Loke immediately shatters the ground, earth magic rings lighting right up to crumble and let him fall through.
He curses when some pieces begin to rejoin in mere seconds, and he leaps off, managing to get airborne before the floor fixes itself. He catches himself on a wisp of Wind Magic, and lands safely.
"Plants growing rapidly, earth rebuilding itself," he mutters, "and the magic doesn't feel great, either. Is it earth magic? Nurture magic? What could it be…"
His next step is met with crumbling sand, and he trips, landing harshly facefirst, arms catching himself with a nasty scrape. With a groan he scrambles back to his feet, now-cracked glasses in hand.
That brick had disintegrated.
"Time!" he realizes. "Ark of Time. Never thought I'd see it again."
"Oh, you've seen it before?"
From behind a crystal ball socks him right in the spine, the pain eliciting a sharp noise out of him. He doesn't get much reprieve– in the next moment, the orb is before him, shattering against his jaw.
Sputtering, nauseated, and near the edge of consciousness, he manages to land harshly against the wall instead of the floor.
He swears. "Take it easy… on the face, please," his words stutter, and his vision spins. He closes his eyes for a moment.
The woman is right before him as his knees give in, and she cradles his chin in her hands. A single wave of her hands and Loke feels his rings disintegrate. There goes about three month's worth of rent.
"I'd say your face isn't worth keeping. You've got eyebags, and the makeup isn't my thing,'' she hums. "So, sweetheart. Any last words?"
Loke chokes out a laugh. "I wouldn't mind getting dominated, but unfortunately, degradation isn't my kink."
His hand gleams a bright, scorching orange– and his claws are slicing the ground before he even throws them at her.
The woman leaps back, startled– but she doesn't get away in time. Her cloak is shredded through at the edges, and the force splits a gash into her arm, drawing fresh blood.
Loke lunges forward, the light of Regulus in his fist– and he throws it, right in her face.Her arms come up sharply to defend. The fist collides harshly against her forearms, throwing her back a yard into the far wall.
Cursing, she gathers herself, wincing at the burning bruises in her bones– but when she lifts her head, Loke is gone.
"The rings were not his main magic?" she mutters, cursing in frustration. This was bad. Incredibly bad– she'll need to do some damage control, now that she can't catch up to him. This is what she gets for underestimating him, then…
She sighs.
"Whatever the case, I'll need to destroy the evidence," she deems the priority, looking toward the study.
"They're aiming for Clover Station?!"
If Gray knew this was going to turn into a race, he would've brought his bike.
"I see… so they're securing the train station because it's the fastest way to get there," Erza says. "But there's no way around this, there's only one route. We need to head to Oshibana. What of Loke?"
"He's not picking up," Cana says, frazzled. "This is weird. He always picks up when a girl's calling."
"The base is probably empty, so what's holding him up?" Lucy mentions, confused. "You don't think he took detours, did he?"
"No, no, he wouldn't," Gray says. "Should we go as backup?"
The Call Card buzzes through for the third time. Loke still isn't picking up.
"We can't wait any longer," Erza says. "But I won't feel at ease leaving him behind. Someone should–"
"Ah, that's right!" Lucy says, getting up quickly, opening the door of the carriage. "Gate of the Maiden, I open thee– Virgo!"
The maid bows as she emerges, to the awe of the other members who hadn't seen this before.
"Virgo can dig through the ground, so she's quick," Lucy says. "Virgo, could you go back a station and look for Loke? And then catch up to us."
"Oh, there was that option," Erza says.
"Wouldn't it be more tactical to send her ahead into Clover, then?" Gray suggests. A moment later, he notes the problem, "ah, if Eisenwald finds her first, she's not going to be able to handle their whole guild, I see…"
"Here's what he looks like," Cana says, handing Virgo a card with Loke's face on it. "You can call me through that once you find him to stay in contact."
Virgo receives the card with both hands– and proceeds to stare, very intently, at the image.
"Understood," she says, shifting back into her bow. "I will depart immediately."
A magic seal opens under her, and she vanishes, shredding through the ground at an inconceivable speed.
"How reliable," Erza deems. "Thanks, Lucy. You're a lifesaver."
Lucy flusters. "Ah, no– I just– ah, no no, it's just my contribution," she dismisses, evidently pleased. Under her breath, she whispers a relieved note to herself that she had managed to be useful somehow. "Let's go, then! We can leave him to Virgo."
Gray's eyes lingered worriedly in the direction Virgo went, but Cana soon calls him back to attention, and Erza starts up the car once more.
