Things were not looking good for the gang. The Fiend has captured Gray, Erza, and Lucy. They have been brought back to his hidden lab in the abandon church. He was getting ready to put the final pieces of his plan in motion and it seems like there's nothing the gang can do to stop him. The three of them were chained down, but Natsu and Happy were still free as they remained hidden from the monsters.
"Come on, Happy. We've got to do something." Natsu said, but Happy was too scared to even move. "Do I have to give you a whole bag of fishy treats?" Even that couldn't get Happy to move. "Come on, Happy. Do it for our friends? They need us." When he put it like that, Happy worked up the courage to move.
"We've got to do something." Gray said as he tried to come up with some plan, but it seemed like there was nothing they could do. That was when Natsu snuck over to them while trying to keep hidden.
"I wouldn't say that." Natsu whispered to them.
"You're okay!" Lucy said as she was glad to see him.
"Waiting for any ideas of how we can beat these guys again." Natsu said. Lucy had a look around the equipment to find a certain machine. She spotted it when she saw one with a large conduit on it.
"There! That machine is the key!" Lucy said. "If we can just get it to flow in reverse, it should reverse the charge used to create the monsters and turn them back into regular costumes."
"But can't he just flip the switch again and start this whole mess again?" Erza said.
"I'm already ahead of you guys on that." Natsu said.
"Are you?" The Fiend said as he was already aware of his presence. "You think I wouldn't notice someone tampered with my equipment? At least now I have you all here." The five monsters moved around as they all seemed ready to pounce. "Get him!"
"You'll have to catch me first!" Natsu said as he tried running for it, but they weren't going to let him go that easily. Natsu made his way up some stairs with the Horned Man chasing after him. Just before Natsu reached the top, the Fiend Hatter jumped in the way. Natsu didn't let that stop him. He just jumped through his legs and kicked him down the stairs with him crashing into the Horned Man. Natsu kept on moving as Panther Guardian climbed his way up and chased him around like a cat chasing a mouse. Natsu appeared to be cornered into a wall and the Panther Guardian had him.
"Quit playing with your prey and get him!" The Fiend ordered.
"You heard him. Here kitty, kitty." Natsu dared. Panther Guardian leaped right at Natsu, but Natsu jumped out of the way at the last moment. Panther Guardian crashed into the wall with Natsu grabbing a support beam. Natsu tried hanging in there, but Man-Bat flew around and tried to keep him from escaping. While the Man-Bat kept him there, Oni made his way over and tried climbing up the beam to get him. Natsu wasn't going to let himself get caught. He daringly jumped right on the Man-Bat and tried steering him by pulling on his ears. He steered the Man-Bat right into Oni and knocked him to the ground with Natsu jumped off at the last minute.
"Impressive." Natsu turned only to be kicked down by the Fiend. He tried to get back up, but the Fiend kept his leg down on him. "Having my monsters crash into each other? Not running off in fear, but to outsmart them? I'm rather surprised that you're the one pulling it off, but it was all for naught." The monsters gathered around with the Oni grabbing Natsu and holding him off the ground. "You should have tried to free your friends since they're the real heroes, but couldn't since I have the key." He said as he held it out. "You may have solved many mysteries, unmasked many villains, but the four of you can't beat real monsters."
"Four? You missed counted. There's one more you forgot about?" Natsu said. The Fiend didn't get it until he realized something and probably made a serious mistake. He looked over towards his machine and saw Happy by his machine and was ready to flip the switch.
"No!" The Fiend shouted. Happy flipped the switch in reverse. When that happened, the machine started to overload as electricity shot out of it. It didn't stop there. Natsu's tampering from before caused a chain reaction where all the equipment was breaking apart. Electricity shot around with the five monsters getting hit and were starting to revert into normal costumes. Once Natsu got free, he yanked the key right out of the Fiend's hands.
"Happy!" Natsu shouted as he threw the key to his cat. Happy caught the key and hurried to the overs and tried to unlock them. The Fiend wasn't going to let Natsu go so easily as he pushed him back and tried to keep him from going anywhere as the whole place was breaking apart. Happy managed to free the others, but the whole place was starting to come down around their heads.
"We need to get out of here!" Erza said. They all tried running for the door, but a support beam fell down and blocked the door.
"That way!" Gray said as he pointed to a window. The four of them hurried to the window and jumped out, but Natsu didn't get out yet.
"Where's Natsu?" Lucy said. They all looked and saw Natsu was still inside as the Fiend was trying to hold him down, but Natsu knocked him off. When it seemed like the place was about to go down, the Fiend hurried out.
"Natsu! Get out of there!" Gray called. Natsu tried running for it, but some of the equipment blocked his path when it all began to fall apart. Natsu looked around for any sign of an exit. When he spotted one on the other side and tried running for it, but none of them saw if he got out as an explosion went off inside and blew them all back.
"Natsu!" Lucy screamed as they all failed to see if he made it out. They were all horrified if he didn't. What they did see was the Fiend making it out and tried running for it.
"Get him!" Gray called as they weren't letting him escape after what happened with Natsu. The Fiend only got a few feet before he was tackled down by Natsu himself. He was able to make it out.
"Natsu! You're okay!" Erza said as they were all glad that he was. That was when they saw a bunch of cars pull up and saw it was there parents with the sheriff.
"Kids! Are you all okay?!" Igneel said as all their parents were worried about them.
"We're fine, Dad. We got the freak." Natsu said as he kept the Fiend down.
"What has been going on?" Sheriff questioned. "I'm getting reports of monsters, damages, and now a church explodes?! What the heck have you kids been... What is all this?! Who is this freak?!"
"It's time to give it up, Zeref Dragneel." Gray said as he and the others still believed it was him.
"It's not Zeref." Natsu said.
"Natsu, how can you be so sure?" Erza said.
"Because I'm the one who pulled Natsu out of there." They all looked to the side and saw Zeref showed himself. "After that bat carried Lucy away, I called your parents and the police. I followed the bat to here and told them all what happened."
"Hold on. If you're Zeref, who is the Fiend?" Gray said as they all thought for sure it was him.
"I know who it is." Natsu said as he grabbed the villain by the horn. "The Fiend...is Ignia!" He said as he ripped off the mask and showed it was.
"Ignia Howard?!" The gang said as they were all shocked it was him.
"How did you know?" Ignia questioned.
"I found you shrine. That's where I found this." Natsu said as he took out the piece of paper he found at the shrine. "It's your birth certificate, and I was surprised at what I saw. Dad, your name is on it. Zeref, Ignia is our half-brother." All of them were shocked to hear about this, but Igneel was the most shocked.
"What? That can't be. I never even knew about him." Igneel said.
"Of course you didn't. My mother never told you about me." Ignia said. "You and she dated a while, but she found out she was pregnant with me after you broke up. I went my whole life without knowing my father, but raising a child on her own took a great toll on her. I always wanted to know who my father was, so I went looking for you when I was old enough. When I did, I saw you already had a different family. When I saw how happy all of you were, I saw things I could never have. When I saw how happy you were with a different family, I couldn't take it. I began thinking that maybe my mother lied just to protect me and that you just went and abandoned us!"
"I would never do something like that. I never knew you existed." Igneel said.
"Seeing how happy you were with your family, having something I couldn't, I decided to ruin your happiness by ruining your family." Ignia said. "When I heard how your son was part of this mystery solving gang, I came up with a plan. I needed to create a mystery that you couldn't solve. Something that would destroy your group."
"How did you figure out to create real monsters?" Lucy questioned.
"I always had an admiration for monster movies." Ignia said. "I studied everything I could in science when I was in college, running numerous experiments to create actual monsters."
"When you heard about the museum display you were getting, you figured it was the perfect opportunity for you." Erza said. "You created real monsters to try and ruin us, create a mystery we couldn't solve, but Natsu was your real target the whole time."
"And you planted evidence to make Zeref look like the bad guy." Gray said. "If anything did happen, Zeref would be the one to get blamed. You tried killing two birds with one stone."
"That's right. I would have destroyed everything if it meant I could have ruined the man that was cause of the strife in my life." Ignia said. Igneel felt greatly hurt by all of this. Whatever Ignia went through clearly made him lose his mind. "I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids." He complained just before the Sheriff took him away and locked the madman away for good. Hearing all what has happened has put Igneel in quite a state of shock.
"Are you okay?" Heather asked her husband.
"That was my actual son, but he did all those horrible things because of me." Igneel said.
"It's not your fault, Dad." Natsu said.
"Natsu's right. We know you would never abandon someone. You just didn't know about him." Zeref said.
"Maybe, but I'm also quite proud of you." Igneel said as he hugged his sons as all their parents were quite proud of their children. Not only did they solve another mystery, but they also saved the town from real monsters. Just a new story in the lives of these young mystery solvers.
...
The Next Day
After what happened, there was only one thing left to do. The museum display for the gang was still underway. It was the grand debut and it was certainly a spectacle. Everyone loved it as they were all also being congratulated for their latest solved mystery.
"And that is why all of Magnolia should be proud of these young heroes as we add the Fiend to the display." A museum director said as reporters and everything took photos with the Fiend costume added to the display.
"Tell us, how were you able to solve this mystery?"
"It was rather strange seeing real monsters, but it was just another mystery we solved using good old brain power and creativity." Gray said. "That's why we're happy that the Fiend, our greatest mystery, is added in."
"We were also able to recover the five stolen costumes to have them be placed on display as well." Erza said as she showed the display of all the other monsters. Everyone cheered for the mystery solvers. Their families were proud, everyone was impressed, and now they're being hailed as heroes. With all of this going on, it turned into quite the party for everyone to enjoy. The gang were all quite proud of themselves.
"I can't believe it. We solved a lot of great mysteries, but this has to be our greatest accomplishment." Gray said.
"I'll say. We actually took on monsters and managed to beat our craziest villain ever." Erza said.
"Natsu, are you okay? He was your brother." Lucy asked.
"I'm fine. It was certainly a surprise to learn I had another brother, but I'm just glad it wasn't the brother you all thought." Natsu said as he looked towards Zeref, seeing him enjoying the party, and having his actual brother joining in the celebration. "My dad is going to need time to come around with all that happened, but I think everything is going to be okay. The best part of all this, it's over."
"You said it." Lucy said as they all shared the same feeling. "So, would the great Dragneel care to join me for a dance?"
"Really?!" Natsu said as he almost couldn't believe it. Lucy grabbed his hand and brought lead him out to the dancefloor where the two of them shared a dance. "You know, you were really brave back at the church."
"Well, I knew I had to do something." Natsu said. "You guys are the best friends I ever had and I didn't want to lose that. With this guy also going for my family, I had to do something."
"Well, I think you're pretty amazing." Lucy said. As the two of them danced and stared into each other's eyes, neither of them were uncertain, nervous, or felt like something was holding them back. The two of them placed their lips against each other as they danced away to their own delight. Gray and Erza could see that and they were so happy that their friends were finally acknowledging their feelings. Speaking of Happy, as delighted as he was to see those two like that, Happy was happier when he saw a buffet of fish. Happy was so happy that he actually felt like he could say something.
"Happy Dappy Doo!"
