Right so, looking back this story leaves much to be desired. I mean, its my first fanfic so I wasn't expecting great results but looking at the first chapters from before, all I have to say is yikes and what the heck was I thinking...

I'll be busy looking back and possibly editing my work, especially since life keeps getting in the way of writing so the next chapter will likely take a few days.

Anyway, without further ado here's chapter 1!

A teenage boy with light brown hair that faded to blond and royal blue eyes walked down one of the streets of Magnolia. He wore a three quarter sleeved white shirt under a sleeveless black hoodie with a gold trim along with red pants and black shoes.

As he passed by the blacksmith shop, the man working there stopped what he was doing and grinned when he saw the boy. "Well, look who it is." The boy smiled and walked over to join him. "No need to ask how the job went...seeing as it's you we're talking about."

"Ah, you're exaggerating Marco-san but thanks. It did go well."

"I figured as much." The man, like so many who knew the teen, were already used to his modesty so this answer was very much expected. "So any luck on the other front?"

The boy shook his head "Your friend told me the same thing you did. I need to get the other pieces for any shot for him to have any shot at figuring it out."

"I thought so, and you can tell where they are?"

"Only if I'm near one but so far I'm out of luck."

"Well, I'll keep an eye out. If I hear anything, I'll let you know."

"Thank you."

"Man..." Natsu groaned as he sat down. "...Gramps can sure be uptight. That hurt."

Gray gave him an unimpressed look "What did you think he was going to do when you pretty much ruined most of his beer stock?"

"That's because you threw me into those kegs!"

"That's because you punched me!" The ice mage retorted. "Besides, you're the one who kept stomping around after that."

"Oi, you're the who froze me then!"

"I had to, ash brain! Alcohol's flammable. You could have destroyed the whole place back then."

"No, I wouldn't! I know it's flammable!"

"It's good that you do but really Natsu, your history speaks for itself." Happy deadpanned.

"I rest my case." Gray nodded at the cat with a grin.

"Happy!" The dragon slayer groaned.

"Jeez, stop blaming me for your actions. It's times like this that make me realize how much him keeping the peace made things so much better." Gray sighed.

"Took ya long enough!" Natsu huffed.

"You don't get to talk! You're one of the people who gives him the most trouble!"

"I do not!"

"Yes you do! It's only because he's got the patience of a saint that he doesn't complain. Some best friend you turned out to be! How he puts up with you is beyond me."

"Say what?!"

Happy rolled his eyes "Pot, this is kettle, you're black."

Judging by their interaction, Lucy could certainly see what that meant. This was only her second day here so she had a bunch of things to get used to. One of them being this. "I thought you were pulling my leg but really this never ends does it?"

"Aye..." He sighed. "...We've had enough time to know that it doesn't take much to start things between them."

"So who's this guy they were talking about? Does he really try to keep the peace around here?"

Happy nodded "Believe it or not, it actually works sometimes and by that I mean without any violence from him. He's off doing a job for the council. He can be a bit of a nag but that's only because..."

"Oh, really?" A new voice said and the two turned around to find the brown and blond haired boy giving Happy an unimpressed look.

"Sorry for being a nag then."

Happy smiled and jumped to the boy's arms "Hope!"

The boy caught him with a small smile, already too used to the cat's behavior to be annoyed. It helped that he was just as glad to see him and to have returned.

Happy's exclamation brought Natsu and Gray's attention to them.

"Oh, you're back. Faster than Wakaba and the others said too." Gray grinned.

Natsu snorted "Surprise, surprise. They haven't tried so they think it'll be a right pain but some of them keep underestimating Hope. You'd think they'd learn by now."

"Aye, it really is stupid," Happy nodded sagely. "Then again, they're just lazy."

"Ain't that the truth."

Hope sat down "Thanks for the vote of confidence but everything went fine. So who's your friend?"

"Oh yeah, she's Luigi! She's a new member." Natsu said.

"Hey!" Lucy scowled at him.

Hope seemed to realize what he was doing too because he just raised an eye before turning to the celestial mage "Well, it's nice to meet you, Miss..."

