Author's Note: Yay, chapter two! Before we get started, I just want to say a couple things.
First off, big thanks to anyone and everyone who has read this thing. Seriously, I can't thank you enough. Your support is appreciated, more so than you may know. To those of you who have been waiting for an update, thank you for your patience. Please, enjoy this next chapter. Oh, and for the love of Shinigami-sama, say something! Give me feedback! If you do, you might just get a shoutout up here, above the chapter title. (At this point, it's practically guaranteed.)
Also, another big thank you must go out to my good friends SteelBlackwing and Nyokin for helping me revise the previous chapter (or Beta'ing it, as the cool kids say). You guys probably never saw those changes...probably because I kept updating it over and over again until it was "fixed." God forbid I say that the chapter's perfect now, but I hope it entertained you all...whoever you are. Thanks again for reading!
Review Responses:
pokelover01: Hehe, yeah, thanks for that. I figured it would spike interest. Guess I succeeded! Thanks for being so supportive, and thanks for reviewing and following. I like to have fun with the action in my stories, so you'll get plenty more where that came from, my friend! I studied martial arts back in the day, and I've come to love watching movies and anime that center on fighting and action. (I think I'm what most would call...obsessed.) Glad you liked the fight. I think you'll like the characters I'm introducing next, too. Specter and Nina are great, but they're only two of a long line of characters that I've created for this story. Hope you're ready! And yeah, you can definitely expect some more cameos and things like that later on. Darn near everyone from the manga is going to make a reappearance, as well as some newcomers. A lot of newcomers, now that I think about it. (Seriously, holy shit...) Thanks again for the review!
WARNING: This chapter is going to get gruesome at parts. The faint of heart need not apply.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Soul Eater.
Chapter 2:
The Survival Instinct
Background: A lone, unmarked, two-lane highway snakes its way through the grassy hills of central California. Somewhere on this highway is a motel, the Motel Bates, rumored to be the home of a psychopathic serial killer.
Objective: Investigate, and assassinate the serial killer.
Requirements: Skill and Bravery.
That was what the mission statement had said, but she had the feeling it was going to take more than skill and bravery to complete her task.
The wind played with her thick silver hair as she stood on that lonesome highway, the cold washing over her as night settled over the valley. On the side of the road across from her sat the rather dilapidated Motel Bates, its oddly well-maintained neon sign painting the tarmac a bright blue.
"So this is where we'll find him," she said softly, "The serial killer Jigsaw Bates."
"Gray Star..."
She looked down at the ninjato sword she was holding, turning it over in her hands. The visage of a young man with dark green hair soon appeared on the flat of the blade.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked, his expression grim.
"Of course I am, Sage," she said, giving him a half smile.
"Good. Then let's begin."
At that, Gray Star pulled the neck of her turtleneck up over her nose and disappeared, leaving a small cloud of dust in her wake. She reappeared at the front door of the motel, and after testing the latch, slipped inside, her movements silent. As the door closed behind her with a creak, she took in her surroundings, scanning for hazards.
The foyer was just as decrepit as the façade, the rugs moth-eaten and the wood old and creaky. The room was octagonal, with windows on either side of the door. Moonlight peeked through the slats that were nailed to the window frames, motes of dust floating freely in the negative space. There were two flights of stairs, the banisters meeting in the middle on the second floor.
Several medieval suits of armor stood in the corners of the room, coated in rust, dust, and spider webs. Paintings took up most of the wall space, though the paintings themselves were in horrible condition. The little light in the room came from candles in various places, the grisly remains of what had been a chandelier lying on the rug in the center.
This place is straight up abandoned, Gray Star thought. How can this be the home of a serial killer?
A sinister laugh rang out around her, an unwelcome answer to her unasked question.
So much for that...
"Welcome, my dear," a dark, raspy voice bellowed out. "I want to play a game...do you want to play a game with me?"
Gray Star stood up straighter. "I don't have time for games." In response, the floor beneath the young meister opened into a trap door, the pit below lined with large metal spikes. She managed to jump before the floor fell away, landing on the left banister. With a soft clicking sound, the wall closest to her slid apart, revealing an impossible number of kitchen knives.
A blast of compressed air sent them flying at her, but with an artful flip, she managed to dodge them, landing on the banister again as the knives hit the opposite wall with several resounding thunks. She ran up the remaining length of the banister and jumped, landing partway down the hallway closest to her.
Inverting her grip on her partner's ninjato form, she proceeded to check every room for a sign of Bates. There was nothing in the first room. Nor the second. Nor the third. After the twelfth, everything started to look the same. The dust, the paintings, the furniture...everything was the same. That was, at least, until she reached the last room on the left.
Opening the door, Gray Star found, to her surprise, a room that was almost completely empty, save for a wooden chair in its center. The chair was occupied by a large teddy bear with its leg caught in a gruesome-looking bear trap. Its rusty metal teeth ate into the plush toy, something like blood pouring from the wound and onto the bare wooden floor.
Between the bear's legs sat a rather old television set. With a click, it turned on, the image of a man wearing a mask appearing on screen. The mask was white, with heavily exaggerated facial features and red swirls on the cheeks. There were holes for the eyes, and even from where Gray Star was standing, his blood red irises were clearly visible.
"Hello," he said darkly, "I want to play a game."
Gray Star felt her breath catch. It was almost as if his gaze was a tangible entity, reaching out and choking the life out of her. It wasn't a feeling she had often. Hell, she had never felt it before. Was he...real?
She mentally waved the fearful notion aside. This was no time to lose out to fear. "Where are you?" she asked sharply, poking a free finger at the screen.
The madman simply laughed, sending chills down Gray Star's spine. "I think it's time we play a game of hide-and-seek. Come and find me...if you can."
That was when Gray Star heard that distinct sound, the characteristic hiss of a fuse lighting. Then it came to her. The dust, the wood, the walls...it was all meant to hide it from her. It was a trap...she could smell it, now.
Gunpowder.
"Gray Star!"
She bolted down the hall just as the room exploded, a torrent of fire racing after her as she leaped over the banister and landed in the center of the foyer. Not wasting any time, she ducked into the kitchen as the upstairs began to burn, the smoke following her through the vents in the walls.
Looking around, she found that this room wasn't faring any better than the rest of the motel, the same dust and spider webs infecting it like a plague. There was no time to lose; whatever hadn't caught fire already would collapse soon enough, it was only a matter of minutes. Still, it made the task of finding Jigsaw Bates fairly easy. There was only one place he could be: the basement.
