ALLO~! Doibz is back! And this time with another chapter of Black Widow! Hurraay! I'm so happy, although this chapter is a little shorter than I first thought it would... now that I see it full screen...
Oh well~ Not much to say here I guess, other than I don't own FMA.
Wish I can stay and add something, but I got classes to go to~ YAY CODING! *facepalm*
~Doibz
I remember a time not too long after I joined S.A.F.A. where everybody but Ramon and I were on any missions. The two of us were bored out of our minds in the S.A.F.A. room, hoping that we'd get some kind of call from Bradley to give us a mission and do something. I swear, I've never been this bored in my life.
To pass the time, the two of us would play games. Poker, chess, anything really to pass the time so we can go home by three in the afternoon. I've beaten him in every game of chess while the two of us were on even terms in poker. But it didn't last very long. We just grew bored of playing with cards and Ramon was getting sick of losing in chess, so we stopped and just sat at the table drinking coffee – and Ramon pigging out on powdered donuts like they're keeping the guy alive.
I made a face of disgust at the sight. "Don't get me wrong or anything, I like sweets, but how in the hell can you eat a million of those in one sitting without getting a little bit sick from them?" I said as I rested my chin on the table. "And how are you not a fat-ass after eating so many?"
"I can't help it!" He began tossing his head back in frustration. "Ever since I stopped smoking, I had that stupid craving for them things whenever I get bored…"
"You smoked?" I asked him.
"Used to. It was an ugly habit, I know. But when I stopped, I tried to replace my smoking habits with something else…"
"So you switched from nicotine to pastry?"
"Yeah… Now whenever I'm bored, or when I want to munch on something… These… delectable and delicious white powdery goodies from heav-"
"Shut up about the fucking donuts, man…" I said putting my forehead on the table. "Donut, donut, donut… That's all I'm frickin' hearing…"
"We need a missiooon…" Ramon whined before he shoved a small donut in his mouth.
"Before we die of boredooom…" I finished in an equally bored expression.
We both turned our heads towards the phone sitting across the room from us, expecting a ring from it any second…
We waited…
And waited…
And waited…
Ramon and I dropped our heads down to the table. "This fucking sucks…" I muttered. I pretty sure I didn't sign up to S.A.F.A. just sit around on my ass and do nothing for the next how long. What the fuck is Bradley doing letting us sit here and suffer? If my mother was to hear my skills were being used for nothing…
"Truth or dare." Ramon said suddenly.
I turned my head over to him noticing a serious expression on his face. "What?"
"Let's play truth or dare. C'mon, it's not like we got anything else to do." He urged, even pushing away his paper bag of donuts.
He must be serious if he's not eating those fucking things.
I sat up in my seat. "Uh, okay… Truth."
"'Kay, umm…" Ramon took a moment to think. "What's your real hair color?"
I looked at him with a questioning look. "Seriously?" He shrugged his shoulders at me with a smirk on his face. "Natural color? Purple."
He just looked at me as if I was joking. "Yeah, right."
"No, it's true. Look." I said activating one of my armbands before brushing my gloved hand through my bangs, changing the red tincture to my violet shade. I almost laughed out loud to Ramon's blank face once I done that. "…What?"
"Wha…" He began, struggling to find the words. "How is it possible for someone to have natural purple hair around here?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't see the big deal here. I was told my grandmother on my father's side was blue."
"Even more questioning."
"Shut up, your turn."
"Okay, I'll go with truth, too."
"Where were you born?"
"In a small town in western Aerugo, but my family moved to Amestris when I was just a kid."
I snorted at this, making him look at me with a raised eyebrow. "That explains the accent."
"What? Is there something wrong with it?" He curiously asked before he frowned. "Don't tell me you find it funny now."
"Na, don't worry about it. It suits you." I said with a snort. 'Though I would try to avoid some words in your vocabulary…' I added in my mind. He commonly rolls his 'r's, so I noticed since meeting him, and I doubt that he'd lose that anytime soon. I mean come on, he lived here in Amestris for how many years and never lost the accent. I can understand him, but when he's walking around Central speaking people just kinda give him that blank stare, you know? At least he has his adjectives in the correct order when speaking…
I then took a moment to think. "Um… dare, I guess."
