INSIDE LABORATORY #5: Ten minutes ago
General Basque Grand led the way, and Lust and Gluttony followed. After descending into the depths of the laboratory, and picking their way through dark passages, they came out into a room full of tanks of red glowing fluid.
Gluttony burst into a smoking torrent of drool, and even Lust felt her veins throb. So much red water… And properly treated, so many red stones…No matter, she should be bringing the real thing along any time now.
She smiled as a familiar fur-coated form hurried up, moving as fast as it could, walking backward.
“Doctor Tucker.”
“W-welcome.” He was more nervous than usual. She figured it was probably due to “Basque Grand’s” presence.
She let her smile grow. “How is your patient, Shou?”
“She’s well. She stopped crying after the first three nights, though she still wails whenever I’m in the same room with her. Not that I blame her, I’m quite the sight…Heh, heh.” Tucker rasped.
“And the questions that I asked you about, concerning Pet?”
Shou Tucker adjusted his upside-down glasses, glancing over at General Grand.
“Oh, you can speak freely in front of him.”
“Pet?” Rumbled the general.
“Yes… She was present at that… tumultuous event that I mentioned in Liore.”
The general raised his eyebrows. “I see…”
Tucker coughed. “In that case… I’ve managed to confirm that she is, in fact, perfectly human. It’s odd though, she has signs of malnutrition at an early age that you rarely see in civilized countries anymore. She’s also been exposed and survived through diseases that just aren’t around anymore. Her flesh shows scars from many, many blades… She’s got the marks of an experienced swordswoman.”
“That IS odd.” Lust murmured. “Human, you said? You’re sure?”
“Without a doubt. Although, that brand on her breast seems to be reactive with the red stone mixture. It causes her slight pain and bleeding, whenever she gets too close, in proportion with the amount of the liquid. Hence the reason I didn’t bring her to greet you.”
Lust nodded. “And her mental state?”
“Unchanged. I’ve tried chemical adjustment, and limited electroshock therapy, but to no avail. Her mental regression has been going on for quite some time, and it was induced by severe mental and physical trauma… To venture a guess, the trauma’s probably related to whatever burned out her womb.”
“What?” Lust blinked, startled. General Grand snorted, and let a sneer creep onto his face, as he watched the female homonculous frown.
“Oh, she’s been badly treated. But in any case, with the limitations that you gave me, I cannot determine anything further about her. Anything of note, anyway. Now, if you were to authorize more… Efficient methods, I might be able to restore her memory, at the cost of a little physical damage… If nothing else, she might work a little better as a chimera…”
“Thank you, doctor Tucker. I’ll take that under advisement. For now, go get her ready to travel, we’ll be taking her with us.”
Tucker left, after taking a second to stare at General Grand.
Once the altered human was gone, General Grand turned his head to Lust. “Taking her with us? Why?”
“I told you, she was there when Dante disappeared. More to the point, she appeared in the spot after the disaster.”
“I see… But why bother with her if she’s just a human? If she can’t do alchemy, and she doesn’t know anything about Dante, she’s not useful… I didn’t sign up to nursemaid a stinking human.”
“Patience, Envy. Just because she doesn’t know anything now, doesn’t mean she won’t remember later.”
“Tch. She’s your pet, do as you like. In any case, now what?”
“Now we wait. It’s been a week since I left my last instructions, and we’ll see the result of that shortly…
A few minutes trickled by, and Gluttony amused himself by licking the glass tubes of red water. Envy, in the shape of Basque Grand, leaned against the wall and scowled. Lust merely stood in the center of the room, watching the door…
Soon enough, the door opened. A mousy-haired woman in a conservative pink dress walked through, balancing two crates in her arms.
“Hello, Sloth.”
“Lust.”
Sloth put the crates down, and nodded to Basque Grand.
“Here are the stones, as you requested.” Gluttony wandered over, and started sniffing the crates. “You said you would have further instructions at this point…”
Lust smiled, as she walked forward, her heels clicking on the stone floor. “Yes… And I’m afraid that part of it is bad news. Something’s happened to Dante…”
There was a distant BOOM. Lust glanced up.
“Not stones.” Whispered Gluttony.
Lust looked back down, to find Sloth watching her, bored as usual. But no, something’s different. Something’s in her eyes…
“What is this?” Lust snapped.
“This is the fate of traitors.”
