Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan
Chapter 18: Dublith On The Double!
Lust
Having snuck into the bowels of Central, I quickly reached Father and bowed respectfully.
"So you have returned, is Hughes dead?" he asks as he fingers a chess piece.
"No, he escaped, the man still lives" I say calmly, anticipating him to lose his cool like earlier today.
"How did this happen?" he continues, remaining calm. I knew now it was time to sell the acting, or I'd be dead.
"He used alchemy Father" I reply, causing him to turn around and face me.
"Alchemy? I was under the impression that he was just a soldier, not an alchemist, plus I've never felt him tapping into my power, explain that" he says with suspicion.
"Apparently he has been hiding it for years from everyone, even his own family. Plus, he didn't use traditional alchemy, it was formed from an unfamiliar array, it makes me wonder…" I say mysteriously, causing Father's interest to be aroused.
"Wonder what? Tell me child" he demands.
"I believe Hughes is actually a potential candidate for sacrifice, and perhaps it would be in our best benefits to keep him alive" I reply coolly.
"He knows too much, what if he leaked the entire plan to the nation, then all the centuries of plotting would be for naught, and you will never become human!" he shouts, barely keeping his cool.
"You wouldn't kill the Elric Brothers if they learned too much would you?" I ask sarcastically.
"They are confirmed, important sacrifices, they have both seen the Truth, that is fact, so I' am forced to adapt and deal with the knowledge they learn. Also, they can be manipulated through the people they care about. Hughes however is not confirmed, and even if he is a potential sacrifice, he would still have to see the Truth, and I doubt someone with morals such as his would be willing to open the portal of his own accord. Furthermore, without Pride, I would have to sacrifice unnecessary power to force him to do it myself" Father counters.
"You're wrong, we can manipulate and control Hughes, you forget his family" I argue, causing his anger to fade into curiosity.
"His family, is it not like the average one, highly dysfunctional and weakly bonded?" he inquires with curiosity.
"Quite the opposite, I've seen how he talks about his family among his co-workers and subordinates. Normally that's when dissatisfied men or women discuss their problems at home, among friends. Hughes does not have any, he carries around multiple photographs of his wife and daughter, and constantly gushes and brags about them to everyone. Plus, before Envy's defection, he confided in me that he'd once see his family visiting the man at work, and they were all alone in his office, nothing mean or cynical was uttered the whole time, only happy statements and joyous laughter. The Hughes family is a highly cohesive unit, I'd dare say its even idyllic from what I heard" I explain, causing him to rub his chin in thought.
"With that level of devotion to his loved ones, we could easily keep him quiet by threatening their safety, and likely even convince him to open the portal willingly" Father remarks, apparently haven taken a liking to my idea.
"Exactly, so he can be used to suit the ultimate plan, we just need to remind him how much influence we have" I say with a fake wicked tone as I change the fingers on one of my hands to claws. I amazed at how easily Father was falling for my lies. It seemed they were right, he did have too much faith in us, it would surely be his downfall.
"Very well then, confront Hughes and explain that if he does not keep his mouth shut, I will kill his wife and child, but not before slowly torturing them for days. But if he will cooperate, maybe I will spare them, perhaps even from the final plan" Father says monotonously, his usual emotionless tone returning.
"I knew you would listen to reason, I just hope Hughes will too, for his sake" I say with a fake chuckle of malicious intent.
"FATHER! I have bad news" Wrath's voice bellows as he rushes into the chamber.
"Wrath, what are you doing here?" Father asks, apparently surprised.
"Its about Edward Elric" Wrath says solemnly.
"I thought you already told me all the information I needed to know this morning, about how Edward gained some new form of power" Father remarks, I knew this would be good, Edward had told me about the lies he'd used to fool Bradley into second guessing himself.
"Well I have made a grave mistake, the beast that attacked, it was not the Fullmetal Alchemist" Wrath says nervously, showing he was indeed afraid of what Father would think about his error in fact checking.
"You said you used your Ultimate Eye, and that it proved the thing was indeed Edward Elric" Father says in response, his tone filled with hidden anger.
"Well I thought so too, until Edward Elric dropped by for a personal visit just 15 minutes ago. Apparently that explosion at the Fifth Laboratory didn't kill him, but instead flung the boy into a village in the East. He landed in bale of hay, barely alive, but managed to reach a doctor's house, where he was healed, even having the limbs he'd lost after his trip through the portal. I believe its likely he found Dr. Marcoh, and he used a Philosopher's Stone to save the boy's life" Wrath continues, causing Father to show genuine shock.
