as told by Edward Elric
Passing the Limit
Soaring through the air, powerful blows clashing at breakneck speed, Raditz and Vegeta continued their battle. The pace halted momentarily as their fists collided directly, creating a spark of golden electricity as the Prince and his former soldier each grit their teeth, pushing for the advantage. After a few seconds it became clear neither super warrior was aiming to yield, so they both broke away with mid-air multi-somersaults to create space between them. Raditz then took to a stance with his hands down along his hips as he built up quickly growing balls of bright golden energy, one in each hand, hoping to take advantage of the moment for an attack.
A few moments later, the long-haired Saiyan shouted his attack: “Double Sunday!” His arms then swung forward as the supposed spheres in his hands unleashed two straight golden waves aiming straight for his former boss. Vegeta recognized the power coming at him but was still unfazed, his own body starting to glow as he built up his own move.
“HYAAAAAH!” One yell of power later, Vegeta’s ki had exploded into a giant offensive barrier, neutralizing Raditz’s attack so that it failed to reach him. As the bright light of the two onslaughts of ki dissipated, leaving smoke between the two competitors, Vegeta stood alert, not willing to be taken by any surprise sort of ambush. Sure enough, the other warrior from space tore through the cloud of smoke and came straight at Vegeta, swinging a violent right elbow aimed right for his face… or, more accurately, the X-shaped guard that Vegeta’s gloved hands had now formed in front of his face. While the guard was sufficient enough to protect his noggin, the sheer force of the elbow broke through it, leaving him open for future attacks. Raditz began swinging with abandon with both punches and kicks, Vegeta dodging each one for several seconds long, until finally he was able to catch the large man’s left wrist, blocking a punch, and right calf, blocking a kick. This, however, left him open for a massive headbutt, knocking the Prince off balance and lowering his elevation. Grinning deviously, Raditz then executed a powerful divekick right into Vegeta’s sternum, sending the vertically-challenged noble rocketing towards the ground.
Just as he was about to become a carving in the field, however, Vegeta was able to collect himself and stop his fall in mid-air. It’s incredible how these guys can even do something like that by just controlling their bodies, no need for alchemy or anything; more importantly, Vegeta now began to dash right back up into the air to meet his former sidekick, only to suddenly disappear behind Raditz; it was almost a taste of his own medicine for the earlier attack with head and elbows from behind. Almost, I say, because Vegeta allowed Raditz to turn around right into a thrust kick aimed for his chin, followed by an axe handle smash to his face. It was Raditz’s turn to become a dart headed for the ground, and this time he didn’t stop himself, the aftershock of his fall producing a decent crater. Still, Vegeta stayed on the attack this time as he floated closer to the ground, concentrating his hands before unleashing a torrent of ki blasts aimed at the spot he’d seen Raditz fall to.
The ground would start to shake at the impact of his blasts; after a while, however, the Prince of Saiyans was shocked by the appearance of a pink electric orb swallowing up his blasts and hitting him directly. This sent him flying uncontrollably upwards for a moment, and as he stopped himself, he saw more of those same pink blasts rising in the air. Most of them were inaccurate, though there were two or three that aimed square at him again, forcing him to block them. As Raditz rose up to meet him, Vegeta looked around and noticed that the orbs that weren’t aimed at him had become stationary, almost acting as a minefield in mid-air. Breathing a sigh of satisfaction, the Prince’s hair suddenly turned back to its normal dark color as both his battle aura and the extra sharpness in his form disappeared. Why would he just power down like that? Is he planning something?
“Hahahahahaha! What’s wrong, Sweet Prince? Are you finally giving up?” The former minion mocked Vegeta, who folded his arms. “Has my strength driven you into some type of delusion!?”
The Saiyan Prince instead smirked. “Hmph. No, it’s actually bringing back memories.”
“Memories?” Raditz blinked his eyes, confused at Vegeta’s response.
“I remember at one point while we traveled together, you trained yourself by combating Saibamen when you thought Nappa and I wouldn’t know. You increased your strength and speed a great deal, to the point you were able to hold your own in a brief spar against me.” Despite Raditz being on the Bearded Bastard’s side, what Vegeta brought up was something worthy of respect; he has worked himself to attain that power, unlike the Homunculus leader. “It was what convinced me that you could still be of use for the mission I wanted to complete in a single day to command that bastard Frieza’s attention; so instead of casting you aside, I suggested you retrieve Kakarot.”
“…I fail to see your point.” Raditz asked, still not understanding the meaning behind Vegeta’s argument. “What are you drumming at?”
“Your decision to embrace your warrior grit and become stronger directly led to everything that happened on Earth, which changed the entire course of the Saiyan Race. In our world, the Saiyans are no longer bound to Frieza.” …I’m just relieved that guy’s not causing any trouble at the moment. “Your brother and your prince have not only conquered him, we stand as literal gods, rebuilding our people through half-Earthling families. We fight our own battles now, and we do so to overcome our limits and protect those we hold dear. The greatest warrior race, despite being dwindled to a handful among the living, has realized its true ultimate power.”
Despite being impressed by Vegeta’s story, it didn’t seem to move him that much. “I appreciate the proper credit, but this is still irrelevant to our fight.”
“Wrong.” Vegeta uttered. “Once again, you were spurred to become stronger to the point of granting me a respectable fight. Now you won’t be changing the future again, I promise, but I can at least show you an example of the ultimate power your efforts contributed to making possible.”
Vegeta’s last few words have caught Raditz’s full attention. “Wait. You’re saying…”
“There’s a state beyond Super Saiyan 3 a Saiyan can access without godly ki.” I tend to forget how smart the Saiyan Prince and that otherwise childish Saiyan can be in a fight. “Kakarot learned the method from the Monkey King he was named after on Earth, based on our exploits in another timeline. Since I know how to generate a Power Ball, I ended up assisting him in triggering it. In fact, just a little while ago, I tried it for myself.”
Raditz had a jolt. “Wait, what are you…!” Before he could utter anything else, Vegeta closed his eyes, slowly floating up even higher in the air as a pure white aura started flowing around him. Raditz’s jaw went agape at the sight of this, the pure light aura gradually enveloped the Prince’s entire body. Hold on… Is he actually… A few moments later, Vegeta extended all of his limbs to form a star-like shape.
“BURST OPEN AND MIX!!!” The light suddenly extended even beyond the form of the Prince of the Saiyans, first as rays of energy emanating from his limbs and head, then as a circle in the center rendering his form invisible, and finally as a blinding flare completely enveloping the area, with Raditz being forced to close and cover his eyes.
Dammit! He actually turned himself into a live Power Ball? How is that even possible? It sounded similar to that moment I turned myself into a Philosopher’s Stone to defeat Pride. Nevertheless, a thunderous roar echoed through as if to interrupt Raditz’s thoughts, and the light started to dissipate just enough that he was able to open his right eye and see something that stunned him. Just barely peeking through the light was an image of a giant, gold-furred gorilla wearing Vegeta’s clothes as he roared ferociously. Then the image faded the next moment, leaving nothing but the light. A moment later, the roaring stopped, and even the light gradually dimmed, allowing the prince’s former minion to slowly put his arms down and open his eyes fully. The sight before him would leave him trembling.
Standing there was Vegeta… except now he looked completely different than before. His eyes were now blue-green with a red shadow trim around them, and a crimson fur covered his arms and upper body, save for his abs and pecs which were suddenly sans raised tissue, more ape-like than human. His face was largely the same but looked more rough and ferocious, while his hair was longer and wilder and even took on a distinct brown shade. His navy blue bodysuit and white and gold armor were replaced by blue-green pants and a bluish-gray and gold belt respectively, with his gloves and boots changing in primary color to match the belt. “Wh… What is this…?” Raditz shook in awe of how unusual the Saiyan Prince now looked.
“This is the Sayian’s primal might personified, the absolute potential of what we can achieve without breaching the realm of the gods. To keep it simple, Raditz, we call this Super Saiyan 4.”
“Super Saiyan 4?” Raditz was in utter disbelief for some reason. “But it has nothing in common with-” He stopped himself, as if he remembered something, seeing an image of a man in an orange and navy blue martial arts gi holding up a boy in a colorful Xing-like outfit which included a red hat with an orange orb with four red stars on it, as well as one of a young man and his bearded father whose faces looked otherwise very much like Vegeta’s, both wearing Saiyan armor bearing royal insignias and capes. “No, forget the question. Of course you two would use the number four to describe the ultimate Saiyan!”
“So you’re not as big of an idiot as your recent choice would have me believe.” Vegeta smirked. “Good. Come on then, let’s see how hard of a fight you can put up now!”
The increase in power made the mid-class saiyan a little nervous. Come on, Raditz, stay on point! Sure, his power is overwhelming, but that was to be expected right!? Can’t let it shake me now! Despite the difference in power, he got into a battle stance again. “Just remember, Prince, you asked for it!” Vegeta got into his own fighting stance shortly afterward, his smile still remaining on his face.
“Oh I know.” With the advantage in power, Vegeta should win this fight.
The Secret of the Armor
While Al and the others wiped a good deal of those monsters the homunculi released, there were still no signs of that red and blue bastard slipping up at the moment; even with Hohenheim at their side, their teamwork only slowed him down. Even worse is that Al’s armor has gotten a few cracks from just a few strikes from this guy. If ‘that’ gets destroyed…
Is this man holding anything to strengthen his power to put a crack in Alphonse’s armor? I’d have wondered the same thing, Asami. Everyone watched as the man smiled.
“I’ll have to commend you for doing this well…” He simply wiped the dirt off his otherwise bare body. “I cannot let you proceed any further.” He suddenly raised his arms. Everyone was confused as to what he was doing. Touta looks up to see something unpleasant heading their way, and fast.
“There’s meteors descending on us, guys!” That confirms one of my suspicions on this guy not holding a Philosopher’s Stone. As Hohenheim used his Philosopher’s Stone to repel the meteors crashing down on them, but could only destroy a few of them; Teach created a dome to protect everyone nearby, while Al helped. Even though they destroyed some meteorites, it wasn’t enough, as the speed and force of the meteors had overwhelmed them. Before long, one of the meteors had collided to the ground next to Al. The force of the impact had caused my little brother to lose his footing at a critical moment; one of the meteors crashed onto him, destroying his entire armored body in the process before all of meteors collided into the earth, two or three of them hitting the dome Teach had made to protect the others, prompting her to reconstruct it again.
“Alphonse!” Hoheheim cried out in horror as turned to his destroyed body. What am I gonna do now that the blood seal’s destroyed? I would’ve given that Gill bastard everything I’ve got if I was there. Angry that destroyed Al’s armored body, Hohenheim turned to the red-and-blue man “You’ve made a terrible mistake…” He unleashed numerous constructs at the angelic-looking man, who unleashed his wings to counter the attack and destroying Once Teach un-transmuted the dome, they, most notably Teach, witnessed what’s happening, mostly in regards to Al’s destroyed armor, then turned to the angelic figure fighting Dad.
“You’ll deeply regret hurting my student.” In a quiet fury, Teach walked up to our father and joined in him, with the others preparing to close in on him; Touta, nearly ran up to the man in an instant as if to attack him in the middle of the crossfire, only to disappear from the bastard’s sight. This distracted the red-and-blue guy, allowing Dad and Teach’s constructs, in addition to Tenzin’s air-bending, to hit him. He felt a stab from behind a minute later, revealed to be from Touta with his blade, allowing Hohenheim, Teach, and Tenzin to stop their barrage. Too surprised by Touta’s impalement, he coughed.
I underestimated these people… a small trail of blood slowly trickled from his mouth. This Gill crook doesn’t seem to be too heavily fazed by the stab. Touta pulled the sword away from the man’s body, moving away from him. Trying to shake off the stab wound, he sets his eyes on the group. “You’re better than I thought… Allow me to show you-” To everyone’s surprise, he was interrupted by a cannonball from the right side, knocking him away from everyone.
What the heck? That’s a cannon! Someone must’ve fired it, but who? Asami looked around, with everyone else following suit before focusing on the remaining small number of those cyclops monsters.
As Touta and Tenzin dealt with the last of them, the former pondered something. We were all so focused on that man I’ve only gotten a glimpse of the person with their hands on the ground somethi- He stopped there as the realization hit him. As the two of them finished eliminating the last of the mannequins, a person in robes ran towards them, coming from the direction the cannon was fired.
“Is everyone okay?” Everyone turned to the mysterious figure.
“Are you the person who shot that cannon?” The Teacher was the first to ask. The figure nodded. “Thank you. You saved us and the people in the House of Mentalism.”
The figure chuckled. “I should thank you for going along with the act, Teacher.”
Teacher? The last word had surprised my teacher and everyone else. The realization would hit them before the figure removed the hood of their robe to reveal their identity, surprising everyone, especially Teach and Hohenheim.
“Alphonse?” It was all Hohenheim could muster. I wouldn’t believe it either. How is that even possible? “Your soul should’ve been gone when that meteor destroyed the blood seal on your armored body.”
Al, now in his human body, smiled. “I’ve only bonded part of my soul into the armor before implanting the blood seal into it.” This ploy worked better than I thought. At some point before Team Rainbow Rocket attacked the Pantheon, Al had told me he learned a way to bind a part of his soul into the armor, and while I believed that to be ridiculous, it blew my mind that he was able to retain control of his human body while controlling the armored body as well. We had to tell this to Colonel Mustang, who saw a tactical use to this and suggested my brother practice the technique to a more proficient level. Winry, of course, witnessed this at another point in time prior to the attacks. I had to convince everyone in the Pantheon that I completely bounded his soul into the armor again to fool the homunculi, but a good amount of deities seem to see through this. All of our other friends deemed it outrageous initially before some realized its uses as well. Given that the Chief Major had figured out Guile and his friend Nash had been answering to Bartlet without exposing him, it’s only a matter of time before she and their group discover our secret too.
Having taken in everything Al told them, Tenzin smiled. “A very clever move.” Enough to fool everyone, I might add.
Asami sighed in relief. “It’s just the surprise we needed. Let’s get back to Beifong before we get ambushed again.” After the assault from that undead assassin, those mannequins, Juri Han, that cyborg Bryan, and now some holy weirdo with red and blue paint on his body, yeah, it’s high time they regroup with Beifong and the Chief Major.
“Go on without me.” Hohenheim offered. “I’ll find a way to infiltrate Homunculus’ temple.” That worked out totally well when Me, Al, Teach, found him restrained by his old enemy. Whatever, we still have that bastard Alucard, and if that grim reaper decides to join us, we might be able to win this fight. Off the Western Philosopher goes. While everyone else headed back to Beifong and the Chief Major.
…
In another part of the pantheon, that angelic figure regained consciousness. How is he still moving perfectly fine after taking that cannonball to the left side of his body? It’s a shame I must be forced to fight these mortals. Their desires, however, are worthy of respect. He wiped the dirt off his bare body. Before he could think of anything else, someone approached him.
“That cannonball should’ve killed you.” The holy weirdo turned to see that strange officer who beat Nash and his group to that ‘Murderist Extraordinaire’ Bartlet assigned them to recruit.
“They should be merciful that I held back.” He replied. “Two of your homunculus friends would admonish me for the destruction of such a house.”
The strange officer shrugged. “No use of anything destroyed. Can’t fault you for that one, Mr. Emperor.” What is this Gill crook an emperor of anyway? “Seeing you in action, High Command still needs you to prevent those State Alchemists from stopping their plans. The immortal gentleman finds you too powerful to pass up on such a goal.”