"It's Lucy, no need for the formalities and likewise." She told him with a smile, though she was surprised. This was the first time a male around here had been so polite to her.

"Right, I'm Hope Dreyar."

"Oh, so..." She blinked. "...hold on, Dreyar, as in...?"

"Yup, he's Master's grandson." Happy nodded.

"So that's why you were doing a job for the council?" Lucy wanted to know.

"Nah, that's just Hope trying to make a bad situation better." At her curious look, Gray explained. "You know a lot of us get into trouble with the council and all. It gives Gramps a lot of grief so Hope decided to take the jobs he can get done."

"Wow, you do that and you try to keep the peace around here? I'm impressed, that's remarkable."

Hope looked embarrassed. "That's no big deal, it just ended up that way..."

As Lucy watched Natsu and Hope talking, she couldn't help but note that this was the calmest mood she'd ever seen the dragon slayer in.

"You make it sound so simple even when you ended up destroying half the port." Hope remarked when Natsu finished explaining everything. "I get why you were mad at Bora but there's such a thing as overkill."

"I didn't mean to! I was just too concentrated on beating that bastard up and..." Natsu blinked, noticing an upset Makarov at the bar. "So why's Gramps moaning now?"

"He said something about having to use most of the money from my request to pay for the damages." Hope responded.

"Oh... were those bandits half as they cracked up to be?"

"Nope." Hope leaned back. "All their reputation was based on some made up stories."

"So kind of like that sleaze ball?"

Hope nodded.

"Well, fake or not, at least we did get to meet Lucy so that's a definite plus." Natsu said with a shrug.

"You're right."

Lucy seemed surprised by this but she smiled at the boys.

"But you've got to! I know where dad keeps his savings. I'm sure he won't mind if I take some for this. I can reward anybody!"

Startled, the three turned around to see Romeo arguing with Makarov.

"It isn't about the reward, we don't need that. I told you before. Your dad's a fairy tail wizard. He can handle himself."

"Don't you think I know that?! But it's been so long! I'm worried, this isn't like him. What if those monsters took him out? He could be hurt and you won't even help!"

"Your father has his own pride. He wouldn't like it if we do. I'm sure everything's fine."

Romeo grit his teeth and punched Makarov. "You're a bunch of jerks! Even when those nice people tried to help, you wouldn't do anything. Whatever! I don't need you!"

"You..."

"That's enough." Natsu ground out. "Oi, Romeo, where'd you say he went?"

"Oi, Natsu..." Wakaba began.

"Shut up! Where dd he go?"

Hope looked at Happy, who seemed just as serious and they shared a nod before standing up.

"Lucy, you want to come?" Happy asked.

"Eh?" She had a feeling that she was missing something here. "Oh, sure I guess..."

"So, just to check, Macao went off to get rid of 20 vulcans in the mountains and he's been missing for more than days now. Romeo tried to ask about him a bunch of times and he found some people willing to help look for him but even they haven't shown up yet?"

"That's about right." Lucy nodded to Happy's question. She still didn't see how anyone could fight so many monsters off but it wasn't the time to wonder about such things. "If you ask me, the kid had a point. He's been gone for this long, someone should have helped him already."

Hope didn't like this either but he decided to explain what he thought was the reason. "It wasn't that they couldn't. I think everyone was respecting Macao-san's feelings. Plenty of guild wizards take pride in their ability to finish jobs so they would pretty offended if someone stepped in to help him."

Lucy frowned in thought. She still didn't like it but she supposed it made some sense now. "Well, when you put it like that..."

"It's stupid!"

Lucy and Happy started as Natsu yelled out. The dragon slayer had been a little more than irritable ever since they left the guild so they mostly left him alone. But they all knew why. Natsu's foster father, the fire dragon king Igneel had disappeared years ago and they had yet to find any clues on his whereabouts. If anyone knew what it was like to be in Romeo's shoes, it would be him.

"Okay, try to calm down." Hope patted his shoulder. "It isn't anything like that. I think they could handed things better too but that's why we're here, right? We're going to find him."