Gray Star was about to open the door to that basement when she heard something, something...strange. The sound of crackling flames and snapping wood subsided, slowly replaced by an unsettling whine mixed with a continuous cacophony of strange noises. It was almost as if an audio tape of the motel burning down was being played in reverse. The noise went on for several minutes, jumping drastically in volume from time to time. Then, all at once, it stopped.
What the hell is going on back there? Gray Star tightened her grip on Sage. Half of her told her to investigate. The other half told her it was pointless. In the end, Sage was the deciding vote. She turned to look at him, his face appearing on the flat of the blade in response. He silently nodded his head. No doubt he was thinking the same thing; something was wrong.
Quietly, Gray Star walked back to the door she had come in through, opening it slowly. What met her eyes next was the last thing that she expected, and was more than enough to convince her to open the door fully and reenter the foyer.
The place was in pristine condition compared to before, and even that could be considered an understatement. The formerly empty space of the high ceiling was now occupied by a beautiful crystal chandelier, the moonlight that seeped in through the now unbarred windows making it glisten. All the furniture, the flooring, the suits of armor, even the paintings looked like new. The foyer actually smelled like the scented candles on the accent tables were supposed to make it smell; the smoke from the fire was gone.
Gray Star was stunned. How did this happen?
A resounding laugh gave her her answer.
"Thanks for the help," Gray Star said dully. Her sarcasm was met only with another laugh. She paid him no mind. After walking back into the kitchen, still careful to watch for traps, she threw open the basement door and leaped into the shadows.
There was no turning back now.
It took Gray Star what felt like hours to descend the long set of spiraling steps that led into the basement. When she finally reached the bottom of the stairs, she found a lone wooden door waiting for her. It was an old door, with peeling paint and a rusted handle. It didn't look like much, but after what had happened earlier, she knew she couldn't risk walking into another trap. She decided to use her extrasensory perception to see past the door. To her surprise, nothing was there. Nothing.
Sage, noticing her confused expression, looked up at her from his soul pocket, the grayish-green void around him. "What is it, Gray Star?"
She paused for a moment to consider her answer. "I don't know," she said finally. "I can't sense anything past that door. It's almost as if..." she trailed off, realizing what that could mean.
Without thinking, she rushed over to the door and opened it, only to find a brick wall. What the hell? It took a moment for Gray Star to register what she was seeing. A wall where a doorway should be. Her eyes widened in realization.
On instinct, she turned and raced back up the stairs, convinced that the basement in and of itself was some kind of trap. She hadn't gotten far when she heard a faint sound from somewhere below her. Looking back, she saw something she didn't expect to see.
Water was filling the stairwell.
"Sage, soul resonance," she said quickly.
"Understood," he said calmly. Gray Star reached out with her soul wavelength, a lone candle in a dark room that hummed with the energy of a warrior god. Sage received it with great care, cradling it with his own wavelength, amplifying its already incredible power. Finally, their souls connected completely, the air around them beginning to vibrate with energy.
"Soul resonance...acquired!" they said in unison. Gray Star took one last step before using their shared power to augment her physical capabilities, an ability called—
"Speed Star!"
In the instant after the words left her lips, the young meister disappeared from sight, becoming a faint girl-shaped blur of motion that tore through the air. It took her mere seconds to get back to the top of the stairs, the air behind her rushing past her as she stopped dead in her tracks. She found another door there, a door that was different from the one she had initially opened to get into the stairwell. This door looked brand new, with glossy black paint and a silver latch.
Gray Star knew she couldn't stay here, but somehow, the idea of going through that door sounded like a bad idea to her. Hearing the water catching up to her, she knew she didn't have a choice. She threw the door open and stepped through it, only to find a long hallway filled with doors. It was poorly lit; she could barely make out how many doors there were or even how long the hallway was. From what she could see, each door was exactly the same, white with a silver knob. What was going on?
The sound of rushing water coming from behind reminded her why she had come in here to begin with.
"Oh, shit!" She quickly slammed the door behind her, leaning against it for support as she wiped her brow. She breathed a sigh of relief. So much for that trap. Then she realized something was off. She tried to see past the door, but once again, she found that nothing was there. "No way..."
"What is it, Gray Star?" Sage asked sharply.
"The water...it's gone. I can't see anything past the door. Not again..." She opened the door. Another wall. "Oh, fuck me." Her heart started beating faster. Sweat continued to draw lines on her face faster than she could erase them. I'm not scared, she told herself, I'm not scared at all.
She turned around, expecting to see that same dimly lit hallway. Instead, she found that she was now inside a room the size of a broom closet. What the fuck is going on? The ceiling lamp above her did little to light the space around her. Gray Star could almost feel the shadows in the corners begin to reach out for her. She turned to the door, but it wasn't there. It was then that the reality of the situation hit her like a train. It was then that the light went out.
Fumbling around in the darkness, her foot managed to hit something jutting out of the floor. Reaching down, she grabbed ahold of it, surprised at what she felt in her hand.
A...doorknob?
Without thinking, she twisted it, gravity seeming to shift as she fell through the doorway and landed on a cold hard floor. Looking up, she found that she was back in that dimly lit hallway from before. She jumped at the sound of the door she had come through slamming shut behind her. It took Gray Star all she had to look back at the door, or at least, where the door used to be.
The door was gone, but there was something there, on the wall. Something small. It was hard to see, mostly because of the poor lighting. Getting up slowly, she continued to look at it, her curiosity strangely piqued.
Before she could make any sense of it, something snapped around her head from above, forcing her mouth open and filling it with the taste of rust, her turtleneck falling uselessly below her chin. She tried to scream, but found that she couldn't. Her eyes widened in surprise and fear. Maybe she should have been more careful.
"Gray Star!" Sage disappeared into a flash of light, reappearing beside his meister. "Are you hurt?"
That sickening laugh sounded once again, causing Gray Star to look frantically up and down the corridor. Sage's expression became dark as he shifted into a low stance, prepared for anything.
"No, she's not hurt," Bates said evilly. "Not yet."
"What have you done to her?" Sage said, standing and looking directly at what Gray Star had seen on the wall, which happened to be a small pinhole camera.
"You were taking too long," he replied. "So I changed the rules. Find the key before the timer goes off, and you can save her."
"What have you done to her!?" Sage asked again, more forcefully.
"It's a simple contraption really. Think of it as a...reverse bear trap."
