The train pulled into Central Station and the Elric brothers disembarked alongside their new, if oddly met, friend. Tomoyo stepped out onto the train platform, a bag slung over his shoulder, gazing in awe at the sights around him. He'd never been out to Central like this! Grinning, giddy, the young man seemed to dance in place, overjoyed. Ed, meanwhile, side-eyed the older man with a mix of irritation and amusement.
"Excited to be here, eh?" Ed asked.
"Totally!" Tomoyo exclaimed, his grin widening even further. "This is the coolest thing ever! I can't wait to take my alchemy exam!"
It almost reminded Ed of himself when he had come to take his own exam. He let out a sigh and shook his head, empathy getting the better of him. "Yeah, well, it's going to be early in the morning so you'll need your rest."
"Oh." Tomoyo paused and touched a finger to his chin. "...I should probably find somewhere to rest then, huh?"
Ed and Al blinked. "Wait, you don't have a place to stay?" The younger sibling asked.
Tomoyo turned and looked at the two, then smiled sheepishly. "Eh heh... no, not exactly..."
Ed groaned, bringing a hand to cover his face. "Man, I can't believe this..." He muttered and then snatched a handful of his traveling partner's shirt, tugging him along. "Come on, I'll put you up for tonight!" He explained. "But you owe me once you pass your exam and start getting you allowance, you hear me?!"
Tomoyo blinked, trying not to stumble as the much smaller blond boy pulled him along. A squiggly smile scrunched up his face as he fought against it. It was nice to have friends.
Early bed, early to rise; the young State Alchemist-to-be was up and ready to take on his exam. Overly eager, he'd arrived over half an hour earlier than he was expected. However, despite the good wishes and a little advice from the Elric brothers, Tomoyo failed his exam.
Dejected and angry, he skulked out of the building, his hands shoved into his pockets. An Elric was on either side of him, trying to comfort him the best that they could.
"There's always next time, Tomoyo." Al said, laying a big armored hand on his shoulder.
"Tch." Tomoyo scowled and in a fit of rage, spun around and leaped into the air. His leg snapped forward, striking the younger brother's helmet and sending it flying into the dirt.
"Hey-" Ed started, but Tomoyo was on him before he could react to the strange and sudden (and very unwarranted) assault. He grasped the older brother by his automail arm and yanked hard, dragging him along into a spin. Blue energy crackled through Ed's arm as Tomoyo transmuted it, dismantling and tearing it completely off. Off-balance by momentum and his disconnected arm, Ed stumbled and fell to the ground.
He growled, glaring up at Tomoyo as he approached. The ends where it had been severed were jagged and sharp, showing just how quick and sloppy the alchemy had been. Menacingly standing over the State Alchemist, Tomoyo raised the shattered arm up and then thrust it forward, toward Ed's shoulder.
However, the metal did not pierce flesh; instead, a large spider was skewered on a protruding piece of sharpened metal.
"Poisonous," Tomoyo stated, lifting up the broken arm and examining the deceased arachnid. It's legs were curled inwards and a sickly dark purple liquid was dripping down the steel.
With a sigh, he prepared to transmute Ed's arm back into place and repair it. However the sounds of rapidly approaching footsteps caught his attention from somewhere behind him. He didn't have time to turn around before something struck him hard in the left shoulder and he heard a disgusting crack noise. Tomoyo stumbled forward, narrowly managing to avoid tripping over Ed, his left arm going slack and dropping the dismantled automail arm. It clattered, bouncing away.
Tomoyo reached up and grasped his wounded shoulder, eyes wide. It felt like someone had set the inside of his arm on fire.
What the hell?! He thought and turned around. There was a man in a purple jumpsuit, a large military rifle in his hands. Cheap shotting bastard snuck up on me!
With an infuriated grunt, Tomoyo kicked outwards with all his might, but missed as the man retreated; he was too clumsy from the disorientation of what was surely a fractured shoulder bone to get into proper stance. His shoulder twinged every time he moved and agony rippled through his entire body now, starting with his shoulder and flowing outwards.
