The Contract

Chapter 3

Gajeel took this moment when Levy was distracted, and grabbed the knife with his teeth. The crunching sound snapped Levy out of her thoughts, only to see the shattered knife in her hand. Her brown eyes looked at Gajeel who was swallowing the metal, before saying, "Oy, Lucy, make sure you don't sleep with newcomers okay?"

"S-sorry. I was just tried from waiting on Natsu..."

He stood up then, looking down at Levy. "And you...Shrimp, don't make us enemies."

He walks past her while Levy thought, did he just call me Shrimp? She spins around, raising her leg to kick him in the back.

"Omph!"

A small jolt of pain hits him, as he crashes face first into the ground.

"Hmph!"

Gajeel turns his head only to see, Levy walking past. Once she was out of sight, Lucy chuckles.

"Brought down by a woman," Laxus said.

He hears others chuckle, as he got up, rubbing his back.

"Maybe she didn't like being called a shrimp." Natsu said, standing there with the others, before they all yell, "Your back!"

"Natsu!"

"Lucy!"

Natsu ignores everyone else, and picks up Lucy, hugging her.

"Natsu." Gajeel said, his eyes gazing for Gray and Ezra.

"Listen...Everyone, the reason I'm back is because...The other got trapped..."

"What?!" Frosch exclaimed, adding, "How?!"

Natsu crossed his arms, starting to tell the story from the beginning...

Everyone was up at the break of dawn, heading toward the border of the West land and Eaters. The mission which was brought up by Mavis, the fairy, told us that the barrier she put up was just broken. Her powers were none to mess with when it came to barriers, though Dark Users almost evenly matched hers. She concluded a Dark User may have passed through. Half way through the mission, when he and Gray started to get into an argument like always.

"I'm telling you, fire breather, we should have Mavis take a look before we head forward."

Natsu huffs at Gray, remarking, "We don't need to that, ice for brains."

They started to put up fists when Ezra came up, gleaming angrily at them. They smiled at her and both said, "We are just playing. ha...ha."

"I think Mavis left already to look ahead." Lyon said. Ezra's eyes then wander around, looking for Mavis.

"Should we wait for her to get back?" Lyon adds, brushing his fingers through his hair.

"I think that if we stealthily went ahead, and keep our eyes open, we should be fine." Ezra puts up her hair in a ponytail, before jumping up in the trees. "Just follow me, and stay quiet."

Indeed, they stayed quiet, and jumped from tree to tree, Natsu in the back, keeping his eyes peeled. When his nose caught the scent of a creature, it was too, late. Flashes of black lightening, and Eaters yelling there battle cry.

"Bring it on!" Natsu jumped up, inhaling then exhaling fire at the enemies. The fight had started and it seemed like an easy victory, but he was wrong.

His eyes caught movement then only to see creatures suddenly form from the shadows, in a shape of a blob. It rolled with intent as it attacked Lyon, the form of it turned into solid goo.

"What?! What is this?" Lyon roared, and bared his canine teeth, trying to get it off. The goo then started to spread over his body.

"Lyon!" Juvia went to help, only to be attacked by one of the Eaters. Juvia uses her water power, and splashes them with a wave, knocking them over.

"Juvia watch out!" Ezra slices the blob that flew up toward, Juvia. The blob split in half, but it didn't stop its attack. Ezra pushes Juvia out of the way when the blob slams into Ezra's armor.

"Ezra!" Natsu and Juvia shouted. Natsu then blows fire at the blob, trying to melt it off of Ezra. A flash of black lightening came down again, and more blobs appeared, with more men.

They fought, but one by one the blob had latched on to everyone, besides a few including Nastu.

"Do the lightening now!"

Natsu went to move only to have black lightening crash down around him, causing an explosion. He was flown back, away from the others, and crashed right into a tree, breaking half of it. He groans, getting up, about to head back into the fight when Mavis appeared in his vision off to the right. But it wasn't her physical form, only her fairy astral projection.

"Go back and get the others!"

"No way, I will defeat them!"

"No! Go get the others! They started to-" Before Mavis could finish, her astral projection disappeared.

Natsu sighed after finishing the story, and they all sat in silence.

"This is something I didn't think they would do..." Gajeel commented after a long moment of silence.

"We need to rescue them!" Lucy remarked.

Everyone started to yell, "Yeah! Let's kick there ass!"

"And we will." Gajeel stood up now, his eyes sharp as he looks at everyone. "I know this means a major game play, but we will fight back and win."

"Ha, of course we will." Nastu smirks, adding, "Man, I'm all fired up now!"

Gajeel smirks back, "First we need a plan."