Natsu groaned softly as his alarm pulled him out of a peaceful sleep. He ran his hand down his face then back up through his hair as one of the two bodies rested against him shifted. Lucy sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes then looked down at the model on the other side of the man. "How does she look?"

"Hm, I think it's gotten a little worse." Lucy glanced at the man then leaned down to the woman, her hair sliding across her bare skin. "It's more purply than it was when we went to sleep."

Natsu reached back and turned off his alarm then gently shook the white-haired woman. "Mira, come on, it's time to get up."

"I don't want to… you're so warm~." Mira murmured into the pinkette's chest. She groaned lightly as she reluctantly sat up and tentatively felt the right side of her face. "Is it bad?"

"You've got a black eye and a puffy cheek, plus the bruising." Lucy informed the equally naked woman. "We should go and get ready for work, are you going to use transformation magic on that to hide it?"

"No." Mira shook her head lightly and flinched when the movement caused a prang of pain in the side of her face and made her hold her hand to the right side of her face. "I think I'm going to try and take a cool shower, hopefully that'll soothe it."

"Let me help." Lucy offered softly as she looked at the woman's pained expression. She took her close friend by the hand and led her into the ensuite.

Mira looked back at the pinkette with a small smile as she dug her heels in at the doorway. "Natsu, there's room for three if you want to join us? I promise I'll be good."

"Alright, no funny business." Natsu chuckled lightly and followed the two women into the shower. Even with the three of them, it was spacious enough for them to freely move about and reach around each other.

Once Mira had gotten the water up to a pleasantly warm temperature that didn't cause her face to tingle, she stepped under the water and allowed it to cascade down her blemish-free body. "I feel a little guilty doing this…" She murmured softly; her face turned up to the showerhead. "Both because I'm intruding on you two, and Lisanna will probably throw another tantrum if she finds out the three of us showered together."

"It's ok, Mira." Lucy reassured the woman in an equally soft voice as she stepped closer to the taller woman and wrapped her arms around her chest, giving her a firm hug. "In truth; I've been feeling guilty too. I tore him away from you, even if you and him say your relationship wasn't a romantic one, you two still had something going. And my selfishness drove a wedge into that…" The blonde raised her gaze to the woman's face and tentatively placed her hand over the woman's bruises. "And I caused this… I drove Lisanna into attacking you…"

"We should probably get on with the shower and get to work quickly since Lis is probably worried about Mira and annoyed at herself for attacking her." Natsu reminded the two women. He grabbed some of Lucy's bodywash and began to wash the model's back, causing her to shiver at the touch of his calloused hands.

Mira arched her back slightly at the familiar pleasant feeling and a short gasp escaped from her. She unconsciously raised her hands up beside her head and a pair of smaller hands began to spread more suds across the front of her body. Her gaze dropped to the blonde's devilishly playful grin and her sapphire eyes widened when a dark purple tail and pair of wings slipped out from the woman's back and a pair of horns from the sides of her head. "Oh? Aren't I supposed to be the demoness here?"

"I'm a succubus, what do you think of it?" Lucy giggled softly and fluttered her wings. Her tail whipped around and coiled it around Mira's slim waist, pulling her in closer to the blonde. "I have full control over all of it and can feel everything."

Mira grinned and slowly ran a finger along the blonde's tail, causing her to shiver softly and her hands to tense against the woman's skin. "Oh my, I bet you're fun to tease~."

"Mira, stop seducing Lucy." Natsu lightly reprimanded the woman and he knelt down to focus on her long legs. "And yes, she is."

"I wonder…" The white-haired beauty murmured as she tugged lightly on the tips of Lucy's wings. "You can't fly, can you?"

"Unfortunately, no, I can't." Lucy sighed as the corners of her lips sank a little and she shook her head. Since the man went down, she moved her hands up and carefully washed the woman's face before starting on her long and lusciously silky hair.

"Mm, I feel so pampered~." Mira giggled, her skin tingling pleasantly from both sets of hands, one rough and calloused and the other soft and smooth. "You're making me want to do this more often, showering with both of you is rather nice."

"Do you want to be a succubus with me?" Lucy asked curiously, her wings fluttering gently behind her. She gently guided the woman back under the water to rinse off and moved behind Natsu to wash his back. The busty blonde pressed herself against the man's back and rose up onto her toes to see over his broad shoulders and look at the white-haired woman who had taught her alongside Natsu. "I know you enjoy teasing Natsu, so maybe we could team up?"

"Maybe once I've healed up, I'll take you up on that." Once Mira had finished rinsing herself, she stepped out from under the water and put conditioner into her hair. "So, Natsu. What are you going to do about your car now that you were part of a high-profile incident?"

"I mean, it's not the first time it's happened." Natsu chuckled lightly. "But Ash and I were talking about making some changes to the Cuda, like reducing the weight. In the meantime, I'll be driving an NSX that is waiting for me at the workshop."

"That's not as spacious of a car, will it be fine."