Ramon put a hand up to his chin as he let out a thoughtful, but devious sigh. "Dare, huh…" He said before he looked around the large room. "I dare yooou…" He began before he turned his head over to the table where the coffee pot was. His head spun back to me with a smirk on his face. "To eat a sugar cube."
I looked at him as if he was serious about it. "Are you kidding me?" I asked, making his eyebrows rise up before he nudged his head over to the table. I rolled my eyes at him before I stood up and headed over to the table, grabbing a stale sugar cube before tossing it in my mouth. It was really hard, crunchy, and old and it started to hurt my teeth a little bit, but I eventually swallowed it after a while of putting spit on it. At least it wasn't anything so gross…
Once I swallowed the sugar cube I opened my mouth for him to see it gone. He nodded his head before I sat back down in my chair. "This is starting to get weird." I commented, taking my coffee up to my lips and I took a sip to wash out my mouth.
"I think it's not too bad. My last partner wasn't as easy-going as you are."
"Oh yeah…" I commented as I put my coffee cup down and rested my head on my hands. "What happened to your last partner anyways?"
Ramon looked at me before he forced a smile on his face. "Guess I kinda walked into that…" He began as he leant back in his chair. "He was an Amestrian from here in Central. We were probably partners since I joined S.A.F.A. three and a half years ago. Nice guy, I guess…" He paused. "He was a traitor. Turns out he was selling military secrets to the Aerugoian military, and I was given the order to stop him."
I frowned at this. "That must of sucked."
"Yeah, it did… It happened about a few months before you joined our group." He then snorted. "You know, other than you, I never really gotten along with my partners. Usually I'd get stuck on tough missions with that loud mouth Mars or that know-it-all, happy-go-lucky Fév, you know? Guess I'm not really that type of guy…"
"You are pretty self-centered at times… unless you feel like being a disobedient brat from time to time." I snorted earning myself a gasp from him.
"'Disobedient brat'… That's so rude…"
"Pretty accurate if you ask me."
Ramon shook his head and turned back to me. "Okay, I'm feeling a little lucky, how about dare?"
When he chose that I started to look around the room for something he could do. I then turned my head over to the fruit bowl sitting beside the coffee pot and smirked as an idea came to mind. "Okay, Mr. Self-Proclaimed-Master-Gunman, I dare you…" I began as I stood up and took out a bright red apple and returned back to my seat. "To shoot this apple off my head."
The moment I gently placed the red apple on my head, Ramon's eyes were wide with question. "… Qué? (… What?)"
"You heard me! C'mon! Make it more exciting than eating a sugar cube…" I said as I carefully crossed my arms over my chest as I kept perfectly still. "Or are you not up for the challenge? You're not scared, are you?"
Ramon took a moment to register this before he smirked at my gutsy move. "Okay!" He said a little too cheerfully, pulling out his small handgun from his holster strapped to his leg and held it up to me lazily, making me raise an eyebrow to his posture of his gun.
Before I could even tell him to stop and that it was a really bad idea, Ramon fired his gun, making me freeze in my spot as I felt the apple fall off my head. My head spun over to the apple seeing it missing a large chunk from one of the side. I then turned my head over to the wall behind me to see the rest of the apple splattered on the wall around the bullet hole. My eyes widen as I turned my head back to him, seeing him twirl his handgun around his finger.
"Too easy." He said as he caught his gun in his hand as a victorious smirk came to his face.
"W-What if you shot me in the head…?!" I questioned him as he looked at me with a frown before he smirked again.
"Then if I did – which I doubt that would ever happen - I'd take full blame and I'd happily spend the full sentence in prison for 'murdering' you and I'd be more than happy to apologize to your family in person." He then held his gun up again. "Though I'll have you know, I never miss my targets, no matter how big or small, how close or how far, or whatever condition it may be. Never."
I shook my head at him. "There's no way that possible."
