Ellia was just about to deliver another cuff to the back of Lyonne's head when Professor Stein looked up. Her hand froze mid-swing. Sure, Prof. Stein had seen her smack Lyonne's head before, and said nothing of it, but the look on her teacher's usually expressionless face made her stop. It was something like amusement.
"Lyonne, Ellia, you are requested in the Death Room." Stein said, rolling his chair to his desk. Ellia stood and mock-saluted, something all her teachers had come to expect from her. She and Lyonne walked to the door, making their way down the hall to the Death Room. But don't worry, Lyonne received a hit on the back of his head on the way there because he said something stupid (probably).
Ellia and her partner strode through the many guillotine resembling doorways that lead to the platform where their headmaster waited. The Meister Weapon duo walked onto the platform, facing Lord Death. Another duo of students was waiting there, a mousy haired girl with a boyish figure and a gravity-defying white haired boy wearing a yellow and black jacket. Ellia glanced at the other students, finding the mousy haired girl staring at her. When she saw that Ellia had caught her staring, the girl looked away with a blush. Ellia risked a quick smirk before returning her gaze to the headmaster.
Lord Death clapped his hands together. "Hey, hey! Glad to see you made it here!" Death said. Ellia and Lyonne reverted to their nervous tics, Ellia running a hand through the back of her pixie-cut ashy red hair, Lyonne messing with the blond ends of his braid. They really needed to stop doing that. At this rate Lyonne was going to give himself split ends and Ellia was going to make herself bald.
"I've called you here because I want you four to go on a mission together." The students nodded. It wasn't unusual for Death to switch teams around experimentally. "But," he held up a finger," I want to perform a little experiment." Ellia grimaced. Lord Death was starting to sound like Prof. Stein. Lord Death looked at the two boys. "You two will be switching Meisters with each other."
"What?!" the four students screeched in unison. Lord Death nodded.
"But our wavelengths won't work with anyone other than our designated partners, right?" Lyonne asked. Lord Death tilted his head to the side, addressing the students again.
"In most cases, yes. But you're and Ellia's wavelengths are very flexible. You should have no trouble switching partners for just one mission. Besides, looking back on your all's history, all of your wavelengths seem very closely compatible, almost enough that you could switch partners permanently." Lord Death explained as the students listened with dropped jaws. Ellia shrugged.
"Well, sir, I'd at least like to know who I'll be working with." Ellia said, tucking her hands in her pockets. The other girl nodded her agreement. Lord Death bounced excitedly in place. He pointed to the white haired boy, who was wearing a very surly expression.
"Soul Eater. Scythe." Lord Death said. He pointed to Ellia. "You'll be working with Ellia here."
"What, no last name?" Soul asked cockily. Ellia snorted.
"Not one I'm telling anybody."
Death turned to Lyonne. "Lyonne Vanguard. Poleax." He pointed to the mousy haired girl. "Maka Albarn. You'll be working with her."
"Nice to meet you, Maka." Lyonne said politely as he shook Maka's hand. Ellia snorted again. Stupid ass gentleman.
Lyonne, Maka, Soul, and Ellia weaved through the streets of Vienna, on their respective transports. Lyonne rode with Maka on a tacky ass moped, at least in Ellia's opinion. Maka drove while Lyonne hung loosely to her waist, his long blond braid and her black cloak flapping in the wind. Ellia snorted. How classic of Lyonne to ride on a tacky ass moped, the idiot.
Ellia was snapped back to reality when Soul thumped her shoulder. They were riding on Ellia's slightly modified dirt bike, which had a muffled engine and a seat long enough for two. Ellia revved the engine to distract herself, speeding along behind Maka and Lyonne. Usually the closeness that Ellia had to share with her usual passenger, Lyonne, didn't bother her, but Soul made her uncharacteristically unnerved.
"So." Soul started, his hand wrapped around the end of the seat. "What's your last name?"