There was no time to recover before the attacker retaliated. He lifted his leg and the thick leather of his sole slammed against Tomoyo's face. He fell back, screaming out in pain as he tumbled onto his wounded arm.
"Tomoyo!" Ed screamed. Bleary from the pain, his eyes could barely focus on him trying to stand and help before his line of sight was blocked by the man.
Just you wait until I get back up, you blue eyed son of a-
The slurred thought wasn't complete before the butt of the rifle was brought down on his face.
Drip. Splat. Drip. Splat. Drip. Splat.
Something was dripping.
Drip. Splat.
Onto his face.
Tomoyo winced and his eyes slowly fluttered open, just in time to see a drop fall from somewhere above him, splashing onto his forehead. His vision was fuzzy - from his injuries or from the water, he couldn't really tell - but he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Opening them again, he looked up and spotted more clearly what looked to be a giant metal tube with a ball lodged into the end. It looked like a giant version of a water feeder used for small animals, he realized.
Well, that doesn't bode well... He thought.
Sitting up earned him a painful shock, but he ignored it. Edward and Alphonse Elric were chained to the wall directly in front of him.
Oh, and that is worse.
"Ed, Al!" Tomoyo shouted at them.
He tried to stand, but all that accomplished was another, much worse wave of pain radiating from his shoulder. He hissed and ran his fingers over the wound, wincing once more as he confirmed the fracture. "Damn it," he groaned. At least it's fixable. He took a deep breath and clenched his teeth as he prepared himself.
Gently, he reached down with his right hand and touched the steel of his automail to the soft flesh of his left hand. He reached up to his left shoulder, clasped it, and transmuted the bone back together. It hurt like hell, especially since he didn't have a particularly large amount of knowledge of medical alchemy, but it was necessary if he wanted to get anywhere.
With both arms now functioning, he made short work of the chain around his ankle then went over to Edward and Alphonse, who were waking up.
"Are you guys alright?" Tomoyo asked, clapping his hands together.
"Yeah, we're fine." Al said.
"What about you?" Ed asked.
The chains that once bound all of them became a rudimentary replacement for Ed's arm, then Tomoyo went to the door. It was locked from the outside, but that was no trouble to an alchemist. He opened it - explosively - and the three of them rushed out into the hall. Eight guards were already on their way.
Tomoyo lunged forward in a wide stance, striking outwards with his right fist in a quick jab. The metal of his arm easily broke the man's nose and before he could even register the pain, Tomoyo stabbed downwards with his hand, fingers curling around the guards throat. He kicked down at his ankle, throwing the guard off, and used his own body weight to slam him into the ground.
Ed and Al were already making short work of the next closest guards with a flurry of practiced martial arts Tomoyo didn't recognize. Another guard attacked and Tomoyo defeated him with a single kick to the head. In just a few seconds, only one guard remained who was backing away, going for his sidearm. Tomoyo rushed forward, smashing the palm of his automail painfully into the wrist that had the pistol, and then swung his left elbow forward into the guards cheek. He dropped to the floor, sidearm sliding away.
"Let's go," Ed said, taking the lead.
Spotting his katana out of the corner of his eye, leaning against a desk at the end of the hall, Tomoyo retrieved it before following after the Elric brothers.
The sounds of fighting led the three of them out of the building they had been kept in. They were still in Central. None other than Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang and Major Alex Louis Armstrong, two renowned State Alchemist, and the famous sharpshooter Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye were fighting against the same men who had attacked the trio earlier. Ed, Al and Tomoyo quickly rushed across the open area to them.
"Alphonse Elric," Mustang greeted them with a sly smile. "Where's Ed at- oh, there he is." The Colonel smirked. "I almost didn't see him, he's so short."
