Reality is harsh. Sometimes people won't like you for who you are. Sometimes people won't appreciate the things you do. Sometimes your actions are the cause of destruction. But sometimes it's not the best idea to run away from your problems, no matter how bad they are. Because if you become a fugitive to your issues, it will not only change your life, but the lives of those you meet, those you care about. If you run away from your problems, they'll only find you again, eventually...
...and in some cases destroy your guild.
It all happened overnight. When Mira and I had returned to Magnolia the previous night, the damage had not yet been done, still probably just being worked out, waiting to strike. What happened to the guild, you may be wondering. Imagine a sea urchin, except its spines are just straight up metal cylinders. In the middle, with the many spires jutting out from it lay the demolished guild hall. The destruction could be seen from pretty far away, and from my house which was on the west side of town, the tall metal cylinders could be seen. When I stepped out of my house at first, I had no idea what it was, even from upstairs, all that could be seen were the huge metal rods jutting out like a massive explosion of steel. Getting on Fearow to get a view from the air, the building itself was barely visible.
As I walked inside the building, I gaped at the terrific sight, tons of colossal metal rods puncturing the ceiling and walls. It was a rather irritating eyesore that awoke a familiar temper within.
"This is pissing me off, I'm gonna beat the crap out of whoever did this. I just hope that no one suspects it was me. Not like I could do something like this. My Steel Arts can't do this. Not yet, at least…" The ruined guild that surrounded me gave me a vision, a horrible thought that if I failed to erase evil from the face of the earth, then the future would look something like this.
I was suddenly frightened that everyone may have died or anything least gotten severely injured, then I heard distant voices. I wasn't sure where it was coming from, but then I realized for the first time that there was a basement floor, where all the voices seemed to be coming from.
Following the voices, I was extremely relieved to find out that everyone had been hanging out downstairs. The cellar looked like it was refurbished into a temporary bar, which reeked of booze and old wood. Makarov sat in his place he would normally would on the ground floor, his face red and flushed, looking unusually happy, making me question his and my sanity, how he could be happy in a time like this, and if I was actually seeing this.
Oh wait. He was drinking his problems away. Makes sense.
"Master Makarov...?" I spoke, hesitantly.
Makarov let out a loud, resounding belch. "Ah! Vincent! How are you? Good to see you! Sit down and enjoy yourself!" I had no proper response to this, so I resorted to the main question.
"Makarov. What happened here?" I asked, addressing the elephant in the room.
"Who cares? Oop! Looks like I'm out of booze! Gotta go pee, again!" And he jumped off of the countertop and dashed away. I looked behind the counter at Mira, who didn't make eye contact at first. I became worried, because if she was going to chew me out or break up with me, I didn't know if I had done anything to make her, besides insisting that she drank with me the previous night.
"Mira...? Are you alright?" No response. I wasn't going to persist just in case I was making her uncomfortable, so I slowly rose up and said nothing, not even bothering to check the request board. Chances were, there wouldn't be a request there.
"I understand if you need some time alone, so I'll leave you be for the time being. You tell me if you need anything, okay?" I assured her, then turned to walk towards the stairs.
"W-wait!" called Mira as I began to walk away. I turned round to face her. "I-I'm sorry for yesterday, fo-for last night. I... I'm sorry you had to see that side of-" As she was talking, I slowly began walking towards her and placed my finger on her lip, then moving around the bar to meet her face to face.
"Mira. It's okay. I'm not mad. Are you mad? Did I provoke you at all or make you uncomfortable, in insisting that you have a drink with me? I'm sorry for making you. I'll never do that again."
"I-I'm not mad, but I'm sorry if I forced myself into you. I'm sorry. You didn't need to see that side of me."
"Mira, Mira. Shh. It's not your fault. You never would've acted that way if I hadn't provoked that kind of behavior. I should be the one apologizing. I essentially forced you into doing something that you didn't want to do, and I'm sorry. Shh. It's not your fault." As I ceased to speak, I took her into my arms and caressed the back of her head comfortingly. "It's alright. You didn't know what you were doing. I won't do that to you again."
