An Alchemist's Ransom
-Chapter 7-
Dust, smoke and debris was quickly filling the warehouse and down below the office Hawkeye and Havok had to pull back a little because of the lowered visibility. After taking a few steps back, Hawkeye turned around and looked around; her eyes were stinging, but that didn't matter after she looked up and saw a shadow quickly descending upon her from above. She raised her gun again and took aim, but found it was very difficult to aim because of all the dust in her eyes. She managed to get off a couple shots, but had to move back knowing deep down she hadn't hit her target.
Hawkeye stood with her gun aimed as the dust continued to settle. She felt herself almost freeze as the figure landed on the floor, stood up straight, then began to close the gap between itself and Hawkeye. As Scar pushed past the wall of debris Hawkeye fired off a few more shots at him, one hit him in the right shoulder, another in his lower left arm. The third bullet barely missed his head and what disturbed her the most was that he didn't even flinch. Scar then shot forward and Hawkeye went to fire off another round at the man, but felt her hand begin to shake when all she heard was a clicking sound coming from her pistol. Realizing her gun was empty, she then quickly turned to try and get to some sort of cover.
"Riza!" Roy shouted looking over the edge of the newly formed opening. His dark eyes darted back and forth as he tried to see through the cloud down below. The gunshots he heard almost stopped his heart several times because it meant that the more Hawkeye fired her gun, the less likely it was Scar was going down. He was so focused on trying to find the people below the office, Roy didn't notice Edward run over and also look down, his fists clenched at his sides.
Al was behind them kneeling on the floor and drawing his circle as quickly as he could, with Roy's gloves and the pieces with his flame symbol on them in the center. He placed his hands just on the outside of the circle and the power of Al's alchemy began to repair the gloves as quickly as he could make it. He was worried about what might happen to the officers down below and also wanted to do everything in his power to help.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Scar rushed up to Hawkeye. She tried to move and duck out of the way, but was pulled backwards as a tight grip wrapped around her right wrist. She pulled forward a bit, but fighting Scar's strength wasn't an option as she was pulled upwards. Scar pulled her closer to him and soon Hawkeye was looking into the deep red eyes of the Ishballian man, she tried to struggle and hit him against the head with the butt of her pistol, but he was able to grab her other wrist and twist it down, causing her to drop the empty gun.
Riza winced as she could feel her bone close to snapping because of how her arm was being twisted. She wanted to kick him, but knew that it wouldn't have much force behind it because she was barely touching the ground. Her body was telling her to flee and to get as far away as possible, even if that meant breaking her arm against Scar's grip, but froze suddenly as out of the corner of her eye she saw the glyphs on Scar's arm begin to glow.
She closed her eyes tightly and clenched her teeth as the glyphs began to turn red and a warm sensation was starting to creep up her right arm, and as Scar tightened his grip on her left arm even more. Everything began to flash before her eyes at once and she thought for those moments that her life was about to end; completing the training at the academy, first being assigned to the Central Headquarters of the Military, first being given the rank of First Lieutenant under the State Alchemist Colonel Roy Mustang.
Havok watched froze in place, his gun lowered slightly, at a total loss as of what to do. He wanted to shoot the man in the head, but knew that the very sound of the hammer being pulled back would endanger Hawkeye's life. He wasn't even sure if Scar knew he was there, but figured for right now, it might be for the best.
"Scar!" came Edward's yell from above, and the man turned to look up towards the office. Hawkeye opened her eyes and took in a gasp of air, she hadn't even realized she had been holding her breath. She noticed Scar's look and followed his gaze up. Roy was standing near the edge of the office with his cold stare seeming to pierce through Scar like a sharp piece of glass. Edward was knelt down next to him, one hand resting on the edge of the platform.
"...I warned you..." Roy said holding up his right arm to show Scar that his gloves had been repaired. The man below only glare and gritted his teeth together. "I told you not to touch her!" just as he said that Hawkeye's eyes widened slightly, but even managed to smirk through the pain as Roy snapped his fingers together and a line of fire shot towards Scar.
In order to dodge the flames, Scar was forced to throw Hawkeye to the side and he had to dive in the other direction to get away. He rolled a bit to get out anything that had sparked on his clothes, but quickly went to stand up. He wasn't expecting to hear shots from behind and tried to duck as Havok fired his gun at the man. One grazed his back, but Scar was able to get out of the way of the other shots.
From above Edward clapped his hands together and hit them against the floor, the crackling blue energy went into the material and used it to form a spiraling path to the floor below. Even before it had touched the floor below, Roy was on it and hurrying downward, managing to keep his balance as best he could, he even jumped to the floor when it was about 6 feet above it.
