Took us a bit longer than expected, but we managed to make another one of this because we wanted to dive into the next arc pretty soon, so I hope you'll enjoy it!
"Come on you idiots." Marcus said with a grin, grabbing Natsu and Happy with him through the streets of Magnolia.
"No, no! Come on man! I don't want to be punished with THAT!" Natsu said as he tried to flail out of his grip.
"Anything but THAT!" Gray added as Will dragged him by his foot.
"I am… really scared to find out what THAT is." Lucy said nervously as she walked next to Erza and Tony.
"I don't even know what they're talking about honestly." Will said, grinning "I just know their fear brings me joy."
"Dude… talk about sadistic." Tony said with a sweatdrop.
"Either way, now that we're close to the Guild, are you still sure about your decision Anthony?" Erza asked him.
"Well… yeah, honestly. I don't really know what else I could do, so joining Fairy Tail seems to be a safe bet." Tony said with a shrug "Also, you can call me Tony you know." he reminded her… again.
"Well, if you're that sure of yourself Anthony, I'm sure you'll fit right in." Erza said with a nod as she smiled… and seemed to completely not hear the second part of what he said, much to his chagrin as he sighed.
"Dude… he's really got his work cut out for himself huh?" Will said to Marcus.
"Tell me about it… he really ended up having a crush on the most dense girl in the guild." Marcus said with a nod, the two speaking low enough Erza didn't hear them "Anyway… you feel like we're forgetting something right now?" he added in confusion.
Will hummed, thinking about it "Kinda, yeah…" he trailed off, before he focused inward 'Any input on that Chimera?'
'Strangely, I feel the same. I can't quite put my claw on what it could be though.' his Phantom told him, clearly as confused as they were, and judging by Marcus's frown, Dragon had told him much the same.
"Tch. Here's hoping we're not forgetting something really important, like some enemy that's supposed to show up," Marcus growled.
"So we'd better be ready for anything?" Will frowned, earning a nod of agreement.
"Town seems pretty quiet," Tony spoke up, as they walked through the town.
"Hey, you're right. I wonder where everyone is," Lucy mused.
"Maybe something happened," Grey shrugged. This naturally just got the brothers even more suspicious as they were even more on guard.
The feeling grew as they gradually got closer and closer to the Guild Hall, and before long they could see it to find…nothing out of the ordinary. "...somehow I was expecting something else," Marcus said dryly.
"Well…I guess something happening wouldn't be out of the ordinary," Lucy sweat dropped.
"I suppose that just means today's a slow day." Erza said, figuring that was probably why the town was so quiet for once.
"Guess so. Well, let's head inside then." Will said, before he grinned "Time for some punishments."
"NOOOO!" and Natsu, Gray and Happy were back to screaming in fear as they were dragged along to the guild hall, the doors being kicked open by Marcus once they were in front of them.
"We're back with the idiots!" he shouted into the guild hall, earning some amused cheers from several other members.
"Ah, you're all back," Makarov said, hopping over to them. "Good work bringing them back, though I was expecting you'd be back sooner."
"Yeah well, we decided to finish the job anyway," Will shrugged.
"They made a valid argument that failing to complete the job would reflect poorly on Fairy Tail," Erza supplied. "And in the process we found a prospective member," she said as they looked at Tony.
"A fair reasoning." Makarov said with a nod, before smiling at Tony "And a new member you say? Well, it's nice to meet you boy, what's your name?"
"Anthony Riser, but my friends call me Tony. It's nice to meet you sir." Tony introduced himself with a somewhat nervous bow.
"Ah, come now, no need to be nervous boy." Makarov said with a laugh "Now, I'd give you a proper welcome… but first I need to punish these other fools."
Lucy gulped while the idiots seemed afraid, a feeling that grew as Makarov gained a rather deadly feeling aura…before he hopped over and with three precise strikes, he chopped the idiots on the head, knocking them out, before Lucy yelped as she felt her butt get spanked rather hard.
"There, do not repeat this mistake again," Makarov said simply.
Lucy blinked a few times at that "Wait… that's it?"
"Did you want me to punish you more?" Makarov asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm good!" she replied quickly.
"Masochist." William said in amusement.
"Shut it!" Lucy shouted with a red face.