The divine wannabe stopped a minute before he made his choice. “Very well… get me out of this place.” The officer touched him on the back, disappearing from their current location. That immortal gentleman the officer spoke of, will he join the Ouroboros in this fight as well?
Sinister Clue
Papers inside HQ have been printed. Chief Major and Chun-Li went to get the papers and read the list of ten names before handing them out.
Roa… Dolcetto… Martel… Bido… Darius… Jerso… Zampano… Heinkel… Millia… and- The Chief Major stopped as she read the last name. Right… After reading the list, the two women hand everyone the copies of paper.
“Strange names…” Ishikawa commented.
“Good. The papers have been printed.” Greed grinned collecting a copy. “All we have to do now is wait for the Armor boy to come here, inform him what we’re doing, and head out to my bar.” After everyone nodded in agreement, the door to HQ suddenly opened. Everyone became quiet, preparing themselves for the worst. Footsteps became closer every minute. The tension died down as soon as the visitors were revealed to be Asami, Beifong, Touta, Tenzin, and last but not least, Al, in human form. Greed, the other Majors, and Section 9 stared at the latter for a good minute, not recognizing him for a minute, until…
“About time you showed yourself as a human, Alphonse.” …Section Nine has seen through the lie. Not really surprising, though.
Al merely shrugged, knowing we couldn’t hide our secret any longer. “Where’s Brother?”
“He went out looking for Winry since he told us she has been missing.”
“Winry’s missing!?” Both Al and Asami yelled in disbelief.
“She failed to answer the phone as he called her several times after we came back from a fight with Esdeath.”
“I’ve sent Mako and Bolin to help your brother since you were away.” Beifong added. “James Rhodes should be with them as well.”
“Better them than doing it alone.” Asami sighed, taking a seat after everything they’ve done.
The Chief Major turned to my brother. “So, Alphonse… Have you met your father?”
Al nodded. “I’ve met him. He told me something about Crests of Blood in living form before leaving on his own.” Greed’s face grew serious when this piece of information was mentioned.
“Crests of Blood? You’re sure that’s exactly what he said, right?” The Avaricious inquired, sounding quite urgent at that.
Alphonse looked at Greed, his eyes widening in realization before narrowing in seriousness. Understanding exactly what those words meant, my little brother soberly nodded. “Yes.”
“Dammit! We were told about living experiments earlier. If that’s what they are, we’ve been a few steps behind!” Greed suddenly stood up, ready to go. “We’ve got to get to my bar as fast as we can. That father of mine’s going to re-enact what happened in my world, and there’s no telling how many souls he’ll try to snag this time!” Greed rushed out of HQ, with everyone else following him quickly after getting their equipment, getting everyone on several vehicles. Chief Major Kusanagi then contacted every party to relay the information Al had given to the group.
“This is an urgent call from Chief Major Kusanagi to all parties against High Command! Come to the House of Power as soon as you’ve gathered the papers!” Everyone rushed out of the House of War for Greed’s bar. Damnit… getting those four chimera ex-henchmen of Kimblee’s as our heralds would have prevented Winry from being captured.
Underground Blitz
Back at Bartlet’s temple, Liz Lemon served the president a cup of hot coffee before sitting down. “Here’s your unsweetened coffee, sir.”
“Thank you, Miss Lemon.” He smiled, taking a small sip before putting it to the side. “That’s a refresher after handling some affairs. I appreciate the beverage.” His smile partly fades shortly afterward. “I contacted our friend George Sears a few minutes ago. We exchanged short details about each other’s plans, so he knows about Guile and Nash’s operation.” Who’s George Sears? Just how many friends does this guy have?
Liz’s positive attitude disappeared as she sat down. “What is he up to now?”
Bartlet’s smile disappeared completely, “A secret black ops mission he’s been conducting ever since he helped those teenagers attack Führer Bradley.” He turned his head to the window before turning back to Liz.
“Will he be helping out with the temple bombings?” His secretary asked.
Bartlet lowered his head. “I don’t know. If he does, I hope he brings his men with him as well.” If he wasn’t against Bradley and the bearded bastard, this Sears person would be someone I’d have to deal with down the line. The President leaned back on his chair. Liz stared at the religious President.
Why doesn’t the President just gather all the members here at his temple and formulate a plan? Great observation, Ms. Lemon. It would’ve been a good idea, and I’d be pissed at Guile for not telling us about this guy sooner, but considering what happened so far, things have worked out slightly better than we expected. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a rumbling on the ground. “Did you feel that, Mr. President? The forecast never told us of an earthquake today.”
Bartlet turned to his secretary while the ground beneath them started shaking again. “We’re under attack. Ms. Lemon, bring out the Lightsaber Ms. Tano has given you while I make a call for the Secret Service.” At the President’s suggestion, Liz activated the lightsaber while Bartlet quickly brought out his phone and called the guards. Just before the guards arrived, however, the ground broke through, right behind his desk. The culprit jumped through the crack and went feet-first through the desk, completely breaking it apart as he hit the ground so hard that it shook again. Bartlet and Lemon looked horrified at the sight before them: a gigantic, hyper-muscular, pale-skinned man, if he can be called that, with black pants and chest straps, and red nodes running down his right eye, cheek, and upper arm. I remember becoming acquainted with this monster at Fort Briggs. Why is it still serving that Bearded Bastard who didn’t mourn for his ‘children’? Seems even they’re pawns in this as well. The President’s bodyguards arrived and immediately shot bullets at the bulky monster, only to have no effect. As he and Ms. Lemon stood behind the guards, the latter hastily extended her hands toward the lightsaber. The lightsaber, surprisingly, lifted up. The Jedi apprentice guided the saber telepathically to the monster standing before them. As she was too frightened by the sudden ambush, the saber started spinning, resulting in a cut across the muscle-bound creature’s back. Unfortunately for her, red sparks had undone the cut, healing the monster. The monster, revealing himself to them as the homunculus Sloth, turned around to face his attackers. He slowly walked up to the ‘Secret Service’ bodyguard.
“Don’t let that monster get near the President!” They’re in for a very unpleasant surprise; before any of them could come to the President’s side, Sloth ran at the protectors at a speed faster than any muscular human should be running, and quickly knocked everyone, Bartlet and Lemon included, into a wall, unconscious. Once the guards were down, the Indolent Homunculus sets his sights on the downed Bartlet and Lemon, approaching them. “Must kill… the West Wing President…!” Just as he was about to kill the both of them, the floor he was standing on shot up suddenly and hit him in the face with enough force to stun him for a short time. During that short window of time, however, the Indolent Homunculus felt a quick stab. An annoyed Sloth turned around to see a certain pair, one of them being a shirtless, muscular man in military uniform, and the other one who impaled him earlier was a woman (also in the same military uniform) with blonde hair, someone I wouldn’t mess with, even if she called me short.
“So this is where you’ve been digging…” The female said coldly. She shifted her eyes away from Sloth, looking at Bartlet, Lemon, and the Secret Service guards, all unconscious, before turning back to her enemy. “I don’t know why they sent you here to kill these people, but Alex and I will drive you out of this place!”
The other one, Major Alex Armstrong, got into a fighting stance, ready to fight the monster again. “This brilliant encore will fare the same as our first encounter!”
The indolent giant took one look at the pair and groaned. “Such… a pain…”
Mechanic’s Rescue Trail 2
At separate points, me and the Ferret Brothers have eliminated small groups of mannequins; While they were together, I had to do it alone first, before getting help from other deities. I called the Ferret brothers, and then Rhodes, with my cell phone to meet up at the House of Craft for anything on that Equalist leader. I still can’t believe we have such devices now. Six minutes later, I arrived at the destination point slightly exhausted, though they had already beaten me to the destination point, though not by much, given Bolin’s shortness of breath. “Did you guys find anything on that criminal?” I asked them.
The younger Ferret brother slightly regained his breath to respond. “We’ve looked everywhere…! Still no sign of Amon or his Equalists…”
“They’ve covered their tracks well…” I commented.
“He’s wise to loot a burning house while we’re in the middle of dealing with High Command.” That’s a nice way of putting it, Mako. With me and Al occupied, anyone would’ve exploited my wife’s vulnerability.
I stomped the ground in frustration. “I’ll give that bastard a fist to the face once we find him…” That rage turned into anguish, more particularly at myself; I’ll have to spend some with the people connected to my teammates a little more.
Mako crossed his arms, sighing. “After dealing with those monsters before coming here, I’ve started piecing together why he’d capture your wife. We need to find a lead fast.”
Ever since we exited HQ, I’ve been wondering the same thing, in addition to a few things: If this Amon is working for High Command, what would he gain from them in exchange? If he isn’t, then what is he trying to accomplish? My mind trailed off to those thoughts. Before I could come up with a possible explanation, Rhodes arrives, slowly descending into the ground with his foot-jets, placing them as close to the ground as possible to land safely.
“Anything on those crooks?” The soldier asked.
Mako nodded his head horizontally. “We’ve doubled-checked some of the houses. None of them have a trail on Amon.”
Reigning in his frustration, Rhodes sighed. “I’ll take to the sky and see if I can spot ‘em.” He takes flight, greatly moving upward to search the pantheon for the Equalists. Let’s start with- His thoughts stopped when he discovered the House of Music to be destroyed and everyone evacuating the area. Woah… Dead end. He then turned to the deities evacuating the temple, led by who appears to be Lieutenant Yayoi, judging from those hair ornaments. Why is she wearing different clothes? I’ll find out another time. He continued his search, laying his eyes on the House of Philosophy, where he saw a temple burning. Moving closer to the house without getting detected, he discovered there were those one-eyes and the not-so-natural vampires Vash’s group fought are overrunning it. I don’t know what made these monsters burn such a temple, but it’s something that could help us find Fullmetal’s wife. I really hope the same. Before could return, he noticed the battle between Vegeta and Raditz from afar. Not good. I better get to safety before my armor takes damage in the crossfire. Having made his decision, the Armored Avenger returned to the House of Craft, descending down to us.
“Did you find anything?” Bolin asked, yawning afterwards.
“Two landmarks of destruction are what I’ve found.” His answer briefly left us confused before clarifying. “A large part of the House of Music has been destroyed, and a temple in the Philosophy House is on fire.”
We couldn’t believe what the black soldier told us; one House was destroyed, and the other had a temple on fire.
Did High Command do this? I thought with a sense of dread. It’s insane that it all happened so suddenly; it’s something they wouldn’t have a problem doing.
“So we’re out one lead, leaving us with one other House.” It was at this time Mako had seemed to discover something.
“You three should follow my lead.” The three of us nodded, ready to leave; before we could fully depart, a small group of those cyclops monsters, five to be exact, were marching towards a few deities near the temple. Thinking they were defenseless, we rushed to save them. Before Rhodes could blast them, a blonde woman shot down two of them in the head with a shotgun, to our surprise. The armored soldier came in afterward to blast off the heads of the ones down on the ground. Mako used his fire bending to burn off the heads of two cyclops monsters, rendering them unable to eat anyone and drop dead.
The last one tried to attack the muscular, rough-faced man with scars and bandages guarding the other deities, only for the latter to hold it by the throat with his left hand. Before I advised him to take out the head, the man, still holding the monster in place, went to a wall next to the house and repeatedly slammed its head into it before it was reduced to a mushy remnant. I grimaced in horror as I witnessed the brutality. If that had been a normal human, I’d stop him then and there. After he was done, the man tossed the body to the ground and turned to us. “Thanks for helping us out. Couldn’t have cleaned this mess without you.”
Bolin, in particular, seems to recognize this thug. “You’re that Marv guy… You’re not here to beat up anyone or cause any property damage, are you?”
“Why would I do that when these freaks are trying to kill people?” Marv brought up a good counterpoint, causing Mako to place his hand on his palm, exasperated at his brother’s foolish question.
“Just asking.” He looked sheepishly at us, as if wondering if he made himself a bigger idiot than he already would have. “Right. See ya later.”
“Wait.” We stopped to turn to the Blonde Woman. “Before you leave, have you guys seen Buffy?” That famous vampire hunter? Is she missing too?
Mako was the one to reply. “We’ve found no sign of her yet…” The woman’s question made him think of Korra. “Besides, I’m looking for someone else as well.” Rhodes stepped in, placing his hand on Mako’s shoulder before turning to the blonde woman.
“If we find the Slayer, we’ll make sure to let the House of Justice know.” He turned to us. “We need to leave, boys.” Nodding, we departed the House of Craft.
Battle At The West Wing: Part One
Major Armstrong and Sloth fought, with the Major having landed a few punches in the abdomen before getting the Indolent Homunculus with an uppercut. “If you are seeking the enemy you should kill for the sake of revenge with regards to your own death in Central, then never mind targeting the defenseless!” Sloth attempts a grab, only to be countered by an alchemical spike through his abdomen. “The ones who eradicated you back then carry the might which has passed down to the Armstrong Line for generations!” He gave the muscular Homunculus two moderate punches to the chest before hitting him with a fierce punch that knocked to a wall. Nice one, Major!
“Revenge…? Death…?” Recovering from the wounds, the Indolent Homunculus looked at the two, not recognizing either of the Arrnstrong siblings.
…
The words made him remember a meeting he and the other Homunculi had with the Bearded Bastard at his lair, announcing his plans of killing us. Envy laughed, being thrilled at the thought of such a callous action.
“At least I get to enact revenge on that Flame Alchemist for killing me…” Despite having the same goal, Gluttony and Sloth were indifferent, while Lust and Bradley, who would’ve wanted the same thing, were more annoyed. The Homunculus leader remained undeterred by this, however.
“We’re doing this so our plans will succeed unhindered, not for vengeance. I’d suggest you don’t indulge in your violent impulses too much this time, Envy.” Hmm, that might explain Envy not instigating any chaos at Johto when Spider-Man found him there. Bradley stepped up, voicing his concerns.
“While Envy’s notions of revenge are in alignment with mine, I suggest we don’t kill them, but impede them instead.” Lust nodded, picking up on the context of the conversation.
“Deities are repairing the pantheon after the mayhem caused by the evil fairy. The State Alchemists are still a threat, yes, but some of their new friends have ways to bypass our shells.”
Knowing that the GUAG have guys with powerful magic, possibly enough to nullify the power of the Philosopher’s Stone altogether, the Bearded Bastard had a few minutes to consider his ‘children’s’ opinions before having his say. “Very well… We shall fight them to slow down their efforts. We cannot allow those who foiled our Promised Day before to do so once again.”
…
Back in the present, the Indolent Homunculus had managed to land a punch to the left side of Major Armstrong’s chest and come up with another punch to the abdomen, only for the Major to dodge it enough to only graze it. Trying to shake off the wound, the Major retaliated with a right uppercut to the jaw, with a left hook to the right thigh, slightly making the bulky Homunculus stagger for a little while, allowing Olivier to stab him twice, the second was deeper than the first. As she backed away, Ms. Lemon regained consciousness, witnessing the fight before her. Right… That musclebound, humanoid monster ambushed us. The President… She looked around for Bartlet, who slowly regained consciousness. The… Star Wars fan, rushed to the President’s aid, getting him to safety.
“Ms. Lemon… Are you okay?” He asked weakly as she helped him up.
“Yes, sir…” She helped by her shoulder. It’s during this time that Major General Armstrong noticed the two moving to safety.
“Alex, two of the victims are alive! Keep the monster occupied while I protect them!” She moved in a position between Sloth and the two West Wing staff members as the latter two went into another room, helping the President up along the way. Bartlet and Lemon looked at the Major General before turning to each other.
