A man crashed down from up above. The force of his landing managed to push Salamander and his white hot brand away from where Lucy was being held. In their shock the men holding onto her let go, allowing her to move away from them.
Her savor had pink hair, a red coat and a white scale patterned scarf. She gaped at him, even as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Natsu?"
The boat rocked and he collapsed against the nearest wall. "No," he gagged, "I can't take it."
"Eh?! What's wrong?" Was he motion sick? But he just got onto the boat, hadn't he?
Meanwhile Salamander and his crew recovered from their shock. Some of them even commented on the state of Natsu's weak stomach.
The sound of flapping wings got Lucy's attention just as a familiar high pitched voice called out. "Lucy! What are you doing?"
"Happy?" She supposed it made sense, considering Natsu was there too, but somehow she just didn't expect the small blue cat to make an appearance. Then his words registered in her mind. "I- He said he was with Fairy Tail, and I- I really wanted to join and…And…" It was at that moment that she realized there was something different about Happy. "Wait…Did you have wings before?"
He dove at her. "We'll talk about that later." Smoothly he pulled up, wrapping his tail around her waist and bringing her out of reach of the grabby hands of her would be captors. "Let's get you out of here."
"Woah!" Who knew he had such a strong tail. Or wings. However, as amazing as it was, Natsu was still crouched against the wall, still seasick and helpless against Salamander and his group of thugs. "Wait, what about Natsu!"
"I can't carry two people." He sounded completely unconcerned. Did that mean she should be as well? His limit made sense, considering his size. Though all things considered a blue talking flying cat didn't make much sense at all.
A stunned "oh dear…" was all she could manage.
"I won't let you get away!" Salamander cried, sending a spiral of fire at the two of them.
Thankfully Happy managed to dodge out of the way and only a gentle heat from that vicious flame managed to lick at Lucy's ankles. After a few more shouts the two soon found themselves being shot at.
Bullets whizzed past them, making Lucy cry out in fear, however the shooters weren't a very good shot. Throughout it all, Happy stayed frustratingly calm.
"Hey, Lucy, listen,"
"What?" She snapped at the cat though he didn't deserve it, but to be fair to Lucy, she'd never been shot at before and it was a new and terrifying experience. "What's wrong now?"
"My magic is wearing off."
"Heh?" That sounded bad; how could he be so nonchalant?
Abruptly they plummeted down to the dark ocean below. Lucy had just enough time to cry out again before plunging into the depths.
Thankfully Miss Layla's claims that her number was lucky seemed to be the truth. The moon was full, the water was clear and it was shallow enough that Lucy could reach the bottom. Though the salt stung at her eyes, she could see things clearly enough. If that luck held out she should be able to find her keys.
Swimming while wearing heels felt awkward, however she couldn't do much to fix it at the moment; she only had so much air. She was dimly aware that Happy was following her instead of surfacing himself, but she quickly dismissed him from her mind.
She needed to find her keys.
If she could find them then that was one problem solved. If she found them then she could focus on saving the rest of those girls and Natsu.
There, just as her lungs were starting to burn, a glint caught her eye not far from where she was. Her keyring had gotten caught on a rock, a bit closer to the surface than she was. As fast as she could she grabbed them and kicked off from their resting place back to the surface with Happy clinging to her shoulders.
She breached with a gasp and a gagging sputter, because sea water tasted worse than it smelled. As soon as she could breathe she looked to the ship. It was too far away to swim to and it was only getting further away.
She quickly grabbed a familiar key and spoke words that were ingrained in her heart as she plunged the key into the ocean. "I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!"
With a brilliant light and the sound of a ringing doorbell the blue haired mermaid appeared.
The sight of her spirit broke through Happy's calm demeanor and he made a loud impressed noise.
"This is what a Celestial Spirit mage does, Happy. They use Celestial gate keys to summon spirits from another world." She turned to the spirit, kicking rapidly to bring herself higher out of the water. "Aquarius, I need you to bring that boat back to the coast, but don't destroy it, please."
The woman with sea colored hair glared at Lucy from the corner of her eye. "Tch."
"Eh?" The mermaid looked really angry. Lucy couldn't figure out why; it was the one day of the week Aquarius was available to be summoned, more than that Lucy knew the touchy spirit didn't have a date planned today. "What's wrong?"
