Mission Start

Natsu's group made their way upstairs towards their room and placed their things inside. Tired, Gajeel lied down the 1st bed he saw. "Damn I'm tired. Feels good to finally be off my feet." he said relieved. He sat up and looked at Natsu, who was sitting against the window.
"Hells up with you Salamander?" he asked.
Natsu continued looking out of the window, a perplexing look in his eye. "I don't know, something about this town doesn't smell right." He squinted his eyes as he continued thinking about what was bothering him.
"So you noticed it too huh?" Gajeel inquired as he lied back down.
Natsu turned and looked at him quizzically. "Noticed what?"
"You noticed something was off about this place." Gajeel replied. He then looked over to Juvia who was sitting on the bed opposite of his, "You also felt it, didn't you?"
She nodded in agreement, "Yes. A man bumped into to me earlier and when I reached my arm out to help him he simply got up on his own and walked past me, it was as if I wasn't there at all."
Natsu sat increasingly perplexed, "Yeah something weird is definitely goin on here. Think it has to do with that Dark guild?"
The others nodded in agreement. "What do you propose we do?" Carla asked
"Nothin we can do right now. Just gotta wait till Titania and the others get back." Gajeel said as he slowly closed his eyes.
"You're right." Natsu said looking at his friends, "We just gotta wait for Erza."
Juvia looked out of the window and clasped her hands together.
Gray, please be safe. 
…
On the other side of Lumina, Erza's group was making their way towards the Broken Sky Inn where Natsu and the others were waiting. They made their way down a dark alleyway, but to everyone's surprise Erza suddenly made a sharp right into another alleyway avoiding the way into the main streets.
"Where are we going Erza? Isn't the inn the other way?" Lucy asked.
"We're being followed." She said curtly.
"We are?" Happy said frightened as he looked around nervously.
"How many of them are there?" Gray asked her as he began to prepare his magic.
"By my count, I'm guessing 4." She replied.
"What are we going to do? Are we going to fight them?" Levy asked
"No, it would cause too much noise. If they are with the guild that's supposedly taken control of the town, we don't want more of them coming our way." Erza replied as she took a turn into another alley.
"What do we do?" Wendy asked worriedly.
"Gray, Levy, I need you two to create a smoke screen." Erza ordered.
They both nodded in agreement. Gray began to focus his ice in his hand until a cube about the size of his palms appeared. Levy then stretched out her right arm, outstretching her index and middle fingers. She created a small arc with them and a small word saying "FIRE" appeared. The word mixed with Grays cube and created a thick mist that covered the group as they turned the next corner.
The men following them opened their eyes in shock as they ran into the mist after the wizards. When they turned the corner however, the group was gone and all that was left was a hole in the ground.
"Dammit!" One of the men yelled in frustration, "We lost them!" he kicked a rock in anger as one of his accomplices approached him. "No use dwelling on it, I think they are going to be here for a while. Come on, let's go report back to the boss." The three men nodded in agreement and went back the way they came.
In front of the inn, Lucy was the last one out of the hole in the ground; being helped out by Gray. As she stood up, she brushed the dirt off of her clothes and turned towards the hole. As she looked into it, a pink haired girl wearing a black & white maid outfit with broken shackles on her wrists emerged from it. She bowed before the group as Lucy smiled at her.
"Thanks a lot for the assist Virgo."
"It was my pleasure princess." The girl answered back, "Is there anything else you require from me?"
"No that's it, you can go back now."
"As you wish princess." She bowed once again before glowing gold and disappearing.
Once Virgo disappeared the group went inside the inn. They made their way to the room where the others were and entered. Juvia instantly jumped onto Gray.
"Oh Gray thank goodness you're safe." She said happily as she rubbed her face against his. Gray was squirming as he tried to get her off of him.
"Come on. What are you doing? Get off me." he said irritated.
Erza and the others casually stepped over the two as Gray finally managed to get Juvia off of him.
"So what happened?" Gajeel asked as he sat up in the bed.
"Well…" Erza began, "Something is definitely wrong here in Lumina."
