Our Side of Town:
"Man, this blows!" Koree pouted as she slumped into her chair. "We all get to go on our own jobs, but now that we want to go as a team the adults won't let us!"
"It's just because there's not a lot available right now," Roman said as the rest of the Birthday gang gathered around the table Koree had chosen, Roman and Persephone taking their seats on either side of her. "The only jobs with payments big enough to be split six ways are out of town right now."
"And no way are they going to let us do that yet," Cato added, taking his seat on top of the table, Storm sitting with his back leaned up against his friends, playing with an orb of water. "They just now started letting Farrah and the rest Team New Blood start taking out of town jobs by themselves."
"So what, we just wait around for something to pop off?" Koree scoffed.
"Who says we have to wait around, c'mon," Nashi said, patting Koree on the shoulder before heading to the door.
"Where are you going?" Persephone asked.
"Just for a walk," Nashi said, smiling slyly.
"With that mischievous grin on your face, I don't think so," Cato said. "What are you really up to?"
"Like I said, a walk," Nashi answered, turning to face her friends, now walking backwards towards the door.
"Uh-huh, sure," Persephone said, crossing her arms as she stood up to follow her, the rest of the Birthday Gang following suit.
"Why do I get the feeling you're about to get us in trouble?" Roman groaned.
"What's wrong with taking a walk?" Nashi said. "We're just a bunch of growing kids trying to get some fresh air. It ain't our fault if we run into trouble along the way. There's always something popping off in this town, anyhow."
"So you are looking for trouble," Roman crossed his arms.
"No, never!" Nashireplied, waving her hand.
"Liar!" Persephone chuckled.
"I'm not looking for trouble," Nashi explained. "I'm just gonna go stretch my legs until the trouble finds me."
"And what kind of trouble do you think will find you?" Koree asked.
"Oh, I don't know," Nashi shrugged. "A petty theft, maybe? Or some crazy, rich, stuff shirts picking on a waiter. Hey, y'know, Twilight Ogre has been getting pretty bold lately. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried something funny."
"Oh, I like the sound of that," Koree cheered.
"Guys, c'mon," Roman sighed.
"Hey, you don't have to come," Nashi said, patting Roman's head. "You can stay here by yourself if you want, Mama's Boy!"
"It'll be on your head if we get killed and you weren't there to protect us, though," Koree added.
"C'mon, you two, don't guilt trip him," Cato said as they finally reached the door and he held it open for his team.
"Yeah, we all know he's gonna tag along anyway. He can't stand having us out of his sight. It's like he thinks we'll explode without him to keep us in line."
"That's not true!" Roman scoffed, crossing his arms. "Go ahead, get yourselves beat up, see if I care."
"Oh, we will," Persephone replied.
Roman huffed as the door swung shut. HE stood there for a while, arms still crossed, lip poking out. He was not going to give in! If they got hurt it was their own fault! But, they were his friends...maybe...oh, heck!
"Guys, wait up!" Roman called as he opened the door back up and ran outside.
"Told ya he'd come!" Persephone giggled.
"Shut up," Roman grumbled as everyone chuckled at him.
Well, almost everyone.
"Hey, Storm, you okay? You've been kinda quiet," Cato said.
"Hm?" Storm asked, a slightly dazed and starry look on his face. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, totally."
"Okay…"
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
When Fairy Tail had first been founded Magnolia was just a small trading town. When Twilight Ogre moved in it had a population of about 60,000. A respectable size, but not large enough that it could be considered a metropolis. Just big enough for two guilds to fit within it. Barely, but Fairy Tail and Twilight Ogre still fit, although a bit uncomfortable at times. Over the past twenty years, though, Magnolia has experienced an incredible boom of about 5% a year. It was now 11 times larger than it had been when those trapped on Tenrou Island returned from their seven year slumber.
And it's guilds had grown right along with it, in more ways than one. Not only had Fairy Tail and Twilight Ogre themselves experienced a growth spurt, but a few new guilds had sprouted up: Willow Spirit, Nymph Hair, and Wyvern Claw. Being a new guild in a city with two already established power houses wasn't easy, though. Especially considering the deep and sometimes violent rivalry between the two.
These three newcomers had quickly learned a few rules:
The Southside of Magnolia belonged to Twilight Ogre
The Northside of Magnolia belonged to Fairy Tail
If you showed up on the Southside you'd better be ready to either run, fight, or swear your loyalty to Twilight Ogre
If you showed up on the Northside...not much would happen, actually. So long as you behaved and remembered whose turf you were on, that was.
