SHONEN ALLIANCE
RE:BIRTH
OPENING THEME: RANBU NO MELODY (Bleach)
"This is getting ridiculous," Vine sighed as he knocked over Shantella's king again, "you'd expect someone who's lost this many times to at least be improving."
"Damn it! AGAIN!" Shantella cursed.
"Are we really okay waiting here like this?" Katarina asked as she lounged in Vine's easy chair.
"Well, we did need a break," Teresa sighed in response, "Credit where it's due, Shantella's determined to get her training."
"It might have already begun," Valeria observed, "chess is a really strategic game, so…"
"So we know strategy isn't Shanty's speciality?" Katarina observed.
"That's pretty obvious," Teresa sighed, "but I meant what I said. A break will do us good. Give everyone a chance to explore a new world."
"Just so we're clear, if one of those boneheads breaks anything, I'm holding you directly responsible, Princess," Vine threatened as Shantella made her first move.
"Though maybe we shouldn't leave Naruto or Luffy unattended."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Come on, Histy! They need our help!" Neptune objected.
"You're just trying to get out of work, Neptune," Histoire replied bluntly and knowingly.
The heroes Histoire had recruited had gathered to return to their homes with the crisis passed.
"She's not wrong though," Ruby protested.
"Hey, Histy," Natsu spoke up, "I'm gonna stick around here. Help 'em out. Tell Gramps not to worry for me, okay."
"If Salamander's stickin' around, then I ain't goin' anywhere either," Gajeel declared.
"I'm gonna stay too," Ruby declared, "can you tell Yang, Blake, and Weiss for me?"
"Master Naofumi?" Raphtalia spoke up.
"I'm in no hurry to get back to our world just yet," Naofumi admitted, "we'll stick around too."
"Right. Sorry to let you guys down, but I've got problems in my own world I've gotta get back too. Maybe I can join back up later, but right now…" Ryuko lamented.
"This one also has to hurry back, I'm afraid," Kenshin admitted, "not sure I could do much here anyway, but I wish you luck, that I do."
"Alright! Come on, Histy, you've gotta let me stay too!" Neptune pleaded, prompting Histoire to let out a defeated sigh.
"Very well," she relented, "the Dark Saiyans are a direct threat to every world in our Universe, if not our entire Dimension. We should do what we can."
"I suppose we should stay as well then," Vert admitted.
"I agree. There's way to much at stake for us to leave everything to Neptune," Noire admitted.
"Keep talking about people like that, Noire, and you'll never find any friends," Neptune teased.
"S-SHUT UP!"
"You're right," Histoire acknowledged, "I'll try to bring more help if I can, but for now, we'll be counting on you."
"Be careful guys," Ryuko pleaded, "we'll try to rejoin you if we can."
"Relax, we got this," Natsu declared, smiling wickedly as he punched the palm of his hand, "I'm getting fired up now."
"Later!" Neptune waved a farewell as Histoire, Ryuko, and Kenshin left through Histoire's portal.
"So what now?" Ruby asked.
"We'd better go talk to that princess, Teresa," Naofumi instructed.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
While Shantella was showing incredible ineptitude at chess, the team and the princesses had found themselves with some much needed downtime in a place other then Lunaria.
Central Amestris was a city unlike any many of the heroes had ever been to, and most were exploring to get a feel for this new city.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Alicia Melchiott, Cosette Coalhearth, and Aliasse, joined by a small group of the Lunarian Alliance's women toured the city.
"Repairs are already coming along quite well," Raphtalia commented, looking around at the houses.
"Amestris in an Alchemy super power," Alicia explained, "and Central in particular has a lot of licensed alchemists. Between the State Alchemists and the other professional Alchemists, they work really fast."
"Sounds like Alchemy is quite the versatile tool," Miria admitted, watching as two men instantly repaired a hole left in the side of a building.
"It's has its perks," a voice revealed. Hughes and Armstrong had been passing by and had overheard the women's conversation, "though it can't solve all of our problems."
"Maes!" Alicia greeted him, "I never had a chance to ask after everything calmed down! You're family…"
"Huh? Oh, Thanks Alicia, but they're fine. The fighting never really made it to our part of town, so they weren't ever really in much danger."
"That's a relief," Alicia admitted.
"Oh, a family man, huh?" Neptune questioned.
"Got that right," Hughes declared proudly, pulling a wallet from his pocket, opening it to show the heroines the picture of the little girl held safely within, "My wife, Gracia, and my darling little Elicia."
"Ah, she looks like a little sweetheart," Neptune commented about the photo.
"Right. I doubt there's a more adorable little girl anywhere in the world," bragged the proud papa before storing his wallet. "I'd better go. I've got quite a bit of work to do at the command center," he admitted, "but I hope you guys enjoy your stay."
"Guess with everything that's happened, you guys are being kept pretty busy, huh," Alicia observed.
"It would be bad enough if it were just Duel Academy, but we've had a lot of incidents lately that turned violent. To be frank, this country was drowning in problems long before Obelisk Force ever showed up.
