Chapter Eight: Howl of the Dark Wolf

The sound of iron slamming against concrete filled the dark, quiet laboratory. The thick, iron door leading to the creature cages had just been shoved open with all the tact of an angry bull, and a powerful man stood in the silent doorway. Approximately in his mid-twenties, the man had brown, tattered pants that covered his lower body, but chose to go barechested for the simple convenience. He wore a green duster that he left hanging open, with his strong hands resting within its pockets.

At 6'9", the man was muscular, there was no denying that. His powerful chest could easily be seen through his open duster, a physique that only those that dedicated their lives to power could achieve. Unless, of course, they opted for the shortcuts that had been offered this man. The marks of his shortcut were ominously clear, in the sharp, vicious claws that rested in his pockets, the long, black mane of hair that streamed down his back, and the glowing, yellow eyes that rested above his snarling mouth. His dark, Eastern skin served only to complement the appearance, giving him the look of a phantom of the dark, a boogeyman of terror that haunted one's nightmares.

His thick boots concealed his sharp hind claws, the way his feet turned sharp in the front half, and the way he only had four toes with sharp, dangerous nails. His hands too lacked their last finger, and the pointed nails were sharp enough to carve out an elk's hide. When he spoke, sharp, vicious teeth could be seen within the man's mouth, teeth that could rend the skin off a man with the ease of a beast. There was no mistaking this tall, powerfully built man. He was an alchemically created monster, a creature considered by most to be the most depraved form of alchemy: a chimera.

"Tucker," the man snarled, as a deep, thick voice emanated from his beastlike throat. "How much longer will this be? It's been three DAYS NOW!" His right claw whipped from his pocket, slamming hard against the doorframe behind him. The creature was anxious. He wanted blood.

"Patience, my friend," the whispering voice called to him. Before him, seated at the table in the center of the room, was Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist. An alchemical attempt at a human transmutation had left the man's human body facing the wrong direction on the back of a large, brown-furred bear creature with a long, catlike tail. His human chest protruded from his back, and his arms bent back to merge with the bear's chest, while its own arms swept forward in front of it. His neck, merged with the beast's, also bent back, so that his head faced the proper direction. However, this resulted in his human face being upside down in the front of his head, with his eyes on the bottom and his mouth on the top. He had two long ears that swept a couple feet out to the sides, each of which faced forward to gather sound. With his small, circular glasses completing the image, he was the perfect example of human alchemy gone strange.

"I've been patient," the beast snarled. "I've been patient for three days, waiting for that damned train to arrive. Now I want to know what is taking so long!"

Tucker pressed softly on his glasses, trying to get them back into their proper position. "I have...I have spoken with my daughter, on the train," he clarified. "Nina says it will be here soon. She will be here soon."

"You think I care about that little girl!" The beast roared. "What about Elric? Has it been confirmed? Is he on the train?"

"Yes," Tucker confirmed, "I'm afraid he is. Nina reports that the State has sent six after us. One sharpshooter, one spy, one investigator, one engineer, and one doctor, with Edward Elric leading them. They will arrive at 6 PM tonight." There was a sadness in his whispers as he spoke, one the creature could easily detect.

"Good," the beast snarled. "It's about time they got here. The hounds are getting restless, and so am I! Tonight, I will find him, and I will rend every drop of blood from his carcass. I will tear the beating heart from his chest and I will consume it. He will watch as I devour him as painfully as possible, and only when I have such mercy, will he finally know the embrace of death."

Tucker sighed, his memories beginning to plague his mind. He remembered ten years back, when Edward and his brother were staying at his place. He remembered how nice they were to his precious Nina, how much they had cared for her. It felt like his heart was splitting in two to see that boy now coming to them for war. "You really hate him, don't you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

The creature scoffed at the question, knowing only malice when it came to the Fullmetal Alchemist. "He will pay, Tucker. That's the whole reason I came here, remember? It's why I let you do this to me." His claws scraped against the concrete wall, as his mind flashed on the horrible images of the war. "That boy will pay with every drop of blood in his wretched hide for what he did to Liore."

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"Zere she is!" the overexcited Lieutenant Francis Dubois proclaimed, as the train thundered into East City. "I t'ink. Zis is ze East City zis time, is it not?" He had done this with every town they had passed through, and the others were beginning to tire of it.

"Yes," Marie sighed, "this is it. East City, the last shred of civilization before you enter the savage lands of the East. Welcome to the last sanctuary of morality in this sun-soaked desert hell." Seated in the seat next to where Francis's face was pressed to the window, she couldn't help but feel a pang of the old fires beginning to burn again as they came this far into the Eastern terrain.

"Gee," Francis grinned dryly, "You are ze pinnacle of ze sunshine today, yah?"

