A/N: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy, minna! ^-^ (This one's mostly Gray's POV, sorry.)

Chapter Four

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Natsu exclaimed, grinning and jogging in place as Gray locked his door.

"Shut up, will ya?" Gray asked, resting his hands behind his head and closing his eyes as he made his way towards the stairs, Natsu bouncing along behind him like a three-year-old who'd been given way too much sugar. "No way!" he hooted, practically sprinting down the stairs ahead of Gray. "I've been sittin' still for two whole days! It's time for some action!"

"Geez," Gray said, rolling his eyes, albeit with a small smile on his face. "You'd think someone'd be glad to be away from danger, but not you, huh?"

Natsu shrugged, landing on one foot at the bottom of the stairs and straightening to look back at Gray.. "I dunno. I just don't like standing still, I guess. Anyway, hurry up! I need to make up for all those lost days and fill my quota!"

Gray raised an eyebrow as he led Natsu towards the job room. "What do you mean, your quota?"

Natsu stopped for a second before moving again, a blush dusting his cheeks. "Oh, well... Being on my own was boring, so I started a sort of... game."

"A game?" Gray asked, intrigued. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." Natsu twiddled his thumbs. "I have a little thing; kind of like a pitch count, I guess."

Gray nodded, encouraging him to continue. "It's kind of like I set a certain number, and I have to kill that many Zs by the end of the day."

"Huh." Gray scratched his forehead. "Well, how many do you usually go for?"

"Er..." Natsu frowned. "I think it was... forty-five?"

Gray nearly tripped. "FORTY-FIVE?!"

Natsu jumped at his shout. "Uh... yeah? What's the big deal?"

Shaking his head, Gray held open the door for Natsu. "You're crazy, you know that?"

Natsu didn't answer, as he had already run ahead and was busy gaping at the board full of posters. Gray walked over and stood beside him, glancing across the board for a job that looked good enough for them. Leaning forward and resting his finger on his chin, he squinted at one flyer in particular. Snatching it from the board, he held it up in front of Natsu. "Hey, look at this."

Natsu snatched the paper, annoyed, and quickly read it over. He grinned. "This is perfect! Let's take it!"

"But—" Gray tried, but Natsu was already walking away. "Don't you think it's a little weird?" he finished to himself, annoyed. He sighed and jogged to catch up with Natsu, who was already pushing open the door to go outside. The job was for a ten-Z kill, with a pack of weapons as the reward. Apparently there was a group of them stuck inside a huge old warehouse. But something about it seemed off. If whoever wanted those Zs gone had all those valuable weapons, and enough of them to give away, then why didn't they just take care of the Zs themselves? Ten wasn't that many.

But there was no dissuading Natsu now. They were already to the gate, and Gray flashed his ID card at the guard, who signaled for the pushers to open it up. They walked out, and as soon as the gates closed behind them, Gray unclipped his pistol from his belt and flipped off the safety. "You any good at shooting when you're not on a rooftop?" he asked Natsu, unstrapping the extra pistol on his leg and tossing it to him.

In response, Natsu flipped off the safety, closed his left eyes, aimed, and fired. His shot hit the dot of the i on a nearby dry cleaning shop's sign. Gray raised an appreciative eyebrow. "Not bad, Ten."

Natsu rolled his eyes and slipped the holster around his leg. "Not bad? That was a great shot."

Gray shrugged, trying not to show how impressed he was. "Well, I admit it was fair. C'mon, the warehouse is about two clicks from here."

The warehouse was large and seemed deserted. It was quiet; almost too quiet, but Natsu didn't seem to share any of Gray's anxiety as he opened the door, leading gun-first. Gray was right behind him, quickly closing the door again to keep Zs from creeping up on them from behind. They made their way down the hallway they were in, Natsu leading.

As they got closer to the main storage section, Gray was starting to get really anxious. The building looked rundown, sure, but it had a certain... neatness to it, like it was rundown on purpose. But maybe he was just being paranoid. But then he realized something; there were no noises.

If there are Zs they would be making noise... wouldn't they? Gray had stopped but Natsu was at the door now. "Hey, Natsu, wait a—"

Natsu slid his eyes over to Gray, but he was already pushing open the door. Gray's eyes flew past him and his mouth opened to yell a warning as a hand shot through and grabbed Natsu by the shirt. He let out a yell of surprise and brought his pistol up, hitting the guy on the side of the head. And it was just a regular guy; not a Z. A trap?! Gray thought as he finally jerked forward, raising his gun. I can't get a clear shot! I'll hit Natsu!

Another set of hands took the place of the ones that Natsu had shoved off, and they started pulling him past the door. There are two of them?! "Gray! Run!"

