Chapter 24

CREEK! Mason pushed open the Guild Hall doors and was met with the familiar rambunctious roar he had learned to associate with his new guild. Mason marched past the friendly chatter and ridiculous brawling and made his way to the bar, where he laid down a piece of paper in front of Mirajane. "Done…"

"You took down the whole fish head gang by yourself?" Mirajane marveled as she examined the flyer.

"Yeah, only one of them had an actual fish head though. The others wore masks. Oh yeah!" Mason fished for something in his pocket and pulled out another piece of paper. "Bill of arrest from the prison in Hargeon."

"Thank you." Mirajane happily took the bill and filled it away with the flyer. "Will contact the client and get back to you shortly with the reward. Now how about some breakfast?"

"Sure…" Mason said as he swiveled his stool around backwards to get a look at the guild.

"GRAHH!" Master Makarov grunted as he struggled to pull himself up onto the bar stool next to Mason. "You know.." The short old wizard was quick to strike up a conversation. "Solo missions are great every now and then but a lot of the jobs on that board are meant to be completed by a team of wizards. That's what makes fairy tail so special, you're surrounded by friends here why don't you take the time to get to know your new guild mates."

"I'm better on my own. When I was with the council my specialty was solo missions." Mason said, not making eye contact with the guild master.

"That maybe so but didn't you join fairy tail to experience something different then the life you lived as a soldier." Makarov pointed out.

"Hmmm…" Mason grunted as he scanned the guild hall for familiar faces. "Natsu and Erza aren't here?"

"Nope, they took Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Happy and Carla and went on a job a few minutes before you got back." Mirajane said as she happily poured Mason a cup of coffee.

"There are plenty of other wizards in the guild, plenty of whom would love to partner with a powerful wizard on a job," Makarov said as he swiped the coffee mug out of Mason's hand and took a sip. "Mmmm. Delicious as always Mira."

"You need a partner for a Job?" A perky girl with messy shoulder length blue hair chirped up as she took the other seat next to Mason. "I'll go with you."

Mason raised an eyebrow at this girl's chipper attitude. "Your name is Levy right?" Mason asked. "Don't you have a team already?"

"That's right! But you see I made cookies the other day and Jet and Droy had a competition to see who could eat the most and now they're both home sick!" She explained cheerfully. "Now I wanna go on a job but I hate working alone. You're a Dragon Slayer like Natsu and Gajeel right? I think it'd be fun to go on a job where we kick some major butt, like Lucy is always telling me about!" Levy grabbed Mason by the arm and began to drag him towards the door. "C'mon let's go!"

"Hey! Wait!" Mason called back in defiance but before he fully realized what was going they were already standing in front of the job board.

"So what looks good to you?" Levy asked as she browsed the posters. "Oh we can escort a wealthy merchant through the jungle for 50000 jewel. Potato bandits out in the desert, that's 30000. Hmmmm..."

"So…." A mischievous voice called out as an arm draped around both Mason and Levy's shoulder, both turned to see A young woman with chocolate brown wearing a blue bikini smiling at both of them. "You two going on a job?"

"You're name's Cana right." Mason said as he pushed her arm off of his back.

"Yep! Sweet of you to remember me Snowflake." The barely clothed wizard said as she put her hand on Mason's head and messed up his hair. "So are you taking a job together?"

"Yep!" Levy answered, cheerful as ever. "You wanna go with us?"

"Awh, that's very nice of you to offer. I'd love to." Cana started to fish something out of her pocket and it turned out to be a job flyer. "What do you know, I've got the perfect job for us! A village west of here is willing to pay 3 million jewel if we go deal with their Vulcan problem. That's a Million for each of us."

"One Million Jewel!" Levy exclaimed, not believing her ears. "I could buy an entire library with that kind of money!"

"Yep, and we already have the perfect team for the job.. You got the brains." Cana said Messing with Levy's hair. "He's got the brawn and I have the booze." She then pulled a large bottle of wine from seemingly nowhere.

WHAM! The guild hall doors swung open and two shadowy figures stood in the threshold. "Don't even think about it!" A raspy voice called back as a man with long dark hair, metal studs decorating his face and no eyebrows emerged, following him was a girl with short blue hair that didn't quite reach her shoulder and she wore a blue and white dress and hat. "I've had my eye on that Vulcan job all morning, I just had to track this one down before I took off. There's no way I'm letting you losers run off with my three million jewel.." The dark haired man growled.

"Gajeel…" Levy muttered, sounding worried.