"You're such a careless brat." The older woman growled, "let me tell you one thing." Abruptly she got much closer to Lucy. The water churned around them, reflecting the pure rage in the spirits blue eyes. "If you drop the keys again, I'll kill you."
"Y-yes…Sorry."
With a mighty and angry roar Aquarius swung her urn, unleashing a wave of tremendous proportions pushing the ship, along with Lucy and Happy, back towards the small town of Hargeon. It was all Lucy could do to keep herself close to Happy and not choke on the salt water that was everywhere.
When the world stopped moving Lucy found herself and Happy on the upper deck of the now beached yacht. Aquarius appeared, leaning on the railing from the other side and smirking down on Lucy.
Lucy spat out some seawater. "Wha-what were you thinking? That was dangerous! We could have died!"
The mermaid face palmed, "ah, my bad, I got the ship too."
"You were aiming at me?!" It really shouldn't have surprised Lucy, Aquarius wasn't pleased with having Lucy as her summoner and she made it very clear as often as possible. Thankfully she usually did do what Lucy asked her to, even if only in a backhanded way.
"Don't call me for a while." The spirit ordered as her gate closed. Lucy didn't have the power to keep it open for much longer and the former blonde suspected Aquarius didn't want to stay on Earthland longer than was needed regardless. "I'm going on a trip for a week with my boyfriend." She paused a second before repeating the last three words, with strong emphasis on the middle one.
"You don't have to repeat that!" Aquarius's form finally vanished, disappearing like stars when faced with daylight. "Ugh, I swear…" Lucy complimented Aquarius on how cool her boyfriend sounded once. Now the spirit was either gloating about having him or making sure Lucy knew that he was hers. Lucy was never sure which one it was with Aquarius.
In the meantime, Happy had recovered. "You don't really get along, huh?"
"It's complicated. But it worked!" She peeked past the railing to the people gawking on the beach below. "Once the guards hear about this and arrive at the scene all the other girls will be safe too!" Maybe they'll even arrest Salamander and his group. "It'll all work out!"
"Ack!" Happy suddenly cried. Quickly he got up and started walking towards the ships cabins. "We forgot Natsu inside."
However, despite his words, he didn't seem to be in a particular hurry. Probably because the door to where Natsu, and Salamander, were wasn't that far away. Still Lucy rushed to follow him.
Natsu had been horribly seasick and stuck with those thugs for what seemed like forever. Not to mention the turbulence from Aquarius's wave, there was a high chance that he was hurt and at the mercy of Salamander. While Lucy didn't have enough magic to summon another spirit, there was nothing wrong with her arms and she hoped she could at least hold them off long enough for some guards to arrive.
With those thoughts in mind she threw the door open. "Natsu!" The room was unusually warm, though Lucy brushed that off as both unimportant and because of her little dip in the ocean and the cold night air. "Are you oka-" She cut herself off at the sight in front of her.
The pink haired man looked healthy and unharmed, but mostly he looked angry. Very angry.
She was really glad he wasn't glaring at her like that. She was honestly surprised the subject of his gaze, Salamander, didn't burst into flames from the heat of it.
Salamander didn't actually seem to be affected by it at all. He lazily scratched his cheek. "Brat," he drawled, "you shouldn't get on other people's ships without permission."
Lucy's jaw dropped. Why was he saying something like that? Did the last few minutes not register in his mind at all? Where was he when Aquarius was tossing the ship about like a toy?
Natsu suddenly started taking off his jacket. She half wanted to yell at him because now really wasn't the time to strip down. Even if it was shockingly hot despite the hole in the cabin roof.
Did both men hit their heads when the boat was pushed to shore?
"Hey!" Salamander snapped to his lackeys, "throw him out, quick!"
"Oh no!" She grabbed her keys; she might not be able to summon Taurus for long, but he should be able to help at least a little. "Hang on, I'll-"
Happy interrupted her. "Don't worry. I forgot to tell you, but Natsu is a mage too."
"Eh?" That's right, she'd thought he was one when they first met. Though it was hard to remember when she saw him getting rushed at by guys that were bigger and heavier than he was. Still, she could see that he was calm and unconcerned as he tossed his coat to the side.
"Are you a mage of Fairy Tail?"
Salamander scoffed as his men closed in on the rosette. "Yeah, what about it?"
