Natsu gulped. Colonel Strauss may have been beautiful but her voice was commanding and tough. The way she looked into his soul with those eyes that seemed to have gone from soft and lovely to cold and demonizing instantaneously.
"My name is Natsu. The taller one is Gajeel, the ugly one is Gray and the chick is Lucy." There was a grunt from the others as each was named except for Gray who Natsu could feel glaring into the side of his head.
"Alright now what's your purpose for coming into our territory." She barely moved any other muscles as she talked, it didn't even look like Strauss was breathing.
"We didn't see any signs stating it was your territory. If we had seen anything to suggest this area was taken we would have taken a different route and gone around. We're heading South because... well because we have nowhere else to go." Natsu finally broke eye contact and looked down at the ground. "We didn't mean any trouble. We're not dangerous."
"The last person who told me he wasn't dangerous caused this town and myself a lot of pain." Natsu looked back up at her.
"But we're not whoever that was and-"
"You, Gajeel your name was?" Gajeel nodded. " You were caught dual-weilding Colt Anaconda revolvers. Firing those with both hands on the gunis hard enough but one in each? Only the deadliest of men or the strongest would know how to do that."
"You trying to compliment me or something Colonel? Cause it sure as fuck sounds like it."
"Mind. Your. Tongue." Venom was spat from the last word. "I will not have that kind of language in my house."
"I don't really give a fuck what you want in your building. You took away my guns, you put a bag over my head, you threw me into the back of a pickup truck and now are having me stand in front of you like an interrogation. So don't sit there on your big fucking chair and tell me to watch my fucking language or I'll come over there and beat your ass into it." There was a silence that could have been cut through with a knife if somebody had one on them. Strauss went from scary to down right terrifying as she stared Gajeel down.
"If that's what you want." She stood up from the chair that she was in and walked down the few steps to the main floor. "Come and get me."
"Gee-hee." Gajeel didn't even think about what was going on but instead charged straight in for the fight. His first right hook was heading right for Strauss' head and would have connected if she hadn't suddenly disappeared from his view. One second she was there and the next gone only to reappear behind him and in one fell swoop snap a left punch into his right shoulder and snap it out of the socket. With a grunt Gajeel reacted to the hit and moved right, straight into a roundhouse kick that brought him down in a second. Strauss stood over the breathing, K.O.'d body of Gajeel for a few seconds before looking over at Natsu, Gray and Lucy who were all standing completely still; mouths gaping open and eyes bulging out of their heads.
"I will have somebody fix his shoulder. You already have rooms set up and your weapons will be returned to you. Please don't fuck up the chance you're being given or I will kill you myself." With that the gorgeous woman turned on her heels and walked out of the courtroom while the group that had brought them into the town escorted Natsu, Gray and Lucy to their weapons.
Mira moved out the door on the side of the room that led to the hallway, striding down it with perfect military precision. She was thinking about the group as she walked. The blonde was no threat, neither were Gajeel or Gray. Natsu on the other hand... Mira smiled to herself; Natsu could be fun to play with for a bit. Realizing what she was thinking the Colonel shook her head to clear the thoughts away.
The old wooden walls echoed her footsteps up the staircase that she got to and without breaking stride she went up them and into the door on her right. Reaching her office the white haired Colonel felt warm arms wrap around her and she sighed when her blonde, spiky-haired love pulled her in for a kiss.
"Now that wasn't so hard to deal with was it?"
"Not at all my love." She stared into his eyes. Those lovely grey eyes. She loved Laxus. She loved him more than anything in the world.
Back in the courtroom
The largest of the men with a white hair like Strauss -and the first girl they had met with short hair- picked up Gajeel fireman style and grabbed his Colts on the way by the table. Natsu went to grab his own shotgun but ended up grabbing the hand of the short haired girl from before who had also gone to grab the gun.
"Sorry." The girl blushed a little bit and averted her eyes to the right.
"What's your name?" Natsu looked down at her while checking the ammo on his shotgun. Her eyes were the same blue as what Natsu guessed was her sister who had just beat the shit out of Gajeel.
"Second Lieutenant Lisanna Strauss of the United States Marines." There was a sudden formality to her voice when she talked about her rank that made Natsu smile.
"Lieutenant eh? Impressive."
"Not as impressive as big sister. She got to Colonel faster than anybody in history AND she's a woman." Natsu nodded along with her.
"That is impressive. So you gonna show us to our places?" The girl smiled.
"Absolutely!" They all walked out of the courthouse; all except Gajeel who was being carried by the larger man. "The guy carrying your friend, my big brother, is Elfman."
"Wait. As in the wrestler?" Gray looked over at the large camo-suited man. "That is awesome! Dude can I have your autograph?"
"Only a real man would know who I am! I'll give you more than an autograph I'll teach you some of my moves!" Gray grinned and looked around the street they were walking up. The main shops that would have normally covered the downtown area of the town had been turned into food storages, ammo depots and makeshift hospitals and nurseries. People in all manner of dark clothing moved around the town carrying crates with food and other things from one side of the street to another. As Lisanna and Natsu talked their way up the street a soccer ball came flying out of nowhere and straight for Gray's head.
"Watch out!" Before he could even react the green-haired man was in front of him, heading the ball straight up in the air and juggling it off his knees when it came back down. After a couple of hits he let it drop and fired it back up the street to where a dark-blue haired teenager stood waiting for it.
"Thanks !" She ran off with a purple haired boy and a little girl in a cowboy hat. The guy whose name was Freed apparently turned and grinned at Gray.
"Gotta let them have fun sometimes eh?"
"Yeah, right." The rest of the way down the road the group chatted away and Lisanna gave details about the town.
"When everything went down the town came together and built a wall around it, you can't really see it well from here but it's about twelve feet high." At that point the group got to a small square in the middle of the town and as they made their way across it Lucy noticed a large statue of what looked like a rather young man in military fatigue like the others from the group that had captured them.
"Whose that?" Lisanna stopped talking and looked up at the statue. His feet were spread out and aligned with his shoulders, his arms crossed over his puffed out chest and a pair of headphones lay around his neck just to throw the whole 'military style' look off a bit.
"Laxus. About a year ago he saved this whole town by fighting a band of rogues off by himself. Though he died in the process. He was also Mira's husband."
Alliances are forged and some others don't seem to be off to a great start... Read and Review y'all!