Ch 19: The Salamander

X784 Hargeon port, just two years since we last saw our Hunters:

Currently walking through the streets was a certain blonde that was extremely happy to have gotten another celestial key. Granted it wasn't one fit for combat, but that didn't mean she wouldn't care for the spirit any less than any of her other ones. The only problem was that she unfortunately spent most of her remaining jewels, since the old coot didn't drop the price much for her, and she wasn't any closer to accomplishing her life's dream of joining Fairy Tail.

"Now what am I going to do?" asked the blonde to herself as she looked down at her newly acquired key.

"Did you hear about Salamander being in town?" asked a random girl as she and her friend passed the blonde.

"The one that is the leader of the Hunters?" asked the other girl.

"Yep, and apparently he's having some sort of party that you can only get into if you talk with him first." replied the first girl.

"I thought he liked to not receive attention like that, and preferred to remain anonymous?" asked the second one as the blonde decided to follow them and listen in on their conversation.

"Maybe he's decided to change." suggested the other one with a bright smile.

"I highly doubt that." replied her friend with a skeptical look.

"But are you willing to risk this chance of possibly meeting one of the countries strongest mages? Who is also supposed to be quite the looker from what I've read about, well at least according to most of the women he's saved that is." she said with a sly grin as the other girl seemed to have a hard time making up her mind.

"You're right, we'd be complete fools to not go and at least take a quick peek at him." said the friend as they both then took off towards the pier where Salamander was rumored to be currently at.

"They're right, I can't let an opportunity like this pass me by." thought the blonde as she took after the girls that she was eavesdropping on just seconds ago. But unfortunately they were already gone, although she got lucky thanks to the loud shouts of Salamander-sama coming from further ahead. So with a smirk the blonde headed to the center of the commotion which was a large crowd of girls screaming at someone in the center of them.

"I need to get through." mumbled the blonde as she made her way through the group of fan girls, finally getting through after fighting for at least two minutes with the other women. What she saw surprised her; standing in the center of them was a blue haired man handing out autographs while making all the women swoon for him.

This is also when the blonde realized that her heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest just at the sight of Salamander. Her first thought was that this had to be what they meant by love at first sight, because all she wanted to do right now was run up to Salamander and not let any of the other women near him. But before she could act on such thoughts someone bumped into the back of her left shoulder, causing her to fall flat on her face.

When the blonde got back up she realized that she apparently was the only one to not move out of the way for the woman that ran into her. Said woman had gorgeous white hair that went down to the middle of her back and was contained by the orange bow on the top of her head. The next thing the blonde noticed by this new woman was her porcelain white skin that made her look like she rarely saw the light of day. She was also wearing an elegant white cocktail dress that showed off her voluptuous curves that would make most women envious of her figure.

As the blonde continued to stare at the woman she didn't even realize that the woman was now looking right back at her. The white haired beauty let out a little growl that caused the blonde to stagger back as she turned away from her and headed towards Salamander who now took notice of the little commotion that they had caused. But the blonde noticed something that shocked her even more than anything so far, which was she could have sworn she saw a white with a little bit of orange tail swish underneath the other woman's dress.

"Why hello beautiful, I take it you just had to come out and see the one and only Salamander all for yourself?" asked Salamander with a huge smirk spread across his smug face. Rather than responding the woman continued on her path towards him and only stopped when she was less than a foot away from him. And once she was there she sniffed only to let out a deep growl and started to turn away from him with a disgusted look prominently displayed on her face.

"Wait just a moment lady, Salamander doesn't …" started Salamander only to then find himself lifted off the ground by said woman holding his throat in a tight grip. This of course didn't sit well with all the other women who all sprang into action to save their Salamander-sama. But just one look at the woman holding him up with her fangs now on display caused them all to be frozen in place. This let the woman bring Salamander right up to her face where she gave him another growl before slamming him into the ground and walking away from him as everyone made sure to give her plenty of room.

"Who the hell was that?" asked the blonde as she watched the woman walk away. Thinking that it might have just been a scorned past lover of Salamander's she turned back to see if said man was all right. But when she did everything about him seemed different to her. No longer did she feel compelled to be next to him and her heart was no longer racing at just the sight of him. It appeared that she wasn't the only one to start feeling this way about him, which Salamander seemed to notice as well as he started to fiddle with one of his rings and most of the women started to swoon over him again.

The blonde noticed his actions and realized that he must have been using a love charm on all of them, which made her sick to her stomach that a famous mage like the Salamander would do such a thing. But that is when she realized that this man in front of her looked nothing like how all the reports depicted the appearance of the mysterious mage. The clearest indicators that this man was just impersonating Salamander was due to the lack of pink hair and an eye patch that according to numerous witnesses was seen on each of his eyes at one time or another.

