Disclaimer: Zatch Bell is copyrighted to Makoto Raiku (characters, series, and concepts). The only things I own that are currently revealed in the story are E, Nylon, Shine, Angelica Tsukoro, Curtis Herrakoro, Gretchen, Harumi Kisamaru, Haruko, Izo Uramori, Myriam Schwazden, Mystrael, Metallix, Professor Linda, Orion, Jade, Shine, Zale Schwazden, Thoria, Cassandra, Vini, Amanda, Phoebe, Samantha, Phantom, Isaac, Marjorie Barragán, and Talón.
Chapter 18: Saviors Yet Again
"I'm sure someone taught all of you that it is poor character to fight in a public park." E chastised with crossed arms. "But, but, but! They started it!" Zatch responded with a whine, pointing childishly and accusingly at Marjorie and the agonized, grounded Talon. "Hmm…If you say so." E said as he floated beside Zatch. "But, boy, am I glad to see you two!" Zatch exclaimed happily.
"Kiyo, are you alright?" Angelica ran to the fourteen-year-old boy. "Yeah, thanks for showing up." Kiyo replied appreciatively. It was then he noticed something: Ang had a change of attire. Her new clothing consisted of a long-sleeved, navy blue business shirt with a pink shirt underneath it, a navy blue skirt, and dress shoes.
"I'll explain later, Kiyo."Angelica's voice echoed in Kiyo's mind followed by a giggle. Kiyo stared at the older human sheepishly, "R-Right, Ang." He had forgotten Angelica had telepathy.
"Koko kaw. (So they've converged at long last.)" Talon stated as he hovered back into the air. Marjorie gritted her teeth as the book in her arm glowed, "Who cares? Just get rid of them! Airzuruk!"
"Watch out!" Kiyo exclaimed, whipping his attention back to the battle. "Ieshun!" Angelica suddenly shouted, not making any bodily movements.
Everything happened suddenly. Talon had dashed expeditiously for both Zatch and E, but then a dark purple dome outlined with pink appeared in his way, and the avian Mamodo was blown away into a tree. "Wha-Talón!" Marjorie shouted, turning to where her partner was knocked away to.
"Nice shot, E!" Zatch complimented. E only nodded in acknowledgement. Kiyo turned to Angelica and said, "Wow, Ang, you reacted so quickly to that. You and E must have been training a lot." Angelica rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Well, you caught us…Yes, E and I have been indeed training extensively as of late."
"What are you two been doing?" Kiyo inquired curiously.
"We meditate," Angelica answered, "We mediate by ourselves in calming environments, and we go to classes called 'mental fortitude' that help us develop our minds even more." Kiyo chuckled lightly. All of his friends around him were getting stronger and stronger each day. It was dizzying to compare them now to when he first met them.
Their conversation ended when Talon flew like a dart out of the bushes and into the air, eyeing at his two opponents predatorily. "Playtime is over." Marjorie declared, her voice decorated with a snarl of frustration. The Go Airzuruk-induced Talon dashed forth and whipped more air currents, but he utilized his speed to his advantage. He flew around Zatch and E at numerous angles and directions, creating realistic, confusing afterimages of himself in the wind.
"Which one is the real one?" Kiyo thought, his dark eyes darting about to try and locate the real Talon. "I can' tell; he's moving way too fast!"Angelica mentally responded, doing the same.
"Airzurado!" Marjorie shouted. Suddenly, the wind stopped and the afterimages disappeared, being placed by two light blue blades of air. "Dodge!" Angelica and Zatch instructed them in unison. Both E and Zatch managed to jump over the blades. "Got you now," Marjorie smirked, "Garu Airzuruk!"
E and Zatch were unable to dodge as Talon flew in-between them, nicking them with the outer edges of the spiral around him. "That damn bird is just too fast!" Kiyo cursed. Angelica then said to him, "Then we'll have to shut down his speed somehow."
"Zatch and I tried that," Kiyo explained, "We used Jikerdor to magnetize Talon to a jungle gym, but as you can see, he has spells that don't have to do with himself."
