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

Chapter 24: Three Guilds And Another Lucy

Shelly had interrupted the battle that Lucy was having with Erza, since her blonde rival had been struck hard by one of her own spells, and the tanned woman was simply going to take care of this matter for Lucy. Even though she was an evil thief with a vicious streak of defeating anyone who was in her way, Shelly still hated seeing a woman get kicked when she was down. Erza had been intent on striking Lucy down when she was heavily injured from crashing into the ground, and that was not exactly fair. It seemed that the guild of fairies could play fair in love or war, from anyone's viewpoint of the situation.

There had been tension between Lucy and her old friends for quite a while, since it had mostly come from Natsu showing his dislike for her, and the fact that he had cheated on Lucy with Lisanna had really been the flame to ignite the entire conflict. Cana had tried to tell the brown-eyed girl that she was sorry for what had gone down in the guild of Fairy Tail, but what kind of best friend could she possibly be to Lucy? A best friend would tell their closest ally if they were being played for a fool, not wanting to see their heart get shattered into many pieces, but Cana had just let Lucy get led on like a fool following a map that someone had crudely made to play mind games with them.

She had even thought that Lucy would stoop low enough for the prospect of a revenge plot against Natsu and Lisanna for making almost all of the other guild members ignore her, but Lucy would never hurt her ex's relationship in any way. In fact, the fire dragon slayer had pretty much screwed his whole life up on his own. Last night was total proof that he could not cheat on women forever, especially since Lisanna truly thought that he was a great guy, and Natsu was paying the price for playing with the hearts of his two exes. They could ironically team up on him, but what fun would that be?

However, putting love aside right now, Shelly needed to show Lucy that she would truly get good fortune as payback for all of the pain that the fairies had brought upon her. It did not really matter who would be giving the pain to Fairy Tail, since Shelly was just going to keep Erza busy while Lucy would be healing and feeling the dark power amplify inside her body while she floated motionlessly in the sphere of black water. Taking in the poison of the dark power had put Lucy in a temporary state of being dead, but she would be alive again when the power was flowing through her body at full strength.

As the green clouds of smoke from Shelly's gas had begun to clear up, even though the stench had made Erza cover her nose, the black-haired woman could not really help but smirk a bit at who she was facing. It was Erza Scarlet, the requipping mage who had been known for her many skills that helped her beat down people with ease, but Shelly saw her as nothing more than a mediocre person. Not because she saw Erza as being weak, but it was how she acted that really made Shelly begin to really see that a fierce villain like herself was more of a friend to Lucy than Erza could ever be. After all, what friend would hide a secret that could've been told in a honest manner to make the pain easier to take?

Erza told Shelly in a displeased tone while looking stern, as she had to breathe while taking her hands off of her nose and mouth, "I don't know what you're talking about by having a truce with Lucy, since you two aren't even on the same team, and this does not concern you. It was supposed to be a battle between two old friends, Shelly Izumi, until you had to go and stink it up. I don't know why you have Lucy in that watery bubble of dark energy, but I will not let you try and do anything cruel to her. She got beaten down by Minerva last year, and it's not fair to me if she's taken out by you or your team of punks."

The blue-eyed woman replied in a calm manner, smirking at the words spoken by her foe, "I like how you say that you two are friends, but she pretty much got stabbed in the back by the people who let her get cheated on. You just let Lucy suffer for months while not even telling her about the affair that Natsu had with Lisanna, so your definition of friendship is what anyone else would just call a selfish act of being a bitch. Following Natsu wasn't exactly the best move for you, Erza, and it's sad that you took so long to realize that. You can't just think that making up with her will be settled easily, and even I find the followers of a devious couple to be pieces of trash."

Shelly's words had truly cut into Erza's skin, making her unable to respond against the words of the top female commander from Aqua Kyogre, and it was clear that a few nerves had been hit. Making Lucy go through deceit was a bad thing to do, which Erza would own up to, but she did not really approve of Lucy allying with Shelly. How would it even work, since they would eventually have to face each other, and why did Shelly seem so calm? Anyone else who ran into Erza Scarlet would possibly be scared, trying to run away, but the scarlet-haired mage did not know who she was dealing with.

