Prologue
"Shit, their aims improving. I'll give them that." A dark figure muttered hiding out in an alley shaded away from street lamps and moonlight, checking his right arm which thankfully was the one that got grazed by a bullet. It ached as another matter since it was raining pretty hard, but wasn't in any real bad shape.
It didn't do any real damage in fact, just left a thin deep streak across the metal arm. He couldn't afford to get slowed down or hurt, and especially get caught. Depressed lines fell over him missing the important key word: Yet to get hurt. If that devil-woman ever found out about this...
"The Thief went this way Sir!"
"Well get a move on lazy bunch! Fullmetal will be in handcuffs tonight or demotion to all!"
The Thief, or Fullmetal, snapped out of it hearing the conversations and then sirens after it, and sadly wasn't too far off. "Harsh much?" He muttered, dashing off to the end of the alley avoiding the debris scattered around the place. One slip up and it was all over. That couldn't happen, no matter what the cost. Although it seemed luck turned out for the better as the thief slowed down to a stop finding the alley a dead-end 15 foot fence chained effectively to keep others out or in this case from following.
His relieved thoughts quickly fell when a ray of light shined into the alley. "We found him! Over here!" The officers reported and Fullmetal mentally cursed but didn't dare turn.
Wearing leather pants, combat boots, and then tight-fitting dark clothes and his signature red cloak with a long hood that easily covered his hair and any other showing parts, he was practically unknown. Though if not careful, the shadows would only illuminate his eyes. If they saw them, and such a unique feature, he'd definitely be recognized out in public. "I'm screwed." He grumbled, mentally working out a solution to this sticky situation.
"What do you know, so you did? Congratulations mutts, you managed to do something accomplishing for once in your careers. Something to tell your children," The teen mocked, lowering his voice purposely. Sounding older would shift the trail off him, hopefully when it all blows over he'd have nothing to wipe clean.
Knowing his situation, he bitterly chuckled at the thought and continued their conversation. "To bad you're failures either way." He taunted.
The leader of the operation this time forced his way through the crowd of other men looking quite pissed at the trouble this one guy had caused and wasn't even half his size.
"Big talk for such a small street rat," The man said and pulled out his badge to the still turned thief. "As Police Deputy Chief Grand, hand over that necklace and turn yourself in or we will use force." Grand demanded, shoving away the badge and looked more than willing to dig a few bullets.
Fullmetal tensed at the jab, but forced himself not to explode. Far too much to relate back to. Those bastards would pay for it- later. Instead, in an attempt to restrain himself, bit down on his lip which was just hard enough to draw blood.
Collecting the plastered a smirk and make sure his hood covered his face well enough, turned to face the force and saw the dozens of cops blocking the entrance, most of them holding a gun aimed directly at him ready to use when he faced them.
"Such a shame they won't be arresting me tonight." The 17-year old rolled his eyes at their routinely behavior, and briefly wondered if wolves ever did learn. This has gone on for months and was nowhere close to catching him; well this could be considered a close call.
But the show must go on. "You mean, this shiny thing?" The teen grinned and pulled out the object, a small obelisk-shaped crystal transparent maroon in color. The items connection was from the top by a rather long gold chain and just from a glance was worth more than their lifetimes and then some. Rough markings along the necklace showed it was old, and really valuable. It was surprising to think it was still going strong after, what, couple centuries?
"Who would have thought such a trinket was worth of any value?" He said with a cheerfully teasing tone, before shoving it into his pocket once more. "I think I'll keep it. See ya hounds in our next game of chase." Fullmetal said, diving out-of-the-way as Grand shot at him but quickly avoiding being caught by the flying bullets. Carelessly shot, the so-called Chief ran out of bullets and his team distracted by the sudden push of play in the game.
"Well you idiots?! FIRE!" Grand bellowed at them, just as the thief was taking advantage of the mix of chaos and scaling the strong fence. The police continued to stumble over, a few starting shooting but their aim lacked due to the amount of pressure they felt.
Disgusted by their lack of diligence, took a loaded gun away from one of the team and shoved him aside. "Follow him you fool!" Grand ordered, shooting at the criminal who was getting lucky in his movement and missing just about every bullet. Well except one.
"Shit!" Fullmetal cursed aloud when the sharp pain stabbed at him, as Grand got the right leg this time and now had to deal with the fun concept of running with a shot leg. "I better get a promotion for this." He idly thought but endured the pain anyways. Better on getting lectured later and a mangled leg than being captured and probably executed for all he knew. Grand would certainly be the one to support 'Jail is too good for scum like him' ideals.
Police started climbing after him, but failing miserably with the rain pouring down hard and not being use to such a fence twisted and turned due to countless of others climbing or damaging the fence. Making it to the top, he used a moment to blow a raspberry at the chief looking for another gun to use and laughed as he jumped off, wincing at the weight put on his injured leg but paid no mind to it and started running again.
"Can't get caught. Can't get caught." He chanted mentally to keep him going, though knew the blood was going to give him away sooner or later. "Damn. And this is my favorite jacket!" Fullmetal thought bitterly, but ripped away anyways at the fabric and tore that into two as he made a makeshift tourniquet to stop the blood from trailing-for now.
"The blood trails you moron! Follow them before they wash out in the rain!"
