Chapter 5: The Mission!

Will They Succeed?

The crew arrived in a small town in Kahbavorsk. The sea of Okhotsk was to their right according to their coordinates, Lord Death apparently accidentally dropped them off…20 miles off target. Ash was the first in line, he had just taken his third shower of the day, and he was brimming with energy. Xander was in his weapon form neatly attached to his right hand. Melody was a couple of feet behind them playing with Shi in his yo-yo form. She was performing dozen of complicated tricks and maneuvers by slinging her yo-yo around in a circle. Michael and May were lagging even further behind them by a dozen or so feet. They were just taking their sweet time sightseeing. May was even out of her weapon form, she was out with a camera taking some pictures of the seagulls that happened to land there.

"Maybe we can all go swimming after this!" shouted Shi eyeing the sea from his vantage point of high up in the air, where Melody had thrown him.

"You just want to see us in bikinis, don't you?" asked May from her spot, turning around and giving Shi the evil eye.

"I like that idea," said Xander, "I wouldn't mind seeing some girls in bikinis…especially some girls like you…maybe you should call your friends. Get us a party going down here…"

Melody ignored the current slightly inappropriate conversation that was going on as she blew another bubble and popped it, "why didn't Lord Death drop us off closer to the site. I mean, he wants us to get the Magic Tool doesn't he?"

"Its Lord Death," said Ash with a shrug, "he didn't even give me permission to bring the dune buggy I've been working on. It would've made traversing this distance so easy."

"It would've just made noise," said Michael as he kept his eyes trained at the skies, "we still haven't met up with our Death Scythe. If we rode your dune buggy it would've made noise and the witches would've had a search party come and look for us."

"Where are the witches!" shouted Xander as he began to frantically look around trying to find his new target to attack. He found nothing. Xander's head slumped back down in his reflection. "Great. Thanks for the false alarm."

"If you were listening, Xander," said Ash, "you would've known that they were no witches."

"No witches!" shouted Shi, "then this mission is going to boring as hell! What am I supposed to do? I don't even have a good spot to look at Melody's butt from where I am!"

Melody dropped Shi in his yo-yo form to the ground. She lifted her foot up and rapidly stomped down upon him. "STOP TALKING ABOUT IT, WILL YA?" After ten or so stomps she bent back down and picked Shi up.

"I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding!" shouted Shi as its reflection frantically searched its body for any wounds, "no…no. I think I'm all good. I just overreacted a little."

"Good," said Michael as he walked past them, "now hopefully none of the witches heard you going crazy. May, I think you better be turning into your weapon form now."

May nodded. Her body scrunched up and into an elongated bow. Michael quickly grabbed her and began to walk again. "This is going to be a long walk," complained May.

"We've been walking for nearly an hour, given our normal walking time, the distance to the site, and factoring in that there is very little wind today," said Ash as he quickly did some calculations in his head, "we should be getting there in about another hour."

"Another hour!" shouted Shi, "I can't walk any more…please go on without me…I'll just collapse."

"Shi," said Melody growing increasingly irritated, "you haven't walked at all since we started. You are two feet off of the ground, in your yo-yo form, and I'm carrying you. You don't get to act tired."

"Fine…can I act hungry?" said Shi, "because I really want some chocolate."

"We've only been at this for an hour," complained Xander, "if you don't stop whining I'll come over there and kick your little androgynous butt!"

"You like my butt?" asked Shi, "I think yours is cute, too!"

Michael let out a brief sigh. "Melody. I give you permission to throw Shi out into the sea."

"Shi's not so bad once you get to know him," said Melody trying her best to cover for Shi's annoyances. The entire gang immediately gave Melody the same look. None of them believed her.

"Hey!" shouted Shi, "I'm still here!"

"No one cares," said Xander with his normal cocky attitude.

"WHAT?"

Ash's entire body came to stop. He paused where he was in the sand. "Someone's following us."

"How can you tell?" asked Michael as he swerved around in his spot. He immediately drew back in his bow's string and took aim. "I could only hear Shi."

"Xander talks a lot," said Ash, "I'm used to ignoring him…but that's not what worries me. I think they've been following us for sometime now…the fact that we just now noticed them puts us in a bad situation."