Realizing this, the blonde glared at the man before taking off after the woman that inadvertently saved her from falling for that frauds trick. The woman turned down an alleyway just two blocks away from the blonde, but when the blonde made it there she was shocked to have lost all traces of the mysterious woman. "Where the hell could she have disappeared to?" she asked out loud.

"Did you lose a friend of yours?" asked none other than Erza Scarlet, the woman still rumored to be in a relationship with the actual Salamander.

"Oh my god it's actually you!" screamed the blonde in an excited voice as she started to celebrate about running into a famous wizard of Fairy Tail.

"Yes it is, now weren't you trying to find someone just seconds ago?" asked Erza as small white and orange fox landed on her shoulder. Slightly scaring the blonde until she realized that the fox was most likely the one that was also rumored to always be with Salamander.

"Yeah, well I wanted to meet Salamander that was supposedly in town right now. But it turned out that it was just someone using his name to try and pick up women, and I only realized that thanks to this woman with an orange bow coming up to him and growling at the fake. And that is actually who I was trying to chase after and thank for opening up my eyes to that fraud." replied the blonde while scratching the back of her head with a nervous expression.

Erza could only grin and look over knowingly at Fira after hearing this from the blonde, while the two quickly had a telepathic conversation. "I actually know that woman and she's not one to really accept thanks for things she didn't even try to do." she said with a smile as the blonde looked disappointed for a few seconds, only to become really excited again.

"Well I at least got to meet you thanks to her, and just so you know Titania I'm a huge fan of yours." stated the blonde as she smiled back at Erza.

"It's always a pleasure to meet a fan, but unfortunately I need to be on my way if you don't require any help." she replied as she stared to walk past the blonde and towards the pier where the fake Salamander was most likely still trying to pick up women.

The blonde was clearly disappointed by all of this until she realized that there was something Titania could help her with. So with shocking speed she raced after her and almost tackled the red head to the ground in her rush. "There is something you could help me with, could you give me directions to your guild." she said and the response she got from Erza was a quizzical look, which prompted her to elaborate more. "Well you see it has always been a dream of mine to become a wizard of Fairy Tail. And seeing as you're one of their strongest members I thought that you could possibly make it a reality. But if it's too…" she mumbled nervously until she was cut off.

"What's your name?" asked Erza with a stern look.

"L-lucy." Stuttered out the blonde woman now identified as Lucy.

"If that's what your goal is then stick with me and I'll personally take you back there after I have a few words with the man soiling Salamander's good name." she said with a determined look, that then quickly turned to one of an exasperated person as a loud explosion rang out from the pier.

"Oh my, what in the world is happening now?" asked Lucy as she looked at the smoke billowing into the sky from the spot that she would have guessed contained the fake Salamander. She turned to look at Erza and was greeted with the woman looking as if she was suffering from the worst headache imaginable, while she could have sworn that the fox on her shoulder was smirking now.

"That would most likely be a few friends of mine being upset that someone lied about being Salamander." explained Erza as she started to walk towards the chaos that had all of the citizens running for their lives as more explosions went off.

"Your friends are responsible for all of this?" she asked with a look of disbelief.

"Yep and if you join Fairy Tail they are going to soon be your friends too. I'm betting that you've heard of them already, the Knife of the Future and Oracle but I'm guessing that they aren't actually causing all of this. That probably is all because of Mira, the She-Demon of Fairy Tail, she can't help but go overboard on things like this." explained Erza, not realizing that Lucy was just informed that all of her personal Fairy Tail heroes were here. And that in a few moments she might get to meet all of them and then become members of their guild once they make it back to their guildhall.

"It seems like that might have been too much for the poor girl. Just imagine what she'll do once she figures out about me and Master once we find him?" asked Fira as the two came to a stop and looked at Lucy who was stuck in her pervious spot with a stunned face.

Erza couldn't help but chuckle at that thought since it definitely takes a few meetings to get used to the Hunters and all of their oddities. None more than their leader and his fire fox who one minute could be joking around, only for the next second both of them to be extremely pissed off and destroying whatever upset them. "We'll have to deal with that once we find him. And why exactly can't you pinpoint his location like you used to?" asked the knight with a sly grin that caused Fira to look away with a scowl.

"Because Master found some way to prevent me from knowing where he's at, probably a really old spell. But it still couldn't prevent me from knowing that he is at least still in Hargeon as we speak, for how long that will remain true I couldn't say." she replied while still looking away from the red head.

"Then we should keep looking for him while we still have the chance." stated Erza with a smile. "Lucy are you coming or not, because either way Fira and I are going to say hi to our friends and see if we can find the person that I'm sure they are also here looking for." she finished while finally actually speaking out loud.

