Deadpool: *tiptoes up to locked box, carefully picks lock and slowly lifts lid*

Grizz: WHAT do you think you're doing?!

DP: *yelps, turns to Grizz* No-nothing. Just being curious.

Grizz: *hums* Sure, whatever you say. *grabs Deadpool by his belt* Rae, I'm taking him for a ride through town. Mind introducing our readers to the latest to leave the Insanity Factory?

Rae: *grins sadistically* No problem Grizz! *clears throat* Alright ladies, gentlemen and souls in between! Welcome to Speed of Freedom! This is a collab between Grizz and I. There will be swearing, violence and of course sweet racing! So fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!

DP: No! No! Not the bumper! *yells*

Rae: *can be heard cackling madly in the distance*

Speed of Freedom

Chapter 1

Fairy's Garage

Moonlight breaks through the foliage overhead, illuminating a single paved road weaving through the thick trees. Too late for the diurnal creatures to be up, but too early for the nocturnal to seek their nests and hollows quiet sounds fill the night air… Until a subtle tremor racks the ground. Within the trees a herd of deer freeze as one, their eyes focused on the road as the subtle tremor grows, resolving into a thudding bass that has the shy creatures running for the shelter of the deep shadows. More nocturnal creatures follow their lead, running from the deep bass as bright blue LED lights flood the road.

The Honda, a midnight blue blurring the finer detailing with its speed hits a curve in the road and the driver—a blonde haired woman wearing a sharp smile—steps on the brake, easily drifting into the turn as if it's second nature. Nodding her head to the bass, her smile begins to fade, her chocolate eyes hardening with anger under the dashboard lights. With her mind falling back to the argument that had led her here, she steps on the gas, releasing her anger in the form of the engine under the hood roaring it to the world.

She'd been having a fine day until her father had decided to test her patience. It is far from the first time, she'd left the house with a bit more anger, little less control, and more of a need for speed then her Mother would prefer but with said parent not present the blonde had realized it'd be easier to get away then do something she may regret. When her eyes catch onto the lights in the distance illuminating the bridge leading to her hometown her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel loosens and she snorts.

She just had to take Igneel and Metalicana but leave me with the asshat. The one fucking...Inhaling, she carefully loosens her grip again. It wouldn't do to crash before she could even reach her home. At that, she grins, leaning back in her seat. The mansion might be the house she's grown up in twenty-five percent of her short life but her home is nowhere as neat or empty. No, she thinks quietly, her eyes catching a flash of lights in her side mirror. It's definitely not empty.

As she can just make out the bridge in the dark, the LED lights belonging to a second car is quickly followed by a thunderous roar she'd recognize anywhere. Laying off the gas allows the nose of a cherry red Acura NSX she knows intimately to appear in her driver's side window. The matte red scale detail spreading across the car's side catches her eye for only a moment before a salmon-haired male wearing a pair of goggles is grinning at her from behind the driver's seat. Grinning back, the blonde throws him a two finger salute and speeds up, the roar of both cars echoing across the bridge.

Natsu Dragneel, she smirks, a familiar warmth blooming in her chest knowing he's there. The pinkett—It's salmon, damnit, she knows he'd argue—is the heir and prince of one of the strongest Families in the city of Magnolia. With his Father and her Mother having been friends for so long, she's practically grown up with the man but it wasn't until Igneel and Metalicana, Natsu's uncle, started showing her the ins-and-outs of cars and mechanics in total, she started growing closer to the energetic and endearing boy.

While the shart eating heifer that she calls her father hadn't taken to the idea with an ounce of anything save distaste, her Mother had fully agreed and encouraged her to dive headfirst into the wonderful world of engines, adrenaline, and speed that is fast cars and racing. Her first underground race, it had in fact been Igneel and Metalicana that'd taken her when Natsu asked that she go. And when things with the bastard at home got rough the blonde had always sped off to the Dragneels to hide and let off steam—this time being no different even if three of her favorite people are halfway across the world.

