Ladidah… :3 man the last chapter was so long! *faints* maybe this one will be as long… maybe… -.-
Just-Me-and-My-Brain: wow… :3 thank you! ^.^ I wasn't too sure many people would like this, but so far I'm HAPPY! And I'll be sure to check out your story when I have the time :)
Corian: YEESSSSSS! SOMEBODY GOT IT! *tackle-hugs* wait! I mean, *glomps* and now… you may have a pet giraffe! *hands giraffe* don't worry, it's not rabid.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
Kami sighed. Where am I supposed to find this weak link? I can't very well go around swinging Genie Hunter. Oh right… that reminds me…
She turned to Spirit and gave him a glare. He pretended not to notice but wilted a little. "It seems I'll require a weapon for this mission," she said reluctantly.
Spirit nodded hesitantly. "Yeah…"
"I suppose I'm stuck with you. Pity." Then she stalked off, ending the conversation effectively.
Her ex-husband sighed in relief. Thank Shinigami I got that over with…
Stein laughed evilly. "Fu fu fu. Never did like Kami. After all, she ended my greatest experiment of all time…" He gazed thoughtfully at his partner. Spirit got the awful feeling the crazy professor was referring to him.
The trio was currently in Australia, searching for the weak spot to look for Kid. Stein focused for a minute and looked up with a frown. "It should be over here somewhere…"
They headed over to a seemingly innocent sand-blasted tree in the middle of freaking nowhere. Kami frowned at it. "This is it?" Stein nodded and the meister sighed. She glared briefly at Spirit but calmed herself and tried to think of happy times, their daughter. They wouldn't be able to resonate if she was mad at him.
"Let's go, Soul Resonance!" they yelled in unison once Spirit had changed into a scythe. It worked, whatever their feelings had once been, and Spirit's blade glowed and expanded into a slightly more bluish version of Maka's Genie Hunter, along with a cross in the middle in place of an eye.
Kami swung the blade down easily, her skills coming back to her, and... opened a gash in the air itself. She let out a little gasp and Genie Hunter shrunk to a normal scythe blade again. The meister stepped through the portal, followed by Stein. They gazed around, stunned.
"This is a little creepy…" Spirit commented.
Around them was a strange, distorted world. It was full of gray clouds, red shadows, and strange beings lurking in the mist. Stein closed his eyes and focused his soul perception. "No… nothing," he sighed. "Kid isn't here."
With a very disappointed Kami trailing him, Stein stepped back through the portal and whipped out a cellphone. "We should tell Maka and the other group."
o.O.o
"Your cellphone's ringing," Soul poked his meister, who jumped and fumbled around in her pocket before pulling out the vibrating phone.
She looked at the caller ID. "It's Stein! Maybe they've found him!" Maka hit answer and listened. "Hello, Professor? Is that you?"
"Yep," Stein replied.
"Have you found Kid?"
The stitch-faced meister exhaled slowly. "No. We'll head on to Siberia."
"Oh. Okay." The disappointment in the student's voice was clear, but she ended the call and slipped the phone back in her pocket.
"Well?" BlackStar asked, coming out from the small info center with Tsubaki close behind. Maka shook her head.
Soul cursed. "It's gonna take forever to find him!"
"Nevermind that, where's this weak point we're looking for?" BlackStar continued tersely.
Maka focused for a minute. "I can feel a kind of powerful aura in the area. It's somewhere in this town." She walked around with the others before pinpointing a small pond near the outskirts. "This is it."
The blue-haired assassin stared at it. "A pond?"
"Yes," his fellow meister replied irritably. She motioned to Soul, who transformed into a scythe.
"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"Her partner's blade extended to the familiar Genie Hunter, then she made a slashing motion across the pond. A tear opened up, and she jumped in, BlackStar right on her heels.
They landed heavily in a strange, murky gray bog. There were knotted and twisted trees with clouds of mist and shadows lurking everywhere. Together the two pairs worked their way through the bog, Maka still with Genie Hunter and Tsubaki in Enchanted Sword mode.
Opening her eyes the world of souls, the young meister looked around. Somewhere… he's gotta be around here somewhere… But there was no sign that their teammate was anywhere in this foggy hell.