This caused Lucy to let out a little yelp as she ran after them, wondering who the hell Fira was but decided that it was something she could figure out later. Right now all she had to do was make sure that she stuck with Erza and she would then soon at least make it to Fairy Tail and possibly become a member.

Back with the fake Salamander before the port became a warzone:

"Well ladies, if you have some free time tonight make sure to stop my yachted." said Salamander after he kissed one of the girls on her hand, making the poor girl become a complete mess.

"Natsu you son of a bitch!" came the shout of an extremely pissed off women from inside the crowd as some of them were actually being tossed aside so that the angry woman could get to Salamander faster.

"Mira I really don't think it's him." came the quiet voice of another girl as three women came to the front of the group.

The first one to emerge was an absolute beauty that was frequently displayed in Sorcerer's Weekly, although you would find that hard to believe with her current attire. Her attire was pretty much the same as it was for her a few years ago with some small additions, like her jacket and gloves. The jacket was made out of black leather that had a white skull on the back of it and only covered the upper half of her body that she had unzipped, showing off her extremely well-toned stomach and enormous chest to the rest of the world. As for the woman's gloves, they were also black and fingerless but had jagged spikes on the knuckles of them which appeared to still have a little bit of blood on them. This was none other than Mirajane Strauss, or more commonly referred to as the She-Demon of Fairy Tail if you were unfortunate enough to fight her.

Standing to the right of Mira, was an equally attractive brunette in brown capris and a similar jacket. Except for rather than being black and having a skull on the back of it, hers was completely orange and actually halfway zipped up letting everyone have a good sight at the large amount of cleavage she had. The only other thing that stood out about this woman was her Fairy Tail emblem on the left side of her stomach and her belt that had a lot of pouches the exact size to hold large decks of cards. This striking beauty was Cana Alberona, also known as Knife of the Future.

The last woman to appear was the one who spoke up about thinking they had the wrong man and she was currently on the left side of Mira. She was shorter, and not as well-endowed as the previous two, but that didn't mean she was in any way not as attractive as they were. Her blue hair and bright smile where enough to make most men look her way, not to mention that the yellow sun dress she was currently wearing gave them a really good view of her long and slender legs. Her name was Levy McGarden and thanks to her vast knowledge she obtained the moniker of Oracle a few years ago and it stuck with her ever since.

"Who the hell are you!" asked Mira as she walked over to the fake Salamander with a stern look as she inspected the man. The man impersonating Salamander had no idea how to respond to her question thanks to being slightly caught off guard by the intrusion of the three beauties.

"Looks like Levy was correct about this not being the actual Salamander." stated Cana as she turned around. The fan girls of Salamander where about to attack her for being so disrespectful, but one look from the brunette caused all of them to back away from her as she started to head away.

"I told you that he wasn't the type of guy to announce his whereabouts around like that. I mean this is definitely one of the dumbest things a famous mage like Salamander could do considering how many enemies he's bound to have made by now." explained Levy as she too started to follow Cana.

"Damn it, I really wanted it to be him since he hasn't stopped by the guild in forever." said Mira as she also turned away from the fake Salamander with a disappointed expression. Who was now upset that these women randomly showed up after that other freaky chick and once again broke his charm on the current group of impressionable women.

"Hold it right there ladies, I have no idea why you think you can come here and say such blatant lies to only then just walk away." declared blue haired man as he glared at the three of them. "But I'm sure as hell not going to let some floozies get away with disrespecting the Great Salamander like that." he continued while conjuring up purple flames that floated just above his hands.

"Christ, you just had to go and do something as stupid as opening your big mouth like that didn't you?" asked Cana as she pinched the bridge of her nose while shaking her head.

"Why the fuck wouldn't I when three stupid bitches disrespected me straight to my face?" he shouted back as his flames got even bigger and the other girls gathered there stared to back away for their own safety.

"Mira please think about how upset Master will be with us if we don't do like we promised." said Levy as she placed her hand gently on Mira's shoulder, who still had her back to Salamander. The next few moments were extremely tense for everyone gathered there, wondering what the white haired woman was going to do.

Levy and Cana both could tell that it was taking everything Mira had to not rush the fraud and completely manhandle him like she wanted to do at the moment. But after a long sigh from the take-over mage they were surprised to see her relax and no longer have her fists clenched in anger. "You're right, a fraud like this fake Salamander isn't worth my time." she replied as she continued to walk away from him.

"PROMINENCE TYPHOON!" shouted Salamander as a spiraling column of fire was sent hurdling towards Mira's back, which resulted in a large explosion going off as the other women looked on in horror. Luckily they were out of the blast radius since the three women completely terrified them and they didn't want to have anything to do with them.