Gray Star's eyes widened at that, a single tear spilling out onto her cheek. All of a sudden, death seemed to be a very real possibility for her. Her father had always taught her to be fearless, but she had somehow forgotten all that. She just stood there, trembling. It was impossible. The whole damn thing was impossible. She felt like she was going to lose it.
Is this the madness of fear?
She almost jumped when Sage put his hand on her shoulder, which caused her to turn and look at him.
"Don't worry," he said calmly. "I won't let this happen to you. I promise." Gray Star blinked at him, her expression blank. It wasn't like Sage to make promises. Then again, when he did make promises, he always kept them. It was just the way he operated. With that realization came some peace. Gray Star felt her breathing and heart rate slow down. The show wasn't over yet. After all, the times could never catch up with her father. Who was to say she wasn't the same way?
Sage turned back to the camera. "Where is the key?"
"It's in one of the rooms in this hallway. I suppose this is more of a game of treasure hunt than hide-and-seek, but the end goal is still the same: your partner's life."
Gray Star shuddered slightly at that last remark, struggling to avoid thinking about what that could mean for her. Sage, however, seemed unfazed.
"How much time do I have?" he asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
"From now?" Bates paused for a moment, as if checking his watch. "Ten minutes."
In the space between seconds, Sage disappeared into the first door on his left, leaving a trail of dust behind him. Gray Star felt herself relax a little. He had always talked about how he could never beat her in a footrace, yet, judging from what she had just seen, he was faster than he thought he was. It brought her a limited, temporary form of comfort, and as the dust settled down, she breathed out a heavy sigh through her nose. One way or another, everything was going to turn out fine.
That was what she thought, until she felt something wrap itself around her leg.
Sage ducked into every passage he found, looking for anything that held a key. As he opened the doors that appeared in front of him, the ones behind him disappeared. He encountered countless traps, though they weren't unlike the ones he and Gray Star had run into before.
One of the rooms was rigged with a small explosive, but he managed to dive back and out of the blast radius just before it went off. Not too long after, a wall of nails was launched at him from behind. He jumped into an adjacent room, only to have his exit blocked by a wall that came out of the floor. Dusting himself off, he looked down to discover that the walls and floor of the room in front of him were covered in a gel-like substance.
From the smell of it, it was flammable, and he had the feeling that some kind of igniting mechanism was somewhere close by. Sure enough, a torrent of lit matches fell from a door in the ceiling.
Not wasting any time, Sage dashed forward and grabbed all of the matches out of the air, his hands moving fast enough to put out the ones he caught. When that was done, he walked to the other end of the room, scraping the gunk off his shoes and tossing the fizzled matches aside. He had to keep moving.
Sage knew that trying to keep track of his location and direction was impossible in this twisted place. Instead, he focused on how much time he had left, counting the seconds down in his head. He knew his objective couldn't be far, now. There were only two minutes and fifty-four seconds left. Finally, he threw open what he thought to be the final door. What he found waiting in the room beyond it wasn't thrilling.
On the far end of the room was a small wooden table with a glass jar sitting on it. The jar was filled with a strange green liquid, and at the bottom lay what he assumed to be the key that would free his meister. The room was completely empty, save for the table and the jar. Moonlight cut its way into the room through a single window on Sage's left, the only other light coming from the green substance in the jar. Sage hesitated to think about what it could be.
He carefully moved his way around the room, still looking for snares. When he found that there were none, he calmly walked over to the table. He gave the strange setup a thorough examination, being careful not to touch the table or the jar.
It can't be this easy, he thought, his brow narrowing. What is this liquid? He decided to find out. He reached for the jar, half-expecting it to burn his hand, but instead found that it was just a normal jar. Eyeing it curiously, he proceeded to turn the jar over in an attempt to see what the liquid would do to the floor.
To his eternal surprise, nothing came out of the jar. Sage's eyes widened. The liquid seemed to be unaffected by physics, for it refused to spill out, despite the jar's orientation. He shook it a few times, just to make sure the law of gravity was still intact. It didn't change anything. Nothing came out of the jar. Convinced now that something was very wrong, he came up with a new solution to the problem. Perhaps shattering the jar was the only way to safely empty its contents.
Without giving it a second thought, Sage hurled the jar at the farthest wall. Instead of hearing the shattering sound he was expecting, he watched with wide eyes as the jar sailed through the wall. He took a preemptive step back, not sure what was going to come next. To his amazement, the jar began to materialize on the table, shifting through space as if it existed on another dimensional plane. He blinked. There was no way this was possible.
Then again, maybe it was. In this twisted place, Sage realized with a sigh, it was indeed possible. It was exactly what Bates wanted from him. The only solution left was to do the one thing he knew he didn't want to do.
He had to put his hand in the jar.
Bates's voice returned once again, confirming his suspicion. "Ah-ah-ah," he said, as if wagging a finger at a naughty child, "No cheating."
After going over all other possible options, Sage knew there was no other way. Bates was toying with him. In this scenario, outthinking him wasn't going to work. If this was all a game, he supposed he would have to play along, even if it meant suffering for it. He reached out with his left hand, the tips of his fingers hovering just over the surface of the green liquid. Everything told him not to do it, but he knew that he had to. His time was almost up.
There was only a minute and eleven seconds left to save Gray Star.
His hesitation left him in an instant. His eyes narrowed in determination as he recalled the look of sheer terror on his meister's face, that single tear that rolled down her cheek and stained the device that was primed to rip her head apart. There was no way he could let that happen. None. No matter how dire the situation, no matter what it took, he would save her. He had made a promise.
His left hand plunged into the green liquid at a speed near incomprehensible, instantly grabbing hold of the key. Time seemed to freeze in that moment, the world drawing in a slow, shaky breath. It was in that split second before everything went to hell that he realized what he had done. Before he could pull his hand out, the jar closed around his hand, trapping it with the key...and the green liquid.
The razor wires dug deep into Gray Star's skin as she hung there in space, strung up by her wrists, ankles and throat. All around her were swirling patterns of blood red and black, jagged edges of teeth and claws reaching out at her from the pockets of shadow that pooled in her peripheral vision.
It was as if she was in some sadistic kaleidoscope, each turn of the tunnel opening the young girl's mind to more horrors than before. Her eyes stayed in a perpetual state of terrified openness, darting all around. Every time she tried to close them, her puppet strings would tighten, eliciting a scream of pain that she couldn't hear. Every passing second was more torture, more suffering. Every tear she shed was met with a new, more terrifying feeling.
