Authors Note: Hey, peeps, I hope things are all well. I am currently sleep-deprived, but that's okay, lol, VIVA LA POST. I am having much fun with this project, though I traumatized myself learning this IP's actual legit spelling language. The funny thing is I'll probably have to make some incantation elements up, but If I do, I will totally add and break down the new words as a fun end-bit Author note. Other than that, there's not much else to talk about story-wise, so enjoy the new chapter before I prattle on lol.

Remember to review or follow any author's stories that you like or love.

Zatch Bell: The Silver Star

The Broken Starry Telescope Arc

Chapter 2: Consolation Constellation

No New Messages... BEEP...

Caleb's empty, ragged eyes watched the answering machine's hologram show nothing but zero on any form of news as his fingers slowly slipped off the message near the main door to his apartment. Shadows covered most of the maple wood flooring. Mixed in with the black walls, the only light source came from a series of star-structured glowing stickers all across the walls. Once a sense of wonder, growth, and... passion. They were all just a reminder of a better time now, creating an eerie green presence of dissociation.

With a weak slump, Caleb hit the wall lethargically, with his body purposefully dragging himself against it with a desire to knock the stickers off, but they didn't budge. As he painfully dragged himself against every star-shaped glow-in-the-dark jab to his skin was an easement of distraction into his thoughts. He halted as he neared a particular, more planetary set of stickers, looking at the one furthest away.

"I swear Pluto will be avenged for the sins of the past. Even if I have to shank a hoe to do it, I shall see it returned to its celestial title. However, first, before quelling my scientific rage, how about we attempt not to burn the popcorn... again... NO, I PUSHED THE RIGHT BUTTONS WHY IS IT PRODUCING SMOKE. CALEB HALP, HALP..."

A flimsy smile tried to break through Caleb's thoughts as the gentle memory tried to melt some of the sadness away, but just like the pain, it was only a minor easement. Halting in his tracks, he realized he couldn't sleep here tonight; thus, upon forcing himself off the wall, he turned right back around. With a stiff reopening of the door, a cold seaside breeze hit him in the face. He knew he shouldn't go out again... it was safer to suffer it, but that part of him was also getting sick of the constant reminder of her.

So what better way than to drown in the reminder... the boy's aimless soul watched the same yellow sidewalk steps as before. Yet this time, there was nothing to catch him off guard now high happy resonance of people moving about living a peaceful, productive life. It was quiet and serene, with the moonlight guiding him rather than blinding him like the sun had. He could feel himself zone in and out of it all as he returned to the college campus.

As expected, the damage had already been fixed and repaired, and the fountain was already operational. It was funny to think something like this back in the day would take days, if not weeks, to repair once upon a time, but the "back when" days didn't have synthetic patch cement spray or dissolving structure spray either made by the egg heads at Structural Pheramona the dominant construction supply company. He remember how, as a little kid, his mind was blown when he had seen it for the first time.

As Caleb neared the fountain, he paused, realizing he felt strangely calm for once in a long while. What had caused such a silly thought to come to mind? He shook the feeling away, about ready to head down the empty walkway to the hill before a strange, bizarre tension filled the air as the lights all around the campus... went dead. The pitch-black darkness was followed by a buzzing sound as the backup generators could be heard veering into life, only to bring the lights to a dim effect. For a moment, Caleb could swear he saw some strange thing soar above him, landing rather far away by the gate entrance... but what could have made it that far...

"Guragarugo," the strange resonating sound of a baffling human tongue spoke a language Caleb couldn't register. Yet as the ground rumbled, he turned to the left with wide eyes, watching a series of earth spikes jutting out of the earth unnatural fast coming straight towards him. Caleb dove away from the fountain in a panic as the spikes continued until it collided with something out in the distance. A heavy pocket of dust collected as the gate fell apart in shambles.

Caleb didn't dare to look back. He started running with everything he had towards the hill, passing the building as quickly as his out-of-practice body started to fail him pretty quickly. It felt like something was stalking him, catching up rather quickly before Caleb knew it. The wind was knocked out of his body, and a painful piercing sound caused him to scream as the tips of claws could be felt jabbing into his back. The lights came back fully on, revealing the horror.

