Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan
Chapter 21: Show Them Whatcha Got
Edward Elric
As I stared at the two dead men, I felt upset, mostly at myself. I'd been so immersed in this intense conversation, that my concentration on the surrounding area had become lax, and allowed some people with guns to slip through and take cheap shots. However, my guilt quickly went away, replaced with anger as this time the deaths were not on my hands, but likely by members of a very specific, ethnic group. Reaching out with my senses, I found several energy signatures crouched in the building ruins behind us. Raising my hands as I turned around to face the direction of our assailants, I infused energy into my palms, and clapped them together, creating a very precise and powerful, low frequency pulse, causing all the stone 300 yards in front of me through a 40 yard wide path to crumble to dust, instantly revealing the murderers I'd expected; some radical Ishvalans. The group consisted of about 20 armed men, a few with sniper rifles, and they all looked shocked and angry.
"What the, how'd he do that?" one of them shouts with a baffled tone.
"Who cares, shot the military dog!" another shouts as they cock their rifles. Immediately, the whole group began to fire on me, their bullets bouncing harmlessly off my Ki film above my skin like peas.
"Come on, can't you losers do better than guns? Its obvious they aren't working" I taunt, relishing a little in my practically absolute invulnerability.
"Alright, bring in the heavy artillery!" a wrinkled old man shouts as he waves his arm. As they brought in a mini-gun, I groaned in annoyance; Ooooh, people just wanted to keep pissing me off today! I was getting tired of this pointless violence, it was time I stopped it cold.
"Everyone but Al, Greed, and Envy get behind the wall!" I yell as I form a big metal barrier behind me with my remote alchemy. The other chimeras quickly took the corpses of their fallen friends and scampered to the safety of the metal shield. Just moments later, they began firing the mini-gun, and directed its fire on me, the bullets all stopped cold by my cling wrap Ki barrier.
"Ishvalans? Ed, I don't think I can fight these guys, its kinda my fault they're in this mess and act this way, I don't have a good conscience to attack them without going overboard" Envy says worriedly as he steps back a few paces.
"Relax, you guys don't really need to fight, I'll take care of everything" I say calmly as I raise my left hand and form my palm into the shape used to make the Big Bang Attack. However, instead of a compact star-like orb of Ki, I shouted and blasted a kiai wave at the group, knocking them all off their feet as easily as bowling pins.
"(Whistle) Now I see Envy wasn't kidding when he said you can destroy planets, if toppling people is as simple as pointing your hand at them and screaming, I can hardly imagine what big balls of that light you make can do" Greed comments with a cool tone.
"Then why aren't you panicking?" I remark sarcastically.
"You know why, we all know you're better than that, so we're not worried" Greed says with a smile; it was good to know he trusted me finally. As I levitated a few feet above the ground, I floated over to where the group had been gathered, and looked down at the mass of pathetic, moaning pile of men.
"So, what was that name you guys used for me, a military dog?" I ask with a confident sarcastic smirk. The old man squeezed from out of the pile and looked at me with indignantly in his eyes, his red pupils fierce with rage.
"Why you, come say that to my face monster, and I'll…I'll…-" the man hesitates, as he notices my face as I lean down to him.
"You'll-You'll-You'll what? Shoot me, blast me, cut me? You can't; I'm obviously far more powerful than your rag tag "commandos", what makes you think you can take me down?" I say confidently, enjoying making him squirm. Suddenly however, he roared and leapt out of the pile of exhausted men, holding a pistol in his right hand.
"I'll kill all your friends! And even if you save them now, you'll be unable to watch them every moment of the day for the rest of their lives, we'll eventually taken revenge on Amestris for what its done to our holy homeland!" he screams as he aims the gun at Martel.
"I don't think so" Greed snarls as he forms his Ultimate Shield over his arm and grabs the gun, snapping it into scrap metal with a single squeeze.
"He's right, you won't be able to hurt any of my friends with my three best men on duty; between the four of us, and the military, you won't get within a mile of any of them. However, even if you should manage to do the deed, should I find out that even one of my friends was killed by an Ishvalan-" I say as I begin my explanation, returning back to my normal tall Saiyan form as I began the last sentence, pausing as the transformation finished. Then I held out my right hand, forming a Ki sphere in it, shining with a menacing red glow, the Ishvalan group beginning to shriek in terror, having learned that I was the monster from Central.
"-Your people and their "holy land" will cease to exist. I can blow it all sky high, not a trace, like fire from the sky" I state firmly, showing that this was not a bluff or a hollow threat, but a fact.
"Blasphemy! No mortal is that powerful, not even an alchemist, only Ishvala has that kind of power!" one of the taller young men who'd shot at me screams.
"Oh right, I forgot; you people claim to believe in miracles and stuff, but yet when you hear of such things from other sources than your "god", you can't accept them. Very well then, watch me prove you wrong" I proclaim coldly as I begin to build my grandest structure I'd ever attempted.
Clapping my hands to improve the flow of energy, I touched the ground, and huge arcs of alchemic discharge, yellow in color, started to race throughout the ground all around the desert for miles and miles. Then, a huge domed building easily the size of Resembool, and over a mile high, began to sprout from the ground. After several minutes, the huge structure had finished assembling itself, leaving the Ishvalan warriors gaping in awe, some of them showed a little fear.
"That's a small display of my power to build, and unlike ordinary alchemists, I can transmute any form of matter, and most forms of energy, between one state or another, and into virtually any shape, construct, or machine by mere thought, and a tiny application of energy and knowledge" I shout as I take flight, shooting off into the sky like a beam of light as my powered up blue aura blazed behind me, stopping a few thousand feet above the altitude of the 8000 foot structure that lay dozens of miles away from Xerxes.
"NOW, WITNESS BUT A FRACTION OF MY CAPACITY, FOR DESTRUCTION!" I bellow, causing the land to tremble violently. In my right hand, I enlarged the red Ki sphere into a huge death ball, keeping the power scaled down though, I certainly didn't want to blow up my planet, just the building I'd made. Then, rearing my arm back a hair, I tossed the orb straight at the dome.
Roy Mustang
"So Pride, any news about Father?" I ask as I see his shadow appear before my desk, quickly spitting up his container body.
"Not really, he still wishes to know more about the monster man who attacked Central, but he's completely in the dark thanks to our efforts and my sealed lips" he replies with his creepy, metallic echoing voice. Thankfully since he was a good guy now, his tone didn't have as chilling an effect as when we first met.
"Good, lets keep it that way for now, at least until Edward says otherwise, and what is that?" I remark as I take a glance out my window for a moment, and catch sight of a huge dome forming beyond our borders.
"What the…Pride, could that be Edward's work?" I ask as I stare at the gargantuan structure that had appeared from nowhere.
"Do you know anyone else who can build things of such magnitude with alchemy on their own?" Pride asks rhetorically.
Without warning, a crimson sphere appeared in the skies just above the area the building had formed. Then, the orb began to fall down, and the dome was lit up with a bright red glow, vanishing moments later. A short period afterward, something with noise comparable to hundreds of thunderclaps going off at once blared through the air, shattering every window in the building, including my office window, creating showers of sparkling shards. I had to cover my ears as it felt like my eardrums had almost popped.
"Whoa, what the hell is that?" I groan, still reeling from the pressure wave.
"It appears Edward decided to give a more clear example of his might to some unfortunate souls; they must have really pissed him off to have to do a demonstration like that" Pride says coolly.
"Seems to have come from the desert area, maybe near Xerxes. I'll inform my men, you go tell Lust and the others not with Edward, I recall getting a message from Penako a few days ago that Winry arrived in Rush Valley, so she'll likely still be there" I say calmly. Sighing deeply, I remembered Edward's rampage from several weeks ago just after he'd returned to us.
"I sure hope he hasn't gone berserk again like before, but its not like we can stop him, not by force at least, ok get going Pride, the others need to hear of this" I say as I turn around and salute him.
"Sir, at once sir" the eldest homunculus says with a bow. Just as he started to sink into his shadow, he began to say something interesting.
"Oh, and always remember, if you ever need me, if any of you ever need me, whisper my name, for I shall be watching, from the shadows" he says with a confident smile as his head sinks beneath the floor and his shadow portal vanishes.
Alphonse Elric
Just after my brother finished hovering back to the ground, the extremists split into two groups; one that had wet their pants, and something…far grosser, were fleeing for their lives in terror, and the rest, including the tiny old man, were enraged, and attempted to charge us, believing my brother's display an act of deception to try and strong arm them into submission. A quick succession of those same pink and red beams Edward had used to brutally kill Greed through their shins quickly tamed most of them.
However, the old man made a huge mistake and insulted everything my brother and I stood for as he screamed, "You're just a pathetic pawn fascist bastard, AN ARROGANT BRAGGART WHO FUCKS WITH THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE WORLD FOR THEIR OWN GAIN!"
