CHAPTER 8: ATTACK IN CENTRAL

Central – June, 1927

Brigadier General Roy Mustang quietly sat in the back of the car as it drove towards the hotel where Winry Rockbell was staying. In the driver's seat was Major Riza Hawkeye, who was completely focused on her task. Behind them, was a second car following them, this one carrying Lieutenants Heymans Breda, Vato Falman and Kain Fuery. Eventually, Roy couldn't take it anymore and broke the silence.

"I suppose our date is cancelled tonight then." Roy said almost in a sigh. Riza did not seem to react.

"I'm sorry." She did sound disappointed.

"I had to go pretty far to make them think I was stealing Havoc's date." He was referring to his subordinates in the other car, causing Riza to give up a small smile that Roy barely noticed on the rear-view mirror.

"Do you think it's a good idea?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"This sort of thing isn't approved of within the military." She specified. Roy broke into one of his trademark grins of confidence, or arrogance depending on who's observing.

"Don't worry about that." He waved it off. "Besides, it's only been three dates." And it's been unbelievably awkward, and we haven't even kissed yet. Roy whined to himself. They had gotten so used to hiding and suppressing their feelings from each other that it was hard to let them out after all this time.

"The gossip in the military…" She started hesitantly.

"What? Those guys?" Roy pointed to the car behind them. "We're safe." He said confidently. "I'm the flame alchemist after all; they wouldn't dare cross me." His voice was brimming.

"I guess we can make up for it after all this business is done." She said and he seemed satisfied and resumed to look out the window with his one good eye.

"By the way Major." He started. "If I haven't told you before, you look very nice tonight." Roy kept his eye looking out the window; she saw this but blushed anyway.

"Thank you Brigadier General." She replied in a more relaxed voice than usual. She glanced next to her to Black Hayate who was looking at her and wagging his tail happily. They drove on for another minute without another word between them, but they were interrupted from their thoughts by the roar of an explosion.

"What?" Roy said in the back as he turned to look out the front. In the distance, the building they were heading to was spewing a cloud of dust and smoke that was clearly visible even in the night. "Major!" He said unnecessarily.

"I'm on it." She floored the gas pedal, causing the car to lurch forward. Roy was pushed back into his seat by the force of the acceleration, and the two vehicles sped towards their destination.

Central Hotel – June, 1927

Winry was in a nightmare. She was huddled in a corner of her hotel room, holding onto Den tightly. In front of her, Lieutenants Maria Ross and Denny Brosh were overturning the desk. Kneeling by the door frame was Lieutenant Jean Havoc, partially leaning out to take shots at the attackers with his pistol. Everyone was coughing though from the smoke caused by a grenade thrown by the attackers that had landed short of its target.

"Lieutenant Havoc!" Brosh yelled at his superior officer as he grunted under the strain of pushing the heavy desk along the floor. Havoc fired off a few more shots before getting out of the way as the desk was slid out of the room so that it spanned across the narrow hotel hallway.

"Winry!" Ross had to yell over the gunfire to get her attention. "Stay in here, and keep your head down." Ross smiled at her reassuringly before running towards her compatriots. Havoc and Brosh were now outside in the hallway behind the desk, using it as cover and shooting at the intruders. Havoc emptied his clip, popped it out, fetched another one from his pocket and smoothly reloaded his gun and resumed firing. "How many?" Ross asked, standing by the door frame.

"I don't know, three or four at least that I can see." Brosh replied without pausing, but then had to duck to avoid a burst of automatic fire.

"They're carrying some kind of machine guns!" Havoc shouted, he too had to duck as he was showered with wooden splinters. "We'll have to hold them off as long as we can; I'm sure the Brigadier General's on his way." Den was growling and Winry had to hold the dog back.

"Its okay Den." She patted him to calm him down, although in reality she was terrified. He was right… they're coming after me.

