Chapter 6

A week after the celebration, Ed and Al departed for the East for what would be Al's first assignment as a State Alchemist. Al was a little nervous, but mostly excited. He felt like he was more than ready for this, and after months of leisure and relaxation was itching to get back into the field. The only difference between his and Ed's previous adventures and their new mission was that it would be the first one that Al would do in his actual body. He was excited for a chance to push its limits and and really discover what it was capable of.

Emotionally he was also feeling better than he had in weeks. Although he thought about Winry often, the thoughts had stopped becoming attached to painful physical reactions. He was now able to picture her face without feeling a dull pain in his chest and even mention her to Ed without his breath catching in this throat. Al thought that their return to Central had been exactly what he needed to try and move on. Interacting with old friends and colleagues again had been truly enjoyable, almost cathartic. That is, except for a couple interactions which he had just found confusing and strange. He decided not to focus on those now though, they were probably just weird flukes after all.

They stopped in the town of Arkana to try and get some information and additional directions. The townspeople of Arkana were the ones who had reported the strange occurrences and the possibility of another state alchemical lab. For years they'd assumed that the large warehouse located just three miles outside of town was used by the military for storage only. It was rare that they saw anyone coming in and out and downright strange to hear noises coming from the building. During the Promised Day the warehouse had lit up like a Christmas tree and about two dozen people had run outside. Military trucks had pulled up from out of nowhere and whisked the scientists away. That was the first and last time the townspeople saw them. Now after more than six months several people of Arkana reported hearing cries that sounded almost animal in nature.

"What are you thinking, brother?" They were doing reconnaissance behind some bushes about 200 yards from the warehouse.

"It looks completely different from all of the other state labs we've seen. But maybe that's because it's suppose to be secret." Ed shrugged.

"Yeah. I only see one entrance and no windows or surveillance devices. I guess they figured they wouldn't be needed way out here. We can probably just walk right up to the back wall and tunnel our way in."

"Sure. Sometimes the easy way is the best way right?"

And with that they started towards the warehouse, still exercising caution just in case someone might be watching. In no time the brick wall of the building towered over them, throwing them and the ground they stood on into shadow.

"Soul-binder, will you do the honors?" Ed asked, making a grand gesture towards the wall.

"Why yes, I'd love to." Al replied, matching Ed's overly polite tone. Al clapped his hands together and felt the power well up between his fingers. Planting his hands on the ground the dirt began to give way in front of him forming a neat, 7ft diameter tunnel in the earth.

"After you, Fullmetal." Al politely gestured to the tunnel's dark interior, continuing their charade.

"Why thank you Soul-binder!"

After walking about 20 yards in, Al began to tunnel up through the floor of the building. Ed raised up the column of dirt they'd been standing on, and they were slowly lifted up from the underground tunnel and into the first floor of the warehouse. It was just as dark inside the lab as it was in the tunnel beneath it. They both generated neon blue balls of light and started to look around.

To Al it appeared that they were in some kind of office. Stacks of paperwork littered several desks and many books were crammed into three bookshelves on the opposite wall. Two chairs lay haphazardly on their sides on the ground. Al inspected one of the desks. Much of the paperwork appeared to have the Amestris government seal on it. He accidentally nudged a pen and noticed something odd. Running his finger across the surface of the desk he came up with a thick coating of dust.

"I think this place is abandoned, there's dust everywhere." Al tried to hold back a sneeze.

"Yeah, I think you're right." Ed had been studying the bookshelves. "There's a lot of cobwebs over here…...these are all alchemy book, but they seem like the standard kind." He opened a book and leafed through it. "Well, nothing out of the ordinary here."

That's when they heard a noise from the hall, a low and angry growl.

"Chimera?" Al felt anger rise within him. The atrocities that the state performed under

Fuhrer Bradley's leadership were truly disgusting. He had hoped never to meet a lab-generated chimera again.

Dimming their orbs, they silently exited the office into a hallway where they began to follow the sound. Their ears led them to the very end of the hall and a large, metal door. The door was tall, probably 10 feet high, very thick, and had been left slightly ajar. Motioning for his brother to be ready, Ed began to pull the door open wide enough to admit their entry. It gave way with a deep, metallic groan. They both waited for a chimera to rush out and attack, but the low growls only continued and now they were accompanied by whimpering.

Al entered the room, bracing for an attack at any moment. He smelled a strong odor, one of decay and putrefaction. As he slid against the wall of the room he felt a light switch jab into his back. He turned around and flicked it on. The room became illuminated as one by one the above fluorescent lights turned on. Al was shocked to see the wall opposite to them lined with cages with thick, iron bars. Four of them appeared to be empty, but the other six held chimeras composed of a variety of different animal parts. The one that had been growling appeared to have the face and jaws of a wolf, the bulk of a grizzly bear, and the striped fur of a wildcat. The room also contained signs that it had been left in a hurry.

