Hi! I kind of gave up on my other story for now... it just didn't seem to flow properly. This one, however, has a lot of potential (i think) and might get a little more fan love... hopefully D:
I do not own any aspect of Full Metal Alchemist.
Tonight's the night. There couldn't be a more perfect opportunity. Everything about what I'm about to do is according to the plan, with not so much as one tiny miscalculation sticking out of the perfection I'm calling... operation B. You may ask why I hadn't called it operation, A, or alpha, or some such synonym to a first phase or plan. You may also wonder what I'm planning, why, how, where and when it shall take place. Truth is, you'll figure it out soon enough. I won't spoil the suprise for you, or anything like that.
Thing is, I've already come close to both failing and becoming very much caught, and very much dead. Thing is, I'm searching for something. Not a solid object, or a group of objects, or anything actually physically tangible. You see, I'm looking for a theory. It most likely sounds slightly queer that a girl of my age, sixteen and three quarters, blond jokes aside and such, would be looking for something as complicated as an alchemical theory. 'Where are your parents?' 'Why are you looking for something as complicated as that theory?' 'Could you even handle it?' The doubting Thomasses in my mind continually ask me these questions, so perhaps you may asking them too. Which is completely okay. It's human nature to doubt. Of course, it's also human nature to desire the truth.
I desire the truth.
The only answer I could truthfully give sans risking the succession of the operation I'm about to carry out is that I have quite a guilty conscience... not to mention a strong sense of perseverance and persistence. And, of course, clearing that guilty conscience currently carries first priority in my life, so I can uncompromise another. It's quite important that I succeed: if I fail, I'd be letting down countless people that are most likely counting on yours truly. You could call me your friendly neighborhood 'up-and-coming' hero, but I'll spare you of such pompous suggestions. The only thing that matters enough to converse of is the fact that this is my story. And that story begins now.
I more than desire the truth. I crave it.
A military officer stood sleepily in front of a large bronze gate along with another officer. Both were well equipped with highest quality assault rifles and 9mm handgun safely resting inside the breast of their blue military uniforms. Any one passerby would guess that It wasn't so easy to simply waltz in through those gates and onto what they had been fencing off. The fence and the guarding officers kept a certain military database well more than safe during the early afterhours of the night. It seemed to the officers that all was well and that it was soon time to shift positions with waiting fresh officers.
That was the moment an observing figure had been counting on since the first instants of nightfall. 'Safe in the shadows', as the figure had always been taught, they performed exactly as so. It was the ultimate performance. Tonight was the night. The night that the ultimate information, the forbidden theory, would be obtained. It all seemed so clear: Dash out once no guarding eyes laid eyes on the establishment, and sneak through the thicket to the only destination thought of by the figure for months on end.
The figure clad in black gulped and shuddered, anticipating the excitement that began to flow throughout their body. The figure, clad in tight, movement-permitting black clothing, stretched out their petite frame. Their head stretched upward last, precedented by arms reaching high up toward the tops of the buildings it hid in between, as well as slender legs that possessed small, nible feet. Nearly every inch of the hidden entity had been covered with black clothing, save for eyes and a short lock of light blonde hair that stuck out.
Her eyes had always been a trait of hers that had made others feel rather unsettled. Sixteen years of ignorance and disapproval towards her had sculpted her into a hard human being, but it had well suited her life; alone was her life and never once had she complained. She had come to accept the wary glances, the curious and confused looks... even insults had socially hardened her into building a shell against the reality outside. It mattered to have been thought of as a freak at some point in her life yet those times had long since gone past and perished. What mattered the most at this point was the mission she had so carefully planned.
"Dahlia, just you wait. I'll show you what I can really do."
The figure darted out of the shadows, avoiding the glare of nearby streetlights as she found that the two guards had retreated into the building to switch shifts. Lunging forward in an almost animal manner she pounced toward the ground, arms out in front of her. Propelling herself upward and with a flip towards the fence, she easily and soundlessly cleared the high obstacle in her path. She cushioned her landing with a quick somersault towards a shore of darkness away from the front lights, and continued quickly and cautiously towards the left side of the building. As soon as she was sure that it was as if she did not exist on the property, she slouched against the wall and sighed in victory.
'Score.'
She closed her eyes for a moment to regain her composure. Opening them she exhaled slowly, regaining her focus. 'It'll only be harder from here on out. Gotta stay nimble...' And with that thought, she set off once again.
For several days prior to the mission, she had spent many hours carefully calculating the easiest and most sheltered access into the database from above. To her dismay, the building was sound and there were no external access point through ventilation or windows. Lucky for her, she possessed a keen ability: Alchemy. Dahlia had taught her the basics throughout her childhood, which she built upon endlessly throughout her preteen to teen years to perfect her own style. She had liked to set herself aside from the average alchemist. Not in a gloating, prideful way but in a way that she had truly recognized her unique talent: her speed and ability to transmute without physically coming in direct contact with the material transmuted. It had never occurred to her to wonder how she was able to perform in the manner she did, but simply dismissed it as a privilege of the things she'd seen and of her encounter she had overcome.
