as told by Envy the Jealous
Adaptation
When did it all begin? It was hard to tell. Everytime I tried to remember, all I could recall was blood, death… and fire. The last one was how it ended, almost. I was initially thankful the Fullmetal pipsqueak and his comrades appeared to stop The Flame Alchemist from incinerating me into oblivion… Until that little upstart discovered the one thing that made my blood boil.
“You’re jealous…” He spoke in that wretched voice. “You’re jealous of humans, aren’t you?”
Those seven words were the catalyst. The start of my desire to prove my superiority to humans. But in order to kickstart it… I had to die. To get the last laugh on him, the colonel, the scarred man, the lieutenant, and the rest of those sorry bastards that dared to look down on me. It hurts to think about it still, ripping out my Philosopher’s Stone and crushing it with all the strength my pathetic body could muster and all because of those words of that runt.
I remember the last moments well enough. Mildy fading away to dust, the looks of shock on their faces… it wasn’t filled with anger, but with sorrow of how a creature like myself caused all sorts of trouble in Central. If I were to be wished back to life with my Philosopher’s Stone, I would do it all a second time to see these weak, two-legged creatures suffer. And to my surprise, it came true, as I found myself in this… world… This “crossroad of dimensions,” as some put it. They call it “The Pantheon,” and I wasn’t the first one to make it here. I walked all around the place, saw humans, some in clothes that were too weird to be from Amestris, or Xing, or even Drachma. Some of them could use magic and Alchemy, others were as normal as you could get. On the other hand, there were these… ‘Animals’ that looked too strange to be a human-chimera hybrid. I even blinked a few times at how weird this place was compared to Father’s country. Regardless of the case, I let out a big, wide grin, in joy that I have a second chance to destroy the humans.
Some time afterwards, while disguising myself as some drunkard, I learned a few things. First, the humans and creatures I had encountered were considered gods, and each had a ‘temple’, so to speak. Second, there were Houses that they resided in, each one based upon the “Tropes” every one of these deities represented. I’ve heard a few of these “Tropes” next to some names here and there, and from what I figured out, it seems that anything that someone says, does, or has some type of connection to can get them put here as a deity if they’re noticeable enough for it. Frankly, I have no intentions of going more in depth into it, so that’s the best I know. The point of the matter is that death didn’t give me the release that I had intended, and instead I was sent here. After a while roaming around the place, a familiar female figure had spotted me in the House of Theater: Lust the Lascivious, my sister Homunculus. She had been residing in the Pantheon for some time following her death, leading me to conclude the others would be here too.
Sure enough, the next day Gluttony the Voracious showed his fat face. Up to his usual habit of eating everything in sight, with people being his main course. He was happy to see me again. After the reunion, the two guided me to the others: Pride the Arrogant, the eldest of us all despite wearing a child body as a container, was too indifferent of my arrival. Afterwards, Lust and Gluttony took me to our Father, who was accompanied by Sloth. The lumbering oaf was still as indolent as ever, a large snot bubble forming from his snoring. Not that any of us cared, but something felt off by everyone’s presence. I had died while Pride and Father were still alive. They should have been able to complete the plan as predicted. When I asked about the matter, all Father did was shake his head and say. “We failed.”
“Failed?” I couldn’t contain the shock and rage rising from within. “Are you serious?! All these years of planning and orchestrations! All the time put into making everything perfect, all the sacrifices we made and we still lost?!” In disbelief of all they told me, I stomped on the ground, the entire temple rippling from the aftershock of my true mass.
But Father still remained as stern as ever, only sighing from my outburst. “Yes. It is true that we lost…” Then his eyes narrowed. “But our defeat was a mere oversight; our enemies took advantage of the flaws exposed to them and ruined all that we have built. Rest assured Envy, we shall start again, and when we do, we will not fail a second time. The first thing we will need though, are reinforcements.”
As much as I hate to admit it now, but Father had, in his own way, made a point. We can’t afford to be cast out of this place. I looked around and asked my siblings. “Who do we start with?”
A sly grin came on Lust’s face as she answered, “Father has already made a request to Melkor to have Raditz attack Republic City. With the Avatar in the pantheon, it should make for a quick bloodbath.”
I cocked my head to one side, dumbfounded by the sentence I had heard. “You’re sending radish to create a Crest of Blood?”
Pride rolled his eyes. “Not radishes, Raditz. The Saiyan.” I blinked twice, even more puzzled why a man would have a name based on some vegetable. Don’t know who that was at the time, but if he was useful to our plans, then we had nothing to hinder us from making the first move…
Or so I thought.
Collection of Stills 1: Mission Request
That request Lust was talking about was related to a certain chief of police who had ascended to the Pantheon. Aside from her own subordinates, she brought that Northern Wall of Briggs along with her, so Father felt the need to step in and get some help from the boss of the “Alliance of Evil” he had us join.
[Several people are walking into a vintage-style office room with sunlight getting in through windows with the blinders raised behind the main desk. The first two, a distinguished middle-aged woman and a man following behind her, are wearing what seem to be uniforms with segmented metal armor and a golden badge. The woman’s uniform is a darker shade of gray than the man’s and has gold rims accenting each part, identifying her as the chief. The third is a young man in a buttoned-up dress shirt and pants, and the fourth, a tall woman with long blonde hair, a black winter coat, and blue military uniform. Olivier Mira Armstrong herself.]
At his behest, Melkor, the aforementioned head honcho, summoned that Saiyan called Raditz and gave him specific instructions to do two things: destroy Republic City and carve a new crest of blood, and find and eliminate the General from Briggs while she was still just that police chief Beifong’s High Priestess.
[In the darkness, Melkor, an imposing man in all-black armor with many spikes and sharp points, including a crown helmet that hides his face except for seemingly glowing red eyes, speaks and gestures to Raditz, a man with ridiculously long black hair wearing a white earpiece with a green lens over his left eye and a style of black armor with brown shoulder, thigh, and crotch guards, complete with matching boots and gauntlets, over simple black strongman trunks, with a brown fur tail coming out the back of the trunks and wrapping around the armor. Our Father stands nearby looking on.]
Assault on Republic City
I was sent in on the day of the attack, masquerading myself as a regular old bum on the street. I looked on as people walked around minding their own business, one small group carrying artifacts, another talking at a bar. A third group was walking around with some small elephant-rat thing, its hairs standing on edge when I walked past. It was quaint, as some would say; another busy day in the lives of the mortals. Then there was Lin Beifong, Chief of Republic City’s Police Force, with guards protecting her all over the place. She was on her way to the Police Headquarters, and in a rush too as it would have it. It must’ve been urgent business for her to be going so fast so I had to be quick as well.
I went to a secluded place where no one saw me. There, I transformed into a elephant-rat like the one I saw before I made my way through the crowd. I went down a dark alleyway, where I found something ‘interesting,’ to say the least. As I stayed out of their sight, the target was speaking with a certain figure. One in the chief of the most rebellious of our siblings. Greed the Avaricious. I’d never have imagined him being here in this place. Still, even with everything prepared in this world, they won’t be a match for that Saiyan.
“You think it’s one of those Red Lotus folks you’ve told me about?” My sibling asked. Were these some sort of assassins? They might be useful to our cause. Whatever the case, the Chief nodded disapprovingly.
“No.” Beifong’s face became more stern. “It’s someone not from this world.” Does she know that the Saiyan is coming here? If that’s the case, did someone tip them off? Regardless, they’re still no match for Raditz from what Lust said. Let alone myself.
Greed stopped smiling upon hearing the description. “If it’s someone powerful, I’ll have to put my Ultimate Shield to use.” I wanted to smile, but if that Saiyan is as powerful as I was told, then even the Graphene in Greed’s body could be knocked back. They looked outside to see if there was an invader. Suddenly, the ground started shaking, causing everyone excluding myself to lose balance. “Must be the intruder.” The two of them, in addition to Beifong’s group, had carefully moved outside, and oddly enough, nothing was outside at first. Seconds later, a portal suddenly appeared and all of a sudden, a strange, small, blue swirly thing appeared. Is this supposed to happen in this world? The concept of a universe is stranger than anything Our Father taught us in Amestris. I moved away from the group, not wanting to be seen by Greed. A second later, it was that Saiyan Raditz emerging from the portal, flying at a high speed, surprising Beifong, Greed, and the former’s group.
“Is that the intruder…?” Beifong gasps in surprise as she turned to Greed. “Greed! Ultimate Shield! NOW! Firebenders! Shoot fire at the attacker!” At her command, these folks attacked with fire. How could they shoot fire without a transmutation circle? In any case, that long-haired Saiyan effortlessly avoided the flames, firing a ball of energy at the group to eliminate them.
“Come on, Earthbenders! Lift up those defenses, will ya!” These sort of people, if my eyes are deceiving me, manipulated the ground to, without any alchemy whatsoever, make a wall out the ground to block the blast, but it wasn’t fast enough to protect them all, and as a result blew away everyone, Beifong and Greed separating from the troops, everyone lying on the ground unconscious, my sibling on his knees. That porcupine-haired Saiyan descended to the ground in front of the two.
“The home place of the Avatar…” He spoke quietly as he looked around the place. “With them both gone, it’ll be easier for me to find the target, and lure Kakarot to this place.”
Greed was surprised as he went into a stance. “Didn’t expect them to send you here. What’s your business here anyway?”
The long-haired Saiyan turned to Greed. “I am looking for someone named Armstrong.”
That answer had the Police chief’s eyes widen in shock. “What do you want with her?”
“To kill her before she ascends, of course.”
Her face now more serious, Beifong went into a stance. “Over our dead bodies!” Greed leaped towards Raditz to deliver a slash strike, only for it to be blocked and caught by the Saiyan’s hand. Before my brother could follow up with another attack, Raditz, doing something no one from our world has ever done, kicked him away, even with the Graphene in his body hardened, all the way into a tree. Just what are these people? The Police Chief of Republic city used her… Earth-bending or whatever, to launch rocks at Raditz, to no avail. “Is this the best you can do? If that’s the case…” He flew over to her and punched her in the stomach, causing her to cough up blood; I just couldn’t help but smile at the suffering she could take. “If you don’t tell me where the woman is, then I shall bring you as a captive to draw her to us.” To his annoyance, water was thrown at him, looking at several from the roof close to him, disappointed at the pathetic show these people putting on, if I can call it such a thing. “Is this some sort of joke?” He lets out a chuckle as if it humored him, only to stop laughing seconds later. He lightly attacked her with the palm of his hand, making sure she’s not dead, then fired an energy ball to knock away the water users.
“Should’ve prepared for much more…” Greed slowly recovered in normal form from the injures he received from Raditz. “Didn’t know the attacker would be a Saiyan.” To his surprise, something was beeping in his pocket. “How is this thing still on even after all the injuries I took?” My sibling took out a barely damaged device from his pocket. How is that thing working when it could’ve been destroyed? Whatever the case, Greed starts putting his head close. “Hello?” He waited a few seconds before a voice spoke to him.