Unfortunately, there were certain things that you couldn't get from the Northside. Certain rare, magical ingredients could only be bought from shops on the Southside. Thus a trio of Willow Spirit wizards found themselves quickly passing their payment across the shop counter, pulling the hoods of their cloaks over their faces, and shuffled out into the street. They glanced over both shoulders as they hurried along the sidewalk, anxious to get back to their little corner of Magnolia before Twilight Ogre found them.
They were not so fortunate.
"Oof!" the leader of the trio said as he ran right into the buff chest of a Twilight Ogre.
"Well, well, what have we got here?"
"Oh, uh…" the young man unfortunate enough to have made the collision stuttered as he took a few steps backwards.
Right into another Twilight Ogre wizard.
"Looks like we got us some Willow sticks," the second ogre sniffed.
"What are yous doing on our side of town?"
"We're just buying some herbs for a potion," the young Willow Spirit Wizard answered.
"That so? What kind of potion?"
"One of our members is sick-" the second of the Willow Spirit wizard, a young boy of about ten, began.
"Sh!" the first one hissed.
"Well, ain't that a shame," the buff Twilight Ogre wizard mockingly said as suddenly more members of his guild appeared from the alleyways. "Sounds like Willow Spirit might be in need of a little protection with everyone getting ill."
"It's just a little cough, we'll be fine," the leader of the Willow trio said as he grabbed his comrades hands, slipped through an opening in the circle of Ogres, and power walked his way down the sidewalk.
"That so?" the first of the Ogres said. "If everything was so fine why'd you come all the way to our neck of the woods for a little herb?"
"Because that shop was the only one that-"
"Sh!" the leader hushed the little boy again.
"Nah, go on, let the kid talk!" One of the Ogres said as the half a dozen of his comrades followed after him and the Willow Spirits.
Another one of the Twilight Ogre wizards reached out, yanking the hood of the third, silent Willow Spirit wizard, revealing a pretty teenage girl. She gasped as she jerked her hood back in place.
"Well, look at that pretty little thing."
"Yeah, I'd love to make her mine."
"How about it sweetheart? Do your guild a favor and be my boy's girl? We'll look out for all you Willow if you give him a smooch or two."
By now the Willow Spirit trio were running, anxious to get back to the safety of their guild hall. As they turned a corner a small herd of children, all ranging from ages 12-13 or so appeared out of seemingly nowhere. They walked out of an alley, caught up in some conversation, as they coincidentally walked right in between the Twilight Ogre and Willow Spirit groups.
The children all stopped suddenly, looking about to try and see what it was they'd stumbled into. The Willow Spirit trio stopped in their mad dash to see what had happened. They all caught their breaths in their throats as they noticed the Fairy Tail emblem on one of the girl's shoulders. Another girl with an identical face to the first also had an identical silver mark on her opposite shoulder. There was a girl with one on her wrist. A boy had one peaking through his razorback top, located in vibrant blue on his shoulder blade. Just the tail of a purple one could be seen poking out of the collar of another boy's shirt. And a bit of red poked out from under the hem of the final boy's shirt.
The Twilight Ogre's all chuckled menacingly at the sight. The Willows Spirit trio glanced nervously at each other. Normally they'd run from a meeting between Twilight Ogre and Fairy Tail, but these Fairy Tail wizards were kids! Were they going to be okay?
"What are you brats doing on the southside?" one of the Ogres asked.
"This isn't the southside," Cato answered.
The Twilight Ogre wizards all glanced around and saw that, indeed, they weren't in the Southside anymore, but rather the ambiguous middle ground between the North and South. They'd been so caught up chasing their prey they hadn't stopped to check on where they'd ended up.
As the Twilight Ogre wizards took in their surroundings, Storm looked over his shoulder and motioned for the Willow Spirit wizards to get going.
The leader of the trio took his comrades' hands again and led them away. There was no use staying, it's not like they'd be able to protect these kids anyway. And besides, Twilight Ogre wouldn't be stupid enough to attack them in the neutral zone, right?
Frustrated that they had stumbled out of the Southside, and that they had lost their prey, the leader of the Twilight Ogre group frowned at the children and hissed: "Beat it, brats!"
The Birthday Gang all glanced at each other, shrugged, and then began to slowly walk off. The Twilight Ogre wizards frowned at them, and then began to slouch off in the opposite direction.
Koree, who was at the back of her group, slyly stuck her leg out as the last of the Twilight Ogres passed by, tripping him.