Grand's voice roared and Fullmetal spared seconds of disbelief and silent relief. "My sympathies to all that work under him, and I thought my boss was bad." He thought before running again, noticing he was considerably slower than before and it'd be easier to catch up due to this.
"Just my fucking luck, of course." The tired adolescent growled spilling another hundred profanities as he went running again after ripping off the tourniquet around the wound. It was now drenched in blood which only showing an even more serious situation he had to deal with along with escaping.
A dark alley offered a place to hide, but getting cornered twice wasn't in his agenda. The partly open pothole was promising and the thundering footsteps signaled his time was up. "Fair enough, chase this dogs." Fullmetal smirked, adding a pre-made note to the cloth and threw the bloody tourniquet towards the alley as he ran closer to the pothole.
Twisting his metal foot went along with the motion and slid across the ground with the small slide of water. The extra boost was all he needed as he slipped into the hole. Reaching for the top moved the pothole closed just as his followers made an appearance and he disappeared.
"WHERE ARE YOU DIRTY LITTLE RAT?!" Grand snarled, looking around for any sign but nothing. The officers started looking around as a result and nearest to an alley found a bloody red cloth. Like the one he was wearing.
"Sir, we found some evidence he went through the dark alley. A makeshift tourniquet it seems to the bullet wound you gave him, and a light trail of blood that seems to be wearing away as we speak. It also had a note attached." A Police Sergeant informed as Grand turned briskly with a livid look to his eye. He snatched the note from the offering hand and looked at it. Growling only moments later and tearing it to shreds heading towards the alley "Well everyone after him, Fullmetal WILL be captured!" He growled his orders and everyone rushed to get them done.
"Train your dog's right,
If you want me in sight.
So the chase is on again,
Catch me if you can,
Ya dirty old man!
~Compliments of Fullmetal~"
Underneath them the current runaway thief didn't dare breath, even as they walked away toward the alley. The marks of blood were a stroke of luck he desperately needed this time. Satisfied after a minute or two they were no longer around slumped against the sewer walls heaving breathes in relief and pain.
"To...close...for comfort." The blonde gasped for air, pulling away the hood and a loose ponytail fell out, leaving several strands of hair to fall back in front of his face. Tiredly, he dug into his pocket and instead of a bright gem necklace took out a phone. Entirely black except for the red mark of a dragon with wings eating its tail and a star in the middle of the symbol. Underneath were the small title of Fullmetal. Bringing it into eyesight, scowled at the symbol as he clicked on a number and brought it to his ear.
It was only two dull rings before it was answered up with a feminine yet muscular voice all too familiar, "Well Chibi, a little late don't you think?" The tone mocking and smug knowing exactly which buttons to push, and proved true with the half-hearted response.
"Who're you calling... a microscopic flea...? Don't call me short... asshole." The frusterated blond growled out into the phone, blood loss was now a problem here and his 'boss' on the other side only seemed interested in annoying him to no end.
"Now, now. No need for such a tone." A sickly sweet sneer from the other line, then gleeful laughter was heard from the other side knowing that the kid in question still had too much to lose to put up a proper fight. Once again, not for the first time or last, did he question his boss' and his own sanity for putting up with it..
"Back to business anyways. How did the mission go, Fullmetal?" And like a sudden transformation, the voice was perfectly cool, serious, and an edge of death should it be an answer he was not going to like.
17-year old teen sighed as he dug into his pocket for the necklace that miraculously didn't seem to receive any damage or happen to leave his pocket with what went up. He pulled it out and watched as it gleamed in the dull light of the sewer.
"I got the damn gem."
DAILY NEWS::BREAKING NEWS
Date:11/27/07
FULLMETAL HAS STRUCK AGAIN;
MISSING PRICELESS OBELISK-NECKLACE MISSING!
Will this wickedly clever fox ever be caught?
Our famous little bandit has once again struck, and was successful in his thievery of yet another precious jewel! Deep in our city of Berlin, the crime took place in the Altes Museum(Old Museum) which features different artifacts of Greek and Roman artifacts, one of them being an ancient valuable necklace with many rumors that circulate its existence. What would such a person need with a necklace of that value and significance? Most guess...
More information on Fullmetal's crimes page 6 and 7...
More information of the stolen jewel page 10...
POLICE CHIEF BASQUE GRAND: ABUSIVE AND FAILURE OF AN OFFICER?
Honest and protective officer we looked up to, or blood thirsty traitor watching our streets?
That's right! Due to an anonymous source, we were able to let you know of the famous Police Chief Basque Grand being demoted 4 levels from his status! Many are protesting such a movement, but do they know truly why? His failure to capture the legendary Fullmetal did have a part on his reputation for catching all criminals that cross his path, however Fullmetal had nothing to do with Grand's fall from power. Reports of his harsh behavior was ignored as strong criticism but were not a cent close of an exaggeration. to what witness' and victims have proclaimed. Grand refused to a statement after..
More Information on page 4...
Bibliography of Basque Grand page 8 and 9...
A/N: Just a few things to clear up.
One- Ages. Fairly simple, to make it more modern say Al born in 1900 would be 1990 here.
Two, the Automail situation. It is apart of Ed and it's one of the things that makes him-him. That, and I felt it was needed in the story xD So boom. To justify this, some Automail junkie could have passed through the gate and introduced the idea.
HOPE YOU ENJOY FULLMETAL FLAMES
And all you delectable readers/reviews too ;)
