Chapter
6
The Tucker Mystery
The party moved on through the hall, looking around for any sign of life. Erica just kept twitching nervously, but the others ignored it. They reached an open door that led to an enormous study. The room had bookshelves overflowing with books and papers, but no people.
"There really is no one here..." Edward remarked, genuinely surprised.
Kairi shook her head. "But I don't see anything unusual." Alphonse nodded, and added, "They probably just forgot to lock the door before leaving the house."
Edward visibly paused. "No... Wait, Al. What's that over there?" He pointed to a corner of the room near a window. "Huh?" Alphonse mumbled. Edward ran ahead and turned the corner, with the others close behind him.
Everyone gasped at what they saw. The floor immediately ahead of them had a large red stain splattered across it. Sora quickly paled. "I... I don't think that's paint..."
Riku nodded slowly. "It's blood, alright. I wonder what could've happened here...?" Alphonse suddenly picked up something from the blood stain. It was a pair of glasses, and one of the lenses was broken. "Look at this! These glasses..." An idea suddenly hit him with alarming force. "Are they Mr. Tucker's!?"
Alexander took a step back. "The amount of blood on the floor here... No one could lose this much and still–"
Suddenly, a strange roar sounded out from beneath their feet, startling the already frightened travelers out of their wits. "Wh-What..." Erica gasped. "What was that!?"
Edward glanced at her. "Keep quiet, Erica. It sounded like it came from underneath us..."
Alphonse looked at his brother, shaking a little. "You think this house has a basement?" he asked hesitantly. Edward nodded. "Maybe. Let's snoop around and see what we can find."
The group looked around the library for some kind of clue. After a moment, Alex shouted, "Hey, I found some kind of document!" He ran back to the blood stain, where the others regrouped. The others reported that they had also found papers lying around on the desks and between some books. Alex, knowing that information was always important, put the papers together and read them aloud.
"Synthesizing Chimeras with Verbal Skills"
Used
dog that understood human speech:
–Unsuccessful
Mere understanding seems not to be enough – perhaps animals with the ability to approximate human speech are required?
Collected
and used birds with talking skills:
–Unsuccessful (all)
Failure may be due to low intelligence of subjects?
Over thirty experiments with monkeys have failed – perhaps my skills are in question, rather than the abilities of the test subjects. Heard rumors of a "crimson stone" which supposedly amplifies transmutation powers. How might I procure one?
("Thoughts on the Crimson Stone"
Apparently, this crimson stone is also referred to as the "Elixir."
A man named Cornello has supplied me with information on how to obtain the stone. It came at the cost of one of my chimeras – a valuable sample, but I had no choice. Attempted a simple transmutation using the stone – results far exceed expectations. Its powers defy all common sense in alchemy.)
Just as in the field of medicine, sacrifice is necessary at times. Mankind must not fear progress. As faithful as she was to me, she must also have wished nothing less.
Used the Elixir. Successful in synthesizing a chimera with verbal skills. Received the silver watch, emblem of state certification, and the alias "Sewing-Life Alchemist."
Received word that the chimera used for the exam has died.
Alex put the papers down, looking somewhat shaken by these writings. He'd seen the anime, so he knew what these papers were referring to. Still, to think that he was currently existing in a reality where men did things like this...
Erica shrugged. She had seen these many times before, and the impact was now lost on her. "C'mon, guys. Let's find that basement." She led the party to a trap door in the opposite corner of the room, which led down to another room.
It was a small laboratory, with a strange transmutation circle drawn in chalk on the center of the floor. And on one side of the circle, there was another large blood stain. Edward grimaced. "Look. There's more blood here..."
Alphonse nodded, and didn't say anything for a moment. Then, reluctantly, he said, "I really think we should report to the colonel before we go any further. I'm getting a really bad feeling about this."
Riku sighed. "We've already come this far. We can look around a little bit more by ourselves."
Edward nodded, and slowly walked over to a table on the far side of the lab. Alphonse glanced around nervously. "But we shouldn't be poking around like this..." He trailed off when he saw Edward staring at something on the table. "What are you looking at?"
As everyone gathered around the alchemist, he replied, "It's a picture, probably of Mr. Tucker." Edward held up a small photo of a tall pale man with glasses, and a small girl standing beside him. "Huh..." Sora mumbled. Kairi stared at the picture for a moment, then asked, "Is that his daughter in the picture?"
"If it is..." Edward growled, "and this blood is hers..." A stunned silence fell over the group.
Edward noticed something else. "Hm? Hey, guys, look at this over here." He pointed at a small worn leather-bound book. Alexander picked it up and looked it over. "A diary, perhaps?"
Edward nodded. "Yeah. Looks like it's Mr. Tucker's."
Alexander opened the book up to some of the pages. "Let's see... Oh, great. Most of it's just squiggles all over. I can hardly read any of it."
