Coming up with and agreeing on an actual plan to get to and rescue their respective people was no simple feat. The first thing they did was go over the map Selim had roughly drawn of each floor of the hotel. The bottom two floors had three halls the length of the building—one on the east and west sides each, and one down the center. Each hallway was lined on both sides with rooms. On each end of the building, another hallway connected the three length-wise halls to form two large, rectangles.
The bottom most lobby, located on the east side of the hotel, had been built for elegance. Large and opulent, it encompassed space on the first and second floors. The FFO had chosen two groups of two to patrol these halls, apparently having decided that their plan would work the best with a fair amount of 'sentries' situated in the main lobby (not in plain sight of the door). They also had a small group of three people guarding the outside doors. The basement had let them into the center hall before they'd taken a room.
The next two floors up each had just two hallways the length of the building lined with rooms (except for the small, lavishly furnished common rooms serving as sitting rooms stacked over the larger lobby of the first and second floor) and one smaller hallway connecting both of the longer passages together. The Fifth floor was the same size as the two below it, but instead of the smaller, more mundane rooms, those on the top floor were larger and each connected to the outside wall on the west side of the hotel, and most of them had balconies as well.
Most of the sentries had been concentrated on the third and fifth floors as they seemed to not want to take any chances with the gathered hostages.
After establishing all of this information, the group had brainstormed for a good 20 minutes, but almost all the suggestions had serious flaws or unknowns and were usually shot down by the others, although they did set a few ideas aside as having some potential. The three former FFO members were the main participants in the debate. Selim rarely voiced his thoughts, and usually only when asked.
Their situation boiled down to the fact that Selim didn't have the power to take more than two or three people out at once unless he ate someone (which they strictly forbade, much to his consternation) or wanted to severely limit his future options and power. However, he was positive he could take out every enemy in the building if he limited the number of people he attacked at once, even if it would exhaust him severely.
Still, it was how they would accomplish their task that no one could agree on. If they tried to lure members and guards off one or two at a time to deal with, they had no doubt the FFO would catch on. Members and hostages alike would start to notice if people went off and didn't come back. Their best bet was to take out the opposition quickly and quietly while not giving them a chance or reason to report in. Selim had seen them using their radios on a fairly regular basis when he'd been scoping out the building, although they seemed to contact each other on a need-to basis only. Really, they were lucky they hadn't been caught for taking the people in the basement out. It was also only a matter of time before those members' missing status would be noticed. Selim guessed that the men had been placed to be glorified messengers; in a position to contact people if either the terrorists in the hotel or guarding the entrance to the secret tunnel needed something or other, but not someone either side would check in with regularly.
That particular stroke of luck seemed to fill their quota for the day because they couldn't seem to catch another break. Selim had been quick to inform them that the stair cases were regularly patrolled and the elevators had guards on the first, third and fifth floors, both those for service and those for guests. The outside of the building was being watched by the government—currently unfriendly towards if not outright enemies of everyone in their little group—so they couldn't climb up the exterior moldings or use a fire escape.
On top of that, no one could safely impersonate a guard or patrolman for an extended length of time either. Bonnie and Marlin were well known for having left the group according to Janet, and there was no way of telling if word of Janet's own defection/abandonment had spread as well without potentially showing too much of their hand. Selim would be the ideal person to try such an endeavor, but there was also no telling if he, as a completely anonymous person, would be recognized for an infiltrator or not. They knew they'd have to impersonate someone at some point, but they didn't know if they'd have to take care of anyone who saw them or if they could pass by unseen. They were leaning towards the latter, which just made their self-appointed tasks all the more difficult.
After several minutes, the four of them fell into silence as they contemplated their rather limited options.
Selim had taken to studying the ventilation systems, but had already dismissed them as means to get through the building. They were far too small for anyone of their group to fit comfortably, and that included him. There was no way to tell if the pipes would get smaller or larger elsewhere and he had no particular urge to squeeze himself into an even tighter darkness than the stupid tunnel they'd used to get into the hotel.
He had one final option that he was considering, although he hadn't voiced it yet. Still, it seemed viable, if potentially messy, and he had no doubt he could do it easily. They could get to the third floor, check to see if anyone on guard was Janet's idiot brother, and continue on up as necessary. The idea had merit.
"So what do we do?" Janet asked quietly.
Selim took that as his cue. "We go through the ceiling," he said.
Everyone turned to look at him blankly.
"What?" Bonnie asked.
Selim pointed up, his expression dry. "The ceiling. I can carve a hole quietly enough, and if we put it right over the bed, we shouldn't run into more than the occasional electric wire."
