Disclaimer: I don't own One Punch Man or any of the characters from it.

I entered the guild after completing my 19th monster hunting quest, ready to fight Natsu like I promised, but he didn't look like he wanted to fight. In fact, he was rather serious, oddly. Everyone was silent but turned their heads towards me as I walked in.

"Perfect timing, Vinny," said Gray.

"We were just talking about you. Don't worry, we weren't saying anything bad," said Natsu.

"Um, are we gonna fight? I did promise you that I would fight you, but what's going on? Why is everyone so silent?" I asked curiously.

"Vinny," Erza addressed me. I sort of jumped and faced her. "I need your help, along with Natsu and Gray's. There's a problem that I'm concerned about, and since Master is off at another meeting, I decided that I would settle it myself, myself meaning with you, Gray, and Natsu."

"What about Lucy? She's a part of our group."

"If she feels so inclined."

"Huh? What?" Lucy was obviously not listening to a word we said.

"Lucy. You're a part of our team," said Natsu very seriously for once.

"Okay, and?" she said. "What about this?"

"I need you all to lend me your power," said Erza. Everyone went silent.

"Erza, asking three of the strongest guys in Fairy Tail for help?" murmured the other guildmates.

"I don't believe it!"

"Don't forget Lucy."

"Why Vinny? He's a newbie like Lucy."

"They might be newbies, but they have some experience, especially Vinny."

"Erza, Vinny, Natsu, Gray, and Lucy, I never thought about it before, but with all your powers combined, you might be Fairy Tail's ultimate team!" Mira addressed all of us.

"Cool. So we form a big team and go fight someone, and then we become Fairy Tail's strongest team? Sounds good to me," I commented.

"No, not just someone. The Dark Guild, Eisenwald." Once Erza said that, everyone in the guild gasped and it went so silent, you could hear a feather drop.

"Huh? What's an Eisenwald?"

"Eisenwald is a Dark Guild, or an illegal guild. I'll explain some other time. We leave tomorrow morning though, so be at the Magnolia Train Station at 7:00 sharp tomorrow. And don't even be a second late." I noted that she put emphasis on "don't", which meant that something bad would happen if one of us was late.

That night, I exercised like I never had before. I exercised past 12:00 A.M., doing countless push-ups, sit-ups, squats, even going as far as to using the chairs as dumbbells. I even exited my house and started doing laps around Magnolia just to build up my speed. I remember when I was a kid, I saw a funny cartoon of a superhero named One Punch Man who could blow away enemies in one single punch. In the cartoon, he had a crazy training regimen, where he did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and ran 20 miles every day for 3 years, and he could take out enemies in one punch. I knew that it would be impossible to become that strong just from that kind of training, but I used it as motivation to push beyond my limits. I must have fallen asleep around 2:00 or something and I was so tired, but so satisfied.

xxxx

RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG!

I sat up in bed suddenly and looked at the clock. 6:00, just as I had set it to. I fought myself out of bed and into the bathroom where I brushed my teeth and did other things you do in the morning. My muscles were a little bit sore, but I mostly just ignored it.

I had gotten ready and was out of my house by 6:20, which then I flew quickly to the Magnolia Train Station. At the station, I struggled to stand up, but I didn't want to sit down, otherwise I would be tempted to fall asleep. I was greeted by Erza, (who was carrying way too much luggage) however, and it seemed almost insulting the way she was wide awake as if she already had been for hours.

"Good morning, Vinny."

"Gmorng..." I mumbled. "Srry... havin' trouble staying awake... Erza, slap me across the face." I lifted my face so that she could wake me up. She held her hand in her other hand, hesitating to slap me.

"I can't. You're too nice, sorry. I don't want-"

"Do I have to deserve it? Just slap me, bitch." She reacted almost instantly. But she didn't slap me across the face; she punched me, hard. So hard, it actually hurt, even with a steel skull. I was wide-awake.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" She shouted menacingly, shaking her hand painfully. Some people passing by looked at like she was crazy.