"You mean to say that, that monster from this morning was not Edward Elric? But then…how could your eye have made such a mistake, it is after all, an Ultimate Eye" Father says with suspicion.
"Well actually, Edward is connected with the creature too, in a similar way that he's associated with the Ishvalan known as Scar. He was attacked by it in the village. It appeared right infront of him just days after his life was saved. He said the creature came from a glowing doorway that appeared from thin air. He also said the creature was telepathic, meaning it can see thoughts and memories from others, and communicate directly into the mind as well. Among the other feats Edward says it performed, it copied his voice, demonstrated super strength, and flew under its own power" Wrath starts, Father struggling to remain calm as Wrath spoke.
"The description of this thing Edward Elric encountered yesterday matches the one we saw just hours ago exactly, and like Fullmetal also claimed, the creature did infact impersonate his mannerisms and voice, the boy is telling the truth. Somehow the creature has a body structure similar to Edward, only that of a more mature and powerful build, I believe it may even be a shapeshifter like Envy. The truth is we have been attacked by a still unknown assailant, I was completely and utterly wrong, please forgive me Father" Wrath says as he kneels down and speaks with a humble and apologetic tone. After several moments of silence, Father turned his back and began to walk toward his throne.
"You are to double check everything before reporting to me from now on Wrath, apparently you've gained the human's habit of jumping to conclusions too hastily, now begone" he says with a dismissive hand wave.
"I…yes Father" Wrath says with a bow as he promptly leaves in shame, I almost laughed out loud at how hilariously successful Edward had been at making Wrath look like a complete and utter fool.
"Lust, my last obedient, and competent child, please prove your superiority to Wrath by being successful with this new plan involving Maes Hughes, and you'll be that much closer to becoming human" he says kindly. I promptly knelt and bowed to complete the illusion of my continued loyalty.
"I promise you, I won't fail" I reply as I lift my head back up. Noticing Father dismissing me as well, I turned and left to head back to Hughes apartment, where I would keep a close eye on him, just like Father wanted. After getting back on the street, I leapt to a rooftop and began jumping back toward Hughes apartment, then said to myself, "I'll make sure I don't fail in helping take you down permanently you heartless creep"
4 Weeks Later
Edward Elric
"Come on brother, do another" Armor Al begs.
"Yeah, they're always funny, I wanna see you do my pops" Envy laughs as he sits there munching on a mutton.
"Take it easy, the boy has already done 10 impressions with his powers, don't you think he should take a break?" Penako sighs.
"Oh granny, you know full well it takes a lot more than that to exhaust Ed nowadays, sometimes he has to go burn off terrawatts of energy just to be able to sleep at night, go on, show us" Winry laughs encouragingly.
"Indeed, I wanna see how you view my doppelganger" Hoemheim chuckles.
"Ok, ok, gimme a second" I reply as I take a moment to think of the formulas needed to alter my facial structure. After figuring them out, my face warped forms in a burst of blue alchemic discharge, my head now a perfect replica of Father and his pale, sandy blonde hair. Hunching over to act like an old man, I began my impression.
"I'm the mighty and terrible Father, creator of the Homunculi. I'm a living Philosopher's Stone and can do alchemy without following the law of equivalent exchange by mere thought, but if I knew that Edward and the monster who attacked Central were one and the same, I'd probably shit my pants and beg for my miserable life!" I say with a shaky elderly accent. Everyone promptly laughed their asses off, even Envy.
"OH HO HOOO! Ed, I never knew you had such skills with comedy" Envy laughs as he wipes his eyes.
"Yeah, I bet you could even make teacher laugh now" Body Al says with a laugh. I smiled as I returned my face to normal, I'd seen marked improvement in Alphonse's body since rescuing it from the portal; his bones were no longer visible, and clothes could fit him once more. Using my powers, I was even able to reverse his muscular atrophy, but he was still getting used to moving around, he'd not used them for 3 years after all. But he was recovering faster than anticipated, which was good.
To add to the good news, thanks to my plan to fool Father working, the barrier around Eastern Command was taken down weeks ago on the same day I'd made it, so nobody other than our friends and the staff who worked there are aware of what occurred. Afterward, the rest of our pal that weren't in the loop before were informed about everything I'd told Mustang and his men as well. Best of all, thanks to the combined loyalty the soldiers have to Lieutenant General Grumman, and my new extremely fear inspiring presence, none of them dared to utter a word about the events involving me and the Homunculi.
