"You're pretty fast for a guy so big. That's good or else it wouldn't be any fun for me!"
"Who are you?!" Al demanded.
"I'm number 66. That's just my work name, though. I'll dismantle you neatly." Al got into a ready stance. "So go ahead and wail!"
Alphonse was currently fighting Barry the Chopper outside the fifth laboratory while Edward faces Slicer the Homicide inside. They were strictly told not to come here by Major Armstrong, but they had to figure out what Doctor Marcoh meant by 'the truth hidden within the truth'. In order to do that, they had to investigate the making of a Philosopher's Stone at that laboratory.
"I'll tell you everything as a parting gift, boy." Slicer was saying to Ed, his armoured head separated from his armoured body. Ed had blood on the side of his face and a small gash on his left shoulder. He sat on the floor, leaning against a pillar. He held his side with his right arm, listening to every word Slicer had to say. "The one who created the Philosopher's Stone and told us to guard this place is—"
At that moment, several thin sharp blades shot out of the entranceway. Two stabbed Slicer's head.
Ed gasped as Lust revealed herself and smiled, "That was close. You can't be talking about things like that, 48." she said as she brought the helmet to her hand, Envy appearing beside her.
"Huh? What's the Fullmetal runt doing here?" Envy grinned evilly.
"What a troublesome child. How did you find out about this place?"
Lust sliced the helmet in half as Envy stabbed the blood rune multiple times on the armored body as it yelled for it's brother. "You're so annoying, dumbass! You guys were about to kill a precious sacrifice." Envy continued to lecture and stab him as Ed grew angry.
He began questioning them about what Envy just said, but all Envy did was provoke him by making fun of his size. Ed tried to fight until his automail arm stopped working, the cause being a forgotten screw in the shoulder by Winry the last time they saw her.
This gave Envy the perfect opportunity to knee the golden haired boy in the gut and hold him by his hair before dropping him to the floor.
Ed grunted on the floor. Lust reminded Envy that the golden haired boy was being kept alive as she decided to burn the laboratory down to prevent anyone from finding it ever again.
Outside, Al continued to fight Barry the Chopper. His explanation of how Al might not have been human in the first place was causing him to question his memories as a child and even his brother. These dark thoughts allowed his movements to slow.
Barry had gotten Al to his knees and he lifted his butcher knife above his head to slice the youngest Elric.
But then, the sound of metal making contact with metal could be heard as the knife was knocked to the ground.
"Huh?!" Barry was clearly confused as he stared at his empty hand.
Al looked to his left to see who had just saved him. He expected to see his brother or even Denny Brosh or Maria Ross, their current escorts. He certainly didn't expect to see three cloaked alchemists, each wearing a cloak of a different colour. The one in front, who Al assumed was the one who knocked Barry's knife away, wore a dark blue cloak. The other two had a dark grey cloak and dulled red cloak. The three each had their hoods up, creating a shadow to cover the top halves of their faces. Even though their faces couldn't be seen, their body types gave away if they were male or female. The one with the blue cloak being male and the ones with the grey and red cloaks being female.
Al assumed they were alchemists when he saw the blue crackling light coming out of a transmutation circle on the ground by the blue cloaked alchemist, making a weapon and readying it in a matter of seconds. The grey cloaked alchemist doing the exact same thing, but the red cloak just got into a battle ready position.
"This isn't good..." Barry rubbed the back of his neck.
"Wh-who are you?" Al asked. Even though one of them just probably saved his life, they were still suspicious figures.
Just as the grey cloaked alchemist was about to respond, the ground and building began to shake, easily wavering everyone's balance. "We're on your side!" she shouted over the noise. "That's all you need to know."
The building was starting to collapse.
"The other one must be inside!" said the blue cloaked male, his voice deep. "Raven!"
"Right!" The red cloaked female known as Raven nodded as she started running towards the falling building. She strategically moved around falling debris. She slammed her hands together, using alchemy to destroy a particularly large piece of debris that was blocking her path. She was out of sight within no more than a few seconds. Alphonse noted that her speed was amazing.
Barry began to run away from the unravelling chaos, but the one cloaked in grey went after him.
Inside, Raven used her speed to dodge more falling debris. Following the sound of a laughter that was familiar to her, she came across an almost empty room. She noticed a young golden haired boy faced down in the middle of the floor unconscious, so she couldn't see his face. She assumed he was the Fullmetal Alchemist she's been hearing so much about.
She was halfway to the boy when she noticed two figures in the corner of the room. "You," Raven said through gritted teeth, venom in her voice. It was then that the girl realized the familiar laughter she heard came from Envy.
