Chapter 2: Wave One
"Sola, I must congratulate you for bringing the first wave here, even though you did have some minor difficulties with the third realm." The rough voice from before said from the shadows of the small room.
"Thank you, master." Sola said, the girl who had appeared before Frantz and Angela.
"Well, what's done is done. I hope their strength is capable enough to survive this wretched planet."
"Master, are you planning a test?" Sola asked quietly, standing in the door way.
The man laughed loudly and replied "Indeed, I am planning a test, but first they need to pass a little pre-test. Choose three pawns and send them to Erogos. They can blow up the town for all I care, and tell them not to hold back, I want to test the candidate's strength fully."
"Yes, Master. I'll send them right away." And with that, Sola walked out of the room and down the long dark hallway.
"Luffy!" Zoro yelled at his captain, chasing him as he ran towards the town. "Slow down, we shouldn't run into a place we don't know!"
Luffy then slowly stopped, looking back at Zoro and Harima and waited for them to catch up. "Aww, your no fun"
"Do you seriously think we're here to have fun? IN a place like this?" Harima asked him.
"Yes." Luffy simply replied.
Zoro then bonked him on the head. "Idiot, fun can come later. Let's try and find someone to help us out, or at least explain where we are."
"I agree with Zoro, let's try knocking on these houses and see if we can get some answers." Harima said, walking over to the nearest house and knocking on its old wooden door. Several minutes passed and still no answer. He then walked back to Luffy and Zoro and shrugged. "Guess no one's home."
"Probably, let's try a few more until we get a response." Zoro suggested, walking up to another house and getting the same response as Harima did. After about two hours of repeating this process with same outcome each time, the trio have pretty much searched almost half of the town.
"Where is everybody, this place is so boring." Luffy whined, sitting on a crate cross legged that was near what looked like a store, completely void of life.
Zoro shook his head and sighed. "I don't know. Look at this place; it's like a ghost town or something." He said, looking at the rundown buildings all over the place, most of them falling apart and burned from previous fires.
Harima sighed and looked around. "This place was probably ditched. It's so empty and destroyed."
"Hey Luffy," Zoro called out to the straw hat. "Try climbing onto one of the roofs and see if you spot anything."
"Ok." Luffy replied and stretched out his arms and grabbed onto a roof of a building several feet away, getting a surprised gasp from Harima. He landed roughly onto the rough and began to look around, standing up slowly as he did. "Whoa, this town is huge!"
"What do you see?" Harima asked him, looking up in amazement after Zoro told him that Luffy was a rubber man.
"Nothing much, but there's a pretty big building in the center of the town." Luffy yelled back down, pointing to the east.
"We should go there then; there might be someone who can help us." Suggested Harima, stepping to the side as Luffy jumped back down.
Zoro and Luffy nodded and the three of them started to walk towards the building. Passing more abandoned homes and stores. After about ten minutes of walking, the trio finally reached their destination. Out of all the buildings they saw, this was the only one intact. There were lights coming out of the windows and the door wasn't rotten. It was a three story bar and inn, clearly stated by the sign above the door, reading "Loc Dio's bar and inn" with blue letters and a silver background.
"Whoa, I wasn't expecting for this place to be open. Especially since half of the town is abandoned." Harima said, looking up at the building.
"Yea I know," Zoro began to say, and then quickly grabbed the collar of Luffy's shirt as Luffy tried to barge into the building. "And you are not going to break in there like you usually do."
"We'll go inside soon, but knowing you your going to end up destroying something." The swordsman scolded him, not letting go at all.
"Meat!" Luffy suddenly shouted and managed to break free from his grasp, bursting through the double doors. "I smell meat!"
"Luffy!" Harima shouted and the two bolted after him, running into a typical old style bar. Only six tables filled the giant room. A man with shaggy black hair was eating at a table in the corner. And at the bar, which had several bar stools lined up next to it. An old man with short grey hair and a light beard was cleaning cups with a rag. As the three newcomers barged in, he lifted his fuzzy eyebrow and examined them.
"Hello there, I haven't seen your faces here before." He called out to them, beckoning them over to the bar as he started to clean another glass, setting the other one on a shelf. He looked them curiously, amazed there were visitors in Erogos.
"Meat, I smell meat, where is it?" The straw hat shouted, completely ignoring what he said and running up to the counter.
The bartender just laughed and stared at Luffy, and then up at Zoro and Harima. "Meat eh?"
