Chapter 3: First Mission

"Natsu! What do you think you're doing?!" Is what Lexi woke up to that morning. She sat up rubbing her eyes, glancing towards Lucy's bed, as said blonde kicked her partner out of bed.

"Whassat for Luce?" Natsu as tiredly rubbing his head.

"What have I told you about sleeping in my bed," Lucy said, her face beet red.

"But it's so comfy, and it smells nice." He stood up with a sigh. "Well Happy, I think we overstayed our welcome."

"Aye sir," a small sleepy voice said. And with that the two went out the window.

"Don't even know what a door is," Lucy muttered as she rubbed her face.

"Does that happen often?" Lexi asked as she rolled her sleeping bag up.

"More than I care to admit," Lucy had pink dusting her cheeks.

"Is he the one you like?" Lexi asked sitting next to Lucy on the bed.

"Eh?" Lucy's head shot up, her blush deepening. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

Lexi giggled and covered her mouth. "Forget I asked."

"Huh, what's this?" Lucy reached for Lexi's chest, brushing over the icy Violet. "A present from Gray?" The blonde wiggled her eyebrows tauntingly.

"Shouldn't we head to the guild?" Lexi asked rushing to her bag, her face red now.

"Yeah ok," Lucy giggled as she walked to her closet.

xX Xx

Melchior sat on the train as it headed to Shiratsume, a tag along next to him.

"Not to sound rude," he began looking to his companion. "But why did you come?"

The large man scoffed lightly. "Sis sent me, she was worried. A real man can take care of things."

"Your sister?" Melchior raised a brow.

"We haven't officially met yet," the big man said. "I'm Elfman, and my sister is Mirajane." Melchior looked closer, seeing a slight resemblance to the barmaid.

"Hmm, I sort of see it," Melchior shrugged. "But I don't think I'll need help."

"That's what I said," Elfman sighed. "But big sis is stubborn, she insisted since you're new and all...can't say no to her."

"Are you scared of your sister?" Melchior grinned teasingly. "She's so much smaller than you though."

Elfman began to sweat. "Size ain't everything my man," he blew out a puff of air, "she's way more powerful than I could ever hope to be."

"That's right," Melchior hit a fist on his palm. "What is her Satan Soul like?"

"Terrifying," was all Elfman said.

Melchior shrugged and turned to stare out the window.

xX Xx

"What Melchior already went on a job?" Lexi asked surprised as she sat at the bar next to Lucy.

"Yeah he took a job last night," Mira smiled serenely. "Said he needed money quick."

"So he went alone? That's kinda risky for a new guy," Lucy stated as she took a sip of her strawberry milkshake.

"Well," Mira began. "I sent Elfman to help him."

"Well a less destructive choice than Natsu or Gray," Lucy sighed. "It's a good thing Erza is still on that job."

"Erza Scarlet?" Lexi asked wide eyed. "You know her?"

"Yeah we're part of the strongest team." Lucy said nonchalantly.

"Wow," Lexi went all starry eyed. "I'm friends with the strongest team."

"Yeah and you're coming with on our next mission, right?" A voice near her ear said making her jump and squeal.

"Y-Yeah," she said as she turned towards Gray. None of them noticed the ominous shadow behind the pillar near them.

"Actually," Mira said unsure. "I do have a mission, the job Melchior went on just went up."

"And you want us to help him?" Lucy asked eyebrow quirked. Mira handed her the flyer. "It's seems like just a simple retrieval, why do we need to go?"

"Well it's gone up to nearly s-class," Mira said sounding worried, presumably for Elfman's sake. "And since Erza isn't back yet, would you guys mind going?"

"Well if we must," Gray sighed turning away from the bar. "Better find flame brain."

"Better find your clothes first," Lexi muttered looking anywhere but him.

"What?" Gray looked around him for his clothes.

"I'll find Natsu," Lucy offered walking away shaking her head.

"Damn," Gray sighed, he still wasn't wearing a shirt but at least he was decent.

"You don't notice when you do that?" Lexi asked with a forced straight face.

