Chapter 2: Shadowed Figure of the Warehouse

The next morning, Ed and Al had headed over to Mustang's office where they would be a meeting about the coming task at hand.

They opened the door of the medium-sized office to see the rest of Mustang's crew already inside, along with an additional amount of soldiers, ranging to about thirty.

"There sure are a lot of people here already," replied Al.

"I guess this is a bigger matter than we thought it was. Oh well, let's see what that bastard has planned"

Mustang was already debriefing the soldiers as Ed and Al approached the desk, not bothering to stop or make a 'you're late' comment, since he wanted to get out onto the field.
The brothers came up to the desk where some of the soldiers were listening to the speech and also leering at the 'evidence' that was place along Mustang's desk.

'Weird, they look like pieces of animals. Fur, nail clippings. What is going on with this case?' Ed thought as he gazed at the objects.

***************

The meeting only lasted an hour and everyone was soon piling into military cars and jeeps to head over to the warehouses.

"I hate riding in theses military jeeps, all they do is bounce on every little thing, the seats are hards as freakin' rocks and my back is killing me!" cried Ed with his usual pissed-off stressed face.

"I don't mind them much, it's a nice break from walking everywhere" replied Al.

They arrived at the warehouses by the lake and everyone descended from the cars and trucks.
Everyone was put into groups to search the warehouses and one of Mustang's higher officers was put in charge of each. Every group was assigned a map with their designated search areas.

***************

"Hey Al! Find anything yet?" Ed called from the west side of the current warehouse they were assigned.

"Nothing yet Brother! I don't think there are any clues here either. How many have we checked so far?"

" Four! Goddamn four rat-infested buildings!" cried Ed "I'm getting really tired of this!"

They exited the warehouse and started to head to the next one they had on their map. The rain had gotten heavier since the morning and was starting to tread on Ed's last bit of patience and sanity.

"WHEN WILL THIS GODDAMN RAIN END!"

"Well, look on the bright side Brother, at least things…."

"Don't you DARE finish that sentence Al! Let's just get to the next dilapidated heap and get this search over with!"

They approached the building and looked up at the crumbling exterior, covered in cobwebs and the amounts of dust that seemed to have built up immunity to the rain after a few years.
Broken glass and small piles of rubble were strewed all over the property and most parts of the building looked like it could fall down at any given time.

"This piece of crap looks like it would fall on us the second we step in there, but I know that we won't hear the end of it from Mustang if we don't search it for clues, so let's go"

*****************

Hours went by as the brothers moved blocks of rubble at their ends looking for the clues they hoped were there. They weren't having the best of luck.

Ed was moving another block of stone when he felt something that had seemed to stick to his fingers.

"What is this? It looks like thread or spider web. Let's see if I can get some light here."

Ed rose from his crouch to find something to make into a light, when he heard something make a noise behind him. He spun in place to see what had made the noise, but couldn't see anything in the dark.
He was about to assume that maybe it was a rat, when the noise was heard again, this time a lot louder.

"Hey! Who's there? The military has the building surrounded so come out with your hands up!"

Nothing.

"Are you the one behind the kidnappings and other stuff around Central? I'm a State Alchemist and I'll go easy on you if you come out now."

There was nothing but silence, until Ed heard a faint sound that seemed to be all around him.

"State Alchemist, huh? This seems like it'll be fun, I was staring to get bored" the voice was deep and raspy. A bit of laughter was followed by the remark.

Ed changed his automail arm into a sword as a loud crash exploded from the east side of the room and dust clouded the area.
The creature, seen only to Ed as a shadow, flew at him and knocked him to the ground.

"OK, NOW YOU PISSED ME OFF! YOU'RE GONNA GET IT YOU BASTARD!"

"Come and find me, Mr. State Alchemist"

Ed looked all around for whatever needed an ass-whooping, but couldn't find any trace of his opponent. It was obvious that he was still in the room, he could hear it moving around, but couldn't pinpoint the exact whereabouts, since the moving around cause planks off wood to crash down.

Ed had a miracle as he heard the creature trip over one of the planks and headed towards the noise and slashed the air.
The creature was too fast and jumped out of the way.

'Damn, how the hell am I supposed to see this thing?'

Ed clapped his hands and slapped them to the ground as an idea came to him. The light from the transmutation light up the room and, finally, was able to see where his opponent was hiding….

…hanging upside down…by it's claws.

"What the hell?"

"Well alchemist, you found me, points to you! You still have to beat me though!"

"Hey Creepy! You wanna know how I got to be a State Alchemist? Here's the fun you were looking for!"

Ed clapped his hands together and slapped them to the floor, causing an alchemical light to radiate throughout the room, before large spikes shot out of the floor in various directions.

"Gotcha! I told you that you couldn't win against me!" Ed cried out, pride oozing from every word.
His victory was short lived when the floor collapsed beneath him and sent him crashing down to the level below.

******************

It took Ed a few seconds to realize where he was when he came to minutes later. The dust had settled and he looked around the rubble of wood and stone that the collapse had caused.
Ed scanned the area for the creature, when a foot came round and collected him at the side of the head, knocking him to the ground.

"Gotta hand it to ya kid, you're pretty tough! Using alchemy without a circle, I'm impressed!"

"Come fight me face to face you bastard!"

"Whoa you're feisty! Ok, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll let you see who your up against, fair is fair. Come to the window and see in the light"

A bit sceptical, Ed walked towards a still standing window, jumping around the debris in the room.
He looked out the window and his eyes wandered, but couldn't see where the freaky guy was.

'Where'd he go?" Ed wondered.

Ed's eyes grew wide as he felt hot breath on the back of his neck. He turned around to face the freaky guy, but was greeted by a stabbing pain in his shoulder and a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

Ed's eye's rolled back as he collapsed, numb, to the floor.

"You lose kiddo"