"Don't mind her," Erwin smiled from the seat across the aisle. Eva sat snug beside him, with her head pressed to a small pillow against the wall of the train as she rested. "She's got her own issues with the Easterners. You probably shouldn't worry too much about it."

"Vell," Francis shrugged, "I am certain ze colonel vill carry us through, come vhat may. Ze, as you called it, 'sun-soaked dezert hell" should be no problem for ze team, yah?" Marie started laughing the moment Francis finished talking, and Erwin was visibly struggling to contain his chuckles. When Francis looked back, he could see Josef sitting in the row behind Eva and Erwin, and he could easily make out the sarcastic look in the gunman's eyes. "Vhat? Vhat I say?"

Marie managed to contain herself, and was the first to speak. "You're actually relying on the colonel? Have you even HEARD the stuff going around about him? You're better off trusting your life to those Eastern dogs than to Colonel Elric. The man's got his loyalties confused, to say the least."

"I don't understand," Francis blinked. "Vhat are zey saying?"

Erwin tilted his head to the side, looking down at Eva sleeping. "There are rumors going around that Colonel Elric had something to do with the transmutation in Liore a few years back."

"Tranzmutation?" Francis asked. This was the first he had heard of the disaster in Liore, having been stationed in the West near his home country before being sent to Central the previous year. He hadn't been aware of most of the war in the East, as he had been paying most of his attention to negotiations with his home nation.

Erwin sighed, trying to find the words to explain. "Four years ago, the State was at war with one of the Eastern cities, a place called Liore. It was a small desert village that had suddenly decided to rise up in arms against us. They were led by a man named Cornello, though I heard he disappeared shortly after the war's start. But that's not the point, the point is that Colonel Elric was the last State Alchemist to show up at the war. I've heard he went into the city against direct orders that no soldier move yet, and hooked up with a criminal by the name of Scar. When the military finally made our move against Liore, the city was completely empty. An entire battalion was sent in to root out the insurrectionists, but there were none there. However, as soon as the men had entered the city, a massive Transmutation Circle was activated, which wiped out the entire unit. We lost almost a thousand men that day. Very few alchemists could have pulled off something like the Liore transmutation, and--"

"And it wasn't the colonel," Josef finished, as his eyes watched out the window at the buildings of East City passing by. "It was an alchemist, yes. But Colonel Elric did not perform that transmutation."

"Yeah," Erwin sighed. "Yeah, he probably didn't, but there's still the chance that–"

"No," Josef glared. "There's not. It was not Colonel Elric. He may be an alchemist and a child, but it was not him."

Josef's clarity sparked interest in the other soldiers. He could see the eyes of Erwin, Marie, and Francis all falling on him, and he realized that they wouldn't be happy without an answer. "How do you know?" Marie questioned suspiciously. "What makes you so certain it wasn't him?"

Josef sighed. "You weren't there. You didn't see it. I was. It can't have been Colonel Elric, because when the transmutation went off, he was in my arms struggling to get at Colonel Archer, while screaming at our men not to go into the city. It had to have been an alchemist; only a very skilled alchemist could have pulled off something like that. And I admit, I have not had enough experience with the colonel to pass much of a judgment, other than the fact that he's an alchemist. But my opinion doesn't matter at this point. What matters is fact: Colonel Elric was not in the city when it happened. Whether he helped set it up or had any connection to it, I can't say. But he did not commit the actual transmutation."

"Vell...see?" Francis grinned. "Ze news, it is not all bad, right? Zat is vhat 'appens vhen you pay too much attention to silly rumor." He had seen plenty of false rumors in his home country, he knew what they were like. "Besides, I am sure General Mustang vould not 'ave put 'im in charge if 'e were ze traitor of ze east, as you say."

A groan rose from Marie next to him, which only served to spark his curiosity further. "Don't even get me started on Roy Mustang," she sighed. "Trust me, don't try to figure these things out. Just do your job, keep an eye on whoever's supposed to be watching you, and salute like crazy. That's how you get ahead in this place."

"Salute..." Francis hesitated on the word, trying to remember the meaning. The language here, he'd gotten most of, but he still had to dance around a few words. "Oh, zat t'ing vith ze hand in ze face! Vhy do ve do zat, anyvay? In my 'ome country, ve did not 'ave such silly t'ings."

Josef fielded that one, and Erwin noticed the sly grin on his face as he did. "It's a sign of loyalty to whoever happens to be above you on the chain of command. It's supposed to represent your subservience to your master. Saluting tells him that, on his command, you would go so far as to slap yourself in the face as hard as you can."

Francis blinked his eyes a couple times as he struggled with this information. "...I see...I t'ink..." As the train finally rolled into the East City Station, Erwin stifled a chuckle. They were finally here. It was time to see what the mission ahead would be like.