"Yeah, tons of it!" Luffy yelled, drooling like a madman
Zoro and Harima then walked up and hit him on the back of his head, knocking of his hat. "Idiot!" they both shouted
"I'm sorry sir; my captain doesn't know how to control himself." The swordsman said, sitting on one of the stools, Harima taking a seat next to him and cleaning his sunglasses again.
"It's perfectly fine young'uns." The man said, setting down the glass and leaning on the counter with is right forearm. "Now may I ask your names, I haven't seen you three before?"
"I'm Roronoa Zoro, this is my captain Monkey D. Luffy, and that is Harima…Harima…" Zoro said thinking, scratching his head and staring at Harima.
"Harima Kenji" He corrected the swordsman, who nodded, trying to remember his name permanently this time.
The grey haired man smiled and then walked over to a small grill behind the counter, turned it on and opened a small Ice box next to it. "Those are some pretty fine names, I'm Locksol Diopi, but I go by Loc Dio." He said, getting out a few chinks of beef out of the Ice box and throwing them on the sizzling grill. "Now, how much meat did you want again umm… Luffy?" Loc Dio asked, remembering the straw hats name.
"Lots of it old man!" Luffy shouted as he watched the man cook, drooling a waterfall.
"So Loc, what is this place?" Harima asked the bartender
"What do you mean, lad?"
"I mean what town is this, and which country is it in, I don't remember any place like this in Japan." He asked again, getting confused looks from all of them.
"Don't you mean island?" Zoro added, looking at Harima coldly.
"It can't be an island; I don't smell any sea water." Harima said, beginning to argue with the swordsman.
"Suddenly Loc Dio plopped three glasses of beer in front of them. "Enough of your bickering you two, Drink up, and by the way, this is a Domain."
"A Domain?" Zoro asked, picking up the glass and taking a big gulp, and then spat it out quickly. "What the, this tastes horrible!"
Loc Dio chuckled a little "Sorry Laddie, that's the best drink I got, and yes, this is a Domain. How did you three not know that?"
The three looked at each other and then Harima said slowly "Look, you're not going to believe this, but…"
In a field of dead grass and dried out crops laid two bodies. The two were the Golden Seal team members Frantz and Angela, who were finally waking up.
"Oww, what just happened?" Angela moaned, slowly opening her red eyes and rubbing a large bump on the back of her head, wincing from the pain.
Frantz was already up, surveying the area, his dull grey eyes scanning the field. "I have no idea, we're not in the canals anymore, I know that much."
"We aren't? "The witch asked, getting up and shaking dirt off her clothes, realizing they were in a field.
"No, we seem to be in some sort of field." He replied, scratching his head. "Do you think that girl did this to us?"
"Probably." Angela replied, looking for Graestra, her demon sword. "Hey Frantz, have you seen Graestra?"
"Don't tell me you lost it."
Angela just giggled weakly. "Heh, maybe."
"Idiot." Frantz sighed, holding his head in frustration. "It's probably somewhere in this field."
"Your right, can you help me look for it?"
Frantz nodded "And we have to find out where we are."
"That too, but Graestra is at upmost importance right now." She replied, walking around in the short dried out grass.
The two searched the entire field, finding nothing at all except for dead grass and crops. After some more searching they found an old dirt road and a wooden bench, which looked like it was missing a few boards.
"Is that a bench? It's all rotted and such." Angela asked, walking over to it and poking one of the legs, causing a chunk of rotted wood to fall off. "Ew, it's falling apart."
"It's just a bench; it's not going to kill you."
"But still, it's disgusting. Oh and do you think Vlad was the one who sent us here?" she asked, changing the subject.
"I don't think Vlad has the power to transport other people, well transport a witch and a half vampire is what I mean." Frantz replied, looking down at the dirt road curiously. "Hey Angela, do you see that?" he asked, pointing down the road.
Angela nodded, seeing the little girl walking towards them. She had short brown hair and light green eyes. She was wearing an auburn colored dress and long black pants that seemed like they were ripped. The girl looked about eight or nine years old, if you looked at her size wise. She had a tan sack draped over her left shoulder, and behind her she seemed to be dragging a black piece of metal five times the size of her.
"Who is that?" Angela asked curiously, studying the girl and the object she was carrying. "Is that Graestra?" her eyes widened as she recognized her demon sword. She was about top charge at the girl, but was stopped as Frantz grabbed her shoulder.
"Wait, it looks like she's walking this way." Frantz said, slowly taking a step forward and resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Do you seriously have to use your sword? It's just a kid."
He sighed and took his hand of his sword. "Fine."