They arrive at Oshibana, where the central train station was being raided.
"I knew it– they're stopping the train so we can't get past the gorge," Erza swears. "We need to get in. Let's go!"
"Hold on…" Gray says. "It's weird. Their strength now is the fact that the guild masters don't know they're coming. It doesn't make sense for them to catch so much attention here."
Lucy, meanwhile, stares in baffled horror as Erza headbutts a guard to the ground.
Cana frowns. "I don't know what they're planning, but we can't let them just run through this place like this."
"The Master's going to be so mad," Lucy says, dreadfully, "this station's where most of the commute in Fiore happens, so this is definitely going to make the front page of papers…"
"Which again, doesn't make sense. Why are they drawing so much attention to themselves? Wasn't their aim the guild masters?" Gray says, unsettled. "You're not telling me they just gave up on that."
And– and that might be true.
Maybe, because their plan was leaked, they gave up on the guild masters. Maybe they're now just aiming to cause as big a ruckus as possible before they go out. It's possible.
"I understand the situation now!" Erza hollers, "let's go, you three!"
Gray frowns as the girls head in. He can't help but feel this is a trap– but even if it was, they couldn't ignore what was currently happening in this station.
Cana turns around when Gray doesn't follow them in. A single, stern gaze– and Gray lifts his own Call Card. Cana nods in recognition, and heads on in, leaving him behind. Gray turns around and begins to run in another direction.
"Hey, office!" He reaches the city entrance and jumps into the nearest town guard post. The poor soldier in there squeaks. "Do you have messenger birds?"
Loke escapes all the way into the center of Onibus city before he stops, deeming himself out of danger.
His head hurts, but it's more than just the knock to the jaw. His magic pulses painfully in his chest, straining against his figure, struggling to keep it in one piece. He curses, feeling the tear in the fabric of his own physical being– but he takes a breath and holds it and prays it will miraculously gather into a human shape once the ache passes.
The woman isn't chasing him. He didn't manage to see her face in the end– but it's enough of a clue. It sucks that he doesn't have any physical evidence, (the reason he was let free to begin with, he reckons,) but at the very least, Master will believe him.
He'll worry about everything else later.
For now…
He whirls around when a pulse of familiar magic power opens by his feet, and with a rupture of the earth, a single lady emerges from the ground, spotless despite the dust explosion she'd caused.
Virgo.
Loke turns away immediately, but she speaks up, almost in a panic, "wait!" and she's not even using her usual polite speech. Her eyes are wide in worry, and there's a tired edge to her movements, like she'd rushed the whole way in. "Just–" she clears her throat. Finally, her usual mannerisms take hold. "Loke-sama, my Master has requested for me to pick you up, so we may follow the other team in pursuit of Eisenwald."
Loke, because Lucy did not tell her to save Leo, but Loke, a friend.
So Virgo does not have to aid a traitor spirit. So Virgo has no obligation to report to anyone that Leo the lion is still alive.Because that's not who he is anymore.
"Is that so," Loke says, unable to look at her. "Well…" a flip of the hair, and a strained smile, even through his cracked sunglasses. "It's not the job of a lady to escort a man, it's usually the other way around."
Virgo eases– and smiles. "Then, would you prefer if I transformed into a man?"
Loke snorts. "I thought biological changes were the only thing you can't do?"
"You are correct," Virgo says. "But I will serve in whatever appearance pleases you."
That appearance is preferably no appearance at all, but that would be far too rude to actually say, even if Loke's consciously trying to chase her away.
"Allow me to assist you, Loke-sama," Virgo requests.
It would be ruder to not accept at this point. Loke sighs.
"Just anything but a bridal carry, alright?"
"So which one's the hot babe?"
"Oh who cares? All of them are!"
It's not a very standard greeting, but Lucy hates it so very much. Where is Gray? There needs to be one decent man in here to offset the cartoony gross-man-bad vibes right now. She settles by clinging onto Cana, disgusted.
This was, in hindsight, a bad idea for Lucy. She can't fight now that she's already summoned Virgo, and they definitely needed more fighting force here. She reaches nervously for her whip, but she knew, in a crowd, this wouldn't do much.
Erza frowns, taking note of how many there were. The entire guild was there, and there were three of them.
"Which one's the one that tricked Kage?" someone asks.
Cana perks up at that.
"A rather adorable gathering of fairies we have here," Erigor snorts. "Is there no one here worth any actual threat? I'm starting to think this was a waste of time."