Caleb weakly turned to something he could only fathom that came straight out of a fairy tale as a golem-like entity made from stone looked down at him in the form of a relatively medium-sized dog, like a fox. The whole creature seemed to be made of rocks held together by some unseen force. Even its face and fangs, which hung at the ends of its mouth rather than behind lip flaps, were non-organic. Its piercing eyes, however, glistened like white gemstones.

"Hm... wrong humanoid. You're not that selkie brat," the rock vulpine growled with a raspy voice, pulling its front paws claw tips out of Caleb's back, causing the boy to spasm in pain as he rolled onto his back, kicking away fear overtaking Caleb's entire face. "Heh, that is an appropriate look upon a prey... GRAHHHH," The vulpine's ominous words were halted as a spear's wooden pole shaft slammed into the vulpine's back by what Caleb was confused as a human.. at first. No, from one page of a fairy tale to the next, a seal on legs interrupted the scene.

Literally a blue and white seal with a very humanoid body shape, a blubbery face, and a belly covered in Viking-like tattoos. It had massive hands holding the spear and a powerful-looking tail dragging along. It wore a surprisingly strange knotted set of rope necklaces and kilt-like shorts. If the first monster hadn't put pure fear and pain into Caleb, this one would have dumbfounded him more than anything as its whiskers moved about as the seafaring entity chuckled.

"Who are you calling a brat, rock for brains," the selkie-like entity chuckled, pinning the golem fox to the ground with its spear. The hound, however, unnaturally bent its whole body as the vulpine bit onto the polearm before flinging back, sending the Selkie-like creature flying into a building.

"Guragarugo," that bizarre word rang in the air again with a strange resonance. This time, Caleb watched as a vibration occurred from the vulpine front paw. A new line of earth spikes jutted out, heading straight into the spot Selkie had been slammed into, causing another dust explosion to waft all around the scene. Coughing roughly, Caleb tried to get away, getting up and noticing his palms covered with some blood from the wounds on his back.

Fighting through it all, he continued toward the same place he initially aimed for—the only place where he could feel safe at this time—the observatory Telescope building. Panic led him into fear, pain into flight, and all his senses were out of control as common sense went out the door.

"Wait... I think someone's down there... Bolgor back off." An unfamiliar voice resonated out into the air. Caleb realized the strange resonance was, in fact, the reverberation of the announcement speakers around the college campus. Someone was commanding... or watching this all happening. At first, it seemed like the veil would be lifted, and this would be revealed to be some assholes controlling some advanced robots, but as Caleb started to slow down, the spear from before landed in front of him, piercing the ground, causing Caleb to fall backward hard.

"No, we continue this. A deals, a deal, Isagani, you wanted a chance to make me return on the bet we go all the way through. Any witnesses? Well, the loser gets to clean up Akubogi," this time a strangely familiar voice that Caleb couldn't precisely place spoke out from the speakers. Yet when it was followed by that strange, unidentifiable language almost in response to what followed before, Caleb involuntarily jumped forward as a water blast barely missed him as it cut into the very ground ahead. This couldn't be real...

"You psychopath, Bolgor, protect whoever is down there. Guragarugo," Isagani spoke again as a second wave of a series of rock spikes cut Caleb off from the chaos. Taking the hint, Caleb hobbled forward as they could hear more chaos and destruction from behind the stone spike wall. It wouldn't be halfway up the hill that Caleb would hear a strange whooshing sound. Looking up, he realized that the selkie creature from earlier was, in fact, in the air, falling down right for him.

"I am not being distracted by such a foolish errand. Concentrate on the fight, bookkeeper," Bolgor's raspy voice hauntingly echoed from the left as the y hoofed it for where the Seal would land. It was hard to say whether or not the Selkie had been thrown again or was, in fact, aiming straight for him in another impressive jump. What was clear was Caleb couldn't escape the collision course of the two entities.

Yet before they could meet, something red and silver landed on the stone Vulpine, causing it to howl in pain as it was used as a springboard. The new entity in question rammed a silver leg straight into the falling blubber Viking, kicking them away like a soccer ball from Caleb. Dropping to his knees as his weakened conditions couldn't handle the wounds, he watched as the new entity landed next to him with a heavy thud. It took the teen a moment to catch his breath as he looked up, shocked to see the blank expression of the imaginary girl he had seen earlier today. Caleb was understandably lost for words.