"SAY WHAT? WHY YOU TINY, SHORT SIGHTED FOOL, I OUGHTA YANK YOUR BONES AND ORGANS OUT, THEN TURN YOU INTO A LEATHER SACK!" Edward roars with rage as he begins to stomp toward the now terrified man, as Edward began to glow with a fierce blue aura once more.
Just before things could get out of hand, an old woman with a young boy at her side walked between them and slapped Edward's knee with her cane. Though clearly he had barely felt it, it got my brother's attention, and he stopped trying to kill them.
"That's enough of your shameful behavior" the bandaged woman says sternly to the Ishvalans, causing the elderly man to stop his attack, then bow like the others and muttered, "Madam Shan, my darling"
"Look at you fools, are you all trying to dishonor the name of Ishvala?" she asks with a serious tone, causing man. Then she turned her gaze to Edward.
"And you, such a boastful display of power, are you trying to bring down the wrath of god? More importantly, how can you turn such a wicked power upon these defenseless men, do you realize how easily you could kill them, even by accident?" she says accusingly as she poke's my brother with her cane in the chest.
"I know that, I was trying to hold back, I just lost my temper when this guy called the science of Alchemy an abomination, I know parts of it are wrong, but it isn't a black magic art, it's a tool, it can be used for good or evil, just like a gun or a sword, all depends on who wields it" Edward argues succinctly.
"Yeah, you people really need to take a better look at Alchemy as a whole, its more than just a weapon, if you took time and studied it like us, you'd know how wonderful and amazing it is, it can help people, save lives; I don't think any decent deity would frown upon that if they exist" I reply heatedly, earning a few confused grumblings, but they quickly silenced themselves as she walked closer to him.
Opening her left eye, she stared at me intensely, then back to my brother.
"I wasn't talking about your alchemy, I meant the technique you used to destroy the dome you made with it" Shan says coldly. I gasped as I realized what she was putting down.
"You fools…do you realize what you're condemning? That wasn't a mere burst of energy, it was pure Ki" Edward says as he clenches his fist and begins to shrink back down to his disguise.
"Or as its also known by, Chi" I add, hoping it would cause their attitudes to change. Remarkably, it did, but not in the way I expected it.
"Wait, are y-y-you saying you can manipulate your own life force energy?" the elderly man asks as his mouthful of crooked teeth chatters.
"Yeah, that was my own life force, emitted in a condensed sphere of raw power for offensive means" Edward replies calmly.
"Witchcraft! You wicked man, you tamper with your own spirit; the Xingese people at least know better than to actually tinker with their life energy, all they do is learn how to sense it for some reason, maybe detection or the like, but regardless they know what bounds to not overstep!" a random young man shouts with rage.
"So you think Ki manipulation is an abomination do you? Well try saying that after I do this!" Edward screams as he opens his palms to point at Madam Shan, causing her to gasp and the other men to growl as they start moving toward my brother. I suddenly realized what he was about to do, so I rushed over to them and held my arms out.
"Stop! He's not going to hurt her, he's actually about to do the exact opposite" I say quietly as I turn my head around to watch the display. Moments later, Edward began to emit that pulsing, beeping series of glittering Ki waves, slowly bathing Shan in its light. After 30 seconds, he stopped the flow of energy and Shan gasped even louder.
"That's right, remove your bandage, see just what kind of "abomination" I've abused" he spits cattily.
Shaking immensely, and reaching her hands up to the back of her head, she untied the bandage, and let it fall to the ground, causing the other Ishvalans to gasp.
"My…my eye, its been completely restored" she stammers shakily as she feels her right socket, and touches it. Then she emitted another gasp, and she dropped the cane.
"My legs, my bones, my back, they're all better" she drones as she stands up more erectly.
Turning to face the men again, I gestured toward their elder with my right arm.
"If any of you dare call Ki manipulation a wicked practice ever again, I will truly hate your societies' values; my brother is a true hero, he just improved her total health in less than a minute, she even has both eyes to use again, that's as far from evil as humanly possible" I explain, causing them to lower their heads in shame.
"This is amazing, I…I feel fantastic" she remarks
"Yeah, and by mixing Ki with my alchemy, I can do something even more fantastic, like this!" he shouts as he grabs her face in a manner akin to the way Scar would grab his victims.
"NOOOOOOOO!" the boy shrieks with horror, as blue and yellow bolts of energy streak all throughout Shan's body.