"No– Erigor-sama! That's Titania!"
"The Titania?"
"Erza the Fairy Queen, strongest female wizard of Fairy Tail!"
"That's her, the one in the armor?"
It doesn't matter if they're being underestimated– most of them are used to this. Lucy tries to look brave, but being literally defenseless, she couldn't help but be worried. At least they had Erza.
"Oh? So we've actually got a big fish after all," Erigor muses. "I was starting to think we offed that idiot for nothing."
Lucy was confused at that remark– but Cana's face goes instantly three times paler.
Her fist tightens, her eyes set firm on the crowd. Her eyes spin– but it doesn't land where she wants it to. Finally, she relents. "...Where's Kage?"
There's a stunned silence before the crowd laughs. "You're worried about him, really?"
Erza is quick to grab Lucy out of the way before Cana's arms erupt in blazes of lightning, "you fucking shitheads," Cana hisses, with so much raw anger Lucy backs away abruptly in fear. "He was part of your guild!"
Erigor laughs, heartily. "I don't see your point, little fairy!" he jeers, tossing himself into the air in a whirl of wind. "You're getting so mad over him? Oh I see now– was he actually a good fuck after all?"
"SILENCE!" Erza snarls, her blades coming in at both arms. Lucy stills when she sees her face as well, dark and tight, brows pulled in discontent. "All of you are irredeemable fiends . I believe we understand that now."
Cana runs forth first, followed immediately by Erza– and Lucy stands horrifically still, unable to do a thing.
This was a mage fight.
This is the roughhouse freedom he wanted– and the violent liberty these Dark Guild members have. She's never been this close to it before– much less this defenseless against it.She always thought that she would be able to do anything as long as she had her magic. She always thought she would be able to fend for herself.
But now, her feet are stuck to the ground.
She cowers, when Erza slices down a mage that comes too close. And Lucy can only wish for them, all of them, to just go away.
She wished for this escape from her cage. She now realizes that she was raised so sheltered, she had severely underestimated what it meant to be prepared for it.
They managed to defeat most of the Eisenwald goons, but Erigor himself had run, and now they were trapped within a Wind Barrier that encircled the entirety of the station.
"So this is what they were after," Cana curses. "Bring us in, distract us, and then stop us. They're still headed for Clover."
Lucy curls into herself, leaning against the wall.
"Are you alright, Lucy?" Erza asks, concerned.
Lucy hadn't fought– but she was shaken. The Eisenwald members were knocked out, not dead– it sure did feel like they came too close sometimes.
"I… I couldn't do anything," she says, "I'm sorry."
"It's alright, it couldn't be helped– your spirit's out there finding Loke, after all," Cana says. Her jacket was bound around her shoulder where a knife had cut through her back, a makeshift staunch against the bleeding.
"We can only trust that Gray's made it to Clover by now," Erza says.
The Call Card lights up.
"This is Loke, your knight in shining armor, who is deeply apologizing for keeping some ladies waiting. I pray that you will forgive me–"
"Enough about that, find a way to get us out of here!" Cana snaps, interrupting him.
A soft whimpering noise comes from the other side of the card, and Cana mildly feels guilty. He doesn't have to sound like an injured cat just for that, geez.
"Loke, you're alright! That's a relief," Erza says. "I don't suppose your Wind Magic can stand up to this barrier?"
"Oh thank goodness, there is someone who still cares about me," Loke says, sounding immensely grateful. "And uh– definitely not. I also… don't have my rings."
"You don't?"
"Yeah, let's just say a very pretty lady made them disappear…"
"LOKE!"
"I'm sorry!"
"But at least you're fine," Lucy says, getting up. She's had time to compose herself and really think things through– she can't keep moping. "Then, Virgo! Are you there?"
"Yes, princess."
Lucy beams, "I know you're a little overtime, but one last favour before you go back, pretty please? Dig us out of here!"
Gray stole a magic bike to get through the gorge. It's genuinely the scariest thing he's ever done, riding a high speed bike on the railway on a platform with multiple turns– but he manages.
At least, he makes it about two thirds of the way there before the wind picks up, his vision blurs against the dust and rubble it spins around– and he realizes something is horribly wrong.
He ejects himself from the bike a moment before a blade of wind shreds it through, the scythe of death's call ripping through the bike, into the engine, and then through it, into the steel and wood of the railway itself.
And then, the bike explodes.
"Ice Make: Shield!"
