Yay, so far one review! -- Thank you rahkshi500 for taking the time to read and review it. Chapter Three's comin' at ya'll ((I'm really getting into this southern thing for some reason O-o shrugs))
((Post-writing)) – Erg, not the greatest chapter, last one was better, but this one's still good. There's a cool twist ;) Hope ya like! ((Reviews are wonderful))
Da Disclaimer – I disclaim any and all characters/themes from "Zatch Bell!" that I may or may not use in my Fanfiction. All that I own are my Original Characters, ((Blake, Senjei, Alicia, Keigo, and there are bound to be more, most of my characters will be made up just so ya know))
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- The next few days were quite uneventful. Aside from Alicia and I getting to know each other better, and the few times we sparred for fun ((making sure our books were distanced from the fighting)), nothing much happened. I avoided my house as well as I could ((which was pretty well)) so I wouldn't have to face Mom, who was most definitely worried sick about me, or Dad, who Mom definitely would have told that I left. Alicia graciously invited me to stay at her brother's house across town, which was on the edge of the suburbs and downtown, so it was kinda different to me, but all was good. I found it amusing that Alicia's brother, Craig, had no idea about the whole Mamodo thing, and thought that the abnormal adolescents that followed us were merely strange kids we had to baby-sit.
- Speaking of Senjei and Keigo, I learned a little more about them in the past few days. Number one, Keigo was considered by Alicia, since all Mamodos have their "types" if you will, the "Rope Mamodo." Fittingly so ((cowboy hat and all that)), Keigo was adroit in the areas of magical lassoing. It was a strange power but both Keigo and Alicia seemed to enjoy it oh so very much. It probably brought them back to their roots or whatever you want to say. Number two, I learned that eventually Senjei would be able to perform other spells aside from "Cresca"; well that was a relief now wasn't it? Sorta. Well, though I couldn't tell what the next spells would be until I got that strong, the only glimpse of what was to come came from Alicia and Keigo, who had advanced into the second level of spells. The incantations our Cowboy friends are able to perform up to this point include "Chitire" ((Shet-air)), which shot a nasty whip of rope at the opponent, and "Layuir" ((Lah-year)), which, appropriately to Keigo's theme, immobilizes the target with a lasso of rope. That last one always got Senjei pretty good. As for my progress so far, Senjei and I have been able to blow both Keigo and his rope away with our music blast. I also found out that the Ivory Book's first spell is not limited to piano only, but that it can conjure any instrument and demonstrate the same effect. On a couple occasions, some strange things happened with this spell. The coolest of them: Senjei emitted a power chord from his outstretched palm, the sound produced sounding somewhere between a heavy-metal band and a full orchestra. The weirdest of them: I actually materialized three piano keys in front of me. When I touched them and played the triad, I felt an immense surge of power course through my nerves. Wow, that sounded so shmalty. Anywho, lets get back to the present, because that's what I like better.
- It has now been a week since I first picked up the Ivory book in the woods, and I have so far completed the first part of my "quest" if you will. This part I have finished was the two questions I asked earlier. With help from lovely Alicia…blush I mean…with help from Alicia, I now know what Senjei is and why he has come to Earth. Now the next part of my quest…erm…I'm not to sure what that is, Alicia will have to help me with that one too. I'll probably end up following her until I finally figure out what I'm doing. Hopefully that'll take longer than I think it may take, but I guess I could just follow her anyways even after I figure out what I'm doing. Why am I talking about Alicia so much? Anyways…
- After having slept in till 11am ((durn Alicia, I told her to wake me up early)), I decided that I should take some time off alone. I hadn't really been alone since that day in the woods really, and it was starting to get emotionally frustrating. Staying with someone non-stop for a week can do that to you. So I took some well-deserved alone time. I walked into the city, eating out of a bag of freshly bought beef jerky, and simply walked around, taking in my surroundings. I stopped by a magazine stand, from which I plucked an interesting looking newspaper which displayed the words "Random Explosion Baffles Many." Paying the man running the stand, I stuck it under my arm and kept on strolling along.
