Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Many Unexpected Things

The next day, Lucy had gone to the guild of Fairy Tail with a soft smile on her face. She had slept well last night, after receiving some helpful advice from Sting to assist her with training in the grassy countryside, and Lucy had gotten up a bit earlier than usual. The blonde mage felt a bit happy, despite having parted ways with her cheating ex-boyfriend Natsu yesterday, and she was glad to have known that there was a new friend around to help her pick up the pieces of her broken heart. Even though Lucy was smiling right now, it was really nothing to get excited over.

She knew that rushing into a relationship would not be a very good move to make, especially since she had been dumped and cheated on recently by such a dense jerk, and Lucy just wanted to stay single for a while. Even if the guild would still be acting like she was so hurt by Natsu, Lucy did not really find the need to really tell them what was going on, since they were all on his side because they had all kept his affair to themselves without even saying a word about it to her. She would just focus on herself for a while, and being single had its perks.

Lucy wore an orange top with a yellow skirt today, and she also wore some red flat shoes to make her outfit look completely great. She had always liked fashion, and looking great was one of the things that Lucy was skilled at. She had planned to leave the guild at the end of this month, due to the party that would be going on to celebrate the seven-month anniversary of Natsu's lovely relationship with Lisanna, and Lucy did not even want to see those two make. She no longer wanted to be around the fire dragon slayer, wanting nothing to do with him anymore, and Lucy had simply waited for fate to tell her when she could join Sabertooth.

After it sounded like everyone was inside, Lucy had used her Wind Magic to open the guild's closed entrance doors through the slight crevice that had been in between them. She had also closed the doors behind her while being in the main part of the guild, only hating how the doors had creaked while she shut them, and the brown-eyed girl smiled a bit as she had memorized every inch of the guildhall to know where everything was located. If almost everyone in Fairy Tail was going to be so sneaky to Lucy, then what was stopping her from doing it to them?

She softly giggled while going over to the request board, feeling happy with delight to see the job requests that were on the brown flyers, and she was trying to find a job that she could do today to get some money that she would need tomorrow. Lucy was not going to use that money to pay her rent, since she was still intent on moving out of her apartment, but she was going to use it to help herself buy some delicious treats that she could give as gifts to Sting, Yukino, Rogue, Lector, and Frosch. She had not met Lector yet, but Sting had spoke of having a red Exceed with that name while he had taken her to the grassy countryside.

Lucy had scanned the jobs on the request board with her cocoa brown eyes, wanting to find a good job that she would enjoy doing while having Sting by her side, and the blonde mage cheered softly while she found a good job to do in the bottom-left corner of the request board. This job would take place on the other side of Fiore, the side where Sting had lived, and Lucy was ecstatic at the thought of seeing him once again. He had promised to train with her from now on, wanting to help her become stronger, and Lucy kept smiling happily as she unpinned the flyer from the request board.

The blonde mage had told herself in a calm manner while she looked at the job that she was taking today, finding it to be a really good reason to finally get to see the Sabertooth guild, "This job is totally perfect for me to do, and I'll probably get to see Sting on the way to the town of Rustboro! I don't know if he's the type of person who would enjoy going to something like this, though, but I will still be sure to stop by and see him! After all, he totally helped me out yesterday. It's the least that I could do for him, after I had nearly destroyed an entire area outside of Magnolia."

A familiar female voice replied in a kind tone, wanting to know what Lucy had been talking about, "Hi, Lucy! Are you still thinking about Natsu? Have you two been getting lovey-dovey? Is he the one who helps you be happy?"

That voice belonged to Mirajane Strauss, the older sister of Lisanna and Elfman, but Lucy narrowed her cocoa brown eyes while not seeing too happy to know that Mirajane was in her business. The white-haired woman smiled kindly while she was about to stamp the job that Lucy would be going on, but the blonde mage had simply folded it up while paying no mind to the questions of Mira. Lucy put the flyer into the left pocket of her yellow skirt, and she walked out of the guild while ignoring the people who were quietly talking about Natsu's upcoming seven-month anniversary with Lisanna.

