Revolution

Chapter 1: Dissent

"Amestris is land of corrupt officials and oppressive militaristic regime!"

A wave of cheers followed the shout. Gunshots rallied with the cheers to create a deafening commotion of support for the speaker. The speaker continued to shout through his megaphone from the makeshift stage.

"The People have been silenced for too long! We are forced into war after war at the Fuhrer's whim! When we will it stop? Who will stop it? We, the people will bring an end to it now! Our hands will bring about the future for Amestris!" The speaker finished his shouts from the stage of collected rocks and basked in the roars of praise and support emanating from the crowd.

More gunshots accompanied the shouts and cheers as the crowd began to swell around the speaker. A small group of men closest to the man who had been preaching pushed away those who go too close to their leader. Soon the crowd settled down slightly in anticipation for the next part of the 'speech.' Still, an electric feeling raced throughout the crowd and there were still the occasional gunshots as the people waited eagerly to hear what the speaker would say next

Moving through the crowd was Colonel Roy Mustang, disguised in casual clothes native to the Eastern region. A few feet away to his right were Second Lieutenants Jean Havoc and Heymans Breda, also weaving their way closer to the 'stage.'

Warrant Officer Vato Falman and Sergeant Kain Fuery were a few yards to Roy's left. Roy glanced back quickly. Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda had been ordered to remain back at Eastern Command HQ, thus leaving one of Roy's trusty subordinates away from the action (much to Breda's relief). Captain Riza Hawkeye brought up the rear, securing the progress of the three groups of officers. Attached to her back was a sniper rifle which had cleverly been disguised to look like a parasol.

How she does that, I'll never know, Roy thought with a slight smile. The smile was short lived as his mind reevaluated the task at hand: collecting first hand information on the crazed zealot faction that had been concocting protests, similar to the one he was currently at, across the Eastern section of Amestris.

Roy had taken a bold move in undertaking the operation personally. Being a colonel, not to mention the chief officer of Eastern Command HQ, Roy was supposed to be bound by a military clause preventing him from putting himself in the line of fire. While this did not apply to his subordinates, Roy generally had applied it to them in the past yet, in the face of this mission, he had also chosen to disregard that personal rule as well. As the protest still raged on, Roy momentarily remembered the initial disclosure of this mission…

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(Flashback)

Eastern Command buzzed with activity as the military's foothold in the east scrambled to end the series of anarchistic protests which had been occurring throughout the once sovereign region known as Ishbal. Reports had ceaselessly flooded in from both smaller bases in Eastern as well as Central describing the recent uprisings and protests to the military being encountered throughout the region. Almost hoarse from barking orders and completely exhausted from hours of following false leads to find the culprit or culprit organization, Colonel Roy Mustang sat at his desk scribbling out notes based on a report in front of him. It was a rare site, yet it had been the case for almost the past three weeks. Moreover, there were cases of soldiers going MIA after being sent to gather intelligence on the protests.

Roy slammed his fist down onto his desk hard. "Damn it!" he yelled in an exasperated voice. He was operating on near no sleep and great amounts of coffee and stress. Tensions were high.

A knock came at the door to the colonel's office. "Yes? What?" Roy barked at the door, not bothering to look up from the papers in front of him.

"Wow, Roy Mustang actually doing work," came a semi-sarcastic yet completely amazed voice from in front of Roy. Looking up, the young colonel recognized the infamous Elric brothers. Ed was still smirking from his own joke, yet a seeing Roy's glare the smirk disappeared quickly.

"We were passing through on a lead about eh Philosopher's Stone when we decided to stop by and see if we could help, Sir," Alphonse Elric offered as his brother's face held a look signaling agreement.

Roy sighed. "Look, I appreciate the offer but its really out of your league…" Roy began.

"What do you mean out of our league!" Ed practically yelled, slamming his hands down on Roy's desk. Roy sighed again. He had known Ed would react this way as the words left his mouth.