After that the little girl eventually reached them, panting from the weight of the sword she was carrying. She looked up at the two Golden Seal Team members and tilted her head, looking at them curiously. "Hello, who are you?"
Frantz and Angela looked at each other and then back down at her. "Um, hello little girl." Angela said, smiling a bit.
The kid frowned at them and dropped Graestra, relieving herself of the heavy piece of demonic metal. "I'm not little."
"Oh, sorry then," the red haired witch replied, a little surprised the girl said that. "I'm Angela, what's your name?"
"Sarah." She said with a big smile, her attitude changing completely as she showed off her teeth, a few of them missing.
"It's nice to meet you Sarah, the grumpy guy over there is Frantz." Angela smirked, pointing at Frantz.
"I'm not grumpy and enough of that ok. Do you know where we are kid?" The half human replied, staring at Sarah.
Sarah tilted her head in confusion. "Whatcha mean? You don't live in Erogos?" She asked, her eyes suddenly gleaming with excitement. "Does that mean your Travelers? Soldiers? Or even better, Savahelian troops?"
"Erogos? Frantz, that's what that girl said to us before we ended up in that field."
"Yea I know." Frantz replied, thinking for a moment before looking down at Sarah again. "Hey kid, where is this Erogos?"
"Don't call me kid, and the town part of Erogos is a few miles west from here." Sarah told them, her face filled with curiosity. "Why are you asking me that, aren't you Travelers?"
Angela shook her head. "No, we're not. We sort of got attacked, and then this girl used a bright light, and next thing we know, we ended up in this field." She said, staring at Graestra behind Sarah. "And that sword is mine."
Sarah stared up at them for a while, taking in what she said, trying to understand it. She then squealed a little and grabbed Angela's hand and began tugging her back down the path of the way she came. "That's not good, not good. We have to get you two to Uncle Dio, he'll know what to do."
"Dio, who's that? Frantz asked, following after the two.
Picking up Graestra she was tugged down the path, Angela tilted her head. "Is he the one who brought us here?"
"Uncle Dio is the smartest guy in Erogos, he knows everything, and I doubt he brought you here, he doesn't have any powers or anything of the sort." The little girl replied, pulling on Angela's free hand harder.
"Ouch, don't pull so hard!"
The Golden Seal Team members then decided top follow her, walking for almost an hour before they reached a rundown town, almost all of the buildings rotting and falling apart.
"What happened here? Is this Erogos?" Angela asked Sarah, examining the buildings as they walked towards the center of town.
Sarah sighed and looked down, clenching Angela's hand, tears beginning to well up in her emerald eyes. "Yeah, this is Erogos; I'd rather not talk about it. I'm sure Uncle Dio will tell you."
"Oh, sorry Sarah." Angela said with a soft voice.
"It's fine, we're almost to Uncle Dio's Bar and Inn." Sarah said cheerfully, her personality changing completely again, pointing to a large three story building that was surprisingly in very good shape with a big sign above the double doors saying. "Loc Dio's Bar and Inn."
"So this Loc guy owns a bar and inn? I thought he would be the mayor." Frantz said, looking at the building as they walked onto the wooden porch.
"No, he's not the mayor. Benjamin is our mayor. He's probably asleep right now though." Sarah replied as she opened the doors slowly. Inside was filled with a few tables, a shaggy black haired man sleeping in the corner. At the bar there was three men talking to the bartender. One of them had a straw hat and was gobbling down a plate full of beef and rice while the guy next to him had short green hair and three swords at his side. The third man was wearing a black jacket and dark pants, and had glasses with shaded lenses, hiding his eyes. The three of them seemed to be having a conversation with the bartender, who looked up as the door opened.
"Ah, Sarah, where have you been? Helion has been very worried." The bartender raised his voice so Sarah coul hear him, pointing to the black haired man sleeping in the corner.
"He doesn't look worried to me. "Sarah replied coldly, waling up to the bar and struggling to get onto one of the stools.
Frantz walked up behind her and picked her up by the hem of her shirt, putting her on the seat easily. "You could've asked for help."
"I don't need help." Sarah whined, blushing a little and resting her chin on the counter of the bar. "Anyways, Uncle Dio, I brought these two here. They're lost."
"Oh is that so?" The bartender, apparently Loc Dio smiled, examining Frantz and Angela. "We've been getting a lot of new folk lately." He said, pointing at the other three men at the counter.
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, looking at Loc Dio. Frantz and Angela doing the same.
"Well what I mean is that o think one of the Immortals has been very busy lately." He said frowning a little.