Her eyes widened as she felt one of those new, terrifying feelings. A...slippery, scaly feeling. Looking down, she realized that snakes, snakes of all kinds, were coiling themselves around her. No, worse than that. They were snaking their way through her, freely entering and exiting her body as if she were composed entirely of water. She could feel them melt through her skin, shivering as they slithered up her veins and twisted up her spinal column. Her nerves were on fire, cold sweat pouring out of every possible opening.
It was starting to be more than Gray Star could take.
Eventually, a green snake with beady purple eyes emerged from the base of her neck, curving its body so that it was looking her dead in the face. It opened its mouth to reveal a sickening, gyroscopic mass of bright orange and turquoise, sharp black edges set in rings of fire spiraling impossibly toward and away from her. It looked like fire, but it felt like ice, an extreme cold that chilled her just from looking at it.
The snake opened its mouth fully, wrapping its rubbery jaw around Gray Star's head. With little effort, the snake severed her head from her shoulders with a snap, leaving her body to writhe as its fellow serpents began to tear away at her flesh, as her head began the long journey through the twisted mass that made up its insides. She could still feel the snakes tearing her body apart, the blood pouring out of her body, her organs spilling out onto pins and needles.
Gray Star screamed out again, her tears staining the air around her as she plummeted down an endless tunnel of visual anguish. Her screams seemed to be drowned out by some impossible pressure, an inescapable dread that encompassed her entire being. What was happening?
Oh, yeah. She was going mad.
She continued to fall, a sickening laugh following her down.
Is this the madness of fear?
Sage was at that moment a shifting blur of motion, darting through doors and rooms at impossible speeds. His hand was on fire, a slow, agonizing pain creeping up from his fingers to his wrist. The acid was still eating away at his skin, but he knew he couldn't stop to remove the jar from his hand, as he had only seconds left to get back to Gray Star. Ignoring the pain, he pushed through the next door, finding an enormous, horrifyingly disfigured grizzly bear waiting for him in the room beyond.
It roared at him, blood and spittle exiting in a spray from its mouth. It was restrained only by the bear trap clamped onto its leg, the blood from the wound pooling at its feet. Not wasting any time, Sage willed a single curved blade to appear where his left foot was, jumping and slashing downward at an angle. The bear's head was cut clean from its shoulders, and as its body faded to into a black mist, Sage landed carefully on his other foot. Reverting his bladed foot back to normal, he opened the next door and disappeared through it.
Fifty seconds.
The next few rooms held more traps and monstrosities, but Sage barely paid them any mind, avoiding them with an air of dead-set determination. Reaching a red door with no handle, he kicked it in, noticing only an instant before entering that the room was upside-down.
Flipping in midair to adjust to the modified gravity, Sage landed on the hardwood floor in a crouch. Hearing a quiet clicking sound, he darted ahead just as part of the ceiling above came loose and crashed down where he had been seconds before, the floorboards splintering from the impact. He looked around in a sort of tranquil frenzy, searching for the next door. Finding it to his left, he leaped toward it.
Before he could reach it, however, it moved out of the way, gliding across the walls as if they were made of ice. Sage slid to a stop. Instantly understanding the ploy, he willed his right arm to become a kusarigama, aiming the hooked blade at the door. Judging its rather erratic path, he swung his arm and launched the blade to the far corner of the room, a seemingly infinite length of silver chain spilling out of his arm. The blade hit the door with a thunk, digging into the wood. Retracting the chain connected to the scythe end, Sage reeled himself in and used his momentum to smash through the door, landing in the next room.
Thirty seconds.
This room was full of mirrors, mirrors of every shape and size. They were twisted in strange ways, the glass bubbling in and out at random. It was very much like a funhouse mirror maze, except the room had an atmosphere that was far more sinister. Knowing better than to take anything in this motel at face value, Sage took off down one of the three paths laid out for him, careful to look for traps in the floor or the ceiling.
As he ran, he began to notice that his reflections in the mirrors were changing as he passed, shifting. Normally, he wouldn't have paid it any mind, but the images he saw as he glanced side to side became more fluid over time. It was almost as if they were...alive.
Suddenly, a reflection leaped out from its place in one of the mirrors, grabbing hold of Sage and dragging him to the floor. While it was essentially a mirror image of him, the thing was horribly disfigured, twisted by the strange shape of the mirror it had come from. Sage struggled under its weight, trying desperately to get out from under it, but to no avail.
Looking back in abject horror as more reflections began to file out of the mirrors and run towards him with malice in their eyes, Sage willed his free forearm to become a dark katana. He tried to fight them off, but they began to pile up on top of him, a mass of flailing limbs and twisted bodies crushing him from above. The first reflection stared eagerly at its prize, reaching forward and grabbing Sage by the throat. The young weapon could only smile, however.
They had fallen for it.
Sage disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, leaving his mirrored copies to writhe in confusion and anger. The Sage that the mirrors had been trying to tie down was actually a shadow dummy. The real Sage had been busy solving the maze, his presence obscured by the shadows. Reaching the end of the far left path, he disappeared through the door that led out of the room, finding that he was once again in that dimly lit hallway.
Ten seconds.
Drowning in shadows and blood, Gray Star looked up from the merciless black waves that crashed over her, tensing as the enormous nails that pinned her body to the colorless cliffs behind her began to burn her flesh from the inside out. The ever-crescent moon was there in the sky, blood red and menacing, its expression most gruesome. Light didn't seem to radiate from the celestial body, rather darkness seemed to spill from it, filling the endless sea in front of Gray Star with the tar-like substance that she was currently being assaulted by.
She closed her eyes as the next wave came, clenching her teeth as her insides caught fire, her skin being seared by invisible pokers that seemed to skewer her from all sides. Shaking bodily from the pain, Gray Star barely managed to open her eyes, expecting yet another wave to come at her. With a shudder, she realized that the waves had died down slightly. The mass of shadowy, sickening water still thrashed about, but suddenly seemed unconcerned with torturing her.
Looking ahead, Gray Star could almost swear she saw a light coming from the edge of the dark horizon, a tiny white light lost in a world of black. It was small, but it started to grow brighter, as if it was coming closer. Her heart twinged. What, was a train coming to flatten her? She didn't know what to expect except, perhaps, more pain. But the pain she felt then was just a footnote. There was no point in resisting anymore. She was too far gone.
That was when she noticed something faintly familiar about the approaching light. It was a ghost of a memory, akin to the feeling one would have if they saw a long forgotten friend, or a distant relative they hadn't seen in years. A flicker of hope flashed through her, only to be dashed by the darkness.
