[Last updated: 04/23/18]

The world around me – that is to say, the inside of my pod – came back into focus slowly; blurry and nondescript at first before it eventually focused in properly. The first thing I noticed was that on both of the screens before me were the blinking words "SLIPSPACE DE-INSERTION PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED" in bright, red text that were followed by a countdown timer set for five seconds. The timer reached zero and there was a jarring vibration, which I assume was my pod making its way back into real space. The windows depolarized allowing me to see this new large planet. As planets go, it didn't look too different than what was considered the norm for life as Humanity knew it, being that it looked mostly water.

A few silent minutes went by as I rocketed through the star-studded void until a deafening roar grew outside; I've finally hit atmosphere. All of a sudden, warnings popped up on my hud of the sharp incline in air temperature inside the pod; good thing I was sealed safely inside my suit, as I'd be sweating pretty good right about now. (Small wonder the Helljumpers motto is "Feet first into hell") I played with the monitors a little bit and found a system that was still functional: it brought up a light blue holographic grid centered on a blinking green egg shape … my pod; it was a holographic altitude display. I found an external camera that was mounted on the underside of the pod; fortunately, it had a special filter that compensated for the immense heat generated. I looked down at the planet below me: I was heading towards a large peninsular outcropping on the western side of an enormous continent; more specifically, the southeastern part of it where some sort of large gulf was located. There appeared to be desert terrain on the gulf's Western to Northwestern directions which eventually turned mountainous, and from the North-Northeast to the Eastern directions was verdant forest terrain; thankfully it looked like that was where I was headed. The good news was that in a moderately green area between the two extremes directly North of the gulf, specifically on and near the coast appeared to be several coastal towns; true to her word, at least I wouldn't have far to go for directions.

I was pulled away from the planet below by yet another alarm; on the holo-grid, my pod was rapidly closing in on a red thatched boundary marked at 3000'. A small wireframe model of the SOEIV appeared and then it was zoomed in on at the top, the upper exterior panels were highlighted in green and began to pulse as a timer appeared next to it. The timer reached zero and the panels separated from their moorings and from the end of a strong cord acted as a drag chute, serving to both slow my descent and to keep the pod oriented upright.

After I reached a second boundary – this time set at 164' – computer controlled braking rockets engaged, slowing my pod further. Everything was going rather smoothly until an explosion rocked my pod; one of the rockets in question was zoomed in on and a lot of red text with angry leaderlines appeared with just as many exclamation points; a malfunction. I swore. My view began to rotate as the pod descended through the sky; I used the joysticks to try and maneuver myself manually back into the correct trajectory. The computer calculated that my velocity was survivable, but it wouldn't be pretty. I could already tell as much. As I passed through a thick layer of clouds, I finally saw the landscape. For a second, I was reminded of home and was simply awestruck by its beauty; however, I had to tear myself away from it. I used the joysticks to maneuver around some more to help bleed off more momentum until I realized it wouldn't be enough. Warning lights flared and an automated message sounded as I fell out of the sky, 'Brace for impact. Brace for impact. Brace for impact. Brac–' I took its' advice.

I hit the ground at what could only be a ludicrous speed and was sent ricocheting around and, at times, through the landscape for what seemed like forever until I eventually came to a stop upright against a nest of trees my 'rampage' had made, dizzy but in one piece. The SOEIV however, wasn't so lucky; the four glass panels were cracked to all hell, but were somehow in one piece. I wasn't exactly surprised when I noticed that my monitors showed nothing but static, sparking intermittently. All in all, my pod was thoroughly trashed. It was then that I remembered my 'passenger'. I called out to her. After a moment, I felt a slight spark ignite inside my head and a reply. Grah, what the hell was that?! Note to self: NEVER do that again. "Good to see you're in one piece." She scoffed at that, Yeah … no thanks to your driving. Where are we, anyway? "That? … I'm still working that one out." I quickly filled her in on what I had experienced.

As we dialogued, my head cleared enough so that I could move around again without feeling so much like I was spun like a top, which in all fairness, probably wasn't too far from the truth. I tried the hatch, and it wouldn't move. I looked more closely and saw that the multiple impacts had actually deformed and merged the edges of the door with the pod's titanium frame. It looked like I would have to use the explosive bolts to exit the pod. I found the switch I needed, and after I removed the black plastic covering, I pushed the large red button and armed the bolts. In front of me, four red buttons flickered and lit up along the door. As I pushed each one, they turned from red to green. I pushed the last button and there were a series of small explosions inside the door, the last of which was enough to blow the door off the pod and sent quivering into a nearby tree. Freedom.

"Hey, check this out." I requipped the M6 (Having stored it earlier), and true to her word, it was somewhat easier to spawn this weapon; although it still ate up much of my magic. I was met with her dry wit as a response. Huh, so you can do that now, eh? That's pretty cool; you could've put on a show back on the Infinity. You could've charged for admission; just think of the credits you could've made! You'd need a rake – perhaps a shovel even. Maybe one of those industrial vacuums … I was not amused, "Oh, ha ha, you're funny." Thanks, I was considering becoming a comedian back when I was a little microchip. I couldn't suppress a grin as I rolled my eyes at her.

I told her all about what I experienced on the island … although doing so took FOREVER. (She had many questions) As we talked, I removed the gear I had stowed in the pod and started walking in the direction of the coastal towns I had seen from my pod until I found a slightly misused game path which eventually turned into a dirt road which led out of the forest. Hey Jai? Stop for a second … I want to try something. I complied. "What's up?" I saw a spike in power usage and curiously asked what she was doing. She said that she wanted to properly greet me, but she had to do something first. Before I could ask what that meant, I was met with a white holographic being come into existence in front of me. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it was her. In short, she was beautiful: she had shoulder length dark hair, and an attractive voluptuous figure. She was clad in resplendent armor that reminded me of Norse mythology – more specifically, a Valkyrie. Across her back, she wore a large two-handed waraxe, made to fit the look of her armor. In her hands, she held a large wooden tankard. (That she occasionally drank from) The whole look made her look like some kind of Nordic apparition; she pulled it off well. She also had the circuit-like tracks running all across her body that most commonly appear on AI avatars, mostly vertical and what looked like white pulses of energy glowing along those conduits coming from her feet and ending at the hairline in the back of her neck.