"Brother, what are you do…-" I start, until I notice what's happening to Shan.
Her wrinkles were beginning to vanish, her skin becoming more taut, and her stance even more proper as she stopped hunching over, and somehow began to get even taller! Her eyes became more lustrous, her skin began to glow, her lips puffed out and became thick and soft, the cheekbones becoming more prominent as her skin tightened, hairs that had sprouted in strange places vanishing. It was like she was…getting younger. After several minutes, Edward took his hand off her face and floated back to the ground, having had to levitate a little to keep his hand there since he was in his short human form. The moment he removed it, we all gasped, even Edward.
"Holy shit" I babble as I look at what he'd done.
Madam Shan, no longer was she a frail, elderly woman…she was a buxom, 20 something beauty!
"Wha…what happened to me?" Shan asks timidly, her voice no longer gravelly and hoarse, but smooth and velvety.
"AW CRAP! Damn, I went too far, I only meant to de-age Shan back to her 60s, not into a bombshell!" Edward says with stress in his voice as he clutches his head with anguish.
"Wait, I'm younger?" she says worriedly.
"Yeah, how old were you just a few minutes ago?" I ask, curious as to how far off Edward had been with his calculations, whatever they were.
"Were? I don't think were is the appropriate word to use, I AM 105 years old" she replies, her tone having gotten more forceful.
"More like 25 Madam Shan, at least biologically" Edward says shakily as he points at her.
"Can you make me a mirror please? I need to see what's happened to me" she asks worriedly. Suddenly, a full length mirror appeared right before her, undoubtedly due to brother's super alchemy. A shrill scream from the woman made everyone one jump.
"Great Ishvala…I'm…I'm…-"
"Gorgeous, just like when we met back in our youth darling" the little man says warmly as he walks over and pats his wife's back.
"But…its not natural, I mean, I just dropped 80 years like it was the fat removal surgery I heard of back in my youth, that just doesn't seem right" Shan says hysterically. The man held her hands and smiled.
"I don't see it as wrong, unnatural maybe, but there is nothing wrong with you being the most beautiful you can be once again, think of it as a second chance for us dear" he says kindly, turning his head over to Edward with a hopeful look.
"That is, if you could please restore me to my physical prime as well, please sir?" he pleads.
"Make a cranky old rude geezer young and healthy again, after he tried to kill me and my friends? IIIIII DON'T THINK SO!" Edward snorts as he turns his nose up and his back on the man.
"Brother, come on, look at how young his wife is now, think about the pain she'll have to go through when her husband dies because he didn't get the gift of youth like she did. It won't be a gift anymore, but a curse, and it will be your fault, all the misery she has due to that will be on your head Ed" I admonish, causing him to sigh.
"Ok, I'll do it, but only cause it'd be unfair to leave your wife stuck with an ancient husband who'd die long before she re-enters old age, I don't need that kind of guilt" Edward replies as he touches the man and begins to repeat the process. When it was over, a muscular, tall man with a white beard and long white locks stood by Shan. The statuesque couple hugging each other warmly.
"Thank you son, you have no idea how much this means to us" the man says with a smile, his voice now very deep but smooth instead of the pervious shallow, crackling tone.
"Yeah yeah, you're welcome, so do you have a name?" Ed asks with an annoyed tone.
"I'm Sean" he says kindly.
"And I'm Edward Elric, glad we settled this just some minor injuries, which reminds me" he continues, as he turns his attention to the other men with bleeding wounds. Using his Ki healing once more, he undid all the wounds he'd inflicted on the rest of them, then turned around and the barrier the chimeras had hidden behind was undone.
"Come on Al, we've got business to attend to, gotta get going" he says as he waves his arm, motioning me to come join them. As I rushed to catch up, I noticed Envy and Greed had hidden behind the barrier at some point after the craziness had begun, likely during the big explosive demonstration.
"Oh! One more thing Sean" Edward replies as he extends his pinky and walks back over to him. With a light poke, he struck the man in the stomach, and he doubled over as though struck with a solid jab to the gut.
"Owww…ok, I deserved that much, I did try to kill people, and we apologize for the friends we did kill" he says somberly.
"Not so sure you can be forgiven for that, but It would be just as wrong of me to kill you and your men in revenge, so be thankful I have a big fat conscience; ok take care folks, I'll set everything right in the near future, and you'll all have homes to return to" Ed says quietly as he turns back around again and walks back toward our group.
