I had fun writing this chapter. Yay mindless violence and useless people*cough*Mustang*cough cough*. X3 Speaking of Mustang, I wonder what he thinks of Selena's nickname for him...

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew I had been tackled and was lying on my back, staring up in bewilderment as Alphonse pushed back a fallen beam and a chunk of debris. Utterly shocked, I sat up and surveyed what was left of the house. Colonel Mustang and the middle-aged doctor righted themselves and someone gave me a shove with an automail hand.

Shooting a glare at Edward, I demanded, "What the hell just happened?"

"Lieutenant, don't provoke it!" Mr. Military broke out. "I'm the one it's after!" Turning to the direction he was shouting at, I discovered Lieutenant Hawkeye pointing a pistol uncertainly at Gluttony. There would have been nothing wrong with this scene except that Gluttony was no longer trapped by the metal cable and he looked different. Very, very different.

His ribs had become a continuation of his teeth, extending threateningly out of his stomach, which had opened up to reveal gaping blackness. A large red eye glared out of it. On seeing Mr. Military, Gluttony swiveled furiously our way, gullet gaping.

"There's no other way. I'm going to kill it," the man stated, tugging on a pair of gloves.

"Wait!" Al protested, "We wanted a live homunculus, right?"

"Our survival gets priority!" Mustang responded, snapping his fingers. I jumped nearly a foot as an explosion went off without any prior warning. Gluttony's roars melded with the fiery boom with what I thought was pain, until the flames were sucked into his stomach. We all gaped at him as he burped, processing what happened, until his ribs shot forward to engulf us.

Everyone instantly sprang into action.

"RUN!"

Yanking me to my feet, shorty took off with everyone else, practically dragging me behind him by the arm. A loud boom shook the earth as we headed for the hills.

"Ow ow ow! Dammit, Ed, don't forget that your hand is made of metal!" I complained, tugging my arm out of his grasp. "I'm awake now, so tell me who screwed up!"

"Fine! Go yell at this useless idiot!" Edward rejoined, jerking a thumb at the black-haired man running next to him.

"I didn't screw anything up!" the colonel snapped back defensively. "Somehow that thing just—!" He broke off suddenly, and I glanced at him in confusion, then realized he was staring at me. It dawned on me that I could feel the wind on my ears. Gritting my teeth, I swore under my breath.

"Uh—"

"Long story, we don't have time for it!" Alphonse interrupted as explanation, just in time for the trees next to us to disappear in a beam of destructive energy.

"At least give me some semblance of what happened!" Mustang persisted.

"Some other time, Mr. Military!" I shouted.

"Split up!" someone interjected before he could protest.

Since my instincts told me where not to go, I was probably better off than the other three, but I had the bad luck to remember that Gluttony was after Colonel Mustang and forget my own self-preservation instincts with the knowledge that on his own, he would be pretty much screwed over. Pulling my gloves on, I headed in his direction.

As the homunculus' presence grew closer, I nearly ran headfirst into both Elrics.

"There you are, Selena."

"Hurry up, little girl!"

"I don't need you to tell me, shorty!"

Before he could retort, Ed tripped over a rock and hit the ground face-first. The rock let out a loud curse.

"Damn you, FullMetal!" it gasped, clutching its side.

"Found you, Mr. Military!"

With the help of Lieutenant Hawkeye, who showed up a moment later ("Ignore the ears and get moving!" I had told her) we assisted Mr. Military out of the forest and to the waiting car, leaving behind a dummy for Gluttony to munch on—or trip over, if he was anything like shorty. The doctor was already starting the engine, and Lin helped Lanfan into the back seat where Lieutenant Hawkeye could take care of her.

"Hurry up and get in the car!" the doctor barked, looking fretfully between the steering wheel, the chaos in the forest, and the four of us who were still outside. Lin, the Elric brothers, and I glanced at eachother.

"There's not enough room," Ed replied.

"We can't abandon you kids on the battlefield!" the lieutenant objected.

"Selena, you at least should—" Al started to suggest, but I kicked him in the leg.

"Hell I'm ditching you guys," I responded stubbornly. "Besides, if Gluttony ate the hat Mrs. Izumi gave me, I owe him a serious ass-kicking."

"The thing you seek isn't a homunculus, is it, Colonel Mustang?" Lin presumed. "Shouldn't you be fighting military high command?"

"And we still need to get information out of that Gluttony thing," Edward put in. "It doesn't matter if we're kids. We came up with this plan. We'll clean up our own mess."

After a brief pause, Lieutenant Hawkeye called Edward's name and held something out to him.

"Take this with you. You know how to use it, right?"

The blonde hesitated, eyeing the object uneasily. I involuntarily recoiled from it and sensed Al do the same.

"That's…" the armored boy faltered, "…a tool for killing people."

"It's a tool for protecting yourselves," she persisted.