A dull roar draws her from her thoughts and she looks over to the right-hand mirror, grinning at the white Mitsubishi she sees rolling up. Even though its roar is duller than the Acura's she knows, for a fact, it has enough power under the hood to easily keep up in a race around the city of Magnolia. In fact, it has. With her cool-headed raven-haired best friend behind the wheel, the ice blue rimmed wheels have won many races for their home garage. Speaking of which... Spotting her friend pulling even with her passenger window she throws a wink at him, sticking her tongue out playfully. He grins at her in return and as one the trio of cars runs a red light, drifting casually around a turn.

Over the tops of some of the smaller buildings, an odd birdlike profile billboard grabs her attention and her chocolate eyes soften in joy. Her home, her real home: Fairy Tail. Little more than a warehouse it's one of the most popular garages on the East Coast, quickly rising in popularity across Fiore and internationally. People with deep pockets looking to buff their ego, or Racers, street and drag alike, flock to them with requests for many things ranging from custom parts to paint jobs.

Her own paint job, the constellations splattered across the sides of her car, having been a gift from a professional painter friend of hers working there. But what most people don't know—and most street racers like herself refuse to admit to anyone who doesn't already know—the legal Fairy Tail is just a cover. Most of their business is dealt with the underground among the street races, Families, and Mafias making up Fiore's Underworld.

As they round the turn onto the road leading to the warehouse located on the pier in front of the ocean a deep red Subaru WRX rounds the turn several seconds behind them, its engine roaring to announce its approach as it slides in behind the blonde's own car. Upon approaching the warehouse a garage door opens and the four of them slide on in, the garage door coming down behind the Subaru with a dull thud. Parking in a corner out of the way of the equipment sprawled around several lifts, the blonde climbs out, grinning at the midnight-haired man.

"You really think you can get at me, Gray?" The man, slamming his own car door shut, folds his arms over top the roof, shrugging at her. He lacks a shirt, pale skin shining in the workshop lights, but it doesn't seem to bother him even with the slight chill off the water.

"Meh, it was worth the try." And he grins, winking at her. "At least I don't have to watch my back." Now she's really confused. Gray isn't typically the one to play games with her. Save for the stripping habit that lands him behind bars at least once a month he's generally more of the gentlemanly kind. Natsu on the other hand…

She squeals when strong arms wrap around her waist confining her against a warm well-muscled chest. Rough laughter rumbles through his chest, tickling her ear and a dark blush colors her cheeks. "Damnit, Natsu! Put me down!" She grabs his arms, trying for leverage to turn to glare at the goggles she can see resting in spiked pink locks. Dye job, She decides. Gray might be able to help me slip it into Natsu's bathroom. She pauses, looking thoughtful and inwardly shakes her head. Definitely Gajeel or even Wendy. Gray would make too much of a mess.

His arms tense around her stomach and she can practically see the gears turning in his head. When he sets her down, scowling at her she knows he's followed her train of thought. "Oh, HELL no! You're not getting me with one of your pranks again Luce."

Turning around, she sets her fists on her hips and smirks at the pinkett. "Then maybe you should know better than to surprise me!" Her smirk softens into a playful grin and she leans back, tapping an index finger against her chin and looking thoughtful. "Hmm," She hums, glancing over to find his onyx eyes widening a fraction. "Maybe I'll see if Reedus and Levy will help me respray your car. Pink is a good color on you."

His jaw drops, leaving him gaping like a fish. Terror shining in his eyes, she keeps the playful grin in place, cackling madly on the inside. She decides to let him think she's going to respray his car, but she's already running through a list of colors to dye his hair. Lucy's grin widens into a smirk as she turns around and starts heading for the door. I think I'll ask Wendy to help. Natsu has been teasing her a lot lately about Romeo. She hums, absentmindedly taking her boots off in the utility room and heads for the loud voices.

