Title: Alchemical Trader
Chapter One: Waking Up Call
Disclaimer: I don't own Warhammer, nor do I own Harry Potter, so don't sue me
-There will be elements of Fullmetal Alchemist in this story such as the alchemy and possibly Homunculus that will come later so this is a disclaimer for such a thing though there will be no characters from the series.
-I am a free writer, and I write when I feel like it, I am not on a schedule, so therefore updates will be infrequent.
-If I lose interest in this story I might just stop writing all together, though in the future I may find interest in it again and then take up updating it then.
-There may be lemons, profane language, character/death, prostitution, possibly torture or abuse, lying, and probably other sins. If this bothers you then don't read. You have been warned.
-The main character may participate in polygamy/bigamy, extramarital relations, and other acts of sexuality, though no homosexuality, so if this bothers you then don't read.
XXX
This is a rough draft which means I may go back and clean it up, make it more detailed, fix some errors, or clear up some details.
XXX
Deep inside even the Underhive of Verdigris IX was a small chamber that had existed long before the current inhabitants of the planet moved in. During the Dark Age of Technology when humans had reached their zenith technologically. Originally the room was a small workshop dedicated to researching Xeons technology. One such object was a queer cube found in the Isles of Great Britain found even before the Golden Age of Technology.
The cube which was immune to damage from practically any device even during such a technologically advanced age was studied rigorously yet for all the efforts made into figuring out even what it did went without results. Eventually it as would the facility would fall out of memory during the Age of Strife never to be remembered yet to always remain structurally perfect.
Nearly thirty thousand years after its initial discovery by the first human to find it the device began to move. Emerald green lines danced across its perfectly symmetrical form creating a pattern of interconnected lines. Eventually at the top of the small cube an emerald green light began to shine creating a perfect circle. The light was so intense that the small room which had not seen light in nearly twenty thousand years was illuminated chasing off practically all of the shadows.
When the light died down the cube remained only now inert. The rune-like symbols which had glowed such a bright green were no longer visible. The circle which had created the impressive flash was now gone as well. All that remained was a perfectly silver cube sitting next to a human who had not been there previously.
"Uhg!" The young man rubbed his eyes lazily for a moment before standing to his feet. "What the hell is going on?" The last thing he could remember was researching an odd cube he had found amongst some ruins while working with the Department of Mysteries. He most certainly hadn't been in a place as ruined as this one.
Looking around the room he couldn't even guess what it had originally been used for. His enhanced eyesight caught every minute detail which is how he came to the conclusion that everything present was only being supported by hopes and dreams. Literally things that had once been wood were now just piles of dust on the ground. Even the metal tables where now just rusted pegs on the ground. Practically everything was just a ruin.
Looking down he noticed something that was familiar to him. It was a silvery cube about the size of the average human's fist. There wasn't anything obviously special about it as it was just a perfect cube. What he did remember was a multitude of the fascinating things he had learned while examining it such as its practical imperviousness to mundane damage, its ability to regenerate, and its seemingly impervious nature to time.
"All I remember is a bright green flash…" He looked down at the cube. Leaning over he reached out and picked the object up in his right hand. "Perhaps it's some kind of teleportation device?" He looked around the room. "If so then it was keyed to a very crappy place. I can't imagine anyone wanting to be here." He looked over and noticed a door at the far end of the room.
"Where does that go?" That question would set into motion something that no one could have ever suspected.
XXX
Having crawled through a crack in the bedrock Harry found himself walking through a shanty town. Everything was broken, not a window or piece of glass had survived however long this place had existed. Most of the homes were back to back tents put up with sticks for support and cloths sewn together for some modicum of shelter.
The people were no less depressing. Even if he were absent his entire memory he was sure that he would know these people were not normal. Most of them were roughly humanoid with at least one defining physical alteration. The most extreme one however was over seven feet tall with hardened skin similar to a crustacean. His right arm was massive with his hand melded into some kind of crab claw facsimile.
What was the most shocking however was the sky, or the lack there of. A solid slab of stone held up by beams and stole columns with chunks missing were scattered about the under-city supporting the roof. Wherever he was it was fair to speculate he was underground. What was amazing was the size of the room. It had to stretch over five kilometers yet no end could be seen.