Somehow when he said that, it gave of a feeling of certainty that made them relax a little. Even Lucy and she didn't know him that well, she wondered if it was Hope believed in their success so strongly that it just poured into his words.

Unbeknownst to her, Natsu was mostly thinking along similar lines. He already knew that Hope would spare no expense in their quest and he wasn't willing to settle with anything besides success. He would get carried away at times but Hope was a calm person by nature, and that helped calm others too.

He was right though, getting angry wasn't going to get them anywhere.

Natsu let out a breath "Yeah, let's go."

"Wow, that's some storm..."

"How the heck are you so calm about this?!" Lucy demanded. While it was good that Natsu had relaxed somewhat after Hope's words earlier, this was a little too much. There was a snow storm before them and he was acting like it was nothing! "I-It's freezing!"

"Yeah well, it can't be helped with you wearing that." Natsu responded, eyeing her up and down pointedly.

"You're not dressed any better!"

"I'm a fire mage, remember? This barely affects me."

That...was actually a good point. "Happy, you too?" She asked

"Yup! I can take it. Why didn't you get anything?"

"It's summer! I knew the mountains would be a little cold but not this much." She blinked when a warm object settled on her shoulders and realized it was Hope's coat. The boy just smiled when she met his eyes.

"I took it just in case but you look like you need it more."

"Ah, wait I can't..."

"Hope, she's just complaining but she can walk. You don't have to do that." Happy flew to the boy.

"Yeah, it's not worth the trouble!" Natsu added, looking concerned.

"What do you mean by that?!" Lucy demanded.

"Hey, don't be mean. It'll be fine. We can't leave Lucy like this. Feeling any better?" The brunet asked.

"Y-yeah..." She stood. "..you don't have to..."

"I want to. It's all right." Hope smiled warmly. "Not to be the bearer of bad news but we do need everyone to be in good shape. At least so we can handle whatever is causing the problem here."

"Thanks..."After the generous offer, Lucy decided to make sure she wouldn't slow anybody up. "...Okay, so should we get going?"

"We will but there's something I should do first." Hope put out an arm and closed his eyes. A faint gold aura surrounded him then, when he opened them, one of his eyes had turned into a silver shade.

"Is that some kind of magic?" Lucy asked Natsu.

"Yup, it needs a little concentration but Hope can see into really far distances. I guess the storm's going to make it a little hard but it can help us at least figure out where to start."

The blonde nodded in understanding, mentally agreeing with this.

Hope stopped a little while later and looked at them, his eye having turned blue again. "I haven't seen anyone but there were some footprints east so we should start there."

"Got it!"

"Th-that's huge!" Lucy exclaimed as they found the footprints.

"What, you've never seen a vulcan before? That's hardly any bigger than the ones in this area." Happy asked.

"No, just in books. Oh man...those pictures really don't do those things justice..."

"All those prints are heading up, right?" Natsu observed. "So then that thing would be hiding in some cave."

"So do we still keep going like this?" Happy asked.

"Maybe..."

Hope was about to speak but then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Moments later, he snapped his fingers and a gold sphere of energy appeared in his palm and he proceeded to hurl it in that direction.

A yelp followed this, startling the others and the group went to find a man on the ground, cradling his head which he had bumped against the big wall of solid light that Hope had created.

"Gah! What the hell...?!" The man stopped when he saw the group staring at him. "What do you kids want?!"

"Shouldn't we ask you that?' Happy asked as they all noticed his rifle, ignoring Lucy's freak out. The man must have been trying to get them just now, he was having trouble because of the bad weather.

"Who the hell are you?" Natsu demanded.

"W-we don't need you fairy tail mages getting in the way! We've got this!" The man retorted.

"Getting in whose way? We're here to look for a friend!" Happy said, looking confused.

"Oh, yeah...now that I think on it, that old guy must have been one of you, huh?"

"What? Oi, did you see Macao?" Natsu asked.

"It wouldn't matter if I did."

'What's that mean?"

"Isn't it obvious, brat? I saw someone fighting those vulcans and he told us to go before I could even tell him why we were there. Next thing I know, he vanished and those stupid vulcans showed up."

"Ah! But then you're the two who offered Romeo help!" Happy realized.

Something wasn't right, Romeo made those two sound real nice and kind but something about this man just seemed creepy and fake...

"Meh, it was just lucky we were around so yeah that's us. We were in the red and this is..." The man must have realized he said too many things because he promptly shut up. "This is all a misunderstanding. I'm a good guy too. I mixed you up for someone else and..."

"No, you didn't." Hope interjected, having caught on his slip."You're after money, aren't you? You heard the story about Macao-san and then you thought you found a good chance. Romeo's been worried sick over his dad all this time and you guys come along, pretending to be heroes when all you want is to take every jewel you can get your hands on. You must have heard Romeo trying to persuade any of the others into action and even reward them to help."

Nobody even had to ask if this was true because the man looked like he was caught red handed with his hand in a cookie jar.

"How'd you know?!" He blurted stupidly before catching himself. Clearly he hadn't expected anyone to spell their plans out so plainly.

"Ah, I mean..."

"Save it! You guys are the worst!" Lucy snapped, as her friends who glared at the man too. They were disgusted that he would take advantage of a kid like this.

"If we run into you here again, I'll beat you to a pulp. Is that clear?" Natsu snarled.

"C-c-crystal!" The man stammered.

"So, where's your partner?" Hope asked.

As the group traversed the snowy paths, headed towards the location they heard about from the man (whose name was Steiner), they were unaware that they were being followed by a figure...

Natsu stopped walking "Hey, does anybody else hear that?"

His friends looked at him, seeming confused. But Lucy was the one who understood...or rather saw what he was talking about.

"Look out!" She shrieked.

An avalanche was headed their way.

Natsu scowled "All right then, step back. Fire Dragon's Claw!"

The fiery waves that followed evaporated all the snow, making Lucy and Happy sigh in relief.

"Thanks, Natsu. Now we know where to go too."

Happy gave Hope a confused look "What do you mean?"

It was Natsu who answered "He means we get up there, we find the idiot behind this."

Two vulcans were in a cave, one of them was looking through a hole with an impatient look.

"Woman, woman, I want a woman!"

"Ah, shuddup!" The other snapped, throwing a rock on his head. "You're annoying. Just go find one!"

"You didn't have to do that! It really hurt!"

"That's the point! This place is freezing enough without you complaining and making it more annoying."

"You don't even live here! What made you come up to the mountains, stupid?"

"Oh, I'm stupid, you damn pervert?"

"Say what?!"

"You heard me, stupid, stupid, stupid!"

The group walked in on this scene. Happy gave them an unimpressed look "Wow...you know, guys, I sure didn't expect this. This reminds me of Natsu and Gray."

"Oi! Don't compare me to that thing!" The dragon slayer snapped. Hope stifled a laugh at this while Lucy just burst out giggling.

"I know what you mean." She nodded, the fight seemed just as stupid as the one she witnessed with the aforementioned wizards.

"Woman!" The white vulcan exclaimed happily with a grin.

Lucy recoiled, looking creeped out. "What's with this thing?!"

"What's a forest vulcan doing here?" Happy wondered, staring at the second one, who suddenly stiffened.

The creature paled "H-hey, you're...! W-w-why're you here?"

Natsu raised an eye "What's with him?"

"He's probably one of the bunch Erza traumatized that time. Remember?" Hope asked.

Natsu almost sorry felt sorry for the creature when he realized what that meant. Almost. "Oh, you mean...now I'm really glad we never saw her again that day..."

"You think he followed Steiner and his friend here?" Happy wondered

"Maybe, those monsters can be pretty persistent when they want to be." The dragon slayer said.

Lucy blinked "Now that you mention it, where's..."

"I want you!" The white vulcan leaped towards her, making her shriek again.

Flames surrounded Natsu's hands as an aura of golden light surrounded Hope. The first charged up a Fire Dragon's Iron Fist to send the vulcan reeling but he pulled himself and attacked again.

"Well then, try this, Luminous Tornado!" With a wave of his hand, Hope sent a strong burst of light with great speed that slammed the vulcan to the wall.