"He's not here," Maka sighed, disappointed. BlackStar gave an annoyed grunt and they started to head back to the glowing rip in the veil of mists when a loud roar sounded in front of him and a mysterious monster slithered in front of them.
It was easily ten feet tall, and resembled some sort of overgrown lizard with a spiky tail and fierce red eyes.
"Damn," BlackStar muttered. He dropped back and raised an eyebrow at Maka.
She nodded. "Chain Resonance."
Their souls connected, the teammates worked together. BlackStar wrapped a dozen shadows, which were easy to find in the strange inbetween world, around the creature to bind it while Maka made it disappear with a single swipe of Genie Hunter. The lizard vaporized into a glowing red soul.
"You take it Soul," BlackStar waved to his friend as he jumped out the portal. Soul grabbed the lizard's floating red remains and followed his friend out. Maka hesitated a moment before following the scythe.
Once outside, they landed next to the pond and Soul slurped the kishin egg down quickly. [quick A/N: it seems a little redundant to say Soul ate the soul, so I have to find other nouns – urgh]
They waited once in town for Maka to report back to Stein again, and then they continued to the airport to catch the flight to their next destination – Hamburg, Germany.
o.O.o
"Ahh, Siberia," Stein commented.
"Isn't it supposed to be 'ahh, Venice?'" Spirit questioned, bored. They were dressed in parkas and snow pants, which barely helped against the biting wind.
Kami ignored the two and concentrated. They were in a tiny town, once again in the middle of freaking nowhere, looking for another weak spot. She quickly found it, a frozen fountain in the town square.
"Let's go, Soul Resonance!" she and Spirit conjured up Genie Hunter again and once again opened a portal. Entering the inbetween world easily, this time Kami kept Genie Hunter going as they journeyed around. She and Stein looked all around with their advanced soul perception, but caught no wind of the heir to the Reaper throne.
"Still no luck," Stein grumbled. They were starting to walk back to the portal when a monster, surprisingly similar to the one the other team had encountered got in their way. Stein destroyed it with a quick Soul Menace. "Pity, that would have been interesting to dissect," he commented.
Kami rolled her eyes and grabbed the soul as she passed by.
On their way back they encountered several more of the monsters. All of them were easily defeated by Stein and, on occasion, Kami. The screw-headed meister was becoming more and more dejected as Kami and Spirit rejected every offer he gave to dissect or even just keep the souls. "Not even one?"
"No!" Spirit and Kami yelled in unison. Stein pouted but didn't object.
After another call to the other team they boarded a plane headed to Hamburg. They had decided to meet up with Maka, BlackStar, and another death scythe that Lord Death had assigned to meet them.
o.O.o
"Urgh, it's cold," Maka complained. There was a slight breeze in Hamburg as they waited around a table outside a café.
Maka had studied a little German at one point so the rest of them relied on her to translate.
A waiter came out and gave them all paper menus. "Wir haben ein paar Mittagsessen specialtaeten, und Eis wenn du so moechstest."
BlackStar stared at him blankly and Maka quickly translated. "They have some lunch meals and ice cream."
Smiling widely, the assassin/ninja said enthusiastically, "Chocolate ice cream!"
"Schokoladen Eis…" the waiter wrote down quickly. Maka ordered mint ice cream (Mint Eis), Soul schnitzel and vanilla ice cream (a German dish – basically breaded chicken - and Vanilla Eis), and Tsubaki ordered Spaetzle (thick, small noodles about an inch long).
Then they saw Stein, Spirit, and Kami strolling up the street. Stein was still arguing about Siberia. "Come on, all I needed was just a tail off of one of them, or maybe a live one…"
"For the last time Stein, no! We're on a mission to find Kid, not satisfy your creepy habits!" Spirit countered.
The students understood instantly and rolled their eyes, being way too used to their crazy professor.
They seated themselves at the table and Kami sighed. "No luck on your end either?" The students shook their heads.
The waiter came back out with their meals, but the adults refused the offer of their own. They'd eaten on the plane.
A distraught yet familiar voice interrupted their discussion on the monsters they'd encountered. "Oh, no… I'm completely lost!"