He hadn't been quick enough. Tearing off his shirt in a quick motion, he straightens to see Erigor in the air, grinning down at him.
"Found a runaway fairy, lucky me."
If he's out here, something must be happening back there at the station. Which means Gray had the right idea coming ahead after all.
Erigor held a skull-shaped flute in his hand– that must be the lullaby, then.
"Hey now, who do you think's gonna have to pay for the railway's reparations?" Gray groans, taking in the spot he had been standing just three moments ago– it was torn through, like a large beast had clawed it out, and chopped at corners until it was an assortment of messy angles. "It's always us Light guilds that have to take the fall, you know?"
"Now that's an interesting take," Erigor scoffs. "You're one of those, you know– a naive, little spoiled brat– you look from the perspective of the privileged– you don't even know who really takes the fall when you Light guilds live in your lavishments."
Gray's brows furrow. "Oh, this is going to be a conversation about privilege now?"
Erigor laughs. "Yeah. I'm sure you're not interested in it."
Gray has never thought that he would lose to wind before– but well, when the wind's shredding through reinforced steel, his humility came knocking on his ego's door.
"You really think you can stand a chance on that narrow platform, you fly?" Erigor taunts him, the wind shredding through the road as Gray runs for his life. "You're just a rat running for his life!"
It's really starting to feel like he's in the kind of dungeon where the floor drops once you step on it. And Gray does not appreciate that. This terrain disadvantage was not doing him any favours– especially since Erigor could literally fly.
"Wait a fucking minute–" remembering his own magic, he slams his fist together, "I'm an Ice Make Mage! If I need something– I MAKE IT!"
And, immediately, a new railway forms sharply to the right, complete with unnecessarily sturdy building structure and uniform ledges. He omits any rails, though, so he swings himself over and lets his shoes slide him through as he faces back.
"Smart," Erigor acknowledges, but his hands are already poised forward. "But I've had enough. Emera Baram!"
The next burst of wind is a tornado of wind that blew through the railway, shredding it to completely dust upon contact.
Gray slams his hands down, mind set on nothing but escape. He forms a pillar under his feet, extending it upward and shooting him into the air as high as it could go before the wind shattered it at its base.
He's airborne, right in Erigor's territory– and Erigor is there, scythe swinging through.
"Ice Make: Armor!"
Ice quickly forms around his arms, pulled over his shoulders as thick shoulder guards. Erigor's eyes blow wide in surprise– but Gray immediately snatches the hilt of his weapon, grinning as the Wind Mage is forced to use his wind magic to elevate them both lest they both be pulled down.
"I've fought a much better blade-user than you a hundred times over," Gray smirks, still hanging onto the weapon that Erigor wasn't willing to let go of. "Why didn't you use your wind just now, huh? Bad at close combat?"
Erigor wasn't a Dragon Slayer. He didn't punch and kick with his wind. Which meant that he couldn't use big lethal wind moves too closely to himself.
"Fucking testing your luck, are you?" Erigor snarls.
A single palm to Gray's face– but once the magic seal sprouted to life, Gray threw his legs up, ensnaring Erigor's arm and hooking over his neck, dragging him down painfully. He frees up his hands and slams them together.
Erigor howls– but the pain wasn't enough to deter him for long. "You're one fucking annoying fly, just die already!"
The wind explodes in Gray's face.
Needless to say, barely catching up to Gray only to see him get lethally shot out of the sky is not very settling. They're still far from him– they only managed to catch the sight from a distance– and that was the worst part about it.
"Gray!" Loke yells, horrified. "Erza, can't go any faster?"
"I'm trying!" Erza says. And she really was– the SE plug was inflating from the sheer amount of magic being pumped through the pipes.
"Darn it, there's nothing we can do now," Cana hisses, wincing at the wound still bleeding through her shoulder, and Lucy was trying her best to treat it with their limited supplies. It wasn't looking good at all.
Gray lands harshly against the railway, shattering the rails on the way to a stop. He doesn't move, and Erigor scoffs, tossing his scythe onto his shoulder once more.
"Waste of my time," he mutters. But with the railway this horribly destroyed, it was hard to believe those guys in the distance could catch up easily, either. He'll bide his time and head to Clover instead.
He turns– but freezes, when a low chuckle rings out behind him.
Gray had managed to tilt his head aside, so he could briefly look over at Erigor. His face was scratched up, friction burns between deep wind-gouged gashes littered across most of his limbs.
Gray had a single arm outstretched in Erigor's direction– and Erigor's gaze hurriedly turns to the flute at his sash.