"Then leave the trapping to me," Angelica volunteered with a reassuring smile, "I've got the perfect spell for the job." Kiyo nodded understandingly, "But finding the chance to use our strategy will be entirely circumstantial…"
Talon had just performed a wide loop in the air after successfully striking Zatch and E with Garu Airzuruk and was dive-bombing for them again.
"Zakeruga!"
"Ieruga!"
Zatch's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he discharged a concentrated beam of lightning toward the diving Talon. E's eyes glowed as he fired a thin beam of whitish psychic energy right beside it. Talon, however, easily sidestepped both spells and continued his descent toward them.
"Airzurusen! Airzurusen! Airzurusen!"
Talon opened his beak and unleashed three blasts of air for his two targets. "Rashield!" Kiyo read the defensive spell, and Zatch summoned a rectangular wall of lightning from the ground before him. "Zagurzem!" From his mouth, Zatch unleashed a small sphere of red light toward Rashield. The spell enhanced Rashield, doubling its size and adding an additional thunderbolt pendent on its face.
The three blasts of Airzurado connected against the Zagurzem-enhanced Rashield. With each shot, Rashield cracked and finally broke with the third one. Through the debris, Talon shot through, heading to Zatch and E yet again.
"Zatch! Grab him!" Kiyo yelled, seeing the opportunity arise. Zatch ducked underneath the avian and grabbed his tail feathers, stopping him cold. "I got you, you big bird!" The blonde six-year-old exclaimed as Talon squawked questioningly. "Now, Ang!" Kiyo gave the signal to the other human.
"Right!" Angelica stated as she casted a new spell, "Here we go, E! And jump back, Zatch! Aagusu Ieshuna!" As Zatch quickly released Talon and jumped out of the way, E outstretched his arm and fired a pinkish lightning bolt from him palm. When Talon was struck by it, a dark purple cage with a pink outline surrounded him whilst accommodating his height and size.
"Whoa. It looks like the rest of E's spells," Kiyo noted in his mind, "But…it's not causing damage at all."
"That's because Aagusu Ieshuna is used purely for imprisonment and immobilization." Angelica explained to Kiyo telepathically, "That bird is trapped for good now."
"You think that lousy box can hold Talón? Don't make me laugh!" Marjorie said vindictively and then read another spell, "Airzurusen!" Talon opened his beak and fired a shot of air, but to his and Marjorie's surprise, the attack ricocheted inside the cage and struck Talon multiple times before dying away.
"God damn it all." Marjorie mumbled under her breath, slapping her hand onto her palm.
"I'm going to ask you politely one last time, Marjorie," Kiyo spoke sternly, now focusing intently on the older human, "What is going on? Why is Bao so important?"
Marjorie stared at him and responded, "My alignment and purpose is classified unfortunately, but I will tell you this…Bao is needed to open an important lock." Kiyo blinked, "A lock?"
"Stop being so ambiguous and tell us straightforward." Angelica stated impatiently. Marjorie shot her a tart look, "This is your first warning: don'ttell me what to do." E looked at the older women and stated curtly, "That's a very immature idiosyncrasy, especially for someone for your supposed age."
Marjorie noticeably clutched the antique white spellbook harder due to frustration. If only Talon wasn't stuck in such a bad position, she would shred these newcomers to ribbons. It was then she realized that Talon did have a type of spell, one that didn't matter if he was imprisoned or not.
"Fine then. Think what you will." She said as she flipped pages in the book to find it, "Let's see how you fare against our strongest one!" Intense light burst from the book as Marjorie shouted, "Gigano Wigaruga!"
Talon suddenly released a loud screech, a screech that seemed to echo all the way to the heavens. His cry stirred the skies, a spiral mass of cloud forming. The winds picked up, trying to take whatever it could with them. Zatch, Kiyo, Ang, and E all stood their ground to make sure they weren't caught in the raging winds. From the spinning clouds, a large, dark white tornado began its descent, threatening to slam upon Zatch and E.
"K-Kiyo!" Zatch cried out, shielding his eyes from the winds.
"Ang, do something!" E barked.
"Ang, you'll have to cancel your spell! Hurry!" Kiyo said, flipping pages in the red spellbook until he reached the spell he needed. "If you say so!" Angelica stated, canceling Aagusu Ieshuna, which consequently freed Talon who flew back to his bookkeeper, and prepared to say another spell.
