Their Beginnings: Part 2
WARNING: The fallowing story contains SPOILERS. They don't come in for a while, but they are in there. Also, this story contains some bad language and other assorted PG 13 content
Characters: I own Liz, Mel, and all the other randos that aren't in the anime/manga.
"Lizz"
Lizz heard a voice saying her name, and she opened her eyes. As the bright light blinded her, she felt a that there was something wrong. Then she reilized-she couldn't feel her right leg. Lizz sat up and ripped the covers off of herself, revealing a bandaged stump where her leg had once been. She sat frozen, gazing at the stump that was now the remainder of her leg. Lizz felt a hand on her shoulder, and she came out of her little trance.
She looked over to see Travis looking down at her with a faint smile.
"What happened?" Lizz asked, rubbing her leg.
"Your leg was frozen in ice when I found you...You were unconsious and your leg was stuck to the floor. It took four men from the bar and some ice chizles to get you out. By the time we got you to the hospital, you had contracted serious frostbite. Your leg was just dead tissure" Travis paused. "So they had to amputate it. I'm really sorry Lizz."
"Don't be...It's my fault. I got cocky and careless..." Lizz replied. It was true. She thought she could do it, but she should have had some one around if she were trying new alchemy techniques...
"Travis? Can...can I get an auto-mail leg? I'll work for a straight year to pay it off..." Lizz said, her voice trailing off.
"I knew you would ask that. Your train leaves tomorrow. I've called some auto mail engineers in Central City, and they can fit you with some auto mail this year." Travis said. "You better get packing. Your going to be there a while, they say it takes time to get used to the auto mail. And while your there, I think you could use a bit of vacation. Also..." he said in a weird tone, "You can check out the military head quarters in Central. That's the career you want, right?"
Her stomach gave a lurch when he said that. This wasn't so bad after all. Having an auto mail leg wouldn't be too horrible, would it? And she could have a vacation and check out the Central HQ...Yeah, she was going to like this Lizz told herself.
The next day, Travis drove Lizz to the train station. She got out on a pair of crutches, and Travis put her bag over her shoulder. Lizz hobbled over onto the train and took a seat next to the window. She stuck her head out the window to talk to Travis before the train left.
"Travis...thank you so much..." She couldn't begin to tell him how thankful she was.
"Hey, I just want you to be happy, Elisabeth." Travis said back to her. "You're the closest thing I have to a daughter."
"And you're my closest thing I have to parents." Libby said back. Growing up, they had both acted more like uncle and niece. Not once ha he ever called Lizz by her full name, Elisabeth. For a moment, she wanted to get off the train and stay with Travis, but she didn't have the choice. The train's whistle blew, and the train began its journey to Central City.
Upon arrival, Lizz hobbled out of the train and into the busy train station. Immediately, the sensation of freedom rushed over her. Never in her life had she gone somewhere on her own that she wasn't accustom to. But with that emotion of freedom, came the awareness of the heat. Lizz was from the north, and the 90 degrees temperatures were baring down on her. She took a seat on a bench outside the station in front of the street. She heaved a heavy sigh and opened her bag, producing a piece of paper Travis had given her. There in his scribbly handwriting was the address of the local auto-mail engineers.
Libby flagged down a taxi, and the driver helped her in and asked her where to go. She told him the address, and they drove off into the city.
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Mel sat huddled in the back of her cage, enveloped in the shadows. She sat quietly by herself, wondering what would become of her. A door opened and the sound of two men walking in echoed though the cell lined hall. They stopped in front of Mel's cage. One of the men was the Alchemist who she had spoken with the day before. He seemed nervous and was slightly fidgety. The man next to him was a tall, black bearded man with a black uniform on. He held a clip board and was reading it, until he spoke.
"Lieutenant Colonel Melonie Fice, a State combat specialist?" he said with the notion of being impressed. "Says Squad 15 shot her on no man's land between our base and the State's, then she was transported here and you made her into Chimera." He looked at the Alchemist. "Is that correct?"
"Yes," said the Alchemist, trying to avoid eye contact. "It was a success."
"A success?" Mel said with a slight hint of insanity. "You call this a success!" She stood and came out of the shadow into the view of the men. Her body was covered in a light brown fur, her face no longer pure human looking, but a mix between a fox-bat and a human. Her eyes were still a golden yellow, and she had rusty brown colored hair now. She seemed to have gained a sixth finger on each hand (er, paw, perhaps?), but it and her fith fingers extended to the length of her arms. Stretched in between the two thin, extended fingers was a leathery membrane that was a grayish black hue. Her canine teeth were also larger and sharper, and her feet had claws and she could stand either with her feet flat, or on the ends of her feet like a rabbit. Mel had also lost about a foot in her hight. She had once been 5'11, but now he was a megar 5'3 -- pretty short compared to what she had once been.
Her physical state and appearance wasn't the only thing wrong. Her senses--most of them--were more accute. Though bats are normally frail creatures, Fox Bats are the largest and strongest of them all, and now combined with Mels current strength and agility, she felt as if she could take on an army of Ta-Hars herself. While waiting in her cell for any people to come along, she had found that her claws were razor sharp and easily made deep scratches in the iron walls around her.