She charged at Shelly, looking fierce about taking her out right now, but the tanned woman simply yawned while kicking Erza in the abdomen with her left foot. The force of Shelly's kick had sent Erza flying back into a building, making a gaping hole in the wall, but she had quickly requipped into her Lighting Empress Armor to fire multiple lightning beams at Shelly. The ten lightning beams headed straight for her, but Shelly used her water sphere to completely nullify the attack. She was safe inside of that defensive move, and only something like Lucy's Aqua Ball could truly break through it.

Erza had now decided to requip into her Adamantine Armor, hoping that her defenses could be on par with Shelly's moves to cancel them out, and she flew straight towards the villainous woman with the intent to end this with slashes from the blades on her metal shields. Much to her surprise, however, Shelly smirked evilly while creating a large amount of water in her mouth. Her cheeks and stomach swelled up while she took in more water from the sphere that she was in, and she quickly jumped out of it to shoot many blobs of blue sludge at Erza. She wasn't really worried about all of it getting on her armor, seeing it as a failed attack, but Shelly could say otherwise.

As the liquid slid down the armor, seeming to have the same properties as regular water, Erza gasped in shock to see that Shelly's water sphere now burst to make water flood the street they were standing on. This water was rather sticky, similar with the move that Shelly used on Sting when they had first fought, and Erza found herself unable to move. This gunk had gotten into her armor, making it rust while also starting to crack into many pieces, and Erza's shields had also broken apart because of this spell. It was known as Blue Gummi, and this move could make Shelly's water cause a substance to be sticky before breaking it apart while the water would make it frail.

With the elimination of one of Erza's best armors, she could only fall to her knees while taking a harsh punch to the face from Shelly. She had been sent rolling through the water while coughing up blood, but Shelly was not finished yet. She grabbed Erza by her legs, before slamming her against the ground while grinning evilly. The brown-eyed woman screamed in agony as she felt some of her bones crack, feeling even more pain when Shelly crushed the bones in her right arm by stomping her left foot down on it, but let's just say that the worst pain was just around the corner.

"Shelly, stop playing games with Fairy Tail. You've had your crew mess with us every day, one of your teammates was with Natsu to throw off his game by using love, and now you're allying with Lucy for some reason. If you're so tough, then let's get this fight over with. Quit toying around with me like how Minerva did last year, and I will make you see that the guild's rage is my rage! You messed with us, and you'll pay for that!" Erza told Shelly in a stern tone, as she was bloodied and badly bruised while struggling to stand up, looking intent on winning this with her Nakagami Armor. (Okay, this is what annoys Fairy Tail fans. If you saw the fight between Erza and Minerva, can we all agree that Erza's win was utter shit? Don't even get me started on Chapter 404 of the manga, either.)

The black-haired woman replied while smirking a bit, as she began to speak in a calm tone, "Oh, look. You're about to use Fairy Tail's stupid power of friendship that allows you to win with no real logic behind it. That's really pathetic, if you think that will really faze me, but this fight has now been taken out of my hands. Wow, I sure do love stalling for time. I'll just let my new apprentice handle the rest while I watch your demise, and laugh at you."

Erza was about to ask what Shelly meant by the fight being taken out of her hands, but she saw the smart thief snap her fingers to dispel the black bubble of water that surrounded Lucy. She had been inside of it for a while now, her body taking in the dark waters, and the poison had finally become one with her body. The darkness was recognized as a helpful toxin by Lucy, letting the black liquid enter her bloodstream, and it had even changed a bit of her genetics as well. When Erza saw her, she looked really surprised.

Lucy had now worn a black dress with the sleeves draping down her shoulders, the dress having both legs showing, and she had an aqua blue sash around her waist. She also wore some dark blue high heels as well, since the darkness had given her a new outfit, and Lucy also had fanged teeth. Her hair had now become brown while her eyes had become blue like Shelly's and Sting's, but the normal smile of confidence on her face had been replaced by an evil grin. The two girls were certainly no longer polar opposites, even though their traits had made them be mirrors of each other, and they certainly did share a dislike of Fairy Tail.

"Thank you so much for giving me some time to bathe in the darkness, Shelly, and now I know what you want from me. To gain the power that I need, hate is an emotion that works well with these black spells of misery. I can now see why the third spell backfired on me like that, since every spell in this section takes up some magical power, but now I have more strength. The power is flowing through me, and now it's time for me to give payback to my former friends." Lucy explained to Shelly in a dark manner, looking pretty vicious while her hate was directed towards Erza.

