GW: Hello! Just to let you know, this story will be a bit darker than the previous ones. You have been warned. Enjoy!
Mission III, Part 1
When a Psycho Strikes, Make Sure to Guard Your Weaknesses
It's been a few days since the Festival, and the team was just lounging about. Right now, everyone except a few members were watching 'Wolf Creek' and were at the part where the villain, Mick Taylor, is torturing one of the girls, Kristy.
"Ugh, people like that disgust me!" Kagami spat at the TV as Hero, Orihime, Uryu, and Double D; who were the only ones not watching the movie; walked in as DD asked, "Then why are you watching it?"
"To show are new recruits what some of the scum we face are like," Hal replied. "You see, Calvin, Kira, tigers, Wrath, and Samara; the world can be a dark place where people who like to torture and be sadistic cretins roam. Always be alert and never let your weaknesses down for a minute."
"Right," the recruits agreed. "I hate scary movies," Orihime said as she shivered. "Hmm, I'm not a fan of them myself," Uryu shrugged.
"Speaking of which, should we let young children watch this?" Rukia said warily as Mick did a disgusting gesture to Kristy (if you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about).
Before anyone could say anything on the subject of allowing children to watch those kind of movies, the phone in the office rang as Tsukasa jumped up and ran to it. "I'll get it!"
When the movie got to the part where Kristy and her friend Liz escape, Orihime and Hero grabbed Uryu and DD's arms respectively as both boys looked at the girls with embarrassed faces.
"Oh my…" Double D gulped as the viewers were on the edge of their seats to what was going to happen next…
Suddenly, the TV turned off as all the CPIS members face-planted on the floor. They got up and looked annoyed at the culprit, Tsukasa, who was pale-faced and holding the phone.
"What the heck, Tsukasa!?" Ayaka snapped in annoyance. Chisame added, "You ruined a good movie! What's your-" She stopped when she saw the horrified look on Tsukasa's face.
"Sis?" Kagami asked her sister, worried as everyone looked at the girl. Tsukasa said seriously, "Hal, Colonel Mustang's on the phone. He says it's very important."
Hal looked extra serious as he took the phone. "Colonel Mustang?" Calvin asked as all the members, especially Edward, Alphonse, Iris, Winry, and Bunnie, went grim. "Who's he?"
"Mustang is Edward and my boss," Iris said as Hal's face scrunched up with worry. "The only time he calls is when there is a very serious and bad case, mostly criminal."
"Has he ever called you before?" Feral asked with worry. Winry nodded and replied, "Only one time, and the case was a triple homicide. Tsukasa, is this case really bad?"
The short purple-haired girl nodded grimly as Hal hung up. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Team, Mustang wants us to meet him at Disney Street; he has a job for us."
The group got up and followed Hal to the van, remembering to put the seatbelts on first. "Hal, he needs all of us?" Hero asked. Her brother nodded as he started the van.
"What's the case?" Allen asked.
"We have a mass murderer on our hands." With that, the team sped off.
The CPIS hopped out of the van, looking a bit pale from the drive. The whole scene was chaotic. Cops and an ambulance were there, but surprisingly there were no civilians or press.
As the team went toward the yellow tape, they spotted a man and a woman. The man had black hair and wore a blue military uniform, white gloves, and black boots. The woman had blond hair, brown eyes, and wearing an outfit similar to the man's with guns holstered at her side. She was comforting a man and a woman, who were sobbing.
"Hey, Mustang," Hal greeted as the man, Colonel Roy Mustang, and his lieutenant Riza Hawkeye turned to the CPIS. "Do you only call us when it's a serious case?"
Roy smirked. "Sorry, Hanson; looks like I have no choice. Hello again, Fullmetal, Alphonse, and Braveheart."
"When will I get paid?" Iris grumbled as Ed glared at his superior officer and Al bowed politely.
"Hopefully when you solve this case." Roy frowned as he directed the team to a gurney where a body was covered up. "Someone is murdering people, all of them young women. This is the most recent of the victims."
He lifted the sheet to show a teenaged girl. Actually, none of the team could tell it was human; it looked horribly burned and tortured. The two adults turned away in horror as the team realized these two where the girl's parents.
"This used to be Renge Houshakuji. She and her family were vacationing in the city when she disappeared last night. We found her this morning. She's the fifth death this week," Roy explained a she lowered the sheet again. Some of the team grew queasy. "We've been trying to keep this case under wraps to the media so the city doesn't panic."
