They set out early the next morning, Acnologia thought it better to walk instead of going all 'dragon form' on them. Acnologia found that leading the three quiet and composed Strauss siblings was much easier than rounding up seven dragon slayers.

"UNCLE!" someone called and Acnologia's jaw nearly dropped. Laxus ran up to him, his hair was singed and there was a bruise on his forehead.

"L-Laxus!" Acnologia choked, "what are you doing here!?" he immediately looked for the other six... and the dragon slayer who was supposed to be watching those seven rebellious dragon slayers.

"Serena let me go on a mission!" Laxus said proudly.

"What mission!?" Acnologia gaped. 

"I got to beat up criminals," Laxus shrugged.

"And he... You... What?" Acnologia sighed.

"It was no big deal," Laxus assured him.

"No big de-" Acnologia began.

"So is that the bubble-wrapped rock?" Mira asked.

"He acts more like bubble wrap," Lisanna pondered.

"He looks pretty manly," Elfman concurred.

Laxus's face was priceless.

Luckily the intervention of the Strauss siblings had cooled Acnologia down... he was now only silently contemplating Serena's demise.

They were two days from Magnolia so it was no surprise that Laxus joined up with Acnologia and the Strauss's. 

They stopped in a town that was quite lively. There was some celebration happening and traveling acts of all kinds were in town. Acnologia and the kids were cornered by all sorts of acts. Some disappearing wizards, a teleportation expert, gymnasts, and every maddening person Acnologia found imaginable. He almost leveled the town.

"Bickslow!" someone yelled before barreling into an unsuspecting Laxus.

"Caught you!" a young boy laughed. Laxus looked absolutely flabbergasted.

"Peppe!" another boy yelled. An older boy ran up, he had dark blue hair and bright green eyes along with a strange tattoo on his face.

"Bickslow?" the boys asked innocently, it was then that Acnologia figured out that the boy was blind.

"Scuse me sorry," Bickslow laughed running up and grabbing the young boy, "Told you not to run off."

"Thought I could finally catch you off guard!" the kid laughed.

"Not today you little crazy," Bickslow laughed throwing the kid over his shoulder.

"Bickslow!" someone else laughed. The older boy was then bombarded by four other kids. Some clung to his arms or to his legs making him carry them.

"You crazy bunch of goons! Come on, we're performing at the stupid circus next we have to hurry up!" Bickslow laughed. The kids all laughed especially the blind one.

Acnologia smiled slightly and helped Laxus to his feet.

"I had flashbacks to Sting's idea of tag," Laxus muttered.

Everyone laughed and promptly forgot about the strange children - until that night.

They checked into a hotel and went to sleep. Sometime during the night, Acnologia woke up to the sound of screams and the smell of smoke. He leaped out of bed and rushed to the window where he saw the circus ablaze. He jumped out of the window and ran down the street.

The circus tent was aflame, people were there trying to put it out, some were screaming but above the voices, he heard a familiar one.

"NO! THERE ARE KIDS IN THERE! YOU HAVE TO LET ME GO!" cried a boy. Acnologia looked and saw the one they called Bickslow struggling against and adults arms trying to reach the burning tent, in his hands were five tiki dolls.

"No, you'll die," the adult tried to reason.

Bickslow pushed through and began running towards the tent, he threw down the tiki dolls as he did so. Then there was an explosion, the flames must have reached the gun powder that they used for fireworks. The blast pushed Bickslow back, the child watched as the tent collapsed, Acnologia knew from the sound and smell... none had escaped.

Bickslow was crying now, he went to his knees and hit the ground with both of his fists.

"Please no," he choked.

Then, Acnologia felt a huge surge of power. Bickslow's tattoo began to glow neon green, the tiki dolls that Bickslow had thrown down began to levitate. Slowly five wisps emerged from the tent, souls, Acnologia realized, the souls of the five kids he had lost.

"Bickslow, Bickslow," they said in harmony.

Bickslow looked up, his tattoo still glowing, "guys?" he asked.

"Friends, friends!" they repeated.

"Poppo!" one laughed

"Puppu!" another cheered circling around Bickslow

"Pippi!" the third giggled.

"Pappa!" the fourth cheered.

"Peppe!" the fifth cried barreling into Bickslow's chest.

"Peppe," Bickslow sobbed hugging the doll close, he called each doll by name as he pulled them into an embrace. "Poppo, Puppu, Pippi, Pappa, I shouldn't have left you, I should have been there... I'm sorry!"

"What the-" one person asked.

"SOUL REAPER!" another cried.

"OH FOR MAVIS'S SAKE PEOPLE," Acnologia roared "HE'S A KID, GIVE ME A BREAK! STOP FREAKING OUT ABOUT THINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

"Get him out of this town!" another called. Acnologia looked to the crowd, the Strauss sibling watched worriedly, Acnologia didn't know when they had left the hotel, but they obviously didn't like what they saw. Laxus was there as well his hair sparking with angered electricity "Begone!" another person screamed. Bickslow was wincing with every insult.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lisanna called. The sound of the young voice startled many into silence. Lisanna walked over to Bickslow. She sat down next to him and hugged him.

Bickslow was crying tears streaming down his cheeks.

"It's okay, it'll be okay," Lisanna cooed.

"Back away from him!" a woman shouted, "He's a monster!"

Thunder rumbled and suddenly Laxus appeared in a spark of lightning separating Bickslow and Lisanna from the rest of the crowd.