"Go through the roof…?" Janet asked, rather dumbly in Selim's opinion.
The homunculus rolled his eyes. "Seeing as it will be the fastest and easiest way to overcome the obstacles we have seemingly run into, yes."
The three humans turned and stared at each other for several seconds, silently asking each other if Selim's unorthodox solution really did solve most if not all of their problems. The ceilings were low enough that it wouldn't be too difficult to crawl up and through whatever hole he made and if anyone of them did have a problem, they could take what time they needed to help that person up.
"Well that's…different," Marlin said slowly. Then he seemed to accept it as he shrugged and stood. "Sounds fine to me."
"How can you knock a hole in the roof quietly enough so no one will hear you?" Janet asked skeptically. "I don't think any of us are alchemists."
Selim stared at her with a dead-panned expression that quite nicely portrayed his annoyance as he commanded his shadows to carve a perfect circle above the bed without letting so much as a grain of rubble fall. He then lowered the layers of wood, carpet, insulation and sheetrock to the ground, only having made the barest of noises.
Janet looked shocked, Marlin whistled his own surprised appreciation and even Bonnie seemed impressed, although she hid it well. Selim couldn't help but smirk a little. They really made showing his superiority too easy sometimes.
He did have to use his shadows to swing himself up and into the hole. Janet was the shortest person there but Selim wasn't more than an inch taller than her. Marlin would undoubtedly help the girl, but Selim didn't want to have to stoop any lower than he already had and was determined to get to the next floor on his own.
There was a bed directly over Selim when he poked his head up and through the floor. He had to get his shadows to move it before he could lever himself up and onto the carpet, but the work necessary really was only minimal.
A few seconds later, Bonnie joined him, and then Janet and finally Marlin. By the time all four of them had gotten into the second room, Selim had already carved a hole in that ceiling and was in the process of pushing the bed back into place. They then repeated their actions of getting to the next floor.
Selim had already carved the third hole leading to the fourth floor when Janet spoke up uncertainly.
"Wait, what about the hostages on this floor?"
"What about them?" Selim asked.
"My brother could be out there!"
The homunculus paused and turned to stare at the girl. "And what do you suggest we do?"
"Go out there and see!"
Selim took a deep, calming breath. Why had he agreed to let these people come again?
Annoyed, he turned to glance at Marlin and Bonnie who seemed to interpret his 'please deal with the stupid person because I don't have the patience' look because Marlin stepped towards Janet.
"The problem is, if we just walk out, we'll be in plain view of most of the guards."
"So we go through the walls like we're going through the ceilings!"
"And then what? Jump out and surprise them?" Selim asked acidly. "Any serious action on our part will put the hostages on the top floor in danger, and that will undermine my reason for coming on this ridiculous 'rescue mission'."
"So you're saying your hostage is more important than my brother?!" Janet hissed.
"As humans go," Selim shot back.
"Enough!" Marlin said firmly. He hadn't raised his voice much, but he got their attention. Funnily enough, Bonnie seemed to find the whole situation amusing if a bit annoying as she seemed happy enough to sit back and watch the other three argue.
"Look," the older man turned to Selim, "the only reason Janet's here is to save her brother. You agreed to that when you let her come. So it's only fair that we at least try to see if Barton's out there."
Selim knew he looked like he'd swallowed something sour, but he conceded the point. "Very well. What do you suggest?"
"You said that there are more hostages but fewer guards on this level than the top floor, right?" Selim nodded, beginning to see where Marlin was taking this. "How many can you take out at once and still have enough energy left over for your own plan with the upper level hostages?"
The homunculus regarded the man with a new appreciation for a few moments before answering. "Five, maybe six."
"How many did you see out there?"
Selim closed his eyes and tried to remember. "Eight guards but they also have fairly regular patrols in pairs."
"Can you predict when the patrols will come by?"
A small smile found its way onto Selim's face. "Yes."
"And they'll come by here, right?" Again Selim nodded in affirmation.
"By the time they pass this room, they will have passed the main group of hostages as well."
"Lucky us," Marlin grinned, his smile just a bit feral. "Well then, let's grab them one group at a time."
"Then once we take the patrols out," Janet said as she caught on, "we'll be able to sneak up on them! Just walk up like we're on patrol ourselves. Of course we'll need some disguises but that shouldn't be too difficult. We already have some of the weapons they carried…"
"Then we can smuggle the hostages out through here. Just get them out the way we came in," Marlin said with a nod, his grin growing. "And we don't have to worry too much about someone getting out an alarm if we do it right. We may need a distraction for when we grab the patrols though. The guards will be able to see us if we're not careful, right?"
"Leave that to me," Selim said as he sent his shadows out. It seemed they were in luck because a patrol was on its way down the hall at that very moment. It would take them more than a couple of minutes to get to the end of the hall near the room they were in, but they could put their plan into motion almost immediately. Selim couldn't help but feel relieved. The last thing he wanted to be was cooped up in a tiny room with annoying humans fraying at his nerves. He'd already had plenty of that, thank you very much.
He let the others know about the approaching couple and told them to open the door as quietly as they could. They did so, hardly making a noise and not letting the heavy oak swing in more than a crack. Selim had already begun to wind his shadows up their legs and body, and at just the right moment, he caused his third tendril of shadow to race down the hall and prod a hostage sharply, causing them to cry out. It had the affect of drawing the guard's attentions and the FFO members approached the woman Selim had targeted. Even the patrols turned, giving the people in the room ample opportunity to open the door, leap out and grab the men. Marlin placed a hand over one of the men's mouths and Selim let the shadows on that man fall immediately, instead focusing on strapping a shadow around the other man's mouth and dragging him in.
After some scuffling, they managed to incapacitate the men by tying them up with a bed sheet and gagging them with washcloths Janet and Bonnie had found in the bathroom. Between Marlin's size and Selim's shadows, neither one of the men really had a chance to thrash much.
"We may need more bed sheets…or rope or something," Bonnie muttered as she finished tying one of the men up.
Selim shrugged and stripped the bed sheets from the room below. He also found a few spares in the closet. Meanwhile, he'd been monitoring the situation with the hostages, and while the guards had scared the woman who he'd prodded, they ultimately left her alone, and they hadn't seen the abduction of their two comrades.
Perfect.
It took almost ten minutes for the next patrol to come by. In that time, Selim had put forth the idea that they could easily sneak out and take care of the stairwell guards on this level before they approached the hostage group. That way they had a much reduced chance of anyone hearing if something went wrong with the main concentration of FFO members. They also figured that they should take the group on this floor out before they attempted anything with the fifth floor whether they caught Janet's brother in the patrols or not.
"The less we have to worry about reinforcements or other hostages dying, the better," Marlin said.
Selim rolled his eyes and conceded with a wave of his hand as the other one was on the doorknob as he crouched, getting ready to swing the heavy wood in so Marlin could grab the guards. "Fine whatever. Get ready…go for the one on the left…"
He chose a different person to prod this time, but it had much the same effect. No one noticed the renegade group grabbing the FFO members on patrol, nor did they see Selim and Janet rushed out and around the corner to take the patrol's place.
At the end of the hall they saw the guards near the stairwell look up to them as they appeared and nodded at them. Selim nodded back and they kept walking, calmly striding towards them. He'd proposed the idea of approaching the men so he would be closer to them when he incapacitated them as it would use as little power as possible, and he had begun to look for ways to save even the smallest amount of energy. A few minutes later, Selim and Janet were rushing back to the room with the two men dragging behind them, both tied in Selim's shadows. There had been an elevator by those stairs, and there would be in the opposite corner as well, but the main elevator would be in the lobby area where the hostages were. Apparently they'd figured that the guards for the stairs would be good enough for the minor elevators as well and the larger group was right by the elevator there. All the better for Selim and his little group.
It simply took another prod at a hostage for another distraction to take place, allowing Selim, Janet and their hostages back into the room.
By this point, Selim had really begun to feel the drain on his energy and was more than grateful when he sat down on the edge of one of the beds for a moment, releasing the other two men to Bonnie and Marlin who took care of them in short order.
"Are you alright?" Janet asked Selim, sounding torn between smug and worried.
"Fine," he responded. "Just a little hungry…"
"There's a refrigerator over there," she said, pointing to a corner. Selim blinked and turned around wondering how he could have missed something like that, and he did indeed see a miniature refrigerator in the room. It had been a fairly recent invention and having something like that in the hotel room spoke volumes of the high-class quality the owners had gone for.
There wasn't much in the fridge, just a few leftovers that the people staying in the room would probably have given to their dog or something, but even that small portion helped Selim immensely. His shadows had the entire thing completely cleaned out in seconds.
"Just a little hungry?" Marlin asked, a small (if slightly uncomfortable) grin on his face.
"You try and control shadows the way I do and see how well you fare," Selim muttered as he finished devouring the food, leaving only plates behind. Thanks to Gluttony, he could even digest the bones, breaking them into energy much more quickly than he would have been able to otherwise. He wondered if he could eat anything else that wouldn't cause a fuss at the moment. Did it have to be organic? He distinctly remembered Gluttony eating a great deal of non-organic things…
"The next patrol should be by soon," Bonnie said, breaking through Selim's thoughts.
"It's the last one, right?" Marlin asked Selim, who nodded. "Then we can take care of the other staircase and finish on this floor."
"Sounds good," Janet said.
Selim was surprised at just how much better he felt with food in him. He realized that he hadn't actually had anything to eat since before his little train ride with the Elrics. And with half of him being Gluttony…no wonder he'd been on the verge of collapse so much sooner than he'd expected. As Pride, he'd never really had to eat to survive. He wasn't sure he liked the connotation but didn't have time for his pathetic internal debate at the moment and so pushed the thought aside.
"Are they coming?" Marlin asked from where he crouched by the door. Selim blinked at him for a moment before realizing he was talking about the patrol and he immediately sent his shadows out. Upon doing so, he realized the patrol had almost reached their room.
"Take the left again," Selim said as he too hurried over to the entrance. "They're almost here…"
He sent a shadow rushing down to make a distraction for the hostage guards once again. This time, he simply went for the window and knocked on it with his shadow. They had lowered the drapes so no one could see in so they shouldn't be able to notice his shadow. It was easier than choosing a hostage he hadn't already targeted, and he suspected that they were getting used to the hostages crying out anyway.
It worked well enough as a distraction and they grabbed the last group walking by without anyone seeing. Selim was really appreciating their luck so far, but having everything work out so well just seemed…wrong. It put his nerves on edge.
Once they had finished restraining their most recent hostages, Selim and Janet hurried down the hall in silence heading towards the final set of guards. It only took a few minutes to take them out without any fuss.
The room was getting rather full of FFO members, and unfortunately, none of them had been Barton. Bonnie had stuffed two into the closet, a few into the bathroom, and then just stuck the others at random intervals near the walls, carefully unplugging any nearby chords and moving anything they could even remotely somehow use to get themselves free.
Selim had to admit, they were good.
Once they'd returned after clearing the final duo of guards, Marlin outlined what they needed to do to surround the guards in the lobby. Bonnie had stripped one of the men of their jacket and pants and was now wearing that along with a hat she'd gotten from one of the others. She'd even taken off her sunglasses as they made her look more suspicious than ever. She rather effectively looked like a completely different person. Marlin had wrapped her scarf around his neck and had taken to wearing her glasses. It wasn't perfect, but it would work to buy them a few minutes.
They would run around to the other side and pose as a patrol. Then Selim and Janet would come from the opposite end and comment that they may have found another guest who had somehow been able to remain hidden and ask for help. Bonnie and Marlin would take as many as three quietly while Selim used his shadows to freeze the other guards in the room in place.
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Marlin asked one final time as he and Bonnie made to leave.
"Yes," Selim said with a roll of his eyes. "Now go."
This time he prodded one of the guard's ankles as a distraction. With any luck, they'd think it was a mouse or something. Humans were always looking for a good excuse for things they couldn't explain.
Selim watched Bonnie and Marlin turn the corner at the other end of the hall, walking far more calmly than just running the length of the hotel would suggest. They didn't even look like they were breathing heavily. The guards had glanced over at them when they'd appeared and Selim took the time to drag Janet out the door. They waited for a few seconds before they hurried towards the guards, who must have noticed them coming as the FFO members they could see turned their attention to Selim and Janet, either ignoring Marlin and Bonnie or they hadn't seen them yet.
"What's wrong?" one woman, probably the leader of this particular group, asked as they rushed up.
"We heard something in one of the rooms," Selim said in a rush. It wasn't easy for him to focus on the words and sneak thin lines of his shadows out to wrap around the guards in the room, but he did it. They hadn't wanted to risk Janet talking and being recognized. "We figured we should check in before we did anything."
The woman looked a little skeptical but reached for her radio. As she did so, Bonnie swept her feet out from under her and had somehow knocked her out within a few seconds.
The hostages, jumpy as they were, had let out some gasps and a few quiet shrieks, thankfully nothing had been loud enough as of yet that anyone on another floor would hear.
Behind Bonnie, Marlin held the other guy as he struggled and Selim gritted his teeth. "I've got the rest of them, but hurry."
"Barton!" Janet exclaimed, looking to one of the other guards in the room.
