her green eyes twitching in annoyance as her grip tightened on the straps of her duffle bag. "But I don't have a choice if I want to avoid disappointing Master Jose even more. I have to get to this dump of a branch, take all their crappy missions and claw my way back to the main branch!"

The Doctor flinched at this outburst, stopping where he was as Iva continued to stomp off without him. Eventually he let out a sigh, his large, oversized glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose before he pushed them back into place. He could only shake his head in disappointment at her words, knowing the young girl was in for a hard time if she didn't lighten up soon.

Iva however continued to march away, reaching the edge of Jaborosa and moving onto the path that led to the guildhall, the feeling of anger that she felt only bubbling more and more as she drew closer to the Jaborosa Branch, her thoughts floating back to the events of a few days ago, the disappointment in Jose's words, the mocking laughter of Gajeel, the red blood… Each and every thought only fueled Iva's anger more and more and nurtured the disdain she already felt towards this new place she had yet to even lay eyes on. But her thoughts were cut short as she suddenly felt herself run into something, rather someone, she noticed as she spun around on her heel as she recovered her balance, seeing a flash of teal hair as she did so.

"Oi! Watch where you're going!" she heard the teal haired man shout, a scowl on her face as her other foot landed on the ground as she grit her teeth even more.

"Watch where I'm going? You could clearly see me coming, so why didn't you move out of the way!?" Iva snapped, her anger finally boiling over as she dropped her duffle bag and clenched her fists as wooden scales slowly appeared on them as she looked to the side, briefly noting a second, dark violet haired man next to the teal haired one.

"Hey, Roc. Ain't that the Dragon Slayer Nika was on about?" the second man questioned before looking down at her bandages, a malicious smirk appearing on his face. "Looks like Gajeel really did a number on her then."

Iva couldn't help but let out a growl at hearing that name said again, "Great… Another person to rub it in my face."

"Well we don't want to pick a fight with the weak and injured, now do we, Rocco?" the violet haired man continued, that agitating smirk still on his face.

"Yeah, she doesn't look like she'd be much of a fight. She'd keel over in one blow," Rocco added a smug look now on his face as well, though it was quickly replaced with one of shock as Iva leapt towards him.

"Plant Dragon's Fist!" she roared as her left arm transformed into an extending pillar of wood that flew out towards Rocco and hit him square in the face, sending him flying back into the wooded area on the side of the road as she quickly turned towards the second man and swiped at him with a kick, though she could only watch in surprise as her leg went right through his body, it having been turned into sand.

"Crap like that ain't gonna work on me," the man cackled as his body reformed, more sand floating up into the air around him.

"Well you're a real piece of work, aren't you," Iva snarled as her wooden scales spread to the rest of her body.

"Aww… You scared, little girl? Hiding behind your little dragon scales?" the man snickered as more sand started to surround Iva, who could only wait for an opening to appear. Though her prayers for one were suddenly answered as a large wave of water burst out of the trees surrounding the road.

"Rocco you ass-!" the second man tried to shout before the water crashed down on them both, pummeling them into the ground before Rocco stepped out of the trees, his body now surrounded by armor made of water and his the armor around his feet having transformed to resemble hooves.

"You were in the way, Vince," Rocco stated with a smug look on his face, "Besides, you'll be fine if you're so tough, wontcha?" he added as the water rushed back to him and forming into a large hammer made of water.

"You-! You!" Vince snarled before standing back up, now thoroughly soaked from head to toe, though he quickly realized something was wrapping around his ankle and looked down to see a vine just in time for his feet to get pulled out from under him, causing him to faceplant, earning a laugh from Rocco as Iva stood back up.

"Not so tough now that you're all washed up, huh?" Iva smirked as the vine retreated back into her arm, her black hair sticking to her face in thick strands thanks to the water. She then turned to face Rocco but then suddenly gasped in pain when she felt her scales crack and chip away around the wound she got from Gajeel and collapsed on her knees as the rest of her scales disappeared and blood started soaking into her bandages as she grasped at her wound in desperation to stop it from bleeding.