She bowed her head in greeting, and looked at me with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face. "I'm not usually a stickler for the rules, but I seem to have been remiss in proper etiquette, as I have not formally introduced myself yet. Hello. I am UNSC AI Mir 1708-1, otherwise known as Mira. Glad to meet you Spartan." I grinned and responded, "Hi. I'm Jai Mathers. Great to meet you. If you don't mind me asking … why a Valkyrie? That is what you based your avatar on, right? A Valkyrie from Nordic mythology?" She blinked and looked down at herself, "Well … I've always liked the whole strong, female warrior/harbinger of death thing that the Valkyries always had going on. Plus, I think it meshes well with the whole Spartan mythos, yeah? I just thought we would complement each other well like this." I was a little taken aback, to be honest. I wasn't expecting her to do that … not that I mean that as a bad thing, of course. "It's very well put together; I compliment you, good lady." I accompanied that last part with a small theatrical bow. She unsuccessfully stifled a laugh, "Laying it on a little thick, aren't you?" I laughed a little at that. "Mmh. Perhaps."

She stretched this way and that and commented about how nice it was to finally have a body. "Wait … hold on a second, you're not used to having a body?" She stopped stretching and looked at me, "Well, yeah. My very first task was to fly your team on the mission. I haven't projected my avatar until just now. I'm, like, a few days old, ok?" By then, I had walked to the edge of the forest to see open plains with a field every now and then. She looked around her and gestured with her tankard, "Well, now that we've got that out of the way, why don't we go to that town over there? Surely the denizens will know where we can find this "Fairy Tail", right?"

Indeed, there was a view of the closest coastal town in the distance. (I had to use the zoom function in my helmet a little) As I walked, I wondered if I could bring out any of my armor enhancements as well as weapons. I consulted my holographic menu and it turned out I could, so I requipped the jetpack and flew to the town in the distance at medium thrust. (As it turns out, the Jetpack armor enhancement was the most efficient mode of transportation in terms of magical cost) But, even with the speed the Jetpack afforded me, the travel time took up the remainder of what was an afternoon. Evening found me sprawled on a hill just outside of the quaint town taking a short rest, looking at the stars just beginning to show in the fading light of dusk. I wanted to scout out the town when it was dark; I didn't wish to interact with the locals before I knew the layout of the location. You know, in case things got bad somehow. It never hurt to have a Plan B.

When evening came, I went inside the town and spent the next few hours exploring. I asked Mira if she could use the information to create a map of the area. Sure, I mean, I'm no cartographer, but I'll do what I can. Why, if you don't mind my asking? I hesitated for a moment before replying, "It's just this nagging sense I'm having; it may just be the reaction of a slightly paranoid soldier, but I think it'd be best to be prepared if I need it. Well that, and in this line of work, a healthy dose of paranoia usually keeps you alive. If nothing else, we'll have a detailed map of this town." A few hours later I eventually looked at the time, it read 23:30. Feeling tired, I went back to the hill I found earlier and laid down. I'd check into one of the inns I found, but I don't know the culture nor do I even have any credits. Come morning, I'll start searching around for a way to this … Fairy Tail.

Later that morning, I was going from merchant to store to anyone who might look like an info broker to see if anyone knew of a guild known as Fairy Tail. Good news was, most of them had heard of it; hell, they were even pictured on one of the paper magazines one of the venders had. (Actual paper!) However, the bad news was that they all gave conflicting directions as how to get there and they started to argue about it. I politely asked one of the venders in question if I could have the magazine; I told him I was between jobs, (Which was more of less true, in a way) and he smiled sympathetically and gave it to me free of charge on the house. I thanked the man who simply wished me a good day and waved. I also took note of his vendor stand: I intend to repay him for his kindness once I get money.

I didn't know where, but I just picked a direction and started walking. I eventually came to one end of a side alley wondering if I should try to 'get friendly' with one of the locals and was almost ran over by a stampede of squealing women. I then noticed that a beautiful blonde woman was lying face down in a puddle, groaning in pain and covered in dirty tread marks; it was probably safe to say she was ran over by the mob. I extended an arm in an offer of assistance, which she thankfully accepted. She brushed herself off and quickly looked me over in mild surprise, "Oh wow! That's some really cool armor you have there!" I laughed at that a little. "What this? It's just Mjoln- … nothing. Thank you." (From within my head Mira snickered and did a slow clap) Smooth … smooth … The woman was obviously confused for a second before shaking it off. She extended a hand, "Well, anyway … thanks for the help up. I'm Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia." I quickly gave her a once-over. She had chocolate brown eyes and shoulder length blonde hair that was tied by a blue ribbon in a small ponytail to the right side of her head with the rest of the hair loose. She wore a white blouse with a thick navy blue trim, a navy skirt with a very thick belt that held a whip and a leather container of some kind. She was very buxom, and sported quite a curvaceous body. Shit… 'Mira? Is everything ok?' Huh? Oh, uh … yeah. Everything's just fine … 'Mira … what is it.' Oh, ok. Fine. She's just very attractive, ok? I grinned, 'Oh. Ok.' She then made an interested grunt. 'What?' It's … just that I was thinking you'd make a bigger deal of it is all … That intrigued me, 'Why, is that weird?' She replied, Well, no. As you know, AI's are made from a personality matrix derived from scanned deceased Human brains. As far as I can tell, my donor had no hangups when it came to women, so neither do I. I grinned. 'Oh, I get it. You're into women. That's cool!' You ... you really think so? 'Of course I do! Far be it from me to judge what another deems attractive, you know?'

Back in reality, only a few seconds had passed. I reached for her offered hand and shook it. "Jai, Jai Mathers. Nice to meet you, Lucy. If you don't mind my asking, why were all of those women running and where?" She looked at me as if I had just dropped down from space. (This, coincidentally, was right on the nail.) "Haven't you heard? Salamander's here! In this backwater town of Hargeon! C'mon! You have to see him! He uses fire magic you can't even buy in stores!" Before I knew what was happening, she had grabbed my hand and started running in the direction all those women went before. Soon enough, we came to a large intersection of roads and streets of varying sizes where a rather large gathering of squealing women could be seen. Lucy led me to the very outer perimeter of the group and I could finally see the man all these women were going absolutely crazy over. Due to the distance, I had to use the zoom function on my helmet again.

The man in question was a relatively tall and slim man with mildly short, spiky hair jutting outwards, with a long fringe left hanging over the upper left part of his face. He possessed a mildly rectangular face with sharp features, dark eyes and thin, dark eyebrows. His most distinctive facial feature was the dark tattoo that covered the right part of his forehead, just above his right eyebrow; it was highly reminiscent of a thin, stylized pair of tongs placed horizontally, with the "handles" pointing towards the mans' right. He was garbed in ornate clothing, with the most visible piece being a dark, high-collared cape almost reaching down to his knees, possessing a lighter inner part and light edges adorned by a pattern consisting of many rhombs – or possibly many "X"s – lined up one after the other. Such a cape was closed some inches below his neck by a small fastener adorned by some kind of a stylized flame, probably something to do with his epithet of Salamander; though the reference was lost on me … he didn't look anything like a small lizard.