- I walked into the house of my friends silently, acting as though I never left. I don't know why, it was just amusing. I sat down at the breakfast counter ((granted, it was noon by now, but I still hadn't eaten)) and folded out the paper while sipping my MetroMint Peppermint Water ((greatest stuff ever, no lie)). I read the front page, glancing again at the headline that caught my attention. Scanning through the headlining article, I was informed that a strange explosion was heard and, in some eyewitness cases, seen not too far from the suburban homes of the town. My stomach dropped as I read on. There were no injuries reported, Phew, Mom and Dad are Ok, I thought, but reports state that a teenager and a child emerged from the area the blast apparently happened. My mind pictured this and I had no trouble at all deducting what had actually happened. Some witnesses said that an adult had walked out of the wreckage 10 minutes before the authorities arrived. The three individuals had yet to be recognized but investigations are taking place.
- I thought about it and then reread the passage once more. It made sense to me, maybe it would to Alicia. "Alicia!" I shouted. My throat became unusually dry just then. My wonderful friend's hair, which was usually tied back like mine, was let down, showing the amazing streaks of straight golden hair that whipped behind her. She caught herself on the doorway when she flew through, leaning forwards on her toes and holding her weight with her frail, sun kissed arms. "What's up?" She said intriguingly. I subconsciously gulped and beckoned her over to read the article I had just absorbed. After a couple minutes, she said, "Yeah, definitely." She knew why I called her to read it.
- "You think?" I asked, "I mean, it's the only logical explanation, isn't it?" She nodded, biting her lip in thought.
- "Think we should go down an' check it out?" She asked, her Southern accent bouncing around the room's acoustics.
- I chuckled, "I hope that was rhetorical." I replied. Snatching my book, I pursued Alicia and Keigo out the door, only to be succeeded by Senjei, of course.
- Craig was gracious to give us a ride to the suburban area, from where we set our tracks toward the explosion site, though we kinda didn't know where that was. It took a fair bit of questioning before we found the correct location, but eventually, we found ourselves heading for a road that was crowded with News and Police cars. Beyond them were throngs of people craning their necks trying to catch a glimpse of the scene before them. Naturally, the cops had set up a line of barriers and caution tape, which, aided by the crowd, obstructed our vision of the unexpected ground zero. I poked my partner and pointed to a bush on the side of the road that had open view to the scenario. We were able to stealthily get around the crowd and barriers to sneak behind the shrub from which we watched the situation.
- We could see, amongst the authorities running around franticly, that a large portion of the middle of the road was no longer there. It was replaced by a rather large hole which was presumably created by the "explosion."
- We heard some voices; they were coming from a man with an overcoat on and holding a pad and a pen and a person he was interrogating. Once again, typical. Over the noises, it was hard to understand what they were saying, but we caught this much. Coat-man asked the witness, "Are you sure that's what you saw?" "Yes, absolutely. It was like some sort of magic or something! I dunno, it was all very hard to take in at once." He said nervously. "Hey buddy," he started again, "Can you like, not tell anyone about this? I don't want to sound like I'm crazy." Overcoat placed a hand on Witness's shoulder. "All information about this will be given only to the authorities."
- Before we could listen further, we heard a patting sound behind us. We turned around sharply to find a police officer hitting a rolled up packet of papers in his hands impatiently. He looked me in the eye and said, "Don't you kids have anywhere better to be right now?" He asked as if there was never an explosion behind us at all. He looked from me to the strange hairdo of Senjei, and back to me. "I…uh, yeah, yeah we do." I said, not wanting to start trouble, "C'mon Senjei, c'mon Keigo, I said as I grabbed Alicia's silk-soft arm and took off away from the site.
- Afterwards, Alicia and I conversed while Keigo taught Senjei how to play "Tag." "So you think it's really a Mamodo?" I asked Alicia. She nodded and said with much confidence, "Well, how can not be? It all makes sense don't it?" We compiled the evidence together, the eyewitness reports, the randomness of it all, what happened just 5 minutes ago. After this, I was forced to agree with Alicia on this one. "But what kind of power can cause this much destruction?" I was referring to the explosion-creating Mamodo. "Look's like we got a bit of high-tailed chasin' to do, don't we?" Alicia said with a smile that caused her cute freckled face to glow. I started to say something when someone ran down the road and yelled to the crowd of people and police, "There's been another explosion! Out on the other side of town! This time it was in a house!" The crowd got really quiet at this time, only murmurs of "Is she serious?" and "What did she say?" were emitting from the crowd.
