"…And that is what happened." Joker said, finishing his report about Jack's attack to King and Heartless.
"I see…" King let out a heavy sigh, shuffling his deck of cards in a very agitated fashion. "Jack's little stunt has set us back quite a bit…we had enough magic energy to begin our plan…but now we are left with less than half of the amount that we had!"
"Jack and Queen Tia were the ones who usually left a large amount of magic in the area after their attacks…" Heartless said while placing a hand under her chin. "I could go back out and…"
"There will be no need for that." Joker said. "You and Daigo have done enough."
"Are you implying that you want to send out those three?" King asked with a brow raised. So far, he wasn't enjoying how that sounded. "The only thing they were good for was bringing back magic after Jack attacked, but even so, it paled in comparison to what we already had."
"Of course not; they couldn't even make it to Jack in time." Joker shook his head, letting out a slightly amused chuckled. "And Heartless, you won't need to go out anymore. You've done quite enough for our operation and you deserve the rest."
"So what are you proposing, Joker?" King asked with the upmost curiosity.
"I have an idea. I found someone that wished to talk to you, King." Joker looked back, as did Heartless and Daigo. "Someone who boasts enough power to truly bolster our ranks. With Jack and Tia having failed their missions, and the other three being useless..."
"You recruited someone?" Daigo was surprised to hear this.
"It was a directive I gave him. Of course, there is hardly anyone who Joker could consider to be a viable candidate to our cause! So this wizard must be impressive if Joker says this, hohohoho!" King laughed.
"Come in." Joker said.
The doors opened. Her heels clicked along the floor. Minerva Orland sauntered into the room, one hand on her hip. The former ace of Sabertooth looked out at her new guild members with a curious smile. "What a gaudy building. But I can tell it will give me exactly what I desire: the chance to crush Erza Scarlet."
.
.
(A day after Jack's attack)
Magnolia was back to normal and brimming with excitement. Thanks to the help of Zalen and a few others, the damage to the city was repaired without much complaint. The much awaited festival finally arrived and just about everyone from the other guilds was invited. It was almost as if the situation the day before never even happened. In the large square was where all the action was. Cynthia happily licked her cone of vanilla ice cream without a care in the world, comical hearts replacing her eyes as she ate the treat. "Ice creammmmm…"
Beside Cynthia was Wendy who was also holding a cone of ice cream, though she wasn't eating hers nearly as quickly as Cynthia was. "E-Etto…" Wendy started, giving a nervous smile to her friend. "Cynthia…don't you think should slow down a little bit? You know how you are with sugar and you might even get brain freeze…"
"What are you talking about!? I'll be fine!" Cynthia strung her words together rather quickly due to all the sugar in her body, but the hyperactiveness of the little girl came to a halt when she got brain freeze, gripping her head in agony. "Gah! Ow, ow, ow…!"
"I knew this was going to happen." Carla shook her head. Even if she had her eyes on Cynthia, she couldn't help but get into trouble somehow.
"Told you so…" Wendy sighed, patting Cynthia on the back slightly while giving a tiny grin.
.
.
"I'm so glad this has gone off without a hitch!" Lucy exclaimed with a grin, happily skipping down the street alongside Natsu, who was eating some food, and Happy who was walking along with them.
"Mmm!" Natsu shouted with his mouth filled with food, throwing a hand up into the air with a grin. He then swallowed the food and nodded. "Right!"
"Just a time to relax and not worry about anything…" Lucy let out a content sigh, deciding that for today she would just relax and not worry about a single thing dealing with the situation of Dealer.
"I'm just waiting for the end of it! A chance to fight it out some of the members from the other guilds!" Natsu replied, pounding his fist together.
"Aye!" Happy shouted in agreement while placing a hand in the air.
"We've really got just about every guild in town…" Mirajane said, overhearing the conversation. "We've got Black Phoenix, Blue Pegasus, Sabertooth, Shaman's Haven, Mermaid Heel, Lamia Scale, Twilight Zone, etc…"
"Sounds like we're missing a few…" Lucy said while placing her index finger on her chin, wondering who it could be.
