Ohyaho everyone! CJzilla here with another update. In this chapter, it's looking like a full day for the Saturday family as two uninvited visitors barge in on them. Enjoy.
As I trash this city, alls CJzilla has to roar is this: R&R! Love... Hate... Review.
Dragonscall: Writing stories ahead of time is not and never has been my style. I obey my whims and I have the strengths and weaknesses that implies. I stay up too late, wake up too early and sometimes never finish fics because the muse is gone... Anyway, that's for R&Ring and here's a lightning fast update.
CZG: Here's an update that will hopefully answer all your questions... and raise some new ones too.
crystalshake: Funny how those things turn out huh?
Super Poof: Thanks Super Poof.
Pirates VS Ninjas: Here's an update.
allycat: Thanks. You're too kind.
vballer: I hope that cliffhanger didn't make you lose any sleep. I tried to update as fast as I could.
knAngel18: I can't get over how polite people are in this archive! I have a fic in the Total Drama Island archive and they're breathing down my neck and DEMANDING updates. Well, thanks for R&Ring and here's your update.
KaliAnn: Thank you so much KaliAnn. That is a tremendous compliment.
Amaris Solbes de la Vega: (CJzilla sticks out tongue) Well EXCUSE ME! I hate misspellings. I will correct "Shiitake" mushrooms. My computer said I spelt it right though...
Chapter 6
Trouble
The Beast of Gévaudan growled a warning at the two humans and three cryptids. The boy's family stood there frozen, mouths agape as the beast finally spat out Zak's shredded hoodie. Finally, the two adults and three cryptids came back to life.
"You FILTHY CUR!" The woman screamed, her hand shooting to the sword on her back. She tore her weapon from its sheath, the mystical sword slicing the ceiling before the Beast of Gévaudan was in her furious crosshairs.
An extra flame-shaped blade shot out from the two-edged sword before a huge, super-heated fireball formed on the tip of the weapon. The woman's face twisted with a pained sob.
"My BABY!" BOOM! The weapon let go of the fireball.
The Beast of Gévaudan dug into the metal floor with its claws and dove down the adjacent hallway. The fireball screamed past it, shooting flames after the beast. Super-heat scorched the metal hallway as the beast ran for its life.
Zak was shaking off of his fall and had no idea that his mom had just sent a wave of searing heat that was speeding this way. He barely had time to look up when the Beast of Gévaudan snatched him up from the floor by the back of his neck.
"Whoa! Make up you MIND! Where's the fire?!" The eleven-year-old gasped. As if an answer to his question he heard the roaring of flames.
Looking behind Géva he saw a wall of flames chasing them. On the upside mom, dad, Fisk, Komodo and Zon were back at the airship! Downside: potential barbecue.
"Haul CARCASS Géva!" Zak shouted at the Beast of Gévaudan. Then the eleven-year-old saw the hallway to the living room. "There! The living room!"
The beast galloped forward, jumped to a wall and used the wall to bounce into the living room's hallway. The flames shot passed them as the monster dog-like cryptid bounded into the living room, Zak in its mouth. Finally the Beast of Gévaudan skidded to a stop and dropped the eleven-year-old to the floor. The beast panted, keeping its eyes on the doorway as the flames started to bleed onto the carpet. Suddenly the fire-sprinkler system was activated. Water rained down from the sprinkler heads.
Zak groaned lying there on his back, under the beast as the water rained down on them.
"This is just not my day." The eleven-year-old grumbled, his wild white and black hair getting soaked with water. Just then Zak's family busted into the room.
Doyle, Fisk, Komodo, Doc, Zon and Drew rushed into the room. They saw the Beast of Gévaudan standing over Zak's body. The scene looked pretty incriminating; it was in character for predators to return to their kill, even to defend the half-eaten carcass. Zak was lying under the beast and as the monster dog-like animal took an aggressive stance over him, it looked as if it was protecting its kill.