"If I need to extract more than one person, then I'll just take a sedan or SUV from the inventory to do it." Natsu's eyes drifted down the woman's body as she stepped forward. The man quickly found himself sandwiched between a pair of soft bodies, and naturally, his body reacted of its own accord and sent blood down south which caused the woman to jump and giggle when she was poked in the thigh. "Sorry, it's kinda rough being stuck between two amazing women."

"Heh, at least your body is more honest than you," Lucy smirked and snaked her arms around the man, gripping his shaft lightly and stroking it with her soapy hands. "This big guy doesn't seem to think it's anywhere near rough, in fact, I think he loves being trapped between the two of us."

"You know~. I think I might join you after all." Mira smiled slyly at blonde and used a combination of takeover and transformation magics to alter her appearance into a succubus too. She took on her Satan Soul form but without the alterations to her arms, and instead of the girthy tail she would've normally had, it was replaced with a slender heart-tipped tail like Lucy's but in a dark-green that matched her Satan Soul wings. Of course, her voice had also become deeper, but she as she loved to talk in such a sultry manner to the man, it only added to the slightly more dangerous succubus theme she was trying to reach. "How's this?"

"Oh! He's getting harder!" Lucy gasped and giggled. She sank her small fangs into Natsu's right earlobe which caused an involuntary shudder to run through the man. "Oh~? I thought you said biting doesn't do anything to you?"

The model broke out into laughter and leaned in, sinking her own demonic fangs into the man's other ear and causing another shudder. She ran her tongue up along the outside edge and bit the top before blowing lightly. "That's a big fat lie, Lucy. His ears are super sensitive by nature of his mutations, it's his weak spot for biting."

"You big meanie!" Lucy whisper shouted into the man's ear before nibbling up the back. Both women completely abandoned washing the pinkette in favour of driving him insane with their little teases. "I can't believe you told me biting doesn't do anything to you, and now I find out that you've got a weak spot right here~."

"You know, we are still running on a timeframe here. We still need to get ready for work." At Natsu's stark reminder, both women took a step back but retained their inhuman features as they returned to washing him. Once he was clean, he switched places with Lucy and he and Mira began to wash the pseudo-succubus who squirmed about slightly as the contrasting textures of their hands caused her skin to develop a rich blush.

"Oh my, Lucy~." Mira giggled softly as she pressed against the blonde's back. She felt her wings flutter against her as the woman glanced back over her shoulder with eyes like molten chocolate. "You're so cute when you're submissive." The white-haired woman licked her lips and bared her fangs in a seductive grin. "You make me want to devour you~."

"Whaa…?" Lucy spun and backed up against Natsu as she raised her hands to try and ward of the more dominant woman.

"Hehe, you're trapped in here with two demons, you succulent little human." Mira flexed her fingers suggestively in front of the woman's bountiful chest.

"N-N-N-Natsu?"

The man covered the woman's large breasts with his hands, shielding her from Mira's devilish antics. He shook his head lightly but couldn't help but give the two women a gentle grin. "Mira, I know she's fun to tease, but do I really need to repeat myself?"

"Yes, yes. I know." Mira pouted and crossed her arms under her bust, she cocked her hips and turned her head with her cheeks puffed in annoyance. "I just wanted to mess with her since she's such a cutie." The woman relented and washed the blonde without tormenting her any further. Once they were finished in the shower, Mira carefully dried herself and stood in front of the mirror. She lightly touched her face and murmured softly. "I think I'll have to take some painkillers with breakfast, it's still a little painful."

FTA HQ – 9:05 AM

The three agents pulled into the underground parking lot in their own cars, a CLS 63 AMG, an S2000, and a Hemi 'Cuda, but instead of taking a parking spot, Natsu headed to the back wall and took the elevator down to the mechanic workshops. Thankfully, his trip to work was rather uneventful but it was still worth switching out his vehicle to something else. Natsu pulled out of the elevator and cruised over to an empty work bay, he shut off the car and left the car keys on the dash but slipped his personal keys into his pocket. As soon as he stepped out of the car, he was met by the tanned head mechanic. "Hey Ash, did you get home fine?"

"Yeah. I had some of the older interceptors come after me but I managed to lose them pretty quickly." Ashlyn grinned and clapped the man on the back. "I'm still feeling the rush from winning, and kicking your ass!"

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu chuckled softly and shook his head, matching the woman's grin. "Anyway, I know we were planning on doing stuff to this baby," He placed his hand on the roof of the black muscle car and caressed it affectionately. "But we should probably hold off. To see if I take to that Honda."

"Fair enough. It's over here." Ashlyn waved for the man to follow her. "I've personally checked it over. As Ghost had told us, the mechanical parts are all factory, but we've found that the interior had been faithfully restored too, with the exception of the head unit. We've already swapped out some things in there to bring it into line with the company's standards."

"So, you haven't touched anything else?"

"We serviced it, just to be sure. But that's it, she's a clean slate." Ashlyn opened the side door to the paint booth and led the way inside where one of the technicians was currently waxing Natsu's new car. "It isn't really dark blue, as she said. It seems to have a dark blue and dark purple colour-shift pearl over a black base. Which gives it a bit more of a splash of colour than the Black Mamba has. Got any ideas for a name?"

