Chapter 28: The Fifth Laboratory

The now closed Fifth Laboratory had been officially out of operations for aseveral years now Being in the outskirts of Central, it was little remarked upon that this facility was no longer in active use by the military. It was so far out of the way, that there was only one sentry assigned to guard the whole of the derelict facility. This shouldn't have been a problem, since the only entrance was the main gate, and the twelve foot high concrete barrier with barbed wire on the top. The lack of a massive security detail only made the facility less interesting, as if there was something important, there surely would be a full company of soldiers patrolling the yard. One would have to be either slightly crazy, or have a very good reason, to try and snoop about this place.

'Of course,' Twilight thought as he laid across a nearby roof, wearing an all black cover, using a pair of binoculars to watch as a small man and a large suit of armor snuck along the concrete wall, 'that describes the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric quite well,' he then placed a hand along his side, and felt the rope and grappling hook attached at his hip, 'And I suppose me as well.'

He watched as Edward, making one last glance around to make sure no one was around, placed a foot into Alphone's hands held together close to the ground. Then, with as much might as that suit of armor could muster, Edward was flung up to the top of the wall. Twilight watched as the elder brother unraveled the barbed wire using his automail hand, and slowly let it down beneath his feet. Then Alphonse grabbed at it, and climbed up the side of the wall. They were in in less than twenty seconds, and they'd managed to pull the wire behind them so no one could notice their makeshift rope.

'Not bad,' Twilight thought, as he saw the boys disappear into the yard, 'Didn't even use alchemy so they wouldn't be spotted by the guard. Though I suppose I should be a bit peeved,' he could feel the wire cutter sitting in his left pocket, 'that I wasted time getting this thing on me,' he stood up, and descended down the metal gutter, and landed on his feet. He made a quick check of the road, before running over, and slamming into the concrete. He then pulled out his rope and hook, and twirled it before sending it to the top of the wall, 'Of course, perhaps you should have left someone to be the look out,' he thought, before he shimmied up the side of the wall, and on top of it, stared down into the yard as the boys ran to the front of the lab, looking for the entrance.

"So," he said beneath his breath, "I don't want any chance of them trying to see me," he pulled up his rope, and smiled as he looked over towards the building of the Fifth Laboratory. He rubbed his chin, before spotting a window on one of the top floors, and smiling to himself. He twirled the hook, and then threw it across the yard. It landed right above where the window was. He then pulled, making sure that the hook had secured into the roof, before falling down.

His feet never touched the ground. Instead, he caught himself on the wall of the lab itself. He smirked and smiled as he looked up, and saw the window. He climbed up that wall as well, and grabbed at the window. As luck would have it, it was unlocked, as many windows on upper levels were, especially in heavily guarded derelict facilities.

"No one ever checks these things," he thought as he pushed his way inside. He stopped, and then listened. He heard nothing, but he needed to be sure that there wasn't an interior guard or perhaps one of the Elric brothers. When he didn't hear anything, he looked around. It was completely empty, just some old desks that had been completely covered in dust, "Suppose it has been a long time since anyone came in here," he turned back, closed the window, and twisted around the desks, "Need to be careful to make sure no one notices me."

He opened the door, and was shocked when he realized that the inner hallway wasn't completely dark. He looked along the bottom of the walls, and saw small electric lights shining down onto the floor. He stared at them for a moment, before looking around.

'If they are pumping electricity in here,' he thought to himself, looking down the hallway, 'Then I'm guessing there is something still valuable in here,' he looked at a massive pair of doors at the end of corridor, 'Must be the stairs,' he skulked his way along the wall, towards his way down further into the facility.

'To believe they were turning people into...,' Twilight couldn't help but shiver. Once he and Franky had heard what Edward and Alphonse had discovered, they'd spent a few hours arguing, before returning home. Twilight had returned the next day, and had managed to hear the discussion the boys had had with their fellow officers. That this place was likely a military project had been unsurprising, who else had the power to do something like this.

Far more troubling had been the discovery that the Fifth Laboratory had been the location of the experiments. Not that it was this place, but rather why.