Down the hall were three of the Germans, all dressed in black clothing, leaning out every so often to fire at the defenders. At that end, a second hallway intersected with the first to create a T-junction, further down the second hall were three more of them securing their rear when suddenly the doors to the stairwell burst open.

"What?" One of them yelped in surprise, Gabriel came flying out, his jacket and hat gone, and his left elbow met the face of one of them sending the man crashing into the wall, knocking him out. Without stopping, Gabriel swung out his left arm and threw a knife that plunged into the forehead of another Nazi agent.

"Damned Jerries!" Gabriel muttered in disgust. The third raised his handgun and started squeezing shots off, but Gabriel smoothly side-stepped those as he rushed his attacker. He ducked to avoid the fourth shot when he was within arm's reach and produced yet another knife from his sleeve and used his right arm to slice the attacker's hand causing him to drop the gun. Gabriel used his momentum to carry himself past the man, a third knife appeared in his left hand and he turned to drive it into the back of the German's neck before he could react. In a flash, all three Nazi agents were on the floor.

Gabriel took a second to look at his handiwork but the sound of a gun being fired snapped him back to attention. He turned to the direction of the gun blast and saw the other three agents further down the hallway, and one of them had a smoking pistol trained at him.

"Damn!" He realized it too late, as the bullet struck him in the lower right torso. The force of the impact caused him to fall backwards but not before he was able to throw the knife in his right hand. The flash of silver streaked across the space between them and managed to hit the attacker's gun, disarming him. Gabriel landed on the floor hard on his back. He quickly raised his head, and saw the three Germans yelling at each other. He looked at his wound and saw the blood stain on his clothes gradually spreading.

He cursed angrily, and watched as two of the Germans fired another long burst from their MP40 sub-machineguns before running around the corner and disappearing into the hall that contained Winry's room. His eyes widened immediately. Damn! Winry! He gritted his teeth and concentrated on blocking out the pain as he stood up, the one German who had shot him stood at his position glaring at Gabriel. I have to protect her…

"Come on!" Gabriel challenged the lone Nazi agent blocking his way. He pulled out his last knife and launched into a sprint charging at his last obstacle who didn't budge. Gabriel wound up his right arm to launch his last weapon when the man knelt down and touched the floor with both hands. Red lights sparkled around the man and Gabriel halted his run to a dead stop when a series of concrete spikes exploded from the floor in a straight line towards him.

"Oh shit!" He cursed in surprise, and jumped quickly into one of the open rooms next to him to avoid the attack. "You're using alchemy?" He yelled as he poked his head out the door. "That's cheating!" He screamed angrily. The man seemingly ignored him and launched another identical attack at him.

"Ah!" Gabriel jumped out of harm's way back into the hall, hitting one of the other spikes hard causing him much pain. "Fine, if you want to do it that way." He muttered under his breath, and leaned to touch the wall and focused. "Two can play that game." Gabriel was bathed in red sparks and lights, startling the German who looked at him wide-eyed. The sparks ran along the wall and stopped right next to the man when a block of concrete exploded out and crushed the German into the opposing wall, splattering blood everywhere. Gabriel gasped for air tiredly, and from the pain from his wound as he bled from it. I should've gotten more practice. But he had no time to reflect as he picked himself up and ran to catch up to the others.

"Stay down!" Ross yelled back, she was standing in front of Winry, who was still crouched in the corner of the room with Den. Ross fired another two shots at the door, forcing the attackers to retreat back outside temporarily. In the hall, behind the broken and shattered desk that they had used as cover before, were Brosh and Havoc, lying on the floor unconscious and bleeding. She hoped they weren't dead.

"No Lieutenant!" Winry protested. "I'll surrender!" Tears were forming around her eyes. "I don't want any more people to get hurt!" Ross gritted her teeth in frustration.

"We've already discussed that Winry." Ross explained again. "It's my job to make sure they don't get you, even if I have to die." She said with pure determination, not to mention it would not be the first, or the second time she's had to bail the young girl out of trouble.