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The sun was starting to set as the team finally unloaded from the train. Eva slept soundly on Erwin's back, with her arms draped over his shoulders and her legs carried under his arms. Colonel Elric led the way, gathering the team as they stepped out onto the platform. A chuckle passed his lips when he saw Eva and Erwin, and the infiltration officer thought for sure the colonel would call him on it, but nothing ever came.

The platform was hard and concrete beneath them. To the sides, it dropped straight down into the grass that ran alongside the train tracks. However, on the side opposite the tracks themselves, there was a staircase leading down to the main street. This would be the direction they would be traveling, in order to pass into the city itself.

"East City," the colonel started, "home to the chimeras we've come for. Well..." a couple seconds passed, as his hand ran up to the back of his head, "...um...pretend I said something really motivational here!"

"Yes, sir!"

The colonel laughed, which certainly didn't help his position with his men. He wanted to get started as soon as possible, but he wasn't sure how feasible that was. Someone needed to go ahead to East HQ and secure a place for the men to stay tonight, and he really didn't want it to be him. He was already beginning to see what Mustang loved so much about delegating work. "Alright, let's get moving. Lieutenant Dubois?"

"Sir!" Francis's legs snapped together at attention. His right hand flew up and immediately struck himself in the face, bruising his nose and striking himself with enough force the he toppled over backwards. As he stumbled back, he found the platform ended where he thought there was room to move, and he fell four feet onto the soft grass underneath. The fall was not wholly without incident, however, as his head struck a rock, leaving him to curl himself together with his hands on his throbbing head, trying to figure out why he had just done that.

Silence fell over the men, as Erwin strained as hard as he could not to laugh. The colonel's eyes watched over the foundation, looking for Francis, before he turned his head to Erwin, the closest soldier to him. "What the hell is his problem?"

"I don't know, sir," Erwin chuckled. "I wouldn't worry too much about it."

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Watching the men from above, on a rooftop just across the street from the station, a large, muscular man in a green duster grinned a sharp, toothy grin. The soldiers had arrived, and the sun would go down soon. Very soon now, his beasts would be released. These creatures followed his command like his own personal soldiers, and they would roam the streets once more this night. He saw the boy with the golden hair, and he recognized him easily. That face had been burned into his memory after the horrors that had followed his arrival in Liore.

"Soon, Elric," the beast man snarled. "Very soon, I will hold your head in my claw, dripping that accursed blood of yours." Turning away from the edge, the creature raced back towards the city, leaping from the top of the roof and sailing through the air like an animal, to land powerfully on the next rooftop. The roof cracked with the force of his impact, but he didn't care. He was too busy planning his next move. It was time to release the hounds.

"Careful there," a soft, delicate voice called out behind him. "Wouldn't want to slip, now would you? We've put a lot of work into you, Larson, I won't have you throwing all our efforts away." The creature, Larson, turned its head to see the woman behind him. A woman with crimson hair sat delicately upon the rooftop he had landed on, and his mind strained for a minute to figure out how she had found him this far up. Seventy feet off the ground was not a tourist location, and the roofs only got higher and higher as they got further into the city.

"Lust," the beast snarled, "that trick is getting old. It's about time you got here, Greed stopped coming down two days ago. Do you realize how boring it is with that old fool down there? All he ever talks about is that stupid child of his."

A deep, sultry laugh emanated from Lust's throat, and she rose to her feet. Larson could easily make out the smirk on her face just before she spoke, but his eyes were drawn easier to the gentle waving of her hips, as she crossed slowly towards him. His claws tensed, ready to be used in the event that she struck, but he couldn't help but feel that wasn't the intent of her movement. "You won't have to worry too much about that for long. The boss is here, and he's going to see to it that everything goes fine. You just do your job and take care of Elric, okay? After that...well..." She slipped the fingers of her right hand delicately over the man's chest, while her left arm moved seductively around his neck, pressing her face only inches from his. "We'll see about finding you a more...comfortable...arrangement. You could go so far, wolfy boy. You just need the right group."

Just before her lips could collide with his, she pulled back, making her way back across the rooftop. Larson sighed; it was always like this with Lust. She was the master of playing men across her fingers, she could dominate the world with a wink and a grin. "Do what you will," the creature snarled. "All I want is Elric. After that...well, we'll see." He wasn't sure just what she had offered, but part of him admitted it sounded intriguing. Perhaps...perhaps after Elric, he could turn his wrath on the rest of the military. Liore was not beaten, this one truth beat strongly in his heart. Liore would stand for as long as its men remembered, for as long as men like Larson continued to carry the fight.

"Good dog," Lust smirked, as she walked away from Larson across the rooftop. "Now, go rally your numbers. And remember, big man...I'll be watching." She cast one last glance back at him, before her body began to fade. Larson took a step back in surprise, not expecting to see it. He had never seen her do this before, and it had left him completely speechless. As he watched, her body turned transparent, fading into the air around it. It took only five seconds for her to fade, vanishing into thin air as though she were never there.