XxX

Natsu watches in growing horror as Lucy turns her back and heads inside. Shaking himself out of his stupor, he gives chase, his mind running around a simple thought in terror. She was kidding! She had to be kidding! She knows how much my car means to me! He thinks frantically. But he also knows the blonde well enough to know she would definitely do something to his car. She knows he would never do anything to her. Everyone else—except the women, they're childish, not suicidal!—is fair game.

He follows her through a metal door propped open by a piece of scrap metal welded onto a hinge for that reason into the living area where everyone else seems to be chilling for the evening. Off to his left is a kitchen area cordoned off by an island made up of a large wooden wire spool cut in half and a piece of oak glued between the two pieces. Faint smells of cooked food linger in the air, proof of the dinner that had been cooked and the empty dishes with remaining food lining the island.

Ignoring the white-haired women busy cleaning up the kitchen, he steps further into the room, his eyes wondering over the industrial washer and dryer on the wall opposite the kitchen. Finding nothing there he turns to the main area filled with couches, sofas, and loveseats surrounding a large TV. Behind the large TV a set of stairs rises to the second floor, the walls bolted to the metal rafters preventing anyone from seeing the two halls leading to the separate rooms for anyone to crash.

Noises from the movie—A Fast and Furious if he had to take a guess—fills the background around the conversations meeting him. The atmosphere itself is relaxed, calm compared to their normal daily madness, and he finds himself settling under the familiar surroundings. A soft grin spreads across his face at being among others he considers family. When his eyes land on the raven-haired stripper telling the guys lounging on the far right seat a story he scowls, walking up to them.

It's the blue-haired mohawk wearing designer, Bickslow, that catches sight of him first. The Auto Designer grins, his tongue sticking out of his mouth to reveal a tattoo of the crew logo in black, and speaks to Gray, pointing at Natsu. He turns, smirking at the pinkett. "Oi! Flame Brain…" Gray doesn't get to finish before Natsu lurches forward, fist flying. In the next instant the two boys are brawling all over the living area. And yet no one really pays attention to the two. Expertly dodging and weaving out of the way while never breaking from their chosen activities.

Above the entertainment room, a short man no taller than three feet stands on the railing, grinning at the chaos being caused. His head, while bald on top, has a crown of white hair covering the back and sides. A white-gray fur-trimmed overcoat covers his black shirt and part of his black khakis not hidden by his calf-high black boots. The owner of the Garage and the company, a burst of pride flares in his chest at the brats he's taken in and rescued from a life on the streets. Some, he's taken care of since they were teens, while others have simply wandered in and never left.

When Natsu and Gray's brawl comes within rocking distance of the TV, Makarov takes a deep breath. "Alright, Brats!" Everything comes to a pause, the twenty or so people sprawled across the room turning to look at his. "Time to hit the sack. Remember, we have a busy day ahead of us!" He can't help the grin that stretches his features when the younger brats groan in annoyance. But, no one seems to be up for arguing with him tonight, only a handful of people move for the door leading out to the main garage, the remainder begins filing for the stairs leading up.

Natsu on the other hand, pouts, eyes folding into a puppy pout that normally has the old man folding and allowing them to stay up later. Thankfully, for Makarov at least, Lucy stalks over to the pinkett, grabbing him by his ear. "Oh, we are not doing this tonight. We have work to do tomorrow and I am not having my car taken away because you decided to stay in bed!"

"Lucy!" He whines, scrabbling at the iron hold on his ear. "Come on, he hasn't done it in forever!" The blonde ignores his pleas, dragging him up the stairs behind a passive redhead hauling Gray by his ear as well. Caught in the line of people crawling up the stairs when Lucy reaches the top, she and Natsu are stuck waiting for a minute.

In that time, Makarov turns to her, his brows folding in worry. "Lucy, my dear," He murmurs. When he catches her eye he tilts his head. "Is everything alright?" She smiles but the old man can tell it's fake. The corners are too tight, the light that normally shines in her eyes is dampened. It's a smile he's come to know too often in these last few years…

"Yeah, Gramps, everything's great." Before he can call her out on her strained tone she and Natsu are gone, the pinkett following her down the right walkway still rubbing his ear. Then they round the corner of the wall into the hall and are out of the old man's sights. Natsu, having noticed the tightness in Lucy's shoulders, frowns, keeping a close eye on her figure.

