Chapter 2: Golden Phoenix/Breaking Into Teams
Team Natsu finally arrived after a long train ride to the town of Shelburne. As they walked off the train, followed by a defeated Natsu they looked around the quaint city. It seemed peaceful much like Magnolia, and everyone looked welcoming to the group of mages. After taking a moment to get themselves situated, and for them to coax Natsu back to health, Erza turned around and looked over the group.
"Alright, well like I said back at the guild we're going to be searching for what the locales are calling a vampire. The mayor would appreciate it if we could wrap this up as quickly as possible." Erza spoke with seriousness.
"Well should we break off into teams and try to find more information on what we're actually dealing with?" Lucy asked, with a slight fear in her voice over the prospect of dealing with a blood-sucking demon.
"First can we eat, I'm starving!?" Natsu groaned, his stomach rumbling loudly as if it was on cue.
"Well our first order of business is talking with the local guild, they've been busy trying to handle the situation but it's gotten a little bit out of control for such a new guild." Erza explained. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Juvia all agreed with the idea.
"Erza, what guild is it that we're going to?" Gray asked out of curiosity.
"The guild is called Golden Phoenix, they're relatively new, and most of the members are probably out on jobs to raise money." Erza once again explained, "I'm sure they'll cooperate with us to solve the problem."
"I've heard of that guild." Juvia spoke up, "On me and Gray's last mission we overheard some train workers talking about this guild that's been running around all over the place on missions. They're said to be good friends with one another." Juvia shared with the group.
"Excellent, well let's be on our way then, the sooner we can get started, the sooner we can be home." Erza stated in a matter of fact tone as she began to walk into the main part of the town.
As they walked through the streets they took in what the city looked like. Tall buildings that were painted and decorated with warm colours, the smell of various bakery's and cafe's wafting into the air as they passed by. Children played freely in the streets and the people all seemed to get along rather nicely. It was a welcoming site to see for the mages. After a bit of walking they found the guild hall located just north of the centre of Shelburne. The hall was wooden and resembled a modern day tavern with an ornate emblem that appeared to be of a golden phoenix about to take flight with its wings spread open, and and flames at the base of the creature, which sat humbly just above the entrance to the guild.
"Well it looks like we're here." Lucy stated as she looked at the emblem, everyone agreed and opened the guild door. As they walked through the entrance they saw a long hallway with stone fireplace that had the guild emblem embed into the masonry at the end of the hall, and a bar that sat in the right hand corner of the room next to the job bulletin board. The tables were large enough that you could seat around six people per table. There was a door in the left hand corner of the room with a sign that read infirmary. All of the Fairy Tail mages watched as a girl who looked to be around the age of seventeen walk out of the infirmary with a bloody bandage and a fatigued look on her face.
"Hello there." Lucy greeted the girl who lazily looked up. She wore a white bando with a black, open jacket, and a small light blue scarf around her neck. She had on a white segmented skirt with black trim and a light blue sash tied around her waist with the ends of the scarf hanging half way down her left leg , which had high blue socks with black flats. Her brown hair went just a little lower than her shoulder and was pulled into a partial ponytail. Her guild mark was located on her left shoulder and was blue with a white outline.
"Oh hi there, can I help you with anything?" The girl asked as she tossed the bloody bandages into a near by waste basket, and revealing a black fingerless glove the ended at her elbow located on her right arm. She walked slowly towards the mages, slowly but surely, allowing them to see her blue eyes.
"Yeah, we're from Fairy Tail, and we took the job regarding your vampire problem." Erza explained. "We wanted to see if you had any information that could help us out."
"I see." The girl began as she leaned against the table closest to the group. "Well we haven't gotten a lot but we'll help how we can, especially after last night." The girl said, she quickly averted her eyes from the concerned mages who passed around worried glances.
"What happened last night?" Gray asked out of concern. The tired Golden Phoenix mage looked up at them while trying to fight the tears in her eyes.
"One of our guild members was attacked last night in an alley with a group of angry citizens. Instead of waiting for back up, she tried to handle the situation alone with only the towns people to back her up, the fight didn't end well." Dana finished her explanation, of the events that transpired the night before. It was clear on her face that the memory of her guild mate being carried into the guild was painful to remember.
"Is she ok?" Juvia asked out of concern. The girl smiled and gave a half hearted nod in return.
"She'll be ok now, and the cuts shouldn't scar, but she did lose a lot of blood to that monster. If you'd like you can talk to her in a bit after she rests a little." The girl fully answered, "Plus I have two members here that went out to pick up some more medical supplies, and the third is doing patrols in case it turns up. When they return you can talk to them as well." Everyone let out a sight of relief after hearing that the guild member was being taken care of and that they were doing the best they could with minimal people, the moment was broken with Natsu's stomach beginning to rumble again.
"Oh how rude of me, I've been spouting off about our problems and I haven't even introduced myself or offered you some food or drink for coming all this way." The girl huffed at herself, she looked more energetic now than she did before. She stood up from her leaning position and brushed off her clothes, "I'm Dana Williams, it's a pleasure to meet you." Dana smiled at them warmly.
"I'm Erza Scarlet, S-class mage of Fairy Tail, these are my partners for this mission, Natsu, Gray, Juvia, and Lucy." Erza introduced formerly, with everyone waving respectively as their names were called out.
"Well I welcome you to Golden Phoenix, I can already tell that you're hungry so why don't I prepare some lunch." Dana remarked happily as she walked off towards the bar, "Oh and please make yourselves at home." She yelled back towards them. The team walked over to the fireplace and took a table that was near the bar area.
"Well she seems nice." Lucy stated as they all sat down.
"Yes she does, but I'm sure she's very stressed with the vampire that has been attacking people." Erza spoke in a matter of fact tone. Everyone looked to each other and nodded in agreement.
"Well we're here now, so we'll be able to lend them a hand, and hopefully solve this problem quickly." Gray joined in the conversation. After about discussing possible strategies on attacking the target, Dana came out with a large tray full of plates that had grilled fished and mashed potatoes.
"Aww man this looks good!" Natsu yelled in excitement as he began to devour the meal. "Happy would love this fish!" He continued to yell.
"Would you swallow before you speak please, geez you have no table manners." Gray said towards the fire dragon.
"This coming from the guy who strips off all his clothes while he eats." Erza said with a face that warned she didn't approve of either of the boys antics. She looked over to see Juvia who was completely ignoring her meal, and instead was watching a shirtless Gray eat with hearts in her eyes.
"Are they always like this?" Dana asked Lucy as she leaned in close, doing her best to keep her voice down so the others wouldn't hear.
"Yeah pretty much, but you get used to it." Lucy responded.
"Dana, what's going on here?" a males voice spoke from behind them all, they turned they're heads to see a boy who looked to be seventeen years old with orange hair that had spiky bangs that fell to the right side of his face, while the rest of his hair spiked normally. His eyes were yellow, and his skin pale. He wore a black t-shirt with a light grey jacket that had red trim, and a flame design that came up from the hem of his sleeves. Pants were light blue and had dark grey trim, with a dark grey strip above his pockets.
"Oh hey Scott, just having some lunch with some mages who took the mayors job to help us." Dana explained. "Did you get the supplies?" She asked. Scott nodded and held up a large white bag.
"I'll take it to the infirmary." Scott stated in a very depressing tone. With that he dragged himself towards the infirmary.
"Wait, where's Kurt?" Dana asked as she noticed he hadn't come in with him.
""He's fine, he just went to check on the crime scene last night where she was attacked." Scott explained as he kept walking, all the mages watched him as he disappeared behind the infirmary room door.
"Who was that?" Lucy asked, concerned by the mood the new mage was in.
"Scott Hunter, his girlfriend was the guild member that got attacked last night, so he's been pretty depressed about it." She explained. Everyone looked at each other with worry in their eyes after seeing the impact that last nights attack had.
"I feel sorry for him, I know I'd be upset if my precious Gray was injured as well." Juvia spoke up. Dana just shrugged her shoulders.