"Here we go, Zatch! The fourth spell: Bao Zakeruga!"
Zatch's eyes rolled to the back of his head a sphere of electricity formed in his mouth. Then, a giant, lightning dragon formed. Bao Zakeruga roared its mighty roar, electricity surging from his its long body.
"Here comes the big one! Jio Ma Ieruga!"
E's green lenses flashed before illuminating intensely, discharging a large green beam. The beam then suddenly started to morph into something. Something long and menacing like Bao Zakeruga. What formed was a purplish-pink Naga-like creature. Its main body was long and slick with hints of scales decorating it. It arms were fairly long, capped out by long, sharp grey nails. The head of the creature literally possessed a mask of sharp nails with piercing golden eyes being the only thing visible behind it. Flowing from behind his face of blades was psychic energy flowing like hair. To finish it off, a pair of dark pink, demonic wings stretched from its back.
"Whoa! What kind of spell is that?" Kiyo exclaimed, shocked to see that the normally bright and happy Angelica and the reticent and reversed E had that sort of monstrosity of a spell in their repertoire.
"Jio Ma Ieruga," Angelica explained, smirking, "You could say it's like fast-moving version of Dioga Teoieshun in animal form. It's when we really want to teach our opponents a lesson."
The thunder dragon and the psychic Naga rushed for the descending tornado, and all three attacks clashed. However, the combined might of the powerful animal spells was too much for the measly wind system. A few power surges rocked the area when Gigano Wigaruga suddenly disappeared, having finally lost to Bao Zakeruga and Jio Ma Ieruga.
"Wh-What?" Marjorie exclaimed in utter shock as Talon felt dread sprouting in his avian body, "N-No way!"
"GO!" Kiyo and Angelica shouted as Bao Zakeruga and Jio Ma Ieruga turned to Marjorie and Talon and rushed for them.
"AHH! Get us out of here, Talón!" Marjorie screamed pleadingly. Talon was only grateful that Go Airzuruk had not worn off after all this time. Because of such, he was able to swoop up his distraught trainer and use the major boost in speed to hightail it out of there. And they just barely escaped the explosion radius that was created when Bao Zakeruga and Jio Ma Ieruga connected against the ground.
It took several minutes for the upheaval to settle down, showing off the scarred remains of the battle once the dust subsided. The park would be out of commission for awhile, that was for sure.
Zatch and Kiyo breathed a heavy sigh of relief as they collapsed to the ground. Angelica hunched in her stance, panting laboriously. E was the only one that seemed fine after the endeavor, given by how he asked, "Is everyone all right?"
"Yeah," Kiyo answered, "I'll just be out of heart energy for some time. Man, that was rough…"
"I'll say," Angelica stated, straightening, "But at least we made it in time."
"Which brings me to the next issue," E said, "What was all that about?"
Kiyo stood on his feet as he put away the red spellbook, "Her and her partner's names were Marjorie Barragán and Talón. They wanted to test us for some reason…and it had to do with Bao, or Bao Zakeruga. She said it was important for a lock of some sorts."
"That makes no sense in all honesty." E remarked bluntly, crossing his arms.
"Uh, Kiyo?" Angelica spoke sheepishly, causing Kiyo, E, and Zatch to look at her questioningly, "Before we go on, because I have more questions to ask, let's get out of here before someone catches us."
It was then they realized how damaging the battle was as they sheepishly looked at the marred Mochinoki Park. If someone were to catch them, minutes after the calamity, things would not be pretty. "Uhh, right." Kiyo said.
"Come on, let's go to my car!" Angelica exclaimed as she jogged off. "You drive now?" Kiyo questioned, following. "Don't worry; she's horrible." E stated matter-of-factly as Zatch followed whilst laughing at his joke.
Some things never change.
Author Notes
If I recall correctly, I think this is the shortest chapter in the story. I wonder why...
Aw well, doesn't matter. Hopefully, now that Marj and Talon have been defeated, I can steer this story into the direction I've projected. I also would like to thank each and every person who took time to review and read this story. You guys and girls rock!
Adios and adieu for now!