SHONEN ALLIANCE
RE:BIRTH
OPENING THEME: RANBU NO MELODY (Bleach)
While the State Alchemists and Amestrian soldiers had thus far kept the fighting in Central from getting to out of hand, the area surrounding the city was another story. Exploding mortar shells, stomping colossi, and continuous machine gun fire had turned the city's outskirts into hell on Earth.
Upon this hell, Obelisk Force found themselves faced with the Wrath of Füher King Bradley. For an elderly soldier, the country's leader showed no signs of his age as he carved a path of death through foes that seemed to have no answer for him.
The lumbering Ancient Gear Golems were to slow to land a blow, and trying only left them vulnerable to being either blown away by mortar fire or the absurd strength of Major Alex Louise Armstrong. Meanwhile, the Ancient Gear Soldiers and Engineers who swarmed the battlefield quickly met their end to the Füher's twin blades.
Still, the numbers game was in Duel Academy's favor, and that was without even considering the danger of Fusion Planeptune's destroyer joining the fray at any moment. The situation was far from secure.
It seemed to become even more shaky when two colossal Ancient Gear Golem's appeared, towering above the modest homes of the city.
"Damn it," Hughes cursed, "we need soldiers there, now!" He ordered, indicating the new foes.
"Calm down, Lt. Colonel," Bradley ordered, spooking Hughes who hadn't noticed his approach, "that happens to be the exact area where Colonel Vine and his team were going."
"Then…" Hughes began as alchemic energy flowed around one of the giants. As Hughes watched, that Golem's metal right arm formed a blade while a stone pillar rose up alongside the second, forming a building sized sword the Golem hefted and wielded as effortlessly as one would a wooden toy sword. Taking care not to damage any homes, the Golem's quickly joined the battlefield and began an attack of their own.
Massive blades hissed through the air, giving the two ally Golems a distinct edge over the enemy counterparts. Combined with the apparent confusion being attacked by their own was sowing among Obelisk Force, the tide finally seemed to shift.
Vine, Ed, and Aliasse arrived as their Golems, joined by Amestris' forces, began to push their new advantage. Vine and Ed both had an Obelisk Duel Disc attached to their wrists.
"Third disc wasn't working," Edward admitted, "but we've got two."
"If we play our cards right, literally at this point, it should be all we need," Vine declared.
"Well, don't keep us waiting!" Hughes called, a smile showing for the first time since the attack began.
Vine nodded and drew a card from his new deck.
"Let's see how these guys like their own medicine! POLYMERIZATION! Two Ancient Gear Soldiers combine with two Ancient Gear Engineers to create CHAOS ANCIENT GEAR GIANT!" Vine roared as a colossal, mechanical monster that towered above even the Golems joined the fight. "I think I'm getting the hang of this thing."
"Doesn't hurt that ours have a few advantages over the originals!" Ed declared, clapping his hands together. A pillar shot from the ground and formed into a building sized sword the Ancient Gear Giant hefted easily.
"Well done," Bradley admitted as Amestris' new mechanical soldiers joined the attack, "now, I believe it's time we finish off this Obelisk Force."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Yuri grimaced with annoyance.
The three Ancient Gears appearing and aiding the enemy had been a surprise, and what was worse was that now they were multiplying. The Amestrian soldiers had begun taking the Duel Discs from defeated Obelisk Force members, and now his forces weren't the only one with an army of mechanical giants. This was getting out of hand.
"Damn those resourceful little bastards," he cursed, "no matter. I guess I'll just have to teach them a lesson myself!" he shouted as his Duel Disc came alive.
"Teach them ultimate despair, STARVING VENOM FUSION DRAGON!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Optimism was finally beginning to regain a hold on the soldiers of Amestris. With many of them acquiring Duel Discs of their own, Vine and Edward hadn't been the only ones with mechanical helpers for long, and with the added firepower, it was finally Obelisk Force who were on the back foot.
"Push our advantage!" Vine ordered the troops, "drive them back to wherever they…"
His Chaos Ancient Gear Giant exploded, cutting off his order. None of the Amestrian could believe what they saw.