"Looks like you nosey little bitc…" he started to say until he noticed that standing in his dissipating flames were three figures that looked as if they hadn't just been attacked.

"I wasn't going to beat the living shit out of you because my friends asked me not to, even after you said such terrible things about us. But trying to harm us that crosses a line, that no matter who you are you won't be will be to stop me from kicking the shit out of you. Not even the king himself will get me to stop until I'm confident that you've learned your lesson." stated Mira as she cracked her knuckles and had a crazed grin spread across her face.

"How are you still standing?" he asked as while starting to tremble in fear since the other two women were completely fine as well.

"Because you're nowhere near to the level of the real Salamander, who we all happen to be friends with." answered Levy as she glared at the man for slightly burning her new dress that she just got today.

"Your weak ass flames weren't really that hard to counter when compared to him." continued Cana as smirk made its way across her face as she drew a few cards that would suit this situation perfectly.

"That's impossible, nobody is friends with the Salamander which is why he's the perfect identity to steal!" shouted the man as he glared at the three of them. Not even noticing that he finally admitted that he wasn't who he claimed to be, which wasn't missed by all of the women that he had tricked just moments ago.

"Enough of this shit, EVIL EXPLOSION!" shouted Mira as she sent a dark sphere at him before he could react. The gathered crowd was shocked by the huge explosion that resulted from her quick spell that sent the imposter flying into a building a few yards away.

"RED CARPET!" he shouted knowing that he needed to get out of here while he still had the chance. But as soon as he was about one hundred feet in the air he was hit by a lightning bolt out of nowhere, and before he reached the ground he was hit by three more which left him in really sorry state.

"Did you really think we'd just let you run away after everything you did?" asked Cana as she put away a few cards that apparently she didn't need anymore.

"Now comes the fun part." stated Mira as she started to walk towards him with an evil glint in her eyes.

"Please, I was just trying to get lucky off of Salamander's fame." stammered out the slightly paralyzed man on the ground.

"So are you saying that you aren't Bora, who prefers to be called Bora of Prominence?" asked Levy as she continued to glare at him, and could tell instantly by his reaction that it was him. This of course only got her angrier since they almost just walked away from a creep like him which would have meant he could have continued his terrible schemes.

"Judging by your lack of response I'm going to take that as a yes, and that you used to be from Titan Nose until they kicked you out. And ever since then you've been involved in slaving trading business, more specifically in lure young women and taking off with them before anyone realizes what you're up to." she continued with a smirk as a deadly aura was now coming off of Mira in large waves.

"I swear that's all a lie." pleaded Bora as he looked up at Mira, who might as well have been the grim reaper with the way she was looking at him.

"Did you know I have a little sister?" asked Mira now smiling at him, which only creeped everyone out more than they already were. "And being the responsible big older sister that I am, I have to make sure that people like you will no longer prey on women like her." she said while picking him up.

"Christ Levy, she might seriously kill him." stated Cana as she didn't like the look in the take-over mage's eyes.

"That would just mean the world is down one scumbag that preys on helpless women." replied the petite bookworm as she scoffed and looked away from Cana.

"Don't tell me this is just because he ruined your new dress?" she asked in disbelief, since if it was true it would be completely out of character for Levy. It was definitely something that she could see Mira doing or even a few of the other Fairy Tail women, but definitely not sweet little Levy. But then again sweet is probably no longer the correct description for a fellow S-Class mage that she trusted to have her back in the worst case scenarios.

"EVIL SPARK!" bellowed Mira as electricity launched into Bora and sent him flying across the pier and into a different building. And before anyone could even move she was already chasing after him, intent on giving him one of the biggest beat downs he has ever received in his miserable life.

"I really liked this dress and it was the only one that they had." replied Levy in an upset voice as she glared at the building that Bora and Mira were currently in. That currently had the pain filled screams of a man really regretting his decisions that led him to this point in his life, and also the sounds of what most people would describe as a demon enjoying their new play toy.

"You liked it enough to let a man as despicable as bora die because he ruined it?" asked the card mage still shocked that she was currently talking with Levy right now.

"She not going to kill him Cana, at least I hope she won't." she said now slightly nervous that letting Mira know what Bora was doing might not have been the correct decision.

"Don't worry you two, no matter how upset Mira is she would never kill someone unless they actually seriously hurt someone from her family." stated Erza as she and Lucy walked up to them. The two of them were about to ask Erza who Lucy was when another explosion went off and a badly beaten Bora flew past them with Mira hot on his tail.

