"A person should never let another's past mistakes compromise their future potential."-Flint Aspen, Phoenix Crest Master
"What do you mean there's a new guild in town!?" A flying blue cat asked. Natsu Dragneel snatched the newspaper from the Magnolia citizen. Previously, the old man had been enjoying himself on a bench before the mad Fairy Tail mages had come along,
"I mean that there's a new guild, just finished moving in last week." The senior snatched his newspaper back from the fire mage on the emphasis, frowning at the rude young man.
"Awesome!" The boy's salmon hair shook as a flaming fist was shot into the sky out of pure enjoyment. "I've been waiting for a new guild to move into Magnolia!"
"I bet they have plenty of strong members!" The same blue cat floated up, happily chewing on the man's tuna sandwich which the cat, known as Happy, had snatched while he wasn't looking.
"Hey!" The man yelled in complaint as he realized his lack of bread and fish, grasping for the cat but finding him out of reach.
"Let's fight them all!" Natsu exclaimed, letting out a long yell that eventually escalated into a fire-breathing roar. The old man furiously patted out his hair, which the flame had set fire to.
"It's on Crocus Street!" The man pointed frantically, his finger shaking in its direction. "Go, quickly!"
"Good idea!' Natsu gave the man a thumbs up. "I have to be quick and get there before everyone else!" Without goodbye, the cat and mage duo bolted down towards Crocus Street.
"Last thing this town needs is more mages..." The old man mumbled, putting out his smoldering hair between his fingertips.
#
A freshly constructed building stood guard over, as promised, Crocus Street. The building itself showed signs of Victorian inspiration. Its floor plan was rectangular, dull, brown, high walls rising before abruptly turning inwards and meeting to a high point at the top. Red clay shingles decorated this feature. Along the walls lay delicately designed arches, spikes and protrusions within the arches adding character. Spires shot up regularly along the top of the front wall. Windows dotted the wall, geometric designs were set into the arched glass. At either end of the walls, atop the roof, lay two small domes that were tiled a dark gray. Atop each of these lay a ribbed pole, from which flapped a flag. The flag was white, with a circular phoenix logo within it. The logo was several shades of orange and red, and consisted of wrapped wings and a protruding avian head. In the middle of the guild hall, a tower slightly taller than the building protruded from the rest of the structure. Atop it lay the largest, grandest dome of all, inlaid with spikes, spires, and circular windows. Above it too sat a large pole, and from that hung an even larger flag. Down the front of the protrusion lay a banner, larger than all of the flags, so large it went from the dome and ended just above the wooden double doors. Slightly above them was a small sign which read in bright red letters,
"Phoenix Crest." Natsu Dragneel muttered, scratching his chin. "Phoenixes are like fire birds, right?"
"Aye, sir!" Happy floated about him. "Hopefully that means they have a lot of Fire Mages! Plenty of fire for you to eat, Natsu!"
"Alright Phoenix Crest!" Natsu exclaimed, lifting a foot and nearly damaging the door with a powerful kick. Besides nearly taking it off of its hinges, the boot opened the door. "Bring it o-!" A fist lashed out from the open door and knocked Natsu back, onto his arse.
"Be more respectful of other people's property." A teenage boy stepped out from the doorway. His black hair should have reached his chin, but it stuck out in every direction in an obviously unwashed bedhead. Strangely enough, the boy looked ill. His skin was sickly pale, and the small t-shirt he wore hung loosely on his frail body. His iris's blazed bright red and an acid green tattoo peeked out from the inside of his wrist.
This is Ralec. Everyone thinks he is malnourished, but he's perfectly healthy. He's kinda rude, and needs to wash his hair.
"Who do you think you are!?" Natsu leapt up and pressed his forehead angrily against Ralec's.
"I'm Toxic Ralec, who do you think you are!?" The Phoenix Crest mage countered.
"I'm a Fairy Tail mage!" Steam began to rise from Natsu's nostrils.
"No duh, who else would break other people's things without a thought?" Ralec's mouth curled into a grin and he pressed against Natsu so they were at a standstill, no participant leaning farther forward than the other.