'Edward has a good head on his shoulders,' Twilight had to admit, as he neared the stairwell, 'The idea of a prison being a resource for the creation of these stones was a good deduction,' he still felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, 'Though that means...'

That there was a good chance that the executed Crestan spies hadn't just been killed, but turned into these Philospher's Stones. The thought that men like Stirrup...men he'd trained with...might be turned into massive weapons of death and destruction bothered Twilight. The thought if he was ever caught that might be his fate as well only bother him further.

'No time to think about that,' Twilight had appreciated that the Elrics would be investigating despite the warnings from Armstrong not to approach it, and had realized that using them as cover might be his best chance to see if he could find anything of use here as well. Those boys might distract any kind of higher security that might be station in the lab after all, 'I need to find what I can. This might be my only chance.

"I can't believe those damn brats," Maria growled as she slammed the brake. It had only been a moment ago when she and Denny Brosh had discovered a set of sheets tied into a rope leading out of the library Major Armstrong had left the Elric brothers. Luckily, she had an idea of exactly where they were going considering the discussion earlier, so it had only taken a few moments to get to the car, and for her and Brosh to arrive outside the Laboratory.

"I don't see them," Denny said, getting out of the car, "Do you think they were pushed back?"

"No," Maria scowled, her eyes on the door to into the wall hanging slightly ajar, "Something tells me they are inside. The guard likely went in to check out any ruckus he's hearing," she groaned, pulling out her standard issue pistol, "Keep close Sergeant, let's go check."

Slowly, the two approached the door. They were trying to be cautious, because there was no use getting caught by a guard trespassing. Maria pushed it open, and then nodded when she saw it was clear. The two, still keeping as queit as possible, twisted through the gate before slowly returning it to what it looked like before they had arrived. Better to do that than tip off the guard the facility had been infiltrated...again.

"Cover me," Maria twisted her head towards what looked like a side door. Brosh nodded, placing himself against the wall, still making sure that the guard wasn't coming by. Maria rushed over to the door, and grabbed at it. She smiled as she did so, glad at least this door was unlocked. If it hadn't been there was a chance she'd have had to try a window, or perhaps some kind of ventilation. She even looked to her right, and saw one of those ventilation staffs and grimaced as she looked at it.

'Yeah, no way I'm getting through one of those,' she shook her head as she pushed the door open, 'I'm not short enough to fit inside that.'

"Ross," she heard Denny call out, though he tried to keep his voice low, "I'm hearing something from the other side of the building," Brosh pointed down that way, and she indeed heard what sounded like metal hitting metal. Maria bit the side of her lip, before shaking her head, and pointing down that way as well.

"You go investigate that," she said quickly, "Keep out of sight as much as you can. But that might be important, and if it's metal," she shook her head, "I wouldn't be surprised if Alphonse Elric is involved."

"What about you?" Brosh nodded towards her.

"I'll get in here and investigate further," she wasn't happy about splitting up, but if she had to guess, there was a good chance that something was going on in this laboratory, and she needed to make sure that if either of the Elric brothers had gotten into the lab, that she might be able to get in there and keep them from getting themselves killed.

Hopefully so she could get the chance to kill them herself.

"Okay," he then got up off the ground, and began to slide towards the sounds of the fighting down that other way, "Be careful he said with his head facing back to her, before continuing on his way.

"You too," she said back. As Brosh ran off down the other way, Maria turned her attention to the door. She let out a deep sigh, and fully pushed it open, and then quickly closed it behind her. She let out a sigh, as she had managed to at least hide her infiltration for a moment, before realizing that the interior hallway was far more brightly lit than she would have expected, "What the..." she looked around, gun at the ready. She swept the area around her, before beginning to advance down the hallway. As she did so, she continued to notice that the lights we not only still running, but for all the damage to the building itself...it looked like there had been some movement. Not terribly recently, but at least in the past few months, people had been here, "Abandoned...yeah right."

Dundun

She stopped, and turned. She had thought she had heard movement. She pointed the gun at a pair of double doors. She tried to picture the layout of the laboratory in her head, and then nodded as she came to a quick conclusion.

