Next chapter then. I was gonna focus on the BB, but I got a wave of inspiration and I just couldn't resist publishing just a FEW chapters for you guys…
Imagination is where all our fear originates. It is the mother of terror and mankind's greatest weakness.
-Asura
Kage's POV:
I hummed, hands in my pockets as the music connected to my tiny MP3 boomed into my ears. "I…want to kill…everybody in-the-world, do-edo-e-do, I…want to kill… ever-y-body in the world, do-edo-e-do. I want to kill everybody in the world; I want to kill everybody in the world, I want to kill everybody in world, I want to kill everybody in world, I want to kill everybody in the world; I want to kill everybody in the world, I want to kill everybody in world, I want to kill everybody in world!" (Kill Everybody by Skrillex) I chuckled at the ironic wording, turning it off as I grabbed a concrete wall, vaulting over it to see the basketball court where Kid and I had been forced into our first date and we all had had a "victory game" after we had killed Asura, DK and Liz included. I sighed; resting my hand on my fist as I idly chucked a rock across the tarmac, watching as it skittered away to the other side behind the bushes.
"You just gonna sulk away our visit?" a male voice said next to me, and I smirked as I closed my eyes and shook my head, Akuma's soul blossoming beside me as DK released their Soul Protect. "Damn right we aren't. We haven't seen Kid and the others since we killed Asura, and that was like what, three months ago?" he asked, giving me a stern glance before putting his hands behind his head and sighing at the basketball court. I nodded silently, contemplating that, and DK sighed noisily. "I keep telling ya guys, bop a few kids on the head, drag them home, wave a wand, and bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, one resurrected clan without all this running and sleep-deprivation." He grumbled, making several hand motions to illustrate his meaning. "Shut it DK." We both said in unison, and he made an offensive hand gesture at me, obviously unable to do it to himself.
"Yo, what're you guys doing here?" We turned as one to see Blackstar, Soul, Maka, Tsubaki, and Crona watching us from the entrance, and I shrugged. "We're on break, so I thought I'd stop by…" I said with a yawn, covering my mouth with a hand and silently wishing for more sleep than the six or seven hours we had gotten last night. Or whenever it was. "That's cool. Wanna play a game n' catch up?" he asked, chucking the ball to us as I caught it, gripping the wall with my feet alone as I wobbled ever so slightly. "Yeah, sure. We need a time to chill out." I said cheerfully, tossing it back and jumping down with my brother as we shrugged out of our jackets, now in matching tank tops as the discarded clothing was caught by shadows and whisked into nonexistence. He grinned, catching it and dribbling it once as the others gathered in our usual teams. "Alright! Bring it on!" he shouted, starting the offense as we quickly skipped backward to defend.
Hazel's POV:
I slowly opened my eyes, and then quickly squeezed them shut. The light above me was blinding, so bright…so scalding… Then I shivered, the cold, unyielding metal under me raising goosebumps on my bruised arms and skinny legs, my hair cropped closely around my ears in a pixie-bob cut. The leather straps under my chin, across my wrists, over my ankles, across my stomach, and on my knees and elbows immobilized me completely. I couldn't move, couldn't lift my head or turn my neck, my arms completely bound and my legs motionless. I ached all over. My face felt hot and my lips cracked. I licked them nervously, only to wince as the skin broke and the salty tang of blood, a scent and odor I had grown all too familiar with these past few years seeping into my mouth as my lips stung with pain.
I squinted my eyes open again, becoming accustomed to the blinding overhead lamp once more and glancing around, trying to see if there were any changes. The lab was the same however, and I relaxed just a tiny bit. Of course, it was still straight out of a horror movie. Clean, clinical overhead lamps burned above a grid structure of metal tables, some empty, some occupied by a sleeping or struggling body. No doctors at this time of day. Blood spattered the floor and walls, which were cleaned once every few weeks. The last cleaning crew must've just come through, because there were only a few stray flecks on the ground at the corners of my limited vision. It was dim otherwise, the only lighting the painfully bright lamps. They were there for a reason I always shuddered at.
So the doctors could see what they were dissecting.
I swallowed hard, nervously straining against my bonds. They said they "fixed" my genes so I inherited my family's weapon form, so can't I just break these stupid leather straps and go free? I asked myself, and slowly took a deep breath, lying back. Okay, Nana said you need to envision yourself in a safe, empty shell, just drifting…I can do this…I'm not anywhere…I'm safe and with my own soul… I didn't feel different at all, and I sighed as I opened my eyes. Then I almost screamed, staring in shock at my arm, which had turned into a long cannon barrel, snapping the thin leather restraints around my arm and elbow. I didn't move anything, looking to my other arm and blinking in surprise as I saw it was normal, wiggling my fingers a little and then slowly transforming my freed arm back to normal before clawing madly at my restraints, trying to free myself.
Kage's POV:
I mentally growled in annoyance as I sighed wearily, hiding my yawn as Blackstar pranced around the blacktop and Crona smiled hesitantly, watching as Maka pouted beside us and Soul smirked to himself, Akuma just as beat as I was, but on the winning team, if that made any sense. Maka, Tsubaki, Blackstar, and Soul were all tired looking too though, Crona the only one amongst us that wasn't looking dead beat. "Why aren't you tired?" I whined, and he blinked in surprise as Ragnarok popped out of his back. "Cause I'm powering him up ya stupid blonde! If it weren't for my Black Blood he'd be staggering all over the courts! What, you think he's got his own power when he's this damn skinny! YOU'RE AS THIN AS A POST YA CRETIN!" he screeched, shaking the pink-haired meister rapidly by the head as Crona wearily batted him away.
