Time to move: fall of the dark guilds part 1

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu had mindlessly grabbed a job sheet off of the board as he always tended to do. Unfortunately, in this case, he was the proud owner of a job he doubted he could do by himself. If the magic council was going to get involved they usually sent enough people to make a hive of cockroaches look tame by comparison. Still, his opinion on the magic council was diluted by his opinion of one particular member, yet he couldn't shake the fact that he was going to end up needing some assistance. His friends in Fairy Tail, which as he thought about it seemed to amount to a very small, some might even say negligible, number of people, and of that small number zero were available to help. This meant he would have to go outside of his comfort zone.

As he thought over the people he could ask to help him, he realized that he didn't actually know anyone in particular that he could just ask. Kotone... but he had no idea how to get ahold of that little drifter, then there was Tessa, but he had only met her once and she didn't exactly owe him anything. That concluded the mage friends that he knew of. Lamia Scale came to mind, and Blue Pegasus, but they were probably not on the best of terms with him because he was completing jobs from their boards which more or less took work away from mages of their own guild. There was nothing left for him to do at this point, after all, he had already sent letters to Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus to ask them if they wanted to join him on a job for Fairy Tail as a sign of good faith he had addressed it to their guild masters with an explanation as to what he had been doing and why he wanted to work with people from those guilds. As of yet he hadn't gotten a response, but that didn't mean anything to him since it was more or less what he had expected.

After much standing around he finally decided he was going to forget it and start by himself. After all, he had started a few jobs thinking he would need help and he had managed. It was absolutely no consequence to him. Old man Taiga himself had given the job assignment on the board. It wasn't like him to put something up that he didn't think his children could handle so with that he had all the logic he needed to have in order to get started.
"Get ready anonymous dark wizards, I'm coming for you." He thought to himself.

449/2500

[Astra Creed]

Part 4
Magnolia - 4:45pm
Town Square

Astra Creed led the way looking for a boy named Tatsuma, according to the paper her guild master had given her. She was finally trusted enough to do something, and she was determined to do a good job. As awkward and weird as she could be, she knew she wanted to do a good job for the guild that had saved her life. She had said as much when asked if she thought she could handle the mission. The old man had grinned at that, telling her he liked hearing those words. Then he had promptly begun to snooze. Astra had waved a hand at his face, trying to wake him and ask more questions, but that was apparently not something she was going to get to do. Instead, she had gone and started asking around for help.

With that out of the way, however, she was ready to go on the longest trip she’d been on in months. Possibly in her life, for all she’d remembered.  Either way, it was new to her now, and new was fun. She wandered down the streets of Magnolia, barely paying attention to her fellow Lamia Scale companion with the distraction of the large town on her mind. She had the demeanor of a kid who had never been anywhere but a log cabin before, at the moment, but the truth was, she was doing a lot better than she had been. Her brain was less floaty, and she was gaining some footing in her quest to build a new life.

Astra finally arrived at the meeting point, only to look around, confused, at her companion, shrugging as she wondered where Fairy Tail’s representative was supposed to be. She nearly opened her mouth to ask, but then she saw him – a boy that was younger than her, but matched the description she’d been given. What was his name again? “Hey! You! Fairy Tail kid!” Astra shouted at his back as he marched off like he was going off to do something important. She was shorter than him, but that was nothing new.He was still younger. She would be easy to spot when he turned around – the short girl with the red streak in her hair, wearing a jacket and pink scarf, as well as a skirt and set of boots that was waving animatedly to get his attention. “You weren’t going to leave without us were you?”

Word Count: 404/1500

[Kade Lazarus]

Kade just wanted to sigh. The kids, they were well meaning and all, but sometimes he felt his age. Sure, his age was only twenty-two, but he felt older at times. He approximately always felt older than a twenty-five year old he knew. The laughter, the general happiness, it only left room for a glimpse of normally, because normally he was relaxing with his guildmates, or working in his garden. He loved the rain, and any chance he got for a mud fight. Those days, he didn’t feel old. It was the days where he followed Astra to Magnolia, or met other Dragon Slayers. Mostly that had been Kotone. He’d never knowingly met another dragon slayer before Kotone, but he’d heard of her long before he actually met her.

It was a surprise when his quiet companion brought how a cocky little dragon slayer, and Kade felt a bit older. He felt strange when he didn’t bare his teeth and put on a show of brute force. Not because he thought he should, but it just seemed such a stark contrast. He would have liked to talk to the girl more, but that didn’t seem likely. She was clearly not interested in any company besides that of Ren, and he was soon busy trying to get to know Astra, who kept a few steps ahead of him despite her size. She seemed to be in a rush, everywhere. It was endearing, but he kept his pace, wanting to take it all in.

Astra was a confusing case. She didn’t remember her life, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a history. Kade collected histories, so the fact that she had one that she couldn’t recall was both frustrating and intriguing. He made a point to make her cookies periodically and ask her how her day was going. How was she settling in, how did she feel, did she need anything? Not all at once, of course. Usually he allowed her hyper personality a break from his generally mellow one once someone else expressed interest in his attention. Today, he even left her alone because it appeared everything in the world was her new playground. It was cute. Even while it might make him feel older than he really was.

They had gotten a letter about helping with a Fairy Tail job. Kade didn’t usually go around taking jobs from other guilds, but he didn’t mind. It seemed a bit greedy to take jobs from other guilds, unless they were neglecting them. He didn’t neglect jobs, he just…. Gardened. Okay, so maybe he could get out and do more good. He just felt like he should be home, tending to the kids there, learning their stories, making sure they ate vegetables. Really, Kade, you’re actually not fifty. Oh Celtor would make so much fun of you right now… He made a face at that thought. He would love the dragon to make fun of him, he’d love to hear from him. It had been a long time. Oh well, he didn’t let himself dwell on that too much.

