Hello again!
This chapter sees the introduction of Lucy and there is a little bit more detail about the developing relationship the guild members have with the two brothers.
Many thanks to those who have read and hopefully enjoyed the previous chapters and welcome to any new readers I hope you enjoy the story.
Natsu and Oro walked off the train holding their stomachs and wheezing slightly as they were both trying to recover from the motion sickness. Once back on solid ground Oro groaned heavily as the two brothers dropped onto the grass outside the station.
"I fucking hate you Natsu, this lead is never gonna be Igneel and I had to go through that, for nothing"
"Shut up you silly time bandit, Erza said that a Salamander was in town and she doesn't seem like the type to lie" Natsu groaned back. They both sat up with their stomachs starting to recover and saw a blonde woman run past them towards a group of shrieking women. Natsu stared after her, feeling a strange tug in his stomach. Not sure what it was he suppressed it when he heard Oro's laughing.
"Like what you see brother?"
"Shut up. It's just a girl" she had been running towards a large group of shrieking women down in the town
"I was just wondering what's going on down there. We should go check it out"
"Good idea one of them might have seen Igneel or at least heard about him." Oro rolled his eyes and began to walk towards the group. They both shared a look as they approached hearing the words 'salamander' being shouted by the group of girls. Oro walked into the crowd while Natsu had begun searching the sky for the salamander they were all talking about. At the centre of the crowd there was a tall man with short dark hair signing autographs for the young women. Spotting Oro enter the crowd he raised an eyebrow
"Hello young man can I help you?" he smiled somewhat menacingly as he looked Oro over who kept a calm exterior and kept his seething rage (about this dick being the 'salamander' they had come to look for) hidden behind a wide grin.
"Just one question really… Remember me?" The man's eyes widened as for the first time he spotted the the scruffy black hair, long black coat and the biggest give away the pink haired kid stood frowning behind him"
"S-s-sorry girls I will have to see you on my boat for the party later" he started running towards the docks but was suddenly stopped in his tracks. There was a small black orb floating about 5 feet behind the man calling himself the salamander and it appeared to be dragging him slowly and inexorably towards it. Oro grinned as he slowly increased the spell's potency slowly drawing the man back towards him.
"Sorry but you didn't answer my question, and I thought you would have known better after the last time we met."
"Yo! Oro" Oro turned around to see his brother trying to stifle a laugh and pointing to the pack of woman about to jump on him for assaulting their idol.
"W-w-wait, girls. You don't understand this guy's using magic to trick you. He wants to make you all slaves!" Oro tried to defend himself but the girls were caught up in a rage and all dived on top of him while Natsu cried with laughter. As Natsu sat up he saw the blonde girl from before looking at him with curiosity. She had chocolate brown eyes that quickly turned away and her cheeks dusted with pink when she realised that Natsu was looking at her. That unfamiliar knot in his stomach began tugging again and he quickly shook himself out of it and headed towards Oro who was just laying on the floor muttering to himself as the girls had all run off after the man calling himself Salamander.
"...god damn stupid charm spells." Oro lifted his head to look at Natsu as he approached
"Can't believe you got beat by a few school girls"
"You know I couldn't do anything back to em."
"Yeah, yeah, so what do you think? Igneel was clearly never here so we can bail out and go hit Erza for being full of shit"
"Nope. We gotta put that guy down. Not letting anyone take anyone prisoner again remember?"
"Yeah I figured. Erza can wait and this way I get two fights so sounds good to me!"
"Don't you ever think of anything e-" he looked up before he finished and saw the blonde girl blushing slightly and standing nervously to their side
"Nevermind." Oro stood up and walked over to her offering his hand she timidly shook it and then bowed her head to them which took them both off guard for a brief moment before they both started chuckling
"Nice to meet you miss I'm Oro and that's my brother Natsu" he pointed a thumb over his shoulder.
"Did you mean Erza Scarlet from the fairy tail guild?" Oro and Natsu bother nodded
"Do you think it would be possible for me to join? I have always wanted to." She had seen the guild markings and saw the black haired one use magic but she was slightly confused as she could feel very little magic power coming from them. But she had heard of Erza, she was really powerful and it didn't really matter to her how powerful these two were if they could get her into Fairy Tail. Oro gave her a wink and turned to walk towards the port.
"Sure thing just let me take care of this fake salamander and you can come back to the guild with us."
Natsu smirked and looked over to the blonde
"Hey, what's your name?"
"Oh! Er Lucy, and thanks for breaking that charm spell it felt really weird"
"Cool name luce, don't worry about. Hey this is gonna be fun, if you want to join in feel free!" He started running after his brother towards the port.
Those two are really odd, I wonder if it will be a good thing for them to introduce me to the guild…
In the Harbor Bora was hastily getting the girls onto his boat before those two caught up with him. One of his men came out of the ship and gave him a puzzled look.
"What's going on? I thought we were going to be here for a few days to get as many of them as possible."
"Shhh. Idiot, it's those two boys again. I don't know why but they just showed up out of nowhere and I barely got away"
"Who?"
"Those two brothers who busted our base a year back" the man paled at this information nodded and ran inside to get the boat started.
The sun was beginning to set when the trio reached the port casting red and orange hues over the stone work of Hargeon. They could see a large boat moving towards the open sea. With their enhanced vision both dragon slayers were able to see a man stood at the back of the boat looking towards the town slowly receding into the distance.
"Bora" Oro's voice was more of a growl which took Lucy by surprise, Natsu got into a fighting stance
"Oro, you can hold that still right?"
"Yep, not for that long though it's pretty far away and a pretty big boat. You ready?" Hot red flames began to rise up Natsu's legs as he bent his knees further.
"Lucy was it? Can you hold this for me?" Oro tossed his coat to her not noticing it hit the ground as she was staring at the fire wrapping around Natsu. Oro moved his arms in a circle in front of him stopping when they were at the top and bottom of the circle
Eve-
"I can get the boat back to shore if you want" Both of them dropped their stances
"You can?" Lucy nodded and pulled a jar full of distilled water from her bag, she had learnt a long time ago that if the water wasn't good enough Aquarius would always get her as well as her target. The brothers watched as Lucy removed a golden key from her waist and dipped it into the water. A bright golden flash later and a beautiful blue haired mermaid appeared next to her.
"Lucy. Who are they?" she gestured over to the brothers before leaning towards lucy and whispering in her ear "Which one's yours?" Lucy blushed heavily
"Neither! I only just met them" Aquarius smirked at Lucy's discomfort
"Still no boyfriend huh, well they are both pretty good looking so I'll just take whichever one you don't want shall I? Maybe the pink haired one…"
"NO!" Lucy's reaction even surprised herself. Natsu and Oro were both blushing and trying to avoid the lusty gaze of the celestial spirit.
"Can you just bring that boat back to shore please" Lucy looked at the ground wanting to just curl up into a ball.
"Sure thing dear" Aquarius patted Lucy on her head, placing her urn in the water the boys watched as a surge of water seemed to roll like a wave towards the boat. A huge wave started to grow and crash back towards the town carrying the ship with it.
"Lucy...your magic is so cool" Natsu muttered
"Yep, definitely the pink haired one" Aquarius smiled as Lucy closed the gate sending her back just as the boat crashed onto the beach
"Um thanks Natsu.."
"Now it's our turn. Oro get the girls back to town and I'll take care of Bora." Both mages ran towards the boat. It looked like an old cruise liner with wooden railings around the walkways and what at one point had been a swimming pool but was now housing a group of slumped over women. Oro ran over to the edge of the boat and leapt up grabbing onto the railing and pulling himself over the edge. He managed to get five steps towards the pool before a group of men ran out from the main building. All of them looked angry but Oro could see some were shaking slightly.
Fire Dragon's Flaming Wind
Natsu had ignited his body with a hot red fire and flew over Oro's shoulder straight past the men and crashed through the building's wall completely ignoring the open door. Oro inwardly laughed at his rash brother before placing his right fist into his left palm
Time Dilation…
Inside, the ship was sparsely decorated with a few upturned tables and chairs scatter about and a pack of playing cards scattered across the ground. Along one of the walls there were 5 girls, heads hanging limply and chained to the wall with grotesque looking manacles around their necks. Bora was stood on the other side of the room a grim and angry frown staring death at Natsu who landed and let his fire die so as not to set any of the wooden surfaces on fire. He couldn't risk hurting the girls.
"Ready to loose again Bora?"
Red Shower
Beams of red fire shot across the room, Natsu started to move before he realised that he wasn't the real target of the spell and that they would all miss him and hit the girls.
Shit I can't eat all of them in time.
Iron Will
A sheet of blue energy appeared in front of the girls, absorbing the beams as they each struck the wall. Turning back to look at Bora who quaked at the fury etched into Natsu's face
"Dirty trick. You really shouldn't have done that."
Fire Dragon's Roar
A massive stream of fire erupted from his mouth smashing into Bora and firing him through the wooden wall and across the city until he cracked into a building. His body slid down to the cobblestone floor leaving a trail of blood from the back his head down the stonework. Outside Oro was helping the girls get up out of the pool when he saw the stream of fire.
"Shit that was a bit over the top Natsu." Lucy had just got to the boat and with the aid of Taurus was helping the girls climb down onto the beach. She could hear the sounds of running footsteps behind her and turned to see a group of rune knights heading their way. When they arrived she explained the situation and they moved to help Oro and Lucy get the girls off the boat. Natsu walked slowly out of the main cabin gently carrying a girl in his arms. Lucy couldn't believe that the man who had just blown half of the ship away was capable of being so gentle. Oro looked at the girl and then Natsu, silently asking the question.
"She's alive. But she and the others need to get to a hospital soon. I don't even want to know what he to them" he lept over the railing and landed on the sand being careful not to hurt the girl. He gently laid her down on the sand and glanced up at the Rune knights.
"Sorry if I damaged anything I just kind of lost it when he tried to attack them instead of me. He should be in the town still. I doubt he has woken up yet after the hit he took." Natsu pointed towards the building Bora had crashed into and stood up. A few of the knights ran over to apprehend the culprit while Natsu resumed collecting the chained girls and gently placing them down on the beach.
He's so caring
Lucy had to force herself to stop watching Natsu and get back to helping the girls off the boat. By the time they had them all off the boat the sun had fully set.
"Guess we won't be getting back to the guild today then"
"Let's hope there is an inn open we can stay at"
Lucy looked up at that "The inn I am staying at should be open still and I think they had some rooms free" Natsu and Oro both grinned, if she hadn't seen them earlier she wouldn't have believed that they were both capable of any kind of violence. They both looked so carefree and happy. The only thing she wasn't sure about is why Oro was topless...
"Crap! Sorry Oro I forgot to pick up your coat!" he shrugged and ran over to retrieve it.
"Don't worry I'll catch you both up." Natsu smiled after him and turned to look at Lucy
"Shall we?"
Early morning the next day and the guild had an odd hush around it. Like everyone was desperately trying to act normal and relaxed but doing a completely horrific job of it. The doors were kicked open and everyone was surprised to see three people stood in the doorway. They were more surprised when the open door dropped off it's hinge and fell to the ground with a crash
"Oh shit...my bad" Natsu put his hand behind his head and walked in towards the bar.
"Hey Mira! Do you know where Erza is"
"Why the hell would I know where that tin can is?"
"Well I need to give her a piece of my mind for giving me bullshit information about Igneel"
"Oh why didn't you say so Natsu. She's in the library with Levy"
Natsu made a beeline across the guildhall before stopping about halfway across
"Er Mira… where is the Library"
The guild broke into laughter as Oro put his hand on Lucy's shoulder who was giggling at the salmon haired boy.
"Come on, we better get you to the old man so he can give you a guild mark"
"Isn't there some kind of test to see if you are good enough?" Oro just looked blankly at her
"Well me and Natsu didn't so I wouldn't have thought so" Lucy breathed a sigh of relief she had been terrified of getting here only to be told she wasn't strong enough to join.
Downstairs in the Library Erza was pouring over a large book about a certain type of magic user. Levy was helping her research but selecting a few other books from the shelves that should contain some information about them and dragons.
"Well this has confirmed pretty much everything they have told me about their abilities. I still can't believe they inherit so much from the Dragon's that teach them." Levy looked over to her
"Yeah I know right! Speaking of which, did they say which dragons raised them?"
"Yeah, Natsu and I guess Oro too a little bit was raised by the fire dragon king Igneel, and Oro was raised by Ouroborus the infinite dragon before that"
"Oh cool I wonder-WAIT did you just say Ouroborus?!"
"Er, yeah why?"
Levi ran over to another book and pulled it out and brought it over to Erza
"I don't know anything particular about Igneel but Ouroboros is a big deal"
She showed the book to Erza which was an old leather book with a purple, gold and silver dragon emblazoned on the front. The dragon appeared to be eating it's own tail.
"If it's the same dragon as the one in this book then it's pretty much responsible for everything in the universe." Erza just stared at Levi and the book in shock
"It represents everything, hence it's name and it lives in the realm between our worlds and the Gods themselves, apparently swimming through the endless void protecting the barrier and everything on both sides of it.
"I-I had no idea. I wonder if it is the same one" Before they could continue researching the door slammed open and Natsu strode into the room
"What the hell Erza! That was some bullshit, that guy looked nothing like a dragon how could you make that mistake" Erza smiled sheepishly
"Sorry Natsu, but Master asked me to get you guys out of the guild for a few days"
"Oh why?" Natsu's anger immediately replaced by his curiosity
"You'll have to ask him"
"Well I supposed it wasn't a complete bust we found someone to join the guild"
"Oh who's that?"
"He name is Lucy she has this really cool magic where a mermaid comes and she brought the boat back to shore so we could save the girls and then a weird bull guy to help get the girls off the boat she's with Oro upstairs right now you should come meet her." He finished a little out of breath having not taken one while explaining. Erza looked at him with a small frown.
"Yes, I think I should. Sounds like quite a story, you'll have to fill me in after I meet this Lucy"
Levi chuckled as she was pretty sure she knew why Erza had wanted to research the Dragon slayers so much.
Mira's shoulders sagged slightly as she saw Erza and Natsu appear from the Library unscathed. In fact Natsu was talking animatedly to Erza who was clearly listening while looking around the guild. Levi was stood behind them giggling. Mira walked over to Levi and hissed in her ear
"What the hell happened Levi? I thought they were gonna go at it!" Levi leaned over to her
"I think Erza likes one of the new guys" An evil smile came across Mira's face, she had been hoping for a fight but this was even better
"Oh which one?" Levi shrugged
"I'm not sure yet, could be Natsu, she's been getting fairly annoyed listening to him go on and on about the new girl he brought back. But it could also be Oro because he is with the new girl right now" This was great, Mira now had a way to torture her rival and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. As she was contemplating how to work out which one of the brothers was 'the apple of Erza' eye' Makarov appeared from his office with a pretty blonde whose figure would rival Mira's own in tow. Oro walked past them and down the stairs towards Natsu and Erza. The redhead was basically staring a hole right through Oro and the Blonde, her eyes flitting between the two.
I guess that answers that question
"Hey Mira what are you doing?" She looked down at the voice to see her sister Lisanna looking at her with a worried look.
"Oh nothing much, just trying to work out which one of the new boys Erza likes" Lisanna blushed slightly but Mira was too busy trying to make absolutely sure she was correct in her thinking.
"It's Natsu right? I mean it has to be"
"Why would you say that Lis?"
"Didn't you seem him fight Gray? He was so, so, so cool" Mira rolled her eyes as Makarov called everyone's attention and introduced Lucy as the newest member of the guild.
"While I'm talking about new recruits, I have organised a special trial for our two young dragon slayers. It will take place tomorrow and bets can be placed at the bar" He sniggered and walked back into his office
"A trial? But I haven't done anything wrong!" Natsu groaned
"Not that kind of trial you dolt, that's why I told you about the salamander rumour, Makarov didn't want you two poking your dumb noses in while he was setting 'it' up"
Oro and joined them and was finding himself growing increasingly confused by the angry stares he was getting from Erza.
"O-Okay, but what is this trial for? And why are you looking at me like that?" Erza blushed and turned around.
"It is to see if you are strong enough to become an S-class mage, they are our guilds group of strongest wizards"
"Ok thats awesome. I totally forgive you now" Natsu was grinning like an idiot
"I wonder what we will be fighting"
"Not what Oro, it's more like who" Erza was now staring a hole in floor,
"You will have to complete the trial Master has set up while dealing with the other S-class mages we have at the guild"
"So who are they?"
"There is Laxus, Gildarts, Mystogan, Mirajane, Myself and Gray made it last year"
"Wait we have to fight all of you guys?"
"No, no, Mystogan and Gildarts are out on missions, and Laxus doesn't think either of you are strong enough to be worth his time so it'll just be Mirajane, Gray and myself, although it's not really a fight, more of a series of challenges you have to beat"
"Well I've already beaten Gray so this won't be too hard, especially if we get to work together" Oro gave him a gentle punch on the shoulder
"Let's go get some training in for tomorrow then"
Well that's it for chapter 3!
Took me a bit longer to edit as the whole Bora incident isn't the most exciting in my opinion but i needed to get Lucy into the story, which also means that we have now caught up to the canon timeline. Lisanna is still around because without Natsu having been there when she 'died' there wouldn't have been much for me to add character wise by having her gone. I also like Mira's pushier persona. She is still alive as Elfman was able to control the take over in this story so like Gray he is a bit more powerful at this point in the story. Next chapter will be the trials and I may get to the start of the lullaby arc.
Thanks for reading, please review and let me know where I'm going wrong or not.