"Nice going, you guys!" Happy cheered while Lucy almost gaped at the strength of the light spell. She'd seen plenty of evidence on Natsu's strength back when they met but it seemed Hope was not to be underestimated either.

The vulcan snarled "Are you just going to stand there?! Or are you too chicken to deal with a bunch of kids?"

"I'm not a chicken!" The second snarled. "Once I get rid of them, you're next!"

He aimed a punch and charged with a cry. Lucy scowled "I'm not just going to watch. Gate of the Golden Bull, I open thee! Taurus!"

A humanoid bull holding an axe with a bell around his neck and brown boots appeared. He grinned widely, hearts appearing in place of his eyes when he glanced at Lucy. "Lucy-san, you have such a nice body! A lovely treat as always!"

"Wow, so beside the cranky fish lady Happy told me about, you've got a perverted cow?" Natsu deadpanned.

"I'm a bull!" Taurus snapped, only to be ignored.

Lucy sighed "I know what this looks like but Taurus is my strongest melee spirit. Just ignore the pervert attitude."

"That shouldn't be too hard. We've dealt with a good amount of those already." Hope remarked idly.

Natsu and Happy nodded before the first counted on his fingers "Gray, Macao..."

"Natsu, I don't think Gray should..." Hope began.

"He totally should, the stripper. Anyway, where was I?"

Happy helped him along "Wakaba, Loke, Gildarts, Master, and now Taurus. They're easy to see through and predictable."

"Gah...I'm so sad now..." Taurus' shoulders fell. "...Lucy-san's new friends are mean..."

Hope gave him an apologetic look "They're a little blunt but we could use your help right now. Er, I'm sure Lucy would appreciate it and they probably won't put you down when you show them your stuff."

The girl nodded to this, smiling. This cheered Taurus up "Oh! In that case..."

"Oi, don't ignore us!" The vulcans snapped.

"Well, you've had maybe ten chances to attack now if not more..." Hope pointed out, making the monsters stiffen as they realized it too while the rest of his friends laughed at their expressions. He was about to continue but then his eyes widened, one turning silver again for a second before his expression changed as if he suddenly realized something.

Hope's eyes narrowed as light magic swirled around him before he spoke again "...seeing as we can't have you running now...Aegis!"

A gold magic circle flashed around them before a dome shaped barrier enveloped the cave.

"Hope, judging by that name I'm guessing it's a protection spell. Trapping us with vulcans isn't the way to use it!" Lucy said, with a tone that held panic.

"It's supposed to trap them." The boy responded. "Guys, we found Macao-san and Steiner's friend."

"What?"

Natsu looked just as confused but he facepalmed when the answer hit him. "Aw, dammit, I forgot! Vulcans are body snatchers!"

"So they took over their bodies? How do we stop it?" Lucy asked.

"By making sure they can't keep it up. Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu's hit the white vulcan in the stomach, sending him reeling.

"All right then, take this!" Taurus swung his axe with all his might, hitting the second one and sending it crashing to the ground.

Hope started casting as the monsters got up, a gold magic circle appearing then. "Shining Torrent!"

The two vulcans were hit by a multitude of glowing waves. Taurus went up close to the enemies and struck the ground, causing it so shake and throw them off balance. Natsu and Hope capitalized on this chance.

"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!" Natsu tackled the white vulcan, cloaked in flames.

"Star Gladius!" Hope created four swords of pure light that hit the second vulcan, sending him into the air before they flew off and struck again from four directions, creating a four pointed star shaped energy blast for a moment before the vulcan crashed to the ground with his comrade.

Taurus smirked "And for the final touch...eat this!"

He hit the two vulcans once more and landed just in front of them, looking over his shoulder in time to see them glowing.

"That did it!" Happy declared with a grin.

"Thank you, thank you!" Steiner's friend, Ross, bowed his head, his silver hair covering most of his face then. Before the man quite knew it, most of his wounds were treated and he was back in Magnolia with them. "That vulcan possessed me and if it wasn't for you..."