Whoever it was, they were in for a rough time. Gray Star didn't even know if she wanted to be saved anymore. For all she knew, she was already dead. To save her now would be pointless; it would only bring her and those who knew her more pain. A tear spilled down her cheek at the thought, causing another wave of shadowy muck and blood to rush over her, though this time she hardly felt it.
Why couldn't she just die?
Looking at the light more closely, she managed to find her answer. It was Sage; Sage was the light. Though, oddly enough, his appearance was very different from what she remembered. From what she could see, he was dressed in a set of silver samurai armor with a white cloak and a straw hat, riding on the back of a bright white horse. A black katana was in his hand, raised overhead as if to cut some invisible thread high above him.
Several questions came to her mind, none of which were truly relevant, given the circumstances. She couldn't know what was coming next. To make matters worse, the water around her suddenly became very still, save for a few ripples emanating from the horse's hooves as they struck its surface. Sage was still quite a distance away, and Gray Star knew better than to assume she was in the clear.
That same horrid laughter rang out through the dark space around her, and the horrid blood moon cackled along with it, creating a cacophonous blend of sharp sounds that seemed to drive needles into her ears. The young meister had had just about enough. Madness, in its most horrific form, was weaving threads of fear and malice through her mind, tearing at her reason and sapping her will. Whatever Sage was doing, she hoped it could end her misery one way or another. It was the only thing she could do.
THIS IS THE MADNESS OF FEAR.
Sage charged straight for Gray Star, barely noticing that the glass prison enveloping his left hand was in the slow process of melting away. As he ran, the doors in front of him began to open and close randomly, trying to slow him down. He dodged them rather easily, his pace staying constant. Finally getting close enough, he could see that Gray Star was in a world of pain.
Not only was she strung up by razor wires, but her eyes were glazed over with pure terror, unable to find purchase in reality. He could see the tears running down her face, the fear in her expression. It drove him forward, quickened his step, focused his mind. Time seemed to slow down, his eyes narrowing with determination.
Darting through the narrow gap between the remaining doors that had opened to block him, Sage managed to jump up and shove the key into the lock on the back of the rusty contraption that encompassed Gray Star's head. He used his forward momentum to turn the key and wrench the horrid thing off of his meister's skull just as the jaw pieces snapped apart, flinging it down the hallway and into the farthest wall.
Stopping only a moment to catch his breath, he used his now free left hand to form a kusarigama, wincing as a wicked bolt of pain shot up his arm. He looked at the blade with dismay and frustration, knowing well that the acid had done a significant amount of damage to his hand and forearm, but not quite willing to accept it.
Shrugging off the burning sensation, he willed his other hand to become a matching kusarigama blade. He then proceeded to cut his meister down from her snare, watching as the silver strands fell uselessly to the ground. Gray Star fell only for a moment before he caught her in his arms, her form falling limply in his grasp, almost lifeless.
Sage watched her intently, gripping her hand tightly in his. She was, thankfully, still breathing, but her eyes were still lost in space. Her body was still shivering, her skin cold to the touch. All Sage could do was hold her and wait.
It took her several minutes, but Gray Star eventually came out of whatever trance she was in, her expression completely shadowed by her sweat-slicked silver hair. Without a word, she motioned for Sage to put her down, her feet touching solid ground for the first time in what seemed like ages. Trembling, but still standing, Gray Star pulled up her turtleneck with her left hand and reached out to Sage with her right, her soul wavelength quivering slightly at the very motion.
"Sage," she said in a dark whisper, "Uncanny Sword Mode."
Nodding, Sage transformed in a flash of light, shaping his body into a katana with a black blade, the cursed sword Gray Star had seen in her torturous nightmare. Holding it gently, she brought Sage in front of her, raising her free hand to her face, forming the most common ninjutsu hand seal. Reaching out with her soul wavelength, Gray Star began to forcibly draw power from the Uncanny Sword, the shadows around her coalescing at her feet.
Sage, noticing the darkness permeating Gray Star's normally warm wavelength, forced it back, amplifying the resonance rate. As he did, the gray-green void around him began to drown in blackness, thick, tangible shadow pooling around him. He began to feel the darkness crawling across his skin as night black tattoos drew artful arcs on his bare body. Gray Star experienced a similar feeling, the same black lines appearing on her skin, as well.
Their shared power began to shape the shadows around her into snake-like projections, three insidious creatures with cruel, angular white slits for eyes. The hallway began to vibrate with energy, the doors lining either side shuddering, opening and closing at random. The world began to slowly melt into darkness, Gray Star's eyes glowing white hot as she glared angrily at something, something on the wall that she knew she hated.
That pinhole camera, the one that had drawn her into that awful illusion; the killer behind it, deserving wholly the vengeance she was about to wreak upon him. Her grip on Sage's handle tightened. This was it.
"HwooOoOh!" A raging cry surged from her mouth, a terrifying sound that only seemed to further amplify her already staggering soul wavelength, stirring the darkness she had roused in the Uncanny Sword. She looked up, her face drawn into an expression almost demonic. Her veins began to pop from the surface of her skin, her entire body pulsing with incredible energy, one massive earth-shattering heartbeat after another.
The shadows at her feet began to shift, swirling around her with a the force of a tempest. Then she shouted, screamed out in a voice not her own—
"Shadow Star!"
The floor beneath her instantly buckled, shattering into a sea of cracks and crevices, a deep crater forming at her feet. Around her, the walls began to shudder, the doors closest to her knocked clean off their hinges by the sheer force alone. Gray Star still looked dead ahead, intent on finding that bastard and cutting him to ribbons. Nothing was going to get in her way. Nothing. Whatever pain she was feeling left her body in an instant and was replaced with rage, a desire for revenge, and a rush of hellish adrenaline.
"Haaaaah!" With another harsh shout, she surged forward, blasting through the wall directly in front of her. The shadows clung to her form as the hallway behind her crumbled and collapsed, devastated from the shock of her soul wavelength. Sage focused his mind on the three shadowy forms he had under his command, the snake creatures with the burning white eyes.
As Gray Star smashed through every wall she ran into and slashed through everything that was foolish enough to get in her way, he did his part to tear down Bates' deathtrap of a basement. Whatever she managed to miss, he didn't, whipping the dark forms out and around to ensure total destruction.
After several minutes of thrashing, bashing, and uncompromising aggression, the two knocked down the final barrier, entering into a room filled with the greenish glow of hundreds of old television monitors. There, not ten meters away, his silhouette defined in dim relief against the light of the monitors, stood the serial killer Jigsaw Bates. A black cloak, a white mask with red swirls on the cheeks and a permanent smile, matted black hair...glowing red eyes.