"Not really, it's partly cause of my training," he shook his head as he glanced across the guild. Lexi followed his gaze and saw Lucy waving at them. "She found him, let's get moving."

"Ok," she followed him, wondering why he looked so sad when he mentioned his training.

xX Xx

Melchior walked through the forest, Elfman a few paces behind him.

"So what are we looking for exactly?" Elfman asked.

"It's a lacrima ball, the client said a thief took it and hid it in this forest," Melchior replied. "Because of the monster count, no one dared to come after it. The thief wasn't a wizard, so I doubt he survived."

"So they call in the wizards," Elfman sighed. "Not very manly if you ask me."

"Well this town isn't full of wizards," Melchior shrugged. "He said it's mainly a large spider that guards the ruins in here."

"Spiders huh," Elfman grinned. "Doesn't sound too hard."

"We'll just have to wait and see."

After walking for a bit, they finally came upon some ruins.

"This must be the place," Elfman stated the obvious.

"Who goes in my territory," a voice hissed out. A spider about the size of Elfman walked out the entrance. "You won't survive much longer."

"That's what you think," Melchior said with a smirk. A yellow magic circle appeared, and lightning flashed out zapping the spider.

It screeched as it flew back from the force. "You'll regret that," some sort of liquid began oozing out of it's mouth.

"It's poison," Elfman jumped back as it came closer to them.

Melchior however, didn't move a muscle. Another magic circle appeared in front of him, this time a sword hilt came out. He gripped it tightly, a blade of lightning emerged out of it.

"I think it's time to stop playing around," Melchior stated as the blade pulsed. He jumped up and swung the blade down, sweeping the head off cleanly. Out of the neck popped a small lacrima, it glowed slightly. "Well there's what we're after."

He stooped and picked it up. "That was a little underwhelming."

"I'll say," Elfman shrugged a small smile on his face. "I can't say why sis was so worried. You're stronger than you look."

"Let's head back," Melchior said turning back the way they came.

xX Xx

The five of them sat on the train, Lexi couldn't help the look on her face as she stared at Natsu.

"Is he gonna be ok?" She glanced at Lucy.

"He'll be fine, so long as we get him off first chance we get." She sighed, his head was resting in her lap. "It's just motion sickness, in fact most dragon slayers get this way."

Lexi looked over at the young girl sitting with them, her big brown eyes wide as she stared back. She was the sky dragon slayer, Wendy Marvell.

"You're not sick?" She asked.

"No," Wendy shook her head a light blush dusting her cheeks. "It might be because I'm young still."

"Oh, makes sense." Lexi shrugged a smile on her face.

"How did you all meet?" Wendy asked curious, since this was her first time meeting Lexi.

"Well I've known Gray since I was young," Lexi replied. "But I met Lucy and Natsu yesterday at the guild."

"Hmm, it's nice to meet you," Wendy gave a cute smile. "I hope you like working with our team, although miss Erza isn't here yet."

"I-Is she as scary as they say?" Lexi asked nervously.

"Scarier," Gray dead panned. "You'll see when we get back, she'll be back by then."

"I'm actually surprised Mira asked us to go," Lexi said curiously. "I mean this is almost s-class stuff, are you even qualified?"

"Technically no," Lucy sighed. "But we've been on worse missions than this one."

"Now arriving at the Shiratsume station," an overhead voice said.

"Natsu I need you to get up," Lucy said lightly shaking him, he groaned in return.

"Or we'll leave you behind," Gray said seriously, as he grabbed a couple of the bags from overhead, which turned out to be his, Wendy's and Lexi's. Lucy grabbed hers and Natsu's while supporting his mostly dead weight.

Once they were on the platform, they looked around. "So which way?" Gray turned to Lucy.

"Says we have to head north west," she said looking at the flyer. "Near the forest."

xX Xx

"Man I don't know why Mira sent me here," Elfman sighed. "You're pretty manly, I'll give you that."

"Thanks," Melchior smiled. "That wasn't so bad," he tossed the small lacrima up into the air.

"Oh there you guys are," they turned to see Team Natsu, with Lexi staring at them.

"No way," Natsu's eyes bugged out. "You finished already?"

"It was easy." Melchior stated with a smirk.

"But Mira said it was pushed up to nearly s-class," Gray said shocked. "Just how powerful are you?"

"Wow," all three girls said eyes shining.

"You're so cool Melchior," Lexi said with a wide smile. Gray couldn't explain why, but that sent a weird pang through him.

"You're pretty strong," Lucy smiled.

"You should fight me!" Natsu said seriously. "Gotta see how powerful."

"You're on." Melchior smirked.

"You should go to the client and give them what they asked for," Elfman reminded him.

"Right," Melchior nodded. "We'll have to do that another time."

"Would you like us to wait at the train station?" Lexi asked as he turned away. "I mean if you want company."

"Sure," he glanced at Elfman. "You can go wait with them, if you don't mind."

"Sure," Elfman said stone faced. As Melchior walked away Elfman glanced at them. "Mira made it sound so much worse." Everyone nodded.

"I didn't realize he was this strong," Lucy said in slight awe.

"Well he's a wanderer," Lexi shrugged. "Bound to have run into other wizards."

"Good point," Lucy looped her arm around Lexi's and the group made their way back to the train station.

The guys all ended up ahead of the girls, so Lexi made time to chat with the two girls.

"So Wendy, what kind of magic do you use?" Lexi asked curious.

"Sky dragon slayer magic," Wendy said brightly. "Mostly support magic, and I'm a pretty good healer. I've actually gotten better since the games."

"You're being modest child," Carla, Wendy's exceed friend smiled proudly at the young dragon slayer.

"Sweet," Lexi nodded at the younger girl.

"What about you?" Lucy asked.

"What about me?" Lexi asked.

"Your magic?"

"Oh elemental," Lexi shrugged. "I can summon and manipulate six elements so far."

"Wow, is air part of that?" Wendy asked her eyes wide and sparkly.

"Yeah, the four main elements and also ice and lightning." Lexi smiled as the two girls gave her awed looks.

Suddenly to the shock of the three girls and Carla, ropes flew from nowhere and wrapped around them binding them tightly.

"What's goi-" a hand slapped onto each of their mouths before they had a chance to react.

The three girls and exceed were dragged off in a random direction. Lexi thrashed, her eyes sending sparks flying.

She ended up shocking the person holding her, she was thrown roughly to the ground. "Bitch!" The wind was knocked out of her.

Lucy bit the hand holding her, "Lexi!" She yelled as the person yanked the white haired girl up by her hair.

"Ice make: lance!" A voice shouted hitting the masked man yanking Lexi's hair, said girl had tears in her eyes.

"Fire dragon iron fist!" The one holding Lucy was knocked to the ground, burned. Lucy has no marks on her, but her eyes were wide.

"Take that," Elfman knocked the third man unconscious. "A real man wouldn't kidnap girls."

Lexi stared up at the sky blearily, the pain still throbbing through her skull. She was pulled up slowly, gently. "You ok?" She looked at Gray and only nodded, knowing if she spoke she'd sound wobbly.

"Who the heck are these guys?" Natsu asked as he and Elfman gathered them together and tied them with the fallen ropes.

"They came out of nowhere," Lucy said rubbing her arms that were stiff from the ropes.

"Wha-" the man who had taken Lexi woke first, looking around confused. "What happened?"

"Why don't you tell me," Gray growled coldly.

"Where is she?" The man said suddenly, sounding desperate. "I have to take the white haired girl...or she'll-" he seemed to choke on his words. "Please..." He then shriveled up to a husk.

Lexi stared in horror, they were after her. "Why me?" She muttered to herself. The other men suddenly shriveled as well with sickening shrieks. The girls covered their ears.

"What was that?" Lucy asked her voice shaky. "They were after you," she looked at Lexi who could only shrug.

Soon there was nothing else, except what looked like a crescent moon burned into the ground.

"I thought you were meeting me at the station," they all turned towards Melchior. His smirk vanished once he saw their faces. "What happened?"