"Whoa this place is a dump!" Natsu said rather loudly as the FairyTail group walked through Erogos.
Erza nodded, she and Wendy carrying the two exceeds, who were still unconscious.
"I wonder what happened here." Wendy added, taking in the notetable damage from the buildings.
"Hey, what's that smell?" Natsu said, sniffing the air, same with Wendy as they used their high sense of smell.
"It smells like meat and Cana." Wendy replied.
"Cana? Does that mean it smells like booze Natsu?"
He nodded, walking towards the smell. As the three of the followed the smell, Carla woke up, sweat drenching her white fur, her eyes opened with shock.
"Carla! What's wrong?" Wendy shouted, Natsu and Erza rushing over.
"Where… are we?" the white exceed asked, her voice shaking.
"We're in a place called Erogos. Well at least we think so." Erza replied, looking up at the light grey sky.
"Erogos?" Carla said softly, her eyes widening as she looked around at the buildings. "Oh no."
"Carla, what's wrong?" Wendy asked worriedly.
"I saw a vision again." The white cat said. "I saw a whole bunch of old buildings burst into flames, and then a little girl was shot by powerful jets of wind."
"M-me!" Wendy screeched a little.
"No, no… I'm not… sure."
"If what you say is true, then as a precaution we must protect Wendy." The Titania said, Standing next to Wendy, with a protective arm wrapped around the girl's neck.
"Thanks, Erza." The young sky dragon slayer smiled, holding onto Carla tightly, shaking a little.
"Whoa! I smell people!" Natsu yelled, all the way on the other side of the street.
"You do? Natsu, go find them and try to find out where we are, me and Wendy will meet up with you." Erza shouted out, leading Wendy down the street slowly, who was now carrying Happy.
"I'll go with him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Carla said, sprouting her wings. "And it looks like we can still use out magic here."
The pink haired mage grinned and tested it out, catching his fist on fire by using his magic power. "Yea, magic works just fine." He shouted back as Carla flew over to him.
"Well that's a relief, we'll see you soon ok, Natsu." Erza called out to the fire dragon slayer, who nodded and ran off in the direction of the smell, followed by Carla. "We better get going, ok Wendy?"
"The blue haired mage nodded and the two of them followed Natsu slowly, relying on Wendy's sense of smell to track him.
"Salamander, where are you going?" Carla asked Natsu, trying to keep up with the speedy mage,
"The smell is getting stronger." He said back, running through street after street, all of them void of any noticeable life. "There!" He suddenly shouted, stopping abruptly in front of a bar and inn.
"Is this where the smell is coming from Natsu?" The exceed asked, hovering by his left shoulder looking up at the building. "It makes sense, this is a bar and inn after all, so of course there would be people here."
"Yeah, but most of the people in there smell different. They don't smell like this place." Natsu said, walking up to the door, opening it to find eight people inside, six of them smelling different from Erogos.
"Well, I'm guessing your Natsu, am I correct?" The bartender called out to him, smiling a little.
Natsu suddenly lunged forward, his usual hot headedness making him press his forehead against the bartender's, his hands clenching the bar counter. "How do you know my name?"
"Whoa there buddy, calm down."The green haired swordsman said coolly, resting a hand on the hilt of the sword in the white sheath.
"Natsu, cool your stupid head. We can't be starting fights already." Carla scolded him, flying over; earning some shocked faces form everyone.
"Whoa, a flying cat!" The straw hat shouted, pointing at Carla with a piece of meat in his mouth.
"And it's talking, what the hell kind of pet is that?" The man in the dark glasses asked.
"I'm not a pet, I am a exceed and I'm not an it, I'm a female."
"Enough of that, why are we here, and who are you?" Natsu demanded, stepping back a bit, so his head wasn't in the bartenders face.
"Well first of all, I'm Loc Dio, the owner of this bar and inn."
"Natsu, shouldn't we wait for Erza, Wendy and the male exceed to arrive? You're not the best at understanding things." Carla suggested, standing on the counter between him and Loc Dio.
"I can understand perfectly!" Natsu shouted, fuming and crossing his arms over his chest.
"No need for that, we're here now." The Titania's voice sounded behind them, Happy awake now and running up to him.
"Natsu! Where are we?" he cried and leapt into the salamander's arms.
Carla sighed and watched as the other two mages walked up to the counter. "Cry baby… Wendy hurry up."
"Carla, why are you so cold to Happy?" Wendy said as she and Erza joined the group.
"Well, it looks like everyone is here now." Loc Dio said, looking at all of the newcomers, Helion walking over to them from his table and sitting next to his daughter. "And look who's finally awake."