"I mean, first thing that popped into my head was 'Raven' so…" The man shrugged his shoulders and slipped his hands into his pockets as he slowly walked around the car, ensuring he didn't get in the technician's way. "She looks mean. Hopefully we can make her mean too, well, meaner."

"Well, this particular one came with the 3.2 Litre engine and six-speed manual in it, plus bigger brakes among other things. It's one of the later NA1s. If you want, I can get to work on making a custom engine that should hopefully be able to fit into the back of the car. I'm thinking something like an upscaled version of that C32B that's in this car. Since I'm going to be doing a billet block, I might be able to push the size out a bit and bring it into the ballpark of 3.5 to 4 litres while keeping the overall package compact enough to fit into the back of the car. I'll do a little planning on just how we're going to squeeze all the power we can from it, whether it's a high compression build, a turbo or two, or even a supercharger, or maybe all three."

"Alright, sounds good to me. We can use our winnings from last night's race to cover the expenses."

"It'll take a bit, but that'll give you time to get used to her. She's lighter and more agile than the Black Mamba, and I can make her even lighter by replacing various parts with custom-made composites or titanium parts where possible, like the exhaust system, suspension linkages, driveshafts. Hell, I think I'll custom machine new housings and internals for the differential and transmission from titanium too since we've got money to spend." Ashlyn threw her hands up with a wide grin as she laughed like a mad scientist. She wiped the tear from her eye and reached into her cleavage, taking the keys for the NSX that she had stored there and tossing them to the man. "Once Ty is done, she's all yours. I've already handled the transmitter, and had the bookworm fiddle with the Department of Transportation's database to put the car into your name."

"Thanks Ash." Natsu leaned against the white wall of the paint booth and attached his personal keys to the new car keys. The head mechanic patted the man's shoulder as she passed by him and left the booth, and a few moments later, the familiar roar of the Black Mamba starting up echoed through the underground workshop. "How long will you be, Ty?"

"Just a couple of minutes, Sir." The man looked up from the car that he was running a cloth over. "I was finishing up when you two walked in."

"Alright." Natsu closed his eyes and rested the back of his head against the pristine walls, waiting patiently until he got the go ahead which came in the form of a gentle tap on his shoulder. While Ty went to open the booth's doors, Natsu walked to the right side of the car and lowered himself into the driver's seat. It was a noticeably lower than the 'Cuda which had already been lowered, it probably didn't help that the seat position made it feel like he was sat on the floor, but he didn't mind. He fired up the NSX and drove out of the booth and over to the lift so he could head back up to the surface. Once he had parked it in an empty spot, he locked it up and headed for the elevator but as he entered it, his phone began to ring, and he brought it to his ear after checking it. "Director? Good morning."

"Good morning, Natsu. Did you have a good night? I heard it was rather eventful."

"Heh, I guess I did. Sorry if Ash and I caused you a headache."

"I'm used to it by now." Makarov chuckled lightly before clearing his throat. "Anyway, the reason I've called is that I need you in the hangers. You'll be heading over to the Nevermore Airbase to assist with training new personnel."

Natsu pinched the bridge of his nose and hit the button for his office's floor. "Sir, I just got done training Lucy and now I'm being sent to train regs? I am supposed to be a field agent."

"It's just weapons training and hand-to-hand, and it's to build a better rapport with the existing personnel that we sifted through and kept on from Phantom Lord."

"And you're sending me instead of someone more personable?"

"I figured you'd pair well with Gajeel. And while you're there, you'll be acting as an evaluator for him and Juvia, to see if there is a place for them within these walls."

"Alright, alright. I'll stop by my office to tell Lucy I probably won't be home tonight and then I'll head for the hangers and catch a bird over there."

"Thank you, Natsu. And don't worry, I'll let you get back to proper field work soon."

Before he could say more, the call was ended from the other side, so Natsu slipped the phone back into his pocket just as the elevator dinged and the doors parted ways for him and he headed down the busy hall. He sighed softly and a hand through his hair, saying good morning to those he passed as they saluted and greeted him. The pinkette entered his office and found Mira at her desk and Lucy at his own with her feet up on the desk and reading one of her smutty novels. "I've got to fly over to the old Phantom base." Natsu informed the blonde beauty. "So, I'm probably not going to be home until late or even sometime tomorrow."

"Alright." Lucy glanced up from her book with a smile, her chocolate eyes filled with warmth. "I'll take care of Happy while you're away."

"Thank you." Natsu leaned down and gave the woman a quick kiss on the lips before heading back to the door. But as his hand came to rest on the handle, he glanced over at Mira and frowned at her half-bruised face. "Mira, you're free to stay another night or two at my house if you want to, even if I'm not going to be there."

