EVERYONE: Digi-Tail Fusion: Quest For The Code Crown PILOT

matt0044 · Oct 30, 2023

Lisanna Strauss considered herself the baby of her siblings and not one to stand out in Fairy Tail. However, a vivid dream promises the extraordinary from the seemingly ordinary.

Digi-Tail Fusion by matt0044

Prologue: Premonition To Adventure

Story Adapted From Riku Sanjo

Darkness covered the land as a vast and terrible army advanced closer and closer, bringing despair and terror in their wake. In front were gas-masked, rifle-wielding sloths with giant bull-like creatures, mammoths of great strength and mechanical menaces bringing up the rear. In the air were vulture-like planes that seemed like they had faces. The size of their numbers alone were enough to make anybody retreat for their lives.

Not her, however. Never her.

On top of a hill in the distance, one white-haired girl had taken a stand between the darkness and the light. It was just her and a couple of extraordinary friends: a small red dragon, a mechanical blue-red stag beetle and an orange-white wolf with drills on his head and tail. Along with them were many other creatures who were not about to roll over while everything they valued was at stake. A red flag flew overhead to declare their presence to their enemies.

And so, facing the vast and terrifying army, undaunted and unyielding, the white-haired general thrust out her treasured red gadget and let out a fierce battle cry to commence the attack.

"DIGI-FUSE!"

Her device gave out a green shining energy that resonated with her three closest friends, their bodies becoming pure data that shot up to the sky and converged above the girl. They descended down as a mechanical marvel that shook the ground upon landing and set off into battle.

With one swing of his Star Sword, the robot launched a fiery shock wave to vanquish the sloths in a large inferno. However, while the front was damaged, the army still pressed onward. Deciding to go long range, the robot wields his saber up and rushes in for close combat. The girl commanded her forces to charge ahead and save their world. As the massive forces rushed onto the battlefield to settle the score once and for all...

Lisanna's eyes snapped wide open as she jolted up frightfully from her bed. Panting heavily, she darted her eyes around to see that she was indeed still in her bedroom and not in the middle of some freak show of a battlefield. Letting out a sigh of relief, the teenage wizard laid back down thankfully but couldn't shake the nightmare out of her head.

Lisanna could've sworn she was in the middle of a monstrous massacre. That dream was too vivid to be just some random night terror but it couldn't have been some sort of premonition. She hardly knew the first thing of such magic. All the same, there was a strange distinct vibe about it that she just couldn't shake. What did it mean?

Before she can even make either heads or tails of it, the banging on the door snaps her out of her thoughts as a familiar female voice abrasively speaks up. "Get the lead out, Liz! You've got a big mission today and you are NOT going to make everone miss the train! Got it, Sis?"

"Already on it, Mira," yawned Lisanna as she stretched her arms out. Her sister's aggressiveness was hardly a surprise at this point but not even a dragon would be bold enough to try THE Mirajane Strauss. Or a Dragon Slayer for that matter...

Getting out of bed, Lisanna Strauss went to open the window blinds and look out at the beautiful view of Magnolia. She smiled at the sight of her hometown but the nightmare still ate at the back of her mind. As though, something bad was about to happen.

However, the girl took a deep breath and optimistically told herself not to overthink such dreams. Today would be like any other day in the life of a Fairy Tail wizard. Crazy, hectic but so much fun with her friends and family.

What could possibly go wrong?

To Be Commenced...

This will be the start to my pilot, crossing over Fairy Tail with Digimon Fusion/Xros Wars. My hope is that Fairy Tail fans will be able to enjoy this story without knowledge of Digimon or its sixth Anime installment. Especially as it branches off from a very pivotal moment in the Guild's history.

As ever, please review.

matt0044 · Oct 30, 2023

So what actually did happen on that faithful day in the year of X782? You know the story but suppose fate had different ideas.

Chapter 1: And So It Begins Again...

Based on the characters and story created by Hiro Mashima

Adapted Dialogue by Monica Rial and Clint Bickham

Joey Fullborn hit the air with some gleeful shadow boxing while balancing on the ledge across Magnolia's river. His grin was more than a little cringe for Wan and Chico while they followed him on the walkway.

"That Dark Guild was more like a Dork Guild," the muscle-bound wizard boasted with his shirtless abs flexing. "The Baram Alliance sure ain't living up to the hype."

"That's why the mission was B-Rank," Wan Chanzi claimed with a roll of his eyes and blow of his bubble gum. "Tartaros will barely even miss it."

"Don't be such a party pooper," Chico C. Hammitt chimed in, stepping between the boys. "We still cleaned house and I even took out thirty goons this time around."

"Not what I heard," Joey cheekily chided Chico, walking backwards with killer balance. "You lost count after eleven."

The brown-skinned girl pouted back up at the real party pooper. "What, like you did any better?" she demanded to know rashly.

"Twenty goons better if you can count that high," Joey gloated while flexing his pecs.

Wan groaned and rubbed his shaved head in annoyance, thinking of a way to derail the subject. "Lisanna was no slouch either," he cut in, looking behind himself and his friends. "How many did you get?"

A white-haired girl in a red blouse flinched when she found her friends turning all eyes towards her. "Oh... about five...?" Lisanna Strauss uneasily answered, going red in the face. "Four?" She twiddled her fingers in fudging the truth. "I think I got one in the family jewels if that counts?"

"Cut yourself some slack, girl," Chico claimed while backing up. "We snuffed them out of their hidey-hole thanks to you finding all their secret passages." She smacked Lisanna playfully on the back to boost her spirits. "Plus, that Mole Soul was sooooo cute."

"It certainly streamlined Joey's usual gun-blazing M.O.," Wan chided, adjusting his sunglasses.

"Dude, I'm literally right here," Joey retorted with a frown while hoping off the ledge.

"It was hard to maintain my form with dirt in my eyes but I did manage," Lisanna replied, smiling more from her friends' vote of confidence. "Still... you three were the ones doing all the heavy lifting in battle."

"You weren't... terrible," Joey began, trying to not be so frank. "You made sure those dorks didn't know what hit them."

"Those 'dorks' knew a weak link when they saw me, especially with my Cat Soul," Lisanna retorted with a touch of fuss in her voice. "I had to be bailed out by you four times in a row."

"Actually, it was more like six," Joey recounted. He swiftly felt Wan dope-slap him on the back of his head with his Iron Dog arm and realized he misread the room.

"I-I-I mean... who was even keeping count, right?" he attempted to save face with.

Lisanna giggled over their pettiness before Chico put her left arm over her shoulders. "You might not be able to throw down with some Big Bad like your big sis," her gal pal calmly promised, "but your game plans are pretty rock solid."

"I saw a good B-Rank Request you could solo," Joey chimed in. "Something about a weird white cat with yellow gloves standing up right and running amuck."

"Sounds like something Happy would prefer," Lisanna giggled.

"If you need it, I can loan you one of my Movie Lacrimas as a pick me up," Wan offered cooly. "You were meaning to start the Dragon King Festival trilogy, right?"

"Ugh, trash!" Chico claimed, throwing her hands up in disgust. "They're so historically inaccurate." Lisanna steps a bit back, wary off the sparks about to fly.

"Accurate schmaccurate," Joey dismissed with a roll of his eyes. "You've been hanging around that McGarden chick too much, Chico."

Lisanna would've joined in on Joey's side if she hadn't heard something. No. It was more like she could feel this something. A sort of... melody that dance into her ears and through her body. Her feet stopped in response to how it... beckoned her, asking for her help.

Lisanna turned her head to her left where the melody was emitting from and saw a long, dark alleyway. The kind that Mirajane especially had always warned her about. She knew she should run away yet her legs put one foot after the one and carried her towards the source. It seemed... trustworthy?

Lisanna turned her head every which way for a potential creepazoid to leap out while the melody seemed to increase in volume. Problem was that she couldn't find anything or anybody would could be making it. She swallowed anxiously.

"Um, hello?" Lisanna ventured forth with a drying throat. "Are you okay?" The melody felt stronger and stronger before she stepped on some sort of stone, feeling it through the sole of her red-brown shoes.

The young wizard lifted her right foot up to find a square plastic stick no bigger than her thumb. Lisanna squat down to pick it up and felt the melody from it start to waver. The seemed to be an image of some suit of armor and words. However, it seemed to fade in and out too much for her to make out properly.

Lisanna tried to concentrate harder and squint her eyes. However, they soon shot wide open when she saw it again. The dream.

That small red dragon.

The army of magical creatures.

The massive metal soldier.

And herself. Yet... not herself?

Her mind was inundated with so much confusion when...

"Yo, Liz!" Chico called out, echoing through the alleyway. "Are you trying to get mugged?"

Lisanna snapped out of this semi-trance and quickly pocketed the plastic stick. "Sorry," she quickly apologized while getting back up and running back out of the alleyway.

As they entered Magnolia's park, Lisanna finally decided to show the plastic stick at the risk of seeming crazy and held it out with her right hand.

"Didn't take you for the fake jewelry type, Liz," Chico mused, leaning over Lisanna's left shoulder.

"It's a Data Card, genius," Wan remarked like it was common knowledge. "Archive Magicians use them to store valuable information that their internal network either can't or shouldn't."

"You think this has dirt on the Magic Council?" Joey chimed in, grinning like madman. "I smell blackmail."

"You've seen too many Spy Movies," Wan retorted. "My fault really."

"Besides, there's no Lacrima on it for storage," Lisanna pointed out, hoping to move away from possible war crimes. Her eyes were still trained on the card in hopes that it would say something. Anything to show she wasn't crazy.

"I heard from my pen pal in Alakitasia that there's rumors of new technology for non-wizards," Chico chimed in with excitement. "It's suppose to store and even share data on machines called computers."

"Chyah," Joey scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "Like that's gonna catch on."

Chico would've disputed if her eyes hadn't caught sight a familiar looking scarf just down the hillside. She grinned with cheek before grabbing Lisanna by the shoulder, derailling her train of thought.

"Looks like we got home just in time," Chico sassed, turning everyone's attention her way. "You got a domestic dispute, Liz."

Lisanna joined Joey and Wan in looking to their left. There, they found a big tree shaded one Natsu Dragneel in his open vest and baggy pants opposite one Happy the Blue Cat. Neither one of them looked at each other and the looks they did have were far from happy ironically.

"Here we go again..." Lisanna groaned, pressing her face up to her palm. "Wan, can you leave that movie under the door?"

"Sounds like you'll need it," Wan surmised while she slide down the embankment. "Good luck with Salamander."

"Don't spank Happy too much," Joey joked.

"Literally one time!" Lisanna volleyed back while marching towards the Dragon Slayer and his egg hatched kitten.

The three amigos saw off Liz before turning away and heading back to Fairy Tail's Guild Hall, collectively sighing in sympathy.

"She does so much," Chico sighed more sedately, "but she thinks too little of herself."

"Next to the She-Devil, anyone would feel little," Wan replied, blowing another bubble.

"That B-Rank involves susing out something missing," Joey declared with gutso. "Perfect for an animal's sense of smell."

"And if bad guys are involved," Wan started to surmise, "we could pretend to be in danger so she can bail us out this time."

"Wan, just because you're some movie buff, doesn't make you an actor," Chico chided with cringe. "We all saw your 'performance' during the Christmas play."

The three walked off ripping into each other, confident that they'd be able to help Lisanna out with all the time in the world.

"Don't tell me you two are fighting again," Natsu heard in front of him, rousing him from his pouting session.

"Ah, hey, Lisanna," Salamander greeted in a suprisingly low-key manner. "Glad you're back." He looked up from his seat at the tree to find his childhood friend already standing over him and Happy.

"He ate my whole fish and didn't even ask me first," the little blue cat whined to Natsu's left, keen to get the first word in.

"Whenever I eat any fish, you say it's your's," the Fire Dragon Slayer quickly retorted, sitting folding his arms stubbornly.

"Geez, Natsu," Lisanna sighed over the tried and true formula, her knuckles to her hips. "You're the dad."

This snapped Natsu and Happy right out of their anger and into embarrassment.

"So you gotta take good care of your wife and son," Lisanna teased, winking to sell the cheek.

"That was like a million years ago," Natsu protested, going red in the face. Memories of them playing house and hatching what they thought was a dragon's egg resurfaced in his memory. Many of them fun. Some... a tad cringe. Even for him.

"What're you guys talking about?" Happy butted in shrilly. He didn't remember that part from stories told of how he was found.

"Gyah," Natsu exclaimed, flustered even further. "Nothing!"

Lisanna decided to cut them a break and let her smile soften. "It's normal for families to have a fight every once and a while," she begin with the kind of warmth Makarov carried himself with, "but what's important is that you make up." She let out a small sheepish snicker through the bit. "No matter what happens, Happy's still our son."

"I think Lisanna's gone psycho on us!" Happy exclaimed.

"Don't talk like that, man!" Natsu replied to the cat's usual off-beat remarks.

"Oh, then should I talk like this?" Happy bickered back, sounding like a hick with a drawl.

"You know that's not what I mean!" Salamander volleyed back, easily taking the bait.

"Juvenile as ever, I see," Lisanna poked in, joining in on the roast.

"Stop picking on me," Natsu whined, stomping his sandaled feet in protest. His "wife" and "son" could only laugh.

"C'mon, Lisanna," they soon heard from nearby. "Let's go, we gotta get to work."

Lisanna looked behind her to find her big brother, Elfman, and her big sister, Mirajane. Elf had a black suit inspired by school uniforms from various countries out in the East, something he claimed was the manliest thing in fashion. His spikey hair was cute but... rather overcompensating in his sister's opnions.

Mira, unsurprisingly, had gotten into a back alley brawl with modesty and sported her shortest crop-top/mini-skirt combo. The boots rose right up to her knees in a way Lisanna couldn't get for the life of her. She just knew that her big sister was putting the punk scene to shame as per usual.

"What, we just finished a job," Lisanna complained, thinking how she was gonna hit up Wan for that film. "Can't we take a little break?"

"Yeah, but it's an S-Class Quest," Elfman claimed with a bit more excitement to him. "Mirajane wants us to go along and help her out with it."

"No way!" Natsu protested passionately. "Totally unfair."

"What kind of job is it?" Happy asked innocuously.

"An emergency request, it just came in," Mirajane answered, sounding too cool for the room with a near sigh. "They want us to kill off this monster called 'The Beast.'" She smirked, amused by Natsu getting all uppity again. "Hey, you wanna come with us, Natsu?" It didn't take much to poke the bear for her. "You could learn a thing or two."

