Chapter 3:
The Lost meets a Witch!
"Where are we going?" asked a weapon. The weapon was a gauntlet. The gauntlet was different from most weapons as not it was tightly wrapped around its meister's right hand, instead of having the meister hold it. Above the four fingers was a short and sharp blade.
The man who was with the weapon was pretty lanky being skinny and not too strong. His black hair had a huge cowlick in the middle of it, so it stuck straight up into the air. He was currently in a plain red t-shirt. Ash was currently in navy pants that and pretty plain black shoes with tall red socks. The duo were driving about on a moped throughout the busy streets.
The man pulled a small map out with his left hand and held it up. "We were supposed to go left…a couple of miles ago…I think."
"Don't worry, Ash!" shouted the gauntlet, "We'll find our way! Just follow my directions!"
"I've been following your directions for the past half an hour!" shouted Ash, "I don't know if you know this, Xander, but I'm beginning to think that it is your lousy directions that have gotten us lost again!"
"How is that possible?" asked Xander, "My directions couldn't have gotten lost ten times already!"
"I'm aware," said Ash. He was keeping track of their detours, and technically they were on their eleventh detour, but he didn't feel like correcting him right now. If only they made maps more readable. If they could do that, then they wouldn't be in this situation. Or if they just invented something to shut his partner up.
"Why are we doing a search here, anyways?" asked Xander, "its not like chaos is going to break out if we don't."
"Lord Death was pretty adamant about it," said Ash as he let out a brief sigh, "he said there seemed to be a pretty strong concentration of magic coming from this area over the past couple of months. He initially dismissed it as random phenomena, but some recent discoveries made him second guess himself so he sent us here."
"Magic means witches, right?" asked Xander
"Y-yeah," said Ash his entire body shuddering from fear now. He swallowed loudly as he started to consider the possibility of running into a rogue witch.
"I want to fight some witches!" shouted Xander, "where are some no-good, low down, dirty witches that we can bash in?"
"Hopefully far away," said Ash, "I don't think we can handle a witch at our current level. You hear those stories about how they make their own kids into test subjects or how some of them are immortal…I don't want to fight someone who is immortal, I don't think we could handle him."
"Who are you talking about?" asked Xander, "did you forget you are with me! As long as you are with me we can hunt down and beat any witches that come our way!"
"I think it would be better if we waited," said Ash, "maybe once we get a Kishin egg or two, or maybe even, I don't…99! Maybe then we can try. We aren't ready to be a Death Scythe, yet."
"Why are they called a Death Scythe?" he asked, "I think Death Gauntlet is much more appropriate!"
"Maybe you can take that up with Lord Death when we go back," said Ash.
"Let's go back now!"
"I thought you wanted to find a witch!"
"Yeah! Kill a witch first, then Lord Death!"
"Kill a witch, huh?" asked a high-pitched female voice.
Ash turned the moped around to see who said that and explain to them that they weren't insane for hunting down a witch, but he was too busy being amazed. The woman who said that was currently floating a few feet off of the ground. She wore a pure black robe, Ash could just make out her blue eyes. She threw a coy smile his way.
"Witch!" Ash slammed onto the moped's gas on the moped began to speed off and take off at high speed throughout the streets. He began to swerve through the busy streets avoiding the numerous cars and motorcycles. He suddenly made a quick turn down a dark alley.
"Hey, you do know you left the witch back there?" shouted Xander, "we can't fight her if we don't turn around and let her catch back up to us!"
"I don't want…" a large black boot slammed into Ash's chin forcing him backwards and off of the moped and onto the cement. The moped went on for a few more feet before smashing to the ground. The moped was a mess.
The Witch was back and this time she was in front of them. She had her long leg fully extended at Ash's face. She smiled. "The name's Mare and its very rude to leave a lady left all alone, especially after you called her a witch! What an insult!"
"You aren't a witch?" moped Xander, "This isn't fun if you are not a witch." Ash's hand gripped around her long rope.
"Now, sweetie, I never said that." Mare's body disappeared into a blur and she appeared right above them. She spun around and launched a fast and swift kick into the ground. Ash barely managed to roll to the side to avoid the crushing blow. Ash swiftly landed back onto his feet. Mare simply smirked at them.
"She's a witch, Ash!" shouted Xander as she eyed the witch. "Let's kill her!"
"She's too fast for me to run away from," thought Ash as he studied the area around him, "not to mention the simple fact that my moped's a bust. I guess fighting is going to be my best option." He breathed heavily.
"Let's get ready for a quick fight," said Mare as she charged towards him again at an impressive gait. She launched a second kick at Ash, but Ash quickly made a punch with Xander's metallic arm-blade body and caught Mare's foot. The two colliding forces created a huge gust of wind, but it only managed to throw Ash backwards and into the dirt. Mare remained stationed with her leg still sturdy in the ground.
"She's a little bit stronger then us," said Xander. His body becoming visible in the reflection of the arm blade. He didn't appear to be as tall as Ash, but it was hard to tell anything in the reflection of the arm blade. His most notable features were his short chestnut hair and green eyes.
"Such a poor group of children," said Mare as she began to stride towards them, "is this really the best the DWMA has to offer? I would've thought that Lord Death has a minimum status…like maybe having the knowledge to know that mopeds are only for nerds." Mare chuckled at the crashed moped.
Ash stood up. His entire body was shaking as he braced Xander's weapon form. He swallowed hard. He actually made that moped by hand. He saved up money from some odd jobs around the academy and created the moped with his own two hands and now it was busted.
"Xander," said Ash as he braced his body against the hard ground of the alley, "let's finish this quickly."