"Is there any way we can help?" Miria inquired.
"I appreciate the offer, but our problems are ours to handle. Besides, from what I hear, it sounds like you guys have enough problems of your own to worry about," Hughes thanked her for the offer, "shouldn't take us to much longer to get a handle on things."
"Good luck," Alicia encouraged as he departed for Central Command.
"Alright, so where can one go around here to get a good pudding?" Neptune questioned.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Hughes was burning the midnight oil. Most of the staff at Central Command had gone home hours ago, yet Hughes himself was still hard at work, pouring over maps and records, trying to make sense of recent events.
"What am I even doing?" he let out an exhausted sigh as he looked over a large map of the country, "what am I even looking for?"
He continued to stare at the map indecisively. "Let's ignore the Duel Academy incidents for now. We have enough to worry about."
For nearly another hour, Hughes worked, pouring over military records while he made several markings on the map. Hughes felt his blood running cold as a picture began to emerge.
"What's… this can't be right," he cursed as he looked over the map, "they couldn't pull something off like this in secret."
He folded the map quickly, storing it in a pocket of his jacket.
"An Alchemist would probably be able to make more sense of this. I need to show Vine or Edward, and Roy needs to know too. I don't know what's going on, but…" movement behind him caused him to round quickly, "WHO'S THERE!?"
"Looks like it was a good idea to keep an eye on you," a woman's voice revealed itself. A curvaceous woman with long, black hair and fierce eyes seemed to materialize out of the shadows. Her shoulder-less black dress was low cut, showing off a generous amount of cleavage, though for family man Maes Hughes, that wasn't the thing that drew his attention. He was more interested in the tattoo at the center of her collar, an ouroboros.
"Quite the tattoo you've got there." Hughes didn't specifically need to know he was facing the lascivious Lust. The fact she was a homunculus was enough to tell Hughes that he was in trouble, "guess that confirms my hunch."
"So it would seem," Lust confirmed, "it's a shame you won't have a chance to tell anyone," she threatened coldly, holding up her hand as the tips of her fingers formed into razor sharp talons.
"GUM GUM BAZOOKA!"
Neither human nor homunculus was prepared for Monkey D Luffy to crash into the room, leveling Lust with a right haymaker to her cheek.
"Luffy!?" Hughes exclaimed in surprise.
"Hurry! Let's get out of here!" Luffy ordered, retreating out of the destroyed door. Hughes didn't need to be told twice, following the Straw Hat captain. Lust rose to her feet, rubbing her cheek.
"He's going to pay for that."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Well this is great, lost in an unfamiliar city in an unfamiliar world in the middle of the night! This isn't good!"
Usopp was quickly growing more and more frantic. He'd been exploring Central Amestris most of the day, acquiring new components to improve his arsenal. Unfortunately, he had completely lost track of time and now it was dark and he was lost.
"I need to hurry and find the others," he cursed, looking around frantically.
He turned to continue moving, but stopped short when Luffy and Hughes ran right past him. Hughes gave him a sideways glance as he passed, but bizarrely, Luffy didn't even acknowledge him!
"Was that Luffy?" he questioned as he turned to watch the fleeing duo.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Luffy waited impatiently as Hughes entered a pay phone and began dialing.
"Do we really have time for this. That lady's probably gonna be coming after us soon," the Straw Hat's captain whined as Hughes dialed.
"I've got to warn someone. Mustang has to know what…" the feeling of a gun barrel pressing between his shoulders made Hughes stop cold.
"Sorry, can't let you do that," Luffy declared, "why don't you just hang up the phone and back out here."
Hughes chuckled, "finally giving up the charade, huh?" He spoke up, "so, what are you really? Another Homunculus I'm guessing."
"You need your eyes checked or something? I'm Luffy."
"That right? Then I'm sure you know that when Luffy used the attack you did on that Homunculus, he called it Gum Gum Pistol, not Gum Gum Bazooka."
"That right? Surprised you paid such close attention. Honestly, naming attacks seems pretty childish, so I didn't really think much about it. Too bad it didn't really help you, huh?"
Hughes' movement was decisively quick. Turning towards "Luffy" and sidestepping simultaneously, causing the gun to slip from his back and instead menace the phone booth. The move threw Luffy off balance and caused him to pitch forward, until a throwing knife embedded into his forehead, knocking him flat onto his back where he lay, blood gushing from the fatal wound.
"Sorry, but I'm not dying here," Hughes declared, returning his attention to the phone, "my wife and daughter are waiting for me to get home."
He wasn't aware that his wallet had fallen from his pocket during his attack, falling open to show the treasured photo of his wife holding his daughter. He was equally unaware as "Luffy" picked it up.
"That right?" "Luffy"'s voice initially surprised Hughes, but the veteran soldier composed himself and rounded, a knife in hand ready to be thrown. When he saw what stood behind him, he froze.
"No… it can't…"
The quiet of the Amestrian night was pierced by the unmistakable sound of a gun shot.
CLOSING THEME: SHUNKAN SENTIMENTAL (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood)