My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive…..(Strange: SHIT, WRONG FRANCHISE, Stark: How did you get that one mixed up with War Journal?! Strange: Well exuuuuuse me! I have like 6 different stories in the process of being formatted, plus my school work, cut me some goddamn slack. Let me just reset and…..)
In a land far far away, lies the kingdom of Fiore. A small, peaceful nation of 17 million and a place filled with magic! Found in every home, bought in every marketplace. For most, magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some, however, magic is an art. And they've devoted their lives to its practice. These are the wizards. Banded together in to magical guilds, they plant their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore, but there is a certain guild in a certain town that soars high above the rest. One from which countless legends have been born. A guild that will, no doubt, create more legends well into the future.
Its name is Fairy Tail.
Chapter 4: Respect for the Deadman
Fairy Tail Guild Hall, the following morning,
Our heroes gather in the guild hall the following morning. Winston was taken to the guild hall infirmary for the remainder of the night, but master suggested keeping him on the move and so Winston was currently off hiding in the same barn Lucy was hidden in when Phantom Lord attacked.
Fairy Tail's strongest team had finally reconvened except something was wrong. Natsu was missing…
"Where the hell is fire breath?" Grey asks
"Well, the plan was for him to drop off Happy and meet up with Lucy." Erza thinks out loud. The two wizards turn to the blonde wizard.
Lucy shakes her head, "I never even saw him last night. I was too busy taking care of Winston when-" before she can finish her thought, an all too familiar blue cat bursts through the front door at Mach speed and buzzing the room in a frantic reconnaissance. It was Happy, whose face ironically didn't match his own name
"Hey guys! Have any of you seen Natsu?!" Happy says in a very scared and worried demeaner. The blue cat zooms around the guild hall and can't find that recognizable pink spiky hair and this gets him even more worried and begins to shiver of the horrific possibilities.
The scarlet knight approaches the exceed. She needs him to calm down because Happy will have a better idea of where Natsu is compared to everyone else.
"Happy," Erza begins, "Do you know where Natsu is? You were the last one to see him last." The young cat had to sit and think hard for only a moment.
"I was tired and things are hazy, but I remember Natsu tucking me in and promising me lots of fish once he got back from the hospital. The last thing he told me was that he needed to rendezvous with Lucy at the hospital. I didn't know what rendezvous meant so I assumed he was going to do naughty things with Lucy," the cat snickered.
Lucy's face got extremely red and she continued to shut Happy up by placing him in a skilled headlock, "SHUT IT YOU DAMN CAT" Lucy screeched as Happy squirmed and grunted in futile escapes for freedom. All of this was observed by a small audience of Grey and Erza who could merely sweatdrop at Lucy's priorities. Was she seriously abusing a cat because it misunderstood the word rendezvous?
Erza began connecting dots and began her deductions, "Wait a minute!" Lucy scared if she went too far released Happy who flew to the bar for safety, "So Natsu was definitely en route to the hospital. So what happened to him on the way. Lucy, did you ever see him once?"
Lucy immediately remembered her initial thought, "That's what I was going to tell you! I was with Winston and he told me that everything that's happened so far has been orchestrated by a single man!"
Grey's eyes opened to the size of dinner plates while Erza maintained a somber expression. She was already aware of this and was going to bring it forward until Lucy did. Now, all she could think about was that young man dying in her arms. He was suffering to the very end and Erza was so caught up in her investigation that she never even took the seconds to learn that young man's name. Erza nodded, indicating Lucy she could continue.
"And we had to move because that man attacked us."
"WHAT?!" Erza and Grey were both in equal shock to this news this time.
Lucy continues, "Yeah, he was definitely out to take out Winston and tie up loose ends. I took him on and protected Winston so he could make an escape"
"Wait a sec, if this whole problem comes down to one guy and you fought him, why isn't he half dead and in prison? All of our problems would be solved!" Grey responded incredulously. This was a lot to take in and he was too shocked and distracted to be upset that he missed all the action.