Kade spotted the Fairy Tail Wizard, someone he didn’t know. Astra flailed her arms at him. Kade was wearing jeans, a white short sleeved button down shirt, and his usual vial necklace. He wasn’t shooting for anything all that complicated. This boy was a lot taller than the absolutely tiny Astra, but probably shorter than Kade, Kade hadn’t gotten close enough to tell. After Astra got his attention Kade followed, standing with one hand in his pocket, the other tapping his necklace thoughtfully. “Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Kade,” he said, relaxing now.

Word Count: 611/1500

[Tatsuma]

Firstly, Tatsuma stopped mid step and turned to the voice of a girl calling to a "Fairy Tail Kid". Realizing that he was, technically, a Fairy Tail Kid he paid attention to the girl shouting and waiving her arms in an animated, and in what he could describe as manner that an octopus would possibly use but only if that octopus only had two arms. He was getting tired of people calling him kid when they too were, in fact, kids. It seemed like only those who were kids used the term... well kids and those that were actively trying to be insulting. Still it was almost as though they were displacing their own insecurities upon him, which he made a mental note of for use at a later date, and walked back to the girl. "You weren't going to leave without us were you?" She asked. The truth was yes, but he wasn't sure how to answer the question without making it seem like he was being arrogant. He took the message from Kotone's general demeanor, in that it didn't typically go over well when people thought you were acting like you were better than they were.
"Actually I wasn't really one hundred percent sure that anyone was going to come. Are you from Lamia Scale, or Blue Pegasus? I figured both of you the guilds were going to refuse since i haven't exactly been asking permission to do jobs from your boards." He said trying to figure out what exactly was going on. He was honestly surprised that either had sent someone to help him.

The surprise he experienced from that point only expanded when a second person came up, introducing themselves properly and he was more apt to pay attention to the new comer since he had a name.
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Tatsuma... from Fairy Tail. It's Tatsu for friends so feel free to use that. I'd ask if you were from Lamia Scale or Blue Pegasus too, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to discuss that on the way there. I don't know if you guys have been briefed, but we'll need to find some dark wizard or another and follow and/or interrogate him. My plan is to silently follow him and trail him until he enters something that looks like it could be a guild base. To do this we will need to remain silent, unseen, and manage to foresee his movements before AND as he makes them." He started to go through his plan as though he had rehearsed it. The truth was, at this point he was more or less quoting some of the lessons Rhidran had given him about stalking prey, be it for food, or to advance one's position of power. In this case he was using her lessons to hunt down the worst kind of prey, the serpent that stalked the streets and took advantage of people who either didn't know any better, or that were stuck without another route to go through to gain power. That kind of misconception led to nothing but negative solutions, and if they managed to take them out he could possibly consider it as one step closer to a surer victory over not just the dark mages of magnolia, but the darker side of himself that he had been learning to harness for the sake of others. Now all he needed to do was convince the others to follow his lead without revealing the importance behind it... no pressure.

"If we can do what I mentioned before, we can cut off the head of the serpent before it strikes and maybe make a big enough deal about it to provide some sort of incentive to keep others from simply joining what's left and cause a big enough drop in morale to stop that remainder from trying to hard to build it back up." It was the best he could do under the circumstances since his mother hadn't really filled in the gaps on how to apply this to doing anything other than what she had taught him to use it for. Still if the others had a better idea he was set on following that, the leadership role wasn't exactly something he jumped at the chance to do.
"By the way, what exactly is your name? Surely there's something I can call you other than 'girl with the flailing arms..." He said, turning to... well, the girl with the flailing arms.


1206/2500

[Astra Creed]

Astra listened to Tatsuma tell her and Kade about the plans he had for following one of the guys with thet snake jackets the letter had talked about. She fidgeted a bit as he talked, but she appeared to be mostly paying attention. The fog in her mind had lifted quite a bit, and despite a distinct lack of discipline compared to a lot of people her age, she did actually appear to be maturing a bit. The truth was though it was just easier to remember the things she knew or had since relearned. She still maintained a happy-go-lucky attitude and a friendly, if overly competitive, nature. She was also still relatively weak compared to people like Kade, which was another reason she had been told she couldn’t go alone. Not that she’d minded the company at all.

“I’m Astra Creed,” Astra told Tatsuma with a grin, jabbing her thumb at herself. “And this is Kade, we’re both from Lamia Scale. He’s here because he’s strong. I think. I’m here cause I got bored and wanted to see more of Fiore.” She explained it like she was a tourist rather than on some sort of guild-backed strike team-like thing. She had told Ava she wanted to help people when she’d first joined Lamia Scale, and she’d meant it. She just hadn’t really gotten into any jobs, being as focused as she was on herself and relearning life. Now was her chance.

Astra grinned and gave this Tatsuma a quick, sloppy salute. “I’m happy to help with your guild problem! People shouldn’t hurt other people, nope.” Astra looked back at Kade and grinned. She was short, which probably didn’t help his perception of him being childish, but of course her general demeanor wasn’t helping either. “Besides,” Astra turned back around to Tatsuma. “Your town is too big and pretty to let such bad people try to get away with things here.”

