The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Summary: Edward's gone. No one can find him. The Seven have also disappeared, including King Bradley. What is going on? And what does Mr. Tucker have to do with anything…?
Disclaimer: Do I own FMA? Think, people, think!! Use your head! What do you think? Of course I don't, you dimwits. How long did it take you to figure that out? Rawr…
A/N: If you guys, whoever you are, are reading this, that means that somebody reviewed! Someone saved poor Edward from the hands of—stopping right there. You will find out who soon enough. Hehehe…someone out there also rescued you from the horrible cliffy I left you guys at. I hope that someone out there likes my story. If not, I'm so sad… anyway, if you don't like this story, you could always look at my first FanFic, 'Broken By War'. It's got lots of guilt trips and angst. I'm planning on putting up more stories later, but I'll just work on these two right now. 'Broken By War' and 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'. I have no idea why I came up with those two titles. Please keep reading! I beg of you! But my threat from chapter one still stands: If no one reviews, I won't post the third chapter. Wouldn't that be tragic? Anyway, on with the story…!
Chapter Two
Nii-san, you said you'd be back soon… thought Alphonse, looking out the window of the room where he and his brother stayed. It's been half an hour…it's been too long… Abruptly making up his mind, Al stood up and looked out into the hallway. Seeing that no one was there, he walked out, searching for someone who might have seen his brother return. After a few minutes of searching the halls he came across Jean Havoc.
"Hello Alphonse," he said casually. "What are you doing wandering the halls?"
"I'm looking for Edward," said Alphonse, trying to keep the worry out of his young voice. "He went out for donuts about half an hour ago and he hasn't come back."
"Did I just hear that Edward went out on his own?" came a voice from behind them. Havoc stood up straight from where he had been leaning on the wall and snapped his right hand up into a salute. Alphonse turned and saw Colonel Mustang standing behind him.
"Um, yes sir," replied Al. "Is something wrong?" There was a deep frown on Mustang's face.
"Did either you or your brother open the folder I gave him earlier this morning?" he asked in a voice that suggested he highly doubted it.
"No sir," said Al nervously. Mustang sighed.
"Damn it," he growled. "Havoc?"
"Yes sir?"
"I need you to go find Furey, Breda, Farman, Bloch, Hawkeye, and Maria Ross. Right now! Bring them all to my office!"
"Yes! Right away sir!" Havoc saluted again, then turned and jogged down the halls to various door and banging on them.
"Colonel Mustang, sir?" asked Al worriedly. "What's going on?"
"If he had opened the folder when I had given it to him, none of this would have happened," Mustang said in a tired voice. He led the way to his office while he explained.
"It seems the three homunculi you met at Laboratory 5 are on the move," he said. "And it also seems that they are working in league with Mr. Tucker. People have been going missing from various towns and villages for the past few weeks and soon after, weak chimeras have been found dead, killed by farmers and watchmen. Slowly they have been targeting people of higher power. Not politically, but literally. People with greater strength, greater speed, greater anything."
"What does this have to do with my brother?" asked Al, fearing that he already knew that answer.
"We think that their next target is Edward, Alphonse. That is why I didn't want him out on his own. If he had opened the folder, he would have know that!" Mustang opened the door to his office and sighed again.
"Well, sir…my brother wasn't feeling very good this morning," said Al. "And, well… neither of us really talk about 'chimeras' very much. It's a rather depressing topic, especially for Edward." Mustang nodded.
"Colonel Mustang, sir!" came a crisp bark of many voices from the doorway. There stood Havoc, Hawkeye, Breda, Farman, Maria Ross, Jenny Bloch, and a tired looking Furey, all standing at attention. Beside Hawkeye's feet sat Black Hayate (I love Black Hayate, I just had to mention him) Breda was nervously edging away from the blond lieutenant and her dog. Mustang looked at the dog for a moment, then up into Hawkeye's cinnamon eyes.
"Hawkeye…it seems I forgot to summon someone. Would Black Hayate be able to go find Major Armstrong and bring him here?" Mustang asked. Hawkeye nodded. She crouched down beside her dog and looked him in the face.
"Search," she commanded. "Major Armstrong. Search and return." Hayate barked and ran off down the halls. Hawkeye returned rose to her feet and saluted again.
"Sir, may I speak?" she asked.
"Go ahead," he answered.
"Why did you call us to come here at this time of night?" she asked, looking out the window to the now dark sky.
"I need to send out a search party," said Mustang seriously, pacing back and forth in front of the small group. "Fullmetal left Head Quarters about half an hour ago and he hasn't come back yet. I am sending you to go out and find him. He said he was going out for food, but I have no idea where he could have gone." Just then, Hayate returned, wagging his tail, Major Armstrong just behind him.
"Edward's gone missing?" he asked, stepping into place beside Furey. "I saw him earlier, he was heading off down the road to the east. (Feh. you know what, I just came up with that 'heading off down the road to the east' for lack of better directions. As you may recall, I have no clue as to what the geography is around central. Sorry)
"You will be split into two groups, one under my lead and the other Lt. Hawkeye's," Mustang said. "Armstrong, go with Hawkeye. I don't know what kind of trouble we'll meet out there."
"Well, hello! Did I miss something?" Everyone turned around to see Lieutenant Colonel Hughes leaning on the door frame.
"Yes, Hughes, you missed something," growled Mustang. "Edward has gone missing. Would you like to join our search parties?"
"Oh, I suppose. Why not?" Hughes stepped all the way into the room and stood on the opposite end of the line as Armstrong.
"Okay," said Mustang. "Hughes, Farman, Brosh, and Furey, you come with me. The rest of you, go with Lt. Hawkeye. Hawkeye, follow Armstrong's directions. Major, you lead them where you saw Fullmetal go. Keep any evidence you find. Now go!" Everyone saluted, then turned and filed out the door. Al followed Mustang out the door.
"Um, sir?"
"Yes, Alphonse?"
"Can I come with you?" Al shuffled his feet a little, hoping more than anything that Mustang would allow him to search for his brother.
"Yes, Al. Come with me."
"Thank you, sir!"
0oo0
"That was too easy!" exclaimed Envy. "You did see Tucker get him, right?"
"Yes Envy, I was there. Of course I saw him," said Lust patiently. "He should be back any moment now." As if on cue, both Homunculi heard shuffling footsteps beyond the door. When the door swung open, Mr. Tucker crept in, holding a familiar small shape in his arms. Blood was drying on a shallow cut on Edward's forehead and on his left arm.
"He struggled…" whispered Mr. Tucker. "I had to knock him out… The wounds are not deep…he almost got away at first, but I grabbed his arm… he started shouting at me so I threw him against the wall…but it was easy…is the wolf still chained?"
"How would I know?" asked Envy obnoxiously. "I'm not keeping track of that mangy animal until it's time for me to train it."
"Very well, very well…" Mr. Tucker opened a small metal door and ducked down as he passed through it. "You can come watch if you want…" he said to the homunculi.
"I'll stay here and make sure no one followed him," said Lust in a bored voice.
"Can I eat them?" asked Gluttony. Lust sighed again.
"If they come, yes, Gluttony. You can eat them."
0oo0
"Colonel Mustang! I've found something!" Kain Furey waved at Mustang from where he was crouched on the ground. Mustang hurried over.
"Look," said Furey, holding up a red cloak that was snagged on a tree root.
"He came this way," Mustang breathed. "Alphonse! Al!"
"Yes sir?" asked Al, coming up beside Mustang. The black haired man jerked on the cloak until it came free from the tree root, then held it up for Al to take. Wordlessly, Al took the cloak and clenched one hand around it.
"Hey, Mustang!"
"Yes, Hughes?"
"You said Edward went out for food, right?"
"Yes."
"Look what I found." In the dim light of the street lamps, Mustang saw Hughes hold up a small bag. "It looks like it has donuts in it. Do you think it's Edward's?"
"It's highly probable," said Mustang. "Are there any other signs around it?"
"There's big scuffs in the dirt in the alleyway," said Hughes thoughtfully. "Maybe someone dragged him away?" The blood drained slightly from Mustang's face. We're too late… Alphonse walked up, still holding his brother's red cloak.
"They took him away, didn't they sir?" he asked in a small voice. Mustang nodded. Hughes rose to his feet and called all the other searchers together.
"Well, I think our best plan right now is to catch up the Hawkeye's group," said Mustang. "We can keep searching from there."
0oo0
Edward groaned. Slowly his senses started to return to him . He heard a soft growling and a rattling of chains. Where ever he was, it was cold. Slowly he opened his eyes. At first he couldn't see anything. Then he slowly made out the outline of walls around him and a small figure near him. He turned his head to look closer at his companion. It was a wolf. Then he saw something white near the wolf's feet. He looked around to either side of him and realized that he and the wolf were chained to the floor in the middle of a transmutation circle.
"Hey, the Fullmetal shorty is awake!" called a voice. Ed felt his anger rise quickly. Shorty, huh? I'll show them…
"Good, good…" rasped another, all too familiar.
"Well, are you going to do it or not?" asked Envy, looking down at the black clad alchemist from his perch on a stack of bricks.
"Yes, yes…" replied Mr. Tucker, shuffling forward. Ed felt a smoldering anger rise up in his chest and into his limbs, making him forget the situation he was in. All he wanted to do was to get close enough to Mr. Tucker to hit him in the face…
"Watch, Nina…he'll play with you again after this…" Tucker whispered, kneeling awkwardly down beside the circle. He stared at Ed, insanity flickering in his soft blue eyes. Then he set his bear-like paws down on the edge of the circle and Ed felt a blinding pain shoot up through his whole body, particularly at the parts where his automail joined with his flesh. He heard a scream, then realized that it was coming from his own throat. Just as suddenly, he heard a pained howl from the wolf beside him and realization hit him like a hammer…
Bloody Sword Alchemist: Did you like the second chapter? I hope so. I got major writing block about half way through. I just couldn't think of a way to connect point A to point B, do you know what I mean? Probably not. Oh well…anyway, sorry if this chapter wasn't as exciting as some of you hoped. I hope that some of you out there have some kind of idea about where this is going. If not, that's okay too.
Edward: That wasn't very nice.
Bloody Sword Alchemist: What??
Edward: Leaving me down there with those psychos. I mean, it's pretty obvious what's going to happen. So why don't you just say that—
Bloody Sword Alchemist: AH! Stop! Don't say anything else! It has to be a surprise!
Edward: …
Bloody Sword Alchemist: That's better. Anyway, I'm sorry if this story has a rather slow start. I hope it will get better! If anyone out there has any suggestions about where to take this story, please tell me! I'll be running out of ideas around chapter four. R&R!!!