Elfman feel the need to prove himself as good as his big sister. That was his first mistake.

Chapter 2: The Beast Takes Over

Lisanna barely paid attention to the trees flying by her while she sat in the train compartment and stared at the Data Card once more. It was dead as a door nail but she kept telling herself that this was the source of those visions. Clairvoyancy wasn't exactly a commonplace practice.

"Lisanna?"

More over... why her? Lisanna had felt its request for help but couldn't understand what it would need from her of all wizards.

"Earth to Liz?"

She kept on asking, believe that she could somehow transmit her own feelings beyond wor-

"Are you getting all this or what?" Mirajane barked louder with a sharp series of snaps.

Lisanna jolted off of her train of thought and back onto the one she was actually riding on. Elfman and Mirajane were sitting opposite of her, her big sister clearly miffed over being ignored.

"Y-Yeah, I got all that loud and clear!" Lisanna insisted, straightening her posture. "Though... could you repeat it anyways?" Her head sank in embarrassment while pocketing the Data Card.

Mirajane groaned tiresomely while kicking back and leaning her left leg onto her right. "Elf, could you...?" she gestured vaguely. "The teacher doesn't like to repeat herself."

"The Beast is being held off by other wizards and local militia but it's still pretty hairy last we heard," Elfman explained, frowning over playing student-teacher.. "The town has started to catch fire way too fast for first responders to snuff out."

"So it's not just punch evil in the face until it dies then?" Lisanna surmised surprisingly specifically.

"That would be my department," Mirajane declared cockily, manspreading with her usual swagger. "My Satan Soul will give Beastie Boy an overdue spanking while you and Elfman evacuate the city."

"Hey, wait a second!" Elfman indignantly interrupted on a dime. "No way I'm on clean up duty." He made a quick, softer aside towards his little sister. "No offense, Liz." His frustration towards his big sister resumed. "You're not hogging all the action again, Mira."

"Here we go..." Lisanna sighed under her breath, leaning her chin onto her right palm.

It wasn't that Mirajane wasn't nice anymore so much as her Satan Soul magic often influenced her personality. The more she practiced it over the years, the more abrasive she got to the point of mouthing off to Erza Scarlet herself.

And that was before puberty had hit Mirajane like a goods train. Lisanna felt her modest chest and sighed over being left in the dust.

"Um, who's the S-Class in this family, baby brother?" Mirajane objected in immediate offense, leaning in to give her brother the evil eye. "That Beast Arm will give it a stubbed toe if we're lucky."

"Um, who's the man in this family, sis?" Elfman insolently retorted, leaning back. "This Beast can't be that bad if they need you."

"Keep running your mouth," Mira threatened, clenching her teeth like the She-Devil she became known as. "See. What. Happens."

"Hey... uh..." Lisanna tried to squeak on in however much she could. "Maybe... I could focus evac?" This was thankfully enough to break them up with a dose of confusion, their raise eyebrows aimed at her. "I mean I doubt I can lead a whole town to safety but... first time for everything?"

"More like half the town if damage reports are anything to go by," Mirajane claimed nonchalantly much to her siblings' slight unease. "But if Mr. Bitchy Britches wants to play in the deep end, who am I to refuse?" Elfman stuck out his tongue immaturely to at least get the last word in.

"Well... I'm no She-Devil..." Lisanna began, trying to seem humble in her anxiousness, "...but I'll manage something." She fiddled with her finger in trying to look the part. "I always do..."

Elfman easily picked up on how his little sister was far more self-conscious than she was letting on and glanced over to Mirajane. Mira met his more concern expression with a raised eyebrow before he gestured his head towards Lisanna, silently telling her to make with the pep talk.

Mirajane grunted with a pout over being put on the spot. "Look... Liz..." she began with a sigh, dipping into her sincere side. "You're the better people person between the three of us so if anyone can help them best, it's probably you."

"You really think so?" Lisanna responded, bewildered by Mira's becoming more open.

"Just remember that you ain't me," her big sister went on, "nor do you gotta."

"Trust me," Elfman added at his own peril. "The guildhall can't handle two of her."

"That's it," Mira snapped with his fist raised over the ruined moment. "Time to see what happens-!"

SCCCCCCRREEEEEEEAAAAACH!

The sound of the brakes slamming on would've hurt their ears if the sudden inertia hadn't caused them to fall over. Lisanna fell to the floor first while Mirajane slide out of her seat in reflexively holding onto a nearby handle. Elfman had shot out of his seat and slammed into the wall opposite him once they stopped just as suddenly.

"Everyone okay?" Lisanna asked while getting up, rubbing her bruised cheek.

"I've had worse from Erza," Mirajane grunted while lifting herself back up.

"Somebody pull the emergency cable?" Elfman demanded to know, stumbling while rubbing his nose. "What's the big idea?"

"Take a look outside," Lisanna answered with an astonished tone of voice, looking out the window. "You're not wrong about 'big'."

Mirajane opened the window on her side and poked her head through along with Elfman's. They shared Lisanna's expression with their knit brows and clenched teeth in their awestruck astonishment.

A red furred behemoth with green abs and yellow horns on its forehand had snatch the steam engine itself and yanked it off from its tender. The crew were lucky enough to jump ship and run screaming. All the while, what was most certainly the Beast bit off the smoke box and chugged the scaling water from the boiler itself.

"This is your conductor, Tommy Kanbara, speaking," the intercom buzzed in. "We're currently unable to pull into the platform due to an obstructions on the track." She sounded waaaaaaay too calm for this sort of situation. "Please exit your respective cars and RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!"

On that more appropriate note, the entire train began to quake with stampeding passengers trying to get off the coaches and away from the Beast.

"'Can't be that bad', huh?" Mirajane snarked with a rather mean look aimed at a now anxious Elfman.

The Beast belched and tossed the steam engine away like beer can before turning its attention towards the fleeing passengers. The drinks were mild so perhaps the local fauna had a bit more spice to it. It made giant step after giant step, each one as big as a coach and each one covering more ground than the slower passengers.

It roared loud enough to make the humans cover their ears and stop long enough for the behemoth to come close enough. The Beast kicks away every train car in its way almost effortlessly.

"What's eh?" grumpy old farmer Shibumi grunted, near deaf to the Beast's roar behind him. "Speak up, will ya?" He was just clearing his ear with his pinky when the Beast can close enough to reach down for its appetizer.

"No snacking before dinner!" a deep-toned female voice bellowed.

The Beast merely glanced up to received a flying boot to its right cheek and be sent stumbling back from something that actually hurt for once. It recovered in time to look ahead and glare at whomever had the stones to piss him off. The passengers also looked up to find their avian savior looking almost as monstrous.

Mirajane Strauss's Satan Soul lived up to its name. Her knee-high boots had turned red as the flames of hell below a one-piece that let the world see her cleavage, naval and long tail she grew out. Her hair stood up on end while her ears became pointed. All topped off by a pair of black wings.

"Lousy teenagers!" Farmer Shibumi grouched while walked off, oblivious to his life being saved.

"Anyone who doesn't want to die, BEAT IT!" Mirajane barked down to the passengers irrately.

The Beast roaring in rage reminded the passengers that they, in fact, didn't want to die and got them to resumed the panicked stampeding. All the while, Elfman found himself struggling to join his sister when going against the cowering crowds.

"Whatever happened to single-filed?" he grunted irately.

"Aw, how cute," Mirajane taunted in the air while the Beast beat its chest in anger. "You think I'm actually scared of you." She zoomed in to uppercut the behemoth enough to make it stumble away from the tracks and followed up with a roundhouse kick with her left foot.

Elfman made it out of the crowd to see the Beast fall down in pain upon trees in the surrounding woodlands. He could make out Mirajane creating a magic sphere that burst and rained down energy bullets upon the downed creature. Her Evil Shower as she tended to call it.

"No way you're stealing the show," Elfman grumbled, invoking his Beast Arm's Iron Bull spell.

Casting her Bird Soul spell, Lisanna flew over towards Odaiba Village once her siblings had begun to distract the Beast and swallowed hard at the state of things.

Buildings were either ablaze or nearly leveled. Rescue services were clearly at their limit trying to recover any survivors. Certain people were looting any remaining stores to find what would help them in their fervent desire to look out for themselves. The worst was the sight of children scattered about and crying out for their parents.

Lisanna was high up so the smoke wouldn't make her choke but this bird's eye view still made her heart sink considerably. So many lost lives because one felt they were superior for their power. So many survivors barely clinging to life.

"I know I'm not you Mira..." Liz told herself, "...it wouldn't hurt to be."

Lisanna was snapped partially out of her funk when she looked up ahead towards the town square when most of the survivors were crammed in together. She descended once the smoke had thinned out and changed back to normal when she landed at the crowd's fringes. Suddenly, "crammed in" had become "tightly compressed" up close.

Lisanna felt intimidated by so many people in one place while talking over each other. From parents holding up their children to older adult that had burns and scrapes all over, it was all barely controlled chaos. Her eyes naturally drifted towards the podium in the middle of the area where a smartly dressed man seemed more that a little stage frightened.

"I, uh, know we're going through some, erm, uncertain times, my fellow citizens," the blonde haired Mayor anxiously chuckled, flipping through speech notes of all things. "But this, uh, isn't the time for panic."

SMACK!

A tomato hit the Mayor square on his newest tie and made him stumble backwards.

"That behemoth's just leveled the shopping district with my paper clip store!" an irate grandmother bellowed, waving her cane in the air. "This is the picture perfect time to panic!" She tossed a rotten clementine this time but missed. "Tailor made even!"

"Okay, so maybe it's somewhere in the ballpark..." the Mayor admitted, wiping the fruit off of his suit. "But, hey, could be worse?"

A chorus of boos erupted from those around the podium while all manner of rotten fruits and vegetables. There was less a need to get out of town and more a want for somebody to be a lightening rod for their intense emotions. And the Mayor was quick to duck behind the podium's microphone stand to avoid the high voltage.

Lisanna had seen enough and was stepping backwards in her growing anxieties. This was way more than what she had signed up for.

"Even the brawls back home aren't nearly this bad," Lisanna mumbled to herself, her eyes still on the cowering Mayor. "But I can't just wait for Mira." She took in a deep breath, exhaled and slapped both of her cheeks to focus herself.

"Time to be a people person," she told herself. "Takeover, Animal Soul!" Her body glowed with magic and reshaped itself along with her outfit, garnering the attention of rioters just in front of her.

"Cat!" Lisanna declared, striking a pose once the light died down.

A pair of small but sharp cat ears popped out her white hair while her fore-arms and lower legs became overgrown cat paws with white fur sporting black stripes. A furry bikini of the same colors was all that covered her top and bottom. A feature that really made a few faces go red.

"Careful, fellas," Lisanna declared with a wink, hoping to seem confident enough. "Kitty's got claws." She got down on all fours to make a big pounce and landing on one of the blushing girls' head before leaping off.

A series of "Hey!" and "Hey..." accompanied Lisanna as her new feline attributes allowed her to hop from head to head. She was having a little too much fun and pretended like she was playing "The Floor Is Lava" with Natsu. Except the fire breather wasn't around to make it near literal.

Lisanna's intrusion was enough to get most of the crowd's attention away from the Mayor and on the new cat girl in town. She made it to the podium on all fours before standing up to stretch, turning her attention to the village's cowering leader.

"Mind if I handle it from here, Mayor Yagami?" Lisanna asked earnestly.

"It's, erm, Kamiya actually, common mistake," the Mayor stammered, peaking from under the mic stand. "But please, y-y-you've got my, er, ah, vote, ma'am,"

Lisanna turned back to wave hello to the crowd and put on a bright smile, further subsiding any potential rioting thanks to her fetching form. It was a classic tactic Mira taught her to use on Master Makarov if she needed to wriggle out of trouble. Based on certain murmurs, it seemed to be working.

"Mommy, look at the magic cat lady!"

"Wish I had that confidence."

"Tch, flat-chested floozy."

"Ooo, me-ow, pretty kitty."

"She's... eighteen, right?"

"Citizens of Odaiba Village, my name is Lisanna Strauss, a wizard from Fairy Tail answering your emergency request," she addressed, being as calm as the tepid crowd would let her. "As we speak, my brother and sister is currently teaching the Beast a well-deserved lesson."

"Fairy Tail?!" a middle aged man in tattered clothes balked. "As we didn't have enough property damage."

"Well... who better to fight a being of pure destruction, Thomas?" his brother contested.

"Well, not everybody has your kind of insurance, Marcus."

"Misgivings aside," Lisanna continued on, hoping to nip a dispute in the bud, "it's essential that we focus on evacuating in the event the Beast returns." She turned towards the Mayor, making him gulp hard. "I understand that there's a river that the monster won't cross."

"Yes, it, erm, seems to fear water or at least falling into the river," the Mayor anxiously admitted, reluctantly stepping out from behind the podium. "But, well, I'm afraid the bridge isn't... terribly stable." He wiped his face of all the sweat soaking his face. "Not after all the tremors the Beast made."

"Okay," Marcus sighed with esasperation, sinking to his knees, "we're doomed."

"I can help ferry people across with my Animal Souls," Lisanna promised, changing back into her regular blouse to demonstrate. "Does anybody have a boat that could help?" She called out the wider crowd before her. "Furthermore, we'll need volunteers helping anybody left in the wreckage."

"And who made you in charge, hairball?" a young man with frizzy black hair and shaded goggles on demanded indignantly. "I ain't taking orders from no glorified furry!"

"Kenny, c'mon," his redhead best buddy urged, feeling embarrassed.

"And what would you prefer?" Lisanna demanded back, frowning considerably. "Sitting here and squabbling like babies." This wasn't the first time she stood up to a crowd of people tragically. "You're all together in the same shipwreck of a boat and all you can do it find someone to tear apart."

Mayor Kamiya began to stand up more and perked up from his anxious state of mind.

"I can't wave my hands to make everything better but I'll do everything I can if there's even a sliver of hope," Lisanna went on, clenching her fists. "My guild never gave up on me so you can be sure I'll stay here even if it kills me." It might not've been something from Makarov's book but damn if her Guild Master didn't leave an impression on her.

"It's a long shot but..."

"No way am I going back into the trenches..."

"The Beast probably made a snack of the She-Devil."

"I don't wanna be a snack, Mommy."

Lisanna's smile started to fade when she saw a wave of doubt wash over the faces in the crowd and heard murmurs of surrendering to their fate. Even she began to doubt herself until...

"Um... I know some magic," a male voice called out however reluctantly. "I can sniff out any children who were left behind."

Lisanna joined the crowd as all eyes turned towards a blonde man with spiky hair under a fishing hat raising his hand. Soon another raised hand caught their attention.

"My boat rentals was crushed but my best ones are in the basement," an young man with glasses claimed. "Joe's Rows are at your service."

"My little Rika's still out there so count me in on the search!"

"Davis and I were top swimmers at our meets!"

Lisanna's face lit back up the more volunteers spoke up in the crowd. Mayor Kamiya even came to her side with a rather broad smile of surprise lighting up across his mustached lip.

"I dunno how you did it but you did it," he remarked to Lisanna's amusement. "They're all fired up now."

"That's the idea," Lisanna answered earnestly. Maybe... she could actually pull this off.

To Be Continued...

Lisanna helps the evacuation of Odaiba Village while her brother makes a very fatal mistake...

Thank you for reading so far. Please leave a comment as to how you enjoyed this story so far.