"Nonsense! You are a perfect Chimera now." exclaimed the Alchemist who had done this to her.
"Then...how come I can remember being a Fox Bat as well as a human?" Mel said, her voice shaking. It was true, she had two memories, one from her human life, and one from her Fox Bat life. She remembered being free in the south-east in a large group of Fox Bats. She remembered hunting for food and the sweet taste of a big fat bug. Mel also remembered how she used sonar to locate bugs in the air. Mel closed her eyes and tried to use her sonar. In a spit second, it was as if some one had drawn a picture of the room in her head. She knew where everything was, how big it was, everything. Down to the paper wadded up in a ball in a corner and a gnat flying above the bearded man's head.
The alchemist began to sweat violently and waited for the bearded man to speak.
"No matter." He said as he wrote on the clipboard. "I don't give a damn about her mental state, as log as you can produce able-bodied chimeras, Mr. Brown. Fice, you will fight for us."
"Never"
"We'll she how long ou feel that way. But for now you'll be joining your comrades."
Two other uniformed men came in and placed a large iron collar around Mel's furry neck and one man connected a chain to it. Mel felt like an animal...Then it made her feel a bit more human when they put handcuffs on her wrists. They also put leather cuffs with a small lock on her two extended fingers and her upper arms so that they were strapped to her arms and were unable to move. Then the four men led Mel down the row of cells to the very end where a very large iron door stood. They opened the door to revile a large prison dining hall. Along the dining hall were cells, all of which the doors were open. Many State prisoners of war watched as the chains were removed from her iron collar and her handcuffs were taken off.
"Your cell number is 64. When the guards say 'to your cells' you get in it. Understand?" Said the bearded man.
Mel stared at him coldly, then slapped her with the back of his hand. "I am the leader of the Ta-Hars! You obey me. You are no longer a State dog. It seems to me you are now a Ta-Har Bat." He smirked. "Do you understand?"
"Its not that I don't understand, its just that I don't give a damn what you have to say." Mel said. Some of the State prisoners snickered and some uttered small sounds of supprise. The Ta-Har leader pulled out his gun, cocked it, and fired. The bullet grazed Mel's face just below her right eye, and she clasped it with her hands. It stung feircly and she knew there was going to be a scar from it as the blood seeped onto her distorted fingers. The guards and prisoners watched and waited. He leader said nothing and left the hall, as did the three other men.
As her blood warmed her hands, Mel felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a strange combination between a man and a hawk. He had a yellow beak and blackish brown feathers, and dark, golden eyes like Mel's. He wore a blue button up short sleeved prison shirt with reveled his feathered arms. His pants were ripped to allow his feather tail out, and at his knees his legs looked like enlarged hawk's legs. His talons made small scratches in the dirt floor where he stood.
"Come with me." He said in a deep voice. His beak made small clicking sounds when he spoke.
Mel fallowed the Hawk Chimera to a table where five other men sat. There was another chimera sitting at the table. He was a handsome young man mixed with a German Shepherd-looking dog. His face was black with small marks of tan brown fur over his black eyes. There was also a tan brown dilmond mark on his forehead. His muzzle and nose were black like the rest of his fur. He also wore a blue button up short sleeved prison shit, and had long black pants on. His legs were crossed and his bare, paw-like feet were resting on the table.
"So that makes three of us." Said the dog chimera. "You think on his third try he would have made a better one."
"Ha, that old bastard sucks." laughed a man at the table."I studied alchemy at one time, too. Stopped once I failed the State Alchemy exam. That Ta-Har alchemist has an obvious signature mistake. Look at you three, you all look similar."
Mel had also noticed that they, the three Chimeras, had similar features. They all had faces and fur resembling their animal counterparts, and they all had messed up legs and hands. Then she thought about her second memory.
"Do either of you remember your life as an animal?" Mel asked. Mel luahged in her head. Normaly some one's first words to some one would be 'hello' or 'me name is'. But Mel looked at her furry arms and reilize normality was no longer a part of her life.
"I do," said the dog Chimera. "But the Colonel doesn't." he nodded at the Hawk Chimera. "By the way, I'm Second Lieutenant Colonel David Brian. Er, well, I guess I'm just David Brian now."
"Oh, sorry. Forgot to introduce myself." Mel said rubbing the back of her head. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Mel Fice. Call me Mel, please. And why do you say 'I guess I'm just David Brian now'? Who says we're out of the military?"
The other POWs (Prisoners Of War) laughed.
"If we ever get out of this hell hole, which there is a slight chance of mind you, do you really think the military will have use for you? Not trying to be harsh, but you guy are pretty messed up." said one of the POWs.
"I am Colonel Grain." said the hawk Chimera sternly to the men who had just laughed. "Do you think they will throw away a Colonel just because of a deformity? I was a sharp-shooter before I was captured. The Ta-Hars knew that and merged me with a hawk. A hawk's vision in addition to my shooting skills...that is a killing machine...We are not 'messed up', we are enhanced."
