"You'll never catch me you bastards!!"
Ed rounded a corner, the contingent of doctors and staff still in hot pursuit. How was he going to get out of this one? He searched frantically for a way to get away from them. Just as he heard the swarm about to turn the corner after him, he spotted a vent near the floor. Without a second thought, he tore off the cover and wriggled in, replacing the cover behind himself. As he crawled further into the vent tunnel he heard the throng of footsteps passing him. He froze so no one would hear him. The footsteps stopped a little bit past Ed.
"Which way did he go?!" someone questioned. Murmuring ensued as each person pondered the question.
At that moment, Ed felt a tickle on his hand. He went to scratch it only to find that his hand seemed to have gotten hairier in the last few minutes. Ed stifled on outcry as he beheld the giant hairy spider that had made itself at home on the back of his hand.
"You go that way we'll go this way." The hunters had decided on a plan of action and began to split up and run off. Ed's breathing quickened. The footfalls grew farther away. Ed was beginning to brake into a sweat. Sounds of pursuit could hardly be heard. Ed thought he might faint. Silence…
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GETOFFGETOFFGETOFFGETOOOOOOFF!" Ed watched the spider scuttle though the grate and out into the hall as fast as it could go, now just as frightened of Ed as Ed was of it. Having avoided all obstacles, he scooted himself around until he faced the other way as crawled into the ventilation network of central.
He crawled for some minutes until he decided to look out and see where he was. He looked out the next vent he came to. He didn't recognize the area. It looked like some place that he probably wasn't supposed to be so to avoid getting another throng of angry employees after him, Ed opted to keep crawling. Everything was going well for a while. That is, until Ed realized that it was getting dark and that there were no more vents. Furthermore, the tunnel was beginning to go steadily downward. Soon there was no light all and Ed was beginning to feel claustrophobic. He just prayed that he would not hit a dead end. Soon the floor leveled. Ed continued on in darkness. He breathed sigh of relief when he started to travel up again. He could even see a vent ahead.
Still, Ed sighed his relief too soon. Just then the tunnel all around him began to shudder and shake. Ed winced as a wall of hot air hit him in the face. He groaned and opened his eyes just a bit only to scream at the sight that greeted him. Another huge, hairy spider had gotten caught in the draft and hit him in the face just then. He wrenched it off and crawled blindly toward the vent as fast as he could. When he felt the grate, he burst through not caring where he might end up. He brushed himself off frantically to dislodge any lingering arachnoids. That task completed, he looked around at where he was…and a truly evil grin unfolded across his face.
Al jumped up in surprise as none other than Colonel Mustang burst into his room. "What is it Colonel? Is Ed okay?!" Al asked, concerned.
"Actually, it's Ed I'm here to ask you about." Mustang was suddenly nervous. "Um…I was wondering if you and are…you know…more than brothers." There, Mustang had said it. He waited nervously for the answer. Meanwhile Al's mind was in a panic. What had Mustang seen? What should he say? Was Mustang trying to take Ed away from him? Before he could stop himself Al blurted out the first thing that popped into his head, "Ed is mine!" Realizing what he had just said, Al's hands flew to cover his mouth. The damage had already been done though.
"Oh he is, is he?" The tension in Mustang's voice was palpable.
"Ed is mine and he'll never be yours. He hates you!"
Mustang saw red. That was it! He launched himself at Al without a second thought. It was ON!
"I hate this guy!" Ed exclaimed as he hurled a paper weight against that wall. Ed had emerged in the office of nine other than Colonel Roy Mustang. He was not proceeding to trash his superior's workspace. It was a great outlet for all of the frustration he had been feeling lately, that vast majority of it triggered by Mustang. Ed winced at the pain in his bitten shoulder. He wasn't stopping now though. He grabbed a panel of the curtains and ran, letting out a maniacal chuckle at the satisfying rip when the fabric gave way. He then proceeded to wrap the curtain around himself like a royal robe and jump atop Mustang's desk. He took extra care to step on anything that looked important. "I'm Roy Mustang and I think I'm the best!" Ed mocked. "When I'm Fuehrer everyone will kiss my ass and all of the pretty women will sleep with me!" Ed jumped down from the desk and continued to rampage.
o0o
A/N: I think the next chapter is going to end up being the last. It's just ending up that way. I hope you all have enjoyed the story. NO SEQUAL!! I hate to say it but I'm really happy to be rid of this story. It's been hanging over my head for years when I've had so many other things to do. Another note, ironically, after writing the first half of this story I retuned to my room only to have, yep, a spider hanging in front of me at the top of the landing. I hate spiders (love snakes though).