"So, what exactly are we supposed to do now General Elric?" Greed jokes as he nudges my brother's rib.
"First we're heading back to the Devil's Nest before the military gets here and figures out that the monster and the Fullmetal Alchemist are one and the same, which reminds me, you guys better keep that knowledge about me being the superhuman creature to yourselves, got it!" he replies to Greed, then shouts the last part to the Ishvalans. They all agreed, and a few moments later, we all teleported back into the hideout.
Edward Elric
After returning to the Devil's Nest, we narrowly avoided the search party led by Wrath, whom I was surprised had still found out our new ally's hideout. Once having successfully lost them, and made sure that we wouldn't be followed, we buried Croc and the guy who had been with Greed's gang. After a moment of silence in respect to their lives, Greed requested that he be allowed to accompany us on the journey. Initially I had objected, until I remembered that Father's main source of surveillance, Pride had become a double agent just like Lust. Seeing as none of the military knew who Greed is fully shielded or not, he could travel without much fear of detection.
Having cleared that up, we then introduced Izumi and Sig to Greed and his crew. The meeting had gone much more smoothly than it had with Envy and myself, and she quickly became friends with Martel, while Sig befriended Roa. Finally, after a night of rest and relaxation, we said bye to our former teacher, and were able to leave after I'd promised to teach her some of my skills one day. Agreeing wholeheartedly, we left for the bank, where I went alone and made a sizeable withdrawal from my state alchemist account. Then, I gave each of Greed's friends enough cash to buy several tickets for wherever they might plan to go after Rush Valley, which we'd all agreed to stop at so I could fill in Winry on the latest details. By 9 AM, we'd all boarded and were sitting in the same passenger car.
Two hours had passed, and we were almost a third of the way to Rush Valley, when Greed suddenly came over to our seats and sat down with Envy, my brother and me.
"So, you seem to have quite a bit of cash kid, mind telling me how you got it?" he asks with an interested smile.
"Calm down, we'll have that all encompassing emotion you embody taken care of one day, but for now you just gotta resist, there will be no theft under my watch" I reply as I look out the window, sensing Father, who had yet to move still.
Pausing for a moment, he then opened his mouth, and I anticipated his next request by retorting, "And no, I will not use my alchemy to make a 50 foot mound of gold bullion, that could jeopardize the economy"
"You know me well kid; but I' am serious about how you got it, I doubt you gained a cen by illicit means, so where did your fortune come from?" Greed presses. Sighing, I turned to face him and smiled.
"You want the truth? Alright then, here it is; I earned it" I say with a smile, and enjoyed his shock.
"All of it?" he continues with disbelief.
"More than 80 percent of it, my mom did leave us a sizeable portion of inheritance, our dad is actually quite wealthy, I mean, he's slightly older than Father. But I earned most of it, the yearly grant each State Alchemist gets is quite amazing, and asides from the occasional early attempts Al and I used to try and get our bodies back, we've barely spent a dime of it, just what I needed for food, room and board, and until recently, the rare out of town automail tune-ups from other mechanics during a pinch; that means most of my fortune is just sitting in the banks" I explain with a growing grin.
"How much do you state alchemists make every year?" Greed asks as he sits back and sips on a flask of beer.
"The standard yearly grants every state alchemist gets amounts to 10 million cenz, and it can be spent on anything, or just be used as savings" I reply as I lean back, causing the homunculus to spit out his mouthful of crap onto Alphonse.
"UGH! Hey, be more careful, some parts of my armor are weathered and vulnerable to rusting; brother checks up on that every few weeks, but I'm not usually around liquids and oxidation can happen rapidly depending on the substance or conditions" Al whines as he grabs my coat and attempts to wipe it off.
"Al, don't use my coat to mop up that dreck! And you, don't do the spit take when there are people in front of yourself, its just gross" I shout as I grab it back before he can touch the filthy liquid, and quickly evaporate the stuff off his armor with my alchemy before he tries something else dumb like that.
"Sorry" they both reply.
"Anyways, seriously, 10 million cenz a year?" Greed asks with shock.
"Yeah, and you can even request more if you wanna to go about furthering the field of alchemy, or just your own knowledge of a specific area, but then you have to take an evaluation during the years you're experimenting and using many resources, to prove that you aren't wasting the military's money. But again, I barely spend a dime of my cash, and none of my experiments to try and get our bodies went over the limits that separated living expenses from experimental research costs, so I'm worth more than 25 million" I finish, causing Greed to once again begin to do a spit take. Thinking quickly this time, I made a Ki screen to block Al's armor from being soaked again, and it evaporated into gas from the level of energy in it.