She had wished so much that Dahlia could see the extent and the fruits of both hers and her own efforts. She wished she was with her, and then shook her head. Now was not the time to dwell on sore feelings from the past. Her gaze becoming once again, focused, she began to think of the best way to proceed.
Her body froze, immobile, when she heard small chatter coming from the font area of the building. 'The guards have switched...' she thought carefully for a moment, calculating their positions from the amount of footsteps they had taken. 'Right.'
'Four...Five...Six...Seven. Here we are, just toss this across...' she thought to herself as she pulled out a transmuted item from her pocket and stuck a smaller emblem-like object onto it.
With a smirk barely noticeable under her black cloth mask, she skillfully threw the object over top of the seemingly one story building at her back. Taking note of when it landed, she pressed her hands together to initiate the reaction. She felt the energy surge underneath her into her body, and the all too familiar alchemical toll rang through the area. She heard the guards 'huh?' in confusion as stiff blue wisps of alchemical energy surged out of the ground and around the object she had thrown. The object had significantly changed in shape and size into an identical dirt dummy of herself, crouched over as if it had been plotting something. The curious guards ventured over, shouting to one and another that they had found her.
The girl smiled inwardly as she heard them cry out in fear. '...And then we're laughin'. Bingo.'
The guards had fallen into a trap that surrounded the dummy, unable to get out. Using this as her chance to use alchemy of her own, she clapped once again and this time pressed her hands against the ground. The ground began to glow in the area she had specified, and then began to rise up as if it had been extruded outward. The ground she had extracted snaked up against the wall before her, spreading out and turning into vines of various species that clung to the building. As she extracted more of the ground, the vines began to overgrow and cover all of the windows and openings of the exterior of the building. She could only imagine various officials' reactions, their minds puzzled at the bizarre phenomenon at hand.
Soon the entire building had been covered in her hand-crafted vines, which began to bloom occasional blue-green flowers the size of a grown man's head. The vines snaked towards the power cords supplying power to the database and easily crushed them, along with the lights granting vision to the officers and workers both inside and out. The area which she extracted the ground from had turned into a hole, set with a ladder. She grinned once again, realizing that she had actually come this far.
'Now's my chance!' She quickly jumped into the hole, grabbing onto the ladder for security as she used it to slide to the bottom. Once she touched ground, she realized she was in the database itself. 'Just my bloody luck...' She gulped, not having planned the excavation properly. With a quick shake of her head she snapped out of her fear. Now was not the time for memories nor fear. Luckily for her, the lights had been successfully put out, save for the emergency power. The area glowed a faint red, which she thought suitable for its dark kept secrets hidden within. As soon as she decided it was safe to act, she nimbly and silently wove in and out of the various bookcases.
She knew exactly what she had been looking for, down to the specific section it lay in rest. Document manuscript 316. As soon as she reached the sector in which it was located, she rushed to the shelf where it could be found. Quickly spotting and taking it off the shelf, she turned to leave in the manner she entered. Halfway across the path she took weaving around the bookcases, the emergency lights flickered, and then fell dead. She gasped, startled, and continued on with extreme caution. She could hear shouting from far off in the lower areas which she was trying to escape from. Her heart rate began to quicken and her nerves began running in overdrive.
'Just a little farther...'
"Hey! You!" she heard a voice cry out in her direction. She barely evaded the beam of light from a flashlight and hid behind a nearby shelf. 'Damnit!' she cursed to herself silently and saw that the light had turned to the left of her vision toward the opposite direction of her escape route.
"We know you're in here! Surrender immediately; you're in our playing field now!" Exhaling quickly she dashed across the corridor-like space between the shelves and towards the area of the hole she dug.
"I said freeze!"
Had she been any slower to react, the bullets that barely grazed her left cheek and arm would have been fatal. She froze in shock for a total of two seconds, which was enough for one of the flashlights to come upon her figure. As soon as it had made contact with her body, she darted out of the way and transmuted a pillar to lift her up to the hole. The pillar sealed the hole up and took the form of a regular underground support beam.
Three military officers, equipped with guns and a flashlight each, stared at the stone beam in confusion. "What the..." one mumbled, while another got closer to examine the beam. His eyes widened in suprise.
"Transmutation marks..."
The girl, nearly out of breath half out of the tension she had just faced and half out of the effort, placed her hands on her knees in attempt to regain her breath and a normal pulse. She looked to and fro, and found that nobody from inside had been able to break through the thick layers of vine she had encompassed the area with. With a sigh of relief and of almost victory she got back up to her feet. Remembering her prize, she quickly rolled the stapled papers up and transmuted a string-like attachment holding it onto her ninja-like sash. Taking one last breath of peace she readied herself for her daring escape.
"Brother! I found him!"
She heard a boyish voice call towards her from around the building. She'd been spotted...again. The figure that the voice had belonged to was onto her and barely turned the corner before she took a momentous leap over the fence in a similar fashion as when she had entered. She swiftly landed on the street outside the fences and thicket and stood up slowly, her arms and legs shaking with nerves.
'All this excitement's making my body protest... Just a little longer!'