Judging by how Sting had made Lucy smile softly yesterday, she could tell that her days were going to get better. The white dragon slayer's positive attitude had made Lucy love herself a little bit more, and she began to believe that she was not weak. Not only did she have eight spells of Wind Magic at her disposal, but Lucy also had ten of the thirteen golden keys in her possession. She had gotten somewhat stronger, especially since the winds of good fortune had been shifting her way now, and Lucy ran down to the harbor to catch the next boat to the town of Cerulean.

While she had been running down to the harbor, Lucy smiled a bit while she had to wonder what kinds of treats Sting would like. She had just met him yesterday, so she did not exactly know a whole lot about him. Friends had to get to know each other for the purpose of creating good chemistry, right? That's how being social had worked, after all, and Lucy was going to ask Sting about his favorite things. She wouldn't be going too deep, however, if the white dragon slayer had any personal things about himself that he was wanting to hide for now.

As Lucy could see the beautiful blue ocean coming into view, she kept on telling herself to not try and rush into any relationships. She did not want to fall hard for someone who was not single, or did not return her feelings of wanting comfort, and Lucy also did not want to seem like a sad puppy that needed a constant supply of attention. She did not want to be clingy, like how she had once written about Natsu on every page of her pink diary before he had burned it by accident, and Lucy just wanted to not move so fast. She wanted to take things slow, not go all-out on a guy while trying to flirt with him, and Lucy knew that she really needed a strategy that wouldn't be so bad.

The blonde mage had noticed that there were no boats available at the harbor again, however, and a train would also not be able to cross the sea. Despite that minor setback, Lucy simply turned around to have her back towards the sea while she focused on her Wind Magic. Narrowing her brown eyes, Lucy built up her confidence while inhaling some air and she took in a lot of it. After a few seconds, she exhaled all of the air to push herself backwards by a great distance as she kept letting out the air. Lucy was now sent flying towards the town of Rustboro at high speeds, and she landed on the ground with a hard slam.

Meanwhile, in the center of the town...

Sting and the other members of his team from the Sabertooth guild had been battling a wanted criminal who had stolen a red orb from the Oceanic Museum in Slateport Town, and the group had chased her all the way to the town of Rustboro. Shelly Izumi had a very high bounty on her head for stealing various artifacts from around Fiore, even stealing from dark guilds to get what she wanted, and she was pretty dangerous as well. Her magic had never been matched by the police, nor could the mighty Natsu Dragneel even stop her when they once had an encounter, but could Sting and his crew get the job done?

Shelly had tan skin while she was a very voluptuous woman as well, and she wore a blue midriff top that left her stomach exposed as she also wore blue jeans to look pretty fashionable. Her hair was long and black, reaching down to her hips, and this criminal's eyes were beautiful and blue like the sea. She also wore some cherry red lipstick, and the blue-eyed villain giggled a bit while she looked at the trio of Sting, Rogue, and Yukino. She was obviously underestimating them, seeing them as weak because of the guild's total loss against Fairy Tail in the Grand Magic Games last year, and Shelly did not think that weaklings like them could possibly take her down.

In an effort to wipe that smirk off of her face, Sting charged towards her while Rogue also ran towards her as he readied his Shadow Dragon's Slash to help his friend with their combo strike. Sting made a white sphere of light engulf his left hand, attempting to hit Shelly head on with a series of punches, but she simply grabbed his hands to throw him down to the ground. Shelly also looked alert while turning around quickly to dodge Rogue's attack, and she delivered a harsh kick to his stomach while sending him rolling away from her.

Since the direct approach did not seem to work, Sting formed a sphere with his hands to use White Dragon's Holy Ray. He looked confident while seeing the many beams of white light head towards Shelly in a curved trajectory, and Rogue had unleashed his Shadow Dragon's Roar to hit the antagonist from behind with his black vortex of shadows. The guys thought that they could take her down with this combo, but Shelly had put her hands together to make a large sphere of dense blue water surround her body. Sting's holy rays and Rogue's vortex had been negated by the large bubble of water, prompting them both to groan in frustration.