"We knew you three would show up." Envy smirked.
"Well we'd love to stay and chat but I'm afraid we don't have the time right now." Lust said in her usual calm voice that sent shivers down Raven's spine.
She was about to advance towards them but another pillar fell in front of her, effectively blocking her path and reminding her of the Fullmetal boy.
Without looking at his face which was covered by his bangs, she picked up the unconscious boy and threw him over her shoulder, being careful of his injuries.
"Brother! Brother!" Al yelled from outside. But before he could start advancing toward the collapsing laboratory the blue cloaked male grabbed his arm. "She'll get him out of there. I promise." he said trying to reassure him.
Despite deeming them as suspicious figures moments ago, Al had a strange feeling that he could trust these alchemists. But he was questioning his entire life right now and wasn't quite sure. "But—" he began but was cut off by the arrival of Sergeant Brosh and Lieutenant Ross.
"Alphonse!" Ross said as she and Brosh ran up to the two.
Before anyone could get another word out, Raven walked out of the collapsing building with Ed over her shoulder. "Brother!" Al yelled as he ran up to them.
Raven set him on the ground, his face still covered by his bangs. "He'll be alright, he just lost a lot of blood. Get him to the hospital, and quick."
Ross nodded firmly. "Wait, who are you three?" Al questioned.
"We need to catch up with Azure." said the blue cloaked alchemist who stood behind Brosh. He was referring to their grey cloaked companion.
Raven nodded and in the blink of an eye they were gone, leaving Al's question unanswered.
Ed laid in a hospital room with a bandage wrapped around his head. Sergeant Brosh and Lieutenant Ross, who were standing at his bedside, just finished scolding him about how he and Al snuck out last night to investigate the fifth laboratory.
"Oh... now that I think about it, where's, Al?"
"I scolded him with a fist earlier." Brosh said, anime crying and holding up his throbbing red hand for Ed to see.
Ed began to laugh, but that seemed to hurt.
At that moment, Al walked in. For obvious reasons, a facial expression could not be read, but he seemed to be in a gloomy state.
"Hey, Al." Ed said with a small smile, oblivious to his brother's state.
Al tried to shake off the depressing feeling as he turned to Brosh and Ross. "Who were those three alchemists last night?" he asked.
"Huh?" They said simultaneously. Ed wasn't conscious at the time they showed up, but he was told of what happened.
"Those cloaked alchemists," he said. "One of them saved Brother's life. And you both seemed to trust them right away."
Ross sighed, "I guess you two don't know about them then." Ed and Al exchanged a confused glance.
"Detailed information about them is classified, but they are quite known for what they do. Although, some people just say that they're just rumors and don't actually exist. They haven't been working as a group for very long and it's only temporary, which makes their quick reputation that much more impressive. You've really never heard of them?" Ross asked.
Ed and Al shook their heads, so Ross continued to explain, "Those three temporarily work for the military. They're powerful alchemists who have been through certain situations— and I'm telling you right now that I have no idea what those situations are. They fight to protect the lives of others and wear cloaks for reasons related to those 'certain situations', or so I'm told. An obvious explanation would be to conceal their identities."
"Why was their group formed?" Ed asked.
"Each of them has a special skill set required for missions given to them by Fuhrer King Bradley himself." Brosh explained. "Although," he lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned in closer. "I did hear Colonel Mustang talking about them once to Lieutenant Hawkeye. And I overheard that there was supposed to be a fourth member, but he lost life before the Fuhrer could even assemble the team."
"That's just a rumor." Ross scolded him for eavesdropping on the Colonel's conversation.
"So are the Cloaked Alchemists," he countered. "But we know for a fact that they're real."
"Anyway," Ross continued, trying to ignore her partner. "In case you were wondering, the one with the blue cloak is known as Ash, the grey one is Azure and the one with the red cloak is Raven. But of course, those are just cover names. They do wear cloaks for a reason." she shrugged.
Ed put a hand on his chin, his face now serious, processing the information he was just given. "So these 'Cloaked Alchemists' are really skilled, right?" he asked for confirmation.
The Sergeant and Lieutenant both nodded. "Would you happen to know if they ever needed to collect intel for some of their missions?"
"It's very likely." Brosh answered, and Ross nodded in agreement.
"I wonder if they know anything about the Philosopher's Stone." Ed thought out loud. It was then that he suddenly remembered his broken automail, knowing that he'd have to call and face an angry Winry. His face went from serious to taking on a nervous, almost comical, look to those around him.