"I think I will, to let Lisanna's actions sink in and hopefully she'll regret it, and maybe come and apologise." The white-haired beauty looked up from her monitor and gave the man a sly smile. She quickly blew him a kiss and a small wave as her smile turned into a cheeky grin. "Safe flight~."

When Natsu was halfway down the hall, on his way back to the nearby elevator bank, he heard someone call out to him. He half-turned and looked back over his shoulder, finding a redhead technician from R&D hurrying over to him with a black briefcase held against her chest with both of her arms. "Ah, good morning, Eliza. You've finished those handguns?"

"Yeah." The woman came to a stop next to the man and held out the case with the handle pointed to him. "Two Glock 40 pistols with sound suppressing runes etched into the inside of the frame and slide. Both with ambidextrous controls and semi, burst, and full-auto fire modes. And a pair of flow-through suppressors with a cam-lock method for attaching to the muzzles and runes that both suppress sound while also encasing the bullets in a frictionless shroud so they slip right through the air without making a crack. They are capable of running full-power cartridges and even high-pressure cartridges without even making a sound, well, providing you don't let the brass hit the ground."

Natsu placed a hand on the woman's shoulder and moved them over to the wall so they weren't blocking the hallway then he popped open the case, inspecting his newly crafted weapons. "Thanks for doing this on such short notice, and on such a short timeframe. I forgot to mention, my Tac-Com got destroyed in the conflict."

"I think we have a new test model coming up, so if you're fine with waiting about a week?"

"I can wait, I've got to head to Nevermore Airbase anyway. What's new with it?"

"We're experimenting with a smaller design again that is similar to the watch-type model that we discontinued. The aim is to fit everything from a full-sized unit into a smaller frame that is less conspicuous." Eliza closed the case and handed it to the man. "Anyway, I should head back to work. We'll let you know when the test unit is ready."

"Thanks for the new guns." Natsu flashed the woman a thankful smile and turned on the balls of his feet, jogging to the back of elevators and taking one down to the hanger bay. There was already a Osprey waiting for him on one of the landing platforms, and when the man came aboard, he found the two pilots running through their pre-flight checklists. "I hope I didn't make you guys wait." He called out as he took a seat in the cabin right behind the cockpit.

"No, Sir." The pilot replied with a glance over his shoulder at the agent. "We'll be above the surface in five."

"What's in the boxes?" Natsu nodded to the crates loaded into the back of the Osprey. He requipped his thigh holsters for his pistols and slotted the new Glock 40s into them and placed the suppressors into their pouches that were attached to the holsters. "Stuff for the new base?"

"Training bots." The loadmaster replied from her seat across from the man. The blonde gave the agent a warm smile, her emerald eyes glittering like jewels. "Ever since you guys took out those bastards, we've been busy playing air trucker, delivering various equipment over to Nevermore."

"Right. I guess the old man wants to bring the base up to snuff as quickly as possible." The pinkette flipped down the seats next to him and laid down across all three. He closed his eyes and got as comfortable as he could for the flight over. "Well, I'm in your hands, don't do anything too crazy."

Nevermore Base – 11:56 AM

"Delta-Zero-Nine to Nevermore Tower; We're inbound from HQ, got another delivery for you."

"Nevermore Tower, we see you Delta-Zero-Nine. Proceed to landing pad Alpha-Four and we'll have a crew sent over to unload your cargo."

"Confirmed; Proceeding to landing pad Alpha-Four."

Natsu rose from his chairs and walked to the end of the aircraft. He the button to open the rear hatch and looked out at the thawing mountains as they passed by.

"Peaceful, isn't it?" The loadmaster called out from the front of the cabin, drawing the man's attention away from the scenery. "Big change from last time you were here, right?"

"Yeah. I wonder if they cleaned up the bodies of those monsters." Natsu placed a hand on his left shoulder and rolled the joint a few times. "Bastards did a number on me." The runway shot out from underneath him, many metres below, and the Osprey started to slow down as it shifted into vertical flight. Once they had touched down in the landing bay, Natsu stepped out the back and walked away from the aircraft.

"Agent Salamander!"

Natsu turned his head at the call of his name and saw a blue-haired woman waving at him from beside a topless jeep. He waved at her and quickly jogged over to the woman. "Hey there, Lieutenant Storm. Hm, you've cut your hair." The man noted softly, giving the woman a quick once-over. She hadn't changed much as she was still in her military fatigues but with a new patch that showed her allegiance to the company. She also looked kinder now that she was out from under Jose's thumb, and her hair had been trimmed into short spikes that fell down to her shoulders. "You look nice."

"Thank you, Sir." Juvia fiddled with one of the longer spikes and gave the man a small smile. "Please just use Juvia's name. We're co-workers now, after all, and it's not like we're on a mission."

"Then it's only fair that you call me Natsu then, Juvia." Natsu grinned and glanced around them. "Say, where's the pin cushion?"

"In the outdoor gym, 'pumping iron' as he says." The blunette replied as she moved to the right side of the jeep and climbed into the driver's seat.

"I hope that's not what he calls jacking off too." The agent vaulted over the door and landed perfectly right onto the seat. "The old man told me I had to come here to help with training."