"I'm serious!" He said taking offence to this as he put his gun back in his holster. "There isn't a thing in this world that I can't make a bull's-eye on."
"That's bullshit."
"Still doubting my skills, eh?" He said as he stood up and circled around the table and grabbed my arm and drug me out of my chair. "You're an alchemist, right? Well, we're gonna do a little scientific experiment."
"Wait, where are we going?!" I asked as he started to drag me across the room towards the window of the S.A.F.A. room.
"You'll see…!"
"Ramon, I don't like this!"
The next day after Ed and Al reacquainted with each other after Al's little dispute, Uncle Alex and Colonel Hughes came for a visit to question Ed what happened while he was inside the Fifth Laboratory. Like my suspicion before, Ed told us that he was attacked by a suit of armor that was bounded with not one, but two souls, similar to the strange armored guy that Al fought outside in the laboratory grounds.
What really caught my attention was when Ed told us of his encounter with a couple strange people, a woman and that strange man, both of them bearing the Ouroboros Tattoo on their bodies. The one who I saw earlier, that skinny green-haired guy, Ed recalls his name to be 'Envy'. He even mentioned that they said something about him being a sacrifice.
"Well… The last thing I remember was this guy kicking me." Edward finished as he held up a rough sketch of the skinny man named Envy.
"It's odd that he let you live…" Uncle Alex mentioned. "What about these 'Sacrifices' and these other souls?"
"Not to mention the Ouroboros Tattoos and the transmutation circle. And Doctor Marcoh claims to be using the Philosopher's Stones in Ishval…" Hughes added as I looked down to the sketches of the Ouroboros tattoo and a transmutation circle that Ed describes was the circle to create Philosopher's Stones with.
"Every clue we have to lead with leads to a new mystery."
"Not much we can do about that, though. Any answers we might find is under a ton of rubble from the lab."
As everybody in the room started to sulk from the lack of evidence, I looked over each tiny detail in Edward's report as well as the information that Hughes brought in regards to Doctor Marcoh and his team of researchers and etched it to my mind so then I'd be able to report it to Fév about it all later and maybe I'll have him help me do some snooping around in all this matter.
"I'll run a search to see if I can find priors for anyone with an Ouroboros Tattoo." Hughes said picking up the piece of paper with the Ouroboros Tattoo sketches on it before storing it away.
"Very good, and while you do that, I'll continue to look into the research team working with Doctor Marcoh in Ishval-"
Uncle Alex was interrupted by a knocking at the door, causing all of us to turn our heads to see, surprisingly, King Bradley standing in the doorway. "Sorry to interrupt." He apologized, causing everyone but myself to start panicking inwardly.
Hughes, Uncle Alex and I saluted him into the room before he raised his hand up. "Calm down, gentlemen… lady," He addressed to me with a nod as we all lowered our arms. "This is just an informal visit."
"Yes, sir. But may I please ask the occasion, sir?"
"Why, to visit him, of course." Bradley said as he stepped over to Edward, carrying a melon in his hand before he handed it out to him. "Do you like melons?"
I smirked inwardly at this as Edward took the melon from him out of respect before he started to have a panicked 'thank-you, sir!' addressed to the Fuhrer. This isn't the first time he gifted a melon to a hospitalized soldier before. He done it to me a couple times in the past…
It was weird… very weird… Don't ask.
"I understand that you have been checking into the Senior Staff… Is this true, Major Armstrong?" Bradley said making my uncle stutter in confusion. "You should know that nothing gets past me Major…"
He then turned his head and loomed over Edward and asked him what he knows about the Philosopher's Stone and hoped that he doesn't know too much, making him, and everyone in the room go absolutely silent. I noticed the look of fear in the boy's eyes as he looked up to the leader of this country. The first thing I thought he was thinking of ways to come up with an alternative explanation and what he should say to him…
Until Bradley started to laugh.
A perfect example of how hard he is to read.
I really hate it when he does that…
"I know there's been some suspicious activity in the military lately, " Bradley began. "And I believe it's something necessary to have something done about it."