'The stairs,' she thought. She stayed still for a moment, before slowly inching her way over to the doors. All the while, she kept listening to hear if she heard more movement. She placed her hand on the handle, and then listened for one final second.

She opened the door, and saw an empty staircase. She walked over carefully, and looked at the stairs going up or down, and there was nothing on either of them. She made to get closer, to go and look at the other floors-

"AL NOW!"

"What was that?" she heard the very distinct sound of Edward Elric's voice carry down the hallway of the floor she was on. She raised her weapon again, and turned on her heel as quickly as she could racing outside the stairwell. She was here to protect the Elric brothers after all, no need to go sticking her nose when her charges were so close.

Of course, has she managed to actually look down the stairwell, instead of just at the steps themselves, she might have seen that hanging from the edge of steps of this floor was a man hanging by the bear strength of his fingers, just alongside a small cable beneath the edge of the landing she was on. That man let out a small sigh, before pulling himself up just enough to see the door had closed behind Maria Ross. He then pulled himself up fully, and wiped the dust off of himself.

'Sometimes,' Twilight thought, thinking about Ross had only been inches from having him cornered without a weapon, 'You just get lucky.'

"What if your Personality and Memories were fabricated by your big brother?"

The words were haunting Al. He hadn't thought about the possibility before...but he certainly didn't remember what had happened to put him in this armor. Ed had mentioned he had something he had wanted to speak about to him, but he hadn't said what.

'Is it that I'm artificial?' he thought staring at his hands as he grasped them together, 'That I'm just some make beleive brother he shoved in a suit of armo-"

CLANG

He barely caught the slice of Barry the Chopper's cleaver. It had been aimed at his head, not directly where his seal was, but close enough to it to be dangerous. He took a second to stare down at where the metal blade had sliced into him, and was a bit shocked. The strike had made a small metal cut into his arm guard, more physical damage than he had thought possible. He then heard the other being in armor chuckle, stepping past the pool of blood that was coming from the half decapitated body of the guard of the Fifth Laboratory.

"You're slowing down," the mad chuckle from Al's opponent continued, "Starting to worry about it aren't you," Al flinched at the prodding, and almost cursed when Barry's cackle doubled, "Oh, you are starting to realize it, aren't you," Al's arm shot forward, only for Barry to catch it with his free hand, and pull Al face to face.

Or more accurately helmet to helmet.

"Just accept it," Barry slammed his hand into Alphonse's chest, and knocked him to the ground, "It'll work better for you that way," Alphonse was about to get up to fight again, but Barry's armored foot collided with his chest, and sent him supine on the ground, "Well, it's been fun kid," Barry raised his cleaver high above his head, "But I'm going to to finish you of-"

BAM

Chunk

Alphonse stared as he saw Barry's hand suddenly shudder. The massive meat cleaver was now stuck into the ground, and there was a smoking hole inside Barry's hand. The bestial mask looked over, and Alphonse joined his motion, to see a familiar blonde man in Military Blues standing with a pistol in his hand.

"Step away from the suit of armor," Denny Brosh declared, continuing to point the gun at Barry.

...

"I mean," he kept his gun trained on Barry, but he was clearly embarrassed by the faux pas, "Shorter guy, step away from Alphonse Elric!"

"Sergeant Brosh!" Alphonse had shared Edward's evaluation of the lower ranked of their two guards, but even with all the worry that had build up inside of him, he was glad to see a familiar face. A human face. Alphonse pushed himself back to his feet, and took a few steps away from Barry, glad to have regained some distance, "You need to watch out, he's just a suit of armor too. You shooting him won't do much damage."

"Are you serious!?" Alphonse could hear the complete shock in Brosh's voice. He was brave to come here, but he was clearly feeling a great deal of anxiety from having to be moving on his own, without Ross their to provide a more experienced voice, "This is getting way too crazy for me."