“The Armstrong siblings? Who called those two here?” Bartlet asked her in a low tone. Major Guile and Captain Nash couldn’t have told them about us. He then turned to Ms. Lemon. “Ms. Lemon, did you send them here?”
“I didn’t contact them, sir.” Ms. Lemon responded as she too tried to recover from her wounds. “Does Sears know something about all this?”
“He never warned me of an Ouroboros ambush happening.” Bartlet paused as a realization had come to him. The monster… He turned to the Major General, who stood in front of them. “Ma’am… How did you know I was here?”
Olivier turned her head, having her eyes meet Bartlet and Lemon’s. “I didn’t. Someone gave us readings on underground activity being spotted here, so we tried to intercept.” That Honnouji leader mentioned something about the Major General to Colonel Mustang at the latter’s temple.
…
Major General Armstrong was in the entrance of the House of Celebration, carefully looking for people to help defeat the Ouroboros again, but found no luck. Knowing people are helping in the process of repairs, she let out a sigh, resigning to her failure. I won’t find much success in this House anyway… Just as she was about to leave, she felt something rumbling in her pockets. She reached for it, revealing her phone, seeing the caller ID as “Satsuki Kiryuin.” She responds. “Olivier Armstrong speaking?” When did they become friends, by the way?
“Major General, I’m sorry to interrupt your evening, but I’ve come to tell you something since my Elite Four are busy helping with the repairs. My data collector has discovered underground activity heading for the House of Faith. I have no idea about the source, but I figure you might know.”
Hearing the description of the activities, she realized who’s behind it. “I have an idea who it is. I’m going to call my brother and head there immediately.” She hung up the phone and ran out of the House of Celebration, calling her brother, Major Armstrong as fast as she could.
…
Major Alex Armstrong looked around the House of… Beast, to look for a partner. Considering what happened to those officers who shot Sloth at the President’s office before they arrived, this is a smart idea, or at least it would be, but why the House of Beast of all places? He looked around, only to have no success. Funny animals working on repairs, or those that have their own business to deal have a lot to do with it. The Strongarm Alchemist sighed. Seems I’ll have to continue my search in the House of Personal Appearance… Just before he decided to leave, he felt his phone vibrating in his shirt pocket. He reached for it and answered. “Major Armstrong speaking?” The voice on the phone didn’t just quickly surprise him, but what she told him.
“Alex, a certain old enemy of ours is planning an attack from underground. Meet me in the House of Faith immediately.” She ends the call. The Strongarm Alchemist left the House of Beast without uttering a single word.
Lured To a Witch
Raditz struggled to hurt Vegeta, only managing to land a few heavy hits on him. It didn’t faze the Saiyan Prince too much, considering the difference in power between them. Raditz distanced himself from Vegeta, throwing small bits of energy blasts at the Saiyan Prince, all of which he blocked while only barely slowing down. Still not enough to harm him! Looks like I’ll have to resort to plan B before I tire from Super Saiyan 3. Raditz continued to fire energy blasts at Vegeta; this time, the Saiyan Prince deflected some of the blasts and let himself get hit by the others, knowing such energy blasts won’t slow him down. This annoyed the Saiyan Prince.
Tch… Choosing to run from a fight you started… You’re going to finish this fight like a true Saiyan Warrior! Vegeta chased down Raditz, who ran away from his former prince, smirking.
Alright, all I have to do is lead him to the House of Magic. Hooray for alchemical repairs to that house, but why there, I wonder? Nevertheless, the Saiyan Prince launched small blasts of energy, hoping to slow down his former minion, who evaded most of them while only getting hit by a few of them, but tried to shrug off the pain. He turns around to fight him again, in an attempt to hit him, all of which has failed as the Saiyan Prince caught his punch, then countered with a punch to the stomach and a kick that sent him flying to the House of Magic. Despite being knocked into the area, a smirk grew on his face. Good… Just where I want him to be. With the last remaining energy, he powered down, having exhausted himself of Super Saiyan 3, with his former superior descending into the ground. This can’t be a coincidence.
“If you think taking our fight to this place was a good idea, Raditz, then you’re a fool to waste your energy running from me.” He then noticed the grin on Raditz’s face. “That smirk won’t be on your face for long.” He extends his right arm, lifting his hand as it forms a green ball of energy, brightening up a second later. “I don’t have time to play with you anymore, so it’s time I end this! Final Shi–” Just as he is about to attack, felt himself frozen in his tracks. What the hell’s going on? Why can’t I move? Vegeta found himself unable to move a muscle, with the green energy ball fading. Who could’ve done this? I wonder the same questi- Oh no. Bradley has a temple in this House; I have a very bad feeling about this. The culprit was revealed to be a female figure, one with white hair and purple markings on her face, wearing a red coat with black wings behind her back. She approached Raditz.
“Dragging your former prince to this place was easier than I expected, Saiyan.” The woman, or rather the sorceress, Ultimecia commented as she turned her attention to Vegeta. “He’ll do nicely for their little project.”
A surprised Vegeta looked on in confusion at Ultimecia’s presence. Project? What is this woman rambling about? And just who the hell are ‘they?’ I don’t like where this scenario is going.
Mechanic’s Rescue Trail 3
We wiped out a few more Mannequins before arriving at the House of Philosophy, making our way to the area where the temple was on fire. If Winry’s inside, I’m gonna pummel the people responsible for this. Once we arrived, the temple was still on fire, but the flames slightly dissipated. I’ve passed by this temple three times, and it looked like one of those vampire castles you’d see in a novel illustration.
“I’ll check the temple to see if Winry’s inside. You three should look for the Equalist leader while you can.” I nodded as the Armored Avenger began his flight to investigate the burning temple inside, but read the temple of the name. What a whopper of a surprise. Never thought the burning temple happened to be that brother of Dante’s. Who burned this temple? I’d be curious to know as well, but it isn’t my concern. As the War Machine went inside the temple to investigate, the Ferret Brothers and I looked around the House of Philosophy, looking for a lead on Amon’s hideout. As we split up to cover more ground, Mako recognized a masked person with green eye lenses walking around the house.
That’s an Equalist goon, alright. He made us huddle together, forming a plan. “One of the Equalists is here. Amon must be close.”
“Alright,” I affirmed myself. “I have a good idea what to do here.” I transmuted the ground quickly after Mako and Bolin walked ahead of me. Hand constructs have slowly and subtly started to rise near the feet of the Equalist minion. Before the goon could realize what was beneath his feet, Mako distracted him with his firebending, not intending to aim at him. This enabled my construct to catch this Equalist’s ankles.
“Why can’t I move!?” He looked down at his feet to see them caught by my hand constructs. The three of us walked up to the Equalist goon and started interrogating him. Mako was the first to talk.
“Alright, I’ll make this short for you, Equalist. Where is your leader, Amon? Does he have a temple here?”
“As if I’m going to tell you benders where our great leader is located!” Of course this guy would be stubborn. That’s not stopping us from getting our leads. As we tried to get answers out of him, another man, this time more delicately dressed than the Equalist, witnessed what was happening and approached us.
“Is there a reason you’re bindi-” He stopped, turning to the Equalist grunt, seemingly recognizing the attire. “I’ve seen this outfit before… of course. Those anti-power militant muggles must have accosted someone again.”
The three of us, me especially, couldn’t believe what we heard from the old man. “You know these people? Tell us where their leader is!”
“Very well, I’ll show you. It’s not far from where we are.” The well-dressed man led us to Amon’s temple. Hang in there, Winry.
…
Inside the guy’s temple, Winry was in the cell, on her knees, severely exhausted (both mentally and physically) from all the work on the ‘automail’ Amon had instructed her to build based on blueprints he had given her at some point. There’s no way she’ll succeed at something this advanced. Apparently, they’ve given her breaks with food and drinks in between rounds. Once we find the temple, I’m going to have Rhodey send her to my temple for safety after this Equalist leader is dealt with. Two grunts walked up to her cell, opened the door and approached her, having noticed she’d almost finished the arms.
“Not too bad on the arm improvements.” One of the grunts commented at the progress Winry had made so far. “Amon will be coming here shortly to see what you’ve made so far.” Winry couldn’t fully fathom why this Equalist leader would want to kidnap her of all people to do this, and not someone more skilled in the art. Come to think of it, it’s becoming obvious now; they would be undone in the act if things went differently. The three of them heard footsteps coming their way. The two grunts turned to see Amon, more armored than aided by two more grunts carrying leg parts. The anti-bender closely inspected the progress my wife had made.
“Good. There will be jetpack parts coming here, so you’d best start building the legs immediately.” The two given Winry leg parts before turning away, all before she could ask them anything. As Amon and the two guards closed the cell behind them, a loud noise emerged. The Equalist leader did until another loud sound came to their ears. “Close in on the woman! We can’t let our project come to waste!” The Equalists prepared for the worst; two of the Equalist took point, wanting to see what happened outside their vicinity. Amon slowly walked back to Winry, not wanting to lose the captive. He waited for the goons to come back, but there wasn’t a response; what came to was not his henchmen, but myself and the Ferret Brothers, thanks to the old man who pointed us. Winry was delighted to see me.
“Ed!” She cried in relief.
“Get your hands off my wife, you jerk!” I yelled. My rage at its breaking point at the sight of her being captive to a terrorist. He ignored me, turning his attention more to Mako and Bolin.
“So we meet again, benders of Republic City. I see you’ve brought The Fullmetal Alchemist with you. How fascinating.”
“That’s rich, coming from you.” Mako refuted. “Did King Bradley order you to take her hostage?”
Amon chuckled before he gave a reply that surprised us, most of all me. “I have no affiliation with such a monster.” That soothed my worries a little, but it wasn’t enough for me to calm down. “She was just one of the few names we’ve searched that could do some… ‘Mechanic work,’ if you will.” My rage didn’t escalate as I suspected this to be the case as opposed to some other meta-human. He then stared at us for a minute to make an assessment. The Avatar isn’t here… I can take their bending again and they’ll be powerless.
“Figured you’d take a defenseless woman for your cause.” Bolin commented, now serious. I won’t say it out loud, but I’ll give the Equalist leader this: as much as I’ll never forgive the bastard for kidnapping Winry, he picked a good time to kidnap her; if he really worked under High Command like we’ve previously suspected, they’ve would’ve brought their troops to give us a harder time. Transforming my automail into a blade, I rushed towards the Equalist grunts, who dodged the attack. Mako and Bolin backed me up with fire and Earth bending respectively, targeting the Equalists. Bolin’s Earth-bending has gotten one of the grunts I was fighting, taking me with the others, alongside Amon, who grabbed Winry, moved to the side to dodge the attack. Mako anticipated this, following up with a lightning blast to electrocute another Grunt, with the remaining two grunts closing in on the Ferret Brothers and attacking them. While they were fending off the grunts, Mako briefly observed Amon’s attire before getting kicked in the face.
The armor he has is crude, but it seems he has something hidden beneath it…” He focused on defeating the minion; Bolin, after getting punched on the right side of his abdomen, stepped back and casted a small portion of lava-bending, in the shape of small shurikens on the grunt, melting off the clothes, causing the latter to recoil with horror.
“Can’t believe I have to use a small portion of my lava-bending just to get him off me…” Bolin murmured as the grunt watched the clothes melt in horror. Still in commission, the Equalist, slightly deterred by his partially melted clothes, continued his fight with the younger Ferret brother. Just then, two big fists of earth punched the grunts, giving the Ferret brothers the chance to defeat them. As I recovered from the accidental friendly fire Bolin’s earthbending caused, it was now four to one; Amon was now alone with Winry… Is what I would say; he raised his hand to summon more Equalist minions, who revealed themselves and shot arrows at us. Clapping my hand as I ran and leapt to Mako and Bolin, I transmuted the ground to shield us from the arrows. This didn’t last, as some of the Equalist punks used that as a chance to run and move around the barricade and attack us from behind, with Mako and Bolin turning around and defend themselves from the attack; due to being outnumbered, the Ferret Brothers slightly struggled to fight them off. It only got worse when Amon joined in on the attack. I didn’t know what expression he had behind the mask, but it seemed he was eager to make an announcement.
“Officers of Republic City, I shall deprive you of your bending and the Fullmetal Alchemist his alchemy! Right in front of his wife!” It shouldn’t be possible for a bender to take away something of science. Smiling confidently, I turned back to him.
“Go ahead and try taking my Alchemy!” I dared the masked leader. In response, he pressed his attack on us, until missiles attacked Amon and his Equalists; the grunts were knocked away, heavily injured, as did Amon (to a lesser extent), and had part of his armor blown off. The Equalist leader hastily recovered and distanced himself from us, with his goons following suit. We turned to see Rhodey flying down to us.
“Took me a minute to find where you guys went.” Rhodey then turned his attention to Amon, who now appeared to be more nervous than he did minutes ago, more studiously, briefly looking at Winry before returning his focus on Amon, this time focusing on the armor. So he tried to make Winry build powered armor. Not a good idea to get an automail mechanic to do that kind of stuff… He sighed as Amon faced us. “All right, punk. You’ve had your fun capturing mechanics!”
With the Armored Avenger alongside them as well, it’s going to be difficult getting her out of here… Amon mentally surmised.
Battle At The West Wing: Part Two
Sloth continued his assault on the Armstrong siblings, with Olivier having brought President Bartlet and Ms. Lemon away next to the window of a different room from the homunculus while he fought Armstrong. Speaking of which, Armstrong seemed to fare off decently despite taking a few hits in the chest, and two grazed hits on his face, one his left cheek, the other on his forehead. The Indolent Homunculus tried to grab the Major this time around, only for the attempt to fail; With his gauntlets, Major Armstrong tried with enough force to punch Sloth’s right elbow pit to lessen the effectiveness of the grab, followed by a punch to the face, stunning him for a brief movement. Knowing the Homunculus will regenerate from , the Major used this brief moment to step back and, with the transmutation circles on each of his gauntlet, transmuted the floor into spikes, launched toward the homunculus’ muscular abdomen to impale it. The Major slowly flexed his muscles for a moment before collapsing on one of its knees.
Even with Sister’s help, I don’t know how much longer I can stand against this monster… Major Armstrong breathed as he watched Sloth take the spike off his body and began to heal from the wound. Unknown to them however, a certain muscular humanoid mosquito-like entity observed a large portion of the fight through the window on top of a large tree branch with its four legs. Interestingly, it carried a kind of ball with a button in the middle, similar to that of other Pokéballs. How is such a creature so coordinated? It seemed to be impressed with the performance of a currently exhausted Major Armstrong, flexing its muscles.
Back inside Bartlet’s temple, however, Sloth, whose wounds have now regenerated, rushed at Armstrong at a massive speed and tried to tackle him into a wall. The Strongarm Alchemist barely evaded the attack. The Indolent Homunculus stopped and turned around for a bit, having realized he missed his target. Fortunately, this didn’t hurt the President or his secretary, for that matter. Regardless, The Indolent Homunculus was prepared to try again, this time a little slower than the first try. Instead of trying to dodge it, he boldened himself, ready to take the full force of the attack. Just as Sloth was about to close in on the Strongarm Alchemist, the bug stepped into the office, in between the two muscular fighters, and full force of the attack… and then proceeded to throw it high into the sky, an act that baffled the Major. He blinked.
That’s the second time I’ve seen that homunculus get tossed around so easily, and higher than the Curtis lady, at that, too… This one is plausible, since it’s an abominable creature, but how the hell was Teach able to throw that monster around? All the more reason to fear her… Nevertheless, the entity started flexing its muscles at Alex. At first, he seemed puzzled, but smiled. “Splendid! So you wish to have a contest of muscles, don’t you? We shall do this briefly.” Despite how serious the situation is with both Lemon and Bartlet having been attacked prior, he obliged, slowly recovering and flexing his muscles, with the mosquito monster doing the same. As this happened, Olivier returned. She would be baffled, if it hadn’t been for the creature, whom she recognizes.
It’s one of the Ultra Beasts… She looked on as her brother and the muscular Ultra Beast continued their flexing contest for a minute before Sloth came back down to the office. The insect caught the Indolent Homunculus by the neck and slammed him into another wall before going back to Armstrong, handing him a Pokéball. Olivier realized what this meant. It’s choosing Alex as its partner… If he accepts, we’ll have a good asset against the Ouroboros. Sure enough, the major smiled, having previously expressed a search for a worthy partner.
A splendid partner with such refined power despite its looks… I will happily accept this creature. He took the unusual Pokéball and threw it at the Ultra Beast. The ball opened, and the Beast became a light that disappeared into the ball before it closed again and dropped to the ground; the ball then moved around for several moments before a click sound occurred. “From this moment on, we shall face difficult challenges together…” Well, we’ve rescued one of the Ultra Beasts. Despite his kind and peaceful approach, even I think Aang and his friends took on far too bold an endeavor trying to monitor all of them at once. Armstrong let it out of the Pokéball to help him take out Sloth, who slowly recovered. The muscular mosquito nailed a punch with enough force to impale its throat and, with its other arm, an uppercut to the jaw.
…
Just when the Ultra Beast was about to land another hit, two sharp black claws started to approach the West Wing from the outside, one of them at the President, and the other the humanoid insect. When the claws were about to reach the windows, they instead caught on fire, forcing them to stop suddenly and retract. Olivier saw this and gasped as the realization sank in. Wait, that’s…!
“Look at that, Lieutenant. Seems we have some company.” With that familiar deep voice came two sets of footsteps approaching the area, each belonging to someone clothed in Amestrian State Military uniform. One black-haired man, one blonde woman.
“She would’ve notified others about the threat as well, sir.” The woman noted as she looked at the elder Armstrong sibling.
Olivier knew exactly who was here, and the frown that covered her face made it evident she wasn’t pleased to see her rival in the ranks. So, Satsuki warned Mustang too. Of course.
“In that case, we should be grateful. The Armstrongs bought us enough time to focus by intercepting one monster.” Mustang surmised, as he and Lieutenant Hawkeye both proceeded to walk towards the battlefield, stopping when the Colonel stood right alongside the Major General.
“Nice to see you too, you colossal jerk.” Took the words right out of my mouth, Olivier.
“Same here. Now, time to return the favor…” Mustang replied as he tightened his alchemical glove. “…and burn up the other one!”
Speaking of the other monster, outside the building was a scowling Lust, angry that her plan to assassinate Bartlet had only succeeded in giving two of her fingers on her left hand second degree burns. She turned her attention to the perpetrators responsible. Damnit! I remember this flame all too well… It’s time these soldiers learned to keep their noses out of our business! Her claws slowly undid the burns, ready to impale the Colonel and his lieutenant.
Mechanic’s Rescue Trail 4
With Rhodes making easy work of a good number of Equalist grunts, the four of us turned the tide, despite a few wounds we’ve sustained. Amon and his higher-ranked Equalists, however, were still standing, While the Ferret brothers were keeping them occupied, an idea in my head, I turned my attention to them.
“Bolin, let’s make use of the area!” My suggestion seemed to confuse him, mainly because of how I worded the advice.
“Use the area? It’s kind of ha-” He cuts himself, compounded by an Equalist grunt kicking him in the chest. Right. Earthbending. Alchemy. They’re a combo. Picking up on my idea as he recovered, he moved back to me, waiting for Mako to come to us as well. Catching on to our plan, the older Ferret brother began to be one the defensive as he walked slowly back to us, with Rhodes swooping in, flying across us to knock down two of the higher-ranking equalists with lasers. Mako barely managed to get them off him with his lightning-bending, electrocuting long enough to return to us.
Thwarted before any progress was made. I’ll take her elsewhere to continue the process. Amon tried another attempt to make off with Winry, something both Mako and Rhodes picked up on.
“I’m safe! Bolin! Fullmetal! Do it before he escapes with Winry!” Bolin and I did as Mako prompted and used our combined efforts to alter the ground beneath us, overwhelming the rest of the Equalists, enough to prevent Amon from leaving with Winry. Rhodes saw this as an opportunity to fly in and tackle Amon before he could escape. Once we realized that Winry was separated from Amon, we immediately stopped what we were doing. I stepped forward to witness what we’ve done
“We’ve gone too far on this… Crap, we better hurry.” I rushed as we started our search for Winry in what partially looked like a maze me and Bolin had created, splitting up to cover more ground.
…
While we were searching for my wife, Rhodes interrogated Amon, nearly armorless and cornered in a small area with a narrow exit the War Machine had blocked off with his body. “What made you decide to capture Winry Rockbell for your armor?”
The masked leader stayed quiet for a few seconds before letting out an answer. “Ever since Team Rainbow Rocket’s attack, those who weren’t captured took to repairing the Pantheon, restoring it to what it was. And it was the perfect opportunity to get started. I had my interests in one of the robotics specialists but we had to tread lightly. An early capture would’ve blown our cover immediately. With everyone on alert, we needed to find a less… famous mechanic, if you will, for our cause to create powered armor.”
Although this didn’t change his opinion on the Equalist leader, the Armored Avenger did take his explanation into consideration. Even a dummy can see there’s more to it than what he’s telling us. Still, making moves in the shadows like that definitely fits the profile for a terrorist group, and with the various threats keeping all of us busy, the mechanic was wide open. I’ll set Fullmetal aside for a little talk after this. I think I have an idea what he’s going to say. Nevertheless, he then prepared his question. “Did King Bradley pay you to kidnap her?”
Amon nodded his head before giving an answer. “The Fuhrer is none of my concern. I merely wish to cleanse the benders of their impurity.”
“Including the Avatars?” Rhodes asked.
“I will save them for last, but yes, I would eliminate their bending as well.” After he answered his question, he footsteps along his temple, as well as our voices; me and the Ferret Brothers have found Winry, carrying her semi-conscious body.
“Ed… that man… is he gone?” She asked me weakly.
“He is… We’ll get you to somewhere safe. I promise.” I assured her as we escorted her out of the temple. Sensing that Amon would try again to retaliate, Rhodes turned to him and fired a cannon of sound that stunned the Equalist Leader. Due to the wounds he had taken during the fight, he fell unconscious a minute or two later.
That’s one nuisance down… he catches up to us as we evacuate Amon’s temple. As we all departed the temple, Rhodes came up to me, separate from the Ferret Brothers.
“Fullmetal, next time you leave Winry alone, make sure you have bodyguards.”
Remembering my time with Darius and Heinkel protecting me, I nodded. “I know just the two people to make as my heralds.” I assured him.
“Good. Give me Winry to me so I can escort her to the GUAG Medical Division.” I agreed to hand my wife’s body over to the Armored Avenger. Using his footjets, he flies off. I’m relieved Winry’s going to be safe at the Medical Division.
“Now that’s over with. Let’s head back to Chief Beifong. I want to chow down…” Bolin had his hands behind his head, relieved the entire ordeal was over. I took out my cell phone and dialed the Chief Major’s number. I can’t get over how useful these devices are.
“Chief Major Kusanagi speaking?”
“Chief Major, I’ve saved Winry from a group of terrorists. Rhodes is taking her to the Medical Division.”
“Excellent.” She commented with a relieved tone in her voice. “I’ve called Guile to pick you and the Ferret Brothers up. He should be arriving shortly, but has to go on a detour before he takes you guys to the House of Knowledge to get printed copies of a list consisting of ten names you know very well as a password.” I’m glad I could get some rest, but the papers confused me.
Why would we- I paused as I remembered that artificial reaper Envy fooled. Was he the one behind the destruction of the House of Music, prompting Lieutenant Yayoi to evacuate the deities inside? Everything’s happening so fast… “Where are we meeting?” I asked her through the phone.
“Greed’s bar. It’s closed to the public right now so we could all exchange information there.” Fair enough.
“Alright. I’ll meet you there, Chief Major. See you later.” I hung up the phone, and shortly afterwards, a helicopter descended to the ground. “That should be Guile inside that helicopter.” I informed the Ferret Brothers as the plane hovered to the ground. The door opened, revealing not Guile, but another soldier, a black man: Major Jackson Briggs. Talk about a hell of a name. Jax is another soldier the Chief Major has worked with, particularly that one time an army of robots started wrecking havoc around the Pantheon. Tch, just another weird day in this place.
“Boys, get in! We need to get moving!” There was a tone of urgency in the black man’s voice, prompting us to pick up the pace, and what came next surprised us: The pilot wasn’t just Guile, but his friend Charlie Nash.
“Officer Charlie…?” That name was the only thing Mako could utter. We knew Guile was coming, but Major Briggs and Captain Nash were a surprise for us as the plane began to ascend to the skies.
“The Fullmetal Alchemist and the Fabulous Ferret Brothers of Republic City. It’s an honor to share seats with such strong young officers. Go ahead and relax now. Refreshments are on me.” He smiled as we quietly went to our seats, exhausted from everything that happened with the Equalist leader. Guile prepared fresh drinks for us to rejuvenate ourselves.
“Where… are we going now? I asked.
“To the House of Faith.” Guile replied as the plane headed in that direction. I decided not to bother asking too much. How scary is this reaper? I have a sinister feeling he’s a spy for another group of crooks besides High Command and Team Rainbow Rocket. I hope it isn’t something along the lines of this: ‘Hahahahaha! Once we’re done with the Homunculi, I’m gonna take your soul next, Fullmetal Alchemist!’ I seriously hope Ice Jerk is dealing with his brother right now.
The Undermined Prince
Vegeta, the Saiyan Prince, found himself in quicksand against his former underling Raditz and the sorceress Ultimecia, even in Super Saiyan 4, thanks to the latter’s intervention. Vegeta resisted the spell enough to break free, running from a fight he knows he cannot win, even if the thought pains him. Tch! The coward… I’ll have to fight off the sorceress and find a portal to get away from these bastards. He tried to flee from his opponents, but suddenly found himself not being able to move his body again. This gave Raditz, now transformed into a Super Saiyan 3 again, the opportunity to land a punch on his former prince, sending him flying into Ultimecia’s castle.
That witch just possessed my body a minute ago. This is going to be worse than I expected… He let out a yell, breaking free of Ultimecia’s spell, moved as fast as he could, punched Raditz in the stomach, kicked him away, and fired a blast at the sorceress, only for her to cast a barrier. By the time the barrier had come into contact with the blast, it had been unaffected. The Saiyan Prince pressed on, putting more power into the attack. The barrier started to form a crack, something Ultimecia picked up on and teleported behind Vegeta, quickly casting another spell before moving away from him. “Enough of these petty tricks, witch!” He tried to attack her again, but to his horror, he found himself moving slower than normal. I should’ve reached her… What kind of spell did she cast on me this time? He looked around for the sorceress, standing right before him. Powering up, he moved towards her as fast as he could, only for her to teleport away from him. Seeing as the Prince’s movements have slowed down, Raditz capitalized on this, and attacked Vegeta in the stomach in revenge, which was then followed by a series of punches and kicks before landing a devastating hit that knocked him toward the ground.
“Hahahahaha!! Where’s that bravado, now, Prince? Your luck’s about to run out!” Dirty bastard, luring someone to a trap to weaken them… The Saiyan Prince raised his head as he recovered; a realization slowly came to his mind.
Damn that Raditz, running from me, only to draw me into- He stopped for a moment, thinking of the word ‘draw’ …Do those weaklings I encountered earlier want me? I don’t have time to be someone’s lab-rat! As he tried to get up, Ultimecia then decided to cast another spell at the Saiyan Prince while Raditz fired energy blasts at him. Due to the combined force, Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta was overwhelmed by the blasts. Instead of shrugging them off as usual, Vegeta felt himself getting weaker, and more direly, ill. He coughed up blood as he struggled to recover. Why… Why am I getting weaker?
As he struggled to get up, Raditz proceeded to spread his arms. Yellow lights of energy were glowing on each hand before he closed them together, forming an energy ball. Sparks of energy channeled through his body as he aimed at his former superior. “It’s time for you to go to hell, Prince! Now, di-!
“Stop!” This prompted Raditz to pause on the spot. “You fire your sparkly blast, and everyone will know who destroyed this castle!” At first, Raditz considered ignoring the advice before relenting, realizing he could be under temple arrest for blowing up a house.
“Very well, then. Take him.” He canceled his attack as Ultimecia approached the weakened Vegeta (now reverted to his normal form, blue suit, battle armor and all).
She would cast two more spells on the Saiyan Prince before the latter was somehow rendered unconscious. She then turned to Raditz. “I will send him to that man for you.” Wasting no time, the sinister sorceress teleported out of her castle. Raditz flew out of her castle, seemingly relieved he got his revenge over a ‘betrayal’ at Vegeta’s hands. Betrayal…that brings me back to Lust and Juri.
Just who do they have besides the Korean, Shinji Ikari, and this ‘Mad Queen’ they spoke of earlier? There’s also that Murderist Extraordinaire. The other Majors mentioned something about that Schrodinger guy being in cahoots with High Command. He and another woman captured him before Nash and his group found the guy. Where did they take him? Argh, there’s too many things shrouded in mystery at this moment.
Battle At The West Wing: Part Three
With the humanoid muscular mosquito Ultra Beast, Major Armstrong, less exhausted than he was before, turned the tide against the indolent homunculus. Olivier joined in the fight at times, stabbing Sloth with her saber a few times before returning to Bartlet and Ms. Lemon. The Major, with the Mosquito, prepared to unleashed a wave of punches at the homunculus, all of them at a moderate force, ending it with a combined attack; Armstrong transmutes the floor into spikes to impale Sloth at his torso, and the muscular insect at his shoulder, temporarily dislocating it.
“Nice work, partner!” The major gave his new partner a thumbs up with the Ultra Beast doing the same.
…
Meanwhile in her fight against Mustang and Hawkeye, Lust had an easier time, grazing the two soldiers a few times and damaging their clothes, before she let the Ultra Beast she kidnapped do most of the fighting, easily evading the bullets Lieutenant Hawkeye shot and moving in to kick the two soldiers, all of which were too fast for them to dodge properly. This insect is faster than I expected. With movement this fast, I’d argue this insect thing’s faster than even Bradley. The Colonel lands a hit on the feminine insect, only for it to appear unharmed as it stood next to him. Lieutenant Hawkeye saw this as a chance to fire two bullets. The bullets, however, were sliced in two with a kick.
Lieutenant Hawkeye didn’t seem too surprised at the moment. “The sound gave it away.” The feminine humanoid insect proved to be a more difficult fight than they expected. This gave enough time for the Colonel to dodge. Unless the Armstrongs finish their fight against Sloth quickly…
The Lascivious Homunculus watched the fight, blinking a few times in pleasant surprise the light-colored Ultra Beast could handle them both with complete ease. What a goldmine I’ve caught. I’ve only told it to go easy on the soldiers, yet it’s overpowering them. She looked on as the moved fast enough to cut the gun on Lieutenant Hawkeye’s hand. She then turned to the West Wing at Sloth, overwhelmed by the Armstrong siblings. This, she wasn’t too pleased to see. “Sloth, you lazy buffoon! You’re the fastest Homunculus! You’re just going to let yourself be killed by two humans again?!” Hearing his sister, this made him remember a certain incident.
