There's a what in town?! (Arc & Lacey)

Lacey was looking everywhere. Or, so she thought. She looked down, side to side, but never up. It didn't occur to her that the creature had the ability to fly. "Where is the damned thing? According to our calculations, it should be around here by now." The lance exclaimed. "Were we wrong?" She muttered to herself.

No, no, the silly little children were not wrong; the strange thing flittering through the sky would have said, or at least thought, as much if he had cared enough about their words to address them. Instead, he had his focuses on his own target, another lady leaving one of the buildings nearby, out of their range of sight. Perched up on a lower rooftop, he watched as she stumbled in her tired, possibly drunken stupor away from the building. Pausing for a second, she began removing first one heel, then went to work on the second. It was when she grabbed the heel of the second shoe that he swooped down, small form shifting in midair to land with silent ease behind her. In a flash of motion, he had one hand on her arm and the other over her mouth, stifling a scream just as it had begun to permeate the air.

A noise that cut through those that were the ambiance in the late evening and towards the night. Something human, louder and definitely something to check out. Barely audible to Aspen, but audible enough to make out. Aspen broke into a sprint, deftly jumping over each gap in buildings and vaulting using Lacey's weapon form over the larger gaps, not slowing even slightly to even speak. Any loose tiles he knocked from the rooftops were transported at least near where they came from by him. He was focusing on that, along with the running. He was building energy, so he could easily use his shadows. As soon as he sighted an individual holding a woman, he vaulted from the roof with a dull clank. He spun slowly through the air, aiming the larger blade of Lacey's form straight for the back of the man's neck. At this angle, he was sure he wouldn't impale the woman too, if he were to hit.

When Aspen suddenly took off, saying she was surprised by the sudden movement would be an understatement. "Aspen!" Lacey squealed. "Where are you going?! Have you spotted th-" The weapon broke off of what she was saying when she saw the predicament as they hurtled towards the woman and the individual holding the woman. The weapon focused on only hurting the kishin egg so that she wouldn't end up seriously hurting or killing the woman as her meister pointed her larger blade towards the man's neck.

The man jerked, shoving the woman as he tried to move, rather unsuccessfully, out of the way. Screaming profanities, he held his neck, covering the deep gash they'd made before lunging for his victim before she could escape, aiming to bite at her throat. If they didn't react quickly enough, he'd at least get some of her blood, if not more than that.

Aspen didn't skip a beat, following through with his momentum the moment that Lacey's blade impacted the ground; he spun around and kicked off of the floor to try and bring to the side of the Kishin Egg's body a swift blow. First and foremost, his job was to keep the woman whom the Egg decided to prey on out of harm's way. Killing the bad guy came after collateral was minimised.

Yes! Lacey screamed to herself. They had managed to hit their target without injuring the victim. It's not that she didn't doubt Aspen's abilities, in fact, she had total faith in him, but rather the fact that it seemed like a hard shot. Now, to keep the Kishin Egg from further harming the woman. The lance lent put all her focus into resonating with her meister. Noticing that there was a dead end up ahead, she pointed it out to Aspen. "Hey! Try and corner him in that dead end! At the least it'll keep him away from the girl."

The force was enough to strike another blow against the man, creating a nasty gash in his side. He cursed loudly as the stunned response caused him lose the woman entirely, who fled as swiftly as she could. Growling and cursing, he tried to flee, heading exactly in the direction that Lacey had pointed. In the process, whoever, he appeared to be shifting, shrinking, his coattails morphing into wings.

After Aspen regained his footing entirely, he pulled Lacey back out of the ground to give chase to the Kishin Egg. Now that the hostage was out of the picture, Aspen could slice and dice as much as he wanted; that's the way he liked it. Seeing the man transform, and not in the way that a weapon or a witch might, he figured out why he hadn't found the man before. "Bastard's probably going to try to fly away..." He muttered. "I'm going to wait for him to feel safe and then vault up to try and catch him in the air. Damn, I'm wishing I had placed a shadow over there... I'd have been able to throw you." Not like he had actually been over in that area TO place a shadow.