I watched Edward struggle with himself for a few seconds, and then he reached out and took it, forefinger held carefully away from the trigger.

"I…I'll take it."

My discomfort must have showed on my face, because Al squeezed my shoulder reassuringly. For some reason I couldn't quite fathom, I really did not like how Edward Elric looked with a gun in his hand. It was worse, even, than seeing armed military police who knew what they were doing. Every fiber of my being told me it was wrong.

As the vehicle took off, we turned to go after the homunculus still rampaging in the forest. With no idea what to do, however, we mostly peeked at him from behind trees.

"I know I said I'd fight that thing, but it's scaring the crap out of me," Edward muttered.

"You go first, Lin," I whispered, crouching behind a bush. "Do it for your clan!"

"Why don't you go 'kick its ass' like you said you would?" he whispered back.

"If only it would go back to its calmer state," Al whimpered.

The trees in front of us were blasted away, and we scrambled for cover again. As we settled into new hiding spots, a small black and white animal trembling by Alphonse's side caught my attention.

"Al."

"Yes?"

"What's that?"

"A cat. I found it after our fight with Scar."

"Al, I'm not sure what that is, but it's not a cat."

"It's not?"

Before I could confirm this, the animal in question perked up and whipped around to stare deeper into the forest, bristling. An instant later I sensed the same thing it had and called the others' attention to the creature fast approaching, and a dark figure slipped into view, silhouetted faintly against the night sky. The black horse opened its mouth.

"Stop, Gluttony."

Although Lin should have been able to sense the homunculus too, he blurted out in surprise, "It spoke?" Its gaze shifted to the foreigner and lit up in recognition, and its features began to rearrange themselves, crackling with alchemic energy. I assumed a guarded stance as a new figure straightened up on two legs, smirking.

"Yo! Long time no see, little FullMetal boy!"

"Don't call me little!" Shorty virtually flew at Envy, sending a roundhouse kick at the unprepared homunculus, who ducked barely in the nick of time.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Envy raised his hands defensively. "I don't want to fight you, little boy—"

I saw the next punch coming before it skidded past his nose.

"That's five times!" Ed snarled at him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Once now and once before makes two, and you called me little three times at Lab No. Five!" shorty roared, infuriated. "Don't tell me you forgot!" Slapping his hands against a tree, he sent a log hurtling at Envy, who leapt out of the way and landed next to Gluttony. Alphonse had to restrain his brother to prevent him from getting any angrier. I considered provoking the munchkin even further, but thought better of it.

"Where's Colonel Mustang?" Gluttony demanded. "I'll eat him! Swallow him up!"

"I didn't see him. Maybe he got away already," Envy responded. "Anyway, you can't eat the flame colonel."

"B-but…he killed Lust…"

That explained a lot, I thought to myself, watching incredulously as the overweight homunculus started crying. Disregarding his partner's tears, Envy turned to glare at Lin.

"So it's you again, Xing brat."

"Hello," Lin replied cheerily. "Did you want me to capture you, too?"

"Nah, I just came here to pick up this guy."

With the phrase "pick up this guy," Gluttony was beginning to seem more and more like an oversized toddler than a monster that ate too much. Well, maybe he still ate too much. One car, half a house, and a hat were missing, after all.

"Hey, you! Little chimera girl!" Envy's voice brought me out of my not-so-flattering thoughts.

"What do you want?"

"Back in the city, how did you know who I was? Did someone tip you off?"

Oh joy, this guy was worried about somebody leaking information. I decided to humor him.

"Yup, this guy I knew told me all about you homunculi," I deadpanned, nodding as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. "I know who you are, what you look like, which of you are complete assholes…"

"What?"

"For example, I recognized you just by your skirt," I smiled insincerely. This was getting fun.

"Who the hell told you all that?"

"Greed." Okay, it wasn't so fun anymore…

Envy blinked a couple times as he put the pieces together, and then a grin spread across him face.

"Well, well. Looks like I'll have to tell President Bradley he missed one."

Al caught the landmine before it exploded.

"Let go of me, Al! I'm going to kick his freaking ass!"

"Me too! The bastard called me short!"

"You two have the worst tempers," Al chided, straining to hold both me and Edward back. The offender, completely ignoring the two alchemists plotting his bloody demise, told Gluttony to go snack on Lin. Edward cooled down a bit and clapped his hands together. I grinned as a wall sprung up between the two homunculi, and Al pushed me towards Envy's side of it with Lin.

"He's all yours, Lin!" called shorty, and his brother added, "Go help him out, Selena!" Punching the air, I dashed after my foreign friend and prepared to launch something painful into Envy's smug face.

Envy's one of my favorite characters, but that's not sparing him Selena's wrath. XD Poor Al always has to defuse the situation. Luckily, in this case its unnecessary. Have fun, Selena-chan. *waves* Let's see how you do.