"Are you the one who summoned me," the girl asked, causing a confused expression to mask Caleb's initially fearful face. Before he could respond, the seal Viking and the fox of stone made their presence known again.

"Who the hell is this?"

"Well, well, little thing. You're a little early to the party. I am still training, so you will have to wait for our fight," the Viking seal interrupted his original opponent as he snatched his spear and swung for the mysterious red-cloaked girl.

"That is my prey," Bolgor spoke again, insulted to be ignored as it rushed in, maw wide, aiming to bite into the new entry. With a spin, the girl pushed Caleb out of danger before using that same hand to ghastly catch the spear, halting the Viking seal's movement. With her other arm, she held it out to block the vulpine, who bit down hard before releasing a yelp of pain as its rocky teeth cracked against the metallic cylinder-like forearm of the girl. Jumping away from her, the vulpine, raspy voice hissed in pain.

"I see... a member of the Robot clan," the stone beast seemed more to claim than the question as the Viking seal fought before finally pulling his spear free and backing up a few steps himself as the girl took a few steps back to Caleb watching both combatants with an empty yet watchful gaze.

"Heh, would explain the unexpected strength. Though I think she just found her partner," the Viking chuckled, now more amused than annoyed as he seemed to notice something Caleb couldn't. Caleb got back up again, having fallen a third or maybe fourth time in a row at this point, feeling his stamina drastically waning in the situation. However, he did notice with every step he took, she followed suit, acting like a shield.

"What's happening down there, Mireto? Why have you two stopped fighting?... Shit, retreat," the familiar voice went into a panic as the sounds of sirens could be heard and seen off in the distance. The Viking seal, now labeled as Mireto, scoffed in annoyance, having been excited about the new fight parameters. Yet it seemed well enough the brute understood the situation, jumping out of sight with a powerful slap of its tail onto the ground, sending Mireto upward like a blubbery ball.

The red-cloaked girl in question unnaturally tilted its head towards the stone vulpine like an owl. An aggravated growl escaped Bolgor's lips as it also took off. As the dangers passed, the girl's metallic cylinder-like hands returned to the folds of her cloak, and she turned to Caleb completely with an unnerving, emotionless gaze. She stared at him as if waiting for him to speak.

However, Caleb found himself speechless, unsure how to respond to anything that had happened. He stared right back at her with words, though noticing more details like the strangeness of three black lines atop each of her eyelids and expanded out in a half oval all the way to her hairline, creating a bizarre Egyptian-like aesthetic combined with her more Asian features like her almond-shaped ruby red eyes... that indeed seemed to share the outlining rims of a camera lens. It could just be a pair of special contact lenses, right?

However, as Caleb tried to bring things back to reality, the outlay of her iris spun, causing him to go wide-eyed. Startled by this detail, Caleb stepped back from her as she mimicked, stepping after him.

"Are you a cyborg, or some new-age robot, or a really fit cosplayer?" Caleb asked, never having seen such a lifelike robot with such dedicated synthetic skin before. Cyborgs existed, but people with robotic limbs were usually still pretty obvious; he even ventured into the far-fetched concept of what was before him.

"I am a Mamodo from the Cyborg Clan. Designation: Herasteria," she exclaimed in a monotone voice again, revealing her rather silver robotic hand that clasped itself against her torso where her heart would be. Her cylindrical fingers matched the designs of her forearm's perfect round shape, except her fingers ended with a black tip that looked familiar to the tips of a screen pen for phones or computers. That's when he noticed it... a small trickle of blood coming from her forearm where the spear had been blocked. The metal was barely piecered, but the liquid was definitely blood.

"Where in the Mamodo Realm are we located? I do not recognize this biome," she spoke up again, causing him to jolt somewhat back into existence.

"Uhm... Pulley, Washington... in the USA," he answered as another detail he quickly noticed was a series of red half-orbs placed all around her elbow and the back of her palms, very similar to two big ones on the side of her head. For a moment, he avoided the question he wanted to ask. Instead, rather boldly, he took a step forward and brushed the hair on her head around the orb... without a doubt, the same skin as her face clung organically to the red orbs... they were not accessories.