“The attacker in Republic City is a Saiyan, please—” My sibling abruptly interrupted the voice.
“He’s attacking us now! Get some backup for this guy!”
“I was getting to that. We’ve sent someone on the way to deal with him. Just keep the attacker occupied if you can.”
“With someone that strong, I don’t think I’ll last long enough to keep him busy even with my Ultimate Shield. Bastard knocked me into the trees.”
“Just try something to keep him distracted. Out.” After the whole conversation ended, the communicator short-circuited seconds later. Doesn’t matter how much backup they have, the Saiyan will thrash them. Hardening his body again, my avaricious sibling rushes back to Raditz to get his attention and save the Police Chief. “Get away from her, you freeaak!!”
The Saiyan turned around and faced Greed, a smirk slowly crept upon his face. “Coming back for seconds? Perhaps I’ll take my time to defeat you slowly.” Greed closed in on Raditz and struck the Saiyan with his claws. I snickered as he tried to take him down with futility, only for his arm to be grabbed by Raditz. “This is the power of the Ultimate Shield they have told me about…”
After a split-second of giving away how surprised he was, Greed quickly put on a brave face, realizing who he was referring to. “My siblings have told you a little about me, haven’t they? Must have their ‘cameras’ around the Pantheon.” Just as he struggled to break free, Raditz opened his hand, creating a yellow ball of energy to put in front of Greed’s face.
“It’s not impressive compared to the others, the lady in particular.”
“Maybe they’re not very good at teamwork.” Cheeky little- No. Wait; I just realized something. Back in the Pantheon, I remembered Pride once telling me that he ate Gluttony and Kimblee, explaining their absence on the Promised Day. Kimblee immobilized him when he tried to take the pipsqueak’s body, allowing the blonde bastard to take him out. Pride, the most powerful and the oldest among us, cost us everything… And none of us but Our Father would dare confront him; Defiant as he was against us… Greed isn’t wrong on that tidbit. Nevertheless, I got a small laugh out of Raditz blowing him away with a blast, which exploded upon impact into a building, in which the walls fell upon impact. I had to kneel down and turn into a squirrel just so I won’t get caught in the fight. I’d never imagined Raditz to be this strong. Despite this, I was getting impatient, as Raditz was wasting time playing with them instead of simply destroying this city and hunting down the Major General like Our Father issued. Slowly recovering from her wounds, Beifong used all of her strength to manipulate the ground again, launching some rocks at the Saiyan, breaking them against the chestplate on his armor. Smirking with a light chuckle, Raditz brushed off any residue from his armor to look at the Police Chief, who slowly recovered on her knees from the injury she received.
I.. have to get away from here. She crawled away from Raditz as fast as she could, knowing fully well she was outmatched against the Saiyan, who was able to push Greed back like a ragdoll, even with his Ultimate Shield, no less. Seeing this, Raditz instantly moved towards her before she could escape. “Going somewhere?” Lin only responded to this by slamming her hands behind her, sending a rock to his face. It was as ineffective as the other attempts, only managing to break the rock against his face and cause him to squint his eyes slightly to ward off any dust. In response, he put on a sadistic grin as his tail unwrapped itself from around the armor covering his waist, rearing back and then swinging as if to strike her. However, before it could reach her face, his swing was not only intercepted and halted, he was actually dragged off his feet, stumbling to the floor. Annoyed by the involuntary pratfall, he looked to his side and saw the culprit responsible; Greed, having somehow made a run and and dive for his tail, was now holding it while lying front-first on the floor.
The Saiyan looked in disbelief, before seeing my Avaricious sibling start to pick himself up while still holding onto his tail. That disbelief slowly turned to fury. “You damned cretin!” Raditz shouted as he elbowed Greed right in the face, forcing him to let go as he then picked himself back up.
Wait…what happened? Beifong thought to herself, watching all this, clearly surprised that the furry appendage hadn’t turned her into a stain on the floor. She then turned to Greed, who struggled to his knees. “Greed, what’s going on?”
“Heh, looks like…my hunch wasn’t too far off the mark,” Greed replied, to which she still looked confused and a little frustrated. “The part of a Saiyan that has to be trained the most is their tail. I had to see where this guy was before I could make a tactic out of it. He’s past being as vulnerable as a human crotch, but it can still slow him down.”
“Damn you!” The angered Raditz shouted as he then used that tail to smack Greed face-first into the ground, almost as payback for exposing its incompletely trained state. He then noticed something coming at him at an angle from behind, quickly floating to dodge a metal cable, which then recoiled into the uniform of one of the old lady’s officers.
Seeing this, she got her bearings straight, with an idea of how to proceed. “Metalbenders, you have your target! Swing for the Saiyan’s tail!”
“Grrr…!” Raditz gritted his teeth, now looking around at the officers on the surrounding buildings in order to assess how many of these Metalbenders he would have to contend with. Sure enough, most of the buildings had anywhere between two and ten officers extending their strange coils in the direction of his furry appendage. Immediately wrapping it back around his tail, he continued to weave around their efforts before charging up energy in his right hand. Looking down at the Chief and my brother, who had now picked himself up, he was able to fire the ball of energy straight at them. However, she used her Earthbending to create a platform and elevate the two of them. The blast ended up destroying the platform at its base, but she used her cables to fly herself towards a street light post…and Greed towards Raditz, with his Ultimate Shield back up.
“What do you think you’re do-AUGH!” Greed had punched Raditz right in the gut…or, more to the point, right in the tail which was wrapped around the gut. While it wasn’t a great deal of pain, he obviously felt it enough to be irritated by it. These damn weaklings are using my tail to make a mockery out of me! He punched Greed right in the face and sent him cratering down into the streets below.
“Greed!” The police chief shouted as his form became covered by a cloud of smoke. Was she actually becoming concerned for the Avaricious? Just great, exactly what I needed to see…NOT! In any case, the tail had become unwrapped, shaking off what just happened as he slowly floated down in front of the dissipating smoke cloud, looking down at the rogue homunculus with a menacing scowl. After looking at Greed for a moment, seeing him still struggle to get up, he quickly descended to where the homunculus was and began beating on him with rights and lefts to his sternum, which he had hardened to diamond just in time to anticipate this yet it still managed to hurt due to the difference in their powers. After about seven to eight strikes, his open tail was fully grasped by metal cables courtesy of first Chief Beifong, then several more of her officers, pulled up into the air and away from her ally in the process. Quickly looking around and noting his situation as he grunted through his discomfort, the porcupine-haired monkey man began to charge energy again, into both his hands this time. She took note of this, and quickly hurried her next order. “Firebenders! NOW!”
Raditz was now reactive. “Double Sunday…erg…AAAHH, SHIT!!” Much to my chagrin as I watched on, instead of actually firing off his blast and finishing my traitorous brother off, Raditz was now shouting in some combination of shock, pain, and annoyance. Managing to look behind him enough, he saw that the tip of his tail had been lit aflame. “This is beginning to become a real joke!”
Straining himself on the cratered road, Greed actually began to grin his shark-toothed grin. Great, the target on his tail’s got him rattled. Time for phase two. Just what is Greed cooking up in his mind? Unbelievably enough, he used his Ultimate Shield to turn his right hand’s fingers into claws, tearing into his own midsection briefly before coming out with red liquid covering said claws. After healing his midsection, he then looked up and shouted: “Somebody throw me up to him!”
A couple of the metal officers used their cables to toss Greed up by his arms towards Raditz, as he grabbed the Saiyan’s tail and began to pierce it with his claws just like he did his own sternum. Raditz gritted his teeth, still dealing with both the flames and the cables in addition to Greed’s incisions. While the piercings weren’t deep, they were enough to get the liquid from his clawed fingers into the tail. Raditz again readied an energy wave right in Greed’s face, at the same time as Greed once again applied his Shield. Still, the wave fired off and pushed him right back into the ground. He then charged some power into his hand again, this time thrusting it towards some of the cables holding his tail in place, managing to sever them, including the chief’s. The cops holding the rest of the cables immediately retracted them to preserve their equipment. Now ready to return to the offensive, Raditz quickly charged at Beifong and, before she knew it, he’d grabbed her and held her up in their by her throat, floating in the air as she struggled to breathe.
“Not a bad strategy you and your men pulled here. But you’ve annoyed the piss out of me, AND NOW YOU DIE!” Finally, he’s gotten sick and tired of toying with these weaklings! Tightening his grip around her throat and constricting her breathing even harder, Raditz used his other hand to grab her head and drive it straight into his, forehead to forehead, no doubt knowing that she would be the one knocked for a loop. He began once again to grin sadistically, charging electricity into his once again free hand, no double ready to finish her off. Until suddenly, he felt a pulsation in his tail.
And this time, it actually hurt.
Raditz was now suddenly alternating between yelling and grunting in what looked less like an annoying sting and more like real pain, as I watched on gnashing my teeth in frustration. Stupid Saiyan! You spent way too long toying with your food! If I were you, I would’ve…wait, no! Images of our enemies in Amestris, the times I thought I had them, and the times they ultimately had me, quickly flashed through my mind’s eyes. No, I probably would’ve done the same thing, goddamn it all! Stop being like me, Saiyan, and finish the job! I felt like yelling that out loud so bad, but then I knew I’d be caught and squashed like a bug. It was humiliating watching our hired gun from a whole other world of power struggle so miserably like this!
Beifong descended from the light post to the floor, as Raditz began to slowly come down to ground level as well. Greed fought to his feet and made his way over to the police chief, as she queried about his strategy. “Did you just do something?”
“Yeah,” Greed grunted, still dealing with the pain the Saiyan had dished out. “I was able to tear out a small fraction of souls from my stone and then pass them into his tail through my claws. They’re doing their part rearranging and weakening the carbon in his tail, so now he’s feeling everything that’s happened in our fight.”
“A similar tactic to how you helped the Elric kid beat your father back home, is that right?” Beifong surmised.
Greed nodded. “More or less. Not to the same extent since that’s not all of me in there, but if it’s enough he’s gotta concentrate energy to stop the pain in his tail, then he can’t totally stonewall our attacks with just his power anymore.”
I couldn’t help but gasp a bit too loudly at that revelation. With a look of shock written on my face, I immediately covered my mouth with my hands in almost a panic. Who could blame me? If what they just said is true, then he really just used a tactic that had beaten Our Father? Does this mean Father actually reabsorbed Greed again but this time Greed kept his senses and reversed that stupid Ultimate Shield against him? Damnit, he’s even more of a traitor than I thought!
Beifong, meanwhile, looked somewhat pleased or impressed with my rogue brother, carrying a bit of a smile on her face as she spoke next. “You really have been paying attention to Hohenheim’s lessons, then?”
“Yeah. Thank God for that old man,” Greed smiled as well, very briefly, before both put their game faces back on.
Continuing to struggle, Raditz now gritted his teeth, still in pain, but also in rage at having been had like this. Slowly walking towards them as his body shook, his eyes had gone wild; if looks could kill, he’d have them all six feet under right now. Hell, he should’ve had them all six feet under right now, including the Major General, wherever she was hiding in this stinkin’ town! His body started emitting a white aura, which occasionally flashed red, and a few seconds later he was screaming into the skies again, this time a yell of power. However, they noticed that the aura, first the red, then the white, all descended into his tail before disappearing as the screaming stopped.
“Did you see that?” Greed asked.
Beifong nodded. “There it is.”
Raditz was now panting, catching his breath, as if momentarily exhausted with the amount of energy he had to exert over this one simple problem. Soon, though, he was able to stabilize himself, staring a dagger into his enemies. He appeared to be in control of himself, but clearly furious and ready to start taking them seriously. Almost as though he wanted them to think that everything they’d done had no effect at all.
“Come on, then!” He challenged the two. “Which one of you weaklings wants to die first?”
Undeterred by this verbal threat, Greed rushed towards Raditz, who recovered in time to deliver a punch to Greed, who blocked it to the Saiyan’s utter shock, as well as my worst fear for this situation. Their plan had worked. Before their concentrated assault on his tail, their attacks did nothing against the Saiyan, who easily demolished everything they tried in seconds, and now here they are, capable of touching him when that shouldn’t be possible. Greed then went for a strike of his own, a kick to his ribs, however Raditz blocked it with his free arm, then proceeded to nail Greed with a knee to his sternum, followed by a hammer throw strike with his hands clasped together, sending Greed away. Beifong, though, rushed to the scene and threw a punch on Raditz, who dodged it and then knocked her down with a double axe handle. Still, Greed came back up and unleashed a front kick, which pushed Raditz away from the two for a brief moment, then turned and helped Lin Beifong up on her feet. “You’re alright?”
“Does it look that way?” She replied in a deadpan tone. “Here’s the plan for now: Defend me and keep the intruder occupied while I support you.”
A smile was on my brother’s face as he turned to Raditz. “Sounds manageable. Time to turn the cards around!” Hardening his body, Greed rushed towards the Saiyan, who blocked with both of his arms next to his face. As Greed closed in, he placed his left arm back, setting up a strong strike with his claws, which tore through the skin of the Saiyan’s arm, making him bleed. He tried to punch Greed, only this time, my avaricious sibling wasn’t badly damaged or knocked away far, using this moment to reach his hands for the ground and performed a handstand, swiping Raditz’ feet, the latter immediately recovering, only for him to be hit by Beifong’s rocks. Now that I’m thinking about it, he’s making the same mistake I did back in my world, playing with the humans until they have a fighting chance to defeat us. Anyway, Greed turned this moment to his advantage to kick Raditz’s ribs with a heavy kick, only for the Saiyan to block it at the last minute and fired an energy blast at Beifong, prompting the Chief to barely avoid it before turning back to Greed, who came toward him with a weak punch and dodged it. Meanwhile at another spot, Beifong manipulated the ground to catch Raditz, who flew into the air to avoid it.
“Of course he could fly…” Greed sighed as he rushed to Lin while Raditz prepared an energy blast to fire at her.
“Great…” As she created a small dome, Lin looked towards Greed, who rushed to her side as Raditz fired the energy ball at her. Quickly my sibling homunculus jumped in the way of the blast, just barely extending his Ultimate Shield as the attack plowed through part of the dome Beifong had made from the ground and collided mostly into him. The explosion caused by the blast hitting him also obliterated the remainder of the dome along with a few nearby buildings. As the smoke subsided, Greed was barely conscious, slowly regenerating from the blast. As yellow balls of energy formed in Raditz’s hands, flames were fired at the Saiyan.
I turned to see those Firebenders the Police Chief ordered earlier have recovered near a building. Unlike their previous attempt, they’ve managed to do some damage to the Saiyan’s armor, something that previously had no effect. The Saiyan directed his attention to the squadron and fired the blasts at them, killing them and decimating the building in the process. It gave the Police Chief time to reach Greed and take themselves away from the ruthless Saiyan, who was interrupted by soldiers who fired water that this time pushed him back. We’ve already wasted time with these weaklings. Destroy everything and find that Major General, damn it! As he quickly fired a weak energy ball at those hydromancers.
“I won’t be overwhelmed by weaklings!” Now agitated, Raditz let out a yell, his hair turning blonde and his irises becoming bluish green. After he was done transforming into whatever, he turned his sights to the two and rushed towards them. Noticing the Saiyan going at fast speed, Greed, still regenerating from the last attack, broke free of the Chief’s grasp and put himself in front of Raditz, who moved past Greed and went for her. On instinct, she ducked and slammed the ground with her hand, releasing a pillar to hit Raditz in the chin. We haven’t searched for the Major General yet, and he’s beginning to have trouble against enemies weaker than him! Damn it all to hell! As he rebounded from the strike and began to counter attack, I saw another portal opening up, and the next thing I knew, Raditz screamed in pain.
I turned to see he was elbowed in the chest by another man shorter than any of the combatants. Afterwards, the short combatant followed with a roundhouse kick, knocking him into the sky above the city, only to recover seconds later.
“You’ve gotten sloppy since we last met, Raditz.”
What the hell just happened? I thought. It all happened so fast I didn’t expect it. As this gave time for Greed and Beifong to get away from the long-haired Saiyan, I took a closer look at the short man’s appearance. He had a hairline similar to Raditz, but his hair was standing upright for some reason.
Funnily enough the two seem to look alike. Were they brothers or something? If so, then they seem to be locked in some sort of sibling feud, because I could tell by the scowl that had become a fixture on Raditz’s face that he really wasn’t pleased to see the other man.
“Prince Vegeta!” Raditz grunted angrily, though I was obviously less concerned with his tone than his words. This other man was a Prince? Based on his outfit, he looked more like just another soldier than any type of royalty I would know. Although, seeing how Raditz recognized him as a Prince and the two look so much alike, that would confirm he’s a Saiyan. I guess Saiyan attire is different since they seem to be geared for battle. In that case, him being royalty would make sense. His outfit does seem like a far more…I guess I’ll say a distinguished take on the armored garb, with a loose-fitting white chest piece with brown ribs and shoulders over a navy blue full bodysuit.
In any case, the two Saiyans stared holes through one another, though the Prince’s expression was a lot more studious than angered like Raditz was. At one point I saw Vegeta briefly give a side glance towards Greed, who was catching his breath, but aside from that he never took his eye off his kinsman of sorts.
“I don’t know anything about your target, but I assume it’s not him.” Vegeta tilted his head towards Greed while talking. “Whoever it is, the GUAE must be getting desperate to have sent you out there. You might’ve been the weakest survivor of our genocide, but you’re still a Saiyan warrior. That makes you pretty powerful around here.”
The weakest survivor? What the…who the hell are these people!? In any case, Raditz’ agitation was growing, as his scowl only deepened. “Don’t patronize me, Vegeta! What the hell are you doing here!?”
“Refreshing your memory, you idiot!” Vegeta suddenly scolded Raditz. “You might have become a Super Saiyan, but you’re still nowhere near good enough that you can treat the Pantheon like child’s play. Did you really think skipping your tail training over the years wouldn’t come back to haunt you in a dimension where people have all sorts of abilities different from what we know?”
I had to cover my mouth again just to muffle my own screaming to make sure they didn’t hear me. I was beyond furious with the taller monkey man. You’ve gotta be SHITTING me! This Saiyan can fly at breakneck speed at will, shoot energy out of his hands, endure all sorts of things being thrown at him almost without a scratch, all without any sort of alchemy or contraptions, and still become exponentially stronger by turning his hair golden somehow! Yet here I am, watching him be flustered and turned back by people who can’t do any of these things because of his own failure to take care of a single glaring flaw on his body?! At this point, anything could happen. Victory wasn’t a sure thing anymore.
Luckily no one heard me, but still, my anger was only made worse with the next words spoken from the Prince. “If you really wanted to take care of whoever you’re after here, you should’ve gone all out from the start. But instead you gave these Earthlings a chance to figure out a tactic to weaken you, and now they know exactly how to get under your skin.”
Raditz scoffed at this…seemingly advice from Vegeta. “If you just came here to lecture me, then can it, you royal prick! I’m not your underling anymore. Don’t you have Kakarot to bug about things like this now?”
“Yeah, and your brother still has a terrible habit of dawdling around and dropping his guard as well. I was hoping at least one fellow Saiyan around here would have some common sense,” Vegeta retorted. “Then again, seeing the kind of masters you’ve elected to serve, I shouldn’t have hoped for much.”
Once again I was compelled to grit my teeth. Vegeta obviously knows about Raditz serving Melkor and doesn’t seem too approving of it, but more importantly, that big porcupine-haired idiot forgot where he was and he’s about to fail this whole assignment because of it! And I could tell Raditz knew it too, because he started building up a purple ball of energy in his right hand which was sparking with electricity, with the same look of desperation Greed and Beifong had earlier before they figured out how to hold him at bay. Meanwhile Vegeta continued to just look at the big guy, as though the impending death blast would be nothing but a breeze.
“You sonnova bitch! HAAAA!” Raditz shouted, launching the ball directly at Vegeta’s face. And in the blink of an eye, Vegeta swatted that thing into the sky and beyond, where it exploded harmlessly, his expression never changing the whole time. The larger Saiyan’s eyes were briefly taken with fear as he trembled just a bit, and though he recovered to put on a tough front after a few seconds, it was clear he was doomed.
Then Vegeta, with a quick scream, took on the same transformation Raditz had earlier, but with some differences. Vegeta’s golden hair and aura were both somewhat sharper with a few more spike points to them, plus he seemed to generate additional sparks of blue lightning every two seconds.
“If you still have an ounce of Saiyan soul left, then come over here and fight me! Let me see what you’ve got!” With that dare to Raditz, Vegeta casually floated upwards and backwards, seemingly heading away from the city. Part of me wanted to scream at Raditz to seize the opportunity and kill Greed, but I couldn’t. Somehow, I got the full sense that Vegeta would make sure it failed; it wasn’t worth blowing my cover.
And as though I needed that to be confirmed, which I didn’t, Raditz started thinking to make a move, his eyes and face moving ever slightly towards Greed…
“Oh come on!”
And immediately about-faced, fixed in the direction of his obvious better in about a tenth of a second.
“You think a cheap trick like that would even get a chance!?” Vegeta stretched his right arm out, along with its middle and index fingers, towards Raditz, whose eyes once again widened. “I could turn you into dirty fireworks before you can even move!”
Vegeta signaled towards himself with those same two fingers. “Now let’s go!” He then turned away from Raditz and began floating away from the city. Flustered and humiliated, Raditz grit his teeth and flew after Vegeta.