"Oh yeah." Mason stepped forward, his eyes locked on Gajeel. "And who's gonna stop us?" Mason cracked his knuckles.

"Now he's enthusiastic, huh?" Cana sighed.

"Are you picking a fight with me?!" Gajeel roared back.

"Doubt it'd be much of a fight." Mason taunted. "But sure, let's see what the third strongest Dragon Slayer in fairy tail's got. Oh wait, I forgot Wendy joined a few days ago."

"Who are you calling third best!" Gajeel called back. "That's it, let's throw down!"

"Gajeel…" The woman standing behind him grabbed a hold of the Iron Dragon's shoulder to hold him back. "Rather than fight, why don't we all take this job together. Sounds like there's enough reward to go around." Juvia said calmly.

"That's a great idea Juvia!" Levy said as she shot the other girl a thumbs up.

"I'm not in love with splitting up my one Million jewel but I suppose I'll manage splitting that reward five ways." Cana said before her lips returned to her wine bottle.

"Fine, whatever…" Gajeel grunted seeing as he was already out numbered.

"Hey, I've seen you around the guild before. You're Gray's girlfriend or something right?" Mason asked as he studied Juvia's face. "Jane… I think…"

"G-G-Girlfriend…" Juvia's face went completely red and steam seemed to come out of her ears.

"Well it's settled!" Levy said with a smile that stretched ear to ear. "Let's get to work."


(Later)

"Ugh…." Levy groaned as she and her new team trudged on over grassy hills. "How much further?..."

"Not much further." Mason called back from behind.

"How would you know? Can you smell it or something?" Cana asked as she shook the last drops of her wine into her mouth.

"Yeah, and." Mason pointed out a plume of smoke that rose from behind a large hill.

"Oh…" Cana said, sounding embarrassed but she quickly shook it off. "Then what are we waiting for! Let's get moving!" CRASH, she threw her bottle down on the ground and charged forward. "Whooohoo!" She exclaimed as the rest of her team soon followed her lead.

"Wait!" Levy called back as the team passed her by. "My legs aren't as long as yours!"

The night had fallen before they arrived at the village but the team eventually reached their destination but what they found was nothing like what they were expecting. "Oh crap…" Cana muttered as she looked around the city. It was a wreck, half eaten fruit was scattered all over the ground, windows and doors had been broken down and an entire building had been set ablaze.

"Juvia.." Gajeel muttered as he watched the house burn.

"Right." The blue haired wizard nodded then with a wave of her arm a stream of water shot out and doused the roaring flames.

"A Vulcan did all this damage?" Levy said as she picked up a piece of broken glass off the ground.

"I've been thinking about that." Mason muttered as he put a door back on its hinges. "Vulcan's shouldn't be this far west, they don't live around here. Something weird is going on." SNIFF! SNIFF! "I got something." Mason announced as he started to follow his nose.

"I can't smell anything other than rotting fruit." Gajeel muttered as he and the rest of the Fairy Tail wizards followed behind Mason.

The team eventually came across a Vulcan chowing down on a piece of fruit. It was a large ape like monster with white fur and dark grey skin, black dots decorated the monkey's arm. "NOM! NOM! NOM! Mmmmm Fruit!"

"Is that the Vulcan?…" Levy asked as the five wizards hid behind a wall. "He doesn't look that different than any other Vulcan."

"It's weird..." Mason replied not providing any more detail.

SNIFF! SNIFF! "Woman…" The Vulcan got a whiff of the fairy tail wizards. "WOMAN!" The ape monster leapt up and began to charge towards Mason and his freinds.

"IRON DRAGON CLUB!" Gajeel's arm transformed into a metal bar and it rocketed into the Vulcan's jaw and knocked him out. "There I beat the Vulcan, when do we get paid."

"He's not a Vulcan…" Mason said as he walked over to the unconscious ape where he kneels down and phase's his hand into the Vulcan's chest, then a flash of light erupts from the monkey's body and it reverts him back to his original form, an older man with short grey hair and glasses. "He's a human."

"Ugh… My head.." The old man groaned as Mason helped him to his feet. "Are you the wizards who we called to help us thank god they sent a group of you."

"That's right we're Fairy Tail wizards." Levy said as she rushed to support the old man's other arm. "We're here to help."

"Tell us what happened." Mason said as he and Levy walked the man over to a bench and sat him down.

The man buried his face in his hands. "Where do I start? A week ago the circus came to town..."


(Flashback)

"Mommy what's that?" A small girl pointed towards a man in a colorful suit wearing a top hat and standing in front of a large cage that was covered by a tarp.