Deciding to now retaliate, Shelly made her watery sphere grow much larger while she stepped out of it. There was cold white air coming off of her body, almost like she had taken a cold shower, and that made Yukino gulp in fear while she could tell what was coming next. This battle was about to reach a very chilling point, and that would certainly not be good for the trio of heroes. Shelly had made her sphere of blue water float towards Sting at high speeds, and the white dragon slayer had tried to counter it with his White Dragon's Roar. He shot out a white laser beam from his mouth, hitting the bubble directly, and it had burst like a balloon.

Instead of being shocked at this sight, however, Shelly could only smirk deviously as the water from her large bubble had made Sting get caught in a trap! The water had turned into blue goop that acted like glue, solidifying quickly as it was all over his legs, and now Sting was unable to move. He had tried punching the hard substance that had immobilized his legs, but it was not breaking at all. The frustrated look on his face was enough of a warning for Rogue and Yukino to not even try attacking the bubbles or Shelly, so they kept their distance from her.

Sting had asked her in a stern tone while he still tried to move, his blue eyes showing frustration as his legs could not move at all while the cold water had also numbed them, "What do you want with the Red Orb, Shelly, and why do you keep on toying with us like this? I get that you think that people from the guild of Sabertooth are so weak because of how we lost to Fairy Tail last year, but aren't you supposed to be a tough criminal? If you're such a good thief with strong skills, then why not just end this and stop wasting our time? Don't you have anything better to do, lady?"

Shelly replied in a flirty manner, walking towards Sting with a confident smirk on her face, "You're right, you cute dragon slayer. It would eventually get boring to keep toying with you, but I just won't be happy if you died so soon. You're a very handsome man, Sting Eucliffe, and you're also famous for surrendering to an entire team on the final day of the Grand Magic Games because you wanted your precious cat back. You thought that winning would not help you get him back, and you disgraced yourself in front of everyone in Fiore. I know that my words hurt, sweetie, but let me give you a little bit of compensation. You're cute, and I'll be by your side as you die."

She had fired two balls of water from her hands, making sure that they had hit Sting's arms, and the cold water had felt like glacial ice numbing his arms. The blond male could not move his body at all, having no way to escape from Shelly, and she had even turned to Sting's teammates for them to know that they would be sharing his fate if they tried to do anything in this situation. Shelly was going to end this battle in a pretty flirty, yet dangerous way. Sting had been wishing that he said that Lucy could join Sabertooth yesterday, and he wished that she was here right now.

Shelly had gotten close enough to Sting, being at the point of where she put her cold hands on his face, and the black-haired thief closed her eyes while she was slowly leaning in for a kiss. This was no ordinary kiss, however, and Shelly had focused her Water Magic into her lips to freeze Sting solid from the inside. If he was frozen from within, his heart would freeze and he would die. Sting closed his eyes while he heard Shelly sighing happily, her lips being mere millimeters away from his, but then the white dragon slayer opened his eyes when he heard the familiar sound of a certain blonde girl screaming as the wind began to blow.

Suddenly, Lucy had come flying right into Shelly's stomach, striking her hard in the abdomen, and that pushed the antagonist away from Sting while she coughed up some blood. Shelly was sent rolling across the concrete, and Lucy had rolled with her. The two females had stopped rolling after a few seconds, and Lucy had been under Shelly while the tanned woman was on top of her. Sting had wanted to know how Lucy had managed to get to Rustboro, let alone find a fight scene at the right time, and he had noticed that Lucy had two small green tornadoes spiraling under the soles of her red shoes. They acted like rocket boosts, but it seemed that Lucy couldn't control them yet.

They weren't exactly a new spell, more like an ability that could be used outside of battles to help Lucy travel great distances in short amounts of time, and Sting really hoped that the brown-eyed girl would not be using that move very often. Lucy had been looking for Sting, and she had used the Silver Key of her Celestial Spirit named Pyxis to find him. She had hid behind a building while also observing his and Rogue's battle with Shelly, prompting Lucy to make mental notes about each of Shelly's moves. If she was a mage that was able to use Water Magic, then why not have an aquatic battle while fighting water with water?

Lucy had quickly kicked Shelly off of her, backing away quickly to get some distance between herself and the antagonist, so the next best move was to summon Aquarius. She pulled out the mermaid's key from her brown pouch, opening the Gate of the Water Bearer, and Aquarius looked pretty angry while she had appeared from a puddle of water that had been left over from one of Shelly's attacks. The Celestial Spirit did not like being pulled from the spirit world, especially when she was on a date with Scorpio, and she glared at Shelly for making Lucy summon her at a really bad time.

