The Watering Hole![Job!][Sukiro & Heero]

Walking through a deserted and rocky path upward into the rocky mountains she was heading toward a well known village that had settled themselves within the mountains, for reasons of their own, be it the advantage of being able to see far across the land or the extra protection given by the tall mountains that formed upward into the sky as if drawn into the sky's freedom of always moving. Mari herself was headed toward this same village for the sake of helping a poor tavern owner who's been driven crazy by these hooligans that continue to pester him and his tavern. Trying to steal his beer along with his very own creation of the brew that caught to their liking and try again and again to steal it. Though with all their failed attempts they seem to be getting closer to their goal and today might be the day they do it, that is without their help anyway.

Mari had decided to take the job and help out the poor tavern owner along with the aid of one of her fellow guild members within Fairy Tail. The renowned Fairy Tail mage along with a fellow Dragon Slayer Heero had agreed to help her with this little job. Though they had decided that they'd head their own ways into the village itself as such Mari had decided to take the long road and walk toward the village, but she did wonder how he would arrive there and hopefully they'd be able to regroup easily when they did. The path she was taking was suddenly taking a steep toll making it a bit hard her to climb before she took a quick dash trying to rush the rest of the way up before pushing herself forward and grabbing the top of the path with her hand and thrusted herself upward onto the flat top of the path. Dusting off her hands she looked forward to find herself in a position above the village itself, and was given the ability to look over the whole village.

"Hmpf, this is one great view. I should head down and start finding this tavern."

She said before throwing herself forward and dashing toward the entrance of the mountain village, throwing small pebbles and dust behind her with every step that crushed the sand and stone beneath her feet. Her hair flew against the wind along with her over coat that flapped against the wind as she ran. Not before long was she at the large entrance of the village with pedestrians walking into and out of the village one after the other. As she took two steps into the village, she placed her hands on her hips thinking about what to do next, either find the tavern or find or wait for Heero.

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Made by AERON of BTN!

Mari with her hands placed upon her hips looking within every direction through the village but of course she wouldn't think of looking up like many of the villager had began to do. Turning and pointing toward the sky, was a silhouette of a large humanoid bird circling the village though as it turned the sun hit it more directly showing that it was no more the Heero flying around with his Exceed partner tugging onto his back allowing him to show the ability of flight if none knew. Coming down toward her, Heero shouted toward her direction and smiled that they finally had caught up with her. She waved in returned as his Exceed flew over toward her and landed onto her head.

"Aye! Mari-chan! You're too cute to be out on jobs like this!"

Mari let out a small smile as her pink lips glistened within the suns rays as she looked upwards toward Garfield raising her hand in the process. Patting his head, she ruffled his fur as Heero began to walk toward the two more closely.

"Why thank you."

She said in a happy yet confident tone as she began to turn her attention toward Heero who had arrived beside her only to cross his arms walking closer beside her.

"Yeah well, Mari's not so cute when she fights!"

She puffed her cheeks at what had come through his mouth, before turning her face away from him and toward deeper parts of the village. Not really taking offense to the words of which he spoke but more around the lines of what she can actually release that was withheld within her own body which is the real ugly part of her especially within a fight. Though without noticed Heero decided not to waste anymore time where they stood and actually find the tavern.

"Alright then. Well we can ask around, for a disturbed tavern and from there we'll find it. Though I'd assumed that its more near the center of the village."

Mari said making an educated guess of the situation as she wondered within the village walking beside Heero as others stared them down probably because they were mages and not many would cross through here on a day to day basis. After coming across a large group of villagers talking among one another Mari decided to walk up toward them and ask if they knew of anything. As she tried to speak with the villagers, Garfield's tail continued to swish back and forth before it began to tap Mari's head over and over. She grabbed the fur of the back of his neck and pulled him over her head and into her arms, to remove the continuous tapping. She bowed slightly toward the group before returning toward Heero's side with her new found information.

"Alright so it seems that the tavern is more toward the east side of the village from the entrance."

She said looking toward the east.

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Made by AERON of BTN!

Returning back toward Heero it seemed he was ready to get up and going into the direction of the tavern along with Garfield in hand, scrunching up closer to Mari with every step with Heero smacking himself for some reason. Though she had to guess Garfield was more softer then he looked, as she caressed Garfield's head, it reminded her of her own little cat companion. Max is also from the Exceed race and has been with Mari for as long as she can remember though he is more serious then Garfield is. Her face slowly became more and more saddened remembering what happened even before the mission had begun.

~Few hours earlier~

Within the town of magnolia closest to the exiting gate toward the eastern forest both Mari and Max were standing before one another with stern looks on their faces. From the looks of their surroundings it seemed that the pedestrians that walked before them tried to keep their distance probably because they saw them arguing or lashing out at one another. Max sudden;y crossed his arms before turning away from Mari's face, along with Mari looking down onto him with her hands upon her hips and her cheeks puffed in anger.

"Come on Max. Its just one job!"

Max just shrugged and huffed away with his eyes slowly looking away but still be able to see Mari and keep notice of where she stood, just in case she tried grabbing him.

"Why must you pester me. I said no once and that should suffice for you to understand that I don't want to. You haven't grown up at all master."

He said with a huff placing his hands down.

"Its just one job though, it's up within the Mountain village and if things get tough I could really use your help."

Mari continued to plea before Max began to walk away outward of the town without looking back as Mari just silently watched him walk away. She didn't want to force him into something he didn't want to do and she just decided to allow him to walk away, not wanting to ruin anything between them.

~Now~

Mari let out a large sigh before shaking her face's sadness away before placing a smile once again. Noticing that she was lacking in her pace with Heero she began to speed up and with the gang coming toward them, she just ignored them.

"Lets continue onward Heero. We've taken it upon the job ourselves...As members of Fairy Tail."

She said with a large grin on her face with her lips glistening within the suns rays. Placing an arm forward she along with Heero entered the tavern to notice that the whole place was empty, not a soul in site other then a large chubby man behind the counter, running in circles in worry and disappointment. She assumed that this was the man in charge of the tavern and from the looks of things the gang of thieves haven't arrived yet, which means they still have time to get something out of him before they arrive, maybe he has some info on what they are and what are their numbers, anything to turn the tied and make the job any easier would be helpful.

Walking into the tavern along with heero and Garfield in hand, they began to walk toward the chubby man behind the counter. As he spun toward them quickly and hesitantly with a pistol within his grasp, Mari quickly placed an arm over Garfields face and placed her side more forward in case that he would attack. With Heero quickly came forward on the situation calming the taverns owner who began to lower his gun, putting Mari at ease and returning to a normal pose standing beside Heero. Arthur introduced himself along with his position which is the excuse for his high paranoia and hesitant nature from the Moonshiner gang that continuously strikes his tavern.

"Hello Arthur, don't worry we're here to help. My name is Mari Windsor and this is Heero Reyold...Oh and this is Garfield."

Mari began introducing her along with Heero and Garfield within her hands. With the sudden appearance of some armed men, both large and small those built as if a one man army while others took the more stealth approach keeping slim and fit only showing parts of their bodies through the shadows. Though after introducing themselves the guards found that they aren't really threats and seemed more.

One of the guardsmen spoke up over the rest explaining that the Moonshiners were practitioners of darkness magic along with the users of guns. Along with their leader Gargas describing him as a juggernaut of a man, meaning very large and built, strong using his physical strength to his advantage but that doesn't mean he doesn't use magic. Mari sighed at the thought if Gargas were to appear he would make things a bit more difficult along with the risk of damaging the tavern, though knowing that Heero is well known for his combat ability's he might be the one taking him on.

"Aye, he's ten feet tall?!"

Garfield asked in a confused manner throwing his arms forward, making Mari's face perk up. She thought of when the gang would come into the fray, knowing that they'd know how much time they had before they would come again and get themselves ready for anything that were to occur. Mari looked toward arthur with a curious face.

"When do they usually come and start bothering you? It doesn't seem they bother you during the day."

She asked.

"Hrm..Ummm...They usually come in waves during the sunset and after dusk. That's when they usually do at least."

He said hesitantly rubbing the sweat off his face with a rag.

Mari within sync with Garfield nodding their heads at the same time as Heero acknowledged them as the the tool to help out this little predicament Aurthur has been in for a while. Mari turned toward one of the armed bodyguards agreeing with Heero quickly shifting into a more armed state as he pulled out an assault rifle and throwing it over his shoulder. With one of the other bodyguards arrived into the middle of the discussion pronouncing that they would go outward to retrieve the rune knights before heading outside through the back entrance.

With that Mari suddenly heard from her born enhanced hearing ability could hear the sudden clicks and clanks from the outside before turning her head toward the front entrance. Tightening her grip on Garfield she heard that finally large click and the shower of steel bullets was released into the tavern. Mari dropped herself toward a empty table roundhouse kicking the legs breaking them completely and having the table topple over protecting both Mari and Garfield who was pressed into her chest.

As the loud gun fire started to die down Mari began to release some tension from her body, lifting her head and looked around hoping that everyone was alright as well. The Moonshiners shouted their way asking for Arthurs recipe or else things are going to go down hard, and it didn't seem they were playing around. Heero looked toward Mari's direction telling that he'd follow her lead outward into battle with her nodding back at him in agreement. Though before that behind the counter Aurthur shouted outward telling them to wait just a few seconds.

"I HAVE TO HELP OUT TOO!"

He shouted on the top of his lungs before throwing himself outward from beneath the counter along with a gigantic three barreled cannon, that he threw onto the counter. He rapped a rope that appeared from the side on his hand and his face covered in sweat and as red as a cherry. Mari's face was surprised of how fast his personality changed so quickly when being pressed into action.

"Lets go! Bom Bom Bombardier!"

He shouted once again and three magic crests appeared within the front of each barrel of the cannon. An extremely large boom came from the counter even shattering the counter itself, as it released the cannon balls forward toward the entrance of the tavern shattering the doors completely. With the speed of the cannons coming out of the tavern so fast along with the walls and doors covering the cannons the gang members wasn't able to pin point where the cannon balls where coming out from they couldn't properly dodge them. One of the cannon balls skid across the ground shattering and throwing gravel and dirt into the sky before stopping in the dirt. Another shot upward striking through a near by village house. Though the only one that struck was one of the hired thugs welding two pistols in each hand, one of his nearby partners watched the hired thug get instantly swept away by the cannon fire only to leave his pistols spinning in the air for a few seconds before dropping down onto the ground.

Mari watched as the thunderous roars from his cannon fire striking through the front entrance of the tavern. With his unexpected protective personality striking his heart and unleashing his rage into his own attack that was engraved into the cannon balls that flew into one of the gang member's that hung outside. After the smoke began to clear Heero took this chance to head outside and fight off the rest of the gang members. All that could be heard was the sound of explosions, did they have heavy artillery weapons? Or was it something different, something stronger?

After the explosions came to an end, quietness covered the battle ground with Mari lifting herself from the ground with Garfield in hand before a scream of a dragon rumbled the ground beneath their feet. Garfield acted funny though, struggling for freedom, Mari released him onto the ground before he ventured forward toward one of the holes in the walls and shouting outward and with that the thunderous roar suddenly calming down the place went quiet.

"Aurthur, I think you should stay inside and protect your Beer and Beer recipe. We'll try to hold off as many as we can."

Mari said toward Aurthur wiping the sweat from his face releasing the cannon and leaving it within the wooden rubble beneath it. Mari slowly began to walk toward the entrance with a sudden crash coming from a flying barrel that crashed onto the floor and showered Mari with water and soaked her and her clothing, her sudden face turned from worry to annoyance within a quick second and slowly progressed outside. The extremely large man who she assumed Gargas from their explanation of the Gigantic man being the boss of the gang. The large man began to what she assumed was flirting but it was more aggressive and distrusting it actually displeased her to hear that from his voice. He ordered his men to face toward Heero while he handled Mari alone.

"Hmpf.....Heero lets go along with what he says......I want a chance at him....."

She said in a more serious tone not just removing her removable over coat but ripped it from its latches and tossed it toward the ground. She removed her gauntlets from their shackles and placed them upon her hands before cracking each finger one by one. Mari stared into the eyes of the beast as he removed his own weapon from behind him and struck it into the ground creating a crater within the earth. It seemed that was something that Mari was going to have to get rid of before anything else or else she'd be at a huge disadvantage.

"Well? Bring it on hot stuff, you can't be my wife if ya can't hold your own dammit!"



Mari struck her fists together creating small magic crests upon the top of both her hands before small flames appeared upon the top of her fists before erupting into large tempest flames that circled around her forearms before consuming them whole in fire.