Lucy wanted to really test out her new spells at full strength, totally determined to not lose against Erza, and the blonde girl used the fourth move of her dark magic. It was known as Dark Misfortune, and it caused shadows to come from underground. Erza looked pretty scared of what was about to happen, and the shadows grew spikes while slamming themselves down on her body with vicious amounts of power. They even turned into drills that pierced through her skin, making her scream in pure terror from the pain that caused her to bleed, and she fell to the ground with a hard thud.

However, as she saw the red-haired woman struggling to stand up again, Lucy could only give Erza a deadly glare while letting her know that she had not even given out all of the payback to her deceitful former friend. She used the fifth spell that was known as Shadowy Flash, and it caused a black sphere to appear in front of Erza. It flashed a blinding white light, making her shadow appear, and the sphere was pulling Titania inward by making a shadowy black hand grab her shadow. She was pulled into the sphere, and it exploded into a massive blast of black energy. Black smoke filled the street, making Shelly unable to see if Erza was alive, but she did love how the smoke smelled utterly putrid.

She could also sense that the new power had made Lucy's feelings of hate emerge, sensing them to be very dark while malice could be seen in her eyes, and Shelly could only smirk evilly as she heard Lucy inhale all of the black smoke to give herself some more power. She used her sixth spell, Shadow Snatch, and it made a shadowy hand with supposedly long feminine nails pass right through Erza. It appeared to do nothing at first, but the shadow was actually absorbing most of her magical power. It also sealed the scarlet-haired woman's power away in the shadows for a while, turning her into nothing more than a harmless teenager without that overpowered and illogical Nakagami Armor.

Lucy then proceeded to use her seventh spell, Shadow Punch, and it caused her fists to be surrounded by a black aura of malice. She stretched her fists out towards Erza, confusing Titania while she didn't see the shadows of Lucy's fists extending towards her. This attack would cause two black blasts of shadows to occur, if they hit her, but Lucy had a better idea. She made her shadowy fists turn into claws that stretched far to grab Erza's arms from behind, and she showed Shelly that she was enjoying this act of revenge by evilly grinning as she instructed her shadows to break Erza's arms before breaking every intact bone that she had in each arm as well.

The sword-wielding mage from Fairy Tail was screaming in pure agony while this was going on, feeling the pain to be so immense, and she only got some relief from when Lucy had stopped for one moment. Erza still kept trying to stand, even though she was now stumbling, and Shelly was getting pretty tired of how Erza kept saying that she would win to get revenge on Aqua Kyogre for messing with her friends. Even though Erza looked exhausted, having no big power-ups in her arsenal because of the shadowy hand taking away nearly 99% of her magical power, Shelly was planning to end this here and now.

She simply made a ball of water build up in her mouth, and she spat it up into the sky. While Erza did not seem impressed with an attack that supposedly missed, let's just say that Shelly kept her busy while Lucy made all of the shadows of every person and every building in Crocus begin to be honing in on Erza. She was going to create what would be a pretty massive explosion that could presumably kill everybody in the town, if it wasn't controlled, but Shelly had made her spell have the denseness to contain the blast. She could keep Lucy's spell from doing unnecessary damage, since the tanned woman now had Lucy's dark side in her clutches.

The final spell was known as Shadow's Dark Light, and many shadows were heading towards Erza right now. The effects of this move had left her immobilized for it to work, even though she was near death, and Erza now knew that this was punishment for not being a true friend to Lucy. Even though she had hated Natsu for cheating on Lucy and making her leave the guild, the scarlet-haired mage never gave a true apology to the Celestial Spirit Wizard. Even when someone tried to do an act of good in the present, the karma from the past was always standing right behind them.

"This is my revenge for how you lied to me, Erza! You never even told me that Natsu was cheating on me, and you just let me suffer like a pawn in his little game. The heartbreak made me angry, giving me all these hurtful emotions that almost made me kill myself, but now I'll be at true peace when the fairies die one by one. You let Natsu cheat on me and use me, but I couldn't kill him back then. I'll go after him later, but I'll end things here when I kill you." Lucy told Erza in a malicious tone, giving her a deadly frown that would make anyone run in fear, and now this fight was about to end.

