Erigor chuckled as he watched the train roll into the station, no doubt carrying Kageyama. He didn't really care about the fool so much as the flute he had obtained. Still, he was strong, and his magic was very useful in intimidation. His gaze turned to the train operator who was beside him, whose throat was slit. "What a shame..." he muttered. "He died far too quick. But soon, that Fairy Scum will be here. It's lucky that their Titania sticks out in a crowd, or else my guild members wouldn't have been able to spot her."

His muttering was interrupted by screams coming from the ground floor. He sighed, they were all a bunch of drunken idiots. No doubt one of them had found some more booze that wasn't already empty. He stuck his head over the railing... only to wince back in slight pain as he was bombarded by heat. Had the train caught on fire? No, it would've never made it into the station. That only left one option... Fairy Tail was here. How many though?

He leaped over the railing, hovering in the air using his magic. In the few seconds that he had been away, most of his guild had been wiped out. Colorful flames were everywhere, burning some of the members, though it seemed to stop before death. He looked for the cause of the fire, but was having trouble identifying anyone other than his goons.

There! A blur caught his vision as a shadow leapt down from the rafters. One of his bulkier subordinates was caught with a knee to the chin and was blasted into the wall. With another blast of red flame, the rest of his guild (and the west wing of the train station) went down. Erigor grit his teeth. This was... unexpected.

"Erigor..." The mysterious man's voice drawled. "How... coincidental it is to see you here." The man's tone of voice implied that it was anything but.

"Fairy Scum," Erigor responded. "You've made this all the easier. Kageyama is not here, which means that either he ran away like a coward... or you defeated him, and have brought Lullaby straight to me. After we took out the squadron of Rune Knights, all of the civilians gathered around this station. Using the loudspeakers-" His monologue was interrupted.

"Oh shut it. The shadow dude told me everything I needed to know about your stupid little plan, including trying to kill the guild masters..." The flame mage suddenly looked up, making Erigor gulp at the look in his eyes. "I just happen to have a soft spot for a few of them." He cracked his knuckles, pink flames coming out of each one. Suddenly, he launched himself at the floating mage, who barely managed to evade the attack. Erigor chuckled uneasily.

"You know, they call me 'Shinigami'," Erigor stated. "I am a god of death. You will not defeat me." The mage rose again, steam coming off of him as he raised an eyebrow, staring with glowing, pink eyes at the air user.

"If we're using our monikers, I have a few as well. Light, Archangel, some more that I honestly couldn't give two shits about... but," His gaze focused on the self-proclaimed god. "My most common name is Phoenix." Erigor's eyes widened, although he was internally hitting himself for not realizing it sooner.

"Well, Phoenix... let's see how hard it is to clip your wings. Magic Wind Palm!"

Outside of the station, Erza, Mira, and Happy had finally made it only to see half of the building smoking and in ruins. In the entrance to the station, a full platoon of Rune Knights laid unconscious. The farther in the body, the more damage it sustained. Erza and Mira looked at each other and nodded, both unified under a common purpose - finding Natsu. They hadn't insulted each other in over four hours, a record for the two.

"Half the building is destroyed... I guess that means Natsu made it in," Erza spoke, still feeling guilty over having left him behind on the train. Mira nodded in agreement. Suddenly, an explosion shook the ground as a portion of the roof blew off.

"We need to get in there!" The two girls made their way past the knocked out Rune Knights, Happy following along at a brisk pace. He wanted to be at home, munching on yummy fish! Ah... fish...

"Fire Dragon's Grip Strike!" Natsu yelled as he grabbed Erigor by the throat. Flames ignited into his palm, blasting Erigor down into the floor. He jumped down after him, wincing as he put weight on his left leg. Multiple shallow cuts covered the exterior after Erigor had allowed himself to be hit in order to predict his movements to hit him with another Magic Wind Palm.

Erigor slowly got to his feet and chuckled. "Fairy Scum... you're-" Within a second, Natsu was on him, using Fire Dragon's Claw to propel his foot down with an ax kick to Erigor's shoulder. He crumpled back to the ground. Natsu stared at the mage, who was twitching.

"For a so-called death god... you're pretty weak..." Natsu spoke in a monotone. He had come here for a challenge, something he was sorely lacking as of late. All he had found was disappointment.

"Don't underestimate me!" Erigor yelled as he used his wind powers to boost him away from the Light Mage. He held up a hand, revealing the Lullaby flute he had somehow retrieved. Natsu grit his teeth in annoyance. "So long, Fairy Fly!" He started to fly away, laughing. Natsu raised an arm to blast him, but a black-colored beam beat him to it. He looked over to the origin.

"Mira, Erza, just in time."

"Hey, I'm here too!" Happy cried, making it into the room.

"Yep, you are buddy." Natsu laughed as the Exceed launched himself into his arms.

"Ugh..." Erigor groaned as he pulled himself to his feet. "Your compassion... ugh... disgusts me..."

Erza landed a metal punch into his gut, making him double over. "Your lack of it disgusts me." She turned back to Natsu, who was sending out a signal to the Rune Knights, letting them know they had Dark Guild members to pick up. "Calling the Rune Knights?" She asked.

"Yup," he responded. "The bounties on some of these pushovers are crazy." Erza rolled her eyes. It wasn't like Natsu needed the money. He had been taking S-Class missions for years, and his expenses were minimal. He turned the pager towards Erza. "The bounty on Erigor is... wait, where is he?" Erza turned around, but was greeted with an empty wall. Outside, Erigor laughed as he summoned a Wind Wall while flying away. The barrier of wind extended several hundred feet into the air. Mira glared at the wall.

"Can we blast through it?" Natsu squinted at the wall.

"Probably not. It looks like it has enchantments on it," Mira replied. Natsu looked at her, impressed.

"You can see enchantments now?" Mira blushed.

"Yeah, I've been spending some time with Levy recently."

Erza looked up. "That wall goes pretty high... I could fly over it, but I'm not sure about Mira."

"Oi, what was that you red-haired-" Four hours and thirty-eight minutes of peace between the two was the new record. Natsu cut Mira off with a hard stare, and then turned to Erza.

"Of course Mira can fly over it, since she is a capable Fairy Tail Mage," Natsu stressed the last four words heavily. Erza flushed red with shame.

"I'm sorry. You may hit me if you wish," She bowed her head. Natsu rolled his eyes at her theatrics.

"Come on Happy, let's go." While Natsu could fly on his own, he knew his 'son' was feeling left out. Joyful, the blue creature flew at Natsu's outstretched hand and started pulling him up, entirely unaware of Natsu pushing flames out of his feet to boost their speed. "Wow, you're getting strong Happy!" Happy smiled at the praise. Natsu turned back to the other two. "Come on, hurry up already!"

Brought back to the action, the two girls glared at each other, Erza requipping into her Black Wing Armor, while Mira used a basic Satan Soul forme. They flew up next to each other at the same speed, both pushing to catch up to the Pink-eyed Dragon Slayer, and go faster than the other.

The funnel went higher than they thought, and by the time the quartet emerged, Erigor was nowhere to be seen. "Damn... where did he go?" Erza asked.

"Clover Town," Natsu replied.

"How do you know?" Erza questioned, unable to follow his line of thinking. Natsu winked at her.

"It's a secret." Erza started to glare at him, and he simply stuck his tongue out. Suddenly, Mira gasped.

"The Guild Masters are meeting in Clover Town!" She exclaimed, remembering what Makarov had told her before he had left.

"The Guild Masters?" Erza gasped. "We need to go. Now!" Without a further word, she sped off... in the wrong direction. Natsu sighed.

"I'll go get her. You go on ahead, okay Mira?" The model nodded.

"I won't let the Guild Masters get hurt!" She proclaimed, making Natsu smile.

"I'm sure you won't, I believe in you," Natsu said, making Mira blush as he sped off in a pink burst towards Erza.

Hi, it's me. I'm aware this chapter isn't really complete, and I'm sorry, but I'm tiiiiired and wanted to post something. Next chapter will come out in a few weeks, will be the fight against Erigor and Lullaby. Please tell me how I'm doing on the dialogue! I'm trying to make Natsu a bit more mature, while still retaining some of his original personality.

Thanks, and happy new year.

- PJO Fan Power

Fin: 1/1/2020, 2:13 AM