Komodo, Zon and Fisk jumped at the monster cryptid. The beast just stood over Zak baring its teeth and snapping at the three other cryptids. All four animals roared and screamed at each other, all furious. Fisk, Zon and Komodo were angry enough to tear the monster dog-like cryptid to pieces while the Beast of Gévaudan was busy protecting the boy. None were budging.
"GUYS!" Zak crawled out from under the beast. Everyone jumped ten feet in the air.
"ZAK!" The family cried. The eleven-year-old hopped to his feet and ran right into the arms of his cryptid "brothers" and "sister".
Fisk grabbed the boy in a huge bear hug as Zon ran her teeth through his hair and Komodo licked his feet. Zak laughed at the cryptids' attention. Then the Beast of Gévaudan vaulted over the boy and three cryptids, aiming for Drew.
It tackled the woman, making Drew release her Fire Sword. As soon as the beast saw that the fire-breathing weapon was out of her hands, it turned its attention to Doc. Doc saw the monster cryptid jumping toward him. As the Beast of Gévaudan opened its mouth to clamp down on the man's powerful glove, Doc snatched it by the scruff of its neck. Slamming the beast to the floor, Doc held it there as Doyle pointed his wrist-blaster at the monster animal. Drew pulled her Tibetan Fire Sword from the floor. She and Doyle took a pinpoint aim at the beast's throat. Drew sneered at the animal.
"Drop dead you monster." The woman raised her sword over her head to slash the Gévaudan Beast's throat. Doyle cocked a round into the barrel of his blaster and eased on the trigger.
"NO!" Zak dove at his mother, father and uncle and fell on the beast. "Don't hurt it!"
Drew stopped mid-blow and Doyle immediately took his aim off of his nephew but Doc still held the beast to the ground.
"Zak! Get off of that thing!" Drew commanded as Doyle ripped the boy off of the creature. The eleven-year-old kicked in his uncle's grasp.
"TIME OUT! Just-…! TIME OUT!" Zak squirmed. "Just LISTEN!"
The room fell silent, only the sound of water from the sprinklers heard.
"The beast is tame as long as you STOP ATTACKIN IT!" Doyle dropped his nephew to his feet. Zak was jumping up and down, having a little anger fit. "And if you guys just LISTENED for two seconds, I could have told you that the beast… can talk!"
"What?!" Doc barked as the beast squirmed in his grasp. He looked at the snarling beast in his arms and then at his son. "Impossible! This thing's nothing but fangs and bad attitude!"
Zak shook his head and tried to pry his father's handholds over the beast's mouth and front legs.
"No! It can talk! It told me that it's a guardian and THAT'S why it's killing, to protect the secret stone!" The eleven-year-old rattled off. Finally Doc's grip loosened enough for the Beast of Gévaudan to writhe free.
Getting to its feet, the beast growled and snapped at everyone, completely agitated. Everyone but Zak jumped back.
"Easy Géva." The eleven-year-old soothed, calling out to the beast with his cryptid powers. The boy's eyes glowed with yellow incandescence as he calmed the Beast of Gévaudan.
The monster dog-like cryptid's lips finally went down over its teeth and the hair on its back relaxed.
"There! Who's a good doggie? Who's a good doggie?!" Zak ran his hand over the beast's head. To everyone's shock, the beast started wagging its tail.
"You NAMED it?" Doyle shivered, watching the beast's menacing red and yellow eyes close at the boy's stroke. The eleven-year-old nodded.
"Yep! The "Beast of Gévaudan" was such a mouthful." Zak returned. Drew still held her Fire Sword close.
"But so accurate." She sneered at the animal before pulling her son into a huge hug. "Oh, Zak! I thought you were dead!"
The boy laughed lightly.
"Me too! But Géva just wanted to talk and it told me that it was a guardian of some secret stone and that the guardian IS the secret stone." His family gave him a funny look. "Yeah. Kinda made my brain freeze too."
"Isusubur?" Fiskerton peeked out from behind Doc.