At this point I could just go back to Father and report the mission failed. Prince Vegeta would own the city’s skies until he was done with Raditz, and neither Republic City nor the General from Briggs would be destroyed. That much was more than obvious now. Still, I remained, moving my way around the buildings unseen so I could get a closer look at the trouncing to come. Vegeta’s visit has been very informative so far. Maybe I’d find more there to learn from.
Back where Greed stood, one of those metal police cables descended next to my Avaricious sibling, with Beifong coming down from the other end to meet him.
“Chief!” Another voice called. Beifong and Greed turned around to see a group of officers headed towards them, led by an old man with a lighter and less decorated version of Lin’s uniform, a younger, simple-dressed man who I couldn’t tell if he was an officer or an errand boy, and yes. The Major General from Briggs.
“Captain. Are the citizens safe?” Beifong asked, looking towards the older man.
“Yes. They’re gathered in the underground.” The Captain reported.
“I assume Bolin stayed behind to help keep them calm?” The Chief surmised, giving us another name of someone who seems important to these people.
The younger man nodded. “Yeah. He’s probably working his charm right about now.”
“What happened to the attacker?” The Major General inquired.
“He’s being handled by his own Prince.” Beifong said in a deadpan tone, gesturing towards the fight between Vegeta and Raditz. The former was dodging several of the latter’s punches before blocking one and sending the bigger man zipping backwards into a building with a single blow, then charging forward after him to continue the assault.
“Turns out the remnants of the GUAE sent us a space pirate who belongs to a race of super-warriors called the Saiyans.” Greed elaborated. “Thankfully, some contact on our side got the Prince of the Saiyans on speed dial to come deal with him.”
The younger officer held up a finger, obviously confused about something. “Wait, so are these Saiyans good guys or bad?”
“Long story short, Mako, most of the current Saiyans are good, but the race as a whole has got a bad history,” Greed remarked. “I’m no expert, but I know enough to go a bit more in depth on it when this is over.”
Beifong eyed him carefully, though she couldn’t avoid a bit of a sly smile. “Seeing how you knew about his tail, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” She then turned to Armstrong. “By the way, our intruder tried to press us for your whereabouts. Said he wanted to kill you before you could ascend.”
“What?” Olivier repeated, surprised. Beifong and Greed both nodded. “So you’re saying I was the target of this attack…” She briefly looked down and pressed a hand on her chin, as though trying to piece something together, before facing up again with a more serious look in her eyes. “The Homunculi. Greed’s siblings. They must be behind this.”
Greed nodded grimly. “Yeah. Figured that much when he said they told him about my Shield.” Bastard couldn’t resist opening his mouth, and now we’re going to be exposed by the Pantheon! They, myself included, looked at the two Saiyans fighting as Raditz had trouble keeping up with the Prince, who countered his punch with a weak kick to the chest. The long-haired Saiyan stepped back and fired a few energy blasts at Vegeta, who effortlessly evaded them, closed in on his former henchman, and attacked him with a series of punches and kicks, ending with an energy blast of his own, sending Raditz away from the city and into above the sea, exploding harmlessly.
Two minutes after the smoke had subsided, an injured Raditz, whose armor was now destroyed, panted heavily as Vegeta approached him. “H-how… did you… get this strong?” Raditz coughed up as he slowly stood up.
A smirk was on the prince’s face. “Let’s just say I’ve been doing push-ups, sit-ups… and drinking plenty of juice.” Then he returned to his serious face. “Even if you ascended past Super Saiyan, you still won’t be a match for me, given your tricks in battle.”
Gritting his teeth, fully aware that he was outmatched, the injured Raditz used the artifact the head honcho gave him and created a portal to leave Republic City. Damn it all! We’re getting exposed because this ape decided to waste time playing with them! I had to go to the cave to avoid detection and use the same artifact Raditz used to leave Republic City. I realized that, if we wanted to succeed with our plans, we had to be on as low a profile as possible and kill as many people in our way, starting with the State Alchemists who rebelled against us.
As I departed their world, Lin, now slowly recovering from the injuries, walked to Greed and patted him. “I’m impressed. You were more reliable than I even expected.”
Some unexpected moment later, Greed had his arm around her body smiling. “My possessions tend to stay in top form, babe, so you’d better get used to it.” Was he trying to flirt with a human? Beifong seemed to have the same displeased face I would have if I saw them. Blech.
Fortunately, the moment ended when she carefully but firmly moved his arm away. “Don’t push it.”
Up above them, Prince Vegeta looked on with a sly smile briefly reaching his face, before he too unlocked a similar device and flew through a portal of his own to leave the city.
Collection of Stills 2: Developing Clouds
Because that Saiyan screwed up so badly as he did, our presence and our plans were slowly getting exposed to the Pantheon, starting with Greed, in his place called… “The Stray Dog.” Odd as the name sounded, it was fitting for a traitor Homunculus like him going against us. Anyway, Greed was getting visits from that Chief at The Stray Dog now, exchanging information about new parties interested in going after us since they got to spreading the word.
[Greed stands smiling at the counter of a bar, while Lin sits down opposite him, her right hand gesturing towards him as they engage in conversation.]
Besides the ones we know, like that wretched Colonel and the Fullmetal pipsqueak, our increasing list of adversaries included some cop named Chun-Li, another military officer by the name of William F. Guile.
[Chun-Li, a woman in a blue Qipao, brown leggings, and light blue boots to match them, with spiked gauntlets on each of her wrists, is walking about accompanied by the military officer Guile, a man with strange-looking blonde hair, green tank top, and camouflage pants, with black boots. Both no doubt spreading word around as well.]
…and I think there’s even been mention of a dangerous vampire named Alucard who might be preparing for us.
[A man in a red and black suit with a fedora and orange round glasses holds two guns with his arms crossed, grinning wickedly on a rooftop at night as the moon shines behind him. He looks as though he’s eager for a showdown.]
Greed’s also become a bodyguard to some heiress called Asami Sato who looks like a younger Lust, watching her back whenever her Avatar girlfriend wasn’t there.
[Greed stands at an open door with his glasses on as his charge, a girl with long dark hair, golden-green eyes, dark red lipstick, and a somewhat fancy but loose black and maroon suit, walks by him to exit the door. Both are smiling, obviously pleased with themselves.]
He was even one of the last people seen coming out of a celebration Sato threw at her temple! They say it was some occasion for the Avatar girl, but I’m sure we at least came up in a conversation.
[Greed smiles waving goodbye outside of Sato’s temple. Either he had a really good time at that party or he’s glad that our failure had gotten more attention.]
On top of that, the Armstrong woman and the Ishvalan Scar had both managed to ascend, which is exactly what we’d been trying to avoid when we sent Raditz out there.
[Left; The Scarred Man looks around in the House of Vengeance, wandering around to get accustomed to the dimension crossroads.]
[Right; Olivier receives a visit from Beifong at Fort Briggs, discussing the next plan of action against us.]
Predictably, I wasn’t the only one getting worried about things.
[Lust and I stand in front of Our Father at his lair…]
Premature Desperation
“Father, the Ishvalan Scar and the Major General are ascended to their own temples.” Lust reported, unable to completely mask the urgency in her voice. “Aside from that, Greed is making stronger connections with the humans from Republic City, and they’re continuously spreading the news of our existence here.”
“All because that porcupine monkey couldn’t do his job.” I made sure to bitterly interject.
“We have to attack Greed’s bar before things get out of hand.” Lust suggests, utterly panicking and dreading the idea of the Alliance of Good kicking us out. The information against us is spreading like a wildfire.
“That’s enough, Lust.” Dante stepped in stop her from talking. “Even if you two succeed in attacking Greed, we will attract more powerful enemies to vaporize us on the spot.”
“I understand your concerns, Lust. However…” Father stressed, as subtle as ever with his calm sense of authority. “Something must come to pass before we can begin.”
Lust’s eyes began to widen with understanding, as did mine. Dante’s expression never changed. Pride grinned almost gleefully in anticipation.
And then, Father finally said the words that would put our agenda in motion.
“We need Wrath first.”
Of course. Wrath. Without him, the rest of us wouldn’t remain in the shadows for so long.
Collection of Stills 3: Wrath
Father and Dante vanished from the former’s lair. Our Father set out to get Wrath in the Pantheon, and Dante, who knows where she went.
[Before he can proceed with the plans to ascend Wrath, Father makes a stop inside a cavern. He smiles as something glows to his face.]
In another world away from the Pantheon, Wrath, known to the humans as King Bradley, had been fighting several soldiers in the barracks, killing them all without trouble. Among the bloodied, defeated officers, only one by the name General Blue remained…for about two seconds!
[After a brief fight in the barracks from Central, Wrath stands victorious with General Blue’s body on the ground, limbs torn off as usual, with several soldiers in similar condition a few yards behind them.]
Actually, that General and his soldiers were only a small fraction of the many magical eye contenders brought over to the barracks. Wrath mowed them all down effortlessly and secured his domain for ascension.
[Being the last man standing, Bradley looks stoically at a trail of bloodied and torn bodies littered all over the barracks.]
Obstruction of Justice
Those two officers I’ve mentioned before, Chun-Li and Guile, toured around the barracks to investigate what had happened. The first thing they saw were crimson stains littered all over the area.
“Blood.” The blonde in military garb uttered in disgust.
The cop, Chun-Li, stepped forward to check the area. “Whatever happened here, they wanted to grab power.”
“There’s no way this could be Bison’s doing… Vega isn’t this skilled.” Would a normal human actually do something like that? Who am I kidding? They’d tire out eventually. Nevertheless, they scoured around the area, following the trail of blood that surrounded the area until they reached a large area, where blood was all over the trees.
“We need to find some clues.” The female officer advised her comrade. Before they advance to gather information, that Guile person witnessed something sharp was going for Chun-Li and grabbed her into the ground. “Did something attack us?”
After taking a breath, that officer with the funny-looking blonde hair got up on his knees. “Yeah. It was unnaturally long, and it aimed for you.” The two looked around for any attackers only for a feminine voice to reach their ears.
“You’re too late.” They looked as the source of the voice in question, Lust emerge from the shadows, followed shortly by myself, appearing from another side to surround the two, with Gluttony following behind Lust as usual. “Shame you’ve come all the way here only to die by our hands.”
“Didn’t expect you monsters to show up slaughtering these people unexpectedly…” The officer Guile uttered with contempt.
I gave out a dark chuckle before mocking them. “How nice of you to assume such a thing. We were just watching these ‘Red Ribbon’ copies get killed.”
Chun-Li briefly looked at the dead soldiers before turning to us, realizing no bloodstains were on our clothes. “…Is there a sibling of yours here in the barracks?”
