I'm back already? I must be feeling better. Enjoy!

Simon wasn't accustomed to fighting in so much pain, even after Icas. When he'd fought Icas, the pain was normal muscle and nerve pain. After getting attacked by Apocalypse, Simon felt a painful strain on his entire form as he moved sluggishly and irregularly. After getting more then a few Impact Palms to the face, it was even worse.

"You're much slower than I heard, Simon." Lennix informed him as he watched him from a nearby rooftop. Simon slowly floated down to the opposing rooftop and tried to catch his breath. "Why is that?"

"..." Simon didn't have any words to reply with, Lennix was just taunting him. So far they'd fought around the area where Lennix had broken down the wall, and more than a few people in the streets below had stopped to watch. Simon could hear them muttering in concern and confusion as to why two mages were fighting. Glowing with light again, Simon charged at Lennix, who rolled his eyes and caught his fist as it came for him.

"If you're not at your best, you can't beat me." he informed him. Lennix placed a hand on Simon's chest and it glowed white, which caused Simon to blow backwards through the roof and into the street below, making a crater. He could hear people crowding around him inspecting him to see if he was alive, and he sat up to find Lennix now on street level as well, advancing slowly.

"Run!" Simon shouted, referring to the citizens offering him a hand up. "He's dangerous!" it took all of three seconds for people to back up and start to run, only a few staying around in buildings and such to watch. Lennix chuckled.

"I sort of wanted an audience to your destruction, Simon." he said. "Why did you tell them to run?"

"How do I know you won't use them to your advantage?" Simon shot back. "I've seen firsthand it isn't above you dark wizard types to use innocents as fodder."

"That protective attitude coming in again, huh?" Lennix chuckled. "Oh Simon, you really are Erza's son, only a Scarlet could be so righteous." Simon struggled to stand, using his knees as support. It wasn't that he was magically drained, his magical tank was still pretty full. It was Apocalypse's brutal Rapture beating prior to arriving here that left him drained. Looking up at his opponent, Simon took a moment to examine him closely. He had noticed during his beating Lennix always waited for him to go to him, always playing on the defensive. He was a cold, calculating man, being able to list off facts about Simon like that right off the bat after a sentence or two of conversation. He also always got in Simon's way right at the last moment, making sure no attack ever hit. A side effect of his calculation not being archive? How was he to go around beating a man who'd always wait for Simon to go to him?

"I've noticed something." Simon said as he stood up straight. "Despite all the shit you talk, you never attack me."

"You're kidding, right Simon?" Lennix asked, "There's a reason you ended up in a crater on the street."

"I meant you never come to me." Simon smirked as a flicker of realization went across Lennix's features. "Every time you've attacked me, it was after I came to you, while you've never made the offensive push." Tilting his head to the side in a mocking manner, Simon's smirk grew. "Is it because all of that calculation doesn't work in an offensive push with no knowledge of my own defensive mannerisms?" Lennix frowned at these words before he chuckled.

"Seems you are quite observant yourself, Simon." he said, crossing his arms. "It's true I'm not as confident in my abilities in a full on offensive push, because I do not know how you will or would defend yourself. However, at it stands, I don't have to."

"And why would that be?" Lennix smirked at this question.

"Because if neither of us attack each other, the battle is at a never ending stand-still." Simon's eyes widened. "And if that happens, you're just wasting time you could've been using to find and stop Apocalypse." Lennix held his arms out and smirked. "You see, Simon? You have to come to me, or the Etherion cannon will fire, and you will lose." He was right, completely. If Simon waited for an attack as well, it would never come, and Simon was giving the victory to Apocalypse. He was about to growl in frustration when he remembered his second point, and grinned.

"Requip!" he shouted. "Soaring Armor!" The leopard print armor materialized around Simon, and Lennix frowned.

"Didn't know you liked cosplaying animals, Simon." he said, making Simon double over.

"What gave you that idea?!" Simon shouted.

"You just put on gear that's made of leopard skin." Lennix replied. "Please tell me how I'm wrong."

"It isn't cosplay, it armor!" Simon retorted, taking a moment to calm down. "However, with this I can exploit your second weakness." Before Lennix could respond, Simon activated the armor's speed boost, darting to the right and behind Lennix, slamming the butt of his rapier into the back of his head, sending him flying forward. As Lennix growled and stood, Simon crossed his arms.

"What the hell...?" Lennix demanded, eyes wide.

"You may have incredible calculation abilities, but it's no Archive." Simon told him. "You always waited until the last second to attack me to make sure your calculations on my attacks were correct. If I attack to fast for you to make any conclusive calculation on my attacks..."

"Then I cannot appropriately defend against them." Lennix finished, smirking. "Impressive Simon. And here I thought this fight would only consist of mindless attacks from your side, and here you turn out to be rather intelligent."

"Like you said," Simon replied, lowering his rapier for another rush. "I am a Scarlet."

Ultear didn't have any clue what she was going to do, and it was irritating the hell out of her. She was wasting precious minutes being stuck in this mist being taunted by Ramin, and her patience was wearing thin. So thin in fact, she was considering just running in a certain direction and destroying anything in her path to get away from him. Although, seeing as it was misdirection magic, he'd probably throw her sense of direction out the window and make her run in circles.

"So, while we're stuck here." Ultear said, leaning up against a wall she'd almost run into. "Care to explain what exactly you plan to do with an Etherion cannon."

"What would you do if you obtained an Etherion cannon?" Ramin's reply came from the mist. "The Olympians wanted Apocalypse to secure and use it on key targets, making sure that they retain dominance in Fiore's underground."