The Lullaby was encased in ice, skull and wood eaten through with frost damage.
"The Lullaby's…"
Gray's fist closes– and the ice implodes, rupturing the flute along with it, shattering it into clogged, wooden bits. He laughs. Erigor's horrified expression was so worth it all.
"I know a couple tricks outside of creation," he snarks.
"YOU FUCKING FLY—!!!"
Gray is very sure he shouldn't have survived the next point-blank Emera Baram that comes at him, but well, at least he lives to laugh about it.
Erigor curses, swinging back immediately. With the Fairy Tail buzz flies closing in at any second, he'll have to prioritize escaping. He can't believe the Lullaby they'd spent so long trying to get was just destroyed like that– mirthfully, its great powers came at the price of a fragile vessel. What a waste of his time.
"Hold it, Erigor!" Erza shouts, morphing into her fastest armor before leaping, barely missing Erigor with her blades before gravity took her back down. The Flight armor was light, cheetah-printed to indicate its boasted speed– but right now, it was powerless against the air. Should she use Black Wing armor? No, she still wouldn't be able to overpower him. He needs speed now, more than strength.
Loke slides in to pick up Gray from where he'd been sprawled out, unconscious, and scrambles back to his feet, cursing loudly as he yelled for Cana to prepare things in the first-aid kit. Lucy stands, her hands on her keys, ready to offer her support.
Erigor scoffs. "I'd love to play with you, Titania… but I'm just not in the mood anymore."
The shards of the Lullaby are by Lucy's feet. She doesn't have a spirit that's good in the air– but, "Erza! What do you need?"
Erza whirls around, surprised at Lucy's initiative. Erza looks toward Erigor– much too high, much too far to leap for.
"I need footholds!"
Lucy looks around– for anything. Taurus could be one– but there wasn't any space. The railroad was narrow, and though they had the extra road Gray build, it wasn't enough. All they had were the rocks around them, and the rails by their feet.
"Gate of the Giant Crab!" she declares. "Cancer! I'll need you to make platforms in the air!"
Cancer drops in– but then, stops in acknowledgement of that order. "Oh," he says, taking in the situation.
Lucy cringes, "I– I'm sorry, I was just thinking you can usually cut metal with your scissors, so… is it not possible?"
"Ebi," Cancer shakes his head. His scissors shatter in a light, a magic seal emerging near his hands as he reaches in– and whips out two pairs of scissors, each larger than his own figure, he has to swing his own body to even lift them– and when he did, a hill to their left splits horizontally across.
Lucy's jaw drops.
Erza blinks, stunned, and Erigor gawks.
Loke peeks his head out of the carriage to gulp nervously. "I thought he threw those things away after the war, what the hell."
"Well, anytime you're ready, ebi," Cancer says, nodding respectfully toward Erza. Then toward Lucy, "I apologize in advance if I consume a little too much magic."
Lucy's flustered. "No no, it's alright! Just do your best!"
Erza actually stumbles, "oh. I see, I will be counting on you, then."
Erza leaps, and Cancer swings his scissors, splitting the mountain once more and then, dicing them, into pieces of rubble.
"You're kidding, right?" Lucy says, "is this real?"
Erigor is cursing up a storm, "this is ridiculous!" he yells.
"Now, Milady," Cancer says, "it's your turn now."
"Huh?" Lucy turns to him. And then Cancer is picking her up to his shoulders, leading her to stand on his crab arms, and Lucy abruptly remembers she has a whip.
Erza kicks off a piece of rubble, barely nicking Erigor in the arm before the scythe comes down over her head. She curses, unable to dodge it– but a piece of rock is flung harshly against the scythe, diverting it just in time for Erza to drop out of the way, regaining her balance on another stone before leaping again.
Lucy sighs, relieved. She doesn't rest, though, her whip looping around another rock, and, with a hard grunt, Cancer helps her swing it up, launching it right in Erigor's direction.
Erigor curses, destroying it with a burst of wind– but the moment of distraction allows Erza to gain height over him, stomping harshly on his wrist to get rid of the scythe before swinging her swords down over his front, shredding through skin.
Erigor howls, grasping blindly forward, snagging Erza's hair and tugging sharply.
"Curses–!!"
"Crap, Erza!" Lucy yells. She had a rock ready to launch, but it won't make it in time.
"Erza!" Loke yells, alarmed– and Cana notices too, eyes jerking upward from where she was trying to staunch Gray's worst wounds.