Havok moved back a few feet to get closer to the door and signal to the waiting officers to hold back and to also be prepared to work as support. He then turned back and took another couple shots off at Scar, but felt the sudden urge to run as Scar turned to him and put his glyph covered arm to the floor and a line of jagged spikes shot up and began to go towards Havok. He was able to move to the entrance and get outside before the spikes slammed into it, and he then started to spout orders to go around the sides and secure the area.
Riza rubbed her arm as she forced herself back into a sitting position. She heard Havok fire shots at Scar and knew that she should also be doing her job, but was surprised that when she looked forward to see Roy standing between herself and Scar. "Colonel..." She whispered, then pushed herself to her feet. With a sudden feeling of comfort and rightness coming over her, Hawkeye pulled out her other pistol and took a sharp aim directly at Scar's head.
"I warned you..." Roy said again still glaring at the man. He then snapped his fingers again and a circle of fire erupted from the floor and formed a wall around Scar. Keeping his eyes on Scar, Edward and Al also made it down to the floor and stood behind them ready to act as back up.
"Colonel Mustang." Hawkeye said moving her hand through one of her side pockets. Roy then glanced over his shoulder and saw the familiar glint of silver that came from his pocket watch. He gave a slight smirk and held out his left hand to catch the watch as Hawkeye tossed it to him.
Just as he noticed Scar managing to move out of the wall of fire, Roy gripped the watch tightly in one hand and snapped the fingers of the other, and a now heightened wall of flames shot towards Scar. The man turned to run just before they hit, but Edward ran forward, clapped his hands and slid to the ground, causing a wall of stone to come up behind Scar in an effort to block his path. A muffle of pain could be heard as the fire engulfed the wall, but once it had all dissipated, nothing was left but a large hole in the floor.
Edward fell back to a sitting position and sighed as Roy tossed his pocket watch a couple times in his hand before placing it back in his pocket. He turned around to look at Hawkeye as she picked up the gun she had been forced to drop and was giving it a quick once-over.
"Lieutenant," he said, though part of him expected her to respond as she normally would, a good part of him was still surprised by her quick reaction and formal sounding response.
"Colonel?" she asked watching him as if waiting for an order.
"Look...about today." he started.
"Good to see you're all right, sir." Hawkeye said, Roy was slightly taken back by her comment, and the almost sound of lack of concern over his safety. It was then that Edward and Al suddenly remembered what had happened earlier in the day and Edward jumped to his feet.
"Colonel!" Edward said drawing both officer's attention.
"Yes Edward?" Roy asked looking at him curiously.
"That reminds me," Hawkeye said, looking to the oldest Elric brother, "You made it here pretty quickly from Risemb--" but before she could finish, Edward twitched and grabbed for the Colonel's arm.
"I just remembered, I need to talk to Colonel Mustang about something, sorry Lieutenant, it'll only be a second!" and with that Edward pulled Roy away, closely followed by Al. Hawkeye gave all three of them an odd look and went back to checking her gun.
She walked over to the door, being careful to avoid the spikes that had been sent after Havok, 'I told you not to touch her...' those words echoed in Hawkeye's mind just as she went to open the door. Looking back to what Havok had told her, made only made her think about it more, and also made her consider the Colonel's actions during the fight. When she opened the door, Havok greeted her with a quick salute, and his typical smirk of self satisfaction.
"The officers are working to secure this area and also looking at the sewer systems to make sure that Scar doesn't get away." he said.
"No problem Lieutenant, "Hawkeye said, "Good job." she then moved to go into the car and sit. Havok watched her for a few moments and smiled again. Already he could see the normal face of Lieutenant Elizabeth "Riza" Hawkeye coming back to life. He then sighed and closed his eyes.
"All up to you now Colonel" he said to himself then turned to watch the rest of the officers work.
Hawkeye got in the car and sat down, it was obviousl that the Elric brothers knew something about the initial disappearance, otherwise they wouldn't have reacted to Roy talking about today. She took a deep breath and watched the other officers outside as they worked to try and find Scar. Her duty was telling her to let them continue and go right back to work, but something else inside her wanted to also leap up and hug Roy just to know that he was really there. She rested her head against her hand and kept watching out the window. It seemed like everything was going to return to normal now, and that meant, that as usual, Scar would get away.
"Edward!" Roy shouted, he hated being drug around, especially by the short Full Metal Alchemist. After being pulled a few more feet, Roy managed to shake free and brush himself off.
"Hey, we still have a deal, besides we don't have much time left." Edward said turning around to look at Roy. Hearing this Roy quickly pulled out his newly returned watch and checked the time; 4:30.
"All right, here's the new, improvised plan. You get the good, I'll meet you at Gracia's house at 6:00." Roy said, "Right after we all go off duty." and with that Roy turned and quickly went towards the exit.
"Why are we stuck with the dirty work?" Edward asked looking up at Al, his brother only shrugged and they both watched Roy leave the warehouse. No words were needed when they both agreed that they just wanted this day to be over.