"Huh," Barry looked over at Brosh, and then back at Alphonse, as though he was planning his next move, "Two of you huh?" Alphonse saw Barry's head turn slightly, and stare down at the cleaver only a few inches away. It took a second, because Alphonse hadn't been expecting it, but as he saw the armor of Barry the Chopper tense, he realized that the serial killer trapped in the armor had been weighing his options, and planning for - "Well I can handle two of you just fine!"

Another attack. Barry dove down, and rolled, grabbing the cleaver as he twirled. Brosh fired another shot at the rolling suit of armor, but he missed, and before he could line up another shot, Barry was back on his feet, and charging forward. Brosh, lined up his pistol once more and pulled the trigger again, but this time Barry brought up the cleaver and held it with both hands, blocking the bullet before it could reach him. Alphonse, seeing the charge, chased after Barry, but Barry was ahead of him, and before Alphonse could even get to where Barry had been from the first shot, Barry was right on top of Brosh. Barry raised his blade above his head, and brought it down.

"Guah!" Denny, somehow, had managed his own role away from this strike, but he hadn't been as fast. Alphonse heard a squelch, and a slicing sound, but he did see Brosh roll away from the strike. It took a second for him to realize that Brosh's right shoulder had been cut into. Had the Sergeant not rolled when he had, the blade likely would have cut directly into his clavicle and killed him. Instead, it had only managed to cut directly at the shoulder bone itself, slicing up the flesh, but bouncing off the dense bone. From Denny's screams though, it didn't sound like a light wound though, "AAAHHH! IT HURTS!"

"Oh," Barry began to stalk towards the wounded man, who was stuck on his knees against the wall of the lab, "Not bad. Not every day an ordinary human can dodge one of my strikes," he then raised the blade over his head once more, "I can't wait to see what your made of after I chop you u-" Alphonse cut him off by slamming a punch into the left side of the killer's torso, sending the suit of armor sprawling from the strike. The mad creature then turned it's head towards Al, and waved his cleaver at him, "You again! Stop ruining my fun!"

"Sergeant Brosh," Al could ignore the Chopper for a moment. Right now, Brosh's health was more important than whatever this killer had said about his realness, "We need to get your out of here," he grabbed up the young man, who screamed as he was moved, "Sorry, but we can't stay here, not when Barry the Chopper is trying to kill us," he then sprinted back around the front of the laboratory. He thought for a moment of Edward, and possibly going inside to meet up with his brother...but decided against it, "I need to get you to a hospital," he said to the wounded man on his shoulder.

The wound wasn't life threatening at the moment, but it might get that way. Blood was still flowing from the cut. So much so that from the angle he was holding Brosh, he could feel some of the blood leak through the opening between his helmet hand the rest of his armor, and begin to cover part of his insides. Feeling this, he charged towards the door that had been guarded, and smashed it open with his other shoulder.

"Oh come on!" Al heard Barry the Chopper yell from behind him, still in pursuit, "I just want to chop you all up!"

'Got to get out of here,' Alphonse broke into a sprint, Brosh still hanging onto his shoulders, and the man was still making very audible gasps and moans, meaning his health hadn't collapsed yet, 'I can't afford to let that guy catch up to us,' especially with how much blood was still leaking into his chest cavity, 'I need to get out of-'

And then, as he was about three hundred feet from the lab, the world went dark.

"So this must be where they held test subjects," Twilight kept his black ski mask on, looking over a group of cells lining a small hallway. He'd made it down into the basement, which he was glad to have done so since he had managed to dodge the gaze of Maria Ross. He advanced slowly, though he still hadn't heard anyone else down on this floor.

He had heard what had sounded like fierce fighting above him, but as far as he was concerned, that only meant he was going to have an easier time with Security being more focused on whatever was going on upstairs.

'Once again, thank you Edward Elric,' the boy had proved to be nothing less than a distraction machine through this little mission of his, and if they both somehow made it out of this lab alive, he might have to get the teen an actual present. Maybe a melon or something, those were nice. He shook his head, and started walking through the cells, looking them over, and shaking his head.