"That's the thing," Lucy took a breath and recalled the previous night's events, "He was smart and took out the lights so it was harder to see him and he was dressed in black which didn't help. I used my Sagittarius form, but he shot my arrows out of the air! And he even shot and took out my bow! The guy had range on me and I needed to make sure Winston was okay so I had to escape! I ran away and got to Winston and the man in black didn't seem to follow us so I got the two of us away."
Erza processed every detail so far and begun to pace, "So this guy is skilled with a gun, no doubt. HE had no intentions of killing you because you'd most likely be dead if he were," that thought sent chills down Lucy's spine. She wasn't sure if she should feel lucky or terrified about what could've been, "The fact he didn't follow you directly means he took a different path to get to Winston so he was thinking tactically. And Natsu was definitely heading toward the hospital by then. It could be possible that the two had a confrontation. Lucy, did you happen to hear anymore gunshots after escaping the building?"
That's when it hit Lucy like a ton of bricks, she almost couldn't say the words. How could she forget such a minute detail? "I did…I heard one last gunshot while running. Except it was far away and definitely wasn't aimed at either of us."
No words needed to be shared. Natsu and the vigilante definitely fought, but a single gunshot plus Natsu missing the next morning was not a good combination to think about…
"NO. I WILL NOT ACCEPT THAT. REQUIP: FLIGHT ARMOR" Erza's body glowed until she was dressed in her fastest armor. A simple cheetah print bikini model designed to increase Erza's inhuman speed tenfold.
"I'm heading to the hospital!" and with that, she was out the door and gone. On the balcony, the master watched everything with a sober expression. "Please be safe, my child."
Magnolia General Hospital
Erza arrived in no time at all. She did a quick analysis of the building.
There were more guards at the entrances. After last night events, the hospital wanted some extra security to avoid another fiasco.
Assessing what Lucy mentioned, the vigilante and Natsu most likely fought on the roof. Erza lurched forward at full speed toward the nearest hospital wall. The force of her steps keeps her traction as the knight scales the wall to reach the roof in almost no time at all. Once on top, Erza glanced around. After not immediately seeing the pink haired dragon slayer, she continued her search back and forth across the building. It didn't take long to confirm it was barren.
Erza was getting anxious, her breathing was slightly accelerated as she tried to process what could have happened. That's when it came to her. The scarlet speedster (Stark: Dude, really? Strange: What? Stark: You wrote Erza as the Flash again, what the hell is wrong with you? Strange: Oh well exxuuuuuse me! I'm trying to think of other Erza synonyms and I'm not wrong! She's a scarlet haired person in her speedster armor. Stark: *sigh* okay fine, but this is strike two, now get back to the goddamn story. Strange: I will, you futurist jackass!) ran as fast as she could to run another scan of the roof, this time looking at the actual floor and surroundings.
That's when she saw it. Erza confirmed her suspicions with small splashes of blood near the edge of the southern side of the building. It was still fresh. The redhead went into autopilot and began to drag her feet toward the edge of the hospital. She prayed that this blood belonged to the vigilante or anything that could imply Natsu's safety, but all the evidence was pointing toward a grim reality
Erza peaked down into the alley down below. She picked out a figure sprawled prostrate on the ground amongst all the trash and filth in a small crater made from a fall. The person was bloodied all over, but there was one bright glimmer of color. On the victim's head, though matted with blood, was a small touch of natural pink hair…
Erza broke her stupor, leaped off the roof, and gracefully landed next to Natsu, "Natsu! Are you okay? Can you hear me right now?!" Erza waited for a response to no avail. Next step, she leaned her ear right up to his face. After what felt like eternity, Erza picked up a faint inhale. It was faint, weak, and short, but it was there. Natsu was alive!
Erza reached down and attempted to pick up Natsu, but the moment she got her arms under him, the Dragneel began to moan and whine with pain, he was beaten up pretty bad. "Hang tight, I'll get some help!" with that, she ran to the main doors and scanned for someone who could help her dear friend. But there was so much going. Nurses and doctors were sprinting to and fro, and those that couldn't were busy moving patients and medicine.
A nearby nurse caught a glance of Erza and bolted over, "Do you need medical attention?"
