Warnings: Language, gore, general repulsive imagery; don't read if you're squeamish.

Spoilers: None for now

Feedback: Constructive feedback is very welcome

A/N at the end.

Felis Catus: Circle Twenty-One
"Fuck!" Edward kicked the wall in frustration. "There's no way we can disobey a direct order!"

The other two looked just as frustrated as Edward felt. "We'll just have to hope that our friends will last long enough for us to save them," Hughes said, frowning.

If they were still alive, was the unspoken thought weighing heavily on everyone's mind.

"Ah, hell! Let's go liquefy those chimeras! Two less to deal with in the sewers," Edward said grimly.

Two less to eat our captured friends, Roy said silently. There was still something he didn't like about this whole thing. There was one chimera left that hadn't shown up, and a mastermind to expose and deal with. But as with everything else, they could only deal with one thing at a time. He could only pray that they would be in time to save everyone.

"Well, the sooner we get there, the sooner we eliminate the threat, the sooner we can go down into the sewers and save our friends," Hawkeye said matter-of-factly, heading towards the door.

"And do some serious damage," Hughes said with a vicious grin. "We'll teach 'em to mess with our team."

Edward's answering grin was just as vicious. "I like the sound of that."

"I thought you would."

"Gentlemen. To the wars?" Hawkeye swept an arm through the door extravagantly to hurry them up.

"Aye!"

The three humans and their furry companions were fairly a blur as they ran breathlessly through the streets of Central to the fountain that was the absolute center of the city.

Roy was perched on Edward's shoulder, keeping his body low to reduce wind resistance and his claws firmly dug into Edward's coat, which streamed along behind the running alchemist in a red blur. He mentally willed Edward on faster, and as if in response to Roy's silent prompting, Edward seemed to increase his pace. He positively flew through the streets, his energy channeling into his movements, sheer poetry in motion. If Roy didn't know Edward had a bruised rib, he never would have suspected it, but for the small hitches in breath Edward took. It pained Roy that Edward had to push himself to such limits, but he knew that he would do the exact same thing in Edward's situation and so he kept his thoughts to himself. Sometimes pain was to be overlooked, for the sake of the mission.

Roy glanced back at their companions to see how they were keeping up.

Hawkeye ghosted along just as swiftly as Fullmetal despite the added weight of her rifle strapped across her back, her eyes darting from side to side and her gun held at the ready. Hayate ran with all of the unbound grace and unbridled delight of the canine race, keeping perfect pace with his owner and silently watching her back.

Surprisingly, for a man who spent most of his time at a desk job, Hughes was having no problem keeping up. He held a dagger in each hand and was surprisingly light on his feet. Roy smiled internally. It was classic Hughes. He never failed to surprise.

"Are we almost there?" Edward asked breathlessly.

"Up ahead," came the quick reply.

The sound of deceptively calm, splashing water reached their ears before they burst out of the alley and skidded to a stop in battle ready positions, breathing heavily but not yet winded.

It took a moment for their minds to comprehend was their eyes were seeing.

The scene before them was one straight out of a nightmare.

"By the Gate..." Edward said in a very quiet voice. They were all frozen in shock.

The streets and fountain were running blood. It was everywhere.

Blood from the dismembered bodies of what were previously military personnel was strewn liberally about the paved cobblestones surrounding the fountain and here and there a severed limb reached out from the carnage as if in mute supplication to a higher power that had abandoned them.

"What happened here?" Hawkeye asked sickly. "It's a complete massacre."

Edward shook his head wordlessly, his expression still aghast.

"There!" Hughes said sharply, pointing to where there was a ruckus going on over on the other side of the weeping fountain. "Something's happening over there!"

They cautiously picked their way over, gingerly stepping through the bodies and keeping low. Hayate gave a small whine. "It's okay, boy," Hawkeye murmured soothingly. "It's okay…I'll give you a bath when this is all over, okay?" As if that helps any, she thought inanely, with an internal shudder. She never thought she'd have to do this again.

Hayate waved his tail a few times and nudged her hand with his nose. Hawkeye crouched next to him and gave him a quick hug before moving on. It was unprofessional, but then again, the situation they were facing wasn't one normally found in most handbooks.

Roy sympathized whole-heartedly. Wading through blood was not a fun thing to do. He knew from firsthand experience. It never really washed away. Everyone dealt with it differently. Roy had his various masks and no one ever really knew which Roy they were talking to. Hughes laughed everything off, but the laughter never reached his eyes. Hawkeye shuttered her emotions away into some small corner of her mind, earning her a reputation as a cold and terribly efficient sniper. Roy, remembering their childhood laughter, could only guess what it cost them all. He only hoped it would be worth it in the end.

"Oh, hell." Hughes stopped short. Roy immediately refocused his attention.

"What?" Edward asked nervously. Hughes pointed.

Edward chuckled despairingly. "And they say a picture's worth a thousand words," he said softly. "No picture could do those things justice."

His companions nodded mutely.

In front of them, the chimera fused with an anaconda, octopus and human, writhed in an almost obscene ecstasy as its heavy coils crushed a screaming man to pieces and its tentacles lashed about, decapitating and dismembering the soldiers attempting to free their comrade. Its snake-like head hissed mockingly before biting the man's head off in a brilliant spray of crimson blood.