"For making that foolish girl summon me when I was about to kiss my boyfriend, you'll get annihilated by me! I am Aquarius, and the water is my garden! You're going down quickly, and then I'll get back at Lucy!" Aquarius shouted in a fierce tone while looking pretty pissed off, causing the Sabertooth trio to look really puzzled as Lucy seemed pretty shocked at having to soon deal with the wrath of her rebellious Celestial Spirit. With a flirty and sadistic woman going up against a mermaid that was fierce and beautiful, how would this turn out?

Intent on getting rid of anyone who was going to try and get in her way, Shelly made a blue ball of water form in between her hands. When it had grown to the size of them, Shelly threw it at the floor to watch the blue sphere glide across a stream of water that came with this spell. It was known as Rapid Current, and this spell had moved very fast to reach Lucy. Shelly's projectile was not a straightforward attack, however, and it curved around in attempt to hit Lucy from behind while the amount of water in the stream under the blue sphere had grown larger.

Before the attack could hit Lucy, Aquarius had absorbed Shelly's large amount of water into her blue urn. The sphere, however, had managed to hit Lucy from behind while all of that speed and rotation had given it some serious power. An explosion had transpired when Lucy was hit, and she screamed in pain from feeling the power of Shelly's attack. She was sent flying towards the antagonist, who proceeded to try and hit her with a large vortex of water from her left hand, but Aquarius had countered Shelly's spell with the powerful vortex of water that quickly emerged from her urn. The two attacks canceled each other out at first, but something began to happen.

Lucy looked shocked at the sight of Shelly's vortex of water absorbing the water that Aquarius had been using, getting stronger while the vortex of the blue-haired mermaid had gradually begun to decrease, and Shelly smirked evilly while her water vortex grew larger in size to push past the other one with ease. However, instead of hitting Aquarius with this powerful attack, the black-haired woman redirected it to curve around and hit Lucy while she was still trying to get on her feet after taking an explosive attack that made her back feel icy and numb.

The blonde girl looked pretty scared while the vortex came towards her at high speeds, and Lucy knew that none of her spells of Wind Magic could possibly do battle with a woman who could just negate or freeze her attacks. She regretted the fact that Sting would not be saved from being immobilized, and Lucy put the green book in front of her face to shield herself. It seemed quite ridiculous for Lucy to defend herself with something that would probably just get torn to pieces from such a powerful attack, but let's just say that this was no ordinary spell book.

When the vortex had touched the green spell book, Lucy looked surprised to see that the book was not taking any damage from the attack. It began to suddenly glow with cerulean blue beams of light emanating from within, the front and back covers of the book becoming blue, and Shelly looked utterly surprised to see that the book was now absorbing her large attack. This was clearly no ordinary spell book, and the blue color had now symbolized that Water Magic was now available for Lucy to use. Her body was surrounded by a blue aura, feeling warm like hot water, and Lucy managed to stand up.

"It looks like I absorbed that woman's Water Magic, and the Molding Magic in the book might just help me beat her. If she can change the effects of her spells, then that's just what I have to do! It's the only way to beat her, and I think that we've just found her weakness! She's going to pay for hurting Sting, and I'm about to make her see that the guild of Sabertooth should not be underestimated! Second place was only for last year, and my new guild will rise to the top!" Lucy told Aquarius in a determined tone, her brown eyes becoming filled with confidence while she had a new type of magic at her disposal.

Shelly replied in a calm manner while her beautiful blue eyes were filled with arrogance, maintaining her smirk while she had now recognized who she was dealing with, "Hello there, Lucy Heartfilia. You were in Fairy Tail last year, but now it appears that you have left that guild of rowdy fools to join the weak guild that is managed by Sting Eucliffe. Defeating you will be quite easy, especially it seems like you don't even know how to fully use that book yet. Are you on your first or second type of magic, little rookie? Don't act so tough to impress Sting, since you and the others shall soon freeze along with him."