The cape had a light ribbon hanging from it, and has large motifs adorning its sides, starting from the shoulders and going down several inches; each motif is shaped like a large, light and hollow circle from whose outer side many arrows jut outwards in every direction, and which has several wavy lines protruding towards its hollow center. Beneath such cape, he wore a simple, light short-sleeved shirt with outlined edges, paired with light pinstriped pants with visible hems, held up by a simple belt covered in elongated spots and largely hidden by his shirt and polished dark shoes with lighter soles and a light upper part going down from the ankle's front. He also sported three large metal bracelets around his right wrist and forearm. On his hand he wore two rings, one with a large pink heart on it where a jewel would normally go.

He kissed a ring on one of his fingers and waved to what now were his apparently adoring fans with his pointer and middle fingers extended. For some reason, this caused the horde of women to practically swoon over him. I noticed Lucy was holding herself cautiously with a blush growing on her face and a faraway look in her eyes. It was then that the idol of attention turned and looked at her directly, and she blushed so hard I could swear I could hear her heart pounding from the stress. He smiled at her as she started slowly walking her way towards him; I cautiously followed somewhat close behind her, not sure what was going on, when from outside the group, shouts in a distinctly male voice of something like "Igneel" or something could be heard getting louder and louder as the source approached. It was then that a teenager pushed his way through the crowd into sight accidentally knocking over Lucy in the process. He looked around fifteen years old, wearing dark pants tied at the waist and at each calf with rope, black sandals on his feet, a vest that was open at the front in the same color that had a bright orange trim. Over all this he wore a red cloak with white trim, a bedroll, and a scarf was adorned on his neck that was white with a black grid pattern on it. The most distinctive hallmark I could see of him (At this moment anyway) was his lightish red hair.

He took one look at this Salamander person and flatly asked who he was. This took the latter by surprise who proceeded to tell him just who he was in this smarmy, arrogant, rich boy voice that just made me want to punch his face in, "Why, I am the great Salamander! Surely you've heard of me before?" The teen blinked and said in a bored tone, "Never heard of ya.", and moved over to an alley and was walking away prompting the man to yell at him to wait. At this, three fangirls separated from the pack and tackled the teen to the ground before shouting insults at the teen for not having heard of the man. "The Great Salamander" made a gesture to the women and called them off. "Now, now my lovelies … I'm sure the poor boy never meant anything malicious by it." This got the fangirls to immediately go back to swooning over him with what I SWEAR were hearts in their eyes. Just what the hell is wrong with these women? A troubling thought came to me as I realized it – whatever it was – was effecting women specifically. 'Mira? You still there? Everything fine in there?' Yeah, yeah … I'm fine. It's affecting only women, I know. But I think that it only affects organic women; so I'm safe. She then snorted softly and continued, Besides, he's just not my type anyway. He's a guy; no offense.

But as for Salamander here … I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I really, REALLY didn't like this guy. Fortunately, all this snapped Lucy out of her daze; I helped her up and she was now fixing "The Great Salamander" with a hard gaze. By this time, the teen had walked his way back to the man all the while staring at him with this deadpan look. "The Great Salamander" took out a marker and merely signed a prepared placard and held it out for him to take and said extremely condescendingly, "Here you go! Now you can brag to all your friends!" He just stared at him with a deadpan expression. "No thanks." Two fangirls came up to him and kicked him against the side of a building and he landed into a pile of trash. It was then a small blue cat with white wings came down from the sky and landed softly in front of him and said in a small soft voice, "I guess that wasn't him after all?" The teen merely groaned in response.

I could feel my eye beginning to twitch in annoyance. I can only hope something is about to be explained, and soon. My head felt like it was about to explode from the sheer amount of questions I was finding on this crazy planet!

"The Great Salamander" looked at the carnage his 'fans' had inflicted and quipped with what I identified as mock sadness (Or it could've just been that damn smarmy voice he was projecting at the moment, it was kind of hard to tell), "Well, I'm afraid I have to be going, ladies. I have business I have to attend to." This got everyone's attention and all the fangirls complained that he was leaving. "The Great Salamander" held up a hand and snapped his fingers. "Time for the red carpet." Purple flames appeared around him on the ground and lifted him about ten feet into the air leaving him to look down upon everyone gathered. "I'm having a soiree on my yacht tonight, and you're all invited!" Immediately after stating that, he rocketed off into the sky using his magic. Seriously? His "Red carpet" isn't even red … or a carpet. Poser. Mira couldn't help but giggle slightly at those thoughts.

During all this, the teen had gotten up and was watching all this transpire. Lucy and I walked up to him as he asked, "Who the heck was that guy?" Lucy piped up and stated coldly that she didn't know either, but that he was a real creep. She changed gears and waved in a friendly manner and smiled at the flying cat and the teen and thanked them for their help. We all decided to go and get something to eat before we all introduced ourselves. As it turned out, he knew the town a little better than us – not exactly an achievement where I'm concerned — and showed us to a little knife and fork restaurant he knew of which, surprise surprise, was nautical themed. I took my new friend aside on our way there and let her know I didn't have any money right then. She sighed and rolled her eyes before smiling at me and telling me she would be able to cover me. I sincerely thanked the woman. We sat down and ordered from the menu. I got a chocolate protein shake; I didn't catch what the others ordered except for the cat, who ordered a literal bucket of fish.

After the server brought the food and went away, Lucy piped up and introduced the two of us. "My name is Lucy, and my large, armored friend here is Jai. Nice to meet you!" (I noticed that the words 'large' and 'armored' drew the boy's attention, as well as a concerned look, for a fraction of a second before it was wiped from his expression) The two were apparently starving, as they attacked their food as soon as it was within arm's reach with gusto. Between mouthfuls of fish, the cat replied with an 'Aye!'. They finished their meal, then flagged the server down and ordered more food. They attacked the next round of food again with as much zeal as last time, which made Lucy and I share a look. I cleared my throat to get their attention and ventured a question, "Natsu and Happy, was it?" The only sign of acknowledgement was a nod from the cat and a hurried 'Yes' around a mouthful of food from the redhead. Lucy smiled nervously and put her hands out in a reassuring gesture and told them they didn't have to rush, that we weren't in a hurry.

Food was flying everywhere and some landed on her forehead. She quickly wiped it off then grew serious and added that she had figured out what was going on earlier: "Apparently, the man we met earlier was using magic – a charm spell that hypnotized the women in town into thinking they were in love with him." She pulled a large book out of a small backpack I hadn't seen her carrying earlier and flipped to a page that showed the ring that I saw Mr. Popular was wearing earlier. "Charm spells have the power to attract other people to you against their will, but they've been banned for years! No one even sells them anymore." She adopted a tired suspicious gaze and said, "He must have gone through a lot of trouble to get his hands on it. What a creep! I TOTALLY fell victim to his spell, but I snapped out of it thanks to you barging into me when you did. I really can't thank you guys enough."

She smiled and pointed at herself, "I may not look it, but I'm a wizard too! But, I haven't joined a guild or anything yet … oh I should probably explain, huh? See, guilds are these organizations that wizards come together to share information and find work and things like that. Unfortunately, you aren't considered a fully-fledged wizard until you become a member of a guild." (Here, she must have pulled out her inner fangirl for the next part) "But there are tons of them all across the world! I've heard it's tough to get into the more popular ones, and the guild I want to join is the most popular one there is!" She sighed in contentment at the thought. "Yeah … they're the greatest and they're always featured on Sorcerer Weekly … OH, IF I COULD ACTUALLY CONVINCE THEM TO LET ME IN, I THINK THAT I'D JUST ABOUT DIE!" Natsu and Happy shared a look at that. Natsu finally replied with, "Well … yeah?" Lucy calmed down a bit and waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, I'm sorry … all of this wizarding talk must have sounded like a bunch of gibberish to you, huh?" She fixed a gaze on the two of them, "I'm definitely going to join the guild someday and that I'm going to take all kinds of exciting jobs and make tons of money!" Natsu, with a full mouth swallowed partially and asked "Oh, yeah?" Happy merely tiredly stated that she talked a lot.

It was then that I remembered that the two of them came here to try to find somebody; this was where I found another point of entry into the conversation. "You guys were looking for an – 'Igneel', right? Am I pronouncing that right? You were shouting the name earlier." Natsu swallowed hard and nodded; he explained that they had heard a rumor that a salamander would be coming through this town, so they came here to see him. It turned out it was somebody else. Happy chipped in, "Yeah, no kidding! That guy didn't even look like a salamander at all!" (Now that I was able to actually hear the small … creature … clearly, from his voice, he seemed to be quite young yet. I couldn't tell how he was able to talk or fly though; although, I couldn't exactly rule out anything yet about this place I found myself in; it could be more magic at work for all I knew) Natsu glumly added that he doubted that he could even breathe fire at all like a real dragon. That brought me out my musing. Lucy and I shared another look. "Uhh … ? I don't get it, your friend Igneel looks like a dragon?"

They looked at me for a second. "No, no … you got it all wrong. See, he doesn't look like a dragon, he is one." At this, Lucy could only make a confused noise. Happy chimed in, "Aye! Igneel is a real life fire dragon!" Needless to say, Lucy, Mira, and I were all taken aback at this revelation. "WHY WOULD A FIRE DRAGON SHOW UP IN THE MIDDLE OF A TOWN?!" The two just blinked blankly and had nothing to add. She told them that it was totally ridiculous. She then put down some kind of paper currency, (Which I noticed weren't credits) and got up stating that she had to get going and told them to enjoy the rest of their lunch and that maybe she'll see them around. Before she could get more than a few feet away, they both quickly got up and kneeled down on their knees and thanked her for the food. "CUT IT OUT! YOU'RE EMBARASSING ME!" She placated them by saying that it was cool, they helped her out earlier and begged for them to call it even. Natsu and Happy shared a look and commented that they felt bad, that they weren't even trying to help her and acknowledged that they owed her something ... he lit up like he had a good idea, (Which I'm coming to think are rare occurrences, but whatever. They seemed like a capable duo otherwise) and offered Lucy the signed placard that was given to him by the creep earlier. She promptly declined.

As she walked out the door, I followed her and asked if I could tag along for a bit as I didn't know anyone else in the town. She looked at me for a second, then shrugged and stopped so I could catch up. (Not that I couldn't if I had really wanted to, I was just being polite) I waved to Natsu and Happy who merely waved as they were still shoveling food into their gaping maws. About ten minutes later found us in a park sitting on a stone bench. Naturally, the conversation turned towards magic, and she reached back and got out a magazine I recognized. "Wait, you have one of those as well?" I held out a hand and in a blue glow materialized mine to compare; it looked a little beaten up and worse of wear compared to hers, but it was the same issue. This surprised her. "Wait, you can use magic as well? What guild do you belong to?" I paused for a second to think of a suitable response; I was trying to remember all of what I've learned today about wizards and their guilds. I eventually responded, "I haven't joined a guild yet, so I'm in the same boat as you. As for my magic … I'm not that good at it yet." We high-fived as we found something in common then shared a moment of sadness.

We opened up our magazines and each started reading. Most of which went well over my head, what with references to cultural, political, and magical matters that I couldn't begin to understand. All of a sudden she laughed a little and commented, "Oh boy, it looks like the Fairy Tail guild is out there causing trouble again! A Devon bandit clan was wiped out, but seven homes were destroyed?!" She laughed and commented on how they might be going overboard. (Apparently destroying public property is a common happening for this guild – wait, did she say Fairy Tail?) She flipped another few pages and got to a centerfold that held the images of a beautiful white haired woman in a two piece swim suit. She turned to me and showed me the girl; she looked in her late teens, perhaps eighteen or twenty. "Ah! The centerfold's Mirajane! She's so pretty." (Mira, who was reading along with me, took note of this and said that she agreed with Lucy's comment; Mirajane was pretty) I found that I couldn't disagree.

Lucy sighed and pensively wondered aloud how she could become a member … but she sat straight up with a look of determination in her eyes and stated that she would become a member of Fairy Tail. I saw an opportunity and took it, "Wait, you're looking for Fairy Tail as well? A … friend of mine … told me about it and strongly recommended that I go join it. I've only recently come here and have been having trouble finding it." This got her full and undivided attention. "New plan: we're going to find the Fairy Tail guild and join up together!" She thought for a second before amending with glee, "They're totally the coolest guild ever!"

It was then from behind a tree just outside sensor range came a voice, "What was that? You two want to join Fairy Tail?" The creep from before popped into view and startled Lucy who on reflex shouted the name Salamander. He made a thoughtful pose and stated that he had been looking all over for her. He looked at her and furthered the train of thought by saying that he wanted to personally invite her to the party he was having on his yacht tonight. Lucy extended an arm and leveled an accusatory finger at him and said in a cross tone, "Your charm spell won't work on me! That magic's weakness is awareness; it doesn't work on people if they know you're using it." He merely made a one armed shrug in the air and stated that it was just as he thought: she was a wizard the moment he laid eyes on her. "No matter. The invitation still stands." Lucy crossed her arms and turned away. "Well you can forget it. I wouldn't be caught dead at a party being thrown by a CREEP like you." He rushed a hand to his breast in an approximation of pain, acted wounded, and asked why she would call him that. Lucy turned her head and leveled a look at him. "Your spell? Using it to make yourself popular?" He waved his hand dismissively in the air, winked at her, and said, "Don't be mad, my dear. It's all in good fun. I just wanted to feel like a celebrity at my own party. Can you blame me?" Lucy shrugged, not buying into it. "This just proves that famous wizards can be big idiots."

