Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is not owned by me, but by Hiromi Arakawa. I only own my OC!
Chapter 3: An Alchemy Overdrive
"Oh, hello, Major General Hakuro," Roy spoke loudly, as Melissa took a bated breath from his office. He can't hear you, he can't hear you...
Melissa heard more footsteps as the Major General met up with the duo, Mustang and Hawkeye, rather unpleasantly. "Have your injuries healed already, Major General?"
"They're nothing that could interfere with my work," the man answered with a scoff. "Now if you'll come with me, I'd like to discuss the Scar Incident with you." The scar incident? What's that, a science experiment? Melissa wondered; her mind askew.
She'd only been at East City for two days, nearing the end of her short stay, and already she was behind on military discussions. I'm so used to Dad always telling me what's up when he comes home from work, Melissa realized, that I'm now behind on the government's stuff. Well, that's not good...
"How is it that you've allowed one man to cause that much trouble?" Ah, so it's a man. "Despite the fact that you've deployed this many men, you still have nothing to report?"
"Sir, we will continue to investigate to the best of our ability, so if you could give us a little more time-" Mustang had begun, obviously annoyed but ever playing the kind subordinate as the major general interrupted him.
"I want results, not excuses. You had better bring him, Colonel. I will not have you making a laughing stock of this entire East City military!"
Damn, Major General Hakuro, Damn. Well, Melissa could definitely snort.
They're not close enough to hear it, and besides, that major general guy sounds like he's envying the colonel. Military hierarchy is so pathetic.
She snickered, but then quickly shut up as Mustang's door opened, emitting three members – Mustang, by his shoes and his stature, Hawkeye, always beside him silently, and—that's not Major General Hakuro-
She sat on Mustang's couch patiently as the third member came into her sight of view—ah. Jean Havoc.
"Did that guy come out here from New Optain just to talk smack?" Havoc inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, yes he literally just did," Melissa answered, a small frown on her face. The trio looked shocked at seeing the teenage alchemist in Mustang's office, but Mustang was quick to brush it aside.
"He's just bitter that a youngster like me has reached the rank of Colonel," Mustang parried back, meeting eye contact with Melissa as he reached his desk. Mustang pulled out his chair as he continued. "Now he's paranoid that I'm going to take his position one day. Don't worry about it."
Of course not, the Flame Alchemist can obviously take care of himself.
"But I do want to take care of this Scar Incident just as quickly as he does." Ah, military matters she was obviously unfamiliar with.
"The sprouts of future unrest must be pulled before they can take root." Melissa crossed to the door of Mustang's office as the soldiers took route near Mustang's desk, conversing.
"Plus, if an incident that has been giving even Central trouble is taken care of here, then that will make me look good." Melissa paused at that. Oh? This incident has been giving dad a hard time too?
"' Out of crisis comes opportunity, '" the Colonel quoted as he slammed his hand down on his desk, which entitled a large map of East City on it. "I will do anything that will help in my promotion... until the day that I become president and have complete military power."
Melissa smiled lightly, but not without seriousness in her voice as she spoke. "Wow Roy, large dreams indeed. Though..." she paused, a thoughtful look on her face.
"I don't think I'd prefer someone else." Roy smiled at her. "Especially since I know Hawkeye will keep you in check."
Jean snorted at the brunette's honest comment as Riza carefully addressed Roy. "It may be wise to refrain from such rash statements."
Mustang placed his hand on the bottom of his chin, thinking thoughtfully and carefully at the suggestion. "Yes... I should try to be more careful." He finished, glancing at the group before standing back up from his chair briskly.
"Now, Melissa, who do you want to escort you back to the hotel?"
The girl groaned in exasperation. "Can't I just go by myself for once? I'm not a kid!"
The trip Melissa had taken to East City was rather unproductive... and it was already almost over. Walking down the streets of the city, Melissa looked around in boredom.
Though she was grateful – through whatever incident that Scar Incident was, she had pulled an excuse not to have anyone come with her as she traveled back to her hotel.
She walked up to a booth nearby that had shown satchels, looking around curiously. She had been looking for a new bag to carry all of her alchemy books in, after all.
Now, what one piqued her interest... There's a nice, small compact black bag right over here, but it might not fit all of the books she wanted or even the first aid kit she always kept on hand.
Okay, okay, moving on... the poor teenager had been so encompassed in the option of bags before her that she really didn't notice the large KA-BOOM that had been heard nearby, chunks of a bridge coming flying in her direction.
"Miss, look out!" the store clerk shrieked, dashing out of the way of the debris as he warned the young alchemist.
"Hm?" she looked up from her searching, only to see a large chunk of brick being hurtled toward her at high speed. Well, crap.
She dodged, quickly running in the direction of the debris. If the debris came all the way over here, and a chunk of that bridge over there exploded... She considered, running faster at the realization. Then there's a fight going on... and someone's getting injured.
"Well, that's no good! Someone could be seriously injured," she chided herself as she skidded to the scene, mouth hung open at the damage.
Blood, lots of blood... debris, crushed brick, punched brick, okay... a trail of blood leading to a man, who looked on the verge of unconciousness... yeah, he definitley needed medical assistance.
"Excuse me, sir!" she asked, running over to the injured man with a worried look on her face. "You need immediate medical attention."
The man—who, Melissa realized, had red eyes and a large-ass scar in between his eyes, winced. "No... hospital..." he croaked weakly, looking up at the alchemist with anger.
Well, this man doesn't like hospitals, okay, she mentally yelled at herself, before re-sizing up the situation. "Well, sir, let me help you."
The man did not look amused. "How can you help me?"
"I have profound healing skills, sir, and if you don't want to visit a hospital, I'm your best shot of getting out of ditch alive." Melissa spread her hands out to the damage that was around the two of them and shot him a light glare. "And if you want to die of blood loss, you'll probably want to accept my help anyway."
"..." the man pondered that for a second, before sighing. "Fine, just hurry up. I'm in a rush."
"Yeah, well, this'll take no time at all," she replied back, pulling out a piece of chalk.
"What're you doing with that chalk?" the man said, his voice raised.
"I'm an alchemist," at that the man shot up, rage in his features. "just an alchemist, dude, calm down!"
The man paused, looking at the teen once more with reproach. "Are you a state alchemist?"
The girl laughed as she finished her transmutation circle, meeting eyes with the man's red ones. Where have I heard of red-eyed people, again?
"Of course not! I'm just an alchemist, who, rather conveniently," she paused, clapping her hands and smiling gently at him, "will be healing your wounds!"
Bright blue energy burst forth from the circle as she conjured the transmutation, her eyes focusing on the wounds she could see. Bleeding, definitely internal bleeding too... fatigue, dislocated ribs, fractured shoulder, and a twisted ankle...
She chuckled. "Well, this is going to hurt!" The man grew pale at the comment, the girl making a noise of realization. "Oh, I wasn't talking about you, sir. I was talking about me."
The man said nothing but looked at his wounds with large eyes as they were slowly closing.
And healing, too, she thought. You're looking at them oddly because your pain is going away... which means you've clearly never met a healing alchemist before.
"All... done," she spoke in pain, wincing. "damn, man, you sustained all these injuries? This hurts like hell," the man shot up to catch the teen as she fell, her eyes slowly closing in exhaustion.
"Who are you?" was all she could hear from the man as he caught her in his arms.
"I'm Melissa Hughes, the Cure Alchemist at your service," she weakly replied, chuckling. "And you?"
The man met her eyes as she slowly began losing consciousness. "I don't have a name, so call me whatever you like."
"Alright... mister." and with that, she was out like a light.