Gray Star stared into those unforgiving dots of crimson with a burning hatred, a visual vehemence that dared him to try something, anything. Her expression was that of a wild animal, no longer the face of the tortured little girl she had been mere moments ago. The shadows at her feet began to pool out, becoming a raging sea of darkness brimming with blind rage and fury.
Watching carefully from his soul pocket, Sage brought the three shadow projections down to two, sensing his meister's intent. They stood at either side, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Bates didn't move an inch. The air in the room became very tense, with an elasticity pulled so taught that it was on the cusp of snapping. The space around Gray Star's thrashing ocean of shadows began to shift just as the killer reached into his cloak. For a moment, the earth stood still.
And then it all went to hell.
The floors, walls and ceiling in front of Bates became a mess of gnarled, jagged, rusty metal spikes. The spikes moved wildly, shooting in every direction possible in order to skewer Gray Star. She hardly paid them any mind, dancing and darting out of their way with an air of intensity, the whole time keeping her focus locked on Bates. As she moved, Bates moved with her, shifting side to side. Every once in a while, one of the spikes would get too close, prompting Sage to halt its movement with one of his shadow puppets.
After several minutes, Gray Star saw an opening, a path straight to their target, hindered only slightly by the hazardous projections coming out of the floor and ceiling. With but a slight shift in her wavelength, her partner instantly understood her plan, sending the shadows forward ahead of her.
"I have you now," Gray Star said under her breath.
In a mere instant, she was gone, a streak of silver in the air. The spikes rotated in their sockets, looking to cut her down before she could clear the heavy metal deathtrap's area of effect. They surged forward, only to be stopped short by the tendrils of shadow snaking around them, restraining them. A devilish smile spread across Gray Star's face as she cleared the gap, landing safely on the other side. Bates, visibly surprised, reached into his cloak once more.
Before he could find what he was looking for, Sage sent his dark puppets scrambling across the floor, grinning with slight satisfaction as they snaked up the killer's body. With a sharp snapping sound, the lines of shadow constricted, crushing Bates' bones like chalk. The man's body convulsed as much as the shadows would allow him to, blood spurting from the mouth of his mask.
Eyes wide with fear, he looked for his assailant, but she was gone. To his eternal displeasure, she was already in the process of closing the gap between them, her form blurring in and out of visibility as she dashed toward him. Bates' eyes darted around independently from each other, his vision scrambling to find that girl with the silver hair, the one that was making him bleed through his teeth. Suddenly, a burning pain came to rest in his abdomen, a horizon of fire, a black lash with the edge of a blade.
The cut was clean, effortless, almost as if an artist had drawn a line through him with a calligraphy brush. Gray Star came to a stop just behind her target, holding Sage's black blade parallel to the ground. She kept a white-knuckle grip on his handle, her face shadowed by her hair. As the shadows loosened their grip on the evil soul, Gray Star said something to herself, something simple and quiet.
"Shadow Star: Checkmate Slash."
As the pain came to consume him, Bates realized that it was over. He was dead. Reaching up with his now unrestricted hands, he broke his own neck with a sinister snap. As he did, his shoulders slackened, his body losing its tension. Grunting softly, he turned his head, which was now effectively on a swivel, around to face his killer.
Gray Star remained where she was, unmoving. Though she wasn't looking directly at him, the power of the Uncanny Sword was still bolstering her senses, allowing her to see what he was doing. With a heaving sigh, Bates hacked up even more blood, splattering the girl's silver hair with thick globs of red. She didn't twitch.
A chuckle escaped the twisted man's lips as he looked down on her from his sickening perch, the red glow from his eyes fading and brightening slowly, randomly. "Well done," he said in a raspy whisper, "You have what it takes to deserve to live. You have...the survival instinct."
Gray Star didn't even turn to look as her target burst into a tangle of black, as his screams were overtaken by the rush of air that swirled around his broken form, as his crimson soul fell slowly until it was inches away from touching the splintery wooden floor. The air was still for a few moments, and she relished in that silence. Then the power of the Uncanny Sword left her, taking her strength with it.
She immediately buckled and collapsed, prompting Sage to transform and help her up. He propped her up against the nearest wall, then proceeded to pull her turtleneck down, check her pulse, and make sure she was breathing. Once that was done, he closed his eyes, focusing in on Gray Star's soul wavelength. Sure enough, there it was. Trembling like a candle in the wind, yes, but still there, reaching out to him for leverage.
"Gray Star," he said carefully, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Gray Star, are you alright?"
One bright blue eye opened, tired but alive. "Yeah...I'm fine." She closed her eye again, still too sore to think about keeping it open for too long. "Did we get him?" she asked somewhat anxiously as she rubbed her temple with her forefingers.
Sage glanced over his shoulder at Jigsaw Bates' soul, that sickly red orb that radiated with an aura of darkness and insanity, that crimson stain still hanging in the air, unbound by gravity. "Yes," he said with a sigh, "We got him."
Gray Star sighed too, letting the tension leave her body. "Good. Take his soul. I won't be long."
With a nod, Sage stood up and walked purposefully over to the madman's soul. With a forceful grab and a tug of his soul wavelength, he absorbed the wretched thing into his palm, watching carefully as the last wisps of red bled into the air. When it was done, he felt a twinge of pain crawl up his arm. His right hand curled into a fist, his nails digging into his bloody palm.
It still hurt. His arm. The one that had been submerged in acid for the longest time. Looking at it, he knew he needed immediate medical attention. The flesh was almost aerated, it had so many holes. The places where the acid hadn't fully eaten through the skin were a gruesome, fleshy rose color. What wasn't pink or red had been burned a chalky black. He could almost smell it, that smell of charred flesh radiating from his injured limb.
There was no time to lose. He had to get himself and his meister out of this horrid place.
"It's time we left, mistress," Sage said intently, looking back at her.
Gray Star grunted as she stood up, still a little shaky from the beating her body, mind, and soul had taken over the course of their mission. Still, she couldn't help but crack a smile. "How many times do I have to tell you? Call me by my name. None of this 'mistress' crap," she said with a wince.
"Noted," he replied bluntly as he faded into light.
He became a ninjato again, flipping though the air in an arc. Gray Star only barely managed to catch him in her left hand. When she did, her right hand was immediately prompted to reach over and grasp the opposite shoulder in order to alleviate the pain.
Dammit, she thought as a bead of sweat trickled down her face, this is going to hurt in the morning.