I caught a glint in his eyes that I didn't like as he turned around fully. "You two are looking to join the Fairy Tail guild, are you not?" Uh oh. This caught her off guard. He held his jaw with a hand and smirked. "Have you ever heard of Salamander – one of Fairy Tail's wizards?" She looked at him as if he was crazy. "Well, yeah!" She turned fully towards him and pointed at him. "You're telling me YOU'RE him? You're THAT Salamander?!" The man nodded, "That's correct. And, if you want to join I could probably put in a good word for you and your friend there." Aaand she's hooked. She came up to him and said with what I could swear were hearts in her eyes, "I would love to go to your party tonight!" He pulled back somewhat and commented in such a low voice that only I could hear him remark that that was easier than he thought. I KNEW IT! He's shady as fuck! Watch him, Jai! He might try something on her! I narrowed my gaze at him. 'Not with me here he won't. Not if he likes how his face looks.' With star-struck eyes, Lucy asked him if he could really get us into Fairy Tail, no kidding. He shrugged. "I don't see why not, but you two can't say anything about the charm spell." Lucy waved a hand and said that she wouldn't say a word. He turned around and snapped his fingers and disappeared into the sky in purple flames.

I walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Lucy …" She raised a fist to chest level as she stared at the retreating form. "I know, I know, he got me; I was pseudo charmed! But, hooray! He's going to get us into Fairy Tail! We just have to keep our mouths shut and be nice to that sleazeball until then!" I persisted, "Lucy, this is most definitely a trap." She looked at me confidently and said, "I know. It's ok, I have these!" She held up a leather packet which contained a small number of masterfully crafted large golden keys and a small handful of silver keys, each of unique design. Unconvinced, I raised an eyebrow and said, "So, you have golden keys. And?" I didn't know what was so important about those keys. "I'm not trying to say you can't take care of yourself – that much I can tell already – but what help are a really fancy set of keys going to do if you get into a jam?" She looked at me with a curious expression and carefully looked me over. "You really aren't from around here, are you?" I laughed nervously and scratched the back of my neck absentmindedly. No … what was her first clue? "I … guess you could say that. So, what are the keys? Do they do anything, or are they just for some kind of no doubt really expensive decoration?"

She chuckled a little at that. "Well, yeah … the keys can get rather expensive – especially the golden ones – but it's well worth the cost. See, I'm what is known as a Celestial wizard. People like me can use these keys to summon various creatures and such to help us out. They are all unique and have different personalities and abilities. When I first get a key, I contact the spirit connected to the key and enter into a contract with them. I ask what days they are available, for how long, that kind of thing and I go from there; see, spirits have lives of their own. I can't just expect them to be at my beck and call when I need something. My goal as a Celestial wizard is to get strong keys such as the Zodiac Keys – which would be the gold ones here – of which I have three at the moment." At that, she brought a hand down and patted the leather packet on her belt with pride. As I took a moment to absorb the information, she took the opportunity to ask a question of her own. "So, you used magic earlier … can you tell me about it?"

I thought for a moment before responding, "Well … first of all, I have two types of magic. But since I don't really have a grasp of one of them yet, I'm forced to rely on just the one. I can use magic to summon various weapons to use at my disposal." I put my hands together like I was showed, and concentrated. Soon enough, a DMR spawned into my grasp. (Having stored it earlier, not wanting it to get lost somehow in the crowd) She inspected it visually for a moment before asking, "Is that … some kind of rifle? Where's the lacrima?" There's that word again … "Eh, my weapons don't use them?" She shot me with a questioning look before changing topics. She could tell I was hiding something. She looked critically at the gun for a moment; analyzing it, more like. I looked at her and cocked my head, wondering what she was thinking. "The magic you can use seems to be some form of requip magic, but I haven't seen or heard of the like before. It must either be very old or brand new. I know of only a couple of types of requip magic … they're called The Knight, and The Gunner; the former type lets the user summon different types of armor that are imbued with magic, and the latter type lets the user summon different types of guns, and I'd be tempted to just call your magic that but, as I have already said … I have never seen weapons like this before. Also, what does that say on it? That middle part? 'UNSC property'? What's that mean? Is UNSC some kind of guild you were a part of? I can also see that word on your armor too." I was forced into a pause for a moment; I hadn't thought of it like that. I guess that wasn't that far from the truth.

However, that didn't change the fact I wasn't ready to reveal that little detail yet. "That's not all I can do." She squinted at me for a second before allowing the change in topic. I found a dead tree nearby and tried to use my Crash magic on it, only to make a large hole in it with my fist. I pulled it out and looked at it for a second before looking over to her. "Uh … hold on. I can do this. That wasn't it." I tried again with the same results, but this time, I managed to punch the tree cleanly in half. The top half fell unceremoniously to the ground with a clamor. Oops. Damn; this magic stuff is tricky. She was understandably surprised. "Holy cow! Just how strong are you?" Well, at least she wasn't asking questions about the UNSC now; although, by the look in her eyes, something told me this wasn't the end of that particular line of questioning.

A short while later, I was sitting in the bedroom of a hotel room Lucy had rented for a short time while she changed in the bathroom to get ready for the party on party-boy's yacht. Why she couldn't just find and change in a public restroom is beyond me, but … whatever; it's her money. While she was taking her time doing … whatever it was she was doing in there, I took the time to go over my holo-menu in depth. It appeared that there were many items that I wasn't able to spawn yet. Conveniently, those items were highlighted in red and had a little symbol nearby with a number. After a little digging, I realized where I knew that symbol from, it was on the left side of my magic meter, although I just hadn't taken the time to look at it yet. One mental headslap later, I noticed that the value of some of them greatly exceeded the maximum amount of magic energy I could currently safely use. Most of the Covenant weapons were in that particular category; something about them being very complex, I bet. I noted that Forerunner weapons were mixed among them as well. Not that I was too surprised, that actually made sense when I thought about it; the Covenant based much – if not all – of their technology off the Forerunners, so it would follow the two would be similarly complex. Wondering what else I could spawn, I took a look at non-combat oriented items, thoughts on something … covert.

When Lucy eventually came out, she was wearing a beautiful sparkling white dress that … well, it accentuated her curves. (I'm a soldier, damn it. I don't know the first thing about dresses; all I know is that she just looked stunning.) I beckoned her over to the table and summoned a briefcase I found. Inside were various surveillance and long range communications technology used most commonly by law enforcement and military personnel. I extracted a listening device that was designed to mold to the shape around the outer ear close to the skull, once there we would be able to hear what the other was saying. A tech explained it to me once … something about vibrations of the jaw bone being turned into a transmissible signal; there was even a button she could press to reply. It was a kind of radio, but much more covert in design and implementation. ONI must have had a hand in its design. It sure looked like something they would commission.

