With Great Power Comes Great Responsibilty

Chapter 15

During the walk to the professor's office Natsu was a nervous wreck. Here he was walking right next to the girl of his dreams and he was too shy to say anything to her.

"So what were you and Gray doing over here after dark?" She asked him.

"Oh well I was helping the professor with an experiment and Gray was just coming over to make sure that I had a ride home."

"You two are such good friends. I still can't believe Gray and his aunt are letting you live with them. That's so kind."

"Yeah but I'm not going to live with them forever. I plan to have my own place." 

"Loke has his own apartment now and he already wants me to move in with him."

"You're not going to do it are you?"

"No! We've only been dating for a month. Makes me wonder what kind of girl he thinks I am."

"If you ask me you're way too smart be dating that idiot."

"That's sweet Natsu."

Suddenly they heard the sound of glass breaking. 

"What was that?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know."

It came from the lab, sensing danger Natsu quickly went to investigate. 

"Stay here." He told Lucy.

He went into the lab where he found Gildarts on the floor clutching the area where he had lost his arm. 

"Professor Clive!" Natsu gasped. "Are you alright?! What happened?!"

"Stay away!" Gildarts shouted. 

"Professor what's wrong with you?"

"Natsu you need to get out of here now!"

"Why?"

But Gildarts couldn't answer because in that moment something had grown out of his side. It was a new arm but this one was covered in scales and his hand had talons. Natsu jumped back in horror which was furthered when Gildarts's eyes suddenly turned red and reptilian like.

"Run Natsu! Before it's too late!"

Natsu reached out to Gildarts but the professor clawed at him then flung himself out the window and disappeared down a nearby man hole that led into the sewers. Poor Natsu was left completely in shock, had that actually happened? What had happened? What was wrong with the professor? Before the authorities arrived, Natsu managed to swipe some of the professor's research and along with Gray who stayed behind went to see Erza with the hope that she would be able to tell them what was going on?

"Well doc what do you think?" Natsu asked her.

"It would seem that the formula has a highly unstable effect on humans." Erza said after studying Gildart's notes and the small piece of D.N.A he had left on Natsu when he scratched him. "It mutates them and changes their D.N.A in a far more complete process than what you two have."

"But why would the professor do something like this?" Gray asked.  "Why didn't he run more tests before using it on himself? It's not like him to be this impulsive with an experiment."

"We can discuss that with him later." Erza said. "Right now I need to work on a cure and you two need to find him."

"Will he be alright?" Natsu asked. 

"No. He'll become more lizard like with each passing minute."

"How long before you can come up with a cure?"

"The formula the professor used on himself had splices of human D.N.A mixed in it as well as lizard D.N.A therefore the genetic code won't be that hard for me to crack. It should take me at most two hours to come up with a formula that will reverse the process." She grabbed a bottle of clear liquid and placed it inside of syringe. "There's no telling what state of mind the professor will be in so once you find him give him this. It's a powerful tranquilizer that should knock him unconscious for several hours."

"And you're positive that you'll have a cure ready?" Gray asked.

"Yes. Just find the professor and get him back here."

She handed Natsu the tranquilizer, he and Gray changed into their costumes, and went back to the manhole that was near the campus. 

"So he went down there?" Gray asked Natsu.

"Yep."

"Aww man why do we get sewers?"

"Nevermind that! Let's get down there, find the professor, and get him back to Erza so he can be cured."

They crawled down the man hole and using their claws and talons they climbed on the ceiling of the sewer. Using his night vision, Gray searched the darkness for any trace of Gildarts. 

"Do you see anything?" Natsu asked.

"No. Nothing yet."

"Well keep searching. I don't know how you can see anything down here Gray. Everything's pitch black if you look through my eyes."

"All cats have night vision Natsu and considering I have a cat's D.N.A in my system it's only natural that I can see in the dark, I also have impressive hearing. I can hear the sewer rats and the cockroaches scratching around."

"How is that helpful?"

"I never said it was." Gray looked down and caught sight of the water down below them. "Hey do you think he might be hiding in the water? I mean he is turning into a lizard and some species of lizard do prefer water to land."

"It's possible but how would we know? I mean how would we look for him in that?"

"Well..." Gray said looking at Natsu. "One of us could go down there and when compared to tigers, Komodo dragons are the better swimmers."

"No way man! Forget it! I'm not going swimming in sewage water!"

"Well we're not having much luck looking from up here. We should try looking in a more aquatic setting and by we I mean you."

"But why do I have to do it?"

"Because unlike me you have superior swimming skills and can hold your breath for 20 minutes. Also I have night vision and you don't so you can't really see anything from up here."

"Oh...." Natsu looked at the water and shivered with disgust. Finally without any further hesitation, Natsu dropped from the ceiling and made his way toward the water. 

"You search the water and I'll search from up here." Gray said before crawling away.

Natsu took a deep breath and dived into the water where he proceeded to swim upward and look for Gildarts. 

"Man this is probably the nastiest thing I've ever had to do in my entire life." He thought to himself. "Why can't I be one of those galaxy heroes who go into space? Why do I end up in the sewers? I've never seen any other heroes on tv or in comics do work in the sewers."

Truth be told Natsu was actually more scared than disgusted. He was scared for Gildarts because next to Igneel, there was no else who had ever served as paternal figure to him. The professor had been a great friend and a huge supporter to Natsu for years and if something happened to him, he wasn't sure what he would do.