725/1500

[Kade Lazarus]

Astra was a fairly excitable young woman, which Kade didn’t really mind. However it was a bit odd for her to just be flailing about like this. The so called Fairy Tail kid came over as Astra asked if he was going to leave without them. When the boy, who eventually introduced himself, said he wasn’t sure anyone was going to come Kade arched an eyebrow, “Well that would have been irresponsible. Pitching a fit because someone doesn’t like you taking work is not what being a guild wizard is about…” he said seriously, though without any weight to it. He wasn’t trying to lecture anyone, he was simply stating a fact. And the idea that Tatsu would then run off and do a job he simply was not prepared for, because people didn’t show up, that didn’t immediately occur to Kade. No one would do that. If you called for help, it was because you needed it. If you didn’t get it, you found it, you didn’t just rush in unprepared. Kade simply did not think that way, and he had no reason to assume Tatsu was actually doing to do that. Yet.

Tatsuma was the name, and Tatus for friends, so since they weren’t friends, feel free to act as such. That was what Kade heard. He definitely didn’t mind. It showed familiarity, and if making friends are first meeting was an option, Kade was happy to try. He was somewhat startled, at least internally, at how rushed Tatsu seemed. They’d just gotten there, it wasn’t as if the world would implode in mere minutes if they didn’t get running. Yep, Kade felt old…. Again.

Tatsu started rattling off his plan. Silently follow, and follow, wait until he did something convenient for them…. Silent, silent, silent…. And predict the future. Okay, no, I’m not this old, he just doesn’t make sense. “Um, not to be rude, but that was a plan to basically sneak, be sneaky, and predict the future,” Kade pointed out gently. He was all for plans, and he was all for difficult ones if he felt they could pull them off, but he wasn’t so much for running in without a plan. This would be running in without a plan as far as he saw it. He was also all for destroying all the dark guilds. They were basically his least favorite thing in existence, but they couldn’t be accomplished with rash decisions and plans that didn’t have actual steps.

Tatsu continued talking in somewhat lofty terms and Kade just stood there. Astra needed a chance to talk, and Tatsu clearly had a lot to say. Astra did introduce herself, then Kade, who had already introduced himself. He didn’t mind. He just nodded when Astra said they were from Lamia Scale. “Um, no. I’m not here because I’m strong. I’m here because you needed help,” Kade corrected as soon as Astra said he was there because he was strong. It didn’t mean he wasn’t strong, but that was not why he was here.

Kade was not stupid, but since introductions were done he suddenly felt like they needed to enact the plan. Follow someone he wasn’t sure they knew the location of, until they stumbled into the right place. Yep… “So, do you know where the people you plan on stalking are?”

Word Count: 1168/1500

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu liked Astra's directness, even if she did oversimplify things, it was a refreshing form of oversimplification. Kade was direct too, but from Tatsu's estimate he oversimplified things to their very base. It was also inaccurate in this case. Still, it did occur to him that it could be his fault for not being concise. Concise It was yet another word he had learned since he had entered civilization. Truly it was one of his favorites, that and "verily" but they didn't come up in conversation very often and he found himself hard pressed to find a way to work them in, still he figured he would need to explain a bit which would lead him to using more of the precious words he had picked up.

"It's nice to meet both of you. To begin with, the sneaky sneaky part is accurate but the foreseeing the future part is not. I said to foresee his actions, it's part of an analytical process in which you estimate the most likely course the target will take based on previous movements, pretty much the basics of hunting." He said proudly. He was learning to apply his forestry skills to an urban environment.

Despite trying to sound like he had everything handled, Kade had posed a question that Tatsu had been hoping for some sort of input on. The job listing had only told them about guys with snakes on their jackets, and anyone looking at Tatsu's attire could tell that he wasn't exactly "in the know" as far as modern fashion sense was concerned. After a little bit of deliberation, he decided to fess up about the lack of complete knowledge.
"I actually have no idea where to find them. My usual tactic is to find someplace high up and watch for details that match what I'm looking for, but I don't know if that will work. I was kind of hoping you guys could help me with that... I'm not exactly in with the season on fashion and I don't know how common jackets with snakes on them are... I mean anyone with a jacket could be a member of a dark guild, but anyone dressed like I am could be from Hosenka, even though I'm not." He said, more or less at a loss for explaining how much he needed the help. He was bad at asking for help from others and he typically did things like jobs and the like by himself. Charlotte had been the first person he had taken a job with and that was more of a survival type situation.

As he stood there thinking about that, it occurred to him that even though it was a Fairy Tail mission, maybe he should be in the lead. After all, he had no practical leadership experience.
"I'm not used to doing jobs with other people. To be honest I was a little more comfortable with the prospect of doing this on my own from an organizational standpoint, now that I have other people with me, especially those whom I know nothing about, I'm honestly not sure how to handle it." He admitted. It was complicated and there was far too much at stake for him to be irresponsible and headstrong.


word count: 1753/2500

[Astra Creed]

Astra ran a hand through her bangs, pulling her red streak back for a moment, until it fell back into her face where it seemed to refuse to stay away from. She listened to Tatsuma and talk about what the plan, with her more trusted friend, Kade pointing out something about Tatsuma’s wording that didn’t make sense. Now, Astra was doing a whole lot better, save for the fact that none of her memories had ever returned in the slightest. She hadn’t understood what Tatsuma had said wrong, but then she also didn’t quite understand what Kade was pointing out was saying either. Did one of them have some sort of divination magic? No, that probably wasn’t what they meant.

Tatsuma explained what he had meant, at least, but then admitted he had no idea where to look for the first guy he wanted to follow. Astra suddenly imagined he should have asked for tracking dogs instead of guild members to help him find a dark guild… but then dogs wouldn’t be much help against bad guys… Unless they were magical dogs! Astra’s face lit up as her mind wandered away from the others’ conversation, but it returned to normal rather quickly as she realized that this was a stupid idea. She didn’t think there were any magic dogs. As far as she could tell, magic mostly had to do with people.