…
Back in Central, Sloth found himself beaten by both the Major and Teach’s husband, Sig Curtiss, before they threw him into the ceiling, following into an earth spike The Major had created afterward. The Indolent Homunculus tried to get the spike off of him, only for his hand to disintegrate. Upon realizing that he’s dying, he gives out, but not before uttering something everyone in the room had overheard. “Am I… dying now? For real? What is dying like? Such a pain… to think about… But such a pain, living… too…” The soldiers watched as Sloth’s body withered away from their very eyes.
…
Back at Bartlet’s temple, Sloth, now remembering his final moments at Central, recognized the Strongarm Alchemist as one of his killers, letting out a ferocious roar, with both Armstrong siblings in a defensive stance.
“I… will not… Die!” Sloth ran toward the Armstrong siblings without warning, aiming a punch in their general direction, only for the muscular, humanoid mosquito to jump in and catch the punch. The siblings tried to move out of the way, with Sloth going for Major Armstrong again, as he chased him into a wall. This time, the Major tried to catch him, his foot digging on the floor. Witnessing its master in danger, the muscular insect quickly recovered, having looked at the Indolent Homunculus. He then noticed Liz Lemon’s Lightsaber in front of him, and threw it at Sloth’s abdomen, distracting the Homunculus long enough and allowing The Major a chance to retaliate, transmuting another spike from the floor to impale his inhuman enemy before rushing back to his partner for a high five, as if he’s tagging him in. While Sloth is regenerating from the wounds. The humanoid mosquito laid a tremendous series of hits on the muscular behemoth; first, it sent the Indolent Homunculus flying into the ceiling with an uppercut. Once Sloth fell from from the ceiling moments later, the Ultra Beast positioned itself beneath him and prepared itself; it punched Homunculus in the back several times, the last of which left his opponent floating momentarily, before throwing a left punch with so much force, it impaled the Indolent’s midsection while carrying it with its right hand. Sloth groaned in pain before its opponent put him down on the floor. It looked around for a moment, until something caught its eye; it witnessed its fellow skinny, humanoid Ultra Beast was overwhelming the Colonel and Lieutenant Hawkeye with Lust. It turned to the Armstrong siblings and approached them, pointing to their soldiers struggling against the Ultra Beast.
“Go, partner! Colonel Mustang is in grave need of your assistance!” The muscular mosquito nodded as it broke off from its fight with Sloth to aid the Colonel against his enemies. Sloth, healing from the earlier wounds, sets his sights on the Armstrongs again. Though by then, Olivier, and to a lesser extent, her brother, have recovered. Olivier looked around the office and spotted a window. This had given her a few ideas.
“Alex, I have an idea.” Her brother closed in on her so she could quietly hear it without Lust overhearing it, guiding her brother to that window. “We lead the homunculus into that window, and once he’s close, we step out of the way so he could fall.”
That’s not an easy matter for several reasons, but given the hostages here, they seem to have no other choice. “An acceptable plan, sister.” Nodding in approval, the Major acted on the idea; he stood in front of the Indolent Homunculus while Olivier moved to the window. The giant behemoth ran toward the Strongarm Alchemist and punched him, but Armstrong sidestepped before catching the attack with both arms. His homunculus opponent tried to pull back and get him with another punch, only for the Major to quickly release him and step to the left side to deliver a few hard jabs in the midsection, prompting the intimidating Homunculus to turn his way and grab him. The Major tried to resist it.
Liz Lemon entered the office, now watching the entire fight, squinting to see the Strongarm Alchemist was slowly giving out against the Indolent Homunculus. That man isn’t going to make it! She seemed like she wasn’t going to make it, but then she remembered something. The President has grenades inside his desk. Alright, just this once… Taking a risk, she quietly rushed past Armstrong and Sloth to reach Bartlet’s desk, a deed witnessed by the surprised Olivier. As the secretary reached his desk, she discovered two grenades in the top desk and grabbed them. Aiming at Sloth, She removed the fuses from the grenades and threw them at him, dropping at his feet. They exploded three quarters of a minute later, making the Fastest Homunculus lose his footing and left him distracted. This gave Armstrong the opportunity to deliver two powerful blows; one was a left hook to the jaw, followed by an even more powerful uppercut, knocking it down. This gave Armstrong enough time to meet up with his sister at the window, though at a slow pace from the injuries he sustained from the fight. By the time the Indolent recovered from the wound, it was furious. Now provoked, it charged at the Armstrongs full force, not knowing of their plan. By the time he got closer to them, the siblings sidestepped out the way, allowing him to run right through the window. I can’t believe the secretary actually helped.
…
Meanwhile outside the office, Colonel Mustang and Lieutenant Hawkeye, despite getting their injuries, had a better chance against Lust than did earlier due to the two Ultra Beasts duking it out. Apparently, the muscular mosquito had the upper hand against the feminine Ultra Beast. Carefully, Lust extended her claws from a distance to stab the muscular Pokemon with one hand while doing the same to Mustang and Hawkeye with the other, something the Flame Alchemist narrowly countered by burning the claws, just like he did when the Ultimate Spear tried to assassinate Bartlet. The burn wounds had made her retract all of her talons, realizing she’s a bigger target with them.
She could’ve killed us easily before Major Armstrong’s mosquito buddy joined us. Mustang observed as he snapped his fingers twice to generate flames to attack Lust, only for her to avoid the attack. Why didn’t she do it immediately?
Lust, however, looking around her environment, tried to think of a strategy to get the Colonel. Hmm, Maybe if I could throw one of the tree stumps at the Amestrian soldiers… Before she could go through with it, a loud thump sound reached the ears of everyone in the area. Lust looked into the office to see that Sloth is nowhere to be seen inside the President’s temple. The idiot failed to kill the President. The Lascivious turned toward the skinny humanoid insect Ultra Beast. “Let’s deal with them later! We need to go!” The light-colored Ultra Beast nodded in approval as they left the area, leaving Mustang, Hawkeye, and the red Ultra Beast to check on Bartlet, Lemon, and the Armstrong siblings.
The female Homunculus rushed to her brother’s location, where there was a broken window outside Bartlet’s office, only to find one of those Abyssal creatures Esdeath brought with her to fight us carrying the Indolent Homunculus. Lust sighed in relief to see her brother alive, but unconscious. “Take him back to Father’s temple. He’ll need his stone refilled.” The creature nodded as it took Sloth away while Lust looked at Bartlet’s temple, with a look of anger that slowly transitioned into relief. The assassination of that President was a failure. At least it buys us time. Another thought came into her head. The Flame Alchemist mentioned ‘a friend of friend’ told him about the Ultra Beasts. We’ll find and kill this informant when we see them. Lust took out a Pokéball. It opened as the female became immersed in light before being recalled inside. That brings another thing: Mewtwo, the Genetic Pokémon, mentioned there were different Ultra Beasts; the two that opposed each other here don’t seem to be the ones Sokka and the Asgardian thunder god described. Grinning, Lust departed the House of Faith.
…
Nine minutes later in the destroyed West Wing, Bartlet recovered, now drinking tea with the Amestrians, having introduced themselves, with the Ultra Beast now in the Pokéball. “I express extreme gratitude that you soldiers managed to find me and save our lives with your resources and connections.”
“Your secretary and my brother’s Ultra Beast helped us out a great deal. If it wasn’t for her, our plan to drive that monster away would’ve failed.” At least the Major General isn’t a prick, unlike Mustang.
Ms. Lemon smiled, finally getting acknowledged for something. Finally, I’m acknowledged as a tough woman! I can’t wait to tell Ahsoka what I’ve done! …Moving on.
“She has some spunk, I’ll give her that. She’s about to be in the process of training.” Considering she was excited to meet that Togrutan lady…
“I look forward to seeing the young woman’s progress.” Major Armstrong smiled. Lieutenant Hawkeye, observed the West Wing President more closely, as if she remembered something.
“Sir, I have a question.” Bartlet’s eyes lit up in curiosity. “Do you happen to be the one who sent Colonel Mustang an anonymous text message by any chance?”
The President was bewildered and unprepared for someone to ask such a question. Given that Guile and Nash couldn’t save him in time, he decided to come clean about the matter. “I wanted to keep my hand in all this classified on a need-to-know basis, but since you four saved my life, it’s time I confess. Yes: I was the one who sent the text to Colonel Mustang for a rendezvous point at a bar in the House of Power.” This admission had made the Strongarm Alchemist come to a realization.
“My god… You’re the ‘secret benefactor.’” Everyone turned to the Strongarm Alchemist as he began to explain. “Guile told me of such a thing. I assumed it was his old friend, but this is quite a surprise…”
Mustang took in everything that was said in the room. How many soldiers does this man have besides those two? I would’ve asked myself the same thing, Colonel. There’s still that Sears guy we don’t know about. Before Mustang could comment on the President’s skills, footsteps were heard, and everyone was on alert, until it was revealed to be Nash.
“Mr. President!! Are you alright!?” The Air Force Captain looked at the President in surprise to see the four Amestrian soldiers were along with him.
“I’m safe now, thanks to these Amestrian soldiers, Captain.” Bartlet replied before Guile and Jax arrived at the damaged office.
“What the hell happened to this office?” Jax looked around before turning to the group. “Did some monster come here and attack the President?”
“One of the Ouroboros ambushed him from underground and tried to assassinate him.” Olivier replied as the events happened.
“Another one, a female at that, tried the same thing from afar. I burned her claws.” Mustang added. “We’ve driven them away from the President.”
Guile smiled in relief as he turned to Major Armstrong. “I guess I owe you and your buddies one for saving the President, Armstrong.”
“I’ll be happy to fight against evils like those monsters and Team Rainbow Rocket!” In his usual fanfare, Armstrong flexed his muscles before looking at the Pokéball. “This Ultra Beast will be a partner… A PROSPECT IN THE ARMSTRONG LINE! FOR GENERATIONS!” Everyone looked at The Major rather stupefied (Olivier seemed more annoyed) before they ignored him, with Charlie pressing a more urgent matter.
“We have a chopper ready with the Fullmetal Alchemist and the Ferret Brothers inside. We need to move and get those papers in the House of Knowledge as quickly as we can. They’ll serve as passwords for that Homunculus’s bar in the House of Power.” With everyone knowing the homunculus he’s referring to, everyone departed the President’s temple, with Charlie, Guile, and Jax saluting to Bartlet before leaving with the others outside, where the helicopter was located with me, Mako, and Bolin sleeping inside the vehicle. Mustang in particular was surprised to see a certain thing about me.
“Fullmetal wearing the Amestrian military uniform… Never thought I’d see the day.” The Colonel muttered to the other three. Don’t you dare think of any funny ideas.
“Same here.” Olivier commented. “Let’s get in.” They all went inside the chopper, with Nash and Guile in the pilot seat to fly the helicopter away. Now all we have to do is get Ice Jerk, collect the papers, and then we head to the House of Power to meet up with Greed.
Weaving Together an Uncanny Alliance
Ahsoka returned to Selena with papers, with the Turbulent Wind following closely behind the pink-haired lady. “I’ve gotten eight copies.”
“You were supposed to print ten copies in case more people come with us to that Homunculus’ bar.” Rashid admonished, placing his hands on his hips with an annoyed look on his face.
“Sorry, but other people here have to do research.” Ahsoka retorted. “Besides, I have a feeling eight should be enough.”
“Are you picking that up from the Force, or some other intuition?” Selena inquired before anyone else could think it. Ahsoka was slightly taken back by the swiftness of that question, though Selena soon sighed, putting her at ease. “Still, can’t complain about being mindful of others here. All Rashid has to do is wait for el capitan to arrive.” She then handed her copies to Rashid.
Ahsoka, meanwhile, started reading the contents of the list. “Nina…who’s Nina?”
“That assassin in purple?” Rashid blurted out in response. This only earned blank stares from both Selena and Ahsoka. “What? There are plenty of women with that name.”
Selena rolled her eyes. “It’s pointless.”
“Here.” Ahsoka turned to Rashid, handing him her copies as he stared at her confused. “I have some other business to take care of.” With that, she quickly headed towards her jet.
“Hey, wait!” Rashid called out, trying to get her attention. To his chagrin, she pressed on anyway, entering her jet and firing the engines. He watched her take off, before looking down to the thicker stack of papers that was now in his hands. “So I’m the guy handling everything now? Sure… Very funny ladies.”
Offended with his complaining, Selena turned to him with a pout. “You are the one who had a butler and didn’t bring him.”
“He’s attending an important conference with Shibasaki and Pennyworth. I’ve already had us take a detour once today, I can’t just do it over and over.” Rashid explained as though he needed to excuse his attendant’s absence. Knowing those two names he mentioned, it sounds like the butlers around here have formed some sort of group with the approval of their masters. Selena sighed in slight annoyance as she looked around, that is, until she spotted a certain group of four of people, two of them consisting of Peter Parker, better known as Spider-Man, and Major Jin Kisaragi, Ice-Jerk as I like to call him. The other two were people I didn’t expect to accompany them; one of them happened to be that cryomancer I encountered in Raven Reyes’ Eligius IV. Hmm, I think I have an idea why he’s with Ice Jerk. The second, more importantly, is Major Kisaragi’s patsy reaper of a brother, Ragna. Aside from the mismatched eyes, he seems pretty normal for a guy with the power to take souls. Now that they’re both here, I have to wonder: Are they called the Kisaragi brothers or something? They look so different from each other. Is he a bigger douche than Ice-Jerk? So many questions about this guy. What caught Selena’s attention, however, were papers in Spider-Man’s hands. She prompted the Turbulent Wind to look her way, also surprised by the papers.
“We’ve retrieved the printed copies.” Ice Jerk commented. “Let’s wait for Major Guile. He should arrive here shortly.” At least they’ve made our jobs easier.
Selena heard the name Guile, having already met him at the House of Faith with the rest of Nash’s group. Then she turned to the reaper, surprised that he’s with them. That’s- recognizing the man, she walked up to the group, with Rashid, also surprised at the man’s presence, followed his comrade. “Excuse me, sirs, may I have a moment with you four?”
All of them faced her, with Parker being the first to respond “Hm? Sure. How can I help you, Miss?”
“Those papers… Do they have a list of ten names?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Ice-Jerk confirmed. “They’re for access to a bar.”
As we thought… Rashid turned to the artificial reaper. “You with the mismatched eyes, you wouldn’t happen to be deceived by a shapeshifter recently, would you?
“I-” The reaper sighed before he continued. “Have, unfortunately. I thought it was the Caped Crusader informing me of an urgent matter. Web-freak here told me it was actually some punk with dreadlocks.” Whatever it is, I’ll find out when we arrive. He blinked for a moment as he looked at them again, as if they’d heard the story without being there. The cryomancer, Lin Kuei Grandmaster Sub-Zero, seemed to pick up on it as well.
“You two seem to know something about this man.”
Knowing they’ve suspected something about Ragna, Selena decides to confess. “An Air Force Captain told us about it.”