A formidable looking purple dragon now circled above the battlefield, indiscriminately raining down destruction on those below it. Edward watched in shock and horror as one of the dragon's attacks incinerated two Obelisk Force soldiers.
"It's Yuri!" one of the Obelisk soldiers cried in despair. The dragon was causing as much confusion among Duel Academy as it was among Amestris' forces as everyone tried to avoid its wrath!
"Focus Fire! We need to knock that thing out of the sky!" Hughes ordered.
Right on cue, a high explosive shell struck the dragon and detonated, hiding it in the smoke!
"Ha, so much for that oversized lizard!" Edward shouted triumphantly.
"Fullmetal, please stop talking," Vine sighed as the smoke cleared, revealing the undamaged dragon.
"It didn't do anything!? But that was a direct hit!" Alphonse lamented.
"Take cover!" Füher Bradley ordered as Starving Venom Fusion Dragon began another indiscriminate assault. The battle that had been raging minutes before seemed almost forgotten as Amestrian and Obelisk soldiers alike sought whatever shelter they could find.
For his part, Yuri was laughing maniacally at the destruction his dragon was unleashing on the battlefield.
"I should have done this from the very beginning!" he snarked as his dragon let another rain of death fall on the battlefield, consuming worthless allies and enemies alike.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
The Amestrians' hopes of victory had now given away to complete despair as their situation grew increasingly dire. Obelisk Force had ceased its attacks, but only because now, both sides bunkered wherever they could, trying to escape the wrath of the Fusion Dragon.
Vine swore as the makeshift tourniquet he'd applied to the stump where a young soldier's leg had been attached mere minutes earlier failed to prevent the wound from bleeding through the white, cloth bandage wrapped over it in a matter of seconds. Shock and panic had the young man desperately calling out for his mother, causing an angry and broken hearted Vine to slam his fist into the wall of their makeshift shelter. He could feel blood trickling down his knuckles from gashes created by the impact, but the pain never registered.
Edward, Alphonse, Vine, and Armstrong had worked together to create the tube of stone that now protected them, Aliasse, Hughes, Bradley, and a couple dozen soldiers from the dragon's bombardment. At the entrance to the tube, Edward watched as the dragon continued its indiscriminate assault.
The battlefield was a nightmarish sight, littered with the bodies of slain Amestrian and Obelisk soldiers. Nothing they had thrown at it had managed to even slow the dragon's assault, and all they could do was cower and wait for a direct hit to end them.
Movement near their tunnel's entrance drew Edward's attention back to the ground. Against all odds, an Obelisk soldier had survived, staggering over a small mound of debris. Ed watched as their strength failed and they fell down his side of the debris pile, landing in a heap on the unforgiving ground.
The impact jarred the soldier's helmet loose, and suddenly, where seconds earlier had lay only a faceless Obelisk grunt, Edward found himself staring at a young woman with shoulder length, brown hair.
With what little strength she had left, the woman began to drag herself away from the debris, but didn't make it far before even that small amount of effort became more then she could manage.
Her green eyes glistened with desperate tears as they met Edward's. Her hand quaked with terror and despair as she reached out towards the Fullmetal Alchemist.
"Please… help me…" she sobbed.
"Vine!" Edward shouted back into the tunnel before courageously charging out of safety.
The sound of his own heartbeat was overwhelming, but wasn't enough to completely muffle the sounds of two sets of footsteps following close behind him. He reached the young woman in a matter of seconds, struggling to try to lift her back to her feet. He had just managed to get her up when Vine and Armstrong reached them.
Vine stepped between the other three and the airborne dragon, sword in hand. As the highest ranked officer of the three Amestrians, he was ready to do what he had to if the dragon decided to take an interest in the small group. Armstrong ,meanwhile, wasted no time hefting the young woman onto his shoulders, carrying her effortlessly back to the shelter as Vine and Edward watched their back. Alphonse and Aliasse waited at the mouth of the makeshift shelter, following Vine in after everyone was safely back under cover.