Now, Pride had returned to his adoptive mother, covering up his betrayal to Father by having claimed that Lust had been a little hasty with her accusation that he had defected. Luckily, Pride defended her, so her lot in Father's trust pool wasn't lowered any. Gluttony though, like Envy, had chosen to openly defect from the bastard. This evening though, he was currently being kept bound with Adamantium cable, after attempting to eat our dog Den, the poor girl. Things began to go much smoother once Gluttony was restrained though, and we had finally loosened up and reached this point.
"Hey, if there's one thing I know deep down, its that teacher needs to see something very intense and clever to be made to laugh, a simple impression just won't do, no matter how good" Armor Al argues.
"HA HA! Yeah, Teacher sure wouldn't…(hears a shattering sound in my head)" I begin, when a sudden realization hit me like a mountain crashing on my skull.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! TEACHER, WE FORGOT TO TELL HER ABOUT ALL THIS, SHE'S STILL IN THE DARK!" I bellow, causing the house to rumble slightly.
"(Gasp) Oh no, brother, we have to go see her, she's gonna be furious that we didn't tell her sooner!" Armor Al shouts with fear.
"Well it's only 5:50 PM, the train doesn't leave for another 10 minutes, so you could easily make it if you just-"
"Al, get ready, we're headed for Dublith" I shout, interrupting Penako as I grab my coat and transmute my body to its short stature once more, then transmute the coat to fit me.
"Right, so how are we getting there? The scramjet, flying through the open sky, or the fast way, teleporting?" he asks excitedly as his armor body rattles from jumping up and down.
"No, I'm afraid we can't use those when we plan to have extended public trips anymore. Bradley is keeping a close eye on me and you Al, and that means that if I slip up once, he'll figure out I lied to him and that it really was me who made a mess of Central after coming back home. So we're gonna have to take the train" I sigh.
"Awww, oh well, train rides can be fun too, but can we at least teleport close to the station to make sure we make it?" Armor Al says happily. That was one of the qualities I liked about my brother, he didn't let anything get him down so easily.
"Sure, I was planning on that anyways, after all, we do have to buy tickets before we board after all" I say with a smile.
"Bye dad, bye granny, bye Gluttony, bye Body, we'll try to not take too long" Al shouts as he waves to them. Grabbing my things quickly, we sped out the door, eager to get there as fast as possible.
"Hold on there mister!" Winry snaps, causing the two of us to freeze mid-step just before reaching the edge of the walkway.
"I remember the other day when you were pointing out stuff on the map about Amestris and key locations you'd discussed with your master Psyagon. Well guess whats on the way to Dublith?" she asks sarcastically.
"Oh no, please don't tell me…-"
"That's right Rush Valley, the boomtown of the broken-down, and since your out-of universe trip and biological rebirth into an invulnerable extraterrestrial has cost me my prime sources of automail work-" she starts, cutting me off while pointing at my right arm and left leg.
"-you're gonna take me there, you owe me a way to continue with my passion" she says angrily.
"Ok ok, I'll take you, just please don't get mad, you know its no longer possible for you to adequately take out your frustration on me due to what I've become" I say quickly, hoping to quell her temper.
"Yeah, remember last week? The monkey wrench incident" Armor Al says, recalling when Winry had attempted to smack me with said wrench after I'd accidentally broken an automail leg that I picked up and gripped a little too hard. Winry gasped and covered her mouth, apparently feeling guilty about it, despite the fact that she'd only hurt herself in the process.
"Yeah, I broke my arm trying to clock you with it, and then you used your powers to heal me even though I'd over reacted" she says quietly.
"Hey relax, I don't hold it against you, I just don't want you to cry" I reply with a smile as I put an arm around her shoulder.
"Thanks, that means a lot Ed" she says, smiling back.
"Hey, wait for me!" Envy shouts as he rushes up to us.
"You too? Come on, I already have to buy 3 tickets, can't you fly there or something!" I shout, irritated that Envy wanted to mooch off me too.
"Hey, you're rich, get over it. Also, its not Rush Valley I'm interested in, its Dublith, and there's a personal reason I want to go, an old acquaintance of me and the other Homunculi might be there" Envy replies with a smirk.
"Oh, so you're going our way, alright sure, but how do you know this acquaintance is in Dublith?" I retort.
"When I last saw him, he told me, "I'll be near the moon in the eye". It took me a long time to figure it out, but I eventually did from maps and geography. Yock Island is shaped similar to the waxing crescent phase of the moon, and Lake Kauroy is kinda shaped like an eye, so that means he's probably in that area somewhere, likely Dublith" Envy explains with a smile.