"Chill out," I said, rubbing my nose. "Obviously I didn't mean it. I'm not asking for a death wish, I just needed something to wake me up because I didn't have time to get coffee. Forgive me, Erza, as it meant nothing. I just thought if I got you angry somehow, then you would hit me." I was kind of unfazed even though she punched me, but I was awake.

"... Alright. I will forgive you. I will say, that hurt. What are you made of?"

"Steel. My bones are steel. I inherit them from my mother."

"You're a steel type wizard?"

"And fire. Well, neither of them is magic, anyway. It's inborn power."

"That's interesting... It's odd though. Who asks to be hit by another person?" She asked rhetorically, but I answered anyway.

"A person who wants to surpass the almighty Erza, um, I don't know what your last name is."

"Scarlet. Erza Scarlet."

"Well, it does certainly fit you. A person who wants to surpass the mighty Ezra Scarlet wishes to be punched by her when he asks."

She stifled a laugh, but she couldn't help but smile. "You're a very strange young man."

"Thank you." I tipped my fedora.

"So you're the new monster hunter, huh? It's a fun job."

"Yeah. I know, right? I like fighting." I smiled. But then my smile faded away almost instantly. "But I fight for a reason, and that reason is not a fun reason."

"What is that reason?" Ezra started, but Natsu and Gray walked up to us, groggy and grumpy.

"Why did I have be assigned with you-" started Natsu, but when he saw me and Ezra, sitting together, He and Gray put their arms around each other's shoulders and held hands.

"Ezra! Vinny! Good morning! What a good day to get along! Uh, beautiful day, isn't it?" said Gray, but he caught my death glare and decided to shut up. Lucy tagged along behind them, and looked as groggy as them.

"I'm watching you two," I mouthed, pointing my two fingers at my eyes, then at them. They jumped and gulped simultaneously.

"Let's get along today! Really!" said Gray, pumping his arm in the air.

"Aye sa!" said Natsu, who did the same. I turned my back while still being able to see them, with them not knowing that I could see them. Sure enough, their foreheads clashed together and they gave each other a death glare. I Shadow Switched to their combined shadow, and they were pretty surprised by this.

"I saw you two. You better get along with each other, or I'll kick your asses. Got it?" Both of them nodded furiously. "And you both better get along when I'm not there, because I have other eyes."

"So Charizards have more than two eyes? Cool!" exclaimed Natsu, still nervous in tone.

"Ugh, never mind. Naive little..." I trailed off, not bothering to waste my brainpower on that. You can change some people's actions, but you can't change them sometimes. Just as that thought was passing through my head, the train pulled into the station just like my train of thought. Hahahaha... Ah, I could make so many jokes about that instance. Anyway! The train that pulled into the station was our train to the destination.

"Erza! I have one condition for going with you!" called Natsu. Gray tapped him like he shouldn't ask whatever he was about to ask.

"Hm?" Erza turned her head to look at Natsu, who grinned and clenched his fist.

"When we get back, I wanna fight you!" Gray put his face in his hands, and I swear I heard him mutter, "Idiot!" Lucy looked rather surprised. Happy was standing there eating fish, not giving a care in the world. Erza turned fully and examined Natsu, as if she was a doctor. Heh, imagine that.

"You have changed, but although I'm not confident..." She smiled too. "I accept your challenge."

"Yeah! All right! I'm all fired up!" Natsu's head caught on fire and he roared ferociously.

"Natsu, I thought we were gonna fight! What happened to that?" I reminded Natsu. To this, he nodded.

"I haven't forgotten! I'm just as fired up! I can't wait to see what you're made of!"

"Organs," I muttered stupidly. Finally, we boarded the train, which departed just as soon as we boarded. I sat down in a seat next to Erza and Lucy, and Happy Gray and Natsu all sat across from us. As expected, Natsu got motion-sick the moment the train lurched forward. We sat down, but Natsu collapsed in the seat like a pathetic ragdoll. Drool snaked down his chin and he groaned loudly.