"But Lieutenant!" Winry protested again, but she was cut short when both attackers leapt into the room and charged them with guns blazing. Ross got another shot off, taking one of them down but was hit by several bullets and collapsed on the ground in front of Winry. "NO!" Winry screamed and crawled towards the fallen Lieutenant. Den barked angrily and jumped at the last German who knocked the dog aside harshly with his weapon. "Stop it!" Winry screamed at the man, she was kneeling next to Ross trying to cover her wounds while the Lieutenant's blood split onto her clothes.

The man walked up to Winry, and grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up to her feet. She screamed in pain as tears flowed freely down her face. Den whimpered in the corner, trying to limp back to his feet. The man turned and aimed his gun at the dog, but Winry pushed it aside. "STOP IT!" She yelled, the man angrily slammed the barrel of his gun into her face, sending her to the floor.

"Shut up!" He yelled angrily. "You're coming with me." He leaned down to pick her up again.

"The hell she is." Winry heard the familiar voice and looked up to see Gabriel standing in the doorway, he looked like he was in agony and the lower half of his body was stained bright red.

"Gabriel!" She called out to him.

"Stupid Brits!" The man said in a rage, and raised his gun and fired. Gabriel dove into the room, just barely avoiding the bullets as he let loose his last knife which knocked the gun out of the German's hands. Gabriel rolled as he landed which allowed him to stand back up and charge the German. He was almost there, but the agent quickly knelt down to touch the floor, red sparks lit the room and the floor below Gabriel heaved upward violently launching him into the air where he hit the ceiling with considerable force. Gabriel came crashing back onto the ground, the wind knocked out of him.

"Gabriel!" Winry cried again in concern and tried to reach him but the German grabbed her and yanked her back.

"Enough of this!" He said. "We're leaving!" Gabriel looked up, he was too weak and in too much pain. He tried to gather himself, but his legs were slow to respond. His eyes couldn't focus but he watched as the Nazi agent activated his alchemy powers again. The room turned red and a small portal appeared in front of the man and he dove in, dragging a terrified Winry with him. Gabriel tried again to stand up, stretching his hand out towards her.

"Winry!" He yelled as loud as he could, before they both disappeared into the gapping blackness of the portal. In another second, the portal vanished and winked out of existence. "Damnit!" He screamed and pounded the floor. I failed… Gabriel slowly crawled up on all fours trying to muster the strength to get back on his feet when he heard the clatter of footsteps behind him.

"What on earth happened here?" It was a man's voice, followed by the cocking of a gun. He turned his head slowly, a black-haired man and a woman who he knew as Major Riza Hawkeye were standing behind him, and she had her gun trained at him. Behind them, three more men were tending to their wounded comrades. "Speak up!" The man insisted in a louder voice. "Who are you and where is Winry Rockbell?" Gabriel lowered his head and sighed.

"I failed." Roy and Riza looked at him, puzzled. "They took her." Gabriel said quietly. There's nothing more I can do now. Suddenly red lights sparkled around Gabriel.

"Look out!" Roy pushed Riza out of the way as a slab of concrete emerged from the floor towards the two. Roy instinctively snapped his fingers and a burst of flames engulfed the slab, blowing it up. He grabbed Riza and shielded her as they were showered with chunks of concrete.

"Sir!" Riza pointed, he followed her hand where Gabriel jumped into a small black portal that disappeared immediately afterwards. "Was that…" Riza started asking, Roy gently released her when the debris stopped flying.

"Yes, it was." He said unhappily. Both recognized it, and knew what it was. They had seen it before, but in a much larger form and he knew exactly what it meant. "Major. Contact headquarters and have Colonel Armstrong put all military forces in Central on full alert."

"Sir?" She understood but wanted confirmation on such a huge order, Roy did not shift his stare at where the portal once was.

"Tell him, to prepare for an invasion."

To Be Continued…