She laughed at her words while creating a large bubble of water to send Lucy's way, knowing that it would immobilize her if she tried to attack it, but Shelly had no idea about what Lucy would do next. The blonde girl quickly looked in the second section of the book to discover that the Water Magic was written in a different olden language, not even looking close to the characters of the Wind Magic, and Lucy noticed that her first readable spell was in a cerulean blue color while the unreadable spells were in black text. Narrowing her brown eyes after calming down and getting her energy at a balanced level, Lucy activated the first spell of Water Magic.

It was known as Aqua Ball, and this spell caused a blue sphere of energy to form in the palm of Lucy's left hand while she held the blue book in her right hand. The ball of energy grew to the size of her hand, before propelling itself off her hand and popping like a little water balloon when it hit Shelly's large bubble of water. Lucy thought that this spell deserved its moment of comic relief, so she used it four more times on Shelly's bubble. It had not grown any bigger, nor had there been any change in the properties of the bubble, and Shelly made it continue floating towards Lucy.

The blonde mage smiled happily while she was about to have Aquarius absorb the bubble into her blue urn, but Shelly's attack had suddenly imploded on itself while making five large blue blasts of energy transpire! The antagonist looked utterly surprised by what had just happened, never thinking that someone could make one of her attacks implode, and that prevented the freezing effect from occurring since it would only work if an outside force made the bubble burst. (Due to all of the messages I got about how cool they were, you'll see a few returning spells that were major fan favorites in my last story.)

Now that she was on the counterattack, Lucy remained focused while she created her second spell of Water Magic. It was known as Aqua Shuriken, and this spell allowed Lucy to jump high into the air while ten small bubbles of water were now on her fingers. They grew larger while taking in more water from the puddles that had been leftover from the blue blasts, and the bubbles reshaped themselves into blue shuriken. She threw the projectiles at Shelly, aiming for all ten of them to strike her from different frontal directions, but the black-haired woman simply made a bubble of dense water surround herself to not take any damage.

Even though the projectiles acted like they had now hit a crack in a wall when they hit the bubble, Lucy kept looking confident while she floated down to the ground. In a few seconds, the blue shuriken exploded in miniature blasts that had created ten clouds of blue smoke. Shelly coughed and closed her eyes while she was not able to see a thing, and she could only hear the sounds of Lucy using a few more of her shuriken to free Sting by having them explode to break the goop and ice that had been immobilizing him for a while.

Despite being free from the restraints that had numbed his body, Sting could only chatter his teeth while he stayed away from the battle to let Lucy handle the job. He had not expected her to be giving Shelly such a good fight, having been on even footing with the antagonist, and Sting looked pretty confident while he could see that Lucy's blue spell book was glowing once again. He had been wondering about how she would plan to end this fight, and the white dragon slayer thought that his new friend would create some fancy new move that was like a fireworks display.

Instead, Sting and Aquarius both looked utterly surprised to hear that Lucy had created a new spell named Sapphire Homing Shell. It sounded pretty weird, and the spell made a puddle of water solidify to take the form of a blue Koopa shell. It wasn't like the epic Spiny shell with spikes on it while having fancy wings as a nice touch, but this blue shell acted like a red homing shell. Lucy kicked it like a soccer ball with a good amount of force to get the shell spinning while it quickly moved towards Shelly, who had just ran out of the smoke.

The tanned woman gasped in shock while she saw the blue shell heading straight for her, quickly being at a close range to hit her with full power, and Shelly's blue eyes widened in amazement while her mind flashed back to everything that she done with Lucy during this fight. The blonde girl had made no pointless attacks, not even caring if Shelly had negated them, and Lucy had been gathering information about how her opponent's spells had worked. That last move with the shuriken was just to make the antagonist be unable to see what Lucy was up to, and Shelly smiled a bit while having to admit that was a very clever series of moves.

With nothing to help her defend against an unpredictable attack like this, Shelly could only watch as the blue shell hit her right foot gently before it caused a massive sapphire blue blast of energy to occur. The noise had gotten the attention of many people in Rustboro, some of them thinking that Sting was having a wild party again, and Lucy had closed the gate of Aquarius to send her back to the Celestial Spirit World. She did not want her magical power to completely run out, if Shelly would still be standing after taking such a powerful move like that. After all of that fighting, what would the result be?

