FairyTail: Black Out

Chapter five

Erza's POV.

I flew south and almost immediately saw a forest ahead, I glided down to it and landed besides a lone tree approximately five yards away from the actual forest.

Okay now where is that slacker Dragneel?... I thought with rage. His job is so easy that even an infant could accomplish it, so where is he?

I requipped into my casual armor and left the tree's side. It was about an hour after dawn and I used the sun to guide me into the forest. It was alive with light and animal noises. I looked around and saw boot marks near a tree and even more only a few feet away that leads even more south.

I kneeled over and inspected the marks. It was curved with the toes slightly deeper in the soil than the heels. Foot wise, it was medium and comparing this to the other foot tracks this person was staggering slightly.

Natsu was staggering a bit when he went south to the forest, so possibly he was here and maybe still is. I can't help but wonder what was going on with him, usually his motion sickness wears off within minutes of leaving the vehicle but his little "sickness" was lasting over an hour, even after leaving he got off the train. Maybe it has something to do with chest pain that me mentioned earlier. I don't know what is going on with that pyro but I don't like it.

I got to my feet and  began following these tracks. They where moving in more directions than south, as if he was following a path. Of course he is, he's a Dragon Slayer, his nose is two times more sensitive to scents than ours, so of course he's following a path! I thought.

Soon I stumbled into a clearing. It had a miniature waterfall in the middle of it with crystal clear water with a blueish tint to it's glimmer. Besides it was many bushes of yellow-red-orange fruits resting on a plant.

Dragon Fruits.

There where boot prints in front of those bushes and there was a few shuffle prints in them. Natsu has been picking these fruits, but then why hasn't he returned yet? I saw more boot prints leading North to me but began shuffling and moving North West.

I looked over in that direction and saw them lead to a large tree, there was someone collapsed by it. I moved closer and saw salmon hair revealed from behind a root.

I moved even closer and gasped. It was Natsu. He was unconscious and his body was resting between roots. His light tan skin is now pale and his handbag had about five visible Dragon Fruits peeping out from his bag.

"Natsu?" I asked, he was barely moving but I saw his onyx eyes flicker open to look at me.

"Er... Za?.." He asked with obvious pain.

"What happened to you?" I demanded, stepping up to him.

"Pain..." He replied. "So much pain..."

I approached him and stopped dead in my tracks as Natsu coughed up some blood. Coughing up blood...? Does that mean he's...

"Natsu!" I gasped.

"Help..." Natsu shivered, his eyes closed.

"Natsu?" I whispered in shock. The boy lost his consciousness. This is bad.

I approached him cautiously and grabbed his bag of Dragon Fruits. Natsu looks so sick and in so much pain. Thankfully this is the last ingredient, so as soon as we get him and these fruits to the Hospital, the sooner his pain can cease.

But how can he get so sick if we where barely here for under three hours?

I slung his bag onto my shoulder and grabbed Natsu's arm and draped it around my neck. I hung onto him as I requipped into my NightWing armor.

As soon as I was in it, I flapped my wings and flew into the sky while carrying an unconscious Natsu and his bag. I flew North where the town was.

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I arrived at the town and glided to the front of the hospital, my team mates where there and as soon as they saw that I was carrying Natsu, their relieved expressions switched to fearful ones.

"Wendy, I have the supplies. I think Natsu is infected so please hurry up," I said and put Natsu down.

"But that was too fast, how can he get sick this quickly?" Wendy asked in alarm. She bent over and put her arms over Natsu's head. A baby blue colored magic circle appeared below her hands and her face scrunched up in focus. She opened her eyes and gasped, the circle disappearing once her eyes opened.

"What is it?" Lucy cried urgently.

"It's... Strange... I couldn't sense the Red Eclypse Virus in his bloodstream. In fact I couldn't detect anything unusual at all..." Wendy whispered loud enough for us to hear, her voice was lased in disbelief.

"Are you sure?" I demanded.

"Yeah..." Wendy replied.

I shook my head. "Let's just focus on making these villagers their cure, collect our reward then go home. I will have to get Porlyusca to help us with this situation."

Wendy nodded and took Natsu's bag from my hand, she ran inside with determination on her face. But I saw her eyes before she left, determination didn't reach her eyes, her eyes where instead fearful.

Lucy bent over to kneel besides Natsu, she placed the back of her hand against his forehead. "He feels normal... Like Wendy said, but I can't believe that he's not sick. I know he is... We need to help him..." She sighed, as if more to herself than us.

"I never thought I'd see Salamander in such a state..." Gajeel observed with pity.

"I never saw Natsu this sick before. Especially, he isn't snoring at all." Gray joined.

"I wish I knew what was going on too, I saw him unconscious besides a tree when I found him. He seemed like he could barely keep himself awake," I sighed.

"Come to think of it he did seem out of sorts when we got off the train, not to mention his chest pains from earlier," Lucy thought aloud.

"Agreed. But as soon as we get the matters at hand done, the sooner we can move on to our own problems." I said.

Wendy ran out of the hospital, holding a box of syringes with a purplish liquid inside it. "I finished making the cure, here is a box of the vaccines for each villager, we need to go house-to-house and give it to everyone, not just the infected." Wendy explained, handing each of us a syringe. "Remember we can't use the same ones we previously used on other people, that could be dangerous for them."

"Okay, let's go." Lucy said, taking her syringe. She stood up and backed away from Natsu. "We should give ourselves the shots, just in case."

We all nodded and put the syringes in our wrists, I pushed the back of the syringe and watched the purple liquid get pushed out of my arm and into my blood stream. I grabbed another one and gave Natsu his own shot.

"Okay, let's get to work," Gray said with one last pitiful glance at Natsu.

We all grabbed another syringe with the vaccine in it and started to our first house.