I miss RoyEd stuff. It's so fun to write. D:
This has to do with medical stuff (again.) I'm most likely going to get complaints about how horribly inaccurate I portrayed Ed's coma. But that definitely doesn't mean I discourage any of you from letting me know if I portrayed anything completely medically inaccurate.
Shock to Your System
Hypoxia: the deprivation of adequate amounts of oxygen. To anyone, that would just sound like a fancy medical term that paid no relevance to them. But to Roy Mustang, Elsa Sebastian, and Alphonse Elric, it meant so much more.
It had been a foggy Thursday morning in Amestris that day. The sarcastic blond strolled into the office late as usual, with someone that could appear to be his body guard, but was actually his younger brother. Roy had already been there since 5am on the dot, just like every other morning ever since his issue into the State Military. He was already "working" on his paperwork.
"I'm checking in," Edward said casually.
"Fullmetal…late again?" Roy spat, teasing the bratty teen as usual.
"Oh, c'mon, colonel; give me a break," the young alchemist bit back, approaching his desk.
"But you're late every morning. How can I give you a break if you never get anything right?" Mustang went back to his paperwork, only thinking that the comment he had made was just another one of his everyday insults to the teenager. He didn't think it was a big deal and Ed didn't think it was a big deal, so no one else thought it was a big deal either.
Ed merely shrugged at the comment and turned to go to the State Library, which was only a short distance away, as usual. Al went to follow his brother, but glanced at the colonel for a split second before running after him.
How that useless kid stays in the military is beyond me. All he ever does anymore is go to the library and read up on that fantasy artifact of a Philosopher's Stone…he doesn't even go on missions anymore! Roy thought to himself subconsciously.
Shock to Your System
The day went on normally, until two young alchemists stepped foot into the office of Colonel Mustang. The colonel didn't think much of it; only wondered what the boys were up to.
"We're bored!" Edward said as they stepped inside, just like the brat Roy thought he was.
"Fullmetal, it is not my job to entertain soldiers. You see, I actually have a job; I don't just roam around doing nothing all day." Just another seemingly harmless comment was all it was.
"…We don't just roam around doing nothing all day," Ed said with venom stinging every word, "we're just as much as part of the military as you are, so don't act like you own the universe because you're a 'higher ranking officer.'" Even though the teen alchemist couldn't care less about the military he was a part of and Roy couldn't care more about his next promotion, he still believed that on some level, they were the same.
"Fine, if that's what helps you sleep at night. Well, what do you want from me? Legos? Coloring books, maybe?"
"You know what we want. We want a mission."
The Flame Alchemist was shocked to say the least; he guess he knew that's what the teens wanted all along, but he just hadn't put two and two together. They hadn't asked for a mission in a while, nor had the colonel given them one. He guessed he wouldn't deny their request.
He began rummaging through his desk to find some missions that he had yet to assign. "Hmm…the only missions I have at hand are hard ones…" he said, taunting Fullmetal.
"We'll take anything you got!" The boy was awfully manic today.
"Okay, okay," Roy decided to give them a mission that had been lying around that was starting to bug him. Ed grabbed it and started to scan through it while his brother glanced at it over his shoulder. "Eastern headquarters has been requesting backup from us for a while now, and with your expertise I think you may be able to help. There's an old abandon warehouse that has picked up some attention from the military down there, but every investigator that's gone inside has yet to come out. Think you can handle it?"
"Of course we can!" Ed responded with complete arrogance, "C'mon Al, let's catch the next train!"
The Flame leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together, and watching in satisfaction as the young alchemists left his office, eager to get to the next train leaving. In all honesty, he thought that Edward must be really brave or really stupid to take up a mission like that, but he suspected the latter.
Shock to Your System
"I'm so thirsty…"
"Should we stop for a while, brother?"
"No, I can handle it…I wish we could find that damn warehouse already so we could go rub it in Colonel Bastard's face." Alphonse sighed audibly, but he could just see the flame in Edward's eyes. The real reason that Ed wanted to go on a mission was to prove himself worthy to the colonel. Al could understand that. He could tell Mustang was starting to think less and less of him and his brother the more time they spent in the State Library and the less time they spent on missions. Ed must've realized it, too.
"Hey, I see something!" the youngest brother exclaimed. They were in the middle of no where, and they had just about lost hope until Al had said that. Ed looked up and saw the hazy-looking building ahead of them. It was also nighttime, so they could hardly see it in the moonlight.
"You're right! Let's run!" Luckily, unlike the road to Lior, the ground was solid instead of sand. They didn't have to fear sinking into desert sand. The Elric brothers sprinted until they reached the seemingly randomly-placed warehouse.
It was definitely a warehouse. As if being in the middle of no where wasn't suspicious enough, it was heavily guarded by barbed wire and other such security.
With a small laugh, Ed stated, "Yep. This is definitely the place. Let's move." Checking to make sure no guards were around, they moved in.
The younger brother helped the other up onto the fence. "Heh, barbed wire; sometimes, I love having automail!" Ed remarked.
"I know what you mean," Al said, climbing up and over the fence after his older brother.
"Hey, look," Edward murmured, pointing to an open door. A pool of light spilled onto the concrete through the door. "Looks like our villain forgot to close a door. C'mon." He and Al tried to approach the door stealthily (note I say try,) and snuck through the door.