She looked up at my face with a look of relief/worry. "Thank you... but I still feel like I've done something wrong..."
"Don't worry about it. I know what not to do next time. We had fun, at least. Right?"
"You're right. That much is true. When are you thinking we should go out again?"
"Hm. I don't know... maybe after the guild is rebuilt, because after we find out who did this, then we still have to reconstruct the hall. That won't take too long, although if it does take long, then we can go out in between."
"You don't know who did this though, do you?"
"Probably wouldn't know them. Tell me, so I can kick their ass."
"It was another guild. Their name is Phantom Lord, and they're longstanding rivals of Fairy Tail. They're as destructive and wild as this guild, probably not on good terms with the Council, either. But Makarov thinks that the Council allowed this feud between guilds..."
"Really? I didn't know he was thinking anything in the matter at all! Who knew?" I scoffed sarcastically.
"Vincent, please. He's going through a rougher time as we all are."
"Alright, alright. I understand. But this guild... Phantom Lord, was it?" I clenched my fists tightly. "If they decide to attack one more time, they'll get a taste of me. I cannot let this stand. I can't. I won't."
"You can't take them all on at once though!" Mira exclaimed. "...sorry. Don't take this the wrong way, but you're just not strong enough against all of them. They're a really massive guild. Bigger than ours. Taking them on by yourself is asking for a death wish. None of us can do it alone. Not even Erza could do it by herself."
"...fine. But I still wanna kick their asses. I must. I might sound like Erza right now, but this is unacceptable and this cannot go unpunished."
Mirajane chuckled a little. "You're very much like her in a way."
"I suppose so, but now's no time to fool around with impressions. We have a bigger fish to fry."
"Hm. It's best to leave it alone for now. If we start a fight with the other guild, then it'll only cause more trouble."
"Hmph. Whatever. If they plan to mess with us again, I swear to god…" I clenched my fist, igniting it in flames, then smashing it into my metal hand. "I'll personally track down their guild and kill them all…!"
"Well, two wrongs don't make a right, you know. Let it go, Vincent. We don't want any trouble with them. This was only a minor inconvenience. We can fix it."
"Alright. I'll let it go for the time being. But mark my words."
"Marked." After she said that, we began to snicker nervously.
"Well for the day, I'm thinking about taking on a job request. I was kinda disappointed when other people didn't leave at least one for me, but I can't do all of them by myself, I realized. Other people should get a chance too." Right after I said that, I searched the request board and was lucky enough to find a monster hunting request. Didn't pay a crazy amount like the ones before, but it paid enough. A simple task: defeat a serpent that prevented people from swimming in the ocean. I would need Gyarados' help for this task.
And get Gyarados' help, I did. Having him Mega Evolve, I made him create a large whirlpool that summoned the serpent to the surface. It rose out of the water, a malevolent creature of sea green, with huge gaping jaws of a cobra and the tail of a dragon. A truly dangerous creature that gave even Gyarados a hard time. As if it was hard enough trying to balance on top of him, he constantly tried dodging the sea serpent as it chased after us, sending an plume of attacks our way; forcefully blasting water at me to try and knock me off, biting hard when it got close enough, not to mention its speed in the water as it continually pursued us.
"Damn... pest! Such a pain...! Gotta take care of it somehow, otherwise...!" Gyarados went over a wave on the salty tasting sea, causing my teeth to clash together and making a trickle of blood flow from my bitten tongue, spreading the metallic taste spread throughout my mouth.
"Ah! I got it! I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I can use this! Lightning Magic: Discharge Pulse!" During a small window of time, I bravely dived into the water and executed the attack, electrocuting the sea serpent to death. Gyarados came in to pick me up, then the serpent's body reduced to nothing, leaving nothing but the energy ball to go pick up.
If only it were that easy.