They won't make it.
Erigor calls upon a drill of wind in his hand, aimed right toward her stomach. "It's your own fault for coming so close."
Erza plunges a sword into Erigor's arm, but his grip on her hair doesn't release. She curses, her eyes faintly drifting toward the only other option– she'll need to cut her hair. But with her hesitation, she wasn't sure if she would make it in time.
"See you in hell, Titania!" Erigor laughs, thrusting his arm forth–
–but right then, something wraps over him. A hand– a large, wrinkled hand, larger than the size of his whole body.
He freezes, the pressure of magic so intense, it petrifies him. Erigor accidentally releases his hold on Erza's hair– and the fingers close over him, grasping him back like a person, pulling a kitten right back– and he's dragged, far back and further down into the ground– away from Erza.
He doesn't need to turn around to know.
Master Makarov is standing behind him, his brows furrowed in unmistakeable fury, his single arm gigantified– and Erigor is literally in his hand. And then he's being jetted forward, sharply, and his body smashes into the gorge, ripping across hard rock terrain and valleys.
Master Makarov retrieves his hand, disgustedly dusting it off.
Behind him, Master Goldmine and Master Bob are looking into the distance, in the vague direction of where Makarov had chucked Erigor toward. They got a magic carpet out. Someone needs to check.
"Hi, you kids!" Makarov says, cheerfully approaching them. "Good job, good job."
Lucy lets out a terrified squeak. Cancer staggers around, carefully– and then gets in just the right spot with his arms out to catch an Erza that lost her balance on the way down.
"Are you alright, ebi?"
"...yes," Erza says, wincing at the wound in her side, a flesh wound at best but still stinging. That's what she gets for not wearing armor with real protection. "However, that 'ebi' puts me off. Couldn't it be 'kani', because you're a crab?"
Cancer nearly drops her in devastation. He clumsily sets her down and sulks. "I apologize, Miss Erza… well then I… I will be leaving, Miss Lucy." he quietly reports. And then, pride wounded, he vanishes.
Lucy vaguely waves. "There goes the good impression I was trying to make."
Erza dusts herself off, smiling toward Lucy. "Thanks for the support," and then, turning her eyes toward Master, she calls out to him. "Master, what are you doing here?"
"Gray sent me a messenger bird about the situation," Makarov says, holding a single letter.
He clicks a button and a very frantic hologram of Gray pops out of the paper, screaming, "MASTER MASTER is this thing on how do you– I've never used a vision letter before, don't judge me, bird!" he snarls at something off camera and goes back to attention, "Master! There's this flute– the dark guilds– ugh, where do I even begin!" He spends a real agonizing moment trying to determine if it's worth explaining. "Just don't listen to creepy flute music! OKAY? OKAY, THANKS bye gotta run!"
"I… see," Erza says. There's a reason why only some people in the guild were allowed to use messenger birds when Master was at a guild meeting.
Makarov sighs. "After hearing this, how could the entire guild master hall not follow me to see what's going on? And then I hear that trains are not running because of something in Oshibana, and so I came here, and lo and behold, you guys are causing trouble."
"W- We're sorry, Master," Lucy says, "uh… we were rushing?"
"As I've gathered."
"Master!" Cana yells, sticking half her body out the window of the Magic four-wheeler to screech, "HELP. Gray's dying!"
"WHAT?!" Makarov yells.
"I asked him what his blood type was and he said red!" Loke adds.
"I'd say that sounds pretty healthy," Master Bob says, chuckling. Lucy whirls around, because first of all who, and second of all, wrong . But then Master Bob smiles sweetly and waves, "hi, Loke-kun, how are you?"
"Hi Master Bob!" Loke hollers back. "Busy making sure this moron doesn't bleed out!"
"And Erza-chan! You've sure grown!"
"Yes, it's nice to see you again, Master Bob," Erza says, "Lucy, this is the guild master of Blue Pegasus."
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Lucy, a new recruit in Fairy Tail," she bows, politely.
"My, how polite!" Master Bob swoons. "I wish Goldmine could greet you too, but he's preoccupied at the moment, trying to find Erigor before he runs off, you see. I think I might have to introduce you at a later time."
"You can't have any of them," Makarov warns.
"Oh, of course I know that, I wouldn't!" Master Bob says with a resigned sigh, "you wound me, Macky-boy!"
"HEY!" Cana interrupts, loud and furious, "can someone drive the car already?! For fuck's sake, Gray is dying over here!"