"Very well then, you can accompany us, but you'll have to have a disguise, we don't want anyone getting word that you're traveling with us, Father might get suspicious" I say as I smile back.
"Sure, how about this one?" Envy says as he snaps his finger, having figured out what disguise he wanted to use. Suddenly, his head and body began to change, until everything but his face, excluding the eyes, looked exactly like…
"Oh no, you're not worthy to take that visage!" I shout as I whack him upside the head.
"Why not? Its just an appearance, don't be so uptight Fullmetal" he whines, rubbing the spot my powerful blow had struck.
"I'm serious, you really don't deserve to look like that; Goku is completely free of innocent blood on his hands, he has never killed a single person that wasn't evil. So to use his form, tarnishes what he stands for, absolute goodness and complete childlike innocence, you're clearly nowhere near that pure and saintly" I chastise, causing Envy to sigh.
"Ok fine, you have a point I guess; very well, how about this one?" he grumbles as he begins to change form again. This time, he settled for a custom form, but it actually looked quite similar to a character I'd learned about from my master, but that I wasn't sure we'd end up meeting anymore; old man Fu, with an outfit similar to that of the Silver Alchemist, Giolio Comanche.
"Yeah, that's fine, now everyone hold on" I say as I hold out my arm.
"Wait, Edward!" Hoenheim says as he rushes out, his tone filled with urgency.
"Oh, you wanted to say good bye dad?" I ask as he stops right infront of us.
"That, and the fact that I need to return this to you" he says as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out the necklace with the mystic crystal from Psyagon I'd loaned him all those weeks ago in an attempt to figure out how to use it.
"Sorry I wasn't able to figure out anything new regarding its operation, I tried my best" he says wistfully.
"Its ok, we'll figure it out someday" I say as I hug him.
"By the way, I'm not gonna be at the Rockbell home when you get back. I'm leaving tomorrow to go back to my plan, I still have to complete the counter circle, just in case" Hoenheim says with a smile.
"I know, and don't use more than you have to, you're not gonna have to fight Father anymore, I'll handle everything when the time comes" I say solemnly as I pat his back.
"Good bye dad, I'll miss you" Al says as he hugs him.
"I'll miss you both boys, and don't worry, I'll be fine, most of the Homunculi are on our side now after all" he says with a laugh as he hugs Al. Then, after hugging Winry, and giving Envy a handshake, he begins to walk back inside.
With our good byes done at last, I put my arm out again for the others to hold onto. After they'd grabbed it, I teleported us just outside the station, where we promptly ran and bought tickets for our trips, piling on the train post-haste afterward.
2 Days Later
Alphonse Elric
After visiting with Hughes shortly yesterday afternoon once arriving in Central while waiting on our connecting train to Rush Valley, we finally reached the town of automail by mid-morning. Envy strangely seemed to enjoy the train rides as I did, I'd figured him for one who can't stand to sit still like Ed unless forced to. As we walked into town, Winry kept gasping and gushing over the automail in hysteric wonder.
"Automail, automail, AUTOMAIL!" she giggles with glee as she hops around like a child in a candy store. We all sighed with embarrassment at her behavior, it just was too weird when she acted like this.
"Your girl is obsessed with this stuff Fullmetal, maybe you'd have more luck if you got another automail limb replacement so she'd stick around you" Envy jokes with a sly smile.
"That's not funny Envy!" Edward snaps angrily. I couldn't help but laugh at how clever the homunculus was. As they kept arguing, I decided to take a look around, see if there was anything interesting while they kept an eye on Winry. As I walked down the street, I saw many interesting kinds of automail and their purveyors of trade, some were quite unique.
"Hey sir" a man's voice says from behind me. The moment I turned around, a guy with an automail eye was holding out my arm and examining it.
"Everyone, take a look at this gentleman's arm, its so light, almost weightless" he announces as he holds up and displays my right limb.
"Whoa, is his entire body made of automail?" another man comments as they begin to close in on me.
"Hey, wait, please don't crowd me, stooooop!" I plead as they begin to swarm me like bees around honey. Within moments I was covered from head to toe with engineers and curious bystanders.
"AAAHHHHH, BROTHERRRRR!" I scream as loud as I can, hoping the crowd's shouting wasn't enough to drown out my voice to his super sensitive Saiyan ears.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU JERKS DOING TO MY LITTLE BRO?" Edward's voice screams as I feel the ground begin to shake. Suddenly, numerous small hands sprouted from the ground and dragged everyone that had been near me several feet back.
"Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist here, I'm giving a Military order for you all to stay the hell away from my brother Alphonse Elric" he states as he holds out an empty hand. I gasped as I realized what that meant.