The room was kind of odd. It didn't look that out of place, but for a supposed warehouse it was kind of out of place. It gave off an eerie atmosphere, but not in a creepy sort of way, more like in psychologically disturbing way. Not to mention it totally smelled because of randomly placed barrels with probably-toxic liquids.
"Well, well, well; if it isn't Edward Elric, the Fullmetal pipsqueak."
"Hey, I know that voice…" The duo looked up to meet the eyes of none other than the infamous homunculus himself, who stood on a balcony-like structure. "Envy!"
"Sorry to ruin your fun, but I have to cut this party short."
"Answer our questions first!" Alphonse demanded, "What have you done with the other investigators? What are your motives?!"
"What are you doing, playing Twenty Questions? I'd love to stay and chat, but this place has just got to go, along with you two inside it." Seemingly out of no where, he pulled out a lit match that made his face glow and make the whole room seem that much darker. He dropped it carelessly off of his balcony into one of the tubs of toxic fluids. The flames shot up quickly, and bounced upon the surfaces of the barrels almost instantaneously. The Elric brothers stood frozen in shock, while Envy laughed and walked back to wherever he had come from.
The flames devoured the room quickly. The brothers tried to escape, but the door they had come through had somehow been locked sometime after they had come in, and all the other exits were seemingly blocked off. It wasn't long before the whole room was engulfed in flames and Edward began to cough uncontrollably from the smoke.
"Don't worry, brother! I'll get you out of here—I promise!" Ed was hardly conscious by the time Al had resorted to dragged him through the smoke in a desperate attempt to find an exit.
"Al, I can't…"
"NO! I'm going to save you! I'm going to get you out of here!"
Ed coughed a few last times and he passed out. Within a few minutes, Al found an exit that wasn't totally blocked by flames and wasn't locked, and exited. The youngest Elric brother, realizing the eldest brother's state, sprinted into the only direction he knew humanity existed, with Ed in his arms the whole way.
Once in the small town they had been in before leaving for the warehouse, Al asked pedestrians for a place to find a qualified doctor, (everyone either gasped at the sight of Ed or wished them luck on finding a doctor,) until he finally found directions for the nearby small-town doctor. Al thanked the lady that had given him that information and bowed to her, then ran off in the direction she had supplied him with. And Ed was still not showing any signs of consciousness.
Once there, Al demanded to be let in, even though it was clearly passed the open hours.
"We're closed, now please leave!" the man was middle-aged and in some fancy-looking satin pajamas, with the door opened just a crack. The young alchemist guessed he was the doctor.
"You don't understand!" Al pleaded, "My brother and I—we were caught up in a warehouse fire, and he passed out, and I think he could be severely burned! Could you at least, please, take a look at him? I'll pay you anything. He's in the military, so we have a lot of money—"
"Alright, alright; come in." The doctor was obviously annoyed at being woken up at such an ungodly hour.
Alphonse carried Ed inside. The doctor led him into his living room and that's when he realized—he was inside the doctor's house, not his office. He was suddenly deeply ashamed, uncomfortable, and embarrassed.
"Set him down on the couch." There was a luxurious couch in front of Al that looked like it was screaming, "I swear, if you put that thing on me, I'll kick you in shin!" He did as the doctor told him to anyhow.
The doctor undressed Ed down to his underwear quickly while Al observed from a distance. The dark spots scattered across his skin were evident, and it was obvious that there were severe burns near his automail ports. It makes sense that that part of his skin would heat up the fastest, Al thought.
"Tell me," the doctor spoke, and it kind of made Al jump.
"Yes?"
"You and your brother—who are you? You said your brother's in the military?"
"Oh…I'm Alphonse Elric, and that's my brother, Edward, the Fullmetal Alchemist."
"State alchemist, huh? I've never heard of you guys(1)." The doctor continued to examine Ed, who still appeared to be dead. In a small part of himself, Al was slightly relieved. He didn't think he and his brother were so talented that everyone in Amestris should know who they were. Ed, on the other hand, couldn't think more of the opposite.
After a couple simple medical tests, (the whole time Al tried to relax, but couldn't,) the doctor announced, "He's just unconscious. He'll wake up soon. If you want, I could let you stay here…"
"Oh, no! I wouldn't want to be a burden!"
"Oh, come on. It's obvious you guys are travelers, and your brother is in no condition to find another place to stay at the moment, and I'm sure you get tired of caring him. Now, blankets are over there,"—he gestured to a pile of blankets at the foot of one of the living room couches, the one that Ed lay on—"and you can stay in this room. Please, make yourself at home. Alright, I'm going to bed. Oh, and by the way, I'm Dr. Sebastian," and with that, he turned out the light and went back to his room.
Al blinked. Well, at least he didn't have to bother finding a place to sleep for the night.
Shock to Your System
Footnotes!
(1) Some of you may be like, "what? Did he just say Ed was a state alchemist after stating he had never heard of them? Wtf?!?!" For those who can't figure this out on their own, it was made obvious to the doctor that Ed was state alchemist because of his title. Just clarifying.
Shock to Your System
What do you think? This was originally going to be a one-shot, but I changed it to a few chapters since it was going to be a full-out story and plot. Hopefully I can keep up with this and Fullmetal Pedigree! at the same time. We'll see, we'll see…I hope you stay around for the next few chapters!