"What makes you think that?" asked Melody. She was spinning Shi in large wide circles readying herself for her attack.

"One," began Ash, "they know we are meisters and weapons due to the fact that our weapons have been talking. Two: they're obviously talented at what they do. And three: they haven't killed us yet."

"Isn't three a good thing," asked May.

"No," said Melody as she swallowed hard, "it means if they are our enemy then they know for a fact that they can take us out. If they couldn't take us all out before they would've taken one of us out at a distance then ran away. We would have to focus on taking care of the person they attacked, so they would have a clean getaway."

"Now that we are onto them what are they gonna do?" asked Michael.

"One of three things," said Ash, "They are either going to runaway, let us stand here like idiots until we drop our guard, or attack the weakest link."

"Right," said Michael, "basic rule of assassination attack the weakest link…which means we got to protect the weakest link." Michael and Melody ran back and immediately positioned themselves in front of Ash.

"Don't worry Ash, we'll protect you!" shouted Melody giving him a thumbs-up.

"I'm the weakest link?" wailed Ash in his head. Despite his thoughts, he braced himself to fight. He brought Xander up to his chest and readied himself to make a quick punch if need be.

The area went silent in a heartbeat. Nobody saw any movements from beyond the forest. The forest was just as dead as the sand around them. There was no wind today either, so the sand remained motionless around their feet. The gentle lapping of the waves against the ground almost seemed to be mocking them as they readied to fight their invisible opponent. The only real sound that could be heard was Melody's nearly silent gum-chewing.

Michael was the first to act. He threw his body to the ground in an instant, with Melody and then Ash following right after as the insanely large tan boomerang hovered over their heads threatening to decapitate them with the strength and speed with which it was thrown. Michael quickly brought May around and fired a small round of arrows in the direction that the boomerang came.

Ash and Melody turned their attention to the boomerang. Melody lashed out with Shi, its small metallic body aimed dead center at the boomerang. Ash was right behind it. He brought Xander around and fired a punch at the boomerang. Then it swerved. A boomerang that ordinarily had a select path of travel swerved. It moved to the left allowing both attacks to fumble past it as it spun past them both. The boomerang soon returned to a new place hidden in the bushes.

"It's a Magic Weapon," said Xander, "be prepared! We don't know how strong it is, it could kill us."

"I thought Magic Weapons were the good guys," complained Shi, "why is this one trying to kill us!"

"Who knows!" shouted Melody as she skidded across the beach waiting for another attack from the boomerang. Nothing came.

"He must be trying to attack from a better position," said May, "attacking us from this direction proved to be a bad choice. He must want to attack us from another direction. It's the obvious choice."

Michael brought May back up and took aim once more. He fired an arrow into a random bush trying to flush the attacker out. No one emerged. He sighed and quickly drew the bowstring back, gaining another arrow. He didn't fire this one, instead he just surveyed the surroundings. He was waiting for a second attack.

"I think," began Ash, "we should start to move." Melody shot him a disappointed look, while both Shi and Xander just looked annoyed. Michael didn't dare turn his head. "If we just stand here, not only are we sitting ducks, but we are also not getting any closer to the target. Our mission was to get the Magic Tool and not to fight, remember?" There was something else going on here. Despite the attack, despite the Magic Weapon, there was something wrong, something missing that shouldn't be.

Melody let out an exasperated sigh, "I've been with Shi for so long…I've forgotten what completing a mission is like. I agree with Ash. Let's run."

"No way!" shouted Shi, "this person is trying to pick a fight with us! I say we fight back and kill it! Let's not run, let's fight! Forget the mission!"

"I agree with Shi," said Xander, "we do not want to turn our back to these guys. The instant we turn our back, Michael and Melody are going to die. I, of course, will protect ash so he'll be alright, but you two…you two are in some deep trouble."

"We're running," said Michael, "The three people with legs want to run. So you and Shi are just going to have to shut up." He shared one more glance backwards before he nodded forward. "Now!" The trio burst out into a quick run. The boomerang seared through the air once more aiming for lower back of all of the meisters.

The boomerang slammed into Michael's back sending him flying to the ground. The boomerang whipped back to the bushes, avoiding Melody and Xander.