"Uh, brother-"
"Not now Al, I'm busy here; I'll say it again, back off or I'll be placing you all under military arrest, I'm a State Alchemist!" he says, rudely interrupting me without a second thought as he keeps holding out his watch he still hadn't realized was gone.
"You're a state alchemist, what happened to your watch, did it turn invisible?" a bystander says sarcastically.
"What are you babbling about?" Edward says angrily.
"Brother" I continue, hoping he'd listen this time.
"WHAT AL! WHAT IS IT?" she shrieks as he whips his head toward me like a slingshot.
"Your watch is gone" I state simply as I point to his palm, where nothing was being held.
"(Deep gasp) MY WATCH, WHERES MY WATCH!" he screams with panic. After searching all his pockets, he screamed again, now certain it was really misplaced.
"What could have happened to it, where could it have…-" he begins, suddenly stopping mid-sentence, a growl and snarling frown forming on his face as he gritted his teeth.
"Paninya…IT WAS PANINYA, I KNOW IT, THAT LITTLE BITCH!" he bellows angrily.
"Paninya, who's that?" I ask with confusion as Envy and Winry rush to me.
"Wow, just arrived and you already had a run in with our local pickpocket; not surprising, she likes to target tourists, they're usually easy suckers in her opinion" the man with the automail eye comments.
"I thought I sensed someone behind me; well she bit off more than she can chew this time, I'm going after her, where can I find that thief!" Ed asks angrily.
"Hmmmm, lets see, where is she again?" the automail eye man starts.
"I know what might jog my memory" the older man standing with him adds. Immediately they pulled out wrenches and began to gush at me.
"If you'll just let us have a closer look at your little brother's automail sir, we'll gladly tell you" they say as the get closer to me. Just before they could grab me though, Envy came up and grabbed each of them around the throats with his powerful arms in a headlock, which looked rather silly considering his elderly disguise.
"How about this instead, you tell us where this Paninya girl hangs, or I give you two gentlemen trips to the hospital, what do you say to that?" the homunculus asks sarcastically. Immediately the two men gulped and wheezed that they would cooperate. The moment after he let go of their necks, they pointed toward the mountains, and said that she'd likely be around the automail shop run by a man named Dominic LeCoulte. We promptly headed that way so we could recover my brother's watch.
Edward Elric
"Come on Winry, pick up the pace, its not that hard, hell, even Envy here can keep up" I laugh as I skip across the trail, amazed at how immune I was to everything, including temperature extremes. Man, other versions of me probably have, or currently are suffering during their own versions of this journey.
"(Pant, Pant) That's cause none of you guys are human, either that or you're just an animated suit of armor" Winry says with irritation.
"Well I can always carry you" I suggest with a smile as I hold my arms out.
"Oh no, I don't want people to get that idea about us everywhere we go just yet!" she screams with a blush.
"I'd carry you Winry, but my armor gets very hot in direct sunlight, I might burn you by accident, sorry" Al says with an apologetic tone.
"Its ok Al, thanks for at least letting me know you'd be willing to" she says with a sigh.
"What I don't get is why you don't just fly up and use your super acute vision to spot her from the sky" Envy remarks with annoyance in his voice.
"Security risk, you know that" I reply curtly.
"How? We're deep in the mountains, all alone for miles, except for the thief we're tracking and the engineer and his family they told us about" Envy argues.
"It only takes one witness and a slip-up, then the word can spread like wildfire, ever think about that smartass!" I yell with sarcasm.
"Then why not just use your…Gee sensing or whatever it is you call it?" he replies with irritation. I was about to argue with him more, until I felt myself get a kick in the head as I remembered my most developed sense I'd acquired through my training.
"My Ki sense, OF COURSE! How could I have forgotten about that for even a moment, its always on" I yell as I slap my forehead.
"Are you sure that will work?" Winry comments, causing my eye to twitch.
"Winry, you know damn well this sense has far more acuity and reach than any of my other ones, and its actually inherent in most all sentient beings, its unlocked with special training. With this, I can feel the essence of every living creature on the planet without even trying, and if I really focus, I can even sense life energy in other star systems from down here if there's any out there. The point is, all I have to do is focus and I can pinpoint any person's exact location unless they know how to suppress their Ki" I reply, feeling tired of having to explain the concept to my girlfriend yet again.
"Well soooooorry, but its kinda hard to understand something you've never felt with your own body" she huffs.
"Alright, gimme some quiet please, I gotta focus" I say as I close my eyes and extend my Ki detection field, its reach blanketing across the land instantly as my perception and range expands for miles. Moments later, I saw the Ki image outline of a girl with no legs, and she was extremely close by. Focusing more, my sense scanned the land she was standing on, and the surrounding area came into view, revealing that she was standing…
"There, some one is just across the ravine at that bridge!" I shout as I open my eyes and point down across the canyon, causing the others to follow my finger. Indeed, just as I'd seen with my Ki field, the girl was right there on the bridge. Focusing my eyes, I saw a reflection of sunlight from her palm, then a watch came into view, a silver watch…MY WATCH!
"HA HA, I GOT YOU NOWWWW!" I scream loudly, causing the area to shake for a moment. Standing completely still, I quickly summoned forth my new alchemic skills, causing a huge column of water from the river below to rise up and turn into a giant ice hand, which immediately headed straight for her.
"Whoa…" Al drones as he watches the spectacle, clearly in awe of my new skills.
"She's as good as caught" I say confidently as I cross my arms and wait for the frozen palm to trap her.
However, instead of staying put, she leapt straight up, at least 30 feet, and easily evaded the hand as it crashed into the ground she'd been standing on moments before.
"WHAT?" I shout with disbelief. Just before I got into a cursing fit, I remembered the details about Paninya; both her legs were high quality automail with weapon attachments, carbon blade in the right leg, and a 1.5 inch carbine cannon in the left, I'd have to make sure and show her up if she tried to use them. Moments after landing, she began to run across the bridge.
"She's getting away!" Al shouts.
"Oh no she isn't, not with my watch!" I shout as I begin running, a series of columns forming with each footstep the moment my leg swung off the edge of the pathway we'd been following. As the columns of earth carried us toward my target, she finished crossing the bridge and began to flee at full speed, making huge leaps frequently. Once reaching the passage she'd entered, I smiled as I created a 100 foot tall wall of stone, smooth as a marble counter-top to halt her retreat.
"I'd like my watch back" I say as I approach her, blue discharges of alchemic energy surging around my body from using my remote transmutation power.
"That was awesome, how'd you do that mister?" the girl asks with excitement.
"I'm an alchemist, want more!" I ask as I cause the ground all around me to form into stone hands, sending each one to grab at her.
Effortlessly, she dodged them all, weaving and flipping around their grasp like it was a game.
"Wow, so cool!" she says as she does a backflip to evade the last one. Growling, I kept pursuing her, nodding for Al to circle around and be ready.
"Quit moving around!" I snap, hoping she'd fall for my act.
"Whats the matter, can't catch a little girl?" she taunts, causing me to almost forget the need to hide my abilities and try to capture her with skills that weren't readily questioned. I quickly regained my cool and slowly followed her, making sure I didn't use my superspeed by accident. As she turned the corner, Al had the trap ready.
"I've been waiting for you" he says as he crosses his hands, activating the transmutation circle he'd drawn. In moments, a large cage was formed around her from the earth below.
"Nicely done Al" Winry comments as we close in on the girl.
"Now, why don't you hand it over? My watch-"
The next instant, she swung her right leg, and cut through the bars of the stone cage with ease.
"Watch out, she's got a 1.5 Inch Carbine cannon in her left leg!" I shout, causing Winry and Al to gasp.
"A cannon in her leg?" Winry drools as she stares as Paninya's carbon blade leg.
"Hold on, how could you possibly know that if this is the first time we've ever met?" Paninya exclaims as she leaps up onto the remains of the cage and aims her left leg at Alphonse.
"Al, watch out!" I shout, hoping he'd react fast enough that I didn't have to use my powers to save him.
"Gotcha!" Envy shouts as he leaps up from under the ground in the cage to grab at Paninya, his black uniform covered in dirt. However he just barely missed, and she began to run down the canyon away from us once more. Damn it, that backup plan was supposed to work.
"Come back here girl, that kid needs his watch so he can access his bank funds, otherwise we can't go to Dublith on the next train out!" Envy snaps as he follows her.
"Can you stop calling me a kid!" I shout as I follow the two.
"Brother, wait" Al shouts as he follows me, Winry quickly snapped out of it and began to follow us too. After a few thousand feet, I saw that the pathway we were following was about to fork into 4 different directions, and each of those forked off too. Knowing I'd have to potentially expose myself if I allowed her to get into this maze, I decided I'd just block off all the new exit routes she'd planned to use. Using my remote alchemy once again, giant walls with millions of needle sized spines jutting out rose from the ground at the entrances, making sure she'd be unable to try and kick-jump her way past us. Gasping, the girl realized her alternate escape route had been cut off and whipped around, zipping right past us through an opening Winry had left in our formation. Once again, we began to near Dominic's house, this time coming from the opposite direction we'd arrived from as Paninya attempted to outrun us.