With that notion out of the way, she pulled her turteneck up and started to make her way out of the Bates Motel's basement. Luckily for her, the spike traps that had initially hindered her entrance into the room made no effort to hamper her exit. She still kept on her toes, however. As a shinobi, she knew all too well that the best time to strike was when the enemy least expected it. Often, the silence met with a battle's end was just the calm before the storm.
It wasn't until Gray Star left the room that she realized what that meant for her in this situation.
She felt the ground begin to shake, and subconsciously sank into a stance, holding Sage's short blade parallel with her arm. After several seconds, however, she grasped what was happening. Now that Bates was dead, his motel was falling apart, threatening to bury her in rubble.
Not wasting any time, she wordlessly sent out her soul wavelength, asking for one more physical boost. Sage received it rather shakily, but forced it back with resolve, upping the resonance rate until it was high enough to once again activate Speed Star. The instant their souls connected, she disappeared without a sound.
Finding the way out wasn't the hard part; Gray Star had practically torn the basement apart during her Shadow Star rampage. The hard part was avoiding the falling debris and still active traps that did their part to impede her progress. The varying sizes of the rooms and hallways, as well as the nature of the remaining snares, didn't help, either. It took her some time, which in her case was only a few minutes, but she eventually found the spiral staircase that led to the kitchen.
From there, she burst into the foyer, narrowly avoiding a large portion of the roof that had just collapsed. Dashing forward, she used her momentum to vault over the fallen parts of the roofing, dodging bits of tile and crystal as she went along. With the last of her speed, she jumped and kicked the front doors off their hinges with a splintering sound, landing safely in the dusty driveway.
Catching herself, she looked back just in time to see the motel cave in on itself with a deafening crash. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she carefully stood up and surveyed the wreckage. From what she could see through the dust cloud, the Motel Bates was no more. Sighing with relief, she loosened her grip on Sage, who took his human form once again for fear of being dropped.
For several minutes, the two said nothing. They just stood there, letting the cool wind wash over them, letting the stillness of the night envelop them. The moon looked down upon them with his signature smile, a glint in his eye and blood on his chin. Strangely, he wasn't chuckling to himself like normal. Instead, he merely sat there in the deep black sky, silently grinning.
To most, to stare at the celestial body for too long would instill a rather uneasy feeling. To Gray Star, it was a calming thing. She took in a deep breath, letting it out in a slightly haggard sigh as she pulled her turtleneck down for the final time.
"Let's go home, Sage," she said finally.
"How? Speed Star?" Sage questioned. "It's a long way back to Death City. I wouldn't recommend pushing yourself any further."
Gray Star just shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "Yeah, you're right. Let's just walk for a while. I need to...clear my head." Turning on her heel, she began to walk towards the highway.
Sage joined her quickly, staying right by her side. While he kept his eyes on the lush landscape and the road ahead, Gray Star looked up again at the sky, at the stars studding the black blanket of the night with silver, at the ever-crescent moon and the pale yellow light that radiated from it. She smiled.
It was a nice night.
The two hadn't gotten far before they heard another loud crash. Sage immediately turned around, his right arm becoming a kusarigama on instinct. Gray Star turned around too, apparently only interested because of Sage's reaction. Looking back at where they had just come from, the two realized that the motel's neon sign had fallen down, kicking up another large cloud of dust. Sage had half a mind to investigate, but he was halted by Gray Star putting her hand on his shoulder.
He looked back to see her wearing an expression that said, Don't do it, Sage. It's not worth it. Willing to comply, but not entirely convinced, he shrugged her off, following after her as she continued down the road. Every once and a while, he would look back to the motel grounds, but there was nothing there but rubble.
Omake
Stifling a cough, the witch Angela Leon stumbled out of the dust cloud she had just created. Stupid sign, she thought, waving the airborne dirt and debris away, Why did you have to fall now? She quickly brushed off anything that could give her position away, trying her best to maintain her invisibility spell. If she was discovered, it would ruin the whole point of her mission. Shinigami-sama had been very specific about not being discovered.
It was her job to evaluate his students' skills, and she couldn't reasonably do that if they knew they were being evaluated. Not in this case, at any rate. Turning around, Angela looked to see if the two students in question had caught onto her. She crossed her fingers, praying that they wouldn't have the energy to double back and see what happened. Thankfully, they didn't. They turned around and left, although Sage didn't look too happy about it.
Angela breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close," she muttered to herself. "Well, time to call Shinigami-sama."
Dropping her invisibility spell, she reached into the mouth of her comical chameleon hat, pulling out a small handheld mirror. Misting it with her breath, she wrote the numerical sequence that would connect her to the Death Room. After a few pings, the mirror clicked, giving her a framed image of Shinigami-sama himself. He stood with his arms clasped behind his back, as if he had been expecting her call.
"Angela," he said with a smile, "It's good to see you."
"Hello, sir," she replied, giving him a smile in return. "Just calling in to give you my report on Gray Star and Sage Kurosawa."
"Ah, I see. Well, then, report. How did they do?"
"They did well, for how difficult the mission was. They captured the evil soul, and brought the whole motel down while they were at it."
"Good. What's their status?" he asked with a sudden hint of concern. "How did they fare in their bout with the target?"
"All things considered, they got out okay, but they're both going to need medical attention. Gray Star is going to need a psych evaluation as well, poor thing."
"Very well. Should I send a medical response team ahead of time?"
Angela shrugged. She knew well that Death Weapon Meister Academy's Medical Response Group was a subdivision of the dispensary, which didn't even count as a subdivision of the academy as a whole. She also knew that its implementation had come with a higher percentage of successful student missions and a lower percentage of student deaths over the years.
That said, a medical response team was only sent if students in the field were seriously injured or incapacitated. Sage was not the type to come to a mission unprepared, and was no doubt bandaging his acid-burned arm as they spoke. Sending a squad of medics would just prove to be an hassle, and a waste of time.
"I don't think that'll be necessary, sir," she said, glancing over to where the two students had been moments ago. "Sage has been hurt worse before, and he always manages to make it back to the academy in one piece anyway. Besides, sending in a response team would make my efforts here pointless."
"Alright, then." The Grim Reaper took a slight pause before continuing. "You said Gray Star would need a psych evaluation. Care to explain why?"
"Of course," Angela said, her expression turning grim. "The two were well on their way to finding Bates when he managed to incapacitate Gray Star with some kind of contraption. While Sage was out looking for the key that could safely remove the device, Bates strung her up with razor wires and tortured her with a series of visual and auditory hallucinations. From what I can tell, most of the pain she felt wasn't real, but it was enough to push her over the edge. She seems fine now, but I wouldn't leave anything to chance."