Maka, BlackStar, Soul, and Tsubaki's heads snapped around. "Miss Marie?"
Stein grinned and laughed. "Fu fu fu."
Spirit rolled her eyes and Kami remained fixated on the table. The students, meanwhile, jumped up and ran over to the blonde who had been wandering around the city for the past hour. "Miss Marie, what are you doing here?" Maka asked.
"Lord Death sent me," she sighed, and sat down in between Stein and Tsubaki.
They started talking somberly about their mission and the three failures so far to find Kid.
Unaware that the object of their search was watching them.
o.O.o
Kid watched painfully. They're so close… I can actually sense their souls. Apparently people inside the inbetween world can sense souls outside, in reality, but not the other way around.
Zindyll made the moment worse by drifting closer behind him, gazing cruelly at the screen. Such fools. Don't you agree, Kid?
The reaper refused to answer and paid for it by earning another slash on his back. Closing his eyes briefly and sucking in a rasping breath, he willed himself to stay conscious. He knew that he couldn't handle many more hits like that – and his demon captor knew it too.
"Where's your precious kishin egg servant?" he hissed.
Garn? He's not a kishin egg. Neither is Les. That's another part of your theory that is wrong – Les' shots burn simply because of her and her meister's hatred towards you.
"What did I ever do? I've never even met them before."
No, but your father has kept me locked up for centuries, and they are very loyal to me. See, when they needed it most, I was there offering a position, power, and wealth beyond their wildest dreams. The demon chuckled. Humans are so simpleminded, wouldn't you agree?
"You're making the same mistake as Asura," Kid rasped, a hint of amusement in his voice. "He swore to turn his back on humankind, and pursued the path of the Kishin. In the end, his disregard for bravery and courage, in his flight from fear, destroyed him."
But I am not Asura. I am a born demon – not a made one. Rather like you in that sense. Death Scythes can be made, with a certain amount of skill and luck. But you cannot simply 'make' a full-grown Reaper. You have to wait for those annoying lines to connect, do you not? Kid flinched – the remark had struck home. Ahh yes… your lines aren't connected. How unfortunate for you.
It'll make you much easier to break.
o.O.o
"So, where's the next portal?" BlackStar asked, slurping down the last of his ice cream.
"Staadtsmittel," Maka answered absently.
"What?" Soul frowned.
Stein sighed. "It means the center of the city."
After the students had finished their food, they trudged along to the Staadtsmittel and Soul transformed into a scythe.
"Soul Resonance." Kami smiled proudly, as did Spirit, as they watched their daughter and her weapon resonating. With a quick swipe from Genie Hunter, they stepped through the portal.
Spirit transformed and performed a quick resonance with Kami, so now they had two Genie Hunters, Stein wielding Marie, and BlackStar with the Enchanted Sword. They advanced cautiously.
In the same instant, Kami, Stein, and Maka all focused their soul perception.
Their eyes snapped open and Maka gasped.
"What?" BlackStar asked anxiously.
"He's here…" she whispered. "Kid…"
o.O.o
In the same instant Maka whispered his name, Kid's golden eyes opened and focused slowly on the screen. They're… here…
o.O.o
What a lovely surprise. The team sent to find Kid jumped as they heard a strange voice in their heads. A group of meisters and weapons. Come to look for your errant reaper I suppose?
"Give. Kid. Back," BlackStar growled.
Aww, but if it wouldn't be as fun if I just handed him over that easy! The voice was amused.
"I assume you're Zindyll?" Stein inquired cooly.
Indeed. We've got ourselves a smart little human here. But, back to my entertainment! I have the perfect idea! Zindyll was practically snorting each word as he tried not to laugh. We'll have a deal. You can have Kid back…
A shadowy form staggered out of the mist to stop in front of them, making the team gasp in horror.
… if you can beat him.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
Me: hahaha I am CRUEL!
Kid: o\/o not funny.
Me: but it is! MUHAHAHAHAHA!
Maka: D: whhaaa?
Me: *mellow* hehehehe… my plans are all working perfectly. Don't you agree?
Zindyll: that's my line!
~DeaththeKidKat