"I don't know." The girl's mother smiled down on her. "Let's go see."

"Come one come all! Come and experience the spectacles of the natural world!" The man with the top hat announced as he gestured to some of the circus employees who pulled down the large tarp. "Behold the world's largest Vulcan!" In the cage sat a massive Vulcan nearly three stories tall who sat scratching his head.

"BELCH!" A fat man carrying a bottle of wine let out a massive burp as he walked up to the Vulcan's cage. "Big monkey, so what? What does it even do?" The man said, clearly intoxicated at this point. "Do something monkey!" The man threw his bottle of wine at the Vulcan's back and it broke against his hide.

"Huuhh?" The vulcan turned around with angry eyes.

"HAHA!" The drunkard laughed and pointed at the ape. "Look, I made the monkey mad! HAHAHA!" The fat man was too busy laughing, he didn't notice the Vulcan reach out and grab the man by the arm. "Huh?" The man erupted in a flash of light that once faded revealed that the man had been turned into a miniature copy of the caged monkey.

"WOMAN!" The newly turned Vulcan cried out as he chased after the women in the vicinity.


(End of Flashback)

"Before too long every man in this village was turned into a Vulcan and they started kidnapping all of our women, they have them locked up somewhere but I can't remember where." The man finished and just as he did a low rumble could be heard through the small town. "Oh no, they're on their way. HIDE!" The old man took off running.

"Hide?!" Levy cried back concerned. "Hide where?!"

"WOMAN! WOMAN! WOMAN!" A clan of more than thirty Vulcans were soon all over Mason and his team. "WOMAN! WOMAN! WOMAN!" Three of them scooped up Levy.

"Huh? What?!" Levy cried out as the gang of apes started carrying her off. "WHY ME?!"

"Not really much of a woman." Cana said as she threw a fist full of magic cards at a group of white monkeys that erupted into multiple individual explosions. "Better her than me I guess."

"Why not me?..." Juvia sobbed as she washed away a group of the perverted apes.

"LEVY!" Gajeel called out as he knocked down a group of Vulcan in an attempt to retrieve his comrade, not noticing a Vulcan ready to pounce behind him.

"Gajeel!" Mason called out as he caught the Vulcan with his telekinesis, before slamming it into another group of Vulcan. "Weren't you listening, if they touch you then you'll turn into one of them. We gotta be careful."

"But Levy is getting away!" Gajeel called back as he took down another group of the monkeys.

"Good point! I guess it's time to get serious." Mason said as he flipped his hood back over his head. "DRAGON SLAYER FORBIDDEN ART! POLTERGEIST!" Thirty ghostly arms shot out from under Mason's dark cloak each of which grabbed a Vulcan by the throat, then Mason began to spin them around in circles before letting him go and sending the apes flying away.

Mason then retracted his arms and pulled his hood off. "There we go, now let's go get Levy." Mason said as he dusted himself off.

"You couldn't have done that sooner?" Cana said with a sigh.

"Umm I don't mean to put a damper in things." Juvia spoke up. "But how are we going to find Levy? Do you even know where she's been taken?"

"No…" Mason said before pointing towards a large big top tent that was lit up as if it was still running. "But I know where I'm gonna start looking."


(Later at the big top)

"WOMAN! WOMAN! WOMAN!" An even larger group Vulcan chanted as A massive, fat Vulcan slowly clapped along with the rhythm. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"AGAIN! AGAIN!" The Massive Vulcan called down to Levy who was stuck standing next to the Large Apes foot.

"Fine…." Levy groaned before writing out the word "BANANA" in the air and suddenly a massive version of the giant yellow fruit appeared from thin air.

"YAAYY!" The Vulcan called out as he stuffed the massive banana, peel and all into his giant mouth. "AGAIN! AGAIN!" He called back, his mouth still partially full of food.

Meanwhile Mason, Gajeel, Cana and Juvia hid behind the opening to the tent as they looked for an opening. "Look over there…" Mason whispered as he pointed to a large cage behind the fat monkey that held the town's women from old ladies to young girls. With that Mason shut the tent door and turned to his friends.

"Okay here's the plan." The dragon slayer declared. "Before we can do anything about that giant monkey we need to get those girls out of that cage. I'm gonna sneak over to the cage and find a way to get them out of there. Cana, Juvia. I need you two to distract the monkeys until I can free those ladies, Gajeel I need you to go around to the other side of the tent and when I give the signal I need you to come and hit that monkey with everything you've got! Any questions?"