Letting her silk-like pink hair go back in place. Surprisingly, she had no issue with the physical contact and held still as if to let him evaluate her. Her camera-like eyes fidgeted for a moment before a theory came to mind.

"What is the designation of my summoner?"

"Caleb... Archer. I am from the human race?" He spoke, uncertain how to match her strange "designation" of himself; however, the moment the word human escaped his mouth, she finally showed a small open lips gasp of surprise... an actual emotion. Her eyes spun slightly as she seemed to go deeper into thought before asking.

"Caleb of the Archer Clan, I would like to confirm something. If you could please attempt to read something for me," she said, seeming about to pull out something. Unfortunately, Caleb noticed the larger flashes of red and blue light out in the distance. If the cops found them, it would get troubling real quick.

"We need to move this conversation," not willing to let her get pulled into a long series of issues if she was to be discovered, especially after having saved him, Caleb motioned her to follow as he ran up the hill. She quickly followed suit at his pace almost perfectly to the letter.

Out further in the distance, atop one of the school building peaks, was a strange purple mist circling about. Having witnessed the whole scene, watched as Caleb and Herasteria ran for it along with the directions of the two Mamodo prior had run as well. A soft, wispy cackle emitted as an amused, sharp, toothy smile appeared in the mist.

"Well, this is an interesting setup... seems we have double dipped in the potential use of this facility," it completely vanished without a trace as the mist spread out thinning out of existence.

...

As they reached the Observatory, Caleb pulled out a unique key and quickly jammed it into a hidden slot near the door. A little to the left, a side door hatch revealed itself. Caleb rushed for it, signaling Herasteria to follow. Once they were both inside, he closed the hatch tight and sealed it back into place.

The pink-haired robotic girl looked around the place as a small room-like structure. It was originally a storage room/panic room, but after some modifications along with modifications to the building, it served no purpose and was pretty well forgotten about at this point; thus, it was turned into a secret hangout full of chairs, a futon, and a ton of snack boxes. Before Caleb could say much, his body spasmed as he clutched to a nearby chair. He was still bleeding out slowly.

"Medical assistance needed?" Initially confused, the young man turned to the girl but quickly nodded, assuming she had some form of medical experience.

"Ya, there is a kit right there," Caleb muttered, pointing to a first add box. In no time flat, Herasteria got the kit and forced Caleb to sit on a chair before kneeling behind him; within a few quickly intense painful strokes, she stitched up his wound.

"SONOVA AHHHHH, YOU COULD HAVE WARNED ME," Caleb felt his body spasm at the sudden hyper-quick session of being stabbed through by a needle as he stood upright as the girl cut-tied the string.

"That would have put you through unnecessary blood loss."

"By what a drops worth?"

"Affirmative."

"... I... see," Caleb, still in pain, turned to a lone mirror, surprised to see a flawless stitch-up of the wound on his back.

"Are you ill," She asked out of the blue.

"No..."

"Do you have a disease of sorts?"

"No..."

"Strange, you seem relatively deficient and lacking in nourishment. From my analysis of your blood,"

"WAIT, WHAT?" Caleb looked at her, alarmed. There was no way she could have done anything of the sort, and even if she had the equipment, it couldn't have been that fast. Better yet, how did she do it? Even if she could, he hadn't seen or heard anything of the sort. She, however, still gave him that empty stare, making it impossible to assess even a hint of anything at this point of what was happening to the poor boy's psyche stat.

"You said you are human, correct," she asked, not understanding what he was blurting out a question for, thus unable to answer it.

"Ya..., and you're something called a Mamodo... what's that some brand... tech like those other two right the Norse seal, and that weird golem-like fox thing," Caleb asked, trying to widdle this all down to what he had just witnessed.

"... In the human language, I believe Mamodo translates into a word called a demon. That is what we are," Caleb, having just gotten out of his seat, dropped right back into it wide-eyed shock as Herasteria stayed kneeled down, ultimately calm of her own situation. "I am on Earth... correct?"

Authors Notes: Sorry that this onesshort, but I loved the cliffhanger I decided on. Yet I didn't want to prolong the action too much either honestly. Going forward, I'll probably start keeping the Author's notes at the end of the chapter from now on. UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN...