A million years have passed and the author finally updates.
Sorry for the long wait, guys. I've been so lazy with all my stories, so I only made a few sentences a day. Well, I hope you guys aren't too mad at me.
Enjoy!
-Disclaimer: I don't own RE or FMA or any of the characters...
"Get off of him!" Al fiercely demanded, charging at the inhumane stranger. Bringing his arm back, Al delivered a powerful blow directly to the side of his head. A large, yet bloodless dent showed as evidence that it took some affect. The 8 foot giant was barley able to keep his ground. He teetered to the left in a daze, releasing his firm grip from Leon's neck. After another successful punch, Al managed to knock him away from his comrade, giving Leon time to regain himself.
His side ached from the sudden impact, but he managed to ignore it. Shaking of the headache and the pain the stranger left on his neck, Leon snatched his new handgun and fired continuously at the off-balanced man. Each bullet stuck to his pale skin for a few seconds, but then dropped to the floor like a dead bug. Not even a wound, nor a drop of blood was spilled out of his body.
"This type of gun his useless against this guy," Leon declared, staring at Ed in a blaming way. "Do you think you can transmute something bigger and better, like a rocket launcher?"
Ed sighed deeply and scratched his head. "It was the best I could make out of such little elements, and no. I can't at the moment, because like I said, this material isn't enough to make a weapon as such. But I might just might know another way to kill this bastard." With an imagination so strong, it didn't take Ed more than a couple seconds to think of a way to weaken down the stranger.
He began with what he always did when performing alchemy: clap his hands together. Instead of placing them flat on the floor, he ran up to one of the bookcases that had a better condition than others and slammed them on the side. A brilliant, lightning-blue illumination screened over all the books, catching the man's attention. His blank, yet dazed expression began to change into anger as he made his way over to the elder Elric. Striding with a length that Al couldn't keep up with, he attempted to seize Edward's actions. The man's arm extended to Ed's throat, but didn't make it all the way, for a force thrusted him backwards away in the other direction. The fulmination of the attack that Edward conjured sent the enraged man spiraling to the opposite side of the office, making a startling and loud collision that echoed through the room from the hard contact of the wall. For such a large man who seemed to have the power of snapping a metal pole with ease, the wall still remained incompressible for the most part.
Leon, who was staring in awe at the powerful alchemic attack, noticed what Ed transmuted the books into for launching a powerful attack. Several large spikes, about as large as motorcycle helmets, penetrated the stranger's arms and stomach. Unlike Leon's bullets, the transmuted spikes impaled deep enough so that blood poured out of the newly formed wounds. Crimson liquid rolled down towards the flatter ends of the spikes, droplets detaching itself and making staccato, splashing noises as it hit the ground.
Al watched as the small drops of blood began to form into puddles that gradually expanded; about 6 inches or less wide.
"See? And you thought we needed a weapon like a rocket launcher to take him out," Edward grinned. "Simple alchemy works just as well, if not, better!"
"Simple?!" Leon emphasized, cocking a brow. "You turned a whole pile of useless books into a deadly weapon. I don't know about you , Ed, but to me that really isn't the kind of attack I would see everyday. You really are skilled at alchemy if you could do that and call it 'simple work'."
Edward waved a hand. "Hey hey! It was nothing! I mean, it wasn't really basic alchemy but it wasn't complicated either." Leon smirked and rolled his eyes at Edward's pride. He realized that Ed probably always said that his attacks were 'nothing' when they were actually 'everything' to a lot of people he partnered with. Of course, Ed could be the type that would impress people without even giving much effort into his work, so he couldn't help it if others mistook him as a show off.
"So now that the big cheese is out of the way, how do you suppose we get around the other mice and out of this building?" Ed asked, pointing first at the stranger and then toward the door... Or at least where the door used to be before it was smashed into lesser pieces along with mostly everything else that had been once nicely arranged in the office. Now the room looked, and even smelled like a bunch of twisters fussed about in every inch of directions.
Leon temporarily ignored the Elric's question as he looked around the room for any hidden or misplaced ammunition. He lifted up the face of a long coffee table, which had a jagged hole towards the left end. All the legs had been smashed off from ruthless collisions, leaving small stumps on all four corners. Carelessly, he shoved it out of his way and allowed the wall to catch and support it to stand in a slanted posture. Surprisingly, the space underneath the wooden surface was quite vacant; only a paper and a piece of fractured wood that was once trapped underneath revealed itself.