"Ooookay…so, ignoring what just happened, how do I sign up for this club?" Tony asked, ignoring the weirdness of the punishment.
"Guild actually," Mirajane corrected. "As for how you join, right this way," she said, ushering him to the bar counter, and quickly took out the stamp. "What color would you like and where?" she asked.
"Uh… what color do you have?" he asked with a blink, not seeing any ink pads.
"All of them." Mirajane said in amusement.
"It's a magic stamp." Marcus said as he came up and sat at the bar "It can make any color you want it to, and it makes what's essentially a tattoo, without needing to put a needle to your skin."
"Oh, well… silver I guess." Tony said after a moment to think "And…" he trailed off, before pointing to his left shoulder "Right here."
"Simple enough." Mirajane said as she finished choosing the color before stamping it onto his shoulder, pulling it back to show their mark in silver "Welcome to Fairy Tail!"
"Yeah! New member!" someone in the guild shouted, before everyone else joined in on celebrating… and the guild became as loud as usual finally.
"Well… they're pretty… rambunctious." Tony said with a sweat drop.
"That's normal." a new voice said, making him turn to see Saito and Louise approaching "Trust me, it's when they AREN'T like this that you should be worrying." Saito said in deadpan.
"Even though we'd much prefer for them to be quiet." Louise added, rolling her eyes.
"I see…" Tony sweat dropped. "And you two are…?"
"They're our teammates," Marcus spoke up.
"Guessing a lot happened if you didn't mention us," Saito snorted a bit. "I'm Saito Hiraga, and this is Louise," he introduced.
"Louise Francoise," Louise said, shaking his hand. After spending time in Earthland for so long, she'd come to accept and even appreciate the fact that her family name meant basically nothing, as such she'd opted to simply introduce herself as such.
And after that… well, Tony bore witness to the chaos that was the Fairy Tail guild as he decided to go sit down with the brothers, Saito and Louise, who he learned made a team together "Man… if this is everyday here… it's really gonna be hectic." he said.
"Yeah, welcome to insanity." Will chuckled "By the way, just letting you know, since you're into Erza, her favorite thing to eat are strawberry shortcakes."
"Erza? Seriously?" Saito blinked "You got your work cut out for you man. Erza can't see any kind of subtle hint." he told Tony, patting his shoulder.
"Yeah…I noticed…" Tony sighed, seeing as she was STILL calling him Anthony despite him asking her to call him Tony.
"I'm sure you'll get through to her eventually," Saito said encouragingly.
"Yeah, when he gets a hammer and pick." Louise snorted in amusement.
Tony just face planted into the table and groaned at that, while everyone else looked between trying not to laugh at the admittedly…apt…comment and consoling him a bit.
"So…since you've gotten a feel of Fairy Tail, how about we start up with your first job? You definitely could use the cash, considering you just landed here and all that," Marcus said.
"Work would be good I guess," Tony sighed. "Any recommendations?"
"Well…there's always the basic fetch quests," Saito suggested.
"Pass. I know I said basic, but I think that's a bit TOO basic," Tony sweat dropped. He always hated those anyway in games.
"Well there's an extermination job. Deal with local monsters that are getting too big in population," Will suggested.
"That sounds better yeah," Tony nodded.
"We'll show you how it's done, though it's pretty simple." Marcus said, standing up and motioning Tony to follow him to the job board "So, basically, you just pick the job you want, make sure nobody else was eyeing it first, and then confirm with either Master or Mira if he's not available."
"Right." Tony nodded, before looking at the jobs listed, seeing quite a few that interested him, before his eyes spotted a big one "Huh… what about this one?"
Marcus hummed, looking up as Tony pulled the job down "That one… it's an A Rank, so it'd be pretty tough… but, the urgency… tons of BIG monsters suddenly going into a frenzy and causing chaos near towns… that ain't good." he finished with a frown "As for the reward… actually pretty big… actually, we may want to tackle this one as a big group, to make sure we can handle it. Especially since it confirms at least one Rathalos sighting, and a possible Deviljho as well."
Tony stopped at that, blinking, before he muttered to Marcus "Wait, aren't those from Monster Hunter?"
"Yeah, but me and Will figured that since Mashima made this and then also made a Monster Hunter manga, the universe decided it'd be a funny joke." Marcus said in deadpan, only confusing Tony further. "At any rate, this is something we probably shouldn't ignore. You want in on this, or do you want to pick something a bit easier?"