"Yes, we thought it would be best for them to work alongside an agent. Especially since we've gotten new recruits too, some are ex-military types who couldn't adapt to civilian life that well while others are pretty green." Juvia put the car into gear and turned them around, heading back up the way she came and deeper into the complex. "You'll have to pardon the mess, we're still cleaning up, haven't even found all the bodies yet."

"Yeah," Natsu grunted softly as he slipped a cigarette between his lips and lit it. "We're not doing so hot either; still recovering. It's taken a toll on us mentally as well as physically, we weren't trained for that type of combat and we lost a lot of people. But," He let out a puff of smoke and kicked his feet up onto the dash. "We put that motherfucker behind bars, and even though I wanted to put a bullet in him myself, I knew it wasn't the best option when we finally had him in custody. Plus, we took over Phantom Lord and all of its assets, and that means no more bullshit jobs for you."

"No more gassing civilians." Juvia murmured. "Yes, Juvia thinks this is definitely much better than before."

"I've done shady shit before." Natsu admitted to the woman, evenly, but he kept his eyes on the mountains around them. "But even the shit he had you guys do; it makes my skin crawl. Going against the crown is suicide enough, having the nerve to claim that it's for the good of the nation, that's just fucking insanity. Lucky she didn't send a damned death squad after you lot after finding out about the domestic terrorism."

"Jose's trial was held this morning; did you see it? It was on almost every news channel."

Natsu turned his onyx eyes to the woman next to him, watching her calm, almost passive face for a few moments before responding to her. "No. Between a little sibling tantrum in the Strauss family, and having to deal with switching out my car, and then coming out here, I haven't had the chance to check in on it."

"He tried spinning the story, but was buried by the mountains of evidence against him. He's sentenced to execution with the date set for a month from now." Juvia glanced at the man then looked around him as they came to an intersection. "Her Majesty gave the sentence herself; death by firing squad. Fitting, for a traitor to the country."

"There's going to be riots in the streets. Has it all been brought to light?"

"Yes. We've been absolved though, as per the agreement. It's all on him and those loyal to him, and they'll be receiving their own sentencing at a later date. Those that are still alive, that is. And as agreed, those who surrendered are facing lesser sentences." Juvia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "There were also files discovered for future plans; a dirty bomb set for Crocus, for example."

"Fucking hell, Jose… If we had known that, we probably would've sent someone to take him out. Someone like myself or Bisca who can do long-range sniping with ease, or send in someone like Mira who could just walk in and eliminate him with the utmost ease."

"Juvia's sure he would've had contingencies already in place to put his plans into motion should he be taken out. Chances are that there are still loyalists holding out with plans ready to go, and upon his execution, they'll commence their attacks." The former mercenary shook her head lightly and pulled the jeep off the road and parked it near a fenced off outdoor gym. "Juvia's only hope is that the records that were recovered will help snuff out those cells before they activate. Anyway, Gajeel is over there on the bench press."

Natsu's eyes followed the direction the woman was pointing. True to her words, the black-haired man was laid down on a bench with large weights attached to his barbell, pumping it up and down with the ease only a dragon slayer could. "Whelp, time to go say hi to the tin-head." Natsu grunted as he took his feet of the dash and climbed out of the jeep. He snuffed out his cigarette on the matte green paint and tossed it aside. Eyes turned to him as he walked across the concrete, a murmur floating through the former Phantom Lord Mercenaries that were loyal to Gajeel. "You making sure you're not gonna get rusty or something, huh?"

"Well, we can't all be fancy super soldiers." Gajeel turned his head to look at the incoming pinkette and lifted the bar back up to the hooks before sitting up and turning to face him. "You smell like you've been sleeping around."

"Nah, just a pair of sisters having a fight and the older one came to my house afterwards." Natsu waved away the man's comment and slipped his hands into his leather jacket's pockets. "The old man sent me over, said something about hand-to-hand and weapons training."

"Yeah, I figured it would be best for our guys to get used to working alongside you agents, now that we're part of Fairy Tail. You just happen to be one of the agents who are better suited for combat, so it makes sense that you'd be selected for this."

"As if there's anyone better to smack some sense into your iron skull." Natsu smirked. His eyes followed the man as he stood up, standing a little taller than him.

"Well, considering your brain is probably already ash, there isn't anything left for me to beat some sense into."

"Well, now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way, what exactly do you need me to do?"

"I'm going to get you to run through the kill houses with some squads from my old division, they'll be in their usual kit while you can be in those reinforced civilian clothes you guys normally wear." Gajeel wiped his face with a damp cloth then pulled on his camouflage shirt but left it unbuttoned. He gave a jerk of the head to the agent and his Lieutenant, silently telling them to follow him out of the outdoor gym. "From what I understand; the way training is done here is actually fairly similar to what you guys do. We use live ammunition but we're firing paint rounds instead of actually bullets."

"Yeah. That's how we do it."