"Hey now, I fell asleep, and where have you been little lady?" The shaggy black haired man questioned Sarah, his purple eyes glistening in the candle light.
"Hey enough, I have to inform these people, or they'll be wandering around Savaheli, wondering where the hell they are, now be quiet!" Loc Dio raised his voice, almost frightening as he made everyone fall silent and look at him quickly. "Good, now let's begin. Every town received a letter from one of the immortals, who are basically like gods on this planet called Savaheli. Those letters said that there would be about seven waves of new life forms from seven different realms that our gods created. I do not know the real reason why, but in the letter it said that this was all for a type of game." Loc Dio told them, pulling out the letter and handing it to Frantz, who began to read it.
"So you're saying that there are seven waves of people from different realms being brought here for a game?" Erza asked, taking the letter from Frantz as he finished it.
"Life forms to be exact, but I doubt that's the real reason. Bringing people from their homes just to play a game, lame excuse if you ask me. Now how about you all greet each other, I already know all of your names, since there was a separate letter telling us the names of those who will be ending up in our town; I'm expecting the ten of you will be together from now on for a while. Loc suggested, pointing at Frantz. "You start, make it short, and introduce yourself and then your friend over there."
"Fine, I'm Frantz, and this is Angela." He replied, pointing at the spiky red head next to him.
"I'm Erza, and this is Wendy, Natsu, Happy and Carla." She said, naming the members of FairyTail after she gave Loc Dio the letter back.
"Harima then stood up and stretched. "I'm Harima Kenji, and those two are Zoro and Luffy, correct?" he asked the two straw hat pirates who nodded.
Then Helion smiled and shot up his hand "I'm Helion and this is my adorable little girl, Sarah!" He shouted and picked up his daughter and hugged her tightly.
"Dad let go!" she yelled, struggling to get out of his grasp, earning amused laughter from everyone. "Don't laugh at me!"
"Enough now, Helion. We have business to do with these people." Loc Dio said, silencing the two, Sarah breaking free and running out of the bar.
"Curse that girl, I try to be nice to her but she hates me."
"Well that's because of the 'forty year war'." Loc Dio said, earning strange looks from everyone but Helion. "The forty year was when all of the Farmer Territories rebelled against the Northern Government, and the result is what you see now. Known as the dead zones, such as our little town, Erogos."
"So technically this town is just an example of the war?" Zoro asked, drinking the crappy glass of beer he had.
Loc and Helion nodded. "Yeah, and because of that war, Sarah's mom and older brother were killed." Helion muttered, leaning against the counter.
"Oh, we didn't know." Angela said, trying to comfort Helion by rubbing his back with her hand.
"It's fine, I wouldn't expect you to know." He replied, and then suddenly shot up, his frown gone, showing where Sarah got her personality from. "Whoa, since one of the immortals brought you guys here, you must all have some crazy powers, right?"
"Yes they do actually. Apparently each realm has its own type of power. Frantz's realm is mostly just pure skill and some hidden magic's, Erza's realm is all magic I believe, Zoro's is skills and something called devil fruits, and Harima…." Loc trailed off, looking at Harima as he finished reading off of the second letter.
"I got brute strength." Harima replied, sort of lying, disappointed he was the only without powers.
Then all of a sudden a huge explosion came from outside, along with the smell of smoke. The twelve of them ran outside quickly, only to see that half of the town was on fire, a huge crater where a store use to be.
"What the hell is happening?" Helion shouted, his eyes wide and filled with shock.
Then suddenly a tiny scream was heard, and a small black object through the air, and landed a few feet away from the group. Frantz and Zoro ran up to it, grunting, their eyes widening in shock as they found out what it was.
"Sarah." Frantz breathed out, holding the little girl in his arms, her breathing slow and raspy, and multiple wounds in her arms, legs and shoulders.
"Sarah!" Helion yelled in horror as he ran over, followed by Wendy.
"S-stop…the v-vul-vulcans." The little girl whimpered, barely able to speak one word from her wounds, three dark figures appearing in the smoke farther down the street.
Zoro looked up and frowned, unsheathing two of his swords and charging towards the figures. "Oh you're going to pay for hurting that little girl!"
"We'll see about that. Sleep Cell!" A deep voice shouted out, Zoro suddenly falling onto the ground, falling asleep.
"My my, is this all our Master's candidates can do? Charge and then be defeated so easily? I thought this would be harder Haha!" The man in the middle grinned, laughing as he stood over Zoro, kicking him in the face repeadetly.