The moment Bradley turned to the table where the notes about Marcoh's research workers was piled on top of the papers, Uncle Alex attempted to lure him out of looking, but it wasn't enough to stop him. "The list of the research team assigned to study the Philosopher's Stone… Every person in this document has been reported missing." My eyes narrowed at this. "They disappeared a few days before the explosion at Laboratory Five. It seems the enemy is one step ahead of us. Even with my vast information network, I don't know our enemies motives… Or the extent to which they have infiltrated the military. What I do know is they know a lot about us."
Hughes turned to him. "In that case, this is proving much more dangerous than we imagined."
"Yup." He said with a nod. "Major Armstrong, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes… Lieutenant Colonel Sparrow… Elric Brothers… I have decided that you are all the individuals whom I can trust. I am giving you this order for your safety. I will not allow you to speak of this to anyone or stick your necks in this matter any further! This is truly a case where you cannot tell friend from foe. Trust no one! You must be discrete in your actions and assume that the entire military is the enemy!"
"However…" Bradley paused as a smile came to his stern face. "When the time comes, I will call on you, so make sure you are prepared to join me in the effort."
"Sir!" We all saluted him.
A faint holler from deep inside the hospital echoed down the hallways outside of Edward's room. "The Fuhrer has gone missing!"
"Where could he have gone?!"
Bradley saluted all of us. "Gotta go! Damn bodyguards think he's my shadow…" Bradley muttered as he walked over to the window and started to climb out. He turned and looked back at us. "You see, I snuck away without them noticing to get a moments peace. Now I must leave!" He jumped out of the window before he turned back to us. "Oh, that reminds me, Colonel Sparrow."
I flinched at this as I saluted him. "Yes, sir?"
"As you requested, for the time being, I'm placing you as the Elric Brother's guardian and mentor. So you'll be responsible for their safety." He said before he turned away stared to walk off on his own as we all gathered around the window. "I'm sure we'll meet again. Farewell." He said before he started to laugh away.
I turned my head away from the window. "I don't remember putting in a request-" I paused before I remembered my conversation with Février the night of the destruction of Lab Five. Oh yeah… I almost forgotten about that…
Just then the door to Ed's room opened up revealing it to be Winry, coming to deliver some train tickets Ed requested her to bring to them. I raised an eyebrow at this as I turned my head over to Ed. "What's going on?"
"Yes, your wounds haven't even healed completely." Uncle Alex agreed with me.
"Where are you two off to this time?" Hughes curiously asked as he looked over Winry's shoulders to the train tickets in her hands. "What's in Dublith?"
A smile came up to Ed's face as he patted Al's armor. "Well, with the way things have gone lately, Al and I decided to go visit our old teacher…" He began before we all started to notice Al shivering where he stood.
"I think I'm too scared, brother! There's no way she's not going to kill us!"
"Don't you chicken out on me know, I'm scared too, okay?!"
I turned my head away from the two terrified boys over to Winry who had an equally confused look on her face as well. When Uncle Alex started to mention how long the trip down south will be, Winry started to screech in a high-pitch tone before she started to beg Ed to take her to a place called Rush Valley, a well known town that consists of only automail shops, just one stop before Dublith. The two of them started to fight with each other until Al stepped in and kindly asked him to, in which he finally agreed, making Winry overjoyed enough to leave the room to inform her grandmother about it.
"She'll make you a fine wife someday." Hughes commented at this.
"Don't start with this again!"
I smirked at this as I patted Ed's shoulder. "Well, Ed, this is gonna be some hell of a trip! When are we leaving?"
Ed spun his head over to me with a glare. "You sure changed your attitude quickly!"
"Orders are orders, Ed. You heard Bradley say it himself." I said before I started to snicker and be a little troublesome. "This is great! I get to be your guardian, I feel like an older sister!" I then gasped at this. "I always wanted a younger sibling and now I have two little brothers!"
Edward exploded at this. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING-"
I laughed at this as I got him in a headlock and I started to give him the Nuggie from Hell on his head again, making him squirm and whine and pain from it. "You best behave, Eddie. I don't tolerate with violence."
"WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS?! AHHGH! MY HEAAAD! IT HURTS! AL, HELP MEEE!"
It was dumbfounding, extreme, intense, mind boggling, shocking… There wasn't a good enough word that I could use to describe how Ramon was able to do it. I mean, yeah the two of us has been on a couple missions together, and I've seen him use a gun every now and then, but none of them had ever really showed his marksmanship, and this…
After when Ramon dragged me, literally, to the S.A.F.A. training grounds where he forced me to challenge his expertise in firearms. I was puzzled by this but nevertheless, I complied with his request. I used as many alchemy techniques against him as I could possibly endure all while Ramon was just armed with a couple of simple handguns with a few replacement magazines. Nothing more, nothing less.
At first, I questioned his rate of survival due to his over-confident behavior, but I carried it out and went almost all-out. Surprisingly enough though, he was able destroy my attempts to attack him from all sides, rather easily, all while hardly moving a foot from where we started from. Strangely though every shot he made with his small handguns made a explosion, even with the smaller tricks and decoys I made.
By the time Ramon ran out of bullets, I was exhausted and stunned from the outcome of our little test of strength. It came to my attention that all of his bullets were no normal lead-based bullets, but they were somehow combined with tiny explosives inside them armed to go off upon impact off a solid object after being fired from his specially custom-made handguns that were capable of using these special bullets.
And then it came to me…
I sat up from lying on the ground due to exhaustion and turned to Ramon. "WHAT THE HELL, MAN?! WHAT IF YOU USED THOSE FREAKY BULLETS ON ME WITH THE APPLE?!"
Ramon looked at me surprised before a smile came to his face. "Oh, so you've noticed?" He said glancing over to his hand gun in his right hand as he stepped over towards me. "Like them? I made them myself."
"You made them?" I questioned.
"Sí. (Yep.)" He said stepping over to me before he sat down cross-legged in front of me. "My father was the owner of a weapon's garage where he made custom-made firearms for a living. He taught me everything he knows about it, so I've been making my own guns to use in S.A.F.A.. Neat, huh?"
'Neat', no. Terrifying, abso-freaking-lutely. With the skills and techniques he showed me just moments ago, there's no way telling what his full strength is like. Whatever he's capable of, he certainly deserves the position as a marksman for S.A.F.A.. It's a good thing he's on our side. Otherwise… it'd be one hell of a fight to bring him down with him and his freaky-guns at his disposal.
He's scary, not like my mother scary, but, well he's up there alright…
"What in the hell happened here?" A voice called out to us making our heads turn to see Février stepping over to us with a questioning, and disturbing look on his face. "Are you guys trying to reveal yourself to the whole country? I could hear the two of you fighting at S.A.F.A. Headquarters!"
I flinched at this. "It's not my fault! He's the one who started this whole stupid game!" I said pointing an accusing finger to him, making him turn his head back to me with narrowed eyes.
"Oh yeah? Well you were the one who doubted my skills with firearms."
"Yeah, I did, but you were the one who said to use my alchemy!"
"Just… SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!" Février finally snapped at us making the two of us go silent as we spun around to see the annoyed look on his usually easy-going face. "You two certainly are made to be partners when you guys keep fighting like this. Now hurry up and let's get outta here before you attract any more attention." He said pointing back towards the city in the horizon.
Ramon and I jumped to our feet. "Uh, right. Sorry, Fév…"
At this moment as we were heading back to Central, I vowed to myself that I had to fight Ramon in a situation like this again, I'd be sure to heavily arm myself before confronting him…
"Just so you know, it really was your fault this whole thing got like this…" I grumbled.
"Sí, that may be, but you agreed to go along with it." Ramon retorted calmly.
"And that it was your fault that we're now in trouble."
"Sí, but technically we're both in trouble. You've agreed to challenge me when you could have said no. But you didn't."
"Why you little-"
"I said SHUT UP!"
And also on that day, I learned to never get sweet, little Fév pissed at me for anything.
Hope you enjoyed it!