As Lizz sat in the back seat of the taxi, she looked out the window at Central City. It looked like there had been a war or something. Buildings were destroyed and there seemed to be a lot of re-construction going on.
"Sir?" Libby started. "Why is the city in such bad shape?"
"Eh? Oh.." He took a long drag on his cigarette. "'Couple 'o years ago, there was this strange battle between the military 'n some weird armored guys...Don't really know what happened. The Military kept it's mouth shut 'n the public never really was informed...But there were explotions, not too many dead thankfully...Half the city was destroyed. Yup, but we've been gettin' back on our feet." He said and nodded out the window at a school being rebuilt.
Lizz didn't have much time to think on this subject. The car pulled up to a magnificent hospital with pretty flower beds on either side of the doors. An Amestris flag was proudly hung on a pole in each of the flower beds, and each window had green cutains draped in front of them. It was beautiful, but not what Lizz expected. She didn't like the thought of staying in a hospital, no matter how nice it was, for the full auto-mail recovery.
Lizz placed her hand on the handle of the car door, ready to get out. But the car didn't stop. It drove to the end of the hospital where a large house stood. It too had flower beds and green drapes. It had a nice front proch with some deck chairs and swinging benches. The flower beds (not nearly as large as the ones at the hospital) were stationed in the yard in front of the porch, and the house also had an Amestris flag hung from a pole attached to the porch roof. In the right flower bed, a large wooden sign said "Central City Auto-Mail House. In Association with Central City Hospital" in green letters that were outlined with gold.
"Our stop miss." Said the driver. He got out, helped Lizz out, and got her bag from the trunk. Lizz took the bad from him and with her crutches hobbled up the porch steps and in the front door. When she came inside, there was a corridor with two doorways, another hall, and a stairwell. The right door had a sign that said "Office" and the other door was wide open.
Lizz peeked in and saw many people in the enormous room. There was a man with an auto-mail leg playing chess with a woman with an auto-mail left arm. In the corner sat some kids playing with a train set, all with various types of auto-mail. There were a few limbless people in the room as well, interacting with the others just fine. Some of the limbless people seemed to have metal cap like things where their limbs had once been. These peoples' face gave an expression of trying to hide pain.
Lizz looked at the other people in the room and noticed they too seemed to be wincing and fighting pain. The woman playing chess bit her lip as she slowly moved a chess piece with her auto-mail arm. Once the piece was moved, she smiled and had a relived look in her eye. A small girl with an auto-mail leg helped an even smaller boy with two auto-mail arms move a train along the wooden track.
Then Lizz spotted a lady in the corner knitting and watching the others happily. She as fully intact, no missing limbs, no auto-mail. Her hair was light red and she was a some what of a plump woman. She has rosie cheeks and was a bit short. She had on a black sweater and a skirt, and had small rectangular glasses with a chian on them. She looked like a cross between an art teacher and librarian. When the small girl with the metal leg stood up to walk, the woman got up and helped her walk to the other side of the toy train track.
"Thanks Keolling-chan!" exlaimed the little girl and went back to playing. As the woman named Keolling made her way back to her seat, she saw Lizz standing in the doorway.
"Oh! Hello, you must be Marque-san. Your uncle called me to tell me you were on your way a while ago." Keolling walked over to Lizz and guided her into the office. "Have a seat dear, have a seat. Now, wait a minuet, I'll be with you in a second." She had a strong, nice accent (which in our world we would call and Irish accent). Keolling went back into the corridor and Lizz heard her say; "Call me if you need anythin'." to the people in the room. Keolling came back and sat behind the desk in front of Lizz.
"Welcome to Central City Auto-Mail, Miss Marque." She said. "We need to fill out your paperwork and do a physical examination. My name is Ellen Keolling. My husband, Kyal Keolling, is the head auto-mail engineer and surgeon here. We also have Mrs. Kumpf here. She assists my husband and I both in the sugury and post surgery. You will meet them both some time today..." Mrs. Keolling suffled some papers on her desk and gave a soft "Ahh!" when she pulled out s spesific one. "So you're from Lawrence?"
"Yes ma'am." Lizz said as she suddenly relized Mrs. Keolling was asking her a question. Everything was going so quickly.
"Oh please," Mrs. Keolling chuckled, "Call me Ellen."
"All right." Lizz nodded. "Yes, I've lived in Lawrence my entire life. My uncle Travis raised me."
"Ooooh, facinating! I've always wanted to go some where its cold and snowy all year long!" Mrs. Keolling laughed. "Tell me, have you ever seen a polar bear?"
"Yeah, people love the bears. We even have nick names for some of the ones we can spot in the woods from time to time..."
"Haha, its is the first time we have had a northerner as a coustomer. Any ways," Ellen began, "Lets get this paperwork done."
Frostbite is when skin and tissue is destroyed due to a long exposure to freezing tempatures. Some times mountain climbers or people traped in avilaunches lose their toes, fingers, feet, or lower arms (ect.) due to frostbite.
A Membrane is the thin, pliable skin that bats' wings are made of.
Keolling is prnounced Caol-ing.
Marque is pronunced Mar-quway.