A set of hands pressed against each forehead, pushing them apart and throwing a person in the middle. He wore ripped jeans and a tattered black muscle shirt. Over his jaw he wore a bandana like a Wild West bandit. Covering his arms, collar, feet, and nearly every inch of visible skin were a cacophony of multi-colored tattoos, laced together into an impressionistic mosaic of ink.
This is Karu. They call him InkHeart. He only talks every couple months, although nobody knows why he wears the bandana.
"Who's this guy?" Natsu complained. He pushed his forehead against the palm holding him back and frantically attempted to grab at Ralec.
"That's... Karu!" Ralec struggled with an equally difficult battle, both of their reaching arms mere inches apart. "He's a member of our guild! Trust me, the mark is somewhere in those tattoos!"
Karu straightened himself and dropped both arms simultaneously, the fighting mages hitting the concrete at the same time.
"Natsu, the Fairy Tail mage." A third person casually leaned against the open door with a smile. "Rumor has it that you love fighting. Lucky you, the first person that you met has the shortest temper in the whole guild." A chuckle came forth, passing by pearly white teeth. The mage flicked long blonde hair out of his eyes, still grinning, and adjusted the cuffs of his suit jacket before pocketing his hands.
Meet Cameron. He makes the girls go crazy, since he's "super hot", and a powerful S-class mage. This light mage has been voted #1 on Sorcerer Weekly's "Top Ten Most Desirable Mages" seventeen issues in a row.
"Well if it isn't everyone's favorite S-class mage." Ralec crossed his arms and frowned at Cameron. Ralec hated him, but then again Ralec hated everyone but Karu.
"Easy Ralec." Cameron's expression darkened and his eyes lowered on the poison mage. Ralec grinned sarcastically, spreading his lips to show his teeth, dripping with acid green poison in the form of his saliva. "Dylan and Joy are both still gone solo, so you're stuck with me as far as S-class goes."
"I just wanna fight some guys!" Natsu tilted his head back and whined. Happy landed on his head and retracted his wings, meowing absently.
"How about our guilds meet in a more civilized manner?" Cameron opened up the other of the double doors in a much more gently way than Natsu. "Would you like a drink? Something to eat? I'm sure Crystal can get you whatever you could possibly want."
Natsu stepped in first, trailed by the three mages. His expression brightened, for the inside of the guild was much simpler than the outside. In fact, it reminded him of Fairy Tail's.
A large wooden floor spanned the room, covered with wood tables that were occupied by about thirty people. Small possessions, mugs, cards, and other games sat on the tables. On the ground lay red carpets that strung out between the tables, paths to commonly used places such as the large bar counter which doubled as a kitchen, the job request board which nearly covered an entire wall, and, strangest of all, a hole in the ground with a ladder leading downward. On the walls hung painting, tapestries, banners displaying the guild mark, shields, suits of armour, weapons, and other decorations. Above the doors lay a sign, opposite the location of the guild sign, which read in bright red letters, Mors. Venia. Restitutio.
"This place is just like Fairy Tail!" Natsu said excitedly.
"We try to make it as homely as possible." Cameron smiled, strolling over to the bar counter, which he leaned on comfortably. He knocked on it twice sharply.
"Knock on wood, that my queue." A woman that was behind the counter smiled and turned. She had raven black hair that lay just past her shoulder, dark eyes, and a rather sharp, protruding nose. All other features on her face, such as her cheekbones and her nose, were just as equally defined and protruding. In an orbit around her were beer mugs, utensils, plates, cooking ingredients, pot and pans, and other random things. Natsu watched as the plates dipped into the water and washed themselves, even applying soap, a pot was filled with tater and set to a stove, which started on its own and the utensils chopped the cooking ingredients and dropped them in the stew. All of these things happened simultaneously by invisible workers while the black-haired girl casually filled two mugs and handed them to Cameron as her stew finished preparing itself.
This is Crystal; she's the little sister of the Guild Master. She doesn't like fighting, so she mostly helps out around the guild.
"Thank you Crystal." Cameron beamed, taking the two mugs from her. He sniffed the air once, and then smiled. "What's cooking, good looking?"
"Up to you, for now it's stew." Crystal giggled, winking at him before going over to manage the soup. As she walked, her kitchen objects continued to manage themselves, the majority of which was now filling the cups of other mages who sat at the bar.
"Crystal is a telekinesis mage, and a good one at that." Cameron smiled.
"Stop bragging up your guild to Fairy Tail!" Crystal called over her shoulder, currently washing dishes while they dried and stacked themselves. With a frustrated grunt, her pitch black hair suddenly slid itself into a ponytail, out of the way of her work.
"She can do a million things at once!" Natsu's jaw has been dropped the whole time. "You're like the best housewife ever!"
Crystal stopped what she was doing, slowly looking behind her with a raised eyebrow, staring at Natsu. "Uh... thanks?"
Natsu elbowed Karu in the ribs with a smirk, bragging: "I think she likes me."
Natsu sat at the bar and had a drink with Cameron. (Ralec and Karu left as soon as they could). Cameron suddenly began to flood him with introductions of people whether or not they were present, and Natsu had trouble sorting all of the information.
There was the bluenette with the sword, what magic did he use again? He sat beside the cute blonde named Sandra who had... brown hair? There was one guy dressed in ninja clothes, and he even had a cloth piece that covered everything below his eyes. There had been a Shurikan bigger than a shield strapped to his back, but his hair color and name escaped Natsu.
"Dante, you are the worst mage ever." A male called out to another male from across a table, commenting on a recently failed job.
"Hey, where'd you get that black eye?" The one he had spoken to, Dante, asked.
"But," The speaker reached up a hand and gently touched his eye, as if to check. "I don't have a-"
In a flash Dante brought back his fist and socked the speaker in the same eye, sending him flying out of his chair. Dante sat down, now content, while the other mage gently held the area that a black eye was surely soon to form in.
"So you're a dragon slayer, they say?' Cameron inquired.
"Yeah, a First Generation Fire Dragon Slayer!" Natsu exclaimed proudly.
"We have a Gravity Dragon Slayer, you know? Mason." Cameron gestured over his shoulder, and Natsu's expression brightened. "He's got a lacrima in him and he had a dragon mother, I think. He doesn't talk about it much."
"WHERE IS HE!?" Natsu kicked his chair out from under him and scrambled over to the centre of the guild, everyone's attention was on the frantic fire mage. He leaned back and let out a generous blast of fire, just in case.
"Mason..." Natsu said slowly. He slowly scanned the crowd, who didn't seem eager to offer his prize. "Where are you!?"
"I'm here." A voice stated simply. Natsu whirled one hundred and eighty degrees to see a boy his age standing in the aisle. "I am Mason Marcotte."
He was barely over six feet tall, with slightly messy brown hair. Stormy gray eyes looked back at Natsu with no emotion. He wore simple black pants and a grey t-shirt. Over his right shoulder he wore a pauldron, the strap going across his chest and hooking under his other arm. The pauldron was made of a single, large piece of black leather, so big it stuck out several inches away from his shoulder. On it was a silver figurehead in the shape of a dragon, it looked kind of like a door knocker. Visible on the inside of his arm, between his wrist and elbow, was the Phoenix Crest mark in a verdant design.
Perched on his shoulder was a gray female exceed, her tail curled around Mason's neck for balance. Her fur was silky smooth, covering her entire body except the tip of her tail, on which a puff of white hair existed. The inside of her ears and her nose were both pink, and her white belly also added to the multi-colors. Her eyes were as bright as her bright smile. The only clothing she wore was a pink mini-kimono the same color as her ears.
"Fight me." Natsu grinned. "Now."
"Why do you want to fight Mason-sama?" The cat giggled, pawing at his ear.
"He's a dragon slayer, he's bound to be as strong as me." An excited grin spread across Natsu's face, and both of his fists lit on fire. "Almost as strong."
Mason pondered it for a moment, and then an uncontrollable smile broke out on his face. "Alright." He answered. "I'll fight you right now."
