Good Intentions

Just Another Mission

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima

Chapter 6: Just Another Mission

Natsu and Gray met early the following morning for a quick breakfast before meeting the girls at the train station. Natsu asked Happy to stay with Wendy and Carla while he was gone. Happy was very astute and not good at keeping secrets. It was safer to keep him at a distance while they sorted this mess out.

The job that Erza had picked should take about 3 to 4 days to complete. They were going to be taking out a group of bandits that was threatening another town. The request estimated that there were about 50 bandits in the group. They would need to find their hideout and take the bandits out. As fas as they knew there were no magic users in the group but they did use magical weapons.

The walk to the train station passed quickly. They were excitedly discussing different things they wanted to try in their new training regimen. They were disappointed to not be able to spar or do weapons training but it couldn't be helped at the moment. They would work on ways to fight together with their magic instead so that they could remain on the same team without jeopardizing anyone's safety.

The realization that he and Gray would be training together regularly had helped Natsu quell his fears. He had also finally realized that while they might not be able to fight physically there was nothing keeping them from yelling or insulting each other. This was after all another integral part of their weird friendship / rivalry. Although he cared about everyone in the guild, there were really only a handful of people that he felt very close to and barring Lucy and Wendy he had grown up with all of them. The fear of being abandoned by any of the people in this small group, a result of Igneel's disappearance so many years ago, was still strong.

Erza and Lucy were already at the train station waiting with tickets in hand. They were mildly surprised to see the two boys arrive together, and on time for once. A small smile touched Erza's lips as she saw that whatever they were talking about had them gesturing wildly with excited looks on their faces. They joined them on the platform and became silent.

"Good morning, Natsu, Gray.", Erza nodded at her teammates, "I see you are both on time for once."

"Good morning.", they greeted their teammates.

"What were you talking about just now?", Erza asked curiously.

"Nothing really. I asked the pink haired freak if I could train with him for a while. We were just discussing some of the things we wanted to work on.", Gray replied evenly.

"Begged is more like it. You should have heard the loud mouthed streaker's breathing after barely running two miles yesterday!", Natsu mocked his friend, "No wonder they call him a pervert. It was pitiful!"

"You made us sprint for the entire last mile, who the hell does that?", Gray sputtered, "And for the record you are the only one who calls me that."

"Better get used to it, you're going to be training with the big boys now!", Natsu teased the ice mage.

Lucy smirked at the idea of those two idiots training together. She could imagine them running until one of them collapsed, doing push ups until one of them collapsed. Actually, pretty much everything she imagined ended up with one of them collapsing. She giggled to herself.

"You two will be training together? How did I not think of that before? We should have been doing that all along as a team. Natsu needs help with his weapons handling. He relies on his fire too much in a fight and is practically useless without it. I have certainly been remiss on attending to that. We should also get a better feel for all of Lucy's spirits, we have been relying too much on Loke and Virgo as of late, not to mention her stamina is lacking and Gray, where to start...", Erza continued enthusiastically going on and on with the things she wanted to incorporate into her hijacked team training. A dark aura was starting to surround her and her eyes were practically gleaming with anticipation. She had even managed to requip into exercise clothing.

'Wait, what! That's not funny at all!', Lucy thought. If Natsu and Gray training together was bad, training with Erza could be deadly. She watched Natsu and Gray's reactions to Erza's plan wishing that they would somehow put a stop to this lunacy.

Gray looked at Erza, amused at her need to take control over everything having to do with their team. Some of her ideas could be interesting and challenging. Maybe it would be ok? Until he heard her say the following:

"Not to mention that it will give you the ability to spar each other constructively. I mean maybe if you know that you will have these opportunities then you won't feel the need to engage in stupid fights all the time!", Erza finished, clearly pleased with her plan.

Lucy did not miss the panicked expressions on Natsu and Gray's faces and wondered why they would react that way. Lucy thought that Erza was on to something, if they could fight each other during training they should have no energy left to destroy the guild.

"Erza, that sounds great and all but I think I would rather start with just the two of us for now.", Gray came to their defense and then promptly threw Lucy to the hounds by suggesting she and Lucy train together instead. Natsu snickered at the suggestion, but gave Lucy an apologetic smile. Erza seemed a little disappointed at first but agreed that it was a great idea.