She heard a familiar sound and felt a pulse she did not expect to feel. Two transmutations occurred as what she guessed to be a means to jump over the fence.
"There she is!" the same voice called out behind her, which was followed by two pairs of footsteps.
"Right! Hey you! Ninja thing! Get back here!" a more mature voice called out and she sensed a mixed hint of both leadership and complete annoyance. She had been pressing their nerves.
She turned around, getting back up at lightning speed to her feet to get a glimpse of their features. Two boys, one was taller than the other. The shorter boy had long hair in a ponytail and wore a dark trench coat with dark slacks and simple spats. The taller boy had short blonde side-swept hair, with a white dress shirt, brown slacks, suspenders and simple dress shoes. Judging by their appearances she could pick their strategies apart: the taller thought more before he acted, like her, and the shorter acted more on impulses. She also assumed they had been brothers due to the way they had looked so alike. Giving them a daring look she darted off in front of them, turning quick into an alleyway.
"Quick! Follow him!" The shorter yelled and the taller ran ahead, clearly possessing longer legs to cover more distance. She ran with great speed around dumpsters and exited into a new street adjacent to the last. Looking back to see if she had lost them yet, she was gracefully brought back to reality when the taller boy was hot on her trail, merely a few meters behind her.
"Hmph!" she grunted and lunged forward towards the ground and clapped before her hands touched the ground. An alchemical reaction toned in the air, blue wisps of energy lashing about as she sprung off of her hands, flipping onto freshly transmuted stairs.
The boy gasped. "Woah, no array?"
Skipping steps to reach the top of a building, she clapped once again to cause the stairs to crumble. As soon as they did, the boy cried out in suprise. She turned back to grimace at him teasingly, but as soon as she reached the edge a tower of pavement rose up above her at an amazing speed. The boy lept off it as it crumbled and landed in front of her. Before she had time to run back the way she came the other brother shot up with a tower of his own, rising and landing in the same fashion as his taller brother.
The shorter brother chuckled as she looked back towards him, the taller transmuting a wall of stone around the three of them.
"There's nowhere else to run. Give us back the document you stole," the brother demanded rather seriously while the taller brother moved closer to her, "or we'll have to take it back by force."
The girl did not say anything in return. Instead, she formed a triangle formation with them as the other two edges, facing them both in a battle stance.
The taller brother sighed. "They never come quietly, brother."
"That's fine by me!" The shorter boy clapped, pressing one hand down onto the ground and gradually lifted it up to reveal the formation of a steel spear he clearly designed himself. She smirked at the fact that they could perform alchemy like she could. 'Things just got a little more interesting.'
"Right!" The taller boy copied his brother's transmutation, except he merely hovered one hand covering the other above the ground, causing a steel pole to transmute from the ground. Both gripping their fresh weapons, they pointed both toward her.
"My turn, then," the cloaked girl announced, quickly clapping and then dropping both hands to her sides. Her right hand remained open as a rapier-sword hybrid decorated with rose motifs on the end of the hand guard, which consisted of many metallic swirls carved around the hilt. With her other hand ready, she bent down to grab a small rapier-like dagger to hold as defense. She calmly grabbed the sword as well, pointing it in a slightly lowered fashion front of her and towards them both.
The taller challenger smirked at her sense of fighting style. He turned to his brother who was shocked at the fact that she did not require the use of a transmutation circle like them. He clenched his teeth in what she almost thought to be disgust, and... empathy?
"This might be harder than we thought, brother." the tall boy's remark was answered with a small "hah".
"I can see what you mean. Al, cover me!" the smaller boy lunged forward at great speed, quickly closing in the gap between him and the girl. With a quick swing of his spear, he lead the first move. The girl blocked his spear with the dagger with relative ease, and attempted to stab him in the side with the rapier. He dodged, retracting the spear. She made the dagger drag across the spear to emit a shrieking metal sound that caused him to flinch. He barely missed her slicing motion with her rapier which tore part of his trench coat.
"Damn it!" he cursed, darting towards and then around to her side in attempt to confuse her. She scoffed and quickly spun to her left to successfully block his next attack: a stabbing motion. She was about to kick his spear to the side for an opening before who she assumed to be "Al" dashed forward and tried to trip her with the pole. Between the two of them, she held down both of their weapons with each of her own and kicked the shorter brother in the jaw, sending him flying backwards, and the taller in the gut, causing him to stumble backwards.
"Yaagh!" "Oof!" The two boys were severely caught off guard, and glared upwards towards her. She watched as the taller one got up to retrieve his weapon. The younger did the same, and she frowned. She held her rapier straight out towards Al, and held the shorter dagger above herself, also pointing towards him.
He glared into her eyes. 'She doesn't intend to use her weapons directly. What's her story...?' He was pulled out of his trance by his brother's voice.
"Al, remember what we practiced before!" Al gave a quick nod towards him and once again faced the girl.
Sensing that they were up to something, they both stood in their separate stances almost as if they were waiting for her to attack. She barely pushed forward when her head thrusted forward, causing her lose balance. Her eyes wide in shock and panic.
"Wh..what..?"
Her body went limp and she fell to her knees. Her vision faded to black, along with her consciousness.