"Do what?" Elfman questioned incredulously before raising his voice. "I don't want him tagging along." He went so far as to put up his dukes, ready to fight his sister if it came to it. "I'm the man in the family and I can protect you on your own."

"Oh, brother..." Lisanna sighed wearily with no one listening. She'd seen how Elfman had been becoming self-conscious about how much of a "whimp" he was before his voice deepened. It didn't help that Mirajane had joined Erza Scarlet herself as an S-Class Wizard not to long ago.

"Awwww," Natsu groaned, jumping up and down in a tantrum. "Why you gotta hog all the fun?" Him being raised by dragons wasn't hard to believe at times like these. "Take me with you!"

"Let's... not and say we did," Lisanna claimed uneasily, grabbing Natsu by the shoulders. "I think Master's still buried in paperwork from the you know what at you know where."

"Oh yeah," Mirajane snorted in her sadism. "I was wondering why Titania looked royally pissed."

This was enough to make Natsu settled down and make a grim look. "We did say we'd lay low until Erza took that quest, right?" he recalled with Happy, the blue cat's face as bleak as he was.

"Aye..." Happy gulped out, scared of so much as seeing the redhead about.

"Anyone asks, I'll say you went off to Veronica," Elfman promised.

"Whatever," Natsu acquiesced while sitting back down against the tree. "Unless this beast is a dragon, I'll take a rain-check on a collab."

"That's that then," Elfman claimed while looking at his watch. "Let's hurry and take the earlier train possible."

"Let's make it a race then," Mirajane declared cheekily, already getting a head-start through the park. "Loser gets the snacks on their cash."

"Oh, c'mon!" Elfman balked in annoyance while trying to catch up. "You better not use magic!"

Lisanna only slightly giggled if only to stave off the embarrassment. She didn't mind being the baby of the Strausses but sometimes she wondered if the term wasn't being used too liberally.

"Better go after them before they tear up the town," Happy suggested to Lisanna with his usual cheek.

"Don't worry," Lisanna promised to her "son," squatting to pat him on the head. "Even my sister isn't that-"

SMASH!

"My cabbages!"

"Watch where you're going, you fool?"

The exact order of those noises made Lisanna break into a nervous sweat while Natsu nearly bust a gut from sheer catharsis.

"You were saying?" Happy sassed back to his "mother."

"At least, this job will pay well," Lisanna sighed sheepishly, trying not to seem to beleagured. She ran off to at least apologize for the damages quickly when she stopped and looked back at Natsu with a weird feeling in her heart that she couldn't explain.

Like it was now or never.

"Natsu!"

Salamander and Happy looked up to see Lisanna pointing straight up to the sky, the front of her hand facing forward to their surprise. To anyone else, she was just pointing to the sky. However, to a Fairy Tail wizard, it was nothing short of sacred.

"I'll be back soon!" Lisanna declared. She posed for a good few seconds before turning away to hurry out of the park.

"Weird," Natsu remarked to Happy. "You'd think she was going on world tour or something."

"Told ya she's gone psycho," the cheeky cat claimed.

To Be Continued...

A familiar launchpad but with a somewhat new trajectory to come. Natsu has no idea how correct he nearly is...

This chapter adapts the flashback of when Natsu last saw Lisanna two years before the series started. If you noticed, the dialogue is taken straight from the English version of Episodes 20 and 24. Said dialogue is modified to fill in some of the blanks.

Additionally, some may recognize Wan, Chico and Joey as those three wizards that Lisanna shot the bull with in episode 96 as if they were besties way back when. Here, I expand on them as a team that Lisanna tags along with to try and branch out from her siblings. Though Chico might comes off as a bit more lively than she should, it is something she does when palling around with Lisanna.

matt0044 · Nov 1, 2023

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.

matt0044 · Nov 2, 2023

Fairy Tail wizards have known tragedy in their lives but it didn't make this fateful day hurt any less.

Chapter 3: The Death Of Lisanna Strauss

Story by Hiro Mashima

Adapted Dialogue by Monica Rial and Clint Bickham

It was already an orange dusk in the skies when it had begun.

"Darkness Stream!" Mirajane bellowed, thrusting out her hand down towards the woodland.

The Beast knocked every tree in its way after getting back up and leaped into the air after the airborne She-Devil. However, a Magic Seal manifested beneath it before large tendrils sprouted from it like tree roots ironically. They began to surround the still airborne monster and began to bind its limbs all over. One even got around its neck.

"Suppression Arts!"

Mirajane clenched her teeth and her fists to enhance the strength of the tendrils but found herself magic starting to strain. What she hoped would be a few kicks and maybe a torn limb as a keepsake turned into a ten minute too long back-and-forth. The Beast seemed way too durable for his own good.

As if to prove this point yet again, the behemoth roared while straining to flex its muscles and torn off the tendrils. This send it back to the ground and create another crater of flatten trees among three or four others when it landing on its back.

"It's a boy alright," Mirajane panted heavily, wishing she handled shown her hand so early on. "Can't take a hint and stay down."

Just down below, Elfman punched a wide tree in his way to splinters with his Iron Bull Beast Arm and saw the Beast itself struggling to lift itself up this time. He glanced up to see a panting Mirajane's posture starting to slack with her wings flapping more slowly and knew that one false move could cost her.

"No more playing catch-up," Elfman declared to himself, turning his attention towards the rising Beast. "This calls for a specialist."

Mirajane was trying to figure out how to at least knock out the behemoth if only to tap out and rethink her strategy of "throw everything at the wall to see what sticks." However, that was derailed by the sight of Elfman bolting towards the Beast from her right hand side. Confusion and aghast finally hit her when he hugged the Beast's left wrist tight.

"Elfman!"

The Beast had recovered enough to feel the tight grip on its left wrist and immediately began trying to shake it off, pumping its fist violently. However, Elfman had managed to branch himself with his legs as well and was gritting his teeth. He concentrated on gathering all the magic that he could within him to make this gambit work.

"Don't play hard to get, buddy," Elfman grunted, beginning to glow brightly all over. "You and me are about to get more acquainted than you think."

The magic glow grew and extended itself across the Beast's right arm. Sure enough, the behemoth felt the power overwhelming him all over its body and roared in its attempt at resisting. Mirajane shielded her eyes from the brilliant radiance of her brother's Takeover Magic. Too brilliant.

"Elf, it's gonna overwhelm you!" Mira protested, hearing her brother grunt from the strain of it all. "Get outta there!

A vast pilgrimage of survivors poured out of the pathway through File Forest and arrived at the riverbank where the stone bridge big for two laid ahead. As Mayor Kamiya had estimated, there were cracks all across the structure including a few chunks that had fallen off completely. He had stepped forward in the crowd to see for himself.

"Doesn't seem too bad," Mayor Kamiya pondered, taking off his top hat. He tossed it over and let it glide onto the bridge like a frisbee to the crowd's confusion.

The second the hat touch the middle of the bridge, a huge mid-section crumbled and splashed into the river in but a second. Neither the Mayor nor his citizens spoke for a rather audible moment of silence with the faces falling in a collective wave of anxiousness. She had just flown down in her Bird Soul form after observing overhead for any dangers.

"'Too bad' no," Lisanna replied to Mayor Kamiya, hovering to his left, "'Far worse' is what I'd go with." She changed back to her human form in a flash on that far too honest note. "Good thing we brought the boats."

"Lot good they'll do us," a middle-aged woman in fishing gear called out. "The current is kickin' up a storm." Lisanna found Ms. Kari squatting down and putting her hand in the river to feel how strong the flow was.

"And none of the motor boats we've found got any SP plugs," the fisher's husband, Takeru, called out from behind, carrying a boat with his teenage son, Cody. "Even with oars, we'd get swept away before we made it across."

"Anymore bright ideas, furbait?" Kenny chided, oiling up behind Lisanna.

The young wizard found all eyes on her once again when she turned back to the survivors who were starting to get anxious again. Lisanna had considered a bad current but wasn't sure if it would work. All the same, she knew that they didn't need her to show doubt after how far they've came.

"I got a few," Lisanna retorted with a playful grin before glowing, literally working her magic already. "Takeover! Animal Soul!"

Kenny initially shielded his eyes from being up that close while Mayor Kamiya backed away wisely. The next thing he knew, the punk found himself being shoved backwards when Lisanna seemed to get... large? After falling on his butt, Kenny's jaw dropped at the sight of a giant purple bunny looming above him.

"Rabbit!" Lisanna giggled in her favorite transformation. "Anybody got a carrot craving?" She turned around to the now bewildered survivors and didn't waste time enjoying the view up there.

Mayor Kamiya found himself less than fazed by this point in what was a crazy day. However, several giggling children did surprise him when they ran past him and went up to see the giant rabbit.

"She's soooo cute!" a brown-haired girl squealed.

"She's soooooo fluffy!" a little blue-haired boy laughed, nuzzling up to Lisanna's foot.

"I want one!" a pink-haired girl cheered, wearing a rather big hat.

Lisanna was glad to see that this Takeover was a hit with the kids and leaned down to smile back at her newest fans. "Looks like I have a few volunteers already," she earnestly asserted, patting the brown-haired girl on the head. "I'll carry over the children before the adults so who wants to be first?"

A chorus of "I do!"s erupted across the little ones before Lisanna turned around to let five of them climb onto her back. All their crawling made her giggle with their tickles. One of the mothers stepped forth with a most worrisome look on her face and wasn't the only parent with her anxieties.

"You're not going to swim in that current, are you?" she nervously hoped aloud.

"Goodness no, ma'am" Lisanna chortled, turning around with two boys and three girls gripping hard onto her fur.

The adults collectively sighed with relief.

"The legs were made for hopping," Lisanna clarified matter-of-factly before squatting down.

The adults collectively had a proverbial heart attack when the giant, purple rabbit hopped high up in the air and started across the choppy waters. Many of the children cries out from joy, terror, excitement and all of the above along with Lisanna herself. It felt like a lifetime to everybody but she soon landed on the other side with a loud "BOOM!"

Lisanna kept her stance wide upon making landfall and let the children disembark, laughing along with them from the exhilaration. Truthfully, she was surprised that it even worked at all but wasn't about to let anybody catch on.

"I wanna go again!" pink-haired Mimi insisted hopping up and down.

"Now, now," Lisanna calmly claimed, patting her on the head like a big sister. "You need to be fair and everybody gets a turn."

"Okay..." Mimi pouted.

"But tell you what," Lisanna began, turning around to squat down. "Once your town is saved, we might be able to play together again."

"You promise?" blue-haired Keenan spoke up.

"I'd pinky-swear if I wasn't a carrot chewer," Lisanna promised before hopping strongly back to the other side. "But you can't hold me to it."

"Bye," the children called, smiling for the first time in what felt like forever.

Mirajane rubbed her eyes once the blinding flash died down and waited for her vision to return, not helped by the sun setting. The sight of the flatten trees came back into view once she looked down from the air and allowed her to spot Elfman. However, he was down on his right side with his limbs sprawled out.

"That idiot!" Mirajane cursed, barely holding back something stronger. "Elfman!" She hovered down quickly to the ground and changed out of her Satan Soul into her regular punk outfit before making a mad dash.

Elfman grunted in pain and rolled over onto his back just when Mirajane reached him from over every downed tree in her way. His coat had popped wide open with a few tears on his pant legs.

"C'mon," Mirajane begged, trying not to let her scowl drop in growing fear. "Don't do this to me..." She propped up his back by his shoulders and could see that his breathing had grown heavier.

"M... Mira..." Elfman grunted, struggling to speak and open his eyes. "I... I..."

"What is it?" Mirajane asked, her voice starting to tremble in fear.

BRAAAAPPP!

Mirajane recoiled from both the sound and smell of Elfman's burp. He managed to sit up just fine, pounding out the rest of the gas in his gut.

"...totally faked you out!" Elf couldn't help but snort, slowly standing back up. "Sorry but that Beast ate something too nasty to keep down."

Mirajane's frown of disgusted disbelief morphed into one of embarrassed exasperation. "You're lucky I'm too tired to kill you!" she declared, at least slugging him in the shoulder and getting him to grunt in pain. "You're more 'boy' than 'man,' man!"

"I'll take what I can get," Elfman grunted, rubbing his shoulder when he felt a growing throb of pain in his head. "Gah!" He winced while clenching his head and tried to endure the growing pain, hunching over.

"Oh-ho-ho-no you don't," Mirajane declared abrasively. "You're not getting a two-for-two on me."

"It's... not a bit," Elfman swore, gritting his teeth. "Something wrong with-AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" His screaming was paired with the same glow of a magical surge as before and a a greater pain that extended to the rest of his body. It felt a lot like his Beast Arm Takeover but it hurt.

"Oh, sh-" Mirajane nearly swore herself when she recognized the symptoms of a botch Takeover. "Elf, you gotta let it go before-"

However, her brother's deafening scream signified that it was too late before the glow grew brighter and his body grew bigger by the second. The sun fully set just as Elfman finally gave in.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Kenny screamed while Lisanna made her twentieth jump over the river. "Stop the ride, I wanna get off!" It was a clear shot from the word "go" but going by his verbal mood, one would think that the purple bunny rabbit was making a swan dive for the current.

One lowkey "BOOM" later, Lisanna landed safely on the ground just a few feet shy of many other kids and adults she had flown over.

"Now what do you say, Mr. Bright Ideas?" she posited, cheekily calling back to Kenny's earlier quips.

"T-t-t-thank you..." he responded before letting his grip slip off completely. His body all but crumpled onto the ground after he slid off.

"Told you I had a few," Lisanna quipped back with her tongue sticking out. "Sleep tight." She made one more leap back across the river and landing just shy of Mayor Kamiya, the man now barely phased by the young lady's unique entrances.

"That's about all the kids, teens and elderly left," the mayor announced while Lisanna morphed back into her human form. "And the current seems to be settling down with the sun."

"I can still take the rest of you all over," Lisanna offered, gesturing to the still sizable amount of adults behind the Mayor. "Better safe than sorry."

"We can handle ourselves while you take a much needed break," Mr. Kari offered, carrying an oar over her shoulders. "Last thing we need is you running out of magic halfway across."

"So long as we don't underload, we only need to take it nice and slowly," Takeru promised Lisanna. "We're just glad that you got our kids across before the Beast came back."

Lisanna initially smiled at their offer before her eyes went wide at the realization. "The Beast!" she exclaimed. "Mira should've have beaten it by now but... where is she?" She darted across the crowd for any sign of her sister or Elfman.

"Um, well," Mayor Kamiya stammered, anxiously trying to keep the calm. "I'm sure she's resting off a well earned victory."