"Man, a party!?" Cygnus said while strutting down the street as if he owned the place alongside Reve. "Why didn't anyone invite the strongest guild in Fiore!?"
"I knew it…" Lucy sighed, head hanging forward.
"Not a bad party ya got here," Reve said with a chuckle, looking around at all the festivities going on. "It's a good thing we decided to pop in, things just got a bit livelier."
"Ah…" Mirajane just nodded slowly, giving her usual sweet smile to the White Eclipse mages. "Welcome. I hope you all enjoy yourselves at this little festival!"
"We plan to…" Calium said while walking towards the small group slowly, a smile on his face. "I couldn't pass this chance up…I don't go out too much anymore…" With that, Calium let out a few coughs.
"Master, you should really be careful. That trip alone was pushing it, you know!" Aira said in a worried manner.
"Ah, he'll be fine," Cygnus said with a grin. "He's the toughest master in Fiore, after all."
"You can stop rubbing it in like that, you know…" Lucy huffed.
"We'll just win next year!" Natsu replied with a determined expression. "And I'll settle my bouts with you later!"
"Heh, I'll be waiting, Salamander!" Cygnus said, the two suddenly butting heads as comical sparks of electricity appeared between their eyes.
"You still owe me a fight too, Natsu-san!" Sting shouted from the distance.
"I'll take you down again too!" Natsu shouted to Sting, yet kept his glare on Cygnus.
"My, my…looks like things have never changed around here…!" A familiar voice rang out throughout the ears of the small crowd around, mainly attracting the attention of a few people from other guilds.
Evanee herself paused for a moment, expression changing into a stale one as she recognized the voice and the person it belonged to. "Oh…you've got to be joking…"
"That voice sounds oddly familiar…" Cynthia blinked a few times.
From a few feet away, a familiar band of mages appeared: Cosmic Star. Prideful grins showing on all 6 of the mages' faces. Shadowlore took a step forward, his grin widening. "Sup, bitches."
"NO." Milliana immediately hissed at the sight of Shadowlore, remembering what he did to her during the last Games. "GO AWAY."
"Aw, there she is!" Shadowlore exclaimed with hearts in his eyes, immediately making way to Milliana. "My little kitty!"
"I don't think so." Kagura said while stepping forward in front of Shadowlore along with Erza, the blades of both females at the ready.
"You don't want a repeat of last year, do you?" Erza asked in a low, threatening tone.
"HA!" Shadowlore laughed at the two females before cockily taking a step forward. "I am the great Shadowlore! And I fear nothing!" Once he said that, Melody Sliver took a single step forward causing him to take a step back. "Oh no no no no no you stay away from me."
"That's what I thought!" Melody said with a large innocent grin.
"Ah, Kagura-chan~" Daryan said with a slight smirk, taking a few steps forward, but was cut short when Kagura palmed his face with the most uninterested face possible. "I missed you...!"
"No." Was Kagura's only reply, and everyone couldn't help but laugh, though she was completely serious.
{Some time later}
"So what are you all doing back here? I thought you left?" Cynthia asked with a curious expression. "It's been a while since you've all left."
"We've been busy!" Alex replied with a nod.
"I dunno if you've noticed, but we are now the strongest guild in Bosco!" Yakuza exclaimed prideful.
"Bosco?" Reve scoffed before laughing at the statement. "You mean that uninteresting country right next to ours? How powerful."
"Oh, be quiet, you!" Alex huffed at the gunslinger before looking around, realizing that Shadowlore and Gaia were gone. "Huh…?"
"Oh dear…" Magnus sighed, pointing over in Gaia's direction.
Gaia and Evanee were butting heads in a comical fashion, both giving sarcastic smiles towards the other. "Oh, Ev, it's SO nice to see you again!" Gaia said in a sarcastic tone, pushing her head against Evanee's.
"You too, Guy-chan!" Evanee replied in the same sarcastic manner. "Have you been getting stronger?!"
