It was morning in Death City. A massive structure loomed over the other buildings that made up the sprawling town. It was the Death Weapon Meister Academy. The academy was composed of several steep spires that stretched up into the sky. The base underneath the facility had multiple leveled tiers and a wide staircase that led all the way to the top. Three structures resembling the bald head of a mustachioed man lined the front of the institution. Their eyes were covered by spectacles. Massive cannons protruded from the building as well.

Sonic and Shadow walked about the academy grounds without urgency. A break period from regularly scheduled class days had just concluded, so the two were done pursuing missions for now. They moved into the main building along with many other students, walking through the spacious hallways to reach their classroom.

"Hey look, it's the goon show!" Sonic announced after seeing two familiar faces. Tails turned then lit up when he saw who was speaking. The two meisters exchanged high fives as their weapons approached.

"We bagged our first soul just a few days ago!" Tails began.

"Nice work," Sonic replied.

"We've been taking it easy but I'm still sore,".

"I'm good as new," Knuckles puffed up his chest. "The next ninety-eight souls will be cake!"

"Speaking of, guess who just hit ninety-nine?" Sonic grinned.

"Man, you guys are awesome," Tails huffed with envy.

"So you guys are hunting witches now?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah, we actually ran into one on our last mission,"

Tails and Knuckles both looked completely incredulous.

"You didn't take their soul, did you?" Tails asked in amazement.

Sonic shook his head. "She turned out to be kinda nice...which I'm still figuring out how to deal with," Sonic's volume dropped off for the second half of his sentence. He then shrugged. "Plus she was crazy strong; toying with us the whole time,"

"Sooooooonnnniiiiiiiiiiic,"

A distance voice came, quickly getting closer. A pink hedgehog girl barreled down the hallway. She wore a cranberry dress and boots with a gray jacket. Her hands had white gloves with her wrists having bracelets resembling brass rings. The new hedgehog split through the group and wrapped her arms around Sonic, nearly knocking him over.

"Amy? What are you doing here?" Sonic blurted annoyedly.

"Since when do I have to justify visiting my future husband?" Amy crossed her arms after releasing Sonic. He rolled his eyes in response.

"First, I'm not your future husband. Second, class is about to start and this is the weapon meister wing, not the general studies wing,"

"Well, it's a good thing I finished my weapon meister certification over break," Amy grinned as she noticed that everyone in the group was looking at her.

"I'm not the newest meister in our group now!" Tails bragged.

"Wow Amy, I didn't think you were serious about that," Sonic remarked.

"I'm always serious when love is on the line. You said you'd marry me if I made a death scythe before you!"

"Yeah well, I was actually joking even if you weren't. Besides, all Shadow needs now is a witch's soul,"

Amy turned to Shadow and pointed a finger.

"No witches for you!" She frowned.

Shadow replied with a bored expression.

"Did you partner up with a weapon, or what?" Knuckles asked.

"Well yeah, she's-," Amy looked around a bit and spotted a young rabbit girl peeking around a nearby corner. The girl retreated after Amy spotted her.

"Cream, what are you doing? Get over here!"

Cream walked over meekly with a small blue creature floating behind her. Cream wore white gloves, an orange dress and matching shoes. A blue ribbon was attached to the collar of her dress. Her fur was fittingly cream colored, with orange coloring lining her eyes, the top of her head, and the edges of her long ears.

The blue creature following her resembled a cherub with big round eyes on its teardrop shaped head. Each of its limbs were rounded and pudgy. Tiny pink wings sat on its back, and a red bowtie was tied around its neck.

"She has a chao?" Tails whispered to the others.

"I'm Cream and this is Cheese," The girl seemed to gain confidence after arriving at Amy's side, and smiled.

"Wow, you are both going to die so fast," Knuckles stated flatly.

"Uhm, excuse me," Amy put her hands on her hips and leered up at Knuckles. "Cream and I are a great team. Plus, she's got friends in high places,"

"Great team, huh? Wanna put that to the test?" Knuckles bumped his fists together.

"A fight? I don't know, I'm worried you'd be so embarrassed after losing to me on my first day of meister class!" Amy stepped forward to stand off against Knuckles.

A series of loud bells echoed throughout the hallways, silencing the group.

Sonic walked through the group. "Save the fighting for later. Cream welcome to the group. Let's all get to class,"

"Sonic Squad!" Tails cheered.

"No Sonic Squad," Sonic groaned.

The Sonic Squad filed into the lecture hall along with some of the other students. It was a spacious room able to hold around forty students. Each table row was elevated about three feet above the previous one. A few chalkboards lined the front of the room along with the professor's desk. Sonic and Shadow were the first of their group to reach their seats, with Sonic sitting with the wall to his left. Shadow grabbed hold of the chair next to Sonic and grinned ever so slightly

"Maybe I should let Amy sit here?"

