Author's Note: I never expected to be writing here again. I thought that inspiration would never come and honestly, I gave up on this story. I kept receiving alerts about this story and all I kept thinking to myself was "Please hurry up and forget about this story. I feel bad enough about not being able to finish without being reminded that people are still reading this." Then I got a review from ArianaAngel which made me decide to come back to the story and give it one more shot (thanx for the encouragement). Sure I had to read it all over again, but I was actually able to remember where this was going and even thought of some nice twists to add in. So without further ado, Read, Review, Rejoice!

Chapter 7:
Fairy Hunters

"Who's there!" One of the Fairy Hunters called in a rough voice while rolling his tongue. "I'll give you till the count of three to show your face. One…"

"What do we do now?" Happy questioned as he flew over to Natsu's shoulder.

"TWO…" The Fairy Hunter continued his countdown.

The Fairy Tail mages were beginning to panic. It wasn't that they were afraid of the hunters, Fairy Tail mages aren't afraid of anyone. They were more along the lines of anxious that things were not going according to plan.

"THREE!" the hunter yelled grabbing hold of the hilt on his sword that was strapped to his side. He grunted heavily but quickly calmed as he saw a figure emerge from behind the dumpster. "A woman…", he said just loud enough for the others to hear him. Then he whistled, "She's blonde. I love 'em blonde!"

One of the hunter's snapped his finger and commanded. "Have you monkeys no manners? Give the woman an escort."

This hunter gave off a different aura than the others. He was the youngest of them all, a teenager maybe nineteen, but he sat higher than each of them. They jumped at the snap of his fingers like trained dogs.

The three hunters ran over to the mage who was noticeably shaking with fear. The fact that they looked like gorillas didn't help Lucy too much either. Still she complied with her escorts and followed them to their leader.

The young man smirked, his eyes scanning all over Lucy as he gently adjusted his glasses. She could feel him mentally undressing her, putting her in a maid's outfit, and undressing her again. It sent chills down Lucy's spine.

Finally he chuckled a bit and said, "How rude of me, staring at you silently without even introducing myself. I must have been captivated by your beauty! My name is Elven Greene." His skin was dark which was contrasted by his white hair. He wore glasses which gave him an aura of intelligence to some degree.

"Nice to meet you." Lucy breathed as she tried not to make eye contact with this creepy stranger. She looked over to the dumpster and saw all the Fairy Mages poking their heads out, each giving her the thumbs up. It didn't help her self-esteem at all.

Suddenly a crash from the brawl between the captive mages caught everyone's attention, especially Lucy's. Elven noticed Lucy's expression; it was as if she was disgusted by the sight, though he misread it a little. "These mages are disgusting aren't they? They used to be so proud, now they're tossing each other through the mud for survival. It's amazing how easily they give up their 'unshakable' pride when faced with kill or be killed." He laughed.

"How can you laugh at this? It's cruelty." Lucy argued.

Elven was a little taken back, but quickly regained his cool with a smirk. "What is cruel, little kitten, is that they continue to litter Lord Zeref's streets with their presence. Their existence is meaningless, therefore it doesn't matter whether they live or disappear. Nobody will miss them."

"What about their family and friends. Everyone has someone who cares for them, no life is meaningless." She protested.

"I see you're an idealist, little kitten." Elven laughed. "If I didn't know any better…", suddenly he snapped his finger.

His goons grabbed Lucy and held her down. Lucy struggled, but these men weren't gorilla-like for nothing. Elven walked up to Lucy and grabbed her hand. He inspected it as Lucy glared at him, then he smirked. He kissed her hand as he finished his sentence. "I would think you were a Fairy Tail wizard."

He stepped back. "You almost fooled me, little kitten. Almost."

Suddenly a tornado of fire swept past them. By sheer force, it picked up the goons, but Elven dodged it masterfully. The once brawling mages took this as their opportunity to escape, scurrying off as quickly as they could while Elven's attention and rage was seized by someone else.