"But I have been known to be wrong occasionally." she continued as she too started to be concerned for the wellbeing of the man that she could only assume was the one Fira told her about.

"You know we could try and stop her." pointed out Lucy with a nervous smile, which soon became a terrified one after the other three looked at her as if she was crazy.

"And risk her turning on us I think not, anyways that creep deserves whatever Mira dishes out to him. Oh and my name's Levy by the way." replied Levy with a bright smile as the two of them shook hands.

"She's right, Mira is definitely not someone you want to mess with when she's upset like this and I'm Cana." said the brunette with a small smile as they too shook hands.

"Lucy and it's a pleasure to meet the both of you." she replied with an excited smile, but before she could say anything else a large explosion went off from a ship that was just a few yards away from the docks. Erza looked at her two guild mates with an accusing look that caused both of them to start panicking knowing that she thought they were responsible for it.

"I swear that wasn't us Erza." replied Cana as she waved her hands in front of her frantically.

"Yeah, that can be blamed on us!" shouted Levy as she pointed at the body of Bora flying into the clock tower and it then starting to collapse in on itself after Mira flew through it and came out with him afterwards.

"Master and the Council are not going to believe that for a second." stated the knight as she let out a tired sigh.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that Erza." said Fira in an amused tone, letting the scarlet haired beauty know that the fox knew something that she didn't.

"And why wouldn't we get into trouble for all of this Fira?" she asked out loud so the others could at least know what was slightly going on between the two of them.

"Probably because you all happened to stumble into an ongoing mission of the Hunters." came a familiar voice to most of them from behind. They all quickly turned to see a man lying on the top of the roof in a long black coat with red trimmings, and covering his face was a black hat that made it look like he was trying to catch a few z's. Lucy looked at the three members of Fairy Tail and was surprised to see bright smiles spread across all of their faces at the sight of this new person.

But before any of them could do anything the fox that was perched on Erza's shoulder lunged at the stranger, and while in the air grew to the size of a small horse and took the person over the edge to the other side of the roof. Lucy was about to take off and see if she could help the stranger, but the sounds of the figure chuckling made her realize there was nothing to fear. Although when the mysterious person and fox reappeared she was surprised by the attacks sent their way from the women that used to be smiling just seconds ago. And this continued on for a few more minutes with the figure that was revealed to be a male just chuckled as he and the fox skillfully dodged all of the attacks, parrying any of them that he couldn't dodge with daggers that were composed of flames.

"I'm glad to see you all too." he stated after dodging the last magical attack sent his way. Only to then be hit in the face by a steel covered fist and sent flying into a building that was a small store that sold fishing supplies. "I probably deserved that." he replied while rubbing his chin with a grin spread across his face. Allowing Lucy to finally get a good look at the man, and she instantly could tell that this was in fact the real Salamander with pink hair and eyepatch like all the rumors said.

"Damn right you deserved that Natsu; you can't just leave for a month like that without telling me. Not to mention taking everyone with you except for me." declared Erza as she continued to glare at him, but it became weaker with each passing second.

"I didn't leave you all alone without any explanation." he said with a confused look. "Didn't Fira tell you what we were up to and why I didn't want to involve you in it?" he asked while turning to look at said Fox that was now looking away from the two of them defiantly.

"No she didn't." growled Erza as her glare was now directed at the fox. "But I'm really glad that you're finally back." she finished while bringing him into a bone crushing hug. That if it was anyone else other than him receiving it they probably would have been severely injured by now.

"Fira you and I are going to have to have a really long conversation about this." said Natsu after being released from Erza's hug and then quickly brought into another one by the two other women that knew him. "Hello you two, how has it been since the last time we met?" he asked with a huge grin that was quickly removed thanks to both of them slapping him at the same time.

"We haven't seen you for around two years and that's how you greet us?" asked Cana as she and Levy glared at him.

"It's not like we haven't communicated with each other this whole time." he stated with his smirk coming back as he dodge a few more slaps thrown at him. "What is with all the women in Fairy Tail being so violent towards me?" he asked after jumping back up to the roof he revealed himself to them on.

"You're the one that was constantly telling us we needed to become stronger." pointed out Levy with a small grin.

"Yeah, but that wasn't so you could all attack me every time we see each other after a while." he replied as Fira nuzzled up next to him and he started to scratch behind one of her ears.

"A normal person would probably figure out that the easiest way to fix all of this would be to not go missing for long period of times like you do." stated Cana with smug look on her face as the dragon slayer realized the truth to her words.