“So what if it is?” Lust sneered at the officers. “Even if you did find him, you would still lose and join the rest of these maggots.” Smiling, My Lascivious sibling turned to Gluttony. “It’s lunch-time, Gluttony.” Gluttony went ahead of Lust and jumped at Chun-Li and Guile, who both jumped out of the way, allowing me and Lust to close in on Guile and Chun-Li respectively. I attacked the man with a few punches, all of which he dodged successfully, ducking to the ground and uppercutting me. As I was pushed back, I tried to retaliate by extending my arm to grab the blond officer, but he dodged that by jumping at the last minute.
Gluttony was having a hard time against Chun-Li, who fended him off, while Lust, on the other hand, just… stood there. What is she doing standing there? We’re more powerful than these insects so why isn’t she killing her quickly and just extending her arms at that woman’s side? Is something preventing her from doing something so simple? I stopped to look at this, which allowed Guile to get a free hit in on my chest, which had knocked me back a little causing me to turn back to Guile.
“Nice little punches.” I stood upright as I spoke to him. “You wanna know what we’re going to—”
“Envy!” Lust called out my name in a rather berating tone, to which I kept quiet about revealing our plans, realizing that the State Alchemists, the Scarred Man, Greed, Beifong, and her crewmates were not the only ones we have to worry about. They were the weaklings, in fact; the more powerful ones could do things far worse than kill us. That female officer attacks Gluttony with a ball of energy in front of her hands, knocking him next to a tree. I, on the other hand, had the advantage against the officer with the fuzzy blond hair due his lack of knowledge of my weight, hitting him in the thigh with a punch from me extending my arm. Just as I was about to land another punch, Chun-Li delivers an axe-kick to my head, causing me to miss the hit on the blond man with the funny hair. As Gluttony recovered from his injuries, he focused on Chun-Li, ready for another attempt to eat her again.
“Chun-Li, look out!” As Chun-Li almost tripped, Guile winded his arms back to create a crescent-shaped energy aimed at Gluttony, who evaded the blow and closed in on the cop, who slowly went by Guile’s side. I quickly recovered and extended my arms in an attempt to hit them, but a few objects were thrown in front of us. The next moment we know, Lust, Gluttony, and I were blinded by a flashing light. What Gluttony, among us the least affected by the things, saw another man approaching Guile and Chun-Li; The man had glasses on his eyes, wears an orange flak jacket with green baggy-looking pants, and dark green boots, and blond hair that’s even crazier-looking than Guile’s. The surprised officer, whose face was grim, seemed to have lightened up, appearing to know about this guy, smiling as if he knew him or something. Made it here on good time, Old friend. This ‘old friend’ of Guile’s was in front of him and Chun-Li, shooting a brief glance at the two behind him.
“Good to see you two are okay.” By the time we recovered, the man turned his sights back to us, performing a series of the same type of energy Guile launched at Gluttony, his being faster than the camouflaged officer’s, only for my voracious sibling to avoid them all. This gave Guile an opportunity to knock him away with a flip kick.
“Officer Nash… It’s a surprise to see you here.” Chun-Li panted as she and Guile looked at their ally, Nash. “We have to retreat. This is something we can’t win.” Both Guile and their ally nodded in agreement, turning away from us downhill from the barracks as Lust recovered.
“They’re escaping?” I asked lightly, surprised, only to smile in delight to pursue them by stretching my arms to attack them, getting that Nash fella. To my raging dismay, Chun-Li fends it off with a flurry of kicks, forcing me to use the other arm to attack Guile, only for the latter to sidestep, allowing Nash to attack using a somersault kick, slicing off my arm in the process, Gluttony closing in on them; If these martial artists were to perform alchemy without a circle, we could be in serious trouble. We’re getting the upper hand stolen from us bit by bit with every passing day here!
“Let them go, Gluttony.” Did…did she just tell him to let them leave? Granted, those three worms can’t kill us, let alone Wrath, but what gives? I walked up to my lascivious sibling, who was acting lazy, as Gluttony regrouped with us seconds later.
“Why are we letting them escape? Hell, why didn’t you do anything when you could’ve easily killed them?”
Lust gave out a calm sigh before giving me a reply. “We kill them, and we’ll invite more unwelcome guests down on our lair before the plan gets to the proper stage for it.” I took a minute to calm down, remembering what she said earlier, and listened. “Our failure has already attracted the attention of some dangerous enemies, so it’s best to keep this as quiet as possible.” To some degree, I knew where she was coming from with this. I still remembered how angry the Flame Alchemist was when I revealed that I killed his friend, only to be sorely burned by him. Damn it, it’s like some sort of twisted nightmare where if I kill one beast, they build up in numbers to compensate, which only delays my death and ends up making it worse. I took a deep breath and turned to those three military officers, only to find them gone.
“Fine… Let’s go to Wrath.” I turned uphill, with Lust and Gluttony looking on upwards. Considering the rumors of a vampire planning for our demise, I’m going to be constantly reminded that this isn’t just Amestris we’re in anymore. People from different worlds, if we’re not careful, can come and ambush us at any time, even destroying us in the process.
Collection of Stills 4: Assuming Command
We thought we’d stopped them from doing any damage to our plans, but somehow, the next day, a major secret was out. Gul’dan, Xehanort, and Dr. Gero had all been exposed as Father’s co-conspirators in a special plan to summon Wrath, the barracks, and all the clones he mowed down. We had to stop producing clones after that.
[Father, Gul’dan, Master Xehanort, and Gero meet in front of a large cauldron, speaking about the essentials and instruments needed to ascend Wrath. For some reason, Xehanort had constantly had a grin on his face, looking as if he has a backup-plan or something.]
Thankfully, our Führer was too solidly entrenched in his temple to properly kick him out by then, so all the following steps proceeded as planned.
[Wrath sits in his temple at an alternative version of Central, securing his place strongly after being revived.]
After ascending, Wrath got comfortable around other rulers and commanders, so he was able to form an alliance with someone called Esdeath. She has a thing against shapeshifters, so she and I don’t like each other, but she is very strong and her motives align with our order’s, at least for the time being.
[Wrath shakes hands with a cold-looking blue-haired woman in a white military cap and uniform with black accents and designs, telling her how much of a pleasure it was for a her to team up with us, strange as it may sound.]
Their alliance stood at the front of a new High Command group which Wrath had assembled using plenty of valuable ascended allies from other worlds.
[Wrath and Esdeath stand facing some sort of assembly, with myself, Lust, Pride, Gluttony, Lady Dante, and Our Father in the distance behind them.]
Among them were Seryu Ubiquitous, one of Esdeath’s minions. That girl may seem innocent at first, but beneath that is an insane, murderous sycophant of a girl who would kill anyone opposing her Empire. I hear that little ‘pet’ of hers is secretly pretty dangerous too.
[With one wicked smile on her face, an orange-haired girl wearing what seems like modified knight’s armor without a helmet walks towards an open bedroom door with a rocket launcher on the back of each of her shoulders, while a strange small creature with a face resembling a dog sits upright on her left shoulder.]
Another one includes a Princess from some nation named Azula, skilled in combat and equal parts cunning and crazy. As long as those flames aren’t used on me unless I want it, I should be fine.
[A girl with a red flame-shaped top knot on her head wearing a simple yet ornate maroon and gold-accented outfit demonstrates her combat moves in front of Wrath and Esdeath, at the moment leaving a near-full circle of blue flame behind her outstretched left leg as she performs a leg sweep, showing off how impressively fast and precise she is at executing her movements.]
More include these “Abyssal Fleets” from under the sea, which I had the displeasurable task of collecting them for Wrath alone after he’d already talked to one of them…
[After swimming as a shark, I’ve emerged from underwater and found myself at cave, with three pale skinned female… ‘humanoids’ that Wrath spoke about. All seem to have strange metallic parts or attachments to them; one a jellyfish thing worn almost like a hat, another a prehensile tail, and the third sits on a black throne made up of demonic faces connected to her through chains.]
…a shadowy “wraith” of sorts going by Noob Saibot, who impressed Esdeath with his abilities even before she joined forces with Wrath…
[Esdeath watches this unnaturally dark being in black ninja-like garb cast a careful pose with his hands meeting as though in prayer, summoning a portal on the ground to reveal a shadow clone beneath, as it emerges right behind a training dummy. Whatever he’s about to demonstrate must be a lot prettier on the dummy than it’d be on a real person or creature.]
…an Espada creature called Coyote Starrk, who has some strange thing going on with the leader of the Jaegers…
[A man with shoulder-length dirty dark hair and tired-looking green eyes, some sort of skull teeth on his neck, and a circular black hole just above his chest, wearing a white jacket and hakama uniform with black sash and accents, stares at Esdeath with a bored expression for some reason, all the while she smiles at him as though she doesn’t notice.]
…and some aloof punk called Vergil Sparda, who joined to become more powerful.
[A white-haired, blue clad youth clashes swords with Wrath, rivaling the latter’s swordsmanship much to the surprise of myself, Gluttony, Lust, and Pride as we look on with wide open eyes.]
We did have one so-called ‘king’ reject us, though. Some Gilgamesh guy. Apparently he said Our Father’s attempt to weed out the worthy from the mongrels in humanity, as he calls it, had failed. What the hell was he on about?
[This ‘king,’ a blonde-haired, golden-armored man, sneers at Wrath, not impressed by our group’s invitation.]
In the meantime, Father finally gave me the okay to reveal myself and go out and interfere in the open! Pride didn’t seem to care, which would’ve ticked me off, but I was just so excited I couldn’t wait to tell Lust and Gluttony the good news!
[A euphoric look crosses my face as Father gives me the new instructions. Pride is also there, and his face looks completely indifferent.]
When I hit the city, I called Lust’s name and ran towards someone who I thought was her.
[Walking around in the city streets at night, I, in my default form, close in on someone with long dark hair and a black dress to see if it’s Lust or not…]
It wasn’t.
[…only to find myself convulsing in pain courtesy of an electric shock from a strange glove courtesy of Asami Sato, the girl Greed’s been a bodyguard for.]
The Elite
While I was dealing with that, a different measure of trouble came to Wrath’s door. Despite our attempts to not kill anyone, we somehow got even more enemies down on our heads, this time in the form of a young, long-haired woman going by the name Satsuki Kiryuin, on the way to the House of Personal Appearance, half-naked, no less. I don’t know if I’m seeing things, but those clothes don’t seem to be normal as there are eyes on the shoulder pads. By her side are four others, names being a small girl in what resembled army gear named Nonon Jakuzare, a man holding some stick going by the name Uzu Sanageyama. The other two were a big, dark-skinned young man named Ira Gamagoori, and the last is a man holding a device going by the name Houka Inumuta, whom, I can tell by his looks, is the weakest of the four. What the hell did we do to attract their attention?
That bastard… I won’t forgive him for this. Did those three officers we fought earlier tell them about us? Shit… What Lust told me earlier could be a really bad idea. Whatever the case, that small girl noticed her commander was severely pissed off, and went next to the big man.
“Satsuki’s acting impulsive here, storming into the Homunculi’s headquarters like this…”
“This isn’t like her at all, going to Bradley’s temple.” The big man, Gamagoori, nodded quietly, shooting a quick glance at his half-naked commander. “Ignoring possibilities willy-nilly?” As they moved closer toward Wrath’s command room, He briefly looked back at to see a few deities walking around, looking at him and his group and wondered something. Did Mankanshoku’s pie have something to do with this? He returned looking forward as they were several yards away from the front door of Wrath’s temple.
“We’re almost here.” Inumuta noted to the rest of his teammates.
“Gamagoori!” Kiryuin ordered her brute, who nodded as he transformed into… a half naked man in armor. Apparently, they’re not embarrassed wearing such clothes, as with all of his strength, he charged through the door, busting it down with a single punch, damaging part of the building in the process, allowing his commander and the other three bodyguards to join him. What they saw was Wrath, calmly sitting on his throne drinking his tea, with a hundred guards of his own. Kiryuin stepped in front of her four bodyguards, furious for some reason.
“Bradley!!!” She yelled loudly, almost to the top of her lungs.
Wrath calmly puts his tea down and stood up. “Another cavalry of pests have come to confront me. What brings you here?”
Reaching to a boiling point, the young woman stated her intentions. “Your schemes of recruitment are a twisted copy of what’s already been done. It was how I assembled this Elite Four to lead Honnoji Academy in defend our world against the Life Fibers… I will not stand for anyone replicating those tactics, especially tyrants like you who serve similar devils to Ragyo Kiryuin!” So that’s what this is about? She’s upset about how Wrath got his new command team started in the first place? Wow.
In any case, Wrath wasn’t any more impressed than I would be listening to that. “Do you really think you own those tactics? As if any decent commander wouldn’t personally test the abilities and mindsets of their potential recruits? How pathetic.” Unhappy that she was mocked for the idea she claimed, which I love, Kiryuin charged towards my furious brother and attacked him with a different-looking sword, clashing with him while four powerful bodyguards attacked Wrath’s men.
“Monster in human form… You shall perish by my sword, here and now!” The two exchanged a few parries between their weapons. Even with the weird armor Kiryuin is wearing, she was having little trouble against my skilled swordsman of a brother while everybody else took his guards out. Still, Wrath adapted to the superior speed and power of the oddly-armoured swordswoman, seeing through and intercepting enough of her attacks to leave several cuts on her exposed skin at they fought. Pure skill and the Ultimate Eye; never count out that mix! Anyway, while that bit of chaos ensued, the bodyguards, of course, had less trouble with Wrath’s men, gaining the upper hand against them. That Elite Four title wasn’t a misnomer, it seems. Still, Kiryuin was having a hard time, managing to land a few minor blows, but it wasn’t enough to slow down Wrath, who had overwhelmed her in swordplay, even pushing her back a little. Damn, training with Esdeath and her minions really did wonders for him.
“Lady Satsuki!” That navy-green haired guy holding a stick screamed out to his mistress as she struggled against the speed of my Fuhrer of a brother’s strikes. The long-haired lady was struggling, even on the defensive, against Wrath’s strikes, gradually losing grip of her sword.
Wrath glared at her with a stern, serious look. “You’ve done well for a teenager, but I’m afraid this will be your end.” Before that Sanageyama person rushes in to save his leader and change the tide of battle, a gun shot was heard. The next thing everyone knew, Wrath was keeling over in pain, enough to take everyone off-guard. Using this as an opportunity, the girl’s uniform transformed, turning it into some sort of flying object, charging her way at my brother, overpowering him and pushing him against a wall.
Blasted Ultimate Eye… Shooting while I wasn’t looking. This isn’t good. The minute we have the upper hand, even with Wrath on our side, something goes wrong; He looks at the surprised Elite Four, who stopped fighting and turned to the perpetrator, who continued to shoot him several times from the right side behind him in various places in his back, causing my furious sibling to be slightly disoriented. Seems like those training sessions with the command team he created didn’t account for everything. Knocking Wrath back, Kiryuin regained her breath.
“Over here, Bradley!” Recovering from the bullet wounds, Wrath turned around to see the the bastard who shot him, revealing to be an old man with an eye-patch on his left eye wearing some sort of uniform with two strange wires on the back. There was no time to ask where he came from, if he was with them, then he had to go down. Kiryuin catches up to Bradley and raises her sword, trying to do something. After a few seconds, She threw it at him, which he evaded, which, sadly for him, left him to get pushed into a wall by a blue animal, catching my brother off-guard a second time. What the hell kind of place is this Pantheon!? I’ve seen some strange animals, but nothing like this! Two minutes later, he managed to go back to that dark-skinned human. Nevertheless, Satsuki and the old man approached each other, the former surprised by the latter.
“It’s a relief you came at the right moment, Solidus Snake.” Seems these two know each other given how casual they’re speaking to each other.
“That man’s temple has some easy hiding spots.” The man looked around in the foyer in Wrath’s temple, then turned back to Kiryuin. “Could’ve been late to come save you if I hadn’t found one.”
“Still, I’m afraid this puppet won’t go down as easily as Ragyo.” The two turned their attention to a pissed off Wrath, who recovered from his injuries.
“Humans… Always unpredictable when victory is at my grasp.” He lamented as he wiped the dust off his clothes while carrying the sword before focusing on the others.
The old Snake heartily scoffed. “Unpredictable? It’s called true liberty. You hate that because you don’t know anything about it, just like the Patriots.”
“Solidus Snake, was it? I couldn’t care less.” Wrath stated brusquely, with a stare of killer intent aimed straight at the old bastard and the girl. “I will rid myself of you as quickly as possible.” As he rushed towards the two a speed faster than a human, with Kiryuin doing the same to fend him off, with the old man carrying the gun. Wrath fights the girl for a few minutes before going for that old man, but he’s intercepted by that green haired sticking punk, who shields him by holding his hands out, allowing my furious sibling to stab him. What a fool! Sacrificing your life so you could die by Bradley’s sword. Wait, what’s this? No… This gave the old bastard opportunity to shoot Wrath through the guy in the gut, his Ultimate eye unable to predict this. The old man follows up by using his wires on Wrath, who avoids the first one, but then that big, dark-skinned person and that blue creature blocks him. My Fuhrer of a brother moves past them, only to be tripped by something. What is going on? A question I’m wondering myself as this is happening. This gives that blue creature a chance to grab Wrath and hold him up tightly so he wouldn’t escape, and for a small creature like that, it’s pretty damn strong despite my brother’s resistance.
“Bring him closer to me.” the old bastard instructs it, which it did. He then used the wires to grab Wrath’s neck, and, without saying a word, shoots him in the eye with his gun, causing him immense pain. “Do you have any last words before your demise, Bradley?” Before the old bastard could do anything, a door opened, causing Kiryuin and her Elite Four to turn their attention to it, revealing Esdeath along with her orange-haired subordinate Seryu.
“Looks like quite a warzone here.” Their arrival prompt that old soldier to release Bradley from those strange wires.
This is bad. They’re here as well. Realizing they would be overpowered in a matter of minutes, that Satsuki girl turned to her Elite Four members and issued a command. “Let’s retreat.” Nodding in approval, everyone escaped, with the big man putting his creature in some ball and carrying the old bastard with them while Seryu readied herself to attack.
“Let them go, Seryu.” Esdeath instructed her subordinate, walking to Wrath’s side. “They did a number on you.”
Coughing, Wrath took some time to recover his breath in to let his words. “The next I see them, I will ambush them one by one and kill them.” Despite his calm demeanor, he was severely pissed off that five teenage punks, an old man and a blue creature came close to killing him with less trouble than all of the soldiers of Amestris and Briggs combined. And considering he was incapable of regenerating like the rest of us, that’s saying something.
“Let’s get you healed up first.” Esdeath took Wrath’s body and carried to our Father.
Collection of Stills 5: Treacherous Opportunities
After coming back from that hairy situation, Esdeath and Wrath called the others in High Command over for a meeting. But then that Vergil punk used the opportunity to go and haggle Father and Dante into giving him alchemy lessons.
[Vergil reads from a set of books Father and Dante gave him in his bid for more power. As the two look on, the blue-clad swordsman has a look disappointment reading it.]
The rest of us convened, and we realized that there was a connection involved between some of our attackers. Guile, Officer Nash, and Solidus Snake all come from versions of the same country as a certain man called Bartlet, who Wrath had had a short but cross encounter with early on. In that moment, we realized that Bartlet knows who we are and must’ve had something to do with all this.
[A flag-style background is seen with the top left corner being a dark blue square with 48 white stars inside and the rest being bright red and white stripes, with silhouettes appearing in front of it and revealing a set of figures. First is Guile, then Nash, then Solidus, all standing up on guard, and finally, in front of them, a strong-faced politician with slicked-back hair and a white shirt, black suit coat, and red tie on, seated at a desk with a small flag of said background and a name plate reading: “JOSIAH E. BARTLET / JANUARY 20, 1999 – JANUARY 20, 2007 / 42nd PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES”]
We’ve been more than just receptacles for disappointment the whole time, though. When I did find Lust and Gluttony and finally tell them I can act in plain sight now, they took me to Central through Wrath’s temple.
[Smiling after receiving the good news, the three of us depart from the House of Personal Appearance.]
After finding out that somebody else had rebuilt a team in much the same way Wrath did…
[Lust, Gluttony, and I meet with Wrath, Esdeath, and Azula in Wrath’s war room.]
…we knew what kind of people they’d be recruiting based on their operation, so we assigned Azula to join them whenever they came calling!
[The leader of that group, a common human businessman in a black suit, talks with Azula in some building, while a certain bird — me! — watches in the distance.]
All so we could play both sides, of course!
[Both Chun-Li and Beifong are on the roads, with creatures known as Pokémon and goons with rainbow Rs on their uniforms all laying on the ground bloodied. Standing across from them is Wrath, with me perched up on a nearby post, proposing a temporary alliance to help them deal with the threat at hand, specifically some evil fairy named Maleficent.]
This put us in perfect position to capitalize when that fool Giovanni and his Team Rainbow Rocket ultimately failed!
[Azula stands over a battered and beaten Giovanni, who was beaten by those same creatures.]
Deserters Must Die!
Just then, Vergil stood to his feet, stopping Dante’s lesson. “Sorry to interrupt, but I just realized something.”
“Really? Tell us, what manner of suggestion crosses your mind at the moment?” Father asked in a mostly curious tone, though not fully absent of malice as a subtle warning.
“This path to power through robbing the cradle of souls is disappointingly crude.” Vergil surmised bluntly, Father’s eyes narrowed dangerously in response. “None of this power will ever truly be mine, nor will it last. It’ll be a constant search for more not even to grow my power, but to merely sustain it.” With this, he turned away and began to walk towards the door.
Lady Dante, however, wasn’t one to allow this silently. “And where do you think you’re going?”