Before anyone could react, Natsu already had Lucy in his arms while Erza and Gray took a stand on offense. Elven adjusted his glasses and assimilated the situation at hand. It was clear that he was outnumbered now that his useless underlings were wiped out in a single attack. That would be enough to frighten any normal man, that's what Elven thought to himself. Then he laughed and whispered to himself, "It's a good thing I don't consider myself 'normal'. This might be interesting 'data' after all."

"You gonna stay there talkin' to yourself or are you actually going to fight?" Gray challenged.

"Is this how the great Fairy Tail conducts themselves? Ganging up on a single enemy with no magical abilities hardly seems fair." Elven mused.

"I'll take you down myself." Gray grunted. "Ice Make Meteor!" he yelled. Within a second, a meteor shower of ice poured down on Elven, there was literally no time to dodge. They pounded into the ground with enormous pressure; even the smallest one could kill you.

When it all seemed over, a meteor larger than all the rest before floated in mid-air. It was the finisher. Gray forced it down with as much strength as he could. Suddenly it stopped mid-way through the attack.

"What the hell?" Gray growled. He tried to use his magic to manipulate it, but the ice meteor refused to budge.

When the fog from the attack cleared, every one of the Fairy mages stood in disbelief. There, in the palm of his gloved hand, Elven held the ice meteor neatly in place. He was unscratched from head to toe. It was like he wasn't even affected.

"Ice make magic? What an interesting find! As expected of the fairies. I definitely have to document this." Elven commented.

The meteor started to glow and got brighter and brighter until it was finally engulfed in light. Slowly the ice seemed to, what could only be described as, 'dematerialize' and turn into strange, digital, cell-like particles. Then these 'particles' gathered and were absorbed by Elven's white glove. A computer screen then projected from his glove and he typed in something. The computer beeped a few times then produced three light blue cubes, which Elven pocketed. An extremely complicated process that through years of experience and mastery, took Elven but a few seconds.

"What the hell was all that?" Erza asked curiously, but still conveying force.

"My secret." Elven replied playfully. "I won't just tell you."

"Then I'll force it out of you." Erza exclaimed as she flew towards him in a bust of speed. She gripped her sword in both her hands and swung at him. Elven quickly dodged, just barely avoiding the blade. "You think you can keep up?" Erza challenged. Elven replied silently with a nod. "Then let's see."

Every time Erza swung, Elven dodged, but before he could retaliate, Erza would swing again forcing him to remain in defense.

Meanwhile, Natsu, Gray, and Lucy retreated back toward Happy who remained behind the dumpster. "Idiot, go join the battle and help Erza out." Natsu ordered Gray.

"I would love to, but for some reason I can't use my magic right now. I feel drained and it must be that stupid hunter's fault. That weird thing he did to my ice meteor must have something to do with it."

"At least we know that Natsu might be right about that theory of his." Lucy added.

"What're you talking about, they were about to kill you." Natsu pointed out.

"Before that, he didn't seem to even realize that I was a mage myself. It was only after he noticed the Fairy Tail mark on my hand that he realized I was actually a wizard."

"See Natsu, I told you they'd see it." Happy noted.

"It doesn't matter anymore, now I know they definitely can't identify you as easily as the rest of us." Natsu exclaimed optimistically.

"Idiot, you're still forgetting the mark that's in plain view." Gray argued.

"Silly Gray, things like that can easily be covered up. Have some faith will ya."

Lucy giggled. "You two may have gotten older, but you didn't grow up at all."

"That's right Natsu, you're not mature at all." Happy agreed.

"The same goes for you, cat." Lucy pointed out.

"Just because you're getting older doesn't mean you have to act it." Happy wisely retaliated.

Meanwhile, Erza and Elven were both tiring each other out. They were breathing heavy, none able to land a hit on the other. Still, Erza was far more experienced in this type of situation and was still able to power through. As for Elven, he seemed to be slowing down, and reacting more sluggishly. Erza decided that one more attack should do it; she'd definitely land a hit.