"Yeah we noticed it too, right guys?" Natsu asked questioning Gajeel & Juvia, who both nodded in agreement as Juvia then explained her encounter with the man she bumped into earlier.
"I wonder what's going on here." Levy thought aloud.
"What did the mayor have to say?" Carla asked looking over to Erza.
"He said he no longer required our services and that we should leave."
"What?!" Natsu stood up agitated, "What does he…"
"Calm down Natsu." Erza commanded.
"He was obviously hiding something, and judging by the manner in which he was speaking; I'm positive he was being watched while we were in his office."
"Watched?" Juvia looked confused.
"Yes." Erza answered looking at her. "He gave us this piece of paper." She held it up to Natsu's group.
"Meet at the Glowing Spider at 11 pm." Natsu read aloud.
"The hell's the Glowing Spider?' Gajeel asked with a hint of annoyance.
"It's a bar on the west side of town, approximately 1 mile from the casino." Erza answered him.
Carla looked up at Erza, "Do you think it's a trap?"
"We don't know." Wendy interjected
"So what are we gonna to do?" Natsu asked.
Erza looked at the paper, placed on the table, and looked at the rest of the group. "We're going to go to the Glowing Spider."
"Alright. Finally some action." Natsu said excitedly.
"Ok, then whose going?' Gray asked her.
"Natsu and I will go to the bar…alone."
Everyone looked at her with surprise. Gray got up from his chair in a huff, "Are you crazy Erza?! We don't know anything about what's going on, or even if this bar is on the level."
"Don't worry we won't truly be alone. Happy and Gajeel will watch us from the rooftops to make sure we're not followed. The first sign of trouble, Happy will come back here and tell the rest of you while Gajeel will handle any of the threats."
Gajeel smirked and pounded his fist into his open hand. "Finally, I was tired of doing nothing."
"Fine." Gray was still not happy about the two going by themselves, but he relented.
"Be careful you guys." Lucy said with a concerned look.
Erza, Natsu, Gajeel, and Happy made their way out of the door, "Don't worry we will." Erza replied as they walked out, closing the door behind them.
They made their way outside and looked up, it was dark. 'What time is it now?" Erza asked.
Natsu looked at the clock that was in the middle of the shopping district. "It's 10 pm now."
"Well we better get moving." Erza looked at Gajeel & Happy, they nodded to her as Happy summoned his wings and grabbed Gajeel, lifting him to the top of the roof of the hotel.
When they were in position, Gajeel gave the thumbs up. Erza looked up to him and nodded, she and Natsu then began running towards the bar. Gajeel and Happy following them from the rooftops, unaware that a set of eyes watched them from the wall.
Inside the casino, the three men previously chasing Erza's group entered in the office on the third floor. They walked inside the massive room to see a large man standing in front of a huge window overlooking the city. His back facing them, his hands were behind his back as he looked out of the window.
"We're back boss." one of the men said as they all got down on one knee.
"And?" the large man asked still not facing them.
"They got away." the kneeling man replied regretably. "We're sorry for our failure boss."
"Told ya." a young girl said from the couch against the left wall of the room. "You should have sent me to follow them, the wouldn't have gotten away."
The large man smirked. "I thought you would never wake up. It's unhealthy for a girl your age to sleep all day." The young girl simply scoffed at him. He then turned his attention towards his three men. "I knew you three would be spotted, you were just a diversion."
"A diversion?" one of them asked.
"I have returned Master." a figure said. The three men and the girl looked over to the right wall to see a figure emerging from it. He stepped out slowly, as if he had fused with the wall itself. It was one of the men that Erza and the others had encountered earlier.
"What did you find out?" the large man asked.
"3 of the Fairy Tail wizards: Erza Scarlet, Natsu Dragneel, and Gajeel Redfox are currently making their way to the Glowing Spider bar. It seems the mayor has secretly called them there for a meeting."
The large man smirked. "That crafty old bastard. I see he still has some fight left in him."
"Should we dispose of him?" the suit wearing man asked.