Piecing the information together, Parker had come to a conclusion. “Guess we’re all heading to Greed’s bar.” He let out a sigh of relief. “After dealing with Azula and some crazy boot-licker of Esdeath’s in the House of Music, it’ll be a refreshing change to be around friendly faces.” Esdeath delegated a job for Seryu, and Azula happened to come along. Azula and Seryu wanted to assassinate Parker? What exactly did he do? It doesn’t make any sense, unless it’s just Azula being sadistic as usual.
Both the Turbulent Wind and the AS Alegrias pilot looked at each other before the former asked out of curiosity. “Why did Azula target you?”
“Me?” Parker turned to Ice-Jerk and his brother. “She targeted these two, probably to eliminate the weakened winner while the other was down. The whole thing seemed to be devised by an undead assassin.” Sounds like the same guy who fought Al and threw a shuriken in Teach’s thigh. Bartlet and the others talked about him, too. Two teleporters on their side is going to be a problem, especially if they’re both active. Selena and Rashid already pieced all this together. There seems to be a connection here. The only thing left is how the House of Music got destroyed.
The artificial reaper sighed before thinking of something else. “Once I get back to the House of Food, I have to make meals for Ramsay and the others to send for the ruined Easter.” He works as a chef? That’s odd. I’ve never encountered him in my visits to the House of Food. Is he skilled? This weirdly piqued Sub-Zero’s interest.
“That should be quite the culinary test for you, Grim Reaper.” He commented. “You might want to enlist Hanzo and the Shirai Ryu for assistance.” The Shirai Ryu Grandmaster… A rival of Sub-Zero’s. There has been news that they buried the hatchet before those machine criminals attacked. Ragna, however grew nervous, and looked at his brother. I’ll need to redo my hair and probably put an eyepatch on if that friend of his is participating in the event. Who is he talking about? Lieutenant Yayoi? Colonel Pervert?
“Did you destroy the House of Music?” Rashid asked.
Ice-Jerk stepped in to answer the question. “No, it was the Diclonius Lucy.” The name and the description had horrified the two members of Nash’s group. The Bearded Bastard mentioned something about Envy and the Diclonius with that deranged spider. This is only interrupted by Selena’s phone ringing, which Selena picked up.
“Yes?”
“This is Nash. We have a load of people with us and we’re heading your way shortly.”
“Alright. I must tell you that Ahsoka went to take care of something.” She informed Charlie through the phone of Ahsoka’s detour.
“What? Shoot. Did she at least produce copies?”
“Yes. Eight of them.”
This didn’t sit well with the Air Force Captain. “I clearly told her we need at least ten. What happened?”
“She felt uneasy about using too much paper.”
Charlie sighed in frustration through the phone. “So thanks to her detour, we’re short on both copies of the passlist and transportation space. Damn, we may have to leave someone behind after all.”
“I’ll see what I can do to mitigate the problem.” Right after she hangs up the phone, Ice Jerk’s phone rang. He picked it up to realize the caller ID was Guile.
“You’re on your way, Major Guile?”
“We’ll be there in two minutes.”
“Right. We’ll be out of the library in a minute.”
“Check how many copies you guys have with you before you head out.” The Circletop reminded him. “With everyone we have here plus Charlie’s crew, we could be a bit short right now.”
“Roger. See you there shortly.” After hanging up, he decided to check the amount of copies he has. “Let’s put all these together and get going.” The four of them stacked copies and gave them to Rashid, who counted the papers as they left the library and proceeded to the entrance, where a helicopter descended outside. All of us had gotten out of the chopper to meet with them.
“I didn’t expect you to be a member of Mr. Nash’s group, Ms. Recital.” It seems they have something between them, and it isn’t romantic. He flexed his muscles as he walked.
“Have to work under the radar at times like this, Major Armstrong.” Selena added.
Mako went to Parker, going straight to the point. “Hey Parker, do you know where the chameleon’s going?”
Spider-Man shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me. Envy crushed a monster girl to death, and I had to stop Ragna and Jin from fighting.” Why did they fight? We turned to the two… whatever-their-surnames-are brothers. Gah!
“That punk mentioned going to ‘their father’s temple…’” The reaper mentioned. “Wherever the hell that is.”
“The Bearded Bastard’s temple…” I realized, going by his words, also having pieced everything together by this point. “So, Ragna, was it? How did Envy deceive you and turn you against your brother?”
Ragna seemed a little reluctant to answer. “Posed as the Dark Knight and gave me a video of what looked like my brother getting all damned giddy about his intent to cut down our sister. The undead assassin who came up with this prank fought Jin before I did.” So the assassin fought Ice-Jerk too… I’m more surprised that this reaper’s a friend of Batman, despite being a criminal. I wonder what he’s doing right now. Jax, however, knew who the reaper was talking about.
“So the reports from Guile and the President were true. Sub-Zero’s brother is involved with Bradley’s group.” Seems I’m the one out of the loop on this shadowy killer.
“Even if I don’t know who this ‘assassin’ is, that kind of plan is exactly what Envy would go through anyway. Taking the face of a trusted figure, turning people against each other to cause senseless bloodshed. All because he’s jealous of humans and our ability to form bonds.”
The artificial reaper lowered his head. That word again. Bonds… Did I remind him of something?
“Not that his mentality makes any sense, considering our soon-to-be host.” Really nice of you to ignore my point, Ice-Jerk. I would’ve gotten angry with him had he not brought up the ‘host’ as a confirmation.
“So you did talk to Greed.” This immediately brought me relief, considering what it led to in our fight with Esdeath.
“He made a fine conversationalist.” A compliment from Ice-Jerk is not a common occurrence to hear, though not rare. “He gave me valuable information about his siblings, especially Wrath. His perspective on bonded souls being ‘the best type of possessions’ was obvious to read, but still refreshing to hear from such an inhuman creature.”
“That guy tries to make himself seem more complicated than he really is.” I told him. “He just wants to make friends, run a successful business, and share the spoils with a tough lady who can see past all the stupid stuff he says. Everything else is just extra baggage from being a homunculus.”
Bolin stepped in on the conversation to have a say. “Kind of like that Marv thug, except instead of running around killing people, he just runs a bar with shady associates.”
“We have plenty of vigilantes like that around here.” Jax added. “It still doesn’t put them above the law.”
Jax’s remark had made Charlie feel anguished. “I was like that myself once.” He told everyone. “In my world, I pushed everyone away and went rogue to deal with Shadaloo’s leader alone.”
Hearing Charlie’s story reminded the Colonel of something. “That sort of mistake got a good soldier killed.” Ah, Isaac McDougal… A pity he wasn’t more subtle about toppling the Ouroboros.
At least we’ve managed to destroy Bison together. Guile sighed in relief as he listened. “Alright, who’s getting into what?”
“Finally…” Olivier muttered under her mouth.
“Don’t worry about me, guys!” We turned to Spider-Man, wondering what he’s planning. “I’ll just shoot my web and swing my way to the House of Power!” We watched as he departed the House of Knowledge with his webs.
“One less passenger to worry about.” The reaper sighed. “I’ll go ahead with the purple haired lady in her mech.”
Selena gave him a side glance. “Just don’t try anything inside.”
“Like I’m not already in deep shit. I got deprived of a break!” Ragna angrily retorted. “Just want to sleep right now.” Sheesh. Greed and I had our sleep. Now this guy too? Nevertheless, Selena took two papers from Rashid to hand to the artificial reaper before they head for the AS Alegrias.
“Is there anyone else coming with us to Greed’s bar?” Hawkeye asked.
“Cyrax and the rest of the Lin Kuei will be aiding us, as is Grandmaster Hasashi and his Shirai Ryu.” Sub-Zero noted as we headed for the helicopter.
“Considering your brother’s with Esdeath, we could use more numbers.” Mustang added.
As he got in the back seat, Rashid approached to inform of the amount of papers they had. “Things worked out well with the ex-apprentice gone. I just counted the copies, we have enough.”
“Good. We’ll send it to them and anyone else coming to the bar. Time to get moving.” Charlie flies the helicopter off the ground. Can’t wait to meet Al and the others again.
Elite Takedown
Colonel Jade Curtiss exited the House of Combat with some edible food along the way. Now, to find that mutinous homunculus’ bar. As he prepared to walk his way to the destination, his phone started ringing in his pocket. He takes it out and responds. “Yes?”
“This is Warrant Officer Vato Falman! Am I speaking to Colonel Jade Curtiss?” The caller asked for confirmation.
“You’re speaking to the right person. What is it?”
Falman softly cleared his throat through the phone. “I’ve been instructed by Colonel Mustang for you to head for the Toku Base! Vampires and black-colored monsters are attacking the place!” I had a feeling those black things would resurface after Maleficent had been defeated.
Even with help from the Toku Base, Satsuki Kiryuin and her Elite Four can’t fight them all off while protecting them. Considering the circumstances, he made up his mind. “Very well… I’ll be on my way.” The bespectacled Colonel began to make his detour to the Toku Base.
…
The Toku Base… dwelling place of the Pantheon’s resident Power Rangers, Super Sentai and Kamen Riders. At least, it was.
They were a bizarre group, what with their gaudy poses and stances, and their temple was just as strange. Well, it’s what I would say if it hadn’t been destroyed. It’s not enough that those artificial vampires, the same ones that Vash’s group fought, attacked two Houses. Now, they’re attacking the Toku Base. Again.
But there were no dragons or stinglings, neither were those immortal homunculi cyclop freaks. No. They were accompanied by a small swarm of Heartless. Small shadows flanked by long-limbed Neoshadows and bloated Fat Bodies. The same monsters that Al and I fought off alongside Tony, Dresden, that lemur, and a few others. Last time we fought there were only a few of them. Not in this case. An entire swarm had come to the party, and they weren’t the only ones.
Nonon Jakuzure and Houka Inumuta, Two of Satsuki’s Elite Four, defended the members of the Master Builders who are helping rebuild the place, while the other two members, Ira Gamagoori and Uzu Sanageyama tried to fend off the vampires, with the help of Nonon’s troops. Ira had already been a big help, especially after the Rainbow Rocket Crisis, and all four were doing their jobs rather well.
They seemed to have done a decent job. A few Heartless and those artificial vampires had been destroyed. All of this is done with strange, revealing uniforms that wouldn’t be appropriate in public. The Honnouji Army leader herself helped the latter two ward off the sudden attack, as did some of the Toku members. A few Heartless were killed as well.
“Is that the best you can do, you pathetic wastes of flesh?!” Shouted Ira Gamagoori as he slammed a vampire into the ground and knocked its jaw off.
“These black monsters just won’t stay dead.” Nonon said as she struggled against several Fat Bodies. Uzu descended from above, transformed into Blade Regalia, and sent the large Heartless flying into the horizon. Nonon gave a soft smile to her saviour. “Thanks for the save, Monkey. I could’ve handled them.”
“Handle them, my ass,” he responded right back, “those fast bastards would’ve levelled you if I wasn’t here.”
“Hey!” Cried out Houka, desperately trying to hold off a hoard of the white abominations. “I could get some aid here.”
One of the freaks had him pinned against a wall, ready to rip into his throat. But it never got the chance. A swift kick to the head sent it flying into a wall. Houka was freed from the wall, and was greeted by the avian helmet of Gai Yuki, the Black Condor Jetman. “Needed help?” He asked Houka.
He shrugged and responded with, “Sure, I’d like the assist.”
“With pleasure!” The two of them double-teamed against the monster, knocking it back and forth with their respective weapons. Gai cut at its legs and arms with his Bringer Sword, while Houka pummeled it with his fists. The punches were enough to knock the creature’s jaw loose and coupled with the Jetman’s sword strikes, it fell to the ground incapacitated.
“Fascinating attack, ranger.” Houka said, wiping the blood off his hands. “Maybe you guys do have something useful after all.”
“I like to see you do better than that.” He retorted back.
“A challenge is not my concern. We should help the others against these beasts.” The hacker pointed to others, who are doing okay against the Artificial vampires, taking the heartless along with them. A Neoshadow made an attack at the two, lunging at them with blackened claws. But its attack never landed; a massive, blue and black fist slammed against the Heartless, reducing it to mere wisps. Gai and Houka turned to see a large, blue and orange amphibian standing before them, with arms thicker than their bodies.
“Nice job, Swampert!” Ira Gamagoori called out in praise. “You know how to show these creeps who’s boss!”
“Swampert!” The Water-Pokémon responded, flexing its muscles.
Houka rolled his eyes and said, “Swampert was only able to do that because you Mega Evolved it. Couldn’t you have just let it use its natural power?”
“And not take advantage of Swift Swim? Not a chance!”
Satsuki took down a few more of the Heartless before turning to her comrades. “Enough of the bantering. We have to keep these creatures from entering the Toku Base, otherwise they’ll get to the other worlds if the gateways are activated. Now fight harder!” She resumed her defensive post. Her katana flew gracefully and struck hard, cutting down any Heartless and Vampire that crossed her path. With every strike, wisps of shadows and blood droplets went flying, their owners dropping like flies. By the time she finished her ‘performance’, Satsuki was surrounded by a mountain of bodies and black wisps.
“Masterful cutting, Satsuki-sama!” Nonon called out in praise as Toku members supported her. “Let me assist you. Symphony Regalia Grave!” Her attire suddenly transformed, and within an instant, Nonon was piloting a massive, heart-shaped vehicle resembling that of a tank. The woofers built into the tank began to blast out powerful sound waves, sending the monsters off their feet and allowing the Toku heroes to step in.
“We’re doing great, guys.” Called out the Yellow Mystic Force ranger. “But how about we throw some lightning in for extra effect, yeah?” He charged up his crossbow with electricity and shot one of his arrows at the monsters, sending them away. Those who weren’t blown away were taken out by Sanageyama and his Blade Regalia.
“Look at that! The vampires are running from the base!” Ira said, throwing a Fat Body into the fleeing horde.
“Good!” Shouted Gai Yuki. “Now we can finally take this place back. Keep it up. I think we’re going to be back in business.”
But the sense of victory was short-lived. As soon as Gai’s last words left his lips, an arrow flew across the sky and embedded itself in his shoulder, knocking him off balance and sending him to the ground. Shocked by Gai’s sudden injury, several of the Sentai members rushed to his aid while the rest of the Toku looked around for the perpetrator. “You know something? I was actually wanting to aim for the head.” A feminine voice said from the shadows. “But I figured that would be too merciful.”
“So you’re with the High Command too, I take it?” Satsuki pointed her katana to the darkness. “Show yourself, unless you wish to remain a coward!”
Then, a mysterious individual descended from the shadows. It was a ranger, with dark pink and black armor complimented by a long, flowing cape. Her helmet, shaped like a stylized pterodactyl, sported tiny horns facing backward, sported a tattered cape on her back, a utility belt with a holster on the left side, including what seemed like a gun. Present at the assembly, the Toku members drew their weapons, but it was Jason, Trini, and Zack who were the most shocked to see this newcomer’s arrival.
“Kimberly?” Trini muttered. “Is… that you?”
“Yeah, that name’s kind of gone to the wayside. Call me Ranger Slayer now.” She took out another arrow and drew it, letting loose at Joe Gibken, the Blue Gokaiger. He cut through the first one with his cutlass before returning the favour with his pistol. Kim leapt out of the way and shot another arrow, knocking the pistol out of the pirate’s hand. She landed with a gymnast’s graces, but the other rangers were onto her, with Zack swinging his Power Axe at her. She blocked it with her bladed bow, spinning it around and knocking the Black Ranger aside. Satsuki came in fast with her katana but the Ranger Slayer was able to deflect the blade and duel her to a standstill.
“I have to admit. You High Command thugs are becoming an incredible pain in my side!” Satsuki said as she pushed with her sword.
