Hello, hello! I'm excited to start writing because now that i have all the main characters plus the opposing characters, i can get the plot ball rolling! Yes! To the climax we head!
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A scream split the ominous air, coming from deep inside Venom's lair. He owner of the scream was a middle age man, a door to door sales man who'd knocked upon the wrong doorway. He'd been dragged inside by a spell guard, it's slithery tentacles had dropped him down in front of Venom, who in turn decided he would make for a good time killer.
"He'sss taking too long to ssshift. It isss ineresssting that a normal human could last this long," Venom said, smiling as he watched the poor man writhe in pain as electricity was pumped into him again and again using metal rods that had been stabbed into his arms and legs. Venom had forced the man to drink an experimental liquid that was supposed to convert a normal soul to a kishin egg; electricity was the key to activating the mutation. So far though, the test subjects he'd used had died during the shifting. He hoped that this one would work better.
"Augh... augh!" The man frothed at the mouth and his eyes rolled back into his head. Venom cut the electricity and yanked off the cords that fed the electricity into the man, and then waited to see if the mutagen would take effect. Slowly the man rose from the floor, his flesh around the rods smoking as it burned. He opened his mouth and let out a growl, revealing rows of needle like teeth. Suddenly his bones began to crack and reform, getting larger and denser. The man's hands stretched and grew to form long black claws, same with his feet. Spines burst forth from his back, poison and deadly. His arms and leg lengthened and grew as biceps appeared. He now stood easily seven feet, looking horrid and monstrous. He raised his head up and opened his now sickly yellow eyes, and let out an unearthly scream.
Venom paced slowly around his hideous creation, pleased by his success. "Yesss, now i can begin the true experiment. The formula hasss been prefected, and it isss all thanksss to you." He purred, tracing his fingers across the kishin's the spines of its back. It growled and struck out at Venom, blind to enemy and friend. Venom stopped it's punched with only his pointer finger, not even looking.
"Tsssk, tssk, thisss will not do. I can't have a disssobediant lab rat," A giant snake shot out of Venom's hand, it's mouth wide and full of fangs. The kishin screamed as the snake began to devour it, ripping it to pieces and swallowing them while it was still alive. Soon nothing was left, but a red pool of blood.
"Good boy," Venom cooed to the gargantuan snake. It licked him on the cheek before retreating back into Venom's arm, the skin rippling at it disappeared inside. Venom stepped around the mess head made as he left the stone laboratory. He walked through the twisting halls of his home, a dark, dank castle, heading for his sanctuary. He chanted a spell in front of the door to that sanctuary, and pushed it open. Inside was a room filled with newspaper clippings and pictures, all about one person. Candles flickered as Venom passed, the only source of light within the room. At the end of the room was a giant portrait of a woman, beautiful and seemingly mysterious. She smiled down at Venom as he bent down on his knees, bowing to the painting.
"Oh my love, sssoon our revenge will be complete. I ssshall make thossse who hurt you sssuffer in unimaginable waysss," Venom looked up at the painting with moist awe filled eyes. "Everything has been put in placcce, in lesss then two month'sss time my army will be ready to march." He smiled a smile of pure devotion at the woman in the painting. "Just a little longer my love, and your death ssshall be avenged."
Line Break!
"One! Two! One! Two!" Emmie yelled as she ran up the steps of Shibusen for the fifth time in a row. She was muscle training, trying to increase her strength and endurance. Jamie was running with her, sweat covered his face and exposed arms. (he was wearing a sleeveless shirt and Emmie was wearing a tank top.)
"This... is... really... exhausting!" Jamie gasped out. "Could... we... take... a break?"
"Once we get to the top, now hoof it!" Emmie urged her partner up the last fifty steps. Once they reached the end, Jamie fell to the ground and Emmie stood there huffing and puffing. They didn't speak for a few minutes, both trying to catch their breaths.
"Isn't there a different exercise we could do? I can't feel my legs anymore!" Jamie said breathlessly. Emmie poured water onto her partner with her water bottle, causing him to sputter and sit up. "Hey! Quit it!"
"Don't be such a whiner, your fine. Besides, this is good training for you. You don't have enough stamina or strength, so I'm going to push you to your limits and beyond!" Emmie chugged her water, then dribbled it onto her arms and face. "We barely defeated Jada; you could have died if witch hunter hadn't worked. And if what Jada said was true, Venom is ten times stronger than her. We need to be prepared for what he tries next."