"Here, come sit over by me. Switch seats with Lucy," said Erza. Lucy and Natsu got up and sat down in each other's seat. "I'll help you relax." Erza brought Natsu's head down gently onto her chestplate armor, and then took her fist and socked Natsu in the gut, making him do two things: barf all over the floor, and fall asleep. Or into a coma, not that anyone could tell the difference. Lucy was pretty shocked by this action, Happy happily munched away on his fish caring less about any situation, and Gray pretended not to notice.

"Hey Erza, weren't you gonna tell us about the Eisenwald thingy?" I asked curiously. She nodded slowly.

"Eisenwald is a dark guild, like I mentioned. They plan to do something with a thing called the 'Lullaby'."

"Lullaby... Wait! Then those guys from before...!" gasped Lucy. I looked at Gray, who looked at me too, slightly worried.

"Lower your voice!" I whispered.

"So you guys heard about the Lullaby too?" said Erza.

"Erza, I don't know if this concerns you or not, well, probably does, but that's beside the point. So while we were returning from a job request, Happy was captured by some creepy dudes who were gonna cook him alive. So we defeated them altogether, and one of the short dudes muttered something like, 'Lullaby... lullaby...' while he was tied to a tree. Some shadow hand came out of nowhere and pulled them all underneath the ground where they hopefully suffocated and died. We couldn't catch or see who pulled them under, as they were too fast, but I have a hunch that it was someone from Eisenwald."

"That's a believable story. It's quite possible that those wizards you encountered were refugees from Eisenwald. The Lullaby plan must've been too much for them. The one who fled may most likely be from Eisenwald as well. I was coming back from a job request the other day, and on the way home, I stopped by a pub in a town. I overheard some guys talking loudly about retrieving the Lullaby. I became suspicious, but like a fool, I ignored it. I remember the name they mentioned, Erigor. He's the ace Dark Guild Mage."

"Lullaby. That's like, a nursery rhyme, right?" said Lucy.

"Yes. The fact that it was sealed away means that it was incredibly powerful magic."

"If it's so powerful, why didn't they call it something different like, 'the song of doom'?" I suggested.

"It could have something to do with demise and death," said Gray. "Sounds like something from a bad horror movie."

"That guy who dragged those guys down with shadow may have been one of Eisenwald's main forces. I don't blame you guys for not catching him, but you could've done something to slow him down!" Erza sighed. "We're right on their tails, yet we don't know what they're planning..."

"Well, they're probably planning something evil, right?" I asked Erza, who was eating a strawberry cheesecake out of nowhere.

"Yes. They must be," responded Gray, who munched on a sandwich. I Summoned a bag of potato chips, because why not?

The train slowed down and pulled into Onibus Station. Erza, Happy, Lucy, and Gray exited the train, and I followed after them. I was almost out the door when I stopped. I felt like I was forgetting something, and I rushed back to my seat. I almost forgot Natsu. None of my belongings were there because everything I had, I could Destroy. Just Natsu.

"Hey, Natsu! Wake up! The train stopped. Get up." His mouth was wide open and he snores loudly. I slapped his face lightly.

"Get up! Come on. Everyone is waiting outside-"

WHOOOOOOOOOOO! The whistle on the train blew loudly, and the train lurched forward. I knew Natsu wasn't much for transportation, so I tugged at his arm desperately.

"HEY! Come on Natsu! Get your ass up! The train is leaving!" He didn't budge; all he did was groan.

"You guys are from Fairy Tail, correct? How pitiful," said a voice from behind me, noting the guild mark on my bicep. I whipped around and saw a guy with black hair sticking up in the back and a white jacket, about my height and possibly a bit older. I ignored the guy and turned back to Natsu in an attempt to get him up.

"Natsu! I don't care how you are with transportation; get your sick ass up right now! The train is moving, God dammit!" Suddenly, without warning, the guy kicked my back hard.

That was a mistake on his part.

