Author's note: So, new story time. I actually started writing this a while back, and it's been an idea that I've been wanting to write for a while now. Basically, here's the premise of it: Natsu is aware that he's a demon, is aware that he's Zeref's brother and knows that Zeref's alive and all that, so has greater powers than in canon. And while he's slightly more logical, he's still. Well. Natsu. It follows canon, but also strays a bit whilst it does if that makes sense?

I already have the first few chapters written, because I wanted to know if I could do this first.

Title comes from Cry Thunder by Dragonforce.

"So, Hargeon, eh?"

"Aye, sir."

The crowd that had been in front of two figures, one significantly smaller than the other – and also flying with wings but that hardly matters at the moment – dispersed, revealing what appeared to be a boy in his late teens to early twenties, wild salmon hair all over the place. Beside him at eye level was a flying blue cat. Neither of them seemed too concerned that the cat was blue, and that the cat was also flying. The boy turned to his companion.

"Do you think Igneel really is here?"

The blue cat looked thoughtful before speaking next. "Well, they said that Salamander's supposed to be here, right?"

"And who else would Salamander be referring to but Igneel?" the boy finished, determined grin forming on his face. He looked back at his friend. "Come on, Happy!"

Somewhere further in the port town of Hargeon, Fiore, a girl was walking briskly down the street, an annoyed look on her face as she muttered to herself.

"I can't believe he only knocked off a measly one thousand jewels!" she muttered darkly, glaring at the ground before suddenly stopping. "What good are my feminine wiles if they won't get me decent discounts?!" Such was Lucy's life, anyway. Already three months in and she was spending nineteen thousand jewels on gate keys? Lucy shook her head. It was worth it, all to become a stronger wizard, to join that guild.

A group of girls stampeded past her, leaving a cloud of dust and grit in their wake, screaming at the top of their lungs as they somehow managed to part the crowds with their sheer presence. Lucy blinked. What the…

"It's the famous Fairy Tail wizard!"

"Salamander is here!"

Lucy's eyes widened. Salamander? Here, in Hargeon? She looked towards where the group of girls were running to, and she could see a group forming around someone, screaming and squealing the whole time. "That has to be him!" she exclaimed out loud, making a beeline for the group as well, wanting to get a look at the famous Salamander.

Lucy wasn't sure what she was expecting. She didn't know what Salamander looked like, granted, but she was pretty sure that she wasn't expecting him to look like this. Maybe the stories of his exploits had given her images of someone with a wilder look to him, a feistier grin. This guy that the girls were fawning over seemed too – slimy, too angled. And there was an odd feeling buzzing in her head, like cotton wool, almost making her feel compelled to walk up to him like the other girls.

"What the…"

Lucy trailed off, glancing at his hand. There was a ring there, and suddenly she felt her head clear. So that's what it was. She frowned, but before she could think any more on it, the crowd of gaggling girls was suddenly split down the middle by two newcomers. A teenage boy who appeared to be around Lucy's age and a blue cat. Salamander glanced at them, before giving them both a grin.

"Ah! Do you two want autographs as well?" Salamander asked with a flourish. The two stared at him blankly for a second before turning to one another.

"This isn't Igneel," the boy said, sounding disappointed, but also not surprised.

"Aye," the cat replied, tilting its head and looking at Salamander. Lucy stared wide eyed at the cat. Since when can cats talk?!

The boy glanced at Salamander, giving him a once over. He smirked, and Lucy felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. "But he ain't no Salamander, either."

A handbag flew at him, and Lucy had to duck to avoid it. "You take that back!"

"Salamander is a great wizard!"

The boy and cat gave the crowd more unimpressed looks, and turned to leave –

- Only to be dragged back, the boy looked supremely confused. Lucy didn't blame him, and she looked at Salamander's ring again.

"You dared to offend Salamander!"

"Now, now, ladies," Salamander himself said, taking a step forward and flashing what Lucy supposed he thought was a benevolent smile, "I'm sure he didn't mean any harm by it."

A few girls honestly fainted with love struck expressions on their faces.

"Salamander is so kind!"

From nowhere, Salamander whipped out a piece of paper and a pen, signed the paper with a flourish and handed it over to the boy, grinning. "There. Now you can show this off to all your friends!"

"Thanks," the boy said, trying to hand it back, "but I don't want it."