Al felt nauseous. "They just abandoned them here. Left them locked away to starve to death."

Ed had come in behind him and was taking in the scene with a familiar expression of anger and disgust. "Well, we should have expected something like this. The Homunculi and Father had no regard for human life. I'm sure they regarded animal life even less."

"Yes, but you would think the scientists working here…...someone…" Al felt frustration rise within him. He'd always felt strongly for animals and hated to see them suffer, even abominations like chimeras.

Ed walked up to inspect the empty cages. "Well, I know where the smell is coming from. These cages aren't empty."

Al came closer and noticed that a cage he had previously assumed was empty had the rotting corpse of a dead chimera in the back. "Ugh, that's horrible. I guess some of them already died of starvation."

They both processed the scene in silence until Al forced himself to ask, "What do we do with the live ones?"

Ed looked at him as though the answer was unpleasant but obvious. "We've got to put them down Al. End their misery."

Al did his best not to look squeamish but he didn't think Ed was buying it.

"Al, they're not normal animals. It's not like we can release them back into the wild."

"No, I know. You're right, unfortunately. I just didn't think my first assignment would include murdering helpless animals." Al added, sarcastically.

"It makes it waaay easier when you put it that way." Ed groaned. "Besides, they're not helpless. If we opened up one of those cages they'd try to cut us to ribbons in an instant."

While they were arguing Al had noticed an odd sort of box in the the shadows in the back corner of the room. In an attempt to put off the inevitable, he decided to distract Ed. "Hey, what do you think that thing is over there?"

Ed turned to look. "That white cube thing? I have no idea. It almost looks like a little room inside this room."

To Al it resembled a 15 foot dimensional cube just sitting on the floor in the back of the room, adjacent to the chimera cages. From this distance he couldn't tell what the walls were made from, but they looked hard and were an eggshell white color and faintly shiny. He headed over towards it, approaching slowly since he wasn't sure what the thing was. It was hard to see it actually, the light above the cube hadn't come on with the others. Al searched the walls for another switch nearby. Ed obviously didn't share his interest in the box object and was still by the cages studying the remaining live chimeras. Probably thinking about the most humane way to kill them, Al thought with regret.

He found the switch over on the wall to the left of the cube. He flicked it on without giving it much thought and waited for the above light to illuminate the cube. Instead he heard a strange grinding noise that froze his blood.

"Al, Al! What is that? What did you do?!" Ed shouted from the other side of the room.

"I, I don't know! I just flicked this switch to turn the light on!" Al slowly backed away from the cube, heading towards his brother.

The grinding sound was coming from the cube itself. An opening was slowly appearing. It was a door that was so flush with the cube's material that Al hadn't even realized it existed. He had reached Ed at this point and they both heard what sounded like a low hiss. Following the hiss a dark shadow fell across the ground as a very tall, lizard-like creature emerged.

And now the nature of the cube was apparent. It was a cage, another chimera cage, but it had been designed to hold a beast that iron bars alone could not contain. This chimera was at least eight feet tall and twelve feet long. Its face was broad and flat with two small, yellow eyes. Its body boasted shimmering green scales, colorful feathers around its neck, and a long tail ending in four sharp spikes.

"Well you said you were ready for more action, Al." Ed grinned at him. "Guess you're going to get your wish."

They stood still but ready, waiting for the chimera to launch a frontal assault. But instead of coming at them directly, the chimera glowered and opened its mouth. A stream of bright purple liquid shot forward towards them, splattering the floor where they'd both been only moments before. Fortunately, Al had dove off to the left towards the metal door and Ed had dove to the right, towards the chimera cages. Al glanced back at the floor where the liquid had hit and saw the concrete melting away and a large hole forming.

"Ed, it's acid, it spits acid. Be careful!" Al warned, again diving to the side to avoid the chimera's spiked tail.

"Acid, huh? That's pretty nasty." The chimera rounded on Ed just as he conjured large stone spikes from the ground. The lizard was incredibly agile and managed to avoid three of the spikes. But one of them sunk into its shoulder and the other into the base of its tail. It roared in fury and tried to shake itself free. The spike in its shoulder broke off and, to Al's surprise, so did the creature's tail, leaving behind only a nub where the tail had been with the remainder still skewered to the ground.

Al raised a thick, blunt column of stone from the ground and tried to bludgeon the chimera's head repeatedly. It reared onto its hind legs and smashed the column with a forearm, stumbling towards him, furious and dazed. From behind it Ed shot more spikes and succeeded in pinning it's back legs.