Ellia thumped the back of his head without looking back. He hissed and smacked her shoulder. "What was that for?" he asked. Ellia smirked even though Soul couldn't see her.
"Well, how hypocritical of you to ask me that when you don't even use your real one." Ellia countered, watching as the other partners of her team took a sharp turn, tailing them effortlessly. Soul scoffed.
"How do you know that's not my real last name?" he asked. Ellia snorted, chewing her lip.
"No way in hell anyone has 'Eater' as a last name. That, and your first name go together too effortlessly. No one is that lucky."
"Smart. But back to my original question. What is your last name?"
"That information is disclosed."
"Aww, come on." Soul complained. Ellia took a sharp turn and he shut his mouth immediately, the dirt bike sweeping around the turn so sharply that Ellia's knee brushed the ground.
Ellia shut the engine and rolled to a smooth stop, letting her feet fall from the pedals to hold the bike steady on the ground. Maka and Lyonne had stopped already, a few paces ahead of them. The four students stared up at a tall building, everyone silently amazed, even if they wouldn't admit it (CoughSoulcough).
Ellia and Maka abandoned their transports, Lyonne and Soul shifting into their weapon forms. Ellia had to admit, she was slightly impressed. Soul in his scythe form was very… classic. A long gray steel pole just a little taller than she was, with a slightly curved triangular blade, a red and black pattern arcing over said blade. She tested the weapon quickly, taking a few experimental slashes. They weren't as quick as they would have been, had she been using Lyonne, due to the fact that their soul wavelengths weren't matched as well. Ellia and Lyonne did have flexible souls, yes, and Soul and Maka's souls were quite easy to conform to. Yet it didn't feel quite right, like two puzzle pieces that ought have gone together, but one part was two big or two small, so that it didn't fit exactly right.
Ellia took a glance at Maka. She was testing the weight of the poleax in her hand. Ellia liked Lyonne's weapon form, it was nice and quite a change from his human aspect. Instead of a normal ax, Lyonne had a slightly longer handle, about as long and as thick as Ellia's arm. Atop the wooden handle, was a wedge shaped double headed ax head, of a sort of coppery color with swirling yellow designs. If the designs were a bit pansy-ish, like Lyonne himself. After Maka finished testing the weight and the swing of the ax in her hand, they started forward into the cathedral.
Their mission was simple. Flush out the baddies, kill them, eat their souls, and go home. Lord Death said that there were about seven kishin egg souls they had to deal with. If that was the case, it should have been fairly easy, unless there were more baddies than accounted for. And, Lord Death had said, they were not to switch weapons in any circumstance unless their very lives were in immediate danger. He'd also warned that he would be watching them, so even if they did switch and lie, he would know, and the consequences would not be good. Ellia shuddered as she thought of what the headmaster might have planned for them.
Ellia and Maka's footsteps echoed sharply in the seemingly empty cathedral. Apparently, none of the cathedral goers had been able to get in since it had become the nesting ground for the town's baddies. Ellia snorted, holding Soul at the ready as she scanned the room for baddies.
"Sense anything, Maka?" Ellia asked her mission partner. Maka closed her eyes momentarily and would have run into a wall had Ellia not grabbed her collar at the last second. Maka blushed but didn't say anything, still scanning for souls.
"Yeah. There are seven in the basement, all kishin eggs." Maka confirmed, turning abruptly to look for the basement staircase. Ellia found it, pointing it out to Maka and setting off down the stairs. Maka followed, holding Lyonne ungracefully over her shoulder.
Truth be told, Ellia was really excited to see what Maka could do, and to try and work with a different weapon partner. But there were definitely a list of pros and cons. Ellia realized this as three baddies pushed past her up the stair case. She heard Maka's footsteps as she followed them back into the sanctuary. That left four for Ellia and Soul to deal with. Ellia swung the scythe in her hand once in warning, and a few of the baddies grinned. They weren't much to look at, just your everyday bald booze hogs with sharp teeth and yellow eyes. Ellia went over the list of pros and cons as she swiped at the baddies, getting down to business.