Erza replied in a soft manner, crying as tears fell from her eyes while the final attack went off in mere seconds, "Lucy, I'm sorry that no one was there for you... I'm sorry for not helping you, as well as letting you go through so much pain, so please forgive me. Forgive me, I beg you!"

As she said those last words, Lucy's final spell created an enormous black blast that towered over most of Crocus! It decimated some buildings, turning them into rubble, and even the street was becoming broken apart. The ground was shaking like a large earthquake was happening, even though it was the sound waves from the blast, and all of the spell's power had been focused on tearing down Erza. Shelly's ball of water came down from the sky, giving some control to Lucy's blast of Misfortune Magic, and the black blast had turned into a large flood of raging black water while the smoke was quickly clearing up.

When all of the smoke faded away, Shelly could only grin in a sadistic manner while seeing Erza unconscious with her eyes open. Blood was coming out of every wound in her body, even leaving her mouth because of how the black water tore through her gums and broke her teeth, so now Shelly had gotten rid of one big threat to her plans. She could see Lucy falling to her knees while her hair became blonde again, her eyes becoming cocoa brown, but she still kept the dress as a nice little present from Shelly. Really, why turn good but have to part with a nice dress when so much magical power is used up? Lucy was also breathing heavily, and her rumbling stomach didn't make things any better.

She had gained five points for defeating Erza, even though Lucy felt like Shelly kinda deserved them more for coming to her rescue, and the blonde girl tried to stand while she still clutched her stomach in pain. She wasn't feeling good from eating the waffles that Shelly had tampered with, and Lucy could only bite her lip while letting out a few large farts. The gas was also helping her be rid of the black smoke in her body, since it would keep her in that evil state even if she wasn't using the Misfortune Magic, and Lucy blushed a light shade of pink while knowing that Sting heard her trumpet solo from far away. To make matters weirder, her rival had seen the blonde mage let her flatulence loose.

Shelly giggled a bit from hearing Lucy pass gas like that, really wishing that she had let out a fart on Erza, and the black-haired woman decided to lift Lucy's mood with a little bit of relief. She smiled a bit while letting Lucy know that she was now becoming more like a girl who belonged in Aqua Kyogre, since she had now used that dark energy's gases to let out a few farts, and Shelly simply released a large fart on Lucy to show the blonde girl who could do it better. She let the large cloud of yellow smoke envelope them both, making the judges wonder what was going on, and Shelly was going to help Lucy be a little more open with her thoughts while she went behind the brown-eyed girl to whisper some sweet words in her ear.

"You know that power is what you want, Lucy Heartfilia. Ever since you lost to me, I could tell that you wanted to become as strong as me. You keep saying how you want to beat me, yet you couldn't even beat Erza without my help. It was good to see you pass gas, Lucy, and the dark power is making you become more like me. I've always enjoyed seeing the fire in your eyes, that drive for revenge, and you even want to keep Sting from me. Admit it, little girl. You want to be on the same level of power as me, and you want to be bad like me. Well, become a double agent like Marina. Join me in destroying the fairies, Lucy." Shelly told her in a calm manner, sweetly whispering in her ear as she licked her left cheek.

Lucy replied in a calm manner while smiling, as she turned around to face her seductive rival, "Shelly, we're like mirrors of each other. Even now, I still can't be like you because I'm weaker than you. Just like when I got beaten by Minerva in the Naval Battle last year, I had to be saved from death. Just because my hateful side has shown, I can't be a member of Aqua Kyogre. Shelly, I'll still fight you for how you kissed Sting and stripped for him in front of me. You may be a very sexy thief, but I won't let him fall for your games. I don't have enough power to fight you right now, but you'll see how fierce I am!"

Before Lucy could even try to throw a punch at Shelly, ready to strike her with even a light hit, the blonde mage was suddenly stopped by her own will. Shelly looked a bit puzzled about why Lucy had not hit her, expecting a punch to the face, but Lucy sighed softly while looking at her rival. She just couldn't battle her right now, not ready to fight with her yet, and how could the blonde mage turn on an ally who saved her life? Betraying Shelly's alliance is one thing that Lucy couldn't bring herself to do, since betrayal would make her no better than Natsu with his cheating, and Lucy fell to her knees while knowing that she still wasn't strong enough.

