DISCLAIMER: AngelOfFluffiness AND I DO NOT OWN SOUL EATER; BUT WE WOULD LIKE REVIEWS OR Angel WILL SEND MAKA TO TAKE YOUR SOULS
Kilik and his twin pot weapons lightning and thunder, Ox with his lightning weapon Harvar, and Kim with her fire weapon Jackie gave the small team a look of confusion.
"You guys think what now?" Kilik asked as the small twins laughed on his shoulders.
Kid frowned they had been explaining this for an hour now.
"We think Shibusen has a mystery that needs solving." Maka repeated as Ox laughed his head off.
"Come on, and you're supposed to be smart. If the teachers wanted us to know something they'd tell us," He mused fixing his glasses.
"For once Ox is right, your reading into this too much," Kim replied as she and Jackie turned to leave.
"But what about all the evidence we've gathered?" Liz asked curious as to why their fellow Spartio members refused to participate.
"Yeah, we could be invaded by zombie penguins or Giraffes." Patty exclaimed.
Everyone sighed at the youngest Thompson sister's theory.
"Patty we told you yesterday, zombies are fake!" Soul and Black Star growled.
No wonder people never believed them.
"If zombies are fake then what about Sid?" Harvar asked earning more laughs from the others.
Soul blushed as his insecurities returned. Quickly Maka came to the rescue using her smarts.
"Sid is half a zombie, since he has his former self still in him he can't be considered full flesh eating brain taking dead," She explained. "I thought someone as smart as you Ox would have noticed that."
This caused more laughs from the teenage group.
"Come on class is about to start, sorry guys but this adventure is just too extreme for us," Jackie apologized before leaving for Stein's class.
"They didn't believe us," Tsubaki sulked as Maka crushed her book to her chest.
"Well, at least we can corner Stein and interrogate him after class," Kid said as a gleam came to his eye.
"Soul will you do the honor of being our dissection bait?" the young shinigami asked earning a frightened look from the death scythe.
"Aw hell no!" yelled Soul, waving his hands in front of himself, "Let him dissect Black Star, not me!"
Why the hell would he even suggest letting Soul be bait? Did he really think Soul was that freaking stupid or did he think he was suicidal? Hell freaking no! Not a chance he was going to take being dissection bait.
"Black Star is too annoying, Stein isn't even that desperate for something to dissect," Liz sighed.
"Annoying, like zombies!" sang Patty
Patty went on completely ignored by her fellow friends and her sister as Black Star went on a rant.
"HEY! ANY SCIENTIST WOULD BE HONORED TO DISSECT THE AWESOMENESS OF THE GODLY BLACK STAR!"
"There, let him do it!" Soul continued the protest.
Maka gently took his arm carefully with a soft touch Soul was sure she had never given him before.
"Soul it'll be alright. I'll make sure you don't actually get dissected. You've always protected me, I'll protect you too."
Something rose in the meister-weapon pair's fellow friends as Soul gave a groan. He knew he couldn't tell her no, not after what she just said. This meant something to her and he still had his own curiosity. Mixing his curiosity with hers was probably dangerous, but at this rate, it was too late.
"This is so uncool...Alright fine, I'll be bait," moaned Soul.
Maka smiled up at him as Kid got that gleam into his eye again. This was bad...Soul hoped he wouldn't regret this as much as he suddenly felt like he would.
Soul was either nervous or bad at determining time because Steins dissection of the rare Kuku bird finished just as the bell rung. Maka had kept writing in her notebook the whole time humming to herself; scary part the notes were Stein's reaction and soul wavelength acts, not his teachings.
"Ah, what can I do for you children?" Stein asked as his glasses reflected the light above them.
Soul paled as he was pushed forward.
"Tell us everything you know about the teacher conference yesterday and you can dissect Soul for his black blood." Kid said as their teacher examined said boy.
Soul released an uncool whimper as the scientist lifted his shirt and ran a finger across his scar. The sudden realization that the mad doctor could easily lie to them just to dissect him reached his mind as he shot a troubled glance at his pigtailed meister.
"I gotta pee, and I want my mommy!" Soul yelled as Stein ordered him unto the table.
"Professor, you can't hurt him until after we get our answers," Maka rushed worried for her partner now.
Stein sighed as he removed the albino's shirt and lowered the boy's pants. Soul released another uncool whimper as Stein spoke.
"Lord Death mentioned a new enemy was beginning to arise so we needed to start teaching about how to accelerate new abilities in weapons. The death scythes were called in because they needed to know how to combat the newest issue and plus we are still looking for Justin since he is still considered rouge," Stein explained with an evil gleam.
"Now, since I've explained all I know can I finish my dissection?" he asked making the last mark on the albino's stomach with a marker.
"Who's the new enemy?" Maka asked trying to keep her promise to Soul.