"Yeah, this is pretty dirty alley. You probably want to leave it quickly don't you?"
"Actually, I didn't notice the dirt I was too busy focusing on the witch in front of us, but now that you…mention…it," Ash started to trail off as he focused on the large clumps of dirt on the ground. He swallowed hard. "Great, I got to fight a witch and my own cleanliness problems."
"Can't you just focus on the witch first?" asked Xander.
Ash's entire body froze up. The ground was so dirty and he had been laying on it a couple of minutes ago. His body was probably covered in dirt. His hand quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small mirror. He examined his face in the mirror. "Phew…I'm still clean."
"Of course you are clean you took three showers before we even left and then two more at the inn a couple of blocks down the road," muttered Xander.
"Sorry," said Ash, "I forgot that some people still don't take showers, they take baths. They just sit in there…in a tub of their own filth…just sitting there."
"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO WASH ME!" shouted Xander.
"Sorry," said Ash, "I just hate dirt."
"I know…" said Xander, "I've been your partner for a couple of months now. Your engineering skills are second only to your bathing problems."
"Heelllloooo," said Mare as she waved at them, "I hate to interrupt your little…problem session, but I've got places to go, evil to cook up, and people to kill." She launched another kick in Ash's direction. Ash ducked underneath the kick and dodged to the side allowing the kick to gracefully cut the air above them.
"Now Ash! Hit her!" shouted Xander seeing an opening. Ash wandered over to the side instead letting the opportunity pass him by. "Why didn't you hit her?"
"Unlike you," began Ash, "I am a gentleman and would never ever hurt a woman."
"Too bad I don't have a problem with hitting a prissy boy like yourself," said Mare as she drove her leg back around and through the air. Ash brought Xander up and blocked the kick with Xander's metal plating. Despite having blocked Mare's kick the force from the kick still sent him skidding a few feet back.
"HIT HER!" shouted Xander, "before she tries to hit us again!"
"I don't wanna," whined Ash.
"Not only do you look and fight like a little girl, you complain like one too," said Mare as she jumped into the air and made a direct downward kick at Ash. Ash dodged to the side and watched in amazement as Mare's ferocious kick destroyed the pavement beneath them.
"If you don't suck it up and hit that woman like a real man would do, we will both die!" shouted Xander.
"A real man would never hit a woman!"
"Then hit her like the prissy boy you are!" replied Xander.
"Now that was just crude and uncalled for!" shouted Ash.
"Hit her!" shouted Xander.
"Not until you apologize," replied Ash.
"Hit her!"
"Not until you apologize!"
"RUN!"
"Huh?" asked Ash. He was met with a surprisingly strong kick to his abdomen that sent him flying backwards again and tumbling across the pavement. He bit his bottom lip as he staggered back to his feet. "You are making it really hard to be a gentleman!"
"I'm so sorry," said Mare, "but you are just so fun to hit. As a matter of fact I think I'll do it again." She brought her leg up into the air and then brought it straight down with both strength and speed. Ash rolled to the side avoiding the blunt of her blow. Ash quickly stood back up and gripped the metal blade.
"I guess being a gentleman is out of the question, isn't it?" asked Ash with a heavy and reluctant sigh.
"Apparently," replied Xander.
"Let's go!" shouted Ash as he took off for Mare.
"Oh, darling, you are too badly injured to even stand a chance against me!" Mare brought her leg over and through the air and straight at Ash. Ash ducked underneath and then brought Xander's weapon form around and into her stomach, piercing it with ease.
Mare stumbled back for a few feet before regaining her balance. She stared at him for a few seconds before she stuck her leg out at its fullest and began to spin around in circles. The more she spun around the quicker the outstretched leg moved and the more momentum it gained. Once she gained enough momentum she approached Xander and Ash with the quick rotational art.
Ash brought his arm blade up and in front of his body protecting it to ensure that he would be able to land a successful retaliatory strike. Mare brought her entire leg shuddering into Ash's body sending him careening back a few feet and into the nearby wall. Ash slammed into the wall and collapsed onto the ground. Ash coughed up a small amount of blood and staggered to his feet.
"I think we are going to need Soul Resonance," said Ash slowly taking in there chances of doing a retaliatory strike.
"Cool," said Xander, "you are always more fun during Soul Resonance."
"Ready?" asked Ash.
"And able!" replied Xander.
"Let's go! Soul Resonance!" shouted Ash and Xander in perfect unison. Their souls began to merge to form one more powerful soul. Xander's blade began to glow and become sharper. Ash stopped and collapsed to the ground, coughing up more blood. His body was in such a terrible condition it couldn't withstand the strain of Soul Resonance.
"That's enough kiddies," said Mare as she turned around, "I'm bored with you and you are clearly unable to do anything about it, so I'll just have to finish you off." She brought her leg straight up into the air readying herself to do another downward kick when she stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Crap. The other witches need me, apparently some issues have arisen on the home front. You get to leave until our next meeting, until then." With that Mare's entire body blurred and disappeared.
Later that day DWMA officials appeared on the scene and dragged an unconscious Ash and Xander away. Ash was immediately put into intensive care at the DWMA infirmary having sustained so many deadly injuries, Xander was luckier. His body may have been shook up, but due to his weapon form he had only sustained minimal injuries.
The Main Characters have been chosen! Ash (Kiwifeather) and Xander (eggward) have filled out the remaining slots. This means that Alexander and May (Stormling), Melody (redcap55) and Shi (fullon124), and Ash and Xander will be seen continuously throughout the story! But that does not mean I am no longer accepting OC's so continue to send them in!