"So that's why we didn't see him. The damn bastard." Lacey muttered, her appearance forming in her blade. She nodded, understanding his plan. "Just don't let him get too far up. I may be long, but I do have my limits." She told him, even though she was sure he knew this. All that Lacey could do now, other than get swung around by her meister, was hope that the woman was on her way to a safe place. That's all that mattered, keeping the innocent citizens of Death City, and the world, safe.

The man managed his transform with a bit of effort, one wing visibly weaker than the other as it strained against the wound that had carried over to his side. He was still bleeding, in this form, still fighting for life as he struggled to take to the air and leave the pair behind, trying, now, to just live another day.

Aspen quite suddenly sped up in the chase, feeling now that a final sprint was as fitting as anything. At just the right time, Aspen spun Lacey around and shoved her point into the ground in front of him. He vaulted up, the motion second nature to him even after such a relatively short time; he aimed with his controlled spin to bring the larger of Lacey's blades right down the middle of the creature.

Lacey smirked when she saw he was having trouble flying away because of an injury. There's no escape now. Your soul will be mine. When Aspen used her to vault upwards, she was a bit surprised at how smooth it was. They hadn't been partners for too long and Lacey is a long weapon that took work to get used to, so it surprised the weapon. As they got closer to the Kishin Egg, she could tell that they were right on track and smiled wickedly as her blade came down, striking the middle of him.

With a cry, the bat form of the kishin egg began to ribbon, spiraling out and away from his center before dissipating entirely. In its wake remained only the soul, left floating for a moment before drifting towards the ground. It was bigger than the bat form the man had taken on, a strange thing, but reasonable, given that he had, once, been human.

Having slashed the man-bat in two, Aspen landed on the ground safely and with some grace, spinning Lacey's weapon form around himself before stabbing her point between the cobbles, into the ground again, to allow her to transform and take their trophy in the form of the soul.

Once safely on the ground, Lacey quickly transformed back into her human form. She reached out and grabbed the soul, before putting it in her mouth and swallowing it. "Victory tastes pretty sweet." She muttered to herself. She then turned to face Aspen, a smile on her face. "We finally got him. No one else will be harmed by him." The weapon said. "Well, it seems like it's time to head back home." She looked up to see that the sun had fully set and the moon was high above them, shining bright. "It's also pretty late." Lacey yawned.

"Yep. Didn't even have to use you as bait." Aspen joked, locking his hands together up behind his head as he looked around the area. "I'll walk you home." He said finally, apparently not convinced that it was quite safe for a young girl to be walking around alone, weapon or not.

The weapon rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Luckily." She replied. "You don't have to do that. I'll be fine." Lacey assured her meister. She knew it was probably a fruitless attempt, but she still had to try. She isn't a child.

"Nah, doing it." Aspen said, almost instantly after she tried to object, expecting that sort of response.

"I'm not a child Aspen! I can walk home by myself!" Lacey continued to object. She hated being treated like a child, especially by her meister.

"You can probably walk home by yourself, sure, but I'm just not letting you. Sorry." He said with a shrug. "You remember how we met, right? Idiots like that don't tend to approach girls that have company of any sort. So I'm staying."

"Of course I remember!" She shot back. How could she forget the day she found her partner? She let out a sigh. "Fine. I'm obviously not going to be able to convince you otherwise." Lacey said before heading towards her apartment.

"Yeah, you're definitely not." He said, walking beside her. "Well, I can meet you halfway and walk you to where it'll be unlikely for anything to happen to you, at least."

He was concerned about her, Lacey couldn't deny that, so it somewhat made the situation better. "Doesn't matter. Walk me all the way or halfway. I don't care." She replied.

"Then I'll just walk all the way." Aspen said, shrugging again. "Since you don't care."