"We haven't figured that out yet." Stein lied; Maka smiled as his wavelength faltered.
"Soul, let's go. As your meister, I expect my weapon to obey; you don't mind do you professor?" Maka asked in false innocence.
"Of course not, but you children owe me a new specimen to dissect." The teacher called out as they left
"You guys suck, you guys freaking suck," Soul growled with a fury filled edge to his voice.
"Stop acting uncool Soul, I did keep my promise. I'm sorry you had to do that," Maka murmured softly, looking away.
"Yeah, I just humiliated myself and sorry makes it fine!" Soul cried with epic sarcasm.
"Okay Soul! Okay! I'll make it up to you I swear. Just shush or I'll freaking 'Maka chop' you!"
"Both of you shut up. Was he truthful or was he lying?" Kid asked.
Maka sighed heavily as she stared at her notepad. She felt bad about Soul having to go through that, even if she did manage to keep her promise to him.
"He lied," Maka told them.
"STEIN IS A LIAR! I, THE AMAZING BLACK STAR, KNEW IT THE WHOLE TIME!"
"You did not you moron," Liz murmured.
"Can we give him to Stein as the replacement specimen?" Kid inquired.
"Please everyone, let's stop bickering," pleaded Tsubaki.
"Dissecting, yay!" squealed Patty.
"Where do we go from here?" Soul asked.
Maka held her head as a headache pained her. She didn't know, she honestly didn't know. She had let Soul nearly get cut to pieces and she didn't have a damned clue where to go next. With all of this work, Maka would now have to possibly admit that she truly had no idea what to do next...Wait Stien had been telling the truth up until he began ranting about not knowing the rest of the info. So she had been right about a new enemy. And him mentioning the death scythes tied in with her father's slip up the day before. Now all they needed to figure out was who the new enemy was and how Justin Law figured into the equation.
"Liz, Patty can I ask a favor of you?" Maka inquired as she locked eyes with the twin pistols.
"Ah yeah sure, what's up Maka?" Liz asked.
"Can the two of you muscle your way into Nygus' infirmary and get some information from her. I'll try and get some info from Sid, as for you Souk-" but she was cut off by her weapon shaking his head.
"No way, not after that last scare tactic. I refuse to play Watson in your little mystery game," He snapped crossing his arms.
"I was going to say that I wanted you to play the death scythe card and get information from the reaper," Maka growled.
"HA, LIKE HE CAN GET ANY INFO FROM THAT SKULL FACE." Black Star laughed.
"As for you two, I want you to play assassin Black Star. As a formidable ninja I can trust you to sneak around Sid and Stein's home for special things hidden inside…right?" Maka asked.
Both Black Star and Tsubaki blinked before nodding.
"Don't worry a god like me can handle anything you throw at me," He laughed taking his weapon's hand and running from the area.
"Kid as for you, hit up the library and see what you can find on Justin. If you can find Azusa, pry some info from her as well," Maka instructed.
"Right," Kid nodded before running off.
"Okay, so are you the head detective?" Soul asked as he walked with Maka to Sid's office.
"Yep, I'm Maka Albarn teenage detective," She stated proudly before entering the small office housed by the blue zombie teacher leaving Soul shaking his head behind the closed door.
"So Sid, as a member of Spartio and an earner of the title Angel of Death due to making Soul a death scythe, I wanted to know if you knew anything about Shibusen's newest enemy," She interrogated.
"Well, the man I use to be would never tell a lie but now; no we have no clue about this enemy," Sid lied as he put away some files he had on his desk.
"Take note that I can read your soul wavelengths," Maka said as Sid paused.
"I'm sorry Maka but the information I have can't be repeated unless by Lord Death himself," Sid told her before shooing her from his sight.
"Lord Death, please try and be a little more mature," Soul pleaded as he watched his boss drink his tea.
"Oh Soul, you worry too much, all we did was have a nice faculty meeting. Every school has one you know," The death god mused.
"But we already know about a new enemy. What about Justin Law and the training the teachers are giving us?" Soul prompted.
"That's enough Soul, now please return to your home and forget everything you've been told," Shinigami ordered using his old voice and causing the young albino to cower back.
"Fine, but you know Maka won't like that I came out empty handed," Soul mumbled leaving the death room.
Kid continued flipping through files. Nothing! Absolutely nothing on Justin! There was no sign of Azusa either.
"What the hell is going on here? There's just nothing here!"
He pulled more books and sat down to continue his search.
"Liz, Patty, what do you want?" inquired the blue female zombie working as a nurse, Nygus.
"We were wondering about the staff meeting and what was going on," Liz stated.
"Oh, that. All I know is there's a new enemy or something."
Lie, she was being too vague.
"Giraffes!" sang Patty
"A new enemy, like what?" Liz asked.
"I don't know, but Death seemed pretty freaked. That's all I know, leave me alone so I can work on people that actually need my help."
