Teaming Up
It was 8 o'clock in the morning and the remaining EAT class of Stein was right at the big dance studio. People were scattered around the room. Most were anxious and tense about the mysterious training they were about to do, and it wasn't helping to their poor tested nerves the fact that Professor Stein wasn't with them yet.
In fact, some were already mumbling about going out of the studio and try to find Stein when the doors of the studio were abruptly opened.
"Welcome to your first day on your sect training. I hope you're all ready, because today's regimen is going to drain almost all of your energy." The maid scientist said while making his noisy entry. He could feel the thick atmosphere from even outside. As thick as flesh, muscle tissue and fat of a person's skin when one cuts with a scalpel and… he mentally slapped himself really, really hard.
There was no time for madness trying to take over his mind right now.
He walked to the middle of the room and stepped in one hidden button at the floor, making some places from the floor split, only to bring a set of four round-like-machines with a pair of rods from beneath.
When everyone watched confused at the strange machines, he decided to explain the mechanics of today further as he walked at the nearest of the machines and tapped at some kind of meter on it. "Those things here are used to measure the pressure and power of your Soul Resonance. What you all have to do is encircle these machines – one per team, obviously – and create a Chain Resonance. The important thing is to keep it up for the longest time you can."
"If your resonance breaks for even a millisecond, you're eliminated from today's training, so concentrate…" he put a hand under his chin and added as an afterthought "Oh! There's also the thing that I designed and created these machines in a rush yesterday night, so don't be surprised if they suddenly overcharge and explode or something."
Black Star leaped from his seat and brought a finger up. "That's sooo easy! Consider your thing SUPER overcharged! Huehuehuehuehuehue!" Stein merely smirked not only at the loud ninja's ego, but rather at the other student's confidence from the easy task the mad meister seemed to put them. 'Such a foolish assumption,' he thought amused.
"All right kids, let's get this thing started," said Stein as he put his hands on his cloak's pockets. "Show me what you've got."
All twenty-six gathered in their respective teams and machine far from the others and got ready to create a Chain Resonance. It was then that Kirikou locked eyes with Kim, his glasses reflecting some light giving a serious vive to his appearance, and said "Just remember what we talked about, please."
"Yeah, whatever…" scoffed Kim as she felt the tips of the Pot meister and Ox's souls reach for her own.
(10 Minutes Before)
Kim passed the locker area swiftly. Even when she and her friend were arriving almost at the nick of the specified time, she didn't feel preoccupied. After a crazy night having to attend to the witches' yearly festival "the Lugnassad" yesterday right after classes till late, Kim couldn't care less she overslept.
Only problem was the building headache she was starting to get from the lack of sleep.
"What do you think we're going to do?" asked her partner from her side surprisingly well rested. Kim silently thanked whoever answered her prays that Jacqueline finally left that obsession with studying for now after a good day of partying. Death knew the Tanuki Witch would have killed her partner if she continued with her antics for another day.
"Dunno. Set ablaze stuff, maybe?" the Lamp meister replied nonchalantly while she massaged her eyes and temples sending a healing pulse from her fingers to erase the pain in her head.
"Actually, I believe it's going to be something a little more complex than that," said Ox as he, Harvar, Kirikou and Fire and Thunder (with their arms cutely crossed in front of their chests) appeared from the other corner.
"Hmm? What is this?" asked a mildly curious and mildly annoyed Kim while she successfully suppressed a yawn. "I see. Is this some kind of intervention?"
"Nope, but if you see it that way…" said Kirikou narrowing his eyes. Kim gladly returned the glare with one of her own.
"What he's trying to say," interrupts Ox sensing the tension around. "Is that we're really here to talk about our team."
"What about it? Is there something the matter?" asked Jacqueline, trying to back-up her petite meister.
"Yes, there is this little tiny problem." answered the Pot meister.
"There's the mailbox for complaints and suggestions over there." barked back Kim as she made the Iberian slap gesture pointing backwards at him. Harvar noticed this and shook his head while the little Pots just covered their gapping mouths in surprise.
Everything was quiet for the following pair of seconds. Enough for Ox to ask himself what in Death Kim did, until…
"That's it. I'm killing you!" announces Kirikou.
Kim's short temper and lack of sleep made her smirk and taunt more. "Bring it, hipster!"
The two teens smashed their foreheads together, glaring and showering the other with a little piece of their minds. That's when Ox decided to step in and get things under control yet again, only to be completely ignored. "C'mon, guys, there's no need to do this,"
"You think you scare anyone with that macho look, you—"
"Look who's talking, miss lone—"
They keep at it for some minutes, and it didn't help the fact that Harvar and Jackie appeared to be glaring at each other from their spots while they covered the little Pot's ears. Ox was starting to feel more and more frustrated every passing second until…
"See! That's exactly the problem!" Ox yelled, finally snapping from his passive-guy façade with a vein marked on his shining forehead. He noticed how he always ended up yelling to shut his teammates up, but quickly forgot about that to continue his scolding. "You two are just fighting with each other and when you make a mistake! You, Kirikou, say you want to make peace with Kim, but both are too proud and stubborn to recognize when to stop and apologize!"
"Ha, take that monkey boy." said Kim with a smirk, but it was quickly replaced by a frown when the Lighting King turned to her.
"And you! My love, you aren't any better. You just look after you and your interests thinking everyone but Jackie are stupid incompetents. What's up with that? Aren't we supposed to be Shibusen students? Why can't you help us? Why can't you let us help you?"
All Demon Weapons were taken aback by Ox's burst. Even the other meisters' desire to continue with the quarrel was crushed immediately. They all eyed him, making the poor Spear meister feel a little nervous. He then squeaked "I mean. I'm just saying…"
"No, you're right, Ox," said Kirikou as the words of his friend weighed on him. "I want to apologize, Kim. Since we got together almost all what we do is bicker. I should have tried to understand you better, sorry. And even though I would never let anyone step on me like you have done without any kind of physical consequences, my desire to stay in Professor Stein's class and not being humiliated by the other teams is way stronger than pride. Let's start again, deal?"
All six pair of eyes was on the petite meister. She eyed her friend who just nodded at her with a warm smile. That action might have looked like a simple way of Kim looking at Jackie for an answer for any onlooker, but for the two girls it was much, much more than that.
Kim's situation as a witch not controlled by the Sway of Magic was like a cornered animal. She felt in constant danger from both Shibusen and the witches, so she always tried to keep her distance with a spoiled attitude to keep her secret safe. It was tiring that lone-wolf style way of living. But in that gesture, Jacqueline, Kim's only and best friend, confidant, weapon partner and the only person the poor witch trusted with her life, assured the pink-haired she should try to open herself a little bit and accept the boys' trust and friendship.
"Fine, deal." answered Kim as the two teens shook hands with a new resolve shining in their eyes. Ox noticed that he wasn't the only one holding his breath when Jacqueline held her chest and Harvar put his cold hands on his jacket pockets. "I also don't wanna be left hanging out like an idiot. Let's show those kids there who're the bosses."
Kirikou smirked, his competitiveness showing. "You said that, girl! Let's go!"
"Finally…" the Lighting King tiredly said as his other team partners moved along. Their team was relationship finally kicking in it seemed. It wasn't so much, but it was better than nothing. "Jezz, that went better than expected."
"No kidding," said Harvar besides his meister. The two started walking to follow their team until the Demon Spear turned to his friend and said "I was expecting some punches to fly before we managed to shut them up."
Ox left a sigh escape his lips as he said "Yeah, I thought that too. Good thing it never reached that line, though."
"Heh, but we two agree that that Bras d'honneur was completely unexpected, uncalled for and hilarious, right?"
"Just keep walking, Harvar-kun, keep walking."
"What is this?!" yelped Ox in surprise and pain, followed with a grunt from Kirikou and Harvar, a squeak by the little Pots and a chocked scream from his love and her weapon partner. His methodical mind had gone blank from the pain, but it quickly composed itself and started thinking furiously, trying to pinpoint what exactly happened to end in such dreadful situation.
They were doing a stamina exercise for Stein's training, yes. The problem occurred the moment their souls made contact with each other. Just as he felt the constant rhythm from the soul of his love along the African-American's, that feeling was replaced with pure white-hot bloody pain. One that immediately traveled down from his soul to his other partners' shaking them all to the core. It was like his life energy was being drained and squeezed out of him.
Even his body was suffering from the shock. He felt his hands go completely numb and icy cold. He couldn't even feel if he still had Harvar in hand, but the slightly electrifying feeling on his arms assured him that he indeed keep his iron-like grip on the spear.
Desperately moving his eyes around, the genius bald boy managed to see – through his dazzled sight – that the other teams were having similar reactions like theirs. Writhing on place or even howling in pain as if tortured. He witnessed how one of the members of one of the teams succumbed to the pain, falling on her knees and breaking the link before passing out cold; eliminating her team from the training who were freed from pain too. He felt an increasing stab of jealously on his chest.
"Ack!" Kirikou grunted as he put his left foot in front of him to support himself from falling. "T-that stup-p-pid machine!"
Ox glanced at the strange machine with some difficulty and his dots-filled eyes widened. There was a humming noise emanating from the thing as well as the meter going crazy. He also noticed how the silvery blue energy from his and the other's wavelengths was being directed to the two poles of the machine.