"Stop running right now, you're only making it worse for yourself!" I shout as we begin to lose ground in our pursuit; damn I hated having to hold back and appear human.
"No way, why don't we see if you saps can catch me!" she counters as she keeps going.
"Ed, make a catapult" Envy snarls.
"What, why?" I argue, not getting at his logic.
"To launch me, she's too fast for me to chase after without losing my illusion of normalcy, but she probably won't question a catapult, that can be done with well trained athletes, so do it and shoot me just ahead of her so I can grab the little wench" Envy explains with a smirk.
"Oh I get it, yeah, that's a good plan" I reply as I smirk back and form the catapult from stone. Jumping onto the palm of the hand shaped scope, I released the tension spring and Envy shot straight over Paninya, who realized too late what we'd been plotting, allowing Envy to land right before her and grab her by the arms.
"HA! I got you now you selfish pissant!" Envy laughs as he gets up in her face.
"EW! Let go of me you smelly old man!" she screams as she struggles against his grip.
"Its no use, I'm stronger than 10 men put together" Envy says confidently. I smiled, impressed at the ingenuity of my "nephew". However, suddenly Paninya began to chuckle humorously.
"That still only makes you a man" she says with a wicked grin as she raises her left leg right at his head, causing us all to gasp in shock.
"Wait, Paninya, DON'T!" I scream, hoping she'd listen to reason.
I was rewarded with the sound of her cannon sounding off right through Envy's skull, splattering everything within 10 feet with copious levels of blood, his grip on her arms going limp as he "dies", allowing her to do a backflip away from our fallen friend.
"YOU MONSTER, HOW COULD YOU KILL AN INNOCENT OLD MAN!" Al screams indignantly, while Winry watched with shock, her horror of course being real as she didn't seem to remember how Homunculi can regenerate.
"Old man huh, moving the way he did?" she replies sarcastically. Moments later, Envy's head began to discharge with red alchemic energy, the bone and tissue reforming rapidly.
"(Groan) You bitch, that really hurt!" Envy screams as he reforms his elderly disguise.
"Old man my ass, he's some kind of gross, ugly ass monster!" Paninya yells as she holds her right leg up, her blade at the ready.
"Ugly? UGLY!" Envy bellows, as he begins to shift back to his default human form with the mane of spine like dreadlocks, causing Paninya to gasp.
"That's it! I'm through hiding what I' am, you're too annoying and I've had it!" Envy roars as begins to change. In a matter of moments, his true form exploded forth in a surge of flesh as he became the grotesque lizard like beast once again. Roaring loudly, Paninya became frozen with horror as the faces sprouted from all over his skin.
"So you think of me as an ugly monster do you? Well take a good look, you got just what you asked for tiny!" Envy's booming, echoing voice shouts as he stares down the now tiny Paninya. Quickly snapping out of her paralyzing terror, Paninya raised her left leg and aimed the cannon at Envy's head again.
However, using his large extendable tongue, Envy shot it out like a Chameleon's and struck Paninya on the leg she was using to balance herself, causing the cannon to swerve in an arc as the direction of her body was spun around 180 degrees. Losing her stable stance, the cannon accidentally fired as she stumbled to keep her balance, the recoil from the blast knocking her on her ass due to the lack of sure footing she needed when shooting it. Just as the cannon fired, I realized its trajectory.
IT WAS HEADED STRAIGHT FOR WINRY!
"Winry, NOOOOOOO!" I scream as the world slows down, my Saiyan senses and reaction time kicking in instinctively to save the woman I loved. Moving with inhuman speed, I came between her and the explosive shell. To my superhuman perception, it was like the speed of the carbine shell was the super slow-motion replay of a highly advanced image converter device, and I was a photon, appearing in its path with yards to spare. Reaching my right hand out, I grabbed the projectile with ease, the sound of the object's suddenly deceleration against my hand causing a thunderous smack.
Paninya
After the cannon discharged right toward the girl, I tried to scream, but found it was caught in my throat. When I finally found I was able to, I saw an even more disturbing sight and once again could not make a sound. There, standing infront of the girl with his hand outstretched, he held the shell from my cannon, he had caught it in mid-flight!
"No way…that stuff with alchemy was one thing, but…that's just impossible" I say weakly, unable to move my legs I was in such shock. That soon didn't matter as one of the giant hands of the talking lizard monster slammed down, pinning me to the ground with my head sticking out between the space of its thumb and index finger.