The hall they enter is lined with five doors to a wall. Both walls are splattered in every color of paint possible, some blending to make different pictures while others just look like someone had taken a bucket of paint and threw it at the wall. When they pass a negative profile of a human with a spikey head, the pinkett grins, a memory of an aggravated Gajeel chasing him into the main garage with a paint roller crosses his mind. The doors themselves are little better, to say the least. Between the handprints and names signed across the doors, it'd be safe to say that at least everyone in the crew has made their mark at least once.

He and Lucy stop at the third door on the left, Lucy grabbing the doorknob but seemingly unable to turn it. Sensing her turbulent emotions, Natsu steps forward, resting a hand on her shoulder. She shrugs it off, though, and opens the door, about to close it on him before he slips his foot in and halts the motion. She scowls, glaring at the pinkett with angerless anger. "Go to bed, Natsu."

"No," His fist clenches, when his hand closed into a fist he hasn't the slightest idea. "Not until you tell me what's wrong." He doesn't miss the way she bites her lip, or the impressions her short manicured nails leave in her palm, but most of all it's the chained agony in her eyes that has him pushing through the door to wrap his arms around her. When she dips her head into his shoulder he tilts his lips to her ear, murmuring nearly under his breath. "Remember, Lucy, I'm always here. There will always be a Natsu and Lucy." She's not ready to talk, he knows. It's always like this when something troubles his blonde. She won't talk until she's ready so when he feels her nod, he steps back, allowing Lucy to close the door.

Walking to the next door down, he quietly opens it and closes it behind him. Locking the door behind him, he takes his goggles off, throwing them on the nightstand beside the bed before stripping off his shirt and throwing it in the direction of the door where he knows a coat hanger is nailed into the wood. Frankly, to him at this point, he doesn't care if it makes it or not. Instead, he turns off the lamp on the nightstand and crashes into the bed, closing his eyes to ward off the lights from the other rooms bouncing off the underside of the roof.

XxX

He's woken by his head hitting the floor. Growling, he sits up, rubbing the back of his head to find Lucy dressed in blue overalls standing in front of his feet with her hands on her hips. From the bright light bouncing off the roof, the pinkett can already guess it's early morning. Probably an hour before we have to be downstairs. He rolls his eyes, sitting up to get to his feet. "Alright, I'm up. What's up with the sour look?"

As he pulls on the shirt Lucy has so helpfully chucked at his head he finds his door is open and she's holding up a lock picking set. "Next time don't lock your door or I'll have Elfman rush it." Swallowing at the threat he grabs his goggles and walks past her. It's not an idle threat, he knows. She's done it before and made him pay for another. With it being his room, Makarov won't step in just because he decided to be an idiot. They've been over this before with the entire crew. Some of them have permanent rooms in the garage, while others have apartments throughout the city. He for one prefers his room in the garage so it's become his permanent living quarters for the time being. His blonde on the other hand…

Could it have been…? Shaking off the question rolling around in his mind he jogs down the steps. There are at least three rooms constantly being used as permanent living arrangements like his but the other seventeen are free to be used by any of the crew who need to crash for the night, need to hide from the law, or are simply too lazy to leave for their own places. Judging by the number of people sitting on the couches he's going to say that no one wanted to go home last night.

Particularly when Gramps calls for an early morning. He scowls at that, glaring at the plates piled with food sitting on the island. Shitty Gramps and his shitty rules. He grabs a plate for him and Lucy, piling his own three times the height of hers and walks over to where she's sitting down with two glasses of orange juice sitting on the coffee table in front of her. It's not an uncommon morning for them to eat in silence—he is not awake until his hands are covered in grease and the first engine of the day is roaring in front of him. Fuck anyone who says otherwise.—but it is uncommon for Lucy to eat little more than her grits and plop everything else on his plate.

