Back with chapter two with the return of an old enemy, I wanna give a shout to Green248 for the review. I'm so glad this story got three likes and favorites already, now let's dive on in this story.
Chapter 2: Hell's Kitchen
It was night time in the town of Magnolia over at the 8-island cafe; a local restaurant who specializes in making food with magic. One of the employees was taking out the trash in the back down a dark empty lot, he then heard a crashing noise startling him.
"H…hello is someone there?"
He looked around anxiously but no answer.
"Eh, probably just a rat or something."
After he tossed the garbage in the trash he made his way back inside when suddenly a pair of massive arms grabbed him and pulled him into the shadows. The worker found himself strapped into a chair in a dark room.
"Hey what's going on, let go of me."
Suddenly the same pair of massive arms reached behind the employee and forced open his mouth. The employee then felt a spoonful of food shoved into his mouth. After a brief struggle the employee was forced to swallow. The employee didn't feel anything except for his taste bud's skyrocketing. He began to feel dizzy and stomach hurting. He shook vividly as his body began to change in appearance so much that he wasn't recognized as a human.
A few days later the caitshelter trio were currently on a job doing volunteer work at a zoo, (Authros note: In this story magnolia will have a zoo). Zodie was thrilled to help feed the giraffes, while girls cleaned some enclosures including poop duty. After four hours of work the trio sat down for lunch. Zodie suddenly noticed one zoo keeper moving a crate with a fuzzy creature with purple fur, dark eyes and a grape shaped black nose.
"What is that thing?"
"This lil bugger is called a gribble, one of the many few left in the world, it may be small but don't let its size fool you, these little ones have a massive appetite ." Explained the zookeeper. "Right now it's feeding time." Another zookeeper came over a massive juicy piece of meat about the size of a wyvern when they opened the cage. The purple critter with lightning speed devoured the meat right off the bone in forty seconds flat before retreating back to its cage. Zodie and the girls were dumbfounded.
"Zodie looks like you found another eating rival, other than Natsu now." Wendy joked.
After they're job was done the trio arrived back at the fairy tail guild for a little r&r before they're next job. Mira came up to the three to serve them drinks.
"So how did the job go?" Mira asked.
"Pretty good the zoo was awesome getting to help some of the animals, I gotta feed the giraffes." Zodie said.
"Except for manure duty." Carla said.
Mira giggled.
"We used to tackle jobs like these before back in cait shelter, like the time we delivered fabrics to some merchants." Wendy added.
Makorov joined the three at the bar with a drink. "I'm glad you kids are getting used to things here in fairy tail."
"I'm glad that there's always a job for everyone, not just hunting or fighting but odd jobs like volunteering and helping citizens." Said Wendy
"Indeed it's not always about roughhousing, helping people is what counts." Master Makorove said coming up to them. "At the end of the day a guild is a family and families help other people."
Suddenly team Natsu had walked over to the bar with some vittles in hand. "Hey guys whats up I see you're enjoying some of Mirajane's cooking, it's the best right.?" Said Lucy.
"Speaking of cooking, what are you guys eating?" Asked Wendy.
"Oh, it's some brand new menu items from 8-islands ." Lucy giddily explained taking a bite of takoyaki. "Delicious comfort food."
"Comfort is right." They even have this delicious fishy smoothie. I had to get two of them!" Said Happy as the blue cat slurped the two drinks at the same time. Carla scoffed and looked away from him in disgust.
"I heard Mr. Hajima hired a new chef and hot damn this person really put his big toe into it." Said Natsu.
"Sounds good we gotta try this place sometime maybe later but right now Wendy's already got a job posted for us, so we'll see you guys later." Said Zodie.
"Alright good luck you two." Lucy said.
On their way towards the train station the trio saw the said resturaunt with a massive line. Carla's eyes soon widened as if deja vu had washed over, she began shaking out of anxiety which didn't go unnoticed by Wendy.
"Carla are you okay?"
"Was it something you ate?" Zodie asked.
"I…it's nothing, I'm probably just imagining it, anyway let's get going."
The kids shrugged their shoulders and went on their way, unbeknownst to them they were being followed by a silhouetted figure.
Deep within the confines of the restaurant walked the new chef, he wore a typical chef outfit but his face was covered with a tomato mask and had a large build to him. He made his way through the kitchen into a hidden room where he was keeping a short elderly man captive. He had thick light-brown eyebrows and a small toothbrush mustache that reached halfway to his mouth. This was Mr. Yajima, a former magic council member and the current owner of eight island restaurants.
The larger man tore off the tape to Yajimas mouth allowing him to speak. "You'll never get away with this, if you think I'll let you take over my establishment then you have another thing coming!"