"We can see that," Setsuna deadpanned as she looked around to see only officials. "Trying to cover it up until we have this case closed. Good move."
"We trust your team can figure this out before it spins out of control, Hanson," Roy told the boy.
"Do you have any leads?" Konoka asked curiously. Riza nodded as she escorted the parents to a car. She replied, "We believe its Barry the Chopper. Some say they've seen him prowling about."
"But Barry just chops people up. He doesn't burn them," Edward pointed out. Roy shrugged, "He's the best we've got. We believe he's hiding out at an abandoned warehouse near the outskirts of town."
The team nodded as Lilo saluted with Stitch, "Don't worry, Colonel. We'll have this case solved soon."
Roy nodded as he and Riza got in the car and drove off. The ambulance took the body away as the officials left the scene.
"Let's regroup and plan back at base," Hal ordered as the team got in the van. Uryu noticed Orihime's upset face. They were all upset, but Orihime looked ready to sob. "Inoue, are you alright?"
Orihime looked at her friend and nodded, with a weak smile on her face. "Yes. I just…can't understand why people do this."
Uryu took her hand as he said softly, "Not all people do this. Don't worry; we'll stop this Barry guy." Orihime smiled at Uryu, feeling happier, as they got in the van and drove off.
What they didn't see was a figure hidden by shadows peer at them. "This should be interesting." He then trailed after them.
The group had arrived at the warehouse. The team had chosen a group to scout Barry out. Hal, the recruits, the Elric's, Orihime, Uryu, Ichigo, and Rukia were determined and a bit nervous as they were envious about the rest that stayed behind at home base.
"Well…let's go in," Samara said with a deep breath as the group walked in. The warehouse was dark and literally filled with boxes of unused things.
"Oh, man. Why do all our fights happen in creepy places?" Calvin gulped as Kira smirked at him, "Are you scared?"
Calvin said indignantly, "No! I was thinking a scaredy-girl like you would be sobbing right now!"
"Guys, shut up!" Hobbes, Feral, Wrath, and Sam hissed as the team kept wandering about, not noticing that they were being watched…
"You ever get the feeling you're being watched?" Ichigo whispered to Rukia, who shushed him. Unknown to them both two glowing eyes appeared from the darkness.
Rukia stopped dead in her tracks, sensing someone was behind her. She spun around quickly behind her and pulled out her zanpaku-to to block a cleaver from chopping into her forehead. She slashed her attacker away as the team turned around to see a suit of armor like Alphonse with a brown toga around his waist and glowing eyes with two cleavers in his hands.
"Barry," Edward grimaced as Barry shouted at the team, "So you've come looking for trouble, eh? Well I ain't got time for trespassers, I have more work to do!"
"What, murdering other innocent girls!?" Wrath shouted in anger. Barry shook his head and said hastily, "What do you mean!? I haven't killed anyone yet!"
The team was stumped as Al asked, "Uh, aren't you torturing and murdering the girls around here?"
Barry shook his head and snarled angrily, "No way! I just recently escaped from prison, but before I could kill anyone, some punk starts going around doing the dirty work and I get the blame. I've been in hiding, but everyone still thinks it's me!"
"How do we know you check out!?" Ichigo shouted, but Orihime asked Barry seriously, "Wait; he may be telling the truth. Barry, do you usually burn victims?"
Barry responded, "How the hell am I supposed to fry someone when I clearly don't have the materials, sweetie!? Besides, I'm a butcher; I chop people up! There's no fun in burning anyone!"
Hal, clearly seeing Barry isn't the culprit, asked in frustration, "Then who the hell is the killer!?"
"That would be me and not tin can over there," a cold voice said in amusement. Suddenly, Barry was set ablaze as he burnt to a crisp. He could scream for only a few minutes as his blood seal was burned off.
As his metal, burned body fell to the ground with a clunk, the team looked at the former transmuted soul and could only mutter three words:
"What…the…heck?"
Suddenly, a ring of fire surrounded them as a young male jumped into the fire ring and glared at them evilly with a sadistic grin. He had filthy and grimy black hair wrapped in a short pony, hard violet eyes, and wore a dirty brown coat over a black collared shirt that has seen its life, torn dark pants, and boots. He was carrying a jagged saber in his hand and the left sleeve of his jacket was torn to reveal a tattoo just like Wrath's…
"Sadism," Wrath hissed in anger, fear and shock evident in his eyes. "Wrath, this is a-?" Samara trailed off as Wrath confirmed her statement with a nod. This was one of Wrath's former co-hort, Sadism.
