Living with Greed and the other chimeras hadn't been so bad after all. Arcanine had gotten along with them all pretty well, especially Greed, who seemed to be able to relate to her problems better than the others. He had explained to her that the people who had the same tattoo that she had seen at the lab were his so-called 'siblings'. He also explained that he had rebelled against the one they called their father, and that was why he wasn't with the others. He had also found the other chimeras not long after leaving the others, and that was why they were so loyal to him. He also explained that anyone with that tattoo was called a homunculus, a person who had to be 'killed' many times over to actually die. The core of every homunculus was an object called the philosopher's stone, or stone of immortality, yet Greed was searching for immortality. This made little to no sense to Arcanine. If he has a stone of immortality, then why would he be searching for immortality, wouldn't he already have it?
Meanwhile in central….
Edward and Alphonse were called into Colonel Mustang's office to talk about a body that had been retrieved in Dublith. Mustang told them that it looked like some sort of demonic canine, similar to the chimeras that Dr. Tucker had created. The black and dark orange fur along with the bony plates on its legs and head made it seem almost fictional, like a creature out of a child's story book. According to Mustang, it was found under about a ton of rubble after a building had collapsed. There were severe burn marks covering its body, as if it was caught on fire. But everything around it was unburned. "What is this thing", Ed and Al asked. "We believe it's a chimera", replied Colonel Mustang. So it was a chimera, but what kind of animal did they use? "Well", Edward began, "We were going to Dublith anyways to visit our teacher, so I guess we can go to investigate too". "Just don't do anything reckless again", Mustang grumbled.
Back in Dublith…
Arcanine's time with the chimeras and Greed had been paying off. They had helped her learn to speak, though the amount of words and sounds she could use was still very limited. That didn't matter to her, though. Any amount of words, no matter how small would be helpful in the long run. She had also been practicing her new attack fire spin, after all it wasn't the easiest attack to control.
Arcanine would head off to an isolated area just outside of the town and use large boulders and trees as targets. Through her training she had also learned another attack, ariel ace, meaning she would now have an attack for close quarters combat. But for now she was resting. Nothing much had been happening, that was until the lizard chimera Bedo came in and started shouting about some alchemists that were coming to Dublith. According to him they were known as the Elric brothers. Wait, the Elrics, Arcanine knew them. They were the ones she saw running out of the 5th lab before it collapsed. Bedo also explain that one of them was just a soul bound to a suit of armor. When Greed heard this, well let's just say she hadn't seen Greed so thrilled about anything in a while.
Arcanine remembered that she and Screech had been tracking them, but lost their trail after a while, ending them up in Dublith. She could use this opportunity to finally get some answers from them. Greed, however, was only interested in finding out the one in the armor's secrets in order to gain total immortality. Arcanine would probably be sent out to scout around the area once they arrived, meaning she would finally get to go on her first mission.
A few days later…
The Elrics had finally arrived, and Arcanine was excited about her first mission. Her and Bedo would be sent to scout out the area to confirm their location, then report back immediately. The first place Arcanine went was the train station, knowing they would be getting off there. She spotted them almost immediately. Grinning, she ran back to the devil's nest as fast as she could, eager to tell Greed the good news.
Author's Note: Sorry this chapter was so short, but I didn't want to put anything else in it like the fight scene. That will be in the next chapter, possibly along with a few sad parts. I still don't own pokemon or fma.