Jamie mulled over that tid bit about them almost dying. While it had turned out that Jada was a nice person, it was still a very real fact that she could have killed them had they slipped up even once. "I know that our first mission didn't work out so well, but the next isn't likely to be anything like the first. We won't have to face another witch for a long time yet."
"That's another thing we need to work on, we haven't collected a single kishin soul! We completely forgot to grab the ones back in New York!" Emmie gritted her teeth. "Those were five easy to grab souls and we left them there! We need to get stronger and faster, and then collect a bunch of souls!"
"So when do we head out on our next mission?"
"I'd like to next week if possible, you're all healed up right?"
"Yep, fit as a fiddle!" Jamie replied, flexing his biceps. "All the cuts an' bruises have healed up, I'm ready to go!"
"Good, now let's go get some more water; I'm all out."
The halls were bustling with students of all grades because it was a free period, which was why the two of them had been outside. Working their way through those crowded halls, Emmie caught snippets of conversation between the groups of teens.
"That's them, isn't it? The White Demon and False Reaper?"
"Yeah! I heard they took out a witch on their first mission in ten seconds flat!"
"I heard they took out three witches at once!"
'False Reaper? Three witches? What on earth are these people talking about?' Emmie listened harder.
"Did you hear they beat Lord Death's son in a sparring match? I was told she almost killed him during!"
"Really?! No way!"
"Hey!" Emmie yelled at the two gossiping girls. She marched right over to them, telling Jamie to go on without her. "I didn't almost kill D.K., all i did was shave his hair. And what's all this about my partner being a false reaper?"
The taller girl spoke first. "I thought you of all people would know this, he's called the False Reaper because of his scary expression when he fights!"
"Yeah, when you two fight together he gets really mean looking," Said the other girl. "With you in his hands and his hood up, he looks just like a grim reaper!"
Emmie snorted, Jamie didn't look anything like a grim reaper. "Whatever, call us what you want; i don't care."
Emmie walked away, leaving the two girls to gossip even more about their encounter with the Whit Demon.
Line Break!
Emmie met up with Jamie in the cafeteria where he was purchasing water bottles for them both.
"So what was that all about?" Jamie asked as they refreshed themselves. "Why'd you stop back there?"
"Just finding out some crazy rumours is all," Emmie said nonchalantly. "You've got your own nick name now."
"Nick name? I have a nick name?"
"Yep, and it's pretty wild. Your now being referred to as the False Reaper," Emmie sipped her water. "I don't think your look like a reaper at all. Don't know who came up with it, but this just shows that rumours can get crazy really quick. People are also saying that we took out three witches at once on our mission to New York."
"Huh? A false reaper? Three witches? We barely survived one!" Jamie tugged on his hair. "Is everyone insane?!"
"Aparently..." Emmie muttered. She sighed to herself, one mission and it'd resulted in Jamie getting sattled with a nick name that was as ridiculous as her own. 'A false Reaper and a White Demon, sounds pretty threatening. Course Jamie's the complete opposite of threatening.' Emmie looked her partner up and down. While it was true Jamie had put on some muscle, he was still pretty wiry. Emmie thought the whole "False Reaper" thing was preposterous, the only time Jamie was at all scary was when he pulled a anti-Jamie turn around.
"Jamie, Emmie, i didn't think I'd see you here."
They both turned their heads and were met with the sight of their sensei, Tsubaki.
"You two haven't been to morning classes in a while, is something going on?" Tsubaki asked as she sat down with them. "I've only seen you in afternoon sparring sessions."
"We've been dedicating ourselves to physical work outs lately," Jamie replied. "It was a bit of a realization when we were in New York. We aren't nearly strong enough yet."
"I'd like it if you'd attend morning classes at least once and a while," Tsubaki said, frowning a little at them. "It is my duty as your teacher to make sure you get good marks. And while you're doing fine right now, you can't fall to far behind."
"We know, we do studying on the weekends," Emmie grinned widely. "I guess all the book smarts my mom drilled into me are coming in handy."
