Anti-Climactic

Alex was making breakfast alone the next morning deep in thought. The breakfast was a simple one consisting of hashbrowns, eggs and toast with a side of sausages and bacon.

He was currently trying to decide where the next adventure was going to take him. By his estimation he had spent enough time in Magnolia and was getting bored.

There was still plenty to explore in Ishgar, but if he was being honest with himself he was leaning more towards setting sail to Alakitasia.

He didn't really have a set plan or goal for when he would get there but still eventually wanted to check the place out, he would probably just end up exploring.

He was also mulling over the Idea of trying to track down the Dark Guild Tartaros. They all eventually needed to die and the thought of all the demon particles he could get from an entire guild of demons made him incredible happy.

Tracking down such an elusive bunch would be difficult though as their guildhall was located on a floating Island that was always moving.

He could always hope he would 'Accidentally' run into some of the lesser Demons of the guild while he was out exploring the world, but doubted he was that lucky.

'I should just create an Item that can locate Demon particles over a massive area' He thought as images of the dragon radar from DBZ flashed through his head.

The theory behind it was pretty simple and demon particles where uncommon enough in the world that it honestly should be pretty accurate.

He was pulled from his thoughts as Wendy and Carla joined him in the kitchen, they looked like they had just finished their morning work-outs.

"Good morning Girls, did you sleep well?" he asked in greeting. ""Good morning!"" Carla and Wendy greeted back.

"I slept wonderfully! Those beds you made are the best!" Wendy said with a big smile. "Yes, I almost didn't want to get out of it" Carla agreed with a smile.

"That is good to hear!" Alex said, matching their smiles. "Any plans for the day?" he asked.

"Not really, though when I was talking to Levy the other day, she offered to teach me some things from the library. So we might just spend the day at the guild." Wendy replied.

"That's good, with tensions between Phantom being what they are, it is probably best to stay around the city and try not to get caught anywhere alone." Alex said in warning.

He didn't want Wendy to get hurt, in the time they had spent together he had grown increasingly fond of the sweet little girl.

"Yeah, that's what Carla said too. She has even been trying to use her magic to see if she can predict when or if they attack". Wendy said, Carla merely nodding with a humming noise.

"Have you been having any luck with that Carla?" Alex asked as he started dishing three plates of food while putting the rest on a warmer.

He would be a bad host if he let his guests go hungry after all, though they had yet to wake up.

"I have had a small amount of luck, though to use it long enough to be able to guess dates and times is still beyond my mana capacity." Carla said with a slightly downcast look on her face.

"Have you been able to get anything of note?" Alex asked, not addressing her sad look.

They both knew all she needed was more training and to increase her mana capacity. She was already doing both those things and bringing it up again would be pointless.

"Not anything I can really make sense of, Just images of a Giant made from bricks. That is all I get before I run out of Magic." Carla replied.

"Hmmm, can you show me?" Alex asked.

Carla touched one of her earrings and started pouring mana into it, it glowed for a moment before projecting the image of Phantoms Guildhall in its Giant robot form.

'Yup, just like I thought, that thing is gonna make a good bonfire.' Alex thought while nodding his head sagely. "Thanks" he said to Carla as the image disappeared.

"Well all we can do it wait, and deal with it when it comes. No point stressing about it". Alex said in a very unconcerned tone.

The three dropped into companionable silence while eating their breakfast. It didn't take too long before the smell of food brought the other three guests out to join them.

They greeted each other and offered pleasantries while dishing up. Meredy still seemed to be suspicious of Alex but he just ignored it.

Alex finished his breakfast first and excused himself from the table. He wanted to go see if anything interesting was happening at the guild, though he kept his expectations really low as it was still a little early for most of those drunkards.

The morning air in Magnolia was wonderful, it was crisp with the nights dew and the scent of many different types of flowers just opening with the suns first rays.

He walked leisurely to the guild, simply enjoying the solitude of the early morning. He greeted the occasional passerby with a smile and a nod.

The scene at the guild was what he expected. Knocked over tables, spilled drinks and unconscious people piled together or passed out at a table alone.

It was early enough that they hadn't even started stirring yet so Alex just hopped up onto the roof of the guild and decided to watch the Sun-rise.

He laid there with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head, soaking up the suns rays for a good 20 minutes before the sound of someone landing beside him, pulled him from his relaxation.

"What are you doing on the roof Alex?" Mira asked with a giggle. Alex found himself mesmerized by her laugh and almost missed her question. "Just enjoying the sunrise. You wanna join?" he said with a coy smile.

"Maybe some other time" she replied with a small chuckle. "I have to start work shortly".

"That's fair. From what I seen in there earlier, you have your work cut out for you." Alex said with a smirk.

Mira laughed again at that before her smile turned a little sadistic. "Yeah, but the best part of the morning is pouring cold water on all their heads and making them clean the bar hungover" She said with a darker chuckle.

Alex laughed, "This I got to see! Do you mind a spectator?" he asked as they started getting down from the roof.

"Not at all, the more the merrier" Mira said with her signature smile.

Alex wasn't disappointed by the show, it was very amusing to watch hungover people wake up with a start, only to grab their heads and groan in agony from the hangover.

Mira showed no mercy to the poor bastards as she got them cleaning as soon as possible.

They were not a very efficient work force but they did act as great comedic relief. Alex and Mira where at the bar making small talk, occasionally glancing at the zombie-like guild members trying to clean, when they noticed the liquor bottles lightly rattling.