The Ranger Slayer pushed back and said, “Well… looks like that makes two of us.” The two of them clashed. As the Toku members were about to help, the Ranger Slayer leapt out of the way and kept firing a barrage of arrows upon them all. Sparks flew off of those not quick enough to leap out of the way.
Seems we’ll need more force to subdue the Monster. The Honnouji leader turned to Mega Swampert, who chased the brainwashed ranger, who shot another two arrows at the Mud-Fish Pokemon, only to fail. It dodged the first one, only to be hit by the second. Even then, it didn’t slow it down significantly. With the rain pouring around the Toku Base, Kimberly, who was quickly enough to evade the rangers, couldn’t outrun the Mega Pokemon.
“Dang it. This obnoxious Pokemon doesn’t know when to quit. With them around, I-” The corrupted ranger found her colliding into an invisible wall, knocking her on her butt. Groaning, she slowly got back on her feet. “Bloody Green Lantern-” She paused, realizing that the color of the dome is not green, but a darkly, purple. Before she could look around for the culprit, she suddenly found herself slowly able to move a muscle in her body. “My body can’t move…!” Finding herself in the mercy of the Mega-evolved Mud Fish Pokemon and everyone else catching up to it, Kimberly struggled to escape, leaving herself to be grabbed by Swampert, who jumped into the air. With incredible force and speed, the Mega Pokemon performed a pile driver into the ground, powerful enough to leave a small crater. That looks very painful.
“Dear Cosmos…” Trini gasped in horror as she and the rest of the Toku saw Kimberly’s body buried into the ground from the Pile driver. The Pokemon grabbed Kimberly’s legs to pick her up from the ground, groaning in pain from the Piledriver. Some of the Toku members fired their weapons at the Ranger Slayer to ensure they wouldn’t recover. As the corrupted ranger reverted back to her human form. As the rest of the Toku rushed to Kimberly and carried her unconscious body back to the Base, another figure suddenly appeared.
“I’ve already taken care of the escaping vampires.” The figure informed them.
Recognizing the figure, Joe gave a thumbs up. “All the easier for us, Colonel Curtiss.”
“It wasn’t easy to remain hidden in my attempt to trap her inside the dome. It was tricky, but I managed to stop her in her tracks.”
Relieved that the Millennium vampire had been taken care of, the Honnouji leader smiled. “With those Millennium vampires destroyed, are you going to join Mustang?”
“Of course.” Colonel Curtiss then turned to the gravely injured Kimberly. “Send her to the Medical Division as soon as you can.” The Toku nodded as they, in addition to the Honnouji group, carried their fellow member back to the base, parting ways. Gai walked next to Jason, who was carrying Kimberly.
“I looked at Kimberly and I saw this small, sort of strange-looking chip on her back.”
“A chip?” Jason blinked at the information Gokai Black had given him. Kimberly wasn’t a robot, so it wouldn’t make any sense for something mechanical to be attached to a human. It was so unusual that Jason became suspicious. “We’ll have a close look at Kimberly when we get inside.” Gai nodded as they all entered the base to rest and recover. That small device… It belonged to that ‘Immortal gentleman’ that Schrodinger weirdo spoke about; Bradley’s mysterious accomplice. Will he be involved in protecting the Bearded Bastard as well?
The Last Hurrah
Bradley and his group gathered at his temple, with vampires standing outside to guard the place, with Esdeath and Azula reporting to him at his desk. The half-homunculus tenting his fingers. “The Saiyan Raditz and the Sorceress Ultimecia have caught the final Crest of Blood. She’s on her way to your father’s temple.” Azula informed the Former Fuhrer. That’s a bad sign…
An ominous smile crept upon the High Command leader’s face. “Splendid. He will be of great use for the creature to come out.” Just what kind of creature are they trying to unleash? It was bad enough for the pantheon that the dragons of Time and Space and a corrupted Lugia were unleashed by the Pokemon criminals, but what kind of monster are the Ouroboros planning to unleash? Even with Hohenheim siding with us, we’re definitely steps behind. Esdeath let out a semi-stressful sigh.
“It’s a pain not being able to quickly kill those weaker worms standing in our way.” What’s gotten the sadist cryomancer in an unpleasant mood? Still, I dread to imagine what she’s like when she’s angry. Bradley turned to her, catching on to her change of mood.
“Seryu will be avenged, I assure you.” Parker mentioned something about her. Still, Bradley’s affirmation did little to ease her wrath.
“I can’t believe that sorceress actually agreed to help us capture our final target.” Azula remarked. “Seems like she was bored?”
“Perhaps. I intended for him to be last.” Bradley reasoned. “I was told of his long history of killing multiple civilizations across the galaxy from his world before he turned a new leaf. I’ve heard he was powerful, I even have reports telling me he’s had a history with magic before. I had a few alternative options in reserve had she declined our offer, but I had no idea how easily the sorceress helped his former underling wear him down.” He took a cup of tea on his desk and began to sip on it.
“Too bad his charming son is a stone at the moment.” First it was me, now it’s Trunks. How flirty can this sadist get? Her face seemed more normal. “Now that all seven of them have been captured, how will the leader perform his experiment?” Esdeath asked. Bradley sharpened his eyes in response to the question.
“Our Father has us-” The phone on his desk rang before he could finish. He grabbed it into his ear. “King Bradley speaking?”
“Wrath, deploy the troops of your group.” It was the voice of his ‘son,’ Selim Bradley, also known as Pride, on the phone.
Bradley blinked. “Did something serious happen?”
“Father’s temple is under attack.” He responded. “The time sorceress managed to lighten the damage done to the House of Otherness, however.”
“How extensive is the damage?” Bradley asked.
“It was as powerful as an atomic bomb. Despite the witch undoing the destruction quickly, it still managed to ravage parts of the House of Otherness.”
“Very well… I shall send them over.” Bradley nodded as he hung up, turning to the two female soldiers. “Take your troops to Father’s lair. It’s been attacked.”
Azula pondered at the revelation. “Who would be powerful enough to damage his temple?”
“I don’t know.” Bradley replied. “Whoever dares to intrude on our plans is going to be driven off. We shall leave immediately.” The two insane females nodded, immediately departing Bradley’s office. This Pantheon’s filled with surprises.
Repairs around the pantheon are going to take longer than expected.
…
True to Pride’s comment, smoke covered the House of Otherness, having ravaged other temples in what seemed like a nuclear bomb against the Bearded Bastard; a good portion of the temple owners are mildly unaffected, tiles on some of the buildings fell off, but it seemed like it was otherwise none the worse for wear. In the midst of the smoke, three deities ran past the resident deities, revealed to be that amoral vampire Alucard, his female fledgling Seras Victoria carrying a big gun, and one of those other gunslingers, Teana Lanster, running their way to the Bearded Bastard’s temple.
Alucard smoked a cigar in the middle of running as he turned to Teana. “That man really lives up to his reputation of being ‘The Humanoid Typhoon’, shooting that big gun at the Head Honcho’s temple to cause some explosive shit.” The goofball did this? I turn my back, and they show a side of themselves I’ll never see. I suspect he (and that woman) believes that Espada guy has been brainwashed? If that’s the case, it’ll be all the easier for us to thwart the bastard from creating another Great Philosopher’s Stone.
“It was risky, but it served as a useful distraction to stop them.” Teana commented as they arrived at the area the Bearded Bastard resides in. Prepared with their arsenal of firearms, they began to charge toward his temple with caution.
It’s too bad our sweet friend couldn’t help us at this time. Seras sighed as she hurried along with others. Everyone else is working on repairing the Pantheon. That makes two of us, then. This time, they moved more cautiously, trying not to get caught. Alucard and his ‘daughter’ split up from Teana; Alucard insisted that he and Seras move into a roof so the fledgling could fire a rocket launcher from, while the latter fired her weapon from another angle. Teana hid behind a temple that was near the Bearded Bastard’s. As the young lady tried to avoid being seen, a familiar-looking man quietly walked up to her and tapped her. Trying not to yell, she remained calm and slowly turned to the person who tapped her, seeing a man in a tattered robe.
“Excuse me, miss, but will you allow me in that place?” The figure asked her. “I have certain matters to settle with the leader. Will you help me get inside?”
Teana blinked. It was true the three of them were going to infiltrate the lair in an attempt to stop the Ouroboros. This man wasn’t someone she expected to come along. She noticed the man was holding a certain blanket that made whoever wore it invisible. Seeing this made Teana realize one thing; if she, Alucard, and Seras failed to thwart whatever the Ouroboros are doing, then she could allow this man to infiltrate undetected. “Okay. We will help you go inside.” Teana quietly makes her declaration as she watches Seras aim the big gun at the entrance of Homunculus’ temple, ready to blow away the guards and do some damage.
“Alright, aim is clear.” Clear in her crosshairs, Seras fired the weapon at the entrance, blowing several of those artificial vampires away and destroying some of the temple in the process. It was the cue Teana to move to the left side of the temple, with her impromptu partner following her. The orange-haired gunslinger aimed at the side entrance before she fired. A pink sphere gathered through the forms, its size gradually grew as she held her aim. Three minutes later, it grew into a huge ball of energy.
It has to count for something… Teana hesitated for a few moments before pulling the trigger. “Starlight… Breaker!” A large wave of pink energy was fired from her magical artillery gun. It hits. Using this as a cue, the man puts on the Cloak of Invisibility to go ahead of her, running into the resulting smoke and head into the Bearded Bastard’s temple. Just as he would make his way in, however, a certain previous figure appeared: the enigmatic Primera Espada, Coyote Starrk, now in a different look, emerged from the smoke. The two vampires scowled in contempt, while Teana was disheartened by the fact a traitor was now in league with the Bearded Bastard. The other members of the Ouroboros (barring Bradley) came along, helping the humanoid creature, who rushed straight for Teana and held her at gunpoint. Something about his presence had weakened the magical girl.
“It’s a shame we have to meet here again, Teana.” He quietly uttered as to not let the homunculi hear them.
The magical girl, however, was disturbed by the cold tone of his voice. “Starrk… Why are you with these monsters?”
The Primera Espada ignored her question, bringing the sword closer. “You and your friends should run now. Reinforcements on Bradley’s side are coming very soon.” The girl, on the other hand, took heed, while Alucard and Seras charged straight for him, only for Lust to stop the two of them in their tracks with their extended claws. Alucard and Seras were able to move past the otherwise extreme injuries, though the latter had more trouble overcoming the claws. Realizing that she’s outmatched, outnumbered and will be crushed, Teana decided to depart the House of Otherness, as did the two vampires. As they retreated to the entrance, a large, combined group of soldiers, both from the Fire Nation (ones that are loyal specifically to Azula) and Esdeath’s world, appeared before them, ready to take down the intruders. Seras used her artillery gun to blow away the soldiers. As they made their retreat, Alucard killed at least two dozen troopers trying to stop them.
“Teana, hang on! I’m going to take you back to your temple!” Seras grabbed Teana and took off from the ground, departing the House of Otherness. Alucard, after killing a few more lackeys, decides to flee the area as well.
I need to get away from this place before that weird brat tries the same trick on me again.
As black wings sprouted from his back, he quickly decided to fly away from the House of Otherness.
“Leave them be.” The soldiers turned to the source of the voice: King Bradley. He was accompanied by Esdeath, Azula, more of their troopers as well as his own. There’s also that dark, shadowy assassin Al and Ice Jerk fought. “They won’t mess with our plans now that we’re here.” Esdeath walked up to that Starrk guy, smiling at him.
“For someone who envies the weak, you’ve done a nice job driving those intruders away.” The Primera Espada said nothing as she walked past him, with the rest of High Command and their troops following her. Bradley approached his siblings, who were on their way back to their ‘Father’s’ temple.
“I never expected Father’s temple to be damaged this much. We need to speed up the process.” Lust’s suggestion had a more urgent tone in her tone, something that Bradley quickly picked up on.
“Of course… I will have our troops guard this place.” Bradley told his sister, who nodded in approval as the Fuhrer homunculus turned to his group. “My new Command Team! An order of arrangements must be made. Our father’s temple has been compromised! I demand that you all guard this place with your lives while my siblings and I make preparations for the final steps of our plan! Guard it with your dying breath!” The soldiers saluted in blind obedience as he joined his siblings inside Homunculus’ temple.
…
Inside the leader’s temple, the man who was previously seen with Teana took off the Cloak of Invisibility, revealing a brown trench coat, coupled with a white shirt, a black vest over the shirt with a tie, and slacks matching the color of the vest. Heh, you used the destruction from Vash’s powerful gun as a distraction. Very clever, old man. The man, my father, Hohenheim, looked around the base in caution. I must find a place none of the homunculi would think to find me and strike Homunculus when he’s unprotected. He puts on the cloak again and proceeds to find a hiding place. Hmm… I might know where to find one…
An Unorthodox Assembly
A man meditated inside his temple at the House of Power. He had spiky black hair and brown eyes, wore a white karate gi, and was barefoot. His eyes closed, he had his mind focused on something. Those monsters… I sensed something unusual about them before being instructed to wipe them out. While it isn’t surprising that he too fought off those cyclop monsters, I’m more surprised. It’s almost as if they were… His thoughts were interrupted by a door knock into his temple. He stopped meditating and stood up to open the door, revealing a particular group consisting of two men in armor, a man in a lab coat, another man in a military suit, a black woman, and an English woman, the latter two of whom stood at the front. He seemed to recognize the latter well. Could this be the guy… “Cammy? It’s nice to see you visiting my temple.” Smiling warmly, he greeted her with a handshake. He seemed like he was about to ask her something, but only when he recognized Ororo and the armored Avengers did he catch on that something was up. “You seem to be gathering together against a threat.”
“Not at this temple, Ryu.” Cammy’s reply confused the Japanese warrior for a moment. “A resident of this House is supposed to be here for a meeting at his bar.” Based on Cammy’s words, he quickly picked up on things.
“The renegade Homunculus, right? Greed was his name.” Both women gave an approving nod in confirmation.
“More are to arrive here soon.” Ororo added.
Smirnov and Colress looked around the area and saw a certain mecha with a sword alongside two huge vans speeding toward their direction. A few moments later, the mecha landed to the side of the entrance, next to Smirnov, while the vans slowed down, powersliding as it nearly came to a stop. Out of the samurai mecha came Major Zonvolt, out of vans came the other Majors, Al, and everyone else from Major HQ. They all went to the other group, with Chun-Li hugging Cammy and Ororo before cheerfully greeting Ryu. This must be the warrior Charlie and the Turbulent Wind talked about earlier.
Greed, however, looked around, realizing me and the Ferret brothers weren’t present and turned to Al, who realized the same thing.
“Brother isn’t here yet. I’ll talk to the others to pass the time.”
“Do just that, kid. Let’s wait for him, those Ferret brothers, and whoever they’re bringing with them.” Al nodded as the traitor homunculus urgently rushed to Ryu. “You, Karate Man! Did you see my sibling with the pine tree hairstyle?” Ryu gave a horizontal nod, to Greed’s relief. “Good. With your spiritual awareness, you would’ve suspected something about that punk and kicked him out anyway.”
Tenzin joined everyone else to greet Ryu. “It’s an honor to see you again, wandering warrior.”
“The same.” Ryu smiled as Asami moved next to Tenzin. “Are you with those Armored Avengers?
“We are.” Asami answered.
