A/N: Okay, Chapter 24 is up! This is the second chapter in response to the challenge I gave MyDearWatson, so there's one more after this.

I'd like to thank Master of Anime224, SaiyaStyles, MyDearWatson, PrinceOfTheMatrix88, potentialauthor18, WrittenWhim, The Baz, WaterDragonMaverick, Joshua1277, and GhostOfOnyx for their reviews last chapter!

Master of Anime224- Glad to hear that you think the three-way deadlock will develop well, and yeah, some of these teams are pretty interesting. Well, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

SaiyaStyles- I hope you enjoy how I'll portray Styles with the other mages, and actually I was going to show quite a bit of Styles and his interactions with others during the birthday party, but since I haven't been able to figure it out I had to put it on hold for a little while. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

MyDearWatson- Yeah, Kiyeda is really going to have her hands full with the two partners Salina's given her, and yep, Myrick's been briefly mentioned, but we'll see more of him soon as well. As for school… I've been pretty busy and I honestly should stop putting off a rather large assignment… but I'll get it done and fortunately next weekend is Fall Break! So I'll get to go home then. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

PrinceOfTheMatrix88- Yeah Arashi's got quite the team to work with and it'll be interesting for sure. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

potentialauthor18- Hehe, well here's another chapter! Yep, Salina's done it again by forcing people onto teams with each other, all for the sake of the Grand Magic Games at that. And well, making you people grin like fools is what I'm trying to do.

WrittenWhim- Once again, thank you for the idea for this arc! And yeah, whether or not the different groups will actually be able to work together should be interesting to see.

The Baz- I've just been busy is all, and I do remember having some ideas for some of the villains you sent in. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

WaterDragonMaverick- Odd thing is that I had a minor panic attack when you brought up Rosemary since I had accidentally put that down as Rosary Village's name while writing, but I managed to catch it before posting the chapter. And yep, Rhia's an Etherious, how that'll affect the coming missions, well, just wait and see.

Joshua1277- Happy to hear that you're looking forward to the coming chapters! And I hope you enjoy this one as well!

GhostOfOnyx- Happy to hear that you liked last chapter and I hope that you enjoy this one as well!

Credits:

Aaron Thorn- Asher Grey

Chapter 24

"W-Welcome to 8-Island!" Kimi chirped with a slightly forced smile as she sat the new customers down, the young girl wearing a waitress uniform.

"Oi! Kimi!" Ladon called out from the kitchen, "Here's that customers meal," he said with a yawn as he set the dish down.

"I'll be right there!" she responded as she swiftly walked back towards the kitchen, briefly looking in to see Horace running an experiment with a gas stove, "Um… Should he be doing that?" Kimi asked nervously as Ladon looked back at the S-Class mage, seeing him place a beaker on the stovetop.

Ladon blinked a few times before letting out a yawn, "Yajima hasn't said anything," he said bluntly, the man clearly being too tired to be bothered with what Horace was doing.

"Yajima isn't even here right now," Kimi interjected as Ladon attempted to recall what the man had said.

"I was asleep during the meeting wasn't I?" the tired man asked as he realized that he had woken up here, "Well I'm sure that he won't mind."

"So long as it doesn't explode," Kimi muttered right before the beaker caught fire.

"Oh… It's burning," Horace mused as he watched the flames dance, "Well this is interesting too I suppose," he added with his signature deranged smile.

"Put it out! You'll worry the customers!" Kimi shouted as Horace gave her an odd look.

"Very well," the scientist huffed as he removed the oxygen from around the fire, squelching it.

Kimi let out a drawn-out sigh as she picked up the customers meal, "Here's the new customers order," she muttered as she noticed Ladon had fallen asleep on the counter, "How?" Kimi asked in a bewildered tone.

"Don't worry," Horace said happily, "Now the customers get to taste the culinary creations of a scientist," he added as he examined the new order, a look of pride on his face.

"Why is this happening?" Kimi moaned as she hugged Mr. Voodoo, tears running down her face, "Styles… I hope you're having an easier time than me…"

. : + : .