“Why don’t we split up and find people with snake jackets to tail… if one of us finds where the other ones are hiding we can return to here and talk about what we found later today?” Astra wasn’t sure if her plan would be accepted. She wasn’t even sure if her plan was considered a good idea. She was probably the weakest one here, and she knew it. Would they listen to someone who had incomplete knowledge on her own magic or sometimes couldn’t remember the simplest things? The ebon-haired girl wasn’t sure, but she looked extra hopeful somehow when her expression combined with her small stature.

Word Count: 1065/1500

[Kade Lazarus]

Directness was great, really, but lack of foresight was questionable at best. At worst, it was deadly. Kade did not like violence. He was opposed to fighting for the most part. Sparing was acceptable, though not his first choice, but out right bloodying up of others, he restrained himself from that at all possible times. Dark guilds though… they could get the usually calm light dragon slayer’s blood pumping like all the rest of the rash, fang bearing apprentices. He didn’t want that to happen, though he was noticeably less pacifistic today than on other days. Noticeable to himself, not to the rest of the group. Astra was more aware of the blunt and bold, and Tatsu had never met either of them before. It would be quite an interesting day.

Tatsu defended his plan, but it did not negate what Kade had said. He offered the end result, but not the steps to getting there. To foresee actions, one needed to silently observe behavior, then infer from that evidence what was likely to come next. He was dropping the observe part entirely. All he was saying is they needed to foresee. Kade just sighed gently. It was fine, he could figure it out on his own, and pointing out the last of connecting comments was just going to run them around in circles. He merely hoped Astra did not get confused or distracted in this half spoken half assumed conversation.

Now, for some reason, they were discussing fashion. Oh, Tatsu must really be out of the loop. “If they are known for that signifier, they are going to be proud of it. They could take that off and blend in, but if they want to intimidate people, they’re more likely to flash that around as an intimidation tactic. By the same token, people who do not want that association was going to shrug it off immediately. Even someone pretending to be affiliated will no doubt quickly falter when presented with hostility. They would want the fame, but not the repercussions. Overall, if we see it, and observe their behavior, we should have an easy guess as to if the person is associated or not.”

Tatsu also mentioned being uncomfortable in a group. Kade enjoyed working with others, and learning about them, so this wasn’t strange for him, “I am sure we will be fine as long as we cooperate and listen to each other. Also preplanning, again. Not rushing in to everything without a learned cohesion could lead to chaos.” Then Astra spoke, suggestion splitting up. He didn’t agree with her idea, but he also didn’t want to shoot it down, “We might be apart too long and not know when to meet up, in that situation. Although, if we made a round around the area and headed back here after, we could report on any things we saw, and go from there. It’s a slightly different take on what you suggested,” he said to Astra.

Word Count: 1665/1500

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma listened to Astra, and then to Kade about what each of them thought they should do. Out of the loop on fashion as he was he didn't think people would just traipse around making it obvious they were part of a dark guild of some kind. At least he hoped that wasn't the case, why would anyone be that stupid? Besides that it was more or less what Tatsu had planned to do, though he had reservations about it because of the lack of any kind of secrecy, he just decided not to broach the point. There was obviously some issue with he and Kade's communication and he didn't want to waste his breath arguing when they were splitting up anyway.
"I can get behind that. I'll just go this way..." He said, letting himself trail off as he walked down the market street area toward the less monitored parts of town. High buildings, lots of alleyways, lack of magic council presence in any real force, few guards, all sorts of places to do things and it could all be observed from a single spot... or a set of spots in close approximation.

He zipped off where he was wanting to go, not running, but moving at a slightly quicker pace. He was wanted a chance to do what he did normally, and he was starting to get annoyed with this group work thing. Jobs were troublesome all on their own, but working with others rounded out to be a pain. Then again, he factored in that it could just as easily be because of inter-guild differences, which he ignored as he moved with his purpose.


He took the nearest route he could find, jumping up along buildings until he got to his higher spot and started looking around. Foot traffic in the area wasn't exactly sparse, and that made it harder to pick up the design on the coats, nothing stood out, and he couldn't tell if there was any jackets with snakes on them. Still he watched without getting frustrated, he moved a bit closer, where the throng of people didn't appear as close together. He smiled as he realized he hadn't been seen and enjoyed the feeling of being the predator.

Word count:2129/2500

[Astra Creed]

Astra was apparently rather agreeable. She simply kept nodding excitedly, her stance saying she was excited. She wasn’t sure why she was excited. She just got a feeling like this was the sort of thing she’d always planned on doing with her magic. While obviously she had gotten into something dangerous before Lamia Scale found her unconscious, she had no idea if she’d ever fought anyone or helped people destroy a dark guild. Based on the fact that she hadn’t had any guild symbols tattooed on her said she probably hadn’t though.


Kade kept disagreeing with Tatsuma, and Astra found herself thinking she understood and liking both of their points. She didn’t know or care if one was more right than the other. She just wanted to have a plan and do what she came here to do – help people get rid of the bad guys who were causing trouble.

Finally, Tatsuma seemed to get impatient, walking off on his own to do some searching. Even Astra could tell Kade was being too careful to him. She just sort of paused, twisting her head and looking up at her guildmate. “He’s going to get us into trouble, isn’t he?” she finally decided, blinking her round azure eyes at him with a slightly concerned, more curious look on her face.