"Some weirdos tried to kidnap the girls." Natsu stated a fire in his eyes. "I wanna know who ordered this, no one hurts my friends."

Melchior walked over to the group, noticing Lexi was the only one still on the ground. She was staring intently at the ground, to the scorch mark there.

"Well that has to be a clue," Melchior said pointing to the crescent. "We just have to figure out whose signature that is."

'I have an idea,' Lexi thought unable to rip her gaze away. 'But if it is, we're all in a lot of danger.'

"Are you ok to walk?" Gray asked nudging her shoulder, snapping her from her thoughts. "We're getting left behind." She glanced beyond him to see the others walking away. He offered her a hand, which she took.

"Thanks," she smiled at him. 'I really hope I'm wrong.'

xX Xx

When they got back to Magnolia, Melchior parted ways with the rest of them. He said he needed a tailor.

"We should go to the guild, maybe someone there can help with that attack," Lucy said in a serious tone.

"Well Erza should be back by now." Gray said with a shrug.

"I have to go to my dorm for something," Wendy said and she and Carla split off from the group.

The rest of the walk was silent, everyone thinking about the strange attack.

"So how did it go?" Mira asked which knocked everyone out of their thoughts.

"We weren't needed," Elfman said with a shrug.

"Where's Melchior?" She asked looking at them.

"He said he wanted to look around," Lexi said softly. She just wanted to find a quiet corner and try and sort out her thoughts. "Excuse me." She walked away from everyone.

She had just found a table, when Lucy, Natsu, Gray and a red haired woman sat down with her.

She looked at them with wide eyes, not expecting them. "Hi?"

"So I hear you're a new member," the red haired woman said. "Erza Scarlet," she held out an armored hand. Lexi took it, only to wince at the strong handshake.

"Lexi Violet," Lexi said in a strained tone.

"So how was your first mission?" Erza asked sounding completely business.

"Well-"

"We didn't actually get to do anything," Natsu grumped, arms crossed.

"Really? Mira said she sent you after the other new member, on a difficult quest."

"Can't have been that difficult if he finished it by himself," Gray shrugged.

"Gray please, you're in the presence of young ladies." Erza said in a stern voice. Lucy snickered as he yelled out.

"You really should learn more control," Lucy giggled.

'I think it's cute,' Lexi thought with a small smile.

"You've got a weird look on your face," Lexi jumped as Happy got into her face slightly. "You love him," he teased deviously.

"What?!" Her face turned tomato red. "No I don't!"

"Stupid cat," Lucy rolled her eyes. "Is that your favorite thing to say?"

"Well you're still not as weird as Lucy," Happy said in a loud whisper.

"I can hear you!" Lucy yelled pulling on his cheeks.

"This place sure is lively," Lexi laughed, she glanced over and noticed the boys were butting heads.

Erza stood up swiftly, then knocked both their heads together knocking them out cold.

Lexi stared in awe and fear. "Scary."

"I've told those two time and again, no fighting," she ground out. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go to my place." She marched off, still with an authoritative aura. Everyone avoided her path as she left.

"Wow," was all Lexi managed to say as she shook. "She is strong, if she can take those two down in one hit."

"Yeah," Lucy sighed. "You never really get used to Erza."

"Can we go to your place," Lexi said suddenly. "I feel kind of gross."

"Yeah." Lucy nodded. "I'm sure those two will be there later." Lexi nodded with a giggle as they walked passed them.

xX Xx

Melchior had walked through the city after they returned back. He'd found a tailor to make some new clothes and now found himself by a large building on a hill. It bore the Fairy Tail emblem.

"I wonder how I got up here," he wondered aloud.

"Oh, I didn't know I'd find you up here," he turned at the soft voice. "You really shouldn't be here, this is the girls dorm. If Erza finds you, you'll be sorry."

"I don't think I have anything to worry about," he waved off Mira's concern. "I would like to thank you for sending everyone, it's nice to know someone was worried." Mira blushed after he said this.

"Well if you think you know what you're doing, I won't stop you. Just remember Erza isn't forgiving." And she walked into the building.