After Armstrong laid the woman against the wall, Vine quickly assessed her leg.
"Break's pretty bad," he observed, "I'm surprised she was able to drag herself over that rubble pile."
"You can't be serious," complained one of the sheltering soldiers. Vine placed his hands on the woman's leg and pushed, drawing a pained cry from her as a sickening crack indicated the bone settling back into place. "She's an enemy. Why would we help her."
"Look around, dumbass," Vine hissed angrily as he worked to transmute a stone cast over the leg before rising to his feet. The glare he gave the soldier caused the man to fidget uncomfortably and avert his eyes from the Raging Blast Alchemist's cold anger. "Right now, it looks to me like we've only got one enemy worth worrying about and that's that damn dragon. So if you're done complaining, maybe you'd like to make a useful suggestion. No? Just gonna sit there like a pissant? Thought so. Now keep your mouth shut, some of us are actually trying to figure out how we're gonna get out of this mess."
"That seemed unnecessarily harsh," Hughes observed when Vine joined him at the mouth of the shelter.
"Maybe," Vine sighed as he bit down on the tip of his thumb, his brain pushing itself to its limits as he watched the Fusion Dragon unleash another devastating attack onto those below it, "Any ideas?"
"Can you summon anything that can help us?" Hughes asked.
"I lost that damn Duel Disc in all the chaos after that thing started its attack," Vine admitted, "Fullmetal's got damaged, and that girl didn't have one. Even if I did know which one of those Ancient Gears to summon to go toe to toe with that thing, we've got no way to take advantage of it."
"So… what do we do then?"
Vine turned his attention to where a duo of soldiers were working on a portable radio. "Any luck with that thing?"
"No sir," one of the men responded, "signal's just to weak. We can't connect with anyone."
"Damn it, can't even get a report on how things're going in the city," Vine cursed, punching the wall again.
"Well, the good news is that as long as that thing is focused on this area, it's not attacking the city," Hughes offered, "guess we should be grateful for that at least."
"It won't stay focused on this area for long. Once it runs out of targets, it'll move into the city, and the people won't stand a chance," Vine retorted, biting down on his thumb again, "come on, think. There has to be something we can do."
"Too many of our own are injured to mount any sort of real counter-attack against that thing," Armstrong admitted, approaching the deliberating Vine and Hughes, "we need to evacuate them to safety as soon as we can."
"Agreed," Vine admitted, looking thoughtfully out at the dragon, "guess it can't be helped then."
"Got something?" Hughes asked.
"I wouldn't call it a plan," Vine admitted, "but… it's the best we've got at the moment."
"Do I even want to know?" Hughes asked.]
"If we stay here, we're all going to die," Vine replied, looking out of their makeshift shelter at the dragon still flying above them before lowering his voice so only he and Hughes could hear, "and I don't think we can count on help from Histoire. Hate to say it, but we need to operate under the assumption that we're on our own, which means somehow, we have to deal with that thing."
"Yeah, but how?"
"Still working on that, but for right now, I know what we can do," Vine admitted, "we can get our injured somewhere safe. Major!"
"Yes sir," Armstrong responded, rushing to the plotting officers' side.
"Alright, here's the plan. Fullmetal, Alphonse, and I are going out there to take the fight to that thing," he revealed, glancing over to the Elric siblings. Edward only required a quick nod to give a response that said more then any words he could have spoken.
"I shall help as well. Together, we'll surely be able to…" Armstrong began to respond.
"Nope, need you somewhere else," Vine replied, "while we've got that thing's attention, you're going to begin tunneling. Tunnel your way into the city. Get our people to safety and have everyone who can still move to help with evacuation. If we can't stop this thing…"
"We'll lose the city," Hughes cursed.
"That outcome is unacceptable." The plotters hadn't noticed Bradley's approach, and his declaration caught them off guard, startling the lot of them. The Fuhrer had a severe look in his eyes that unnerved the gallant defenders far more than any dragon.