"Well, like I said, you'll be running through the kill houses with various squads to get them accustomed to what you agents can do. My people already know, which is why they'll be up first, they'll show the new guys through the motions with an asymmetric battle; a squad of eight paired with an agent going up against a force three to five times their size." The captain climbed into the jeep's driver's seat and waited for the other two to join him before he started it up and pulled back out on to the road. "But first, let's go grab a bite to eat."

"Oh, Natsu." The blunette turned in the front passenger seat and looked back at the pinkette. "Juvia gave the cooks your recipe for that curry Juvia had at headquarters. So, if you wanted to try it and see how it compares, then it's on the menu."

"Sure, I'll give it a shot." Natsu spread out across the back seats and rested his arms on the door and back of the seats, watching the buildings go by. "Clean-up seems to be going well."

"We've had civil contractors up here doing the repairs. Though, we did have to remove the bodies and clean up the blood before they turned up." Gajeel glanced back over his shoulder. "But anyway, I might get your group to go up against a force of the new guys. You know, to haze them a little."

"Let's eat first then you can round up your people."

Nevermore Base Training Grounds – 2:00 PM

"Huh, you guys have 10mm paint rounds." Natsu marveled at the racks of munitions stored inside the back of a transport truck.

"Yeah. Our standard pistol is the SIG P320 in 10mm, so our training ammo reflects that." Juvia took the full-size pistol out from the holster on her thigh. "Juvia thinks that it'll be alright if some boxes go missing, if you know what she means…"

Natsu glanced at the woman, they were the only two people inside the truck right now. She tactfully turned to talk to someone outside the back of the truck, not paying any attention to him. So he quickly ran his fingers across two dozen boxes of training ammunition and pulled them into his Requip's storage dimension. Once they were safely hidden, he unloaded his pistols and began loading up eight magazines with the paint round. He slotted two into his weapons and chambered a round in each before slotting them into his holsters and mag pouches.

"Alright, I'm ready." He announced, grabbing a pair of clear safety glasses on his way out of the truck.

"Get your ass over here then!" Gajeel called out. He stood near the front of an expansive multi-building kill-house compound with two groups lined nearby.

Natsu recognised the members of the smaller group of eight soldiers as members of the team that Gajeel had taken to Hargeon for the arms deal. But the larger group all looked new to him; their gear was shiny compared to the veterans. "I kinda wish Lucy was here."

"Why is that?" Gajeel asked gruffly, turning to look at the man who came to a stop beside him. "Wait, she's got that crazy dimensional shit going for her, right?"

"Yeah." The pinkette laughed and flashed a menacing fanged grin at the rookies. "In a situation like this, it would be over in seconds."

"Is there any downsides to a power like that?"

"She can't tell friend from foe, they're just white humanoid dolls in her mind. So she needs a handler to ID them or to get a visual ID on them herself."

"Sounds like she knows where everything is but not who they are, I guess that's where you come in, or a handler as you said." Gajeel nodded slightly then stepped forward towards his soldiers, each one cutting off their conversation and standing at attention. "Alright! For those of you who don't know this man, he is Agent Salamander. He came here from HQ to assist in training your poor fucks. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you lot, you're going to get your asses reamed and you're going to have to learn to enjoy it. Agents are effectively super soldiers; they are highly trained combatants who specialise in asymmetric warfare, information gathering, espionage, and counter-intelligence operations. Prior to being integrated into their company the standard procedure was to avoid direct contact with an Agent once they had been detected. Those of you who have served alongside me will know what they're capable of first hand, both on the job and when we kicked Jose off his gilded throne."

"I may have fangs, but I don't bite." Natsu grinned widely but paused. "My girlfriend will probably say otherwise but she loves getting bitten. Anyway, what tin-head here said is true; Agents have been chemically augmented to boost our capabilities since there is so few of us and we generally fight at a numerical disadvantage. I'm here to help you all become adjusted to working alongside an Agent, bear in mind though that we all have different abilities. While all of us are faster and stronger than regular people, some of us have further mutations caused by the process. Mine is called Reflex and it increases my mental processing speed and allows me to react to things incredibly quickly, to the point that the world around me slows to a crawl. This pairs well with my incredible physical strength and speed since I can capitalise on that mutation."

"Sergeant Fisher, step forward."

"Captain?" The familiar soldier stepped forward as ordered and saluted her superior.

"Your team will be working alongside Natsu for the first round, you've seen him in action so you know what to expect."

"Yes, Sir." Fisher nodded. She made her way over to Natsu's side with her squad following close behind. "We meet again."

"So it seems." Natsu smirked at the soldiers.

"Now, the rest of you!" Gajeel turned to address the new recruits. "Juvia will be your hostage, take her into the compound and find a place to secure her. You cannot harm her beyond being a little rough with her when you're moving her from place to place. Feel free to use her as a personal shield but expect her to struggle. We'll be using an MSF generator to prevent the use of magic within the training grounds; this means she can't turn into a puddle and slip away, but it also means you can't use your own magic."