"Flaming Torrent - Arms of Ash!"

She knew that his power was greater then her own but that wasn't going to hold her back, but actually lets her know that she can go all out on this guy. Without the fear of going over the top but even then she thinks she should just from the way she speaks to her. Punching her fists together large ball's of flames engulfed her fists completely.


She shouted jumping forward toward Gargas, placing her fists together, she creates a even larger mass of the balls of fire together and along with her recent spell the ball increased a bit in size and power. Launching the brilliant flame onto Gargas's chest he quickly launched his blade toward the ball of fire, as the connected they caused a large explosion that caused Mari to fly backwards into the tavern itself crashing through the front wall, while Gargas being thrown a few feet back before thrusting his blade into the ground to catch himself.

"Darn Bitch!"

He shouted before lifting his blade from the ground and threw it forward into the tavern as well. Spinning through the air toward Mari's position and continues to cut the ground as the sharp end continues to cut into the ground and throwing gravel and dirt into the air.

"MASTER! BEFORE YOU!"

A voice suddenly appeared from no where that seemed to be coming from above seemed to be getting closer as it made a swan dive directly above Mari's physical position. Her eyes widened at the surprise of her fellow companion Max had arrived without notifying her, but it seemed he wanted to arrive with a large entrance. Mari sat up, watched the blade come toward her before rolling to the side. What looked like a few seconds Mari having her back toward the ceiling, Max dived through the hole she created and grabbed the back of her sweater and tugged her out of the blade's way as it literally cut through the entire tavern and making it to the other side of the tavern before boomeranging around back toward Gargas.

"MAX! You came!"

She shouted flailing her arms in excitement.

"Hmpf.....I only came to make sure you weren't in to much trouble.......though of course.....my assumption was correct and your in over your head."

Max began to speak without looking toward Mari's face, seeing as he actually cared about her well being but didn't want to show it.

"Well at least this even's the odds! Lets go after the big guy!"

Mari said toward Max giving him the thumbs up with a flaming hand.

"Aye Sire!"

Max agreed before striking through the window of the tavern and into the skys.

Gargas sneered toward the tavern before watching both Mari and Max crashing out of the tavern through one of he many windows and taking off into the skys. He gave a large smirk before reaching to his left side, holding a shotgun clipped to his overalls. Grabbing it and spinning it a couple of times within his hand before holding it tightly and pointed it toward them before launching three shots of dark matter toward them with one eye closed for better aim.

"Ya ain't getting away from me!"

The bullets of dark matter swerved toward them, with their eyes widening in sync watching the dark matter getting closer and closer within the seconds to come.

"Max toss me at them!"

She shouted swinging her self in their direction.

"Master! We mus......!"

"NO TIME JUST DO IT!"

She shouted much louder trying to make Max understand that this wasn't time to play around, with Max nodding. Max tilted their direction toward the Bullets them, with Mari clutching her fist. He dropped her forward falling through the wind her body began to be engulfed in flames before she clapped her hands together and a large red magic crest appeared before her.

"Lets go! Fire Dragon's Scorched Earth!"

She shouted before the flames on her body grew even larger and as she threw her arms forward the flames on her body looked as if they themselves had minds of their own and threw themselves toward the bullets as projectiles. Within seconds the flaming projectiles collided with one of the dark matter bullets causing a large explosion but the others had missed the second and third bullets which collided with Mari with a massive explosion.

"Tsk!"

Max clicked his teeth before diving within the large smoke of the explosion and retrieving Mari who was covered in bruises and deteriorated clothing. Every part of her felt like it was it was being torn apart but she chuckled at the thought from the past when she and Max was placed in a similar position such as this.

"Master we must get you to safety."

Mari chuckled.

"Max remember the vulcan we fought when I was younger outside of the village."

Max's eyes widened of what she was recalling and even casted a smile upon his own face before looking back at gargas that stared at them from the ground. He also looked toward Heero and how he continued to face the other gang members with slight ease, in their case of not holding back at such a strong member of Fairy Tail. Max patted her back with his paw to notify of his decision of going along with the plan.

"Max Speed!"