A distant but no less recognizable roar quashed any hopes that he had been attempting to muster. Most turned towards the source and saw a bright glow, one strong enough to be made out past the trees and the blazing Odaiba Village. The night sky certainly helped it stand out.

"This is gonna come up in election years, isn't it?" Mayor Kamiya dejectedly sighed, hanging his head like he paid for rotten fruit.

"Something bad just happened," Lisanna exclaimed, barely hiding her dread. "But I can't just leave-"

"No, go see to your siblings," Ms. Kari insisted, putting her hand on the young wizard's shoulder compassionately. "If you taught us anything, it's that there's always a chance if you take it."

Lisanna wanted to refuse but the look in the elderly fisher's eyes was too warm to refuse. "I'm coming back," she acquiesced. "I promise!" The young wizard stepped back to channel Magic throughout her body.

"Takeover, Animal Soul!" Lisanna belted out while her body morphed back into her feathered form. "Bird!" Flapping her wings, she took into the sky and hastily headed past the trees towards the roaring.

"Thanks," Mayor Kamiya sighed while seeing Lisanna off, looking oddly solemn. "My turn now."

Lisanna soared around the burning village of Odaiba to avoid the dense smoke gathering in the air. She considered herself lucky for this since she managed to catch sight of the Beast. It was slowly stomping into a rocky terrain amongst the forest just a mile past the railway tracks.

"Please, oh please, be alive," Lisanna begged to whom it might concern, flapping her wing to double time her flight.

She veered around to get behind the Beast and come in from above as silent as she could. Squinting with her sharp avian eyes, she managed to make out Mirajane battered with bruises and no longer employing her Satan Soul. That was a red flag if she ever saw one. Another popped up in the form of Elfman's disappearance.

"Elfman!" Mirajane cried out, clearly gritting her teeth from pain. "Pull yourself together!"

"Mira!" Lisanna cried out in fear for her big sister. She forgot to be too cautious while she dove downwards past the Beast and began to resume her human form.

"I had everyone in town evacuate!" Lisanna firmly promised, looking back at the behemoth with a brave knit brow. "Now let me help you!"

"You have to run, Lisanna," Mirajane grunted, clenching her sprained right arm. "It's dangerous."

The Beast continued to lumber towards their prey one footstomp at a time and at a brisk pace for his girth. A shadow overcast their body with only their violet eyes glowing in the night.

"I was getting beat up pretty bad so Elfman took over the Beast to protect me," Mirajane exposited, fudging the truth for Lisanna's sake. She couldn't be mad at Elfman. Not for now anyways.

"Oh my gosh..." Lisanna gasped in a whisper, her pupil receding over this fearful revelation. "That's him?!" The idea itself was hard to grasp when she looked up at the looming behemoth.

"It almost worked but the Beast was too powerful for him," Mirajane lamented, steadily her breathing. "Now he's totally lost control."

"Oh no..." Lisanna whispered, kneeling down to help Mirajane stand despite their mutual dread. "What do we do?" She put her sister's left arm over her shoulder and let her lean the best. "How can we save him?"

As if on cue, the Beast cast a huge shadow over the sisters and blocked the moonlight menacingly in its approach. Its own breath was so hot that steam poured out of it like the engine it had for a late lunch.

"We have to get him to come to his senses before the Beast complete takes over his soul," Mirajane explained, barely keeping herself up.

Lisanna's dread grew when she remembered one of Takeover Magic's dangerous drawbacks. A wizard biting off more they can chew would literally become what they eat. Her first instinct had been to get Mirajane and herself to safety before the Beast decided to make the first move.

However, Lisanna's second instinct reminded her that Elfman needed help now or never. It was a risk but the evacuation of Odaiba was fresh in her mind. If she could help an entire village get to safety, then her big brother would be a piece of cake. A smile grew upon her lips in tandem with a new found confidence in her heart.

Mirajane was wracking her brains for some sort of plan, any sort of plan, when Lisanna caught her off guard by letting go of her. She yelped upon losing her balance and falling to the rocky ground, only bracing herself with her arms. When Mira looked up, her eyes showed both bewilderment and fear upon seeing Lisanna walking up towards the Beast.

"What are you doing?!" Mirajane balked while clenching her bruised right arm. "Come back here!"

But Lisanna merely put one foot in front of the other slowly before stopping just shy of a yard from the looming behemoth. As if in recognition, the Beast stopped to glower down at whomever was foolhardy enough to approach it.

"Big brother Elf?" Lisanna called out softly, remembering how she called him years back. "You feeling okay?"

The Beast's grunts seemed to slow down in response.

"It's me, Lisanna, your little sister," the youngest Strauss went on, rubbing her left elbow in slight anxiousness. "Our big sister, Mira, is here too."

The Beast cocked his head a tad, seeming to process Lisanna's words. Just maybe...

"We're a family," Lisanna went on, her smile becoming a touch sheepish, "and when times are tough, we pull together and work things out." She breathed deeply a bit to calm herself more. "So why don't the three of us go home and talk about what happened today?"

The Beast's eyes narrowed as if disturbed or in an attempt to focus.

"I promise we're no mad at you," Lisanna continued, becoming confident in this de-escalation.

The Beast let out a roar and rose its right hand. Mirajane clenched her teeth tensely but could tell that the tone was a conflicted one. Maybe... Elfman was in there... and winning. She didn't dare jump in too soon when Lisanna seemed to know what she was doing.

"C'mon," young Strauss offered, opening her arm to show she was defenseless. "Don't be afraid, big brother." The roar barely fazed her in her belief that she was getting through to the headstrong, big-hearted Elfman that she knew and loved.

"We still love you."

The Beast brought its right hand down... and swung it across the ground to smack Lisanna Strauss with little to no restraint whatsoever. The force of a runaway freight train down a steep hill stuck her within half a second and sent her flying, kicking up a major gust in the process.

Mirajane let out a tear-filled scream but barely heard it with her focus consumed by the sight of her little sister being catapulted through the air. Lisanna's limbs were listless as a rag-doll before she landed amongst the tree just shy of another set of cliffs. Almost immediately, Mira forgot to be battered and made a mad sprint in that direction.

"Not her!" she repeated to herself over and over, passing every tree with a new tear to shed. "Please not her!"

Lisanna: Beloved sister and friend to animal souls.

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

matt0044 · Nov 3, 2023

Tragedy morphs into a miracle nearly seamlessly. That is, if Lisanna choose to follow her destiny...

Chapter 4: A Fairy Flies To Another World

Adapted Dialogue By Monica Rial and Tyler Walker

The pain was so immense and came so quickly that it had all but looped all the way back to feeling like... nothing at all. At least, it's what Lisanna felt when her body hit the dirt in a clearing. First, her front landed before she bounced and rolled onto her back in this numbed sensation.

Lisanna's arms were sprawled out in their respective directions and bent in ways they really weren't suppose to. She started to black out from the impact's head trauma but it felt more like when Cana dared her to chug a whole mug. Except this sort of intoxication came with an immediate hangover. It wasn't long before the pain began to catch up.

Lisanna couldn't move her head while her vision started to blur in and out of focus. She tried to concentrate on the night sky's stars to stave off this growing fatigue. However, even breathing was becoming a burden.

Lisanna Strauss was dying. Her mental faculties were slowing to a crawl even while her mind was in a flurry, flashing her life before her eyes.

Being cast out by the village Mirajane had saved.

Wandering until they found Fairy Tail, a guild tailor made for outcasts.

Meeting Natsu.

Hatching Happy.

Getting Guildarts to spoil her rotten.

All those missions.

Especially the fights she needed to be saved from.

And now... the Beast swatting her aside like a fly.

Well... what did... I... expect... to happen? Lisanna thought, trying to stay conscious by talking to herself. I say a... few pretty words... and get Elf... to recover... with the... the power of love? She shed a tear in her whirlwind of denial, anger, pleading and depression all at once. And they call... Natsu reckless...

Lisanna's mind replayed the Odaiba Evacuation but remembering those broken promises only added to the pain. Mira was right... she thought. I'll never... be her... Her eyes closed in her growing pain. I'll never... be anybody...

"I respectfully must disagree... Lisanna Strauss..."

The young wizard's eyes opened back up to a voice that sounded as clear as crystal and saw a brilliant flash of light green light explode just above her. Tendrils of energy spilled out while Lisanna's surroundings seemed to fade away into a white void. If there was anything that'd perk her up at death's door, it was certainly this.

At first, she thought this was it. That her soul was entering the afterlife. But... it didn't feel like it.

"On the contrary," the smooth male voice called out, sounding angelic, "this is a new beginning."

Lisanna felt it. That... melody. That feeling of somebody reaching out for her help.

"W... why... me?" Lisanna asked, "I couldn't... even save... my brother." Just remembering what she'd attempted made the aches and pain so much worse. You choose the wrong one.

"You were one of the few who could pick up on my faint Digi-Melody and the only one who stopped to pick me up," the voice insisted, never once raising its tone. "Despite your doubts, you knew somebody needed the kind of help you could provide." As if by magic, a small handheld appeared a foot or two above Lisanna. Tech clearly foreign to Fiore.

"I've... seen that..." young Strauss began in recognition, remembering the dream she had what seemed like ages ago. "My dream..."

"I see..." the voice mused with intrigue. "My resonance has shown you great things in your future."

The handheld suddenly changed colors from blank white to a scarlet red and lowered itself towards Lisanna. It seemed to... beckon her.

"Use this Fusion Loader for the battles that await you," the voice insisted. "It will restore your strength for the battles to come."

Lisanna didn't have a clue about what this was actually about. However, her flaring fatigue told her that she wouldn't have the time to solve this mystery. If the voice meant what he said, that... thing she saw above her could heal her.

At least, that's how it sounded. Lisanna knew not to trust strangers but at the moment, she didn't have much to lose. Wincing all the way, young Strauss lifted her right hand towards this Fusion Loader and opened her fingers.

"Lisanna!" Mirajane's distraught voice called out. The young wizard found the sound muffled before feeling her right hand suddenly held even through the numbness.

Mirajane couldn't see the void or the Fusion Loader when she had arrived Not in her state of mind.

"Stay with me please!" Mirajane begged, her voice cracking like an egg. "Y-you'll get better soon just... hang on please." Tears soaked her face once they overflowed from her eyes while her hands gripped Lisanna's more intensely than ever. She could feel it. Her little sister's pulse was fading by the second.

Just seeing Lisanna in this state sprawled across the rocky terrain alone was more than Mirajane could bear. Her sister's eyes had lost that shine she was known for, the first sign of fading strength. She was barely able to move her limbs aside from the occasional twitch.

"I feel..." Lisanna strained to speak, still staring up at whatever it was, "...so strange..." Mirajane hung onto every word desperately. "It's like I... I can't move."

"Don't waste your strength," Mirajane choked out tearfully, grasping to whatever hope she could muster.

"Where'd you go... Mira?" Lisanna asked, wearing a look that seemed... accepting.

"I'm right here!" her big sister promised in her sobbing.

"It grieves me to inform you that time is not on your side," the weathered voice told Lisanna. "The choice must be made now or never."

Lisanna looked up at the Fusion Loader, knowing that there was no turning back if she took the offer. Maybe... through helping the voice, she would be able to feel like a real Fairy Tail member and hold her own for once.

Maybe...

Lisanna slowly turned her head to her right and looked at where she believed Mirajane was.

"Mira," she forced out while her left arm slowly and painfully rose up. "I... I just want you to... know..." When speaking became too tiresome, her finger bend inwards as though she was grabbing hold of something in the air.

"Lisanna?!" Mirajane panicked when her sister paused. "You have to wake up, Lisanna!"

However, her pleas were cut off when her sister glowed with a brilliant flash of green to her growing fear of this unknown phenomenon.

"No..." Mira whispered when Lisanna began to become further engulfed by the light. "Why are you glowing?" She didn't expect an answer in her distress. "What's happened?"

Mirajane got one anyways when Lisanna began to float up into the air and close her eyes. Though it was hard to tell through the light.

"No, don't leave me!" Mirajane shouted louder than ever, embracing Lisanna with both of her arms desperately. "You can't disappear on me!" Her sister's body started to fade entirely with the light growing in brilliant. "Please... don't go, Lisanna!" And just as it was at its brightest... "STAY HERE WITH ME!"

Lisanna Strauss vanished with a flash, slipping through Mirajane's arms like something ephemeral. The data card she had in her pocket slipped out in the process and hit the ground. A label with an image and a few words had appeared on it before fading away just as quickly.

However, Mira barely noticed when she sank to her arms and knees in one loud bawl all alone in File Forest.

Lisanna too believed that she was dying while her numb body seemed to be carried across an invisible current of air. A glimmering tunnel of green and yellow flew past her while the motion caused her eyes to get heavy. Was this her ascension?

Lisanna swore that if she ever saw Natsu again, she'd make a point to apologize for mocking his motion sickness.

Hopefully soon...

Shoutmon yawned deeply and stretched out his left arm while he carried his Mic over his right shoulder. The plains of the outer most area were way more chill than he preferred with only a few hills and plateaus for any semblance of landmarks. It had only been ten minutes out but it felt like ages before he groaned.

"You run around, I run around,
We're all gonna run... run... run arou-ugh!"

Even humming his favorite song couldn't break the monotony.

"Shoutmon, reporting in," the Small Dragon Digimon called in on his left wrist com. "Is Jijimon sure of this 'feeling' of his?"

"Well, he's rarely wrong about a disturbance in the dimension barrier," Balistamon began over the channel. "Though... half the time, it's just bad gas but he hasn't made a toot just yet."

"Wow," Shoutmon snarked while starting over a small hill. "That's reassuring."

"Now are you sure you don't need any back up?" Balistamon asked insistently. "You know you don't have to prove anything to me."

Shoutmon paused at this statement. "It's just a by-the-books patrol," he claimed, trying to brush it off. "What's to 'prove?'"

"I've heard what some of the villagers say behind your back," Balistamon claimed with empathy. "You shouldn't let those naysayers get you down."

"It's..." Shoutmon began, hesitant to admit his feelings. "It's not about them..."

However, their heart-to-heart was disturbed by the sight of a lone Digimon on a grassy patch. At least... Shoutmon thought it was a Digimon. Either way, they weren't from the Forest Zone. The only Digimon powerful enough to traverse from Zone to Zone were often with...

"We'll get in touch with our feelings later, buddy," Shoutmon promised before cutting the com and making a beeline for his find.