Batou, Togusa, and Smirnov looked at the entrance where four people stood in the distance, two of which he recognized. The third guy, however, not so much. Hmm, it seems like Colonel Mutsuki, Major Zonvolt, and Colonel Curtiss. As they walked toward the House of Power, Togusa squinted at the rather suave-looking walking next to Colonel Pervert. The fourth guy seems like he could be from a brothel. Both Tony and Rhodes looked in their direction to see the three military men and the suave man. Smirnov took a few steps as the trio were closer to the House of Power.
“Who exactly are you?”
“Johnny of the Seven Seas. Leader of the Jellyfish Pirates.” The blonde man’s introduction had provoked a thought in the Lt. Colonel.
“A pirate leader…” The mecha pilot then turned to Colonel Mutsuki before shaking his head.
Walking ahead of the other three, Colonel Curtiss had greeted them. “We could’ve gotten to this temple sooner, but we had to make some detours.” Colonel Curtiss clarified his reasons for being late. “I had to help the Toku Base drive off the artificial vampires and those black monsters.” Everyone, including Colonel Pervert blinked in surprise as they turned to Colonel Curtiss.
“The Heartless.” Tony’s utterance of the word had made him remember the events of Good Friday. “Great. More pest control around this place.” The Iron Man rolled his eyes beneath the armor.
“We’re more than ready to pick up the slack of those Keyblade Wielders.” Major Sakamoto’s fierce remark all had approving nods.
Including one from Ryu. “Indeed. I defeated a group of those same creatures just before everyone came here.”
“Good thing you and the others are dealing with those monsters!” An unknown voice made everyone look around the area until Ororo looked on top of Ryu’s temple to see Spider-Man, who hopped down next to Ryu, unnerving him.
The next time he scares me like that, I’ll fire a Hadouken. Good luck anticipating that one. “What are you here for?”
Parker pointed his finger at the armored Avengers. “I’m with them, actually.”
“Sure.”
The Webslinger approached the group. “Looks like the grand host hasn’t made his…” As he saw Greed among the crowd, his voice changed. “…majestic entrance yet.” What a downer. He shrugged as he went to Tony and Rhodes, thinking they were angry with him. “Tony, look, I’m sorry. Shapeshifters are-.” Tony interrupted him with an understanding tone.
“You’ve said enough, Parker.” Rhodes, Ororo and Cammy looked at him, presuming the remark to be uncaring. A concerned Colress approached him.
“You mentioned those brothers were with you when you called me, Parker. Where are they now?”
“They’re with Guile and Nash right now. They should be on their way here soon.” Colonel Mutsuki turned to the webslinger. He seemed pleasantly surprised that the artificial reaper is now on our side, only to disappear with a more concerned look.
Touta shook his head in what seemed like anger. Rachel… where were you when he needed you to clear things up? I wonder who this Rachel is? Touta seems to be referring to that reaper. Do those two have something between them?
Please tell me you haven’t been trying to kill your brother again after we pardoned him, Jinny. He hasn’t, even with Envy and that assassin. Imagine my surprise if I learned that the artificial reaper has been pardoned for whatever crimes he committed in their world. Colress went to Johnny and the two colonels to hand them copies of the papers.
“What is this paper for?” The bespectacled soldier asked.
The Pokémon scientist explained everything. “Since Envy fooled that reaper with his shapeshifting, they consist of ten names serving as a password to get inside Greed’s bar.”
Rhodes sighed in relief. “Very smart of the rebel homunculus to set up a password in case something like that happens again.” He watched as Johnny, Colonel Mutsuki, Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov, and Major Zonvolt sat on a bench to relax. As he was about to join them, Batou looked up to see a helicopter in addition to another mecha heading their way.
“More guests incoming, guys!” Everyone else watched the mecha prepared to land next to the two mechas near the entrance of the House of Power. Al and a few others watched as the helicopter slowly descended towards another side of the entrance. He then noticed Guile and Nash piloting the seat, with me and the others as passengers. “It’s them! They’ve made it!”
“About time.” ‘Teach coolly sighed before seeing me in State Alchemist uniform. So you’re a fully grown Dog of the Military now, huh, my pipsqueak student? …Crap. Nevertheless, we all came out of the helicopter, while Selena and Ragna got out of the AS Alegrias, rushing to everyone. I in particular rushed to the now human Alphonse, smiling as I missed my little brother.
“Al!” He rushed towards me, colliding into a hug, with a few people watching us. “Thank goodness you’re unharmed!”
“I missed you too, Brother! I’m so glad that you guys rescued Winry from that terrorist. Is she okay?” My little brother asked, wearing his heart on his sleeve as usual.
“Yeah. She’s a bit tired, but they didn’t hurt her. Wanted her to build some junk for them, but we stopped it before they could get anywhere.” I explained. “More importantly, Rhodes was able to get her someplace safe.”
“Thank goodness.” Al smiled. While a majority of people gathered around at our arrival, Mako nodded at our conversation while looking rather relieved. He must have figured out something serious about that Equalist leader and his plans that we nipped in the bud. Ice-Jerk in particular looked at me and Alphonse from a distance with a rather sad look on his face, looking to the ground afterwards. It’s one of those few times he’s been something other than an aloof prick, not that I’ll notice it often. Whatever he was thinking came to a halt when Beifong approached him. He tried his best to hide it with his usual distant attitude.
“Aren’t you going to join the others in their gathering parade?” He snidely asked her.
“There’s more than enough people for that.” The Republic City Chief shrugged. “Besides, this is my first time seeing you with the other Majors.”
“Hmph. I only help them when I’m needed.” Unfortunately for him, Beifong could see through his attitude.
“No need to be that type of person. Besides, I want to thank you for helping us stop Esdeath, even if you didn’t take part.” He listened as she continued on. “If you hadn’t informed Greed what High Command were doing, we wouldn’t have stalled them long enough for more powerful reinforcements to arrive and drive the ice sadist into a retreat.”
Ice-Jerk, however, tried to play it off. “I was just getting information on the homunculi.” He turned to look at his brother Ragna, who was in the middle of talking to Touta about this ‘Rachel’ person until Colonel Mutsuki approached both him and Beifong. He looked more forgiving than expected.
“I never thought you’d manage to get that brother of yours to join us, Jin.”
I only considered the Dark One, Tsubaki, and the obstacle as a last resort in case everything else failed… and the former came to me fighting over the latter. Nice of you to think of bringing along your criminal brother as a contingency plan, Ice Jerk. Meanwhile, the Major General approached Major Briggs and the Lin Kuei Grandmaster.
“Jackson Briggs, was it?” Olivier spoke with a rather amused tone. “That’s a strong name. Hopefully you’ve been living up to it.”
“I’ll let my fists to the face of our enemies do the talking there,” Jax replied confidently to her remark, causing a smirk to grace her features.
“No wonder you’re respected by the Mighty Majors. Tell me, were they the ones who brought you here, or was it the President?” Olivier asked.
“The Pres had Charlie and Guile pick me up while I was fighting more of those cyclops creeps in the House of Children.” Jax detailed. “Had some help from a couple folks. A little girl with silver hair, bright red eyes, and magic energy powers, plus a giant monster she calls Berserker.”
Greed overheard this and decided to interject. “So you fought next to Hercules and Illya, huh? How are those two doing, by the way?”
“Last I saw, they were kicking ass just fine. Wait–did you say Hercules??” Jax did a double take upon realizing Greed had just mentioned the demigod’s name.
“I know, right?” Greed remarked through chuckles, remembering how surprised he was back at that party when Toph, Olivier, and I all figured out from Herc’s own words that he and that girl’s huge scary guardian were one and the same. “From how they explained it, he’s got a different form in Illya’s world, created through some sort of madness spell involved in how she summons him.”
“So that kid controls an actual Greek god?” Jax surmised, still wrapping his head around the concept.
Touta and Asami turned towards them as well, the former nodding in affirmation. “Yep. He lets her do it ’cause she thinks he’s really cool and he likes protecting her.” His face suddenly turned more serious as well. “That reminds me. She agreed to let me and Korra spar with him in that form one day.”
Asami, equally serious, placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll make sure you get the chance.” Touta nodded. They’re both determined to save Korra, that much is obvious.
A flaming sound suddenly stopped everyone’s chattering. Ryu looked around for the source, only to look next to the entrance of his temple to find a man in a yellow and black uniform that looked nominally similar to Sub-Zero’s, but looked more… ninja-like.
“Any closer, and I would’ve burned the temple by accident.” Hanzo Hasashi, Grandmaster of the Shirai-Ryu, looked at his surroundings before seeing Ryu walk up to him.
“Grandmaster Hasashi!” The Japanese warrior yelled out in surprise. “What are you doing here? Did you come for a sparring match?”
Hanzo turned to Ryu. “I am here for a different matter this time, Wandering Warrior.” He looked around the large crowd and recognized Jax and Sub-Zero. “My business is with Major Briggs and his allies.”
Jax stepped in, recognizing not only the Shirai Ryu Grandmaster, as did Sub-Zero. “Sub-Zero told me you and your clan were coming. Welcome aboard.” The two men shook hands.
“It is my pleasure to fight alongside you, Major Briggs.” This moment quickly came to an end as a certain figure rushed to Greed.
“MR. GREEEEEED!” We all turned to the source of the voice, belonging to what looked like a living stuffed teddy bear with strange colors, racing to tightly hug Greed.
“Geez, Teddie! Not so tough! I never thought you’d be so happy to see me.” Some of us laughed as Greed returned the favor. Teddie, the bear “mascot” of Yu Narukami’s Investigation Team, also volunteered to work as a mascot for Stray Dog… despite being a bear. Yeah, I’m not the owner of a bar, but he could’ve got a talking dog person or picked a name that didn’t need explaining. Not everyone knows Stray Dog is slang for chimera. Nevertheless, as the living stuffed bear continued to hug Greed, he looked around him to see Ice Jerk’s brother. It’s true… That reaper IS here. OH MY GOSH! Sensei will be so surprised when he learns that I’ve met him! He looked around all of the people, seeing almost everyone until he saw Ice Jerk, in which his face changed. Ah, it’s that guy I beat in a three-legged race in the snow. Where is Weiss-chan? Ha! Just the words I wanted to hear about the ‘Hero of Ikaruga’. If he actually said that out loud, I would be laughing at Major Kisaragi by now, and if that obnoxious noblewoman was around, I’d do the same as well. The ice major looked away. Meanwhile, Rashid handed out papers to everyone who hadn’t received them; which was still enough for any one else to come along with us. As we all began to gather up, a certain person arrived at the House of Power, rushing to Charlie Nash.
“Ahsoka…” There was still seaming agitation in Nash’s voice about what happened in the House of Knowledge. “Why are you late?”
“First, I want to say I’m sorry for the sudden detour. I had to go to Doctor Strange’s temple. Seven people are being held prisoner inside the homunculus leader’s lair as part of a contraption involving a transmutation circle, and Anakin is one of those captives.”
What!? Nash couldn’t believe that there were seven people inside the Homunculus leader’s lair. He turned to Greed as the rebel homunculus began to show them instructions.
“Alright, everyone! Smiley Bone will check the paper for the list of ten names, and you’re in. Let’s go inside and start trading info there!” As we all followed Greed (and Teddie) to his bar, Ryu returned to his temple and closed the door.
The martial artist then sat down to further meditate and focus his mind. From what I know of what’s happening, more monsters are sure to come this way. Hercules is guarding the House of Children with his handler, and Goku’s away training in his world right now. Looks like it’s up to me to protect this House. I must be ready.
The Crests of Blood
In a dark room located at the Bearded Bastard’s temple, the strange spider entity (with previous help from the time sorceress, Ultimecia) had placed the seven deities Ahsoka mentioned into separate cells. Among the seven were Vegeta, Juri, that meek boy, and that Diclonius girl. The Homunculus leader and that entity spoke about three of them, and I suspect the Bearded Bastard must’ve accepted Lust’s offer to use Juri as one of them. The ones that surprise me the most are Anikin Skywalker, and, to a lesser extent, the Murderist Extraordinaire. I know how the latter was captured, but I wonder how they caught the former. The most confusing one is this Mad Queen, revealed to be a woman, hated by the female royals of the Pantheon: Cersei Lannister. I don’t mind her getting killed by the homunculi for all I care. My bigger concern is why they’ve decided to capture her, as well as the others. From Bradley’s description of Vegeta… It makes sense now. Violence and what comes with it.
“All of the living Crests are in place.” The strange spider entity gleefully told the Homunculus leader, who looked at the unconscious captives. He tried his hardest not to smile; he seems to be aware there are a few more steps to complete the process. He witnessed his mysterious partner going for a table. On the table, there were two types of items of glaring significance: a strange mask, and a set of strange jewels. The spider entity grabbed them and turned to the Bearded Bastard “Heh heh heh heh… You should be pleased with the progress your children made despite the obstacles you face.” Footsteps were heard among the two. They paused as the footsteps became closer. Bearded Bastard turned around. Just as the strange spider entity talked about them, he saw his ‘children’ and Dante standing before them. An angry Envy was the one to speak up first.
“Shit… Even with all the security, I can’t believe they still discovered those captured deities.” Wait, it was in their temples the entire time? Who infiltrated their facilities? No one would be stupid enough to go into Bradley’s temple unprepared. The Jealous homunculus shrugged. “Whatever. They’re none of our concern right now.” Bradley blinked at Envy, who turned away to calm himself down. Indifferent, the Fuhrer turned to his creator.
“I’ve ordered my team to guard the place. We should hurry before our sacrifices get a chance to undo everything, father.”
“Of course.” He turned to the spider deity holding both the jewels and the mask. “Do not be so hasty. We should give the Lord of Sin more time to complete this ritual.”
Envy blinked in slight confusion at his father’s suggestion. “There’s still more for us to do? They’re going to come here pretty soon.”
“Indeed.” The homunculus leader nodded. “Our plan to hinder them has been very successful so far.”
A smile appeared on Lust’s face. “They still think our ritual will work the same way it did back in Amestris.” She, as well as the other homunculi, looked at the cages holding the captives. Dante seems to have figured out the pattern behind.
“The traitor is the missing ingredient.”
“Greed. Of course…” Somehow, this made Pride groan in frustration. As if taking Gluttony on a detour to the House of Food wasn’t aggravating enough…
The spider entity’s grin grew into a crazed smile. “Well spotted. Hold off those pesky ‘deities’ opposing you. Once I complete the blueprints of this ritual, I will notify you all to capture him.”
“A sound plan.” The homunculus leader nodded. “However, we should let Greed come to the front of my lair.”
Catching on to the details, a devious smile crept upon Bradley’s face. “Bi-Han… He will be the key.” He briefly turned to Envy before turning back to his ‘father.’ “An equivalent exchange for coming up with a plan to distract the False Hero of Ikaruga. He will provide the element of surprise.” Hearing this relieved Pride of the burden of having to capture him himself.
“Nicely articulated strategy, homunculus.” The spider entity was impressed by Bradley’s deductive reasoning. The Bearded Bastard smiled as he stepped forward.
“Go forward, my children! Disrupt the attempts of our former sacrifices to ruin our goals again!” At their father’s order, the rest of the homunculi (and Dante) proceeded to depart the lair with their tactic in mind. Greed, I will make sure to trap you this time.
That undead assassin again… Sub-Zero’s brother. During the two times I fought Quan Chi, the necromancer never informed me of that shadowy guy. Now, Greed’s going to be his target, and unfortunately for us, we’re unprepared, even with Hohenheim and that President on our side. Dammit… How are we going to see THAT coming?
Trope Pantheon Stories 