"Let me take a good look at your face."
Lucy bit her lip and fingered Taurus's key. Natsu was so focused on Salamander he didn't seem to notice the fists rushing to his face. It would take her a few seconds to summon her loyal bull, and there was no guarantee that Natsu wouldn't be terribly injured by then. They were both running out of time to act.
Suddenly, almost casually, Natsu shoved the balding man's face into the other one's jaw. "I'm Natsu from Fairy Tail." He proclaimed loudly over the sound of the two goons falling over. "I've never seen you before!" The goons crashed to the ground and with that danger gone Lucy could register the symbol that rested in red on his right shoulder. The same symbol she'd seen in white on Mirajane's left thigh.
Salamander flinched back, his face was pale and his eyes were wide with fear as he gaped in shock.
Lucy herself was stunned as well. "Fairy Tail?" She gasped out. While she had figured Natsu was a mage, she hadn't expected him to be a guild mage. Much less one from her favorite guild. "Natsu is a mage from Fairy Tail?" It was so shocking it bore repeating.
"Wha? That mark!" One of the grunts gaped.
"He's real Mr. Bora!" Another cried.
"I-idiot! Don't call me by that name!" The boss, Salamander or rather Bora snapped. As if that was the most important concern he had.
"Bora…" Happy mused from somewhere behind Lucy. "Bora of Prominence. He was banished from the guild Titian Nose several years ago."
She turned a bit to glance at the cat. "I've heard of him…Wasn't he banned because he committed several thefts using magic?" No wonder he got angry when she said no guild would want him.
"I don't care if you're a good person or a bastard," Natsu growled out. Lucy would swear she could hear his teeth grinding despite how far away he was from her. "I can't forgive you for using our name."
"Whatever!" Bora barked, "you're just a noisy brat!" Without much fanfare Natsu was engulfed in a fire storm.
"Natsu!" Mage or not, fire wasn't something anyone could shrug off. She couldn't hear him crying out from pain, but that was probably even worse than if he was screaming his lungs out. She started moving forward. There wasn't any water in the immediate area to summon Aquarius with. Nor did she have another spirit who could help put out fire, or deal with burns, but there had to be something she could do!
Happy, however, had apparently recovered enough to use his own magic again and was using his newly formed wing to hold her back. Lucy was dumbstruck.
How could he hover there with such a calm face while Natsu was burning? She'd heard that cats were little jerks, but surely they weren't heartless. Yet, Happy floated there, holding her back as if nothing was wrong. Even when she could just make out Natsu's silhouette falling to the floor Happy remained stoic. She wanted to grab at the cat. To shake and scream at him, because Natsu was on the floor, on fire and silent. However, shock kept her limbs frozen and stole the voice from her throat. Lucy could do nothing. She heard Bora let out a satisfied grunt, however Lucy couldn't tear her eyes away from the burning figure.
It had only been a few seconds of watching the fire twist and writhe, but it felt like an eternity before Natsu's voice abruptly rang out amongst the crackling of the flame. "Awful."
Everyone could only stare in silence as the silhouette calmly stood up. Lucy couldn't even think, while the shock before had numbed her body, this time it was her mind that wouldn't work. She could only watch and listen as a faint chewing sound became more and more audible.
"What is this?" Natsu's voice sounded almost exactly like it had hours ago, when he was talking around a mouth full of bread. "Are you really a fire mage? I've never tasted such awful fire." Even as he spoke the flames surrounding him shrank back, making it easier to see that, yes, he really was eating the fire.
The look on Bora's face would have been comical if Lucy wasn't sure she was making a similar one.
It took no time at all for the magical fire to vanish completely, leaving only wisps of smoke to cling to his body and his miraculously undamaged clothes. Despite his words regarding the taste, the rosette let out a satisfied breath accompanied by a cocky smirk. "Thanks for the meal."
There was a brief beat of silence before every conscious human in the room started freaking out.
"Wha?" Bora started shrieking, "what is he?"
"Fire!"
"Did he just eat fire?"
Happy chuckled. Lucy hadn't known it was possible for something so small to be so smug. "Fire won't work on Natsu."
Lucy could only gape as her brain started working again. It was good, Natsu was alive. Natsu was fine and hadn't been burned to death before her eyes. She was probably going to have nightmares about it for weeks, but Natsu was fine and that was good. "I've never seen anything like that before." At least she managed not to sound like an idiot when speaking out loud.