Selim almost melted in relief. He wouldn't have to put up with the frustrating girl anymore.
Bonnie stood and held her hands out towards the hostages. "Please calm down," she said firmly. "Yes we're here to rescue you and no," she said that just a little louder as people began to let out cries of relief, "you still can't make any noise. There's another group of hostages and there are still FFO members in the building who would gladly take pot-shots at you. If you want to live, you will follow me, quietly and do exactly as I say, understood?"
Several people around the room nodded and while some of them were whispering quietly to their children and other hostages, they seemed to be of sound enough mind to quiet down. Apparently, the FFO had released all of the mothers of very young children or babies already, probably just because they didn't want to deal with them. It would also have put the military at ease and encouraged discussions pertaining to compromises.
"No one can run. We're going to walk very calmly and quietly down to the room at the end of the hall. We have an escape route for you, but one mistake could get all of us killed. There is a hole in the floor. We will lower people down to the next room where everyone will wait, quietly," apparently she knew about the stupidity of general masses and how idiotic humans could be. Selim found himself impressed as she continued, although he really wished she'd hurry. Holding six struggling people like that was not easy. "As in keep whispers to a minimum and if anyone starts to get loud they'll have to deal with me…or him," she pointed to Marlin who had thankfully knocked out the guy he'd grabbed before and had begun to make his way around the room to the different guards.
As if on cue, one of the former hostages spoke up. "What's holding them in place?" the woman asked, pointing to the guards uneasily.
"We have an alchemist here," Bonnie said with a shrug. "He's incapacitated them for the most part. Now, in an orderly single file, we're going to get everyone out. Remember, quiet or we'll leave you behind." With that final threat, she nodded to the first few people and began to walk quickly but calmly down the hall. Thankfully, the idiotic humans listened and followed just as quickly and quietly for the most part.
Marlin didn't skip Barton. He walked right up behind him and knocked him out with a jab to the base of his neck.
"What did you do that for?!" Janet hissed worriedly, rushing over to her brother.
"We'll get him out now, but we need him to come quietly," Marlin said without looking back as he walked up to the next person Selim was holding with his shadows, a woman whom he incapacitated the same way. Selim let her fall immediately, just as he had with everyone else. It had begun to get more difficult to control his shadows. He wasn't sure he had it in him for more than a couple more major moves like that…if he was lucky. He needed to rest for now and see if he could recover any strength, so he would wait until they'd gotten everyone out before he continued up to the fifth floor.
On the bright side, now all he had to do was focus on getting to Johan.
xXx
Mandy sat numbly in her chair in an out-of-the-way corner of the temporary headquarters the military had set up. At the moment, she really didn't know what to think. Half of her mind was in Seventh Heaven. Major General Mustang had asked for her personally to come assist with this mess (well, 'assist' was probably a little too inclusive as he just seemed to want her around to do odd jobs here and there and be a gopher for the most part but still…) not to mention she'd been able to talk (very briefly) to Edward and Alphonse Elric, two of every young alchemist's heroes! No one was going to believe her when she told her usual squad mates!
On the other hand, half of her mind was on Selim like it had been for the last two weeks…well, since she'd rescued him really. She'd figured that that had been her reason for being here, in case he showed up again, because she'd been close to him and could supposedly give insight on his current mind set. She'd been briefed on him and his…well, existence—for lack of a better word—after he'd escaped the train. She knew they'd left out a lot of details, but what she did know about him now boggled her mind.
He was an artificial being created by alchemy and had lived for 300 years. 300! Which made no sense at all whatsoever because he'd always seemed so…young and human, even in his strange maturity. And if that wasn't unbelievable enough, he'd lost all of his memories on the day of the eclipse fifteen years ago and had been 're-raised', so to speak, as a normal, human boy. Who in their right mind would do something like that? Apparently Selim's mother, but she was still having a hard time absorbing that.
Admittedly she'd been told when she'd reported in while he slept at Risembool all the way back on that third or fourth day after meeting him (and had been told in no uncertain terms to keep an eye on him and keep him away from the Elrics—which had been why she'd lied to him about them having gone to Xing) that he was dangerous and that he'd lost his memories, but it had been so hard to imagine sweet, little, annoying Selim to be anything other than a curious, cautiously rebellious teenager who needed help.
She'd been wary after that (part of the reason for the offense she'd taken at the Risembool train station) not willing to let on that she had indeed lied to him about the Elrics so as not to incur some sort of incredible wrath that he would supposedly unleash on her or whatever. She'd considered forcing him to go home, but doubted at the time that he would take well to her somehow knocking him out or incapacitating him and dragging him back to Central, especially considering what he'd just gone through. Besides, what was wrong with letting the kid learn a few of life's lessons and letting him have a mini adventure? As long as she'd kept an eye on him and kept pushing him back towards Central, she'd felt she'd been doing her job.
Then the whole fiasco in the desert on the way to Xing had happened. That had been the first time she'd been confused by him. He was supposed to be this dangerous person with some strange, special powers. She'd seen him use his shadows then…and it had really freaked her out. But then he'd used them to save her and help her, and then to save the guy on the train…. His actions hadn't meshed at all with what she'd thought a 'monster' should act like. Between his fear of the dark and his determination to find answers, she'd been unable to see anything but good in the kid. She'd even felt no small amount of indignation on his behalf when the Emperor of Xing had locked him up for no good reason.
And then they'd met Mustang…and Selim had changed. Something had happened to frighten him before his trip to Xing, which she suspected was the cause of his recklessness, but the moment he'd seen the Major General he'd gone…cold and defensive. Just before he'd gotten his memories back, she'd finally begun to glimpse the danger that he really represented. Then it had all gone to Hades in a hand basket.
The days after he'd escaped had been a blur of activity that still sent her head in circles. She'd been reprimanded by her usual commanding officer but otherwise no disciplinary action had been taken. As many people in Central had been evacuated, she'd been informed that she would not be leaving New Optain, at which point she'd been given a new barracks and had just settled in when she'd been told that Selim had been found and captured and would be coming to New Optain as a prisoner. They'd wanted her there.
The person she'd seen then hadn't been her Selim…but it hadn't been the monster Pride either. Even when he'd used her (for all intents and purposes) as a meat shield of sorts, he hadn't seemed nearly as malicious as he had been on the train. Actually he seemed to be even more confused than she was at the moment from what he'd said in the alley. And then he'd just released her. When she'd returned, her commanding officers (up to and including Mustang) had been surprised and relieved. Apparently, they hadn't expected to see her again. Thankfully, they seemed just as perplexed (if not more so) than she'd been at the turn of events. Selim had still scared her enough to send her running back to headquarters, but the idea of using lethal force with him had felt wrong then, and it felt wrong now.
A sudden silence in the room drew her from her thoughts and she looked up to see that a messenger of some sort had entered.
"What is it, Lieutenant?" General Mustang asked.
"Sir!" the man said, dropping his salute. "We have reports of liberated hostages! Apparently a small group was able to incapacitate a good number of the guards before leading the hostages to an abandoned tunnel and releasing them."
"Abandoned tunnel?" the Major General said, his voice darker than before.
"Yes, sir!"
"Do you have coordinates for the entrance to this abandoned tunnel?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Do we know who the group that infiltrated the hotel is?"
"No, sir. The hostages seem to be in agreement that their rescuers were not guests at the hotel but they didn't seem to belong to the FFO either."
The dark-haired general seemed to consider this for a moment. "Do the terrorists know about this?"
"Not that we've seen, sir."
"Very well. I will personally lead a squad to the tunnel to infiltrate the hotel. Let the current captain of the squad patrolling the perimeter of the hotel know."
"Sir, yes, sir!" The man said before turning and hurrying out of the room.
After the man had left, General Mustang turned to the Lieutenant at his side. "Inform the men here, we leave immediately. Leave a few guards behind and bring every alchemist. We don't know who or what we'll find in there and I want to be prepared."
"Yes, sir," Lt. Hawkeye said calmly before heading out of the room herself.
After she'd left, the General gave orders to the remaining people in the room, including the Elric brothers.
"Since you are no longer military, you will remain here," he said firmly to the older brother.
"Like I was going to follow you into something like that anyway," he muttered with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Sir," the younger one spoke up a little more tentatively, "are you sure you don't need help?"
"This is a military matter," General Mustang said firmly. The younger man nodded in concession and moved aside.
"Everyone else, with me," he said as he two left the room.
Mandy couldn't help her surprise, but she stood and dutifully followed him out of the room. When he'd said 'everyone else', she'd wondered if she would be an exception. Would he want her to stay here in case Selim showed up again? Apparently he thought this took precedence, though. Determined to not make a fool of herself again, she fell into step with the rest of the group of men following the Flame Alchemist.
xXx
A/N: Alright, so it's a bit wordy. Trust me, it was needed.
Shout out to Shade40 and Gamoden for their help with this chapter! I could not have done it without them!