She looked at the device I offered and asked, "What's this?" I offered it to her and said, "This is so I can communicate with you when we're not near one another; plus, I can track you if you need any help. If you do, say the word and I'll be in there as soon as I can. Put this on around the back of your ear. It'll change color to match your skin tone. Just talk, and I'll be able to hear anything you say. It's small enough that most people shouldn't notice it; and those that do get close enough to discover it ... you should probably slap." (Especially in a revealing dress like the one she was wearing, but I kept that little bit to myself. I'll admit it, we were enjoying the view.) As soon as it touched her hand it changed to a flesh tone. "Oh wow, this is really cool. And you will be able to hear me?" As she fixed it to her ear, I isolated the only com channel I recognized and activated it. "Testing, one two three, can you hear me?" She winced, and I played with the audio until it was a more appropriate level. "Yes, I think so … man, this is weird. Cool, but weird." I closed the briefcase and despawned it. She looked at me and asked, "Don't you need one of those as well?" I tapped the side of my helmet, "I already do. I have that, and more." She futzed with the device behind her ear for a second before she stood up and looked me over. "What, aren't you going to change into something more appropriate?" I looked at her and replied, "What do you mean, this is what I usually wear to fancy shindigs. Especially if certain people wish to … dance." She squinted her eyes at me, sensing the subtext.

About thirty minutes later found the two of us on a yacht in the town harbor. The ship was large, to put it simply. Quite small, compared to what I was used to, but whatever. It was a highly decorative, blue-colored yacht with at least four floors visible from the outside. It was composed in part of wood and had dozens of windows that were located on all sides of the ship. The deck of the ship was composed of some species of wood; anything more than that, and I'd need to start asking rather pointed questions that I wasn't quite in a position to defend. I decided to peruse the decks to get a better understanding of the layout of the ship; while it was rather simplistic in comparison to a pelican or a seraph (Nevermind a properly space-worthy vessel), it utilized technology/magic unfamiliar to me and so must be studied. (Man, I could really use Alice right about now) Something definitely smelled rotten about this whole party, and I was going to get to the bottom of all this. Over the com link, I heard Lucy walk over to what I assumed to be a buffet table and after hearing her get a plate, she began to sample whatever was on display. Soon, however, I heard Salamander's voice invite her to a room down below for a wine tasting.

Meanwhile down below deck, most of the lights looked busted or otherwise rendered nonfunctional due to extreme neglect and disrepair with what looked like a single functioning light at the far end of the hallway. Good thing I could see in the dark on my own. I passed a few rooms that had shackles attached to the walls, with unconscious women held within them. I went to help by opening one of the metal doors blocking the rooms, but they were barred from the other side. I was about to remove the obstacles by force when I heard footsteps. Apparently, I had by then snooped my way into a restricted section of the ship because six men came around the corner at the end of the hall I was going down and when they saw my silhouette, they stopped and screamed intruder then brandished simple weapons pointed in my direction.

They looked like they were simply hired thugs, and judging by how they carried themselves and how they held their weapons, I knew they had little to no formal training, much less years of combat experience. They wore nothing more protective than denim. What a pity … for them. I smiled and equipped the Holographic Projection armor enhancement. This was going to be fun. In the darkness I simply slowly walked towards the group and stopped about twenty feet ahead of them, still cloaked in inky blackness. "What seems to be the trouble, gentlemen?" (It never hurt to at least try to be polite, even to one's enemies; that is, assuming they weren't trying to kill you on sight. Then all bets were off, obviously.) One of them muscled his way to the front of the group. He must've been the head of this little band because he carried himself with an air of arrogance. "You! Who are you?" The man then chuckled slightly, "Well, actually, never mind … it doesn't really matter anyway. You've seen too much already. While we could just let you go … I think I have a better idea. It's been too long since some of the boys and I had a good fight. You know what? I think we'll just kill you and dump you overboard. Besides, the boss is only looking for pretty women ... not your sorry ass. Sorry to be the one to tell you this bub, but you're not going to make the cut." One of the thugs levelled a crossbow at my head and fired. The leader shouted, "You idiot! We were going to have fun with this one!"

Of course, the bolt missed and instead imbedded itself into the visor of my hologram. As it fell backward and fragmented before it vanished, I took advantage of the temporary low-level cloaking ability it afforded its user and reappeared right behind the confused and surprised group, who was looking around the hall for my corpse. I lightly tapped the two closest to me on their shoulders, and as they turned to face me, I quickly placed my hands on the backs of each of their heads and brought them together with a satisfying sound before they fell to the floor alive but unconscious. I looked at the two crumpled figures on the ground for a second, musing. I guess I'll have to put on the kiddie gloves while fighting from now on … don't want to accidentally kill anyone. Unless the situation warranted it that is, but I had the distinct impression that would be a rare occurrence.

The rest of them scrambled about five feet forward and turned towards me with looks of confusion and fear, but mostly fear. "What the ... How are you … When did you … I shot you in the head!" One of the thugs closer to me snapped out of his stupor, brandished a large knife, and came at me. I easily dodged his blade by redirecting his hand as he drew close and he passed me to my right. I grabbed his hand and forcibly twisted his arm into an uncomfortable positon behind him before I tore the blade out of his hand (Hearing some of his fingers snap like dry kindling in the process) and knocked him unconscious with the handle. Not needing two blades, I tossed the knife up, caught it by the blade, and threw it up to the guard into one of the steel walls.

The three remaining thugs (Including the leader) looked around in shock as they had lost half of their number in as many seconds. One of the minions raised a crude metal bat and charged at me. After ducking a blatantly telegraphed swing, he was easily dispatched with a suckerpunch to the belly which threw him into the bulkhead before he fell to the ground and slumped over, knocked out. The two remaining looked at each other. The one who had shot at me dropped his crossbow and now favored brass knuckles while the leader merely brought his fists to bear and adopted a fighter's stance.

I just couldn't help it; the sight made me double over laughing. The leader, clearly annoyed at this, indignantly spat, "What? What, are you laughing at … US?!" I continued laughing and had to hold a finger up before I could continue. "Sorry, sorry. It's … it's just that the fact that you two seriously thought that it would be a good idea to fight me hand to hand is … well, laughable at best; cute, even. But hey, it's your hospital bill." The one with brass knuckles made a show of punching his fists together with a metallic clink, obviously an attempt at intimidation, and growled low in anger, "Oh, we're going to pound you into a bloody pulp! You've just signed your death warrant, asshole!"

