Chapter Thirteen – After the Rain Part I
Eyes widened, auto-mail destroyed, with his soon-to-be killer standing above him, Gilbert fell to his eyes in shock, clutching his right shoulder.
"East …" His brother asked, also in a form of shock, but not as severe as his brother's. "GILBERT!"
Lightning stuck a loud Kra-koom sound not that far from where the three were standing.
"I'll give you a moment to pray," Scar said, standing over the alchemist.
"Sorry to disappoint you …" Gilbert said, coming out of his shock. "… But there's no God that I feel like praying to. Am I the only one you're after?" A thought had hit the teenager when he was in shock. "My younger bruder, West … are you going to kill him too?" Gilbert knew there was a small chance of him making it out alive but he could at least try to get Ludwig out of the situation alive. After all, he is the world's most awesome older bruder.
"If anyone gets in my way I will eliminate them … but right now I only have business with you, the Fullmetal Alchemist."
"All right them," Gilbert said seriously. "Promise me. Promise that you won't touch my bruder."
"East …"
Scar was not an unreasonable man and decided that he would obey the alchemist's last request. "I promise."
However the younger brother in question was not taking the request as nicely as Gilbert had thought – which actually was not all that good.
"What do you mean …?! Gilbert, what are you doing?! Run! Get up and run!" Why wasn't Gilbert listening? Scar's hand was getting pretty close to Gilbert's head and the younger albino was doing nothing at all, just bowing his head. Did he actually want to die? "Nein! Get up and run, Gilbert! Nein! NEIN!"
Just as the hand was about to reach Gilbert, a warning shot was fired into the air. Alfred, Alice, Densen and a whole bunch of other Military officers had managed to make it in time to stop Scar from killing the teenager.
"That's enough," Alfred said, still holding the gun that he had fired. "That was pretty close, Fullmetal," he added as a side note. "That man is suspected in the serial killing of State Alchemists. And judging from what the hero just saw, that suspicion just became fact. The murder at the Tucker Estate … let me guess. That was you too?" At this, Gilbert looked up and growled at the murderer.
"This world was made perfect by God. Alchemists change the natural into the unnatural … twist things out of their true form … they sin by defacing God's creation," Scar explained creating a fist. "I am an instrument of Divine Judgment!"
"Makes some sense to the hero. Then why … do you only target State Alchemists when there are so many other alchemists you could kill?" Alfred asked.
"If you insist on stopping me, I'll just eliminate you too."
Alfred's eyes narrowed as he tossed the gun towards a surprised Alice. "Oh, you will, huh?"
"Colonel Jones!" Alice warned as Alfred stepped towards Scar, putting on his gloves.
"Stay out of this," the blond colonel ordered.
"Jones …" Scar mused, the name familiar to him. "The State Alchemist?" He asked.
"The one and the only!" Alfred bragged. "I'm the Flame Alchemist, Alfred F. Jones!"
"I never thought I'd see this ... you turn from the path of God, then come to meet judgment of your own free will," Scar said starting a run towards the colonel. "What a glorious day this is!"
"You know that I'm the Flame Alchemist, but you still want to fight me?" Alfred asked, fingers ready to snap. "You're a fool!"
Something caught Alice's attention as she started to call out; "Colo …" she stopped as she ducked down, sticking one leg out to trip Alfred who just barely missed being stuck in the face by Scar's destroying hand. A spilt second later, Alice had two guns in her hands and fired rounds of shots at Scar who nimbly dodged the bullets.
"What was THAT for?!" Alfred asked. "What the hell, Kirkland!"
"You're bloody useless on rainy days. Stand back, Colonel," Alice said and Alfred's mood slightly deflated.
"Oh yeah …!" Densen said, holding out a hand to catch the water. "He can't put out sparks in this moisture …"
While Alfred was feeling useless and moping around on the wet ground, Scar had moved back towards an alley.
"Lucky for me … you came to fight me but you can't make flames. State Alchemists, sympathizers, and everyone who tries to stop me! I will destroy everyone here!" the white haired killer yelled.
"GO AHEAD AND TRY." A loud voice came behind Scar who narrowly missed a punch from the major that had been with Antonio – Armstrong.
