A/N: This is the replacement for 'Natsu's New Flame' Again I apologize for the sudden rotation, regardless I hope you enjoy this fiction. By the way, this story will be Naza, it will take a little while to get to that point, so you will all have to bear with it for awhile.
The only sound in an all but baron hallway, was that of a woman in high heels making her way towards the office at the end of the hall, she held a small stack of files in her hands as she watched the door at the end of the hallway impassively, the woman wore black pants and a dark blue overcoat, her eyes were an odd shade of purple and her analytical skills are what got her this job in the first place, her heels clacked against the floor as she walked up to the door, she knocked three times before she heard the voice from the other side permit her entry.
She opened the door and bowed slightly to the aging commander in front of her.
"You requested the files on my team, Commander." She announced politely.
"Ah, Cana yes I did, how are they going?" The man asked familiarly, he was not one for formalities.
"Prepping for the Op in Afghanistan as we speak, sir." She bowed again.
"I have told you a million times, just Makarov is fine," The man replied as he accepted the files from the woman.
"S-Makarov, I am worried about the leader, his mental state is not changing he remains without any kind of emotion at all." Cana explained.
Makarov opened the top file from the stack he was handed "Yes, I know. That boy is what many once considered the perfect soldier."
"But isn't the point of these teams, to retain a human touch in the military, With the bulk of the armies automated people seem to think humans can't fight better than machines." Cana responded.
"Yes, the A.I soldier pairing was created for that purpose, however it was also created for the purpose of containing the rare abilities these operatives have." Makarov explained as he flipped the file he was reading so she could examine it.
She read it down.
Name: Natsu Dragneel.
Affinity: Fire.
A.I: Theta.
Call sign: Dragon
Operational success: 100%
Rank: Captain of Delta operation's unit.
Current undeceased member's: Dertega, 'Sharps', Montana and Conrad, 'Fissures', Davidson.
Psychological status: Has not made an emotionally based decision in 15 years, he has lost four operative Unit's in the line of duty.
Lethality rating: Hyper Lethal.
Cana looked up from the paper and sighed "This is what I am talking about, I have heard of captain's who can make decisions without allowing emotions to cloud judgment, but for it to have no effect, he has lost more members than any other operative Unit ever has!"
Makarov nodded "He may have a one hundred percent success rate, but no one can remain completely dead inside for ever…Someone always lights the fire." Makarov spoke as if he was talking from experience.
Cana frowned and nodded "The replacement member will be arriving soon then we will move out, please try to get through to Natsu. He does see you as a father figure after all."
Makarov chuckled "His father would personally come back and beat the crap out of me if I let this continue, you have my word Cana, I will get through to him…Somehow."
Satisfied Cana nodded and left the office.
A helicopter was steadily approaching an aircraft carrier the was stationed just outside of dagger's tip Jordan, the chopper carried one passenger, a white haired woman with a large Katana strapped along her back, Lisanna Strauss, Was the operatives name. And she was currently being deployed with Unit Delta on a mission she herself did not know the specific of yet. She sighed as she looked out the small window and waited, she wondered what her new team would be like.
"You have not retained this much stress, since we were first paired, are the opinion's of your comrades that important to you?" A Very fatherly tone seemed to resound from inside her mind, Her A.I, Omega, spoke methodically and was sometimes annoyingly logical…Well for an A.I anyway.
"I just hope they like me enough to not use me as cannon fodder." Lisanna sighed in response.
"Under regulation 251," She cut him off.
"I wasn't serious." As was previously stated, over logical at times.
"You have nothing to worry about, the information I am allowed to access, has told me a great deal. This team has a hundred percent success rate. Your captain must be very impressive."
Lisanna smiled at the thought "Yeah, maybe it won't be too bad."
"Although the Captain's background is largely classified and his loss ratios are also classified…I think he may have a few drawbacks as a person." Omega announced.
"Well for an A.I you can't really talk about being human." Lisanna replied.
"I rescind my previous statement." Omega said.
The radio crackled to life "We will touchdown in four minutes."
Lisanna nodded and got to her feet slowly, retrieving her pack and her other equipment, she pulled the large brownie green bag over her shoulder and stood at the door's for a moment.
