Lucy watched as Natsu ran off with happy trailing behind him. She sighed, closed her eyes and shook her head, before giving a slight smirk and ran after the two. 'stupid idiot' she thought as she smiled to race after the dragon slayer and his exceed.

Lucy assumed she would be able to follow Natsu's joyful cries for food to find them, but they seemed to halt after a moment. She looked around, her smile dropping slightly as she continued running, albeit she sped up a little, getting worried. She started cursing them for running off until she was hit in the face by a blue blur.

"LUUCYY" She managed to peel the exceed off her face. "LUCYLUCYLUCY ITS NATSUHESGONEHEFELLINTOAPORTAL" Lucy looked worried, she couldn't understand the now crying cat. "Slow down, what happened?" He sniffed and pointed behind him. "N-Natsu f-fell into a portal, h-he disappeared, s-so did the p-portal!" Lucy didn't say anything, the shock was splattered across her face clear as day. "T-there is n-no trace of anyone... t-there was someone.. B-but he went I-into a portal, and you c-can't even tell he was there!" Lucy carefully re-arranged happy in her arms and went to investigate where happy said Natsu had disappeared. "Whereabouts was it happy?" He just looked down at the ground, implying that they were already standing where Natsu disappeared. She stared at the ground too, but only for a few moments before looking through the trees before turning and sprinting down the path they came from.

Happy started to protest and wiggle in her arms trying to free himself from her grasp "Wh-what are you doing! We need to find Natsu!" Lucy nodded "I know, but h-" she swallowed hard "But he is somewhere else, probably, and we don't know where! We are so close to the Guild already, we need help happy" He slowly stopped struggling and wiped his tears. He nodded with a determined face "Lets go then Lucy no time to waste!"

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They ran, weaving through the people on the street making their way to the guild hall, getting weird stares from people, including a certain raven-haired popsicle. He stepped out to the side in front of them and grabbed onto lucy's arm to stop her. "Hey what's going on? Where's flame-brain?" He noticed how panicked they both looked. Happy was about to answer when he got cut of "No time Gray, just come to the guild hall, quick!" she said prying her arm from his grasp and continuing her sprint down the roads.

Gray watched as they ran, a bit of concern showing through his blank stare. He looked back to where he was and grit his teeth then chased after the pair. He was catching up quickly, he was quite a bit faster than Lucy. He opened the guild doors enough to get in and closed them, seeing Lucy in a panic asking constantly where the master was. He discreetly jogged up to her and put his hand on her shoulder to let her know he was there.

"Lucy, what is it? Master is out right now, Mavis knows what he's doing" Lucy balled her fists. "But-ugh" She turned and ran towards a table where Erza was eating a piece of strawberry cake, motioning for Gray to follow.

Erza looked up "Ah, hello Lucy, how was the mission?" she looked around for a moment. "Where's Natsu?" Gray nodded, crossing his arms "Yeah, that's what I want to know too" Lucy nodded, but she looked sad, and worried "Thats why we came back so quickly, its Natsu- h-he-" "What did he do this time?" Erza said, already assuming the worst. "No! Its not that, he-" "He was teleported away in a weird portal by some strange guy!" Happy basically yelled. This got a few of their guild mates to look over. Erza waved them off, motioning to go back to what they were doing.

"what?" Gray said, seeming worried about his rival's whereabouts.

"Is that why love-rival and the exceed seemed worried?" A blue haired mage said, appearing behind Gray then walking to stand beside him.

Erza got up, either because she finished her cake, or because of the information, most likely the latter. "Lets go" is all she said before turning and making her way out of the guild hall, followed by Lucy, Gray, Juvia and Happy. "How?" Erza said while motioning for Lucy to lead the way to where he disappeared. Happy answered the question, as he was there when it happened. He flew to sit on Gray's head before speaking.

"W-well, Natsu smelled some good food, and we both went to find it, as we always normally do! But while running there was this glowing circle, he fell into it-" "He should watch where he's running, it could have been someone else's portal that he just happened to go into" Gray said, trying to calm the mood, doing a not-so good job, but still. Happy just shook his head.

"No. The portal opened right underneath him, and as soon as he was through it closed, it wasn't an accident!" He said, yelling the last part. Erza glanced at him "So it was no accident" She was quiet for a moment. "did you see anyone?" Happy shrugged. "There was a guy, but he was in a long cloak, it was a weird brown-black, and I couldn't see his face, but under the cloak there was a weird glow... it was blue and kinda creepy, but I don't know who, sorry" He looked down. "Its all right happy, you gave us some information, its better than none" He nodded and just grabbed a fish out of his bag, and started to eat it slowly. Gray didn't move him, or complain, but his eye twitched slightly before he gave an inward sigh and left it. "We're here" Lucy said. They had walked just a little ways off a path, somewhat in the trees.

Erza looked around and walked forward, kneeling down and investigating the dirt before focusing on the air.

"Juvia feels weird energy" a blue haired mage said from her place beside Gray. Erza nodded, "I can feel it too" Lucy looked confused "w-what?" Gray answered as Erza continued to look around.

"There is a strange magical energy around here, don't stress about not being able to feel it by the way" Lucy nodded and looked at the ground, now also trying to get ahold of this weird energy before Erza knocked her out of her thoughts.

"I don't know what this is, but it's definitely not from around here... we need to find out more about the energy and what kind of portal Natsu fell through, we cant track the guy who did this, he left no trace except the energy, and Wendy and Gajeel are on a mission, they wont be back for another week"

"Well then lets see what we can find about the portal! Because the energy must have come from the portal, and finding information on a kind of portal is easier than trying to find information on the energy!" Lucy said, thinking aloud.

"And if they find information on the portal they can also find information on the energy, and that will help them find Natsu-san!" Juvia said, getting what Lucy was saying. "Ah! Juvia remembers a section in the library that held information on subsections of magics! Maybe there they can find a subsection of portals?"

Erza smiled "Good idea Juvia, lets go, quick. There is no time to waste"