Sonic placed a hand on Shadow's shoulder and guided the black hedgehog into the seat. Shadow sat, appearing amused by his meister's impatience. Once every student was seated, a round bodied robot with lanky, hydraulic limbs walked to the front of the room. It's metallic body was mainly colored red, white, and black. A yellow plate covered its head, with the same color lining the machine's joints as well.

"Greetings students. Professor Gamma reporting for duty. Commence attendance,"

A light from the robot's eyes scanned the room once over.

"Attendance complete. Class is now in session. After a brief tutorial, students will commence bird watching activities," The harsh, emotionless tone of the robot's voice seemed to linger over the words "bird watching."

Amy looked around to see that the room was filled with defeated and uncaring expressions, except for Cream who seemed content.

"Professor Gamma, what does bird watching have to do with training demon weapons and hunting monsters?" Amy asked with concern.

"Request for information denied,"

"Shouldn't we analyze combat strategies or soul wavelength interactions?"

"Commence tutorial,"

A projector screen lowered down from the ceiling, and a video started playing. Text appeared on the screen:The Wonders of Bird Watching.

Amy turned back toward her friends in disbelief.

"Welcome to the weapon meister class," Tails pulled out a book from his bag, ignoring the video.

After ninety action-packed minutes, the students were ushered from the classroom and led outside by Professor Gamma. The Sonic Squad assembled in the hallway while walking with the rest of the class.

"Is there something I'm missing here?" Amy questioned.

"Not really," Sonic rubbed his eyes to recover from the nap he'd just taken. "It's been like this for a while. Eggman's been using bots to teach classes and doesn't pay any attention to them,"

"But why?"

"Same reason he's always busy despite never leaving town. He's a lazy weirdo who only works on weird and pointless projects," Sonic concluded.

"It wasn't like this in the general studies wing!" Amy exclaimed. "Isn't there supposed to be a death scythe coming to the academy today? I thought they'd be teaching us,"

"A death scythe?" Knuckles's eyes flared with intrigue. The rest of the group aside from Cream was surprised too.

"Oh, you guys didn't know?" Amy grinned, enjoying the attention. "Eggman is bringing a death scythe and meister from overseas,"

"Where'd you hear that?" Tails asked.

"It's a secret. What I don't know is why said death scythe is visiting since they clearly aren't coming to teach,"

"A death scythe," Sonic pondered. "Today just got a lot more interesting,"

"What are we waiting for?" Knuckles walked to the head of the group and stopped them. "Let's cut class and find 'em,"

"What for?" Amy raised an eyebrow..

"To fight 'em of course,"

"Oh man, I gotta see this," Sonic laughed.

"You'll have a front row seat. Let's partner up," Knuckles grinned.

"All right, bring it on,"

Sonic and Knuckles ran off before anyone else could react.

"We don't even know if they'll arrive in the morning!" Amy called after them.

"If we stick with our class and bird watch at the entrance we'll see them when they get here," Tails explained.

"Good thinking Tails," Amy clapped her hands together. "Sonic Squad just got upgraded to Team Rose. Let's prepare for the incoming death scythe, people!"


Driving along the winding road leading to Death City, a white limousine weaved along the outskirts. Gold trim lined the vehicle to form a decadent detailing. Death City was old, so it didn't have any paved roads that ran through it. The limousine stopped at the edge of town to drop off two people without a word. First out was a heeled boot belonging to a purple feline girl. She was followed by a pale furred hedgehog boy. Both were wearing black tuxedos.

"We're a bit early. Lord Death asked us to meet at noon," The cat explained.

"I bet there's plenty of good food in Death City," The hedgehog proposed with eagerness.

"We'll eat after, not before" The cat spoke in a stern tone. "I want to get a good look at the academy,"

The hedgehog huffed. "Fine,"

The dressy duo strolled through the peaceful morning towards the heart of Death City. Their expensive shoes clicked against the ground as they made their way.

"Please tell me that's not the academy on top of all those…"

The two arrived at the base of the academy's stairway.

"Stairs," The hedgehog fell to all fours in agony.

"I'm not carrying you," The cat stressed.

"There's too many. Leave me," He cracked one eye open to see that he was already being left behind. With a sigh he got up and began climbing.

There were no additional theatrics for the bulk of the journey. Upon reaching the first gate however, the pair stopped. Another duo seemed to be waiting for them.

"All right death scythe. Let's rumble," Knuckles proclaimed.