“None of you have anything that benefits me here, so I’m going to walk my own path.” Vergil crisply replied, before turning his head to them. “Out of this place!”
The blue-clad Son of Sparda ran out the door of the secret chamber into the main grounds of the lair where the rest of us stood, continuing on past us all until a giant wall was erected in front of him with red sparks of electricity.
“Planning to desert us, Son of Sparda?” Pride taunted him, having already concluded that the red wall was Our Father’s handiwork to stop him from leaving. However, while stalled for the moment, Vergil was undeterred; he put on a dangerous smirk, then entered a stance with his hands coiled and ready to unsheathe his sword.
“Honestly. I’m past planning at this point.” Vergil replied with a rather unimpressed air in his voice, a moment later unsheathing his sword and cutting into the air in one swift motion. Though, that one motion seemed to generate an entire streak of activated slashes both at the wall Father had erected and at the portion of the ceiling directly above us all. As the ground shook, the wall and the ceiling portion both crumbled, and we all had to either move out of the way or use our powers to destroy the rocks in order not to be harmed or at least inconvenienced by the latter. Between that and the smoke from the crumbled wall, it took awhile for myself, my siblings, and our allies from Wrath’s command team to all be in the clear and begin to look around.
Of course, in that while, Vergil had made himself scarce.
“Damnit, the traitor’s gone!” I yelled in frustration. Wrath, however, had quickly gone well beyond frustrated, and true to form, not a single word was needed to express that. The second he made his sprint out of our lair, I knew he was furiously moving to hunt down and kill our deserter. That was just how he worked.
Vergil was running through the House of Otherness, having found his way out of our lair’s Subhouse and now having the exit of the House itself in his sights, when he noticed that someone was catching up to him. Taking a moment to look back, he saw Wrath, with both of his swords unsheathed, making a beeline for him. Vergil looked forward and picked up his pace, slowing down the rate at which Wrath was gaining ground on him just enough to be able to push his way out of the doors to the House. Just as Wrath closed in and slashed at him, Vergil jumped up high in a sudden yet precise backflip, making his way up to the balcony. He then made another jump up to the very roof of the building. However, Wrath wasn’t too far behind, actively running up the walls of the House itself in order to meet Vergil on the roof merely moments later. He found that the Son of Sparda had made it down about twenty-five yards away and then gotten himself in a stance with his right hand on the handle of his sword, which seemed to be a sort of modified katana. A sword fight was about to take place between a demon and a homunculus.
“Tell me, how often do you make agreements knowing you won’t honor your end of them?” Bradley inquired, with a slight hint of irritation coming through in his voice.
“I should ask you that question,” Vergil remarked dryly. “You promise me secrets to achieve more power, yet your father only teaches cheap tricks to steal souls for a finite adrenaline boost. And that’s just the parts I could actually use.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t recall saying that you could choose to serve us based on whether or not you liked our Father’s teachings after the fact,” Wrath snapped, his face becoming more grim as he readied his attack. “But, since you feel like changing terms according to your wishes…allow me to return the favor!” With that he lunged forward at Vergil, as the Son of Sparda finally drew out his blade.
As Wrath closed the distance, both men went for quick strikes at each other, resulting in their swords clashing.
…
“I’ll give you credit, kid, this has been quite the workout. But now it’s time for you to die.”
Now in full control as his silver-haired foe laid there with a sword in his chest, Wrath quickly moved to plunge another one of his blades into Vergil’s neck. However, Vergil was able to clasp the blade with his hands and push away upwards, forcing Wrath to try his hardest to shove it down in a struggle. His demonic strength was still a problem despite him obviously being weakened at this point. Wrath began scowling and shaking in anger at Vergil’s refusal to die. Some sort of strange light seemed to be bursting upwards from the ground several yards behind him, though, before dying down a few seconds later.
“VERGIL, NO!!”
That loud and panicked female scream was only the beginning of the distraction that befell the two combatants, as four gunshot wounds blared off, Wrath looking slightly more pained with each one. Vergil, for his part, looked as though he was frozen in shock for a few seconds, before finally seeing his opening and pushing Wrath and his second blade away, sending the Fuhrer falling to the ground. As the two men gingerly picked themselves up, with Wrath turning his body around and getting up to his hands and knees and Vergil pulling out the sword Wrath had placed in his chest before sitting up, both looked and saw a young woman, shaking, with a look of despair in her eyes, holding in her hands a white pistol with a black handle, chamber smoking, pointed straight at Wrath. She had a sweater on with light bluish gray hood and arms and an orange body, along with blue jean shorts and dirty black boots. What could be seen of her hair from underneath the hood was a dark reddish brown shade. She had blue-green eyes with more than their share of eyeshadow on, along with a blue star tattoo of some sort between said eyes.
“K…Katherine!?” Vergil called through the pain, still in disbelief that she was there and, judging from her own expression and posture, that she had actually shot at Wrath. Slowly standing up to one knee, and now to his feet, Wrath was himself trembling — partially in pain due to the four bullets which had torn through his dress shirt and were now lodged in his bloodied back, but mostly out of absolute fury that this meek girl had stopped him from killing the Son of Sparda for trying to desert his team. That this exact thing happened last time with that Satsuki girl and the old man called Snake probably didn’t help his mood much either.
“You’re…a friend of this traitor?” Wrath spoke softly yet menacingly. Now the girl’s desperate zeal to save Vergil had turned to something of a resigned fear. She released her left hand’s grip over her right hand as her arms each fell down to her side, with her right hand holding the gun. For his part, Vergil disappeared in a quick flash of blue light, only to reappear in that same light on one knee next to his own katana, which he picked up immediately before once again disappearing and reappearing, this time standing beside the girl.
“That was careless, girl. You shouldn’t be here.” He admonished her.
She turned to him. “I knew his offer was trouble from the start. I wasn’t gonna let him kill you.”
“And what of your life?” He swiftly asked in response, making it clear that she’d just put herself in mortal danger more than anything, and strangely enough, this displeased him. Huh. Wouldn’t have expected that from him. All I’ve seen before this point was that he was obsessed with becoming stronger.
“You’re concerned for her life? Then you know what’s coming.” Wrath interjected as he picked up his sword which Vergil had left on the ground. “Now I’ll be collecting two souls to bring to Father instead of one.”
Vergil once again bent into his stance, prepared to resume the fight, but not before leaving a stern instruction which was obviously meant for the girl: “Stand back.” And in another quick flash, Vergil teleported just above Wrath, slashing down at him, which Wrath blocked by crossing both of the swords he held in hand above his head.
“I didn’t think you’d be the one to care so much about another person!” Wrath shouted while trying his hardest to keep Vergil’s blade from skewering him.
“Don’t presume too much.” Vergil slickly replied, maintaining his cool but deadly face of focus. Wrath was somehow able to create some distance by pushing himself backwards, leaving Vergil and his slash to slightly crack the roof. Wrath quickly lunged at Vergil, sensing his own possible opening, but Vergil was able to jump backwards to get away from one of Wrath’s feral slashes, then recover his ground and parry more of my furious brother’s cuts. Intending to strike back with a blow of his own. Vergil pushed Wrath’s swords down with his own, knocking one sword out of my brother’s left hand, then thrust his blade toward Wrath’s gut, though Wrath was able to move aside in time to avoid the blow. Both turned and swung high at each other, their swords clashing once more.
The fight continued like this, with both Wrath and Vergil keeping up with one another’s expert swordplay. While Vergil was the more controlled and precise of the two in his attacks and dodges, Wrath made up for that with the sheer rage he put into his swings and his use of the Ultimate Eye to see through Vergil’s moves. “Come on, Vergil…” The girl pleaded as she watched, her eyes trying to follow along while obviously looking worried. She could sense that Wrath was starting to gain the upper hand, and slowly, she placed her arms back in front oher, her left hand clasping her right. She was getting ready to aim again.
Managing to pick up his dropped sword in all the chaos, Wrath came at Vergil with both blades, forcing Vergil to block two with his one. Before Wrath could push down and wear him out, he leapt and kicked Wrath in the chest with both legs in order to push him away, then teleported behind him and cut at his back. Or at least…that was his intent. Wrath somehow used the backwards momentum to recover faster than Vergil had intended and ended up slashing him across his stomach instead, cutting off Vergil’s attempted strike as he grunted and fell to one knee, favoring his midsection briefly.
The girl now fired away at Wrath as he began to sprint-walk towards Vergil. Unlike last time, Wrath turned to the girl and blocked all six of her oncoming shots with his swords, making it clear that he wasn’t caught off guard by her presence anymore. With gritted teeth, the blue-coated demon urgently cut into the air and produced a short series of dark purple energy orbs in between Wrath and the girl, stopping him from getting anywhere close to her, while also signaling to her by poking a finger down on the floor. Then he got back on his feet and the battle between the two swordsmen resumed.
While they continued going after each other in much the same way as before, the girl rolled out a sheet of paper onto the floor that seemed to have been cut apart in some type of elaborate sphere design, almost like some kind of transmutation circle except more elaborate within the sphere, then took some kind of orange canister, shook it a bit, and pressed down on it, spraying a white substance onto the floor. She then picked up the paper and put it away along with the can; the pattern cut from the paper was now on the floor where she sprayed. From the pattern, a light traveling upwards started to shoot up, much like the one from when she first appeared. That was the portal she used to get in, and now she planned to use it to get out.
Again, Wrath was not caught off guard by her presence anymore, so he noticed the light behind him now. He went for a sweep of Vergil’s leg, and Vergil teleported away to avoid it, but this gave him the chance to face the girl. She quickly went to pick up her gun again, but this time he threw his sword blade-first right at her. It ended up knocking the gun right out of her hand, as both weapons flew in the air. The gun went right off the balcony, while Wrath was able to run towards the sword, catch it in mid-air, and continue running at the girl, ready to stab her to death.
Except Wrath’s momentum was suddenly stopped…courtesy of Vergil, who had quickly teleported and thrust his sword into my brother’s gut. About two seconds later, Vergil pulled his sword out of Wrath’s gut, and he and the girl both went towards the portal in the ground. Wrath recovered to go after them, but by the time he struck, they both vanished to safety, leaving only shaded silhouettes behind.
“Damnit…!” the bloodied Führer quaked while holding his weapons, barely containing his rage at the moment. He took a few moments to calm himself down, leaping from the balcony to be met by Azula and Pride at the door.
“You don’t seem too satisfied at the moment, so I presume our traitor is still at large.” Pride commented obviously.
“Too bad. I thought that blue devil might be fascinating to talk to,” Azula stated in a blase manner. “Looks like a bolt of lighting will have to pass for hello.”
Wrath looked to the two with a glare that conveyed his displeasure with the situation. “Vergil Sparda, and that girl he called Katherine, will both be soon dealt with.”
“So he had help with his escape?” Pride asked for confirmation. To which Wrath simply sheathed his swords and walked back inside the House.
