The Dragon's Vessel

"Do what you guys gotta do to get a lead on this guy. I'll go check the cameras," Benkei remarked as he stopped his jeep and hopped out. "Random side note, can you two see in the dark?" He asked as Natsu and Ryujin climbed out.

Natsu's eyes glowed a menacing red colour. "We can see, no problem!" Natsu exclaimed as he followed Benkei inside the diner after it was unlocked.

"Right, good to know. Anyway, going upstairs to check the cameras" Benkei bolted up to his office.

"We need to distinguish the different smells between Elizabeth and the kidnapper," Ryujin said, finding it hard to smell Elizabeth

"There's a lot of scents here," Natsu was getting confused at all the different smells and went inside to the counter where Elizabeth usually was. He spotted her backpack and picked it up, giving it a sniff and recognizing her smell. "Ryujin, I've got it!" He called.

"’Atta boy Natsu," he looked to where Benkei went off too, "hey, we have a lead!" He shouted to Benkei.

"Great! ‘Cause the cameras caught nothing. He either shut them all off somehow or I haven't been taking good care of them," Benkei hollered back. He walked back down the stairs, pulling off the night vision goggles he had placed on top of his head earlier. He also had a hunting bow in his right hand. "Just had to nab these as well," he said as they all exited the diner and he locked it back up.

"You'll have to follow us, we won't be able to track her if we're in a car," Natsu, for once made sense and Ryujin gave him a quick once over. Natsu was in fight mode, the only time he used his brain it seemed.

Benkei nodded as he headed back over to his vehicle. “Just don't leave me in the dust, I'll do my best to keep up." But as he got into his jeep Natsu was gone and Benkei blinked a few times.

Ryujin sighed at Natsu’s headstrongness and went over to Benkei, "track us with this," Ryujin handed him his own phone. "It will track Nastu’s phone," Ryujin took off after Natsu just as quickly, not wanting him to get himself in any trouble.

Benkei looked at the phone, opening it up and finding the tracking app with ease, he watched a small face of Natsu speed through side streets heading across the city faster than a car could possibly keep up. "Wow Benkei, how the hell were you gonna keep up with dragons," he muttered as he started his engine and followed the pair by phone navigations.

Natsu followed Elizabeth's scent until he had reached a warehouse in the industrial area of their city. The warehouse he was stopped at was fenced but worn down. Abandoned no doubt, windows were smashed, debris littered the grounds. Ryujin arrived shortly after Natsu, spotting him melting the metal fence into a large sludging mess. Once onto the property they arrived at a metal door which was no match for Natsu’s fire. He melted that with just as much ease. They stepped into the dark eerie room, their eyes adjusted quickly and they could tell the area around them had been disturbed. Sniffing the air told them that besides themselves only Elizabeth and the offender were here. Good.

Natsu’s ears picked up on raspy, shallow breathing first and before Ryujin could stop him, Natsu was off, crossing a large area of empty aged concrete to stop at Elizabeth, still tied to the chair she had been videoed in. "Hey, are you okay?" Natsu said with surprising gentleness, crouching to begin untying her ankles.

Elizabeth stirred at the sound and squinted, “please, no more,” she begged quietly, her voice cracked.

Natsu could feel the anger rise inside of him, “it’s okay, it’s me, Natsu, pink hair, eats everything in the diner,” Natsu said with such gentleness that he even surprised himself.

Ryujin stood off slightly to the side, keeping an ear out for any trouble that might come their way.

“Natsu?” Elizabeth questioned, choking on a sob. “Where’s Ben?” She asked, hoping he was okay.

“Well, you see…” Natsu gave a short laugh, “we may have left him behind but he’ll be here soon.” He reassured her, struggling with the knots and cursing to himself.

Just then the sound of very sarcastic clapping could be heard, it echoed around the empty room. "Well well... I thought you'd take all night…” A familiar voice stated as the guy, Matt stepped out of the shadows, having been in an adjacent room. The moon’s light appeared from behind the cloud and the room illuminated enough for Matt to scowl at the sight in front of him, “wait a minute, who the fuck are you two?!" He assessed them both, realizing that Elizabeth wasn’t afraid of them and one of them was trying to free her. “He sent you two? He didn’t even bother coming to rescue his own sister, the COWARD!” Matt screamed the last part, kicking a small metal bin in anger.

“Coward? You have some nerve throwing that word around when you attacked someone half your size, you’re nothing but a piece of shit!” Natsu by now was standing, sneering at the kidnapper.

Matt took a gun out of a hostler on his hip and pointed it at Natsu, “you have a big mouth,” he said snarkily.

Ryujin could see Natsu getting heated up and sighed, "Natsu, this is Benkei's fight, we're going to get Elizabeth out and be here for back up, that's it." Ryujin ordered.

Matt shook his head incredulously, "or I’ll shoot you both, forcing Benkei to show his face," Matt let out a psychotic laugh and readying himself to shoot. In a matter of seconds, an arrow shot across the warehouse, shooting the gun out of Matt's hand just as he was about to pull the trigger.

"You’re one messed up piece of work you know that, right?" Benkei spat, finally arriving and just in time it seemed.

“Benkei the Hero is here!” Matt giggled hysterically, clutching his hand as it throbbed in pain but was clearly ecstatic that Benkei had in fact shown up.

"You want to get back at me for something that happened four years ago Matt," Benkei retorted.

"You ruined my career! If it wasn't for you I’d have the perfect life! You have no idea what you did to me, you ruined everything," Matt stalled, trying to inch his way over to his gun as it lay on the floor but Benkei already had another arrow ready and pointed at him.

Seeing Matt distracted with his full attention on Benkei, Natsu crouched back down to Elizabeth’s tied ankle and transformed his arms. His elbows turned to scales and his hands crunched and grew to claws. He used one of his talons to cut the ropes around her ankles before moving over to cut the ropes around her wrists. "Let's get you out of harm’s way," Natsu stated, feeling aggravated that he was told not to step in.

“Natsu, take Elizabeth to Benkei’s car, check her injuries, give us twenty minutes. If we’re not back by then either take Elizabeth and go or come back and help us. The choice is yours,” Ryujin professed.

Natsu scooped Elizabeth up with ease and without saying another word Natsu took off, leaving Ryujin to step in front of Natsu’s fleeing form as a body blocker in case Matt tried something dirty.

Though unhappy that his blackmail was escaping Matt couldn’t do much, watching one of the guys take off with unfounded speed, he cursed to himself, assessing his newly unplanned situation.