"Just be glad that someone..." Natsu spared Hope a pointed look "...reminded me to cut you guys a break, even if you acted like scumbags. Don't do this again."

"I got it!" He promised at once. At least, unlike Steiner, he seemed sincere. They wished he really was. "It was Steiner's idea but I shouldn't have gone along with it. We'll just have to go and get a better job. Forgive us!"

"Oh, all right..." Lucy relented. "...at least you look like you mean it. I guess you've had enough punishment after that pathetic plan. Just make sure you really sort things out next time."

"You'd better." Macao agreed with a threatening look.

"I promise." Ross nodded and left.

Macao sighed "Man, count on Hope to go that far even after what they did."

"Hey, come on, it's not like any of you would have left him in that place. Besides, my magic wouldn't have worked as well in fixing you both up if I hadn't acted quickly." The brunet pointed out.

"We're saying you're too nice. If it was up to us, we wouldn't let them get off so easy." Happy said, getting agreement from Natsu and Macao.

"Well, it worked out, right? It looked like he meant it. If they haven't learned, we'll just deal with that if we see them again."

Happy considered that "True..."

"Dad!"

Macao smiled at the voice and ran to meet Romeo, who stood at the top of the stairs. The boy grinned widely and hugged him. "I'm so glad you're okay! Sorry, forget anything I said before..."

"Nah, it's okay," Macao patted his head. "I beat 19 vulcans you know?"

"Wow, really?"

"Yup, I'll tell you all about it too."

Romeo smiled "Okay, but first..." He looked back at the group. "...Thanks, everyone! Dad's okay because of you."

"Yeah, I really owe you all." Macao nodded.

Natsu grinned, crossing his arms behind his head while the other three smiled "Ah, don't sweat it."

"We're glad everything worked out all right." Happy added.

"Yeah, you must have some catching up to do so we'll see you later." Hope said.

"Yeah!" Romeo ran to his father and the two walked away.

Lucy stretched her arms as they began to leave "Well I wasn't too sure about things then but everything's okay."

"You say that but you did freak out a lot." Happy reminded.

"Well, excuse me! You guys are used to the dangers on a job, I'm not."

Natsu spoke before Happy could respond "You know, I've been thinking, how about we form a team, Hope? Everyone's sayin' how good the missions we do together goes and we'd make a sweet group."

"That sounds good, anyone else you had in mind?" The boy smiled.

"Lucy, for starters."

The blonde blinked "Me? You guys don't mind?"

"Why would we? We handled things good today, right?" Hope pointed out.

"Yeah, what do you think?" Natsu wanted to know.

She smiled "I'd like that. I'm in!"

"Cool! So it's settled."

"Hey guys, you're not forgetting about me, right?" Happy fretted.

"No way!" The boys responded before Hope added "If it's us, you're a given, Happy, that's why we didn't mention you."

Natsu nodded while the cat sighed in relief.

"Then it's settled."

Hope blinked when they reached the street leading to his home. "This is my stop. Bye, everyone."

"Bye!"

"Later."

"See you tomorrow!"

The brunet stopped for a moment when he felt a familiar warmth surrounding him but then smiled and continued walking. He purposefully lowered his voice before speaking "So, what'd you think of that?"

'I thought it was bound to happen sooner or later.' A male voice inside the Hope's head replied before a translucent figure of a small phoenix with four wings appeared. The figure had golden feathers all over except for the tail feathers, which were a myriad of colors. He had warm amber eyes as well, a sharp orange beak and similar talons. 'I can picture us making a good team.'

"For sure. Thanks for your help today, any reason why you were so quiet before?"

'You're welcome. As for the second part, I think you know why.'

Hope sighed, realizing he did. "Well, I guess explaining our situation is...tricky."

'That's putting it nicely. Let's cross that bridge when we come to it.'

"Best thing we can do, I guess."

Lucy smiled as she watched Natsu and Happy argue about dinner, reflecting on how most of the people she met here have been nothing but kind and friendly.

"Yup, I'm definitely going to like it here." She murmured, glancing at the pink Fairy tail mark on her hand.