Mission: Extermination (#FTWattyAwards)

Chapter 1

"This sucks," she groaned as she placed another book on the upper most part of the book shelf. She could only reach it thanks to the ladder that propped her up.

"Perhaps," a young woman with scarlet hair mused. "But complaining will achieve nothing, Lucy. At the end of the day, we are all part of the same team and will deal with the consequences together. Though I suppose we wouldn't have to in the first place if it wasn't for these two."

Natsu and Gray both cringed under Erza's death glare, sweating nervously.

"Well, s'not our fault. The houses were in the way..." Natsu said lamely, knowing his excuse wouldn't suffice.

"Either way, you both need to dial it down a bit. You two did more damage while fighting with each other over fighting the enemy," Lucy grumbled, annoyed. "And to top things off, we had to use all the reward money on repairs."

"Aw, cheer up, Lucy," Wendy smiled as she organized the books, stacking one upon another, stopping when they got too high for her to reach. "I'm sure that we can go on another job that'll help pay your rent."

"Maybe so," Charle pondered, as she floated up to one of the higher shelves and placed a book in the rack. "But we'll just be back to square one with having to pay for repairs."

A tired sigh escaped Lucy's lips and she lulled her head in defeat. She wanted to cry. At this rate, she'd be homeless on the streets.

It was when something suddenly tilted to the left that she snapped her gaze up, confused.

"Lucy!" Natsu rushed forward as Lucy's grip loosened from her ladder, sending her plummeting towards the ground with a scream.

The rest of the team dove forward, sliding on the floor in hopes to catch their blonde haired companion, but instead acted as a cushion when she landed on them with an 'oof!'.

There was a collective of groans, and Lucy sat up groggily.

The doors to the Fairy Tail Library suddenly opened and a petite, young woman with locks of blue hair walked in with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. Another figure lurked behind her mischievously, and he rested a heavy arm on her head with a smirk when she nearly toppled over from his weight.

"Is everything okay?" Levy asked as she attempted to push Gajeel away. "We heard a crash."

Lucy gave a sheepish laugh, forgetting that she was still seated on her friends, "Yeah, sorry. Kinda fell off the ladder..."

Natsu, not seeming to be bothered at all about the fact that he lay at the very bottom of the pile of his friends, curiously gazed at a book that was sprawled out in front of him.

"The hell is this? It's not in any language I can understand," he mumbled.

"What're you talking about?" Lucy inquired, an eyebrow raised.

"Hm... it says: 'jo ye purei gha, hamar-e madat kar le gha.'," Natsu frowned, as he placed a finger to his lips.

"Wonder what it means?" Happy said.

Before anyone could answer, a sudden blinding light surrounded Team Natsu, cloaking them and giving off a slight burning sensation.

Then, in a mere second, they disappeared, leaving behind a confused Levy and Gajeel.

"The fuck?"

~*~

The light surrounding Team Natsu finally dimmed out to nothing more than what it once was.

First Lucy was on top of her friends, and now somehow she was at the opposite end with her being crushed at the bottom.

It felt as though the entire world had done a backflip, bringing a nauseated feeling to her.