The Guardian
I know, I know. Rip off of that new movie with Ashton Kutcher in it, right? Wrong. Buzzer. Did you read the summary? I hope you did. Anyways, yeah. This story came about when I was bored at summer school and drew a guy with automail. He was quite sexy, then the idea came back around this time in October. So I was like "What the hell..." and made this story.
Warning: There might be a bit of Ed-abuse.
Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist or any of it characters, except a few in this story.
Introduction
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Debris and dust hung in the air as if being held by suspension cords. It was thick, and full of the toxic radiation from the explosion. The once peaceful neighborhood filled with laughter was quiet and dead. The sky was a dull orange, but not because of the sunset. The time had only been 5 in the afternoon. The homes were rubble and the grass was burnt and flaming. The only thing piercing the silence was the loud siren of warning.
The ground began to move.
Bloody bodies stood shakily and looked around. The silence turned into screams of pain and horror. Cadavers littered the ground like leaves, concrete burying them in the soil. A young woman with golden hair laid under a damaged car where the door was buried in her neck. The liquid life poured out of her body, draining her corpse. Her eyes were half pried open and her mouth was distorted in a scream. Dried tears stained her splattered face. Her hands were held up, curled in.
A few feet away was a child with the same blonde hair, buried by a hunk of concrete, her small hands holding a stuffed animal with protruding eyes.
A numbers of survivors gathered in a bundle, moving together, breathing in the same air pocket that they had created with their bodies. Out of the seventeen adults was a child, no older than 3 that was held by his wounded mother. A tall man, covered in mud stood in front of the rest. "Okay, guys. I understand you're all in shock, but we have to look around. There could be more people out there with much worse wounds. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to let them die."
He turned to leave, then noticed none had moved. He sighed to himself. "Dammit, what if it was you out there? Wouldn't you like to be found?"
"What if we're the only ones alive?"
The man held back anger. "We don't know that for a fact..." He continued to walk until he felt a burning sensation in his throat. He held back the vomit when he saw the woman and the child. "Karen..." He turned to the little girl. "Julia..." And then one question remained in his mind. Where's the father...?
A hand burst from the rubble, bruised, cut, and dirty. It reached around, feeling for the other pieces of rubble. It retreated under the rocks and suddenly burst out of it. The rest of the body appeared, and an injured man pushed through the pile, exposing himself to this new world. After four long hours, he could finally see light.
With all his might, he pulled himself out of the crater and onto the littered ground. Red sweat oozed out of his forehead from the horrid labor that plagued his body. He twisted and laid down. He panted like a mad dog and pulled the fire blanket over his beaten body, passing into unconsciousness.
A few of the survivors, two women and eight men, spotted him and immediately recognized him. They all ran to his body, kneeling down next to it. "He's alive..."
One of the women knelt down next to him and took his hand. Immediately, she drew back. Her hand was covered in warm blood.
The survivors looked to their right left where they saw a crater-like part in the blanket covering his body. The dark haired man with a heavy stubble slowly lifted the red tinted blanket away from the shoulder. There, severed at the elbow was a yellow tinted bone piercing from the flesh like a telephone pole. The muscle was torn clean off. Blood flooded the entire arm. Splintered bone accompanied the flesh in a bloody mess. Fatty tissue hung off of the arm, occasionally pulsing blood out. The woman drew back, gagging. His elbow and down was missing.
The young state alchemist slammed his glass down on the counter, creating spider web cracks in the dimly polished surface. He cursed to himself. "That damn Roy Mustang..." Edward Elric was not the kind to be easily forgotten. His rhinoceros temper kept most people at a distance but the Colonel really knew how to piss him off. "He makes me want to commit suicide..."
Out of the fury burning in his veins, he could almost cry. The strain to hold back the angered tears was almost as hard as fighting Scar. I can't break down...not here. He looked up and saw a few drunkards sobbing together. Beer poured out of their rotten teeth and down their stubbles. Edward looked down and saw a dark haired man passed out on the floor, a few feet away from his barstool.
His bipolar attitude changed again and he smiled in his thoughts. Compared to some of these guys, I look good... "Hmm..." He sighed and slurped the last bit of his drink down. "Next time that bastard dumps a cadaver on me, I'll shove his underwear down his throat and bury him with the dead guy."
The bartender stared at the empty glass of soda on the bar. "...N-next one's on me." He offered, refilling Ed's glass to full capacity. Edward's eyes opened fully, glaring at something across the room. The bartender, whose name shown 'Todd' backed away. "Sorry, sir...I..."
"Shut up." Ed commanded. It was not 'Todd' that annoyed him. He heard a slight chuckle and buried his fist in the counter. "Whoever's laughing at me is dead!"
The entire bar became quiet.
Ed turned to his right where he saw a man, slightly older than Mustang, and who looked much more bothersome. It's him... I know it. "You wanna pick a fight with me, eh?" Ed stood up, catching the man's attention.
His dark eyes reflected through the glasses in the dim light of the bar. "You're a little young to be in here, aren't you?"
One sentence out of him and he's already pissing me off. "Listen, whoever you are, don't change the subject. You want a fight, let's take this outside."
The man with the ponytail laughed quietly, waving his hands in front of his body as slight defense. "Please, calm down. I was only making a point."
"Yeah, and whoever makes a point to me always means they want a fight!"
"I don't want a fight, kid. You're too young to be in here, I'll escort you out." he offered, placing his check on the counter next to the empty beer bottle. Ed's patience drained out.
"Shut up, you geek! There's no way you're taking me out of here without a fight!"
The strange man sighed and tightened his long, auburn ponytail. "Ready when you are, Edward."
The young alchemist blinked.
How does... Edward smacked his palms together, transmuting his automail arm into a weapon. this bastard... Using the seats as leverage, he kicked off of them and right towards the man. Know my name?
The boy's body collided with the other's and they both smashed through one of the windows in the bar. They tumbled outside and Ed found himself on top. He looked past the glasses and into the empty orbs. This guy... He was smiling.
"Automail, huh? Don't you alchemists ever think of something knew?"
"Shut up, you bastard." Ed drew back a fist and smashed it into the man's face. Is what he thought. His fist was buried in the ground and he looked up. The man shook his head, laughing. He pulled up his right sleeve, revealing a glint of metal.
"You can call me anything you'd like, Ed. It wont make any difference."
But Edward was not focused on the man's words, but the metal arm. "Your arm..."
"Automail against automail, Ed. It's a fair fight."
"Psh. Then avoid this." The young alchemist jumped up, having to make the other man stare up. He narrowed his eyes from the sunlight just as he saw Ed's foot coming down at him. In a quick movement, the fabric from his shirt ripped and his arm, metal at the elbow, snatched the alchemist's foot, above the ankle.
"Would you like to join me on the ground?" He thrust his arm down, also tossing Ed to the dirt.
The young alchemist laid on the ground in shock. He's... definitely not normal... He struggled and looked up. The man stared down at the boy. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card.
"M' name's Professor Taylor McKenzie, you should stop by my office sometime if you want a rematch."
Edward stared up at the professor and then to the card. "So you're telling me I just lost to an ancient chemistry professor? You've gotta be kidding!" He burst out laughing, denying his loss.
Just as McKenzie was walking away, the last comment got to him. He stared over his shoulder in the darkest glare Ed has ever seen. His teeth seemed to sharpen and his previous calmness disappeared. "Ancient!" He spun around and glared down at Ed. "Well at least I'm not a hobbit!"
---
When Ed finally woke up, he saw the hunk of metal that was his brother, hovering over him. "Brother? Are you alright?" Ed blinked a few times and his vision focused.
"Al...?"
"Thank god, I thought you were dead!"
"What happened...?"
"That man with the ponytail punched you in the face and you just fell over. We all thought you died for a minute." Ed looked around and saw Roy, Riza, Havok, and Armstrong. Roy looked quite disappointed.
"Ugh, get off of me, Al." He pushed his brother off and sat up, rubbing his cheek that was blue. Damn... that guy can really pack a punch... and he's a science geek? "Where did that asshole run off to!" He stood up in seconds, looking around frantically.
Al scratched his metallic head. "I saw him go back into the bar."
"It's that easy!" Ed twisted on his heel, and sprinted back into the bar's splintered door. "Alright! Put em' up, you just pissed me off big-time!"
The bar was silent.
Ed looked around.
Where was he?
Ed looked down at his boot. There was a piece of paper stuck to it. "What the..." He leaned down and picked the card-sized paper up. It was blank, but with his left hand he could feel the ridges where ink was heavily printed on the fibers. He flipped the card over. It was that man's business card.
Professor Taylor A. McKenzie
Science Wing 607 Pius X University
Fax: 325-234-6247
Home: 325-234-6248
Then his home address.
Ed laughed to himself. "He really wants me to see him!" He began to laugh harder.
Roy, Riza, Armstrong, Havok, and Al came into the bar, Riza staring at the broken window.
"That insane bastard!" Tears formed in Ed's eyes.
"B-brother...?"
He suddenly stopped laughing. "Oh, shit."
Alright, first chapter down. No, do not call the fax or telephone number because I just typed in random numbers and crap. Anyways, how do you like Mr. Ancient Chemistry dude? I've been making comics of Ed and him for a while and I'll have them posted up soon.
R&R
-Ididntdoit07