Fairy Tail Furious

Chapter 39

Natsu entered the office to find Erza and Makarov counting stacks of money while Gray stared boredly at one of the posters decorating the boss' wall. It was one of Makarov's birthday presents from another fellow gang boss, Bob from Blue Pegasus, modeling on hotrod. Cutting out major details of what the photograph contains, Natsu cleared his throat to catch the old man and the redheaded racer's attention. Closing the door, Natsu pounced behind Gray and onto the little office couch he was waiting on, making the dark haired man grunt from the tackle, shoving the other off.

"Flamebrain," Gray growled lowly as he set his foot on Natsu's back to keep him down.

Natsu scrambled on the weird-smelling floor against Gray's hold. "Ice prick, you lookin' for a fight? Not my fault ya weren't paying attention, jackass!"

"Natsu, Gray, knock it off right now and pay attention," Makarov grumbled. Passing off the stack of cash to Erza, who took it to add on to the pile before writing the number down for listing. "If you can't take things seriously, I'll leave it to the old guys to do the job instead, you hear?"

"What's up, Gramps?" Natsu asked with a cheeky smile.

"It's about the case the FBI has been talking about on and off with us for the last two years," Makarov crossed his arms. Once Gray and Natsu finally went silent and serious, the elderly man nodded with a raised brow. "Yeah, that one."

"The Acnologia case? I thought they said to terminate it here because of lack of activity," Gray's nose scrunched. "Didn't they say that Acnologia left the country and went south somewhere to go into hiding."

"Well, apparently they seem to have found something of interest that relate to Acnologia," Makarov explained before snapping his fingers. Erza, obeying his command, brought up a laptop to her lap and opened it, typing rapidly on the keyboard. "A few cities over a few weeks ago experienced a major break-in on a warehouse that was stocking packages to be sent over here, and they found traces of Acnologia all over it. They were trying to bring in drugs and weaponry without being detected."

"They found one of the stocks, but the rest got out without a trace," Erza said as she turned the laptop over to face the two men. The screen showed police photos of a giant crate broke open and spilling out packs of white substances and obvious high-tech guns. "The crate has an address to here, but no specific place. We think that there were smugglers working in the warehouse before we found out."

Natsu looked closer to the picture and could see a square stamp in the color black with neon blue scribbles, all too familiar with the pink haired man. Natsu's brown eyes hardened at the sight of the signature mark of FBI's most wanted criminal in the world - a drug lord and hardcore criminal who showed no mercy to anyone, not even his own clients. Acnologia was one of the most feared men in the gang world, he knew, and has been chased for as long as Natsu could remember.

"The big guys want us to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity during races or jobs given out until further notice," Makarov said seriously. "The next group races that Jason is planning is out of the ordinary, something about private investors putting in large sums of money and supplies to those who win. No rules has been sent out yet, but I'm guessing everyone is going to try them out; I have reason to believe that Acnologia is either looking for new people to take in or burn out the tougher enemies, so I want everyone on high alert whenever we leave the garage."

"What about Phantom Lord?" Gray asked, looking to the screen as Erza changed the police photos to different scenes of the crime and the material recovered on silver tables. "Is that going to change the plan on trying to get -?"

"Jose has made it clear that he is not selling his members, no matter how much I'm willing to offer," Makarov held up a hand to stop Gray, which he frowned deeper. "I already spoke to Levy about the situation, and she understands. Jose isn't going to keep us locked out of the bar or deny visits, but I'm sure he's going to keep an eye of his gangs more from now on; especially Juvia and Gajeel. I don't want you to anger Jose or Sol by your constant visits, Gray, so keep your time there short to once a week or so."