"Now you'll stay down" it says with a low growl, the head lowering down to my level as it said it. Then, using its huge tongue, it somehow made it thinner, then snaked its way into my pant pocket and fished out the watch I'd taken from the blonde boy.
"Hey Fullmetal, catch" the creature says as he flicks his tongue, tossing the watch right into the boy's open left hand.
"Thanks Envy, but did you have to use your tongue?" he asks as he shakes off some saliva.
"Hey, it was the best I could think of on such short notice, I didn't exactly anticipate having to use this hulking form today" the creature they called Envy replies with annoyance.
"Alright, fair enough, so what should we do with her?" the short blonde kid asks as he walks toward me, standing over me…still holding the undetonated shell!
"AAAAHHHH! Dude, that's live ammunition, it could blow!" I explain as I scream bloody murder, the damn thing was less than 2 feet from my face!
"Relax, I transmuted the powder into harmless mineral compounds like those in the soil" he retorts as he holds the shell up to my face and shakes it, causing a rustling sound to come from inside.
"Its full of rocks, like your head" the boy continues as he begins to clench the hand containing the shell into a fist, slowly crushing the metal like a piece of aluminum foil! After reducing it to the size of a golf ball, he flipped his palm to the side and dropped it casually, as if the feat he'd just accomplished was easy.
"Alright, now back to what we should do to her; you think we should call the military on her?" the blonde boy says as he rubs his chin. I felt nervous now, would I really be arrested?
"Awww, we're gonna let her off that easy Edward?" the green monster asks with disappointment, as though hoping for more.
"Well, what did you have in mind Envy?" Edward continues, looking up at the creature as he waited on an answer.
"Well, I have a few; one, we could rough her up, just a little" Envy says with anticipation.
"I wouldn't be opposed to that, a few blows to the head might get her thinking in the right direction" Edward replies as he cracks his knuckles, causing Envy to laugh a little.
"Two, we slowly rip her legs off and destroy them, making sure she feels every bit of pain as the artificial nerves are torn from their housing units" Envy continues, and I swore I could feel a rock drop into my stomach as I saw the gleam in the monster's eye.
"No, that's overkill, she just stole my watch Envy, its not like she-"
"Or three, we could transmute her into an "ingredient" for me" the beast interrupts with a wicked laugh. I didn't know what that meant really, but I had a gut feeling it was the worst thing that could be done to me, and so I gulped loudly.
"That had better be a joke Envy! You know that's completely out of the question, so if you're relapsing, remember what I said to you back at Eastern Command…" Edward screams as he holds up a finger, his tone filled with anger and a subtle but intense warning.
"I'm sorry! Remember, there are a lot of voices in my head, I sometimes think they attempt to try and have me make huge fuck-ups so I can get my comeuppance or something" Envy sighs, his tone having changed to a sorrowful, regretful one.
"Ok, good to know you're not reverting back into a real monster, but we're gonna be getting you some training to resist that so you don't pose such a risk to innocent people; now as for you Paninya, his first idea I do agree with, so don't bother trying to resist, it will only make your punishment more painful" Edward says as he holds up his right fist and prepares to strike me.
"(Gun cocks) HEY YOU BRATS, WHATS THE BIG IDEA WITH…(Gasp) MONSTER!" Dominic shouts, having burst from the door with his shotgun.
"WAIT! I'm not really a monster" Envy shouts, his form suddenly shrinking back to the teenage like visage except for the arm he was using to restrain me.
"Mr. Dominic, please, we're not trying to do anything wrong; Paninya here stole my friend Edward's Silver Watch, his proof of being a State Alchemist, we had to get it back, and she had an accident and almost shot me with her leg cannon" the girl says defensively.
"Paninya, please tell me this isn't true, tell me you didn't try to steal from a State Alchemist" Dominic groans as he lowers his gun.
"Its true, I did; but the blonde shrimp has a secret, do you know what he did? He like, moved instantly from yards away, and blocked the path of my misfired shell, by catching it! Then he crumpled the damn thing like a newspaper, WITH HIS BARE HAND!" I shout, causing Dominic to sigh.
"Ok, clearly something very strange is going on here, and quite obviously highly secretive" Dominic says as he turns his back to us and starts to head back inside. Rotating just his head, he added, "Come on inside and we can discuss things in a civil manner"
Instantly, the hand around me shrank back into Envy, and he rushed inside, the rest of us quickly followed, I was eager to know exactly what was going on.