Zak nodded as Doyle pressed a few buttons on a control panel and the sprinkler system shut off.
"Yeah! A super mysterious, super defensive guardian!" Zak wiggled his fingers for emphasis. Doyle chuckled at his nephew.
"I find that hard to believe." The red head narrowed his eyes at the monster dog-like cryptid. "For once I agree with Doc; the Beast of Gévaudan is nothing but a blood-thirsty fang-face. You sure you're not hearing things, short-stuff?"
Zak sighed loudly as he stopped stroking the beast's head.
"Géva … SPOKE… to… me! I heard a voice inside my head coming from the beast's head!" The eleven-year-old gestured wildly. The Beast of Gévaudan's yellow and red eyes snapped open.
His family gave him a funny look but jumped back when the beast turned to them. Its eyes fixed on Fisk and it walked forward. The Fiskerton Phantom yelped in surprise and leapt to the rafters of the ceiling. The beast stood on its hind legs and sniffed at Fisk. The gorilla-cat clung to the rafter and shuttered as he felt the beast's nose graze his fur. Zon growled and gave the monster cryptid a head-butt to its ribs.
The beast fell back on all four paws but gave Zon a funny look. The female Ornithocheirous's eyes were on the sides of her head and the beast had difficulty deciding which eye to look into. As Zon stalked toward the Beast of Gévaudan, hissing and growling, the much larger yet confused dog-like cryptid backed up. Then it felt something on its tail. Turning, the beast saw nothing but felt the pressure of a lizard foot on its lion-like tail. Though it couldn't see Komodo, it could hear and smell him. The beast turned, ignoring the irritable Zon and started sniffing Komodo. The genetically-altered komodo dragon finally became visible and the two started to circle each other. Komodo let out a territorial growl as Géva watched the cranky lizard.
"Easy Komodo." Zak scolded. "You keep calm and Géva will keep calm."
Komodo gave the beast one last sneer before walking back over to Zon and Fisk as the gorilla-cat hopped to the floor. Drew finally couldn't take it.
"I WILL not have this THING close to my family!" The woman hopped in front of the beast, her Fire Sword pointed at it. "It nearly got your father and took you from us!"
Drew gritted her teeth at the huge dog-like cryptid as her Fire Sword began to glow.
"This is a MONSTER and it is a threat to all humans!" She snarled at the Beast of Gévaudan. "It's better off dead!"
Again Zak zipped in front of a dangerous weapon to save this man-eater.
"No mom! Don't!" The eleven-year-old pleaded. He remained teasingly out of her reach as he defended the large animal. "Géva's valuable to us!"
Drew's face twisted with anger and frustration.
"Argost wants Géva, mom. Van Rook told me so." Zak voiced as the Beast of Gévaudan put its head on his shoulder. Giving the beast a little scratch, the boy continued. "I don't know why but what makes Argost do anything anymore?"
The answer was obvious.
"The Kur Stone." Doc said from behind his wife. At the mention of the Kur Stone, the beast's red and yellow eyes went wide but fogged over with energy.
Placing a hand on the hilt of her Fire Sword, Doc eased Drew's aim off of the animal.
"Zak's got a point there Drew. If Argost sent Van Rook, don't you think he wants it for something?" The super-genius stated before Zak gasped. Everyone looked up to see the Beast of Gévaudan trembling.
The guardian of the secret stone and the secret stone of the guardian. The guardian of the secret stone and the secret stone of the guardian. The guardian of the secret stone and the secret stone of the guardian.
Zak heard the beast's mind going crazy.
"It's-… The Kur Stone! Géva has something to do with the Kur Stone! Its brain is going cuckoo!" The boy clapped his hands over his ears, the beast's unspoken voice getting louder and louder in his own mind. Finally the volume of the beast's mind dropped Zak to his knees.