"Wha— I won't leave you!" he protested, but the two men were already directing their eyes to him, and with Natsu in front of them, Gray knew he couldn't get a clear shot. Plus, he could see now they had guns clipped to their belts. He grimaced and stood, conflicted. He couldn't leave Natsu. He couldn't.

"Gray! Go!" The men were reaching for their guns now.

Gray made an angry sound in the back of his throat and turned, booking it down the hallway. "I'll come back for you!" he yelled, looking back and meeting Natsu's eyes. Then he turned and started sprinting as bullets peppered the walls and floor around him.

"Natsu was kidnapped!"

Immediately people surrounded Gray, all asking questions at the same time. He tugged a hand through his hair, unable to focus on any of them. Natsu had been taken, and it was all his fault. He should've listened to his gut and forced Natsu to take another job! Why hadn't he?!

"Gray, Gray, calm down."

"Lyon?" Gray turned as Lyon took him by the shoulders and shook him once. "Lyon, where's gramps?!"

"Relax, I sent Angel to get him. You need to get a hold of yourself."

Gray took a deep breath, closing his eyes for several seconds before his pulse had leveled and he felt slightly calmer. He opened his eyes and met Lyon's stare, nodding his head once. "I'm fine now." Lyon clapped him on the shoulder. "Good. Now tell me what happened."

Gray nodded once and started speed-walking towards the mission room. "I gave the job poster to Mira. You need to see it."

As they were about to enter the room, Lucy ran up followed by Makarov. "Talk to me," he ordered, matching Gray's pace as they pushed through the door and stalked towards the counter at the back of the room where Mira stood serving drinks. She gave them the poster and Gray held it up for everyone to see.

Makarov took the poster and quickly looked it over, the frown on his face deepening. "This already seems fishy."

Gray nodded. "Yeah. But it gets weirder. When we got there, it looked ramshackle all right, but I could kind of see that it looked like it was made to be that way or something. And then, when we were about to go in to the main storage area, I realized that it was way too quiet. But, by then, Natsu had already opened the door, and they grabbed him. He told me to run, so I..." His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. "So I ran. They did shoot after me, though."

Makarov was frowning even deeper now. "My question is; why would they go through all this trouble? Why are they trying to lure in hunters?"

"It doesn't matter why!" Gray snapped. "We have to go rescue him!"

"Whoa, calm down," Makarov ordered, holding up a hand. "We will, but we need to put together a team. I want at least four people on this. We need to investigate these people; find out why they're out prowling."

Gray tugged a hand through his hair. "Yes, but how soon can we—"

"Calm down." Makarov raised a hand, surveying Gray quietly. "We'll go at sunrise tomorrow. Lucy, Lyon, and Erza will go with you."

Gray nodded, sighing. "Yeah. Okay."

Laying in bed that night and looking up at the ceiling, all Gray could think about was Natsu; his face as they'd grabbed him, the hands on his shirt, pulling him forwards. He flipped over onto his side and stared out the window, up at the moon.

Other images flashed through his mind; the first time he'd seen Natsu; his unkempt pink hair and olive eyes; his big toothy smile; his light laugh. Turning so he was once again on his back, Gray clenched his jaw. "Don't worry Natsu." he whispered. "I'm coming for you."

Natsu woke in a cold sweat, his heart racing. His eyes were covered, so he turned to his other senses. He could hear a faint buzzing; probably a generator. He sniffed the air tentatively. It smelled musty; like old cardboard. Suddenly he heard a door open, and his body turned stiff as he jerked at the sound. "So, you're awake."

The voice was distinctly male; Natsu guessed the speaker was maybe nineteen or twenty.

"I'm glad," he continued. "We need to have a nice long... chat."

"No way I'm telling you anything," Natsu spat.

"I figured you might feel that way, so..." Suddenly Natsu's blindfold was ripped off, and he blinked in the harsh light that was shining in his face. He tried to adjust his eyes, but with the light in his face, he couldn't make out what the man looked like. He bared his teeth at the shadow that paced around in the light, towards his left side. He tried to move his head, but it was fixed to the back of the chair; it was an old dentist's chair, Natsu thought.

"I brought some things to help... persuade you to tell me what I want to know."

Natsu stared straight ahead, his jaw set. "Now, what are all the entrances into the Outpost?"

"I. Don't. Know," Natsu said through gritted teeth, glaring ahead.

"Ah, so we're going to play that game, are we? Well, I have no problem with that."

"What do you me—" his words turned into a cry of pain as he felt something sharp pierce his right shoulder. "What— are— you— doing?" he managed to grit out, trying not to scream.

"Never been tortured before, pinky? Figures. Well, why don't I get you acquainted with this particular... art form."