"LUCYYYYY!" Natsu yelled as he desperately kept pace with the train.
Reaching out to the blonde, he signalled for the girl to jump into his arms.
"Don't worry! I'll catch you!"
However, instead of jumping, Lucy only retained a pained expression on her face as she apologised.
"I'm sorry."
"Wha-?!"
Without explanation, she shut the window and walked away, Joel following close behind her. As it happened, the train reached the peak of it's speed and sped away, leaving a stunned Natsu behind.
"Natsu!" Happy called out to his pal, the rest of the team treading close behind him. "Where's Lucy?!"
"On that train."
"What happened?" Gray asked.
"She... chose not to come with me."
Back in the train...
"You know, for a second there I thought you were seriously going to jump into his arms like the princess you are." Joel teased in a poor attempt to cheer a very dejected Lucy up.
However, the girl just remained silently curled up in one corner of the near empty train.
Sighing, Joel walked up to the depressed girl and did-for the first and probably last time-the sweetest thing he ever did to her; He patted her head gently. Slowly, Lucy turned her head to the man, shocked at the sudden affectionate gesture.
"Look, your guild is the FairyTail. They are the most tenacious, powerful and bonded guild I've ever known (destructive too...). They won't hate you over something like this if that's what you're worried about. In fact, I bet you right this minute they're planning a way to rescue you or something."
Joel paused for awhile to see if she had cheered up, but when the shocked expression remained plastered to her face, he shoved her head to the side and strutted off, acting like the whole event never took place, causing Lucy to curse and swear at his name. Glad that the girl had finally recovered, Joel proceeded to a more important topic.
"But seriously, they are tenacious so we need to be careful to not get caught before we at least figure out what Drake and the Masked Man want with you."
Lucy nodded slowly. She couldn't agree more, after all, she didn't want to risk having to reject her team mates once more.
"So, we'll have to train you now." Joel continued.
"Huh?" Lucy looked at him with dumbfounded eyes.
"What? Don't tell me you think you're strong enough as you are right now. Or do you expect someone to always be there to save your skin?"
Before Lucy could retort, Joel continued, knowing what she was going to say.
"And before you start, cunningness isn't enough against who we're dealing with although I'll give you credit for that."
Pouting, Lucy couldn't help but admit it too. Being cunning is one thing, but, putting Drake aside (she never had a chance to assess his abilities), the Masked Man proved to be rather intelligent himself and she doubt the same trick of hers would fool him twice.
Finally, Lucy asked. "Okay, what do I do?"
Joel walked up to her and held out his palm. Lucy blinked.
"What?"
"Punch me."
"Huh?! And why should I do that?!"
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Joel tried again.
"Punch me."
Hesitantly, Lucy punched his palm softly.
"I MEANT FER REAL!"
Pissed by his tone, Lucy decided to get serious.
"LUCY PUNCH!"
A moment of silence went by before Joel was found rolling on the ground laughing while Lucy was repeatedly yelling for him to shut up and not judge.
"Lucy punch?! What kind of naming sense is that?!" Joel asked between laughters.
Red in her face, Lucy softly mumbled, "Shut up..."
"Hah..." Finally, Joel's laughter died down. "Okay, you are pathetically weak."
"Seriously?" Lucy asked in disbelief. "I thought we cleared that up a long time ago?"
"But, it's not impossible for you to still win in a hand to hand combat."
"Riiiight..." Lucy questioned with a raised brow.
"Ever heard of Judo? Or Akido?"
"Um... if I'm not wrong, they're some sort of martial art skill? I think I've read about them somewhere... like using the opponent's weight against them or tackling their weak points..."
"You're not wrong." Joel concurred. "But there is a lot more to them."
And thus, began Joel's long debrief of the arts of Judo and Akido.
Back in Ghiaccio*...
*Ghiaccio: Italian for Ice and the name I came up with to give the first city of IceBerg when you enter from Fiore.
The team sat in a cafe to rejuvenate after they had cleared up the wreck they made in the train station. After Lucy departed, the gang decided to rally up the remaining pursuers who were too slow at their escape and Gray, ever so 'kindly' offered to 'coax' information from them. Though hesitant, Erza gave her permission and Gray took off with his soon-to-be victims in an ice sled to how knew where.
"I wonder if Gray is managing well..." Wendy asked in a quiet voice as she took a sip from her cup of tea.
Stirring her own cup of coffee thoughtfully, Erza replied, looking out of the window, "I'm sure he is."
In an abandoned and isolated warehouse Gray found after traveling to the more pitiable side of town, Gray conducted his 'work'.
"I'll ask one more time... Why were you chasing Lucy?" Gray's voice dug deep into the man's eardrums.
"T-The hell you can do anything to make me talk! Everyone knows Fairy Tail don't kill!"
Sighing, Gray got up from his chair and slowly made his way to the bound up man. Not far from him sat his comrades, each seated in their individual chairs and each of them with their mouth bound shut.
"You're right." Gray nodded. "Fairies don't kill."
Although the words should have provided the man comfort or relief, it did nothing but further tense him up.
"But we can make you wish you were dead."
The door to the cafe opened with the tinkle of the bell.
"He's back!" Wendy perked up enthusiastically, mostly out of relief.
"He's still dejected?" Gray asked the team as he jerked his thumb at Natsu.
The rest only nodded.
"Ever since Lucy left, he's been staring at the sky." Levy explained.
Gray decided to ignore his unusual behavior, figuring that the moment he begins his talk, he'll automatically make his way to them. Without a sound, he settled into the seat opposite Erza and began his report.
"Those guys, it turned out that they were merely lackeys who followed orders without questions." Gray started and although Natsu had said nothing, he could taste the disappointment seeping from him.
"However, I did manage to get a few names."
"Give it to me." Erza demanded.
While Gray was eager to provided, he felt an unsettling pit form in his chest.
"Drake Delvington, Vanessa Burma, Cole Lewingston and Joel Regnal."
Natsu's ears shot up, but his body didn't even flinch. He didn't even turn towards the team and they were starting to find his impassiveness unnerving.
"Joel... Regnal..." Natsu tested the name on his tongue but came to totally despise it, "We should start with him."
A/N: Okay, I really dislike giving excuses, but for those who care, I had just started working part time and it really sucks the life out of an impassive person like me #_# in any case, I hope this chapter was okay... But, I'm planning to make some changes to the previous chapters cause I realised that no matter how fast a train travelled, you couldn't possibly reach a different continent in just the span of a day, so... yeah... I'm planning to revise my previous chapters =)