Just then everyone heard something small and metallic hit the window. Turning, they saw a dozen small, booger-yellow balls stick to the window. With a loud sizzle, the glass started to melt and break. Then one of their hover disks rocketed through the air. The Saturday family barely had time to dive out of the way as the hover machine broke the glass and ripped through the room. The hover disk clanked to the other side of the room and the Saturdays didn't have time to get up when they heard a "thunk" from the broken windows.
Looking up, they saw the last two people they thought they'd see here.
"Greetings and bienvenue, Saturdays." V.V. Argost greeted, a smile on his crooked mouth as he hopped off of Munya's shoulders. In a flash all the Saturdays were on their feet.
"Argost!" Doc snarled, making a fist inside his Power Glove. The megalomaniac chuckled, his large shoulders bouncing with his chuckle even in the face of daunting fire-power.
"The one and only Mr. Saturday." Argost bowed smugly. "I saw that your door was open, but a quiet entrance has never been my style."
He laughed again as Munya just gave the Saturdays a dead stare.
"Though I dig your use of Mongolian Blood Worm venom, you ain't got NO style!" Zak shouted at the hunched, chalk-faced man, swiping the air with the Claw. Argost turned his attention to the boy with the troublesome cryptid influencing powers.
"My dear boy, you know that's not true. V.V. Argost never does anything small." Then Argost's dark eyes came to the Beast of Gévaudan. "Which brings me to the reason for my unannounced visit, Saturdays. You have something that I want."
Drew, Doyle and Doc glanced at the Beast of Gévaudan and Zak standing defensively in front of it.
"The beast? What for?" Doyle barked, cocking his wrist-launcher at the man and his creepy manservant. Argost looked at Van Rook's ex-apprentice and his eyes sharpened with irritation.
"That's for me to know and you to not find out until it's too late." The pasty-faced man returned glancing over the Saturday family. Then his hands shot into his cloak and he retrieved six marble-sized spheres, holding them between his fingers. "Now hand over la bête du Gévaudan and you may keep all of your faculties."
The Saturdays stanced for a fight.
"You're a fool, Argost." Drew growled, drawing her Fire Sword and pointing it at the villain. "You're out numbered; the odds are against you."
Argost smirked and gave a quick chuckle.
"On the contrary, my dear. The odds are in my favor, if I play dirty." He returned before throwing the six small balls to their feet. Everyone tensed as the marbles suddenly exploded into a huge cloud of smoke.
The smoke blanketed the room, blinded and choked everyone. But Drew, Doc, Zak and Doyle dared not swing and/or fire their weapons lest they hit one of their family members instead of Argost or Munya.
From inside the cloud of smoke Zak heard Zon and Fisk cry out before he heard them tossed across the room.
"Fisk! Zon!" Zak choked on the smoke as he pulled his shirt's collar over his nose. Opening his eyes, he saw a large figure standing in front of him through the haze of smoke. "Back off Munya!"
The eleven-year-old fired his Claw and it met it's target. He heard a grunt of surprise and impact but it wasn't from Munya. It sounded like dad.
"Shoot! Dad! I'm sorry! I can't see anything!" Just then he felt someone grab his arm. The next thing he knew, he was flying across the room and heaped on Fisk and Zon.
Holding his head, he was helped to his feet by Fisk. Still, nothing could be seen but endless smoke.
"Zon! Give us a little wind to clear up this room." Zak called to the female Ornithocheirous. With an acknowledging chirp, Zon opened her huge wings and flapped the air.
She created a wind tunnel that cleared the room of Argost's smoke bombs. Suddenly the room was cleared and everyone could see where each other were. Zak nearly guffawed when he saw his mom holding hands with Argost, thinking that the pasty villain was Doc. Drew jumped away like he was red-hot and pointed her sword in his face.
"For the record." There was a dirty smile on Argost's face as he looked at the curvy woman. "You were holding me."
With a flex of his arm, he wrapped his Megatooth shark skin cloak around Drew's Fire Sword, jerked its double-edged blade downward and threw his other fist across the woman's face. Drew reeled with the blow as Argost unraveled her powerful weapon from his cloak. Taking the sword in his hands, he aimed it at Doyle, who was wrestling with Munya. With a thought, Argost commanded a fireball at the tip of the sword. The ball of flames screamed off of the sword and hit Doyle in the side, rocketing him off of Munya and into a nearby wall.