The Small Dragon slowed to a tip-toeing once he got within four feet and held out his mic by its staff, ready to strike first. He found this stranger possessing a similar body type to Lilymon. She was all but dead to the world with her disheveled white hair and listless head.

The "Digimon" seemed limp to Shoutmon with her limbs sprawled about but appeared to be breathing and stirring in her sleep. Additionally, her fair appearance hardly seemed Bagra. For now. Suspicious as the young dragon was, he couldn't help but walk faster towards the stranger's right side.

"Well, you've seen better days," Shoutmon quipped with concern mixed in with caution. "Bagra or not, I can't turn my back on a potential refugee." He leaned over to shove her chest back and forth in hopes of stirring her awake, feeling a rather squishy lump to his curiosity. "Alright, up an' at 'em now!"

Lisanna groaned while opening her eyes slowly but surely and letting the light let her vision focus. Her mind was still regaining its bearings when she saw what looked like... a small dragon? Carrying a microphone?

"Elfman must've hit me harder than I thought..." Lisanna mumbled when she finally felt her right breast being groped. "What the...?"

She lifted her head and went white as her hair in mortification to what appeared to be the micro-dragon coping a feel while she'd been knocked out.

"Hey," Shoutmon called when he noticed the stranger rousing from her sleep. "Welcome back to the land of the-"

"Kyaaaaaaa!" Lisanna cried at the thought of being taken advantage of, making her "assailant" jump. As if by instinct, her Cat Soul Takeover spell kicked in with her hands turning to paws and allowed herself to lift her upper body in a jolt.

"Living?" was all a surprised Shoutmon could finished before Lisanna's right cat paw smacked him straight up into the sky.

The young wizard rolled backwards with this rush of Ethernano fueled adrenaline and sprung up with her paws to somersault backwards onto her feet. Lisanna barely noticed the Fusion Loader fall off of her person while she posed firmly with her right paw out and left by her side. Just in time for Shoutmon to land face first in the dirt.

"Ow..." the Rookie muttered however muffled.

"You'll really be in for it when my sister hears-," Lisanna declared before her paws, whiskers and cat ears vanished in a flash, "-about this?" Her confusion was fueled further by a weird... empty sensation. Either the Ethernano in the atmosphere was thinnest here or the Beast's swatting nerfed her magic for the moment.

"Wait..." Lisanna began to piece together with a second to think, "how am I still alive?" She remembered the voice's offer but hardly believed it could actually pull it off.

"Give me a second and you'll be a good as deleted!" Shoutmon's hotblooded voice declared, getting the young wizard to look up. "I knew I smelled a Bagra spy." There he was, using his microphone to lift himself from out of the dirt while glaring at Lisanna.

"Ba-wha?" young Strauss questioned, cocking her head over the foreign term.

"Too late to play dumb," Shoutmon declared while making a reckless run with his mic at the ready. "Bellow Blas-" However, a glint of red made him stop in his tracks almost immediately and drew his eyes towards the dropped Fusion Loader. "Shut up...!"

Lisanna had put up fist defensively just before Shoutmon shortened his mic and ran over to grab the fallen tech. "The legendary Fusion Loader!" the Small Dragon Digimon gasped with awe while holding it in his left hand. "But... how?"

"Hey, that's my... Fusion... thingy!" Lisanna protested, sounding less mad than she was letting on. "That's not your's!" She had forgotten Shoutmon's earlier threat when she marched towards the Rookie Level. The young wizard would soon remembered when he extended his mic's staff and made her just short of yellow horn on the grille.

"A likely story, spy!" Shoutmon smarmily accused, glaring up at the concerned Lisanna. "This Digivice only chooses one worthy of its power, one who possess the heart of a true leader." He held up the Fusion Loader in his left hand like it was an idol of great reverence. "It's the one thing that can stand up to Bagra scum like you."

"Seriously, what's this... Bugra... thing?" Lisanna demanded to know in exasperation, cautious of Shoutmon's microphone. "And... what happened to File Forest?" It was only now that she realized that her surroundings had changed from rocky terrain among trees to a plateau amongst an open plain.

However, her true shock came when she lifted her gaze upwards and let her jaw drop upon her discovery. Multiple chunks of Earth were hovering above in the sky each in what seemed like the biggest bubbles anybody could've blown. She was so taken by this site that she push Shoutmon's mic aside to step forth for a better view.

Just to make sure she wasn't going crazy.

"Hey, hold it!" Shoutmon protested while going after the bewildered wizard. "I haven't even started my interrogation yet." He pocketed the Fusion Loader for safe keeping. "Some prisoner of war you are."

"Elf?" Lisanna cried out, her head darting around distress. "Mira, where are you?" The only things for a mile was what seemed like far taller plateaus among a more bumper terrain. "Anybody?" That wasn't even touching upon how it was suddenly broad daylight without any sign of her brother or sister searching for her.

Shoutmon's glare softened when he heard how anxious Lisanna sounded and the fearful look in her eye. He knew this could've been a spy trick but remembered how war refugees often arrive with that kind of distress. The young Rookie decided to take a chance.

"Who are they?" Shoutmon asked more gently, lowering his microphone. "These 'Elf' and 'Mira' characters."

"My brother and sister," Lisanna answered, sounding more calm. "We were helping a village with an attack when..." The memory of that strike made her pause in discomfort. "...something bad happened." It felt easily now that Shoutmon wasn't on the defense anymore. "I must've been flung clear across Fiore to... wherever this is."

"Fiore?" Shoutmon asked in genuine curiosity. "I don't remember the Digital World having a Zone like that."

"'Digital World'?" Lisanna questioned with mounting confusion. "Are you just... making up words?"

"Uh... the Digital World?" Shoutmon answered incredulously, unsure of what how to properly respond. "The world we all live in?" Lisanna blinked once puzzled. "Little monsters everywhere?" Lisanna blinked twice in bafflement. "Like... what kind of Digimon are you?"

"That... depends," Lisanna finally answered back. "What's a Digimon?"

-Earthland, X782-

"Lisanna!" a tattered Elfman called out, pushing through the pain and the foliage. "Mira!" His left eye blinked hard when wincing at the aches and pains lingering in his limbs. "Dammit!" The low hanging tree branches smacking into him didn't exactly help matter. "Think I'll stick to my Beast Arm a little longer."

Eventually, Elfman's still sharp ears picked up on sobbing from what was certainly a girl to his right by a tad. Suddenly, his body's battered state was too trivial when he bolted as fast as he could've and turned right towards that precise direction.

"Anybody out there?" Elfman tried to shout before coughing. "Girls?" He remembered now how the Beast's roaring did a number on his throat but his memory of it was still spotty.

Sure enough, Elf made it to the clearing where he discovered Mirajane sunk to her knees from behind. Her hair was a mess while her outfit was miraculous only in need of a tailor compared to his torn up uniform. However, a major red flag arose when he saw her shoulder trembling while her sobs subsided into sniffling.

"M-Mira?" Elfman called out cautiously, baffled by his big sister tearing up let alone crying. "I-It's me, Elf." He stepped forth slowly by one step at a time, his pain catching up with him. "For real this time, I promise."

Mirajane gasped with a slight jolt and turned around to show the most devastated look in her eyes. Elfman thought that his botched takeover scared her senseless and didn't have the heart to hold it over her.

"H-Hey, it's all better now!" Elfman promised while slowly making his way. "I just had to knock myself into the cliffs and tire myself out." He hunched over to make himself look less threatening upon getting within four feet of Mirajane. "At least, that's what I feel any-"

Elfman paused considerably when he saw something glint in the open palms Mirajane was holding out before her. It was that data card. The one that...

"We still love you."

The very words were the next piece of his fuzzy memories Elfman felt clearing up, one that made his heart sink in dread. He felt it plunge to further depth when he saw exactly where Mirajane was standing in front of and stumbled back in cold denial. An harsh indent in the otherwise rocky surface. Big enough... for a teenage girl.

"Mira..." Elfman began to question, begging to be wrong. "Where's Lisanna?"

To Be Continued...

Lisanna embarks on an adventure she never asked for, never quite knowing how much her absence will affect her home.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AS TO HOW YOU'VE BEEN ENJOYING THIS FANFIC SO FAR. I don't mean to be pushy for those who may be shy but I only wish to improve my craft or know how I'm doing in general. Rip me to shreads YouTube style even.

matt0044 · Nov 8, 2023

Lisanna is swept up into a war that she had never signed up for. But could the Fairy Tail wizard in her actually desert?

Chapter 5: No Longer Of This World

Original Story by Riku Sanjo

Adapted Dialogue by Mark Ryan, Monica Rial and Jessie James Grelle

-Earthland, Year X782-

They heard the news but dared not believe it.

Natsu Dragneel and Happy the Cat forgot to catch their collective breath once they had rushed into the Fairy Tail Guild Hall. They stopped. Every light had been snuffed out in the main common hall. A tradition done during a period of mourning.

And there wasn't a wizard that wasn't doing just that once they looked the room around. If they weren't brooding in solemn silence, they were tearing up. If they weren't tearing up, they were outright sobbing.

Erza merely leaned against a column, folding her arms with her most stone cold of faces. Gray, shirtless as ever, just stood around with his eyes closed shut. They hid it the best but Natsu could tell that this had shook them to their core.

"I can't believe she's gone..." a shaken male voice, Macao maybe, choked out.

"There was nothing left of her..." a female voice, Laki he supposed, softly sobbed.

"I just wish she could've had a proper burial..." a teenage male voice, Warren perhaps, lamented.

However, the worst part for Natsu was seeing Elfman hanging his head in stewing guild while a injured Mirajane looked up straight at him. The punkish knit brow had receded above the most saddest eyes he had ever seen from the She-Devil herself. A silent apology, begging for his forgiveness.

"This... isn't happening, right?" Happy managed to choke out, his tears soaking his fur. "She... she just can't be..."

Natsu was still... frozen stiff, feeling like he could topple over like the buildings on his missions. His expression was just... staling out. Their last moment replayed in his mind.

Did she know?

That she'd be on a journey she could never come back from?

"I take it you were friends with the deceased," a soft spoken male voice asked from their right.

Natsu and Happy snapped out of their listlessness to see the smartly dressed Mayor Kamiya walk up to them. His expression was warm yet appropriately melancholy when he tried to keep up a small smile.

"Y... yeah," Natsu managed to get out. "We all were..."

"She..." Happy swallowed with a sniffle, "helped me hatch..." The sniffle snowballed into a full on sob no matter how much his paw tries to damn the floodgates.

Mayor Kamiya sighed solemnly and closed his eyes. "Her siblings might've taken care of the Beast," he began, reminiscing fondly, "but it was her who saw us through the evacuation even when things got too crazy for me."

"Comes with the territory..." Natsu answered disenchanted. "She's one of us after all..." He didn't dare say "was." Not now.

Mayor Kamiya lowered his smile upon seeing the state the young man was in. "I'll try not to be a bother while your guild... manages," he promised, taking out a pushed-in top hat. "But if you anything like that girl... my citizen will know exactly who to turn to when the need arises."

With that, Mayor Kamiya smiled one last time and popped out his top hat to put on. "Stay strong, young man," he softly spoked to Natsu while passing him and Happy by. "For her."

One of the longest nights of Fairy Tail had only just begun.

"Mira!" Lisanna called out for the umpteenth time.

"Elf!" Shoutmon yelled on his mic for the figuratively millionth time.

The pair had walked together down the plain amongst the small hill and plateaus while calling out for Lisanna's siblings. They didn't know how long they were out for it was enough to leave Lisanna parched and weaker in the knees.

"Usually yelling solves problems for me," Shoutmon griped, trying to adjust the setting on his mic. "Looks like we might be in trouble, Miss."

His pondering was pushed aside when he heard Lisanna collapse to the ground and looked behind her. She was sitting up but breathing heavily and letting her legs lay asprawl while wiping sweat from her brow.

Her head hung backwards, casting her gaze up to the floating islands in the sky. A constant reminder that she was certainly not in Earthland anymore.

"Not again!" Shoutmon gasped, rushing over to her side. "Are you okay?"

"A little more worn out than I should be but I'll live," Lisanna reassured. "I guess it's been a hot minute since I stopped for water." Her stomach growled like the Beast itself to her embarrassment while she made a sheepish smile. "Wish I landed in a bakery too."

Shoutmon reached into his pouch and took out a small canteen. "Lucky for you, Lilymon was extra fussy this morning," he joked while handing it to Lisanna.

"You were shouting more than I was," young Strauss claimed while taking the canteen.

"And I can shout even louder without my mic," Shoutmon boasted, sitting down next to Lisanna. "My throat was built to belt one out."

"Thank you," Lisanna smiled before gulping down all she could from the canteen.

Her eyes couldn't help but glance down at Shoutmon's boyish smile and spot all the hallmarks of Natsu. Especially when they had played house while hatching Happy's egg.

Her mind especially remembered when she had forgotten her own snack coming up to play house and tried to tough it out. Just like Shoutmon, Natsu was way too kind to her with his own food even with the appetite of a dragon. Lisanna was glad to see that somethings were a constant amongst other worlds.

Shoutmon couldn't help but notice this when she stopped drinking and smiled at him for a second or two. "Is there something on my face or what?" he asked curiously while taking back the canteen.

"Just noticing how cute you can be," Lisanna snickered, getting blush on Shoutmon's already red face. "When you're not trying to kill me at least."

Shoutmon scoffed at the "cute" comment with a rather immature pout. "You fired the first shot," he retorted, folding his arms. "You sure you're not part-Gatomon?"

"I'm... guessing that's a feline Digimon," Lisanna presumed, still not over being dimensionally displaced. "But I am sorry that I assumed the worst in you." She put out her right hand towards Shoutmon to get his attention. "Lisanna Strauss of the Fairy Tail Wizard Guild."

Shoutmon took a second to drop his pout and see her hand. Thankfully, it was only another second before he put out his right hand and took Lisanna's to shake on it.

"Guess we both have a lot to learn about each other," Shoutmon admitted, smiling back at her. "Shoutmon at your service." He never had a big sister before yet saw one in this stranger from another world.

"We'll keep it between us once we found Elf and Mira," Lisanna promised, standing back up on her rest legs. "I don't suppose you know a good search party, Shoutmon."

"Lady, you just met the right Digimon," Shoutmon proclaimed boisterously, jumping back up with his usual energy. "I lead of a ragtag resistance in the Village of Light, kind of a big deal around these parts." Lisanna grinned when he puffed out his chest, hand to his hips. "One word from me and we'll literally leave no stone unturned."