"No need, we can take of him later. These Fairy Tail wizards are the main priority."
"How shall we proceed?"
"Want me to take some guys and head them off at the bar?" the young girl asked.
"No, I'll introduce myself to them personally."
Erza and Natsu soon made it to the bar. They both gave each other a determined look and headed inside; Natsu leading the way. Erza looked back to Gajeel and Happy, nodding to them as they stood on the rooftop across from the bar.
Natsu and Erza entered the bar and to their surprise all they saw was the bartender and a hooded figure drinking beer in the corner. They stepped further in and noticed that the bartender was shifting his eyes to the cloaked stranger. After looking at each other once more, they moved to the table where they were sitting.
As they sat down, the figure began to speak to them. "I see you received the Mayor's note."
"Yes, we did." Erza replied in confirmation. "What is this about? What is going on here?"
"Shhh." The figure placed their finger over their lips, "It's not safe to speak of these things so loudly. They could be watching."
"Who?" Natsu asked confused
"The guild who took over Lumina…Night Shade."
Natsu and Erza's eyes opened in surprise.
Night Shade? Erza thought to herself. That's the Dark Guild that captured Natsu and tortured him. She clenched her fists in rage as she thought of when herself, Laxus, Gray, Juvia, and Happy rescued Natsu from them not too long ago. The thought that they were not completely obliterated filled her with rage, but she managed to compose herself and looked at Natsu, his face focused on the hooded figure as they continued to speak. She could tell Natsu was angry, but he hid it better than she did.
"1 month ago their leader, Romero came into town with his two men."
Erza thought back to the large man she saw in the Mayor's waiting room, could he have been Romero?
The figure continued, "At first things seemed normal, no one had even noticed at the time that he had come into to town. Then, 2 weeks after his arrival, the city was attacked."
"Was it the rest of his guild?" Erza asked earnestly
The figure nodded, "Yes. They destroyed everything, the markets, homes, and they even assaulted a number of the citizens. At first the mayor was steadfast in stopping them, but as the days passed, it became too much and he eventually relented."
"That's terrible." Erza said.
"It was yes. However, we still managed to get a job request outside of the town, hoping that someone would come to our aid."
"Wait something doesn't feel right." Erza began. "If such an invasion happened in such a well-known city, how come no one has heard of it outside of the job request?"
The figure sat quiet for a moment and answered the wizard's question, "A day or so after the job request was sent out, Night Shade cast a spell on the entire town. A type of illusion magic. From the outside looking in all looks and sounds normal, this is so they can still lure in tourists. Once you walk inside however, you cannot leave."
Erza and Natsu's eyes once again opened in surprise.
The figure then finished, "All of the people inside of the town are slowly having their free will drained by the spell. Soon we will all be mindless drones for Romero."
That explains what was wrong with that man Juvia bumped into today, Erza thought to herself. He must have been under to influence of the spell.
"But how could they cast a spell that huge?" Natsu asked in confusion.
"There are 5 stations set up in areas around the town, each guarded by no less than 20 of the guild's wizards." The figure pulled out a map with red X's on it, marking the different locations. "Here is where they are located, the main station is inside the casino." They placed their finger on the biggest X. 'You have to destroy them all in order to lift the spell."
A determined look appeared in Natsu's eye as he stood up, "Alright what are we waiting fo…" Erza placed her hand in front of him, cutting him off.
"How do we know if we can trust you? You could be working for Night Shade." She gave the stranger an angry gaze.
The figure then stood up and removed their hood, to Erza's surprise it was the Mayor's secretary. "Please." She pleaded as she clasped her hands together. "Please save this town."
Erza and Natsu looked down at the woman as she was on her knees begging them. They could tell she had suffered a lot from this guild, the entire town had, and they knew they had to stop it.
Erza kneeled down and placed her hand upon the woman's shoulder. "Don't worry, we will save this town."
The woman stopped sobbing and looked up at them, Erza and Natsu both smiling at her as Erza stood up. She watched them as they headed towards the door.
BOOM!