"Oh well, she'll be fine and then he can stop being so mopey." Dana responded as she began to finish her meal. After all the plates were clear they moved their seats to the fireplace where Erza discussed some of the guilds previous adventures, and their experiences at the Grand Magic Games.
"Wow you guys seem to do a lot of crazy things." Dana said with a smile on her face.
"Yeah well we can get through anything, because we're Fairy Tail wizards!" Natsu yelled proudly as he jumped up from his seat.
"Well, looks like you've got some lively guests." Another male's voice came from the door they all turned around to see a boy who appeared eighteen years old that had blond spiky hair that fell slightly over his hazel eyes, but underneath the black frames of his glasses. He wore a black t-shirt that had yellow sleeves, and a long open jacket that ended just below his knees, and black fingerless gloves. The jacket was grey in colour with yellow trim, and two lightning bolts that wrapped around the waist of the coat. His pants were dark grey in colour and where held up by a yellow belt, and his boots where black that also had yellow trim and laces.
"Oh look so he returns. How did things go." Dana asked the boy as he walked towards the group with a grin on his face.
"Oh about the same as it always does, the whole alley was blocked off by the rune knights and the blood was cleaned up. Then I might of destroyed some of the knights stuff by accident so I could get a better look" He responded as he leaned against the table closest to the group. "So who're your friends?" He asked as he looked over the mages.
"These guys are from Fairy Tail, they accepted the job from the mayor and are gonna being giving us a hand." Dana answered. He nodded his head in approval as she answered him.
"Ah I see, well then allow me to introduce myself." He said he turned towards the Fairy Tail team, and bowed at them, "Kurt Stryker at your service."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Erza Scarlet, this is Juvia, Gray, Lucy, and Natsu." Erza replied and introduced herself and the others. "Seems like you're in a good mood despite everything that happened." Erza remarked on how the Golden Phoenix mage was acting.
"Nah, this is just me being absolutely furious over a friend being hurt. I'm way more reserved around new people, but if you're here to help us kick ass and get revenge for my comrade, then I already know where gonna be good friends." Kurt responded. Natsu smiled in approval over Kurt's answer.
"Don't mind him, he'll act more serious tonight, and hopefully he won't break anything this time, cause him and his team are kinda the reason we can't have nice things, or stay on good terms with the local authorities." Dana stated as she glared towards Kurt. He shrugged it off and began to walk off to the infirmary.
"Well I'm gonna go see Sarah, and try to get Scott to knock off the depressing crap when we all know she'll be fine." Kurt yelled as he was halfway to the door.
"We should probably go as well, then we can break everyone off into groups and cover more ground." Dana spoke to the team, they all nodded and followed her to the infirmary room.
They opened the door to clean white room that had a counter with assorted medicines, and potions that were neatly organized. They looked around at the white beds that had separators in case a patient wanted some privacy. Leaning against the wall near an occupied bed was Kurt who looked down at the patient with a sad look present on his face, while Scott occupied the chair beside the bed and was holding the patients hand with his head leaning on the sheets.
"Is she awake?" Lucy asked quietly so as not to disturb the mood of the room.
"...I'm..awake..." A girls voice moaned from the bed. Dana walked over to her and smiled as she began searching through the white bag that Scott had just dropped beside his chair. As they walked towards the bed they saw a girl who looked seventeen years old with long brown wavy hair that had a red tinge to it, and she wore a light purple jacket that had a yellow bow around the neck and yellow straps just above the pockets. The dress underneath her jacket was black, with a light blue skirt.
"Your skin...it's so pale..." Lucy managed to get out. The girl looked like a ghost.
"It's just because a lot of my blood was taken...I'm Sarah Rose by the way..." Sarah said with a smile, although such an act was strenuous for her.
"Hello Sarah, we were wondering if you could answer some questions for us." Erza stated as she pulled up another chair to the side of the bed.
"Of course, anything to help..." Sarah replied to her. Erza smiled at the girl, Sarah smiled back and did her best to wake her boyfriend up. After a moment he was up and out of the way so the questioning could begin.
"What can you tell us about the vampire?" Erza asked, everyone turned their heads towards the wounded girl to listen to her answer. Eagerly awaiting for all the info she had gathered from her attack.
