SNAP!
Ash was leaning on Michael as the two walked in the door with Melody racing in front of them handling the doors and anything else that may be in their way. Ash was in bad shape and they barely made it back to their house on time. The nearest hospital as explained by Michael was about two hours away on foot. He needed some medical attentions, but it was nothing too serious. Nothing that they didn't know how to patch up from basic medicine at the DWMA. Melody knocked the door to Michael's house open, the door swung widely and into the wall causing a loud sound to resonate through the house. It caught Michael's dad's attention, who immediately jumped out of bed and rushed down the stairs. He saw his own child and one of his friends drag another friend of his into the house. He wasted no time. His days back in war told him that time was of the essence. He swiped his table clean and patted on it, signaling for them to place Ash on the table. The two did so and Michael's dad went straight work. His knowledge of wartime medicine combined with Michael's and Melody's own unique knowledge of medicine proved helpful. They sped into Ash's operation, quickly fixing him up. Closing the gaping wounds that required immediate attention and then moving onto the lesser wounds. They wasted no time in taking care of their friend. When they were down Michael's dad leaned back and took a deep breath, a notable drop of sweat had formed on his brow, "just what the hell do you kids do?"
Michael paused for a second, unsure of how to respond. This kind of discussion wasn't usually brought up in class; most classes at the DWMA were how to neutralize Evil Humans and witches, making the word a better place. Not on how to answer your parent's questions. Melody seemed to be coming up with a similar problems, she didn't really fully feel like answering the question. Either that or she didn't know how to approach it just like Michael. Michael's dad sighed, he knew he wasn't about to get any answers and stretched back again, relaxing for the first time in awhile. Call him a bad father if you will, he missed the peace and quiet of his old empty house. Not being woken up in the middle of the night by your son and his literally bleeding friend. He shook his head, "I'm going back to bed." The bandages he applied should hold for the rest of the night. They may need a good cleaning in the morning, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.
Michael and Melody shared a glance. They couldn't believe what they had just gone through. One Evil Human so close to home…and now here they are. Ash on the dining room table with splotches of blood covering the floor from the operation. "It is hard to believe that just this morning I was eating pancakes at this very table…" said Shi, solemnly as ze looked at hirs friend laid out on the table…or maybe ze was looking at the table itself remembering the taste of hirs earlier meal, for the next words out of hirs mouth was, "do you think there are any leftovers?" Melody rolled her eyes, Shi's attitude was completely unbelievable. She found hir amount of concern was just horrible.
"I can't believe it," Melody muttered. She shook her head in disbelief, not at Shi, but at Ash's current state. Xander was just returning with more ice packs. "A normal regular Evil Human did this?" She looked over at Michael, who wasn't paying her too much attention. Melody shook her head as she returned her gaze to Ash. "It seems like they are just getting tougher and tougher as they go on. How much longer do you think we'll be able to hold off for until they all get to be this powerful? We're training everyday just to match their regular super-human strength and it is barely enough apparently. It is possible that if they were a little bit better organized than possibly…under the lead of Vigrid that army could've conquered the world."
"Don't talk like that," said May as she went over to comfort her. The rest of them weren't good for times like this. Shi and Xander were both bad with comforting people anyways and Michael wasn't much better. Shi was too crazy, Xander was too blunt, and Michael, ever since he lost his real body, became somewhat of a pessimist. "We've still got Lord Death and all of the Death Scythes! As long as we have them on our side we'll win!" May gave Melody a consoling smile and a wink.
"Lord Death's locked up," said Michael once more offering the piece of news that no one wanted. "The other Death Scythes haven't been all too helpful." Rochelle and Saul lost to Marburg, Enma and his partner lost to Vigrid…and Myrrh was captured in the first place. That left nearly no one. They were more Death Scythes, of course, but seeing how well the first three did. They didn't stand a chance against the Evil Humans if they were paired up with Marburg and his brothers. Marburg and his brothers, huh? Michael kicked his head back and thought of that. There was still a third one hanging in the air, wasn't there? He wondered what Lord Death was doing to combat it. He finally noticed the evil glare May was shooting him. Michael knew better than try to go against her, he decided to look busy and try to help Ash out.
"Don't forget," muttered Ash from his spot on the table. "Vigrid's out of the picture for the time being. Lord Death locked him up. Only person capable of fighting on equal footing with Lord Death right now is Marburg's other brother. Rumors say that Marburg still hasn't powered up to his original power just yet. Lord Death would beat him in a fair fight." May and Melody smirked as even in extreme pain Ash was still trying to make them feel better.
Suddenly the ground shuddered.