"Back up you jerks!" he roared, "People like you really tick me off!"

Lisanna looked to Laxus briefly before refocusing on Bickslow. "I'm so sorry"

"They were all scared... I left them alone," Bickslow cried, "I left my family all alone!"

"Family right here!" one doll chanted.

"Bickslow's family!" another cheered.

"We gotta get out of here!" Laxus growled," few more lightning strikes will scare em' but after that, I'm all out of tricks."

"Calm down Laxus," Acnologia said placing a hand on the teenager's head, "these people are just scared of something they don't understand."

"Leave, or we will force you to leave!" someone shouted rallying the citizens.

Another stunning lightning strike from Laxus silenced them.

"Come on kids!" Acnologia growled walking forward, the crowd parted for him. Mira, Lisanna, and Elfman nodded and began following him 

Bickslow stayed where he was.

"Are you coming or not soul reaper?" Laxus asked as he eyed the crowd warily.

"You want me to come with you?" Bickslow asked.

"Yeah you idiot, you see anyone else with his friend's souls hanging about?!"

Bickslow scrambled to his feet and looked to the edge of town, "where are you all going?"

Laxus looked at the boy and gave a small smirk, "home."

The children were, of course, welcomed into the guild. Laxus immediately gained Bickslow's trust and friendship. Mira, as it turned out could be quite the devil child, Lisanna was well, Lisanna, everyone loved her, and Elfman had a thing with being a 'real man'.

Bickslow and Laxus had gone out so that Laxus could show him the town. 

"You'll probably live in some apartment somewhere, gramps will help you sign up for it and send you on jobs to pay it off," Laxus shrugged as they walked past a few apartments.

Bickslow nodded as his dolls flew around wildly, "Don't think I'll be able to take any serious jobs, I don't even know what my magic is," Bickslow shrugged.

"Don't worry about it, you can form a team until you learn to use it a little more. I couldn't go on any jobs without Erik or Acnologia when I first became a dragon slayer."

"A team huh?" Bickslow said as he thought about it.

"Yeah."

"Do you think y-" Bickslow began.

"STOP IT!" someone yelled.

Laxus perked up and ran down a side street.

"Where you going?!" Bickslow asked.

Laxus turned a corner and collided with a green-haired boy both boys fell backward. The green-haired boy recovered first.

"I'm sorry!" he cried, then he stumbled to his feet and continued running. Bickslow ran up and helped Laxus to his feet.

"What was that about?" Bickslow asked.

"You're about to find out," Laxus gritted looking forward.

A grown man was running down the street, "Come back here you thief!"

He ran past Laxus and Bickslow without a glance.

"What's going on!?" Bickslow asked.

"It's not yours!" the green-haired boy yelled back as he continued running.

"Like that could ever belong to you brat!" the man cried.

The boy stopped turned and wrote something in the air with his fingers. The man caught up and then seemingly ran into an invisible wall.

"You brat!" the man hissed rubbing his nose.

"It belonged to me, not you," the boy said proudly.

The man kicked the enchantment and it promptly broke, the green-haired boy took a nervous step backward.

"Who cares who owned it first, who's gonna back you up?" the man asked.

Naturally, Laxus intervened.

The man was shocked by a lightning bolt. Once he recovered he was headbutted by a floating tiki doll.

"I'd say he's a jerk," Bickslow shrugged.

"He reeks of it," Laxus growled.

"Thank you," the green-haired boy breathed.

"What'd he steal?" Bickslow asked.

"He stole a book that belonged to my father," the boy said pulling a think book out of a satchel on his side.

"That was a lot of conflict over a book," Laxus observed.

"It's a spellbook that teaches about enchantments," the boy sad said, "My dad passed it on to me before he died, I'm not losing it."

"Look I'm not asking for it," Laxus shrugged.

"Yeah I don't need a book," Bickslow laughed.

"Just thought we'd help out," Laxus smiled.

"Who are you?" the boy asked.

"Name's Bickslow."

"Laxus."

"I'm Freed," the boy stated.

"Free from what?" Bickslow joked, "kidding! I'm kidding."

"Where are you two from?" Freed asked behind a smile.

"Fairy Tail, big guild over that away," Bickslow laughed pointing.

"Cool," Freed nodded.

"How about you?" Laxus asked.

"I don't live anywhere for the moment," Freed said in an unconcerned manner.

"You should totally come with us then, almost guarantee that there'll be no more crazy men running after you because you took a book," Bickslow chuckled.

"Maybe one day," Freed shrugged.

"Yeah..." Laxus nodded, "Or maybe today, you're what six?"

"I'm eleven," Freed said.

"Great," Laxus nodded, he then looked back to Bickslow "You're twelve right?" 

"Yep, this is perfect," Bickslow smiled.

"Perfect for... what are you doing?" Freed asked.

The guild doors opened and everyone was very confused. Bickslow and Laxus were dragging a boy by his feet across the floor.

"Laxus... what are you doing?" Acnologia asked.

"Bettering the life of this human being!" Laxus yelled back.

"I object to this!" Freed cried.

"Look, there are food and weird people, you'll be right at home," Bickslow shrugged.

Freed sighed and allowed himself to be dragged. In a few days, Bickslow and Laxus had convinced Freed to join Fairy Tail. A few weeks after that they formed a team and ever since, the three of them were inseparable.