His leg twitched uncontrollably, and he lowered his injured foot. I covered my ears, and I could still hear him screaming at the top of his lungs in complete pain. Here's some advice for some people: don't kick metal.

"What the hell?! Why you little son of a... You think that you're so smart, huh?" I turned around, pretending that I didn't feel him kick me.

"Eh? What happened? Are you okay, or do you need to take your medication? Who are you talking to?" I suppressed a laugh as he pointed towards me.

"Don't bullshit me! You felt that, and I know it! Eh, hey! Where are you going? Get back here!" I completely ignored everything he said and I carried Natsu on my shoulder towards the door.

"You idiot. Do you know who I am?" he growled maliciously.

"No, and I really don't care. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of some business with a dark guild. To be honest, I'd rather be monster hunting right now, but I didn't really have a choice." I kicked open the train door which fell out onto the ground and tumbled away.

"A dark guild you say? You're in luck. I'm from that dark guild." He got a crazy, evil look in his eye. I didn't even twitch.

"Alright then. Natsu, I'm gonna put you down right here..." I placed Natsu down in a seat, in which he slumped down and groaned. "Well, let's get this over with, then." I started off by charging a Flame Ball, but he quickly cancelled it out by hitting me with Shadow Magic.

"What the hell...!" Then I had an epiphany. That guy, who pulled those guys under the ground with Shadow Magic, must've been this guy.

"Hey, sleazebag. Did you happen to pull a bunch of guys underground with that magic a few days ago?" I asked.

"What do you care? Knuckle Shadow!" He used the same attack from before, but I was able to dodge the predictable.

"You know, if you're fighting another being that can understand words, you shouldn't say your attacks out loud, it makes it way too predictable." I Shadow Switched to his shadow, then used Titanium Fist in quick succession. "You can attack without speaking, as you saw. I would love to use that attack you just used, by the way. If I defeat you, maybe I could learn it." Suddenly, the train came to a screeching halt, knocking us both to the ground. A little thing fell out of his inner jacket pocket, which looked like a flute with a three-eyed skull. Creepy. I picked the flute up and inspected it. "What's this thing? A flute? Huh, I never knew how to play a flute. Mind if I try? I mean, I probably suck at it-"

"No! Don't! That's no ordinary flute!"

"Yeah, I figured. It's got a creepy skull with three eyes on it. I wonder if I can play the One Punch Man theme song on this."

"Don't! You'll get us all killed! THAT'S THE LULLABY FLUTE!" I stopped. He smirked at me. "I knew you'd listen, you incompetent fool. Now be a good boy and hand over that flute." I looked at the creepy flute. I didn't feel like Destroying it, but I knew that if I gave it to him, he would probably play it. I moved the flute to my steel arm. "Tell me about this flute, because I'm an 'incompetent fool.' Educate me, why don't you?" He glared, and then used his same attack from before. It hit me, but the flute didn't fly out of my hand because I had an iron grip on it.

"God, you're so predictable! You call that Magic? I'll show you magic." I used my new Dimension Magic, Dimension Drain on him. He was grabbed by my Magic and held up in the air while I drained him of his Magic Energy. He struggled to get out, with no luck. Finally, he dropped to the ground and tried to use Knuckle Shadow, which I already saw coming. However, I didn't see his next attack coming. The shadow fists blocked any way to escape, and then he used the same Magic as when he pulled those guys under.

"Shadow Pull!" he said once he got a hold of me. I didn't struggle; I just waited patiently. I slid closer and closer to him as the shadowy hand pulled me towards him, but suddenly, it just disappeared, along with the shadow arms.

"What... what happened to the shadows?!" He tried to use his attack again, which worked only for a brief second. "What happened to my powers?"

"Aw, I thought you would've guessed! The attack I used on you? It drained you of Magic Energy. What are you going to attack with now? Your fists? Your feet? Oh wait, that's right! You can't. Do you give up?"

"I still have..." He pulled out the flute. I charged Flame Ball to Mega Flame Ball and released it at him, making him fly back to the other side of the car. Dust and debris flew everywhere, blocking my field of vision.