"Try to understand," Roy began again, carefully choosing his words, "that we really have no leads so there isn't a use for the two of you anyway." Neither of the two stubborn brothers believed it. Well, I can tell by Ed's face that he doesn't buy it, Roy thought, looking at both Elric's face, the again Al's just a suit of armor still…

Roy slunk back in his chair, fatigue obviously catching up with the overworked colonel. He ran his hands through his hair a few times before finally giving in to the young alchemists' pleads. "Fine, fine, alright," Roy said, seeking a quick solution to the problem at hand, "when I get more information on the protests I'll contact the two of you."

Satisfied, The brothers had turned to leave when Second Lieutenant Havoc burst through the door, nearly trampling the brothers in the process.

"Sorry guys," Havoc quickly said as he hurried over to the colonel's desk. He pulled out a letter from a stack of papers in his hands and gave it to an alert Roy. "Something from Central," Havoc said as he tried not to drop the other papers in his arms, "I think I saw the Fuhrer's crest somewhere on it."

Roy scanned the letter, eyes widening then narrowing in the process. "Apparently, we've received advanced information from an underground source about the whereabouts of the next dissenter rally," he said at last, putting down the letter.

In front of him, a grinning Edward Elric had moved back in front of Roy's desk. "Well now," he said with a gleam in his eye, "looks like you've got that lead you were telling us about."

"…crap," Roy muttered, slinking down farther in his chair…

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(Present)

Havoc jerked the colonel from his memories, directing his attention to the now vacant makeshift stage. Roy's eyes darted back and forth, scanning the sides of the 'stage' for any glimpse of the speaker or his entourage. There! To the far right of the 'stage' moved the speaker, whom the military had only been able to label as 'Dissent.' He moved quickly, flanked by his gang of bodyguards. Whatever threat was posed by these other men was unknown to the military but Roy's sixth sense as a man of the military told him that they were responsible the recent MIA reconnaissance soldiers.

A quick glance left confirmed that the other officers of Mustang's 'strike force' were also moving toward the target.

This mission is strictly for reconnaissance, Roy reminded himself as he maneuvered through the crowds followed by Havoc. Still, he had one his gloves with him just in case things took a turn for the worse.

Behind him, Hawkeye followed behind, maintaining a bag of at least ten feet while scanning for potential threats to the officers ahead of her. The current fieldwork reminded her of her time spent as a sniper in Ishbal, when she had first met Mustang as well as some his current subordinates, like Havoc.

She directed her gaze back to the target. Surprisingly, for a man surrounded by such an extensive entourage of people 'Dissent' managed to move fairly quickly. Already he had put a good tenth of a mile between himself and the still gathered, boisterous crowds of crazed civilians.

By the looks of things, it could get real ugly her real fast, Hawkeye noticed as she continued to push past the swarms of people. Soon, they had made their way out of the crowds and were trailing the groups of 'Dissent's' cronies by only several yards.

Maybe we'll finally be able to shed some light on this guy after all, Roy thought with a shade of hope as he regrouped with Fuery and Falman, while Hawkeye secured the rear as she slowly caught up them.

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Meanwhile, as Roy's squad of officers had broken away from the rest of the crowd, several of 'Dissent's' followers had noticed the unwanted guests.

"Yo, WildFang, we got some company," one hissed to the other. 'WildFang' turned his head and nodded.

"Whaddaya think we oughta do?" he growled back, rage immediately for almost no real reason.

Suddenly the voice of the one known as 'Dissent' broke the silence. "WildFang, Berserker… take care of our guests," he commanded, putting a mocking emphasis on the word 'guests.'

The two men heard the directions and stopped, putting distance between themselves and the main group while waiting for the unwanted company to arrive.

"Heh, show time," Berserker laughed as he cracked his knuckles. He pulled the gloves off of his hands, shoving them in his pockets, and stood with his arms folded and a maniacal grin across his pale face.

