Hot and Cold

Laxus, The Lightning Dragon

~*****~

Ballad watches as I pace in front of the barrier restlessly, her big eyes entirely too watery for my liking. I glance back at the statues and sigh. Just before I can turn back to the barrier, there's a bright light, and everyone is returned to normal. "Oh my, what happened to us?" Juvia comments as she gazes around curiously.

"I can't remember..." Levy hums.

"They're all back to normal!" Natsu exclaims as we hurry to the stage.

"Lucy!" Happy and Ballad cry, burying their faces in her bust.

"Guys?" Lucy chuckled.

"Erza versus Evergreen. The winner is Erza." Makarov read out as the barrier changed. "Well, Laxus! You're all out of hostages, boy! Can't continue with your game now, can you?"

"Will someone please explain what's going on?" Lucy complained. We go into a brief explanation. "He called it the Battle of Fairy Tail?"

"Laxus outdid himself this time." Can sighs.

"At any rate, it's over now," Makarov sighs. "I played along with his foolish game because your lives were in danger, but I won't indulge him anymore."

"Master, we can't let him get away with hurting our friends," Mira comments.

"Yeah, she's right!" Bisca barks. "If we don't teach Laxus a lesson, then he'll never learn!"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm gonna give that boy a punishment he'll never forget." Makarov comments. "He should know better. You can mess with me, but you can't mess with my guild!"

"Hey now, hold on a sec. I dunno about taking hostages, but I don't see any harm in finding out who's the strongest. I think we should keep the battle going." Natsu comments.

I sigh. "Neither do I, Natsu--" Natsu begins to beam as I start to agree with him. "But I do not condone anyone pitting each other in a battle royale for the safety of others. Battles of strength should be something everyone consents into doing. No one should fight feeling the anxiety of losing someone close."

"C'mon, he's prolly just tryin' to make a little fun for the festival!" Natsu disregarded me. "So, what are we waiting for?! We got enough people here! Let's start brawling! C'mon! Round two, right now!"

"Don't even think about it, you nincompoop!" Makarov shouts as Natsu throws fake punches at me.

"Aw, c'mon! I gotta do somethin' with all this pent-up energy I've got!" Natsu exclaimed.

I slip my hand against his fist, shove it to the side before flipping him on the ground with his scarf. "I'm not in the mood for a fight with you right now, Natsu." I say in a serious tone.

"C'mon, show me what ya got, Aria!" Natsu complained as I shoved my foot against his face as he tried crawling towards me.

"Stop it!" I hiss angrily.

"What's going on?" Mira chirps.

We stop what we're doing and gaze over at the barrier. It's turning red and filtering out slowly. "What's weird," I comment.

"Don't tell me he's up to something else," Cana snaps.

"You're gonna have to fight us this time." Bisca agrees.

They form into a giant skull made of up red letters. "Can you hear me, old man?" Laxus chirps. "The rest of you better listen up, too."

"What do you want?" Natsu snaps.

"Looks like one of the rules has gone out the window." Laxus snorts. "That's fine. I'll just add a new one. In other words, since I would hate to end the battle of Fairy Tail early, I've decided to active the Thunder Palace."