“No stones!” Gluttony howled, thick arms throwing one crate against the wall. It shattered, spilling beads across the floor. Red glass beads…
“I’m not a traitor.” Lust made a fist, then started to bring it up, her hand slowly starting to unclench…
“Tell it to Dante.” Pride strode through the door behind Sloth, as another explosion rocked the Laboratory. The lights flickered as he leveled his sabers, one at Lust and one at Gluttony.
Lust shook her head. “Even if that were true, it’s three against two… I think you should put those away.”
Pride smiled, and flipped up his eye patch. The red tattoo on his cornea glittered, as it seemed to peer into the depths of her mind… “Are you sure? I think you should look again.”
Lust glanced around.
Envy was gone!
“That traitor! Only one way out now.” She hissed. “Gluttony, take her!”
And her fist unfurled, as she pointed at Pride and her fingers stretched, like sharp black lightning…
Major Alexander Louis Armstrong’s day had not improved. The interior of the Laboratory was full of smoke and rubble, and every so often he’d pass by the corpse of one of the assault team. None of them had been the Fuehrer’s corpse, thankfully…
Still, he was dreading that it was only a matter of time. Most of the soldiers seemed to have fallen to fiendish traps… The explosions had been from a few grenades cooking off, after a demolitions specialist had been caught in a fire trap. From the sounds of it, a good part of the laboratory was now on fire…
He knelt down next to a coughing, lightly wounded corporal. “Are you all right? Do you know where the Fuehrer went?”
“No… clue… kAFF, kaff…. We… we lost him in the smoke… Ran ahead too fast… Fast!”
“Too fast… hcckkk… nothing human’s that fast…”
Major Armstrong shook his head. Poor man’s delirious. “Stay still. Here, take my canteen. I’ll be back for you as soon as I find the Fuehrer.
“…Nothing’s… that fast…”
Lust gritted her teeth. He’s fast! Her fingers had shot out as fast as bullets, but Pride had simply stepped to the side, and slashed them as they went by. She felt a twinge of pain, as the tips spun free from her fingers and shattered against the wall…
Gluttony dived at Sloth, and got a faceful of water and cloth for his trouble. The liquid homonculous reformed a short distance away, and wrapped her hands around Gluttony’s head. The squat little man snapped his teeth uselessly as her hands went to water, and started forcing themselves down his nose and mouth, down his throat…
Lust glared, and then there was no more time to glare as Pride was THERE next to her, and his sabers cut down…
She parried desperately, and felt her fingers shatter as a blade whipped around them and pierced her straight through the heart…
Dying always hurt. She came to, coughing blood and kneeling, and pulled the sword from her chest. She tossed it aside, and saw Pride standing back, drawing a new saber from his harness.
Off to the side, Gluttony was gurgling, scrabbling his pudgy limbs uselessly as Sloth forced more of herself down his throat. He was slowly drowning… This wasn’t death for a homonculous, but the equivalent of stasis. Once he was out from drowning, he’d be unconscious for a good while… And then it’ll be two on one.
“You may as well surrender.” Pride called, his face still as stone. “You can’t escape my eye…”
Lust smirked, and pointed her arm to the side. “Maybe not. But tell me…”
Pride tilted his head back, puzzled. Then his eye widened, and he blurred into motion… too late!
“…Did you see THIS coming?” Lust’s fingers shot out, piercing the tube of red water next to Gluttony!
Pride reached her and lopped Lust’s head off her neck as Sloth screamed. He turned to survey the situation as Lust’s body flopped to the ground, her fingers shrinking back to normal length.
He grimaced.
The water had mixed with Sloth’s form, and was crackling with energy as it coursed along Sloth and Gluttony alike, rippling her form in and out of solidity in the maw of the squat homonculous.
The red stone amplified the powers of the homunculi, and gave them their unnatural regeneration. But, the red water was a barely stable form of the stone. Without the proper refining, it could cause problems. And in this quantity…
He ran to the struggling pair, jabbing three swords into Gluttony as fast as a human’s blink. The little man staggered back, and using both hands Pride hauled Sloth out of his mouth, his hands finding purchase in the suddenly solid entrails that were spilling from her.
He threw her through the door, clear of the puddle of red water sizzling around his boots. Though he could feel the raw RUSH the fluid called from him, he wasn’t liquid, and he wasn’t as vulnerable to it. She’d recover, given time…
He looked over, to see Lust’s severed head crumbling into ash, and her body convulsing as a new one started to congeal from her neck, seeming to inflate and grow in no time at all…
Then there was motion at his side, and Gluttony, full of red water, was upon him…
Major Armstrong pounded his way through another door, as another explosion rocked the Laboratory. No sign of the Fuehrer yet, and he was on the third sub-basement and counting. If I don’t find him soon, this place will be his grave…
There was motion ahead, and the Major slowed. He’d run into a few chimerical guardians earlier, and he steadied himself for a fight…
Then as the emergency lighting flickered, he caught a glimpse of a bald, broad man in military dress scurrying down the corridor ahead.