Astra might not be the most knowledgeable, normal, or even smart person around according to a lot of people, but she was learning fast, and learning to trust what her brain told her over her feelings, and her brain said Tatsuma was suddenly avoiding them.

Astra took a couple of steps backward after a moment, twisting around and trying to find a good direction for her to go searching. “Don’t worry, Kade! I promise I’ll do a good job! Meet you back here soon!” And with that, Astra took off at a run, though she slowed herself to a quick walk before long. She brushed her hair out of her face again, looking all over for whatever she could find that seemed suspicious.

As it turned out… she realized she wasn’t a good job of suspicious. No one looked suspicious. They all just looked like people doing stuff. People did stuff a lot. She scrunched her face and put a hand on her chin, resting on her other arm as she crossed it. “Hmmm… I’m going to need a better plan…” she decided, trying to think of a way to find someone suspicious when she didn’t think anyone was suspicious.

1,484/1500

[Kade Lazarus]

Tatsu was under no obligation to like Kade, or become his friend, but communicaton was sort of a big thing with Kade. Well, back at Lamia Scale it wasn’t an issue. Ren, for example, was great at being too mortified to have full conversations with him. Their communication was minimal at best, and usually almost entirely one sided. He also knew he manipulated her, but at least it was manipulating her to do good things for herself. As far as this group, he wasn’t going to try to manipulate them. He just wanted to get things clear.

Well clear or not, they were splitting up. Tatsu, who Kade might have compared to a child, were he in a bad mood, wandered off as he spoke. At least Astra kept agreeing. She was the happy one. Kade was by no means unhappy, just struggling to communication with someone who neither said all of what he was thinking, nor stuck around to reach cohesion. Yeah… at least Astra was nodding. Tatsu walked off and Astra asked if he was going to get them in trouble. What was it Kade hated more than anything else? Dark guilds. “… Probably,” Kade said seriously, sighing, “but if he gets anyone in trouble, it’ll be mostly on him. Not that I can change that.”

Astra decided she would run off as well and Kade waved slightly as she went, “Good luck.” Well… now what to do? Kade was a people person, and he didn’t mind leading, but sometimes he was a loner. A hunter. He’d left his bow at home, but he supposed that was alright. He didn’t need to look like a hunter right now, he just needed to act like it. For all he apparently bored Tatsu with the idea of planning, Kade had a plan in his head. He wasn’t going to wander off some strange place or look for people acting suspicious, he was just going to walk. Dark wizards like to hurt people, and they were arrogant, but they were also sneaky, so he walked through somewhat populated areas, then kept an eye on shadier alleys.

He spotted someone walking with a smaller girl. The girl seemed extremely uncomfortable, and the tension in the man’s arm said he was forcing her along. Kade ran his tongue over his sharpened teeth as he frowned, scrutinizing the pair. He couldn’t tell what she was saying from this distance, but her tone was upset, and the man’s was extremely agitated, despite his laughter. When he turned enough Kade saw a serpent on his coat he growled. Dark wizards… he didn’t deal well with them.

Kade walked extremely quickly in their direction. They were out of the way of most people, and it was going to be quickly apparent that Kade was following them. He held back, not wanting to, but knowing he should. If that man hurt that girl… he had tor trust his instincts. Survival instincts had gotten him this far, and even as his fingers kept tapping against his palm in agitation. If he hurt her… Kade was going to lose it, but he had to hang back. He could hear their footsteps, so he didn’t actually have to see them to follow. The voices faded, one last word from the man, and the girl just hushed. Kade didn’t like that, but he had to calmly follow, not act like a crazy person. Calm head, Kade, calm head.

He turned the corner before taking a step back. Nothing hidden anymore. He saw what looked like a cathedral or something, and as the two disappeared inside Kade peered out more. He also looked around to make sure no one had spotted him. No sentries or watch guards apparently. Well that was good. Kade turned around and headed back to meet up with the others. They might not be back yet, but he didn’t know what was in that building, and he didn’t plan to go in alone. He honestly didn’t trust Tatsu to return, since he’d hardly agreed so much as wandered off because he felt like it. That would also set Kade off. Kade made it back to where they had been before, his foot tapping in agitation, holding his vial necklace and tapping his finger against the glass. The sounds were loud to him, but probably inaudible to people around him. He hadn’t been this on edge in… he didn’t remember how long.

Word Count: 2407/1500

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma watched the throngs of people for a bit, seeing nothing out of the ordinary he simply left that area, moving instead to one of the other spots. He needed someplace with less people. Dark mages weren't going to be doing anything very noticeable in front of a large group, and while a huge number of people was better for trying to spot one specific mark for people. It had been more likely that he would find one person in a sea of hundreds, but he was reverting to a different tactic at this point mostly because one extreme hadn't worked.

As he watched the nearly abandoned area he spotted several people that looked like they were up to something, but none so far that wore a snake jacket. He happily grabbed a rope from the alley, it was frayed and trashy but he tied it to try to fix most of the structural problems in it. He moved closed to the edge of the alleyway as he heard voices nearby. A quick peak revealed a target, he was wearing a snake jacket, but he needed to be sure it wasn't just someone posing as a member of the guild he sought.
"Erase your breath, dissolve into shadow, become one with your target.." He reminded himself mentally. The lessons his mother had given him about stalking ones prey weren't something he used quite as often as he probably should, but it was on his list of things to finish mastering before he saw her again. He hadn't taken the time to explain it to Kade because what he had found about the principals of these types of arts was that they were mostly used by dark guild members. To that end Tatsu had a certain amount of understanding when it came to their motivations, and he felt that labeling certain abilities as "dark mage" or "dark guild" powers or abilities contributed toward people actually becoming dark guild members.

