Kerria opened her eyes, then sat up in bed and stretched. She felt refreshed and energized, which was a good thing seeing as she would need to be awake and alert for her state alchemist exam later that day. She was a little nervous, but deep down she had a feeling it would all work out. As she got out of bed and began to get dressed, she could hear the clinking of bowls and silverware downstairs, which indicated that Ed and Al were already awake and preparing breakfast.
"Good morning!" Kerria greeted them as she came into the kitchen. "Anything I can help with?"
"Morning, Kerria." Al said with a smile. "Actually, would you mind getting the drinks?"
Kerria nodded energetically and began to pour orange juice for the three of them.
After breakfast, Kerria, Ed and Al all sat in the living room doing some last minute studying just to make sure Kerria was ready for her exam. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
"I'll get it!" Kerria exclaimed, jumping up from her seat. Al's eyes followed her out of the room, and once she was gone, he glanced over at a package on the floor near his chair. Ed laughed a little to himself and slowly shook his head.
"Why don't you just give it to her, Al? You don't have much time, you know."
"W-Well, I…I just need…the right moment." Al stammered, his face turning red.
"Heh…I guess that makes sense." Ed said, leaning back in his chair.
Just then, Kerria walked back into the room and informed Ed and Al that it was the Tringham brothers who were at the door.
"I asked if they wanted to come in, but they were in a hurry." She explained. "They said they just came by to wish me good luck on my exam." She sat back down and looked over at the two brothers. "Speaking of which, we should leave soon, shouldn't we?"
Ed nodded and stood up from his chair. "Yeah…I just have a few more things to do upstairs and then we can go." He turned to go upstairs and on his way, shot Al a look that said "Now's your chance! Make it good!" Al nodded, and as soon as Ed disappeared upstairs, he turned to Kerria and cleared his throat. Kerria smiled at him questioningly, knowing he had something to say.
"Um, I…" Al started. "While I have the chance…here," He picked up the package and handed it to Kerria. "This is for you." Kerria shot him a thankful glance and took the package from him. She carefully opened the present; inside, was a pair of gloves. They were white, and cut so that they would not completely cover her fingers, just the knuckles. On the palm of each glove was a transmutation circle, which Kerria recognized from one of the books she had studied.
"These are…" Kerria gasped.
"They're to help you when you become a state alchemist." Al said, his face flushed. "All you have to do is clap your hands together, and you can do alchemy without drawing a transmutation circle every time."
Kerria reached over and gave him a big hug. "These are wonderful, Alphonse! Thank you so much!" Al's face turned so red, he thought he would explode.
Kerria, Ed and Al went to Central HQ as planned, but upon their arrival they noticed that something just wasn't right. When they walked in, the usually busy lobby was completely empty; even Kashi and the friendly receptionist who were usually there to greet them were nowhere to be found. Thinking this strange, the three teens continued on into the building, only to find that all of the hallways were just as empty as the lobby.
"Where is everybody?" Ed said warily. "I don't like this…it makes me feel uneasy."
Al nodded. "Something's definitely up." Just then, a soldier came running up to them and threw his hand up into a salute directed towards Ed; it was then that they realized he must have been of a lower rank.
"Colonel Elric, sir! We're glad you're here." He stated. "The Fuhrer has called an emergency meeting." Ed blinked a few times; apparently he still wasn't used to his new, higher rank as Colonel. He nodded to the soldier and directed Al and Kerria to the conference room, then went inside while Kerria and Al listened in at the door.
"Ah…Fullmetal. Good, now we can start the meeting." Roy said from the front of the room as he saw Ed walk in; Ed took a seat near the back. The conference room was slightly large, and had a bulletin board up near where Roy stood. The rest of the room was filled with seats and about twenty to thirty soldiers. Among these soldiers, Ed recognized a few familiar faces.
Roy cleared his throat and then began, "As you may have heard, a soldier stationed here at Central was abducted from their house last night. We received a note this morning, telling us the exact whereabouts of the hostage and daring us to come after them. The hostage…is State Alchemist and Secretary…Kashi Murasakiiro." As he finished his sentence, a low murmur erupted from the crowd; Ed gasped and Kerria and Al exchanged worried looks. Roy called the crowd to silence and continued. "We already have a plan on how to handle the situation. So for now I'm going to ask everyone to stay calm and go about your work as usual. I assure you that you are not in danger and that this will all end shortly." He stared sternly at the crowd for a moment, then announced their dismissal. As everyone stood to leave the room, Ed walked up to Roy and practically demanded a better explanation.
"Is Kerria here with you?" Roy asked in a low voice.
"Yeah, so is Al. We came for Kerria's exam today, remember?" Ed answered. "So what's your point?"
