Seems some of you think this is the new arc. Sorry to disappoint, it isn't. That'll come eventually, but I've got lots of filler lined up for you guys! So let's do all the fun stuff before we jump into all that messy business...

Plus, sorry for the wait. Grad happened, and then I got dragged on vacation.

Enjoy!

"Alright, we're here." Juno said, stepping out of the train car. Soon enough, many of the others followed suit after her, stretching their backs after the long ride to their destination.

"Thank God." Damien said cracking his neck. "It felt like it took forever."

"Probably for a very good reason." Simon said, looking rather annoyed. Ultear laughed.

"You don't say?"

"Uh, guys?" Everyone present turned at Steph's call, who looked a bit concerned. "Don't you think we should do something?"

"Like what?" Rina asked. "Give the suckers a few seconds, they'll bounce back."

"But..." Steph looked back to find the four Dragon Slayers lying in a heap right outside the train car. Moans could be heard and someone thanking God. "They look pretty bad."

"Give it a minute." Kyoko reassured. "Michael, Keita, get up."

"You too, guys." Simon said, addressing the two dragons from their guild. "You're on land now, you'll be okay."

"Until we have to leave." Michael moaned, looking up. "Then we'll be in hell once more."

"I'm gonna hurl." Keita stated flatly.

"Don't do it on me." Drake hissed, pushing at the Shadow Dragon weakly. Steph made a face. She hadn't been aware that all four suffered from motion sickness. Apparently it was a common problem with all of the Dragon Slayers. As the four suffering from the ailment stood and shook off their pain, Steph took a look around the platform as people stared at them. It was to be expected of course, everyone save her was a competitor from the Games, and from two different teams no less. They were bound to draw attention.

"Are you done yet?" Juno demanded in Michael's direction, and he laughed.

"Peachy." He answered. "Let's go so I forget all of that."

"Amen." Nashi agreed. The group decided to go on their way, which helped avert a bit of attention from them. Which of course came right back once they began to wonder the streets. Steph could hear countless whispers from people all over the street, and they all basically said the same stuff.

"Is that Fairy Tail and Sabertooth?"

"I think it is. What're they doing here?"

"No idea. Maybe they're on a job."

That they were. Sting and Laxus only the day before had told them all about the job request that had come in for both the Fairy Tail and Sabertooth GMG team. Apparently some guy had some ordeal he needed dealt with, and they must have fit the bill.

Which of course begged the question why Steph had tagged along.

That was because Elise was not present. They had tried to coax her out of her room both the night before and the morning of, but she refused to budge and said she didn't want to go. Not much they could do, really. Steph had decided to come as her replacement, which she hoped was okay. Her father was unaware, after all. All she'd done to warn him was leave a note saying so. She had a bad feeling she'd get a scolding for that.

Also, to add onto their problems, Blake Hunt was not with them either. Sting had told them out of the gate he didn't want Blake to go with them. The poor guy was still under house arrest until Sting figured out what to do with him. And at that, the eleven of them decided to go.

"Where does this guy live again?" Rina asked, looking around. Juno shrugged.

"Don't know. It should be obvious if we see it given the pay." Steph agreed with her on that point. The pay per person was ridiculously high. Given how much they were offering, they must have been filthy rich.

"Let's hope this doesn't go downhill." Drake said. "Last time we got offered money by a rich guy...We blew up Silverridge."

"We?" Ultear asked. "I think you meant Apocalypse." At this, Nashi stopped walking and nearly fell, grabbing her head as she did so.

"You alright?" Steph asked. Nashi nodded.

"Y-Yeah." Nashi said. "It's nothing."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Happens a lot." Steph wasn't really sure that equated to nothing, but Nashi didn't seem keen on sharing. As they continued on their way, Steph looked around them. All things considered, the town looked pretty prosperous. Everyone looked happy as well, so she wasn't sure it had anything to do with bandits or the like.

"Is that it?" Steph looked over, following Simon's finger towards a larger looking office building.

"Might be." Damien mused. "Let's find out." The eleven mages walked inside the building and towards the reception area, where a woman was busy filing something.

"Excuse me," Drake said, leaning on the table. "We're wizards from Fairy Tail and Sabertooth. Would you happen to know anything about..."

"Here for Mr. Halsey?" She finished, silencing Drake. "He spoke of finding guild wizards for something. Please, follow me." The woman stood and walked down another hallway, the whole group watching her in confusion before trailing after her.

"Did she say Mr. Halsey?" Kyoko asked. "I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before."

"If he's some kind of big business guy I guarantee he'll tell us in the first thirty seconds of talking to us." Michael joked, Drake laughing.

"Yeah, and then he'll get all upset we don't know who he is. Like we care." He said.

"Yep. And then he'll be all sad for a bit before we get him back on track..."

"Oh enough, Michael." Juno said. Steph watched with a smile as the boys joked with each other before fist bumping for their jokes. The woman led them towards a doorway, which she knocked on. There was no response, so she fiddled with the handle before opening what appeared to be some kind of board office.

"In here, please." She said. "Mr. Halsey will be with you shortly." The eleven filed in and sat around as the door was shut behind them.

"Well, now what?" Rina demanded. "Mr business is going to take his sweet time I bet."

"He better not." Keita said. "We have work to do, not sitting around here doing nothing." Steph leaned against the wall and waited, wondering just what it was that the man wanted from them. Everyone was just talking mindlessly among themselves, but Steph had no interest in doing that. She just wanted to know what they were here for.

"Hey, Nashi." Steph looked up as Michael called for Nashi, who looked over at him. "I've been meaning to ask you guys something since our fight in the Games."

"What's up?" Nashi asked. Michael raised his hand and did Fairy Tail's salute.

"I saw your guild do this. What does it mean? I've been curious for a while now but never asked." Nashi smiled.

"That's just some thing our Master came up with as a kid." She explained. "When you do it, it's usually an act of support." Nashi looked down and did the salute with her own hand. "No matter where you are, we're always looking your way. That's what it means." Keita smiled.

"That's pretty cool." He said. "Makes sense now."

"Yeah, their guild did it when you guys got thrashed." Rina joked. This made Michael and Keita falter, while everyone else chuckled.

"Sorry then, Rina." Michael said.

"Huh?"

"We probably should've given you the salute when you were fighting Nami. Not that it would have helped you any." This made everyone laugh again, this time at Rina's expense.

As Rina boiled in anger at the joke, the door to the room opened, revealing a middle aged man with a pretty serious look on his face.

"Ah, you've arrived." He said. He looked around the room, and his eyes fell on Steph. He narrowed his eyes, and she gulped. |But who are you? I asked for the GMG team members, no extras."

"Elise couldn't make it." Nashi said. "Still not feeling well. Steph's her substitute. Don't worry, she'll be more than adequate." The man nodded at this, although he seemed unimpressed. Steph felt the urge to kick him.

"And Blake?" He asked.

"Guild business." Juno answered. "Couldn't make it. Can we hear about the job now?" The man nodded, closing the door behind him and locking it. He walked towards the window at the end of the room quietly.

"As I'm sure you've been told, I am John Halsey." He said. "I'm sure you know who I am." Steph winced as Michael and Drake snickered.

"Not a clue." Kyoko said, answering for everyone. Steph really had no idea who the guy was. And, as Michael and Drake predicted, John looked a bit downcast.

"Really?" He asked. This made Drake snort and the two Dragon Slayers elbowed each other knowingly. Regardless of how rude they were being, they were right.

"Speak up buddy, tell us what's going on." Michael said, trying not to laugh as Drake leaned back in the chair he was in beside him. John sighed.

"Right." He said, turning to look at them. "I'm the head on this branch. I work for the lacrima selling industry, Lacrima Today specifically. We sell hundreds of million in jewel every year with our lacrimas designed to perform different tasks."

"Fascinating." Drake said, voice oozing with so much sarcasm Michael cackled. John Halsey ignored this. Or maybe he didn't hear them. Who knew.

"Recently, as in the past few months, our warehouse at the edge of town have been getting raided. By who, or what, we aren't sure. What we do know is that they need to be stopped."

"So that's what you want us to do?" Nashi asked.

"Not just that." John replied. "Whoever is doing this might work for someone else. If they do, I want you all to find out who it is so that they can be brought to justice. Can you do that?"

"Think so." Simon said. "Sounds simple enough."

"Please be careful as well." He said. "If you cause to much damage, the lacrima in the warehouse might become unstable." Steph felt like that was a jab at the fact that they were from Fairy Tail.

"Alright then." Ultear. "Point us in the direction of the warehouses, and we'll do our best."

It's almost midnight." Michael noted. Nashi nodded at this.

"And nothing so far." She said. The two of them, along with Drake, Simon, Rina and Kyoko were watching over the first warehouse. Juno, Keita, Ultear, Damien and Steph were in the second one. They'd been watching the sites for a few hours now, but as night set in Nashi had a feeling someone would strike. Night would be opportune after all. Sighing, Nashi leaned back against the wall and raised a hand to the lacrima device in her ear.

"You guys good so far?" She asked. Soon, the device crackled and Ultear could be heard from the other side.

"Nothing so far." She replied. "You?"

"Quiet."

"Keep an eye out. Who knows when they'll show up."

"You too." Nashi lowered her hand and looked around the small office they were all crammed into. Their plan was rather simple. If they heard a break in, odds are the perpetrators would shit themselves at the sight of them. And even if they didn't, Nashi knew well enough to evade any of the lacrimas and cause them to blow up. Last thing they needed was to pay property damages on this scale.

"You think they'll show?" Kyoko asked.

"I fucking hope so." Rina said, lightning crackling around her forehead. "I need to kick someones ass."

"Make sure to rein it in." Simon warned. "Don't need to make this place erupt."

"I will, I will."

"Hear anything?" Michael asked Drake, who perked up and took a listen.

"Nothing except mice, no." he replied.

"Good. Thought maybe you'd hear Halsey in his office wondering how we didn't know who he was." The two started to laugh again, and Nashi rolled her eyes. They'd been tearing apart the poor guy all night, and it showed no sign of stopping. At least they were getting along.

"I hope we don't spend all night waiting." Rina said. "I don't want to end up sleeping weirdly."

"Me either, but it's still pretty quiet." Michael said. Nashi slowly slid down the wall and sat, yawning. She hoped they could solve this as quickly as possible, but she somehow doubted that. As things usually went, she could assume they'd end up in a metric ton of trouble. Hopefully not, though.

"Wait." Nashi looked up as Drake said this, his ears twitching. "I hear something."

"What is it?" Kyoko asked, sitting forward. Drake remained quiet for a moment as his ears twitched a bit more, and his eyes upwards.

"They're here." He said warily. "I can hear them trying to get in."

"How many?" Nashi whispered, lowering her voice in order to prevent being heard.

"Sounds like forty or more. No more than fifty, though."

"Why the hell do they need so many guys?" Simon asked. Drake shrugged at this. The group went silent and waited as Drake continued to listen to them. After a few more seconds, his eyes widened.

"Aw, shit." He said. Nashi raised an eyebrow.

"What...?"

BOOM!

"Hear anything?" Ultear asked. Damien shook his head.

"No." He replied. "Nothing except for how bored I am."

"Can't be helped." Juno said, leaning back against the wall. "We just have to wait for them to show up. If they do, that is."

"The odds they don't are slim, don't you think?" Keita asked. "I mean surely..."

BOOM!