"Nope, that isn't it." he responded while shaking his head back and forth. "I beat it's because of that old pervert that you all call Master, oh and is this a new member?" he said while pointing at Lucy with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"It's Lucy and it's a pleasure to finally meet you Salamander Sir, and I'm not a member yet. But I hope that I'll be able to become one as soon as they take me back to their guild." replied Lucy with a slight blush that Erza noticed and made a note to talk to her about later.

"Well Lucy, I'm confident that you'll fit in right away with that crazy bunch of weirdos." chuckled Natsu as the other three women glared at him. "But you might want to try and not act like an heiress or some sort of royalty with all of that politeness." he suggested as he grinned at her shocked expression and the slightly scared look she was now giving him.

"Natsu-nii quit picking on the poor girl." said Wendy as she floated down next to him with a smirk as Lucy tried to figure out where the hell she came from.

"But look at how easy it is, even you couldn't help but make an entrance that would confuse her." he said with a little chuckle as the blonde was now glaring at the two of them.

"Don't let those two get to you Lucy, they love messing with people that they know we'll see again." stated Kagura as she casually walked up to the group and stopped next to Erza and gave the red head a quick hug.

"And who exactly are you two?" asked Lucy as she pointed to the two new women that had outfits that looked similar to Natsu's but with their own distinctive flares. But before either of them could respond the roof of the house Natsu, Fira and Wendy were on exploded as they all either jumped or rolled out of the way.

"Natsu Dragneel you jackass!" shouted Mira as she came flying at him while in her Satan Soul that scared Lucy since she had never seen her use it. Of course Natsu's response to this was to start laughing as he kept dodging all of her attacks while jumping from roof to roof. Making the damages spread a lot farther than it ever really should have been.

"Was that Mira?" asked Lucy still with a terrified expression.

"That it was, and I'm Natsu's little sister Kagura by the way and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And the other woman you inquired about earlier is my sister Wendy." explained Kagura while Wendy was somehow balancing on the end of her staff and waving at the blonde with a big smile. All Lucy could think was how weird all of this was to her, and she was now wondering what Fairy Tail would be actually like if Natsu considered them weird while having two odd sisters like these two.

"Don't worry Lucy, Natsu's little band of misfits takes a little while to get used to." stated Erza as she could tell the blonde was being overloaded right now.

"And she still hasn't even met Sting or Rogue yet." chirped Wendy while hopping to her other foot and somehow still keeping her balance on the top of her staff.

"Those two are definitely quite the handful." said Cana as she remembered the time when they were all at the guild for a while with the exception of Natsu.

"Oh come on you guys, Rogue really isn't that bad. He's just always getting sucked into whatever crazy plan Sting is trying to do." pointed out Levy, only for the injured body of Bora to land in front of her.

"Who was talking shit about me and Rogue?" asked Sting with his collar still up since he just finished the mission that they were tasked with.

"We weren't talking shit about you two; we were just saying that you two are sometimes a lot for someone to handle all of a sudden. Do you two have a problem with us stating a fact?" asked Erza while looking at them with a stern look, just begging them to disagree with her.

"No we've got no problem with that Erza-san." he replied with a now terrified look as Rogue appeared next to him out of a shadow with a bored look.

"Did he just come out of a shadow?" shouted Lucy as she back peddled away from the two that finally took notice of her.

"Yes I did, it was one of the first things Salamander taught me." answered Rogue as he rolled his eyes at her having such a reaction over something so trivial.

"I thought Salamander could only use a special form of Fire Magic." she stated only to let out a little yelp as Wendy put her arm around her shoulders while grinning at her.

"Oh he knows more than just that, which by itself would be more than enough to become one of the country's strongest wizards since all forms dragon slaying magic is considered lost magic. But he wanted to make sure that he had as few openings as he possible could so he learned four other types of magic and is quite proficient in all of them." explained Wendy as Lucy tried to get out of her grasp but was failing horribly.

"And what types are those exactly?" she asked in hopes of distracting her.

"Sorry but that is something you can only learn after we know that we can trust you." stated the sky dragon slayer before jumping up to heights that shouldn't be physically possible and gracefully landing on a roof so she could get a better view of Natsu and Mira fighting.

"How can she do that?" asked Lucy as she looked up at the blue haired girl that seemed to defy physics.

"She's a sky dragon slayer, so pretty much the sky is her domain. But if you want to know specifically how she does it I believe she shoots air out of her body and uses that to fly or jump to high places like she just did." explained Levy with a smirk since she could already tell that Lucy was a person who craved knowledge just like her.

"Wait so Salamander is fire dragon slayer and she is a sky dragon slayer, then what type of dragon slayer are you?" she asked while turning to Kagura with an expectant look.

"I'm not a dragon slayer like the rest of them Lucy." replied Kagura with a grin as Lucy quickly registered what she just heard and looked at Sting and Rouge. "Light and Shadow, so who are you anyways?" asked Sting as he pointed at himself and Rogue when telling her their magic.