A glance at her from the corner of his eye, though, has him returning to his plate. If she wants to tell me she will. With that thought in mind, he finishes off his plate, downs the rest of his orange juice, and grabs all four dishes to drop in the sink. Quietly he thanks the gods he doesn't have dish duty this week and takes off for the door of the garage, pausing only long enough to slip on his boots in the utility room before pushing the door open and walking down the wall to the bench he shares with the stripper.

For all they fight, he and the Ice Prick are pretty good—fucking awesome in his opinion—at taking apart and putting back together a race worthy engine in under a day. The simple engine problems Makarov sends their way? A walk in the park. Going through his morning checklist takes half an hour, at which everyone else begins to enter the garage, those working the lifts moving to open their doors and prepare their benches lined along the back wall. He knows the computer geeks are still waking up, those under Office-Management and in Auto Design are allowed to start work at nine am while everyone in the garage has to be up and ready to work by seven am. A two-hour difference, from experience, allows the garage workers time to work through the ordinary repair jobs before the Designers start flooding them with the custom jobs.

Another fifteen minutes pass by in which Gray finally joins him at their bench, putting the last of their tools in order before the door to the Living Quarters slams shut with a bang loud enough to echo through the entire workshop. "Alright, listen up!" At the bellow, he and Gray turn to the redhead wearing grease-stained blue overalls, a pair of worn steel toe boots, with her hair pinned back in a functional braid. Her eyes, a dark chocolate brown, when they land on him and Gray are serious. "We've got a lot to do today in just a few short hours if Makarov is gonna let us off early tonight." When she turns away, her eyes roaming over the heads present she scowls, tapping the clipboard in her hand against her hip. "Where is Gajeel? He should know by now to be here on time."

Three car lifts down, across from the double doors leading to the shop for custom parts two men hide partially behind the open door. Their attempts to hold back their laughter fail and Erza sets her sights on them. "Sarusuke, Droy, where is Gajeel?" The orange-haired man jumps, knocking the back of his head into the raven-haired man's chin and stumbles out onto the floor, a hand rubbing the sore spot on his head.

"Gajeel went to Levy's last night." He winces, one eye closed at the tender spot on his head. "He said he'd be in 'when the geeks and Shrimp come in.'" Natsu has to bite back a chuckle at the man's near exact replication of his cousin's own grinding bass of a tone.

The redhead nods, her expression going neutral. "I see, very well then. I'll speak to Makarov about that after we're done here." With that she folds over a paper on the clipboard, skimming the papers quickly before beginning to call out, "Paint and Detailing, we need the frames for the Charger, Camaro, and F150 by closing today. Deadline's coming fast so we need to be faster. I trust you'll get it done?"

She glances up and Lucy smirks, tossing her a two fingered salute. "Aye, Sir! We'll have 'em done." Receiving another nod from Erza, Lucy turns to the double doors set at the opposite end of the warehouse leading to the Paint and Detailing shop. The others in that shop having been counted for, they follow her, murmuring about their orders.

"Mechanics!" Natsu perks up at the call and focuses on the redhead. It won't do for him to mess something up just because he wasn't paying attention after all. "Standard oil changes, a couple tire rotations, got an engine that's making rattling noises, who's up for that one?" She glances up as she rattles off and almost immediately Natsu shoots his hand in the air, grinning at her.

"We've got it, Erza. Give the oil changes to Elfhead."

On the redhead's other side the mountain of a man that goes by Elfman scowls, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's not manly to claim all the interesting projects to yourself, Natsu."

Natsu sticks his tongue out at the giant and Erza waves it off, nodding at the pinkette. "It doesn't matter. Natsu and Gray have the rattling engine. Other than a couple of gaskets, loose hoses and two inspections there's not much else. I'll leave the paper on the wall so you four can decide between yourselves who gets the rest. Natsu and Gray, the rattling engine will be in about one o'clock so find something on the list to keep yourselves busy until then."