"Oh, so stupid from me," said Stein in the middle of the room as he tapped one side of his head lightly and smiled sadistically. "I completely forgot to tell you that these machines do the same function as Kyukon water, but there's no need of direct contact with it. Watch your soul wavelengths or you'll get sucked dry like a grape."
Kim closed her eyes as she felt like a sky whale rested on her shoulders, dragging her down to the floor. "Hng!" she heard herself yelp and felt one of her knees connect with the floor.
"Ha-hang in there!" she heard Kirikou said. "Don't l-let go!"
"I'm trying!" the green-eyed screeched in pain.
"Try harder!"
Kim closed her eyes and said "I j-just d-don't think I—"
"Are you saying y-you're going to get beaten by this machine, then?" Ox said in an adrenaline rush and in a daring tone.
"NO!" she snapped angrily. With that said Kim used her trembling limbs to stand up and stood her ground.
"L-let's get th-this damn thing!" said the African-American in a voice mixed between cockiness and urgency.
They keep like that for what seemed like forever. Even after they got startled by something that might have exploded from the background, they kept concentrated and maintaining alive the Chain Resonance as if their lives depended on it.
It wasn't until Ox was gently tapped in the shoulder, making his concentration break that they finally stopped and dropped to the floor. All of their weapons returned to their human forms and stood just as exhausted on the floor as their meisters.
"Argh…! Ack…" panted Kirikou between breaths while trying his best to form words. He looked up angry and even with his gaze blurred, he tried to badmouth the shadow that interrupted them.
"Finally done, huh? I thought for a second you were going to stay there all night," said the blurry figure that sounded awfully like Stein.
"Wha-what happened?" wheezed Kim resting on her weapon partner's back.
"Isn't it obvious? The training finished."
All of their heads snapped at the mad scientist way at the same time and by some miracle they got the energy to rise from the floor and exclaimed "WHAT?!"
"Yep," their professor replied as if nothing. "It ended two hours ago actually. Eliminating the other two teams that lost, yours was the only one that couldn't break their Kyukon machine."
He saw the kids' heads and shoulders drop. "Even after 8 hours of continuous pumping in the machine, you didn't stop and now are all sprawled on the floor trying to catch your breaths. The first team to lose didn't last ten minutes. The second failed at the hour and Maka's team, however, managed to overcharge their machine after 4 hours and left half unconscious… well, all but Black Star, but he already had experience with Kyukon water so it doesn't matter." He did a swift turn around and disposed to leave, but when he was about to cross the doors out of the dancing studio, he halted to a stop and merely said "Anyway kids, you did a good job today. Till morning."
Just as the silver-haired man's footsteps echoed far away, all of them went back to the floor. Shame and bitterness was now swallowing them alive. They had finally made a promise as a team, only to fail miserably.
It felt so bitter that Fire and Thunder started to sob.
Suddenly, as Ox stuck the wooden floor with one fist, what Professor Stein told them before parting struck him face-to-face. '…after 8 hours of continuous pumping…' He stood there with a bewildered expression and muttered "We did the longest time…"
"You said something?" said Kirikou as he stood up difficultly with jelly-like legs, making his way to comfort the distraught siblings. Kim still tried to get enough oxygen on her lungs to breathe normally on the background.
"I said that we DID THE LONGEST MOTHERF***IN TIME!" Ox said as he happily and out-of-character stood up, only to fell backwards and use the wall next to him as support with a goofy smile. "We did the double of time than Maka's team and can shorta walk on our own. If that's not badass, I don't know what that is!"
Kirikou turned over at his excited friend. He smiled at that, headed towards his immediate left and offered Kim a hand in a friendly gesture to get her up. The pink-haired girl glared at it first, but after some seconds she took it and so, the African-American helped her stand. Harvar did something similar to Jacqueline and then the two took one of the little twins each.
They all shared a chuckle at their small, personal victory. There was no unfriendly atmosphere around the seven anymore.
Ox smiled at that. "Ah… it didn't go so bad after all."
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, their characters or locations; they're the properties of Atsushi Ohkubo. I just took them without permission for entertaining purposes.
The only things that are mine are the Kukon machines.
Hello everybody!
I'm not dead; I just had… some long, busy, tiring and stressing vacations here in the real world. :c I'm sorry I couldn't update faster but if I wasn't at school, then I was writing to take part on whatever contest was up, and if I wasn't writing, I was on my German class, and if I wasn't there then I arranging my graduation fest, and if I wasn't on that, then I was sleeping.
Tl;dr: I was truly busy those past months, but I'm back. I hope I can continue and finish this work before New Year...
Bis bald, alle!