He shook those thoughts from his head, the other two weren't important now, he needed to let go and embrace the moment. It was something he did as he quickly moved to another shadowed spot, purposely kicking his foot off of the ground in the spot he had just been to draw attention to the place he was instead of the place he had moved to. The ploy was effective, but he found himself having to hide. He slipped in between two trash cans, completely filling the space between them so there weren't any gaps since the change was usually what people managed to see.

He watched as the person in the snake jacket and one other moved down the street toward the alleyway he had been in. The person in the snake Jacket moved ahead, while the other followed, and Tatsu snapped out like a cobra, placing his hand over the second person's mouth and quickly pulling them back into the shadows, knocking them out with a swift knife hand strike to what he had learned was the brachial plexus origin point at the base of the neck. He left the body in the alley and grabbed a garbage can lid, dropping it next to the unconscious body of the person he had just struck, and jumping, spanning himself across the alley so that his hands pressed against the wall of one building and his feet pressed against the wall of another.

As the person wearing the snake jacket walked in to see the person that he was with was unconscious, Tatsu watched. If Kade had been right about actual members not actually standing up to challenges then this guy wouldn't be anything special and would either take off running or freeze.
"Alright who's there?!? How dare you mess with the-" He started to say. By the edge of the second sentence Tatsu had all the information that he needed and had dropped behind him silently, using the rope as a Garote. As expected, the guy put his hands up to grab the rope and as planned, Tatsu used the rope to tie the guy's hands, tucking the remaining rope under his arms and using it to keep the guy's hands firm to his chest. Once he was tied and more or less helpless Tatsu knocked him out just as he had done to the other guy, and headed back to the meeting spot. He wanted one of the others to try interrogating him before making his own attempt.

After dumping the guy off in an alley, Tatsu finished getting to the meeting spot. He hadn't been followed which was good, but he wanted to see what the others had found. Still, thanks to all that he didn't get there until after Kade.

word count: 2923/1500

[Astra Creed]

Well, that could have gone better. As it turned out, the suspicious acting guy hadn’t been a dark guild member at all… but another loud Fairy Tail member who had been running around with a snake tattoo and bragging about his strength, which had turned out to utilize his tattoos. Astra was frazzled at this point, having had to tangle with someone she’d jumped in and accused of being a dark guild member and instead having to fight a prideful guild member. Not that she’d tried that hard… it had taken a lot of her effort just to escape him and his weird tattoo snakes.

“Man, finding dark guild members is harder than I thought…” the tiny girl complained as she walked down the street. She was already tired. Maybe hunting dark guilds wasn’t the best first mission after waking up from a coma that also took your memories. “But I have to try!” the Lamia Scale wizard reminded herself aloud, perking up animatedly to the mild surprise of the people around her. It might have been more of a surprise… but Fairy Tail was housed here, and Astra’s energy matched a lot of theirs.

About that time, Astra’s eyes caught on something – a jacket that seemed to match what had been described to her. “Oop!” she had nearly given up after promising Kade she would do a good job, and now this was her chance. Astra followed behind the mage, using her small stature and the crowds as cover until they got to what looked like a warehouse of some sort. It looked like the warehouse was in pretty bad disrepair. Somehow that seemed like the perfect place to house a dark guild, if you asked her. It seemed sinister or something. As he entered, Astra leaned back behind the wall she had been peeking around, letting out a breath. She hadn’t realized she was so tense.

Astra’s hands shook slightly from a sense of nervousness and excitement, and she clamped them shut into fists to try to contain herself. “Alright! Time to tell Kade and that Tatsuface guy what I found!” she told herself as she took off for the meeting spot. It was probably about time anyway.

1854/1500

[Kade Lazarus]

Kade suspected Tatsu’s lack of explanation of his tactics was not planned. It was just because he insisted people should be able to read his mind. He sure acted that way at least. Kade was fine being elsewhere, although his patience was waning rapidly. Suddenly Tatsu returned… with a hostage? Hm, well the guy did have what looked to be the right jacket. Wasn’t that nice? Kade felt himself going more and more worked up. “What’cha got there?” Kade asked. His fists were balled up, but he kept them behind his back, looking nonchalant for the sake of not looking worked up.

“Does he know anything?” he asked, before Astra returned. He was actually slightly surprised everyone had come back. Tatsu definitely didn’t act like a team player, so he was the biggest surprise. Still, Astra was a bit flighty at times. “Hey, what did you find? I saw someone with a jacket taking someone against their will into a building,” he offered quickly. Hm, well it sounded bad now. It had also sounded bad then, but it wasn’t on Kade’s agenda to feel guilty. His agenda was smash faces… er… talk to dark guild members and ruin their plot. Also work with the kids. Maybe that was the best way to think of the pair of them. The kids. Whether they acted like it or not, it felt appropriate to him. “Right, so, what do you want to do with him?” he asked Tatsu. Telling Tatsu what to do, or suggesting things, didn’t go as planned, so he might as well ask.

Word Count: 2670/1500

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma looked at the guy and back to Kade. Evidently the guy had gathered enough information on his own. He saw someone taking someone against their will into a building? And he just let them kidnap the person? Silently Tatsuma cursed to himself for taking so long. He didn't like the way that had gone, though he sighed as he tried to empathize with the guy. Truthfully in the same situation he decided he would have done the same thing, and he simply let it go. The range of emotions he flew through stayed off of his face as he started to answer the Lamia scale guy's questions.
"Well, I was going to suggest we interrogate him but it sounds like you already found the information I was planning to extract. Maybe one of use could dress up like him, find out if you need anything to get in, and could escort the other two in as hostages. That would get all of us in and closer to our objective... also I wanted to apologize for leaving abruptly. I do that sometimes when I can't explain myself. I realize what I was talking about was years of training I didn't even fully master, and that not everyone will have the same experiences." He said, the last part of his statement sincere rather that spoken with something of a downward inflection. He hadn't thought about it until just now, and it really didn't even occur to him that was why he had left until he started speaking. The fact that someone else hadn't suggested it first illustrated that his way of thinking was the one that was atypical. And that was now his word of the day, "atypical".