'You really know how to give a guy a hard time, don't you Salina?' Alistar thought to himself as he looked at his two partners, Malon and Jewul, walking ahead of him through the streets of Hargeon, Willow bouncing around in the air making cooing noises at set intervals, "Hey, if you two want to stop talking about different gruesome ways to kill people there's something I need to talk to you about."

"What?" Malon asked quickly, "What? What? What? We were about to get to the really good part!"

"This better be good," Jewul huffed as she turned around to look at Alistar.

"No respect at all…" Alistar sighed before clearing his throat, "I just wanted to make something clear. Don't give my uncle a hard time."

"Your uncle?" Jewul repeated.

"Is he dead? Please tell me he's a ghost!" Malon practically begged, her eyes glittering with excitement as Willow cooed along.

"Sorry, but he's alive and well. He's also our client," Alistar announced.

"That's boring," Malon pouted as all of her previous excitement instantly deflated, "So what are we doing for him?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself," Alistar retorted while pointing towards a man walking towards them.

The man looked a lot like Alistar, having the same amber colored eyes and crimson hair, although his hair was unkempt and medium-length. He also had a more muscular build and his skin was tanner than the S-Class mage's, he also had a bit of stubble on his face as well. The man was wearing a white dress shirt and vest, with only the bottom half of the dress shirt being buttoned up, with a pair of blue jeans that were being held up with a brown leather belt and a pair of brown leather shoes.

"Alistar!" the man called out, "Were you the one who accepted my mission request?"

"More like Salina picked it out for me," Alistar responded, "Although she insisted that I bring these two."

"Or maybe she insisted that we bring you," Jewul hissed.

"Hahaha! Still having troubles with the ladies, eh Alistar?" the man chuckled.

"Uncle Aaron…" Alistar sighed, "Anyways, this is Jewul Poe Andi, Malon Qoun and Willow," he stated in introduction, pointing at each one of them in turn.

"Nice to meet you all," the man said happily, "Like he said, I'm Aaron Thorn, his uncle."

"So what's the job," Malon asked, still slightly disappointed that Aaron wasn't a disembodied spirit of some sort.

"Right, well pretty much every shop in town has received notes saying that we're all going to get robbed simultaneously," Aaron explained as he started walking back to his shop, gesturing for them to follow him, "The guy who wrote the note claims to be some sort of master thief apparently."

"Sounds over-confident to me," Jewul huffed.

"I don't think you have the right to get onto others about that after what happened to you when you joined the guild," Alistar snickered, the younger girl sending him a harsh glare as they walked.

"So I want you to catch the thief in the act basically," Aaron added, "If he's a master thief I don't think he'll be able to turn down the challenge of stealing while mages are watching out for him."

"Sounds easy enough," Alistar smirked.

"I hope the thief's a ghost or a wraith or maybe even a ghoul!" Malon cheered, Willow cooing along.

"She's a rather odd one, isn't she?" Aaron questioned as they continued walking.

"Don't even get me started," the S-Class Mage mumbled.

. : + : .

"I won't do it," Styles huffed, the man sitting opposite from Yune and Arashi in the carriage with Nina resting on the floor next to Styles.

"And I've already told you that you're participating in this mission!" Arashi shouted back. The S-Class mage was now wearing black, baggy, ripped up jeans that had a chain hanging off of the right side of them with a pair of black leather combat boots and a blood red, long-sleeved shirt under a thin hoodie that had black, gray, and red horizontal stripes.

"You expect me to fight animals!?" the blood mage growled in return, leaving Yune to simply watch the fight unfold before her.

"Um… Excuse me," she called out quietly, only to be ignored, "Excuse me!" she shouted, quickly earning her glares from the two angry men, "Aah…" the girl gasped.

Arashi quickly realized that he had glared at the poor girl before calming down, "What?" he asked in a calmer tone.

"… I just thought that I should point out that the form says to investigate why the animals have gone berserk," Yune mumbled, "That means that there's a person behind it most likely."

