Of Cats, Spirits, and Palm Trees
A Fullmetal Alchemist/Digimon: Elemental Mages Crossover
by Bridgitkiido
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I also don't own Digimon. Kima and Bridgit, however, are two of my Mages, so I own them.
Chapter 4
Bridgit smiled as she ran. She had finally managed to pick up at least a slight bit of Kima's trail and was currently following it. It was fairly strong, too, so she didn't have to worry about losing it. With any luck, said trail was only an hour or two old at most and she would be reunited with her sister within the next hour.
Unfortunately, luck did not appear to be on her side, for in her haste, Bridgit accidentally ran into a particular boy. A somewhat feminine boy with long, black hair that, had it been green, would have looked suspiciously like a palm tree.
"Oh, pardon me," Bridgit apologized, getting up. "I suppose I wasn't looking where I was going."
"Damn right you weren't," the boy replied, dusting himself off. "Next time, be a little more careful, little missy."
"Little missy?" Bridgit repeated, agitated. "Okay, firstly, I'm taller than you. So don't call me 'little missy' ever again." She emphasized the words 'little missy' with air quotes. "And second, you're a very rude person. I apologized, so you're supposed to accept my apology."
"And what if I don't care?" the boy shot back. "Just for talking back to me, I'm not going to let you go through."
"Tch. Like you can stop me." Bridgit attempted to walk past him, but no matter how fast she walked, he continued to get in her way. "You know, I'm just going to get past you anyway, so there's really no point."
"Aww, but I wanted to have a little fun with you first," the boy replied, smirking evilly as he placed one hand on his hip and extended his fingers in a nasty way.
"Oh, you're looking for a fight?" Bridgit observed. "Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but even if I did feel like fighting you, I'd win. So there's no point. I'll just find another way around." She turned around to leave.
What she did not expect was to be pinned to the ground two seconds later by the boy, who seemed to enjoy sitting on her back and causing her intense pain. "Oh, so you want to play that way, huh?" the boy teased.
"Guess what," Bridgit replied, "I'm not playing." She then managed to grab hold of one of the boy's arms and bit down.
Hard.
Said boy then yelped in pain and was forced to let go, allowing Bridgit to escape. The boy then looked up from his arm and glared at her, saying, "You're one tough lady."
He then ran toward Bridgit, who was standing still a little ways up this particular alley. Unfortunately for him, he passed right through her… or at least, the image of her. After he got his bearings back, the boy saw the real Bridgit running in the other direction.
"So, you're an alchemist who can do illusions," the boy observed. "That makes things different."
I suppose that's one way of putting it here, Bridgit thought as she ran. She had run quite a ways when who should she run into but…
Maes Hughes.
With her abilities, Bridgit was able to immediately distinguish the fact that he was fake (although the fact that she had met his "ghost" – she wasn't quite sure that he was actually a ghost, but oh well, c'est la vie after all – helped out as well), and stated, "Well, I didn't realize there were people out there with similar abilities as my sister. Now, if you would just stop preventing me from going forward…"
"How could you tell?" the boy said as he transformed back into his palm-tree-like self. "This time, I was certain I had all the details right. No distinguishing moles or anything like that…"
"Call it intuition," Bridgit replied. "Now, if you will excuse me…"
She began to walk quickly past him, but he grabbed her by the arm. Immediately, she swept around and punched him in the face with her other arm, and as the boy was getting up, she stated, "I told you. If I was fighting you, I'd win." She then walked calmly away.
"This girl is getting on my nerves," the palm-tree-like boy stated. "I think I'll follow her and see about causing her some havoc."
"Alright, so what's your story?" the blond boy asked Kima as he held her by her neck.
"Nii-san!" Alphosne cried out. "You'll hurt her that way!"
"How are you so sure it really is a she, Alphonse?" the blond yelled at his younger brother. Turning back to Kima, he asked, "So, go ahead and explain already."
"I'm not really a cat," Kima managed to squeak. "I'm a girl by the name of Kima. I have the ability to change my DNA at will into that of any animal with alchemy." Well, it wasn't the entire truth, but how exactly was she supposed to explain to a couple of alchemists that her powers came from the tiny pieces of tiger-eye on her headband?
"So, prove it," the blond said. "Turn back into this girl you speak of."
"I can't right now!" she cried. "Don't you think I've already tried?" Drawing from the small amount of knowledge she had on the subject, she explained, "I can't very easily draw circles in this form, so I have my headband – well, it's more like a collar in this form – with gems placed in just the right places so that it makes the equivalent of a circle. But one of the key stones fell off in my travels, so I can't! Besides, you're strangling me…"
"Nii-san! Give her some air!"
"Fine, Alphonse." The blond dropped her to the ground.
Kima coughed a little, but otherwise was able to get her breath back fairly quickly. "You're not a cat person, are you sir?" she murmured.
The blond boy turned to Alphonse, who asked, "So, what do you think?"
"She's probably Envy in disguise."
"You don't know that for sure, Nii-san! She's probably telling the truth!"
"How many alchemists are there who can transmute their own DNA?"
"You don't see many alchemists like the Colonel, either, making fire by just snapping their fingers."
"Yes, well, that's just how that bastard Colonel is. Besides, you never answered my question."
"Well, why would Envy transform into a cat and sit out in the rain just to spy on us? I should think he'd prefer humanoid forms."
"We still can't dismiss that possibility."
"We still can't dismiss the possibility that she's telling the truth!"
"…Fine, Al, you win," the blond replied, obviously defeated and not happy about it. "She can stay over night, but you need to keep a close watch on her, you understand? And she goes back outside in the morning, regardless of the weather."
"Thank you, Nii-san!" Alphonse replied happily. He then turned to Kima and said, "Okay, Nii-san says that you can stay here for tonight. But you have to be good and not cause trouble, okay?"
"Of course," Kima replied. "Thank you so much!"
Author's Note: Whee… making Envy all immature and out of character is all part of the fun of tormenting him for the events of chapter 15. …ahem. Sorry for the long wait. I got a bad case of writer's block for this… but the next chapter should be out sometime before the middle of September. Hopefully. If I don't get too swamped with other stuff. Until I write the next chapter, though, please leave a small review!