He almost called out to him, but at the last minute his memory caught up with his mouth.
That was General Basque Grand… But he went to Eastern! So did the Fuehrer, though, and he’s here… The general was around the corner before Armstrong could make up his mind. His footsteps muffled by the noise of the crumbling Laboratory, Major Armstrong followed.
He trailed the general down two more corridors, into an emptier part of the Lab. There were doors here, doors with grilles. One of them was occupied as he passed, by a woman’s face, her black eyes glittering with fear against brown skin.
“A-A-aaba!” She shouted, and he froze as he started to pass. “Shhh…” He held up a finger in front of his lips, and made placating gestures with his other hand. “A captive? Here?”
“Bahghhha! Umm…” She cried, trying to push through the grille.
He sighed. “I have no idea what you’re doing here, but you’ll have to be patient. Please! I’ll be back for you, I swear!”
She cried as he left.
General Grand stood in front of the soldered door, its steel frame literally welded to the walls. He smirked to himself, and his frame flickered with energy as general Grand flickered, shrunk… And was replaced with Envy’s familiar form.
“This might be an obstacle. Good thing I came prepared.” He tossed a pair of salvaged grenades up and down in his hand, catching them by the handle each time. Nice of those soldiers to die and leave their toys behind…
He didn’t notice the bald head peek around the corner, and disappear back just as quickly.
There was a WHUMP, and the sound of metal and stone tearing. Envy picked himself up, his riddled form knitting itself back together, and looked through the door.
Greed raised his hand, and brushed rubble and shrapnel from his jacket. “Yo.”
He grinned, and his teeth were sharp…
“Don’t think I’m doing this to be nice.” Envy jeered, as he crossed his arms.
“You? Nah, I wouldn’t believe it anyway.” Greed picked his way out of the cell, and stretched. He wore a set of black, leather-like pants, and a thick jacket of similar stuff. There was a white ruff on the collar, which looked very out-of-place. He had small, round black glasses perched on his nose, and his hair was just as spiky as his teeth.
He was Greed, and for the first time in over a century, he was free…
“We need to go.”
“We, squirt?”
Neither of them noticed Armstrong peering around the corner again.
“A lot’s changed. You’ll need me if you want to stay free.”
Greed grinned. “I’ll take my chances.”
“Dante’s dead.”
Greed stopped grinning. “Huh.”
Envy nodded. “Strange, huh? We should feel something…”
“But we don’t. Hey, it’s the homunculi thing, baby. It’s part and parcel of the package, you oughta know that by now.”
Another explosion rocked the laboratory. Far above them, a distant rumbling started.
“Come with me.”
“Nope.”
“Listen, you spiky-grinned twit…”
“Relax. YOU come with ME.”
Envy frowned. “That’s how it is, huh?”
“Either that, or you go your own way.”
“Fine. You’re a better option than Lust or Pride. For now…”
“I’m flattered. So which way’s out?”
“Down the hall. But we’ve got one more stop first… There’s a human down the other way that we need to collect. She’s the key to this whole mess, evidently.”
“Is she a babe?”
“What does it matter?”
“Hey, I’ve been in here awhile… Could use some good company, if you know what I mean.”
“Disgusting. She’s down the hall, you can judge for yourself.”
Major Armstrong’s eyes widened, and he pulled his head back around the corner.
“So, Pride you said? How’s she doing?” Greed tucked his hands in his pockets, and ambled down the hall. Envy walked alongside him, scowling.
“It’s a different Pride now. This one’s male. A different Lust, too.”
“Tell me Lust is still a babe. There’s some dishes you just can’t serve with sausage, y’know?”
“I have no clue what you’re babbling about, and yes, the new Lust’s female.”
“So why me? Seriously, you’re not exactly my favorite little bishounen right now. I still owe you for what happened back then…”
“Lust has Gluttony, Pride has Sloth… They can’t trust me, and if I’m alone then they’ll outnumber me when they catch up to me. Better to have my own backup.”
“Heh. And what do I get out of this?”
“So, where’s the skull, Greed?”
Greed stopped. Greed frowned. “I destroyed it, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Just letting you know, that I know. And my not letting anyone ELSE know, well… that’s what you get out of this for now.”