Ed and Al just watched silently and motionless as Leon wondered the room, lifting up unfixable cabinets and other debris scattered through the room. Getting on his knees, he brushed away piles of broken objects and dust, still unable to recover any weapons or ammunition.
Unsure of what the search was for, Alphonse took a few steps toward Leon and stopped.
"If you're looking for something, tell us what it is and we'll help you find it," he offered, turning to face Ed, who was at this time spacing out, staring ahead at nothing with little emotion on his face- what did show almost looked like an uneasy expression. "Right, brother?" The Elric gave a slight nod, but only in reaction to the questioning sound in Alphonse's voice. Really, he had no clue what his brother had said, and seemed to remain in a thoughtful trance. His facial expression deepened into a dreary state of emotion as he inhaled a sudden gasp. Alphonse wondered what the sudden change in his attitude was about.
"Brother?..." Al, now having his metal body turned back to face the troubled alchemist, rested a gentle hand on his older brother. And just like that, he snapped back into reality, his head shot up to find himself staring at Al, his eyes slightly widened from whatever overcame him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Leon watched as Ed dug his fingers through his bangs and clutch his head. Leon blinked, confused as to why Ed just started acting strangely. He straightened himself off the ground and onto his feet, pivoting around towards the two brothers.
"Is there something you would like to share with us, Ed?" Leon asked, standing in place. Edward turned to face Leon, noticing how his face almost demanded an answer. "You've given us that look well before we entered the building. It's time you tell us what's been on your mind now, don't you think?" Ed felt both pair of eyes fix their attention on him, knowing he couldn't just remain silent. He opened his mouth to say something, but knew his wording would come out wrong. Instead, he allowed his open mouth to release a long-held sigh.
"Well...," Ed started uneasily. "It's been on my mind ever since we came upon a whole group of the infected. You know... The place where we first met; 3 blocks away from here. Anyway, I was thinking... In a large group like that, we can't tell who could be a survivor or not. It's strange to worry about, but what if we screw something up? What if we already killed someone who didn't deserve it? I mean, I know that nobody deserves to die like this, but..." The thought of ever killing anyone always upsetted Ed, so telling Al this put both of them through pain. Leon, on the other hand, just gave a slight small and shook his head.
"Ed, you shouldn't dwell on these kind of thoughts," he replied confidently. "I suspected that you would have known by now that it wouldn't be your fault if a survivor gets killed because they chose to hide in a group of zombies. It's not as though we can just walk up to each of them and ask if they are all fine and dandy, especially a whole mob of them. Not in this kind of situation. Things aren't going to be that easy; telling the living dead from the real living, and to get through this we have to be strong and make smart choices, even if it means taking a big risk. It's our duty to escort any possible survivors to safety, and that means killing all the infected people who stand in out way. So come on! Show me the brave Elric you told me you were and that I know you are!" Leon grinned and tried to brighten the moods of the brothers. With the words true, how could he fail to bring back the alchemist's spirit? Feeling a wave of bravery and strong attitude wash over them, the two brothers nodded at one another, then at Leon.
"Just now I realized how out of it I was ever since we laid eyes on the city," Ed confessed. "I let the sight of chaos get to me and plant something in my head that later detonated during our first attack. Everything turned into a big haze and it got in the way of how I fought anything that came our way... But..." Pausing, Ed put a hand in his pocket and pulled something glimmering out; his silver pocket watch. "I'm with the military, and as a State Alchemist, the challenges that we face should never stare us down. Endure the pain without protest. Losing someone dear and moving on... I've trained hard and learned the rules of life and Equivalent Exchange. Going back to the beginning can't and won't solve anything, and we all know it too well." A grin of pride ran across Ed's face, and everything that put him out of spirit seemed to blow away.
"Glad to see you're finally well again, brother!" Alphonse said delightfully. "But imagine if Mustang was here with us..." Suddenly, Ed's grin faded, a grimacing look plastered on his face. His eyes went narrow as he stared up at his brother.