Argost let out a power-hungry chortle as he saw how destructive this mystical Fire Sword was. But then Doc jumped on him from behind, wrapping his huge arms around Argost's comparatively smaller frame.
Munya turned his attention back to the Beast of Gévaudan as it was near the boy, checking if he was all right. The tall, blocky man with a dead stare and monocle quietly walked over to the child, his two cryptids and the beast. Zak, Zon, Fisk and the beast saw the man approaching. But then suddenly something unseen knocked Munya to his face. Half a second afterwards, Komodo appeared and jumped onto the man's back. Hissing at Munya, Komodo held his face to the floor with his foot.
"Fisk! Zon! Help Komodo!" The eleven-year-old commanded. The seven-foot-tall gorilla-cat and teal Ornithocheirous nodded and raced to help the nutty komodo dragon hold Munya tothe floor.
Zak then turned to the Beast of Gévaudan.
"Géva! You gotta get out of here! Argost's not gonna stop until you're his!" The eleven-year-old started pulling the beast toward the door. In that same second, an animalistic roar echoed through the room as Fisk, Zon and Komodo were blown off Munya.
V.V. Argot's manservant got to his hands and knees, his human form morphing into a half-human/half-cryptid. Four spider-like legs jutted out form the man's back, shredding his shirt. His muscles rippled and enlarged as his skin changed colors from his normal pale tone to a dark pink, nearly crimson hue. His hands and feet transformed into spider-like claws and as he stood, his face had also taken a turn for the uglier. His eyes were now crimson and slitted, just like a cat's. He was now half Papuan Giant Spider, half human and all evil.
Zak felt his jaw fall to the ground as Munya stalked toward him and the Beast of Gévaudan. The eleven-year-old drew his Claw and pointed at the wall of genetically-altered man.
"I'm not sure if I like you're pasty face more than your pink, creepy-crawly nastiness, Munya!" Zak scrunched his nose. But before the boy could fire his weapon, Munya spat out a thick, gooey steam of spider web from his mouth.
The jet of web smacked Zak in the chest, gumming the Claw and sending the boy to the wall. The eleven-year-old was stuck on the wall by the nasty spider web and no matter how much he writhed, he couldn't get free. Munya now turned his attention to the Beast of Gévaudan.
The monster dog-like cryptid with reddish fur growled a final warning at the man as he advanced on it. Munya didn't flinch as he narrowed his slitted eyes at the creature. The beast bared its teeth and jumped at the man. Both Munya and Géva crashed to the floor. The genetically-altered manservant held the beast's jaws away from his face and head, but the monster got a hold of one of his extra spider legs.
With a sickening crack, the beast bit down on Munya's top right spider leg. The man growled in pain as his extra appendage was ripped off from the joint. Munya tossed the animal off of him. The Beast of Gévaudan righted like a cat, Munya's twitching spider appendage still in its mouth. The half-man half-spider stood, glancing at his small but gory injury and glared at the beast. The monster dog-like creature chewed on his spider leg before swallowing it and returning the glare. The Beast of Gévaudan gnarled and charged at the genetically-altered man. Munya punched the creature in the side. It fell but grabbed a hold of his knee. Again Munya and Géva went tumbling.
Meanwhile Doc, Doyle and Drew had their hands full with Argost. Though the villain was still in Doc's arms, he managed to hold his own with his hands forced to his sides. Planting the tip of his shoe in Doyle's chin, he brought his heel down over Drew's shoulder as the red head reeled. Argost drove his heel into Doc's foot and off set his balance. Then he spun, using Doc as a weapon to knock around Drew and Doyle. But still Doc didn't let go.
"What do you want the Beast of Gévaudan, Argost?" The super-genius held tight to the pasty, dangerous man as he finally got his footing back. Argost laughed slightly.
