All Eras Must End

Chapter 3: The SuperNova Cannon

Eric and Raine gaped openly, and Joaquin allowed a pleased smile to replace the frown on his face. "Impressive, eh?" he asked, and Eric and Raine nodded. Maes looked at Joaquin questioningly and Joaquin shook his head almost imperceptibly. Maes was obviously worried, for what reason Joaquin had not a clue, and Alia was also shifty, but perhaps it was for a different reason...

He shook his head, no time for thoughts like that. Eric pulled at his collar, face flushed. "It's so hot... why is it so hot?" he looked up at Joaquin and the older boy burst into laughter. "Hot? Well, I don't feel a thing. A good reason would be that this is the interior of an active volcano!"

Raine jumped and squeaked, hiding behind Alia and gripping her pant leg tightly. Alia stood stiffly for a moment before bending down slightly to pat her back and get her fingers out of her leg.

"B-but..."

"Oh don't worry, it's not due to erupt any time soon, my father made sure of that. It's a bit of a family custom, if an odd one. You've heard of the line of Flame Alchemists, have you not?"

"Yes... they were a whole family line that became Flame Alchemists for the State. They used fire."

"Yes, and I'm the next in line for that legacy. Unfortunately, I'm also next in line for a high seat in Rivant, and it's conflicting. There also is no respectable Military anymore. Forgive me if my grammar is sometimes a bit off, Rivantian was my first language." He stepped down onto marble steps and pressed his hand onto a transmutation circle that had been inscribed onto a thick slab of black rock next to the entrance.

"This is, as you say, an active volcano. The Mustang family has used it as a training ground for children for as long as the family has been in existance; it is to get used to the heat of using flames in battle, though it does not prepare one for the sheer power and... thoughtless carnage. It truly is a terrible power to use, and usually reserved only as a last resort or as a restraint. I was trained in a place similar to this, but not quite as intense, I'm afraid. As a result, I cannot enter the inner chambers for the sheer heat."

He looked around for a minute, and then back at the children.

"There are rumors that there is someone who has taken residence in here. If there is such a person, he is hiding in the innermost chambers and has not come out for as long as I've been here; about two years. I would advise you not to go anywhere near the center chambers, you might melt."

There was seriousness in his voice and Eric shivered. "Melt? Has anyone...?"

"There have been a few casualties."

"Oh..." Raine gripped harder on Alia and she sighed, picking her up. Eric turned to acquaint himself with the two behind him. "So who are you guys?"

"First Commander Maes Hughes," Maes said.

Joaquin glanced back at him. "His mother is Elysia Hughes, when she got married they decided to keep the name Hughes. You would do well to pay due respect to Maes, he can be awfully short tempered sometimes, and irritating when he wants to be, especially with a blasted camera."

"Thank you, Joaquin," Maes said icily, and Joaquin shrugged. "Just warning them, don't kill the messenger."

"And I'm Second Commander Alia Farman."

"Of a relation to Vato Falman, though I can't be bothered to memorize it. Alia's gentle most of the time, just don't get her angry; she's learned a lot about daggers from Maes and enough about guns from me. And..." he looked like he wanted to say something more, but he closed his mouth again.

"And, Sir?"

"And I wish you would stop calling me 'Sir'."

"That wasn't what you were about to say."

"Does what I was about to say matter?"

"Perhaps, it depends on what it was."

"What I was about to say... can be discussed later," Joaquin breathed out slowly, and Maes raised an eyebrow, leaning over to whisper something to Alia. Eric strained but couldn't catch what they were saying.

"Where are we going?" Raine asked. "It's getting dark, I don't like dark." The straw in her mouth slipped a bit and she clung to Alia a bit tighter.

Joaquin snapped his fingers and suspended it in his cupped hand. "We're almost there, the transmutation circle back there should have alerted the rest that we're coming."

"Mr.Joaquin, if they're commanders, what does that make you?"

Joaquin mouth twisted into a bit of an twisted smile. "What am I? They call me Fuhrer, though I'd much rather they call me leader or something. I have no intention of replacing the current Fuhrer, only of taking him down. Or her."

"Leadership seems to run in your blood, Joaquin. You are the popular choice," Alia said quietly, smiling.

"But I don't want to, I'd much rather see you or Maes as Fuhrer rather than myself. I have enough leadership complexes to worry about, I don't want to be leader of two countries. That would be conflicting, to be sure."

As they entered another chamber, the lights lit up to reveal a crowd of milling soldiers. They stood to attention and saluted, and Joaquin saluted back, permission given to continue with their duties.

"There is one more thing I should show you... but after I show it this initial once, you are never to come back to this room again, ever, not even out of curiousity. If you do, the consequences will be severe." They walked down another long stretch of rock hallway until they were faced by a series of doors, each with a unique lock that seemed to not have any way to open it. Joaquin closed his eyes and held his hands towards the doors, his fingertips pressed against one another. He moved his arms over his head, then in a figure-eight motion, and his hands parted from one another, sweeping to the sides of his body, then over his head again and his hands joined, hands placed against one another, and down in front of his face until the tips of his fingertips were on eyelevel. A blue light glowed on the fingertip of his right index finger and he pointed it to the center of the door. A light flashed from the light to the door, and the door rumbled, slowly seperating into four pieces and pulling away, and the doors behind it did the same. Eric and Raine stared in awe and looked to Maes for explanation.

"It's one of his powers that come with having a Rivantian parent; he's known as the LockSmith in Rivant. He can create indestructable doors, and only he can open them. Quite a nifty talent, actually. Unfortunately, it can be countered by another person with the LockSmith power, though I doubt that there are many of them. LockSmith is an extremely rare power, though I can't say Joaquin used it for the good of the country when we were younger..."

"You were always trying to poke through my stuff, so I put up a wall to stop you; sue me."

"I wishI could, Joaquin."

"Anyway, this... is the one thing that is absolutely off limits. If I see you anywhere near that door, I will have to punish you."

"But what's in here, Joaquin?" Raine asked, still clinging to Alia.

"This... is the SuperNova Cannon." It was a giant piece of machinery with a huge barrel; it shone like the sun though there was no light in the room, and a tank next to it was filled with some kind of red viscous liquid that bubbled much like a lavalamp did. If you stared at it long enough, it would turn blue, then green, and maybe even a violet color. The barrel hole was as big as Joaquin, Alia, and Maes standing on top of one another, and about twice as wide; a control box was located high up on the cannon, right before the beginning of the barrel. It looked more like a turret than a cannon, because it's base was attached to the ground rather than mobile like most cannons.

"It was constructed by Lord Seiken Falcon of Falcona; he a technological genius, but I doubt that he ever thought that the gun he had constructed would be this massive and turned into a cannon. I'm a technological buff in my own right, you see. But... I do feel like I'm betraying him, in a way... this weapon... can flatten everyone in West, Central, and East City in a straight line, and then aftershock from the blast might even wipe out South City and cause devastating climate changes in North City, if it isn't blown away by the aftershock as well."

"But why?"

"The levels on it can be changed," Alia assured them, "But it's a last resort weapon. Joaquin hopes to never have a reason to use the SuperNova Cannon on the military." Joaquin sighed.

"This cannon... it can wipe all of Amestris off the map with one misfired shot; it would disentegrate the country and leave nothing but water in it's place. This cannon...

"This cannon must never be misused... ever."