Unsuspecting, as I went to collect the energy, a massive shark creature blasted out of the water and swallowed my prize, then diving back down into the water without even a thank-you-very-much. This angered me beyond belief, making me so angry, in fact, that I resorted to the strongest electric attack I knew.
"I won't let you get AWAY WITH THAT! Water Magic: Hydro Vortex!" First I used Hydro Vortex to create a large whirlpool in the waters, exposing the shark creature.
"I got you now you son of a bitch. Lightning Magic: Disaster Volt!" Jumping over the new whirlpool, electric power stored up in my hands, then expelling it downward, electrocuting the shark and everything around it in a great ball of lightning so bright that I couldn't see into the whirlpool at all, then a massive bolt of lightning followed by many upon many smaller bolts crashed down from the sky into the ball of electricity, creating an enormous explosion that swept outward in all directions, illuminating the mid afternoon sea and electrocuting all the surrounding waters. I only hoped that Gyarados would live through it. Once the storm died down, Gyarados was nowhere to be seen, and the whirlpool below me closed up, leaving me, suspended high in the air, to drop down into the water and sink faster than a barge. I began to sink, thinking that Gyarados was accidentally killed in the explosion, but just as I was about to drown, he came out of nowhere, carrying me to the surface.
"...haaahh...haaahh... I really need... I need an... Air Magic Spell... that lets me... breathe anywhere..." I panted.
"Grawrra?" Are you okay? Asked Gyarados.
"Yeah... I just... I should be asking... are you okay? How did you not get... electrocuted?"
"Grrooowr. Gyarro." Swam away just in time. That was one hell of an attack.
"Thanks... whooo..." I took a deep breath before speaking again, feeling my heart pounding heavily in my chest. "Thanks for being there. I owe you one."
"Grawr. Grrowg." You don't owe me anything. You're my trainer, after all.
"I guess so. It's about midday, let's go get something to eat, all of us."
"Grrowwg grww?" We haven't trained in a while, does that mean our training is done?
"Dude, this is our training. That training before was to boost us, to make us stronger to take on these kinds of quests. This is our training. A chance to show off our skills and put them to use."
"Grawwg grrr!" Oh, I get it now! Gyarados nodded his head.
"Right. Let's head back. I'm in the mood for barbecue or something."
After gaining my reward and a eating quick lunch, I looked for a quest that all my Pokémon could join in on. There was one, luckily, for a dragon-like demon that was a threat, yet again. I didn't care who it was threatening, just as long as I could train all my Pokémon. After this quest came another one for a man-beast that was attacking a town, and after that I returned to Magnolia, where it had turned to evening. The guild hall was closed, leaving me to go home for the night. I was tired, but kept myself awake long enough to crank out some exercises, where I was worlds stronger than I was previously. I don't wanna go into the details having already talked about my growth through exercise, where going into detail once more would simply be redundant. I will say though, that one handed push-ups were becoming a bit easier. I felt like the strongest mage, though I wasn't there yet. Not to mention, most of my power was fueled by anger...
… and a certain event taking place next morning would just about drive me off the edge, yet again.
xxxx
"You can't be serious… another attack?!" I yelled as I ran with Mira to the Southgate Park of Magnolia. She had heard news that someone from Phantom Lord had struck again, where I was expecting another act of vandalism, merely a nuisance to some, though I was ready to fight them. Like I said, one more incident and I was gonna beat the shit out of all of them.
Oh, but this was over the top.
Chained to the Southgate Park tree, bruised and battered and bloody was three members of our guild, Levy, Jet, and Droy. The moment I saw this, I was assaulted by a wave of emotions that neutralized and canceled out to no expression at all. Soon, the longer I started at the tree, the more my feeling of anger took over. Then Makarov came pushing through the crowd, and once he had a look at the tree, crushed his whole staff in pieces with his bare fist.
"Master Makarov," I spoke through ground teeth. "Do I have your permission to annihilate the entire guild of Phantom Lord who has done such a horrible deed as this?"