He said before targeting Gargas himself and shooting toward him like an hyper active missile, leaving a sonic boom in his wake. Thrusting through the wind as if there was nothing holding back his increasing speed. Max suddenly released his grip of Mari and took flight in another direction hoping for somewhere to land safely leaving Mari still with the same speed as before directed toward Gargas who snickered.

"Haha! COME ONE THEN!"

He shouted awaiting Mari's soon arrival, before she punched her fists together awakening a large aura of fire that was visible to the naked eye a large translucent ball of fire that surrounded Mari completely.

"Fire Dragon's Rage!"

She shouted feeling the coursing energy throughout her body before a known dark power soon rises from within herself and taking sudden control over her body, making the flaming aura somewhat darkened to the color of blood rather then the color of fire. Mari grinned toward Gargas before punching her fists together once again with a sudden enlargement of her right fist engulfed in fire.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

She shouted thrusting it forward in sync with Gargas as he thrusted his own right fist toward Mari. Their fists collided her's obviously much much smaller then his own, but with the sudden increase power was able to even the odds in power within the both of them. With a large explosion as they touched knuckles Gargas's fist was thrown backward, with a large force and even left a scorched area on his fist that burned his fist and Mari crashed onto the ground leaving Gargas heavily surprised.

"You've changed Girly!"

He said in a confused and somewhat encouraged tone, seeing how he liked his women rowdy.

"Completely...."

She said in a dark voice.

The surprised Gargas shook his hand hoping to shake the pain away from the now empowered Fire Dragon Slayer, of course this wasn't her normal doing. Upon the activation of her "Fire Dragon's Rage" her lineage activated without notice and itself consumed Mari's conscious and revealed her own mass blood craving double who wasn't seen or known by many. Probably three to four other mages have actually seen Mari's double along with Max who was stranded upon a nearby roof looking above the battle field from a distance hoping to regain energy. Gargas standing before the awakened Mary who's aura grew and raged upon the ground itself churning and scorching the ground to dust and left Gargas with a surprise face as her new aura was to different to be the same person.

"What the Hell are you!?"

He shouted as an order, toward Mari's body, who's face was tilted downward with her bangs hiding her face and crude smile. She lifted herself up before placing an arm on her shoulder and crack her neck seemingly not worried of the situation before placing her eyes onto Gargas. The sun glistened onto her new bloody red eyes, with intimidation brought Gargas to a stand still before tightening his grip upon his shotgun and placed it toward Mari's body's physical position. Mary's eyes swerved over to notice Heero coming toward the two before stopping in front of them and it didn't seem like he would interfere with their little struggle. Max wasn't able to do anything and if he remembers correctly Mary promised to evaporate Max where he stood if she'd ever see him again, clenching his paw he was at a stand still in his position of decision making.

"Oi.......You going to shot? Or should I?"

Mary asked as her eyes shot towards Gargas's. He huffed his nose before placing a large smile on his face, he resumed his thoughts on her power before hand and what she displayed was nothing more then a gimmick of using her surroundings and allies to her advantage. He wasn't going to let a change in atmosphere to change the fact that he was more superior to her within the battle field. He gave watch to Heero who suddenly appeared and smirked throwing his shotgun toward his direction.

"Stand down or I'll shoot your buddy sky high."

He portrayed as a chance to let her live but of course was going to take advantage of her disbelief and defeat her afterwards but Mary just shrugged as she scratched her neck.

"Go right ahead....Lets see who's shot is faster!"

She said with no importance of Heero's safety nor his worth as a fellow guild member and rather threw her attention more toward Gargas as his power made her curious and yet want to destroy it was utterly more then she could handle. Throwing her head back she began to inhale the air around her gathering fire within her mouth before placing her hands in front of her mouth.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

Shouting as the flames shot toward Gargas in a thin line though roared like a colossal blast of flames. Gargas's eyes widened at the sight of it and without thinking reacted by throwing his gun right toward the blast of flames. The roar flew right into the barrel of the gun with Gargas pulling the trigger creating a massive bomb of destruction that exploded in his face along with destroying his hand and arm leaving the top of his arm in ashes along with half of his body. The explosion took him off his feet as he was flown backwards 12 feet and crashed into the ground like a huge boulder. Mary struck a large laugh as she watched him fly, holding onto her stomach not being able to bare the hilarity. Gargas was getting angry suddenly rushing to get himself up before anything else could occur.