Well those storyline traces I mentioned above didn't take that long to dissapear, instead the introduction of two new
strong Fairy Tail members, and the start of a new mission. A short summary:
Natsu and Elsa (yeah that's her official name) are back in the guild headquarters, and Natsu asks Elsa to finish the fight they began. Elsa is tired but promptly agrees by knocking Natsu out in one blow. Suddenly everyone falls asleep except the leader. It's Mistgun (?? - hey I don't claim to be a katakana expert). Because of his ability to make everyone around him sleepy nobody ever sees his face when he comes for missions, except for the leader. No, there is one more who has seen his face, a voice from the 2nd floor claims to have seen it. The voice is that of Luxus (Rakusasu in katakana, but I'm fairly sure it's luxus...). He's on the 2nd floor because he is one of the five persons in the guild that are qualified enough to take the S class quests that are published there. The others are the leader, Mistgun, Elsa and one more unknown person.
To prove himself, Natsu's attempting an S class mission, because he's awaiting Lucy in her house
with a quest Happy's stolen from the 2nd floor. Because it's their first S class mission, he took the one with the lowest pay, a cursed island of some sort. Lucy is adamant about not coming with them, until she notices that part of the reward is a gold key. Her greedyness gets the better of her.
Back at headquarters people find out what Natsu & co are up to, and Gray is sent to bring them back. He catches up to them at Harujion, the port city from chapter 1 where they are looking for a ship to take them to the island Garuna (again, could be Galna etc). Natsu knocks him out, and because he's afraid Elsa will come after them next if Gray comes back emptyhanded, they tie him up and take him along.
There's a dramatic tone to the last few pages of chapter 25, so lets hope this quest brings about a more substantial storyline.