"Oh no you're not! Come out and fight!" I looked around, but all I saw was dust. Suddenly, from behind me, he took a piece of debris and swung it at my head. It did hurt. Clever. I fell to the ground and he planted a foot on my back. He took other pieces of debris and slammed them all down on me. I didn't have time to react, and the pieces kept coming. Finally, he was out, and he pulled out the flute. He put the flute to his lips, ready to play a song, but I had enough time to grab his foot, lift it off me and throw him back, and Shadow Switch to his shadow. While I was in his shadow, I Summoned my book and flipped to one of the pages titled, "Water Magic".

"Alright, you piece of shit! Not that you can hear me anyway, but here goes! Water Magic: Wave Blast!" A mini water vortex formed in my hands, and then I jumped out of the shadow and unleashed a wave of water on him just as he turned his head, clogging his nose and lungs with water. The water flowed out of the train, exploding out of the broken roof and smashed windows, and finally drained out. I'm sure the guy wasn't dead, but I absorbed from The train came to a stop once more, and Natsu woke up.

"*Blorf* Ughh... What the hell happened?" he coughed. "Why is everything wet?"

"I'll explain later. We have to go, now! Erza and the others were back at the station, and we need to go back and reunite. Come on! Let's go!" Natsu grabbed his waterlogged belongings and we jumped out the door.

We were met with an unpleasant surprise. A shirtless guy with white hair, tattoos, and a giant reaper weapon thingy confronted us as soon as we stepped out of the train.

"Who the heck are you two? Did you cause that giant wave to explode? Do you know who I am?" he interrogated. Natsu growled and ignited his fists, but I motioned for him to cut it out.

"I don't give two shits about who you are, and you don't scare me. Don't expect to take my stuff, bandit." He growled, and slashed at me with his reaper, or tried to. I caught the blade with my steel arm and cracked it with my hand. He obviously wasn't expecting that, and he staggered back a little.

"Actually, I take back what I said. I do give a shit about who you are, if you're from Eisenwald," I said, and he grinned big.

"Bingo. I'm from the dark guild Eisenwald. My name is Erigor- AUGH!" At that moment, a car drove up, knocking him and a few other teammates out of the way. Driving the car (from the outside) was Erza.

"Vinny! Natsu! You're okay!" she exclaimed.

"Skip the talk, Erza. I think we found the Eisenwald guys. I'm, uh, not gonna question what the hell that is," I pointed to the car. Lucy and Gray got out of the car, and looked around.

"What- already?! How..."

"I can explain later. For now, I think we have something to take care of." I pointed towards Erigor, who was, er, no longer there. He had gotten up, surprisingly, and was standing in front of us now.

"Do you know what we have to accomplish? Humph. Worthless little flies. We're going to Oshibana station to broadcast Lullaby so that we can cleanse the land of all its filth. Oh, and your precious guild masters? Say goodbye to them," he laughed maniacally.

"Oh, wow. So you're just gonna say your plan, out loud in front of all of us, like, dude! Are you even trying?! Come on! Announcing your master plan out loud for all of us to hear? How can you even call yourself a bad guy? Well, not that you would call yourself that, but, come on!" I yelled. "God, if I was in your place, I wouldn't tell anyone my master plan so that the plan can follow through! I mean, how Goddamn stupid can you get? At least say your master plan before you're about to activate it!" Erigor obviously wasn't expecting this, and he looked rather surprised.

"Wind Magic: Storm Bringer!" A huge vortex of wind surged up and carried him and his guild mates away.

"God, why the hell do people always announce their attacks? That just makes it more predictable because the other person can hear what attack you're gonna use, and then- ah, you know what? Forget it," I groaned.

"Nevertheless, we must go after Erigor and the others!" exclaimed Erza. "After them!" We all jumped in the car (Natsu got sick the moment the car dashed forward) and sped off. Natsu barfed all over the floor, typically.

"God dammit, Natsu," I muttered as I Destroyed the pile of vomit.