"Oof!" he winced, before turning and glaring at Koree.
"Oops, did I do that?" Koree asked in an innocent voice. "So sorry!"
The Twilight Ogre Wizard frowned at her, then smiled suspiciously as he stood and said: "Hey, now worries, kid."
He held his hand out from Koree to shake. Koree took it. Rather than shaking her hand, though, the Ogre jerked on her arm, throwing her to the ground and sliding her across the pavement.
"Heh, that's what you-ack!" the Ogre began to chuckle before he felt someone jump onto his back and a small, yet surprisingly strong set of arms wrap around his neck, choking the air out of him. He continued to choke as he reached behind him, trying to yank Persephone off him.
Koree quickly recovered from her stumble, jumped to her feet, and changed her hand to a metal bar, slamming it against the Twilight Ogre's knee, causing him to shout out in pain and stumble to the ground.
It was only then that Persephone jumped off of him. Calling up an archive screen that she quickly typed a message into before sending her map and instructions off.
By that point the rest of the Twilight Ogre wizards began returning, all shouting and conjuring up spells.
"Iron Dragon, Saw!" Koree shouted as she sent two buzz saws from her hands, knocking the legs out from under the two men at the front of the stampede, sending them flying on their backs.
"Hey, c'mon guys, let's go!" Persephone called to the rest of the Birthday Gang.
As the three men the Redfox twins had knocked down began to recover, one of the still charging men suddenly found himself stepping into, and falling through a fiery whirlpool, which opened back up and dropped him on a pile of empty crates that he then crushed and splintered.
"Ha ha!" Nashi laughed mockingly as she pointed at him before running off. The man growled as he pulled himself to his feet and chased after her.
Meanwhile, Roman took a jump off the back of the man still trying to get back on his feet from being choked by Persephone. He then stepped on the face of one of the men Koree had tripped up, flipped into the air, and requipped his bullwhip into his hand. He snapped around one of the still running Twilight Ogre wizard's wrist and, as he landed behind him, pulled him to the ground.
"What the-" the Twilight Ogre shouted as he jerked free and began running after Roman. "Call the calvary!" he told his comrades.
One of them put a finger to his head. "Hey, boys, get over here! We're getting jumped by fairies!"
Before he'd even finished his call, three more Twilight Ogres showed up. The three newcomers began to chase after Cato and Storm, while the three the Redfox twins had finally recovered and began to run towards them.
Persephone and Koree did not react in the way most twelve year old girls would react if they had three buff men chasing after them, though.
"Yeah, c'mon, boys! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Gi-hee-hee-hee!" Koree giggled as she beckoned the men to chase after her and Persephone.
"C'mon, fellas, let's jump 'em!" one of their pursuers said.
The Redfox twins just kept running, giggling as they rounded a corner. The twilight Ogres were about to round the corner as well when they suddenly heard:
"Hey, Twilight Ogre!"
"Huh?" They all looked awning covering a shop window to find a little girl with blond hair and glasses, and a teenage boy with crimson hair and a leather vest, and a silver hair girl with a giant bow all standing on the awning, buckets in their hands.
"Hello!" they all cheered before dumping their buckets of paint onto the three men below.
"Augh!" the Ogres all shouted as the cold liquid spilled down their faces, backs, and chests.
Lorelle threw her bucket onto the head of the Ogre trio before she, Montie, and Jennabeth began to climb down.
"Hello!" the Redfox twins called again as they leap-frogged over the two Twilight Ogres who did not have a bucket on their head. Distracting them long enough for Lorelle, Montie, and Jennabeth to get down.
All five kids then took off running again, stumbling, slippery, and colorful Twilight Ogres following them.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"Yeah, let's go, boys!" Cato shouted as he and Storm ran through the streets of Magnolia, three Twilight Ogres on their tails as well. They weren't worried though. They soon came to a cross in the road. Storm took off in one direction, and Cato in the other. One of the Ogres followed Storm, the other two followed Cato.
Cato wasn't scared at all, though. In fact he clapped as he said:
"Hey, Ogres! C'mon! Yeah, that's it, this way, let's go!"
Cato jumped into the opened door of an abandoned street shop. The two Twilight Ogres tried to go after him, but were blown back by a booming burst of sound. They smashed against a street wall opposite the old shop and sank to the ground. They tried to stand up but were shocked back to the ground by two bolts of lighting.
"Ha! Got 'em!" Farrah laughed as she, Cato, and Benedict ran out of the shop and began racing down the street.