"Only thing coming will be a boiling pot of water if you don't shut it oldman, as for those fairies it's already too late. Nothing will keep me from my revenge, it's only a matter of time."
The Caitshelter trio arrived in the next town over for their last job of the day, nothing serious like fighting but more of helping out the community; they were looking for some volunteers to help out in a kitchen at a church. It wasn't too hard since joining Mira has shown the two how to navigate around a kitchen so it was just up their alley. The trio was currently working away in the kitchen making curry, Wendy and Carla were cutting vegetables while Zodie boiled water. Once they were finished they began serving out plates to church members. Their client, the head of the church, came up to them to express his gratitude.
"I can't thank you three enough, honestly I was a little worried with whom your guild would send over given their reputation for destruction, but it seems like I had nothing to worry about."
"We're just glad we could help sir." Said Zodie.
When all of a sudden a figure came crashing in through the window, the said person looked to be covered in what looked like food with one massive green eye.
"What the he-." Before Zodie could finish he was tackled to the ground by the intruder before he kicked it off of him into the kitchen.
Wendy raced over to her friend's side. "Zodie, are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm good."
"What in blazes was that thing?" Carla asked.
But before they could answer the creature leaped out again it grabbed a nearby plate of food and absorbed it into its body making it grow larger and more massive. Before any of them could react Wendy and Zodie were grabbed around by their waste and thrown outside of the church.
"Ok enough of this, dark phoenix screech." Zodie unleashed a blast of darkness from his mouth towards the monster which only put a hole through its stomach.
"Sweet you got him." Cheered Wendy.
But unfortunately the hole in the creature's stomach regenerated fully. "No I didn't.
The monster began walking towards them, turning its hand into a hammer. But right as it was about to harm them it was met by a massive blast of heat, completely roasting and burning the monster to a crisp. The kids look to see it was Carla who had rescued them holding a blow torch which packed alot of fire power(see what I did there).
"Are you two alright?"
"Yeah, thanks Carla for real." Zodie said. "But what was up with that monster?"
Then unexpectedly the charred pile of food began disappearing til an unconscious male human took its place leaving the trio perplexed. Zodie went over to check to see if he was okay. Wendy began to use her healing magic on him. He then stirred awake. "Wha…what happened, how'd I end up here?"
"Whatever happened to him must've whipped his memory." Wendy said.
"More like someone wanted him to not remember," Carla affirmed.
"Speaking of remembering, we had a job to do here and we sort of left the church in shambles." Zodie stated. The girls looked behind them to see that the said building was indeed in shambles.
"I hope our pay won't be docked from this." Wendy fretfully said.
Suddenly a shadow loomed over them, the trio turned around and standing hovering over them was the pastor of the church/ client and he wasn't too happy.
Back at Magnolia
"Unbelievable that attack wasn't our fault and we get our pay docked, I swear the next time I see that guy-.
"I'm upset too but at least we didn't lose all our reward money." Said Wendy placing a reassuring shoulder on him.
"Besides someone has to take respnsibilty for what happened." Carla added.
"Yeah like that person who infected that guy."
Wendy placed her hand on Zodie's shoulder to reassure him. "Hey, since we're back, let's grab a bite from that restaurant, some food in you will cheer you up."
"Ok food is the source of solutions."
"But first things first we need to czech back in with the guild." Carla said.
The trio arrived at the guild only to see all the lights were off and the doors locked.
"Ok that's weird they're closed." Zodie said.
"Maybe they closed early or something." Wendy thought.
Carla folded her arms and huffed. "Perhaps we'll just check in tomorrow."
Zodie then lifted up Carla and threw his arm around Wendy. "In that case let's head over to 8- island i'm starving."
The trio made their way towards cravings delight and went inside, the building that was once bustling was now quiet and practically empty.
"Where is everyone?" Wendy asked.
"Guess the lunch rush died down when we left, which is a win-win for us, no line." Zodie rejoiced. As he made his way towards the counter and dinged a bell. After about 4 minutes nobody showed up. "Oh crap don't tell me there clo-."
"Greetings." A worker suddenly popped out from the counter surprising Zodie. "How can I help you kids today?"
After regaining his composure Zodie looked up at the menu before making his choice. "I'll have the takoyaki."
"And for me I'll have the miso ramen,what about you Carla?"
"No thanks, I'm fine!"
"Alright, ramen and takoyaki i'll have that right out." The counter lady turned and walked back into the kitchen.
"Not hungry are ya?" Zodie asked.
"I just have this weird feeling about this place, I can't help but feel that it's familiar." Carla said.
