Chapter 16

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Natsu searched the water but he couldn't find Gildarts anywhere.

"Any luck?" Gray asked when Natsu came up to breathe.

"No and for the record if you tell anyone about this I'll murder you."

"Relax bro I wouldn't tell anyone. That would expose our secrets, if we didn't have secret identities I would tell everybody." Gray joked.

"Very funny."

Just then he caught sight of some strange looking foot prints that led downward. Natsu and Gray followed the footprints until they reached the source which was a huge, terrifying, and vicious lizard like monster that wore the tattered remains of Gildarts Clive's clothes. The creature was just standing there, as if it was focused on something else entirely.

"Good God." Gray whispered in horror. "Is that really Professor Clive?"

"Know anyone else who could possibly turn into a large reptilian monster?" Natsu replied.

"Actually." Gray said looking at Natsu.

"On second thought don't answer that."

"Okay. So what's the plan?"

"We have to get this tranquilizer into his system. He seems distracted by something right now so I'm just going to quietly go over there and give the professor his medicine."

Natsu approached the lizard from behind as slowly and quietly as possible. But it sensed him coming and it sent him flying back with his tail. When Natsu fell down the lizard pinned to the hard concrete floor of the sewer.

"Professor stop!" Natsu cried. "This isn't you! You have to let us take you back to Erza so she can cure you!"

But it was no use trying to talk to Gildarts because his mind had become all animal. He screeched and moved to slash Natsu's throat.

"Oh no you don't!" Gray quickly dropped on to the lizard startling him into getting off of Natsu. "You alright bro?"

"I'm fine." Natsu said.

"Great! Now help me get this thing under control!"

He had the lizard by his neck and was holding on for dear life as it thrashed and bucked about trying so hard to throw him off. Natsu grabbed him by his legs and using his strength he was able to trip the lizard. The two heroes struggled to hold him still long enough for Natsu to inject the tranquilizer into him. They both felt terrible about fighting the professor especially considering he was mentor to them both but they had to fight him. For his own sake.

"I don't know how long we can hold him!" Gray said.

"We can't let go! Not until we give him this!" Natsu said.

They don't know how long it took and the whole process would leave them both extremely sore in the morning but in the end Natsu was finally able to inject the tranquilizer into Gildarts which caused him to lose consciousness in five minutes. After that they dragged him back to the lab where Erza had a gene cleanser already. She opened his lizard jaw and poured the cleanser down his throat.

"Will he be alright now?" Natsu asked.

"He should be back to normal in just a few minutes but he won't wake until morning. You two go home, I'll stay here with the professor and explain to him what happened." She said.

"Are you sure you don't want us to stay?" Gray asked.

"Trust me nothing will happen. By the way nobody saw you two right?"

"No. We made sure that we weren't spotted." Natsu said.

"What a relief." Erza sighed. "The last thing we need is the media getting involved in this and you two can't tell anyone about this. If you do heaven knows what the authorities will do to Professor Clive."

"Don't worry we have no intention of telling anybody."

"Good. Now change back into your clothes and get going before someone sees you and gets suspicious. Sniff! Sniff! Ugh! What's that smell? Is that raw sewage?"

"Don't ask." Natsu said.

They changed out of their costumes, back into their regular clothes, and went back home where Ur insisted that they both take baths immediately though Natsu had to take three baths to erase the oder of sewage from his body. She decided to hold off asking for an explanation until morning because she could see how tired the boys were. They passed out as soon as they got into bed and in the morning they quickly thought of a story to tell Ur.

"So let me get this straight you two went into the sewer because..." She said.

"Because I thought I saw something interesting down there." Gray lied. "Something that I thought would make a great story for the press so I went down there in hopes of getting a picture."

"And I went with him because you never know what's in a sewer." Natsu added.

"I see...Did you find anything?" Ur asked.

"No. Nothing at all." Gray said.

"Well thank goodness I was able to get that awful sewer smell off of you before Juvia arrived." Ur said.

"Oh man I forgot about her." Gray thought.

"She should be here any minute, I'll get the tea ready." Ur said before going into the kitchen.

"Bro I can't wait to see what hideous troll your aunt set you up with." Natsu snickered. "I bet she's even uglier than her brother."

"You know thanks to that cover up story we thought of I can tell everyone on campus how you ended covered in raw sewage without exposing our secret."

"I'll be quiet now."

At ten o'clock am sharp there was a polite knock at the door.

"Oh that's her! Gray get the door!" Ur called.

"Don't I get a last meal?"

Gray huffed and made his way toward the front door of his house with the intention of getting this over with as soon as possible. But nothing could have prepared him for what was on the other side of that door. He answered the door and standing right there on the other side was a beautiful young bluenette.

"Hi." She greeted with a smile. "You must be Ur's nephew Gray, I've been so anxious to meet you."

"You mean...You're Juvia?" Gray said not at all believing what he was seeing. "Gajeel's sister?"

"Face it tiger you just hit the jackpot." She giggled with a wink.

Gray was at a total loss for words but he smiled and politely escorted her inside.

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