The first time it happened pulled them out of their conversation only slightly. The second time it happened, the bottles were a little louder and stopped the conversation completely.

It was silent in the guildhall aside from a few small groans from the unwilling cleaners. The bottles rattled again, noticeable louder than the previous times.

"What is going on?" Mira asked, more to herself. "I am not sure, but from the vibrations in the ground it sounds like a Giant is walking this way" Alex replied with a chuckle.

'Wait, a Giant!?' Alex froze momentarily before heading to the window facing lake Sciliora. "Oh SHIT! Looks like we got trouble coming!" he said out loud as a warning to the guild members within the building.

"Someone go get the master and wake up the rest of the members in town!" Mira commanded after she too had gotten a look at what was outside.

Far off in the distance was a towering castle slowly making its way through the shallow waters of the lake on spider-like legs. Alex knew this was the mobile version of Phantoms Main guild building, seeing it in person versus a T.V. screen was quite the difference.

The headquarters was a large, imposing and compact building composed of stone with towers marking the corners.

Alex was a little disappointed they didn't show up already transformed into the 'Super mage Giant' form, as he really wanted to see it before destroying the building.

He wondered briefly if he should let the fight play out until they did transform but quickly decided against it, it wouldn't do very well for his image if he let a bunch of his guild-mates get hurt for something easily avoidable.

'I wonder.. If I melted off it's aracno-limbs, would it still be able to transform?' He mused internally.

"Guess I'll have to try it out to see" He said out loud. "What was that Alex?" Mira asked curiously in a concerned tone. "Nothing, just gonna go greet the neighbors" He said flippantly.

"Do be careful!" Mira called out to him in a worried tone as he was leaving the guild hall. Alex waved at her with a smile before leaping into the air.

Once Alex made it into the air, he entered {Stealth}. He silently wondered if he should try to talk to them, maybe play the whole 'what business do you guys have coming here' ploy, just to mess with them a little.

'OH! Mechanical trouble is always such a pain in the ass!' He thought, An evil grin on his face as he got a 'Brilliant' idea.

He quickly made his way to the leg that had most recently moved, it would take the longest too move again and give him more time to put his plan into motion.

Channeling mana into the metal limb, Alex wanted to see how it sent and received the signal to move.

Thankfully the operation of it was very simple and straight forward, it allowed him to easily put it into a kind of feed-back loop that would tell the operator it was functioning properly without actually moving the leg.

He did this to the two back legs, leaving 4 intact. Best case scenario (for Alex) would be that nobody would notice the legs didn't move and they would try walking forward while being way out of balance.

Worst case, they would notice before they moved the other legs and stop to figure out what happened. Either way was bound to be entertaining in its own way.

Flying back above the small island, he started watching in anticipation. When the process got to the legs he had messed with, nothing visible happened.

A couple seconds passed and Alex was about to curse his luck when one of the other legs started moving again.

"Oh hell yeah! They didn't notice yet!" Alex cheered. The first rotation of the legs after he messed them up didn't really do much except slightly over extend the stationary legs.

The second set of steps started to pull the island off balance and Alex could even see the disabled legs being drug through the lake bottom.

He could even hear the metal creak and groan under the awkward strain of weight it was forced to endure.

It was slightly disappointing that it was being dragged behind while still supporting the weight needed to keep the island above water.

Just as he was about to write his little experiment off as a failure he heard a loud metallic groan followed by a snapping noise. The stress on the legs was too much and they had been ripped completely off. A loud splash was heard as the metal legs planted themselves on the bottom of the lake. It was followed shortly by another, even bigger splash as the weight of the small island overpowered whatever balancer it had and plummeted to the lake.

Alex laughed like an Evil kid at Christmas, who had been bad all year, but still got presents.

He was happy it had eventually worked out but was still a little annoyed it had taken so long.

The island had managed to drag itself quite a ways and was now close enough, that Fairy Tails guildhall was in range of the Jupiter cannon should they decide to fire it.

He could hear the panic and confusion within Phantoms guildhall as they tried to figure out what happened.

He could even hear, who he assumed was Jose, yelling at some poor technician in charge of the broken legs. From how mad the aggressor sounded, Alex wouldn't be surprised if the tech ended up getting killed at the end of this.

To Alex's delight, the conversation turned to them transforming the building into its giant form to get it out of the water.

The legs he had destroyed was apparently one of the supports for one of the arms, so both of the giants legs should still be fine. 'Nice! I'll get to see the "Giant Mage" after all!' Alex mentally High fived himself.

The transformation to the humanoid form, while the island was currently on the ground, looked incredibly awkward and brought its own amusement to Alex.

Alex was pulled from the show when he notice 3 of Phantoms members leave the still moving island and head quickly for the shore out of sight of Fairy Tail.

Alex immediately recognized Gajeel, the other two looked familiar but he knew he hadn't met them.

The first was a woman with light brown skin and short, dark green hair. She appeared to be wearing a purple jester hat with Phantoms guild symbol on it.

The other was a bald man, also dark skinned and wore an odd pair of glasses. They had purple lenses but with the left one being mostly broken out.

"Jeez.. That would give me a freaking headache" Alex mumbled at the odd choice of eyewear as he started following the trio. If he wasn't mistaken, this would be the retrieval team sent to capture Lucy while Phantom engaged in combat with Fairy Tail.

'Oh what fun we will all have!' Alex thought with an evil smile!