She could only bow down to the woman who was the reason why she was even alive right now, despite not liking the fact that the girl who kissed Sting had saved her, but Lucy was a little shocked to see Shelly offering her hand to help the brown-eyed girl stand up. The voluptuous villain let Lucy know that she had now unlocked a new ability for her non-spell abilities, and that was quite a matrix right there. After all, who can possibly have an ability within an ability? Lucy looked really curious to hear this news, and the spell book began to pulsate in all eight colors for every type of magic.

Her magic was now going to evolve, letting her reach the next stage of spells, and Lucy simply followed Shelly's advice. Lucy was told to spit on the ground, which she did, and that water had quickly turned into a clone of herself! Lucy looked shocked by something like this happening, not thinking that it was possible, and the clone even wore a simple blue T-shirt with a blue miniskirt while wearing some blue high heels. Her spell book was blue, clearly showing that she could use Water Magic, and all of the information that this clone gathered in her brain would be transferred to the real Lucy. Wow, now wouldn't that be great for becoming smart?

Lucy simply told the clone to run off to another part of Crocus, which she did by sinking down into a puddle of black water that was left by Shelly's flood that had been used to attack Erza, and Lucy could only rest her head on her rival's chest while hugging her to show her thanks for this new technique. Shelly hugged back while telling Lucy that she was deserving to be in Sabertooth, since their alliance would prevail, but the blue-eyed woman grinned a bit while knowing that Lucy played into her hands by trusting her. She wouldn't turn her back on Lucy, but Shelly would eventually give Lucy a tough choice in a certain situation. (Foreshadowing already? Wow!)

Meanwhile, in another part of Crocus...

Gray had been trying to find Rufus, since it was strange that he did not use his Memory-Make: Night of Falling Stars on Fairy Tail yet, and he could only be stopped by the Lacrima Vision screen showing Erza's brutal defeat at the hands of Lucy. This event was known to be pretty vicious, since Kagura's battle against Erza had proved that things could get crazy, but Lucy took it to a new level. It was weird to see that Shelly had helped out with the battle, too, since the two girls were not even on the same team, and taking out Team Aqua Kyogre was what the ice mage now had to do.

He had been looking all over for Marina, the girl who had been playing with the heart of Natsu Dragneel, and Gray knew that Marina's team had played dirty. After all, why else would Shelly join a battle that had nothing to do with her? Since the black-haired male could not expose the cheating ways of Aqua Kyogre, mostly because the fans and sponsors were too caught up in the guild's creativeness, he would have to beat down those girls one by one. He planned to start with Marina the manipulator, since she seemed to be the tactical officer of the team, but where could she be?

The ice mage had even ran into Lyon Vastia, who also wanted to challenge Aqua Kyogre for using water in dirty ways that were a bunch of insults to his beloved Juvia, but even Lyon had not seen Marina around. She was competing today with the other members of her team, and she had been onscreen helping Shelly take out Team Mermaid Heel. He had even asked the First Master about where she could be, but even Mavis could not find Marina. It was strange to know that she would just vanish, since she and Shelly did make a powerful team with some pretty hot water.

As Gray looked stern, hiding behind a large plant outside a flower shop because of the fact that he heard footsteps, he had to wonder about Marina. Was she trying to sneak up on him in a clever way, moving with such soft footsteps to make it seem like a person with small shoes would cross Gray's path, and could Gray possibly ambush the teal-haired girl? He knew that this would also be a good chance to make her openly admit to sabotaging the Fairy Tail teams during the Grand Magic Games, and he also had to wonder if she truly was playing with Natsu's heart. After all, Gray had never heard her say that she was toying with Natsu.

After all, him and Erza had only assumed that was the case because they thought Marina would have to be dumb to truly date a guy like Natsu. He was not exactly nice or even rich like the guys from Blue Pegasus, and the pink-haired male also lacked manners. Besides, why else would footage of Natsu having sex with Marina be in the projector? It seemed like Natsu hadn't even known that he was being taped, though, and Gray did manage to put the pieces of his assumption together. Now that he could tell that Marina was definitely something, he tackled what appeared to be a woman as soon as she turned the corner to be on the same street as him.