"Well, now I see why you didn't have any trouble giving us cash for the travel fare, thanks by the way" he says as he gets up and heads back to his original seat.
"Brother, can we trust them? I mean, I know you want to, but I'm worried this will end up like Shou Tucker, remember how great he seemed, yet he sacrificed his own family for his own gain; can these artificial humans really change when they're each embodiments of a single emotion?" Alphonse asks suddenly, taking me by surprise.
"I know it may seem risky, but you forget what I've become, and what kind of connections I have now. Even they do betray us and kill you guys, I can bring you back" I say slyly, trying to make sure that Greed wouldn't hear.
"Brother! You know human transmutation doesn't work, remember mom?" he chastises harshly.
"Actually it can work, we just didn't do it right; we rebounded, we didn't pay the equivalent price. To resurrect with human transmutation, it's a soul for a soul, we'd have to use a living person as payment to bring back the deceased one" I reply with a frown, showing him how much I hated the idea.
"Brother, you wouldn't dare…would you?" he asks fearfully.
"Absolutely not, I'm just saying it is possible with alchemy to bring back the dead in this realm. But, that's not how I'd bring you guys back" I whisper.
"You mean there's another way besides human transmutation?" he asks excitedly.
"Yeah, and I'll tell you, but not here, too many potential eavesdroppers; this is something I want to insure will remain a secret from anyone other than our close friends" I finish as I lean back in the seat once more. Nodding in agreement, we both went back to relaxing, and I helped pass the time by telling others of some great ideas I wanted to introduce to our world once the threat of Father is done, all regarding science I'd seen in the DBZ universe. The rest of the trip was very peaceful, and a few hours later, I slipped into a peaceful slumber. But just before I fell asleep, I had a feeling it might not stay peaceful for long.
Edward's Dream
"Huh, Where am I?" I say out loud, the question echoing several times across near pitch-black void.
"Your mind has traveled to my realm, because you and your master need to hear this warning, especially you Edward" the all too familiar voice belonging to a being I'd long grown tired of remembering existed.
"Let me guess, you're upset at me for something and want me to pay a price? Ok Truth, tell me then, what are you gonna do? Psyagon can see and hear anything I can, and I bet that includes my dreams since he's psionic. Anyways, isn't your realm supposed to be bright?" I reply as I turn around to stare at the white being behind me.
"Absolutely not, remember, your debts have been paid in full; but I' am here to warn you both about the consequences of your actions" he says as he frowns.
"What do you mean? I thought you just said-"
"I said I wasn't here to try and take anything from you, I never said that your purpose for visiting me wasn't bad. You've made a fine mess of things by saving that family man" Truth interrupts with a sigh.
For a moment I couldn't put my finger on what he meant by that, but then it hit me, the biggest family man I knew was…
"Hughes? How is saving Maes Hughes from certain death a bad thing!" I snap, amazed that he thought saving an innocent man's life was a bad thing.
"Well I'd be asking the same thing, if I didn't have knowledge of all points of time in this universe, technically I' am the overseer of this part of existence. I've seen how the future is supposed to go, and it wasn't gonna end too badly if Hughes had perished as planned, only a few more of your friends would end up in the grave" Truth says with his usual huge grin.
"Well that's not happening, I have all the power I could ever need, and I'm gonna use it to make sure that no more of my friends die if I can help it!" I scream, enraged that he thought such an outcome was acceptable.
"Would you prefer that billions more die instead of just a few?" he asks as his grin turns to a serious frown, catching me off guard.
"Billions…what are you saying, that by letting Hughes live, I've endangered the entire world?" I ask, my tone hollow and filled with shock.
"Oh sorry, I left out a few words in that sentence, I meant billions, and possibly more vastly more" he adds, causing my mouth to hang open.
"You don't seem to grasp how important he was to keeping the balance, but then I doubt you'd have accepted it even if you did know before how vital it was for him to die. Originally, when time was meant to go as foreseen for this world, Hughes death would get you all on the track to figuring out about the big plan hatched by the dwarf in the flask" he continues, causing me to groan.
"I know all that, that's how I knew to go save his life" I reply with a sigh.
"And that's the mistake you made, when you saved his life, the future that I'd foreseen vanished, like changing the flow of a river carelessly, it can tip the balance of ecology for the entire ecosystem toward chaos. For now, I do not know what may become of the it, but I have a foreboding feeling of dread, so be warned, things may happen that will take everyone by surprise" he says solemnly.
"Is that why its dark here instead of the usual white?" I remark as I look around with my natural saiyan night vision.
"Yeah, it signifies just how worried I' am; I hope Psyagon is as powerful as the rumors say, because we may need his help. For now, return to your friends, and go on with your plans, I do know they are of good intent, so I cannot say that your methods are wrong. Good luck" the Truth says with a soft smile. Immediately after that, his mouth opened up all huge and began to swallow me.
End Nightmare
Alphonse Elric
As I shook my brother in a desperate attempt to wake him before someone saw this scene, I began to think of backup ways to make sure he would move it. After Ed fell asleep, he must have forgotten to power down, cause just a few minutes ago, he'd crashed through the back of his seat just from shifting his position slightly, leaving and Edward shaped hole in the seat of the train.
"Brother, BROTHER! Please wake up before we're discovered, you wrecked the seat, you have to fix it" I beg, hoping it would get him up faster.
"Whoa…what the hell happened here?" Greed asks as he shifts his sunglasses, looking at the mess my brother's carelessness had made.
"He shifted in his sleep" I say as I shake him more desperately.
"That was caused by a little tossing and turning?" Martel asks with disbelief as she walks over too.
"Well you see, brother's power of Ki saturates his entire body, and it doesn't exactly just go away when its not in use, Ki is life force, so it is always on unless you use it all up, meaning you die. However, the more Ki you have, the more you have to suppress it to safely be around ordinary materials, cause Ki powers up all parts of your body, especially muscles and durability, so when he just moved a tiny bit, it was like putting 20 tons of pressure on a wall mount, it just snapped, and…why won't you wake up? Brother, you gotta get up and fix this damage so we can keep from arousing suspicion!" I yell, feeling grateful that the boxcar we were occupying only held our group.
"Alphonse, what's with all the racket? I was trying to see what the country side looks like from the train" Envy grumbles as he comes up from the entrance that led between us and the caboose.
"Envy, look what brother did cause he forgot to power down more before he slept!" I shout as I let go of Edward, having given up any hope of waking him on my own.
"I know how to wake him up" Envy says with a wicked grin.
Leaning down, Envy chuckled as he got near brother's ear.
"Hey Edward, its time for you to drink your milk" he laughs.
"AAAHHH, MILK, GET IT AWAY FROM ME, ITS DISGUSTING!" Edward screams as he bolts up like a rocket, breaking even more of the seat!
"(Scream of horror) BROTHER, THE BOOTH!" I howl, now getting very worried that we'd be found out.
"Wha…where am I-YAAHH! What the hell happened here?" he screams as he sees the damage.
"You didn't power down when you went to sleep, quick fix it" I say as I help my still out of it brother to his feet.
"(Groan) Oh man, thankfully I can just do this" he says with a smile as the alchemic energies surge through the bench and all the broken pieces reassemble.
"(Whistle) Man…just like ole dad can do" Greed laughs.
"Except brother doesn't use souls, its all through manipulation of his own energy or that around him, that's how he uses his alchemy now" I respond, causing Greed to go silent.
"Well…that certainly gives him further advantages over pops; however, I wanna know when we're gonna take him down" the avaricious homunculus says with a smile.
"Later, I wanna try and get Al's soul back in his body first, and we have till the promised day Father planed to try and get that done, now come on, we're at Rush Valley, time to go introduce you to Winry" Ed says as the train comes to a stop.
"How do you know that-"
"Attention, all passengers bound for Rush Valley prepare to disembark" the com system announces, cutting my train of thought.
"I can sense her Al, she's working on automail from the level of fluctuation I'm feeling" Ed replies as he opens the door.
After 10 minutes, we reached her shop, and Edward came up behind her, floating so he was totally silent. Then he tapped her shoulder.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH! SOMETHING TOUCHED ME!" she screams with horror.
"HA HA HA! Man, I've always wanted to do that, it just wasn't possible till recently cause of that loud automail" Ed laughs heartily.
Winry Rockbell
Scowling, I grabbed and wrench and prepared to clobber Edward for this rude joke he just pulled, but just as I prepared to smack him good, he grabbed the wrench and disarmed me.
"Winry, easy, it was a gag, calm down" he says as he hugs me.
"Oh…damn it, those hugs with that new hunky body of yours are just too good to pass up, even when you're in the small disguise I can feel those muscles" I sigh as I hug him back, cursing myself for being so easily beaten.