"Hello, traitor. We were talking about you the other day," Sadism said in a cheery way. "We even had a plan to get rid of you, but that fell apart. We're still planning to get rid of you, among other things."
"Why the heck are you here!? Are the others here as well?" Wrath snarled, but was left unanswered as he was knocked out of the ring of fire and into a box of crates via flame blast, unconscious.
"Wrath!" Sam yelled in panic. Sadism chuckled as he observed the rest of the teammates, "Let's see who else we have besides the traitor: a freckled-face punk, three brats, two kitties, a pipsqueak, a trashcan, an orange haired rebel, and a glasses-wearing geek."
He then gazed at Rukia and Inoue and said with a slightly perverted smirk, "Well, at least two out of this Peanut Gallery aren't bad…" He gazed at Inoue intensely, making her fidget. Uryu stood protectively. Sadism laughed as he said, "Enough talk; let's play!"
Soon, Sadism was swinging his blade as he traveled around with great speed to the heroes. Hal tried to land several blasts on him with his Keyblade, but Sadism had quicker reflexes as he managed to roundhouse kick Hal down before picking the leader up and tossing him out of the ring and into a nearby wall headfirst.
Calvin, with his Keyblade, Kira, with her fans, and Hobbes and Feral with their claws and teeth tried to attack with Samara waiting to give Sadism her Eye.
Unfortunately for the recruits, Sadism slashed the saber too close to Calvin, Kira, and Samara's faces, making them hesitant to attack. This gave the Homunculus enough time to grab them and toss them out of the ring like rag dolls. Calvin tried entering back in, but the flames were too bright. "Crap! What's he trying to accomplish by tossing us all out and not letting us back in?!" The girls shrugged.
Hobbes and Feral continued slashing, but Sadism just badly toasted the tigers with a burn. The cats were alive, but their fur was singed or burned off as Feral coughed a dust cloud as Hobbes deadpanned, "Ouch," before they collapsed. Sadism shrugged as he opened his ring up again and tossed the tigers out before closing the hole again.
"You bastard! You're the one hurting all those girls!" Edward shouted angrily as he transmuted his automail arm into a blade and swung at Sadism, managing to get a cut on the arm.
Sadism merely smirked evilly as the wound cleared up. "I thought you were experienced with us, Fullmetal Chibi; we can't be hurt too easily." Sadism then slashed Ed's chest with the blade, making Ed clutch his chest in pain.
"Brother!" Al cried as he saw his brother fall on a knee with Sadism ready to bring down his blade. The transmuted soul knocked Sadism down, grabbed his brother, and dashed out of the ring as soon as possible.
After getting up off the ground, Sadism shrugged, "Hmmph. Whatever, I didn't want those two anyway." He turned to the four remaining teammates. "Hello…or is this good-bye?"
Ichigo, with his zanpaku-to out, charged at Sadism as the two clashed swords. "You know, you're a real evil guy!"
"Really? Just for that, I'll take that cute raven-haired girl along with her friend after I'm through with you and geek boy," Sadism hissed.
"WHAT!? What are you-?!" Ichigo asked, outraged. "Oh, I'll just do this to them, and a little of that, and I'm definitely going to do that!" Sadism smirked playfully.
Ichigo looked ready to rip someone's head off as he growled, "You're sick!" After trying to charge him once more, Sadism heaved Ichigo by the collar of his shirt and flung the teen out the ring, leaving the boy's arm a bit burned.
"Ichigo!" Rukia cried in alarm as she froze Sadism in place, giving her enough time to run out of the ring and to her friend. "Ichigo, are you alright?" she asked him.
He smiled at her as he clutched his arm. "Yeah, that idiot wouldn't give up." Remembering what Sadism said to him about Rukia, he said to her in relief, "I'm just glad he didn't hurt you." Rukia smiled softly at that as her teammates joined them.
Meanwhile, Sadism broke out of his ice prison as he snarled angrily at losing a potential prey, "Damn that bitch! Oh, I'll deal with her later." He eyed Orihime and finished, "Right now, I have another sight in mind."
Uryu had his Quincy arrows out as he said threatingly, "Don't you dare hurt Inoue-san." With that, the Quincy shot his arrows at the Minor Sin. But, as Sadism dodged the arrows or shook them off when they splintered him, he stabbed Uryu right in the arm as he slashed the blade, cutting across the teen's chest. Uryu screamed in pain as he dropped to the ground, blood pouring onto his white uniform.