Ultear jumped as an explosion went off in the distance. She ran to the window in the small office, and she could see that a hole had been blown into the other warehouse a ways away, A few armored vehicles were outside the hole, and a ton of men ran in.

"Shit, they're attacking the other warehouse." She said.

"Should be go and help?" Steph asked. Before Ultear could answer, Ultear heard the sound of boots running on the roof over their heads.

"That's a no." Damien said, looking up. This is incredibly coordinated for bandits." Juno nodded as she stood.

"Sure is. Maybe someone hired them."

"Guess we'll find out." Keita said, cracking his neck. "First things first, we stop them from taking anything."

Nashi looked up as smoke and debris continued to fly everywhere.

"Holy shit." Michael said, covering his eyes. "This isn't a robbery, this is a raid."

"We need to catch them." Rina said, standing up. "Let's go!" The group got up and ran out of the office they were in and down a few stairs, now within the walls of packaging and items not yet shipped somewhere.

"What the hell do they think they're doing anyway?" Drake asked. "Blowing a fucking hole into the place. They must be going for the big haul." Kyoko brushed herself off.

"They probably don't think anyone's here." She said. "After making off with so much already, why not go for it all?"

"They'll make off with a broken arm." Rina growled. "Let's get them!" Nashi agreed wholeheartedly, and ran with everyone else towards the hole, weaving in between racks of items. After maybe thirty seconds or so of weaving around racks, they made it closer to the hole. Nashi noticed that many of the racks near them had been emptied. They were gone.

"Wow, they're clearing house." Michael said, looking around as they ran.

"We're close." Simon said. "Let's get them." Nashi nodded and, as they rounded the last corner, she lit herself alight and tackled one of the men she saw, startling him. She grabbed him by his shirt and glared at him.

"Something you need?" She asked sarcastically.

"What the hell?!" She heard someone say. "Who are they?"

"Damn it, guild wizards! I knew going for a huge take was a bad plan!"

"Fuck them! Let's get em boys!" Nashi tossed the man under her aside and advanced on the group coming at them. She punched one of the square in the face, which sent him flying backwards away from them. Michael did the same to another, and Drake dodged one's fist and kicked him in the stomach. Rina and Kyoko blasted a bunch from behind them, and Simon threw out blasts of heavenly light that forced the others back.

"Give what you stole back and we might not break your face." Nashi said, smiling. "'Kay?" The other men still standing growled.

"Didn't think we'd have to use these, but..." Nashi waited, and her eyes widened as easily ten or fifteen of the remaining me pulled out guns. "Shoot them! They're in the way!" Nashi threw herself behind some of the products as bullets started to fly, hoping that the others had the smarts to do as well. She listened as the weapons hit the things she was hiding behind, and she prayed nothing got through. Getting shot in Edolas was enough for her.

Soon enough, the shooting stopped.

Nashi thought this was a good thing until she heard the squealing of tires. Getting out from her cover, Nashi watched as four trucks took off down the road, carrying everything that that the men had stolen.

"Shit, now what?" Michael asked from behind her. Simon walked up next to her, and pointed to the left. Nashi looked over to find another truck there, abandoned. Most likely it had belonged to those they'd knocked out.

Her stomach turned as Simon ran towards it.

"Yeah, about that..." She said, slowly backing up. "I'll find another way."

"I'll, uh, go with Nashi." Drake said.

"Me too." Michael agreed.

"Oh, just get in!" Nashi started to panic as Kyoko and Rina pushed them towards the back doors of the truck, and tossed them in. Nashi barely got a moment to think before Simon revved the vehicle to life, and they took off down the street. Nashi's head spun, and she collapsed onto the floor in pain. Michael and Drake did the same, and soon enough she begged for the sweet relief of death.

"Holy fuck Simon, do you even know how to drive?!" Rina screeched as the truck swerved on a turn. Simon growled.

"It's not that hard, get off my back!"

Maybe she wouldn't have to wait that long.

We'll continue this adventure next chapter! I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try to get five!