"You're not giving up on us yet, are you boys?" Cato teased, forcing the Ogres to jump back to their feet and chase after them.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"Come on, pal!" Storm giggled as he climbed up a pile of gravel that had been dumped at a currently empty construction site, his one Twilight Ogre following after him.
"Hey, c'mon, huh?" he asked as he reached the top of the mound and jumped to the other side.
The Twilight Ogre climbed after him, reaching the top, and looking down, only to find that, where he had been chasing one child before, there were now three.
Storm, Bianca, and Meeko already had handfuls of Meeko's snowballs ready to chuck at their foe when he appeared. Before he could even lift his arms to shield himself, the Twilight Ogre got pelted with magic snowballs that, rather than busting when they hit him, caused sheets of ice to grow over his skin. He wasn't even able to move his body from the waist up by the time the Fullbuster children were done with him and took off running again. He was able to move his legs, though, so he chased after them, grunting through the ice for them to stop.
Storm, Bianca, and Meeko, of course, paid no mind. They simply laughed at their comedic pursuer.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Roman glanced over his shoulder, smiling to see his Twilight Ogre was still chasing him.
The Ogre, however, was not amused. "Slow down you little-"
Boom!
The Twilight Ogre did three flips in the air before landing on the ground.
"What the-" he grumbled as he sat up, rubbing at his neck. He could have sworn he'd been hit by a constellation…
FWOOM!
And now his hair was on fire!
"Augh!" he screeched as he began to run, running right into…
A MONSTER MADE OF BRICKS!
AND THERE WERE THROWING STARS FLYING AROUND HIM!
He took off and raced in the opposite direction. Screaming at the top of his lungs as he noticed three of his comrades running towards him to back him up.
"Hey, where are the-" the reinforcements began calling, but the original Twilight Ogre just waved his hands.
"Fall back! Retreat! Retreat!"
The three reinforcements looked over his shoulder to see a giant monster made of bricks, surrounded by fire, throwing stars, and shooting stars running towards them. They all screamed, and took off running as well, the Fernandes children laughing as they ran along behind their joint, terrifying creation.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Nashi grinned as she kept running, her one Twilight Ogre still chasing her. As she turned a corner she saw two other Ogres running down the street towards her. She stopped dead in her tracks, checking over her shoulder at the one that was originally chasing her. They were all the perfect distance away.
And her secret weapons had just arrived.
She waited until all three Twilight Ogres were about to be on top of her and then called:
"STYX!"
She vanished through a whirlpool in the ground. The Twilight Ogres didn't have time to put on the breaks and collided into each other.
"OUCH!" they all shouted as they collided into one another.
"Open, Gate of the Rose, Fyllo!"
Thorny vines wrapped around the three men, tying them together.
"What the-"
"Celestial Dragon, ROAR!"
"AUGH!"
The three ogres were sent flying airborne in a burst of starry light.
"Stone make, Hammer!"
"OOF!"
A giant stone hammer slammed into them, sending them flying in the opposite direction and plastering against the alley wall.
Nashi laughed as Layla, Igneel, and Portia ran to join her at her side.
Screams of fear echoes through the alley. Nashi turned to look and found four Twilight Ogres running in fear from the Fernandezes.
"Geft bock hewe!"
She turned and looked in another direction to find a half frozen man chasing the Fullbusters, who were running towards her and the Fernandezes.
"Gi-he! Let's go boys!"
From yet another direction came the Redfoxes, Lorelle, Jennabeth, and Montie.
"Alright, boys, let's party!"
And from yet another direction came Cato, Farrah, and Benedict leading their Ogres. Nashi waited until the perfect moment and then shouted:
"STYX!"
All of the Fairy Tail children disappeared. All the Twilight Ogres screamed when they realized what was about to happen.
"Not again," the three Nashi had tricked before groaned just before-
CRASH!
A massive pile-up of Twilight Ogre wizards occurred, buff, sweaty, bloody, painted and ice covered, slightly electrocuted, and all very battered and bruised Twilight Ogres collided with one another, tripping over each other and sliding across the pavement. They all scrambled to get back to their feet, tripping over each other, pulling each other back down.
A chorus of laughter rang out from the top of one of the buildings. The Twilight Ogres all looked up to find the Fairy Tail Children standing on the roof of one of the buildings, laughing at them.
"Well, we'd love to stay and chat, but we've got to get back now," Farrah shouted down to them as the laughter died down. "Nashi, take us home!"
Nashi nodded and called "Styx!"
"No!"
"Get back here you brats!"
"This isn't over yet, Fairy Tail!"