"You know you love me Winry; now, I have a new friend for you to meet, so please don't freak out" he says with a smile as he lets go and walks outside for a moment.
"Ok, here they are, our newest friends, the Chimera Gang" Edward says proudly as a group of 4 people walk in.
"So you're the girl Mr. Monster has such a liking of? Well he has good tastes if you ask me, by the way, my name is Martel, part snake" the blonde girl says as she offers a hand.
"Winry Rockbell, and I was his mechanic; I loved my job, but then he had to go and get himself transmogrified into an extraterrestrial and get new unbreakable arms. I'm glad that automail doesn't rely on one guy to be a profession, or I'd be out of a job" I reply, causing her to chuckle.
"You're not gonna let that get between you guys right, it'd be a shame for you two to just lose it all cause of his new status as invincible" Martel says with a smile, causing me to blush.
"He likes to brag about me doesn't he?" I sigh, wondering how many folks Edward had told about us.
"What? Oh no, it wasn't him who told me this, his teacher Izumi did; he'd confided in her, and she couldn't resist telling me, we became pals fast" Martel whispers.
"Oh…I see; anyways, who are the others with you?" I ask, noting the big man, the bald one in the cloak, and the guy with a katana and slicked hair.
"Oh, those are my other chimera friends. The big guy is Roa, fused with a cow, little cue ball is Bido, part lizard, and the spiky slick haired dude is Dolcetto, he's part dog. But there is one more, he isn't a chimera though, but he is our boss and friend" she explains as they each bow.
"Nice to meet you all, so who is your boss?" I ask as I look around, hoping I wasn't being set up for another prank.
"My little brother Greed leads them" Envy says with a smile as he walks in, taking a seat and returning to his androgynous form.
"That would be me" a smooth voice says from behind me. As I turned around, I saw a handsome man with even spikier hair than Dolcetto, as tall as Edward in his true form. I was about to ask what he was, till I remembered he was mentioned as Envy's brother, and he showed me the tattoo on his left hand.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! HOMUNCULUS!" I scream, remembering Edward's warning that I should be prepared to fight or run from anyone that isn't allied with us, and the only homunculi that were currently were Pride, Envy, Lust, and Gluttony. Swinging as fast as I could, I aimed my monkey wrench and prepared to smash his face.
CLANG!
"Whoa, take it easy girl, I'm one of the good guys…I think; I do know I'm not allowed to hurt anyone, and I defected from Father long ago, over 100 years ago" he says with an echoing voice as my wrench hits his neck, the skin suddenly having become a very hard black/grey material.
"Wait, really?" I say as I stop trying to hit him, but keeping the wrench on his skin.
"Yeah, he's clean, I mean pretty much any petty criminal would go straight after a demonstration of my new powers" Edward says as he forces my hand down and sets the wrench on the table.
"Well whether he's clean or not, I need you all to go now, I've got customers lining up, I've gotten very popular due to my craftsmanship, so we'll talk once the shop has closed at 5" I say as I shove them all out.
Edward Elric
Once we were kicked out, I sighed as I went to get a drink, deciding I'd help out with the local economy so I could keep Rush Valley alive for Winry.
"If you have such amazing power, why waste your money? I mean you made a building construct within minutes, can't you conjure a drink by making the glass and the liquid from the air or from energy?" Greed blabs, causing me to smack him.
"Shut up stupid! Do you want people to hear that? Then it will be an all out war, and I'll have to kill way more people than needed, so keep it down you idiot!" I say harshly as he rubs the back of his head.
"Geez, sorry, I'll keep that in mind next time" he whines.
"Look, me and Al need to talk, so you guys go do some other stuff, it's a private talk I need to have with my brother" I say as I shoo them away. Once they were gone, I looked for Al, but he was nowhere to be found. After going up the street, I reached a restaurant called Meshi and had a déjà vu feeling.
"I sure hope we don't find him the same way that the anime depicted" I sigh as I prepare to hear Al's voice.
"Brother!" he shouts from the entrance to an alley way.
"Well at least I had to look for Al first, but I got a sinking feeling the rest may play out similar" I say to myself as I walk over to him.
"Please tell me you found a stray cat" I groan as I prepare to hear the verdict.
"Uh…well no" he says as he picks up the man with the yellow coat.
"AW DAMN! Not Ling Yao! Well we can't just let him starve" I scream as I take him and drag his body to the Meshi establishment a few blocks away.