"You say she went over the edge," Shinigami-sama said carefully.
"Yes, sir."
"What does that mean, exactly?" he asked with a frown.
"When Sage freed her from the device and snapped her out of her trance, Gray Star went a little...crazy. She funneled her fury into the Uncanny Sword, and let the power of Shadow Star take over. After that, all hell broke loose. She ripped through the basement and cut Bates down in no time flat." Angela paused before adding, "You should have seen her go, sir."
"Was she able to control the sword?"
"To an extent...she's still learning, but if tonight's display proves anything, she's definitely been practicing."
"Good. I'm sure her father will be glad to hear that."
Angela visibly twitched at the mention of the warrior god. "Black Star?" Her expression grew deadly serious in an instant, her free hand subconsciously curling into a fist of rage. "Where is he? Is he there?" she asked quickly, practically spitting out the words.
Shinigami-sama instantly realized his mistake. "Oh, whoops," he began frantically, "Look at the time! I have to go. Um, get back to the academy when you're able, and make sure to stay out of sight! Goodbye!" With his hasty farewell came a resounding click, resulting in Angela's hand mirror becoming purely reflective once again. Angela merely stood there, the only sound coming from the crickets hiding in the grassy hills around her. She lowered the mirror as her thoughts scrambled to comprehend what she had heard.
Black Star...you bastard!
The chameleon witch found herself shaking with fury. It wasn't fair. She just had to be on mission when the object of her vengeance was no doubt walking around the Grim Reaper's academy like he owned the place, going on and on about how great he is. It was enough to drive her over the edge.
Her anger came to the surface like lava shooting from the mouth of an erupting volcano, manifesting itself as a bright magenta glow that enveloped her body, a physical force that caused the wind to pick up around her. The chromatic light took hold of the air and twirled it around her body, creating a dome of swirling fury. It toyed with the grass and played havoc with the dirt, even managing to pick up debris from the wreckage of the motel.
After several minutes of letting her magic run wild, Angela felt her magical aura fade as she got ahold of herself. The dust storm died down, a few broken boards and a half a door dropping down to the ground with dull thumps. The chameleon witch sighed, taking a moment to slam her palm to her forehead.
This wasn't the time to be mad, she reasoned. She could save that for when she finally cornered that cheating rat and kicked him right in the balls. Warrior god or not, she wasn't about to let him get away before she gave him a piece of her mind. He'd pay for what he did, there was no doubt about that. With a slight start, she realized that she was just wasting time. She had to get back before he could slip away. Looking back at the motel's grisly remains, Angela called out for her familiars.
"Karma, Espio, we're leaving!" Sure enough, not too long after she said their names, two adult chameleons suddenly became visible on the ground beside her. "There you guys are," she said without missing a step. "Hop on. We need to get back to the academy. Like, yesterday."
The larger of the two chameleons, who was currently a deep purple, responded by disappearing in a cloud of powdery gray smoke. Seconds later, he reappeared on her shoulder, almost as if he had been dropped there by some invisible hand. The other chameleon, who was a nice shade of blue, simply leapt into the air and landed daintily on Angela's other shoulder with all the elegance of a professional ice skater. Nodding with approval, Angela stretched out her hand, willing her broom to come forth with a rather rhythmic chant—
"Kamah, kamah, kamah, kamah, kamah, kami-leon!" With a puff of cartoonish pink smoke, the broom appeared, defying gravity as it hung in the air beside her. Angela checked to make sure Karma and Espio were holding on tight before she jumped on the broom and took off. When she reached a good height, she willed herself to turn invisible with another chant.
The crescent moon watched with a slight hint of curiosity as the chameleon witch disappeared from sight, leaving the dead din of the night's sounds to swallow the hills once more. Blood had long since begun to seep down through his teeth, and although it was only a trickle, it was abundantly clear to anyone looking up that someone had perished under his gaze. Luckily for them, it was an evil soul. Angela, still invisible, felt a smile creep across her face.
She forgot how much she loved her job sometimes.
Author's Note: Dear God in heaven above, I am so glad I'm done with this chapter. You have no idea, you guys. I had an original skeleton of this chapter that was not nearly as twisted and cool as the version you just read. I tried to put my own spin on horror, and it just did not work the first time around. Thankfully, my good friend SteelBlackwing, who happens to be an expert in all things twisted and gruesome, helped me revise a major portion of the story. You know, the part where Gray Star and Sage are running around trying to figure out what the hell is going on. He also helped me write Bates' dialogue, which helped greatly. After that, it was a matter of rewriting everything else to make it fit, and that took way longer than last time. That's because this chapter is way longer than the last one...which I anticipated...but not to this extent. Holy crap. I hope this makes up for the wait.
Also, did you catch some of the references I made? Jigsaw Bates was simply a fusion of Jigsaw from Saw and Norman Bates from Psycho. Having only watched parts of some of the Saw movies for research on this chapter, I'm curious as to how you think I did with the portrayal. Also, there were a lot of references in the Omake. Angela's familars are based on two characters; one from a video game and one from a movie. Espio, the purple chameleon, is an obvious reference to the Sonic the Hedgehog character with the same name and color scheme. (Being a long time Sonic fan, I just couldn't resist.) Karma, the blue chameleon, is a very obscure reference to an old four-part movie series called Hotwheels: Acceleracers. (Ah, my childhood!) The last reference is to a song, specifically 'Karma Chameleon' by Culture Club. If you're confused, just look it up and listen to the chorus. I'm sure you'll understand.
Oh, and one more thing. Please check my profile for updates on chapter creation, not the story itself. I don't post the chapters until my beta readers are through with them, so you won't see anything in the story itself until the chapter is actually done. If you want to know what's happening, check my profile. I'll say things like, "I'm close to finishing this chapter," or, "I hit a rough spot on this one. I'm going to switch to another fic to get my creative juices flowing." I've been updating it all through out the process of creating this very chapter, but you probably never saw those changes. From now on, I would encourage you to check my profile if you want to know what's going on. It'll be updated more often than my stories, that's for sure.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters or songs referenced here, nor do I own the respective companies they come from. I do, however, own the characters that I created for this story.
UPDATE: I sprinkled in some lines to make it clear that Gray Star wears a gray turtleneck, and that when she goes into battle, she pulls the turtleneck part up so that it covers her mouth and nose, like a ninja mask. Just a heads-up.