"Fuhrer…" Hughes began to speak up.
"Leave the injured to us, Major," Bradley ordered, "if you're going to bring that thing down, you'll need all the fire power you can scrape together, am I correct."
"Well, you're not incorrect," Vine acknowledged, "I'd hoped more of Amestris's State Alchemists would have arrived by now, but they may be occupied dealing with the rest of Obelisk's forces around the city. What we've got here may well be all we're going to get."
"Then we leave nothing to chance," Bradley declared firmly as he drove the point of his sword into the ground and rested the palms of his hands onto the pommel of the hilt. "Colonel Vine, the Raging Blast Alchemist, I'm directly ordering you. You will take Major Armstrong and the Elrics, and you will destroy that dragon and bring an end to this siege of our country. Lt. Colonel, you and I will remain here and continue to help with our injured. Not much our weapons can really do to that thing anyways. Am I clear."
"Yes sir!" Armstrong and Hughes both replied saluting. Vine rose to his feet, his hand resting on the sheathe of his sword as he turned towards the opponent they'd soon be facing.
"I wonder if this is how the knights in those old fairy tales felt," he sighed as he quickly drew his sword and steeled his nerves.
"We'll bring that thing down, somehow," Edward vowed as he stepped forward and stood beside Vine.
"Won't be the first time we've come back from things looking pretty bad," Vine admitted, resting the back of his blade over his shoulder, "no sense being clever. We hit it with everything we've got and we don't let up until it stops moving. Then we hit it a few more times for good measure."
"That sounds precisely like the kind of plan I can get behind," Armstrong called out, "come my friends, let us show this dragon our might!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon was either unaware of the small attack force that emerged to face it, or it simply didn't care. Either way, it quickly changed its mind after a cannon shell exploded against its back.
It wasn't the last either, as down below, a row of transmuted cannons created by Alphonse and Edward launched a bombardment at the beast. A dozen high explosive shells slammed into the Fusion Dragon, drawing its attention to them. It opened its mouth and acidic green flame spewed forth towards the two brothers, but was blocked by a massive dome of earth that suddenly rose up to cover the brothers, stopping the flames.
Before it could follow up with another attack, a dozen spears of stone embedded themselves into the creature's hide, causing it to roar out with pain. It glared down to find Major Armstrong, his military jacket torn away to display his toned, massive muscles as he stood in a boxing stance.
"Come here beast, and taste of the Strong Arm alchemy that has been passed down the Armstrong family for generations!" Armstrong roared as he struck the ground, causing six small boulders to erupt from the ground. Swift but powerful blows landed on all six boulders, which launched towards the Fusion Dragon as each transmuted into a giant stone arrow upon contact with Armstrong's gauntleted fists.
They flew as fast and with as much power as a cannon shell, each finding their target and driving deep into the Fusion Dragon's hide. It roared with pain and fury as it glared down at the Major. It's lapse in attention earned it several more explosive rounds to the side of its head from Edward and Alphonse who had exited their domed shield and resumed their attack.
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon opened its mouth and roared in fury, only to catch a bright red blast squarely in its open mouth, silencing its roar as it seemed to cough from the sudden attack.
Vine stood atop his own cannon, watching as the Fusion Dragon flew higher into the air, trying to gain a moments reprise from the Alchemist's assault.
"If you think that that's going to be enough to get you out of my range, you've got another think coming," he muttered to himself as he placed his hands against the cannon again. Another blast fired out of the cannon and cut through the air like a red hot knife, slicing towards the airborne monstrosity.
The blast that struck Starving Venom Fusion Dragon hit with enough force to punch a hole straight through the front armor of a tank, cut completely through the length of the vehicle, and pierce back out through the back armor. Vine had seen blasts with similar strength cripple the most powerful offensive weapons of both Gallia's and Amestris's enemies, which put into perspective just how out of their leagues the alchemists were when this particular blast only succeeded in momentarily stunning the dragon.
"Such incredible endurance," Major Armstrong observed as the Dragon recovered, "our attacks barely seem to have any affect."