He had the urge to use his new word of the day in a sentence, but the thought was forgone in favor of finding out what Astra had discovered.
"Did you manage to find anything? Hopefully some matching information or something?" He asked optimistically.

[Astra Creed]

"Ummm... I just saw a guy go into a warehouse after accidentally going after some other guy with a snake tattoo instead of a jacket but I think yours sounds a lot more important so maybe we should rescue this person?" Astra asked, taking a deep breath only after rambling off her sentence quickly, both wanting to get her word in and not wanting to keep the person that got kidnapped waiting because she took too long to talk. She was new to guild missions, and especially to saving people… but all she did was see a guy walk into a building…

“But we all found people, right?” she asked, looking between the two men in the group quickly. “They can’t all be correct unless there’s lots of entrances… can they? Do they have more than one hiding spot? Is that even practical?” Astra mused to herself aloud in front of them, her slightly too long sleeve-covered fist placed up to her mouth as she gently bit her thumb in thought. “I really really think we should help Kade because that guy was kidnapping people and I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d like being kidnapped for very long…”

2056/1500

[Kade Lazarus]

Oh, Kade knew it was stupid to let someone be kidnapped. Had he not been in a group he would have jumped the guy as soon as he got near the door, if he waited that long. He would have intervened if he thought he could handle it all on his own. However, he needed information, and he didn’t get his personal judgement get the better of his rational thought. But he was going to be a wreck if something seriously bad happened to that kid. Thus is why he was basically twitching in impatience right now.

For… some reason… the kid was apologizing. Kade had all but checked out of dealing with him, and now he was apologizing for leaving? He actually had a reasonable excuse for leaving. Not a mature excuse, but since he was appologizing, it didn’t much matter. Huh… well now Kade was going to have to give him another chance. “Its alright. We just need to get this done. I don’t feel right waiting to do things. As far as the hostage thing. I’m not sure if they know each other that well, but it could at least get us close until further inspection. Or think they got a new recruit.”

Now attention turned to Astra. She mentioned a warehouse. “Hm… maybe they’re doing multiple things? Or one of them was stopping somewhere before heading to base?” He didn’t like it. It sounded more complicated and risky. She said they should follow Kade’s lead, and that she wouldn’t like being kidnapped for long… ” Yes, well I’m sure I wouldn’t like being kidnapped at all,” he offered. “That’s fine with me if we’re agreed.”

Word Count: 2949/1500

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma thought about it for a moment. There were two locations, but only one of them was presently holding someone they knew of to be kidnapped. He considered what he would do if he were in their shoes. Disturbingly getting into the minds of dark guild mages was pretty natural to him, at least at the base levels. He was sure there were much more complex plots that he wouldn't be able to comprehend, but for simple "A to B" stuff, it was as though they were just taking another path he could just as easily have gone down.
"If it's a warehouse wouldn't it be reasonable to think that their taking the hostages to the warehouse. I know you saw the hostage get taken into your location, but what if that's just to assess them or something. If they take them to the warehouse later we could be dealing with something a bit more organized that what we thought. We should take the time to interrogate this guy. If we get enough information we might be able to simply intercept them on their way there, free the hostages in one location, and then proceed to their based to take their leaders out." He suggested, looking at the guy on the ground who lay there, still unconscious, but about to get a very rude awakening.
"Of course I guess that plan is dependent on what this guy had to say. I have a plan to interrogate him, but you guys will have to play along. I don't care what role you take, but if you're going to take the lead on interrogating him and asking him questions you're going to have to sell it." He said, hoping they could just get this out of the way.


word count: 3552/1500

[Astra Creed]

Astra didn't exactly understand what Tatsuma was saying. She understood good chunks of it, but whatever reasoning he had, she must have lost the knowledge of along with so many other things when she'd originally been put in her coma. She had been told that such sporadic knowledge and memories weren't normal, even with amnesia, when she'd finally told someone about it, and they had thought perhaps some strange magic was at work. She wasn't exactly dwelling on that thought at the moment, but she did know she should probably understand more than she did. Instead, she just gave a clueless stare at what Tatsuma was talking about.

"Well if you've got questions to ask the sleeping dude you should probably ask him quick. I don't want to sit here anymore with a lady being taken somewhere," she said in an impatient tone as she crossed her arms. There was no way she was going to stay more then five more minutes, no matter how valuable the information was that Tatsuma could get when he asked the guy questions about whatever organizations and more people and something she'd lost track of in his rambling. That girl needed help, and even if she was probably the weakest one there, she wasn't going to leave the poor woman alone. The thought was obvious on her face as she thought it, if people were good at all at reading other people.

[Kade Lazarus]

Interrogating people wasn’t Kade’s strong point. He’d heard a few torture techniques, but he definitely wasn’t going to employ any of those. No, it was good to know them, but not use them. That way he could steel himself against anything that might happen if he was captured, and he could identify various wounds if he found them on others. It made sense, thanks to how he was raised, but he wasn’t bringing it up now. Alternatively interrogation was a social game. Kade definitely knew how to manipulate people, but he didn’t like to do it in front of others. If he did manipulate people, it was better not to do it while being watched, right? Then there was just beating words out of the dark wizard. So that idea was probably more appealing to Kade than he wanted it to be.