Still facing towards Al it shot out a stream of acid. Just in time Al created a thick wall of rock to protect himself. The acid ate through the wall, but fortunately dissipated before reaching him.

"You ok Al?!" Ed drew from the iron around him, creating a sword, and started slashing at the chimera's pinned legs.

"Yeah, fine!" Al started raising thick walls around the chimera, trying to hem it in. But what the lizard didn't smash it used its acid to breakdown. Some of the flying rubble hit Al, throwing him to the ground. The chimera was now bleeding copiously, but pulled itself free from the spikes holding its back legs and turned towards Ed. Ed backed slowly towards the chimera cages wielding his sword. He dodged to the side as it shot out a stream of acid. But the acid happened to melt the bars of the cage behind him containing the wolf chimera. Sensing freedom and a meal, it lunged towards Ed. He deflected its attack, landing a slash across its shoulder. But while he was distracted by the wolf chimera, the lizard shot another stream of acid. The majority of it hit the wolf chimera directly on the flank, but a small stream hit Ed's left leg. In an instant, the fabric of his pant leg was eaten away and the automail could easily be seen as its components corroded and warped. But the wolf chimera had fared much worse, and with a strangled cry melted away into nothing.

"Brother!" Al had surfaced from the rubble.

"I'm fine Al, it just hit my automail!"

Al leapt to his feet, summoning stone spikes. Although the chimera swerved, one managed to strike it through it's right eye. It unleashed a horrible scream and wrenched its head free. It was really enraged now, stumbling everywhere spewing acid in all directions and corroding everything in sight. It was all Ed and Al could do just to stay out of its way. The floor and walls were starting to look like swiss cheese and all of the chimera cages were melting away. All except for one. Al noticed that the lizard chimera's cube remained intact. That's it! Of course it needed to be made of a material that would be impervious to the lizard's acid and stand up to its strength in order to hold it in captivity!

"I have an idea Ed! Keep it distracted!"

"Yeah, I'll do my best."

Trying desperately to avoid falling through one of the holes in the floor, Al raced towards the cube. He just needed to touch it and figure out the correct alchemical components needed to recreate the material. He skirted by one massive hole, finally reaching the cube and placing his hands on it. He sensed a mix of quartz, titanium alloy, and polyvinyl chloride.

"You almost done over there, Al? I could really use some help!"

"Yeah, coming!" Al raced back towards his brother, now armed with the knowledge required to defeat their foe. As he ran he formulated what he hoped were the correct proportions of the necessary components.

"Anytime now, Al!" Ed was pinned in the corner with the lizard bearing down on him. Fortunately, it looked like it might actually be out of acid.

Al drew his palms together and felt the blue lightning begin to crackle. Focusing hard he slammed his hands to the ground, drawing out a massive white spike. It flew towards the distracted chimera and plunged into its back, surfacing again from its chest. Hoping desperately that he'd used the correct proportion of elements, Al watched the creature struggle on the spike. It seemed like an eternity but, after one last, massive roar, its body went slack and it breathed no more.

Al sighed in relief. "You ok, brother?"

"Yeah, I think so. Quick thinking using the cube's materials…..man, look at this mess." Ed limped out of the corner to join Al in the center of the room to survey the damage.

"Well it looks like we no longer need to put the other chimeras down." Al noticed that all of the cages had been corroded away, along with the chimeras inside.

"Yeah. Well at least it was a relatively quick death for them." Ed said, grimly.

"And we prevented a very dangerous chimera from breaking out and potentially heading to Arkana." Al shrugged. Somehow it didn't really seem like a great victory.

"A job well done!" Ed faked enthusiasm and gave him a thumbs up. Suddenly he stumbled a little.

"Wow, that looks pretty bad Ed. Can you still walk?" Al eyed the automail leg doubtfully.

"Yeah, it would seem so. But I don't think I can do much of anything else with it."

They were both silent for a moment as they realized what this meant.

"I guess we'll have to make a stop in Resembool on the way back for repairs." Ed finally said.

"You can stop. I think I'll continue on to Central. Since this was my first assignment I'd like to get our report to the Colonel right away." Although Al was feeling much better he didn't want to risk a relapse at seeing Winry again. Better to wait a couple more months, or as long as possible really.

Ed nodded slowly. "Yeah, of course. That's a good idea…...Well, shall we clean up this mess or just cross our fingers that the military will want to tear this wearhouse down anyway?"

"Hah, I doubt it. Since they now know it exists they'll probably want to actually use it for storage."

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Ed grumbled. "I'll fix the floor, you get the walls."