Next to it, the curious scorpion-like creature scuttled about almost mechanically, snapping up humans with its pincers and jabbing them with its pincer. It appeared to be moving very quickly for such a heavy looking thing.

"What the hell can we do?" Edward asked in a sick voice. Roy looked at him sharply. Damn. He hadn't thought about this. Edward had never seen war. He'd never seen such a level of carnage before.

Hughes apparently just had the same thought. "Ed...you okay?"

"I have to be," Edward swallowed thickly. "Someone's got to stop those things."

"It doesn't have to be you," Hawkeye said gently.

"There's no one else. I'm the only alchemist here."

The other two exchanged a look. Hughes cursed. "Damn. Gran should be here."

"Well, he's not and I am," Edward said shortly. "Which one should we tackle first?"

"The snake thing seems more occupied...a long distance attack could take it out," Hughes murmured.

"Hmm." Hawekeye looked thoughtful, as she carefully studied the snake. "I'll try to get a shot off. We'll use the fountain and bodies as a cover for now."

"Roger."

Hawkeye shrugged off her coat and put it over her head, lying down on the blood soaked ground and angling her rifle over a dead body in front of her. "I'm sorry," she murmured softly to the prone figure. "Hayate, down." Hayate obeyed immediately, with a soft whimper as blood soaked into his fur.

Hughes and Edward immediate mimicked her actions, Edward regretfully balling his coat up and tucking it under a fallen soldier to hide its bright color. He gritted his teeth and carefully removed the coat of another man who no longer needed it. "I hate this," he said sickly, pulling the coat over his head and Roy's. It stank of fear and blood. The blood all around them began to seep into their clothes as they lay there.

"We all do," Hughes said softly. "I never thought I'd have to do this again after Ishbal."

Edward looked at him sharply. "This is what Ishbal was like?"

"This is what war is like," Hawkeye murmured softly, aiming for the chimera's head.

Edward looked haunted, but bravely tried to shake it off. "Well, this is one we can do something about," he said firmly

"Roger." Hawkeye narrowed her eyes and squeezed off a shot.

It flew directly towards the snake's head. The snake froze, as its tongue sampled the air, tasting a faint hint of gunpowder and smoke. As the bullet flew true, the chimera pulled in all of its tentacles, forming a thick shield of living and dying humans around its torso and head. The bullet struck the leg of a dead body with a dull thud.

"Fuuuuuuck," Edward breathed in horror. Hawkeye grimaced and lowered her gun carefully.

"You do have a way with words, Ed," Hughes muttered.

"You got a better word?"

"Nope. Fuck works for me too."

"Then don't complain. What the hell are we going to do now? Got any bright ideas?"

"Hmm. The snake chimera immediately protected its head and torso area…I think we can assume that those are its weak spots," Hughes said critically. "Its hide looks too thick to be pierced."

"Snakes are killed by cutting off their bodies just behind their heads," Hawkeye said with a dark expression. "Dad and I used to hunt rattlers that way. We could do with Havoc's flechettes right about now."

"So we have to somehow separate the torso and head from the snake coils, eh?" Edward asked, his mind working furiously.

Roy looked at him sharply.

"Got an idea there, Ed?" Hughes asked, watching the chimera, who appeared to have dismissed the shot as a random occurrence and had returned to gleefully playing with its food. The other chimera hadn't noticed a thing and was still meticulously picking up bodies and stabbing them with its tail.

"I'm thinking..." Ed said slowly. "What do you estimate the reaction time was when Hawkeye shot at it?"

Oh no. No no no no no and NO! Don't even think about it Edward, Roy warned.

"Hold it right there, Ed," Hughes said, head snapping around to eye Edward incredulously. "You're not thinking about close combat, are you?"

"No, but I will have to get within a certain range for this to work," Ed said seriously. "We've got to deal with the tentacles somehow; those are the main offensive weapon the chimera's using for long distance combat. Those tentacles are giving that chimera three hundred sixty degrees of space to kill and defend itself in and we can use that to our advantage."

"Okay, I follow that so far..." Hughes' eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "You're not suggesting that...? Ed, that's crazy!"

Roy had to agree.

Edward gave him a strained grin. "Bingo," he said, smirking. "If my theory works, we'll be at an advantage."

Hughes closed his eyes, deep in thought. "You know...it's so crazy it just might work."

Don't encourage him, Hughes! Roy hissed.

"Of course it'll work," Edward scoffed. "I thought of it, didn't I?"

You're not inspiring any confidence in me, Roy thought acidly. He'd be the first to admit it was an excellent plan; he just wasn't happy that it was Fullmetal who was going to have to be the one to pull it off. Damn, if only he could use his flames! He could roast that thing in no time!

"Care to fill me in here?" Hawkeye asked dryly. "The finer points of this scheme are eluding me."

Edward smiled ruefully. "Sorry 'bout that. So anyways, here's what we're going to do..."

To be con't...

ETA of next chapter(s) - about 1-2 weeks...I'm evil, thanks, I know.

Oh, and on a sidenote: I know spiders and scorpions are arachnoids. I majored in the sciences (kudos if you can guess which field) and I absolutely hate spiders. Know thy enemy. j/k. But I wanted to give the impression of Havoc and the team shrugging them off as "bugs". Also, these are chimeras. Insert evil smile. Author runs off cackling.