Tomoyo pinched his lips together, trying desperately not to laugh. Judging by the look on his face, Ed probably would have already been attempting to strangle the other officer if it weren't for their situation.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tomoyo caught a flash of purple moving towards the group. He darted out quickly in front of the intended target - Hawkeye - and in a flash had his automail hand transmuted into a drill. The sharpened, spinning head smashed into the barrel of the attacker's gun, shredding through it. His blue eyes widened in surprise and he stepped back, tossing his ruined weapon aside. Tomoyo recognized him, the same bastard who had knocked him out earlier.
"You?! Shit-" The man must have recognized him right back.
He went for his sidearm, but the alchemist was quicker. He smashed his drill over the man's head and, just for good measure, gave him a swift kick to the stomach after he'd collapsed. "Serves ya right, asshole." He mumbled.
Hawkeye flashed a smile in his direction. "Thanks for having my back, kid." Warmth flooded Tomoyo's cheeks, but only for a fleeting moment. They were in the middle of a battle, there was no time to be embarrassed.
The glint of a scope tipped Tomoyo off to the next threat. Snipers on the roof!
The other scattered and he sprinted towards the building that the marksmen were hiding on. He transmuted his automail back into a functioning limb along the way. An alchemically formed set of platforms allowed him to leap up the side of the building before they noticed. But the landing alerted the first sniper, who lifted his rifle. But with so little distance between them, there wasn't much time to aim. The bullet smashed into Tomoyo's automail shoulder. It hurt, but it hadn't pierced through, just dented it. He stumbled, falling briefly to one knee.
Luckily, it seemed the man's rifle had jammed.
The sniper threw his rifle aside and was on his way to standing up, attempting to run away, but his pursuer was too quick. A quick elbow jab to the jaw brought him to the floor, unconscious. All this commotion, however, had only alerted the next closest sniper. But the time Tomoyo turned his attention towards him, the man was already drawing a sub machine gun.
He dove to the side as the sniper fired, bullets tearing up the tiles that had been beneath Tomoyo's feet. The only safety to be found was the outcropping structure around a set of stairs that led to and from the roof to the main part of the rest of the building. Despite his target taking cover, the man didn't stop firing until he ran out of bullets. It was then that Tomoyo sprung out from his hiding spot and charged.
An uppercut sent the man rolling backwards, head over heels, and he landed in a heap. The next shooter didn't notice Tomoyo until he was too close for him to defend himself and was, quite literally, stomped out. Scoffing, he kicked the unconscious man off of the build and to the ground below. After several long seconds, he groaned and twitched, which was good enough for Tomoyo.
With the last of the snipers defeated, he jumped down off the roof only to land on top of another man. They both fell to the ground and Tomoyo rolled away. He groaned as he sat up rubbing his head. He looked at the person he had landed on and blinked. This guy wasn't dressed like the others; he had on leather pants, a furred vest and spiky hair. When he stood up, Tomoyo noticed he had a pair of sunglasses, one lens which was cracked.
"What the hell was that for, man?!" Sunglasses yelled, scowling.
Before he could answer, Tomoyo felt something pulling on the collar of his shirt and he was lifted off the ground by a man twice his size. On one side was a blonde woman with distinct lips and slicked back hair, on the other was a shorter man in a white shirt with a nifty looking katana. The large man had a large hammer in his other hand, staring down at the young alchemist menacingly.
Tomoyo smiled sheepishly and raised his arms in a shrug. "Eh heh... sorry about that."
"Tch, whatever, it's alright," Sunglasses huffed, waving a hand dismissively. "Put him down, we gotta go."
The big guy responded and dropped him none so gently. Without another word, Sunglasses and his posse took off. Tomoyo stood up again, grumbling to himself. "Who the hell were those guys..?"
Turning backward toward the fight still going on in Central Headquarters, another man caught his attention. This guy was clearly with the attackers, but he was different. Both hands were folded over the top end of a black cane and he was clad in a fancy looking purple suit. A eye patch covered his left eye, reminding Tomoyo briefly of Führer Bradley. His one eyed focused in on the alchemist and a smile formed on his face.
Author's Note: Apparently I had a thing for cliff-hangers back when I first wrote this because, uh... they show up a lot. Hope you like 'em as much as I did!