"If my luck holds out, they might already be with them," the young wizard proposed hopefully, following Shoutmon towards his home. "Let's just hope Mira's not giving them a hard time." She could only imagine her big sister giving her a nasty noggie for scaring her.

"So long as they're no fans of the Bagra, consider yourselves family already," Shoutmon boldly claimed while hopping down from a small hill.

"Judging by your tone, I'm guessing these Bagra characters are bad news," Lisanna surmised at the right moment, sliding down after him.

The ground tremored a little at first to snap her and Shoutmon out of their little talk before a veritable quake made them stumble. When they looked back to see what was going on, their faces both feel with astonishment at the sight of a massive orange-furred elephant lumbering their way.

At least, it looked like an elephant. It seemed to have a metal mask with a golden-eye carved into it. Lisanna and Shoutmon didn't have time to take in the details once it lifted its fore-legs to slam on the ground, flattening the little hill into rubble. The pair jumped back just in time to avoid most of it but fell onto their backs from the shake.

"That answer your question?" Shoutmon snarked while effortlessly bouncing back up, his eyes trained at the threat ahead.

"My bad," Lisanna apologized for tempting fate while getting up more slower.

The Mammothmon, as Shoutmon recognized, alone was imposing enough. Soon it was flanked by two on its right and then two more on its left, each lining up in formation. By their massive feet, the sloth-like Troopmon marched mindlessly into their positions.

Lisanna looked up when she heard what sounded like Natsu's Fire Dragon attacks blazing and saw a small murmuration of metalic birds known as Pteramon. They didn't flap their wings but seemed to blast heat from their tails, a feat of tech Fiore only dreamed of. They were flanked by floating spike balls that look about as friendly as their friends.

It was all just like in Lisanna's dream. Right down to the gas-masks and rifles that the Troopmons displayed.

"How did they just... sneak up on us?" Lisanna asked in her growing exasperation. "These guys don't exactly seem like the subtle type."

"Anyone rubbing elbows with the Bagra Army can warp from Zone to Zone in an instant," Shoutmon angrily claimed, extending the staff on his microphone. "Especially with one of the top three call the shots."

Just when they thought they had met the worst of it, a shadowy behemoth pounced from Mammothmon to Mammothmon before touching down upon the leader. Lisanna and Shoutmon look up at the snarling beast just as it let out a roar from behind its blood red teeth. It stretched out both skinny arms to display very bulky fore-paws.

Madleomon dropped down in front of his campaign's obstructions with a BOOM, bracing himself with his fists. His large fore-arms were wrapped with black bandages while his legs had a pair of torn up pants. Spikes came out from his shoulders and head in pairs to add a cherry on top of an already menacing cake.

"Lisanna, stay behind me, okay?" Shoutmon demanded, trying not to show his mounting dread. "Liz, you copy?"

Lisanna had heard Shoutmon's suggestion but couldn't respond. The second Madleomon had touched down before them, her pupil shrunk while her dread turned into pure horror. Her breathing was becoming way too audible while her body trembled in mounting anxieties.

"N-No..." Lisanna choked out.

Those arms. That hunch posture. The mounting size that cast a shadow over the pair of them.

"Not here..."

Memories of the Beast looming over her replayed in Lisanna's mind just by looking at Madleomon.

"Not again..."

Memories of that death-blow and all of the agony that had come packaged with it. Such images were far too livid flashing before Lisanna's eyes.

"Shoutmon, please," she begged, her composure coming undone. "We have to run now."

Shoutmon glanced behind him and surmised that Lisanna was in no shape to fight with him. However, he was quick to face forward once more when Madleomon leaned his head down to stare with a pair of black eyes and bloodshot pupils. His sniffing was loud even for a Shoutmon but the Small Dragon Digimon stared back bravely.

"Stand aside, puny lizard," Madleomon snarled with a hoarse if vile tone of voice. "I'm not interested in small-fries."

"You have no right to lay claim to our land, Bagra scum," he venomously spat at the invader. "Tell your emperor that he picked the wrong Zone to invade." He wielded his microphone's staff with both arms with his spiked grillie in his foe's nose.

"Such audacity!" Madleomon balked. "I could sweep you aside like feeble-" His eyes were drawn to the paralyzed Lisanna and gave off a look of angered disgust. "-human?!"

The young wizard felt herself singled out when Madleomon rose up swiftly and snarled in what she recognized as a predator's anger. Shoutmon saw where the invading Digimon's eyes led and cursed under his breath.

"T-T-Takeover!" Lisanna cried out, trying to invoke her magic. "H-Harpy-!" However, Madleomon cut her off by reaching down with his right hand wide open and scared her with another flashback.

"Leave her alone!" Shoutmon shouted when he rushed to get in front of Lisanna. "Liz, book it!"

Madleomon grabbed her in a tight grip and brought the terrified wizard up to his face before Shoutmon could stop him. She only snapped out of her paralyzing fear when it gave was to frantic panic and struggled to push herself out of the grasp. The breath of the savage Digimon also helped by making her want to retch.

"Master claimed to have sense a unique disturbance in the dimensional barriers," Madleomon snarled, staring at Lisanna with contempt. "Your kind has cause his lordship enough problems and another one's the last thing we need."

"There... are others?" Lisanna questioned, only briefly fighting through her fears. "Where...?" She was cut off by a tight squeeze that made her wince.

"It won't matter," Madleomon balked, raising his left paw to extend his razor-sharp claws. "Not once I've deleted you like the virus you are." He relished the terror in Lisanna's eyes when he brought them just shy of her nose.

"She's not worth it!" Shoutmon cried out, hesitating to attack with Lisanna in the line of fire. "Put her down and try me on for size, hairball!"

"Oh, I'll 'put her down' alright," Madleomon growled, pulling back his left paw for a strike. "Starting with her head!"

Lisanna shut her eyes when the index claws came in for her neck before...

"RAM SLAMMER!"

The ground under Shoutmon crumbled when a blue metal horn burst out just shy of him and rammed right into Madleomon's chest. The Small Dragon Digimon found himself lifted up suddenly while the dark hulk of a lion was knocked back by the unforeseen sucker jab, letting Lisanna go in the process.

"Whoa!" she yelped, falling backward with her arms free and flailing. "Takeover!" She would've tried her Bird Soul if a pair of giant metal hands didn't catch her like a newly wed, the right holding her legs while the left had her back.

"Gotcha, l'il lady!" a fast-talking yet monotone voice told Lisanna. "I'd come sooner if a certain somebody remembered to use their communicator."

Lisanna looked to her left to find two yellow eyes on a robotic beetle's blue face looking back at her. There would've been a time in her life when she would've spazzed out in fright but after the last hour?

"What can I say, Balistamon?" Shoutmon bantered back from up on his best friend's flat-top. "I owe Jijimon fresh DigiBytes."

"Um... thank you..." was all Lisanna could say back to the robot bug. "Ballistic-mon?"

"Eh, close enough," Balistamon took in stride.

"Loosen up, Liz!" Shoutmon praised, slapping the horn jovially. "These guys are my resistance against the Bagra!"

Lisanna had just stepped on the ground when Balistamon lowered her from his hand before a talking gold star with shakes floated up to her face.

"Howdy, ma'am!" Starmon greeted the bewildered wizard with a friendly sort of drawl. "Ah'm Starmon, leader of th' Pickmon crew."

"It's super nice to meet you," Lisanna heard from her left shoulder where a white star with a cuter face landed on.

"Is it true humans don't lay eggs?" she heard from her right shoulder where a silver star also wearing shades hopped onto.

"Who does your hair?" a red star with a disgruntled look grunted on top of her head.

Lisanna was too overwhelmed by the very new and very strange faces to answer any one of them with a blank stare that spoke volumes.

"Um... howdy?" she managed to put out for the sake of gratitude.

However, questions would be shunted to the sidelines when Madleomon grabbed their attention with an angry punch to the ground.

"You'll pay for your insolence, lizard!" the Undead Digimon declared. "Pteramon and Chikurimon, rain terror from the sky!" He punched the air to signify his order to sortie. "Mammothmon and Troopmon, mow them down!"

The Pteramon squadron veered down collectively with the spiked Chikurimon hanging back in reserve. All the while, the Mammothmon marched a slow but steady pace that they'd make up for in strong footstomps upon their enemies. The Troopmon mindlessly followed along their massive comrades, preparing their blaster rifles.

"You guys... do have a plan, right?" Lisanna asked nervously, looking around at her strange new entourage.

"Fight to the last terabyte," Shoutmon cheered almost too happily while jumping off of Balistamon and over Lisanna. "No hostages means that we can all cut loose."

"Been a while since our last tussle," Starmon seconded the emotion. "Y'all ready to rock, boys."

"Yeah!" the Pickmonz cheered in unison, floating off of Lisanna.

"But there's so many of them!" Liz protested, amazed and concerned by such bullheadedness.

"I know," Balistamon began, sounding serious initially. "I thought they'd be bigger too." He clenched his metal fists and pumped them in the air excitedly. "Dibs on the Mammothmon!"

Lisanna was taken aback when this cocktail of cocksure and confidence started to sound... too familiar. "Who even are you guys?" she could only ask, their enemies only half way near by this point.

Shoutmon smirked while his mic grew and re-extended the staff. "I know what you're thinking, Liz," he sniffed. "You're wondering why I'm still smiling and not scared stiff of Madleomon."

Lisanna couldn't help but smile back with a touch of cocksure herself. "It might've crossed my mind," she replied with some playfulness to her tone.

"Because I, Shoutmon, am the future king of the Digital World," the Small Dragon Digimon declared, spreading out his stance wide. "And I'll make sure the ugly furball knows it!"

"BELLOW BLASTER!"

Shoutmon yelling out his attack wasn't just to be cool. His microphone channeled and amplified all of the heated passion blazing within his chest. The second the Pteramon were in range, an orange blast launched up from the grill and engulfed them within the boiling heat. All three were shot down and deleted into data bytes.

"Impossible!" Madleomon balked, his forces slowing down over their opponent's first move.

"Oh, it's always possible with Shoutmon!" Starmon cheered with his posse. "Not so brave now, cowardly lion!"

Lisanna was awestruck by the display of power and felt the heat radiate from where she was. It was hard not to think of Natsu's ever showstopping Fire Dragon Roar and even harder not to grin so broadly. She realized soon what was so familiar about this motley crew.

Little guys against impossible odds. Never backing down from the darkest of vile souls. Always keeping the faith in themselves and their friends.

"That was amazing Fire Magic, Shoutmon," Lisanna praised with unbridled optimism.

"I don't know anything about this 'magic' stuff," Shoutmon replied, turning his head to grin back at her, "but I do know one thing: you're the first human friend I've ever had."

Lisanna nodded in warm approval.

Even in another world, another dimension far from Fiore, the spirit of Fairy Tail was an ever constant force.

-Earthland, X782, Four Days Later-

Wan Chanzi took a slow walk towards his house just along the water while holding the latest Sorcerer Weekly issue, his head hung listlessly. He was lucky to get the last issue of Magnolia's best seller. Just the cover spoke volumes without a need to turn a page.

"A Tribute To A Fallen Fairy. Lisanna Strauss. Friend. Sister. Hero."

Wan read all these flashy phrases around the most flattering image of the deceased's brightest smile and sighed depressingly. The one time Sorcerer Weekly had glowing things to talk about the rambunctious Fairy Tail hooligans would be one of them croaks.

No.

Not even a snide thought like that could make any of this okay for Wan. He remembered being the one to reach out to her and offer to hang with his team to help her, knowing how it felt to see themselves as an extra in a movie of their life.

So many missions they could've had.

So many chances for her to shine like the star he knew she was.

All dashed.

A movie series cut off before its prime.

Wan couldn't even bring himself to go to Lisanna's funeral and took a mission to get away from it all. Even as he came back to Magnolia, Fairy Tail's loss was still keen to bring down the room. Store owners she'd helped. Lost kids that she helped back to their parents. So many melancholy looks.

"I need a movie," Wan sighed when he reached the front door of his modest one-story home just before the bridge. "Something to riff to."

He had just opened the door only to look left to his dimly lit living room and was surprised to see the Movie Lacrima Projector playing on the table. Even more so that it was the most infamous adaptation of Kemu Zaleon's DAYBREAK novel financed by Duke Everlue himself. On widescreen no less.

"Oh no..." Wan groaned with dread when he stepped into the living room.

There was a barefoot Joey and Chico manspreading on their movie night futon with snacks spread further out. They both guffawed at a very infamous scene involving Duke Everlue's actor, a woefully inaccurate seven foot four, trying to be dramatic. Well... at least they wanted to think he was trying.

"I don't like poor people," Duke's actor sighed in a monotone attempt to sound poetic and deep. "They're course, irritating and get everywhere."

Wan hadn't felt himself wince this much since he spied on Erza attempting theater and forgot about his friends breaking in. Not that it was hard. Breaking and entering your guildmates' spaces was considered traditional amongst Fairy Tail's teams. Who was he to argue with a dubious tradition?

"At least the effects are decent," he muttered, getting his friends to turn his way.

"Dude, you're just in time for movie night!" Joey Fullborn cheered. "I got pizza baking in the oven with my mom's own recipe!"

"Sorry we got ahead of ourselves," Chico M. Hammitt swore while getting up to pause the film. "We just saw this "gem" lying around and couldn't believe you really got it."

"I... might've had a request to review it a while back," Wan admitted in his embarrassment, going over to snatch the Lacrima. "As you can guess, my take might've been... a tad too hot."

"Now I really wish I went with you," Joey chortled when a strong smell wafted into the room.

"Is the pizza... burning?" Chico asked with growing concern.

"In my oven?!" Wan balked.

"It's, uh, suppose to smell like that!" Joey hastily claimed, forcing a smile while backing away towards the kitchen. "Followed it to the letter for that nice smokiness." He made the most fake chortle ever before bolting towards the very much on fire pizza.

"Guess we're ordering out," Chico groaned.

"I'm just surprised we're even having movie night," Wan remarked, still a bit bewildered in taking a step back. "I mean, it... wasn't my turn to pick..."

Chico glanced at the magazine cover in his right hand and understood immediately what he was talking about. It was hard not to think about that little scheme of their's that never was.

"I miss her too," Chico sadly admitted. "Joey doesn't let it show but... he was a wreck at the funeral." She looked back up at Wan's sollemn face. "Still if-"

"-if Lisanna were here now, she wouldn't want us to keep moping around," her friend sighed with a slight smile returning to his face. "It's cliched but only because it's true."

"Who knows?" Chico began, taking the magazine to see her face. "They just might make a movie of her life."