“If you’ve got a plan, go ahead and do it. We don’t have the luxury of sitting around debating it.” Plans were great, right? Well right now he was willing to throw all the planning out the door and find that girl. Stupid. He should have just ignored the group. The fist at his side said as much. Something told him to keep his temper in check, but he really didn’t care. He just wanted to get this over with and head out. Fist to face wasn’t usually how he liked talking, or fighting for that matter, but it would certainly be better than hanging around. “Just let us know what you want us to do, and let’s do it.” He was with Astra as far as leaving, but if Tatsu could get information from this guy quick, then by all means.

Words: 3233/1500

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma thought for a moment. He would wake the guy up and interrogate him, or he could simply leave the guy to some guard post of some sort.
"Alright but remember to play along as best you can." He said. With that out of the way he pulled the guy up against the wall so that he could stand over him to have the psychological advantage and punched him to get him to wake up, and then again to get him to stop shouting and pay attention.
"Good morning, you probably won't recognize me, but i'm the one that killed your friend and left him in an alleyway. I would have done the same to you, but your little club is kind of in the way of our guild set up and we've worked so very hard to infiltrate the various guilds so we can't have some ragtag group of mages putting everyone on red alert." He explained, stopping to allow the guy to take in and consider all of his words. It was true they were in a hurry, but if he rushed it too much it wouldn't be effective.

"Now, you get one chance to tell me what the warehouse is for, and why you have more than one operating area in our town before my boss takes over and he... well let's just say I prefer not to watch." He added, looking at Kade and then back to the guy.
"I'm not telling you anything, the boss would kill me." The wormy little man on the ground protested.
"Oh we will too, we'll just enjoy it more." He said as he flashed an evil grin.
"I'm telling you I can't!" He cried.
"Well guys he's not talking, maybe you can get something out of him." He said, turning to Kade and Astra.

3864/1500

[Astra Creed]

Honestly, Astra was confused at first as to what Tatsuma was doing. He walked in and started acting like he was some sort of gang… and as far as she knew, Fairy Tail wasn’t some sort of evil gang. In fact… other than being a little wild, which she thought sounded fun, she’d heard only good things about them since she woke up in Lamia Scale. No, she was being dense. Wanted to smack herself in the face. She should know what he was trying, she really should, and she knew it. But she didn’t. She was missing key pieces of knowledge in random places, and this was another one. It seemed to keep coming up today…

She looked over at Kade, raising an eyebrow confusedly as she tried to puzzle out exactly what she was supposed to be doing while Tatsuma needlessly lied to the man in front of them. She would have either just asked or if he was mean, just beat him up for it… She frowned when he turned around and looked at her and Kade for help in his questioning. Even if the thought of pretending to torture him had occurred to astra, she was too small and confused-looking to actually be intimidating. She opened her mouth to question Tatsuma, but thought better of it and closed it again, frowning at him and glancing at the other man occasionally.

[Kade Lazarus]

Okay. Internal calm. Kade must maintain his internal calm. He was condoning a kid interrogating someone else. Kade’s only inclination to help was to beat the man. He insisted that he couldn’t tell anything, or his boss would kill him. He had a lovely sounding boss. Tatsu was looking at Kade like he should do something. Well, Kade had agreed to play along. He could tap into that rage that Celtor had taught him to control. It just seemed so wrong. He didn’t want to bring that out…

Astra looked generally lost, while Kade was just conflicted. The situation wasn’t lost on him, he just didn’t think it was the best plan. Oh well, here they were, and he’d said he would play along. He internally cringed. There went the calm.

Kade walked over to the guy, one knee on the ground, his elbow a bit harder than necessary in the man’s chest, as he rested his chin on his fist. “See, your boss won’t be doing any killing, because he’s being replaced,” he said seriously. His tone had some subdued anger in it. He wasn’t hiding the fact that he could turn violent in a second. It might have sounded fake to Astra, but it was very much legitimate. “So you’re option is get chatting, or the one itching to have a longer play session with you… can have his way. Because, either way, we’ll get what we want, its just a matter of if we feel like being charitable toward you or not. And patience is not something I really have today,” he added. That part was one hundred percent true.

Words: 3506/1500

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu watched as Kade took over the interrogation. He was fairly surprised, he didn't have to jump in or offer any subtle hints about how to better extract information. Making promises that the enemy was going to benefit himself by changing his mind was a lesson people often overlooked when it came to interrogation, most aimed simply for torture and fear mongering and while those game results from time to time, someone would lie about any type of information to get you to stop putting a red hot poker up to their eye. Still, he wondered if it was going to be effective.
"If you think you three can do this by yourselves your crazy. But I won't complain." The guy started shakily.
"The other building is a front, it's made to make us look more small time, but we don't use it for anything but interrogating people and testing to see if they actually are mages before we actually take them." He finished. Tatsuma made note of the way the guy talked. Criminals, even the worst kind, tended to judge their actions when they made them. As such they didn't use terms like "kidnapping" or "Abducting". He thought the word "taken" matched that M.O. more accurately. With that, they had enough information. It was the place Kade had seen that they should visit first.

Once that assessment was made he looked at Kade to make sure he had gotten the same thing out of the interrogation that he had by flashing him a look that made him seem impatient. They were in a rush and they probably had the best information they were going to get. He left what to do with the guy to the Lamia Scale guys, they could always knock him back out if they wanted.

Word Count: 4166/1500

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