Erica chuckled. "Well, that's what you'd expect from a doctor. See if you can decipher any of that chicken-scratch." Alex flipped a few pages, settled on some relatively legible writing, and started to read...
annual
assessment tomorrow
at this rate they'll strip me of my cert
NO
NO can't let that happen
headache
no progress at work
damn dog barks too loud SHUT UP
god my head
hurts stupid dog
bought
more lab animals
5 dogs, 5 monkeys, 5 birds
they're cute, says
my girl
screwed
up pissed off burned them all
gotta burn them off cremate
them
shut up stop screaming you defect
"you
can do it daddy"
youcandoityoucandoityoucandoityoucandoit
i'm
at the end of the line here nina
my
wife couldn't understand
but this child would
"let's
play let's play"
second chimera successful
The book trembled in Alexander's hands. Everyone was standing there, struck dumb into speechlessness. No one could make any sound except a few short gasps. This entry had knocked the wind out of all of them.
Alex threw the book down onto the table, still trembling. "This... this is some disturbing stuff... Not the product of a healthy mind. It's the diary of a madman... None of the other pages are even legible... Makes me ill just looking at the handwriting."
Alphonse reached for the discarded book. "Hey, look. Something fell out of the diary." Edward, shaken from the shock by this new curiosity, stared at the item in Alphonse's grip. "Huh? What is it?"
It was a ruby red stone, broken into several fragments. "That looks familiar..." Sora mused. Kairi did a take. "Wait! That's the crimson stone! Or broken pieces of it, at least..."
Riku raised an eyebrow. "No way... Mr. Tucker had the same fake Philosopher's Stone as Cornello!?"
Alphonse nodded in solemn confirmation. "Remember what Lieutenant Colonel Hughes told us? There's a lot of these crimson stones going around."
Edward turned toward the transmutation circle on the ground. "But what could you have been doing with this, Mr. Tucker...?"
Alex glanced at his sister. Even she was visibly scared now of what was happening. Or maybe it was the knowledge of what was about to happen. Alex was somewhat familiar with the game and the anime, so he had a pretty good idea of what Erica was afraid of...
"Sora, Riku, Kairi, Erica. I think it's best that you guys go back to the HQ and tell the colonel about what we found," Alex proposed. All eyes turned to him. The Kingdom Hearts characters, especially Sora, recognized that tone of voice. Alex was making some kind of Interference.
"Why do you think that?" Erica asked, still nervous. Alex glanced at her, and evenly replied, "There's still more to investigate here. But I'm sure that the colonel would want to know why one of their State Alchemists might have gone missing... And I think they may have a reason why."
Erica immediately got Alexander's meaning. She looked at the Kingdom Hearts characters. Sora glanced at Alex. You sure we ought to do this? Roxas asked.
It seems that there's something Erica doesn't want to encounter. You might as well, Joumae replied. Naminè then said, Well, I guess we'd better get going then. Be careful. At length, Erica, Sora, Kairi, and Riku left the room.
Edward stared at Alex for a moment. "Something tells me there's more to what you're doing than you're letting on."
Alex sighed in response to the young alchemist. "I just don't want my sister to get into any more danger here. I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen next, and so does she. So I think it's best this way. Besides, it's true that the sooner Mustang knows what's happened, the sooner he can act."
Alphonse turned toward a door at the side of the room. "Well, it looks like there's more to this basement. Let's look around some more."
The door led to some kind of storeroom, filled with cages. The trio looked around as they walked through. "This must be where he kept the chimeras he synthesized..." Edward reasoned.
Ahead of them were three small bird/lizard chimeras of some sort. They seemed to watch the trio with searching eyes. "The cages are broken," Alphonse noted. "Did the chimeras break out themselves, or–"
Alex grimaced at the sight of the chimeras, which were slowly approaching. "Chat time's over. Looks like these chimeras are hungry – and we're on the plate!"
Alexander summoned his Lockshield, and Edward transmuted a sword out of the ground. Alphonse, being the first ready to fight, led the charge into the pack of chimeras. More of the bird things appeared from around the corner, charging at them. They were actually relatively weak compared to their previous enemies. In fact, they hardly ever were fast enough to land an attack on one of the fighters. They plowed through the chimeras easily, and made their way to the back storeroom.
There were two larger chimeras in there. Much like the lion hybrid from Lior, but about half the size. Alexander knew better than to rush in, so he unleashed a barrage of magic attacks like Blizzard and Thunder. Magnet turned out to be particularly handy, because it stunned the chimeras long enough for the Elrics to finish it off.
With the fighting over for now, the Elrics and Alexander examined the larger cages. "Do you think Mr. Tucker could have been attacked by one of his own chimeras...?" Alphonse supposed.