"Ragnarok, not now…" he whined, and the black blob sullenly retreated into his back with a few more muttered insults. They're both improving, Crona isn't submitting to Ragnarok's insults nearly so much and Ragnarok isn't beating up on him nearly so often, rarely if ever. I mused, and Akuma nodded just barely. Yeah…hey, about the black blood…do you think… We both blinked, and slowly the beginnings of a plan filtered through my mind. "See ya guys later, we have some stuff to do." I said rapidly, quickly fading into shadow as Akuma gave them a nod and quickly slipped into the blackness with me.
Kid's POV:
I watched in detached amusement as Akuma wolfed his food down, watched sternly by Liz and Patty, who were still rather mad at them both for waking them up this morning. I then frowned a little, looking around. "Where's Kage?" I asked suspiciously, and Akuma came up for air and to answer. "Hmm? She's busy writing down some notes for an experiment we were thinking of…" he mumbled, and then dived back into his food as DK's eye watched me warily. He swallowed hard, looking back up at me again. "Sorry about the table manners, but neither of us have eaten for days." He explained, and then lowered his head again to eat as I frowned thinly and walked up the stairs to Kage's room, opening the door to see her at her desk, overhead lights on and papers strewn about her.
I curiously approached, seeing her head down on the desk and her arm outstretched with a pen in it, the page's ink still wet as I leaned down, quickly placing my fingers on her neck to make sure she had and pulse and smiling when I felt the gentle throb under my fingertips. It's funny, normally I'd just be worried about someone falling asleep, but with Kage I'm worried that she might've been killed. I thought, absently looking over the papers. They were scattered like leafy rain all over the desk, some with diagrams, some with tables, and most with just scribbled notes and long, complicated problems that made my head hurt just to look at them. Her head rested on a page with a DNA strand depicted on it, and I cocked my head as I recognized the distinctive strand of a Nightstalker, along with one I didn't recognize. Her hand currently rested on a paper that showed a diagram with two columns, one labeled "E" and the other labeled "S", with a long scrawl of numbers under each one and two labels on the opposite side, BB and NB.
The NB column had many numbers, but the BB column had sparser data, and there were many equations on that side of the sheet as if she had tried to figure out something based on very little information. The thin trail of ink that led to the pen loosely gripped in her right hand was in the middle of a sentence, and I read it curiously. "If the calculations are correct, not only can we use this to fix the problems we have right now, I think I might be able to s-" That was all. She must've fallen asleep mid-sentence. I was suddenly burning with curiosity, but the rest of the sheets she had written were not only seemingly random equations, the diagrams made no sense and I hadn't paid much attention in chemistry or science, but to be fair since Stein had taken over "Science" merely meant watching the crazy doctor hack open some poor living specimen. I sighed in resignation and leaned down to gently shake her awake, itching to ask her what she had been writing about.
Suddenly I was blasted back, inky, strangling darkness wrapping around my legs, arms, and throat as I gagged, the shadows feeling slimy, wet against my jugular as I was forced into a wall, feeling a warm hand wrap in my clothes and another twist in my hair, forcing my head back as something sharp started to whip through the air. "WAIT!" I screamed as the slash paused, and the shadows melted away as Kage let the one in her hand relax, the blade having stopped just before I screamed my protest. "Ugh…Kid, what are you doing up here?" she murmured, rubbing tiredly at her eyes and yawning a little as she peered blearily at me. I stifled a smile, mentally thinking how adorable she was when she did that and sighing a little. "Its dinnertime, I didn't want you to get hungry." I said softly, and she nodded, suddenly pitching forward as I caught her and held her up, gently pulling her to the bed and sitting down as she mumbled in protest.
"Sorry 'bout attacking you…Nightstalker instinct…" she managed to whisper, her eyes slipping closed as I nodded and gently brushed her hair away from her face. "It's okay. I know your body doesn't like being startled." I told her, watching as she nodded sleepily and then sat up a little, snapping her fingers as shadows swelled, enveloping her desk and washing away as I sighed in disappointment, the papers completely gone as she lowered her head again, closing her eyes as the shadows pulled her blanket over her shoulders and settled around her neck. "Mmm…I'll eat something whenever I wake up…" she mumbled, and then she was silent as I got up, walking over to the door and opening it. I gave her room one more look, and my eyes seemed to gravitate towards the desk by sheer accident. I narrowed my eyes, biting my lip a little before closing the door and walking downstairs, hands in my pockets. What is she working on? Is she just hiding it because she still doesn't like people seeing what she does? Or is she afraid I'll find out something she doesn't want me to?
The code she was using was rather simple, and I shall illuminate.
E: Endurance
S: Strength
BB: Black Blood
NB: Normal Blood
Ooh, does that make you all wonder? I hope it does, that was my intent. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *evil doctor pose* Ooh, who is this "Hazel" and what is she speaking of? Where is she? I can't wait to expose this all to you guys; it's the reason why I can never keep a secret! I always want to see the person's face when I give them their gift! It kinda sucks around Christmas, because I'm always like "Maybe I can just give them to my parents early…and "May" will love hers…maybe I can just give them to them early this year…" But then they hold me back from the X-mas tree and tell me I have to wait until Christmas to give it to them. BUT I WANNA DO IT NOW! Crazy, aren't I? Well, Revewi, Request, Rcomment. Auf Wedersien!