- A policeman had confronted the woman and started to question her, and some people were getting into their cars to investigate. We were able to hitch a ride from one of my mom's friends who was there and was going to check out the other detonation. Thankfully she had a van so we all fit. Keigo sat enthusiastically in the front as Senjei crashed in the back. Alicia and I sat in the dividing seat. The ride up had been filled with the most excruciating suspense as Alicia and I quietly discussed what we would do if we found the culprit. Once again, through all the craziness, it was difficult to pinpoint the location of the disaster. Until finally…
- "Hello, yes, excuse me?" Said Sandy, Mom's friend, to a man walking along the sidewalk wearing a distraught/exhausted face. "You must know where it happened, right?" The man understood what she meant without her having to describe the scenario. The man inhaled in as if he were out of breath and said, "Yes, ma'am, it's on Stonehouse Ridge." THUNK, that was my stomach dropping to my feet, it was followed by another THUNK, as Alicia fathomed the idea as well. Number one: they really didn't go THUNK. That was a hyperbole/personification literary figure. Number two: Stonehouse Ridge was the very same road Alicia and Craig's house stood. We drove along silently, dreadfully listening to the howl and wails of the sirens that took the route Alicia would have taken home.
- Ok, and then I did something weird, well, weird for me to do, and don't make fun of me about it, I am completely aware that it has been only a week. But, I reached out and grabbed her hand, Alicia's, that is. I don't know why, I guess I was trying to be comforting or something, I don't know. It was one of those "Seemed like a good idea at the time" cases. I still don't know whether to feel stupid about it or not. But I just grabbed and held her hand, her lovely, silken hand. And just to add even more detail to the action, no, it wasn't like fingers intertwined and all that, it was just my hand wrapped around hers. I looked at her face for just a second, to see she had that same smirk/frown expression I wore just a chapter ago. I could tell that her heart rate was raising, her hand got warmer, and her breathing quickened. All we both could do was hope for the best.
- The crossroad was nearing, and Alicia's grip tightened. Harder and harder she squeezed my digits, and as we rounded the corner, and as Sandy gasped, "Oh my." Alicia fell into my shoulder and wept. She knew that the explosion had hit her house long before now, after we found out about Stonehouse Ridge. I, unfortunately, had no clue what to do at that point, so I did nothing. Alicia seemed to only need my shoulder, and I was doing a pretty good job at lending it to her.
- As we approached the wreckage, I was able to distinguish some major destruction details. Mainly, the front of the house was demolished. Where the door had been was now a pile of rubbish. The roof at the front of the house had fallen and pieces of wood had flown as far as the neighbor across the street's yard. There were many emergency vehicles lined up around the house. More Police cars, fire engines, and Ambulances. I italicize that because that was most likely where Craig was being kept. At the sight of this, I had to fight Alicia from jumping out of the moving car to see her brother, as she yelled his name helplessly. I told Sandy to stop the car, and she did very suddenly, at which point my hand was let go and Alicia unorthodoxly fell out of the car, got up and ran to the nearest ambulance. I fought my way through the groups of EMTs and Police Officers that blocked the white medical truck, and made my way to my second family ((yes I know it has only been a week, shuddap)). Craig was being thrown into the second ambulance, and miraculously, he was fine, with just a couple gashes and apparently a very painful nail embedded in his leg.
- Alicia was crying, which made my heart rise to my throat, I didn't like the seeing that. She was leaning against her bleeding brother who was sporting a pretty gnarly cut on the right side of his head and a nasty, bloody rag around his leg where the nail had entered. Craig was smiling, almost proud of what had happened, like how a kid would show off his scar to his awing friends. "It's alright Alicia, really it is. The doctors say I'll be in the hospital for about 4 days, if not less!" Despite her brother's attempts, Alicia was crying even harder, too lost for words. Craig patted her head repeating, "It's alright." He gave her a reassuring noogie, which calmed her down slightly, and told her he needed to go to the hospital now, and that we would ride in the other ambulance to the hospital to meet with him. "Go back now, go back to Blake, I'll see you in a bit ok? It's alright, truly, it is."
- The doors were closed, and Alicia reluctantly left her brother's side. She came over and, much to my delight, hugged me around the neck, and from there I led her to the Ambulance, by which we were transported to the infirmary.