'Unfortunately,' he thought, 'Either these things were cleaned out, or there just weren't many test subjects in active use,' most of the cells still had made up beds, no personal effects or signs of life, 'I suppose...wait,' there was one cell that wasn't as clean as the others. He walked up slowly, removing his revolver, and keeping it at the ready as he approached. He didn't need to use it, luckily, but he found that not only was this cell more used, with an unmade bed and small little stains along the inside sink, but it's door, unlike the others, was unlocked, 'Bingo,' he turned his attention upward, and for the first time saw a little sign above the door, 'Subject 007, huh?'

Besides that cell though, everything else was pristine. Which, if Edward was right, probably wasn't that much of a stretch. If the ingredients for the Philospher's Stones were being taken from the prison, they were likely left there, and then transported. Probably less chance for these condemned to try and escape it they were confined in a place with more stringent guards until they were to be used.

'I hate how much sense so much of this makes,' Twilight thought, further advancing down the hallway, 'They may be evil, but they clearly aren't idiots,' he pointed his gun towards the exit of the hallway, until he came to a small room. Just like the room upstairs, this one was filled with desks. Unlike upstairs, however, these desks didn't look as abandoned. Most of them only had a few weeks of dust over them, instead of the full coat from the room he had entered in, 'I suppose there was more work going on down here even if officially the lab was out of use.'

He began to open some of the cabinets, trying to find anything. Most of them were empty, or filled with junk and left over equipment, like beakers and clamps and burners. There were some minor personal effects, a watch or some left over change, but nothing that related to any of the people actually here.

Just as he was about to finish the desks, he pulled out one cabinet, and felt his eyes widen. A small smirk covered the agent's lips, and he smirked as he saw dozens of files laid out in it.

'Jackpot,' he thought. He began to lay out the files, and then cursed to himself as he looked them over. There were files, certainly, but nothing in them. Oh, there were some odd papers, but nothing with any actual value. He cursed himself, as he continued to flip further and further through the papers, trying to see if he could find anything. Yet that drawer proved to be full of nothing, 'Shit. Must have cleaned anything that might be useful out of here.'

He then looked down, and saw another filing cabinet directly beneath the previous one. On the outside of it, it actually had a small label, that said something that gave Twilight pause.

It said "Failures".

"How useful could that be?" he asked himself, before sighing, "Well, I can't find anything else," he then pulled it out, and began to flip through the files, and felt a small smile come up to his face, "Well what do you know?"

This cabinet was filled with full files. Whoever had made the cleanout had probably either forgotten this set of information in the hurry to clean everything up, or had simply decided that failures weren't worth the effort. Either way, at least Twilight was going to get some information on what was happening. He began to flip through the papers, when he spotted something a little over halfway through. A file sitting in the back, with a familiar label on it.

"007," He grabbed that file, and pulled it into his hands. He placed it on the desk next to him, and smirked at it, "Okay, let's see who you are," he turned the file open.

He felt his jaw drop.

On the front of this file was a small photo covering up almost everything else. A small photo of a little girl with pink hair and big green eyes staring directly into the camera. A little girl who Twilight had only this morning waved goodbye to before she was off on her way to school. Twilight shook for a moment, not really believing what was in his eyes.

"Any-"

BOOOOOOMMMMMM!

The room shook, and the ceiling above him began to spill debris. Twilight, hearing a cracking sound and seeing stress on the tiles above him, rolled away from the desk, as that part of the ceiling came down, and crushed the cabinet, the desk, and the file he had just been reading. He cursed under his breath, as he saw the information he'd snuck in here for disappear, before watching the rest of the room shake.

"Shit," he cursed to himself, turning on his heels and charging back down the hallway, "SHITSHITSHITSHIT!" he was running as fast as his feet could carry him. He made it to the stairwell quickly, and was soon charging up the stairs. Behind him, he heard the basement begin to be destroyed, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

"EDWARD!"

Maria Ross was shocked as she saw Edward in the middle of a massive circle, beaten to a pulp. To her right, she was a cut up set of Eastern armor. To her right, she saw two people, both in completely black clothes, with dark hair, and holding dark expressions, staring over at her in confusion. The smaller of the two was nearest to Edward, and Maria had just seen the creature slam it's fist into Edward's stomach, causing him to collapse from the strike.