As soon as they saw him they all stopped what they were doing. Their eyes held varying degrees of emotions though most of them if not all were negatives. What made it worse were their eyes. Some of them had only two but most of them had more or less, some were stuck on tentacles, and others still were more bizarre. Cat-like slits, no pupils, even hollowed out eye sockets were something held by these strange people.
"Uh, hey?" Harry had been walking down the street when they started to swarm him. An end result was that he was surrounded by these oddities. "Can I do something for you?"
"Oh yea you can do something for us." One standing off to the side with three eyes, each stuck on tentacles sticking out of his face, with patchwork brown hair got inside his personal space. "I haven't eaten the flesh of a surface dweller in such a long time." He grinned showing rows of filed down teeth.
"Back off!" The largest which also happened to be the one with the crustacean hand practically swatted the spindly man aside. "He's mine!"
"You ate three days ago!" Another one, this one the smallest yet with skin that appeared to be wrinkles on top of wrinkles. Her voice was raspy yet retained a hint of femininity. "I saw you roasting him on your fire! We need to eat as well!" Her face scrunched up in a facsimile of a grimace which made her eyeless face all the more horrifying to look upon.
The mutants began to argue amongst their number. More and more seemed to show up until their numbers stretched beyond the normal scope of human eyesight. It began to get even more violent over time with some of them pushing others while the rest threatened the next with more and more horrifying things that they would do to them should they not back off. The more they argued amongst themselves the more they seemed to forget Harry was there.
Worry had begun to grip the young man. He was surrounded on all sides by strangely disfigured people all talking about killing each other and how they wanted to eat him. He backed up slowly more and more until he accidentally bumped into a burning metal bin. The contents fell over and onto one of the buildings that had been close by.
The building caught fire instantly. The ancient materials long since dried out creating the perfect kindling for the flames to spread. In a moment a raging fire over ten stories high light the entire room like a beacon in the desolate place. The flames were not content with just the building. Soon they spread to neighboring buildings, homes, hovels, trash, and materials that were scattered amongst the place without any sense of order.
The screams of the dying being burned alive in their homes, the roaring flames finding the perfect environment to spread, and the coughs of those being suffocated by the intense smoke and toxins filling the air became like a physical force. It hit everyone all at once. It was so intense even the mutants who had lived in perpetual squalor where you had to fight over ever scrap were caught like moths.
It was only momentary however. Soon the eyes so filled with hatred and pain that had defined their entire lives turned towards Harry. Before any of them could attack he took off. His speed was faster than any normal human could produce but that didn't discourage the mutants chasing him. They were far too caught up in their bloodlust to notice or care about such a thing.
XXX
Commissar Ostian had ended up in command of the regiment he was assigned to not six months ago. The previous leader who had been so old he should have retired yet had stayed on due to his elderly stubbornness. He got to die in battle as it was his desire but it left both leading and motivating the regiment to Ostian alone. His youth mixed in with the limited amount of time he had served with the regiment no doubt left many of the men with an unease not so easily cured.
After some of the Orks had been able to break through the defensive positions on the eastern side of the city he and his men had put in double time to mitigate the damages. A hive world was nothing short of a cramped maze giving the invaders limitless hiding places for which they could attack. It was sheer dumb luck that the notoriously simple minded species were attacking towers going from the bottom upwards.
Because of this the spread of the Orks was very limited. With a map of the city he and his men were able to surround the Orks cutting off all angles of retreat while gaining maximum firing positions.
They butchered the Orks as the Orks had butchered every human that they had come across. Plasma weapon were especially useful when dealing with Orks as they had an uncanny ability to heal most grievous wounds. The plasma on the other hand cauterized the wounds prevent the regeneration process. Still they were extremely touch xenos monsters whose natural hardiness let them shrug off all but the most debilitating wounds.
Everything had been going perfectly. That was until a massive explosion took out at least ten city blocks leaving nothing but an opened hole in the earth. The hole had holes inside of it as well where the city continued downwards as it had been built up. Holes for stairs, support beams, and where stone roofs had been obliterated shone through. Oddly, though none noticed due to the battle, faint wisps of smoke rose from these holes.
With the explosion a quarter of Commissar Ostian's forces were taken out as well. The Orks took even more damage than their human enemies but now a breach in the offensive was made allowing them to swarm in. Now they were gaining ground trying to circle round so as to attack from a vantage point that would make Ostian's position a negative instead of a positive one.