"I've got you now, Marina! If you think that your steamy video with Natsu was just pure love, then I don't buy it! Erza and I can tell that you're just toying around with him while your team enjoys your laughs, but we'll beat down all of you! I'll start it off by showing you that messing with Fairy Tail was a pretty major mistake, and now you're going to really pay for it!" Gray shouted in a stern tone while looking confident that his plan was a success, as he tackled a woman down to the ground, and surprisingly had his hands on her breasts while he had pinned her down.

A certain blue-haired Rain Woman replied in a loving manner, blushing a light shade of pink at the fact that the ice mage was now on top of her, "Gray-sama, you're finally showing your love for Juvia by tackling her like this! Juvia has had dreams about you making a loving move on her, but she had never thought that it would happen right now. Please let me be by your side, having my waters of love to protect you while we fight together, and my defenses can work well with your offenses. It's such a great plan with romantic chemistry involved."

Gray got off of her while he didn't even know why she would want to team up with him, since they were on two different teams this time, but he did wonder if she simply got the idea from seeing Lucy and Shelly team up against Erza earlier. That would be a good strategy for Gray to do with Juvia, since they knew each other really well, but the smart male was worried about what he would do if they had to battle Lucy and Shelly. Those two were both pretty much full of tricks, always pulling something that created a big twist in battles, and since when did Juvia start having tactical plans in battles?

She smiled happily while telling Gray that it would be a good idea to go after Shelly and Lucy first, thinking that they would possibly even take out the mighty Laxus with ease, and Gray looked somewhat perplexed by the fact that Juvia even told him to measure the distance of the attacks used by the enemies. She even told him that it would be smart to have her attacks ricochet off of his ice, most likely for them to gain more power and speed, and the ice mage was very shocked to hear his blue-eyed lover talking in such a tactical way with strategies that involved creativity.

Juvia was never acting smart like this, since she was normally clumsy and loving when Gray was around, so he had to wonder why she was being such a planner right now. The blue-haired girl was not even holding his hand while they were running to another street that was close by, and seeing Juvia jump high into the air to search for enemies from the sky had really made Gray drop his jaw. She even landed on a rooftop, before doing a triple-flip down to the ground, and it truly was shocking for Gray to see Juvia smirking calmly at him while she was being so athletic. Really, when had Juvia ever possessed such strong physical skills?

As Juvia walked towards Gray, smiling with joy like she was about to kiss him, he used some quick thinking to distract her while he saw a familiar face coming down the street. He calmly let her know that Lucy had arrived, possibly having beaten Shelly down in a little battle that they had, but his guess about that would be pretty wrong. The ice mage could see that the blonde girl had changed her attire from the black dress that she had worn in her fight with Erza, and he always knew that a cute girl like Lucy had enjoyed looking beautiful on any occasion. She had just finished dealing with rivals, but was she about to encounter another one?

Seeing this as a bad twist of fate, Gray knew that Juvia was about to get harsh on Lucy for being in Team Sabertooth. She was clearly planning to win this event for Gray, totally going to make him really want her, and what happened next made this game really get changed up. Juvia simply smiled at the sight of Lucy being here, truly making her be out of character, and Gray just had to find out what the heck was going on. He used a new spell of Molding Magic, not caring for anything that was flashy right now, and this move was known as Ice-Make: Foresight Glasses. He never had poor vision problems, but was that what he wanted to see right now?

Gray put on an icy pair of glasses with big lenses, not really caring if they made him look dorky right now, and the special ability of this eye-wear created an icy wind that could be seen as white air floating down the street. It made Lucy's clone shiver a bit, since she was not dressed for the weather, and the Foresight Glasses made a blue aura surround Juvia when Gray looked at her. This aura was actually some icy air that had the ability to revert any person or object to the state that they were in before, thus causing any enhancements or transformations to be reversed, and the air made Juvia smirk a bit while she began to giggle.

"Well, aren't you quite the clever one? Tell me, how did you know that it was not Juvia that crossed your path?" The Rain Woman asked with a sadistic smirk on her face, before turning into a puddle of water and reforming herself to reveal her identity as Marina from Team Aqua Kyogre.