Erza was taken aback by her cruel glare and cold tone, "W-well, not me personally, but I nee-"
"Sorry, we're swamped. Don't need you. SECURITY! Get her out!" With that command, guards surrounded her in a way to immediately evacuate her presence from the emergency room. Erza didn't have time for this, time for plan B. Erza ran back to Natsu.
Upon her return, Erza got right back under Natsu and lifted him rather roughly. This caused the beaten wizard to squirm and flinch at such minute movements, with a look of pity, Erza said, "I'm so sorry, Natsu" and she sprinted off with her friend.
Sometime later, at Fairy Tail Guild Hall
Natsu was rushed into the infirmary by Erza and she wasted no time running back out of the guildhall and returning with Porlyusica. The healer wasn't too happy about her sudden change of scenery to civilization, but she reluctantly agreed to treating Natsu's wounds.
At this time, Erza was sitting at the bar with the master and her fellow guildmates. She spent a lot of her magical supply to get everything done and she needed a break. Her good deed didn't get much recognition from the guild because of the very nature of who she was saving. Fairy Tail's most charismatic member has a foot in the grave and they don't even know the identity of the mastermind responsible.
Elfman and Mirajane were having an aside confirmation while overlooking the guild, "Who do you think could've done this to Natsu?" the she-demon could barely get out her words because of her newfound struggle of holding back tears. The last person she saw that beaten and broken was Lisanna and she didn't want to think about losing another loved one.
"Well, there's no way of really knowing, but he must be strong. Natsu is like an unofficial S-Class wizard, so this guy is no push over. But he's not a real man. A real man likes the color purple and doesn't leave good men for dead!"
Mira looked up, "What? Why did you include that whole purple bit?"
Elfman puffed his chest, "a real man is comfortable with his masculinity and likes PURPLE!"
The platinum blonde temporarily forgot her sadness and sweatdropped at her brother's stupidity, "Okay little brother…"
Meanwhile…
The front doors creaked open and two strangers walked in. A man and a woman. The woman had straight dark red hair similar to Erza's… if Erza used goat's blood as shampoo. She had a decent physique and had two….assets that caught the attention of Fiore's perviest master. The man was tall with short black hair. He had spiked looking goatee and he wore straight black aviator sunglasses. Both of these newcomers were dressed in identical black suits with black ties.
Makarov leaps and plops himself promptly in front of these two, "State your purpose for coming to Fairy Tail, we are in the midst of a crisis and we don't need more problems right now."
The man smirked at this threat which took the observing members by surprise that this man just shook off the master's threat. The man opened his mouth and began to speak, "Relax pop pop, we aren't here to rain on your freak show. We're actually here to help," this man had a very smug and cocky tone of voice, but he also commanded authority. The blatant insult practically went unnoticed because he said it so smoothly, "I am Agent Tony and my lovely partner her is Agent Natasha. For the sake of discrepancy, that's all the backstory you'll hear from us. We're from a counter-terrorism intelligence agency."
Makarov and the rest of Fairy Tail were befuddled, Makarov verbalized this, "Why would such an organization be getting involved here in Magnolia?"
"That's the millions of dollars in property damage question!" Agent Tony exclaimed, "We've been hired by the king of Fiore to investigate a high priority suspect in a series of killings across Fiore. This suspect is solely responsible for murdering countless criminals and dismantling drug rings like it's his goddamn birthright. We analyzed his trail and deduced his next stop would be Magnolia hence why you've been graced with our company. You're welcome."
This was a lot of information to take in, but it didn't take a genius for those who knew that this must be the vigilante that took out Natsu.
Makarov responded, "So, you must know that one of our guild members had to deal with this 'suspect' of yours."
Tony smirked, "Exactly, we need help and you have motive, we can work together and solve both of our problems at the same time."
Makarov gives a knowing nod, "Do you have any idea who this vigilante could be."
"I might!" Everyone turns around to face Grey, "last night, I was the one assigned to gather information and I might know who exactly is behind all of this. Come here." The agents, Makarov, Lucy, Erza, and few others gathered around the ice mage to understand his discovery.
"So, these agent guys probably could've figured it out if you looked back far enough, because Hallowing Wind had a lot of connections to other dark guilds and they corroborated frequently. One thing these small alliances agree is on this, 'No witnesses even if that means no survivors'. In other words, these guys either kill no one or everyone."