Had that only been the extent of things Ostian was sure they would come out only a bit worse for wear. But the outer wall that edged the city had been a key defensive position for the Mechanicum's Skitarii legion. With the mechanical soldiers destroyed and the wall a crumbled ruin Orks poured into the city like an evil green tidal wave.
In truth things seemed lost. Only a Commissar such as Ostian who held absolute faith in the Emperor which bordered on delusional to reality did not tremble in fear. He simply barked new orders to the men to get them into better firing positions. One of the men, a younger recruit probably taken from some backwater world came up with him his lasgun shaking in his hand.
"Sir, we must retreat!" The men nearby seemed to be listening while pretending not to. "If we don't the Orks will kill us! We have to escape to one of the other Hive Cities!"
BANG!
The older Imperial Guards looked away unsurprised while the fresher ones could only stare with hanging jaws. The soldier who had been vocalizing retreat looked down at his gut. His clothes were turning red from the blood pouring out of his midsection. The laspistol still in the Commissar's hand was still smoking after the fired shot. The Imperial Soldier fell to his knees momentarily before the life left his eyes. He was dead in moment.
"There is no retreat!" Ostian turned to the rest of his men. There was fear in their eyes which was good. "We are the Hammer of the Emperor! We deliver his will to the heretic, the xenos, and the traitors! We will dishonor his sacrifice by turning our backs as Xenos slaughter our fellow humans! Now to arms me! Let's send these monsters back to hell!"
The Imperial Guards were uplifted by his motivational speech. Thoughts of the Imperial Soldier who had previously been killed in cold blood were ignored for he was now a traitor who would have abandoned the people of the Imperium giving the Xenos scum the satisfaction of them running in retreat. Now they were ready even to die in the Emperors name.
Commissar Ostian was happy they were inspired by his speech. It was commonly known by the Commissars that the regiments that retreat or turned often killed the Commissar attached to their regiment. Half of that was because the Commissar would never run and would try to kill anyone who did. The other half was because the soldiers partially hated the harsh rule that was imposed on them, though it was necessary, to keep them in line. Ostian was just happy at the moment to be alive.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
Ostian and his men turned even while they were moving to secure better firing position. The sounds of screams was not absent the battlefield. Dying soldiers, dying Xenos, and even dying civilians filled the city like a cacophony of music for the dead. The reason that they turned back was due to the echo that accompanied it. That and the vibration that was strong enough to even shake the stone upon the floor in ways the massive Orks hadn't been capable of.
To the Commissar's shock from one of the holes leading down to the Underhive portion of the city did a young man in his early twenties to late teens came running out screaming at the top of his lungs. The Ork hoards saw this and laughed in their deep murderous tones momentarily before something amazing happened.
From practically every hole created by the Ork's offensive weapons did mutants run out in angry revolt. Like water coming from a hose they poured out from the Underhives in the hundreds, then the thousands, before the number grew into the hundreds of thousands to possibly millions. The mutants that were reviled by the people of all Hive Cities were now rushing out crashing into the Orks like a tidal wave of mutant flesh biting, cutting, shooting, bashing, and just generally killing anything that got in their way.
The angle that they came out of was truly a god-send. Directed directly at the invading Orks the mutants became the ultimate shock troopers for the Imperial Guard. Even unarmed, in general, their sheer numbers allowed for them to push back the green Xenos.
Neither the Orks nor Ostian were idle however. The Orks had grabbed their weapons and began firing into the mutant hoard. Their bullets exploded mutants sending flesh, blood, and bones everywhere but for every one they killed two more too their place. For once the Orks knew how other races felt when fighting them.
Ostian had his snipers take the perfect positions from the widows of spires while the standard men using Lasguns shot from balconies, ledges, or roof tops. The Orks who were largest, which meant they were in charge, where generally the ones they aimed to pick off. However some of the mutants tried to spread out and attack the humans. These had to be killed as well. Ostian tried to kill as few mutants as possible for to rile them up against the Imperial Guard was to spell doom for the entire Hive City for certainty.