Lucy's clone interrupted in a calm manner, giggling while she spoke in a dark tone of voice, "It would be pretty bad, Marina, if Gray were to expose what Team Aqua Kyogre has been doing. He is a very smart guy, and keeping him busy would be the best idea. Let's not allow him to escape from this fight, but you can actually go scour for some people to take down. As for me, I have some chatting to do with Gray because our history goes back to when I was in Fairy Tail. I don't know if he was on Natsu's side or not, but I want to know."

Elsewhere...

Sting had just finished beating down the members of Team Blue Pegasus with ease, really determined to win battles this year, and he had gained thirty crucial points for Team Sabertooth. They were now back in the lead with 115 points, putting them higher than Team Aqua Kyogre, and the white dragon slayer knew that those guys were the ones that everyone wanted to beat. Neither of the top two teams had lost a member yet, since they were both so incredibly strong, and Sting looked a bit cocky while thinking about how great it would be to put Shelly in her place.

Of course, he had to wonder if that was actually possible. The blue-eyed thief may have been pretty sexy, along with how she could dish out a few good insults to people that she hated, but all of that bark was backed up with a fierce bite. She was pretty much a monstrous mermaid in battles, using her Water Magic in big ways that could destroy anyone, and Sting knew that Shelly was also good at devising quick strategies. She was almost like an evil counterpart of Lucy, working for a pretty infamous dark guild, and the fact that she used her ice in ways to make it freeze while also being explosive made her a major threat.

There was the chance of Lucy being able to beat her, knowing how the rivalry between both girls was really fierce, but Sting knew that he couldn't always leave things to Lucy for her to handle them. He had a few new techniques of his own, even though he didn't use them against the members of Team Blue Pegasus, but how could they be used to break down Shelly? She had even almost given him a kiss that would freeze him to death, and he was pretty lucky that Lucy came along to save his life. He had stood up for her many times, even trying to make her seem impressed by his skills, and now Sting had to find his girlfriend.

Lector looked a bit shocked while alerting him to the presence of a Lacrima Vision screen in the sky, letting the five remaining teams have a little summary of how the rankings seemed right now, and the white dragon slayer looked up at the screen to see footage and audio being replayed of the battle that featured Lucy and Shelly against Erza. Sting had definitely heard the noise from that black blast, not even thinking that Lucy caused it or even thinking that Shelly had used magic to make the black spells bring out Lucy's evil side, and the white dragon slayer knew that his girlfriend was in trouble if she was with Shelly right now.

Sting had also seen the large flood of black water in an area that was not too far from the park where he had beaten down the five members of Team Blue Pegasus, and he also looked concerned when the screen showed the large cloud of gas that Shelly let out when she farted on Lucy. Sting did know if his girlfriend had been beaten up by Shelly, since no screams were heard, but he did openly voice his worries about Lucy taking on Shelly in something serious like this event. The villainous woman might not hold back, and Sting was not going to let his girlfriend get killed. Shelly's gases had also been rumored to be toxic, too, which meant that Sting had to hustle.

"Based on all the data I've gathered, even if Lucy were to use Lightning Magic because of how it's super effective against Shelly's Water Magic, the chances of her actually winning are close to zero because of my Archive's readings detecting very high levels of power from Shelly's magic. Since Lucy is our friend, as well as being your girlfriend, please go save her." Hibiki told Sting in a calm tone while he was still lying down on the ground, since Sting had given him a hard hit to the head because he wanted to make this battle go pretty fast.

Sting shouted in a fierce tone while narrowing his blue eyes, as he began running to where the black blast had been seen while Lector flew in the air above him to try and search for Lucy from the sky, "Shelly Izumi, I'll make you regret ever meeting me! If you plan to make Lucy use her spells to do evil things, then I'll stop you by sending you into the ocean with a Holy Nova attack! Also, Lucy, there's no need to worry! I'm on my way, so I'll help you show Shelly what real teamwork is all about! Don't worry about being forced into Aqua Kyogre, because I swear to you that I won't let it happen!"

How was Chapter 24? Did you like it? Wow.. One battle into this last event, and things have already gotten hectic! I apologize for all the gas, since it was meant to give comic relief to the tension and revenge. It may seem like I revealed Marina's disguise so early, but you'll see a little plot twist that makes Gray fall a trick that was once used before. Anyway, how will he fare against Lucy's clone? What battles will also take place? Standby for the update!