The speed in which the fangirls of Salamander kicked him out of their sacred circle was really amazing and something to behold, and rather than watch Salamander anymore – because really, who disappears on an actual puff of smoke? – she took off after the boy and the cat who had riled up the girls. She learned that their names were Natsu and Happy, treated them to lunch for helping her realise why her head felt like it did around Salamander, and they then parted ways. It was no big deal.

Natsu and Happy stood on a hill, overlooking the Hargeon port. Just off the shore was a yacht, lit up bright enough to be an eyesore from even here. Whatever, he and Happy were full and content from their meal with Loopy, or whatever her name was.

"You ready to get back home, Happy?" Natsu asked, turning around to lean on the barriers that kept people from falling off the edge up here. He inwardly smirked. As if that would hurt him.

"Aye sir!" Happy affirmed cheerfully, saluting for good measure. Just as he was weighing up the pros and cons of skipping getting the train in favour of the longer, but less painful journey of walking, he saw a group of girls gathered a stone's throw away from Happy and himself.

"Isn't that the Salamander's yacht?" one of them asked, pointing out to the glowing eyesore in the harbour.

"Who's the Salamander?" one of her friends asked, sounding confused.

"Tch! He's only the most famous fire wizard in Fiore!"

"He's part of the Fairy Tail guild!"

Natsu froze, blood running cold despite his hot-blooded nature. He had been content to sit around and let this 'Salamander' run around, to an extent, because putting a stop to him was more trouble than it was worth, and both he and Happy were lazy people at heart. .

This mention of Fairy Tail, however… Well, that just wouldn't do. As the frozen feeling faded, he felt the air around him heating up, and was vaguely aware of Happy taking a step backwards.

"So he's in Fairy Tail, is he?" he muttered, twisting his torso to look at the yacht, narrowing his eyes at it.

Scoping it out.

Glaring through her growing tears, Lucy glared at Salamander, trying not to look at his cronies surrounding her, the unconscious girls who had been lured to the yacht just as she had.

"You just magic to hurt others." Her heart was beating so fast from her rage that it physically hurt her chest, that a wooshing sound that wasn't the ocean filled her ears. "YOU'RE THE WORST WIZARD ALIVE!"

Perhaps she would have said something else. Perhaps Salamander would have said something cocky in response like the slimeball he was, but neither had the opportunity to happen. Instead, what did happen was the roof of the yacht collapsing on everyone. Lucy nearly shrieked.

The debris and dust cleared, leaving someone in its wake. Lucy's eyes widened.

"It's you!"

Natsu's entrance to the yacht would have been significantly more badass, had he not immediately turned a pale shade of green and held his hand to his mouth. Lucy stared.

"This was a bad idea," he ground out, sounding as though he was in a great deal of pain.

"This is the lamest rescue party ever," Lucy informed him, earning a pained death glare in response.

Above the hole left in the ceiling, a winged form suddenly appeared and started hovering. Lucy looked up when the shadow came near her.

"Hi, Lucy!" Happy said cheerfully, floating above the boat, white feathery wings spread. "What're you doing here?"

"This jerk was supposed to get me into Fairy Tail," Lucy said, pointing at Salamander over her shoulder, where he stood watching the unfolding events with a dumbfounded expression. "And instead he – wait, hold on. Since when can you fly?!"

Happy gave her a look. "I'm a blue cat, Lucy. Of course I can fly."

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!"

"Happy!" Natsu said loudly from his spot on the floor, where he appeared to be stuck with his sudden bout of motion sickness. "Take Lucy and go!"

"Aye, sir!"

Before Lucy could even protest, she felt herself being picked up by the back of her dress and carried off the boat and into the sky. "Wait, what about Natsu?" she asked, watching the yacht disappear beneath them.

"I can't carry two people. Besides, Natsu will be fine." A second later, tendrils of purple fire came shooting towards them, looking as though they had every intention of knocking Lucy and Happy out of the sky. Lucy shrieked as Happy flew to avoid them, watching the tendrils collide into dazzling firework displays that lit up the night.

"We have a problem, Lucy," Happy squeaked out, flying more slowly than before. "My transformation's up!"

Lucy felt her stomach leave her body about two seconds before she actually plummeted to the ocean, and it could only be described as 'an odd sensation'. The actual act of breaking the surface, however, was like hitting a brick wall. Lucy sank down, dazed for a second, before beginning to swim up. On a jagged rock, just beneath the rippling surface, she spotted something glinting in the moonlight. Something silver and gold…

No way.

Quickly swimming towards it, she snatched at the ring of gate keys and broke the surface of the water, breathing heavily and staring at her keys happily. "Talk about an amazing coincidence!" she said breathlessly.