"Now that I've eaten," The strange, thankfully fire proof, mage braced himself. The smoke twisted around him and the temperature rose even more. "I can feel my power!" If she was any less shocked, she would have laughed at how cheesy Natsu sounded.
He inhaled deeply, the smoke trailing up and swirling into his mouth like water in a vortex. Dimly she could hear one of Bora's men telling his boss something. "Here I come!"
He moved his hands in front of his face and exhaled, a large plume of fire emerged just as the talkative man shouted.
"…The real!"
He never got to finish, Natsu's fire was large and all encompassing. It seemed to be more of a physical force than a display of heat. It threw the men in all different directions and broke down the walls of the cabin.
The man hadn't finished, but he really hadn't needed to. Lucy could easily connect the dots herself. Facing down Bora, with pink hair, bearing a red guild mark and wearing a white scaled scarf was the only person worthy of the title. "Salamander…" Lucy murmured in awe.
"Remember this well." Natsu growled out, punching Bora with a flaming fist while surrounded by a sea of smoke. "You sorry excuse for a mage!"
Bora struck the ground with a loud crash. He bounced while his men watched on in horror and fear.
"Eating fire and punching with fire," Lucy continued her awed mumblings, "is it really magic?"
"Dragon's lungs spew flames, it's scales melt flames and it's nails are dressed with flames. Happy started talking, still looking smugger than Lucy had ever seen before. "It's an ancient spell that gives someone's body a dragon's constitution."
"What's that?" In her stunned state she could only follow about half of what Happy was talking about, but the main thing she couldn't understand was how he could stand so close to where Natsu was happily beating on Bora and his men. If the guild mages were half as destructive as Natsu was being, she was starting to see where Fairy Tail got its reputation for mass destruction from. She didn't have the courage to move away from the wall with the way the fire mage was punching and setting fire to everything that moved. Even as the number of men around him shrank as he threw them out of the cabin.
"It's originally dragon slaying magic." Happy answered.
"…I see…"
"Dragon slayer!" Happy exclaimed as Natsu kicked the last foe out of the cabin with a flaming foot. "Igneel taught Natsu this."
Now that the person of mass destruction was out of the relatively enclosed space, Lucy's mind picked up on something odd that Happy just said.
"Isn't it weird that a dragon taught someone dragon slaying magic?" She wasn't surprised at the shocked look Happy gave her, considering earlier that day both he and Natsu thought a dragon would appear in the middle of town. "You didn't even think about it, did you."
That said she carefully picked her way over to where she could see her purse laying. It had somehow survived the destruction of the cabin and was relatively unsinged. The sounds of fighting continued on loudly. "Dragon slayer, huh." She dusted some debris off of her purse before going to pick up Natsu's coat. "Amazing," with their loose items now gathered she and Happy made their way to the still loud noises of the fight. "Really amazing but…"
They got off the yacht just in time to see Natsu starting to fight using the mast as a bludgeoning tool.
"You're completely overdoing it!" She shouted, hoping to get him to stop before he completely destroyed the town. "Look around! The port's all messed up!"
"Aye!" Happy cheerfully contributed.
"Don't just give me an 'Aye!" There's no way this wasn't going to make the news. Hopefully she wouldn't get her picture taken, especially not a black and white one. It would be too obvious about what she was to Lord Heartfilia.
Shouts and the sound of running armored feet soon sounded out over the, thankfully, quieting noise of battle.
"The guards?" Lucy gassed. Why had it taken them so long to appear? She was abruptly yanked away. "Ack! What?"
"Crap! Let's get out of here!" Natsu grumbled, pulling her along while running so fast her feet weren't even touching the ground.
"Why me too?" She wailed.
He looked back at her, smiling wide, his eyes were bright and full of laughter. "You want to join Fairy Tail, right?" Was he serious? Even after all that, after she fell so completely for Bora's lies, Natsu would want her to join? She gave a tentative, hopeful, smile. His own grin widened. "Then come with me."
There was only one thing she could really say to that. "Okay!"
Even when he let go of her hand and she had to run on her own power in shoes that were not suited to outrunning anything, Lucy could safely say she had never felt so light or so free.