As the blue smoke began to fade away, Rogue and Yukino looked pleased to see that Lucy stood over the defeated antagonist. Shelly had supposedly been knocked out by that last attack, not able to even move, and all that she could do was lie on the ground motionlessly while Sting had walked over to Lucy. Rogue and Yukino had walked over to her as well, smiling happily at her for defeating someone who was on Fiore's top ten list for wanted criminals, and the Sabertooth mages were very thankful that Lucy had showed up.

"Lucy, that last move of yours was totally wicked! I'll admit that it was a bit weird, but you just saved Fiore's best dragon slayer! I don't know how to repay you, but I'll eventually make it up to you. You're a good friend, and you saved our lives!" Sting told her in a congratulatory manner, looking pretty excited by how she had just saved him from receiving a kiss that would've led to his chilly death, and he had a happy look in his blue eyes while also hugging her to receive some warmth that would take away Shelly's coldness.

The brown-eyed girl blushed pink while she felt Sting hugging her, noticing how the blue spell book made a blue aura surround their bodies to warm them up, and his hug had felt so nice and warming. It wasn't burning hot like Natsu's flames, but the hug from Sting felt like lovely warmth from sunlight. He had wanted to truly thank her, and Sting smiled happily as his nose could smell Lucy's vanilla perfume. Sting did not know if Lucy liked guys who would just flirt with her, but he did not want to move that fast with her. He did think that she looked pretty cute, though.

Lucy responded to Sting in a kind tone, smiling happily while she had an idea about something, "Thank you, Sting! You're a really great teacher, and I had to save you. You put me on the path of training to become stronger, and I'll never be a burden to you. I will always help the team, and I want to join Sabertooth. Even if you think that I'm still not ready, at least give me a chance. If you, Rogue, and Yukino ever come across anyone like that woman or Minerva, then let me help you fight them. I want to work with you, Sting. Let me be in your group."

He could only respond by pointing straight ahead, showing Lucy that the Sabertooth guild stood behind a beautifully flowing fountain of water that spouted the Sabertooth guild's insignia at the top of the fountain in random instances. Sabertooth's headquarters itself appeared to be a very large saffron-colored complex consisting of several structures joined together. Some of them were even sitting on top of the others, generating an imposing, elongated structure vaguely reminiscent of an odd pyramid adorned by a multitude of facades, windows and pillars, as well as by some pointed towers protruding upwards from its upper part. Topping the whole structure was a massive gold statue portraying the animal which is the guild's namesake, a saber-toothed cat with its jaws open.

Sting smiled kindly while walking to the guild with Lucy, as Rogue and Yukino followed behind, and he knew that she would enjoy being a part of his guild. They would work together, get stronger together, and Sting also wanted to get to know her. He had not been wanting a relationship with her, but they just had to start things off by looking at each other's interests. If they had anything in common other than their dislike of Natsu, then Sting could possibly end up having pretty good chemistry with a nice girl like Lucy.

The waves from the last blast had made the fountain's water spill out all over Shelly while she had been faking her state of being unconscious, but the antagonist was badly wounded. However, she knew that her organization had a secret base for healing near the town of Rustboro. It was actually meant to be accessed by going into the fountain that was actually hiding a secret switch that would let Shelly swim deeper into the fountain, and she pressed a white button on the fountain to make the bottom part within the fountain open up a secret passage. All of the pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters fell into the secret passage, but the organization known as Aqua Kyogre didn't care.

Shelly took off her wet top and her wet pants, leaving her in nothing but a lacy white bra and lacy white panties, and she went headfirst into the fountain while getting the rest of her body down into it. Shelly looked very attractive, and she smirked evilly while the secret passage closed up above her to not let anyone follow her. As she began to swim down to what seemed like an underground hideout, the black-haired woman could only smirk in a devious manner as she had seen something in Lucy's eyes that she took a liking to.

How was the 5th chapter? Did you like it? Due to the Hoenn remakes coming out soon, I decided to include some of that into this story. You've also seen some new spells as well, and Lucy will get more in this story. I've chosen StiCy as the main pairing, and there will be more NaLi moments in this story as well! Standby for the update!