"Well, he didn't seem violent at first, so I thought that maybe I could talk down the towns people and the vampire to come up with a solution, but the vampire already began to attack us with his magic." Sarah answered.
"And what type of magic did it use?" Erza once again questioned.
"It used lightning magic to attack us, at first it was to keep us at bay and incapacitate us, but after awhile he went crazy and just went to down everybody, not even my best earth magic could stop him, he had obviously learned from a master." Sarah responded, Kurt smiled after hearing the element of choice that the vampire did battle with.
"Well looks like Kurt will be having an advantage." Dana said as she looked at the evil grin that Kurt was having over such news.
"hehehe..." Was all he replied before they turned their attention back to Sarah.
"Is there anything else you could tell us?" Lucy stepped up to ask.
"No that's all I know, after that I blacked out when I was hit with his magic." Sarah responded. The Fairy Tail mages smiled at the wounded girl one last time.
"May I ask of you one more question?" Erza asked once more.
"What is it?" Sarah replied lazily, her eyes were getting heavy and it was clear she was falling back to sleep.
"May we see your arm so we can tell what method he used to drain your blood?" Erza asked. Sarah nodded lazily before she finally passed out.
"I have to change her bandages anyway, but it looks like the bleeding stopped." Dana spoke up, everyone watched as she removed the striped of bandages that wrapped around the girls arm. Erza gently turned the girls arm so everyone could see the five thin lacerations that travelled from her wrist up to her elbow. Scott averted his eyes and walked out of the infirmary followed by Kurt. Natsu, Lucy, Juvia, and Grey followed behind them, leaving only Erza, Dana, and the unconscious Sarah.
"So what are your thoughts on the situation?" Dana asked the S-class mage as she wrapped up Sarah's arm in fresh bandages.
"I'm thinking that this vampire has more to it's story than meets the eye, but we're definitely looking for a male the way Sarah was telling us." She replied, after the girls were done, they walked out into the main hall to see that everyone had gathered around a table and were waiting for the final two mages.
"Ok so, I think you guys have figured out that we're working with you." Kurt spoke up shattering the silence.
"Yeah, right now all we know is it tries to avoid contact with people but will attack if it feels threatened." Scott spoke up, "Besides I wanna pay that son of a bitch back for what he did to Sarah. A thousand-fold!"
"I think it would be best if we broke off into groups of two, then we have two on one until the others can arrive to add support." Gray added, everyone looked to each other and nodded in agreement.
"Very well then, we should pair up with the best matches. Dana, Kurt, and Scott what are your elements so we know your abilities." Erza asked.
"I'm a Lightning mage, and I have a few tricks to combat this vampires lightning." Kurt answered first, Scott stepped forward again.
"I'm fire, so I can scorch that bastard when I find him." The orange haired mage replied.
"And I'm a wind mage, so I can try to manipulate the air currents around him to disorient him." Dana answered. Erza looked over the entire hunting force. After a moment she clapped her hands together in order to gain every bodies complete and undivided attention.
"Alright the teams will be Me and Dana, Natsu and Scott, Kurt and Lucy, and finally, Gray and Juvia." All the mages looked at each other and agreed with the pairings, especially Juvia who's eyes had once again transformed into hearts over Gray being her partner. "Alright everybody be careful, we have no idea on the full potential of this vampire so stay vigilant, and if you run into the vampire flash either the Fairy Tail emblem, or the Golden Phoenix emblem, and the rest of the teams shall converge on your position."
"Right." Everybody said in unison.
"Excellent..." Erza began to say as she requipped into her Thunder Empress Armour. "Let's go hunt a vampire!"
A/N: Hey so here is the next chapter, kinda long but I hope you liked it anyway. Next chapter though expect a lot of fighting and action. So this is the part where I say feel free to review and let me know what you think, cause honestly I would love to know what your thoughts are, and if there is anything I can improve on. So I hope you continue to read this, and I'll see ya next time, Bye! :) Also credit for Golden Phoenix goes to VioletDawn00. Look her up ;)