~Third Person~
Artie slams her hands on the wall in front of her. She starts hyperventilating, her face flushed bright pink.
'...she brings his face even closer and gives him a peck on the lips...'
"What the hell are you doing?!" Artie yells at herself. She slumps down on the ground, drawing circles in the dirt. Yes, she just did that, kissed and impostor; and yes, she did quite enjoy his embarrassed look when she skittered away.
"What're you doing down there?" Ed asks, him and Al peering over the distraught girl. He offers her a hand up, which she cautiously accepts.
'I understand your remorse for your parents, but isn't it time to live your own life?'
"Listen, have you seen that impostor around anywhere? I swear, when I see his face, I'm gonna bash it in so hard his head'll be peeking out of his ass!" Edward yells to the world. Artie just ignores the brothers and heads home. Neither of them make an effort to go after her, despite her sluggish speed. They watch her black hair bob up and down until it was out of sight.
"What the heck is her problem?" Ed asks Al. Al, knowing his brother, began to chuckle at how thickheaded he can be to women.
"Maybe she's a little upset that last night not only did you refuse to help her out after all her months of tracking us down, but you also crushed all of her hopes and dreams left behind by her late parents?" Al says sarcastically. To Al's surprise, Ed only lets out a small apologetic sigh.
"I guess we should chase after her then, huh?" Ed begins heading down the street.
"Brother, there's something I wanted to talk about." Fletcher speaks up. Russel only completely ignores him for the sake of the experiment. Fletcher hangs his head in anxiety.
Outside, another flash of light goes off.
"I can believe I let you talk me into this." Artie says, following after the boys in a hole Ed opened up with alchemy.
"Listen, they won't suspect us if we break in the very next night. It's genius!" Ed whispers, digging the hole deeper and deeper.
"I'm sorry about Ed, Artie, this is the biggest lead for the stone we've had in awhile. We need to jump on this opportunity." Al apologizes from the back of the line. Artie's brows furrow in concern. 'These boys have no idea what they're looking for...'
"Alright, we should be underneath by now." Ed says, preparing a hole overhead.
"Are you sure?" Al says, looking behind them into the night.
"Well, we have to open up somewhere."
A stream of red water flows through an empty concrete hall. The stench is so overbearing that Ed and Artie's eyes begin to water. Despite the darkness of the cavern, the red liquid seemed to have a glow to it.
"This must be the red water that makes up the base of the philosopher's stone." Ed says, careful not to tread to close to the water's edge.
"Red water?" Al asks. Artie runs her handkerchief in the water. When she pulls it out, the dipped end is completely disintegrated. Steam rises from where the end of the cloth once was.
"It's incredibly acidic. This is the real deal, it seems." She says, pocketing the torn garment.
"Listen, I read about some of this stuff in Central. It's a rock with roughly the same material as the philosopher's stone, which you get by refining red water." Ed says. Artie turns to meet the boy's eyes.
"Listen, this is not a thing you want to mess with." Artie says sincerely.
"You seem to know a lot about this red water." Ed implies. Al tries to make his brother stop, but it ends up being ignored.
"What exactly do you know about the stone? What are you hiding? If don't tell me now I will beat it out of you." Ed threatens Artie, who doesn't falter.
"You'll understand soon enough..." she replies apathetically.
"What do you mean-" Ed says, edging towards the unrelenting girl when Fletcher cuts him off.
"Over there! Come here, quickly!" Fletcher calls out. Ed begins wavering, and falls into Al's arms.
"Brother!" Al cries. Artie grabs Al and pulls the three into the room with Fletcher.
"Brother, are you alright?" Al asks, the younger brothers peering over his once unconscious body. Artie merely gives a "Hmph!" and continues watching the windows.
"Where am I...? And what are you doing here?!" Ed yells at Fletcher.
"I-I'm sorry!" Fletcher apologizes. Artie walks over and places a hand on his shoulder.
"What're you crying about?" Ed asks a little less insensitively.
"Fletcher." Al says. He knows by know that Fletcher can't quite speak his mind, and has already come to the correct conclusion.
"If you know something, please tell us. You really don't like what's going on right now, don't you?" Al says. Fletcher dries his eyes and begins to speak.
"That red water... is highly toxic to us humans. But, it's still vital to the philosopher's stone creation process."
"Does that mean that's why everyone in town is coughing so badly?" Al asks. Ed watches Artie's reaction, which is none too surprised. 'So you do know something, huh?'
"I-I'm sorry... I'm really sorry..." Fletcher begins tearing up again. Ed rises from Al's lap.
"Damn, this is such a nuisance. I'll just tear this place apart." Ed says while cracking his knuckles.
"I can't let you do that." Russel appears in the doorway. He gives the brothers a slight smirk, but immediately looks away when he meets Artie's eyes.
"W-we've finally raised a red stone up this far. Our father sacrificed himself for this." Ed and Al gasp as Russel holds up a red stone- a Philosopher's stone.
"Heh, what's so great about that half-baked rock?" Ticked off, Russel pockets the stone and demonstrates its power but turning a lamp into a sword.
"That sword is just fake to, isn't it?" Ed says, fashioning his blade from his automail. "I'm going to mess you up with your little rock!" Edward charges at Russel, their blades crossing. As each boy pushes against the other, Russel's blade begins to crack.
"It's no use against my blade. Mine is the genuine article." Ed says. Russel makes a dirty move as his knee lunges into Ed's stomach, launching him across the room.
"Ed!" Artie yells. Reaching his limits, Russel transmutes a hose out of the red water cellar's door, aiming for Ed.
"What?!" Ed says, standing his ground. Aware he has the upper hand, a huge grin breaks out onto Russel's face. Fletcher watches in horror from behind Al's back, trembling.
"This is the red water. One hit and you're done for." Russel says. Artie debates in her head. 'I need to help him, maybe he'll see why he should teach me... but then he'll know of the crime I committed...' Artie thinks to herself.
"Fine by me!" Ed says, transmuting his blade into an umbrella to cover the hit. As Russel cranks up the water pressure, however, Ed finds it harder and harder to keep his ground. In the same instant, Fletcher pushes Ed out of the way before the water can taint him, while Artie quickly transmutes a branch from a nearby plant to knock the hose out of Russel's hands.
"Fletcher!" Al says, rushing to his tattered side. Russel stares in disbelief of what his younger brother had just done. Only one person noticed Artie use her alchemy, since it was done lightning fast, and he planned to question her about it later on.
"Hang in there, Fletcher!" Al says encouragingly while carrying Fletcher in his arms.
"Brother, dad was researching Red Water to bring happiness to people, right?!" His words sliced through Russel like a hot knife.
"And yet here we are, making all of the townspeople suffer, aren't we? Brother, you should have known about this. It doesn't matter who gets the credit, doesn't it?!" Fletcher yells, pouring his heart out in front of the three teens.
"Dad... Dad would not be happy about this at all!" Russel looks down, trying to accept this fate. Suddenly, a shrill whistle blows through the air.
Yeah, so when Artie first tested the red water, it was the water pressure and the force of the stream that burn through the fabric, which is why Fletcher isn't a puddle of goo up to this point lol. Also, views seemed to spike considerably last night, which I'm very thankful for. And just another thing about the story, we won't be following around Ed for too long, then we'll get to the mushy stuff, but he will be accompanied by Artie at some point, along with maybe a huge fight :)
Oh, and Happy International Sushi day, folks (6/18)!