"Maka was always a book worm, it would make sense if you inherited that trait of her's," Tsubaki laughed. 'Good, maybe Emmie's not so angry with them anymore. I can't wait to tell Maka!'
"As if! I'm smart all on my own!" Emmie bared her teeth at her adult friend. "I don't need anything from her."
'And now we're right back where we started,' Tsubaki sweat dropped.
Jamie stood up. "We should probably get back to training. How about we try some team moves together in the gym, Emmie?"
"Sure, I'm getting twitchy anyway," Emmie stood up and followed her partner away. "Bye Tsubaki!"
"Goodbye Emmie!" Tsubaki waved as the two students disappeared from sight. 'I hope they don't push themselves to hard, they should be careful. Whoever Venom is, he will certainly attack them again. And soon.'
Line Break!
Jamie swung Emmie in an ark, slicing through another wooden dummy. When Kim had graduated, she'd gotten together with a certain scientist and created moving spar dummies. The were made of wood and metal and looked like drawing figurines, and they had multiple martial art styles programed into them. This made them the perfect sparring partners for young meisters and weapons.
Another ran at Jamie and threw a punch. Jamie stabbed the staff of the scythe into the dirt ground, (a way to cut down on floor repairs), and used it to swing around and kick the dummy away.
Emmie shouted advice to Jamie as five more dummies attacked. "Slash, duck, then cut 'em all down!"
Jamie followed these instructions, first he slashed down the closest dummy, then he ducked the attacks from the other four. To finish off, he spun around in a circle and sliced the dummies in half. They clattered to the floor and stopped moving.
"Phew, not a bad work out," Jamie wiped sweat from his brow. "These guys are pretty tough."
"Don't forget these are only level three types, and that they go all the way up to twenty," Emmie said with a grin from within the blade. "You can start celebrating when we get to level ten at least."
"Yo! Jamie, Emmie!" Shiro called to the two of them. He and Aria walked over to them. "Doing some extra training for free study?"
"Yeah, what about you?" Jamie said as he bumped fists with Shiro.
"We're hiding from Blackstar, he's been trying to tell some story about his fight with a samurai to anyone who comes within five feet of him."
"That story again?" Emmie said with a bored expression. "He told me that story a hundred times when i was younger."
Aria bent down to be eye to eye with Emmie's reflection. "Really? You're pretty close with Tsubaki and him huh?"
"Their some old family friends is all."
"By the way, i heard you guys took out a witch on your first mission. Is that true?" Shiro eyed Jamie suspiciously. "That can't be right; you two may fight well, but a witch?"
"Yeah, it's true," Shiro and Aria gaped at Jamie. "But we didn't kill her; she turned out to be a victim of a guy named Venom."
"Venom? Never heard of him," Aria cocked an eye brow. "So what happened to the witch?"
"She's living with me now," Emmie replied. "And her name's Jada, not 'witch',"
"Your living with a witch? Your crazier than i thought Emmie," Aria shook her head. She turned and poked Shiro on the arm. "How come you don't train like these guys? They're gonna surpass us even more at this rate!"
Shiro pushed Aria's hand away. "Fine, if you want to train, than let's start training here and now."
"Who said anything about me working out? I meant you'd be the one doing that."
"What?!"
"Let's get out of here," Emmie whispered to her meister.
"Agreed." Jamie slowly backed away from the quarreling partners, edging for the exit of the gym.Suddenly the intercom came online.
"Would Esmeralda Eater and Jamie please report to the Death room effective immediately? I repeat, report to the Death room immediately," Said a sickly sweet woman's voice over the intercom. Emmie transformed back to her human form and both she and Jamie exchanged looks of confusion. Why did Kidd want them?
Line Break!
When they got to the Death room, Kidd was sitting at a table drinking tea.
"Please sit down, i have some important news to tell you," Kidd sipped his tea as they complied. "We've managed to dig up some information about Venom. He was an orphan on the streets of Italy for the majority of his life, and he had a criminal record for multiple petty crimes. Stealing, shoplifting, and other such crimes. He wasn't detained until he was twelve."
"Why'd they wait till then?" Jamie asked, sipping his own tea. "Couldn't they have sent him to juvie or something?"
"It wasn't that simple, Venom was a part of a gang at that time; so whenever they caught him, he would walk despite the charges because he was a minor. He simply blamed his actions on the adult members of the street gang."