Tony blinked, before smirking. "No way am I backing out after you just said that," he said.
"Are we sure that's okay? I mean he just started," Saito frowned.
"It'll be fine. We'll be tackling this as a team. Besides, only the S Rank Jobs are off limits. Everything else is fair game," Will waved off.
"Even so I don't think we should tackle this ourselves. The reward is pretty big so…" Louise frowned, before looking around and settling on Natsu. "We could always use another battering ram," she chuckled a bit.
Marcus snorted "True. Plus, there's a chance of a Deviljho being present, and since we know Erza's slain one on her own, bringing her along would be smart."
"Think we should get Gray too while we're at it?" Saito mused.
"Why not get Lucy too while we're at it? Her Summons should help," Tony chuckled.
"Spirits actually, but yeah, some of them like Taurus or the new key she got could be helpful." Will figured.
"So basically invite the whole of…whatever they choose to name themselves if they actually form an official team," Marcus said.
"...we're calling them Team Natsu because that was WAY too much of a mouthful," Saito sweat dropped.
"So Team Crazy then since they're synonyms?" Will deadpanned.
"That's appropriate, yes," Louise snorted in amusement.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road then." Marcus grinned as they started to get ready.
And of course…
"Hate this… so much…" Natsu groaned as he laid sprawled on the floor of the train car's largest room.
"Well, don't run your mouth about wanting to get there super fast to kick some monster butt then." Gray smirked, putting his feet up on Natsu's back.
"I still don't know how efficient I'll be on this." Lucy said nervously.
"Aye! You've got no muscles!" Happy said… before Lucy threw him onto the floor and KOed him.
"So, a Rathalos has been confirmed in the area, and some people think they've spotted a Deviljho as well?" Erza on the other hand was all business.
"Yeah, that's why we figured having more people along would be smart. Plus they were sighted near some pretty populated towns. Only right we help those people out, even if we DO have to split the reward up between all of us." Marcus said with a shrug.
"Apparently one of the towns even sent out an expert hunter to try and deal with the monsters, but they haven't heard from him since he went. He's supposedly a user of a Lost Magic of some kind." Louise said, reading off the job request.
"Still surprised they have an actual ranking system for Hunters here." Tony said, since apparently, even though she was a member of Fairy Tail, Erza was a qualified Monster Hunter herself, and held a Platinum Rank.
The ranks went from Bronze, to Silver, to Gold, to Platinum, and then to Diamond.
And when monsters like Deviljho were a possibility, it was recommended to bring a Platinum Rank hunter onto a job.
"At any rate, how long before we reach the place?" Tony asked.
"Barring someone or something causing trouble? 10 minutes or so," Marcus shrugged.
"Guess we'd better be ready then," Gray said as everyone nodded in agreement…except Natsu who was still out of it.
The area they soon found themselves in as they began their hunt was a rocky area as the nearby town was a mining town. Thanks to the monsters they'd sealed off the mine entrance since the last thing they wanted was for the monsters to get into the mines and basically all but kill the town's livelihood.
"Good thing we're not too close to the mines. We should be able to keep them away from the mines like this," Saito sighed.
"We'd better. We've got a reputation to keep up," Louise said dryly. Team Gateway's reputation of being a rare team that WASN'T prone to large collateral damage had been quite beneficial for them when it came to getting jobs, and while she had a feeling it wouldn't last forever, she'd still like to keep it for a bit longer. It was strangely comforting to hold on to what should be common sense.
Before any further conversation could happen, what sounded like a thunderclap caught their attention. "...well, one way or another we know where to go," Tony said a bit dryly.
"Even if it isn't the monsters we'd definitely want to see what this is," Erza agreed.
"Hopefully it's not a damned Kirin." Will said with a frown as they started walking in the direction of the noise.
"Yeah… I don't think we'd be able to handle one of those." Saito said with a wince, remembering how tough that Elder Dragon had been for him when he first got into Monster Hunter himself.
They kept heading in the direction of the noise, going through some rocky hills as more thunderclaps sounded out in the distance, before they heard a screech as something jumped down from higher up.
Managing to avoid being hit by whatever that was, they didn't have to wait long for the dust to fall to reveal a large, spider-like creature that screeched at them as it reared itself up.
"A Nerscylla huh?" Marcus said in interest.
"Alright! Finally some action!" Natsu said with a grin, his fists lighting up with flames as he got ready to rush the monster-
And then suddenly a spear of lightning lanced down from high up, right through the Nerscylla's head, instantly killing it.
"Or someone could kill it for us," Saito blinked.
"Hey! Who did that?!" Natsu shouted, clearly miffed at the kill steal.
And then someone jumped down from where the spear had been thrown as it fizzled out of existence, revealing a young man, about 6 feet tall with dark hair and yellow eyes, wearing a chest plate and set of shoulder pads clearly made from Rathalos scales over a navy blue hoodie and a pair of jeans with heavy traveling boots on his feet, a fanged grin coming to his face as he looked at Natsu "I did… something wrong with that pinky?"
"You bastard! I was gonna beat that monster first!" Natsu roared, fire literally coming out of him.
"Too bad, because I'd been hunting that thing for the last hour." the newcomer said with a grin as lightning sparked off of him.
Pink tinted lightning at that.
"Alright, as fun as it is to watch Natsu get angry, let's move this along." Marcus said with a sigh, while Erza chopped Natsu on top of the head with a nod of agreement, sending him to the floor with a bump on top of his cranium "So, we're from Fairy Tail, we took a job about helping clear out a ton of monsters that apparently were getting pretty active in the area."
The newcomer calmed down, his grin turning into a proper smile as the lightning around him stopped "Ah, so that's you guys then. They did send me a message that the job got accepted earlier today, I just didn't bother sending them a reply back." he said with a laugh. "Still, I appreciate the help. Name's Kyle Whiz, an independent mage and hunter." he said, holding out a hand to shake, which Marcus did so easily, before introducing everyone quickly… at least it would have been quick until he got to a certain blonde.
"And this is Lucy." he ended… and noticed how Kyle was just staring at her… and his face was red… and he was muttering something under his breath along the lines of 'oh god she's so beautiful.'
… Well now, the guy was as obvious as Tony… but where Erza was dense as a rock, Lucy…
She easily noticed how red he was just from looking at her, and smiled at him, giving him a wave "Nice to meet you." she said, not at all minding that he was clearly into her.
Besides, better a guy being like this than being a perv… and it was refreshing to have someone actually be interested for a change after how useless her charms had been with shops as of late.
"N-nice to meet you." Kyle finally managed to say, and Lucy… well, she DID enjoy a bit how he clearly appreciated her looks.
And then Marcus snapped his fingers in Kyle's face, snapping him out of his trance-like state with an amused look on his face "The job?" he reminded him simply.
"Ah! Right, sorry about that!" Kyle said, shaking his head as he finally got serious again "So, I've managed to kill a couple of monsters so far, but I haven't found the Rathalos yet… although I can confirm that a Deviljho is very much in the area, because I found some BIG bite marks being torn out of some monster corpses." he added, before frowning "And… then there's that roar I heard earlier too… didn't sound like either a Rathalos or a Deviljho."
"So there could be another monster here too that we're not aware of," Gray frowned. "Anything else we should know?"
"Yes, the monsters I've killed so far…they were acting strange. More aggressive than usual…not to mention they didn't look well. They looked discolored…and there was even a dark purple smoke coming from their mouths," Kyle said. "I'm not fully sure what it is, but I killed them from afar all the same. I had a feeling I wouldn't want to get too close to that."
At that description Marcus and Will looked at each other with wide eyes and could only say one thing. "Shit."
"You two have an idea what's going on?" Kyle quirked an eyebrow.
"Actually yes," Will groaned. "Sounds to us like you might have a Gore Magala on your hands…"
At that Saito and Tony both groaned. "Of course it had to be a Gore…" Saito groaned.
"Okay, now you're really confusing me. I've been at this for a while and I've never heard of a Gore Magala," Kyle quirked an eyebrow. "But I can tell its bad, so what are we dealing with?"
"For starters? It's a juvenile Elder Dragon," Tony said tiredly.
THAT brought everyone to a still "... tell me you're pulling our legs." Gray said lowly.
"He's not." Saito sighed "Gore Magala is a monster that, when it finishes molting once it's old enough, becomes Shagaru Magala, an Elder Dragon."