They quickly got on the train and claimed some seats. The town was four hours away and Erza spent the entire first hour listing all of the things that Lucy needed to work on and promised they would start as soon as they returned from this mission. Gray almost felt sorry for Lucy, she looked sicker than the Dragon Slayer. He shuddered when he saw the glare she was sending his direction and felt a little guilty for his actions. He'd have to make it up to her later. He let his gaze rest on the fire mage.

Natsu looked miserable as usual. His motion sickness always made him a horrible companion on train rides. Gray had already lost track of the number of times he had asked how much longer to their destination. He had never given much thought about how truly torturous it must be for the dragon slayer to have to take transportation all the time. It had always been a form of sadistic amusement for Gray to see his powerful friend be defeated by something so ordinary. Gray remembered hearing that ice could help with motion sickness and decided to try it out. Without giving any thought as to why he was doing so he called on his ice make magic and made and ice pack for his friend. He placed the ice pack on the back of Natsu's neck. Natsu's reaction was immediate.

"Dude, what the hell!", the initial shock from the ice caused Natsu to jolt from his seat and almost hurl from the jerky motion. He sent a pissed off glare in Gray's direction only to sit back down and lean in to the ice pack, relief evident.

"That actually feels a little better, thanks Icicle.", Natsu said gratefully and offered Gray a small smile. He fell asleep shortly after that and did not wake until they arrived.

Gray was surprised at the feeling that came over him when he saw that smile. He wasn't sure what the feeling signified but it was certainly unexpected. He filed it in the back of his mind to be analyzed later and dozed off. He was still tired from their training yesterday.

Once they collected their belongings and got off the train it was late afternoon. They gave Natsu a few minutes to recover from his motion sickness and then set off to look for an inn. They checked in to two rooms and went to talk to the mayor of the town who had initiated the request.

The mayor informed them that a group of the bandits had attacked several residences in the town two evenings prior and if they held to their pattern they should be returning in 5 days time. He did not know where their hideout was but they always seemed to approach from the same direction, the nearby mountains. He thought there might be some caves at the base that might be worth checking out. They had an early dinner and snuck off into the night to try to find the bandits' hideout in the cover of darkness.

They let the Fire Dragon Slayer take the lead. His tracking ability was unrivaled, even among the other Dragon Slayers. They followed him quietly for several miles as he tried to figure out the scents assaulting his sensitive nose. After an hour or so of this they started hearing noises and saw a large cave in the distance. They stopped and looked for cover to observe the bandit's movements. At this point Erza took over looking for potential weaknesses in their defenses. She sent Gray to search for any additional information he could gather about the camp that would be helpful to their planning. Lucy also looked around to get a better idea of how her spirits could be useful in the coming fight. Once they were satisfied they headed back to their inn quietly allowing Natsu to lead them back.

The next morning was spent in planning strategy for their attack. Lucy and Erza had gone to the boys' room to get them for breakfast only to find the room already empty. They had found them already sitting at a table in the inn's dining room discussing strategy and team placement for that evening. This was rather surprising as Natsu's usual strategy to any conflict was to hit as hard as possible and then set everything on fire. He never participated in the planning. He barely listened to the plans half the time. He just ran ahead and did his thing.

Erza looked at her foster brothers proudly and to Lucy's amusement she seemed like she might cry at any minute. The girls joined them at their table and ordered food while continuing to discuss their options. Erza's pride, however, gave way to anger when Gray and Natsu would not agree to her plan and steadfastly refused to be placed on the same attack team. They would not give her a clear reason why and they refused to back down. Erza was getting more and more agitated but could not detect any sign of animosity between them and to her chagrin they were being rather calm about the whole thing. She finally gave in when threats did not work and agreed on a plan of action that kept them separated. The team grabbed some provisions and headed out. They stopped by the local law enforcement to tell them the location of the bandits hideout. They were given a flare to signal that the bandits were captured. Law enforcement would then come collect them.

They went over the plan one last time before they reached their vantage point. Erza would quietly take out the guards outside the cave while Gray would go after any bandit patrols. They would then wait for additional bandits to come out. Once the guards were taken care of Lucy would summon Virgo to create a pit trap at the cave entrance hoping to catch the bandits unaware as they ran out. Natsu would enter the cave and attack, he would also set a fire to force some of the bandits out towards Lucy's pit and Erza and Gray. Natsu would then take out any bandits left in the cave. They would keep watch during the afternoon to make sure there weren't any surprises and attack at twilight.