"What are you're targets?"

"I'm not a fool, Fullbuster." Ultear cursed under her breath. "Why would I just reveal that to you?"

"Because you're a nice villain?"

"Hm, no." Ramin chuckled. "But if you really want to know, I suppose you could defeat me and find Apocalypse. I'm sure by the time he's finished the firing sequence and aimed the cannon he'd be liable to tell you." Ultear sighed and looked around, wiping more moisture from her brow. The mist was so thick that the water in the air clung to her.

Water.

Ultear grinned as she realized what exactly mist was. Concentrating, Ultear felt her body become lighter and liquefied, effectively making her water. This however, was not enough. Concentrating even harder, she made her body disperse into the air, trying to become one with the mist.

"W-What the hell?!" When Ultear looked up, the effect was much different then she'd envisioned. While she imagined being dispersed across the mist, her dispersal of her form had brought her into the mist itself in a different way, right into where Ramin concealed himself from.

"What is this, your man cave?" Ultear asked, looking around.

"How did you get into the mist?!" Ramin shouted in surprise.

"Maybe you need a science lesson, Ramin." Ultear replied, smirking. "Mist has water in it. I'm a water wizard, so by dispersing my body into your veil, I accessed it directly. Now," Ultear focused, and the moisture in the air whipped around her. "How about we get on to your ass kicking?" Ramin grinned, the mist whipping around him.

"It seems just messing with you won't be enough." He said. "While my magic was only misdirection back in the old Phantom Dove days, the Olympians have some incredible magic development facilities." Ultear formed the water into a whip like weapon and flung it at Ramin, he commanded the mist to do the same. Before long, the two were trading blows with water and mist, throwing the mist surrounding them into a violent turmoil as both used it's contents to attack the other. Ultear tried to form another whip of water, and gasped as it dispersed in her hand and back into the atmosphere.

"What the...!" Ultear's sentence was cut off as the mist around her constricted her, all air leaving her lungs as it wrapped tighter and tighter. Ramin laughed.

"The mist is my domain, Fullbuster." he told her. "The water here does not strictly obey you." The mist became even tighter, and dark spots appeared in Ultear's vision.

"Bastard..." She managed to hiss, already regretting using the air she had left to curse.

"I wouldn't speak if I were you." Ramin said. "Conserve that air for basic brain function." Ultear needed a plan, and she needed one now. Her brain went into overdrive, thinking up all the possibilities she could come up with.

Water.

Ultear grinned. She had all the experience in the world with the element, and she concentrated once more. The temperature began to drop, and the mist around her slowed in it's movement.

"What the..." Slowly but surely the frost emanating from Ultear clung to the air and in turn, the mist constricting her. She smirked at Ramin as she easily flexed within the frozen trap.

"The elements here do not strictly obey you either." She informed him smugly, breaking the frozen trap encasing her with enough force. "The mist, no matter who conjured it, is till an element of nature, not yours." Ramin grinned.

"And here I thought you'd be dead by now."

When Nashi had awoken in the medbay of the Christina, she'd been incredibly confused. How had she wound up here? Then it all came back to her, albeit painfully, as she relived Apocalypse taking her down and Drake finding her. From what she'd been able to draw together, the Christina had been in the area and had been called down to assist, and where ever they were was where they had tracked Apocalypse and Phantom Dove. Once Nashi had pieced that together, rage overtook her at the sight of the calm and nice seeming town they were at. These people had done nothing to deserve whatever the hell Apocalypse was after, and she didn't intend to let him get away with it.

So she escaped to track him down.

That in itself hadn't been too difficult of a task, there was a door to the flight deck right near the medbay. As she got into the city, however, she realized something that should have been rather obvious: She had no way of tracking him. She couldn't catch his scent, there was no obvious burning buildings to indicate where he might have gone to rampage, nothing. All she saw where people going about there business and giving her weird looks. Understandably so, she was limping and leaning against the walls of buildings for support, her body screaming in protest at every move. She looked like shit and she knew it, but she couldn't let Apocalypse win, not this time.

"Mavis..." Nashi hissed, stopping and leaning against the wall, catching her breath. "He really did a number on me, huh?" Nashi looked up and observed the area, still not finding anything that could lead her to the Rapture mage. "I can't let him win...I need to find him..."

But how? Nashi was in a bad enough state as it was, but she had no way of finding him. He may not even be in this city for all she knew, she had no idea where they were or why. Hell, maybe they were just on a pit stop.

BOOM!

The explosion she heard threw that idea out the window as heavenly light exploded somewhere in the distance, clearly Simon in the middle of a fight. Nashi considered that he was fighting Apocalypse but after some more explosions, white in color, she decided he was not. Apocalypse may have been powerful, but Rapture would not have caused such explosions.

"I need a way to track him..." Nashi hissed. "He must have been around here somewhere, anything that his scent would linger on..." Nashi's eyes widened at her own words, slowly looking down. When she'd gone after Apocalypse, he'd grabbed her by the collar of her vest and her scarf. It was a long shot, but Mavis above she needed it.

Grabbing the neck of her vest and her scarf, Nashi brought it up to her nose and inhaled deeply.

"Got it."

Nashi let go of her own clothes and looked around, the scent still fresh in her mind. Looking around and sniffing, her nose pinpointed her in a direction. Looking up the pathway Apocalypse had taken, Nashi narrowed in on what she was sure his target had been.

The government building...

Oh, Nashi's on his trail! I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get ten!