"Looks like we have company," the other dark figure, a voluptuous woman, Maria Ross wasn't interested, but she also wasn't a liar, seemed to roll her eyes as Maria raised her standard operations pistol, "Told you to hurry it up."

"Shove it," the smaller one, with a slightly more boyish voice, raised a middle finger to its compatriot, "You also want this one alive," he pointed down at Edward, who was coughing in pain, "So I was going easy on him. You don't want me to kill one of our sacrifices so early," he then sneered the last word with emphasis, "Riiiighhhht?"

"I suppose you have a point," she turned around, and faced a massive dark hallway, before looking back, "You, girlie," she pointed at Maria, and the second lieutenant gripped her pistol tightly, "take the boy out of here, this place will be blown up in the next few minutes," Maria felt her eyes widen, and she saw a similar look come over Edward's face, "We don't need it to make stones anymore anyway."

"Anymore?" Ross heard Edward ask, only for the thin one to grab Edward by the head, and slam it into the ground. Maria turned her gun towards...him, and glared as Edward's face was rubbed into the concrete floor.

"Yeah, anymore," the thing laughed, as Edward let out a groan, "Why do you think this place was abandoned. No need for it when we have all we need for it," he then pulled Edward's head back, and slammed it into the ground again, "get it pipsqueak?" He then began to roll Edward's face around, and Ross began to prepare to squeeze the trigger.

"That's enough Envy," the woman declared, and Envy, the thing attacking Edward, snorted, before getting up and following her.

"See you later pipsqueak," he waved as he walked out of the room, Maria's gun following Envy as he followed "And you too, Second Lieutenant."

The entered into the dark hall, and within only a second disappeared into the shadows. Maria didn't take her eyes off the hall for a second, her gun constantly pointing at the corridor as she slowly walked up to Edward's prone form. As she reached the teen, she leaned down, all the while keeping her pistol pointing directly where Envy and the woman had gone. She took her left hand off, and rested it against Ed's throat, and sighed, glad to see that hadn't in fact killed him.

"Edward," she said aloud, sweat beginning to build on her brow as she remembered them say something about blowing this building up, "Are you able to walk?"

She got a low moan in response. She let out a curse under her breath, and bent down further. She used her left hand to slowly lift Edward's mechanical arm over her shoulder, and then, slowly, stood up, dragging the boy up with him. It was lucky he was small for her age, as much bigger, she probably wouldn't have been able to lift him on her own. With her gun still pointing directly down the corridor, she began to step backward, dragging Edward's body with her as she retreated. After a moment, she had made it to the entrance she had come through, and was about to turn around, when she heard a-

BOOM

"Shit!"

They had started the demolition of the lab. She could see several large cracks begin to cover the columns of the room around her. She dropped her gun, guessing that they were no longer coming back, and grabbed up Edward so she could pull him over her back. Now with her charge on piggy back, she began to hoof it out of there. The building was beginning to come down, but luckily it was only a hundred or so feet to the side door she had come in. She kicked it open, and ran out.

"Have to keep running," even if she was away from the building itself, it wasn't safe to be near it, "Hold on Ed."

"I'm sorry."

'You better be,' she thought to herself, adjusting Edward by picking him up some, all to make it easier to run with this teen being held up on her back, 'with everything you pu-'

"I'm sorry...Mom."

...

"God Damnit."

He could see Edward.
Not as his brother was now, but as he was in his memories. He could see his brother reaching out to him, tears in his eyes. He saw long shadowy arms reaching around him, picking him up, and tearing him apart. He could see his mother, his father, all of his memories from when he had a body...he then saw the circle they'd used, the chemicals piled up.