"Al, you have really bad timing, you know that?" Ed growled, slumping his shoulders. Alphonse giggled as the annoyed Ed shook his fists in anger.
As for Leon, his attitude turned back to his usual serious behavior.
"Well, let's push that aside," Leon said, walking toward them both with crossed arms. "I'm searching for some of the ammunition and weapons that people always stashed around rooms incase of an emergency, but I would imagine that it all got knocked around when Big-and-Bad came bursting through the room."
"Che. Why are you worried about finding things when I can just transmute all that crap?" Ed emphasized, giving the 'DUH' look.
"Well, be my guest if that's what you want to do," Leon replied, giving his hand a small toss that directed toward a small pile of metal. "It'll save us a heap of time." The Elric nodded once and knelt down infront of the metal, clapping his hands together. The same blue alchemic glow filled the room as the metal scraps took shape into a gun, hidden in the brightest part of the performance. Just a few seconds pass and the weapon is complete, having an identical look like the last one he transmuted during the attack.
Picking it up, he examined it as he noticed he couldn't transmute bullets along with it.
"You may have to supply your own bullets for now," Ed stated, tossing the gun to Leon, who successfully caught it in one hand. "Think you'll be fine?"
"Well, I have enough to kill about 30 of whatever comes our way, which really wouldn't do me any good if we were to be ambushed by a whole party of them or if it was something like the Licker or the guy we just killed," he replied, stuffing the hand gun in his free pocket. "But, yeah. I'll be fine if that doesn't happen. Let's get going before we get caught off guard by anyone... Or anything." Ed and Al nodded, letting Leon lead first out the door. Cautiously, he glanced both ways before making a left; the opposite way they came down from. The two brothers followed close behind, both side-by-side.
Surprisingly the hallway wasn't too out of shape- compared to Leon's office and the room they just came from it wasn't. A few blood puddles and glass shards filled mostly in the middle. Consecutive drops of crimson liquid dripped from the ceiling, supposivly from the Licker after eating a meal. The walls had it worse than the floor and ceiling. A large cracked streaked across the concrete as though it were continuously punched about. Bloody handprints were smeared lengthily after a long struggle, although there were no bodies to prove it.
Other than glass, there appeared to be no other debris in the long hallway.
"So much blood," Ed pointed out. "Can one of those things really do all this?"
"It's possible, but not here. Notice the number of footprints smudged along the floor," Leon replied, looking at print as he passed by.
"Four, five, or six of them must have came through this hallway," Al said. "Plus the mutated toad coming down here after the infected had their way with whoever or whatever they ran into."
"Yeah," Ed agreed. "That explains why we can't see the bodies. The thing dragged them off somewhere to... Ick! Feast on whatever remained of the victim." Even Leon had to cringe at the thought of a fraction of someone's corpse being eaten, and the rest just left as scraps for the next thing that comes along.
"How can a disease turn someone into something so twisted?" Ed grimaced, crossing his arms. "Leon, do you know who could have done this, or how the disease spread through a whole town?"
"Ed, there are so many rumors I've read about from journals and heard about from other policemen and witnesses, I don't know what to believe!" he declared, giving a small shrug. "But the most frequent story I heard from the citizens was that this whole incident was no accident, and the motivation of that someone was to get revenge on the city. No one said why that person felt the city had done something to them, but whoever supplied the virus is anonymous and could have already escaped before the disease got out of control."
"If this is all true," Al added. "Then the suspect might be trying to carry the virus through neighboring towns and cities. But out of what circumstances?"
"Yes, if it was true, but as it stands right now, the evidence isn't strong enough to provide enough answers for a brief understanding. For all I know, people could have been copying and pasting things together and called it 'the true story'."
"But suppose it wasn't an accident," Ed started. "Did anyone tell you or did you read anything about something occurring in, for example, a science lab of antidotes and medicines?" Suddenly, Leon's paced slowed down until he completely stopped walking. The Elrics, who are a foot behind him, halted as well.