"My names Lucy and I hope to soon become a mage of Fairy Tail." she answered once again realizing that she was with wizards that were way above her level.

"Really that's awesome, you're really going to like it there since they are all extremely nice if you exclude the women currently here." stated Sting with a smirk only for him to be sent flying by an upset Erza.

"Sting don't try and scare away a possible member!" she shouted at his flying figure.

"I don't think he can hear you anymore." mumbled Lucy.

"Oh he heard me thanks to all dragon slayers having exceptional hearing." she replied only to start walking towards the train station. "Come on everyone we might as well start heading towards the train station since there really isn't any reason for us to stay here." she said as the little group still on the ground started to follow her.

"I'm surprised that we haven't run into any Rune Knights yet." commented Cana as she started to look around, expecting to see them charging at their group ready to arrest them.

"Natsu informed them that it would be in their best interest if they didn't get involved with any disturbances until we left Hargeon." explained Kagura.

"So I take it you were the ones responsible for that ship exploding all of a sudden." said Levy as she looked at Kagura who shook her head no and pointed to Sting and Rogue.

"Who else but the twin dragons could accomplish something that spectacular?" asked Sting with an extremely smug grin. "I would have to say that Natsu definitely could, not to mention pretty much everyone else here could do it probably better." stated Cana causing the blonde male to become depressed for just a second.

"Whatever, all I know is that those dirty slavers are never going to hurt another person again." he replied with a sinister grin.

"You didn't kill them did you?" asked Erza as she came to a stop and looked at him directly in the eyes to make sure he didn't lie to her.

"Of course we didn't Erza, even if those scumbags deserved it. But that doesn't mean any of them will be walking anytime soon after we were done with them." he answered as he walked past her.

"Where's Fira by the way?" asked Rogue as he noticed that the absence of the fire fox.

"She didn't want to let Natsu out of her sight for even a second." answered Erza as the group once again started to make their way towards the train station.

"Who exactly is this Fira person that you all keep mentioning?" asked Lucy, since she knew none of them were going to explain it to her unless she actually asked them.

"Fira isn't a person Lucy, she is that white and orange fox that used to be on Erza's shoulder and has been with Natsu as long as any of us have known him." replied Levy with a bright smile.

"You've got to be joking." she stated but from how serious all of their expressions were she could tell that none of them were. "So you're saying that she can, not only turn into a larger and more ferocious fox, but she can also talk with you all as well?" she asked in disbelief.

"Actually she can only talk to me and Natsu, and believe me when I tell you that she can do more than just those two things. She is actually quite the opponent if you unfortunately have to face off against her." replied Erza with a faint smile as she thought back to when Gray found that out all those years ago.

"How strong are we talking about?" asked the blonde, once again intrigued by any new information she could learn about any of them.

"I'd have to say that she could easily take me on if she wanted to." stated Levy with a small smile as Lucy's mouth dropped open after hearing that.

"And she could probably take on the twins if they weren't together." said Kagura as she gestured to Sting and Rogue.

"Like hell she could!" shouted Sting as he glared at the back of her head.

"Sting please just drop it, otherwise this is only going to end with you and Fira having a duel and you losing for the umpteenth time to her." stated Rogue in a bored tone as Sting looked at him with a hurt look. But that look quickly turned to a smirk as he thought of something else. "Yeah but together we could easily beat her!" he declared while still having that confident smirk of his.

"I wouldn't say easily." mumble Rogue as they stopped in front of the train station, with him and Sting no longer taking another step towards it.

"Well this is where we part ways I guess." said Sting as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"I thought that Natsu planned to cure you two of your motion sickness?" asked Erza with a devious smirk coming over her face.

"How in the world would he do that when he has it worse than any of us?" he asked back while getting ready to make a break for it if she came after him.

"You've got to be kidding me, Salamander has motion sickness." said Lucy with wide eyes at such a ridiculous thought. But once again a quick look at all of them told her otherwise, especially the deadly look Erza was currently giving Sting for letting such information slip out.

"Don't blame me when you were the idiot to mention it in the first place, oh crap!" replied Sting before a bright flash of light exploded from him. And once they were all able to see again he and Rogue were both no longer anywhere to be seen.

"That freaking idiot, Lucy if you even mention that to another soul I swear to god you'll wish you were never born." Erza whispered right into the blonde's ear in a menacing tone that scared the bejesus out of her.

"I-i-i-I w-w-w-wouldn't d-d-dream of it." stuttered the celestial mage.

"Now what could she have done to warrant scaring her almost to the point of tears Erza?" asked Natsu as he strolled up to them with an unconscious Mira under one of his arms.

"Sting let slip one of your secrets and I wanted to make sure she realized how serious of a situation it was." replied Erza with a bright smile that Lucy was surprised she could have after just a second ago almost making her crap herself.

"If that's it than we shouldn't have a problem so long as she promises to not tell." he replied while gently setting Mira down onto a bench.

"And why exactly would her word be enough for you?" she asked back, finding it odd that he seemed to already trust this random woman that they just met.

"Due to her type of magic a promise from her is better than gold." he stated while looking around for his two youngest apprentices.

"Lucy, what type of magic do you use exactly?" asked Levy, who was probably even more curious than Erza was right now.

"I'm a Celestial mage." she replied back nervously.

"And any Celestial Mage worth a damn will do anything in their power to not break a promise. So will you promise to keep whatever you found out about me a secret Lucy?" asked Natsu with his usual grin.

"I promise I won't tell anyone, but how did you know what type of mage I am since this is the first time we've ever met?" she asked back, as they all looked at him for an answer that they were all wanting to hear.

"Where's the fun in that Lucy, well I've got to go track down those two idiots so how about we continue this back at Fairy Tail?" he asked with a smirk slowly spreading across his lips.

"Like I'm just going to let you disappear on me again." declared Erza as she grabbed his hand and didn't let go of it.

"If you want to join me I'm fine with that, but didn't you promise Lucy to take her back with you?" he asked with a knowing look on his face, which slightly irked the woman. This of course made her start wondering how long he was following her and Fira during the day, and if he was how he was able to not alert either of them.

"I did, but that was before I found out that the rest of them were here as well." she replied while staring right back at him with a determined look.

"It's fine Natsu, me and Levy will make sure she gets to the guild safe and sound." stated Cana as she slung an arm around the shoulder of the blonde.

"It'll allow us to get to know each other better, isn't that right Lucy?" asked Levy with a bright smile.

"I guess, so long as you two don't disappear like those other two did." replied Lucy with a smile of her own.

"I wouldn't dream of it." replied the bookworm as she quickly turned around and went to go get their tickets.

"Then it's settled, I'll see you all at Fairy Tail in a few hours." declared Natsu as he picked Erza up bridle style and took off in the opposite direction.

"I guess he forgot about us." stated Wendy with a slight frown.

"You can't blame him since he and Erza haven't seen each other in a while." replied Kagura as they both slowly started to follow him.

"Why don't you two join us?" asked Cana.

"Sorry Cana but I'm with Natsu-nii about those things being death traps." declared Wendy as she pointed at the train accusingly. This caused the brunette to burst into giggles as Wendy could only skulk away with Kagura telling her that there was nothing she could do about it.

"They really can't handle trains can they?" asked Lucy in a surprised tone.

"Not just trains, any form of transportation makes them almost completely useless." replied Cana as she tried to real in her laughter.

"Even Salamander?" she asked.

"Kind of, his solution to any form of transportation he might find himself on is to destroy it as soon as he starts to feel queasy." answered Cana as she remember the newspaper article about a train being reduced to a molten heap after something flew into it. Only learning later from Wendy that said object was Natsu, which she and the rest of the guild had a good laugh at.

"Salamander is definitely not what I expected him to be." stated Lucy as she looked in the direction that he took off in.

"That he isn't, oh and you do realize that you don't have to call him that since he already considers you a friend." stated Cana as they headed towards Levy who was waving them over to her.

"Really, but we just met." she said finding it hard to believe they could already be friends after the few interactions with each other.

"If he didn't consider you a friend than you would know definitely know it Lucy." said Cana as she picked up the unconscious form of Mira and headed towards the train. This caused Lucy to for who knows what number it was for the day to be caught off guard, but she couldn't help but feel that she might have just found a group of people that would accept her for who she actually is.

End of Chapter

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading and I know that I haven't updated this one in a really long time, which is probably mainly because I know I need to go over all of it and fix the mistakes in earlier chapters. Mistakes that I most likely wouldn't have had if I proof read them at all before I posted them, but that was before I had a beta reader and towards the beginning of my writing on this site. Well anyways I've finally got this one caught up to the start of canon where as you can probably already tell will definitely be different in more than one way. With some events probably not even occurring since the person is no longer in the correct mindset to do what they did in canon. Also I feel like I need to warn all of you that the next chapter of this story will probably take a while since I will definitely go over all of the chapters before this and fix them before I write a new one for this story. So that's about it, and as always I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter in a review or pm and I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can.

Oh and if you would like me to update faster or possibly start a new story I have information about my page that I set up on my profile page.

Until the next Chapter

Digem Out!