Natasha gave him a quizzical look, "We knew all of that, get to the point we're wasting daylight."
Grey continued, "If you look at the 'kill everyone' cases, there was actually one survivor!" This took even the agents by surprise; how did they miss this detail? "At Carousel Park in Crocus, a family of 4 had decided to take a picnic. Unfortunately, they put themselves right in the middle of a failed sting operation set up by the local authorities to catch some drug runners."
The guild went somber at the grim reality of a family ripped apart for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The agents remained stone cold and analytical. They've seen their fair share of war crimes, it's become desensitizing.
As Grey moved on, he pulled out a couple of files and set them out in front of his audience, "Here's the thing, there was a survivor, the father named Frank Castle" this left a shockwave of surprise and Grey wasn't even done yet and Makarov began to scratch his head in deep thought. Grey pulled out an x-ray of a skull he had kept in the folder and he showed it to the enthralled viewers. Nothing about it seemed unusual, except on the skull's right upper side was a small precise hole, "Frank Castle took a bullet to his brain and survived…"
"WHAT?!" Unanimously, everyone's jaws hit the floor and you can hear the dying wisp of a "man…" by Elfman. After a quick recollection of wits, everyone one resorted and regrouped to let Grey finish.
"Frank would've died, but he got lucky and a super skilled neurosurgeon was able to extract the bullet and save his life. I think this has to be the vigilante because he's the only survivor and he lost his whole family and he wants revenge. I know what it's like to live with a vendetta like that so I know there isn't much that would stop him from achieving it."
Tony approaches Grey with a single slow clap. Once next to the ice mage eh gives him hearty slap on the back followed with a friendly rub, "Good job champ. I'm proud of you, we could use skills like that in the agency. Make sure to give us a call."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Mira shouts. Everyone turns their attention to her, "If you're this 'super-secret intelligence gathering agency' why didn't you figure it out?" Everyone turns to face Tony. Natasha chuckles at the sudden pressure on her partner and just says, "I think Tony can answer that one"
Tony looks at his partner turned traitor and reels himself back to the agitated magic guild, "I…admit to not doing a thorough investigation. I read on the Carousel Park case and thought nothing of it when I got to Frank Castle. I assumed a bullet in the head was instant death and skipped over his case file entirely, but who wouldn't?! I bet each of you would have made the same mistake!"
A random member shouts, "Grey didn't" clearly Fairy Tail didn't need Natsu to dish out burns.
Tony took time to recover and continued, "Anyway, we didn't have any confirmed identity and legally we still don't until we can catch him and/or officially identify him so we gave him an alias:"
"…The Punisher."
It was coincidentally at this moment that the right dots connected in Makarov's brain and he had a dark moment of realization.
"Grey, hold on a minute! Are you absolutely certain this man is Frank Castle?!" Makarov said agitated. A tone rarely heard by his constituents.
"…Yeah? I have his case file here and I've gone through it God knows how many times. Why the sudden interest? It even sounds like you know this Frank Castle guy in some way." Grey inquires. This gets everyone else riled up and the poor old master was being verbally assaulted on all sides by his guild and the agents.
"will you….SHUT UP!" putting some magic behind his voice, everyone goes silent in fear of sparking the master's wrath. The old man calms down and hops on top of the bar, "I've painted myself into a corner and I owe you all an explanation."
Everyone gathers around Gramps as he begins his lecture,
"Let me tell you the true story of Frank Castle…"
Strange: Once again, I'm sorry y'all. Stark and I are freshmen in college and honestly this whole thing is more of a side project to let loose creatively.
Stark: Yeah, he has a point. I haven't even technically posted my own story yet, Strange has done all the writing.
Strange: Bout time I get credited for this!
Stark: I didn't say it was good writing…
Strange: Oh, don't you start with me now. Or I'm gonna…
Stark: Okay please don't! Even this site has standards for M ratings and I don't want to get banned.
Strange: pfft. Fine! Anyway, I have this whole story arc outlined and ready to go, it's just a mtter of writing it. So I might be able to get more done in the summer so hope and pray!
Next Chapter: Soldiers