"I think your paranoia is getting to you, I mean what harm could come from a restaurant." Wendy asked.
"The staff, building not meeting certain health standards, an-." Zodie didn't get to finish because he was met by the same counter lady holding their food individually.
Zodie took the bags individually and handed one of them to Wendy and they both scurried out of there like there was no tommorow.
Once outside it was pretty late out so they decided to head on home.
"Alright see you girls tomorrow."
"Bye Zodie."
Zodie Dorm
After a relaxing shower Zodie had on his signature pajamas and was ready to tear into his takoyaki. Right as he was about to open the box it began shaking.
"What in the world?"
Suddenly the box sprang open and a creature latched onto Zodies face. He struggled as he tried to get the intruder off his face while he rolled around the floor knocking items down on his shelf. After what felt like seconds the phoenix child managed to get the creature off of him. Zodie saw that it was a giant takoyaki ball with eight tentacles sticking out of it. Zodie then flew right out of his room with the takoyaki beast latched to him knocking over items in lobbies.
"Get the hell off me!"
The struggle continued into the kitchen before Zodie tossed the takoyaki beast through the door. "I officially give this place a one star review."
The moment of rest was long lived as the beast came back into the kitchen looking peeved, it began to rush toward him. With quick thinking Zodie flipped on top of the stove and opened the oven before shutting it and locking the takoyaki beast inside. He then turned the oven to broil, burning the creature to death before it was completely charred. "I changed my mind. This place is now a zero star review."
Zodie got himself together and made his way out of the kitchen when someone barged through the door, it was Wendy.
"Wow Wends whats wrong?"
"Carla, she's been taken!"
"Was she taken by some sort of sentient food creature made of ramen?"
"Y…yes she was."
"I just got done burning an octopus to death in the oven." Wendy looked around and noticed the state the lobby was in, she then noticed that it was pretty vacant.
"Hey Zodie, where is everyone? It's quiet."
"Now that you mention it, you're right. I mean during my fight I stirred up a ruckus and nobody came out."
Suddenly they began hearing footsteps behind them they turned to see two young adult males moving towards them in a stiff uncoordinated manner. One had a beige bowl undercut wearing a blue open collared blue shirt and dark pants; this was Max Alors, a wizard with sand magic. The other young man had black straight hair styled in an undercut, he was wearing a high collared red jacket with a zipper with tan pants and black boots. Warren Rocko was a wizard who specialized in telepathy.
"Max, Warren there you guys are, where've you been?"
The two mages said nothing as they crept closer and closer they noticed the dark under their eyes their skin was now pale green. Without warning Max lunged towards them both, Zodie pushed Wendy away from him making Warren run head first into the door getting stuck. Next Max surrounded his fist in sand and shot a wave at the two kids trapping them in a veil of sand.
"I've got an idea, sky dragon wing attack." Wendy with her wind blew the sand veil off them and knocked Max back into a wall.
"Nice Wendy come on let's go save Carla I have a feeling I may know where she is."
Back at Cravings Delight location
Carla laid unconscious inside of a cage before she began to stir awake. "Where am I, and why does this seem awfully familiar." She looked around and saw she was inside of a room.
"Carla my love is that you." The said cat turned to an all too familiar face and was put inside another cage next to her.
"Tom cat?"
Happy all groggy faced Carla with hearts in his eyes. "This must be the fate that brought us together."
"Yeah, a fate worse than death maybe." Carla said under her breath. "Listen to me, do you remember what happened before waking up here?"
"Well I was with Natsu at the guild then all of a sudden everybody began leaving and coming here, then Natsu gets attacked by some food monsters."
"I had a feeling they were tied together with this eight island restaurant but who exactly is at the center of it all.
With Zodie and Wendy
The two mages were atop a roof looking down at eight island cafes along with many townspeople and guild members who're possessed.
"Carla has to be in there I'm sure of it and so many of our guild mates too." Said Wendy.
Right out the corner of his eye Zodie noticed a familiar person. "Wendy look." It was Natsu and he was creeping against a wall staying out of sight. Zodies gut was telling him that he wasn't possessed and that he was there for the same reason he and Wendy were.
Second layer Zodie flew Wendy over toward the building Natsu crept by and tried to get his attention. "Psst Natsu up here." The said dragonslayer looked up to see both Zodie and Wendy motioning at him to come up to them. After a few seconds of hearing each other's stories; including Natsu telling them he escaped mind control by burning the food parasite out of his body, the salamnder was ready to go in guns blazing( Author's note: Blazing get it lol).
"Alright you guys let's head on in there and stop whatever's doing it!"