Having received their orders, the salmon-haired mechanic falls to the back of the crowd allowing Erza to hand out the rest of the orders to the Custom Parts crew. After that's done she takes the sheet with the Mechanic orders on it and pins it to the corkboard bolted to the wall beside the Living Quarters door. Almost immediately Gray wanders over to look at the other jobs while he hangs back at the bench. It's their usual routine, he grabs the interesting jobs when Erza announces them in the morning and Gray decides which mundane jobs they're to do in the meantime. After all the Auto Designers never really poke at the mechanics, typically leaving them to their own unless there's a problem with the custom parts not fitting correctly.

When Gray gets back with their part of the standard orders they get to work, calling in one of the few customers waiting in the small lobby like building built next to the warehouse itself.

In what seems no time at all the clock on the wall strikes nine am. Natsu, up to the waist under the hood of a Silverado 2500 looks up when he hears a door slam. He grins, uncaring of the grease mark stretching across his forehead as he looks at his bench partner. "Showtime!" Gray hushes him, turning to watch as the Living Quarters door slams open.

"Gramps! This isn't fair! Ain't like I missed anything Dumb and Dumber couldn't do!" The deep angry bass follows Makarov as he walks out the door, a keyring held tightly in his hand. Natsu has to bite his lip to stop from laughing but as soon as he catches sight of his black-haired cousin stomping through the door on metal studded boots he feels a flicker of pity in his stomach. Being late to work is one thing...being grounded is something much different.

His cousin won't strike the older man—no one in their family of misfits would, it'd be akin to disrespecting the family itself to try. Instead, he follows along with dragging feet as Makarov walks up to a stool bolted to the ground in between two workbenches. Two feet above the stool, just high enough for the old man to reach, is a small black metal cabinet with a password lock. Everyone in the Fairy Tail crew knows what it is...they've all had their keys taken away more than once.

The Grounding Box, Natsu shakes his head returning back to his task at hand. I'm just lucky Gramps hasn't taken my keys in more than a few months. It is well known that if Gramps puts the keys in the box they're not coming out for a week or more depending on how bad the crime was. A day late to work is nothing but a three-day offense. Getting arrested? A week at least.

"Damn," Natsu glances up, finding Gray leaning over the fender to look at his work. "Gramps really hasn't let up has he?" It's not so much of a question as a statement but Natsu shakes his head anyway.

Tightening the last part, he stands up straight, motioning Gray away from the side before pulling the hood closed. "I wouldn't be worried about that. I'd be more worried about the fact the season starts tonight and Metalhead just missed out on his chance to do a call out until next race." Gray pauses for a moment then nods, conceding the point.

"I'll give you that." And he grins, extending a grease-covered hand. "First to finish off the next order gets to prank the poor bastard?"

Natsu grins in return, shaking Gray's hand with a grease-covered hand of his own. "You're on ya damn Ice Prick."

Rae: *leans over railing as the roar of an engine gets closer*

Deadpool: *groans, grabbing bumper to sit up* No more! You damn she-demons. No more!

Grizz: *arches eyebrow* I don't know. Rae, think Wade's learned his lesson to stay away from our secret projects?

Rae: *tilts head to the side, eyes twinkling* Hmm...I don't know Grizz. I doubt it. He's one curious mother fucker.

DP: No! I learned my lesson! I'll stick to Grizz's plotbooks and stay away from the lock box.

Rae: *grins darkly* Good. Next time, it's a ride with me.

Grizz: *chuckles shaking head* I'll never get enough of you two. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that this one is no longer a secret. Folks, I welcome you to the new exciting roller coaster. If you're a returning reader, Rae and I have been kinda busy pounding out plotting and writing for this story which is why I haven't been focused on my others. If you're a new reader, Rae?

Rae: *grins widely while throwing arms out to the sides* Then welcome to the insanity that is Grizz and I!

Grizz: Nice one. Anyway, right now this is just sort of a teaser chapter to get y'all excited but don't worry. *winks* We'll be back with the rest soon enough.

Grizzly and Raelin out for the night!

P.S. Grizzly's Muse Highly Approves of this Chapter!