Sighing, Liz led Patty out of the office, This was getting them nowhere and Maka was counting on them gathering information.
"Now what Patty, if we don't get anything from Nygus we fail." Liz wailed as Patty continued her singing.
Black Star laughed as he and Tsubaki entered the mad scientist home. The whole situation reminded the young ninja of the time he tried stealing the test answers for the big test when he was twelve.
"This is too easy," He commented as Tsubaki rummaged through some files on random test subjects.
"This feel's wrong Black Star, maybe Maka's going too far by ordering us to break and enter a teacher's home," She whimpered as a ominous feeling came over her.
"You worry too much Tsubaki, besides it's their fault for keeping a god like me in the dark," Black Star boasted as his weapon sighed in defeat; no way would Black Star listen to her now.
"Hey the computer's on…what's this file about?" Tsubaki wondered as she went over to investigate.
Black Star's off key singing filled the background as the shadow weapon began her examinations of the file contents. After a few minutes she gasped she had to let Maka know what she had found immediately. Unbeknownst to her the room had grown silent and two shadows stood behind her.
"Tsubaki, what are you two doing here?" Stein asked.
Tsubaki's heart flung itself into her throat and she released a yelp as she whirled to find Stein standing behind her along with Spirit. Stein held Black Star up the air by the back of his shirt collar.
"Ah...um...oh I was chasing Black Star because he went nuts and then I got curious...I'm so very sorry," Tsubaki gave a deep bow of apology.
Spirit opened his mouth, but Stein shushed him as he dropped a limp Black Star at Tsubaki's feet.
"If you two both get out of here and don't come back, I won't take my natural instinct to dissect the both of you. GET OUT!" yelled Stein.
"Yes sir."
Tsubaki pulled Black Star from the ground and ran from the dark, creepy laboratory. She held her meister tightly and didn't stop until they were at their apartment. Her heart wouldn't stop pulsing like crazy as she dropped Black Star on the couch and tried to hold herself together. Damn, people sure get scary when there's a secret to hide; she didn't even know Stein got any scarier...
Tsubaki ran as fast as she could carrying her meister to Maka and Soul's apartment. What she had found on professor Steins computer would prove Maka's theory and give a reason for the death god to tell them everything. Once the shadow weapon and her now conscious meister arrived at the apartment door they busted in. Both Maka and Soul yelped as they eyed the forced open front door.
"Tsubaki, Black Star what on earth?" Maka squeaked, caught unaware by the calm weapon's unusual manner.
"Call the others I found something interesting in Steins lab!" she ordered as Soul quickly manned the phone.
It took a while but finally the small group had gathered in the kitchen of the small apartment.
"All right Tsubaki what did you find?" Kid asked as Maka readied her notebook.
"HEY DON'T FORGET THE GOD BLACK STAR, I HELPED!"
"You were unconscious, anyway I saw that Stein had an open file on his computer and I went to check it out. It seems a nuclear plant located 60 miles north west from Las Vegas in a town called Tonopah recently exploded. Many cases of nuclear activity have been noted in the surrounding areas and the wild life have been found dead or deformed," Tsubaki began.
"Great so Patty was right, we have zombies can I go home now?" Soul whimpered; he had one very uncool fear of zombies and England seemed far enough away to play it safe.
"So are there any deaths human wise?" Maka inquired as she tried to calm down her panicking weapon.
"Yes many in fact, almost every town in or near the Tonopah area has been evacuated or put under quarantine," The shadow weapon responded.
"That would be a cause for father to be worked up; he has a fear of the dead like I do with asymmetry. Plus it would match up with what I found in the library." Kid put in.
"What did you find Kid?" Liz asked as she stood over him.
"Well there's a forbidden spell used by witches or advanced miester's like Stein, it's how Sid and Nygus were altered," Kid explained.
"But we've gone over this already, they're not real zombies," Maka said pointing her pen at the shinigami.
"No, they're not complete zombies. To be complete Stein would have had to break Shibusen law and use the forbidden technique but instead he only used it partially and by father's watchful eyes," Kid finished.
Soul moaned with great displeasure as he felt so uncool at this moment.
"So a nuclear disaster and some evil spell are making zombies. My life really sucks," sighed Soul, somewhat calm and somewhat shaky.
"What now?" asked Tsubaki.
"Now? It's simple," Maka began, closing her notebook.
"Okay, what is it?" inquired Liz.
"Now we go to Lord Death, present our evidence and get the full story," Maka stated darkly, "-we do so first thing tomorrow."
"Hey Maka?" Soul said after everyone left and the two were about to leave for bed.
"Yeah Soul, what is it?" the miester replied.
"Is it- can I maybe sleep with you tonight?" Soul asked rubbing his neck and blushing. He failed to notice the giant book flying at his head.
"Wimp; fine but you sleep on the floor." She growled before slipping into bed.