"Good news though before anyone starts freaking out, as long as it's still Gore Magala, it's not THAT much stronger than a normal monster," Marcus quickly said. "The problem is the scales it spreads. Those things contain a sort of virus that cause other Monsters to go berserk. Good news is that most monsters die after a while, but the ones that don't, well…what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger is VERY much in effect," he frowned.
"As for how you identify one, they have black scales, a body shaped like a stereotypical dragon with four limbs, a tail and two wings, though their wings, rather than looking like a regular leather-like membrane, look like their made out of living shadows. And, the oddest one, they lack eyes, using their pollen-like scales to see like some weird form of echolocation." Will said, making sure everyone knew what to be on the lookout for "It's highly likely Gore Magala is the reason every single monster in the area suddenly went VERY active, and the Frenzy Virus may have already gotten to the Rathalos and Deviljho as well, making them much harder to kill."
"In short, if we don't kill the Gore, this will happen all over again, possibly even worse if it reaches its adult stage," Erza frowned. "Since you seem to know a lot about that Monster, what is it weak to?"
"Um…I think it was fire, electricity, and anything draconic," Saito said.
Lucy blinked, and looked at Natsu and Kyle. "Huh…convenient," was all she could say.
"Yeah… stupidly lucky." Kyle said "I've got the thunder alright, and you've clearly got the fire." he said as he looked at Natsu.
Natsu grinned "I've got more than that! I'm a Dragon Slayer, so I'm perfect for the job!"
"I see… Fire Dragon Slayer magic." Kyle said, smirking a bit "Well… let's see if a Dragon's better than a Devil then for this job." he said with a grin.
The wording was… very obvious.
"Huh… Lightning Devil Slayer Magic then?" Marcus said in surprise. He'd certainly not expected that.
"Yeahp! Learned it from my old man who was a Devil Slayer too! He started me young so I didn't have the… issue, that most others deal with." Kyle said proudly.
"I didn't think there was other types of Slayer Magic." Louise said in surprise.
"We know of at least one other type. God Slayer Magic. No clue if it can actually do as advertised though." Will said with a snort of amusement.
"Yeah, no gods to kill." Lucy chuckled in amusement.
"That we know of." Erza added, making the blonde pause, before she shrugged.
"Yeah, that's fair." she said honestly.
"Before we go rushing in, do we have a plan or are we just fighting whoever we find first?" Saito asked.
"Obviously whoever we find first, we kick their butts!" Natsu grinned.
"...annoyingly for once the flame brain is right. Not like we can PICK who we fight first," Marcus sighed.
"Pretty much yeah," Kyle snorted. "Trying to aim for a particular monster first isn't that smart, especially since if you try avoiding them, they might just follow you and then you're fighting two big ones instead of just one."
"So going in without much of a plan," Louise sighed. "Well, could be worse."
"And I have experience dealing with them as well, so I have armors ready for each of them," Erza chuckled.
"Well, guess we're doing this then," Lucy sighed, thinking which of her Spirits would be best for the situation.
"Don't worry, I got any slack covered," Kyle winked at her, being more confident now that he'd gotten his initial shock from her beauty. "Let's go!"
With that said, the group continued onward. However, as they moved, none of them noticed someone watching them from afar.
"Tch! This better not interfere with our plans," the figure growled before deciding to continue keeping watch. For now.
GOTCHA!
Bet you all expected the Phantom Lord Arc to be starting right away, didn't you?
Welp, too bad, we've got a fully original arc planned first instead, and we're introducing another new OC, though this guy isn't a Rider.
Since canon only gave us one Devil Slayer magic type... I figured I could just easily make another one for a powerful character, and this led to Kyle there.
Though, he's more of a friend's OC, and I asked him if he'd like me to make a version of him for this fic since I had plans for a character like this, which led to this Devil Slayer... whose very obviously into Lucy.
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest with you folks, I'm not a big fan of Natsu with Lucy, I honestly prefer Natsu with Lisanna.
Similar for Jellal with Erza, not that much of a fan of it.
But, hey, when you get into a fic, you should expect stuff like this sometimes, and while I try to avoid breaking canon pairs... I sometimes make exceptions.
Either way, hope you enjoyed the start of this new arc, and look forward to more!