Edward turned toward the opposite wall. "Not very likely. Look at that." A humongous hole in the wall was there, blown apart by some kind of explosive force. "A chimera couldn't do this. Whoever made this hole was probably the one who got Mr. Tucker."
Alexander sighed. "Looks like it leads to the sewers..." Edward nodded, looking fully determined. "Alright. Ready, guys?"
Alphonse did a take. "Huh? Ready for what?" Then it hit him. "...Oh no, not the sewers again..."
Edward smirked. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now. Hurry up!"
Meanwhile, at East Headquarters...
"You know, Hughes..." Mustang muttered, twitching as he suppressed his annoyance, "I would really like to return to work now..."
Hughes grinned and held up yet another photo. "Next up is... this! Ta-daaa! This is from when we were at the beach! My wife and daughter are so cute!"
"Don't you have to get back to work?" Mustang snapped. Rolling his eyes, he groaned, "Agh, maybe I should have made Fullmetal stick around for this gut-churning display."
A blond-haired man in a military uniform with a cigarette in his mouth came through the door. "Colonel! We have a problem!"
Mustang almost looked excited. "Havoc! What excellent timing! How would you like to sit in my chair and listen to Hughes talk about his–"
Lieutenant Havoc cut him off. "No time for jokes, sir! Brigadier General Basque Gran was killed during his inspection visit!"
This shocked all of them. "Brigadier Gran!?You've gotta be kidding!" Mustang retorted. "Not only is he a State Alchemist – he's also an expert on military combat!"
Havoc nodded, confirming how serious this news sounded. "It was Scar, sir!" Hughes put away the photo and grimaced. "Scar!? So he really is here... With the Brigadier General gone, the only State Alchemists is town are–" He did a take. "Oh no! Roy!!!"
At that moment, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Erica burst into the room. "Colonel!" Sora shouted. "We've got some news for you!"
Roy shook his head. "It'll have to come later. We have a serial killer on the loose, and it seems that the Fullmetal Alchemist may be a target."
"Exactly!" Erica shouted. "It concerns what we found in the Tucker place! There was blood all over the place... and there were these weird documents...!"
Hughes stared at them. "Wait a minute! Where are the Elrics and Alexander Karsath?"
Riku started to see the danger. "They went deeper into the basement of the Mr. Tucker's home to investigate his possible death."
Mustang grimaced, and turned toward Havoc. "Deploy emergency troops throughout the city! Get as many men as you can! Follow me to the Tucker residence!"
Havoc shouted, "Yes, sir!" and ran out of the room. Hughes folded his arms, deep in thought. "Those boys have been gone for some time now. I hope they don't run into each other..."
Mustang's grimace quickly became a scowl. "I will not allow you to die within my jurisdiction, Fullmetal..."
Back in a sluiceway of the sewers just below the Tucker residence...
The trio of Edward, Alphonse, and Alexander stepped through the hole in the wall, confronted by the offensive smell that they had encountered once before. "Ugh..." Edward groaned. "Do all sewers have to reek this unfathomably bad?"
"Ewww... And I just cleaned off the crud from the last time, too," Alphonse whined. "I want you to know I hate this, Ed!"
Joumae chuckled in Alexander's mind. You've actually got it pretty good, Alex. Your clothes are magical; you don't need to worry about washing, even after an adventure like this. Alex refrained from laughing, so that he didn't openly offend the Elrics.
Edward shook his head. "There seems to be something about us and the sewers, alright..." Suddenly, he was cut off by a noise. Everyone stopped to listen. "Hm?" Edward mumbled.
"Sounds like footsteps..." Alexander realized. Edward nodded, and muttered, "Someone's nearby. Who could it be...? Come on, guys."
They fought their way down the long sluiceway, encountering many chimeras. There were only two types: the ones they had fought within the Tucker residence itself. Having already fought them before, they knew what strategy to use, so they got by quickly. They found a door, which led to a room with some stairs.
Edward grinned as they reached the top of the stairs. It was brighter ahead of them, and some rain was falling from above. "Hey, guys. There's a ladder here."
Alex looked, and sure enough, there was a ladder leading up to the surface. A sewer exit. "Maybe the source of the footsteps climbed up and went outside?" he proposed.
Edward nodded to him. "Could be. C'mon, let's go... before the stink down here makes me vomit."
The trio climbed the ladder, and entered a freightyard in East City. A whole bunch of steel boxes were everywhere, and it was raining heavily. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no one around.
"Okay," Edward decided finally. "The good news is we're out of the sewers. The bad news is there's nobody here. Wanna break for lunch?"
Alphonse seemed to glare at Edward. "I'm telling you, we should go back to headquarters. We've gone far enough, and we need to regroup with the others."
Edward sighed in defeat. "Yeah... I guess you're right. Besides, we don't have much of a choice now."
