Interlude 6-2 : Ideals and Alchemy.

"So Summer said she wanted to show us some biological alchemy she was working on right?" Cassin asked the small bunny Faunus as she tilted her ears in the direction of her friend's large home.

"Yeah?" Umber couldn't focus very well her ears straining to pick up the sound of music coming from the rough direction of their friends room. Her eyes widened in realization and she turned to the two boys accompanying her. "Did we ever tell her when we were coming?" They both shook their heads and she sighed, palming her face.

The three children carefully snuck up on the house, Umber grabbed the spare key Summer had given her so they could come in when they wanted to visit. The silver eyed girl didn't trust the boys with her keys, thinking they would loss them. Umber knew from experience that she wasn't wrong with her claim.

She shut the door behind the small gaggle of teenagers, straining to listen to the music. Some song about ideals was all she could make out. She heard some singing and humming from Summer. Umber grinned and pulled out a Scroll to record the future blackmail material. She shushed the boys asking them to be as silent as possible. They stayed as quiet as possible not wanting to alert Summer to their presence.

"H-Hey let's be very quiet we're hunting Summers." Umber gave Cassin a disgusted expression and he shrugged before waving them over.

The three teenagers were shown a sight they would remember for quite a while.

Their brunette friend was still in her pajamas, wearing a loose white blouse with a pair of golden bunny pajamas. She was wearing a big pair of wireless black headphones, though the music was still easy to hear. The three curled in close, reducing their surface area as much as possible.

'Oh my gods that is adorable.' Umber couldn't help but think that about her friend, covering a snicker.

The girl was enthusiastically shaking her hips as she danced to a song apparently from wherever she came from.

"~You love the contradiction. Shaking youuu~." The girl spun on her heels, her face split into a wide grin. "~Even when you fall to one step! You can breathe again in one step~" She spun a second time, tapping her bare feet against the floor of her room.

"Should we say something." Umber shook her head wanting to catch the whole thing on I do for posterity.

The tone of the song changed to a darker one yet Summer bounced from one leg to the other regardless. "OHH it goes on! Every day all the same like a game!" Her voice was clearly unused to singing, but there was a sense of joy that Umber liked to hear in her friend's voice. The brunette jumped back three times in a simple made up move.

Summer lifted her finger into the air with a serious expression. "~But when I close my eyes…I feel alive…" She stepped back with her left. "And maybe that's the reason why I'm."

"DREAMING!" She jumped into the air in an almost practiced spin, practically scream singing the word. Her singing continued to rise in its vibrant and hopeful tone and Umber couldn't help but tap her feet to the beat of the music.

Summer was jumping in place, moving her leg back and forth like a swing. She grabbed her hips, twisting them with a cheeky and happy expression. She practically skipped with each of her movements.

"~So we just look away for a moment~" Summer stopped in a crouch as if preparing for something. "~And we see that we can be the…" The athletic girl coiled her legs.

"~Hero's straight out of our dreams~" She jumped almost to the ceiling spinning like a top the entire time reminding Umber of Glynda. She gracefully landed on a single foot, holding her arms out to balance.

The door creaked…

'Shit!"

Summer froze as she took stock of her surroundings. Her forehead became even sweatier, watching her close friends stare right back. Her entire body was shaking almost in anxiety, and despite her condition managed to utter one thing.

"EEUGH!" Her entire face turned beet red and she dove for the covers of her bed hiding her below the safety of her blanket.

Both the boys were shocked as their reserved friend exploded.

"We should give her…some space." The two boys nodded though she noticed Taiyang's eyes lingered on Summer's form for a moment.

Umber whimpered as she made eye contact with Summer…

"I'm so dead…"

"Please no more…I don't need to use explosive alchemy." Umber groaned as her body sizzles with hear from working with some more volatile alchemy with Summer. Her friend had been riding her the entire time clearly bent out of shape by the invasion of her privacy.

There had been several minor "accidents" that slowly drained her aura over the past hour. One array had somehow activated blasting her in the face with a small explosion.

"Shut up Bun-Bun I'm working." The rabbit Faunus stopped her torturous work to glimpse whatever her friend was doing. Two differing circles were visible, with one being more complex. The array was made up of circles within circles as well several half circles. In the center two circles overlapped with one another while three smaller circles were nested within. The other circle made use of circles and lines as well and Umber tilted her head curious on what these arrays did.

"Uh Summer what…do these arrays do?" The silver eyes pointed to the arrays as a sign to come closer. The three 14 and a half year olds scooted over, their curiosity overwhelming their common sense. Both had forgotten that alchemy was incredibly dangerous and was even capable of circumventing aura in the right circumstances.

Summer's expression became rather scary for her poor friends. "They're both chimera creation array variants." Only Umber had a niggling of what Summer was on about. "What you do is grab two living beings." As an example she placed two action figures, one a beowolf and the other an Ursa. "And combine the two creatures together into one functional hybrid."

"That…is ethically questionable beyond belief." Summer shrugged at Cassin's deadpan.

"I'm only studying them for a little project on something…" She clicked a button on her scroll and an odd buzzing sound answered the call. Umber looked on, quiet mesmerized as a large dragonfly hovered around her friend's hand. The insect looked normal except for what appeared to be a tinybackpack melded into its organic body. Using her scroll like a controller, Summer steered the insect around like a game character, the bug listening to its commands with ease.

"That…is both kind of cool and really creepy." Taiyang replied with note of horror, Summer only giggled with mirth in response and the dragonfly left.

"Oh yeah…gets worse…I can make them bigger." Cassin's face drained of all color at her statement. "All I need to do is whip up an alchemically created closed circulatory system, and they can grow to the size of birds or even crocodiles if they're beetles or centipedes."

'Oh…no Summer is a mad scientist!' Umber couldn't help but recoil from Summer, who raised an eyebrow at her. The brown haired girl did feel mildly guilty at the hurt in her expression.

"It's…not that bad, at least I won't try to use the other array." Her ears flattened and she made a beeline toward the biological alchemist.

"That other circle…" Summer flushed and swept her bangs aside in a bashful fashion.

"It…can…mix the user with an animal…" She didn't meet eyes with Umber…

…

…

"Your birth parents were a bunch of weirdos Sums." The girl didn't disagree with Taiyang's conclusions. She put down her work, clearly having had enough.

"Maybe we should do something more…"

"Normal?" Umber completed the sentence with a bemused smirk. Summer smiled sweetly, exposing her straight teeth.

"Yeah, that would be nice…"

"Play Mario Kart?"

"Yes…!"

Author's Note:

With this first chapter on Alchemy I wanted to show Summer in a more casual environment than she's usually been seen, she's become a near expert on biological alchemy, elemental alchemy and some limited control of other forms of it. But knowledge doesn't do much for socializing. If this chapter isn't what you hoped, the next ones will go into far more greater detail.