WildFang stood next to him, silent. As the 'guests' grew closer he brought his thumb to his mouth. Pricking it on one of his unusually large fang-like teeth, he watch as several drops fell to the sandy ground beneath him as he prepared for his next trick…

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Roy directed his gaze to the two men who were apparently waiting for Roy's group to catch up to them.

I guess our cover's blown, he thought quickly as his eyes scanned around for the signs of an ambush or trap. Finding none, Roy became suspicious of the men before him. Either they were dangerous and capable of bringing down Roy's group or they were just an obstacle to buy time. Either way Roy had no choice but to continue on as stopping would completely give them away, destroying any sense of camouflage they had left.

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"Let's get this started," Berserker barked, maniacal smile still wide on his face. Clapping his hand together, his blonde hair shot up from its limp dreadlocks to short spikes atop his head.

WildFang stood unfazed, scribbling on his arm with the blood from his thumb. By the time he was done, a min transmutation circle rested on his wrist. Sprinting forward he slapped the circle with his other hand, emitting a bright light from the use of alchemy in the process.

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"Move!"

The words broke past Roy's lips as he saw one of the two men race toward them at surprising speed. Roy's arm shot up to cover his eyes as the bright light of alchemy blinded the entire area.

Looking up again, the man running towards them had used the alchemy on him self, and now resembled something like a werewolf. With a massive leap, the wolf alchemist landed on Fuery and sank the giant fangs of his now enlarged jaws into Fuery's arm.

"Fuery!" Roy shouted, eye wide as the beast's bite audibly crushed the bones in the Sergeant's arm. Though his pyrotex ignition glove was on and a single snap would barbeque the attacking alchemist, the proximity of the target to his subordinate prevented Roy from attacking.

A bullet whizzed past Roy's ear, burying itself deep into the alchemist's fur covered arm. The shot had come from Hawkeye's rifle, which had been pulled out of it's disguising and put into use.

"AAAAAHHHH-AHHHHH" Fuery screamed as, with the sudden jerk of his canine head, the enemy alchemist threw Fuery several yards away. Landing with a thud, Fuery lay there motionless.

Without Fuery in danger, Roy's opportunity to fry the werewolf was perfect.

"Falman! Go help Fuery!" Roy barked without hesitation. He knew one of his men was down, he didn't need for him to be dead. With a snap of his fingers, The air exploded around the wolf alchemist, jettisoning him into the side of a nearby building. The alchemist managed to get up despite the blow, but another explosion above him shook the building to pieces, burying the alchemist under the falling rubble.

Turning away from what surely was now the corpse of the wolf alchemist, Roy looked back over at Fuery, who was being helped by Falman. Arm mangled and bleeding, Fuery was still conscious as Falman attempted to stop the blood flow with makeshift bandages of ripped clothing.

Suddenly a jolt of electricity short through Roy's body, numbing his extremities in the process. With a grunt, he collapsed to the ground as the second of the two men was slowly walking toward them.

"You just had to ruin the fun, didn't you?" he called in an annoyed tone as sparks jumped between his spikes of hair. "I mean things start getting interesting and then BOOM, its over." He glanced over at the pile of debris covering his partner. "Heh, guess WildFang didn't give you tat much of challenge after all. Too bad. Guess that's where I come in."

As he slapped his hands together, Havoc noticed marks on the palms of his hands. "Sir, he's got transmutation circles on his hands!" he called over to Roy while keeping his pistol trained on the other alchemist.

The alchemist stopped his advance and stood in place for a while, holding his hands outstretched, palms facing in towards each other. Between his palms, blue sparks jumped erratically, crackling noises accompanying the show.

"Now you see, my name's Berserker," He began with a toothy grin plastered to his face. "Remember it, 'cause it's gonna be the last one you ever hear."

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A/N: Okay, that was my first chapter to this Adventure/Action story. Hope y'all liked it!

What's going to happen with the legendary flame alchemist out of commission and Fuery suffering from extensive wounds? Check back for the next chapter: Grounding,

And please everyone: GIVE ME SOME REVIEWS! Thanks!