"Only if I get to direct," Wan promised with a grin and fold of his arms. "Movie 'based on a true story' rarely get the facts straight."

"Funny... you should mention that," Chico replied while picking up another movie Lacrima from the table.

"The... Dragon King Festival Trilogy?!" Wan exclaimed upon reading the title, glancing up at Chico in confusion. "You?"

"I thought that we'd finish this one in her memory," she admitted sheepishly if warmly. "See her off with some fun action."

"And some spicy riffs I imagine?" Wan snarked with a knowing look while Chico set up the Lacrima. "Don't hold back on my account."

"Oh, trust me," she promised with a smirk. "I will be merciless."

Chico set the magazine down upside down to let Lisanna's picture face the movie. Just on the off chance she might be watching.

To Be Continued...

If they only knew how much Lisanna's life was becoming just like their favorite fantasy movies...

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AS TO HOW YOU'VE BEEN ENJOYING THIS FANFIC SO FAR. I don't mean to be pushy for those who may be shy but I only wish to improve my craft or know how I'm doing in general. Rip me to shreads YouTube style even.

matt0044 · Nov 16, 2023

Shoutmon's resistance is on the ropes before Lisanna works her magic.

Chapter 6: Don't Think, Feel

Original Story By Riku Sanjo

Dialogue Adapted from Monica Rial, Jessie James Grelle and Mark Ryan

-Earthland X782, Six Days Later-

It was sunset by the time they got out in the woods near town.

Happy looked ahead at the dome-shaped wooden hut in front of Natsu while he set down the stones with a bittersweet lump in his throat. He had heard a lot of stories about how he had been kept warm as an egg with some a bit more exaggerated than others. However, one thing was consistent amongst them all.

This was where Natsu and Lisanna went out of their way to bring him into this world.

The two wizards often came up to play here with Happy before puberty kicked in and made them way too big to fit. They visited less often after they got old enough to go on missions above C-Rank. Now? The blue cat would've given all the fish in the world to have more time for this place.

For Lisanna.

"Hey, Natsu...?" Happy anxiously began, hoping to break the ice. "Why'd you make a grave for her here when there already is one out in the church's cemetery?"

Natsu was already standing back up and stepping backwards to reveal what he had laid to his little buddy. A small block was place before a small coffin shaped plague marked with the Fairy Tail emblem. All topped off with flowers that he had picked personally wrapped in plastic.

At last, the long second of silence ended.

"This was one of her favor places," Natsu reminded Happy, stilted as it had been for the last near week or so. "She loved..." He paused with slight swallow. "...to sit and watch the sunset." Another pause in his processing. "As long as this is here... she'll never miss a single one."

"Aye..." Happy sighed wistfully.

"I just wish..." Natsu began with a choke in his throat, "...I could keep my promise."

"Huh?" Happy pondered aloud, vaguely remembering something about that from when they were all little.

"I don't think..." Natsu started to whimper, "...I'll be able to find her this time."

"Aye..." Happy sighed once again.

He remembered it more clearly now. Guildarts had helped Natsu search for and save Lisanna from a nasty vulcan. She was so touched that she asked him to promise that he'd always find her no matter the distance. It just seemed like just wild things little kids tended to spout at the time.

"You always knew the little things about her, Salamander..."

Happy was the only one of the two to look behind them and discover Elfman six feet behind them. The solemn faced young man had his uniform repaired, compliments of Mayor Kamiya's tailor, with bandage across his forehead and over his eye for his lingering wounds. He was trying hard too look as stoic as he possible could but Happy could tell...

Natsu didn't turn around.

"But there's... some you don't," Elfman went on with a shake, barely hiding the anxiousness in his voice. "Like... how she really died."

Natsu didn't turn around once more but Happy swallowed hard.

"I, um..." the blue cat began awkward, his wing appearing on his back, "think I left my fish back at the hall." He began to float away after feeling the shift in the atmosphere.

"Please stay, Happy," Elfman insisted, holding up for the moment. "You should hear this too.

Happy had only flown a few feet to the left before the slight crack in Elf's voice beckoned him to stop and turned around. However, he was concerned about coming any further if his gut was right this time around.

"What's there to hear?" Natsu asked, his blunt tone barely lighting a spark. "We've all hear it to the last detail from Mira."

"Not... the last one..." Elfman struggled to say, clenching his teeth for a second. "It's true the Beast got her but..." His fist clenched up while his mouth forced itself to at least form the words. "...only because I botched it up!"

Happy swallowed hard at the implications while landing on the ground. "You were just out cold," he anxious tried to comfort Elfman. "There's no way you could've-"

"I mean that I tried to Takeover the monster myself," Elfman cut in through his gritted teeth, already tearing up in his left eye. "Lisanna... tried to bring me out of it but the Beast's soul... I was so pathetic..." His choking sobs were soon impossible to hold back with his left cheek becoming soaked.

Happy felt rooted to the spot when he finally put it altogether.

Natsu did nothing much less flinch.

"So... you..." the blue kitten barely put out with a dreadful gulp.

Elfman clenched his right hand unable to unfeel the strike. "I killed Lisanna with my own hand," he finally confessed, his stoic front softening up into sorrow. "Mira just... fudged the details out of pity."

Natsu still did nothing.

"I'm so sorry, Lisanna," Elfman choked out with his voice not cracked by shattered. "It's all my fault you're gone." He shut his eye in a vain attempt to stop the tears. "My little sister... if only we'd taken you with us, Natsu, this wouldn't have happened!" He raised his right sleeve to wipe his soaked cheeks. "She'd still be alive!"

Happy managed to step forth close to Elfman's left foot with a very forgiving if teary eyed expression. He would've said something to console his fellow guildmate in mourning when...

"Would you just shut up!?"

Natsu's long overdue outburst managed to jolt Elfman and Happy out of their immediate grieving. They both looked up at the Fire Dragon Slayer to make out how his shoulders were trembling more than they thought.

"Enough with the blubbering already!" Natsu demanded in his pent up frustrations before letting out a deep exhale. "Do you really think Lisanna would want you to carry around that guilt?" His fists clenched more by the word. "How she's suppose to smile if her brother's feeling sad?"

Elfman let a long second pass before swallowed ever so slightly. "You're right..." he conceded if only from how bold Natsu was being.

"No matter what happened..." Natsu went on, his shoulders trembling more than ever, "...she always had a smile on her face." He couldn't help but replay her final farewell in his mind, that smile still there. "Remember?"

Happy first felt that Natsu was being too hard on Elfman but soon caught on that he wasn't just talking to the middle Strauss sibling.

"Even at the very end..." Natsu paused for a shaky breath, "...she never lost her smile." He swallowed silently. "If she were here now... I'm sure she'd say... whenever you're feeling down... that's when you need to smile the most."

At long last, Natsu turned his head around to reveal his mournful frown and the tears beading up in his eyes to Elfman.

"So buck up!" he demanded forcefully. "Show her a smile like a real man."

Elfman's tearful left eye widened upon hearing those last three words.

"A real man..." he repeated, his face hardening into something more stoic.

More... manly.

Without another word, Elfman turned and walked away from his sister's true grave. Happy, despite his anxiousness, gave chase on his stubby little legs and came up to his fellow guildmate.

"I-I'm... sure he didn't mean to put it like that," Happy promised in an attempt to be reassuring. "He's not one for pep talks." However, he looked up and found himself taken aback by how Elf's soft face of sorrow had replaced by something more focused.

"He said just what I needed to hear," Elfman declared with a strong cadence in his throat. "It's time this man stopped moping around got back into the saddle." He began to walk faster than Happy could keep up with. "Tell him I appreciate it."

The blue cat stopped in his confusion and let Elfman walk on ahead down the well-worn forest path. He was too busy trying to figure out what his friend had gotten out of Natsu's outburst.

All Happy could do was look up at the orange dusk sky. Who knew? Maybe if he could fly Natsu up high enough... they'd be able to find her together. Maybe become strong enough to fly anybody else out of danger too.

"Hey, wait up!" Happy called out to Elfman while unfurling his wings to fly faster.

A mere turn of his head to the right would have revealed Mirajane leaning on a tree, her right arm in a cast. Having heard the whole thing, a faint smile however subtle started to curl on her face for the first time in nearly a week.

"Balistamon, Stamon, Pickmonz!" Shoutmon rallied while racing headfirst into the advancing enemy. "Cut loose and give Lisanna a show!"

He made a beeline for the Troopmon that were breaking off from the Mammothmon and doing their duty as cannon fodder to assess the enemy. All while the Machine Digimon brought up the rear while Starmon streaked ahead.

"ROCK N' ROLLER!"

Shoutmon screamed out his attack name into his microphone and extended its staff by his will. With passionate fury in a really mean look in his eye, he smashed, bashed and trashed any Troopmon before they could take aim.

A SMASH to one in front of him.

A BASH another just three feet to his 7:00 as he jumped around in the air.

And a trash to a two more at his 1:00. He had both of his hand gripping the staff to knock their blocks off.

All the while, Balistamon had gone ahead of his little red buddy to boldly face the Mammothmon. He let them come just close enough for one to nearly bring its massive foot down on him before...

"SEISMIC SPEAKER!"

Balistamon's round speaker on his metallic belly emitted high frequency soundwaved strong enough to physically strike his opponents. The Mammothmon's great girth was used against them when the force not only hit them hard but cause them to tumble over. Any Troopmon staying to flank them were quick to regret it before being crush.

"METEOR SHOWER!"

At Starmon's command, the silver and white Pickmon streaked ahead while spewing out others of their kinds. A swarm of one hundred of them buzzed up to the remaining Troopmon and Mammothmon like bee's from a battered hive.

Some flew around enemy Troopmon to make them dizzy and disoriented. Others spun in mid-air and drilled into multiple Mammothmons. The behemoths were too big to shake them off and lacked the limbs to swat them away. All they felt were a million little pricks digging into the furry coats and making them stumble about.

Lisanna had hung way back for her protection with only the red Pickmon bouncing on her head for what passed for a guard. She was completely transfixed by the chaotic war that spread out across the plain before her, slackjawed by how fast things went from one to eighty on the insanity meter.

"Betcha don't get action like this in the human world!" the red Pickmon cheered with an excited but rather croaky voice. "Does Shoutmon know how to throw a party or does he know how to throw a party?"

"You should see my guildhall, Red," Lisanna claimed, her slackjaw rising into an eager grin. "This war zone's got nothing on the usual brawls back home."

Lisanna wouldn't find herself on the sidelines for long when her ears picked up on long whistling noise behind her. Her face fell while she swung around and saw a small spiked ball free-falling towards her from five feet up closing.

"FINAL CHIKURIMON!"

No.

It was clearly making a beeline for her.

"Gyah!" Red cried aloud in alarm. "Fire in the hole!"

"Hold onto something!" Lisanna wanted the panicking Pickmon before leaping out of the way. However, she only raced fast enough to avoid the direct hit three feet behind and get flung forward by the explosion shockwave.

"What I wouldn't give for thumbs!" Red grunted, biting onto the back of Lisanna's hair.

"Takeover!" she cried out desperately during their free-fall. "Harpy Soul!"

Her body felt her magic spread throughout and morph her arms into wings while her legs became long talons. She flapped hard to pull up almost on a dime and ascended fast.

"Talk about perfect timing!" Lisanna exclaimed to her surprised, grinning again.

Red fell off of her head and was saved by a hair by the wizard's left talon. However, it was hardly a reprieve when he looked ahead.

"Look out, Liz!" Red cried out, spotting two Chikurimon gunning for them. "Two bogies at our 6:00.

"Ew!" Lisanna balked in her misunderstanding of militant jargon. "Pick your nose on your-"

However, she looked behind just in time to see the two spiked bombs zooming right for her and gaining. The look of their red eye blinking like flickering candle lights told her that they were ready to make roast bird out of her with extra steps.

"FINAL CHIKURIMON!"

"Brace yourself!" Lisanna warned Red. "Major turbulence coming!"

She opened up her wings while rotating herself upright in order to stop herself in mid-air and lifted her talons up just in time. The Chikurimon raced past her and were too fast to stop before they both collided in a brilliant explosion. Lisanna had thankfully flown backwards far enough to avoid any shockwaves this time.

"I take it back, Red," she sighed with exhilaration, stopping for a hover. "This is a close second to Fairy Tail."

"At least one of us is having fun..." Red muttered, feeling like her was about to barf.

Shoutmon was mentally kicking himself for letting gormless Troopmon pin him down. About seven had time to group up and blast a barrage of laser fire to heavy to dodge. The most he could do was grit his teeth and spin his mic staff fast enough to deflect most of the bullet.

"Balistamon, I could use some back up here!" Shoutmon grunted on his wrist com, feeling his arms aching.

"So could I," his metallic comrade radioed back, audibly grunting in his own efforts. "Small world, huh?"

Shoutmon glanced to his 3:00 and saw Balistamon having his hands literally full with one last Mammothmon's foot attempting to flatten him.

"No way I'm not going down swinging," he declared, turning back to the Troopmon marching forth with every shot. "I can at least keep Lisanna safe."

"Shoutmon!" he heard her voice cry out by coincidence. "Clear the way on my mark!"

The Small Dragon Digimon looked up and gasped at the sight of not just Lisanna's new feathery look but her diving down his way. It was enough to get the Troopmon to cease fire and look up at the new incoming threat from the skies.

"This girl's crazy!" Shoutmon exclaimed, clearly one to talk.

"TAKEOVER!" Lisanna belted out while her body magically glowed in accordance. "RABBIT SOUL!"

She felt herself expand in morphing into her giant purple rabbit form and somersaulted to fall bottom first at a faster rate. Without claws to grip him, Red yelped helpless when he took went into free-fall slightly behind Lisanna.

"BUNNY BOMBER!"

The simple-minded Troopmon were too bewildered to fire their weapons let alone aim any of them before the big bunny made landfall. Lisanna took a cue from the Mammothmon by squashing most of them into data particles with her big butt. A slight tremor knocked Shoutmon and a few Troopmon off their feet.

"Who says a rabbit's foot isn't lucky?" Lisanna quipped in a rush of cocksure with Mirajane in mind. She even held out her right paw to catch Red almost too casually.

"I don't even know... what a rabbit is..." the red Pickmon slurred and groaned, floating up in a wobbling stupor, "and I agree..."

"Crazy awesome!" Shoutmon corrected with a mad smile, recovering quickly to run up to the over ten foot rabbit. "You really are a wizard, Liz!"