"Natsu hold on a minute, we're outnumbered and we're not sure what we're up against." Zodie said.
"Plus we're not sure how much of the guild has been turned and we don't have time to check." Added Wendy. "Wait a minute Zodie you've been working on your invisibility right we can just sneak in right?"
"Yeah but the only problem is I've never tried it with anyone else but what choice do we have right?"
About a few seconds later the trio of wizards now completely obscured made their way inside of eight island cafes making sure not to bump into any mind controlled minions. They finally made it inside so many controlled people were at work preparing ingredients and carrying them into the kitchen. The fairies followed them inside and there they entered a large freight elevator.
"When did eight islands get an elevator?" Asked Natsu before he was shushed.
The elevator finally came to a stop and what they saw was an underground colony with a large massive pot in the center with various minions dumping ingredients inside. The three finally
"What the hell is going on?" Asked Natsu
"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Said Wendy.
Suddenly they began glitching. "Zodie dude what's going on?" Asked Natsu.
"It's my invisibility. I can't keep it up for much longer."
Natsu then pulled both kids into a nearby spot to hide before they became visible. "Well great now what're we going to do."
Wemdy then began to get a familiar whiff in the air. "Guys I've picked up Carla and Happies scent."
Natu then bashed his fist together giving off a wide grin. "Alright i'm all fired up now you guys go get them."
"What're you going to do?" Wendy asked.
"I'll keep these guy's distracted, keep the heat off you two." Natsu then leaped out of his hiding spots. "Hey you putz's anybody under control better get ready to catch these flaming haymakers from Natsu Dragneel the salamander."
All the minions began racing towards Natsu who led them on a wild chase through the colony.
"Alright let's go." Wendy followed the scent with Zodie following behind her.
Meanwhile with Happy and Carla the blue cat was trying to escape by ramming his head repeadtly into the bars of the cage but to no avail. "Worry not Carla once I break out of this cage I'll get you out next."
Carla rolled her eyes. "My hero."
Suddenly the door to the room began to jiggle and inside walked Zodie and Wendy.
"Carla Happy." Zodie went over to the cages and with his strength he pulled the doors off allowing Carla and Happy to get out.
"Thank goodness you found us because my head was starting to hurt after hearing this tom cat bang his own head." The said cat began seeing stars dance around his head whilst in Zodies arms. "Anyway we need to get out of here right now."
"First we gotta find Natsu, he's out there fending off all these minions as we speak." Wendy said.
"We'd better catch up to him and find out what the hell's going on here, come on." Zodie and the group ran out to look for Natsu.
Meanwhile the salamander was wreaking havoc and sending his opponents flying. "Come on you lousy bastards give me a real fight." From above Zodie and the rest of the group arrived.
"Natsu don't go to ham on these people. I know they're possessed but still it's not their fault they're being possessed. Wendy said.
"Yes and that would be my doing." Said a very familiar voice coming into view between the minions . It was none other than Mr. Hajima.
"Huh Mr. Hajima you're the one behind all of this?" Happy asked, shocked.
Wendy's eyes became wide after taking in Hajima's scent, Zodie noticed the look on her face. "Wend's whats wrong?"
"You guy's his scent. I've smelled it before."
"I'm impressed you remember, after all the smell of food brings on a stronger link to memories." Hajima's body began to glow as his body then changed to that of a familiar figure. His stature was muscular and obese with a white tattered chef shirt and green plaid pants. But the most memorable gesture was his restraint mask.
Zodie looked on with shock. "Oh crap you again."
"Maurice the consumer!" Carla spat out disgustedly.
"You guys know this freak show?" Asked Natsu.
"Evidently yes!" Answered Carla. "We dealt with him back in cait shelter. He wanted to eat me because he's got this obsession with eating rare animals.
"I thought after he was blasted away in the oven we'd never see him again!" Said Zodie.
"Like all good meals, I'm back for seconds."
"Let me guess your wanting revenge on us is that why you kidnapped Carla and Happy and sent one of your food soldiers to kill us?" Zodie asked.
Natsu charged towards Maurice fist ignited with fire ready to strike but was instead met by a sword. The wielder was none other than Erza, she was wearing her flame empress armor(Author's note: Not gonna describe what it looks like because you all know what it looks like.) Only difference is that her head was covered with a large strawberry. "E…Erza." Natsu gasped.
The said wizard pushed Natsu back and aimed her sword at the group.
Happy hid cowardly behind Zodie's leg. "Oh man, she's been brainwashed too."
"That's right, Titania destroy them." Maurice ordered as he took off.
"What do we do now? Erza's way out of our league." Wendy said, clinging to Carla with fear.