"Oi!" Rocco shouted as his take-over suddenly vanished and he rushed over to Iva, Vincent also seeing this and clambering to his feet as well to stand over the girl, though they were quickly interrupted by the sound of Dr. Darling.

"What did you do!?" he shouted as he jogged over to them all as quickly as he could, "What did you two do to her? She's injured!" he continued in panic as he pulled fresh bandages and antiseptic from his lab coat.

"Tch… We didn't do nothing wrong," Rocco huffed, standing up and moving away from the doctor.

"Oh no. I think you did, Mr. Ivers. The ground is soaked and given the amount of wet sand caked onto Mr. Gauss's face, I think he did too," the doctor stated in an oddly serious tone for the man.

"Well… she started it!" Vincent snapped, "She jumped at Rocco and hit him square in the face!"

"Is this true, Ms. Dragomirov?" Darling asked, looking down at the girl as he finished removing her old bandages.

"Maybe…" the girl groaned, "But only because he was asking for it."

Dr. Darling could only let out a sigh at this as he opened his bottle on antiseptic and began to clean Iva's wound, earning a gasp of pain from the girl due to the burn of the medicine. "I'll be reporting all three of you to Ms. Anastasia for this. So I suggest you turn around and head back to the guild before she has to go out looking for you."

The two men swallowed out of fear, knowing full well what happens when Nika has to come and find you for running away from punishment and quickly started to make their way back to the guildhall before they made things even worse with her.

"Now then," the doctor sighed as he finished tying on Iva's fresh bandages, "I'm prescribing you bedrest for the next few days. You won't be going on any missions or getting into any fights until you've given your wound a proper chance to heal up."

Iva could only sigh in return, being unable to argue with the doctor after he had patched her up yet again, "I understand."

. : + : .

Nika was sat at her desk in her office at the guildhall, which was uncharacteristically for her at the time, littered with paper and files from all corners of the office. It was never easy to complete a mage transfer within Phantom Lord thanks to the size of the guild and the sheer amount of paperwork it produced. The woman let out a long sigh before attempting to pull the various papers and files on Iva into one big pile before pulling out one last, final form that she needed to fill out to officially complete the transfer. Unfortunately she would have to wait for the girl to actually arrive before it could be filled out though, but her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a hard knocking on the office door.

"Come in," she mumbled, attempting to sit up straight and not look so tired out from the paperwork as the door began to open, Raoul stepping in while holding a cup of coffee.

"You look like shit," he said bluntly as soon as he laid eyes on the woman.

"Gee… Thanks for that," Nika sighed, slumping forward to lay her head on the desk in front of her, "I hate paperwork… I hate it so much."

"I know ya do. Here," Raoul said as he walked over to the side of the desk and held the coffee out to her, "Thought you could use a pick-me-up."

Nika sat up and looked at the punkish man before letting a soft smile cross her face, her cheeks turning a slight shade of pink. "Thanks Raoul, that's very thoughtful of you," she said softly as she reached out and took the cup from his hand, the man's own face turning red with a blush.

"Yeah, well… Don't read too much into it, all right, Veronika," he huffed as he turned and walked away, suddenly yelping in pain as he felt something hard hit the back of his head.

"You know I hate that name, you ass!" Nika shouted, having stood up from where she was sat.

Raoul couldn't help but let a smirk appear on his face as he turned around, "Thought you could use some pepping up too. See how full of energy you are now?"

"You're still an ass," Nika huffed before sitting back down to sip on her coffee.

"Yeah, yeah," Raoul mumbled, his smirk still not having left his face, though the sound of the door opening cut him off from saying anything else as a tall woman with blond and red hair poked her head in.

"Heyyy. How're things going in here, have you two… y'know, yet?" the woman asked with a sly smile on her face as Nika just buried her face in her arms on her desk and groaned.

"Tch… You've got real shit timing, Lillian," Raoul stated, his smirk quickly disappearing after the woman's interruption, "Besides, I'm just here to cheer our poor Guild Rep up is all."

"Oh, boo," Lillian pouted before stepping into the room properly, "Is our poor Guild Representative feeling overwhelmed by all her duties then? The poor thing. All work and no play makes for a dull life you know. Also early wrinkles in all the wrong places."

