I made the executive decision to skip sleeping in the inn and the walk to the arena. Igneel, Colin, Kappa and Liam are now in the holding pen to go into the arena for the first challenge. Also, this will eventually be referential to my other story, if I ever get it all typed. I apologize for the writing near the end; it was very, very late at night. Please review

Igneel had never understood how Liam could be so calm all the time. He and Kappa were both walking in circles, and both of them had to stop from time to time to stop the spinning. Colin was nervously plucking at his shirt.

"Keep all your clothes on at least until you're fighting please." Liam was sketching quietly. "It would be interesting if Erza's assessment of this new guild were correct. Seeing as they are based in the north and have a reputation for attracting people who don't want to be found, it would make sense if it were Xìa Roma's guild."

Kappa crossed her arms and did not stop pacing. "But they're not in our division, thus not our problem."

"If it is that guild," Colin leaned forward, "why are they here? They're the dangerous ones who want to hide themselves."

"THE FIRST QUALIFYING TEAM, THIS IS A NEW FACE FOR A TEAM THAT HAS WON EVERY YEAR FOR A LONG TIME, CAN THEIR CHILDREN CONTINUE THEIR STREAK? FAIRY TAIL!"

"Does he have any setting other than 'way too loud'?"

The four of them walked out into the arena and Igneel waved, imitating his father's easy happiness as he assessed the two teams already in the arena. The Fairy Tail team's real advantage was the stereotypes that they had stamped over them from their parents. They had watched hours of the lacrima recordings of their parents entering rounds in past Grand Magic Games and decided to imitate them until the first round started.

"LIKE FATHER LIKE SON IN POWER, BUT IGNEEL CONFIRMS THE RUMOR THAT HE TOOK CHARM LESSONS FROM LUCY!"

"Can he just shut up? Please?"

Igneel looked around and found his parents in the Fairy Tail box. Leila and Carmen were hanging over the edge of the box, waving frantically as Natsu laughed and Lucy tried to make sure that they didn't fall. He caught his mom's eye as he blew her a kiss and waved to both his sisters. The crowd went nuts and he grinned slightly as the next guild was announced.

"SECOND QUALIFIER IS A GUILD WHOSE MASTER JURA WAS JUST MADE THE LEADER OF THE TEN WIZARD SAINTS, PLEASE HELP ME WELCOME BACK TO THE ARENA, LAMIA SCALE!"

A different section of the wall opened up, and Lyon's daughter, Ur, lead their team out. Igneel had never quite understood why Juvia traveled back and forth between Grey and Lyon but never asked. Ur had Lyon's white hair, and was Colin's chief rival with her ice-make magic. Outside of the ring they got along well and Igneel liked working with her and her partner Plum. Ur gave a wave and Plum nodded, her long brown hair pulled back into a series of loops. Plum was taller than Ur, and even taller than Igneel, but not by much and mostly because she wore boots with heels.

None of the Blue Pegasus team members were familiar to Igneel, but one boy had a plain mask over his face. Kappa shrugged but Liam was already furiously sketching with his back to the closest lacrima vision in case anyone got too curious. Sabertooth had just squeaked into the finals from their region, but by next year everyone was expecting them to have been displaced by the up and coming guild Wave Runner.

"WAIT, WE HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!"

All eight of the guilds turned to the booth, even Liam paused in his furious scribbling and his forehead creased beneath his bangs. "Oh dear."

"ONE MORE GUILD IS TO BE ADDED TO THIS DIVISION!"

The crowd began to murmur; this just wasn't done, especially in the top division. Maybe in one of the lower levels, but not the daytime set.

"FROM THE NEXT LEVEL DOWN, WE HAVE OUR NINTH GUILD, HUNTER'S ARROW!"

Colin looked up from his brooding, startled. "Isn't that the guild we saw outside the inn?"

Another door opened near the Fairy Tail team and four people were thrown into the arena. Even from a distance of 100 meters, it was easy to see that all four wizards looked terrible. Only two of them managed to get to their feet, although a third tried and her arms collapsed as she tried to sit up. One of the standing wizards staggered and fell against the wall and the one that had failed to stand up was clawing her way to the other prone wizard, who looked to be unconscious.

The only wizard standing of her own volition was visibly shaking from exhaustion. She had what was supposed to be a bob, but her hair was too wild for it. The iridescent blue stuck out in odd places and it was hard to tell if her skin was pale or tan because of all the dirt. Igneel glanced up at the lacrima vision for the zoom and saw she looked like a pixie, fine boned and petite with almond shaped eyes the color of a deep lake. And she looked angry.

"Liars!" Igneel was surprised that she could yell that loud while still shaking, "You promised us a recovery day. There's no way we can walk like this, let alone fight anything."

The crowd was still murmuring because the judges had made a critical error. They had shown the collapsed girl behind the yelling one and she had blood trickling out of her mouth. All the screens were now displaying different angles and Igneel sucked in a breath.

Pia was crawling over to her sister as she lay with her green hair utterly deflated. She winced every time she moved herself forward and her leg was at an unnatural angle. In addition to being unconscious, Mona's left side was soaked in blood and it was beginning to seep into the dirt around her. The boy leaning against the wall was clutching his right arm to his chest and sporting a nasty scrape on his cheek.

Igneel realized that the girl in front had to be the one wearing the hood outside the inn. The silence from the announcer's box grew increasingly ominous and the crowd's protests grew louder. Even the other guilds looked shocked and Plum was shouting rude things about the judges for everyone to hear and some people were nodding.

"THE JUDGES HAVE MADE A RULING!" The arena quieted, "THE START OF THE GAMES WILL BE DELAYED FOR 24 HOURS DUE TO THE MULTITUDE OF PROTESTS RECEIVED."

Relief spread all over the blue-haired girl's face and one of her knees gave way. Igneel ran over to Pia who shook her head.

"Mona-help her." Colin went to turn her over and she screamed when her leg hit the ground. "They-got her-with a mental lock. She needs-real-help."

Kappa seemed reluctant to touch her. "I'm afraid I'll break her."

"Here," The boy staggered away from the wall and knelt next to Kappa, "to make you feel better I'll put her in a stable mental state."

"No, Xavier!" The blue-haired girl tone was sharp beneath her chattering teeth, "you've done everything you can, now just get out of here."

Kappa lifted her gingerly and glanced toward the Fairy Tail box. "I'll take her to Wendy first. Get the others to the infirmary, I'm sure she'll want to look at the rest of them too."

Igneel chuckled as he watched Colin put an ice split on Pia. "I thought we agreed I would give the orders."

"Eh," Kappa turned away, "you never said I couldn't."