Natsu punched his fist together creating a small ignition, he grinned with excitement. "Now I got a major fire in my belly, you two take down the chef, Erza's mine." The four of them nodded and took flight after the said chef.
"Alright, red you and me let's go." Both Erza and Natsu charged towards one another engaging in battle.
Maurice was making his way towards the top of his bowel and reared towards the end right before he went over Happy Wendy Carla and Zodie caught up to him. "You've got nowhere to go, it's the end of the line." Happy said.
"Then I just have one word, bon appetit." Maurice then poured a vial of liquid into the bowel.
The bowl of food began bubbling before a massive tentacle came up from the bowel. It belonged to a creature as it soon emerged from the bowel. It stood exactly thirty feet tall. Its torso was that of broccoli with menacing yellow eyes with eight massive green tentacles at the bottom. "Behold the mighty broctopuss you cannot fathom its power, now go my creature devour your enemies." Then unexpectedly the creature grabbed a hold of Maurice . "What're you doing? I'm your creator, release me at once!" But his words fell on faint ears and broctopuss swallowed Maurice whole. Silence fell over the entire room. Natsu and Erza even ceased their fight after what just happened.
Broctopuss let out an ear piercing roar before climbing out of the gorge until it reached the streets of magnolia wreaking havoc. Happy Zodie and Wendy with Carla flew after the behemoth. "How do we stop this thing?" Wendy asked.
"If I remember correctly the last creature we fought was susceptible to extreme heat." Carla said.
"We could get Natsu but he's stuck fighting Erza down there." Happy said.
After pondering for a couple of seconds an idea flashed in his head. "I got an idea girls keep the monster busy. I'm gonna take a little trip to the zoo." Zodie took off
flying.
"He better knows what he's doing!" Carla said.
The phoenix child made his way into the zoo towards the gribble enclosure. "Hey little guys, I hope you're hungry and craving a veggie seafood fusion cuisine.
Back with the girls, the broctopuss tried to catch them in its tentacles but thanks to Carla aerodynamics it couldn't touch them. "Sky dragon roar." Wendy fired off a couple attacks to ward off the creature's massive tentacles but it just wasn't enough.
"Where in blazes is Zodie?"
"Did someone call my name?" The said boy had appeared right next to the girls.
"I hope you have come up with a plan while you were at the zoo!" Carla scoffed.
"I did and I brought over a friend for dinner." He took out the crate with the gribble behind his back. He flew at top speed and released the purple critter towards the titan and it began devouring it, broctopuss tried to shake him off but to no avail it was pointless.
"I don't believe what I'm seeing right now." Carla said.
"How'd you pull this off Zodie?" Asked Wendy.
"I remembered what the zookeeper told us about them being a bottomless pit, so I figured this would satisfy their pallet."
Once the gribble was done eating Broctopuss was no more and Maurice was lying in the streets covered in green broccoli slime. "No, my revenge was supposed to be a dish best served cold." The chef was slowly trying to crawl away but was stopped by both Wendy and Zodie who were looking down at him.
"You want this one?" Wendy asked Zodie.
"I think Carla has earned this."
The said cat walked over to Maurice with a frying pan she found and slammed it right on his head knocking him unconscious.
"Alright guys, you did it." Said Natsu walking over to the trio while carrying an unconscious Erza."
"Thanks Natsu- woah!"
"Oh my god Natsu you're hurt!" Cried Wendy.
The trio saw Natsu was a little banged up after his fight with Erza, his left eye was swollen, his pants and jacket were torn and he was bleeding from his head. "It was tough but I came out on top." Natsu declared puffing his chest out.
"Nah ahh, he only won because after the monster was taken down Erza fell unconscious snapping her out of control." Happy snarkily said.
"Shut up cat!" Natsu spat angrily.
Zodie and Happy began laughing at their banter.
"I'm afraid this isn't over, we still have everyone else under control." Carla pointed out.
"Leave that to me." Natsu said as he set his hands ablaze. "I'll just melt those food parasites right off their faces."
After the incident the cait shelter trio explained what had happened and Maurice was finally sitting in prison, fairy tail offered to rebuild the 8 island resturaunt and reopened. Natsu bragged about how he bested Erza but she soon made him regret it by sending him flying through the roof of the guild hall. Zodie, Wendy and Carla were given a free meal ticket for what they did.
Done with chapter two now Green428 about the tenrou island arc i'll be doing it differently instead of Zodie and Wendy being stuck in suspended animation they'll grow up and no longer be kids. That'll really make the plot interesting. What do yall think? "If you have suggestions i'd love to hear them till next time peace