"Are you talking to yourself, Lucy?" came a voice from beside her. Surprise surprise, it was Happy. Lucy glared at the water in front of her.

"Shut up, cat."

Taking her gate keys, periodically glancing between the port and the yacht, and hoping she wasn't going to regret calling upon this particular spirit. Taking a deep breath, she stuck the key into the water.

"Open, gate of the water bearer! Aquarius!"

A giant tidal wave and a lot of attempted throwing up later, Natsu found himself standing on top of the wrecked yacht, watching the dumbfounded cronies of 'Salamander' and the man himself try to figure out what had just happened. Admittedly, he had no idea what had just happened either, but now that the pesky ocean was out of the way, it was party time.

"Natsu!"

He recognised that voice as belonging to Lucy, and he had a suspicion that she was the one responsible for the yacht being grounded now. After all, things didn't happen by mere coincidence. For now, though, he ignored her and focused his attention on the proceedings on the broken boat.

"You know," he said, raising his voice so that everyone, including Salamander, would stop talking to look at him, "I was just gonna leave you all alone. After all, you're actually doing me a favour, increasing my rep and all." The air around Natsu began to heat up rapidly. "But bringing Fairy Tail into this?" He took a step closer to the edge, his anger simmering softly beneath his skin. "So you're from that guild, huh?"

'Salamander' smirked up at him, brushing strands of misaligned hair from his very punchable face. "Yeah. What's it to you, you little punk?"

"Let me get a closer look at your face." Faster than anyone around him could quite make out, Natsu threw his maroon, long sleeved jacket off, tossing it aside and paying no mind to where it landed. It wasn't like it mattered anyway. Clothes were easily replaceable. "I'm Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail, and I've never seen your face before!"

"He's in Fairy Tail?!" he heard Lucy gasp, somewhere to the side.

"This is going to be fun," Happy said cheerfully, from somewhere next to her. Inwardly smirking, he steeled his gaze on the would-be wizards.

"Bora, look at his guild mark!" one of his cronies, a large fellow with a crooked nose – how unfortunate – said hurriedly, "He's the real deal!"

"I told you not to call me that!" 'Salamander' – now revealed as Bora – snapped back, looking between the one who revealed him and Natsu.

"Bora, huh?" Natsu tilted his head, looking at him. Yeah, he could see the resemblance now. "Bora the providence, apparently kicked out of Titan Nose a couple of years ago. I didn't even know they kicked people out for bad behaviour, given the company they keep, so congrats on that, buddy." His glare hardened. "But I don't care what you're trying to pull here. I'm not going to let you dirty Fairy Tail's name!"

He began slowly walking forward, not taking his gaze off his target.

Bora smirked. "And you're going to stop me?" A magic circle appeared in front of him as he yelled, "Providence typhoon!"

It was all Natsu could do to not smirk at the incoming purple flames charging straight towards him. They never learn.

As soon as the flames made contact with him, he could hear the blast around him, vaguely make out Lucy's horrified shout from further away and Bora's gloating to his cronies. For a moment, however, he focused on how weak the flames were, how disgustingly tasteless they were and how they barely even tickled his skin. Honestly, it was like taking a lukewarm shower. Except the lukewarm shower was better.

"The larger the talk, the weaker the man," Bora said from the other side of the wall of fire.

Natsu smirked. Time for the opening act.

With gusto, he began swallowing down the flames that Bora had helpfully supplied him with. "Tch! Are you sure you're really a fire wizard? Because these are the worst flames I've ever tasted!"

It was all worth it to see the horrified looks on their faces. He didn't even know why Bora tried to fight him after that, knowing that he was immune to fire. Especially weak fire like that. In the end, Natsu only ended up destroying the man's yacht, and really, he was doing everyone a favour by destroying that eyesore. He didn't know the rune knights would see it that way as well, though. So for good measure, when preparing to make a getaway, he decided to grab Lucy's hand.

"Where the hell are you taking me?!" Lucy demanded as she was being dragged along behind Natsu and Happy. The latter two exchanged a grin.

"You said you wanted to join Fairy Tail, right?" Happy said, flying just above them. Natsu looked back and saw that Lucy's eyes had gotten wide. It seemed that the implication had sunk in.

He grinned. "So let's go!"

Author's note: So, that was that. Meeting chapter. I really hope it was okay because I'm super nervous about posting this story and posting new chapters. Please let me know if it's okay?