Chapter 1 True Colors
Greed's Point of View
In the middle of Dublith, a small, not too popular town in Amestris, two human forms could be seen in the shadows on top of the roof of a building. One, skinny but quite buff seemed to be being pulled along by a sleek, small form. Loudly enough for the smaller one, apparently female, to hear the man spoke,
"Marta! What is the damn meaning of dragging me out of there while I was doing business?Well? I'm waiting!"
The woman, Marta, sighed in exasperation almost as if there were three arrows concentrated on one particular area on her forehead like in comic books. She didn't turn to face him, but instead said, " Greed, first of all, you can't call flirting with sluts in high heels business. Two, there is something more important that I need to show you."
Greed frowned and turned away for a minute before coming back, " And this important thing would be...?"
Marta sighed again and stopped finally almost making Greed run smack into her back in surprise. She stuck her arm out to keep him from falling off the tallest building in Dublith. It was the closest thing to a skyscraper which was pretty much a local art museum-opera house.
" As if I need to remind you of Laboratory Five where you were freed and freed us as well. Well anyway, you know that they were taking people and experimenting on them for the military and that also included soldiers in the military."
Greed put his hand up in a wait-a-minute gesture and interrupted. " Hold on. Laboratory Five was destroyed the last time I remembered, so, unless I'm way off base here, why does that have anything to do with anything?"
Marta practically growled at him, " Let me finish!" Greed's mouth popped shut and his eyebrows fused together in frustration.
Marta, having calmed herself again, continued, " As I was going to explain, Laboratory Five was experimenting illegally on humans, and I think that another Lab, number Seven to be exact, is doing the same thing." Greed's face suddenly became very serious. " I'm listening."
Marta nodded in approval and continued, "Lately there have been reports of some missing people. The funny thing is that most of them are under the ages of forty. People under the age of forty are usually healthier and by the look of the situation, teenagers are being snagged more. What's worse is that people have reported the smell of burnt flesh or decaying bodies over in the vicinity of Lab Seven to the military and the military has been answering them by saying it's just tested animals. Something more is going on in there and I know it. My thoughts are that Lab Seven has become the new Lab Five. Do you think it's worth checking into?"
Greed's brows furrowed as he took in this information. For a minute he seemed at war with himself, but then, with one quick glance at Marta's pleading face, he knew that he had lost. " Okay. Fine! But if you're wrong, dammit I swear that you are out of the gang, got it?"
Marta, satisfied, nodded and started moving toward Central. Greed followed close behind before Marta said, " I'm not wrong. This has the stench of Chimera experimentation all over it."
Greed nodded and both of them, barely visible in the moonlight, disappeared into the shadows of the city walls.
Kiki's Point of View
" Kiki! Hey! Hey, come here! I need to talk to you!" Where are going? Kiki?" Lanna, a teenage blonde, yelled from across the street. Another teenager, taller than Lanna, with chesnut brown hair past her shoulders as if she didn't hear the energetic blonde, ran into the crowd. After she was sure that Lanna wasn't following her, she slowed down her pace and took a breath. Kiki was sick and tired of Lanna complaining and griping over what colors need to be used for decorating the set for the new play that the Drama department is putting on. " I don't think green is the right color because we want to express the female characters better in this scene. Green just seems more like a boy's color to me, don't you agree? Well, anyway, if we could switch it to, say, yellow or pink! even it would go better. I mean, the actresses even agree with me that hunter green is just way too male for the theme of the girl's bedrooms. Do you understand?" She would go on and on until Kiki had to just leave her talking there. If Kiki had to hear one more thing about pink and yellow being more of a girl's theme, she was going to rip her hair out. Actually, she didn't even care about the Drama department of the school, but it was better than the alternative. Ever since her mother remarried(with Kiki's approval of course) George and they came into the rich lifestyle, George thought it would be best to send Kiki to a private school to better her educational opportunities. Kiki would rather die than go to a private school and leave her lifelong friends. So..in the heat of the moment, Kiki promised that she would make the best grades in advanced courses at her regular school and participate in at least four clubs or sports. Now Kiki's found herself struggling to finish her homework every night, on the Tennis Team, Drama club, and the News report committee.. Including those three, there is the club that she actually wanted to join and that was the Animal Rescue Society.
Kiki looked at her watch on her way home to try to figure out how much time she would have to do her homework before her stepsister and stepbrother arrived from their school. Julia and Conner are twins and only twelve but George spoils them too much and so they're naturally little brats. Anyway, they just love to annoy Kiki to no end so that she can't get any of her homework done. Sometimes she either ended up doing her homework in the attic with the door locked or staying up all night after everyone has gone to sleep. As of now, Kiki had four textbooks in her bag, two fundraisers to uphold, and a Tennis Victory celebration to plan. She was tired already.
The walk home took at least an hour and when she came into the driveway she noticed something odd about her home. When she first heard the sounds, she thought it was a stray dog, then they got more distinct the closer to the house she got. Someone was grunting. Kiki stopped immediately.
'There's a stranger in my backyard.'
Her mind did a loop processing this information. Fear began to creep it's way into her muscles and her brain went into panic. With struggle, Kiki was able to calm herself down enough. Losing her head in this situation is the worst thing that could happen at a time like this. Her parents wouldn't be home until seven. It was only four.
' Don't be stupid! It's just a dumb animal. Your mind is playing tricks on you!' Kiki tried to tell herself, but for some reason, her heart wouldn't allow herself to believe her mind. As soon as she was able to calm herself down, she slowly made her way to the backyard. She didn't know why she was trying to face whoever was there, but she felt it was her duty to protect the house. ' This is my home. Whoever you are, you will leave.'
The adrenaline running through her bloodstream made it as if time were slowing to a complete stop as she made her way to the fence. What was surely only a few seconds felt like minutes when she unlocked the gate and opened it quietly. Her heart was beating frantically as she drew nearer to the edge of the house. Kiki heard a bang that almost made her gasp and break the silence. ' Ohmygod they're trying to bust through the door!' Her stepfather had always tried to convince her mother to allow tighter security measures to be added to the house, but her mother wanted things to be as normal as possible. If she lived through this, she would slap her mother.
Kiki was on the edge of the house now with her back to the wall. Knowing full well that this individual could have a gun made it imperative for her not to be obvious. One shot and she could be dead. 'Oh please let me not faint in the middle of this!' she asked her brain. Kiki had to steady her breathing again before she made her decision. On the last moment before her resolve would break, she jumped out from the corner. What she saw when she rounded the corner gave Kiki a sense of insecurity. 'Oh god! It's happened. I've totally lost my mind! The homework and lack of sleep is finally getting to me!' There, standing, pounding on her back door was a...lizard. Or some kind of dinosaur reptile thing. The creature had two legs like a man, two eyes that had pupils like a human, hands that had claws instead of fingernails, and a big protruding nose. The features that made it abnormal was the huge tail coming up from underneath its cloak, a darkish-green skin tone, no hair on his head and there seemed to be veins popping out from underneath his skin.
' He can probably take me out with that tail of his.' Kiki couldn't help but think.
Her stomach clenched as she watched the lizard pound on her door. ' What was he?'
"Ugh. Damn door! Open already! Of all the rotten-. Why does Greed always send me on his errands?Ba." He said angrily as he picked the lock on Kiki's back door. For a second, all Kiki could do was stare at him. He looked just so abnormal. Her mind just couldn't seem to process it. A dinosaur lizard thing was trying to break into her house, and was complaining about it. Her moment of confusion didn't last long because then he noticed her entry. His eyes widened to the point where they looked like circular windows. For some reason Kiki almost expected him to stick out a forked tongue and say something like, " Mmm. Lunch. Delicious." She tried to shake the thought off.
" Uh oh. A human. A girl no less." The lizard said to himself. " Greed's not gonna be happy." Anger boiled inside Kiki. ' A girl no less ' he said. Now stuff like that just ticks Kiki off. Her fists clenched and her nostrils flared.
" Hey! Who do you think you are trying to break into my house you little skink!" she yelled at him with her finger pointed.
At first the man could only stare at her in disbelief, but then her realized what she had said. He stomped his foot in anger and yelled in a high shrill of a voice, " Why you! You don't know who you're dealing with! I'll make sure you never leave this yard you little brat! This is the last time you will insult me! Unless of course you take it back and go away. But that probably won't happen now will it?"
Kiki crossed her arms. ' Baby.' she thought.
" No it won't. Why should I? You're the one breaking into my house. So I see no reason to be nice to you whatsoever. Actually, I'm contemplating on whether I should take this shovel here and hit you in the face or not. How does that sound?" She antagonized the dinoboy.
He stopped and thought a lot about what Kiki said in obvious dismay. He looked over at the shovel she had referred to and gulped a little. Kiki could tell by the look on his face that he was deciding whether or not to kill her. For some reason he came to a different conclusion than what Kiki expected.
" Well...um. Dammit! Fine!" he yelled and started running for the bushes. Kiki grabbed the shovel and made chase after him. " Wait a minute! Get back here!" Kiki screamed but she was at a lost when he took off on all fours and crawled up and over their fence.
After she got over her amazement at what just occurred, she went back towards the house. Once she was safely inside with the door locked she allowed herself to think about what just happened.
'A lizard man was at my door. He tried to break into my house. Alizard man!'There was no doubt that what had just happened was real. But Kiki wondered just how she was going to explain this one to her parents. She could just see the look of disbelief and disappointment from George. There was no way to hide it considering the fact that the lizard freaking messed with the knob so much that it broke. Of course her stepfather would probably blame it on Kiki if he didn't believe the truth. Kiki's head bobbed in frustration. Kiki found herself asking another, more important, question.
"What did he want?" she said aloud.
As possibilities formed in her head, she couldn't quite get one of them to sound right. Of course they are a rich family so he could've been trying to break in. But then, why go during the day? It's more common for robbers to move at night when the families are on vacation or out to eat. Then again, does he know her family somehow? He could have done his research and found out the schedules of everyone in the house. Kiki couldn't shake the feeling that this had something to do with George. Supposedly George was a business man, but every time someone asks him about it, he gives clipped excuses. She always had her suspicions about his line of work but her mother never did. ' Is it possible that George is working in the wrong type of business?' There was only one way to find out. Kiki would have to break the most important rule that George set for her. She would have to enter his private office on the second floor. Of course the door has a lock on it, but because her door so happened to have a lock on the outside and her window was too high to jump from, Kiki had to learn how to pick her door's lock to see her friends whom George dissaproved of.
Even though no one was there but Kiki, she found herself tip toeing like some sneak as she made her way upstairs towards George's office. Once she came face to face with the door and the plaque that read, " George M." Kiki sprung out one of her bobby pins and got to work on the door. 'Here we go' . In less than two minutes the lock made a click and Kiki twisted the knob. ' Time to get down to business.' Kiki pushed the door opened and was shocked by what she saw.
George's office was like any that you would expect. Clean, orderly, with stacks of paperwork here and there. But what was the most abnormal object of the room was the flag hanging on the wall. The flag was green with the imprint of a lion in white on it. Everyone knew what that insignia meant. It was the symbol of the military. George wasn't a business man. He was a soldier in the military! " Oh, shit!" Kiki said to herself. She was in real trouble now. She had broken into the office of a soldier. ' Well, that explains why he never smiles.' But Kiki wondered why he would keep something like that a secret. Wasn't it an honor to be a soldier? Kiki's thoughts were interrupted when the phone on George's desk began to ring. Her heartbeat jumped at the sound and she found herself holding her breath until the phone made a clicking noise. Then, the machine next to the phone began to make noise and before she knew it, a woman's voice was coming from it.
"Professor Michael. This is the Fuhrer's Secretary. He wants a report on how the experiments have been fairing in the laboratory. He also wants you to know that unless any of the lab rats die throughout the next week that the military will put someone more..reliable in your place. He expects a full report tomorrow evening in his office. If I were you Dr. Micheal, I'd get busy." The machine clicked and the it's wheels stopped turning.
Kiki stood there trying to put together what she had just heard. Her heart was hammering as she realized just how serious the situation was getting. ' The Fuhrer! Dead lab rats? Replacement?Ahh!' Her head screamed at her. She couldn't help but regret ever opening the door to George's office. What's done is done, Kiki supposed. Her curiosity led her to George's desk. On the top of the desk there were papers scattered all over it. Some papers seemed to be filed reports while others had pictures of people on the left hand corners. Underneath the pictures were names and facts. Kiki grabbed one and read it. She gasped and nearly dropped the picture when she was through. The picture on the paper was of a girl with pretty blonde curls and striking blue eyes. She was about Kiki's age in the photograph. Underneath the girls face was-
Briana S. Keller. Captured July 16th. Experimentation failed July 28th. Body unrecognizable.
"Oh God!" Kiki cried out. Her fears had now been confirmed. She felt sick and wobbly as the Fuhrer's Secretary's voice rang in her ears. ' Lab rats die.' She tried to hold back tears as her hands picked up more papers with photographs on them.
A brown haired, green eyed boy of about ten years flashed in front of her eyes. It read;
Danny Kusack. Taken from a store May 6th. Experimentation failed May 10th. Body disposed of.
The next paper was for a black haired, blue eyed girl with freckles about eighteen years of age. Her's read;
Abigail F. Gennas. Captured July 6th. Experimentation seemed too much for the body's nervous system to manage. Failed July 18th. Body disposed of.
The next one was a man with broad shoulders, blonde hair and an angelic face.
Cal T. Simmons. Brought to lab June 8th. Experiment showed progress. Died from brain damage July1st. Body disposed of.
A particular picture that caught Kiki's attention read,
Cady Dollan. Captured July11th. Disposed of due to inability to undergo any experiments. Body eaten.