"Oh! There you are!" a man's voice called from the other end of the freightyard. "Mr. Elric! Mr. Edward Elric!!!" It was a military policeman.
As the Elrics and the military officer met in the middle, Alex suddenly stopped walking. He could've sworn he heard someone. "Elric...? Edward... Elric..." It was a man's voice. Alex suddenly froze up. He knew who it was.
"Oh, thank god you're alright!" the policeman exclaimed. "We've been looking all over for you!"
Edward raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh? What do you want with me?" The military officer quickly became serious. "My orders are to return you to headquarters at once. The serial killer has been–"
"Edward Elric... 'Fullmetal Alchemist'!" the man Alex had heard shouted menacingly. The man stepped out from behind a steel box. He had shockingly white hair and semi-dark skin. He wore sunglasses, a white shirt with a brown jacket, and black slacks. But he had a huge scar on his forehead.
"What!?" Edward exclaimed. The military policeman paled. "That scar on the forehead...!" The man with the scar approached the policeman.
Edward did a take. "Wait! No!!!" The man tensed his right hand, and thrust it into the officer's abdomen. With a blood-curdling scream, the officer's blood suddenly exploded out of his back in red sparks, and he fell into a pool of his own blood. It wasn't hard to tell that he had been immediately killed.
Alexander almost lost his lunch at the sight. This was Scar, and he was serious. "In the name of the great God Almighty... Thou shalt perish!" Scar declared, facing Edward.
Edward grimaced, and, after a moment, demanded, "Who are you? Why are you after me?"
"If you are the creators of this society," Scar stated, "then there must also be destroyers."
Alexander's hand twitched. "So we have no choice, huh..." He summoned his Lockshield out of darkness, and stood in his fighting stance. "You asked for it!!!" The Elrics also got into their fighting stances.
Scar stared at all of them for a moment. "Your courage is admirable..." At that, Scar slowly started to advance. Alexander, fear giving him the necessary adrenaline, suddenly charged forward.
Alex slashed at Scar. But he was too fast. "That's no good..." Scar muttered, poising his hand for an attack, some red sparks appearing. Alex whipped around and brought his shield in front of himself. Scar's hand impacted the shield, and they clashed without any damage. Some of the sparks traveled along the Lockshield, and Alex could see a few of them enter the small keyhole.
Suddenly, there was a bright green flash, and the two of them were thrown back by an explosion of energy. "What the...!?" Scar muttered, holding his right arm. It was starting to bleed.
"What the hell!?" Edward shouted, glancing at Alexander. Alex was on the ground, holding his head and writhing violently, obviously in great pain. Green sparks appeared all over the Lockshield, which continued to shine.
The last thing Alexander heard was his own scream filling his senses.
Alexander slowly became conscious again. Or, at least, he thought he was conscious. Actually, the ground felt rather cold right now...
Alex stood up, and opened his eyes ever so slowly. When he finally focused on the floor, he was jerked all the way to wakefulness. He was at the Station of Awakening!
He looked all the way up, and gasped at what he saw. In the very middle of the Station was a huge dark gate, with a large eye design in the middle of the large double doors. Alex recognized this as the Gate from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime. But why was it here at his Station of Awakening? Unless...
To Alexander's surprise, the doors began to swing open, revealing a murky black space within. Out of the dark substance, a figure began to reach out from it. Alex gasped when he saw it was the Darkside Heartless.
Things were getting confusing now. There was the Gate from FMA and the Darkside from Kingdom Hearts in the same place. What was going on? And where the heck was Joumae?
Another power sleeps within you.
Alex looked around in spite of his knowledge of the voice that had entered his mind. He knew he wouldn't find it. It was the voice from his first Awakening! But why was it here now?
But to gain it... you must pay the price according to the law of this world.
Alexander looked up at the Darkside. Suddenly, the voice's words were beginning to make sense... and he didn't like was it was saying.
The law of Equivalent Exchange...
Suddenly, a pool of darkness appeared at Alex's feet, and it slowly started to suck him in. Alex struggled with all his might against the dark tendrils, but he made no progress. At last, the words' meaning rang true and clearly.
No, you can't mean that... Alex thought, his efforts rapidly decreasing in strength. You mean... Not the darkness again...
His thoughts were cut off as he was entirely enveloped by the darkness. All at once, words and images began to fill his head. Information, and a lot of it. Alex's panic went up another notch when he realized that this information was about alchemy! Just about everything about alchemy was forcing itself into his mind. He couldn't quite understand it yet, but the information was coming. In fact, it looked like he was on the verge of understanding the key to human transmutation...
And then it stopped. Just like that. Alexander was left alone in the darkness as it crept deeper and deeper into his heart. The law of Equivalent Exchange... He had paid the price of his light. The light he had worked so hard to gain back was now all but completely gone.
Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, Erica, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix.