"You have my full permission, because a simple act of vandalism is nothing to worry about, but now that they've brought harm to my children, they'll pay for what they've done. This means WAR!" Makarov couldn't be more serious now. "Mages of Fairy Tail! We're paying Phantom Lord a visit! This is a war on Phantom!" At once, an uproar was caused by every mage of Fairy Tail, Natsu's cry resounding above the rest, breathing fire into the morning air.
In a blind rage, I stepped forward, Steel Morphing my arm into a scythe shape, then jumped at the tree and precisely slashed the chains off without bringing harm to the unfortunate captives. Rage once again became my entire being, and one by one, I angrily slashed at the metal restraints, carefully lowering each of the to the ground.
"Someone get them to a hospital, quick. They may die from blood loss if they're not treated right away." One by one, each of them were carried away to a hospital I knew not where. "I don't know where Phantom Lord is, but wherever those son of bitches are, I will find them. And I will kill them. Every single one of them. And I'll make sure..." I clenched my fist in a steel grip, "...that they never mess with Fairy Tail ever again. Natsu."
"What."
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah. I'm all fired up now, I'm gonna kick all their asses."
"Right. But I'm especially gonna kill whoever wrecked our guild and chained Levy, Jet, and Droy to the tree. I have a feeling it was the same guy."
"I heard he's a Dragon Slayer, though. You couldn't beat me, so how could you beat-" Instantly my fist met Natsu's face, shutting him up.
"Feel that? It hurt, didn't it? I assume he's a Metal type like me, and I don't care if he's a Dragon Slayer either. We're gonna team up against him. Actually, you know what? Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, Fire Arts and Steel Arts, and that dudes' Metal Dragon Slayer Magic, it's like a coincidence that was meant to happen, I just realized. But whatever. Now's no time to have a nice chat. We have a guild to kill."
"They really deserve it. They'll see that we won't stand for this! Let's destroy them all!" With a final cheer of the now enormous crowd consisting of every Fairy Tail member, "DESTROY THEM ALL!" the entire guild began a mad dash out of the town. It was time to annihilate, time to get our revenge.
xxxx
I followed alongside Natsu, Erza, and Gray, and most importantly Makarov in the very front as we led the crowd, as Fairy Tail's strongest team. Soon we reached the town of Oak, stopping in front of their guild doors. Assuming we didn't need permission to destroy their guild, Natsu and I used two fiery punches at the door, obliterating it entirely. Some Phantoms were on the other side, and were thrown back all the way to the other side of the gargantuan guild hall. I Destroyed my scarf so it wouldn't get ruined, and rolled up the sleeves of my jacket.
"It's time to hunt some monsters."
"EVERYBODY GO! IT'S EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!" cried Makarov mightily.
At once, I rushed forth into the crowd of people, morphing my arm into a large hammer shape just before I hit the first group of people. Then some mages hit me from the back, a mistake.
"Augh! He's solid, like Gajeel!"
"Look at his arm! He's a Steel type just like Gajeel!"
"SHUT IT, DICKS!" I yelled, whacking a large group of guys out of the way. Gajeel? I thought. Is that the one who destroyed our guild and pinned Levy and those other two to the tree? When I see him, he's gonna die! Using my Steel Morph creatively, I stretched out my arm to be a very long blade, cutting and impaling a bunch of guild members. Then quickly morphing it into a large bat, I swung around and round, knocking guild members all over the place like a big tornado. Remembering the great Lightning Spell I used the previous day, I flipped through my book to remember how to cast it.
"Lightning Magic: Disaster Volt!" A bunch of guild members jumped on me trying to pin me down, while some others aimed at me while I was held in place by the many grips, ready to send me into oblivion with their Magic attacks. But before they could do anything, I released all the electricity out in a great ball of sparks, electrocuting anyone within a large radius. Luckily, no one from my guild was around me. With their mitts off me, I jumped high into the air, using the wall to send me higher, until I reached the cross beams above on the ceiling, then finishing the attack.