The radio crackled again "ETA to landing, 10, 9, 8,7, the countdown continued for a moment before the helicopter hit the carrier with a jolt, she watched a small red light on the roof for a few seconds until it turned green, she said the door open and jumped out of the chopper, her bag's rustled as she landed. A Man stood a little ahead of her, the brown skinned man was almost bald, he likely cut his hair in a traditional military of a buzz. He was slipping large rifle rounds into an empty magazine he held almost boredly, the black ink tribal tattoo the laced around the side of his head was interesting. He wore a back combat frame, like most operative about to go on mission, the full metal suit covered almost his entire body accept for his head, the small gaps in the armor had a synthetic near bulletproof material that allowed for near flawless movement. His suit was black with small segment's of orange on the shoulder's and two stripes on either side of the chest plate. He looked up and slip the magazine into a holster on his back. Before walking towards her.
"You must be the new member, I'm Dertega, but everyone around here call's me Sharps. I use air to create a frictionless environment for round to fly in as you can imagine I can hit target's from many more miles than anyone else hence the nickname." He smiled as he explained a little of his background, A small hologram winked to life in front of him, it was similar to the frame he wore, she knew it as his A.I.
The holo nodded to her "Hello, I am Dertega's A.I, Beta."
Lisanna nodded "Hi, I'm Lisanna, Lisanna Strauss."
Omega's hologram appeared in his all black combat suit, "You may all me Omega." Was all he said before winking out.
Dertega chuckled "Well, I am sure you want to see your bunk and get suited up, we roll out in four hours, you also gotta meet Fissures and the Boss, as well as get into your suit." Dertega rattled off the information luckily before gesturing for her to follow him, she complied she was a few steps behind him. The passed a cross in the halls and he pointed to the left "Mess halls down that way." She nodded, she didn't really make any mental notes, Omega had a map of the carrier anyway. If she ever got lost she can rely on him.
"Oi! Sharps!" The pair turned, a blonde haired man was striding towards them, he wore his dark green combat frame, His helmet was one but he glass was shut off, allowing them to make out his face, and hair color. He had dark brown eyes and he stared at them both, a large scar ram from the left corner of his mouth to just shy of his left eye.
"We Are moving out quicker than expected, looks like out boys are getting hit faster than originally anticipated, Deployment is in 40 minutes." The man explained quickly.
Dertega nodded "Oh, Lis, This is Conrad, everyone call's him Fissures though. As he just said you are going to want to suit up quickly."
"Oh, the replacement ay?" He gave her an obvious once over before shrugging "I hope you aren't as fragile as you look."
Lisanna wanted to punch him in the face and she probably would have if Dertega hadn't all but dragged her away, she managed to keep up with him before getting pulled over. They entered a locker room and Dertega pulled his locker open, pulling out his black and orange helmet, the striped were along the jaw line of the helmet as he slipped it on he pressed a button the left jaw line, and the visor seemed to dissipate around his face. He turned to Lisanna.
"I'll me you out on deck, get ready quick." He both ordered and suggested, she just nodded.
He smiled at her before running past her, taking a large rifle from the weapon rack by the door, he slung it over his shoulder, the thing almost reached from wall to wall.
"I was Unaware anyone was able to use a Barrat 100 cal effectively solo." Omega regarded, Lisanna pulled the pack off her shoulder, and unzipped it, the white and black armor stared back at her impassively, she pulled the chest piece over her head, she felt the armor tighten around her, she pulled the gloves on and slammed the greaves and boots on, picking up the helmet and waited a moment "Armor seal's are locked in, proceed." Omega announced.
She pulled the helmet on and regarded all the system in the visor, a small line indicated her current heart rate and her focus, her weaponry indicators read 0 as in she had no bullet's or a gun on her, she pulled the Katana up and the back of the suit opened perfectly to allow her to slide the blade into it, the weapon indicator changed to 'Sharp' indicating she had a knife.
"All system's at a hundred percent." Omega announced simply, Lisanna nodded and pressed a button on the side of her helmet, the indicator on the visor melted away and she was looking into the room not through a plane of glass.
The metal door groaned as someone pushed it open, Lisanna turned to look at the newcomer. The man wore a black T-shirt and pant's, he wore no shoes and looked as though he had just woken up with the way his hair was sitting, he looked at her with what seemed like lifeless eyes, it made her breath catch and a unmistakable feeling of dread set into her stomach. The man strode past her without so much as a second glance, he pulled open his locker and pulled his messy pale-pink hair over and made it sit properly, he pulled the chest piece of his dark red frame out of the locker, and slipped it on. She watched the gear's in the side turned as the thing tightened around his from he rolled his neck and raised his arms out straight to the sides, the black material that stopped the metal from brushing against skin seemed to snap around them, the metal folded out over his elbow and up to his hand's leaving his fingers free, the same process repeated with the greaves, she frowned usually it was all manual, she had never heard of an automated suit like that.