"For the sake of sportsmanship, I'll refrain from using my curses too." Natsu interjected and held up his hand. "I'm capable of using these curses within a Magic Suppression Field, it's one of the reasons I'm considered incredibly dangerous."

"There you go, he's given you an even greater handicap. But expect him to use his physical abilities to their full extent within reason, he will not kill you but he'll likely leave you on the floor groaning and gasping for air after taking one hell of a kick to the gut."

"Juvia suggests that she goes in first and need to be captured." The blunette stepped forward. "The squad or squads in the team that captures Juvia can get some kind of bonus or reward, but she can also fight back. Say she is holding out for reinforcements or an extraction from the team Natsu leads. We can put a time limit on the capture before the reinforcements arrive, that will make it more dynamic and promote both competitiveness as well as cooperation."

"Sounds good to me." Gajeel replied and he nodded over to the equipment truck. "Go get yourself kitted up and head inside. I'll sick the dogs on you after about five to ten minutes, and then they can have five to ten minutes to try and capture you before I send in your back-up."

"Heh, looks like you get to play the damsel-in-destress." Natsu grinned at the woman as she walked past him and made her way to the trucks.

"Let's see if you can be Prince Charming, Natsu." Juvia shot back with a small but playful smile. "Juvia won't be holding her breath though."

Once the woman was inside the compound, Gajeel had the new soldiers check over their gear and he inspected their ammunition to ensure they were all using the correct type. When seven minutes had ticked by, he sent the aggressor team into the compound to hunt down Juvia and they were soon met with the crackle of gunfire.

Natsu took the time to check over his own gear. Since his armour was damaged beyond repair in the hostile takeover, he was staying in his plain clothes which contained armour sewn into it. "Alright, I'm good to go. I won't be able to use any communication equipment since I won't be able to get a replacement tac-com for about a week; they're giving me a new prototype to test."

"They'll have to make due without. Head inside." Gajeel jerked his head at the door. "Sounds like they haven't captured her yet, so you might as well punish them for it."

"Will do." Natsu put on his pair of safety glasses and entered the compound. He turned to the squad of veterans with him and drew one of his pistols. "Fisher, sounds like Juvia is somewhere to the northeast. I don't know how long she'll be able to hang on for so if you lot go and regroup with her, I'll go and flank the hostile team and thin out their numbers."

"Alright. Let's go."

Natsu stepped aside and allowed the squad to move past him. He followed them with his eyes until they turned the corner and vanished from his sight and he murmured, "Right, time to get to work." He quietly ran down the initial corridor and darted down the opposite direction from the squad.

The sound of gunfire grew louder as the agent circled to the other side of the attacking force. He leapt to the rooftops and sprinted to the edge where he knelt down, observing the firefight in front of him.

Juvia had held up in a building and seemed to be putting up an incredible defence, he could sense her darting from room to room and floor to floor to keep her attackers guessing.

The squad he was working with had also circled around and were about to breach into the back of the building where the opposition was thinnest.

It was time for a distraction.

Natsu reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a handful of disks – a combination of smoke and flashbang grenades – and he armed them. With the flick of his wrist, he evenly distributed them across the forces below.

The flashbangs triggered like a chain of firecrackers, flashing and popping irregularly among the crowd of soldiers and throwing them into chaos moments before the smoke grenades dispersed a thick light-grey cloud that filled the air and blocked their sight.

A dull and distant thud alerted him to Fisher's squad breaching the building. It was his cue to start thinning the herd.

Natsu rose to his feet and drew both of his handguns. He took a step off the edge of the roof and plummeted down to ground level and into the thick cloud of smoke. He was blind but he could still sense all those around him, an advantage he held over his enemies.

He thumbed the fire selectors and switched his pistols to full-auto and lined them up with his prey. With both triggers held down, he sent twin silent streams of paint bullets racing through the smoke and was rewarded with the wet thwack of them colliding with armour.

"Where is he!"

Natsu grinned at the shout from the panicking soldier and he walked up behind the man and leaned closely in to the man's ear. "Boo."

"FUCK!" The man spun around and fired off a burst from his rifle. "Did I get him?"

"Ah Fuck!" Another soldier howled. "No, you dumb fuck! You got me!"

"I'm behind you." Natsu playfully informed the man, a devilish grin plastered across his face. He took a step back and drilled two rounds into the man's back, between the shoulder blades. "Try not to shoot your own allies, will you."

The agent quickly shifted his arm to take out the friendly-fire victim then turned and continued to walk through the smoke cloud, dispatching the hostile forces without putting much effort into it.

It didn't take long for the smoke to start to thin and for visibility to return for the remaining soldiers, though only twelve of them remained. In near unison, they turned and raised their rifles at the lone man who was surrounded by 'dead' soldiers; each one lying on their stomachs with their hands behind their heads.

"Hands up!"

"Sure." Natsu raised his hands up but kept a hold on his pistols. His grin twitched slightly and he kicked off the ground, rapidly accelerating from a standstill and appearing behind the twelve soldiers almost instantaneously.

"Where-?!"