"I'm not going to tell you." He returned, his ghastly and unnatural threat echoing in Doc's ears. "Like I said before Mr. Saturday; that's for me to know and you and your pathetic little family to find out when it's too late."
Argost flexed his muscles, ripping Doc's grip off of him. Then the man seized the super-genius by the wrist and threw him across the room.
Zak's eyes widened as he saw his father land on the wall that he was stuck to. Doc groaned and fell to the floor, slightly unconscious. Zak's eyes zipped back to Argost still giving his mom and uncle a run for their money.
"Fisk! Zon! Komodo! A little help over here!" The Fiskerton Phantom, genetically-altered komodo dragon and female Ornithocheirous shook the stars from their head and ran to the boy. Fisk, Zon and Komodo clawed at the gummy web holding Zak to the wall before the preteen finally dropped to the floor.
Zak glanced over his mom and uncle fighting Argost and Géva still wrestling with Munya.
"This is nuts! We need a plan!" He looked to his three cryptid pets.
"Tmusomubum?" Fisk questioned. The eleven-year-old then spotted Drew's Fire Sword lying on the floor.
"Fisk, help Géva. Komodo, Zon, you guys are with me." Zak gestured. Fisk did as he was told and he jumped into the fight with Munya and the Beast of Gévaudan while Komodo went invisible as he, Zon and Zak charged Argost.
Sliding on his side, Zak grabbed Drew's Fire Sword from the floor as Komodo slapped Argost's ankles out from under him. Zon snapped at the pasty man, making him crawl backwards.
"NOW FISK!" The preteen called out to his cryptid "brother".
Fisk grabbed Munya's ankles and threw him out of the broken window. As Zak predicted, Munya shot a string of web to the edge of the zeppelin to break his fall.
"GET CLEAR!" Zon and Komodo heard the boy's command and jumped off of Argost. Zak aimed the Fire Sword at the villain.
Argost barely had time to curl into his Megatooth shark skin cape as he was blown off of the floor and out of the window by a huge fireball. Zak shook the sting from the jolt of the fireball from his arms as he ran to the window ledge. Munya had caught his boss and both were dangling above the ground by a spider web. The eleven-year-old shot both of the villains a glare before he sliced the spider web. Both Munya and Argost fell to the ground.
"Fisk! Get to the doors and shut that ramp!" The preteen shouted at Fiskerton before he turned to his uncle. "Uncle Doyle! Get to the control room and get us out of here!"
Both Doyle and Fisk saluted and ran off to do what they were told. Turning his attention back to Argost and Munya, he shot fireballs to keep them at bay until the zeppelin took off.
Munya and Argost dove under the super-zeppelin to avoid getting barbecued by the flame-happy boy. Suddenly the ramp closed and the engines of the huge aircraft roared to life. In just a manner of seconds and in a huge gust of wind, the metal hooks detached from the soil and the zeppelin began to lift off of the ground. Argost shielded his eyes with his cape from debris as the airship was finally airborne. In an instant, the airship, Saturday family and Beast of Gévaudan was out of their reach and roaring off into the distance.
In the face of his defeat, Argost started laughing.
"My plan worked beautifully, Munya." The man cooed, tucking his hands back into his cloak. "They are none the wiser as to why I want the beast and as we speak, I can hear the wheels in their heads turning."
He chuckled.
"Our little "defeat" will put a little ember into their pants which will only motivate them. They will take la bête du Gévaudan back to their little home, unbeknownst that they are just playing into my plan." Argost smirked as he watched the cyrptozoologist family roar off in their airship. "When the opportune time comes; when they have both the Kur Stone and Beast of Gévaudan together, you, Van Rook and I will strike. So let them think that they've won; it will only make our REAL attack all the more surprising."
Argost threw his head back and gave an evil laugh into the French countryside as he watched the Saturday zeppelin fly off into the clouds.
R&R! LONG LIVE ROCK!