"Uh yeah. How exactly are we supposed to distract those monkeys?" Cana asked and Juvia nodded ferociously along with her.

"And what's this signal supposed to be?" Gajeel followed up with his arms crossed stubbornly.

Mason had the same answer for both questions. "Figure it out." And with that the white haired wizard vanished from thin air.

"Oh great, way to be helpful!" Cana called out to no one.

"Looks like you ladies are up first. Good luck." Gajeel said as he marched over to his post behind the big top.

"So what's your plan?" Juvia asked nervously.

"Oh I have an idea…" A mischievous grin formed on Cana's face.


(later)

"Yoo hoo!" Cana called out as she opened the tent door with a puff of magic smoke and out walked her and a slightly more embarrassed Juvia both of whom were wearing only bikinis. "Hey boys! Who's ready to get down with a couple of sexy ladies?"

"Forgive me Gray…" Juvia said to herself. "Huh?..." The Vulcans looked over at the two scantily clad girls for no more than a second before they turned back to watch Levy feed their king Banana's. "Somehow I'm even more embarrassed…"

"Uh guys…." Cana cried back as a bead of sweat dripped down her forehead. "I know card tricks… Hehe…."

Meanwhile Mason, still invisible, had made his way over to the cage and phased his way through the bars before he made himself visible again.

"WAAHH!" Some of the ladies shrieked at the sudden appearance of this stranger but Mason quickly SHUSHed them and got them quiet once again.

'Well my plan was to phase them out of here one at a time but it looks like my distraction has fallen through. Time to improvise.' Mason thought as he pointed his arm towards the the side of the cage and the tent. "PHANTOM DRAGON SHOT!" KABOOOMM! Mason unleashed a large energy blast that destroyed the side of the cage and burned a hole through the tent wall and the girls quickly started funneling out but the sound of the blast had notified the king Vulcan.

"HUH!" The big monkey turned to find all his captured women and the white haired man standing in the middle of the exit. "GRRR! ME CRUSH STUPID MAN!" The massive monkey aimed a gigantic fist at the preoccupied Mason but before he could strike WHAM! A long metal rod struck the monkey in the cheek and knocked him out.

"Hell of a signal.." Gajeel smiled as he retracted his metal rod back to his hand.

"Gajeel!" Levy called back as she ran away from the passed out ape. "You guys."

"No time for a reunion!" Cana called back as she was quickly swarmed by a group of angry Vulcan. "CARD MAGIC! EXPLOSION!" Cana threw down a handful of cards and all of them exploded, knocking out a large group of the Vulcan.

"Oh right time to fight! SOLID SCRIPT! FIRE!" Levy wrote down the word fire above her and a massive fireball rained down from above and blasted another group of apes.

"WATER CYCLONE!" Juvia whipped up a tornado of water that sucked up more of the Vulcan.

"IRON DRAGON SWORD!" Gajeel's hand changed into a spiked blade as he ran through dozens of angry apes.

"PHANTOM DRAGON ROAR!" Mason leapt into the air and spit out a spiral of purple phantoms that took out the remaining Vulcan and blew the tent up off the big top.


(Later)

"Haha!" Cana laughed as she walked down the dirt road carrying two large bags of money. "We did it! Three Million Jewel! This was fun you guys."

"Hmph! Speak for yourself." Gajeel grunted.

"Awh… You had fun, don't lie." Levy said cheerfully as she gave Gajeel a friendly punch on the shoulder. "I think we should make this a regular thing. What do you think?"

"It's fine with me." Juvia said but her face quickly went dark. "Unless you mean to use this "team" of ours to distract me from Gray so that bimbo friend of yours can seduce him!"

"No of course not." Levy said with a friendly smile. "But if we're gonna be a team then we're gonna need a kick ass name!"

"I'll let you users ride my coattails if you have to." Gajeel said with his arms still defiantly crossed. "We can call ourselves team Black Steel!"

"TEAM GRAY!" Juvia screamed out.

"Team Shadow Gear Neo!" Levy said and even accompanied it with a silly pose.

"Heh…" Mason cracked a small smile.

"What? Don't tell me you like Neo Shadow Gear." Cana elbowed Mason in the shoulder. "How about Team Happy Hour?"

"SUPER TEAM GRAY!" Juvia shouted back.

"ULTRA BLACK STEEL!" Gajeel yelled back.

Levy took a deep breath and replied with. "SUPER ULTRA NEO SHADOW GEAR!"


(End)