Okay, i might stop making titles for the chapters, because i'm having a rough time thinking up ideas for the titles... anyway, if you want Light's back story, read my first book.
also, i'm going to try and make this book shorter than my other book. it took me a full year for my first book to get to where it is now, and it isn't even half done yet. and i'm thinking of making this crossover into a series.
Chapter 3: Signal.
Location: Riftside, 5 blocks from the barricade.
Character: Edward.
"Come on, how much longer until we get there? We've gone through half the city already." Edward said, looking around. He couldn't help but notice that the buildings looked very different from the ones he was used to.
"Well, I found you on the outskirts, and the place we're going to is at the center of Riftside." Light said, checking his pistol. "And besides, I have to find supplies anyway."
"Supplies? For what?" Edward asked. "And exactly what the hell were those things back there?"
"They used to be human, but... look, it's going to take a LONG time to explain what happened to this world, okay?"
"Speaking of worlds, how come you asked me if I was from this world in the first place?" Edward asked. "Everyone else I know wouldn't have asked that."
"Long story short, inter-dimensional travel isn't exactly new to me." Light said, breaking the window of an odd-looking car and looking in it. "A friend of mine is from a different dimension, along with a few friends of hers, my brother has been to a different dimension and back... well, do I really have to go on?"
"No." Edward said, wondering, Exactly what did I get myself into by trying to transmute myself? Probably a situation a lot worse than the one I was in originally, by the looks of things! Was that a zombie earlier, as in, the actual living dead that's impossible to create?
No, scratch that; i'm not in my own universe anymore. Anything could be possible here. "So... how exactly can you use Pyrokinetic skills?" Edward asked, trying to get as much information as possible. Well, Alchemists ARE scientists; might as well try to find out as much as possible about this world before I do anything stupid.
"I don't know, nor do I have any desire to know." Light answered, taking a rifle of some sort out of the car. "All I know is, i've been able to use it since I was about 3 years old, but i've had the capability to since I was born. Don't know much about how it works. Why?"
"Just curious."
Light rolled his eyes as he took a box of what looked like rifle bullets from the car. "Can I ask you something now?"
"Yeah?"
"How exactly did you learn to use Alchemy? From what I gather, it isn't something you're born with."
Ed shook his head, rubbing his arms to try and warm up; the cold was making his metal arm cold enough that the skin that was touching the steel was starting to hurt. "No, it has to be learned. Granted though, I was a bit of a prodigy; my dad was very good as using it, from what I remember, and I tried to learn how to use it myself, along with my younger brother. We learned quickly; about a week or two after we started learning, I transmuted a wood-carving of a bird from the floorboards of the house I was living in at the time." he laughed. "I haven't seen mom so impressed before then..." he stopped laughing when he thought about his mother.
"Something wrong? It's been a while since i've seen someone's expression turn depressed that quickly."
"No, nothing's wrong..." Edward walked down the street. "Anyway, can we get go -"
"Wrong way, Ed." Light grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back the other way. He tossed him a black coat. "Here, I found this in the car I found this M-16. Sorry if you don't like it; but it's better than nothing – whoa."
While Light was talking, Ed set the coat on the ground and transmuted it, turning it into a long, knee-length red trench-coat with the snake-cross design on the back. It looked almost identical to the one he always wore, except it was heavier and had a zipper on it to keep the cold out.
"Take it you like red?"
"Yep." Ed picked the coat up and put it one carefully, trying not to injure his broken arm further.
"I should probably have Will or Maria look at that arm... what exactly happened? I mean, how did you get into a fight with a HOMUNCULUS, of all things? Wait, what's a homunculus in your world?"
"An artificially made living thing that looks human, but can live hundreds of years, is a LOT stronger, often has special abilities, and can regenerate from ash."
"Oh."
"Why? What's a homunculus in this world?"
Light shuddered. "A demon that has access to ALL of the psychokinetic classes that exist. Now as you can imagine, that's powerful; one homunculus managed to take down one of the world's strongest empires single-handed in less than a week."
Ed stared. "Ohhhh... so, don't piss one off?"
"Precisely." Light continued walking, loading the rifle he had just found. "Ron might like this..."
Ed looked around, then placed his hand on a car. He transmuted the metal on it, turning it into a steel lance as tall as he was, with a black carbon-reinforced blade on one side and a hook on the other.
"Are you going to use that as a weapon?" Light asked, brushing his white hair out of his eye.
Ed nodded, and turned to follow Light down the street. He stopped when he felt a weight in one of the pocket's of his new jacket. What the... he stuck a hand inside the left pocket and felt some kind of smooth, round object in it.
He pulled the object out – and could've sworn his jaw fell a couple feet. He was holding a small, red, round glowing stone about the size of his pocket watch. Isn't this Envy's Philosopher Stone? He thought, thinking back to when he transmuted himself to get Ling and Envy out of the fake truth void.
That's right... I used Envy's Philosopher Stone to transmute myself... maybe I brought it with me by accident. That would make sense; a Philosopher Stone could have enough energy to open a rift into a different universe... how come it didn't appear until I transmuted my coat?