Even as he was directing his men Commissar Ostian made a mental note that if the young man survived, and he himself did as well, that he would thank him for the services he did for the entire planet. And if things turned out in their favor he would lobby his damndest to see the youth rewarded as he should. Possibly the Planetary Governor of some backwater world. People had been given more for less after all.
XXX
Luck had initially been on Harry's side. Even as he ran through the forest of green muscle slabs he was not caught or even harmed regardless of how many tried. The dark sounds coming from them which he had realized was laughing did not help matters in the least. He didn't slow down though. The maddening screams of the disfigured humans who had been chasing him for over two hours were still deafeningly loud. He was almost thankful for the green monsters which were slowing the mutants down.
He cut left down a dark alley on a dime in the hope of throwing off any pursuers. His goal was to find a safe place to hide until all of the dangerous elements were gone. His search for a safe place to hide is how things started to get worse for Harry.
A massive contraption of metal roughly hewn in the shape of a tank rolled down the street before momentarily stopping right in front of him. The back opened with a loud echoing clang as metal hit concrete. Believing it to be a human vehicle come to save civilians Harry rushed around its enormous side to run up the ramp.
When he got to the opening however his heart tank. The biggest one of the green creatures was standing there looking at him. The Ork was a very dark green armed with two strange weapons in each hand while being covered in mismatched metal all over his body. The metal reminded him of knightly armor, a very poor knight who couldn't afford anything but mismatched armor, but still a knight.
"Sorry," began Harry. "Wrong tank."
The largest of the Orks made that deep sound once again before grabbing hold of his shirt. It lifted him off of the ground before violently slamming him onto the metallic floor of the Orkish tank.
Deep ringing echoed through the tank as the massive Ork moved back and forth slamming his quarry into the floor, lifting him up, then slamming him into the wall only to repeat the process. After a few cycles of blurred movement, the shirt that had been used as a handhold ripped apart. With tremendous force Harry's body was sent flying through the air. It only came to a stop after reaching the far side wall. The thump of flesh on metal was followed by low chuckles from the other Orks.
The small green-skinned creature drew in the largest one's attention. They began to discuss between themselves in a primitive language while the small one gestured to a device the size of its head. They began to argue back and forth while pointing at it. The smaller one squeaked a bit as the larger one made a threatening growl.
Before a conclusion could be made one side of the metal tank was blow inwards by a strange type of energy weapon. From the dust kicked up by the blast came elegant humanoids clad in black armor. They were riding a strange type of hover vehicle that made almost no sound as they floated through their air.
The one in the center pointed a strange looking weapon at the Ork leader. "That belongs to me." She didn't even give it a chance to retort before pulling the trigger and killing it.
The Orks cried out in rage as their leader was killed by an Eldar energy weapon. They grabbed their shootas and choppas preparing for a revenge fight. The Eldar did not give them the chance to gain the momentum. Like blurs of darkness they moved through the massive ramshackle tank cutting down the brutish creatures one by one. As the last Ork fell the smaller subspecies tried to run away holding onto its prize. It was only able to take three steps before a flash of darkness turned its head into dust.
"Looks like we were able to retrieve the device." The tone of the Eldar was distorted by the helmets they wore.
"Yes," spoke the female voice from the one in the center holding the device. "With this my position will no doubt be assured."
The Eldar revealed in their successes. The female held the device like some sort of trophy. Yet like the rest of his day these people would not be resting easy. A rocket of some sort hit the tank's flank where the hole ended. The explosion sent fire, dust, and shrapnel in every direction.
Smoke obscured everyone's vision. As they all began recovering a crude war cry went up as fifteen Orks came rushing in through the breach. The surprise caught the Eldar unawares. In an instant two of them were blasted to pieces by massive reactive rounds. Three of the other Reavers recovered quickly enough to begin a deadly exchange. One Ork lost his head, another was blasted to pieces, and another caught a poisoned shard to the chest so powerful that its skin began to wither away like a rotting fruit.
The female leading the group was further back. She had caught more of the explosion than most. As she stood to engage the Orks she gasped in pain. In her side was a jagged piece of shrapnel bleeding profusely. The damage made it impossible to carry the device and her weapon. Eventually she sat it down before grabbing her weapon to finish off the Orks.