"Oh, much! How's that new magic of yours coming along, hmmm?!" The taller females replied with a sneer.
"I don't think that's healthy for the both of them…" Rylo said while letting out a sigh. He'd try to pull Evanee away but…that just wasn't happening.
"Should we…" Flynn started.
"We shouldn't." Rylo replied. "It's not a good idea. Evanee and a Dragon, that's something you don't want to be in the middle of…"
.
.
"YOU!" Natsu shouted, pointing directly in Shadowlore's direction.
"I thought a smelled a dirty lizard…" Shadowlore said with a slight grin.
"You wanna go!?" Natsu exclaimed, pounding his fist together aggressively.
"Bring it! You can't take me down anyway!" Shadowlore exclaimed right back, motioning Natsu to come at him, and the hot headed mage did the two soon colliding in a comical smoke cloud.
"KICK HIS ASS!" Daryan shouted towards Shadowlore for encouragement.
"NATSU YOU BETTER WIN!" Gray shouted to Natsu. "I COULD TAKE HIM!"
Lucy just sighed heavily, a hand resting on her forehead as she had her back turned to the "fight" behind her. "This is why we can't have nice-"
"DIE." Shadowlore suddenly shouted, punching Natsu out of the smoke cloud and far away. "HA!" Natsu then came back with his own punch and knocked Shadowlore out of the park.
"HA!" Natsu mocked the wolf-mage.
"Idiots…" Selene mumbled while shaking her head from side to side.
Without warning, Makarov slammed to Titan fist onto both Natsu and Shadowlore, a stern expression drawn on his face. "You two. Quit it."
"He started it!" Shadowlore replied.
"I was finishing it!" Natsu shouted back in reply to Shadowlore, but Makarov wasn't having any of it and just slammed the two down once again, shutting them up this time.
.
.
"So, where exactly have you been all this time?" Erza asked the part of Cosmic Star that was behaving itself.
"As we've said, we've taken the reigns and became the strongest guild in Bosco," Magnus said with a nod.
"It was really easy!" Hiruka added.
"You didn't cheat, did you?" Cynthia asked while raising a brow, pointing to her arm. "Because you had a tendency to…"
"No, no, we played fair this time!" Daryan insisted with a nod. "The cheating was never our idea in the first place, we were just somewhat blinded by loyalty to that old man, but we know better now."
"I hope so," Lisanna let out a "hmph" after she spoke, crossing her arms after.
"Even with all the cheating, it was us who came out on top," Luke pointed out from afar.
"I believe we had more points than White Eclipse at the end, if you want to start recalling things." Gaia said with a confident smirk.
"Well…" Luke started, but he was dragged off by Aira before he could make a bigger embarrassment of himself.
"We'll win again next year. Don't even worry about it," Takeru said while waving a dismissive hand.
"Heh, anyway…There's something I think you all should at least have some idea of." Gaia said as a serious tone appeared in her voice.
"Guy-chan's serious? This oughta be good…" Evanee commented, giving Gaia her full attention.
"Since we were ranked strongest guild in Bosco, the Magic Council in the country decided we should do their dirty investigation work for them," Gaia began. "We were sent to investigate the country of the Pergrande Kingdom."
"You mean the biggest country on Earthland…?" Lucy asked. "I've heard so many things about it…"
"A powerful country, sure…" Yakuza said while chewing on some ice. "But there are a lot of things wrong with its monarchy."
"Things wrong?" Carla blinked a few times, arms crossed while her face gave a curious expression. "What could be wrong in a country like that? I've heard that it's a rather prosperous country."
"That's the image they want to give everyone," Gaia continued. "But in reality, the King is corrupt. How so? Simple. While we were investigating, we found that he's been making undercover deals with the Magic Council in the Kingdom to do some illegal activity."
"What kind of activity are we talking here?" Erza inquired.
"Collection of all kinds of mages from across Earthland. He can't leave Pergrande or the country would be in a panic, so he hired an experienced group of dangerous wizards to do the job for him. Have you heard of the Wizard Hunters?" And once the name came out, just about everyone's eyes widened. "…I'll take that as a yes."