"Please… please stop talking," Nika begged, her voice still muffled by her arms and desk.

"Ohh! Is that the new guild member?" Lillian asked while picking up Iva's file, knocking several of the papers out of their organized stack in the process, "What a cute little punk! And that little scar on her face makes her look all sorts of fierce and tough! Don't you think she's cute, Raoul?" she continued as she walked over to the man and shoved the picture of Iva in his face.

"I… I guess?" he shrugged as Nika let out a muffled groan, Lillian allowing a mischievous smirk to appear on her face.

"Right, you think Nika's much cuter, don't you?" she asked as Raoul's face turned completely red.

"I don't gotta answer that!" he shouted before stepping around Lillian, "I've said my piece, so I'm outta here."

Lillian watched as Raoul stormed off, his face no less red from her question as he slammed the door behind him, a smug look on her face the entire time she watched. "Looks like I scared your future boy toy off. He's so easily embarrassed," she mused happily as Nika let out another groan, "You two really should hook up already, the endless tease is killing everyone you know."

"Is there something I can help you with? Or are you just here to torment me as usual?" Nika said, finally lifting her face from her desk to reveal that it was just as red with embarrassment as Raoul's was.

"I'm being serious you know. There's a large betting pool for when it finally happens," Lillian added, mischief still her voice as she moved to sit on Nika's desk, Nika taking the opportunity to snatch both Iva's picture and file from Lillian and rebuild her stack of paperwork.

"And so am I. I'm really busy you know. Master Jose is expecting a lot from us with this new member," Nika explained as she finished rebuilding the stack.

"Is that all this about?" Lillian asked, now oddly serious, "Are you sure you're just not trying to prove your own worth to him? We were both in the Main Branch at the same time, I know what happened with you and the Element Four."

Nika could only look down at her desk at that. "It's all anything has been about since then… I had my chance to be a member of the Element Four… And I… I blew it. I lost the spot to Juvia. Even though I could've won, I didn't take it seriously enough and now here I am. The Jaborosa Branch's glorified secretary and babysitter."

"Oh hun… You know a lot of us have reasons to want to go back to the Main Branch, myself and Raoul included. You really don't have to push yourself so much."

"But I do! It's more than just… guild stuff… My parents… I've been nothing but a disappointment my whole life. Never good enough, never the right person for the job… Except this apparently," Nika sighed, slumping back into her chair before she heard Lillian stand up and walk around the desk before her head was suddenly pulled into the other woman's chest in a tight hug.

"You've never been a disappointment to me or Raoul," Lillian said softly, holding onto Nika tightly as she stroked her hair, Nika only letting out a sigh and closing her eyes, allowing the other woman to comfort her.

"I know," she finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"You're younger than both me and Raoul and yet you try and take on so many burdens and responsibilities. You need to remember that we're here to support you and that you can rely on us, even if we drive you crazy, all right?" Lillian explained, letting go of Nika and looking her in the eyes.

"I know," Nika sighed.

"Good. Now go and freshen up. You'll lose all respect with the new girl if she sees you like this," Lillian demanded as she pulled Nika up from her chair and started pushing her out of the door.

Credits:

Daryl "Darling" Walsh – Cat the Alien

Rocco "Roc" Ivers – MyDearWatson

Vincent "Vince" Gauss – XLil MEkoX

Lillian Barret – Reduced20

A/N: All right! The first chapter is done! I hope you enjoyed it! I was originally going to write a third scene, but that just felt like a good place to stop for now, so I ended it there.

But anyways, a huge thank you to everyone who sent in characters! All of the spots were filled quickly and I even went a bit over on them. But I do really enjoy all of the characters that are now in the story, they're a colorful cast and I can only hope to do them all justice.

But I also want to remind everyone that there is a shared discord for this story and for MyDearWatson's Kingdom Come story! Both sides of the server are very active and there is already a bunch of art for both stories. The invite code for it is on my profile as well as MyDearWatson's.

And a big thanks to Benthino, Origm2012, MyDearWatson, Grimnack, Cat the Alien, musicaldreams89, Paperman0, Warmacine375 and Carla the wizard for the reviews! They're all appreciated!

That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed!

Your host,

Dreadburner94.