"Now that you mention it, I don't even recall hearing such a story that dealt with accidents in a lab. The only accident story I heard was that an animal from the wild invaded the city on a killing rampage, and it supposively was carrying with it a new disease it obtained at birth. It doesn't sound unlikely for that to happen, but there was no evidence of the creature ever arriving; no pictures, no description of what it looked like, and no information on any disease like this that could be carried from an animal at birth. Almost as though a new species came to be on our planet. But my fingertips are holding on to the concept of a science experiment." Again, he started walking as Ed listened carefully to Leon's story, taking in every detail. Hazy ideas formed in his head, but nothing could come together as one conclusive story. He thought hard about such an animal that could carry a disease so demented and chaotic.
"A new species... Disease at birth... Could it be...-" His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a startling crash that nearly shook the hallway. His head jolted up as he listened for any other disturbances. He tried not to avert his gaze from the direction the loud noise occurred, but he felt a sudden presence that made him turn around and stare out through the hallway. Holding his breath, Ed listened and watched carefully if anything was pursuing them. He remained motionless as 10 seconds passed by slowly. Realizing there was nothing behind him, he released his breath at once and spun around to find his brother and ally out of sight.
"Crap!" he growled, cursing himself for being unaware that Al and Leon didn't stop and wait. Jogging down the hallway, he came to a point where the straight path ended and the only way he could go was by making a left. Turning the corner, he hoped to reunite himself with the two males. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Instead, what he witnessed completely froze him in horror and disgust. He tried to close his eyes to block out the terrible image, but they were glued almost addictivley. He began to let out a scream, but a hand clamped his mouth shut before he could make any noises while another larger hand pulled him backwards away from the horrific sight.
"Ed!" Leon and Al whispered sharply, trying to get the attention of the thrashing teen. Thankfully, Ed recognized the voices before he could scream or make any loud noises, or even harm his partner. He calmed down immediately, letting out a sigh of relief that he wasn't being ambushed.
Before Ed could scowled them for not waiting, Leon stepped in front of the two brothers with a gun in both hands, his back turned to them. He remained still, almost statue-like as he kept his attention on any noises.
"Ed, what did you see when you turned the corner?" Al whispered in his brother's ear. Ed shuttered as the image came back to his mind, playing over and over again like a broken video.
"The Licker... No. It wasn't just one of them. There were 5 Lickers- slightly larger than the one that attacked us in Leon's office. But that's not the scary part of it, Al..." His voice trailed off as they heard silent taps that came from around the corner. Growling and hissing seemed to drown out the taps.
Suddenly, Leon quickly spun around to face Edward and Alphonse, seeing that their startled expression meant that they also knew that it would be too dangerous to stay and fight the beasts.
"Get back into the room!" Leon exclaimed, not bothering to keep his voice low, for the mutated beasts already knew they were there. All three turned and ran the opposite way as the pitter-patter of footsteps grew louder. Unfortunately, Ed thought Leon meant the room all the way down the hall and didn't know about the second door that Leon and Al found when he was turned back out of distraction. Instead of going through the door with the other two, he continued sprinting down the hallway. He glanced back, thankful that the beasts were still crawling on all four instead of hopping around, but noticed that Leon and Al were nowhere in sight and that only 3 were following. As for the other two beasts, Ed knew that they were in combat with his brother and partner inside of the room he was too panic-stricken to notice.
"Al!!" He cried out, slamming his feet on the ground, bringing him to a stop. His body turned to face the Lickers, who were still a good 10 feet away and still moving at a steady pace. Looking past the beasts, Ed couldn't see his brother or Leon to be anywhere in his gaze, but heard gun shots and loud hissing. He furrowed his eyes in anger, gritting his teeth.
Clapping his hands together and placing his left over his metal one, he transmuted his usual hand blade and charged forth at the Lickers. The beasts accepted the challenged and, with powerful legs, sprang toward the enraged teen.
The fight commenced between the State Alchemist and the mutated toads; unfortunately, a 3 on 1 that would take more than luck to win.
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I don't know about you guys, but, in my opinion, this chapter just didn't please me. I'm seriously trailing off and off and off and going out of character. Not to mention the corny ideas.
So if anyone can give me any pointers or ideas... Ehem... you know who you are -smile- -smile- smile- -nudge-... Then please!!! Give me anything you got! Otherwise this story is going to end up with Spongebob somehow coming into play... Thaaaankssszzzz...