Eaten? Eaten by what? Kiki felt weak at the knees. Dots tried to blur her vision but she held herself. She still needed more to go on. All of the descriptions were the same. 'Failed. Died. Disposed of. Died. Failed. Eaten.' Trying to calm her breathing, she looked back toward the desk. There were so many pictures. But one face among the many caught Kiki's attention. It was someone... familiar. She took the picture with shaking hands.
The girl had jet black hair that fell to her shoulders in ringlet curls that framed her heart shaped face. Freckles covered her nose and her cheeks. Her eyes were two different colors. The left eye was blue while the other was green. Kiki knew her. Slowly, she turned the picture over hoping to god this person wasn't who she thought she was.
Jane L. Grace. Captured August 1st. In captivity. Experiments soon to begin.
Jane. Her best friend from middle school Jane! Kiki couldn't help it. She gasped and tears stung her eyes. Her best friend was now a lab rat, and was probably going to die one. It was almost impossible to comprehend that the lively young Jane who made her middle school life interesting before George entered it was being experimented on. She might have already been dead. Kiki dropped that thought from her mind. 'Jane's not going to die.' She thought, ' Not while I'm around.'
With her fists clenched tight and a reason to be brave, Kiki turned to the door to leave and somehow find a way to save her friend but was stopped. Her whole body froze as she saw none other than her stepfather, George, leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed and a look of disappointment on his face. Slowly a fake smile crept up the sides of his lips that made him look almost evil. A cluster of blonde hair fell out of its sleek perfection to lay over his left eye as he straightened his posture.
"Well, you've made quite a use of your time Kiki. But you should know that when you are trying to surprise someone by cleaning their office, you need to actually clean it instead of make it even more of mess. Don't you think?" he said with a sarcastic tint to his voice. There was something almost amused behind it. Like George expected this from the beginning. That tint made Kiki's eye twitch, but no matter what he said, it didn't stop her from confronting him.
"I know what you're doing Dr. Micheal and I'm going to stop you. You are going to stop what you have been doing right now!" She stated with as much venom and refinement in her voice as she could muster. At first he seem surprised at her outburst, but then he threw his head back and laughed. The sound scared the hell out of Kiki, mostly because she had barely ever heard George laugh before, and never like this. The hair on the back of Kiki's neck stood up in distaste. Once George could stop laughing, he looked at her and asked,
"You? A teenage girl is going to put a stop to the military's plans? And just how do you plan to do that? Are you going to run straight up to Fuhrer Bradley himself and tell on me? Hmm? How?"
Kiki couldn't help but think that George was treating her like a helpless child. The obvious fact that she was the smartest individual in her school and that her I.Q was higher than most must not have meant anything to him. To him, it was all numbers. No, what he thought important, was military strategy, and warfare. Except, for a long time, Kiki and her mother had been in a bad place. And when it is a hazard to walk out your front door, you tend to learn how to defend herself. Kiki was much smaller and more flexible than George. She also knew that for a fact, if she were to run away, he would never catch up with her speed. She liked her chances. As a thought came to Kiki, she exclaimed,
"Oh, I have a plan. I've heard many things about a certain famous alchemist that has a reputation for not agreeing with all of the military's protocols. I am sure that if I took this information to the young Fullmetal Alchemist ,Edward Elric, he'd listen to me and probably wouldn't like what I have to say. "
Kiki felt confident in her plan with every word she uttered. Edward Elric was infamous for his ability to preform alchemy without a transmutation circle, kind heart but touchy temper, and a secret even his fellow soldiers in the military don't know all about. Kiki believed that he would listen to her. George's eyes went dark for a moment, but his smile did not disappear. Kiki pretended that she wasn't effected by his lack of emotion. He laughed again, but this time, she witnessed a touch of fear in his eyes. ' Bluffer.' Kiki thought.
" Well Kiki that is a well thought out and effective plan, yet I couldn't help but notice a few flaws in it. One, you actually told me of your plan and there's the fact that you have quite a ways to go to get to Central, on foot might I add." Her plan suddenly seemed less thought out, but she didn't care. She would run all the way to Central if she had to. It didn't matter. "Plus, I have a question for you. Just how...do you intend to find Edward Elric if you're unconscious?" Before Kiki could process any of his words, George leaped toward her with some sort of bottle and sprayed fumes right in her breathing passages. The last thing she remembered was George's unsettling, evil laugh filling her ears.
Hi! So, as you know, this is not the same as the chapter that everyone started with. Well, looking at the first chapter I wrote, I noticed a lot of problems. Actually, someone even helped me with these problems. So, I hope you like the new and improved first chapter of Kiki's Saga. Enjoy!
-Luna Blyeth