He saw a white silhouette, sitting in front of a door. He saw the door open, and he saw another silhouette, this one with long hair. Mom, he thought, and he reached out to her. He would feel her hand again.
Then the silhouette reached out, and grabbed his hand. And where once there had been nothing but white, a form began to take shape. But it wasn't his mother's face. No it was his own. Slowly, as though being pieced together, the arm gripping his began to be his own, the face smiling back at him was his own. And realizing that, he realized his own body was coming apart.
He saw so much.
He saw the Truth.
"Well, well," Alphonse awoke to the world to hear what the clanking sound of armored feet hitting pavement. He heard what sounded like crying, and the first sight he saw was Denny Brosh laying near him, holding his bleeding shoulder, and terror over his features as the form of Barry the Chopper came into view, "Looks like the artificial soul must have given out," the monster shook it's head, "Oh well, time to get choppin'!" the serial killer raised his cleaver high over his head.

Alphonse pushed himself to his feet, and slammed his fist directly into the the helmet of Barry. This knocked the shorter armor off balance, as he reached back to grab at his head. Alphonse jumped between Barry and Brosh, and assumed his fighting stance.

"Oh, trying to play dead huh?" Barry groaned, getting back to a fighting stance of his own, pointing his massive cleaver at Alphonse, "I suppose it's harder to tell when I can't see a living body. I got used to seeing who was pulling stunts like that when I was still alive," he shrugged, before beginning to march forward, swinging his cleaver, "Well might as well finish you off you artifici-aaaaaghghhh!"

Alphonse had reached out, and grabbed the arm. He then twisted his body, and flung Barry over both Al and Brosh, and onto the other side of the street. Barry, shocked at the sudden change in position, seemed to sputter on the ground for a moment. Al looked down at his hands for a second, and then, if he had had a mouth, would have smiled.

"I'm not artificial," he announced, stepping over his guard, his hands balled into fists, "I can't believe I ever thought about listening to a guy like you," he stopped in the middle of the street, "I mean, you admit your a serial killer. What was I thinking?"

"Oh come on," Barry waved, "You can't just judge a person by their profession."

"I don't know how," Alphonse continued, ignoring Barry's interjection, "But somehow, I got my memories of being put in this suit back," he stared down at his hands again, before slamming them together, "And not just that," he felt an energy course through him, and slammed his now lightning covered hands onto the road.

A moment later, the pavement had turned into a long stone scimitar. All the while Barry seemed to take a step back, clearly unprepared for a use of circleless alchemy. Alphonse then twisted the sword around his body, getting a feel for it's weight, and how it would interact with his armored body. And yet, even with all the danger he was in, he couldn't help but be happy. He'd regained his memories. Yeah, he hadn't discovered how to get back their bodies, but he wasn't some fake creation of his brother.

"You think this is funny!" Barry seemed to be angered by the casual way Alphonse was practicing. He jumped into the air, high above Al, cleaver raised to strike at Alphonse's head, "I'm going to chop you up."
Alphonse raised his sword, and then the two clashed.

For a moment, nothing happened.

CLANG

Then Barry the Chopper's right arm fell off. He stared over at Alphonse, his animated behavior disappearing. Alphonse turned around, and pointed his scimitar back at Barry, preparing to continue the fight. Barry looked down at his lost arm, and then jumped down, grabbed his cleaver with his free hand, and dashed off down a nearby alley. Alphonse would have blinked if he could, but shook his head. He tossed the sword to his side, and rushed over to Brosh.

"We need to get you to the hospital," the armor said. Brosh looked up at Al, though his face had begun to get paler.

"What about that thing?"

"Right now, it's more important we get you better," Alphonse said, lifting the officer into his arms, "Wait, if the facility has fallen apar-oh, here they come," he stared as he saw Maria Ross carrying his brother on her back. He was glad that they were alive, though part of him wanted to chastise Edward for being reckless.

'Though considering I had thought he had been lying to me,' Al just shook his head, 'I can let it slide.'

"Sergeant Brosh!" Maria shouted as she saw Denny's bloody shoulder, "What happened?"

"We can explain on our way to the hospital," Denny tried to laugh, though it turned into a cough. Maria just looked at the two, sighed, and nodded. It would be only a few moments before the three would be back to their car, and soon close to a hospital nearby.

But while going back to the car near the now destroyed laboratory, they missed one other figure, also escaping the destroyed Fifth Laboratory. The destruction of the lab had gotten rid of any evidence that he'd been there...

But Agent Twilight had quite a lot to think about.