"She's a woman, what can she possibly do?" He wondered shaking his head.

"You there!" He stopped in his tracks at the commanding tone. He turned slowly to see a red haired woman decked out in full armor. "What are you doing here? Boys are not permitted in Fairy Hills."

"I got a little turned around," he shrugged.

"No boys allowed," she said fiercely her aura becoming dangerous. "There are young ladies inside!" And without further warning she snapped out her leg in a swift, strong kick sending poor Melchior flying.

xX Xx

"Man why does Erza gotta be so bossy?" Natsu said grumpily, he was sulking on Lucy's bed an angry looking red bump on his forehead.

Lexi was still in the shower, and didn't know they had company.

"Well she isn't known for being the strongest female in Fairy Tail for nothing," Lucy shrugged, she was in front of her vanity brushing through her hair. "And you wouldn't get punished if you didn't fight so much." She shot glares to both boys in the room.

"Yeah, yeah," Gray said from his spot leaning against the wall.

The bathroom door opened and Lexi came out, her long hair wrapped in a towel like a turban.

"Hey guys," she nodded to the two men in the room. "Where's Happy?"

"He said he had to find the perfect fish for Carla," Natsu shrugged.

"Aw he likes her so much," Lexi gushed as she sat down next to Lucy's small table. "It's so cute."

Suddenly a new body sat down next to Lexi. "Have any tea Lucy?"

"Does anyone know how to knock?" Lucy asked sourly, as she made her way into her kitchen.

"So everybody just makes themselves at home, huh?" Lexi said lightly.

"Well she's our team mate, and the only one with enough space for the team." Erza shrugged. "You are joining us, correct?"

"If you guys want me," Lexi said, no confidence in her tone.

"Of course we do," Lucy said coming back in. "I mean your powers are a little more useful than mine."

"Luce you're strong," Natsu said offhandedly. "As long as you think you can keep up, welcome to the team."

Lexi smiled brightly, she glanced at Gray from the corner if her eye. "Ok."

"What kind of magic do you use?" Gray asked.

"Elemental," she replied. "I can control and manipulate, fire, water, earth, wind, lightning and ice."

"That sounds like you'd run out of magic energy quickly," Erza stated.

Lexi was just about to answer when a loud bang was heard, and a figure fell into the table leaving a huge hole in the roof.

"M-My house!" Lucy shrieked, her face darkening as she stared at the fallen figure.

"Oh, that took awhile," Erza said noticing it was the boy from earlier.

"Man, I'm gonna have to work a million jobs to get this fixed!" Her face was really red now.

"Oowww, that hurts," he groaned, he glanced around. "Oh hey there..." He noticed the murderous glare Lucy was sending him. "Um...it's not my fault, it was this red head-" he stopped at the deadly aura he now felt behind him. "Oh no..."

"Lucy-kick!" "You smashed my cake!" A double kick and he flew out of the apartment again.

"I'll pay for it!" He yelled as he flew out of view again.

"Wow," Gray whistled. "Think you could've gone a little easier on him?"

"He better pay for it," Lucy grumbled.

xX Xx

Mira had just returned back to the guild, when there a was a crash from above.

"Look out!" Someone shouted, just as a body slammed into her knocking her to the floor.

"Twice in one day," Melchior groaned as he shifted, his face came into contact with something soft. "What-" his eyes shot wide as he glanced up to see a blushing Mira beneath him. "Oh no..." Blood spurted out again, and he fainted.

Mira giggled as she sat up, rolling him to the side. "I told you Erza isn't forgiving," she touched his cheek gently. "You're kinda cute." There was a collective groan through the guild. "Lisanna wanna help me move him?"

"Sure," Lisanna walked over and helped her sister move him to a back room, so he could sleep this off.

"Man, I think Mira is officially off limits," Wakaba sighed as he and Macao watched the Strauss sisters carrying the new guy to a back room.

"Like it would matter," Macao said. "She's always been off limits."

"What a man," Elfman stated behind them suddenly. "Only a real man could get big sis' attention."

The two older men sweat dropped at the Strauss brother.