Pro: Ellia moved very gracefully when she fought, a sharp contrast to how she moved when she wasn't fighting. This was infinitely easier to do with a scythe than with a poleax. But, con. She swiped at a baddie, decapitating him. The usual glowy red orb with a smattering of tile like red scales appeared in it's place. Ellia moved to the next villain, stabbing at him, but he dodged.
Anyway, con: Ellia couldn't do one of her favorite moves with a scythe, which involved slamming the butt of her weapon on the ground and using the head of the blade as a stepping stone to get some air leverage, then swing the weapon around behind her and chopping the baddie right down the middle. Very effective, but a scythe was too tall for her to do that, whereas a poleax was just the right height.
Ellia realized another pro as she sliced a baddie right down the middle, and a kishin egg appeared in his place. Pro: she could rope the baddies into the crook between the blade and the pole, and then pummel them. There was also a con, one that Ellia realized as she finished off the last two baddies. Con: she fought up close to her enemies, but that was harder and more awkward to do with a scythe than with a poleax, so she had to fight farther away, something she wasn't used to.
Soul shifted back into human form and went about devouring the kishin eggs as Ellia made her way back into the cathedral hall, where Lyonne was also gorging himself on kishin eggs. Maka was standing nearby, waiting for Ellia and Soul, as said pair made their way to where the other duo waited.
"Report back to Lord Death, right?" Lyonne asked. Maka nodded, making her way to a window. Maka muttered to herself as she called upon Lord Death, her mission partners crowding behind her. Ellia smacked the back of Soul and Lyonne's heads as Maka finished calling. Lyonne just grunted, he was used to Ellia doing that when he did stupid things, after all a lot of things he did were stupid in her opinion. But Soul wasn't, so he rounded on Ellia as she shoved her hands in her pockets.
"What was that for?" he asked. Ellia shrugged.
"For being stupid." She said simply, pacing over to stand beside Lyonne. Lord Death appeared in the window, cheerful as ever.
"Whazzup? Whazzup? Whazzup!" Lord Death greeted. The four students offered their hellos before Lord Death spoke again. "I trust that the mission went well?"
Maka and Ellia nodded. "Yes, sir." Maka said politely. Ellia snorted. Lyonne's stupid ass gentleman shit was rubbing off on Maka. "Our kishin egg soul count is now sixty seven." Maka announced cheerfully. Soul turned to Lyonne and Ellia.
"What about you guys? What's your soul count?" he asked. Ellia shrugged, running a hand through the back of her hair.
"Lyonne and I don't really want to become Death Scythes." Ellia explained. Lyonne nodded, while Soul looked shocked. Maka was still talking to Lord Death, explaining something that Ellia couldn't really care less about.
"Wait, you don't want to become Death Scythes? And did you say neither of you?" Soul asked, eyes wide. Ellia nodded.
"We're both weapons. Lyonne's a poleax and I'm a long bow." Ellia said.
"Then why does Lyonne usually do the weapon form?"
"Because he's a pansy."
"Hey!"
"Well, you are. Besides, I'm a better fighter than Lyonne, so he only usually fights when I'm injured."
Maka had finished her conversation with Lord Death and had been listening in on the exchange.
"Whatever. Can we go home now?" Ellia intervened as Maka opened her mouth to say something. Maka grumbled, but they made their way back to their respective transports, Lyonne and Soul now riding with their original partners. Ellia swung herself onto her dirt bike, Lyonne getting on behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. Soul drove his moped while Maka clung on loosely to him and the seat.
"Race ya to the Academy!" Ellia yelled, starting the engine and zooming off before her partners could react. She grinned under the broad brim of her helmet, zooming through Vienna's streets. She heard a faint yelp of surprise as Soul started the engine and raced after her, Maka protesting that he was going to run into something.
By the way, Ellia won. A dirt bike against a moped? There was no contest.