"God damn dirty humans," Styles cursed, "Fine I'll help, but I'm doing it to help the animals."

"Now that that's settled," Arashi huffed, "We're going to the Boundary Forest, so we'll need to stick together."

"Isn't that place filled with giant monsters?" Styles asked, "How can any human claim they're going berserk?"

"If you'd listen I could tell you," Arashi bit back, silencing Styles, "The nearby locals claim that even the creatures that don't attack humans, herbivores, are acting up, that's why they say they're going berserk," the S-Class mage explained, earning a huff from Styles.

"Fine, but I'm still not going to attack any animals except to defend myself… And I don't want you killing any either," Styles growled, his glare focused on Arashi.

"If you're not going to fight, that's fine, but don't forget who's in charge of you this mission," Arashi retorted as Yune looked out of the carriage window with a far off look.

'Are we really going to be okay this mission?' she asked herself quietly, worried about how poor their teamwork was going to be in the coming fights.

. : + : .

Ziv and Miriam sat on opposite sides of the train cabin, glaring at each other in an eerie and unsettling silence, leaving Jayne caught in the middle.

Normally, Jayne would have used the time spent on the train to write, but the unsettling feeling in the air kept her from focusing. Jayne felt like screaming at the top of her lungs if would ease the tension between the two other girls, 'All this because Miriam loves rabbits and Ziv hates them…' Jayne internally moaned as she let out a sigh, although it did nothing to deter the other two girls from their glaring contest.

It wasn't until the train finally came to a stop at their destination that Miriam and Ziv ceased glaring as the intercom announced their arrival.

"So!" Jayne started to say as her words died on her lips, still feeling the tension from earlier, "Um… Are we going to the mayor's office?" she finally managed to ask.

"It'd be a good idea to get a grasp of the situation," Miriam said lowly as they exited the train.

"We should also figure out who all has been kidnapped," Ziv added, "So we should find the families too."

'Are they trying to outdo each other now?' Jayne asked herself before coming out of her thoughts, "Well, we're in Freesia Town now anyways, so let's get this mission started!" she cheered, trying to lighten the mood before running over to a silver-haired man to ask for directions, "Excuse me!"

"Hm?" the man hummed as he looked down at Jayne, his gray eyes showing his irritation at being bothered by her, "What?" he asked, hostility thick in his voice as Jayne suddenly felt an all-encompassing fear, her knees buckling as she fell down, "Hmph," the man huffed as he walked away, never bothering to hear Jayne's question.

"What's with him?" Ziv asked as she watched the man walk off as she helped Jayne back onto her feet, "Are you all right?"

"I think so," Jayne muttered as she regained her sense of balance, "That guy was… scary."

"He looked pretty normal to me," Miriam huffed.

"You don't get it! It was like all of my fears flashed before my eyes when he looked at me," Jayne tried to explain with a shudder as she recalled the feeling she had, "I hope we don't run into him anymore."

"Don't worry Jayne," Ziv reassured as they started walking again, "What are the odds of that happening?"

. : + : .

Rhiannon watched as three Undine's Cove mages passed her by on the streets of Freesia Town. She recognized them all from Euclid's files on them, but she couldn't remember what they could do off the top of her head.

"Looks like they got a job to solve the kidnappings," she muttered as she sat on her motorcycle, using it as a bench of sorts, "So long as they don't get in my way I suppose. Although Euclid would probably be upset if something happened to them," Rhia mused before she felt the presence of a Nightmare, "Tch… Another one's shown up… An even more dangerous one at that. Well it won't try anything so long as we're in public at least," she huffed as she looked around for anyone suspicious looking, "I wonder how important they are to him?" she asked no one in particular before standing up, "I might as well get a drink in the meantime though," Rhia chirped happily as she walked off to the closest bar.

A/N: And there it is! Chapter 24! A wee bit longer than the last one, but it's to setup different missions. Anyways, just one more chapter and I'll have fulfilled my end of the challenge.

Please remember to leave a review!

Your host,

dreadburner94.