"Those guys tried to kidnap me!" Lucy shouted.
"So they already made their move…?" Alex sighed. "Darn, so we did just miss them after all."
"There are 11 in all," Roy suddenly said, having no problem with just barging into the conversation. "Weveal, Yumia, Yukia, Marx, Aeon, Cain, Bass, and Rajaron. Those are the ones that appeared. Rajaron seems to have been dealt with but that one could never stay down. It's a likely guess that the leaders are around in Pergrande somewhere. Yeager, Lucia, and Shade…Lucia is the leader, and the most dangerous."
"How do you know so much…?" Gaia questioned the Shaman Haven Ace.
"I know a lot of things," Roy replied with a smirk visible from under his mask before walking off.
"He's a strange one…" Alex mumbled.
"Anyway, we just want to let you know of the situation. There may or may not be an incoming war, but we can't tell…" Gaia finally finished.
"W-War…!?" Erza's eyes widened immensely at the word.
"Keep your voice down!" Gaia exclaimed.
"Like I said, it's way too soon to tell. Nothing but speculation on our part. We don't want to ruin your little festival here but we should let you know so it doesn't come as a surprise." Magnus said. "It wouldn't happen for a long time from now anyway, this much we are sure of."
"One of their lead scientists was working on some type of enhancement, but the details have been kept under wraps." Daryan said while leaning against a wall. "Whatever she's been working on...it's unclear if it'll be useful or not. But the effects appear to be very potent, and very dangerous."
"Heh, I'll just beat him and his Kingdom down!" Natsu grinned.
"Mhm…" Gaia nodded before letting out a soft gasp, suddenly remembering something. "Oh, that's right!" The female dug in her pocket before pulling out an Earth Gem, handing it over to Cynthia. "Here, this is for you."
"What is it?" Cynthia asked while taking the gem.
"It's an Earth Gem. It's got my own powers within it and I was planning on training you with…" Gaia started, but before she could even finish Cynthia ate the gem whole, causing everyone to let out a surprised gasp. "YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO EAT IT YET!"
"CYNNNTHIA!" Wendy cried out in a comical fashion, arms flailing in panic. "YOU DIDN'T EVEN LET HER FINISH!"
"S-Sorry!" Cynthia replied with an innocent smile. "I just couldn't help myself!"
"Oh gosh…" Lucy placed her hand on her face, shaking her head from side to side.
"I was going to tell you to take it in small increments so I could teach you my earth magic but I don't think that's going to be happening anytime soon now…" Gaia just sighed before letting out a soft chuckle, mumbling to herself while the others attempted to get Cynthia to cough up the Earth Gem. "She's certainly Vanessa's child alright…"
.
.
"How are things coming along?" Knightwalker asked Aiden impatiently, her foot tapping the floor.
"Things are just about ready, my dear…" Aiden said with a large smirk, finalizing a few things on the computer screen in front of him. "Tartaros and Dealer have had their fun, but now it's our turn. I can tell that everyone is anxious to get started."
"All I've been doing for weeks is training in this stupid building. I'm ready to cut Scarlet down once and for all." Knightwalker responded with obvious aggression in her voice. "If I don't get to her soon then you'll suffice."
"Oh, let's not get too hasty now. Things have been planned out accordingly. I now know how to defeat the legendary power of friendship. With this knowledge, they won't be defeating either of us again." Aiden grinned with his reply, pressing a button to finalize something. "And we are now ready!"
"About damn time!" Knightwalker shouted.
"Prepare to meet your end, Fairy Tail, White Eclipse, and everything in between!"
.
.
Aiden: "Attention, all of Fiore! It is I, Aiden Viscard!"
Cynthia: "Gack…I knew it!"
Natsu: "He just doesn't quit, does he!?"
Wendy: "Not again…"
Cynthia: "Don't worry, Wendy…it won't end up like last time…"
Next time: Aiden's Challenge!