"TAKE THIS! HYYYAAAAAHHHH!" Many bolts of lightning surrounding one massive bolt erupted from my hands, absolutely shocking everyone. I crashed down to the ground with a mighty pound, creating a great shockwave in all directions and crushing the flooring with my fist. I rose out of the hole I made, unscathed, and looked all around at the destruction I had caused. Raw burnt to a crisp, unconscious, severely injured, or dead bodies lay everywhere, forming a great empty circle with me in the middle. Some guild members chickened out, while others rushed ahead with their attacks, someone using Rubber Magic, another with Shadow Magic, like Kageyama, then others with different kinds of Magic, some with various weapons or basically anything that they could use as self defense. All to take on me.
The first few guys I was able to dodge, then someone jabbed a sword in my direction, which I deflected with my metal arm, then slapped them out of the way, sending them flying. Another shoved a wooden mop in my face, which I lit on fire and hurled a Mega Flame Ball at the attacker. All the others I encased in Magma Core, and they all fell out, burnt and unconscious. Or dead.
Either way, I didn't care.
Some stronger looking dudes came my way, with much stronger Magic and weapons, thus proving more difficult. Though the duller weapons didn't hurt, the swords pierced my skin and muscles, throwing off my guard. The guys with Magic shot at my face, one with an energy burst type Magic, and one with a strengthening Magic. The one with the strength Magic pushed me back into the energy dude, who created a crack of energy that propelled me into the strength guy. Seeing as this would become a cycle, I was pushed back like a volleyball again by the muscle dude, I used the extra speed to forcefully Flame Punch the other guy in the face, then hooking a Flame Kick behind me, knocking out the muscle mage.
I took off my fedora to scratch my head, then I guess some other guy saw an opportunity to swing a sword down on my head, from what I infer, because I felt a tap on the head, and when I turned around, some guy was holding a now shattered sword that he broke over my head. Standing there absolutely stunned, I blew him away with Wind Blow and leaped after him, bringing Hammer Fist down onto his chest, causing his broken, sharp ribs to puncture his skin, making him cough up blood as well. I looked up with a murderous look, threatening anyone dared look my way with my death glare.
Some other idiot decided he wanted to throw away his life, dashing at me with two swords, which I broke in my hands, and Flame Kicked him in the stomach, which he tried catching my foot, in which he burnt his hands badly, then another Flame Kick to the stomach hurled him back through a window, to god knows where. Then a loud roar went up, and everyone who had been scared to fight me rushed at me, in hopes to strike me down woh whatever Magic they had. The first ones who reached me were Flame Punched to the opposite side of the hall, and the others stopped short, which then I used Fire Shield to blast them all away.
Once the flames of the shield died down, there was one more bystander who held his sword in both hands up to his face, shaking and quivering at the knees. I was wondering whether I should spare him or not, but just as I was about to decide, he weakly swung his sword at me, which I caught with my finger and thumb, then made a shape of an L on his forehead, then with as much strength as before, crushed the blade in two and walked away, but not before he rushed in the punch me.
"Oh boy. You're a brave one." Simply just pushing him, the force of my push sent him flying back, which he landed headfirst, his head skidding on the ground and busting open, then his body went completely limp and he lay on the ground, motionless.
"Sorry you couldn't save even yourself though," I whispered to the body. "Not like you can hear me."