"We did say that I'm stronger and faster than a normal person." Natsu reminded the soldiers. He stood behind them with his pistols still pointed to the sky. "I recommend getting shot over getting physically hit by me. So choose quickly, surrender, get kicked, or get shot, which will it be?"

Before they even had a chance to give their answer to the agent, the roaring of gunfire ripped through the gathered soldiers and they were pelted with a hail of paint bullets.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Juvia called out as she walked over to the man, accompanied by an entourage of veteran soldiers. "Maybe Juvia should start out as a captive and they can set up defensive positions before you enter the battlefield."

"We can do that for the next round." Natsu replied. He loaded up fresh magazines into his pistols and holstered them. With a quick glance at the prone soldiers, he jerked his head towards the entrance to the facility. "Get up and move. Time's ticking and we don't have the luxury to spend it lying around. I'm a busy man, after all."

"You know… that's not exactly going to warm them up to you, Natsu." Juvia whispered as she followed the man away from the new recruits.

"I'm here to train them, not befriend them. Once I start ramping up the training and employing my abilities to their full effects, they too will come to see me as an inhuman monster and despise me." Natsu replied. He spared a glance at the woman and shrugged uncaringly. "And I'm fine with that. They need to know what we're capable of, and what to expect from us in combat encounters. That won't happen if I baby them and sugarcoat everything. They could overextend in the future and push outside mission parameters because they believe we wouldn't be able to hand whatever it was that was happening. And in the end, that could jeopardise the mission."

"Juvia understands," The blunette nodded slowly. "But don't you think a heavy-handed approach is a bit…"

"Juvia, I'll be honest," Natsu came to a stop and turned to the woman. "As much as I enjoyed teaching Lucy, much to my surprise, I very much prefer being out in the field over training people. I think the old man should've sent someone who is a little more personable than me, like my brother. I'm a field agent, not a trainer."

"Then why did he send you?"

"Because I'm available, and that I'm one of the best hand-to-hand combatants we have and one of the better shots, and I have a history with Gajeel. He figured that we'd have some common ground, which we do but that doesn't change my stance in that I'm not a good trainer, especially when it comes to regular people."

"Juvia thinks you'll do fine as long as you maintain a certain level of professionalism and try not to let your distain for training others get in the way of your duties."

Natsu chuckled softly and he gave the woman a gentle grin. "That's a rather nice way of saying 'shut up and do your job'."

"Would you prefer if Juvia told you to 'shut up and do your job', Natsu?" The blunette stared at the man questioningly, her eyes narrowing a little. "Juvia can do that, but since you helped us out and have been kind to us, trusted us, she didn't want to be rude."

"Nah, it's alright. I may bitch and whine about it, but it's something that needs to be done. Plus, the old man wanted me to keep an eye and ear on things here anyway, make sure there is no lingering trouble."

As the agent and soldiers exited the compound, the were spotted by Gajeel who stepped away from his makeshift surveillance booth and approached them. He stood in front of the recruits and crossed his arms, only addressing the gathered soldiers when Natsu and Juvia had taken their nearby.

"That was a decent showing of what can be done at the highest level or near enough to it. Mind you, Agent Salamander has a lot more tricks up his sleeves than what was just shown to you. I've seen him sprint headlong into a hail of gunfire and dodge every bullet with the most minimal amount of room needed, so ambushing you lot with a fuck-tonne of smokes and flashbangs is him getting warmed up. On top of that, there was no communication needed between himself and the elite soldiers he was working with. We know full well what he is capable of, and over the next week of training with him, you will too."

"Gajeel," Natsu called out. He was sat on the bumper of a nearby truck while he reloaded his magazines. "This isn't me being a cop-out and saying I'm leaving after the week, but are you planning on doing a rotation to get them used to the other agents and their various personalities and abilities?"

"Yeah. Why, do you have some advice?"

"Some prefer working in teams of other agents, like in pairs or squads. For example, Bisca and Alzack are almost never apart except for when their individual talents are needed. I mentioned before we went in that Lucy and I pair well due to being able to make up for the other's shortfalls with our specific abilities, and she's completely capable of keeping pace with someone like me. And then you have those who prefer being in full teams like Laxus and his crew. If you plan on doing stuff with them, go larger scale."

"I'll pick your brain later about that subject, but for now…" Gajeel turned back to his soldiers and checked his watch. "You've got fifteen minutes to get cleaned up, get some water in you, and go take a shit if you need to. Get moving."

"Sir, Yes, Sir!"

Sorry that there was a massive wait for this chapter, I've been working on The Fallen Dragon and had pushed this chapter aside when it was sat at about 70% complete. I've been meaning to come back and finish it off but between life, working on TFD, and other stuff, it just kept getting pushed back more and more.

Anyway, let's keep this short, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Please follow/fav if you haven't already, and do check out The Fallen Dragon as you might like it if you like this story; it's a little more grounded and is about Natsu losing everything and having to rebuild his life in another world. I'll see you all in the next chapter, or over in The Fallen Dragon.