"Sounds like he was a slippery weasel. So what'd he finally get sent to jail for?" Emmie asked.
Kidd became serious, his eyes darkening. "He killed eleven people in one day. Five women, five men, and one child. It did it all within minutes, with only a butcher's knife. It was over before police could even get there."
Jamie looked sick to his stomach. "That's... that's horrible. Why would he kill so many innocent people?"
"Because he's insane. What other reason would he need? I mean, think about what he did to Jada. There's no way he's right in the head," Emmie ground her teeth together. "But how did he get out of jail? That kind of thing would get you sent there for life."
"Someone paid his bail," Kidd explained. He reached into his cloak and brought out a file full of papers. "The name of that person wasn't listed, but we got some information about Venom's physical features. These mug shots match the description that Jada gave us. They were taken twenty-one years ago, before you were even born. After he was bailed out, he disappeared off the grid. We hadn't heard anything about him up till now."
Emmie looked through the papers, everything there was useless. Nothing that could tie Venom in any way to her family or Shibusen. 'He said my parents and their friends killed the one he loved, but that makes no sense. Meisters and weapons only take the lives of those on the kill list. Why would mom and dad kill an innocent girl unless...'
Emmie shoved the papers aside. "Have you checked the kill list for any possible women who were connected to him?"
Kidd shook his head. "There would be no point; there are hundreds of women who've been put on the list. There would be no way to tell who it was even if we searched up each and every one of them. We don't have any leads."
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Jamie hoped Kidd would have answer to the problem he couldn't solve. "We can't just wait around for Venom to strike again."
"There's nothing we can do at the moment, except apply extra security measures," Kidd picked up the folder and tucked it away once more. "Effective today, all active meister and weapons going on mission will be paired up. We can't take any chances. Short of confining all students within the city, there isn't any better way."
Emmie stood up, her chair screeching from the sudden movement. "That's fine with me, but i don't know how the other students will react."
"They get no choice."
"Feh, like that's gonna fly," Emmie turned and left the Death room. "Thanks for the news Kidd; I'll take my leave now."
Jamie bowed his head in apology. "I'm sorry; she's just worried about us. I can tell she doesn't want to let Venom's grudge against her and her family hurt her friends."
"It's all right, i can understand that much," Kidd looked at the watch on Jamie's wrist. "It's about time you get back to class, that is, if you were there to begin with."
"Yes sir," Jamie got up left, shutting the door behind him. Kidd sat back and sighed, being the principal was a stressful job; not to mention worrisome. With so many people depending on him to make the right decisions, things could get quite really quite tiring.
'I need to find out more about Venom, I've never heard of a male witch before. Let alone one as powerful as he's described to be,' Kidd rubbed his temples. It was going to be another long night of research in the archives of the school. 'I should contact Maka and Soul; they may know something about this mess.'
Kidd got up and went to his full length mirror and blew on it. Rubbing the numbers in with his fingertips, he waited for Maka and Soul to pick up.
Maka appeared in the mirror. "Kidd? I was expecting it to be Tsubaki."
"Sorry to disappoint Maka, but this is an emergency. You wouldn't happen to know of a man named Venom would you?"
Maka frowned. "No, i haven't heard of anyone by that name. Is that the person who attacked Esmeralda and Jamie?"
Kidd nodded, feeling grim. "Yes, and we believe he had a connection with one of the female kishins you've slain over the years. Anyone come to mind?"
"No, but I'll think about it," Maka replied. "Do you have a new mission for us yet? Or can we come home for a while?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, but there has been large skirmishes occurring around our Africa stronghold. I need you and Soul to report there for backup in case it gets to severe," Kidd felt very bad for sending his friends even further from home, away from their daughter. "I hate to do this to you, but-"
"We understand Kidd, it's all a part of our job," Maka put on a smile. "But give us a break once and a while, kay?"
"Alright, I'll try to," Kidd hung up at the same time as Maka, but remained in front of the mirror; staring at his reflection. The reflection of someone with a great amount of power and responsibility.
Okay, so nothing much happened this chapter, but i promise things will get more interesting later on! (Please don't lose interest!)
Thank you mooncloudpanther for your one-shot entry, (i really enjoyed it), and i hope other people will submit theirs soon.
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