"A Fairy Tail wizard," Lisanna boasted, setting Red down so he could report to Starmon. "Believe me, there's a distinction."

She would've liked to enjoy Shoutmon's boyish enthusiam but her big ears picked up on jet fire from above. It made her lift her head to catch sight of a Pteramon gunning for them in a dive-bomb.

"Case in point!" Lisanna quipped, smirking like a battle hungry Natsu. "Pull!" She hopped up just in time with a twist and kicked the Pteramon with the back of her left foot to Shoutmon's surprise. It veered out of control from the impact while trying to stabilize

"Sharing is caring," Lisanna playfully offered while landing more softly.

"Now ain't that sweet?" Shoutmon replied with a grin, eager to flex himself.

"FIERY FASTBALL!"

Shoutmon belted out his attack while a ball of fire ignited within his fingers. He stretched back with his left hand and pitched it hard enough to hit Pteramon with a perfect aim. The metal menace of the skies burned far faster than it could crash.

"So who else wants a piece of this?" Lisanna demanded to know with a cocky raise of an eyebrow. "Well..." She turned towards any remaining Troopmon just getting up and flashed an eager grin just as Mirajane would at Erza.

The foot soldiers displayed a rare moment of self-preservation and dropped their weapons to bow with their head to the ground in but a second. Their muffled speech was unmistakably cowardly in their collective tone.

"That's what I thought, boys," Lisanna gloated while Shoutmon slapped his knee in laughter. "This girl's all fired up now!"

The young wizard would've been prudent to remember that the worst thing a fighter could do was tempt fate during a battle. For it was when Lisanna was pretending to flex his muscles like Elfman would that her bulky bunny body reverted back to that of a fair-skinned, noodle-armed girl.

"Uh oh..." was all she could mutter in her embarrassment.

-Earthland X782, Eight Days Later-

"That's Mirajane?" one voice questioned, probably Max. "Somebody cleans up nicely."

"Dude, she is right there!" another voice warned in a whisper, probably Warren. "Think those thoughts with me."

Not that it mattered as far as Mirajane was concerned while her chin rested on her palm. The once She-Devil idly sat at the bar's circle chair with her usual punk ponytail undone and a modest red dress that Master Makarov forced her into for formal occassions. Her Satan Soul magic had fallen into disuse too much to be in the mood.

It didn't help that Mirajane hadn't taken a mission of any class since... then. Nobody held it against her but it was hard to not be concerned whenever they found her just sitting around the Guildhall like stray they took in.

"Where's a shot-glass when you really need it?" Mirajane groaned in growing irritation, letting her head flop to the table.

"Don't get your hopes up," she heard someone call out drolly behind her. "Laxus took his Thunder Blunders on a "mission" to Akane Beach." Mirajane looked to her left to see the ever shirtless Cana Alberona sit two seats from her.

"Flaking again?" Mira balked in annoyance. "If he's the Fourth Master, I'm joining Cait Shelter." She leaned her head back when she caught sight of a card that Cana was staring at in her right hand, her gaze ever solemn. "You've... been looking at that card a lot lately."

"I did a reading for Lisanna the day before," Cana confessed, her apathy masking her true turmoil as usual. "The cards promised her that 'tomorrow night' would be a crossroads in her destiny." She flicked it over her shoulder with a scoff. "Fate sure has a sick sense of humor."

A long pause hung between them while the guildhall's usual chatter carried on without them. At last...

"Well, to hell with this!" Mirajane declared, slamming her hands down to lunge herself over the bar. "I'm choosing my own destiny, thank you very much."

Cana snapped out of her jaded demeanor over this surprise turn and saw Mira rummaging below the bar for any good labels. A few guild members that had been passing by caught sight of this and paused to see more.

"I knew it!" Mirajane laugh triumphantly, pulling out a big glass bottle of vodka. "Laxus was holding out on us." She effortlessly popped the top open.

"He's gonna raise this place to the ground when he finds out," Cana snorted with mischief when Mira slide her a shot glass.

"Not if Master finds out first," the She-Devil sneered, pouring out the vodka. "And he will." She was so casual with it but managed to fill her and Cana's small shotglasses with but two tips.

"Not even a little drip," Cana observed when holding up her glass. "Now that's a good omen."

Mirajane smile more sincerely on that note before raising her shot-glass. "To Lisanna," she proposed with slight solemnness this time.

"To Lisanna," Cana warmly agreed to, tapping their shot-glasses without a spill.

Cana downed her vodka with a single swing but Mirajane had only brought her glass up to her lips when...

"Hey, while you're back there, could you see if we have an brandy left?"

The girls looked back to find Wakaba strolling up to the bar, still sporting a pipe in his mouth and the dumbest pompadour on his head they swore was a glued on wig.

"I won't tell Master if you don't," the sly old dog grinned like the fun uncle he liked to be. "He's out with Erza on some council brouhaha."

"Not like I'm going anywhere," Mirajane shrugged with a roll of her eyes before checking the bottles below. "On the rocks in a mug?"

"Am I really that predictable?" Wakaba snickered while sitting down near Cana.

"You could stand to mix it up better," Mirajane giggled while pouring brandy into a mug. She added four cubes of ice before noticing that her cadence was becoming higher in pitch. Almost like she was twelve again.

"Anything good to eat?" Macao chimed in while strolling up behind Wakaba, his partner in crime. "My... wife's insisting on cabbage stew for dinner."

"Huh, haven't cook in a while," Mirajane pondered, forgetting her train of thought. "Don't expect any miracles." She stuck out her tongue rather playfully before turning towards the kitchen.

While Mirajane turned towards the kitchen, Cana joined Wakaba and Macao in a smile over the same sentiment.

"The She-Devil as a busgirl," Cana remarked with a chortle. "Not even I could've seen that coming."

To Be Continued...

The Strauss Siblings go their separate paths, wounded by their divide but making strives to heal.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AS TO HOW YOU'VE BEEN ENJOYING THIS FANFIC SO FAR. I don't mean to be pushy for those who may be shy but I only wish to improve my craft or know how I'm doing in general. Rip me to shreads YouTube style even.

matt0044 · Nov 30, 2023

LAST CHAPTER FOR PILOT. LEAVE THOUGHTS FOR A POTENTIAL FULL CROSSOVER. MAY BE A WHILE. CAN'T RUSH GOOD ART.

Just when it seems like all is lost, trust a Fairy Tail wizard to pull off a miraculous comeback with the power of friendship.

Chapter 7: Act As One

Story Adapted From Riku Sanjo

Dialogue Adapted From Mark Ryan

"This ain't the time to take five, Liz!" Shoutmon exclaimed, hoping what happened wasn't what he thought just happened.

"My magic just... tapped out!" Lisanna repeated in growing panic, looking over her body in confusion. "There's not enough ethernano to take in!" Any sense of bravado that she had radiated before had been snuffed out faster than Natsu's appetite on a moving vehicle.

"So you're a wizard, are you?" a familiar snarling voice spoke up much to their dread. "Perhaps you'll be more valuable alive."

Lisanna's face truly fell into an expression most terrified when she and Shoutmon turned behind them. There was Madleomon emerging from a thick dust cloud kicked up from all the explosions and getting within six feet too many.

"Not this time, you overgrown kitty!" Shoutmon declared, wielding his mic with two hands at the ready. "You'll have to go through me first."

"Now's not the time to tempt fate, Shoutmon," Lisanna anxiously warned, getting well behind the Small Dragon Digimon.

"Enough standing by," Madleomon snarled, sounding more sinister and sly. "See if your pathetic human friend can help you survive this!" Stretching out his arm, he let out a growing roar and drew in a few stray Chikurimon from the air.

Lisanna and Shoutmon were really thrown for a loop when the spiked bomb broke down into data particles Madleomon absorbed. Soon a whole Mammothmon that had been toppled by Balistamon pasted over the pair and broke down into data for the Undead Digimon to take in.

Even the deserting Troopmon found themselves pulled off the ground and flailed for their lives before Madleomon took in their essence. All the while, the already large behemoth grew larger and larger by the second.

"Is he... eating them?" Lisanna asked in a perfect cocktail of disgust and terror.

"He's absorbing all his men!" Balistamon's voice cut in, panicked for once. "It's the Bagra's last gambit when everything's gone belly-up!"

Lisanna and Shoutmon turned to see the Machine Digimon burning his evening oil change to rush towards them. Starmon and his Pickmon crew weren't far behind after Red had raised the alarm.

"I knew he was hanging back for a reason!" Shoutmon cursed, upset that he took his foe for just another brute.

"Now what are we suppose to do?" Lisanna demanded to know, feeling foolish for burning through her magic.

"Stay still and accept defeat for starters!" Madleomon growled behind them.

Everybody turned towards the Undead Digimon just in time to see his right arm change into a chainsaw and his left gaining a metallic gauntlet. In fact, his entire body was now twice his size and twice as deadly.

"It's ArmedMadleomon!" Shoutmon barked out just in time. "Balistamon, grab Lisanna and gun it!"

"LION HEART!"

ArmedMadleomon declared his attack at he revved up his chainsaw before smashing it into the ground in an attempt to crush his foes into zeros and ones. However, Balistamon had grabbed Lisanna just in time to jump out of the way along with Shoutmon and Starmon's crew.

"Remember that plan I asked you about?" she asked her robotic friend. "What is it now?" Yet again, he carried her like a newly wed while her hands clung onto him.

"Make tracks and hope for the best!" Balistamon answered way too honestly and frightfully.

"That's barely even a concept!" Lisanna retorted incredulously, starting to thing they were too much like Fairy Tail.

However, they had reckoned without ArmedMadleomon's chainsaw still cutting into the earth itself. It quickly opened up a fissure that cracked and slithered up quickly toward the resistance fighters before growing into a borderline gorge.

"Hold onto something, guys!" Shoutmon ordered just in time.

The ground crumbled beneath Shoutmon's feet before he reflexively grabbed onto the rock-face within the fissure. Starmon's posse of Pickmonz dispersed with their leader while Balistamon did the only thing he could attempt.

"Fly, you fool!" the big, bulky beetle urged Lisanna.

Lisanna yelped from Balistamon's mighty toss before the ground caved beneath him. The Machine Digimon grabbed hold of one side of the fissure just when the quake died down while the young wizard barely braced herself landing on a patch of grass.

"Shoutmon?!" Lisanna gasped loudly while springing back up. "Balistamon?!" She looked back to find that she'd only just avoided the fissure by a foot.

"We're okay!" she heard Shoutmon called out. "Barely!"

"I don't know how you survived," ArmedMadleomon growled irately, yanking his chainsaw arm out of the ground, "but I'll see to it that your suffering lasts, upstart!" He marched up the fissure with heavy stomps that threatened to make Shoutmon and Balistamon lose their holds.

"Hightail it, Liz!" Balistamon urged, his metal finger digging deep. "Get to the Village of Light and make sure your family's okay."

"But what about you?" Lisanna began to respond, glancing up at the ever looming ArmedMadleomon. The image of the Beast was too vivid to shake.

"There's nothing you can do!" Shoutmon barked. "He's way out of your league alone."

Lisanna clenched her fists anxiously while she began to move her feet backwards however slowly. She knew that ArmedMadleomon could do far worse than swat her away but Shoutmon? His pals just stuck their necks out for her, a virtual stranger from another world, without asking for anything in return.

"Family looks out for each other..." Lisanna told herself, remembering what Master Makarov told her of Fairy Tail's core ethos. "Be they of blood or beyond..."

Will all the careless abandon of a hungry Dragon Slayer, she forced herself to run forward towards the lumbering Undead Digimon. Lisanna told herself to keep moving and not think of anything else lest her feet try to turn tail in protest.

"Hey, tall, dark and butt-ugly!" she insulted up at ArmedMadleomon, thinking of one of Natsu's "creative" insults for Gray. "Leave my friends out of this and try me on for size!"

"Is this your attempt at a joke?" the bulky behemoth balked, letting his guard down. "Just who do you think you are?"

"She's way of out her depth unless we do something!" Shoutmon exclaimed to Balistamon, still fighting for his grip.

"Tell me something I don't know," the Machine Digimon replied, feeling his right hand slipping already. "Like how to get out of this trench."

"If we could only merge out data like that overgrown Gatomon, we-" Shoutmon began to suggest, merely out of frustration.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide in his realization while his mind replayed the first time he met Lisanna in the plains. That Digivice she claimed to have. He had forgotten about it all this time but he could still feel it poking around in his pounce.

"I'm an IDIOT!" he exclaimed to Balistamon's concern.

"Well, I wouldn't go with that per say..." the Machine Digimon began only to be ignored.

Shoutmon shoved his mic into the trench wall and hung from the staff while the spiked grille kept him in place. He reached into his pouch and took out the Fusion Loader. The screen was glowing a bright green and read out a surname followed by a given name.

[STRAUSS, LISANNA.]

"Can I pick 'em or what?" Shoutmon rhetorically asked a confused Balisatamon. "Heads up, Liz!" He threw the Fusion Loader clear over the trench after concentrating on Lisanna's footsteps. "Use this Fusion Loader!"

The young wizard slowed down in her mad dash just in time to spot the device flying through the air and falling towards her. She remembered that voice telling her those words and reached out to grab it with her right hand's perfect catch.

The top of the device snapped open to reveal a golden "V."

Then it came back to Lisanna in flashes.

Her standing in front of Shoutmon, Balistamon and other Digimon.

Her thrusting out the Fusion Loader to combine them into one.

Her battle cry.

"Shoutmon!"

Balistamon!"

"DIGI-FUSE!"

Lisanna thrust out the Fusion Loader while its small screen radiated a blinding green light. She could feel it. Shoutmon. Balistamon. Their... data. Their essence. Just like with the voice of that data card.

"You wouldn't?!" ArmedMadleomon exclaimed, realizing his error in judgement.

"Whoa!" Shoutmon gasped, feeling his body become light while glowing his red colors.

"What's going on?" Balistamon exclaimed, his body also radiating a certain aura. "I feel funny."

At long last, their bodies were broken down into pure data that shot into the sky like a rocket. Lisanna took a step back in surprise. First, a red streak from Shoutmon and a blue streak from Balistamon that looped around almost playfully.

"Ooooo, but funny in a good way," she could hear Balistamon chortle before the two data streams converged in a brilliant flash.

"DIGI-FUSE!"

From this flash, emerged Balisatmon's left hand. Then the right. Finally, a robotic torso formed in mid-air bearing the "V" in Shoutmon's shade of red. A white metallic head with golden spike from Shoutmon's microphone materialized on top and snapped open both of his blue eyes.

"Shoutmon! X2 1/2!"

"Well, ah'll be ding-dong-danged!" Starmon cheered, seeing the whole thing from afar. "Seems this tussle ain't in the bag just yet." His crew followed behind him on his signal to join the fray.

"Woo-hoo!" Shoumton's energetic voice called out in exhileration. "I think I've just been upgraded!"

"Hot-diggity-daffadil," Balistamon's voice exclaimed. "I've heard of 'bosom buddies' but this is something else."

"Did I do that?" Lisanna asked herself dumbfounded. "Whatever it is."

"But... how?!" ArmedMadleomon balked, staring contemptly down at the young wizard. "The human just... Digi-Fused them?!"

While he was still in shock, the hybrid of a Digimon zoomed down from the air and threw a flying punch. ArmedMadleomon reflexively rose his chainsaw to defend only for his fused foe to strike it hard enough to make it shatter into shrapnel. He growled in pain over his destroyed armament.

"Yes!" Lisanna cheered, ducking to avoid debris. "Direct hit!"

"BEAST BLASTER!"

Madleomon, no longer fully armed, threw a punch with his left fist and projected a piece of his spirit in an energy blast. The spirit resembled his face and roared just as angrily in making a beeline for Shoutmon X2 1/2.

"VAROOMA-BOOMERANG!"

The hybrid Digimon projected the V from his chest and grabbed the solid construct just before the Beast Blaster came into range. He tossed it forth like a real boomerang and cancelled out the blast with his own powerful attack. The resulting smoke from the explosion billowed into Madleomon's eyes to his irritation.

At that moment, the Fusion disengaged Shoutmon from Balistamon in mid-air and sent them into free fall to their surprise.

"Uh, Liz," the Small Dragon Digimon called out below, trying to keep cool, "I think we might need some reinforcements."

"Guess I still haven't gotten the hand of this," Lisanna groaned in dismay. "Now what?"

"Y' make a sword outta us, that's what, l'il lady!" Starmon's jiving voice called in. "Th' Fusion Loader needs your imagination to whip up something for us."

Lisanna looked around to find that he and some of the silver Pickmonz had gathered together. Almost immediately, she caught onto the plan just in time for the smoke to clear by way of Madleomon swiping it away hastily.

"Shoutmon, Starmon and Pickmonz!" Lisanna began, thrusting out the Fusion Loader with a clear vision in mind.

"DIGI-FUSE!"

The Fusion Loader's screen radiated that green glow brighter than the sun while Starmon and five silver Pickmonz broke down into their raw data. They shot up towards Shoutmon who held out his hand for whatever help he could get.

First, he grabbed Starmon who formed into a hilt before a Pickmonz attached to the top like a small dagger. Then a second Pickmonz. A third. A fourth. And finally a fifth. The silver chain-link was soon set ablaze by Shoutmon's inner passion.

"Balistamon!" Shoutmon began to order before feeling a metal hand grab his torso.

"Say no more, your majesty!" the Machine Digimon answered, pulling back his right arm with Shoutmon in his hold. "Brace yourself."

Shoutmon gritted his teeth while Balistamon flung him straight at Madleomon. The Undead Digimon spared them all the banter to raise up his gauntlet for a left hook himself.

"SUN SWORD!"

Shoutmon gave a strong slash that send a shockwave of heat straight for Madleomon's face before his foe could try to punch it away. The explosion on impact was immense enough to blow smoke almost everywhere.

Lisanna blocked her faces with her arms almost by reflex before any smoke could hit her eyes while Balistamon land just by her right with a KLANG!

"Did we get-?" the Machine Digimon began.

"Don't say it!" Lisanna interrupted, getting soot on her tongue unfortunatlely. "Early calls on a battle only jinx it."

Indeed, as the smoke cleared, the remaining Resistance Fighters found Shoutmon still wielding his Sun Sword before a very battle-worn Madleomon.

"Whoops," Balistamon bashfully apologized, rubbing the back of his head. "My bad."

Thankfully, Madleomon grunted when he hunched over and started to shrink. Tiny yellow data particles were leaking from his body with his form far too damaged to hold onto all the power he stole.

"Nevermind," Lisanna perked up. "We did get him." She joined Balistamon is dashing towards Shoutmon to back him up.

"I'm melting..." Madleomon growled in pain. "Melting!"

"Oh, what a world," Shoutmon sassed backed, tossing his Sun Sword into the air before it defused.

"Tell Bagra th' Forest Zone's off limits," Starmon tossed in after reformating with his posse.

"You... miserable... worm," was all Madleomon could muster before he heard a cracking sound behind him.

Lisanna had just came up to Shoutmon when she saw another in the long list of weird things from today alone. A part of sky had just... cracked like glass and shattered open behind Madleomon's head. It revealed the endless void that she had been in. Whatever it was, Madleomon was sweating bullets in a anxious fit.

"You've failed me..." a smooth male voice called out from the void in the most chilly tone.

"No, wait, General Tactimon!" Madleomon begged in a terribly panicky voice. "I'm not defeated yet!"

However, his pitiful plea was cut short by his body glowing bright yellow and being pulled back into the void. Every Mammothmon, Troopmon and Pteramon that was still intact was recalled instantaneously through this breakdown into their raw data for transport.

"You'll pay for this, Shoutmon!" Madleomon managed to roar from beyond the crack. "And that goes for your human intruder too."

The crack instantaneously repaired itself, leaving Lisanna and her new Digimon friends at a loss for words. They had won but likely only because something far worse that Madleomon had yanked at his leash.

"Tactimon..." Lisanna Strauss gulped audibly, anxious after seeing only the tip of the iceberg.

The dimly lit dark of the room matched the living suit of armor that was General Tactimon in menace. Moreso when he overlooked the map of the Forest Zone and his campaign's progress. It enraged him to see that Madleomon hadn't even gotten a mile in before meeting resistance. And from a human no less.

"That bootless Madleomon was all roar and no fangs," Tactimon spitefully declared, clenching his fist. "I was a fool to let him besmirch my perfect battle record."

"Feh!" a more blunter male voice snickered sinisterly. "You said it, not me."

Tactimon need only glance to his left to catch the gleam from Blastmon's crystaline body by a collumn and his smirk of sheer schadenfreude. He was about to be firm in showing he didn't appreciate intrusions to his war room when someone else invited themselves in.

"Do go easy on our little kitty-witty," a deep-toned feminine voice called out, oozing with sadism. "After all, who could've predicted a wizard falling out of the sky."

Tactimon found Laylamon to his right easily by the way she overdressed yet also left little to the imagination. Something told him that she was waiting for moment like this. Not too far from her was her toadie, Reapmon. His mask and bandanna left just a single left eye to speak volumes with a look that took little pleasure in this affair.

"Save your mockery before you've seen my next strategy, comrade," Tactimon contemptfully told, using that last word as loosely as possible. "The Forest Zone will be Bagra territory come hell or highwater."

He brought up the image of Lisanna Strauss, recovered from the memory file of Madleomon, to commit this new enemy to memory. This time he would be prepared...

Lisanna was still at a loss for words over Madleomon's sudden recall when Shoutmon shattered the silence with what he was named for.

"That... was... AWESOME!" Shoutmon finally exclaimed, turning to run over to his wizarding comrade-in-arms. "Liz, I could kiss you!"

The Small Dragon Digimon took Lisanna aback by jumping up and wrapping his arms around her torso. Lisanna went red in the face as Shoutmon's natural color when his head nestled upon her chest in his hug of blind jubilation.

"You and me and Balista makes-" Shoutmon began to cheer when he heard Lisanna's firm clearing of her throat. "-three?" He felt the soft area of her chest and remembered quickly how they first met.

"Oh my..." Balistamon quipped, genuinely surprised by his buddy's... forwardness.

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" Starmon sighed like a proud Papa.

Shoutmon pulled his head back to see Lisanna with a disapproving raise of her eyebrow.

"Sorry," he quickly apologized. "I forgot about your human weak-points."

However, Lisanna just giggled in her inability to stay mad at Shoutmon and grabbed him with her arms much to his surprise.

"Oh, c'mere you," she beckoned while hugging him back with both arms. "This is how we celebrate in Earthland." She even invoked her Cat Soul unconsciously as her arms and ears became all furry.

Shoutmon was already beat red but feeling Lisanna nuzzle up to his cheeks with an affectionate purr really made him blush brighter than ever.

"H-Hey," he protested in embarrassment. "A simple high-five would suffice."

"D'aww, ain't they cute?" Balistamon and Starmon teased behind them with the Pickmonz giggling in glee.

"Cute?!" Shoutmon balked with a pout. "I am adorable, thank you very much." However, he couldn't help but crack a sliver of a smile from Lisanna's affection.

A nearby plateau was just far enough for her to observe but not too far away to miss the action. Multiple little green men with massive box-shaped monitors for heads kept well to themselves. Behind them was young brunette with twin-tails, pink boots and a violet blouse beneath a lavender coat.

"Definately human," Monitamon #1 affirmed, his satellite dish antenna properly tuned.

"Denser amounts of Ethernano in the vicinity detected," Monitamon #2 reported, his screen flashing with processing data. "Based on those transformations, she's a wizard alright."

"So she's not from Edolas if those were her natural abilities," Nene Amano surmised with her cool as ice expression, stepping up behind her two best spies on the edge. "It would appear that we've found ourselves a genuine wizard." She craddled what seemed to be a smaller Monitamon in her arms and pat it on the head.

"I'm sending footage of the battle to Monimon now for later analysis," Monitamon #1 claimed. "Please check for quality, Miss Nene."

"Acknowledged," Team Midnight's General responded, letting Monimon turn around in her arms.

Nene viewed the screen switch from a beady-eyed baby face to footage of the battle that'd just gone on. A particular shot of Balistamon carrying Lisanna caught her attention and took her aback, her narrow eyes shooting open.

That insignia on her left shoulder.

It couldn't be...

"This situation could be serious, Miss Nene," Monitamon #1 remarked. "Maybe we should call it in to-."

"Not just yet," Nene cut in, trying to suppress anything more that a flat expression. "This matter warrant further investigation before we get extreme." She wasn't one for optimism but she did hope that Sparrowmon was keeping him occupied.

"Sooooo... what do we do, young mistress?" Monitamon #2 queried. "I mean, beside spy on them."

"We could," Nene answered with a hint of playfulness in her voice now. "But spying's a lot more fun." She was at least sincere when it counted.

He cringed when he saw Balistamon give Lisanna a hug while she was still embarrassing Shoutmon.

"That witch really pulled it off," a blond young man scoffed with disgust, standing on the edge of another plateau. "Even without magic, she gets everything handed to her." He adjusted the white jacket over his red-buttoned shirt when Mailbirdramon hovered up behind him.

"She only got lucky Tactimon was a sore loser," the metallic raptor remarked dismissively, cutting the engines in his wings. "One minute with us alone will send her crying home to Earthland, General Christopher."

"Lemme at 'er," Greymon growled, the large T-Rex snapping his jaws eagerly. "She won't even have time t' cry for her mama."

Mailbirdramon rolled his eyes at his partner's usual desire to go in gun's blazing.

"I wouldn't sell her that short," Christopher Aonuma decided, reaching into his back pocket. "A little competition is just what we need to keep complacency at bay."

He pulled out a Fusion Loader of his own. A blazing blue Fusion Loader he held under his chin.

"Get ready, boys," Team Blue Flare's General announced. "Things just got complicated." Despite his cold looks, there was a hint of intrigue to his voice.

-Earthland X782, Nine Days Later-

The train to Hargeon raced from Magnolia Station with coaches full load of passengers. Not all of them finding the ride smooth as advertised.

"Mind over matter, Natsu," Happy insisted, looking out the window. "Think happy, non-moving thoughts." He never got tired of seeing the country side fly right by on one of their train ride, almost tempted to race the train himself.

"O-one of these... days..." Natsu began, holding back a volano of an upchuck, "they gotta make, urgh, better... motion sickness charms." His right cheek was laid upon their table. "Whatever Porlyusica... whipped up... ain't cuttin' it."

"Then why'd you insist on going out by train?" Happy asked curiously, hoving down to his seat. "I like surprises and all but I'm not looking to dye my fur green if you get me."

"There's talk of this Fire Wizard that's been charming the ladies off their feet and making a lot of jealous enemies," Natsu asked, making an effort to sit back up. "Thing is that he seems keen to cover his tracks like he was never there."

"So he's another baddy to knock around," Happy surmised in confusion. "Why go to all this trouble if it's not a Job?"

"His real name's a mystery but there is a nickname he seems real fond of," Natsu continued with more of an eager grin. "Salamander."

Happy gasped upon recognizing Natsu's own nickname. The very same one he had inherited from...

"Igneel?!" he ventured forth. "You think it's him?"

"He often said that he had a human form he could use in a pinch," Natsu answered, daring to hope. "A dragon moving from place to place would be all over the papers."

"But you haven't been on the hunt for a while now," Happy asked. "Why start now?"

Natsu's expression softened when he looked towards the window where the sky was perfectly in view.

"Let's just say that someone we knew reminded me what family means to me," he explained, the fire in his voice now dimmed down to a flicker.

"Oh..." Happy realized sadly.

"If he's really out there, then I'm not letting him slip away from me," Natsu continued, sounding more ignited by the word. "Not like she did..."

A sad silence sat between Dragon Slayer and cat along with the clickity-clack of the wheels on the tracks. Three seconds later...

"Well, I'm with you," Happy determinedly declared with a chuff from his nose. "If Lisanna were still here, she'd say-"

BLEEEAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!

Neighboring passengers looked towards the sickly sound and regretted catching sight of Natsu's body remembering its intense case of vertigo. Happy's fear of being dyed green had be fully realized.

"You always gotta ruin it, don't you?" Happy sighed in resignation, dripping with sick.

To Be Continued...

Fairy Tail's course of history has diverged considerably but not too much. Mirajane finds her place as the guild's den mother. Elfman strives to become a Real Man(TM). Natsu sets out to resume his search for Igneel. All the while, the one they mourn is on a journey unlike any other.

This will be the last chapter for the Pilot until I have worked out the outline for at least the Code Crown arc. The beginning may've been similar to the original versions but once this gets going down the road, well... spoilers as River Song once said.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AS TO HOW YOU'VE BEEN ENJOYING THIS FANFIC SO FAR. I don't mean to be pushy for those who may be shy but I only wish to improve my craft or know how I'm doing in general. Rip me to shreads YouTube style even.

EVERYONE: Digi-Tail Fusion: Quest For The Code Crown PILOT

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