After many boring hours of waiting Erza finally gave Natsu the signal to start sneaking towards the cave without being detected. Natsu moved with cat like grace using the cover provided by twilight to remain hidden. He gave his signal that he was in position and tried to wait patiently for Erza to take out the guards. There were only five guards in the mouth of the cave but there were also five others patrolling the area. Erza took out all five guards without making a sound. Lucy summoned Virgo to create the pit trap. So far everything was going according to plan. Unfortunately Gray was not able to take out the last bandit before he noticed his fallen comrades. The bandit screamed "Intruders!" at the top of his lungs and all hell broke loose.

Bandits started running out of the cave before Natsu had a chance to get inside. Thankfully at least a dozen of them fell into Virgo's trap, leaving around thirty angry bandits wielding magical weapons for the four wizards to defeat. Natsu was now in the unenviable position of making sure that he was far enough away from Gray's range to not screw up their magic while keeping track of the bandits and their weapons. They had practiced the previous day but it was a lot different when facing actual battle conditions. He took a deep breath and went after the group of bandits that were the furthest away from the ice mage. Lucy had now moved to be by his side and was summoning Loke to help them fight, her whip out and ready.

Loke appeared and immediately started using his Regulus magic to knock out a group of five bandits that was coming after Lucy. Natsu nervously called on his Dragon Slayer magic hoping he was far enough away. He would not use any of his stronger spells as the bandits were not mages. He yelled "FIRE DRAGON ROAR" and focused his flames on a group of six bandits that were coming at him weapons ready to discharge. They screamed in pain and dropped their weapons as the flames danced on their skin. They collapsed and made no move to get back up again, their bodies shuddering on the ground.

Natsu, Lucy and Loke ran towards Erza who was fighting a large number of bandits. Lucy ran a little ahead of them.

Natsu forgot to keep track of Gray while heading towards Erza and managed to be inside the range of effect they had discovered the previous day. Suddenly from very close by he heard the ice mage yell "ICE MAKE SHIELD". A group of three bandits had discharged their weapons at the ice mage and thanks to Natsu's carelessness Gray's defensive shield did not materialize. Thankfully Loke had been paying attention and tackled Gray to the ground.

"Damnit Natsu!", Gray yelled out.

"Crap, I'm sorry. Where did you even come from?", Natsu ran as fast as he could to Erza's side to help her and Lucy defeat the remaining bandits.

Loke took out the bandits that had shot at Gray and helped him up.

He looked at Gray and said, "What the hell just happened?"

"I was too slow and almost got my ass handed to me, thanks for the assist!", Gray chuckled half heartedly scratching the back of his head. " Now, let's finish taking out these bastards!"

Loke looked at his friend warily and said, "I'm pretty sure that's not what I saw. Why did your shield not appear when you cast it and why were you yelling at Salamander?"

"Loke, just drop it. Now is really not the time.", Gray grunted looking around for any remaining bandits to fight.

"It looks like all the bandits are taken care of, how about you tell me what's going on?", Loke continued to press Gray for an answer. The two boys were good friends and it worried Loke that Gray might be having trouble controlling his magic, although he wasn't sure what Natsu could have to do with it. It didn't really make sense.

"Nothing is going on. I yell at Natsu all the time or have you been away for so long that you have forgotten.", Gray evaded as best he could.

Loke looked like he was going to continue pushing so Gray looked around and yelled "ICE MAKE HAMMER". An enormous hammer made out of ice materialized in front of him. He smashed it on the ground in front of the Celestial Spirit.

"Happy?", Gray asked Loke, "Like I said I was just too slow."

Loke did not look convinced but he let it go for now. The two friends walked towards the rest of the team. They helped restrain all of the bandits and Erza sent Natsu inside the cave to make sure it was empty. It did not escape Loke's notice that Natsu had shot Gray an apologetic look before entering the cave. There was definitely something going on. He made a note to ask Lucy later and returned to the Spirit World.

Erza fired the signal flare and the group waited for the prisoners to be picked up. They ate the remainder of their provisions and agreed to leave in the morning after collecting their reward.