Actually, I just answered my own question; I transmuted my coat. Now that I think of it, there wasn't enough material on the black coat to make my old coat, yet it worked anyway. Also when I transmuted the street to make those spears, the amount of pavement I used compared to the amount of slate in the spears were disproportionate; I should've used more of the street for it, yet I didn't.
Edward looked at his spear. The surface of the car was made of a carbon based material, yet there wasn't enough of it to make this spear... I wonder... maybe when I transmuted myself, the stone... 'bonded' to me, I guess... that would account for why I'm using comparatively low amounts of material for transmuting what i've made so far; i've just been using the stone without realizing.
Ed paled. That means i've been using the people of Xerxes needlessly without noticing...
"Hey, Ed, what the hell's the holdup?"
Edward started, pocketed the stone, and ran to catch up with Light. "Nothing, nothing at all." he called, running past him. "It's this way, right?"
Character: Light.
Light watched Edward run past him and down the street towards the barricade. "Uh... yeah, it's that way." What the hell is up with him all of a sudden? Wasn't he depressed as hell a second ago?
Why should you care?
Oh no... Light kept walking, ignoring the shadow that popped up behind him. Shadow... now is NOT the time for this...
his dark half walked past him, black hair brushed back out of its face. It had its black dagger out again. "And I should care about what you think because...?" it laughed. "Oh, that's right; I DON'T!"
Light walked faster, taking his gun out. Look, just leave me the hell alone already!
"Nopety nopety no." his dark self mocked, walking up the side of a building. "You're stuck with me until you join the Dark Master. Nothing you can do about it."
Light put the gun to his own forehead. "Other than shoot myself?"
His dark side started, then frowned. "Oh come on..."
Light grinned – he found out earlier that morning that his dark side needed him alive, so putting a gun to his own head often shut it up quickly. "Where's your bravado now?"
"LIGHT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT GUN?"
oh crap... "huh?" Light pretended to be surprised, then pretended to just notice that he had a gun to his own head. "Oh..." Light hung his head. "I really need to pay more attention to what i'm doing... don't worry, it isn't loaded; i'm not about to kill myself."
Edward stared at Light with a shocked expression for a few more seconds, then slowly turned around and continued walking. Light could've sworn that Ed said something along the line of "Great, the only guy that's alive as far as I know, and he's got a thing for suicidal tendencies..."
Light let his arm drop while his dark side was almost dying from laughter. Damn it, Edward's probably thinking I am nuts now...
"And I don't blame him! You're talking to yourself, after all!" his dark side laughed harder at its little joke.
Light gritted his teeth and kept walking, trying to control the urge to turn the building his dark side is on to ash. Damn, if Scaly-Freak saw me at that moment... well, now that I think of it, didn't Cynder say that he had the same problem with his dark side?
Now that I think of it... "Ed, hold on." He said, taking a flare gun out. "Might be safer if we signal the others first."
"Others?" Edward turned around, the shocked expression replaced by a curious one now. "How many others are there in this city?"
Let's see... the paramedic, the two school kids, that old scientist, Dante, Ron, Will, Natalie, that Cheetah... I think his name was Hunter... then Cynder, that red dragon, and Scaly-Freak – and that annoying yellow dragon that won't shut up. that's... "if you're counting me and you, there's 15 people in Riftside that are still alive, and not serving some sadistic madman."
Edward started. "Okay, what exactly happened to make such a low number... and where did 'sadistic madman' come from?"
"Long story short, we're in the middle of a man-made apocalypse, alright?" Light said, firing the flare straight up into the sky, then used his telekinetic abilities to turn the red flare black with red electrical sparks flying off it at a high intensity. There. If it's a normal Flare, then they know that I need help badly. If it's throwing off electrical sparks at a very low intensity, then that means I found a good place to salvage weapons and supplies.
An odd-colored flare – in this case, black – with millions of sparks means i've found survivors that aren't allied with Cauldur. This ought'a get their attention immediately.
Character: Natalie.
"Hey, Natalie, help me out with this, would you?"
Natalie picked up a piece of sheet metal and handed it to Ron. "How long until you think that's fixed?"
Ron shrugged, welding the metal to the side of the tank they've been trying to repair for the past couple days now. "Who the hell knows? It's too beat up."
"Well, it was worth asking..." Natalie looked around. "I wonder if Light's okay..."
"Well, I wouldn't mind if he disappeared."
Natalie started, then spun around while leaping away from Spyro, who was standing behind her. "D-don't do that!" she yelled, backing up.
Spyro looked puzzled for a second. "Is something wrong?"
Cynder walked up to him and placed a paw on his shoulder. "Um... Spyro, don't you think there should be something that you need to be doing?"
Spyro started and looked at her. "Well, I -"
"Hey, look." Ron said, looking out over the city.
Natalie looked over to where Ron was pointing; there was a large, black flare in the sky, shooting off blood-red sparks all over the place.
Ron's jaw dropped. "Holy crap..."
Spyro looked at him. "Something wrong?"
Ron shook his head, then turned around and started calling everybody.
Cynder looked at Natalie. "Um, Natalie, what does that flare mean?"
Natalie was looking around for Angie. "It means Light found survivors. As in, not zombies or mutants or anything."
Spyro immediately jumped into the air and flew toward the flare, Cynder going after him shortly after.
Natalie charged toward where Ron was getting an SUV ready. "Wait for me!"