"Nothing even fazes that thing," Vine cursed as the dragon soared back towards the ground.
The moment it was in range, the Elric brothers turned the fury of their cannons back on it, firing a barrage of explosive shells at the beast. This time, however, the beast was ready for their attack, and none of the shells managed to connect with their agile target.
"Get out of there!" Vine ordered, though he needn't have bothered. Edward and Alphonse had already realized the futility of their assault and had already bailed, leaving their cannons to be obliterated by Fusion Dragon's breath attack.
"Are you two alright," Vine shouted to the brothers who were just pulling themselves back to their feet after having been sent flying by the force of the Dragon's attack. Edward spat out some sand that had gotten in his mouth before responding.
"About as fine as I could hope, considering we still have no idea how we're going to bring that thing down!" he spat.
"I don't know if we can. The blast I hit it with is a fair comparison to the power output of your average Valkyria, so even if Alicia or Aliasse could do something, I doubt it'd tip the scale in our favor," Vine admitted, biting the tip of his thumb as he quickly took in their surroundings, "if we can't pierce it ourselves, maybe there's someway we could get it to damage itself."
"Got an idea?" Ed asked.
"Maybe. At any rate, it's worth more of a shot then continuing to hit it with pea shooters until it gets tired of toying with us," Vine admitted, His attention was on the remains of an Amestrian tank that had been destroyed during that had been destroyed during the earlier skirmishes with Duel Academy, "listen up, here's what I need you two to do."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Major Armstrong never let up his assault, but Starving Venom Fusion Dragon barely seemed to acknowledge him. Only when Vine ran up by his side did he relent in his assault for even a moment.
"Colonel…"
"We need that things attention on us," Vine ordered, placing both hands on the ground. As Alchemical energy surged through the ground, the rock seemed to crawl up the Raging Blast Alchemists arms. When his transmutation was complete, he wore a pair of stone, armored gauntlets that stretched up his arms and up to his shoulders before forming into to stone cannon barrels that pointed out in front of the Alchemist. "So, let's give it a reason to pay attention to us."
Blasts and massive stone arrows soon bombarded the dragon in numbers so substantial, even the agile Starving Venom Fusion Dragon had no chance to evade the strikes. As attacks pelted its tough hide, the Dragon glared down at its attackers and let out a roar of fury. Vine and Armstrong had completed their objective.
"Leg it!" Vine ordered following Armstrong as both veteran soldiers took off for the cover of their previous shelter. With another furious roar, Starving Venom Fusion Dragon turned and charged, dive bombing at the two Alchemists with such speed that it was only perceptible as little more than a blur.
By the time the creature realized it had fallen right into a trap, it was too late to avoid it. As Vine and Armstrong passed the ruined tank, Edward and Alphonse, hiding behind the ruined vehicle, went into action.
Two things occurred almost simultaneously. First, the tank morphed, quickly assuming the form of a giant spike forged from the strongest alloy-plate armor ever developed by the R&D department of the most powerful army on Europa.
The second was that the stone beneath the newly formed spike rose to meet Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, propelling the deadly spike to meet its victim. At the speed it had been divebombing the Alchemists, there was only one possible outcome. The durable strike connected with the seemingly indestructible Dragon with a sickening a crunch.
The spike quickly buckled against the Dragon's durable hide, but only after it had skewered straight through the beasts skull and embedded itself nearly a foot into its chest. The pillar broke away and both fell to Earth, the dead dragon, slamming into the ground with another crunch. It's head was gone and its chest cavity had completely caved in before the alchemists' secret weapon had buckled. Then, it vanished, leaving no trace that there had ever even been a dragon. Even the gore that splattered the remains of the alchemists' weapon disappeared.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Yuri's expression showed how dumbstruck he was as he watched his Dragon's death. It didn't take long, however, for him to recover his sadistic smirk.
"Well, seems this dimension might actually have some fangs to bare. Very impressive."
CLOSING THEME: SHUNKAN SENTIMENTAL (Fullmetal Alchemist)