Roy sighed. "I don't know who or what we're up against here, Fullmetal. But whoever they are, they have something up their sleeves…something big."
"But what do they want with Kashi? And how is Kerria involved?"
"Actually, Kashi seems to have gotten involved because of Kerria." Ed stared in disbelief at Roy, who then pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Ed. "Here, it's the note they sent us." Ed scanned the paper; as Roy had said in the meeting before, it gave a complete description of where Kashi was being kept, along with a small statement at the bottom.
"They're keeping her at that old warehouse on the edge of town." Ed muttered to himself, not once looking up from reading.
The very last part of the note read: "Don't go sending your best state alchemists out here for this kind of job. Word on the street is, Central HQ has a new alchemist in training: a 16 year old girl. Why not put her to the test?"
"Hm…yeah, it looks like they've been following Kerria around for some time." Ed concluded, folding up the paper and handing it back to Roy. "Why else would they have kidnapped Kashi? They must have known about her and Kerria being friends."
"And her state alchemist training." Roy added.
"Yeah. But things still just don't add up." Ed put a hand to his chin in thought. "Why would these people want to 'test' Kerria? What is it they want?"
"I don't know," Roy sighed. "But like I said before, they've got to have some sort of big plan. Otherwise, they wouldn't go to all this trouble."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Well, I figure that until we know more about what these people are after, we should give them what they want. Besides, Kerria's been waiting for a chance to try out what she's learned, hasn't she?" Roy said with a smile.
"I see, " Ed smirked, catching on to what the Fuhrer was suggesting. "What better way to take a state alchemist exam then to be involved in an actual battle."
"Exactly. Of course, you and your brother can accompany her. And backup will be assembled outside just in case."
"Sounds like a plan to me."
Ed left the conference room and found Kerria and Al outside the door waiting for him. The determined looks on their faces told him that they must at least have an idea of what was going on.
"I'm going to accept their challenge." Kerria stated, her misty eyes sparkling with confidence. "I'm going to pass this test."
Kerria, Ed, and Al stood in front of the old warehouse, staring up at it defiantly. Kashi was in there somewhere, and probably a lot of traps were set for them too. Ed turned to Roy and his backup assembly, which consisted of Lieutenant Hawkeye, Second Lieutenant Havoc, Second Lieutenant Breda, Sergeant Fuery, and Officer Falman; this group had become currently known as "Mustang's Crew".
"We're going in." Ed stated, and Roy nodded in response. Kerria looked down at her gloved hands; the gloves Al had given her fit perfectly, and she had every intention to put them to good use. It was obvious that the kidnappers were trying to get to her through Kashi, and she wasn't about to let them.
Quickly but cautiously, Kerria, Ed and Al entered the warehouse. "This building is so old that it could collapse at any second." Ed whispered.
Al nodded. "Yeah, so we should be careful right?"
"Not only that, but it means Kashi must be in a room that has a lot of pipes to hold it up. They must have put her somewhere safe if they didn't want her dead."
"Somewhere like…the basement?" Kerria suggested.
"Bingo."
The trek to the basement was tougher than they thought it would be. Crumbling walls and ceilings threatened to crush them at any moment, and Ed had to use alchemy several times to fix any worn out floors that might have been dangerous to walk on. As they neared the basement, they could hear the sound of dripping water, telling them their guess had been correct. Sure enough, when they stepped inside the damp, murky room, they could see metal pipes protruding from the walls and intertwining with each other throughout the basement. Then, way back in a corner of the room, they spotted the familiar figure that they had all hoped to see.
"Kashi!" Ed exclaimed, jumping over rubble and pipes to reach her. She sat slumped over in the corner, her hands and feet bound by thick wire; she appeared to be unconscious. "Kashi! Hey Kashi, you okay?" Ed shook her shoulders, trying to rouse her. Al and Kerria stood behind him, hopefully waiting for Kashi to wake up. Finally, Kashi moaned and looked up at her three friends.
"What? Where am I?" Kashi mumbled. "I…"
"You what? Are you hurt?" Kerria asked, seeing the grimace on her friends face.
"I…I…I'm so hungry." Kashi whined as her stomach gave a loud growl. Ed, Al, and Kerria all sighed in exasperation.
"Leave it to her to be hungry at a time like this." Al laughed.
"Yeah, but that's the least of our worries right now." Ed pointed out. "We need to get out of here." Just as he reached over to untie Kashi, a loud "BANG!" echoed throughout the basement and a bullet shot towards Ed, who just managed to dodge it. Before anyone could say something, more bullets began to rain down on them from above. Kashi screamed out to her friends as they tried to evade the deadly shower around them. Kerria quickly hid behind a large pipe and tried to find out just where the bullets were coming from.
Meanwhile, outside the warehouse, Roy heard the gunfire and turned to Lieutenant Hawkeye behind him. "Let's go." he ordered. "That's our cue." Hawkeye nodded and motioned to the others that it was time to move out.
Back in the basement, Kerria had finally spotted a few shadowy figures carrying guns up near the ceiling. "They're hiding up in the pipes!" she exclaimed, clenching her hands into fists. Suddenly, an idea came to her and she smiled confidently to herself. "Now's my chance to show them what I can do!"
"Kerria!" Al called out to her over the roar of gunfire. She looked up and saw him and Ed hiding behind a pillar on the other side of the room. "You okay over there?"
"Yeah, I'm fine!" She answered. "Now let's get rid of these jerks!" With that, she took a deep breath and started to make a run for the large tangle of pipes in the center of the room. Everything seemed to go into slow notion as she ran, dodging bullets along the way. She could hear her friends calling out to her and the entry of Roy and the backup squad. She heard the squad join in the gunfire and Roy's exclamation of "What is she doing?"
Finally, Kerria reached the large, metal cylinders and time snapped back to normal; she clapped her hands together and then slammed them against the bulky pipes. There was a short moment of silence, and then a low roar began to erupt from within the walls. The gunfire immediately stopped and all eyes turned towards Kerria. As the rumbling began to get louder, the pipes started to glow with a blue light. The noise got louder, and the light brighter until suddenly the pipes exploded, unleashing a roaring, giant hurricane that reached all the way from the floor to the ceiling. Everyone stared in awe at the massive whirlpool swirling ferociously in the center of the room. Most of the enemies were at once washed away by the rushing water, but a few, although taken slightly aback, still remained.
"Wonderful," the leader grinned, wiping the water from his face and trying to catch his balance after being thrown. "Just as we expected. Let's see what else she can come up with. Those who are left, reload and fire at will!" They all began to reload their guns, and then once again opened fire on everyone below.
Kerria screamed, trying to hide behind the pipes while keeping the water around her in motion and under control. At that moment, Ed and Al, who had just untied Kashi, turned around in surprise.
"Dammit!" Ed cursed. "There's still some of those bastards left!" Kashi jumped up from the ground and ran towards Kerria.
"Hang on, I'm coming!" she called.
"Shouldn't we help, Brother?" Al asked.
"Nah, I think they can handle it." Ed assured him. "You'll see."
Once Kashi reached the giant whirlpool, she announced to Kerria that she was here to help.
"Kashi!" Kerria exclaimed.
"Just keep the water going!" Kashi yelled back.
"Okay!"
Hawkeye made a move to go help them, but Roy stopped her. "Just wait," he said. "I want to see what they do. That girl sure has skills, I can tell you that."
Kashi quickly drew transmutation circles on her hands, then smugly clapped them together and plunged them into the water. The liquid at her fingertips immediately hardened into millions of sparkling, dagger-like diamonds, which were then hurled up at the enemies above by the swirling water. The unsuspecting villains were being shot down one by one by the daggers, but still the leader refused to give up. Just then, the whole building started to tremble and collapse; the pressure from the water had been too much for it.
"Damn!" The enemy leader cursed, and they all fled the scene for fear of being crushed. "We underestimated those two. But we will be back. That girl has a power we just can't do without."
"Let's get out of here!" Hawkeye called to Ed, Al, Kerria, and Kashi. "The enemies have retreated and we better go too!" They all nodded and Kerria let the swirling waters die as the four of them followed everyone else out of the fast-crumbling building. Kerria was one of the last ones out of the basement, and she ran as fast as she could to catch up with the others. Suddenly, a large piece of rubble fell from the ceiling and onto her leg, causing her to scream and fall to the floor. She looked down at her leg and, to her terror, noticed her foot was stuck.
"I…can't move!" she exclaimed in alarm. "H-Help me!"
Her friends heard her cry for help and stopped running to look behind them.
"Oh no, Kerria!" Kashi cried. "What should we do?"
"You go on ahead!" Al told them as he made a run for Kerria. The others nodded and continued to escape from the building. "Kerria! I'm coming!" Al shouted as he ran up to her.
"I can't move!" she said through tears as more and more of the building fell around them.
"Hold on!" Al told her. He lifted the rocks off of her leg and then quickly helped her to stand. "Can you run?"
"I…I don't think so."
"Okay, then. Let's get out of here." Al said as he picked her up in his arms and ran as fast as he could out of the warehouse, dodging falling rubble along the way. Kerria's leg was throbbing with pain, but she still knew somehow that they would make it out of the building safely.
A/N: Whoo! Chapter 6! Finally the fun stuff is starting! Everyone look forward to the next chapter!