"Huh … another one …!" Scar noted, dodging pieces of rock.
"You dodged that …" Armstrong said, pulling back his fist which had a metal glove like creation that had spikes and an alchemy circle on it. "Not half bad … You brazen insurrectionary! I've had enough of you! You want to destroy everyone here?" Alfred was still on the ground, muttering about being useless while everyone else was watching. "Don't make me laugh! Why don't you try to beat me first?!" Armstrong moved forward. "I'M THE STRONGARM ALCHEMIST … ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG!"
"… So many of you today … one after another … but it saves me the trouble of having to search you out. This must be a gift from God!"
Armstrong threw up a large chunk of rock into the air. "Hmh, hmh … so you won't back down, eh? Then as a sign of respect for your courage, I'll show you this!" Armstrong wound his arm up as the rock fell down. "THE ELEGANT ALCHEMICAL TECHNIQUE PASSED DOWN THROUGH THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS!" When Armstrong's fist hit the rock, it was transmutated into a large arrow-head that was aimed at Scar's head and said murderer managed to move out of the way just in time. "AND AGAIN!" Armstrong declared when he punched the ground and large cone-like objects with a pointed end appeared around Scar and the only damage they managed to do before Scar destroyed them was ripping his coat slightly.
"MAJOR!" Densen yelled while fumbling with a rifle. "Don't tear up the street!"
"WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY?!" Armstrong asked. "WHAT DESTROYS CAN ALSO CREATE! AND WHAT CREATES CAN ALSO DESTROY! DESTRUCTION AND CREATION ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN! WE MUST TEAR DOWN IN ORDER TO BUILD! THAT IS THE GREAT LAW OF THE COSMOS!" During this Armstrong had somehow managed to loose his shirt, showing off his muscled chest and arms. Scar looked greatly confused.
"Why did he take off his shirt?" Densen asked.
"As if I bloody know," Alice replied. "But that is some really crazy alchemy."
"'Crazy', eh?" Armstrong asked. "A fellow Alchemist knows the truth in what I say. Isn't that right, Scar?"
"A fellow …?!" Alfred asked, finally recovering from his depression. "Are you saying he's an alchemist too?"
"The awesome me knew it," Gilbert said from where he was sitting out the fight. "There are three main steps to alchemical transmutation: Analysis, deconstruction and reconstruction."
"I see …" Alfred started. "So he's stopping transmuting at the second stage … the stage of deconstruction!"
"But if he's an alchemist, then he's going against his own preachings!" Densen said.
"Yeah … any why does he only go after State Alchemists …?" Alfred asked, thinking.
'Hmm …' Scar thought, watching Armstrong fight him. 'For his size, he has unusually quick footwork … unusually high strength … and he augments his powers with his alchemy … this man is dangerous. But …'
Scar blocked a punch with his arm and his back hit a brick wall.
"NOW I'VE GOT YOU!" Armstrong yelled as he brought his arm back to deliver a punch to Scar, but the murderer noticed a flaw.
'… he swings too wide and leaves himself open,' Scar thought and noticed an opening to use his special attack on the alchemist. 'THERE!'
However just before the white haired could use the attack, Armstrong moved backwards, surprising the murderer.
'He had me cornered … why'd he pull back?!'
A bullet grazing his forehead and knocking off his glasses answered the question. Four more shots were fired, all of them narrowing missing Scar, by the quick reflexes of the murderer. During the fight, the rifle that Densen had been fumbling with had been passed to Alice who had then when Armstrong got Scar into a position, fired it at the murderer.
"Did you get him!?" Alfred asked.
"He's fast," Alice commented. "One shot grazed him … that's all."
When people next looked at Scar they noticed his dark red eyes.
"Red eyes! And his dark skin …" Armstrong started.
"He's an Ishbalan!" Alfred finished.
To Be Continued …
Okay now this chapter was hard to find a place to stop, but this looked good. I've written up the next half of the chapter, but I'll post that when I finish the next chapter.
I again, would like to thank all of my reviewers and the people who have put this on their favorite or story alerts – it really makes my day when I see that someone actually likes this story.
Guess who got the Hunger Games on DVD on Saturday? I did! You guys should really watch the movie – it's awesome.
Well until next time!