"Leave him," shouted Shi, "leave him to die an honorable soldier's death!" Despite Shi's pleading, Melody whipped around. Melody kneeled onto the sand and was about to help Michael up, when he braced himself against the ground and lifted himself up without her help.

"I didn't feel it," said Michael as he checked his back. "I didn't feel the boomerang. Only thing I felt was being thrown through the air." He waved his hand in front of his face to make sure he could still feel some things. He couldn't. It wasn't something he noticed before, because before he was too busy adjusting to the rest of the body. The weight, the clunky movements, the mocking commentary from the class. The lack of feeling was never an issue before.

"Great," said Ash, "nice to know, but I suggest we start running before me or Melody have to feel it." He was already a couple yards ahead of them. He hadn't stopped when Michael was sent to the ground, either out of the intelligence that stopping would only make him a target or the fact that Xander was still shouting at him to get his butt in gear.

"Something's not right," said May as Michael brought her back up to his side.

"What's that?" asked Melody scanning the area once more to make sure that they weren't under attack.

"We are still alive," said May, "whoever is attacking us is toying with us. They are obviously better then we are."

"Then you guys are!" shouted Xander, "Me and meister still haven't been hit once!" Ash bit his bottom lip, despite Xander's point he still knew they weren't out of the woods yet. Maybe…maybe they should try Soul Resonance. That was when it finally sunk into Ash's head. What was wrong with this picture…he couldn't see the souls of his attackers.

He frantically surveyed the scene. None. The lack of souls were starting to upset him. He saw six of them. His, his partner, and their friends. But their two enemies…nothing. He didn't feel a thing. "Guys!" shouted Ash after sharing one more look around, "I can't see their souls, can you?"

Michael and Melody shared one more look around the open beach. Nothing. They didn't see them either. Their immediate thought was a witch using Soul Protect, but…that didn't explain the Magic Weapon. That should still be visible to them…so where was it?

(-in the bushes-)

A man was hunkered down behind some bushes. He was dressed in a dark green robe. The only features that could be truly seen was the pale complexion of his face and his one hand that was gripping a large dark green bottle tightly. "You know…I think Lord Death is losing it…sending these kids to retrieve a Magic Tool…"

"Can't you just stop attacking them," cried the boomerang, "I mean I know you like to test your students…but isn't this a little drastic? They could get hurt!" The reflection in the boomerang was that of a young woman. Her hair was jet black that was wavy all the way down to where it ended, at the middle of her back.

"That's the plan," said the man as he took another swig from the dark green bottle, "if they survive me attacking them…they can survive the witches attacking them."

"And what if they don't!" shouted the boomerang.

"Hmmm…I guess I'll kill them."

"That's not a good answer!" The weapon morphed, it took on a dark green hue and quickly changed into the person in the reflection. Except this time she was wearing a V-neck red jumper which had a black T-shirt underneath it. She also had on black slacks and red high-heeled boots. Around her neck was a long silver chain, "you'll just have to do this test without me."

"Fine," said the man as he stood up, "It might be a good warm-up for me anyways." He cracked his knuckles as he began to exit out of the bushes. "Hope they are ready to fight me." He dropped his dark green bottle onto the grassy ground before exiting from the bushes.

"Saul…" said the weapon as she desperately tried to reach out. "I should've known what it was going to be like with him…the drunken bastard. Oops! Maybe that was too harsh! He isn't entirely a bastard…and he isn't drunk…yet…maybe just a…boorish oaf? No, no, that was still too mean…what can I call him?"

Well, the mission has begun! And its off to a shaky start with a Meister and Weapon attacking them for no really good reason. Speaking of which the weapon is an OC sent in by one of you reviewers. But since I have not formally introduced the OC (name-wise).

1) My readers somehow decided to plan everything through and make it so both stories tied. I checked and double-checked. According to my rules...which I deleted when I put this chapter up, both chapters scored a 84 reviews. I have absolutely no idea on what to do, so I just post chapter 6 for both of them...for now. DON'T THINKYOU'VE WON, REVIEWERS!

2) I got three threats to continue Unsound Body and two bribes to continue Iron Hammer. Which is more important? I don't know. But it does say something about the fans of these two manga, doesn't it?