Igniting myself in flames, I began marching towards the larger crowd of people on the other side of the hall. They had seen what I did, well, how could they not? They saw what I did to their guild members and dashed at me, preparing to use their spells. They were only putting their lives on the line, and they knew it. It would only be a matter of time before everyone in Fairy Tail took down the entirety of Phantom. In the beginning, we were outnumbered to Phantom Lord, but now with each one of us fighting for our lives, their numbers soon began to decrease. Making sure I was far enough away from the others, a large group of Phantoms rushed in and tried to attack, but only a sword merely scraped me right before I burst into a massive Flame Dome. Some of them had Magic shields that withstood my fire blast, but one by one I took care of them, even if a bit slow to the task, as I was constantly beat around like a punching bag, even socked in the gut at one point, but all that did was make me barf fire and vomit all over them, drenching them and immediately flames began spewing out of my mouth, a new attack created by accident: Flame Breath. It was a strange way to be introduced to a new move, but I didn't give it a second thought as I began expelling flames out of my open mouth, setting everyone within my radius on fire. Nevertheless, the large group of people that were ganging up on me were a bit too much, almost knocking me unconscious, but then like a blessing (and also kind of a curse) my hallucinations began to kick in, as I saw the members of Phantom Lord turn absolutely savage and murder every single one of our guild members slowly, painfully. In the moment, this was enough to fuel me and made me angry enough to blow off the group of Phantoms, but after defeating the mob, I went on to fight another mob of Phantoms wondering why I just had another hallucination just now.
Why…? I thought. I definitely got enough sleep. Is it the exercises I did last night? No, it couldn't have been… I definitely did not go overboard with the exercising, but just enough to make me strain and work my muscles…
So what could it be…?
Caught off guard, someone from behind hit me over the head with a wooden chair, making me stagger a bit and knocking me into my senses. Snapping out of my thoughts entirely and focusing on the fight, I realized I had rushed over to the bar area, which I backflipped into and began punching guys left and right as if I were in a bar fight scene in a movie. Then remembering that alcohol was flammable, I grabbed a drink from the shelves behind me, popped it open and began drinking it. The Phantoms looked confused and tried to attack me, but I held up my finger in protest and began chugging down the bottle. I had to stop after I had chugged less than a quarter of the bottle, because this was some strong stuff. It was extremely bitter tasting. It was like nothing I'd ever had before, but that's because I had only ever had alcohol once before, and that was two days prior. The liquid was very strong, and burned the back of my throat, making me cough a bunch. The group of guys on the opposite side of the counter made jerky movements, looking for an opening to attack, but I managed to mumble, "Stop" causing a trickle of alcohol to drip down my chin and leak onto the floor until I managed to swallow it. I made a disgusted face and looked at the bottle closer which said "Whiskey, 60% Vol."
"Oogh… that's some strong ass shit." I leaned casually on the counter as if nothing was going on. I heard the biggest booze drinker of our guild, Cana Alberona shout, "Weak!" and some people laughed. It was then I noticed that a lot of people stopped fighting and were staring at me as if I had gone crazy. I motioned for the guys who were trying to attack me to sit down, which they reluctantly and oddly complied, then I took out another bottle of whiskey and some shot glasses and poured them a drink. Act of courtesy.
Y'know, breaking the ice instead of bones- ah, forget it. What started as an idea to make my fire breath stronger turned into me having a drink with my enemies. I don't even know what's going on in my head sometimes, but all I know is that I can think some pretty crazy stuff. After each of them had a sip, I emptied half the bottle, beginning to feel a bit tipsy. Things seemed funny again, not just weird funny, but humor funny as well. I still had enough consciousness to stand and know what was going on, so I took the rest of the bottle and smashed it over the first guy's head, knocking him unconscious. I didn't want to kill him, as he hadn't harmed me in any way or gotten too close. I had been counting the number of casualties brought by my own hands, 31 being the most. I didn't feel so good, and it wasn't just the thought of me killing those guild members, either. I felt a fire in my belly (kinda sounded like Natsu there) and the alcohol fueled the flame as I predicted, sending a massive stream of flames out of my mouth. I had already thrown up prior, so I knew my stomach was empty and I could fill it with strong liquor to fuel my attack. I didn't like how it made me feel, so I would refrain from using it in the future, only as a last resort. Why as a last resort? Because I was straight spittin' fire for almost two whole minutes, burping up powerful flames and torching everyone that tried to knock me down. If I closed my mouth for long enough, then I could create a massive fireball that bursted from my mouth at speed and flung away anyone who dared try to attack me. Afterward, the drunk feeling went ceased a bit.
"Ugh, not trying that again… Everything smells like alcohol. Well, what else would I expect…" Then everything ground to a halt, because there was a loud crash from above.
"It's him…!"
"That's him!"
"Who's that...?" I walked over to Erza unsteadily, worried that I may get slightly drunk again out of nowhere.
"It's the Steel Dragon Slayer... 'Black Steel' Gajeel!"
So this is that Gajeel guy, huh? I thought. Wait'll he gets a taste of my fist...!
No pun intended.
Someone from our guild leaped towards Gajeel. "You'll pay for what you did to Levy!" Unfortunately, he was knocked away by the arm of Gajeel which turned into a familiar looking, steel pillar.
"Attention everyone! I, Black Steel Gajeel, will be taking on all of you!" he shouted.
"MAN! I may be trash, but I'm still a MAN!" Elfman had previously turned his arm into a beast's arm, now turning it into a hard brick arm in an attempt to hit Gajeel in the face, but Gajeel blocked with a metal arm.
"You're Elfman?" Gajeel quickly did a flurry of attacks, but Elfman was able to dodge and blocked an iron kick with his concrete hand.
"Hm. Not bad at all."
"A man is to be strong," said Elfman.
"Really? Then how about this?" At that moment, Gajeel created many smaller pillars from his leg, flying out in all directions and hitting other members of his own guild.
"How can you?! They're members of your own guild! You're not a man!"
'Shut up! What're you looking at!" Gajeel punched Elfman in the face with a steel fist, knocking him back. Natsu saw this as an opportunity to get a hit on Gajeel and used Elfman as a launchpad to leap forward and hit him in the face with an Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon.
"GAJEEL!" he screamed, punching Gajeel. He was thrown back, crushing the bar behind him.
"Woah! Gajeel got hit!"
"That's the first time I've seen that happen!"
"Shut up!" With the slash of a Flame Claw, I knocked out a bunch of bystanders from Phantom.
"I'm the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail. You'll pay for what you did to Levy!" yelled Natsu.
"Take this! Steel Pillar!" Gajeel sent a large metal pillar from his arm towards Natsu, but Natsu held on to the pillar.
"You ruined our guild, and brought harm to Levy and the others… HRRGH!" With much strength, he held Gajeel up in the air by his arm. "He's heavy! Vincent! Get 'im!"
"I gotcha!" With a mighty Flame Kick, I sent Gajeel into the air, hitting a beam and using it to propel himself back down, which then Natsu punched him in the face again, back into a wall.
"Natsu! You not only used me as a stepping stone, but you interfered in our man-to-man fight as well?"
"Yeah, what of it? I have to get him back for what he did to Levy, Jet, and Droy! I can't not do anything!"
"Alright, fine! I'll leave this man-to-man fight to you! But in return-"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it! I'll be sure to beat the crap outta this guy. Vinny, you with me?"
"Aye sir," I did an imitation of Happy.
"Hey! He copied me!" Happy pointed out.
Suddenly from the pile of rubble created when he landed, Gajeel rose up, unscathed, save from a white scratch on his face.
"That didn't hurt at all," he huffed.
"Really? It doesn't look like it to me," challenged Natsu.
"Is that so?" Gajeel began to dash at us, but I got out of the way in time as he kicked Natsu away.
"You asshole!" I punched at Gajeel with a Titanium Fist, which he got knocked down by.
"Natsu! Get up!" Natsu did so, seemingly unscathed as well.
"You… fedora kid. You use both of our types, don't you? I can tell by your arm. Whatever! I'll just crush you so that there's only one of each of us, you copycat!" Gajeel jumped up in the air and brought his foot down, which I caught with my violently quivering hand.
"What… did you just call me?" My voice grew deep and menacing. Gajeel smirked.
"You're fedora kid. You're just a kid." Immediately after he said that, my right fist ignited with flames and punched Gajeel down to the ground.
"You… called me… a kid…" I held up Gajeel by his shirt, punching him again which sent him flying back. "Don't EVER, and I mean NEVER, call me a kid AGAIN!" Leaping into the air, I brought my foot down onto Gajeel.