Ash was thrown from the table while May, Shi, and Xander were knocked off of their feet. Melody and Michael managed to stay standing because of their Meister abilities, but that didn't mean all too much. Melody and Michael shared a glance and immediately grabbed their respective partners, transforming them into their weapon forms and barreled out the back door. Michael already had a sickening feeling about what it was, but he dearly hoped he was wrong.
Once out back they saw a small shadow dart out from a hole in the ground, the same hole Michael's mother-turned-Evil Human was imprisoned. Michael swore under his breath, but it was loud enough for May to hear it. May turned her attention upwards to his face for a second, before quickly redirecting it to the ground which was starting to collapse in on itself. Michael knew what it was…his dad was a cautious guy. He installed one final safety precaution into his mother's cell. A final thing to prevent what he dreaded. When the door was opened there was a built-in mechanism that would cause the tunnel to collapse. It was easy for him to disable, but that's only because he knew it existed. If at any point in time someone tried to hack their computer down there and managed to get through the thousands of firewalls and other safety mechanisms it had, they would never once notice the final precaution.
"What's going on," shouted Melody as she looked about frantically at the ground as if a sinkhole had been opened up. Michael did not know what to say, should he be open and honest. Tell his friends that a shadow had apparently tried to free the Evil Human he was keeping locked up? It seemed like a long shot that wasn't worth the risk. Especially if his mother didn't survive the collapsing tunnel.
Michael kept one eye on the tunnel, waiting to see if his mother had survived. He hoped she did. Why else did he and his father go through such lengths to build this cell, other than to keep her alive and away from Lord Death? If she died now all was for naught…then again, Michael begrudgingly sensed it inside of him. The hope that his mother had perished that she would never see the light of day. It was obvious what happened and if she was alive still she was clawing her way out right this instant ready to kill some innocent civilians. "There's…there's an old bomb shelter down there," muttered Michael loud enough for Melody to hear him. "It is really old so it probably just finally collapsed or someone made it collapse." His Soul Perception finally made itself known once more. He sensed the growing Evil Human's aura in front of him. He turned his bow around, expecting to find his mother…and knowingly full well that if he did…he wouldn't be able to muster the spirit to fire.
To his satisfaction it wasn't. However, that just meant that there were two Evil Humans they may have to deal with. He just wished his mother would stay down. The Evil Human before them was the shadow of what appeared to be a little girl, two glowing purple eyes rested on her face and a wicked smile formed, slicing her face in two.
"I did it, Zhavio! I freed her! Now we can take over this puny town!" she shouted with glee she looked to her left and to her right only to notice that Zhavio wasn't around. "Where is Zhavio?" she asked, sounding like a little girl who lost her favorite dolly. She looked over at Melody and Michael as if expecting them to answer her and tell her where her friend, and their enemy, was. "Where is he?" Her eyes glinted red for brief second as they filled with rage and possibly a touch of fear that she had lost her only companion in the world. Her shadow began to get distorted and her soul in Michael's eyes grew. The dark swirling blob that was her soul was growing larger and larger, the two slanted purple eyes were locked onto Michael and Melody.
Michael didn't particularly want to fight right now. He needed to keep his eyes on the sinkhole make sure his mother didn't climb up and out of it to wreak havoc. He looked over at the young girl and immediately noticed that he was probably the best suited to take her on. Melody's yo-yo was incredibly versatile, but it just didn't match up to Michael and his bow's ability and long-range fights. As much as Michael told himself it made sense for him to fight this Evil Human, he couldn't wrench his eyes off of the sinkhole and have them lock on to her. He remained fixated on the sinkhole. May was probably the only one who actually noticed her partner's line of sight, which she mistook for trepidation and worry about what was under there.
Melody stretched her yo-yo out and stepped forward. She swung her right arm and pointed to her chest with her thumb and she was just about to say something when Shi butted in, "I took down Zhavio! And ate his soul, too…he needed salt!" Melody's eyes went blank for a second as she tried to figure out what to do. She hadn't counted on Shu butting in…she probably should've, she knew better than that, but nonetheless she didn't. She barely had any time to react. Noelle flew in the anger obviously sketched across her face as she closed in on Melody. Melody's entire body was yanked back and into the air as Noelle's small body was flying at almost bullet-like speeds.
Noelle ordinarily considered herself an intelligent being, but everybody had something that could make them snap and turn into a depraved monster.
Not only did Ash barely come out of his fight alive, but it appears another powerful fight is looming and Shi may have only made it worse! Can Melody and Shi take down the crazed Noelle or is another disaster starting to loom in the distance for the group?