Thusly provoked, they charged at me. The minion was faster than his superior (Who had a limp) and came at me at a sprint, with his brass knuckles leading the charge. I easily grabbed his leading hand with my left hand, stopping it cold, and enclosed it around his smaller one and squeezed. Hard. The man howled in agony as what was now so much fleshy pulp at the end of his wrist dangled limply amid crumpled brass, bone fragments, and blood. However, before I could temporarily put the man out of his misery by knocking him out with a right hook, a powerful kick connected with the right side of my neck. Or … it would have, had my suit not possessed a strong shield. The sudden blue-white glow of my shield flaring caught the man unawares and distracted him into a momentary pause, allowing me some action. I grabbed his leg with both hands and swung him bodily like an oversized baseball bat into the howling man to my left and then into the wall, knocking the both of them out. I took a quick peek at my shield strength before it regenerated: it read about one eighth missing; not bad for an untrained, unaugmented, leanly built Human. I made a show of dusting myself off as Mira commented on the 'fight'. I brought out an M6 and shot them individually into deeper unconsciousness. Doubletap for safety. Feeling merciful, I shot the man's hand a few times so he would have a little reprieve for a while after he woke up to seek adequate medical attention.

I walked back to the rooms I had passed earlier and after bracing myself with a foot on the wall, ripped the first door out and gently leaned it against a wall. This jarred some of the women awake and while fearful at first, I reassured them. "It's ok ladies, I'm here to help. Now, all of you … hold still. I don't want to cut any of you as well." After drawing my combat knife, I went around and cut the ties that bound each woman to the walls before leading them to the other room to do the same. With a few good punches and bending the material outwards, I opened a large hole in one of the outside walls above the waterline and gestured towards the town of Hargeon, about a half mile away. Some of them started to complain and whine about having to get wet. I was getting annoyed, and frankly was toying with the idea of just throw them off the ship and be done with it, until one women came up to me, thanked me for my help, bunched up the dress she was wearing as much as she could, pinched her nose and jumped in and started swimming to shore. After that, they calmed down and one by one followed suit.

Over the com link I suddenly heard Lucy say, "What do you think you're doing? I know what you're up to … you're trying to use sleep magic!" Salamander's voice laughed and said, "Very impressive, my dear." Lucy sighed roughly. "Look, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. Yes. I really want to join the Fairy Tail guild with my friend. But I'm not going to date you to make that happen." Salamander haughtily laughed and said, "You're quite a handful, aren't you?" I heard the sound of fabric rustling. I whispered into the com link, "Don't worry Lucy, I'm on my way." I asked Mira if she could bring up the FOF tag on the device I gave Lucy earlier and it showed up not too far away. Good. I began to run as fast as the design of the ship would let me. I heard her gasp and asked what was going on.

Sinister laughing could be heard in unfamiliar voices. Salamander welcomed her aboard his ship and advised her to behave herself until we made it to somewhere called Bosco. In a darker tone, he added that she shouldn't make him angry. "YOU'RE GOING TO BOSCOW?! BUT YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO GET ME INTO FAIRY TAIL!" Salamander made a noise reminiscent of a sneer and said, "Forget it. I only said that so I could lure you here and make you one of our slaves." She gasped, "How could you!? You're going to kidnap all of these girls?" Great. So there are more. I heard more laughs and voices that I didn't recognize saying that they got a big haul this time. Angrily, I heard Lucy go, "Why you …" and a jangle of something metallic. Her keys. Shit's about to go down!

I was about to try and find a map of the ship to get to her faster, when I felt the same sensation I felt earlier … only this time, it was an order of magnitude greater. I could barely control it; I can only assume it was feeding off of my sense of urgency or fear, perhaps a mixture of both. I punched the wall and a good hole opened up before me. I grinned sadistically, seeing what it was trying to tell me and started punching my way through the ship, not caring one bit of what structural damage I was doing. (I had by now learned to trust the feeling) Over the com link, I heard Lucy grunt as something made impact with her and Salamander comment on how something were gate keys. "So, you're a celestial wizard? Only the wizard who made the contract can use this magic; so, these are absolutely useless to me." He made a mock 'whoops' and from what I heard, I can only assume he threw them off the ship.

I heard Lucy start to cry in anger. "You use magic to take advantage of others! You're the worst wizard alive!" On my radar, something big was beginning to show up above me. I took a second to switch to thermal imaging and I could see a large ball of red was coming down towards the room in front of me which held Lucy. I burst through the wall and tackled Lucy before extending my shield around her just in time before a fireball burst through the ceiling in a hail of heat and splinters. We recognized the party crasher: it was Natsu! He looked like he was about to adopt a fighting stance before he practically turned green, fell to his knees, groaned, and held his stomach before mumbling how this was a bad idea. Lucy shouted, "You are SO lame!" From above I saw happy who asked what the two of us was doing here. Lucy and I quickly filled Happy in. I asked Happy, "Uh, since when do you have wings?" The cat simply said that he'd get to that later. Happy flew down, wrapped his tail around Lucy and flew off, leaving everyone there save Natsu gawking, me included.

Salamander was the first to recover and pointed to the hole in the roof. "Well? What are all of you doing there standing around for? GET HER! We can't let them report this to the Magic Council!" He used a technique he called Prominence Wind which looked like pillars of purple fire shooting and twisting into the night sky trying to shoot them down. Using the zoom feature, I watched as Happy skillfully dodged them all and made them collide making a huge blast of purple fireworks. Salamander cursed and muttered at how fast the cat was.

Meanwhile, Natsu had gotten up, greeted me, and we got into a back-to-back fighting stance behind the would-be kidnappers who were turned around and staring into the night sky. Natsu punched his fists together and shouted at them to get their attention. He doesn't look too well, is he sick? He looks kinda green around the gills. I then heard Salamander say, "Forget the cat and the girl. Let's continue on to Boscow!" Natsu caught a kick from a thug. "The Fairy Tail guild …" This drew the attention of Salamander. "… You're a member?" Next thing any one of us knew, there was water everywhere. It was so violent that it tore the ship apart and caused a tidal surge that crashed its' way a few hundred feet ashore leaving everyone involved groaning in pain amongst ship pieces and other wreckage wondering why they were on somewhat dry land.

I came to under a section of trashed ship and easily pushed it off of me and heard Lucy talking crossly with someone nearby. I made my way around wreckage until I was within sight of her. She was talking to some sort of giant mermaid floating a few feet above the soggy ground holding a large decorative blue and white jar. "What's the big deal?! You think you could've tried not to sweep ME up with the ship?!" The mermaid only made an unconvincing claim of how it was only an accident and that she didn't mean to get the ship. Lucy took exception to this. "What, you were AIMING at me!?" The mermaid smiled slightly, turned around and stated that Lucy shouldn't call her for a while as she was going on a weeklong vacation with her boyfriend. She then turned her head slightly and looked at Lucy before adding that he was hot before disappearing in a flash of light. 'So, eh … Mira? Do you have anything to add to this? You know, to help make it make sense?' Nope. I've got nothing.