"Uryu!" Orihime shouted as she dropped to her friend's level and began healing him. But as she began the process, Sadism quickly and forcefully grabbed her and hit a pressure point on her neck, knocking the teen girl out. "I learned that from Pride. Well, I could incinerate you and your pals, geek; but that wouldn't be nice. So I'll take this lady off your hands and take her in my care. See ya,' and look for Miss Inoue in the next alley."
Cackling manically, he ran from the warehouse in a blink of an eye as the ring of fire dwindled and vanished.
The team, as Al held a wounded Ed and Samara supported her adopted brother, ran to Uryu, Hal asked, "Uryu! Speak to me! Are you still with us?"
Uryu replied in an upset manner, "She's gone! That freak took her, and I couldn't help her." Uryu clenched his teeth in pain and frustration as Ichigo and Rukia helped their buddy up.
"Let's get back so we can plan our next move," Hal said wearily as the team trotted off, injured, disappointed, and Orihime-less.
Lenalee, Tsukasa, Miyuki, and Lilo were patching up their friends as the team grimaced from the situation.
"So, the real killer was one of Wrath's old allies named Sadism, who kicked your guys' butts and kidnapped Orihime as one of his new victims?" Makie asked.
"Well, that's just great, you guys," Kanda said sarcastically. "You guys did a hell of a job!"
"Kanda, there's no need to get upset," Setsuna told the exorcist gently. Kanda sighed as he settled down. "But what do we do?" Nodoka asked, upset. "Orihime's our friend and she's in trouble!"
"Well, she's doomed," Yue said, drinking a soda. "That's not being very optimistic, Yue-san," Makie said with a sweat-drop.
"Do we have any leads?" Sayo asked. Stitch shook his head, "Naga. Sadism left a pretty clean track by setting Barry up. He takes his 'friends' somewhere else and then dumps them in random locations."
"I feel so helpless! Our friend's in trouble, and we don't even know where to look!" Hero shouted in an upset way, startling a few people. Hal placed a hand on his sister's shoulder as Double D said to her softly, "We won't get anywhere by yelling, Hero."
"Yeah; we need a plan!" Chamo said in determination as Kaede, Kazumi, Fei Ku, Konoka, Konata, and Lilo agreed, "Yeah!"
Uryu, with bandages on his wound, looked downright depressed as Kira thought to herself in worry, 'Poor guy. I think he's got feelings for Inoue.'
"What we need at this moment is a miracle," Eddy groaned.
Just after he said that, the doors of building crashed open as a boy stormed right to the startled group. He had slitted dark blue eyes, messy and fine dirty blond hair, and wore an outfit that strangely looked like Edward's outfit only the red coat was now a jacket.
"It is Van Helsing-Elric, Edward Elric's twin brother; who has come to help us!" Ed shouted happily as Winry sighed in frustration, "No, Ed; I don't think that's him."
Ignoring Ed's comment, the boy shouted, "Is this CPIS!?" When the team muttered meekly, the boy said gruffly, "Good. Where's Hal Hanson!?"
"I'm here-Whoa!" The 12-year old was lifted up by his shirt as the boy said to him, "I need your help!"
"Well, we have our own crisis here, so you'll have to comeback later," Chad the boy quietly.
"You don't understand!" the boy said, dropping Hal to the ground. "I need your help! I'm sister Sadie's been kidnapped by this creep Homunculus named Sadism, and he's gonna-!"
"SADISM!?" The practically jumped out of his skin as the team came closer to him looking at him with wide eyes. "Sadism has her, too!?"
"I guess I know what your crisis is," the boy grumbled as the CPIS backed off a bit. "Yeah, Sadism has her and probably your friend, too. I know where they are, but I'm afraid I have no back-up to help me out, and Sadism is no slouch in fighting. So, when I talked to Mustang about it, he said to come here and ask for your help. Please, we're both in the same boat; we can team up to save those we love."
Hal pondered this as Kagami asked, "What's your name, kid?"
The boy answered, "Marcus Hawthorne, the Wind-Spirit Alchemist. Nice to meet you."
Hal smirked. "Everyone, let's get started on the plans to save Miss Hawthorne and Orihime."
GW: Well, looks like the team is going to save Inoue and Sadie while stopping the evil Sadism.
Sadism: I am so badass!
Marcus: No one cares; anyway, read, review, and suggest 'til next time.