As she joined the fray the last two Eldar met their ends. One was cut in half back a choppa while fighting another. The other Eldar was caught. His cries of pain were silenced as the Ork crushed him in its mighty grasp. A new battle cry went up like a wailing banshee as the female moved from the side blasting Ork continuously. She killed three more before the last two caught her. In a similar position to her fellow Eldar she was held closely but was then slammed into the ground with bone shattering force.
Off in the distance the battle was being watched closely by Harry. He had survived the Ork-handling he had received earlier with no physical damage. While he didn't know why this was it did seem something that should not be. He had chosen to play dead to gather information about what was going on. But, he could not watch as a woman was killed in such a brutal manner.
The Ork went to pick up the prone woman to slammer her again. Harry looked around and noticed that amongst all the crude weapons the Orks had there was one of a different make. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie, but he didn't have time to think on that.
Reaching down he pried the weapon from the Ork's hands. With a deft motion he lifted the weapon up and sighted his target. In an instant everything seemed to slow down. His perception was honed beyond anything it had been before. It took only a moment to line up the shot. With that he pulled the trigger.
An odd reverberating sound emanated from the gun as a strange gray ripple came out. The ripple hit the Ork square in the chest. The effect was something akin to a sledgehammer. The Ork's chest was caved in as its body was sent flying backwards. It hit the adjacent wall with such force that its skin split apart coating the metal plating with blood.
The remaining two Orks turned towards him. Just as their tiny brains began to process what had happened the trigger was pulled twice. They received the same treatment as the first one adding more blood to the wall. The force was so great that it stuck them where they stopped like bugs on a truck grill.
Harry turned away from the macabre scene to focus in on the woman. He moved to her side placing the odd weapon down, but still within arm's reach. His eyes immediately took note of the shrapnel injury. The blood pooling out became an immediate concern. If it was lest to be then she would no doubt die.
His hands began to ghost over the armor looking for a way to remove it. As he touched the material an instinctive understanding ran up his spine. He paused, not sure what it was. After a moment it was no longer important. His body just seemed to know what it was doing and soon she was out of the armor. As he removed her helmet his mind froze up.
Wow, thought Harry as he looked at her.
She was undoubtedly the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Her long-sculpted face was pale as marble with features seemingly carved from said stone. Her eyes were closed, but it did nothing to detract from her beauty. Even her hair, which was black as night, fell past her shoulders like a casting shadow. It took him a moment to snap out of his stupor.
He placed two fingers where he assumed her pulse would be. For all he knew an Elf's pulse may be in her nose. Unlikely but still possible. He felt it, a faint beating in her neck. She was still alive but very badly injured.
Getting over how beautiful she was he moved down to her side. The metal shard sticking out of her had created a very grisly wound reminiscent of an animal attack. It was just as much torn as it was cut creating far more damage. Luckily for her the hot piece of metal had no doubt cauterized the wound in some areas possibly saving her life.
He wasn't sure how Elf biology worked. He was hoping that it was like humans or what he was going to do may just kill her. Focusing on his own heartbeat he willed his powers to work. Suddenly red electrical sparks danced across his hands and onto her body. The metal shard was instantly forced out. Before she could even begin to bleed out the wound which had been so terrible regenerated instantly.
Examining his handy work, he couldn't help but be proud. After all, in Hogwarts it was all about magic. Ironic that my expertise lay in Alchemy. After his first year at Hogwarts, after he saved the Philosopher's Stone, Nicholas Flamel had willed his vast collection on alchemy, including the philosopher's stone, to him. From then on out it was what Harry had loved more than anything else. The irony that Alchemy isn't even a magical ability was not lost on me even then.
Unfortunately, due to his inner thoughts he didn't notice his patient was stirring until a powerful grip tightened around his throat forcing him to the ground. The cold edge of a blade soon pressed against his throat freezing the young man up. When he looked up it was into the powerful eyes of the elf he had just saved.
"What did you do human!" Her voice was as beautiful as she was yet held a tone that promised endless pain should he displease her.
"I healed you!" He held up his hand in the universal sign of surrender.
She looked at him curiously. Slowly she turned to her side where her wound had been. The hand she had been choking him went down to the perfectly healed skin. Her fingers ghosted across it ever so tenderly checking for illusions or some such trick. After seemingly finding the result satisfactory she looked back at him.
"You healed me?" The question hung in the air regardless of what was going on outside the vehicle.