They turned the corner, as Greed smirked, and resumed his walk. “All right. We’ll see how this goes… Just don’t crimp my style, junior.”
Envy didn’t respond. Envy was shaking with rage. Envy was looking down the corridor, at an open cell doorway surrounded by a chalk outline. An alchemical circle.
“What’s wrong, spiky?”
“That’s her cell. That cell had a door five minutes ago. That cell had HER in it five minutes ago!”
“Well, now it doesn’t. Come on, easy come, easy go.”
“I NEVER get what I want! Damn it!”
“No, you don’t. Breaks my heart, now come on. Which way’s out again?”
Major Armstrong lumbered through the twisting corridors, his passenger clutching his back tightly. She was light enough, a tiny brown figure in a paper hospital gown.
He didn’t know why she was down here, or what sort of “Key” she could be, but those two would get nowhere near her. She didn’t deserve whatever they had planned for her, he was sure of it.
“Not on my watch.” He rumbled.
She giggled.
“Ah, Major!”
Major Armstrong slid to a stop, as he peered into the room ahead… at the spilled red fluid staining the floor, and the hole in the wall that looked… chewed into the concrete?
He stared at the Fuehrer, standing in the middle of it, smiling. His t-shirt was ripped, and he had his secretary draped over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. The Fuehrer’s spare hand was covering his patchless left eye…
“S-sir?”
The two tall men looked each other over for a second. The strange woman chortled.
“Why… why is Miss Douglas here? Sir?”
“She was kidnapped, Major. It’s one of the reasons that we’re here, to retrieve her. Now come on, we’ll need alchemy to get out of here safely.”
“Yes sir!”
Fuehrer Bradley led the way, up a flight of stairs and past corridors choked with rubble.
“Sir, I have reason to believe that they may have other captives! We must get them out-“
“We’ll have to free ourselves first, Major. Then we’ll see what we can do. That’s an order.”
Armstrong nodded. “Sir, yes sir.” He stared at the Fuehrer’s back, as they ran. His T-shirt was ripped almost to shreds, but he didn’t have a single wound on his skin. I knew he was good. Is he THAT good?
Finally, the Fuehrer glanced up, and pointed at an unremarkable section of the ceiling. “Here we go… Make a tunnel here, Major. This ought to be sturdy enough.”
Armstrong frowned. How did he know? This spot looks like any other… The Fuehrer put his hand back over his eye, and looked over to Major Armstrong. “Whenever you’re ready, Major.”
“Er, yes sir.” He slid the strange woman to the ground, and took out a piece of chalk…
FIVE MINUTES LATER
The laboratory shuddered, and collapsed in on itself, dust and debris pouring out the remnants of its frame as it came down.
Lt. Maria Ross shut her bruised eyes. “That’s it then. Well, at least we don’t have to explain-“
“Explain what, Lieutenant?”
“SIR!” She hauled herself up from her sitting position, and shot out a salute. Fuehrer Bradley chuckled, and waved his hand, his secretary’s scarf bound around his head in an impromptu eyepatch. “At ease, at ease…”
Major Armstrong was the next to pull himself out of the hole. For once, the strange woman was quiet as she looked around…
The Major blinked at the unconscious and beaten soldiers, some missing weapons, others missing parts of their uniforms. “Lieutenant! What happened here?”
She shook her head. “A group of… people came pouring out of the lab a few minutes ago. They were on us before we could fight back. They knocked us around, then this guy with sunglasses called them off. I’m sorry to say that we were in no shape to follow them…”
“You did the right thing, Lieutenant.” Fuehrer Bradley smiled, and Lt. Ross felt her chest fill with pride. “And now you can provide us an escort back to headquarters. Our two rescued hostages need medical treatment, and you all need some much deserved rest.”
“Sir… What of the others?”
Fuehrer Bradley’s face grew stern, and he looked away to the rubble. Major Armstrong shook his head, his broad face wracked with sorry. “I’m… sorry, Lieutenant. I’ll stay, and look for survivors.”
He glanced back, and pulled the brown-skinned woman over to Lieutenant Ross. “Please, see that she’s taken care of and guarded. According to a conversation I overheard in that place, she’s the key to SOMETHING… At least, according to a green-haired midget.”
She looked at him.
“Don’t ask.” Sighed Major Armstrong. “It’s a long story.”
The Lieutenant nodded, and tucked her arm around the cooing woman.
And the Fuehrer’s eye glittered behind the scarf as he moved with the other soldiers, considering the stranger.
The key to the whole thing… Mused Pride. Perhaps this night wasn’t a total loss after all…