I looked around and saw that people were gathering and wondering aloud how a ship of this size could just be thrown into port like this. I'm going to go on a limb and say it had something to do with the giant floating mermaid that had to have a pissing match with Lucy. I heard Lucy exclaim Natsu's name, which caused me to turn around. I saw that he had somehow gotten on top of what was left of the ship and looked down upon the mass of people that had crewed the ship along with Salamander. "So, you claim to be a member of the Fairy Tail guild?" I heard Salamander state, "So, what's it to you? Go get him, men!" They all jumped at him and shouted 'sir!' Natsu took off his red cloak. "Let me get a closer look at your face!" As the thugs closed in on Natsu, I heard Lucy cry out," Watch out!"

By the time the two of us met back up properly, Happy suddenly appeared between us, piped up and said, "Don't worry about him. I should've probably told you guys earlier, but he's a wizard too!" Lucy gasped at this – evidently surprised – but I had kind of already guessed what with the giant fireball crashing through the ceiling and all without him getting so much as a scratch.

A few thugs finally came within range of Natsu who simply backhanded them out of the way and shouted, "My name is Natsu, I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, and I've NEVER seen you before!" Erstwhile Salamander gasped and Lucy said with a hint of disbelief, "You've got to be kidding me, Natsu is a Fairy Tail wizard?!" I heard one of the crew shout, "That mark on his arm! This guy's the real deal, Bora!" Bora shouted, "Don't call me that, you fool!" Happy frowned and crossed his arms before making a highly displeased expression. "I know that name; that's Bora the Prominence. Rumor has it that he was kicked out of the Titan Nose wizard guild a couple of years ago because of bad behavior." Natsu had jumped down to where Bora was and was walking towards him. "I have no idea what you're trying to do buddy, and I don't care if you're a good guy, bad guy, or what … but I'm not going to let you dirty the Fairy Tail guild's name!"

Bora smirked. "Oh, and what are you going to do about it, are going to try and stop me?" He launched a Prominence Typhoon attack at Natsu and he was engulfed in purple flames. Lucy shouted after Natsu in concern. She made to go after him, but I held an arm out to stop her. Bora and his men were watching the blaze as Bora shrugged and stated, "That's how it goes: the bigger the talk, the weaker the man." He turned around to walk away when Natsu expressed his distaste. "Ugh, this is SO gross! Are you sure you're really a fire wizard? Because these are the nastiest flames I've ever tasted!" Everyone watched as the fireball that had engulfed Natsu imploded and Natsu could be seen grinning like a madman. "Thanks for the grub, poser." Someone frantically asked, "What's going on here, just who is this kid?" Happy grinned sadistically. "Fire magic doesn't work on Natsu." Lucy and I stared at the scene unfurling in front of us. "I've never seen anything like that!" She then turned to me, "Jai, how are you so calm?!" I simply shrugged and replied, "I kind of already guessed he was a wizard beforehand; what's happening now, while surprising in its exact nature, wasn't entirely unexpected."

Natsu started walking towards the group of men and punched his fists together; I briefly saw some kind of draconic sigil. "Now I have a fire in my belly that's raging to get out!" He took a stance before leaning back and cupping his hands in front of his mouth in a manner similar to what I've seen some glassblowers use (Minus the tube and the glass, of course) and shouted "Fire dragon's roar!" and exhaled an incredible amount of bright red flames that destroyed what was left of the ship, defeated most of the crew, and created a shockwave all in one fell swoop. The smoke cleared and Bora could be seen descending on a ring of purple fire. One of the crew that survived the blast said somewhat timidly, "Hey Bora, I swear I've seen this guy before! That red hair and the scaly looking scarf … there's no doubt about it – he's gotta be the real one!" Lucy exclaimed the name Salamander as Natsu wreathed his arms in fire. (At this point, I'm thinking she's just doing it as a knee-jerk reaction) "I hope you guys are paying attention because I'm going to show you what a Fairy Tail wizard can do! Here I come!" Natsu leapt towards Bora, who fired off a few weak attacks which Natsu easily dodged, jumped into the air and punched Bora farther into town through a few buildings as he went. Well damn, I kinda wanted to do that.

Lucy asked Happy, "So, he eats fire then attacks with it?! But how does he do it? Is it some kind of spell?" Happy smirked at the destruction. "He has dragon lungs that allow him to breathe fire, dragon scales to help him dissolve the fire, and dragon claws for attacking with fire. His brand of fire magic is one that allows him to take on all of the qualities of a dragon. It's an ancient spell that's rarely used anymore." Duly surprised, it took me a second to respond. "Seriously?" Happy looked up at me and said, "This particular magic was originally used to deal with dragons; it's called Dragon Slayer magic. Igneel was the one who taught it to him."

This was a lot of information to take in, but I didn't really have a choice, so I accepted it as fact. It seemed like there was a lot of that going on lately for me. I looked back at Natsu who caught a large ball of fire that was just launched at him by Bora who caught the fireball and ate it. He wiped his mouth and grinned widely and told Bora, "Hey, you're not doing too bad, but I'm about to cook you like a smoked fish!" This took Bora by surprise. "You're going to do what to me?!" Natsu wreathed fire around his fist and jumped at Bora shouting, "Fire Dragon's iron fist!" He made contact with Bora's face, who was then violently launched through the town and flew right into the bell tower of what looked like an official building of some sort … (Perhaps town hall?) and shook the bell. Happy dismissively waved at Natsu and said, "Oh, don't be silly Natsu. Everybody knows that you smoke food with smoke, not fire!" All Lucy and I could do was looking at the now smoldering town of what was Hargeon. I found my voice and exclaimed, "Oh wow! That was amazing! But he might have overdone it, you know, just a little bit …" Happy happily emitted an 'aye'. Lucy looked at him and said, "Oh shut it, cat!"

Pretty soon, I could hear sounds of shouting and many metallic boots growing closer and closer. Natsu grabbed each of us by the hand and hightailed it out of there going, "Oh crap! The army! We've gotta get out of here!" Lucy and I shouted, "Where the heck are you taking us?!" Natsu shot a look back at us and said, "Oh, just come on! You guys said you wanted to join Fairy Tail didn't you? So let's go!" Lucy and I shared a look and she smiled broadly, which was enough for Natsu who put it in overdrive until we were a couple of miles away from what was the port town of Hargeon.

[Well, well … it looks like our boy finally found some friends, eh? … Let's hope he can keep them.]