BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions rang through the halls of the Academy in a lethal symphony of destruction. The attackers were unidentified, but were already considered extremely dangerous. Maka rushed through the halls, brandishing Soul's scythe form. She sought out the intruders through their soul wavelengths, which were actually… frightening. That was the only word she could think of to describe them.
Two souls: one blood red and vaguely shaped like a female devil, and one dark gray that resembled the head of a dead man, with thin X's for eyes and a sewn-shut mouth. Not only were their appearances disturbing, but the power behind them was incredible. Terrifying even.
"Maka, you all right?" Soul asked his meister, who looked perturbed as she ran down the hallway.
"Those souls," Maka replied. "The souls of the ones attacking the Academy. I can see them. Their just… intimidating. That's all."
Soul chuckled. "Don't tell me the girl who beat the Kishin Asura by punching him in the face is afraid of some lower-level baddies."
Maka smirked and said, "Of course not!" Still…
The sound of Black Star's trademark "Yahoo!" suddenly echoed through the halls. Maka could see his and Tsubaki's souls in conflict with the soul that looked like a dead man. She nodded in approval. Black Star's wild, hard-to-predict nature could give Dead-Head a good bit of trouble. She decided now to focus on the other soul.
-o-
Black Star leaped and dodged the blows thrown by the guy with the cigarette in his mouth. The stranger wore mostly black clothing, except for a denim jacket, along with a pair of red-rimmed sunglasses. The newcomer held a cocky smirk on his face to match the blue-haired assassin's wild grin.
"You're pretty good, kid," the smoker said as he threw a kick at Black Star's face. The young ninja ducked under the attack and swung Tsubaki's kusarigama blade at the man's feet. The attacker leaped and back-flipped away from the blow.
"You're not too shabby, yourself, pal," Black Star said with a wide grin. "But that's not good enough to beat the guy who's going to surpass God one day!"
"Surpass God, eh? That's a pretty lofty goal you've got there. I guess that makes us kindred spirits of a sort."
"Huh?"
The man chuckled. "Never mind. Just thinking out loud. I tend to do that from time to time." He took his cigarette from his mouth and puffed out a small cloud. He flicked the cancer stick at Black Star, who stepped aside so that the cigarette wouldn't land on him. Then, out of nowhere, the cigarette exploded, sending the young assassin flying back and crashing into a wall.
"Black Star!" called Tsubaki's voice from the kusarigama. She morphed to her human form and held the injured boy in her lap. He sat up some and glared the man, who was currently in the process of lighting another cigarette.
"You bastard!" Black Star shouted at the smoker, who was simply chuckling in response. "That was a dirty trick!"
"This coming from the assassin who wants to surpass God," the man stated calmly, that smirk still on his face. "If you want to reach a goal like that, you've got to start punching below the belt, if you know what I mean."
The blue-haired assassin spat angrily and said, "Tsubaki, we're not pulling anymore punches! Enchanted Sword Mode!" Tsubaki nodded and quickly transformed into a black-bladed katana. He moment he took hold of the sword, his body was covering in black markings.
The smoker raised an eyebrow at this. Now that's interesting.
-o-
Maka stood before the owner of that red soul she saw earlier. From the look of the soul, she was expecting to see a witch or something, but instead, she was facing a young woman who only looked about two years older than her. She had long red hair that reached down to her waist and startling red eyes. She wore an outfit like an up and coming pop star. It was a wild red dress covered in musical designs. The dress was a V-neck, so it showed off a fair amount of the other girl's not-too-humble cleavage. Maka suddenly felt self-conscious. She stood in a ready stance. "Who are you?"
"I'm so glad you asked!" the redhead spouted back giddily. Her voice was that of a stereotypical California girl. "I'm the world's next top pop sensation! Call me Lillian!"
"She seems spunky," Soul commented. He quickly received a glare from his meister, to which he would've rolled his eyes in human form.
"Well, Lillian," Maka said as she prepared to charge, "get ready for-!"
"Pop stardom!" Lillian suddenly blurted out, throwing Maka for a loop for a second. Out of nowhere, Lillian produced an incredibly girly microphone, stand and all, and apparently got ready to…
"She's not going to…" Soul trailed off.
Lillian took a deep breath.
"Yeah," Maka confirmed. "I think she is."
Lillian then suddenly screamed into the microphone. Out of the ground, two enormous speakers exploded upward. The following sound was like a million tiny nuclear bombs setting off in their ears. Maka dropped Soul and covered her ears in a vain attempt to block out the sound. Soul became human again and attempted the same, failing just as miserably.
"Oh, yeah!" Lillian cheered herself on. "That was an awesome first note! Now for the chorus!" She was just about to "sing" again when she was suddenly interrupted.
"Scream Resonance!" That cry was followed by an ear-splitting shriek that caught Lillian completely off guard. As Maka slowly regained the ability to hear, the familiar pink-haired form of Crona came up to her and asked, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Maka replied. "Just dizzy. Where've you been?"
"Ragnarok broke my alarm clock last night," Crona explained, "so I slept in on accident."
"You wanna know the baby's reaction when he found out?" Ragnarok asked as his head popped out from Crona's back. "'I'm late for class! I don't know how to deal with that!' True story. Swear to God."
Maka sighed. These two were hopeless sometimes. "Can you guys deal with her?" she asked, pointing to a very irritated Lillian. "I think one of my eardrums popped. That could ruin my balance. I won't be able to fight effectively."
Crona nodded. "I'll try." He faced the red-clad redhead, who gave him a curious look.
"You sound like you've got good voice!" she said, suddenly cheerful. "Why don't you come with me, and we can be pop star duo! We'll be totally famous! Crowds of screaming fans will pay just to hear us talk!"
"I'm sorry," Crona said honestly, "but I don't think I know how to deal with being famous."
Lillian pouted for a moment, then shrugged. "Oh, well! More fans for me!" She spun her microphone stand around like it were a staff. "I'll sing to you until your head, like, completely explodes!"
"I don't know how to deal with my head exploding!" Crona complained as he and Lillian charged each other.
-o-
Fun fact: pop music sucks.