He pulled the red helmet out, it had a black dragon decal on the side of it made it look like he was snarling at everything in front of him. He pressed the button on the side of his helmet, the pure white glass that made up his visor melted away from his face.
"Lisanna Strauss?" He asked, his tone was like cold steel and it made her shiver slightly.
"Yes. Sir?" She stood in attention and she wasn't sure why, there was no guarantee that the man in front of her outranked her.
"Welcome to Delta, I will fill you in on the specifics of the mission on the way." He said methodically.
"Yes. Sir." She nodded and fell into step beside him.
"Oh, my name is Natsu Dragneel, I am the captain of Delta." The same dead tone. A small dark blue hologram appeared in front of them "And I am Theta."
Lisanna nodded at the A.I, it's voice reminded her of a little brother it was rather cute.
She noted the two black pistol looking weapon's, on Natsu's leg's. The design seemed off though they didn't seem like guns. she frowned through her visor at them.
"We are being deployed as the rearguard for the bulk of our forces in Afghanistan, we received intelligence that a few Al-Qaida zealot's plan on attacking our forces as they attempt to retreat, our mission is to terminate any and all attacker's while the main force pulls out. Any questions?"
Lisanna shook her head "Understood, Sir."
"Good." Natsu responded, the two walked in silence as they hit the deck of the boat, people bustled everywhere at the news of a more sudden deployment, Lisanna looked around her taking in everything. Natsu strode without looking around, A black Apache chopper sat in front of them, She saw Dertega and the other member, leaning against it almost casually.
'They don't even seemed worried!' She though in surprise.
"They do have a 100% success rating." Omega said.
Lisanna nodded.
Natsu kept his head facing straight at the chopper in front of them, through the visor he was peering down at his new member, she seemed in thought as she watched his two men in front of her.
"Boss, Lis. Glad you two made it," Dertega joked.
"Lis?" Natsu asked, his voice made more bone chilling when it was muffled by the mask.
"Well, we all have nicknames, and since the only thing we know about her is her name and that she uses a Katana as her main weapon, we went with Lis." Conrad explained.
The four soldier's stepped into the chopper, Natsu sat in the back left corner, Dertega too Lisanna's left and Conrad sat opposite her.
Dertega pulled a small photograph from a pocket in his chest piece, he smiled down at the picture.
"How far is she along?" Conrad asked curiously.
"36 week's tomorrow," Dertega responded, Lisanna peered curiously at the photograph, a black haired woman sat on a white picnic blanket in a field, Dertega sat with her both smiling at the camera, her stomach was a large bulge "With some luck I will get to be at my baby boy's birth."
Conrad nodded as he turned his visor back on, she regarded the large skull he had carved into it, the large knife clipped onto his shoulder was suddenly in his hand, she sharpened the blade on his arm and looked out the window, the lights in the cabin turned off abruptly leaving them in an almost eerie red glow.
Lisanna heard the clicking of a weapon being loaded, she looked at Dertega as he load his large rifle and faced the barrel up to the sky, Natsu slipped the two weapons from his legs and checked the round in them, confirming that they were in fact gun's, he pressed a button on the side and slide them together, her eyes widened as his weapon was suddenly a double bladed staff like weapon, he pressed a button and the shifted back into the original pistols.
"We all know the mission, Fissures, when we get there we will go with ambush Alpha, Dertega find a building set up, Lisanna. I read your file, these kind of mission's are not your strong suit we will be largely on offence, you will be circumventing the battle and taking out anyone who attempts to flank Dertega." Lisanna nodded.
Natsu stood and grabbed a loop on the roof so he didn't fall "we are going for aerial deployment, lock your weapon's and be ready. Dertega stretched out his shoulder and rolled his head from side to side as he stood up, he pressed his rifle on his back, the armor opened up slightly before clicking around the weapon, the barrel still nearly hit the roof but the thing was secured on his back.
Conrad had a standard rifle in his hands, he did the same process as Dertega, the weapon slotted into his back, the stock sticking up from his shoulder.
Lisanna tugged at her Katana slightly.
"Don't worry I have already locked it." Omega explained.
She nodded and took her spot beside Natsu, again her peered at her through his visor, for some reason he found her….interesting.
"Deployment in 2 minutes." Theta's voice chimed
Natsu almost glared at the small red light while he waited for it to change, the small indicator slowly ticked down in his visor, he pushed his interest in his new teammate out of his mind. The light blinked to green Natsu pulled the door open harshly.
"Go, go, go!" he shouted, the three of his team jumped quickly, he followed less than half a second after them, the kept there arms and legs straight as they rocketed towards the ground, a small indicator slowly ticked down on their visor's, the watched it for a moment, it started in green then went yellow then red, a small triangle slowly moved down the bar. As it hit yellow, Dertega flipped and opened his arm's angling his decent to place him atop a taller building, a small trajectory marker appeared and he made sure to follow it "Thanks Beta."
"You're welcome." His A.I responded.
He flipped just before he hit the ground slamming his fist into the ground as he landed kneeled, the was a small crack other than that the building was stable, he unclipped the rifle from his back and set up the stand of the alcove, he adjusted the sight and looked down it, taking a few deep breaths, he spotted the convey of enemy troop's driving towards them.
His radio turned on, "All right, looks like we have about twenty minutes till the enemy arrives."
Natsu's voice responded in his ear "Good, we will set up in 10, Sharps."
"Yes, Sir?" Dertega asked as he counted the soldier's advancing towards him.
"If any of them flank off, take them out." Natsu ordered.
"Yes, Sir." Dertega responded.
Lisanna watched the bar as she fell, as it reached halfway down the yellow, she turned and level out controlled her fall to land at the foot of the building a small blue triangle indicated that Dertega had landed.
She flipped and landed the same way as Dertega, kneeling down with her fist embedded in the ground, the dirt split and cracked around her as she stood and drew her Katana.
Natsu and Conrad, watched the bar, it hit the red and the merely flipped around and slamming into the ground the same way the other two had, both opened large craters in the ground before standing up, Natsu glued his back to a wall, and peered around the edge of it, he still couldn't see any of the enemy convoy. He looked over to Conrad, he nodded and the man placed his hand on the ground, the earth opened up under his palm, the crack was no wider than a pencil, it angled around the corner and down eh centre of the street the convoy was going to drive over, he kept his hand on the ground and waited.
Natsu raised his fingers a clicked them, a small flame appeared above his index finger, he let it wink out then clicked again, the process repeated for a small time, before the rumbling of thank tread reached the pair's ears, as well as the gurgle of engines and the sound of foot soldiers marching.
"They are in position." Dertega's voice announced through the radio.
Conrad smiled behind his visor as a small hissing sound rang out around the otherwise silent place, the air started to waver and distort and Natsu waited a moment.
"5,4,3,2,1. Now!" Theta announced.
Natsu clicked his finger's and his visor melted away as he blew the flame, it float off his finer towards the air that quivered, the convey halted, the commander opened the hatch the tank and blinked, a small red flame floated horizontally in front of them. he breathed in and caught something, gasoline? His eyes widened and he attempted to pull the hatch closed, the fire hit the quivering air and the area erupted, any of the men who weren't in an armored transport or one of the tanks' screamed in terror, before they were silence but the rush of flame, tank at the front blew out and the lid flew into the air before landing with a loud crash beside it. The two transport's opened up slowly and the rush of men running about to find cover as a few others opened fire. Dertega followed the movement's of a man as he stuck his head up to fire of a shot, a loud shot rang out and the bullet went clean through his forehead, Dertega pulled the bolt back as another round slid into the chamber with a click.
Natsu waited for Dertega's first shot, the second the deafening blast reached his ear's he jumped the small wall he was crouched behind, weapon in hand he rolled to his feet, th the surprise of the men around him, he spun quickly as and fired, with loud thud's the men around him hit the ground, blood pooling around them.
Conrad popped up from behind the wall, firing a steady stream into the men currently camped on the other side firing shots at Natsu. Another loud rifle shot rang out, and another body fell as Dertega pulled the bolt again. Lisanna crouched low behind a wall.
"12 signal's flanking right." Omega announced.
Lisanna dashed out from behind the wall, heading for the small squadron at full speed, one of them noticed and pointed, the rest pulled up their rifles, Lisanna slid to a stop and placed the back of her blade across her free hand, the men in front of her opened fire. She closed her eyes as each shot rang out clearly, her eyes snapped open when all that was heard was the clicking of empty weapons, she looked at her weapon, now covered in the small caliber round s of the weapons in front of her, she moved the weapon in a wide arc before releasing a large sweeping stroke in front of her, the bullet's splintered off and flew back at the men in front of her, their bodies hit the ground riddled with the bullets of their own guns.
Natsu ran through the building's, firing off a shot that never missed every now and then, a man stepped out in front of him and Natsu bent and slid under him, pressing a button on the side of his weapon, a blade slid out and he buried it into the man's head, he fell to the ground quickly. Natsu flipped around as the weapon's clicked together, he swung the bladed staff around himself a few times.
"Releasing lock's two, four and six." Theta spoke quickly, there was a reason these tow were paired after all.
Natsu disappeared in a blur, he charged a group of thirty who couldn't even register he moved, he flicked his weapon as he reached the end, and the bodies slid to pieces.
A small buzz caught his attention, he turned his head to see a tank bringing up the rear of the convoy tracking him, he ran forward, a loud explosion rocked the ground behind him as it blew apart where he was previously standing, he dived and rolled to his feet as the wall he sat behind blew apart.
"Fissures, they got another tank." He announced into the radio.
Conrad heard and placed his hands on the ground, the ground split and opened, the crack widened as it barreled towards the vehicles. Natsu slid to a stop at the rear of the tank, the buzz of its main turret turning towards him, it stopped as it trained on his chest. He heard the click of the firing mechanism, and then the ground cracked and split underneath it, the barrel pointed to the sky as the shot flew up. Conrad caught movement out of the corner of his eye and he dived forward, his weapon hadn't locked correctly and it clattered uselessly to ground right into the centre of the line of fire. He heard the sound of the men marching towards him, the sound of a rifle rang out and a single thud was heard, their pace slowed as the found a few spots to duck behind, Conrad gritted his teeth and pulled the knife from his shoulder.
"We find ourselves in a dire situation." Conrad's A.I, Zeta, announced.
"Yeah, look's that way buddy. I never thought this would be my last mission." Conrad looked up at the sky.
"Still we had a good run." He said enthusiastically
The shuffling of feet was close now, the barrel of a gun appeared above his head, he reached up and gripped the enemy by the collar, he yanked the man over the wall and embedded his knife in his head. He rolled to the left as a set of bullet's flew through the wall he was crouched behind.
He turned his radio on "Look's they are loading armor piercing round's guys. Hope you all get home."
"Conrad! Duck!" Natsu's voice ordered as he flew over the wall, Conrad did out of surprise, Natsu planted his feet in front of him and raised his hands, a hail of bullets flew at him and time seemed to slow down for the red-armored captain, he slammed his hands together the erupting of flame flew forwards, the bullet's froze in front of him and liquefied as the molten metal hit the ground. Natsu spun and slammed his palm forward in the air, the man in front of them melted to ash immediately. Natsu panted behind his mask. Dertega watched the events through the scope of his rifle, Conrad was one of his closest friends since the Academy days, they were excited when they were placed in the same squad and he had just accepted the fact that there was no way he could save his friend from his current position. Lisanna was too far out to help and the last person the pair ever expected to save anyone was Natsu, he was known to abandon entire squad's to complete mission's.
And yet the red-armored man stood panting in front of a crouching Conrad, both still very alive.
"Um, Boss?" Conrad started, Natsu turned around and frowned, it was like he didn't even know why he jumped in the way.
"Thanks." Conrad said, smiling up at his captain.
Natsu's visor melted away, something inside him clicked. And he smiled back, Natsu smiled for the first time in 17 years.
"Come on, let's get out of here." He pulled the man up by the shoulder's.
"All units, mission accomplished. Fall in people." Natsu ordered through the radio, the team slowly assembled after a few minutes, the helicopter landed a small distance from them, the sand dusted buildings stared back at them, as they boarded, Natsu heard something as he turned his head, the man must have hid till the very end, he pulled his gun and fired a single round, Natsu moved for a reason he himself didn't understand the bullet slammed into his shoulder, his mind went black as he fell into the helicopter, Conrad pulled a gun and fired three shots, hitting the man in the head. His head snapped back to their captain.
"Boss! Boss!" Dertega shouted.
The darkness of the chopper they couldn't make out if the shot was lethal or not, they knew he was still alive but that was all. Lisanna stared down at her captain and did her best to keep him awake. She shook his shoulder's and shouted his name, he would responded with a pained groan or a quiet word.
The helicopter sped towards the carrier, a medical crew awaited on deck. At this time an analytical officer received a report on her team's mission, she read the thing quickly and sped off in the direction her commander's office.
A/N: So there it is, the first chapter of this tale. Now it starts out a little more action packed but it does mellow out eventually, as you can see Natsu's character changes quickly although to what extent? The frame's they wear are similar in look's to the Armor the Spartan's wear in Halo, I felt my description was a little lacking. I hope you all enjoyed.