Collection of Stills 6: Deep Forest in Bloom
Later that night, Lady Dante got her own temple, as well as a new, younger body she’d originally stolen from someone in her timeline. Yeah, the same timeline where I’m apparently the son of her and Hohenheim. Ugh. Anyway, she’s been put on notice that Father’s still the boss, but she’s already started issuing orders as his second, and she’s gotten really bloodthirsty.
[The younger Dante; a slender woman with a dark bob cut hairstyle and piercing blue-purple eyes, wearing a dark maroon dress with calf-high boots and a necklace, stands in front of an open double door with carpeted steps and tall windows in the bright room behind her. Her face wears a coolly threatening smile, a clear tell that she means business now.]
The Red Gift of Nicodemus
Dante spent the next day giving instructions to some of the members of Wrath’s command team, but all she had for us homunculi was to go out and look for something that could be useful while staying as low-key as possible. Honestly, that bit of business couldn’t have been more dull to my ears.
Wrath continued following up on connections he’d made since Father pulled him up, while the rest of us kept on keeping an eye out on the rest of the Pantheon. One of these “connections”, whom I observed from afar, was a talking lion with a black mane and a distinct scar over his left eye. Oddly enough, that was his name. Scar. I had to contain my laughter. What sort of parents would name their kid Scar? It had to be a cruel joke, it really had to be.
“So you have heard about my rule, I see.” He said in a calm, stoic voice. Wrath and Pride were on the opposite side of the room, myself hanging above on the ceiling, my lizard form back in full use. “And what else did you learn of it?”
They remained silent, as they had been for the last hour or so while they listened to the old fleabag rant on and on. If it were up to me, I’d shoot him upside the jaw and turn him into a very handsome throw rug.
“Oh don’t play coy with me,” Scar continued, “I know you sought me out because of Janja. Is that not true?”
Wrath took a step forward. “What a mortal hyena did to summon you is none of our concern. What we’re interested in is your… other abilities.”
For a moment, the lion seemed surprised. If only mildly. The brow above his scarred eye rose, a single claw extending out of his paw to scratch his chin. But the three were having their fun. Now it was time for me to make my departure.
As Wrath explained their reasoning for being there, I slipped out through a crack in the rocky temple, scurrying through the crevasses and out into the wild blue yonder. Back into the Pantheon and to Lust and Gluttony.
They were waiting in the House of Mentalism, overlooking the going ons of the deities there. Busy was the word to describe them; those disgusting cretins infesting the place. But the time to murder them all would come.
“Welcome back, Envy.” Lust greeted in her soft tone. “How are things with Wrath?”
I shrugged and took a seat beside the pair. “About as well as you’d expect. He mentioned the Heartless incident, and the fleabag actually seemed surprised. About the only emotion he made outside of smugness.” I stretched my arms out. “So what’s next? We go around and lurk in the shadows until Father and Wrath give instructions or we randomly find something to do?” I asked, putting my arms behind my head, yawning in boredom. I looked around the House of Mentalism to see several deities, one of them being a panda bear, sitting at a table, drinking some sort of tea.
Lust smiled for some reason and let out a small, short chuckle. “What a brat you are, Envy. We’ll find something soon.”
I let out a groan, impatient for our goals. “We better. Sometimes I hate waiting…” I stared at the sky while Lust looked on at a couple of deities who were departing from the house, something seemed to have caught Gluttony’s nose.
“What is it?” My Lascivious sister asked.
“I smell something. It’s oozing with blood… like a Philosopher’s Stone…” My voracious sibling continued to make out the scent. “There’s another smell too. Something living and carrying the stone. Can I eat it, Lust? Can I?”
Lust looked around the area to find nothing. Nothing seems to be here… She turned back to Gluttony, wearing a smirk on her face. “Go ahead. Make sure to eliminate anyone who gets in your way. Leave no trace.” And like that, Gluttony stood up, and walked off in search for whatever caught his attention.
As he left, I briefly turned to Lust, cursing her under my breath. “If he gets killed, I’m going to pull a prank on you. And trust me, it won’t be pretty.”
Though we had made some gains, namely Wrath’s ascension, we’ve screwed up several times, and even our Fuhrer brother, on two occasions, was having a hard time against several enemies, the first case getting him nearly killed and the second failing to stop a traitor in his own ranks. If Gluttony, and for that matter, Lust, screwed this up, then our plot could be exposed. Lust turned to me, letting out another chuckle.
“Relax. I’m sure he’s sensed something right now. It would be a shame if we didn’t get to see it.” Lust turned to the outdoors of the House of Otherness. “Come on. Let’s keep an eye in case something bad does happen.”
With a huff in disbelief, I reluctantly nodded in agreement. Please tell me this isn’t something about the House of Food this time. Gluttony is the last one I’d expect to find something from him that’s of value to us, given his mindset. Sighing, I went along with my sister.
…
To my surprise, my guess was completely wrong. Gluttony had wandered to what they call the Treasure Vault, which is self explanatory. What made him come here boggled my mind a little, but something good was bound to show up here. He looked around the place, with Lust and myself behind him.
“Nice little horde of artifacts they have here…” We looked around at the assortment of artifacts on display, locked away behind metal cages charged with an uncertain amount of electricity. I certainly wasn’t going to try my luck. But looking at something without holding it can lead to boredom pretty fast, and to pass the time I decided to whistle. It carried through the vault, answering back in a high-pitched echo.
Lust looked around the area before she turned to me. “Still, we mustn’t be careless with what we retrieve from here.”
A quick yawn comes out of my mouth before my response, “Sure, but what can we gain from this place?” I took a look at Gluttony, who took a look around the area before going left. I scratched my head as we followed him; We had to be quick and quiet, or else someone would catch us. Anyway, Gluttony wandered around the Treasure Vault until stumbled upon… Something. A small mouse in possession of an artifact. Our attention piqued on it.
“The Gem you hold smells nice.” He opens his mouth, ready to take it from the poor cretin, terrified that he found her.
The rodent slowly backed away, hoping to run from Gluttony. “A… a monster?” The mouse can speak? And from the sound of the voice, it was a female. Just when I thought this Pantheon couldn’t get any weirder. She ran as fast as she could from my voracious brother, who started to chase her around, knocking down some of the treasure down in the Vault. If one of the more powerful deities finds out about Gluttony’s pursuit of this mouse, we’re screwed. Agitated, I turned to Lust who seemed to be enjoying it.
This better not end in jeopardy. I was less patient than I was before. Seconds later, Lust followed Gluttony in his pursuit, myself doing the same shortly afterwards. The mouse hid into a pile of artifacts, but Gluttony was undeterred, the scent of the stone still in his nose, only to crawl out of the pile and reach for the exit. I crouch, transforming into a bird a few seconds later
“She’s getting away!” Alerting my siblings of her escape, they race for the exit to stop her.
“Thank you, Envy. Just what I need.” With the mouse in her sights, Lust moves in and extends the talons on her right arm, though it was meant to trap her, causing her to be more terrified and leave her with little else for room.
“A nice time to see mice like you sneaking around here.” My lascivious sister walked closer to the rodent, her eyes more focused on the stone in the rodent possession. “Let’s have a deal. You give me the stone, and I will spare your life.” The mouse trembled at the idea of handing over such an artifact. Considering how quickly Lust extended the talons from her right arm seconds earlier, she had no other choice but to hand it over to Lust, who slowly extended the index talon on her left arm to take the stone from the weak creature, bringing it close to her. She twisted her arm so it wouldn’t fall off. A moment later, Lust took a look at the stone, intrigued by the stone’s look. She turned to me, then turned to the mouse. “Tell me. What does this do?”
The pest trembled, but before she spoke, footsteps were heard, and it seemed to be louder every second, until we turned to see two very familiar figures stumbling into us, surprised to see us here, though I’m a bit surprised by how taller one has gotten, if only slightly.
“You three…!” The pipsqueak uttered as he and his brother, whose soul is bound to an armor, looked on to what was happening. “If you’re going to take anything…” I cut him off before he could finish.
“What a surprise to see the Fullmetal pipsqueak in this sweet place.” I broke the silence, smiling at this second chance I got to crush the two brothers again.
“DON’T CALL ME SMALL!” Instead of rushing towards us, the pissed off pipsqueak transmuted the ground, apparently knowing that Lust could extend her talons to kill them both. The Stone, to our surprise, glowed up, creating a block from the ground. Protecting us from the pipsqueak and his brother.
“What did they just use?” That weakling in armor witnessed what had happened. They had something with them earlier.” He turned to the pipsqueak. “Is it possible they have a Philosopher’s Stone, Brother?”
The two took a step back, the runt taking a guess. “Perhaps…” He turned to the transmuted stone, predicting our next move. “With that female on their side… We’re as good as dead.” What they didn’t know before they retreated was that we too were surprised by the stone’s power. One use and the artifact wasn’t damaged or husk.
“Interesting.” Lust held up the stone, with me and Gluttony rendezvousing with her, who turned to the mouse, only to see her gone. “Where did the vermin go?” my lascivious sibling blinked her eyes for a moment. “I was going to ask her about this stone.”
Too happy that we actually succeeded at something, I snatched the stone from her before she could look at it again. “Who cares? We got a Philosopher’s Stone. Let’s crush the pipsqueak and his brother and get out of here!” A few seconds of silence passed by. What? No provoked rage from the runt? I’ve undone the transmutation to see that, to my surprise, they were gone.
Lust sighed as she approached me. “Seems they’re going to call for help against us.”
I let out a small chuckle. “Like it matters against us anyway. With Wrath’s command team, Father can finally become the perfect being.” I let out a laugh before we left.
Collection of Stills 7: Another Promise…
Back after the defeat of Team Rainbow Rocket and that evil fairy, we’d gotten to learn some of those Rocket Grunts were still in operation and convinced them to bring us a set of Philosopher’s Stones from a human named Roman Torchwick in exchange for getting their boss back. Sadly, we heard they were spilling some of what was left of our secrets, presumably to their new leader, Archer. So we just decided to “follow up” on that front by killing the guy that gave us the Stones as a warning now, and worry about our end of the deal later.
[Lust spears the head and neck of a Rocket Grunt with her middle and index talons, turning him into a bloodied corpse as Gluttony and I stand next to her.]
Hey, Gluttony got a nice meal out of it, at least. We ended up talking about both those Stones and the one we got from the mouse, when Gluttony and that bulbous nose of his sniffed out some weird otter-weasel guy hiding in the garbage.
[Gluttony starts to give chase in the alley as a small orange otter/weasel-looking creature with pants runs away, with Lust and myself looking on.]
Gluttony came back and told us he got away, but whatever. That creature doesn’t matter. Soon enough, none of our enemies are gonna matter anymore either. Sure, they’re growing in number, and some of them are insanely strong. But we’re the ones with the grand plan that’s built for another promise!
Trope Pantheon Stories 