"Yes!" He glanced down at the knife at his throat.
"I have never seen such flawless regenerative techniques outside of Commoragh. Is this a result of the STC?" Her eyes widened. She looked around cursing under her breath. "Damn!"
"What?"
"Those damned Orks!" Her face did not change in her rage yet something dark entered her eyes. It was like an endless void of shadows though somehow this didn't deduct from her beauty. "They broke it!" Looking down the device she and the Orks had been fighting over was in fact destroyed. It had to be in at least a hundred different pieces with half of them under one of the Orks body.
Before she could go on a rampage more of the elves showed up on their jetbikes. They all bowed to her even from their jetbikes yet she was in no mood. She casually brushed them off as she jumped onto the one offered to her.
"The mission was a success!" She spoke to her people with more joy than Harry suspected her to have. "The High Fabricator on this world is dead and the precious STC they were searching for is now too destroyed for any of these lesser creatures to repair. Let us return to Commoragh in victory!"
The elves cheered though one turned to look at Harry directly. "And what of this human? Shall we kill him or bring him back with us? I am sure the Haemonculi would surely enjoy him." The tone alone made Harry wish he had that strange gun in hand.
The female elf looked at him with an unreadable face. "No, our mission here is complete." She directed her speech to Harry. "Take your life and your freedom as your reward for the services you did me this day. Do not get it confused for next time I shall show you no mercy."
As she was trying to leave Harry called out to her. "What?" Her demand was cold.
"What is your name?" She looked at him oddly. "I just want to know. My name is Harry Potter."
"Aurelia Malys." That was all she said as she and her companions fled the Hive City.
XXX
Harry continued to hide inside the massive tank. He had no real reason other than it seemed the most defensive. He did take to hiding himself though. If someone did come then he wouldn't be a sitting duck.
"Aurelia Malys…" The name slipped off of his tongue like silk. "Not a bad name."
A sudden cry came out of the distance. Harry turned in the direction straining his hears to pick up any other sounds. A low chuckle he had come to recognize was immediately followed by a few more shots. Knowing that someone was in trouble forced to go help.
He jumped down from the Ork tank to the ground without making a sound. He ducked down while moving through the war-torn streets. After navigating a hundred feet of broken glass and looted stores he found three Orks standing over a strange man in red robes. They were amusing themselves by torturing the… human?
Harry looked closely and saw that the man was more than a little augmented with mechanical bits. His entire face had a metal place while several broken clamps sprouted out of his back. His left arm was missing as was his right leg. One of them had fortunately been mechanical, the other not so much. Now blood was mixing with hydraulic fluids on the street.
One of the Orks decided to shoot off his other leg. A mechanically recorded cry came from the machine man. The other Orks were enjoying themselves immensely. One even stepped forward baring his own weapon menacingly. No doubt hoping to do some minor damage himself before sending the metal man to the next life.
Just as he leveled the weapon at the red robbed man a blast caught his unawares. The other Orks were quickly following him as concussive force destroyed their bodies. They were pushed through a concrete wall not too far aware.
Harry looked around to make sure there were no more Orks. When the coast was clear he made his way to the metal man. What he found did not look good. Half of his body had been reduced to machine parts. The other half had been ruptured due to severe blunt force trauma. There was no way he was going to survive on his own.
As a million and one thoughts ran through his head a thought occurred to him. A possibility of saving this man, in a sense, and helping himself. In all the confusion Harry had been able to block out that he had no idea what was going on. Now that he had a moment to himself questions, worry, and doubt began to plague him. Nothing seemed familiar to him. It was made very clear to him the numerous times someone or thing tried to kill him in the last few hours that he needed to know what was going on.
"Consider what is to come payment for saving your life."
With that Harry clapped his hands together. Focusing his mind to the potential energy in matter he placed his hand onto the tech-priest's back. Immediately red sparks of energy began to arc out in every direction. After a moment the man's body started to glow red. A few second later his entire physical mass had been transformed into a ball of red energy.
Taking this energy and molding it into a new shape allowed Harry to create something new. When the arcs of energy finally died down a man was left lying on the ground. Covering him were the robes from his previous life. Now they were all that kept his dignity intact.
Harry watched as his creation's eyes opened for the first time. "Good, you are awake. There is much we need to discuss."