She swung with as much strength as she could muster. Sadly for Elven, he moved to slow and was caught in his side. He stopped the blade from penetrating any further by gripping it in his hands.

As his hands touched the blade, Erza felt a strange reaction inside her. Like her magic was being drained using the sword as a bridge. She was always very sensitive when it came to her magic and could feel the slightest disturbance. She quickly released the sword and created distance between Elven and herself.

Just as the ice meteor before, Erza's sword dematerialized and Elven repeated the same process again. As he typed, Erza could feel a strange disturbance in her magic. She couldn't access the storage space where the rest of her armors and weapons were deposited. When the process was complete, Elven pocketed another three cubes, this time silver in color.

When he finished Elven sunk to his knees and held his side, covering the open wound Erza's sword made. "So you use ex-quip magic, and it is quite powerful too might I add." He complimented. "The data I got from you two was more than I expected, so for that I'll answer your earlier question."

"How are you able to access my magic?" Erza questioned.

"One thing at a time. I can answer it all in one explanation." He replied. "These white gloves I wear aren't just a fashion statement you know. These things are powerfully coated with a special magic-stopping technology. Literally all magic are rendered useless by it and it is all broken down into visible data. All magic has a wave link that connects it to its user. Using the attached computer, I can access that wave link and trace it back, or if I'm in direct contact with the user, my glove will connect to it more effectively. I hope that answers your questions."

"What about the cubes that came out? What are they?" Erza continued to probe him.

"That, my dear, must remain a secret for now." Elven said. The computer screen appeared out of his glove again. With a few taps on the screen, he disappeared out of her sight.

"Damn, what just happened!" Natsu yelled as the mages ran from behind the dumpster.

"He got away." Erza stated the obvious. "Something tells me we'll be seeing him again though."

…

Meanwhile, Elven had been transported to a strange storage room of sorts. It was like a freezer that was filled with metal cabinets. He pulled one of the drawers open and neatly placed the cubes that he made from Gray's ice magic in one tray and the cubes he got from Erza's sword in a separate tray. He closed up the drawer after carefully placing the trays back where they were and labeling them.

He then made his way toward a large tri-screened super-computer. He took off his gloves and hooked them up to some wires from his computer. Within moments, the computer pulled open two profiles, one belonging to Gray, and the other to Erza.

He studied the detailed profiles. They contained mountains of information on every aspect of the fairy mages. From personal information like birthplaces, age, and magic type, to detailed reports on each of their missions from since they joined Fairy Tail. Through this, he was able to link them to Natsu, whose face he remembered from the encounter, which led him to Lucy.

The four profiles remained on the screen as he looked over each one of them. Even though he was distracted, he still realized the tall figure standing behind him in the shadows.

"You're researching 'Fairy Tail's strongest team' I see." The figure spoke. By the voice, it was obvious it was a female, and it seemed Elven recognized the voice. "Did you have a nice encounter with them? Did you experience their strength first hand?" She asked.

"If you're referring to this injury, it was well worth it. It seems that Fairy Tail still has a few tricks up their sleeve. They aren't backing down so easily."

"No one ever expected them to. Fairy Tail has always been like this, and probably will always be. I just never know with those guys."

"But you know what?" Elven added with a slight bit of enthusiasm. "You were right, Fairy Tail is definitely interesting."

Author's Note: I can't tell you guys sorry enough for taking so long. I'm just glad I finally have the inspiration to write on this and even gladder it's summer, so I have a lot of time before school re-opens to finish this. Hopefully I'll be done before I lose the inspiration, but that doesn't mean I'm going to rush, or shorten the plot. I won't deprive you any longer of what you rightfully deserve as readers, and that's a completed non-disappointing story. I'll try my best to deliver this, so until next time, good night (cuz its like midnight right now as I'm writing this).