"Crushing Stomp!" Using a new idea for a move, I brought my hard foot down straight, but not fast enough as he caught my leg and threw me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me.
"I'll call you what I want before I beat you down like a floorboard peg. Bet you didn't think they taste any good, just like how I'll eat your arm!" Gajeel exposed razor sharp teeth, took my arm, and bit down like a bloodthirsty vampire. I expected a huge chunk to be missing from my arm, but all I head was a soft clank.
"Um… do you have any idea how wrong this looks right now…?" Gajeel, with his mouth around my forearm stopped and realized that, it did look wrong. Very wrong.
"Please don't." I fired up my right fist and punched Gajeel away, with Natsu standing behind him.
"Natsu!"
"Already a step ahead!" Natsu clasped his fiery fists together and brought them down on Gajeel, throwing him to the ground.
"Natsu eats fire to power up… so you eat metal to gain energy as well? Interesting… well I'ma tell you buddy, this arm is not to be consumed, and to be kept out of reach from ages 5 and under due to choking hazard." Gajeel lifted up his head and ground his teeth. "Who's a kid now? You'll pay for it if you decide to call me that again…" I shot a menacing glare at Gajeel again, who smirked.
"What're you gonna do about it? Huh? What's-" I had a feeling that he was going to call me a kid one more time, but he was interrupted by yet another loud crash.
"Jeez! How many crashes can top each other?!" I muttered. But everything stopped once everyone saw what had made the sound.
"Gramps!"
"Makarov!"
"Master!"
In a crater on the ground lay the figure Master Makarov, green, defeated, and old.
"T-they got me...!" he groaned.
"UHHHHH...!" A loud weep could be heard from the beams above. An unforeseen mage in a green coat and hat, with a cloth covering his eyes had tears streaming down his face. "So sad...! Uhhhuhuhuh...!"
"Hey! Did you do this to Makarov?! Reveal yourself!" I yelled at the mage. To this, a stream of tears followed by loud weeping resounded throughout the hall.
"I am Aria of the Elemental Four of Phantom Lord...! Uhh! So sad to see this happen to your precious master...!"
"I can't tell if he's serious or not. What the hell is the Element Four...? And why does he keep crying?"
"I dunno who this guy is, I just wanna kick his ass," replied Natsu who was standing next to me. Suddenly, I wobbled a bit, dizzy in the place I stood due to the alcohol.
Erza, who was also standing close by, replied as well. "The Element Four... they're Phantom's strongest mages aside from Gajeel himself. And him..." Yet another mage came onto the scene, none other than the master of Phantom himself, Master Jose.
"Ah. How pitiful. Yes. This is Aria of the Element Four. He has the power to cancel out other's magic. Your precious master, is useless. He won't be able to save you now," said Master Jose.
"Yeah?! You sure of that?!" I yelled as I jumped up towards Aria with a Flame Punch, but he used his nullifying Magic on me, shocking me and halting my attack slightly, yet my punch still connected with his face and sent him flying back, crashing into and breaking tons of crossing ceiling beams. With a shocked look on his face, he managed to stand, Gajeel jumping to join him.
"What is this mage...? It's so sad how powerful he is...! My Magic didn't work! It's so sad!" cried Aria.
"I don't know what he's made of, but it doesn't matter, because we've now captured Lucy Heartfilia."
"W-what did you say...?!" I wasn't expecting blackmail.
Natsu didn't, either. "GAJEEL!"
"Salamander. May we meet another day. And you, Mr. Fedora. I don't know what you're made of, but you're still a kid to me. Farewell."
This was enough to make me snap.
Instantly Mega Evolving, I crushed the beam underneath my feet by using it to boost myself forward towards Gajeel and Aria as I saw them begin to disappear.
"OH NO YOU DON'T! GET BACK HERE! I'LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS GAJEEEEEEL!" I tackled Gajeel just in time, just as we vanished.
